Special trip to Madrid-Bilbao-Burgos

The week before Easter we went with school for a special trip to Madrid-Bilbao-Burgos. I'd like to talk about our stay in Bilbao. We arrived in Bilbao in the evening after a long journey in couch from Madrid. The reason for our visit in Bilbao was the museum “Guggenheim”. After sleeping in the hotel we started our day in Bilbao with a great breakfast at the hotel and then we went to the “Guggenheim”. The “Guggenheim” is a huge museum, famous for his spectacular architecture. It's situated next to the river.
This day was very windy. We've seen the museum afar and when we arrived we could see that the art already began outside the museum. Between the river and the building there was a huge ghastly spider. I felt like in the film of Harry Potter.
After to circle the building we entered in the museum. We went to visit the exhibitions of two modern Japanese artists. But I don't remember their names.
The first artist we saw did something like Manga comics. With a lot of colours and flowers. The museum guide told us that he sells all the things he produces. The majority of the students liked the tableaux and sculptures very much because they were different, with a lot of colours and the motives were very modern.
The second artist we saw was very different from the first one. Although he treated the same thematic like the other (the atom-bomb over Hiroshima and all the problems that it brought), he expressed it very different. All the tableaux were in the colours brown, beige and black. Finally we saw his sculptures which were very impressive. Likewise the tableaux in brown, beige and black, the spirit of his work expressed an obvious sadness. The sculpture which more impressed me was in a big white room. There was a huge glass plate and 99 wolves running against the glass. The wolves were in original size so we even could walk trough the animals. That was a bit just like in a horror film.
Finally we saw other strange works just like cars hanging from the ceiling.
When we left, we went to the centre of Bilbao to have diner. After some tapas and a round in the antic centre we already had to leave.
Next stay: Burgos.

Should money be spent on space exploration?

Every year the NASA and other organisation spend a lot of money on space exploration. I don't think that's a good idea.

First of all we should solve the problems of our world.
Every day there are more people all over the world who are hungry and they are dying because they don't have enoug food or clean water.
With the money which is spent on space exploration we could help these people.
And ther are a lot of other reasons:
For example in war times. What is more important for people? Looking for a place to live on Mars in the future or looking for a place to live for this winter so that they don't die because of the cold?
Or everybody always talks about renovable energy and that they are too expensive. This money could be the solution.
Or we could spend the money on investigation to cure cancer or Aids.
Finally the reason which is most actually in this times: The economic crisis from this year. The money could help a lot of people without work.

In short I think tere are thousand other ways to spend this money than on space exploration. First we should solve all the problems of our world before we begin to investigat en explore things that aren't absolutely necessary.

Biography of Jane Austen

Jane Austen was born at Steventon, Englan in the year 1775. At the age of ten her parents George and Cassandra sent her, together with her sister Cassandra, to the Abbey School in Reading, England for three years.
As a 15-year-old teenager she began to write her juvenila and started her career as one of England most famous authors. She finished the juvenila three years later.

In the years 1795-98 she wrote the original versions of some of her most famous novels like Norhanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudiuce. But Pride and Prejudice wasn't the original title of the book. Austen first baptized it with the name First Impressions. She tried to publish it in 1797, but a London publisher rejected it.
Four years later her father retired and the family Austen moved to Bath.

At the age of 28 seh was able to sell Susan, that was the original name of the novel Northanger Abbey, as her first book to a publisher. But it was never published. One year after this disappointment she began a new novel, but gave it up quickly. (The Watsons)
At the age of 30 she lost her father and three years later she moved to Southampton with her mother and with Cassandra.

During her early 30ties she lived with her mother and with her sister in a village in the southern England called Chawton. Her rich brother Edward provided a small house for the family.
At Chawton she began to revise the original versions of two of her most famou novels.
Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. The first one was published in the year 1811 and the second one two years later.
One year after that her next book Mansfield Park was published. At the same time Austen began to work on Emma.

After working two years Emma was published and the Prince Regent who was the future King George IV asked her to dedicate the novel to him. She did it and in the same year she completed the novel Persuasion.
One year later, in 1817, she composed a fragment called Sanditon, butshe was forced to abandon it because she got ver ill. In May of this year she had to move to Winchester for medical car.
She died on 18 of July at the age of 42. She was buried two years later in the Winchester Cathedral.

One year after her death Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, her last novel, were published jointly in a four-volume edition. It included a biographical prologue of Austen written by her brother Henry.

In her novels, protagonized by women, the protagonist alwas finds her man to marry. Austen herself never got married.
But the world keeps her in mind as one of the most famous novelists. Her novels have benn a big succes until today.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

1) Biography of Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy was born in Higher Bockhampton (in the south of England) in the year 1840. He received an education (including Latin and French) until he was 16 years old. Then he helped his father, who was a stonemason and builder until he became an architect.
But he also was one of the most famous poets and novelist, we know from this time in England. The most part of his novels is fiction and plays in the imaginary ambiance of “Wessex”.
Thomas Hardy died in the year 1928.

2) Information about fictional names of places

All the follow places are in the region of Dorset in the south-west of England:

Marlott’s real name supposed to be Marnhull. It’s a very small village (about 2000 habitants) and the only one in this region with a cottage like the cottage of Tess’ parents.

Shaston, in reality is Shaftesbury. The place often was called Shafton and possibly Hardy changed the “f” for an “s”. Shaftesbury is a little town with about 7000 habitants and one of the oldest towns in England. There are over 3000 oldest preserved dwellings (houses) in the town and a ruin of an Abbey which are the reason for lots of tourists every year.

The real name of Chaseborough is Cranborne. In the past it was important because the King John had his hunting lodge (Manor house) there and later the Lords of Manor lived there. Today it’s interesting for tourist, because it has a very big and beautiful garden.
The village was also a garrison for the troops which protected the king.

The real name of Tantridge is Pentridge. It’s a very small village with about 200 habitants. In the past it was a celtic village and there a celtic ruins, too.

Bournemouth is the real name for the fictional place Sandbourne. Today it is a town with about 160’000 habitants. In the past it was affected by the presence of the Tudors (the dynasty of King Henry VIII) in Cranborne. It was the hunting region of the Tudors.

3) Write about Tess’ sad story of her stay at Tantridge.

Tess went to Tantridge to work for Alec Stokes family. She wasn’t happy to be alone and not with her family. And Alec always molested her. One night Tess got into problems with a women an Alec who arrived by accident with his horse told her to come with him. Tess wanted to go home and accepted. But Alec didn’t take the way home and stopped his horse in a forest, miles away from home. There he violated Tess.





Watch the video number 1 and relate it to the novel.

First we see Tess watching birds in the cages. That’s a very clear symbol that she feels like in prison at Tantridge. Later we see two scenes from the book resumed in one scene: The scene when Alec tries to kiss her for the first time and the scene of the violation. It seems that Tess do not know what to do because Alec is very generous and gave her family a horse and toys for the children. She does not now if she can say no.


4) Two years have passed since Tess left Tantridge. Write a summary of the main events that took place during those two years:

Tess left Tantridge a few weeks after the night in the chase to return home. Back home, she told her mother that she was pregnant. Her mother first blamed her because she wasn’t careful enough and because Tess didn’t have the intention to marry Alec. But Tess told her that she ignored to protect herself because she was very young and her mother finally accepted the fact that Tess would be a mother.
The months when she was pregnant, Tess stayed at home and only leaved the house at night, because she was ashamed about her past. She didn’t want that the other people of the village stare at her.
When the baby was born, she continued to work on the fields while her little sisters were looking after the baby. But one day the baby was very ill and it seems that it was going to die. Tess wanted that the parson comes to baptise her little son. But her father didn’t want that the parson put his nose in private affairs. So Tess decided to baptise it herself and gave him the name Sorrow. The baby died and she couldn’t bury it on holy ground, because it wasn’t baptised by a parson.
Tess decided to make a fresh start to forget the past and left home again to work as a dairymaid for a farmer.

Why do you think Tess called her baby Sorrow?

I think because the baby reminds her of Tantridge and all the sorrows she had there. And it reminds her of the future. Her future was sad without perspective. She doesn’t know how to live in the future without a man and without work. She doesn’t know how to give her son a bright future. She has a live and a future full of sorrows.

5) With all the information you get from chapters 8, 9 and 10 write a description of Angel Clare:

Angel Clare is a son of a parson and is learning to be a farmer. He has the intention to live in Australia or Brazil. I think that could be a thing he has in common with Tess. Both want to start a new life, but both have another reason.
He really seems to be a gentleman because he treats Tess with respect and even asked her if he could kiss her.

Why do you think is Tess crying?

I think because the situation reminds her of the night in the Chase. Angel did not kiss her without asking her. That’s the opposite of Alec. That made her thinking about the past, perhaps. Perhaps she just cried because she was happy, but I don’t think so.

Relate the video number 2 to the story:

This is the moment when Tess writes a long letter to explain Angel her sad past. The day after she pushed the letter under Angel’s door he acted like always. She thought that it doesn’t matter for him. But then she found the letter which was still under the door. Angel hadn’t seen it and doesn’t know about Tess’ past with her baby.

6) Do you think Tess chose the right moment to tell Angel the truth?

I think she should have told him earlier. Before the time they used to be a couple. Because her and Angel’s disappointment is bigger if they already are a couple when she tells the truth.

7) Comment Angel’s reaction

I can understand that he was shocked about Tess’ story at the first moment. But although I think his reaction wasn’t fair. He knew Tess as the girl she could be without her sad past and he loved her. He should forgive her because he had a relationship with another woman, too.
I think Angel has a lot of prejudices and ideas how has to be a women. He says: “Society has different standards for men and women. Even a country girl like you knows that. A man has a right to expect that his wife is pure when he marries her. Nothing else is acceptable.”
I think he doesn’t want break the “rules” or “standards”, because he gives more importance to his social standard than to his love to Tess. Perhaps he hasn’t enough confidence in the love between Tess and himself.

Are love and lies compatible?

I don’t think so. For the real love I think it is important to be always honest with the person you love. Without honesty there cannot exist confidence. So I think Tess did the right thing to tell Angel the truth, because she wanted to have an authentic love and not a love based on lies. And of course Angel’s reaction wasn’t her fault, because he shouldn’t blame her for telling the truth.
The worst of all of this is that if Tess wouldn’t have told him the truth their relationship would work. But then Tess wouldn’t be in peace with herself. (And it’s more than possible, that some day someone will tell the truth to Angel and that would be even worse.)
There exist also people who lies to the people they love to protect them from anything. But I don’t think that this is a “better” lie, because everybody has the right to know the truth about things that influence their life. And I think, too, that we are able enough to live with the reality and we don’t need lies which “protect” us.

Do Tess’ parents really worry about her? What do they actually worry about?

No, they don’t. The family honour and their social status are more important for them. We can see this, because the reaction of Tess’ father after she told that she had separated from her husband: “Now people will laugh at us again.”


8) Why does Tess finally surrender and succumb to Alec’s power?

Tess’ father died and there was nobody except Alec who was willing to help the family. Angel didn’t seem to be willing to help Tess (He didn’t answered the letter.), although he’s travelling back from Brazil.
So Tess didn’t have any other choice than to accept Alec’s help.

I wouldn’t judge her for the decision, because the family was alone without anyone who earned money. And I imagine there was a lot of force from her mother, too.

9) Write a summary of chapter 18.

Angel returns from Brazil and find the second letter from Tess, which acclaimed him. So he decides to find Tess as soon as possible. At least he finds Tess’ mother and she tells him to look for her in Sandbourne. There he finds her (she lives now with Alec) and asks her to forgive him. Tess says that it is too late and Angel goes away. But then Tess kills Alec and goes with Angel.
They escape in the north until arriving at Stonehenge. There the police finds them and Tess was being executed in a prison.

Christmas

It's Christmas time! Do you know that in Switzerland it is a custom to bake cookies before Christmas? In almost every family the chlids, mothers and fathers bake some cookies to eat during Christmas time. I have here a recipe from the "Mailänderlis". ("Mailänderli" means "Milano cookies"). Everybody likes them and they're very easy to prepare. And you can chose the form of the cookies. And of corse you can decorate them just like you want.

Ingredients for approximately 80 cookies (depending on the size of a single cookie):
250 g (9 ounces) butter or margarine
225 g (8 ounces) sugar
1 pinch of salt
3 eggs
1 lemon
500 g (18 ounces) flour
1 yellow of an egg

Preparation:
Stir butter in a bowl until it is smooth.
Add sugar, salt and 3 eggs, stir until ingredients are evenly distributed.
Grind the skin of the lemon and add to the mixture of the previous step.
Add flour, knead to a soft dough.
Cover the dough and let rest for about 2 hours in a cool place.
Cut dough in parts and roll out on a flat, with flour covered surface, approximately 5 mm (0.2 inches) thick. Put out different shapes and put them on a baking sheet covered with baking paper.
Let cool for about 15 minutes.
Before baking, sweep with the yellow of an egg.
Bake for about 10 minutes in the center of the pre-heated oven at 200 °C (400 °F).
Let cool completely before serving.

Hope yo enjoy it!

If you want to know more about the customs for Christmas in Switzerland go to the webpage http://navidad.juniorwebaward.ch/home

Party time for Sant Narcís

Read the newspaper article. What is it about?

The article talks about the annual festival Sant Narcís. Sant Narcís saved Girona from the French troops and that's the reason why every year Girona is celebrating a very big festival.
There are over 300 activities, for example correfocs, a procession of gegants and of course the fira with a lot of attractions.

Which events/activities did you take part in? (October 2008)

I went with friends to the fira. We went to the attractions which were very funny. To eat something we went to the barraques.

Catalonia's version of Robin Hood

Who was Serrallonga?

Joan Sala i Ferrer known as Serrallonga was a catalan robber in the 17th century. He robbed with his gang from the rich people to share the booty with the poor people.
He was executed in the year 1634 in Barcelona.



Who was Robin Hood?

Robin Hood (about 15th, 16th century) was a man from the english aristocracy who lived a double life. He was an earl but on the other hand he lived undercover with his band in the Sherwood forest nearly from Notthingham and robbed from the rich people to gave to the poor ones.
Finally he was shoot by an arrow.

What did the have in common?

Both robbed from the rich people to share it with the poor ones.