Podcast - Description of a friend

Friendship

At last, I want to talk about some things of friendship that are quite strange to me. They don't need to be bad, but I'd like to know about other's oppinions:

First out of two: friendship and telling the truth. I mean, friends are supposed to tell the truth to eachother, but if you really always say what you think, they nearly always get mad at you. So what are people supposed to do? If we lie or simply not say things to not upset the other, he gets angry at you, but if you do tell him, he'll also get upset. It's something I never understood, which doesn't mean I'm not like that. I guess everyone is..

Second thing are people you trust, you tell them something, and they make fun of you. I experienced it not so long ago: you tell someone you're in love and tell him who it is, and he/she starts laughing and says "How could you fall in love with someone like him/her?" I mean, hey, it's not funny. You don't really choose who you're falling in love with and even if you did, people should always respect it and not make fun of it.

I don't really remember anything else to complain about, so I'll stop for now, thanks for the attention.

Nicole.

Film: New Moon

New Moon is the second part of the wonderful lovestory of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. The only problem they have is that Edward is a vampire and their love seems impossible, but they always managed to get through it. Until now, that the Cullen's greatest enemy is back...
Nice things about the film were the characters and the setting, especially the city were vampires lived. The music is also a beautiful addition to the film. Not so convincing were some ofe the special effects, while other definitely were!
In general, I think the film is definitely worth watching if you like romantic stories of a nearly impossible love. If you don't like vampires or werewolves, it won't be your film. I'll give the film ***.

Starring:
Edward: Robert Pattinson
Bella: Kristen Stewart
Jacob: Taylor Lautner

Games - Pangya

Pangya is an online, fantasy golf game in Anime style. You can choose out many characters to play with in this game. The name of this characters are Anna, Tim, Kaz, Cecilia, Lucia, Bob, Max and Kooh. Pangya was invented in Korea, but now there are Pangya versions in the USA, Europa, Japan… Today you can play it all over the world. The european server of Pangya was made in France. You can register and download Pangya on www.goa.com. It started with a few courses to play on, but now it has 15 places to play on and there’s also a really extensive chat system. Pangya is not only stupid golf, you can chat with your opponent on really fantastic places. For example in a world named Blue Lagoon, this world consists of really nice beaches with palms, but you can also play on the other worlds which all consist of other things. All in all Pangya is a fantastic game with many nice people. I found friends there myself. And the best thing is: you don’t need to buy it, it’s free!

I like about the game that it’s not with so much action, it’s more like a game to relax a bit and have fun with friends, things I really like to do. I don’t play very often, but it’s always nice to play a little game on the afternoons to disconnect from the “every-day-torture”, as I sometimes say.

Formal Letter

I thought my formal letter was a good writing, and it was definitely the one I learnt the most with, so I decided to pst it here. Here it is:

Montseny 166A

Empuriabrava

Girona

17487

20^th February 2010

Lluïsa Pintó

IES Castelló d’Empúries

Carrer del Rentador, 6

Castelló d’Empúries

17486

Dear Mrs. Pintó,

I am Nicole Schlagbauer, a 17 years old student at IES Castelló d’Empúries. Last week we were talking in class about the changes in the school calendar, and I am writing to give my opinion about that change. It is an interesting topic for students and I would like to focus not only on its disadvantages, but also on good points.

On the one hand, I understand that some people do not like to start school at the 7^th September. I also agree that our holidays seem to be shorter every year. On the other hand, that week which will be removed from the summer holidays will be a holiday week in February, so it is not always a disadvantage. We will have more free time other months of the year and the summer holidays are still very long. Moreover, I do not think that a week less of summer holidays does really make a difference. But a free week in February possibly can, because not long after that there will be a lot of exams and students have got more time to organize themselves for them.

In my experience, the summer holidays can be boring sometimes, especially when friends and classmates are away on holidays and you stay at home. I have had less summer vacation, but some more on other times of the year in Germany, and we did almost always have a free week before exams.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Nicole Schlagbauer

My Oral Presentation - Video, Transcription & Self-Evaluation

Here's the transcription:

So, good morning everybody, I hope you all did well on the weekend and you'r ready for my oral presentation. So, today I'm going to talk about an island you all should know and.. Well, the image should say everything, today I'm going to talk about Madagascar. I chose it because I think it's a country everybody knows, but noone pays much attention to.

So... You all should know where Madagascar is, it's that quite big island at the eastern coast of Africa. Ummm... some.. general things about the country: it has a population of approximately twenty-milion five-hundred thousand people and there are three official languages: Malagasy, English and French. It was, some years ago, a French colony, but it became independent in nineteen-sixty. Umm.. there are four religions, these are.. half of the population still follows the traditional religion, fourty-five % are Christian and there are some people that believe in Islamism and Hinduism. Umm.. for now, I'll focus on the traditional religion, because you all should know the other ones.

Soo, the traditional Malagasy religion focusses on the link between life and death and they think that dead people still can influence their fate and their future. Soo... mm.. they have a great respect for their ancestors. Umm..

There are different festivals in Madagascar, so I just the two people consider most important there. So the first one is Hira Gasy, it's a festival that only lasts one day but is really important for the people there. The celebrate it in honor of an ancient king that saved the people from a natural catastrophe. There are three parts: The first one is like an introduction that only lasts ten minutes and it's called Sasitehaka. The main part, that lasts several hours, is called Renihira and there are dance and music performances and it's when the main topic of the festival comes out. the last part is like the ending, it's not really so special.
the second festival is Famadinaha. They celebrate it to represent the main point of their religion, the link between life and death. They actually take the bones of the dead people and take it to another tomb called Lambamena. It's to show them their respect.

then, in Madagascar there's simple, but food with great variety. It's basically nearly always rice, called Vary, that goes with some kind of accompaniment called Laoka. It can be chicken.. nearly anything: crab, porc, lamb, fish.. And a very famous snack is called Koba, it's a plate of rice with coconut, chicken and other things.
Umm.. soooo... yeah, I think I didn't forget anything, so.. For me it was a quite interesting country and.. that's nearly all I can tell you about it. Soo, are there any questions?

---
Now my self-evaluation:

I used a Powerpoint which pretended to be very visual. I wanted to put some music, but I couldn't find what I was looking for. The Powerpoint helped me quite well, Because there were some difficult words. My presentation was almost too short, the next should be a bit longer.
My body language was OK, I looked at the audience and my gesture was also better than last time. Bad thing is, this time I read more from my notes than last time. That needs to improve again.
I organized my ideas in order of importance, Divided by different topics, such as geography and general information, religion, culture... I used connectors, but should have linked better the different subtopics.
I think I explained new and interesting things to the aduience because it's always (at least for me!) interesting to know more about foreign cultures. The information is clear, but not too detailed because it was difficult to fit a lot of details into the 5-7 minutes limit. My information comes from different sources on the internet, I don't knew about the festivals and other things. So I obviously looked up the information.

I think my grammar is correct, I sometimes said some things wrong, but corrected myself. I think my vocabulary could have been a bit better because I didn't use too many synonyms. I used sentence linkers, but they could have been a bit more. Pause fillers were almost too much! I shouldn't say so many the next time.
I knew how to pronounce all the words, but sometimes I pronounced them wrong without knowing. I didn't check most of the pronunciation because I already knew it, but I think I did it allright. I spoke with quite a few breaks, but I think it was still ok.

In conclusion, I think I deserve a 7, because the presentation was not bad, but a bit short, I read a bit too much and got stuck sometimes.

Power Point of my Oral Presentation

Anglès Oral Presentation 2

View more presentations from the_two_memories.

News - Robbery

The news-article I read was about robbery in parking cars here and in near towns. In the last 30 days, there were 90 robberies. Those were also in very busy streets.

I think the article is important because without it we wouldn't know there are so many robberies and have less care for our cars. So, people will maybe be more careful where to leave their cars or motorbikes. It affects me and other people in the same way, because all of us can be victims of such a robbery. We need to be very careful with what we do and protect our possessions.

I hope the article was helpful for you, so you don't become a victim of that criminals ;)

Owl City - Fireflies

You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep
Cause they fill the open air
And leave teardrops everywhere
You think me rude, but I would just stand and stare

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
Cause everything is never as it seems

Cause I get a thousand hugs
From ten thousand lightning bugs
As they try to teach me how to dance
A foxtrot above my head
A sockhop beneath my bed
The disco ball is just hanging by a thread (thread, thread)

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
Cause everything is never as it seems (when I fall asleep)

Leave my door open just a crack
(Please take me away from here)
Cause I feel like such an insomniac
(Please take me away from here)
Why do I tire of counting sheep?
(Please take me away from here)
When I'm far to tired to fall asleep

To ten million fireflies
I'm weird cuz I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell (said farewell)
But I know where several are
If my dreams get real bizarre
Cause I saved a few and I keep 'em in a jar

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
Cause everything is never as it seems (when I fall asleep)

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
Cause everything is never as it seems (when I fall asleep)

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
Because my dreams are bursting at the seam

---

Fireflies by Owl City is my good mood - song. It's lyrics are empty of sense, but they're fun to sing along with. I've put the video with the original song and a remix I enjoy sometimes with friends.

I like the song because of it's lack of sense, it's something fresh for me, as I only know songs with lots of meaning. Too many symbols can be tiring, and then this song is very nice to hear. It's also a song that means a lot to me: I heard it a lot the first days with two of my best friends. Fireflies always reminds me of them and makes me think about moments I shared with them: laughs, our insider jokes... I always pass a really good time with them and it's nice to remember.

There's a line in the song that fits me quite well: "Please take me away from here". It makes me think about bad times i had and my wish to study in Germany. I think it can become true!

After all, it's a song I'm listening to all the time and I wouldn't like to miss it at all!

Awful things in (my) life

I just need to get rid of some things and I thought maybe it'd be a good way to post this here. I'll maybe talk about one thing in particular because it's quite different and worse for me, but now to the point: different things that annoy me in life.

The first would be false friends. I mean, how many things do you know that are worse than someone who pretends to be your friend and tells lies at your back. Sadly, I head to experience this more than once.

The second thing is missing someone. I've got friends I can't see very often, and I miss them so much! It's a really awful feeling.. Afortunately, I'll almost sure go on a trip to Germany so I'll see them again quite soon. I'm so looking forward to it!

The third and probably worst is fights with parents. No, they don't need to be bad, but it annoys when your parents are always having little arguments with you. Afortunately, I haven't got many with my parents.

For problems like that I'm often worried about my friends. I wonder if I'm too worried about them?

Phew.. I feel better now (: Thanks for the attention. I'd like to read about other's opinions.

Girona (UdG)

I'd like to explain how our day at Girona's University went. It was a really fun day, I must say!

The first explanation that I heard was about Environmental Science. I didn't know, but it consists of a bit of everything: Physics, Maths, Chemistry... It was very interesting and it's efinitely worth for me thinking about it.
After hearing the explanation I went to look for my friends Marcel German, Melissa and Adrià. We waited for the bus together, but there were too many people, so we couldn't take it. So we decided to go to "Barri Vell" on foot. It was a quite long way, but we had a lot of fun together. Unfortunately, German had to stay at Montilivi. At first, we were a bit lost, but then we asked for the way and started our walk. We stopped at a supermarket because Melissa needed something and bought some sweets we ate on our way. Adrià nearly crashed into a man ona bicycle and I almost fell down twice, it was really fun. As we were on our way, we had to go up some large stairs and we ended up running to see who's the fastest. I was surprised to win! I guess Marcel didn't want to run, after all. We missed the second explanation, though.
I really enjoyed that day and I'd like to repeat the experience!