Season's Greetings 2012

Thanks to a wonderful student for sending this along with Christmas greetings for her teacher. I share it with all my students and colleagues in Fuerteventura and throughout the Canary Islands and Spain. 

Learning Languages at the EOIs of Spain

Happy Holidays to all the students and staff at the EOI Puerto del Rosario and also at EOIs throughout Spain. Here is a nice link
that you might find interesting. It reflects briefly on the mission of the EOIs within the context of adult education throughout our society. I am proud to be involved with the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas in Spain, a worthwhile project for everyone who fancies learning a foreign language. We are a public institution and I sincerely hope we remain public with support from our government and its people. 

Gracias a Álvaro Rivero, de la EOI de Santa Brigida en Gran Canaria por compartir este video conmigo.

Magdalena’s Memories of Dancing as a Child

When I was a youth, I used to dance. Every day, I took my ballet lessons. Some days, I danced classical, others modern dance and others jazz. learnt not only about dance but also about music. I shared a lot of time with my friends. Actually, I could say that we were like a big family who loved dancing.

My teacher danced like a wave on the ocean. She was very perfectionist but at the same time very affectionate. My body was very beefy and I did not use to have stiffness. Probably, this was because I was used to doing exercise regularly.

When I finished my secondary school I went to university. That meant moving to another island so that, I had to stop dancing. Suddenly, my knees started hurting. When I visited the doctor,  I remember he told me that my muscles were very relaxed and I had to take time to recover. Since then, I have not danced. At the beginning not only my mind but also my body had to get used to my habits.

I have very good memories for such a lovely time and nowadays I could say without a doubt that those years were the most fun in my entire life.

Magdalena NA1

How do you organize your vocabulary?

How do you organize your vocabulary? Here is a suggestion from our current unit.

Food	Things in the kitchen	Ways to cook (verbs)
Beef / Lamb red / green Pepper Peas Aubergine Courgettes Carrots Beans  (lentils, chick peas) Prawns /shrimp Chicken Butter /oil Biscuits (uk)/ cookies (us) Eggs Ham Jam /marmalade Honey (sweetener) Molasses Rice Couscous Fish Pasta (macaroni) Onions Garlic Broccoli Cauliflower Potatoes Tomatoes	An oven A freezer (Long-term storage) A fridge  (storage) A cooker A blender A grill A frying pan A saucepan A rubbish bin  A microwave (oven)	To boil To roast / broil To bake To grill To steam To fry To heat up To microwave To mix To liquidize

Rice Recipe

We have been talking about food in class. We also plan to examine some recipes from different countries. To start, here is (NI1) Laura's rice recipe. It is quite simple but the results are delicious. This may seem a truly Spanish recipe but, of course, rice is popular everywhere and grown all over the world. 

Laura’s Rice Recipe from Antigua

For this recipe, we need to follow Laura’s instructions.

First, take a saucepan. Pour oil in the bottom.

Heat the oil. Fry red and green pepper.

Add onions, leeks, garlic and chorizo.

Add one cup of rice. Then stir gently.

Then add two cups of stock (broth).

Bring the broth to a boil. Reduce the heat

and simmer for 10 minutes with a lid on top.

 

Cristina A remembers her basketball team!

            When I was a child I used to play basketball. I started to play it when I was six years old in the sports hall of my town. My father asked me if I would like to play it in order to do some sport and I said yes because we used to watch basketball together.

           Playing basketball I met some of my best friends and we are still best friends twenty one years later. We used to be together a lot because we trained twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) but sometimes we used to practice even on Fridays because on Saturdays we used to play against other teams of the island such as Gran Tarajal or Corralejo.

            One year we were in the same league as Lanzarote's team and we used to play one Saturday here and the Saturday after that in Lanzarote. We were looking forward to playing against them because we used to have a lot of fun on the trip. Our journey started very early, at eight o'clock we used to have breakfast in Corralejo port and then get the boat to Lanzarote. Once we finished the match we used to eat all together at the nearest restaurant. Then we would spend the afternoon in Playa Blanca visiting shops and having fun while waiting for the boat to our home in Fuerteventura.

            At the age of sixteen we had to stop playing basketball because our trainer had a much better job. He could not coach us anymore because he did not have enough time for us. It was a tough time for me and my team mates.

I would say, though, that those times were fantastic, very amusing, and nowadays some of my friends and I still play basketball for fun.

Cristina A (NA 1, Monday nights, Puerto del Rosario)

Silvia remembers El Rastro in Madrid

Silvia from NA1 enjoys living in Fuerteventura although she harbors fond memories of her days in Madrid when she frequented the famous flea market El Rastro on Sunday mornings. 

Before I came to Fuerteventura, I used to live in central Madrid, near el Rastro, a typical shopping place, a flea market, where you can buy fabulous gifts and drink cups of wine, of course.

I used to visit el Rastro every Sunday with my friends. In el Rastro you can find different things. For example, people who are from Madrid try to sell antique furniture and LPs, nowadays we buy CDs. I rarely went to my house without having sipped some of the best wine in Madrid.

I frequently visited one of the most famous squares, Lavapies, where people of different cultures live together in peace. Nowadays, on TV we can watch news, but not all the news are good news. Despite this, in my opinion it is a wonderful neighbourhood to live in.

At present, I live in Fuerteventura and I am used to swimming in the beach, but I am always thinking of those days when I used to visit el Rastro every Sunday.

Silvia