A beautiful memory

During my last two years at the University, I was part of a Dance Group (we danced tropical and popular music) and we did several shows around the country. One of the shows I remember most is the one in the theater of the “Universidad Nacional” in Heredia, in October 2000.

It was an amazing experience, we feel ourselves like real actors. It was a big theater, with long curtains, lights in everywhere, we wear colorful cloth and theater was plenty of people. The show was really important, and the best, we were an important part of that show.

We did our show and the audience loved it. Was great to hear their applause and comments at the end of the activity, was very nice.

After that presentation, there were many others, but I remember that one with an special feeling, and I have a Dancer Certificate at home, which reminds me each time that I was there.

THE GOONIES

The Goonies is an adventure film in which a group of boys try to find a pirate treasure in order to keep their house, due to it will be foreclosed. During the search, they will to confront a lot of pirates’ traps and face to a family of criminals who wants the loot, too.

The character I liked most was Mikey. I consider he is a dreamy boy and at the same time, he has him feet on the ground.  He has faith in himself, though sometimes the circumstances do not look so good. He fights for what he wants until to get it. He has a great desire to help his family, although this means take high risks to achieve the goal.

I not only consider all those characteristics are very important in life but also I think I have several of them.

HW2: My first bicycle

I’ll never forget the day in which I bought my first bicy.

I was only 12 years old, was October and my friend Mike and I decided to buy our news bicycles, the money?..... Well, it will come from the coffee picking season.

That was a hard summer for both. I worked so hard during several months, but after all that work and with a little help from my mam, I did it, I went out of the bicy store that December 24 with my new and first bicy, it cost ₡13.450 .  I finished paying the bicy two months later, but from March it was fully mine.

Today, many years after that day, I remember my first bicy, all work and all happiness it represented in my life and mainly,   the lesson I learned that year:  the importance of hard work in order to obtain what I want and the satisfaction of a work well done.

HW2 Movie: A few good men

Daniel Kaffee, is an inexperienced lawyer who leads the defense in the court-martial of two Marines, who are accused of murdering a fellow Marine of their unit at the Guantanamo Bay Naval in Cuba.

After long and stressful situations, the lawyer proves that marines just fulfilled a “Red Code” (a kind of informal punishment for Marines, in order to ensure that those ones follow procedure) ordered by the commanding officer of Guantanamo Bay. At the end of the movie, Commander admits his guilty in an uncontrolled outburst. The final verdict for Marines is: not guilty on the murder charges; however, both are dishonorably discharged for death of the man.

I like this film because shows us that sometime the lawmaker don´t has the reason and many times, who is in charge to protect the fulfillment of laws abuse of these  without punishment; many times due to these person has a lot of power. In the another hand, the movie shows us how our moral rules sometimes are against some orders that we receive and we must to decide what to do: break the rules (laws) and be fine with our conscious and be punished or fulfill the laws and live fighting with our conscious

What the word Halloween means

I like the idea of customes and some candies, but being honest I don’t celebrate Halloween day in anyway.  But what is the Halloween origin, resulted interesting to me.

The word Halloween is a contraction of three words: All-Hallows-Evening (Even), which refers to the  night before All Hallows Day  (All Saints’ day) which is celebrated on November 1st, really close to the All Souls’day (in CR we refers to these day like Death People’s Day or so) which is celebrated on November 2.

I think those all celebrations are very related and is a way of humanity to confront the life and fun against to the idea of death and a way to mix both in a celebration full of scare, customs, fear and candies…Buuuuu

See more in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

My reflections about the course

Each new course is a new experience, new people, new teacher and new his way to teach.

In the first class of this course, I wrote three general goals, three general things that I hoped to obtain at the end. My three goals were:

1) Increase my English Level.

2) Learn a lot of things which help me to obtain a good score in TOIC.

3) Enjoy the course.

Today, in the last week of the course, I want to write some ideas about it in order to answer your questions.

a) Did you get everything out of the class that you hoped to get out of it?

I enjoyed the course. I learned a lot of new things that will help me in my goal to improve my English level. That is so good for me.

I want to be honest, during the first two classes, I didn’t feel good, but some things changed and my bad feelings changed too.

b) What activities or concepts did you enjoy, and what could have been done better?

I really enjoyed the round tables and the discussions around these. I like to work with the Blog is a new way for me and is interesting.

Sometimes, prepared papers is not an funny activity, mainly when there isn’t a big discussion or deep conversations related with these.

c)  Did you contribute everything that you had planned to?

I think I could contribute more than I did, but I think I contribute in a very good way in class.

I tried to participated and give my opinions about the different topics. I tried to be important part in the different role plays and presentations in front of the class

d)  What did you do well in terms of your interactions with the group, and what could you have done better?

Being honest, I had some problems to interact in a good way with some of my new classmates. I think that the new group wasn’t what I hoped. But today, at the end of course, I confess I knew some new and good people and I interacted with these people in a very good way.

I think I need to study much that I did. But I tried to did my effort every Saturday to practice and improve my English interacting with my classmates and doing the exercises in class.

Homework 5: La Fortuna de San Carlos

History:

Located 253 meters above the sea level, La Fortuna de San Carlos or simply La Fortuna, belongs to canton of San Carlos, Alajuela.

Founded around 1930 and known until 1948 as Burío, year in which and due to the quality and richness of its land, its neighbors decided to change its name to La Fortuna.

Activation of the Arenal Volcano in 1968 and repairs in the main road in 1982, have allowed to tourism, along with livestock, are today the main economic activities in the area.

Description:

This charming and quiet town has an area of 225 square kilometers and a population of about 6,000 inhabitants. It is easily accessible from the Capital and offers all comforts of the modern life and excellent health and banking services.

Main places and activities:

La Fortuna has a lot of places to visit; the most famous include the Arenal Volcano (the most active volcano in Costa Rica, located only 10 kilometers from the village), La Fortuna River's waterfall (with a drop of 70 meters), The Arenal Dam, suspension bridges and several hot springs.

Obviously, there are a big variety of spas, hotels and restaurants (which offer a variety of rates for all possibilities), activities for all likes as kayaking, rafting, horseback riding, canopy tours and many others.

All these attractions, along with the beauty of its landscapes, make to La Fortuna a place that should be visited. If you have not gone yet, don't late more, I already did. 

Homework 4: Visit to "Mirador del Valle"

Three weeks ago, I was in my house with my wife and we were talking about go out for lunch, but we wanted to go to a new place, then we found an internet web site with a big list of restaurants, and one of them took our attention, “Restaurante Mirador del Valle”, located in Alajuela; after a couple of minutes, we decided to go and know that place.

After driving for an hour, we arrived to the restaurant. It looked nice, looked like an old and typical house, it had a medium size parking lot, and a little bar next to the restaurant. Once inside the restaurant and after to check the menu, which had a lot kinds of dishes, I decided to eat a “Churrasco” and my wife ordered a dish with chicken. After around ten minutes, the waiter brought us the order, and it was simply delicious, and the price was good.

When we finished our lunch, we went out of the restaurant in order to take a look to the landscape, to being honest there was a lot of fog, but during ten minutes the fog disappeared and we stayed in front of the Alajuela’s Valley, it was a wonderful view.

I recommend the “Restaurante Mirador del Valle”, I went once and I would like to return soon.

Alexander's Profile by Andrea S.

Alexander Jimenez was born in 1980, he lives in San Ramon.

He is married, the first thing that caught his attention about his wife was her personality, her positive attitude about life and her sense of humor, for him in a couple is important to respect the space of each other and to be responsible.

For him what makes a person interesting is the way as the person talk, he said "It express how you are, if you are a positive or a negative person, and when someone talks show his or her education". His greatest achievement was to get a job in a Bank that he really wanted, because he realized that if he wants something he gets it, although, things are not how they appear, because he thought the job was a little different and then he realized it was not, but he demonstrate himself, he could get what he wanted.

One of his negative characteristics is that he does not have patience, but he has learned to have it with his wife.

He likes to practice sport, go to dance and go out with his wife, he said "I really enjoy go to a place with a lot of nature", he likes the huge places where he can enjoy the nature.

His greatest ambition is to travel around the world and visit different places, and he knows that when he really wants something, he gets it.

Homework 3: Profile of Andrea S

María Andrea Salazar Salas lives in Naranjo, specifically in San Jerónimo, she is 22 years old and she is the third of a family of four siblings.

She is studying English and works in a drug store located in Naranjo, its name is “Farmacia Nelma”. In her free time Andrea likes to practice Biking or walk with some friends in mornings; on weekends she enjoys going out to dance.

María Andrea is a girl who likes “help people” in things she does and she considers that one of characteristics which defines her is that she “respects the other people”, what they think or what they feel about different things. She values a lot respect and confidence in a relationship and humbleness and respect in friends in general.

For her, family is “the most important people in the world” and success means “feel good with yourself”.

Now a days Andrea is pretty young to be married, but she thinks she would like to be married in future, when the right man comes, meanwhile, she is single and she is planning start to study soon, she would like to study physical therapy. When she thinks in future, she sees herself working in her specialization area, with an economic stability and traveling a lot, probably visiting places like Africa or Egypt.

Crazy dream: Andrea has a wish; she wishes she drives a plane, because in her own words “I love the planes”.

Comment about Isel's world: Purple World

Well, after read the description of “Purple World” and how the people who lives there is, I think it is similar to Khrónos, mainly in its natural conditions because it is similar to “The Earth” in waterfalls, beaches, flora and fauna.

I think people in “Purple World” have similar characteristic with “Khrónosiams” too, at least some of the most important ones, for example they try to get a balance in their lives doing different and important things: work, sports, family and friends, they love and care the nature, and finally they really appreciate their life enjoying every minute of their life.

People in “Purple World” have characteristics of Venusians and Martians I think, but how is natural prevail lightly Venusians aspects, and I say this because she uses key words in several characteristics: “It depends how big the problem is”, “Depending on their mood”, “talk with their friends very often”, and obviously “They enjoy to go shopping”.

I think “Purple World” are good, and I could live there…..

I'm not a fan of Star Wars, that's why I can't comment anything about that.

A planet named: Khrónos

Khrónos

In Greek Mythology, Khrónos was the personification of Time, was god of ages.

I´m really be happy to live in the Earth, it is a wonderful planet, that´s why characteristics of Khrónos would be very similar to the Earth, obviously in a natural aspect, because in Khrónos, there isn´t pollution or traffic jams every day, corruption or bad people don´t exist, poverty or homeless people are unknown words.

I named the planet Khrónos because in this planet all people appreciate a lot the time, they don´t living thinking in how old they are, they think how many time they have for living.

Khrónosiams live each day doing important things for them, investing time in things that give them happiness and pride, understanding each day that their life isn´t eternal, people in Khrónos is conscious that life is just a little piece of time.

The specific characteristic of Khrónosiams is they are imperfect people, like we are, but the most important difference with us is that they understand and respect, in a really way, their differences. They take a lot of courses during their life in order to understand their selves and learn how to live better. Of course they enjoy to compete and practice a lot of sports, but they compete in order to be better themselves, don´t to prove to others that they are better than the other one.