Studing in Oxford

I went to Oxford 5 years ago to improve my English. It is one of the cities that I love.

When you arrive in Oxford, stop first at the Tourist Information Centre, located in The Broad near The Oxford Story.

Views of the town: to get an overview before you begin walking, try climbing up Carfax Tower in the city centre.

Other views over the city are available from the University Church of St Mary the Virgin in the High Street, and St Michael Northgate, in Cornmarket.

The University: Oxford is home to a world famous university, and most of the colleges and university buildings are located in the centre of Oxford, within easy walking distance of each other.

Don't miss the Bodleian Library, which has its own shop, and the nearby Radcliffe Camera, which is not open to the public, but is well worth a view from the outside.

Nearby, in Broad Street, is the Sheldonian Theatre, a venue for official university functions as well as a variety of concerts (tickets available from The Oxford Playhouse in Beaumont Street).

The University also owns the Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street (opposite The Playhouse), Britain's oldest public museum.

Belén Iglesias.

Carcassonne

Amidst the thick woods of the South of France, it is placed the ancient city of Carcassonne. The history of this city is immersed in a mysterious atmosphere. First of all, the place was inhabited by Celtic people who named the city Carsac. Then Roman people settled this place and the Visigoths after them. During the Middle Age the city was a Cathar enclave until Simon the Montfort expelled the heretics from the fortification. Before being French the official language, the Oc dialect was the most spread in that region.

Today, Carcassonne is a small city whose principal tourist attraction is its enchanted citadel. The citadel is set in the top of a hill and is surrounded by an outer stone rampart. When you go into the fortification, it seems you are in the medieval period. The castle hasn’t suffered the ravages of time whatsoever. Its shops, houses and streets are built of firm stone. Inside the ramparts of the fortification, you can find a myriad of restaurants where you can taste some typical wines and desserts.

If you decide to visit Carcassonne, don’t forget to see the cathedral of St. Nazaire and the performances which take place in the courtyard of the castle. These medieval tournaments are a very amusing activity to spend your time. Actors clad in colourful clothes, ride horses and fight against the black knight. Another curiosity whicht is worthy of seeing is the Inquisition museum. There, you can see some of the most gruesome gadgets used by Inquisition to torture its prisoners. In the evening, the citadel is lit with some spotlights. There is no doubt that is the best moment to see the castle. That wonderful image served as an inspiration for Walt Disney to create the castle of Sleeping Beauty.

Carcassonne

New York!!

New York!!!

The most awesome city I have never visited is New York. It would seem that anybody has their place in this city. New York could dub itself the most cosmopolitan city in the world.
Historically it was the port that everybody wanted to conquered. Holland was the first in 1621 ans was called New Amsterdam. But in 1664 the English arrived and changed the name for New York. They have mantained this name even after the Independence War in 1783. In the XIX century, New York grew quickly and became a remarkable city. From 1800 to 1900, the population grew from around 80.000 to 3 million of inhabitants. The city continued to grow due to hordes of inmigrants who were arriving, and this cultural mixture means that in New York is spoken 80 different languages. It is widely known that its modern history is marked by suffering after the terrorist attack in the World Trade Center called 11-S. People wouldn`t seem the same than before this terrible event. It has changed their skyline and their lifes.
There is no doubt whatsoever that there are a huge variety of landmarks. It has well-known museums such us MOMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. The viewpoints from the Empire State building and Top of the Rock are worth. From there you could look out over all skyscrapers and Central Park. It is compulsory to visit the impressive Statue of Liberty that is the emblem of the city.
This city has a misture of American, Chinese, Indian, Italian, Korean and South-American people. Everybody goes with a coffe in their hands running to their jobs. The life style is shaking. Although they are always willing to help you. They are surprinsingly kind!!In their free time, they fancy to go to the Madison Square Garden or to enjoy some of the musicals. There are lots of street vendors 24 hours, we could have a bite when we want.
In my opinion my visit was the most exhilarating experience. I made a helicopter tour over Manhattan`s famous buildings, whilst the pilot explained us all the information about the main highlights. I was very lucky because I have been seaten next to him!!!
Leticia.

New York, New York

As I told you yesterday our new topic for the blog is cities. Here goes my entry!

"New York is the biggest collection of villages in the world". That's the way British/American journalist Alistair Cooke described the Big Apple. I totally agree.

It seems that New York has a representation of almost every culture on its ground for everyone to explore. Chinatown, Koreatown, the Polish neighbourhood in Brooklyn, Little Italy, Spanish Harlem...and many more. During decades immigration waves have make the city the largest melting pot of the planet. It is widely recognised that New York is the capital of the world.

If you go to New York I would highly recommend for you to stay at least for a whole week. There is so much to see! It's pretty hard just to pick a few highlights of "the City" but if I must, these would be my chosen ones: Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Columbia University, the East and West Village, Soho, Brooklyn Bridge, the MET,the Empire State Building and the Flatiron building (you can see it in the last picture).

Among the five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn,Bronx,Queens and Staten Island), Manhattan is the one that oozes a life and character that cannot leave you indifferent. There is no doubt that in Manhattan you can visit most of the touristic attractions that New York offers, go shopping to the most exclusive and beautiful stores and enjoy food from every corner of the world. It seems to provide visitors with every entertainment there is, from dusk till dawn. No wonder is known as "the city that never sleeps".

After reading this entry, I guess there is little doubt that New York is my favorite place in the world. I lived in New York for five years and I know it will always have the most special place in my heart. I worked as a Spanish teacher in a public primary school in Manhattan for the first two years and, after that, as a linguistic advisor for the Spanish Consulate. Well, all in all, an amazing experience!

Since I started with a quote, let me finish with another one. This time by the American psychologist James Hillman: "You come to New York to find the ambiance that will evoke your best. You do not necessarily know precisely what that might be, but you come to New York to discover it".

Teresa

MY MOTHER'S SPANISH OMELET

Oh! I was going to write an entry with the same recipe right now, but you got there first, Cristina!

Anyway, I’ve uploaded a photo of my mother’s omelet. For me it’s the best omelet I’ve ever tasted. It may be because she has a trick: she puts a little trickle of milk and mixes it with the eggs so that the omelet turns juicier.

It looks mouth-watering, doesn’t it?

Guadalupe

SPANISH OMELET

• 2 big potatoes, sliced


• 1 small onion, sliced


• 4 eggs


• Salt to taste


• Olive oil

Fry the onions and the potatoes in the olive oil until the potatoes are tender. Drain and let cool.

Add the eggs and salt and mix everything well in a bowl.

Fry the mix in a medium pan with just a drop of olive oil so it doesn't stick until the eggs looked cooked but before the omelet looks too browned.

Cristina Lozano

Lentils (4people)

Here you have a very easy and tasty receip. The ingredients that you will need are:
-lentils
-water
-1 potato
-1 onion
-1 carrot
-hard pork sausage
-blood sausage
-pork fat
-a bit of fry tomato
-ear of pork( just if you like it)

It would be faster if you have a preassure cooker, with it you will spend 10 minutes. If you only have a pan, you will spend around 40 minutes!!
1- You have to keep the lentils in water since the day before.
2- Put into the preassure cooker all the ingredients with water. It has to cover the lentils.
3- Close the preassure cooker and wait until the thing would be up.
4- From that moment on you have to count 10 minutes.

And you have already done it!!!
Leticia.

The healthiest recipe for summer...

Traditional Gazpacho

Ingredients

10 oz of bread
21 oz. of tomato
2 cloves of garlic
2 onions
2 red and green peppers
1 cucumber (optional)
7 tablespoons of oil
2 tablespoons of vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoon of water
Cumin (optional)

Preparation

In a big mortar mash the cumin, the garlic and the soaked bread, in a plastic bowl mix the chopped onion, the chopped tomato, the oil, the vinegar, the salt and the contents of the mortar, mash it with the mixer and add very cold water to mix everything. Add salt and strain it. Keep it in the fridge until served.
Serve with the tomato, the cucumber, the pepper and the toasted bread cut to dices.

Mª Jose sister

Spanish Easter´s tradition...

Torrijas (bread pudding)

Ingredients
32 fl. oz of milk
olive oil
16 oz. honey
16 oz. sugar
8 eggs
Slices of bread for 'torrijas'

Preparation time: 1 - 2 hours

Preparation
Cut a large loaf of bread for 'torrijas' in fairly thick slices (you can also use special ready sliced bread).Mix the milk and sugar in a deep bowl. Beat the eggs in a separate dish. Dip the slices of bread in the sugared milk and eggs and fry in a pan with boiling oil until golden brown. Then drain well.
Place the 'torrijas' on a serving dish and pour honey over them. It is also traditional to add the sugared milk to the serving dish so that the 'torrijas' soak it up and become more spongy.


Mmmm...it´s a pity we have to wait until Easter to enjoy them!!

Cris sister.

Apple's cream caramel:

-5 eggs
-1 small tin of condensed milk
-4 apples

Peal the apples and clean them. Cut them in some pieces and put them in a saucepan with some water and boil them until they are cooked. When they are cooked, drain the water.

Break the eggs and bate them very well. Add them the condensed milk. Mix everything very well and add the cooked apples. Mix all the ingredients with a mixer.

Finally, put the mixture in a special saucepan for cooking cream caramel and put it in another different saucepan with water in order to boil. Leave it about 1 hour and 45 minutes checking the cream caramel until it is coocked.

When the apple's cream caramel is coocked, leave until it is cold. You can serve it with cream and chocolate, some fruits or whatever you like. It's delicious!

Gema.

Very typical of Madrid

Churros

Ingredients:

• 200 gr flour
• 200 ml water
• 50 ml milk
• 2 spoons of oil
• 2 spoons of salt
• 1 small egg
• sugar

1. First of all you have to put the water, the milk and also the spoons of oil in a saucepan and bring it to boil.
2. When water is boiling, add the flour together with the salt and stir it very quickly. The result of that will be a smooth ball of pastry.
3. Remove the saucepan from the heat and wait until the pastry is totally cold.
4. Then, add the bated egg and stir again very carefully.
5. Finally, put the dough in a gadget with is called churrera in Spanish, make the little churros and fry them in a fry pan with lots of hot olive oil.
6. You also can sprinkle sugar on them if you want. They are the perfect company of a mug of hot chocolate in the rainy days ^^.

Picture of Antonio's dish

Hungry anyone?

Looks gooood...

See u tomorow @ 6pm

Teresa

Picture of Antonio's recipe

CANARIAN OLD CLOTHES

Ingredients:

1/2 kg chickpeas
1/2 kg cow meat
1/2 kg chicken meat
1 kg potatoes
3 cloves of garlic
1 pepper
1 onion
1 tomato
1 cup of white wine
1 cup of water or stock
paprika
white/black pepper
thyme
1 bay leaf
cloves
salt
olive oil

1. Soak the chickpeas in a bowl the night before in order to soften them.
2. At next day, wash the chickpeas and put them into a copper with the meat, salt and water.
3. Once it is cooked you have to drain all off and crumble the meat. Then the chickpeas and the meat are fried together until they are crunchy, after that set them aside.
4. We have to fried apart the onion, the pepper, the peeled tomato and the three cloves of garlic, all of then chopped previously adding the white/black pepper and the cloves too.
5. After frying the vegetables we have to include the paprika, the white wine, the thyme, the bay leaf and a cup of stock.
6. Then add the chickpeas and the meat and let them over the heat a minutes.
7. Finally the potatoes are fried and all is mixed.

Carrots or bean are good as garnish

Some great ideas for your restaurant review

Hi everyone,

The following is a restaurant review that may give you great ideas for your November writing piece. I will use a piece of it on Friday (yes, we have class on Friday...) to point out some of the vocabulary and structures that the author uses to make his article remarkable and so well written that The New York Times (no less!!) is publishing it.

Read it for Friday if you can.

http://events.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/dining/reviews/05rest.html

Restaurant: Union Square Cafe

Address: 21 East 16th Street (between Fith Ave. and Union Sq. W.) New York, NY 10003

Cuisine:American/Italian

PS: You can see the restaurant in the first 3 pictures, the last one is a view of Union Square.

Fall is here...

Hi everyone,

I'm very excited to announce that we have a class blog. We will use it to share ideas and to reflect on topics being discussed in class. A blog is an excellent tool to extend language learning. Make sure you read the weekly posts and comment every time you do. By the way, you are more than free to post a comment on anything that has to do with the monthly topics.

Speaking of which... as you know, November is a very important month in the States. Considering that the topic of unit 2 is "Food"... can you tell me why November is an important month for the US? (hint:food).

Teresa