My ideal city

MY IDEAL CITY

I am going to imagine a city I would like to live in.   It would be like a mixture of several cities.

First, it would be on the coast, near the sea, so most of the days it would be good weather, sunny days but not too hot.  Due to this good weather, every plant and flower would grow without any problem.

I love clean cities, so it would all be very clean including the buildings.  

The city should have a lot of gardens surrounding a big central park like in NY.  Every two or three streets there would be a public little garden and so the people who live in this zone would have a little space to relax themselves,  also each garden would have a little area where people could plant some flowers or vegetables.

I would like there were free theatre performances and music concerts in these gardens every day, at different times..

The old buildings should be pretty and the modern houses should be built in the same architectural style.

There would be few cars in the city center because most of the people would work near their home, so they could go to work walking, cycling or just by bus.

It would be a silent and clean city but with a lot of life in it, because it would be a lot of people in the streets, walking slowly and having a tea or a beer at the outside tables of the bars.  

The shops would be little and with charm, there you could buy fresh vegetables, bread, coffee, bar soaps ....and you could buy slowly because in this city nobody would be stressed.

In conclusion, I would like a little city with shops like in France, gardens like in Great Britain, sun and life like in Spain, but the most important thing is that in this city, it would live people like Canary islanders, without stress, only relaxed people with a big smile in their faces with unstressed and happy children.

Could you imagine this place? 

Would you like to live there?

Elisa

Hely's description

Hi!!
My name is Helly Vallejo.

I am a famous Hollywood actress.  Three years ago I came to Spain to shoot a movie and then I knew a Spanish charming person with whom I got married.  Then I moved to live in Nuez de Ebro, a quiet town and far away from the paparazzi.

I'm Colombian and Italian and also a mix of Spanish.  I like living in this country allthough I travel a lot because of my job.  I'm studying English at La Puebla, I speak perfectly but I continue learning more.

I hide my profile to avoid attracting attention.   I pretend to be an ordinary girl who is transported by bicycle to come to class.

Best wishes!

THE PHOTOGRAPHS by Chelo, Pilar and Sofía

Photography is an art.

Don't touch any button. There are a lot of techniques to take a picture. Different variables such as light, the shutter speed, the shutter opening ...should be taken into account but stop talking about techniques.

As an art it has many styles or types for instance:

- Architectural Photography
- Nature Photography
- Social Photography
- Portrait
- Stolen Photography
- Macro Photography
- Night Photography
- Ligth painting
- Landscapes
- Still Life or inanimate objects
- Abstract Photography
- Geometric Photography
- Protest Photography
- Photojournalism
-Travel Photography
-Sports Photography
-Scientific Photography

Here you have examples of different types, and even mixed up in a single picture.
 

THE DOCUMENT .DOC

Many times you have to be in the right place and get a capture at that very moment.

Or learn to see things differently.

Do you wish to play with us? Would you know...? What would you Say it is?

FIRST POWER POINT

And speaking of seeing things differently ...
There are photographs or shots in which things that are not there appear... and things that appear are not.

For example, AGROMONTE SHRINE

We are going to start talking about Agramonte shrine. It's an ancient hospital situated in the Moncayo mountain.

It was started to build in 1920 and it was finished in 1930. During six years it was a beautiful hotel, and rich people stayed there on holidays. In 1936 the civil war broke out and one night a terrifying event happened, the people who were working there were raped and assassinated.

As a result of this event, the hotel was closed until the civil war finished.

In 1939 Santa Ana charity sisters changed the hotel into a tuberculosis care hospital which was working for forty years. In October 1978 the hospital was closed.

For a period of time a lot of resarchers have gone to the Agramonte shrine to inspect it. They have discovered psychophony and paranormal phenomena.

Two years ago, Pilar took the following photographs in that place:

What do you watch in these photographs?

SECOND POWER POINT

And this one was taken in Torrero cemetery: Somebody is looking at us....

Are you afraid?

Would you like and dare to visist these places?

MY LITTLE TOWN

From La Puebla,   just five kilometers towards Barcelona, it’s a town called Alfajarín. There, I was born and grown.

Now I am going to tell you something about my town.  So, you are going to walk along its streets and its main buildings.

Arriving at the village, we pass the roundabout,  we follow straight on and we find the chemist’s,  the medical centre and the bus stop. Opposite it’s the street that goes to the rest home. From the chemist’s we move back just a little and we turn on the right where the Cultural Pavilion “The Portaza” is located and where dances and cultural acts like the famous play contest are perfomed.  On the right it’s the school, we follow along its street and we will pass under an arch called “The Portaza”, it was an old door which closed the village.

After we arrive in  “Güete” Street and  Spain square.  First thing we find there, it is the elderly care Centre and the post office; we follow on our right and there it is the Town Hall and the Church of Saint Miguel Archangel, behind it’s Fronton square, but at present without court wall.

                         

  

Crossing the street, we  find Peña Street, and then we  reach the gully and if we go back to the right, there is a road which goes to a bridge, we cross it and afterwards there is a flight of stairs to reach Our Lady Peña's hermitage with a viewpoint from where you can watch one of the nicest views of the whole town and a castle from the eleventh century but regrettably in ruins.

Setting out again from Spain Square, we take a road, then we turn on the left and then the second street on the right and there, we find the new kindergarten, the sports pavilion, the swimming pool and the sports facilities. 

Finally these are the festivals we celebrate every year: Saint Isidro, in June the medieval festivity, and in September the Virgin of the Peña and Saint Miguel.

I hope that you like my town. I encourage all of you to visit it.

See you soon,

Ana Delia

First composition by Jesús Leciñena

Hello,

My name is Jesús, I'm from Zaragoza, I live in Santa Isabel district with my mother and father, my brothers Carlos and Kike, and my dog Toby.

I´m an administrative assistant but in this moment I'm unemployed. Some years ago I worked in the admininistrative field, but when we drew to the crisis I worked as a shop assistant, salesperson and also replenishing food.

I'm twenty-seven years old.  I considerer myself nice, sensible, polite, considerate and shy.

I am medium-height. I am slim.  My eyes are brown and my hair is light brown.  I'm wearing glasses and a goatee.

I speak Spanish and a little English, I study English in La Puebla de Alfinden and at the Official School of Languages.

I like listening to Rock music and playing the drums in my band. At the weekends I go out with my girlfriend and my friends, sometimes we go to the cinema and sometines we go to the 'Pequeño café del rock', a nightclub.

Bye, bye

I'm Cris

Hello, my name is Cris, I am a Nicaraguan woman, and right now I live in La Puebla de Alfinden with my boyfriend Alberto, he is twenty-five years old and physically  he is tall and has a strong build, I think he's handsome, smart and charming.

I work in Zaragoza in a restaurant, I'm a waitress but I dream to be an accountant, some day.

I'm in my twenties and I consider myself active, practical and quite introvert. I am sometimes a bit shy. My physical appearance is: medium height and slim, my hair is long and brownish and very curly, my complexion is brozed, my face is oval and I have got black eyes.

I have got three sisters, their names are Sarai, Masiel and Osmara and my mother's name is Socorro. They are living in Zaragoza, this is good because we are near each other.

See you!!

SELF-PORTRAIT. Practise your reading skills.

It is really to encourage everyone who would like to start painting that I have drawn this protrait of myself, before we turn to flowers.  Perhaps you have not painted since you left school and do not know how to begin?  Maybe you feel nervous and unsure of yourself?  If so, please read on, I will not only give you all the help and encouragement I can, stage by stage, but also, I hope, convey something of the enthusiasm and delight I feel when I am painting flowers.  It is a very contagious feeling, so be prepared , you may easily catch it yourself.

To start with, I want you to remember that painting equals pleasure, and painting flowers in particular is pure pleasure.  If by any chance you think you are too old to begin you can immediately forget such an idea, for by my very existence I am proof that it is never too late to start.  From the vey day we leave school most of us drop art and music out of our lives, only to regret it later on.  We continue to expand our knowledge and our skills in many other subjects, but in art - no.  A few go on to discover a lasting pleasure in painting as amateurs, or rewarding careers as professionals, but most of us step out of the world of art and do not know how to step in again.

I know how many of you will feel when you begin, because I have been through it all so comparatively recently.  When first faced with a blank sheet of paper, a brush full of paint in my hand and no idea what to do with it or where to begin, I felt a raising panic, like stage-fright before a first performance.  All those lifelong artists who wield their brushes so easily and competently have long forgotten - or never had - those first-night nerves.  It may be an absurd feeling but it is there for many of us, and prevents us from taking the initial plunge into art.  All you have to remember is that it is merely a mirage arising from the mystique which surrounds painting.  Go back to childhood, play around with paint, get the feel of it again: splash it all over a sheet of brown paper if that is all you have at hand.  Use a large brush or your fingers and watch the colours mix and run and clash together in varying shades.  It is a lovely thing to do and when you have finished you can throw it away and start again.  It is as easy and as painless as that.  The mirage has vanished and you will find that you are enjoying every minute of your painting time, because you can but improve and that is what makes it all worhwhile.  It is also one of the few occupations in which you can indulge that is therapeutic and pleasurable without ruining your purse; it won't annoy your neighbours, take up a lot of room, pollute the atmosphere, destroy mankind, wildlife or the countryside.  You will be entering an absorbing new world which you will see with fresh eyes, and if your family complain that you are spending too much time in it, get them to read this book as well and you can all paint flowers and so turn your home life as well as you holidays into new adventures.

M. BLAMEY, 'Learn to Paint Flowers in Watercolour'

COMPREHENSION AND WRITING

1.-  Say whether these statemets are true or false; if false, give the correct one: 

a)  The author describes her experience as a painter in order to convince the readers that they can also start painting. 

b)  Experience has taught the writer that it is important to start painting at an early age. 

c) Most people go on developing their artistic and musical abilities after school. 

d)  The writer felt nervous and insecure when she first held a brush in her hand. 

e)  In her opinion our attitude when first faced with a blank sheet of paper, a brush and colours should be that of a child. 

f)  Painting is pleasant, even therapeutic, but it is expensive. 

g)  The author thinks painting has an elitistic character and only a few people can really enjoy it.

2.- Reorder the following sentences according to the ideas expressed in the 3rd paragraph:

a)  Paintings is not only therapeutic but also inexpensive.
b)  Famous painters do not remember that initial anxiety.
c)  Your family will perhaps join you in your new passion and not only your home life but even your holidays may change.
d)  Your fright will vanish if you play around with paint, like a child.
e)  I felt frightened when first faced with a blank sheet of paper.
f)  This new activity will make you watch the world with fresh eyes.
g)  I know how you will feel when you start painting because I have gone through the experience not long ago.

Source: Lengua Inglesa I.- Mónica Aragonés González e Isabel Medrano Vicario UNED