Pelicans

I've added a new page to the wiki for you so I'm looking forward to reading your descriptions!

I was in the nearby area (everything is relative, isn't it!) in South Carolina, but the pelicans seem to be doing fine there. It seems that activists have quite a bit of weight and are keeping the waterways protected, and thereby the pelicans, but the industrialists are trying to get more land, more influence, etc.
Now why doesn't The Pelican Brief seem to be such an unrealistic fictional piece???

By the way, did you know that Pelicans regularly suffer from concuscions and often have brain damage? This is because they plunge into the water to grab the fish at such high speeds that each it is a bit like running into a wall, or getting punched in a boxing fight, or being a pro at getting those headballs into the goal.

Hi everybody
Here in Australia time runs very fast, and I`ve almost no time to write an e/mail or to work in my exam book! However, the Australian people are very friendly & helpful, and it`s very easy to start a conversation with them. Then, I`m reading many brochures about the current & past Australian life. So, I think I`m improving a lot! The first week we hired a car and started our trip in Adelaide. We drove into the Barossa Valley & tested the famous Australian wine. Driving along the Great Ocean road was very impressing. Kilometres you can stroll along the white sandy beaches. On the Ocean road you have a spectacular view on the 12 apostels & much more. And there was another surprise: When we drove through a part of a rain forest we observed above many other seldom animals 2 koala bears. Are they not cute? The second week we moved to Tasmania & we met a collegue we haven`t seen for 26 years (since our honeymoon!) Travelling through Tasmania with a 6 m long vehicle (camper) was at the beginning quite a challenge for us, as we both are no camping people. But after a while we enjoyed travelling by camper very much as you can pace very quiet. Tasmania boasts of its big National Parks and the unspoiled rural areas. Two days ago we arrived in Sydney an the contrast to Tasmania couldn`t b higher. In Sydney there is a hustle and bustle in town, but we enjoy our stay very much! After an interesting visit in the famous Opera house we had a pot of luck to get tickets for the ballet performance. That was great! Today we had to relax by summer temperature at the famous Bondi beach. (I`m sorry pictures next time!)
Love from Sydney
Annelise&Mark

My dear classmates


You won't believe it, but there are only two days left of my student's life in Exeter. Discovering and trying to fill my gaps, I've been really busy all the time.

But both, the school and my host family are excellent and so, it's highly motivating to study English. Actually, I'd like to stay even longer ...







I had the possibility to visit a primary school and this was impressive too.
There is a smartboard (incl. beamer) in every classroom.
On the other hand, classes with 30 pupils in average are normal. And as you can see on the picture, the furniture is obiously not of the most modern type.



I hope you're enjoying the mild spring weather too and, of course first of all, your lessons this evening.

Kind regards

Fredy from old England

More CAE practice sites

I'm adding a few more links to the link list, but just so they don't go completely lost, I'll leave them here too.
The first one is called LanguageProject and you do the Use of English exercises with a timer. This is very good practice for coping with the time restraints you have during the CAE. (Also check out the phrase of the day!) Will it help you?! I'm absolutely positive!

Then there is parapal which gives you some help with the Use of English but there is also a link to writing for CAE.

Finally, here is one more with practice for Use of English and Reading

Ahoi

Ahoi to all those of you across the pond or heading that way. We over here are enjoying the first signs of spring - birds chirping under a bright grey sky!

How's the weather way up yonder? Do y'all understand those funny kinda speakings them up there have?

Tell us about it, and remember, a picture is worth a thousand words - and I'm expecting at least 2020 from you! :-)

Oh, and didn't you know, it's April fools day today! So was I kidding up there or not? I'll let you decide.
I do have a film for you, though:

An 888.com presentation

And here is another site with information and, my personal favorite, at the bottom there are several quotes 'What you know about fools'.

St. Patrick's Day

Blimey, the luck o' the Irish is upon us!

The 17th March is St. Patrick's Day, so you'd better wear something green or else you'll get pinched! Do you want to know why we celebrate St. Patrick's Day in the United States? Well, see below (unfortunately, I could't get the video itself on the blog).

Watch the history of St. Patrick's Day here

But, wait, there's more! you can find out a lot of information here.

And once you've read about the history, what all can you remember? Try out the quiz.

(photos from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilja/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/torugatoru/ )

Lucky Jim tasks

Everyone should have finished Lucky Jim by now, so here are a couple of things you can do.

One is to take the twitter challenge. Describe the plot of the story in 144 spaces (NOT letters). You can send them to me and I'll put them on my twitter stream so they can be seen here on the blog, or you can join twitter and give my your name (or become my follower :-) ) This will really get you thinking about what is relevant and what isn't!

Two is to take the Lucky Jim quiz here.
Leave a comment and tell us how you did.

And since all good things come in threes, here's one more.

Three is to write either to a question from another person from class (you can leave them as comments to this post or add a new post), or choose one of the topics from here to respond to.

And since I'm already giving you homework here, choose an English in Use part 1 task and do some practice like in class (since this has been written before the lesson, I'm assuming we'll get that far).

Have fun!

A bad start to an even longer holiday

Seattle skyline from the ferry in the Puget Sound



Well, I tried to get on the plane today, but between fresh snow on the roads and a rule I didn't know about, it looks like I'm going to have to enjoy myself even longer here. Ahhh ;-)

Apparently, I should have taken my Swiss ID with me even though I was told not to, so they aren't letting me out of the country. After the first shock, I decided to go with the flow and join the happy spirit my mother was engaging in.

So you will have a rather jet-lagged lesson on Tuesday. I'll give you the whole story then, but until then, why don't you get back into the swing of things and leave your story of what might have happened to me and how I intend to get back here on the blog.

In the meanwhile, here are a few more pictures for you to enjoy.
This is the view taken from our balcony. This is the house mountain of Seattle - Mount Rainier.

Hi everybody

As I had time to finish the "Lucky Jim"-book (what I found at the beginning very boring and then in the end more interesting!) I could go to the Chrienser & the Lucerne carnival. Lucky Jim's face was wreathed in smiles like this Chrienser witch.




Hopefully, after having passed my terrible flu, next Sunday I'll be able to make my curves into the light powder snow.

Furthermore, I wish Illya a safe flight back to Switzerland!
See you soon
Annelise

Alligators

I missed the White House since we weren't given permission to fly over the area, let alone make a short landing to say hi, but I did manage to get a couple of pictures of alligators. They run around here freely and are protected. Since the winter is only just over, they aren't out much yet, but the temperatures have risen to 20 degrees and so we did manage to see 2!
One was pretty big and the other was just a baby. You have to look for the little one below!

Preview of things to come

Coming soon at a blog near you:

You can expect brilliant close-up photographs of alligators in the swamps of South Carolina
Stunning aerial pictures of the White House and the new President with rolled-up sleeves riding his mower over the lawn
exciting films of ferry rides across the Puget Sound
and touching moments of long lost friends reunited.

Stay tuned!

Are you jealous Mr. Bond?

Article written by Jeannette Schilliger

Are you jealous Mr. Bond?
The legendary James Bond had so many different cars. He could do all kinds of fancy things with his cars, therefore almost everything was possible.
But now Mr. Bond, Mr. James Bond, somebody else has the most fascinating and most wanted car in the world, sorry. The new President of the United States proudly presented his presidential Cadillac with the unbelievable nickname ‘The Beast’ at the inauguration parade.
You’re wondering ‘Cadillac and Beast’- do these expressions really fit? Why is the world interested in a car that doesn’t belong to James Bond ? What is so special about a car, if there are some more important problems to solve in this world?
The car is a secret. Photographers were allowed to take shots only from the outside, which makes it even more interesting to have a look at the interior. The maker of the car doesn’t want to talk about the inside. It’s probably the most secure and the most heavily armoured car that was ever built.
Wouldn’t it be nice to glance at the inside of the car and to see how it looks? I wouldn’t concentrate on security details but all the other wonderful items.
We’re only allowed to guess about the conveniences in the new presidential car. Use your fantasy and imagine what you would want to have in a Cadillac like the President’s. I’m sure there are a lot of ideas out there!

The 56th Presidential Inauguration

Here are some of the links I used in preparing the lesson. You may want to browse or play after the lesson is over:

Helping out with the speech generator
The official site to follow, and learn more about the history of the Presidential Inauguration.

And now for our speech...

(soon to come)

gingerbread fruit cake

dear cake lovers

To have the gingerbread-fruit-cake- feeling once (or even more) again
I involve you in my secret receipe ideas:

The ingredients you need:

200g soft butter or margarine (take it out of the fridge half an hour befor using)
200g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cinammon
1 tablespoon gingerbread spice
100g finley ground hazelnuts, almonds or coconut
250g wholemeal flour
200g frozen plums, berries or fresh apples

do it yourself now...

* put butter and sugar in a bowl and mix well
* add brown sugar and mix
* add eggs and mix
* add cinammon and gingerbread spice and mix
* add hazelnuts/ almonds or coconut and mix
* add wholemeals flour and mix

* prepare a round baking tin (30 cm diameter) and a round baking paper

* put the whole mixture regularly on the round baking tin (with a knife)
* distribute the halfes of frozen plums (cut them once again)/ berries or fresh apple pieces on the mixture (press a little bit or else they get black in the ofen)

* put the cake in the middle of the 180°C hot ofen
* bake during 40 - 50 minutes

* enjoy (but not allone...sharing is allowed)

Further speaking tools

This is been a long string of posts, but I hope you will find something useful in all of it. I decided to split things up so that you can follow the topics better.

As you can see on the side bar, I've illustrated a way to practice speaking with voicethread a nice easy and many-sided tool. If you agree, I can add pictures and tasks for you to practice together.

I also made another place for speaking for the last course. It never got used, so I hope you will find it valuable: Chinswing . Here you can comment on a topic for about a minute or two.

Other tools include simply recording your voice using Audacity , which lets you make recordings and then change them to MP3 or wav format. You can then send it to me via e-mail. A further idea is to use skype and practice the sections where you talk to each other. There is a recording tool attached and you can record and send it.

Well, if you would like to try anything out and want help, let me know. We can devote time in class, since ultimately, it means more speaking practice for you.

IELTS speaking exams

THere are several youtube videos that you will find useful and a site you can sign up for in order to get more information.

Here is the link for an example of the IELTS speaking part 1

This is from a site similar to that of flo-joe for CAE: http://www.ipass.uk.net/
. Like flo-joe, there is a free section and one with more possibilities for pay.


and here is a link with advice on how to take notes for IELTS speaking part 2

and finally a description of IELTS speaking part 3

There is more out there, so if you're interested in seeing more, put IELTS speaking into the search box in YOutube, or if you want some advice on paper, you can google IELTS as well.

Speaking practice - splendid speaking

I promised you quite a lot for your speaking, so I hope I can fulfil my promise here.

First, there are a couple of videos for you.
The first is from the makers of flo-joe. They have a site where you can watch speaking practice: http://www.splendid-speaking.com/

And below is a video showing how it works.

Happy New Year!!!

A very HAPPY 2009 to you all!!!

Christmas caroling

Fredy and I were singing Christmas Carols on Monday with the kids, now here's a Christmas greeting from me.

I hope you all have warm and cheerful days with family and friends.

A very merry Christmas and a great start in the new year!!!

An advice because of Christmas surprise

Hello CAE- mates!

I just wanted to give you an advice for next Tuesday:
It would be better not to eat a lot before lesson 12.
Otherwise there wouldn't be enough space in your stommy for...

° an old Thanksgiving Turkey ?
° a Cappucino from the selecta box ?
° an original flabby Christmas pudding ?
° Jasmins special, healthy fruit-pie with a living cookie tase (receipe from Betty B.)
° big Chocolate Chip cookies ?
° Coca Cola Muffins ?
° a Berner Roesti ?

I will bring with me.

Who will find out first what it is?

Greetings from Betty B.