Sunday, July 18, 2010

Renata - My home


My house, my home…

I have to describe my house, my home. But it is not that simple. Although describing physically my house is easier, it is harder to describe how I feel at home.

So I’m going to start by talking about the house. The outside walls are beige and the gates are dark blue. The inside walls are light pink. My bedroom is light purple and my mother’s bedroom is light blue. My house has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a laundry. Describing that, it seems a big house and indeed it is, but nowadays my home is bigger than it was about ten years ago.

In my bedroom I like my bed and my TV so much, because when I go to bed, it is the only time that I watch TV. I like my pillow too, because in it I can think about many things.

I have been living there since I was born. When I was fifteen years old, I lived with my mother, dad, grandmother and brother. At that time, my parents split up then my dad moved out. As a result, my home started getting bigger. When I was eighteen years old my brother got married and my home got emptier. About three years ago my grandmother died, so in the house remained only my mom and me and my home got really, really big.

I do not like to be alone, so while my mom is working I prefer to stay at USP studying with my friends and doing my research. I want to live there until I get married. So I would like to get married and have a lot of children, because I miss the time that my home was full of people and happiness.

Renata - Travel log


One beautiful trip

I`m going to tell you about one trip that I took in January 2008. I went to Morro de São Paulo, with my boyfriend and my sister-in-law. Morro de São Paulo is an island about two hours from Salvador, so to get there, we took a plane to Salvador and after that, we took a boat to reach the island. We took this boat in front of the “Elevador Lacerda”, a touristic point of Salvador.

We stayed four days on the side of island that has only the small village and some kiosks on the beaches. We had access to four beaches. So besides going to the beach, we took a boat tour to the other side of the island. Before arriving to the other side, we stopped in a natural pool, where there were many different fish. On the other side, we had lunch and after that, we returned by a way that the natives call “salt water river”, where the water is very calm. In this river there is a “stop of oysters”, so for those who like oysters it is the perfect place, the oysters are very fresh because they are taken out of the water at the time.

Another thing that we did was climbing a stairway on the mountain which indicated the theater. At the top of the stairs there were two arrows, right to the theater, left to the beaches. First we went to the theater that looked like an old arena theater. After that, we went to the other side, to the beaches. Remember that we were practically on top of the mountain. We walked through the trees until another staircase to the beach, but at this moment, on the top of the mountain, I had the most beautiful view, the nature, the beaches, the sun…

With so many beautiful things, I couldn´t have missed my home, I missed only my family.
In this trip I learned to appreciate the simple things in life.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Fernanda - A biography


Louis Pasteur 1822 – 1895

Louis Pasteur is famous for the creation of the pasteurization technique but he is also known for the development of vaccines which came from the discovery of microbes as cause of diseases.
Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822, in the small town of Dôlo, France. Interestingly, his great-grandfather worked in the tanning business and part of the tanning process relies on microbes.

In 1843 he entered the École Normale Supérieure. He attended chemistry classes of Jean Baptiste Dumas which aroused his interest in Chemistry. After that, he became Chemistry Professor in Estrasburgo and afterwards in Paris.

Some winemakers and brewers of the region asked him to discover how wine and beer soured. During the investigation using a microscope, he found that yeasts are involved in this process as well as the fermentation and organic decomposition were attributed to microorganisms. Hence he created the pasteurization technique. In 1865, his discover was used by the surgeon Joseph Lister to eliminate microorganisms in wounds and surgical incisions.

In the year of 1871, Pasteur insisted that all physician and military hospitals should adopt the pasteurization technique in the instruments used in medical processes.

After 1879 he used attenuated microorganism to produce vaccines against cholera and rabies.
Pasteur died in December, 28th 1895.

The Pasteur Institute was founded in 1888 by Louis Pasteur and is, nowadays, one of the most important research centers of the world.

Carlos - A biography


José Saramago

José de Souza Saramago, or just José Saramago, was born in a small Portuguese village called Azinhaga, on the province of Ribatejo on November 16th, 1922, and died on June 18th, 2010. His landless peasant family moved to Lisbon, where his father started to work as a policeman when he was just two years and there he lived much of his life. “Saramago”, a plant known as wild radish in English, was incorporated by accident to his name; that was the nickname of his fathers' family.

Although Saramago was a good student, his family couldn't send him to a college, and he graduated in a technical school as a mechanic. Nevertheless, he maintained contact with the books on his night visits to the Municipal Library. Later, he worked as translator and journalist. He married Ilda Reis in 1944. In 1947, at the age of 25, he wrote his first novel, Terra do Pecado (Land of Sin, in a free translation), in the same year his only child, Violante, was born. He had a second wife, the journalist Pilar del Rio, who lived with Saramago from 1988 until his death. But only in 1975, at the age of 53, after the publication of some chronicles and poetry books (and also after some controversies on the period that he worked as assistant editor), he finally started his successful carrier as a novelist.

The first acclaimed book of Saramago was Baltasar and Blimunda (Memorial do Convento, in the original), released on 1982, about a love story that takes place in the Convent of Mafra at the 18th century, using real and fictitious characters. Among the most important books he wrote, besides the above mentioned, there are The year of the death of Ricardo Reis, about one of the many heteronyms of Fernando Pessoa, and the most controversial one, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, in which he reinterprets the New Testament using an human Jesus against an ambitious God.

Saramago was not only a brilliant novelist – he won the Camões Prize in 1995 and the Nobel Prize in 1998, but he was also a very polemic character. He, as an assumed atheist, had public discussions with the Catholic Church, and was censored in his own country – one of the reasons for his moving to Spain. He also militated in the Communist Party for decades, and was accused of Anti-Semitism because of the interpretations of his comments about the Jews in an interview for a Brazilian magazine. But, in the end, he will be mainly remembered, at least for the book lovers, for his major contribuition to the Portuguese Literature, his unique style and his insightful narratives. In the last post of his blog, Saramago gives us a message for reflection:


"I think in today's society we need philosophy.
Philosophy as space, place, method of reflection,
that may not have a goal,
as science, which advances to meet objectives.
We lack reflection, thinking, and it seems to me that, without ideas,
we're going nowhere. "

Monday, July 12, 2010

Flavia - Profile


He’s Wilson. He has two daughters and one son. His married to Renilde and they are very happy.

He studies law and he is a businessman. He gets up at 6:00 am and has breakfast at university. After 7:30am he goes to study. At 11:00am, he goes home. At 5:00pm, he goes to work and 12:00am he goes to bed. He never has holidays, but in his free time he watches tv, goes to the shopping center and does many things more.

Maria José - A BIOGRAPHY


JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

When Elton said that we couldcan choose a biography as a theme for the last composition, I decided to talk about someone I’ve never seen, but I dreamt ofto knowing; someone who has made something different in his/her time. Then, I decided to talk about Jean-Michel Basquiat, because this year we would celebratecommemorated his fiftieth birthdayfifties.

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an African-American painter born in Brooklyn, New York, on December, 22, 1960. His father was an accountant that migrated from Haiti to theThe United States and his mother was a Puerto Rican descendent. At the age of three, Basquiat started drawing cartoons. His career was encouraged by his mother, Mathilde, who took him to New York museums when he was a child. For this reason, at the age of six, his favorite program was to visit The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). When he was eleven, he was fluent in Spanish and French and used to read about Historyhistory, mythology and Symbolist poetry in these languages. These reading reflected in his choicechose of his themes and in the high level of his work. In 1968 Basquiat suffered a car accident and stayed in a hospital during a month. During this period, his mother gave him the book Grey’s Anatomy. This book wouldwill influence his career, because he wouldwill use details of bodies of anatomic pieces in his paintingspainter. In 1977 Basquiat, using the character “SAMO”, started spray-painting graffiti in downtown Manhattan buildings and subway. In 1978, his friends Al Diaz joined to him in graffiti painting and both used “SAMO” signature. These graffiti called attention by their poetical and political themes and by their high quality. Basquiat was unsatisfied by the success of “SAMO” graffiti and decided to stop the project at the end of 1978, declaring that “SAMO IS DEAD” on the SoHo’ walls. At that same time, Basquiat dropped out of school, ranrun away from home and lived as a homeless, selling painting T-shirts and postcards on Manhattan streets to survive. After having quitdropped out the graffiti, he initiated his career as a painterpainting and in 1982 he became part of the Neo-expressionist movement. Basquiat met Andy Warhol in 1982 and became his close friend. Warhol helped Basquiat in his career and both developed some work together until 1985. In 1982, at the age of twenty one, Basquiat had his first exhibition called Anatomy. After this exhibition, he became a very famous artist and his paintings werewas exhibited over the world. He became an icon of the beat bop culture. In 1985 he developed problems with drug abuse and it interfered with his relationship and in his job, but he continued creating more and more. In 1987, with the death of Andy Warhol, Basquiat’s depression increased and on August, 12, he, unexpectedly, died of a drug overdose. Basquiat was a critic artist and in his painting he showedn political themes as genocide, oppression and racism; he rescued his Haitian heritage; he dared subverting classical painting themes as Monalisa. He renewed art concepts, incorporating words in his paintings. Although he had died earlier, Basquiat had becomewas one of most creative and fascinating artist of out time. This composition is my tribute to him.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Patricia - Informal letter

July, 02 2010
Hi Mari, I need your help. As I told you my daughter-in-law spent three months in a host family’s house in Canada to learn English.
The course finished yesterday and in few days she is coming to Brazil with them.
As I’m going to host the family and I want to brush up my English, I think that’s very polite to bring them to see the most important spots in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. First of all, I’d like to bring them to the Terraço Italia restaurant to see the incredible view of the city. Then I d’like to show Paulista Avenue, Ibirapuera Park, and the Ipiranga Museum.
In Rio de Janeiro I want to invite them to make a tour in Rocinha slum because it’s the biggest one in the world, then we can go to the Sugar Loaf, Christ the Redeemer and at the end of the day, we can have dinner at the most famous barbecue restaurant called Porcao.
The next day we can spend all day long at prainha beach where famous actors can sunbathe without being recognized.
Do you know other places worth visiting in Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro?
Please give some tips to make their trip unforgettable
Thank you very much
Pat
xoxo

Patricia - Talking about home

I have known many places in the world and definitely my house is the best one.
You are probably asking why that is so.
Now I’m going to tell you.
At home I can do whatever I want at any time, without asking anybody. For instance, if I want to make a sophisticated dish at midnight nobody will bother me because of that. At my house I make the rules.
I love to invite friends to have dinner in. In fact, my husband loves to invite people more than me. All the desserts served in our parties are made by him.
Another thing that I really love to do is to take care of our house. I know how to organize everything and a friend of mine asked me if I want to work as a personal organizer.
Since I got married in 2007 I have lived in an apartment and enjoyed this experience a lot. My husband has a daughter called Maria Fernada and she lives with us too.
I’m very grateful for having a nice place to live with people that I love.

Andre - Biography

Airton Senna

Airton Senna da Silva was born in March 1960. His father gave a go-kart to his sister as a gift, but because she refused it, he gave it to Airton instead, when he was just 4 years old. He made his debut in official competitions when he was 13 years old. He has won the South-American Go-Kart Championship twice and the Brazilian Go-Kart Championship three times, although he has never won the World Championship neither the Paulista Championship.
In 1981, he started racing in Europe, winning the Formula Ford 1600 championship and the Formula Ford 2000 in the next year. In 1983 he has won the English Formula 3 Championship and because of this, he was invited to race in Formula One, in 1984.
He drove for 10 years, won the championship title three times and had very good numbers to put him as one of the top drivers in the history. He was very skilled when driving in the rain and was considered the “king of Monaco”, where he won 6 times. Unfortunately, he was tragically killed in a car accident during Imola GP in 1994, when he was driving for Williams, one of the best teams that year.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Henrique - A Biography

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was born in a calm neighborhood called Woolsthorpe Manor, in Lincolnshire, England on January, 4th, 1643. Unfortunately, his father died some months before Newton was born. He lived with his grandmother after his mother got marriage again. He was not a good student, so one day, after a fight with a classmate he decided to be the best student in his school. Newton’s mother took him out of school to take care of their farm, but his principal convinced her to let him came back to school. He did not like his stepfather and once he said to his mother: “I will put fire in your house with you and your husband inside it.”
Newton studied at Trinity College of Cambridge and graduated in 1665 but in 1666 the black pest made Newton come back to his mother’s house. However, he studied during this period and developed the Differential Calculus, theories about the light, the law of Universal Gravitation and a new kind of telescope.
He became Mathematics Professor in Cambridge in 1669 and a member of the Royal Society in 1672. Afterwards, from 1687 to 1690, he worked as member of the British parliament. Newton became the principal of the money house in 1701 and president of the Royal Society in 1703.
The Great Three Laws of Newton were published in 1687 in his famous book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. In 1704 he wrote his most important article about optics, called Opticks, about the ideas that he had had since 1670. Newton wrote several articles about philosophy, occultism, alchemy and religion.
In 1705, Queen Anne gave him the title of sir and he was the first scientist to receive it. Some biographers say that his unique love was a woman called Anne Storer, others say that Newton died virgin, although there is not good evidence to support this. In fact, he had an introspective personality, difficult temperament and frequently spent many hours alone, thinking about his theories and building objects. Newton died on March, 20th, 1727. His body is in the famous Westminster Abbey. Alexander Pope, one of his friends, wrote after Newton’s dead: "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night; God said 'Let Newton be' and all was light".

Henrique - A narrative

Beyond the space - time

The year was 1931 and I lived in Fernando de Noronha. I had a small house and a simple life, fishing and sailing. I liked to fish some miles from the island in a place that the kind of fish was the best that I knew. So one day I went to that place and I found an island that I had never seen, so I landed there.
It was a small island, without plants and trees, only dark rocks and a white building. The building had a big golden door and I pushed it open easily. After this, I saw the most wonderful thing in my life.
Inside the building there was only a circular room with a big black box in the middle. This room was very bright because, at the top, there was a sphere emitting something like Northern lights. The wall was full of strange hieroglyphs, so I tried to read them. Most of them showed strange disks flying and people with a non-human appearance. Others showed stars and something like a planet. Along those there were some with buildings and something like a big city. At last there was one showing people touching a box. So I turned around and I saw the black box. Slowly I walked to it and when I was close I put my hands on its surface.
The surface of the box started to oscillate, like when we throw a stone in the water, and then the box got full of stars. After this, some images appeared in my mind. I could see a space ship with aliens inside landing on the Earth and starting a new civilization. But something happened and it disappeared in the sea.
I could understand everything. That space ship hadn’t come from a planet, but it came from a Space between the Spaces. The aliens traveled many Spaces to find a planet where they could start a new civilization called it Atlantis, which in their language was something like “new world“. All the information and their knowledge, this civilization saved in the black box that was a computer. But they discovered that this planet was very unstable, because there were many volcanoes and earthquakes happening here. In fact, a big earthquake destroyed Atlantis, but some of the citizens survived and colonized other parts of the Earth. The box showed that 12500 year after the destruction of Atlantis there would be some earthquakes in all the world, that would damage the surface of the Earth and then a big one would ultimately destroy the planet. It would happen, as the computer appointed, in 81 years in the future. In our calendar, this means in the year of 2012.
After this, I came back to reality and the floor started to shake a lot. So I ran to my boat and went to the sea. The Island went underwater very fast. I was very confused but I wasn’t worried because until 2012 there would be much time to live.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Claudio - Biography

Some words about György Ligeti's life and art



I decided to write these words about György Ligeti's life and art because I like his music very much. I'm such a lover of Ligeti's music that I decided to do a master and a doctorate about his language and probably I'll continue that sort of research in the future.

The Hungarian György Ligeti was, along with important figures like the German Karlheinz Stockhausen and the French Pierre Boulez, one of the most important composers in the European avant-garde that began to emerge in the 60's. Despite his art has been well appreciated in classical music circles, the general public is yet to know his works.

Ligeti was born in 1923 in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania. Since he was a child he studied music and read a lot of literature. Although he didn't listen to modern music when he was a kid, he already used to create new sounds and harmonies in an old piano, which he had in his house.

While he lived in Hungary, he was influenced by the Bartók's style. At that time, his works were very close to the musical language of Béla Bartók and the folk songs of his country. He studied in effect many folk pieces, made transcriptions, and used those materials in his earliest works that have, unfortunately, remained unpublished.

Certainly, his most notable piece was Atmosphères from 1960 and it led him to be famous. He wrote that work as soon as he moved to Austria. After that success, he received numerous awards and distinctions.

Much of Ligeti's work was written using chromatic clusters chords. However, his later music showed an interest in African songs. His language became more consonant and easier to the general public. During the last period of his life he composed almost piano pieces in a new style, very different than the previous one.

He lived until his death in Vienna, the city where he had been wishing so much to live when he inhabited his place of birth.

Fábio - Profile

My brother’s vacations

I will talk about my brother’s Vacation. It’s very simple, because he doesn't do useful things.
He is 17 and he is a student.
On his weekdays, he gets up at ten o’clock, but he goes back to bed at one past ten.
Finally, around two o’clock, he gets up to live the day. He goes to the living room and he watches TV. He doesn’t have a breakfast. Around three o’clock, he has lunch, after lunch he goes back to the living room to carry on his day in the world of television. At 7 o’clock, he goes to shop near my house and he buys some snack for his unhealthy lifestyle. After the snack, he plays computer games a lot, if there isn’t a good movie on TV.
Around eleven o’clock he has dinner. After dinner he goes to the living room again to watch more TV.
He rarely plays football or other sports.
Sometimes he visits his friends or goes out on weekends or it’s like weekdays.

Maristela - News

Fabulous Fabiano: Brazilian fabulous striker guides team to Sixth World Soccer Championship




Luis Fabiano, Brazilian team striker, dedicated the celebration of two goals to his daughter, who recently celebrated a birthday. He was named man of the match because he spectacularly scored one of the most spectacular goals of his career.
“This is our target to win once again but it’s still a long way to get there,” Brazil midfielder Gilberto Silva said enthusiastically in an interview after the match in Johannesburg.
Latelly, Elano scored the other goal in a victory that puts Brazil on the position of six points in Group G, five ahead Ivory Coast and Portugal, which meets last-placed North Korea in Cape Town. Recently, Brazil has beaten North Korea in its opening game on June 15.
Elano was severely hurt by running into Ivory Coast player after he had scored the goal. The referee did nothing about it.
Unfortunately, Brazil ended the game with 10 players after Kaka had received a second yellow card for elbowing substitute Kader Keita with five minutes remaining.
Ivory Coast coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said at interview that the Brazilian team has quality and it was mostly seen as defending very well. Furthermore, he found that our team was difficult to defeat.

Angelina - Biography

Johnny Mathis, an American singer of popular music

I have always loved romantic songs and I have been listening to Johnny Mathis’s songs which enchant my heart. Mathis is such an exceptional singer who has an interpretation that wonders all. He has sold more than 350 million records since 1956 until nowadays.
Mathis was born on September 30th, 1935, in Gilmer, Texas. Although his parents were domestic workers, they were searching for better chances and the family then moved to San Francisco when he was very young
At that time, his father used to work for a time as vaudeville performer and he realized that his son loved too, so he decided to buy a piano to encourage his efforts. He started out singing at elementary school and church events. Then, he studied with Connie Cox for six years learning vocal scales, classical and operatic skills. At George Washington High School, Mathis was well known not only by his singing abilities but also as a top athlete on the basketball team and fields sports.
Afterwards, he was spotted by Helen Noga and given a job as singer on weekends at Ann Dee’s 440 Club where George Avakian, a Columbia’s jazz producer, found him. His first album was a slower selling jazz album, “A New Sound in Popular Song”, but in his second album, the producer preferred him singing romantic ballads. In 1956 Mathis recorded two of his popular songs: “Wonderful, Wonderful” and “It’s not for me to say”. Also, that year he was invited to sing in films.
Although he is frequently described as a romantic singer, his discography includes jazz, soul, blues, country, soft rock and so many others. Mathis recorded over 110 albums and his Merry Christmas album in 1958 made him the third most successful recording artist ever. He received the title “The Voice of Romance” and three Grammy awards.
Mathis continues his career. However, he limited his concert engagements to few appearances for a year since 2000.
I wish I could go to a concert of Johnny Mathis some time because I’m a fan of this fantastic American singer!

Simone - News

Fire destroys snake collection in Brazil


On the last May 15th, a fire destroyed one of the largest world’s snake collection in the laboratory of reptiles of Butantã Institute, São Paulo.
The fire started around 7:30am and it was controlled only one hour after. The building where the reptiles were kept didn’t have anti-fire system or fire hydrant. Then, either a short-circuit or an electrical overload were two suggested hypotheses to be the probable cause of the fire. In fact, the fire was a lamentable incident because the maintenance of grid was being done frequently, and the last one had just been performed some hours before the fire started.
Although nobody was hurt, the fire destroyed a collection that had been started 120 years ago and which had about 85 thousand snakes and 450 thousand arachnids (including spiders and scorpions). There were many species not described by the science yet and others rare or extinct ones.
According to fire-fighters, the temperature reached about 1200C and the fire spread quickly because the species were preserved in glasses containing alcoholic and formalin solutions. Immediately after the fire was controlled, all the live animals were removed and taken to a safe place.
“Unfortunately, it is an irreplaceable heritage to our country” said one of the Institute’s researchers.
While the fire causes are being clarified a new project of recuperation of reptile’s laboratory is being prepared.

Maria José - U1 - Trave log: A TRIP TO MOZAMBIQUE

Ten years ago I went to Mozambique to visit my friend Mazula and his family. We had been introduced by my friend Nélia and then he became my close friend. We spent a lot of time talking about Africa and Brazil histories and we’ve found some close relationship between Mozambique and Bahia costumes. I’ve really learnt a lot from him.
He did his PhD at USP and when he finished it he went back to Mozambique.
Before going back there, he invited us, Nélia and me, to visit his country. We promised to visit him and I started planning the trip. I was very happy, because I had dreamt of knowing Africa, as many afrodescents dream.
I started looking for information about documents (visa), vaccines, currency… But I’ve found information about the country, too. I’ve researched about religion (it’s very important, because we should wear adequate clothes when we’re abroad), languages, food, health service, tourist places
Unfortunately, Nélia gave up the trip. If I intended to visit my friend I would have to go alone. I was afraid, but I decided to go ahead with my trip plans. In February I took an overnight flight to Johannesburg and then, another to Maputo, capital of Mozambique. Mazula was waiting for me at the airport and I felt a relief when I saw him.
In Maputo, during the day, I visited the downtown, The Municipal Supermarket, the University and at night I went to restaurants for some traditional food and clubs or met Mazula’s family and friends. I’ve bought beautiful handicrafts.
I managed to walk alone few times, because they were afraid about my security, but I didn’t have problem anywhere. Mozambique people were always friendly. They have Portuguese accent and enjoyed listening to my accent. They like our soap opera and are Roberto Carlos fans. Could you imagine this situation to me?
After Maputo I went to Xai-Xai, a district that has the beautiful beach of Bilene. There I saw the Pacific Ocean I felt an unspeakable emotion. At the other side of the ocean there was India…
Everything was perfect, but I didn’t have a friend to talk to about that amazing experience. So, I sent a lot of postcards to my friends and I could share a little of my happiness. At night I remembered my family and I missed them. I phoned my home, but it was very expensive.
Two weeks later, I went back home, but I’ve changed a lot during those fifteen days. That trip was unforgettable. I love Mozambique!

Fabio - B1 - email to a friend

Hi!

How are you? I’m fine.

I study English at IME Jr. I’m in a class with ten or eleven students, most of the students are from São Paulo city, like me, some people are from other states. My teacher’s name’s Elton. I am getting to know them better each day, they’re good and very nice people.

I live with three friends of my undergraduate course, physics, in a small house near the university in the west area. They’re very nice and we help each other before the tests. Last year I lived with my family in the east area, but it is very far and it took me many hours traveling in the bus and subway. It was very tiring. My family is my father, my mother, and two brothers. My father is a teacher and my mother is a social assistant, my brothers are students like me.

I have always lived in São Paulo city. It is a good place, with its problems like a traffic problems and criminality and its virtues like things that I don’t remember now, but I like this city anyway. I go to some rock bars like Kazebre or Manifesto sometimes, it is very nice to see concerts and go out with my friends.

See you.