Students' voice!

Amanda - Review on a movie

2011-12-14T18:34:00.000-08:00

O Palhaço

The movie O Palhaço has been on in the cinemas since October 28^thbut one million people have already watched it. This movie was written, directed and acted by Selton Mello, a wonderful artist.

The movie is a comic drama: it’s a story about a clown (interpreted by Selton Mello) in crisis. The clown – he is called Benjamim – isn’t convinced about his career and then he goes after this conviction experimenting other situations outside the circus. It’s a funny and sensible film at the same time because it’s made of hilarious situations that involve the troupe in and out the scene.

Before Benjamim goes to the big city (to seek his identity), he knows a girl, has dinner at Mayor’s house, is almost arrested and comes on the scene until a day he doesn’t act like he always did. This day is the fateful point for that to Benjamim leaves the circus and goes after his identity metaphorical and literally.

Benjamim gets his identity card and finds a job in the big city. He works during some days and concludes that his happiness is really in the circus, that he loves being a clown. Despite this existential crisis, the movie is light and it isn’t pedantic. The scenes are very beautiful and the actors act beautifully.

O Palhaço is a movie for people to smile and get emotional too. I liked it very much because it’s an amazing story. I started to see the life differently because the movie shows that simple things of life (like a smile) are very important too.

Carlos, André and Leandro - Chain Short Story

2011-12-14T18:21:00.000-08:00

Title - Wills over Wheels

Stuart Reynolds was really worried that day. He couldn't stand another month unemployed. But these times have been hard for everybody, not just him. “There will be a thousand other people in this interview. Everybody wants this job. Any job. Damned crisis!”

One more time, the breakfast was very poor, just a cup of black coffee and two pieces of toast, but he barely noticed. He was reading the mortgage letter that had arrived the day before, while he was doing nothing, as usual. Sometimes, he found out in the last weeks, it was difficult to deal with time. People want more time to live, but there's a certain limit. After this limit, you start to face yourself, and you start to question the meaning of everything. This morning he dared to open it, after hours staring at it. “Even though I sell everything that I have, I'll be just postponing my eviction. Maybe for a month or two.”

Finally, the time to get out for the interview came. He went out, astonished by the fact that the idea of selling everything was not bothering him. After all, he wanted to start from the beginning again. A new life for a new man. That was his dream.

That job would be a new chance, another attempt to do his best and forget the mistakes that had put him in this situation. However, Stuart was very tired and a little hopeless. The last twenty interviews he had made were absolutely discouraging: lots of people, very few vacancies, a whole day lost and… nothing, not even a call. “Well, keep trying Stuart, if you stop the ship it will sink faster!” he said to himself.
When he got out the house, he noticed a strange man on the sidewalk. Despite the sun, he was wearing a black overcoat, and his fedora hat and the sunglasses didn’t let Stuart see his face. He was smoking a cigarette very quietly in front of a black car with very dark tainted windows As Stuart was getting close, the man said:
- Good morning, Mr. Reynolds!
- Good morning, Mr. … sorry, do we know each other?
- Maybe... I am an old friend of your father’s. We used to work together.
- Oh, really? What’s your name?
- Do you have a minute to talk?
- Sorry, your name is...?
- Ok. It’s simple. One question, one answer.
- Look, you don’t want to talk, me neither . I have an interview and can’t wait h...
- Mr. Reynolds, do you want some money?
- What?
- Don’t you get it? Money? Easy job, clean money?
- What the hell...? But, who are you, what money?
- No questions now! Just yes or no.
- I can’t wait anymore! Sorry, I must go!
- Ohh, go on! Try another one! You are a big hard head, Mr. Reynolds. We both know that this interview will fail, like the others! Come on, face it! You are in a hole, going down and down! And I saw your eviction letter Mr. Reynolds, I saw it... Your father would be very disappointed! Look at what you’ve done with his property!
Those words made Stuart stop walking, and many things start to come to his mind. “Who is this man? How does he know about my life? And my father?... Yes, I need money, but what kind of proposal is that? A man just came here and offers me a job?”
Despite this doubts and feelings, Stuart was very upset about his problems. If he waits one more month, his life will be in a situation that he couldn't even imagine to be. He wanted to try another way. “The man got to my weak point, I don’t know how to solve that...That’s enough! It shouldn’t be so hard”, Stuart thought.
- Yes or no, Mr. Reynolds?
-.... Yes, but what kind of job is that?
- Get into the car. My boss will explain to you.

Stuart felt a chill on his spine, but what else could he do? Whatever he started to think about, it always ends with a simple thought: “I need money”. His life could be in danger by accepting to enter that car with those men, but no one could guarantee he’d be safe if he refused the invitation

- What if I refu…

- You won’t refuse it Mr. Reynolds and we both know it!

- Ok, ok, I’m going with you. I don’t know who you are nor why you’re here but I guess I have no choice.

- Good, please enter the car now. You won’t regret it.

As soon as the engine starts, Stuart begins to ask questions but the mysterious man just ignores him until he feels bothered by one of the questions.

- Who is your boss?

- Ok Mr. Reynolds, I see you didn’t get it. I’ll answer you this one for once and then I hope you’ll just keep your mouth shut until we reach our destination. See this car? See these men? Are they talking to you?

Those words seemed nonsense for Stuart. Suddenly the man turns his head to one of his crew:

- Hey, you, say hi to Mr. Reynolds.

- Hi there Mr. Reynolds. We are glad that you have accepted…

- That’s enough, thanks. I think Mr. Reynolds had his question properly answered.

…

The car stopped after two hours. Stuart couldn’t recognize the place because he felt kinda dizzy. There were some guys dressed with jumpsuits as professional race drivers and doing some physical training. Some of them were wearing helmets and some weren’t. Stuart saw one of the guys falling on the ground and quickly recovering his pace to keep up with the others. They seemed determined to accomplish their tasks. He was taken inside an old warehouse. It was dark inside there and the mysterious man finally started talking:

- Lights on, guys.

The place could now be seen, but it was not very understandable for Stuart. He could see some forklifts painted like they were stock cars. None of them were like normal forklifts. They were completely overhauled. Inside the warehouse he could see a complete racetrack.

- Mr. Reynolds, we have been watching you and we know you have some skills we might find useful. You might never have heard about what the hell we are supposed to do here because it’s been kept as a secret for ages. You might’ve already heard about some “accidents” inside local supermarkets, but the press never releases the full story because we have some people inside working for us to prevent this from happening. What we run here is an illegal Forklift Racing League, the next step in motorsports.

- Are you mad? What I'm supposed to do here?

- Wait and see.

They walked through the pit lane, climbed two flights of stairs, and got into a room. There they found a bald old man sitting on an upholstered chair behind a hardwood table. Lots of racing souvenirs were scattered around the room.

- Nice to meet you, Mr. Reynolds. I've been waiting for you.

- I wonder if you are supposed to explain me what the hell is going on here.

- Of course I will.

The old man nodded to the man on Stuart's side, and the man left the room.

- My name is Joseph Battista, and now you're my employee.

- I don't think so! Those gorillas went to my house and...

- Did they put you in the car against your will?

- No, but I didn't know...

- There you reached your no return point.

The strength and the confidence in Battista's voice scared Stuart.

– Your father worked for me for twenty-five years. And I know his talent is running through your veins.

– This can't be true. Now I see! You got the wrong guy. My father was just a janitor!

– That is what you were supposed to know. But he was, in fact, the best racing driver I've ever known. With his talent, I ruled the underground racings for almost two decades. He was also my best friend... And now, after mourning for ten years, I feel I have to regain my throne.

– So I guess I'll drive one of those machines.

– That's it.

“My father, a racing driver? I can't believe it.”

…

He accepted the proposal without further questioning. After all, the whole situation was much more comfortable than he had speculated during the long trip to this place. “Speculating about this job during the trip made me think I had to do something harder. Kill a man. Deliver a package in a dangerous place. But this... this is gonna be a piece of cake. And it doesn't look like I'm able to escape from here. After all, I have no idea where I am. This desert is hot as hell... I guess we are in New Mexico”.

…

It was still 4:30 AM when Stuart fell from his bed due to the noisy sound that kicked his dreams away. “A gong? What the hell!” thought Stuart. He was still dizzy when a young freckled boy busted in his room and threw some clothes on him:

- “C’mon your lazy bitc… O-H M-Y G-O-D!!! It’s true! He is here! I told them it was him! Mommy, momm…” And suddenly he ran away.

Stuart took the clothes out from his face and got dressed quickly. When he looked on the mirror, he was using an old blue janitor suit. On its back, it was written “JAN” and the number 77.

- This was yours father’s suit. We used to call him “Jan” and he added “Jan, the man who jams with all the girls”. So he was known before he “jammed” with the right chick… And that’s how you join this story and your father turned into a helluva driver. It’s incredible what true love can do…

- You mean my mother? You know her too?

- Sure! She was one of our cheerleaders! But don’t worry, she was not a “slut”, her only passion was dance, your father and you. She quit our company when you were born. But your father had all of this running inside his veins and he couldn’t quit in time…

- I see… I suppose he died because some sort of accident.

- No! He died from a hot-dog he saved for later!

- !?

Mr. Battista started crying.

- Poor guy… I told him I’d make a fresh one after the race, but…

- You killed my father by giving him a rotten hot-dog?

Mr. Battista started crying harder.

- It was not his fault! He was crazy for hot-dogs and he couldn’t stand any food waste… He asked my wife to make him a hot-dog because he was hungry… But she was sick and it took her longer to finish. The race was about to start and he didn’t have time to eat and asked me to keep it for later. It was a long race and the heat was very intense, the hot-dog couldn’t survive. I told him I’d make a fresh one myself but he took it from my bag saying “YOU SHALL NOT PASS” and put it on his mouth. After he finished, he said it was the best he had ever tried and started a speech about how we need to avoid food waste… but then he…

Stuart felt bad for Mr. Battista. Surely he had proven to be not a bad guy. All that talk about his father had grown more courage on him to accept the fate that he was the chosen one.

…

Mr. Battista took Stuart to the pit lane… A lot of drivers were getting inside the forklifts, but none of them were moving to the racetrack.

- Ok Mr. Battista… I’m so excited to test my skills.

- Test? We don’t have time for this, It’s the last race on the season and we need you to win so we’ll be the champions once again.

- No kidding!

- There’s the 1 minute flag… You better race it like your father… good luck son!

Mr. Battista ran away to the pit lane with the rest of the crew and Stuart grabbed the wheel for the first time… He was still surprised by the fact that 2 hours before he was sleeping and now he is driving forklifts illegally.

- LET’S JAM THIS ONE, GUYS!

The red lights turned on… and then the green and Stuart smashed his foot on the gas pedal like he knew what he was doing. He was starting on the last place and there were 25 other racers. The hoar of the engines were so loud that they couldn’t notice a distant sound that was approaching… It was like some kind of “police siren”

Stuart couldn’t ever imagine that one day he would be in a forklift race. And his dad had covered this for his whole life..“How come?” - he thought. But there was no time to think and wonder about the past. He must win and he doesn’t know exactly what would happen if he didn’t..

The first laps were a true revelation for Stuart. He felt it wasn’t so difficult and it seemed he got the perfect timing for changing gears, brake and accelerate without losing the speed, what gave him a good position, leaving many opponents behind. Course, he used to drive his old car very well some years ago, but he’d never tried something like that. He felt that he really knew how to do it.

The track wasn’t a simple one, with many obstacles - boxes, tires and some shelves left on the way, like a real warehouse. Several racers crashed into those obstacles, which caused many accidents and a huge damage to their forklifts. Stuart became a bit scared when realized his life could be in danger . But these accidents allowed him to gain good positions in a few laps.

During the race, that distant sound became louder, but the racers still couldn’t hear because of the noise of their cars. Unfortunately, it was the police siren that had just arrived. Inside the warehouse a red flashing light was turned on meaning that the race would finish in a very short time due to the cops outside. But Stuart didn’t know this security protocol and continue doing his best. “It should be nothing, keep going!” – he thought.

The Forklift Racing League is considered an illegal one because it involves lots of dirty money. The big megastore companies sponsor this kind of motorsport as a dispute for monopoly concessions in some regions of the USA. Furthermore, several millionaires make their bets and the race becomes a kind of gamble game. The police are always searching where this racing happens, as an attempt to get the leaders, but they never get them.

Mr. Battista was ready to run away with his fellows while the police was trying to unlock the warehouse’s big door. It wasn’t the first time that the police discovered the place and it wouldn’t be the last. The alert for the cops modify the racer’s behavior: some became more aggressive, others, unfocused . They must win and escape from the cops .

Finally, in the final lap, the police got into the warehouse and with their cars started to pursue the racers. Stuart was in the second position and only noticed something strange when he saw the first position racer giving up and running outside the track. When Stuart was very close to the end, he saw the police waiting for him.

- Yeah, fellow! You’re the winner. Now leave this vehicle and put your hands up!

- But, what have I done?? I was just driving!

- Shut up and freeze! – they said pointing their guns at Stuart

- Ok ok!

Then, Stuart was arrested and had no choice but to explain the facts. At this time, he was thinking: “Ok, I have no money, no job and I’m in jail! Very well, that’s my prize”. But he wasn’t feeling frustrated. That day he discovered his father’s history, and discovered himself. “I would do this again, if I get out of here one day”. While he was thinking about this special day, he fell asleep.

By the morning, he woke up with a voice saying:

- Mr. Reynolds!! Get up Mr. Reynolds! Do you want to live here? You are free! Go away!

- What?

- Yes, someone has paid your fine.

- But who?

- We don’t know. We just receive the money.

-----Three weeks later…

“6:00pm, it’s time to go home! Another workday complete“, Stuart thought. Since he got a small job in a local supermarket his life became a little bit steady. His financial problem hasn’t been solved yet, but it’s better than nothing. Without this money, he would be lost. The only problem that still upset him was his mortgage.

On the way home, Stuart remembered the experience with the forklifts. He really loved the felling of speed and danger. “I would try again, I swear! If it was a legal one, I would…”

Near the corner of his house, he felt a car was following him. He looked back, but that raining night and the shadows of the trees didn’t allow him to identify the car. When he turned the corner, a man with a black overcoat and a big umbrella seemed to be waiting for him.

- Mr. Reynolds!

- Who are you?

- We really like your job.

- What job?

- C’mom, don’t be stupid ! You know…

- Wait, are you talking about…

- Yeah…the League! And…sorry for the cops, it rarely happens. Lucky day yours!

- Course, I’m on a roll… And you said ‘easy money’, but I am still waiting for this money…

- Sorry, we had to pay a big police bribe for your freedom.

- Ok, what can I do …?

- Whatever. Now we have a proposal.

- Another?

- Yeah, five thousand at the beginning, and more each race you run. Mr. Reynolds, do you want to join our team?

- …

Next day, Stuart arrived late at his job. He said to his boss that he got sick because of the raining night before and couldn’t sleep the whole night. But there was a strong smell of gasoline in his clothes that he couldn’t explain…

Fabiana - My favorite room

2011-12-14T05:42:00.000-08:00

The room in my house where I cook and eat is my kitchen. Perhaps the kitchen is the most important room in many houses, but in my house, the most important room is my bedroom, because it’s the place where I spend most of my time doing daily activities.

My favorite things are there: computer, books, TV, CD player, wardrobe with my purple clothes. I love purple, it’s a beautiful color! I have many purple things, like my curtain, the sheets and pillows of my bed, my wall and my chair. It’s fantastic! I have so many happy memories of times I spend here: When my friends visit me, we watch movies and TV series, play cards and use the computer to see funny videos.

Sometimes my best friend sleeps and we make a mess in my bedroom: eat chocolate, drink juice, talk about our boyfriends and we gossip about everything. It’s fun! I have studied a lot here, I spend hours sitting at my desk, reading and writing about subjects of university. My room is the most comfortable place in my house. I love to sleep in my bed and rest. Undoubtedly, some of the happiest times of my life have been spent in my bedroom.

Flavia - The future

2011-12-06T14:27:00.000-08:00

What does the future hold for me?

Hello everyone!

My name is Flávia and I'm 31 years old. Next year I'll finish my master degree in Atmospheric Science and at the moment I don't know if I will keep studying, which means, trying a Ph.D. What does the future hold for me? Well, I know and at the same time I don't know. Perhaps it seems a little confusing, so I'd like to share my idea about this with you.

I believe there are something we can choose and other ones we can't choose. We can choose what to study, what to wear, our career and other things, this is under our control. But there are things that aren't within our control and we don't know how it'll be, it is our fate.

I chose to be a physicist and at the moment I'm specializing in Atmospheric Science, and I want to understand about nature, how it behaves and so on. I hope to work in this and to be an excellent professional and well recognized. However, at the moment I don't know where and when I'll get this, but I hope it's a great place to work.

I also hope to make some money working, because I want to rebuild my house, buy furniture and appliances, this is because I'll get married soon. I also would like to support my family with all its needs, to care for abandoned animals, and... I have many, many plans for the future, so summarizing, in the future, I hope to be successful in my career, to be healthy to do all my plans and to be able to enjoy life with my family.

Junior - Pros and Cons

2011-12-02T06:27:00.000-08:00

Having a university degree

Most of the young people have the wish to enter College. However, they don't know what the world will expect of them with or without university degree.

First of all, having a university degree is much more than having a well-paid job or being intellectual. You must want to change everyday your little world, use what you learned for this. Many kinds of Graduate Student Oath refer “...execute the job with honesty and dignity, respecting your professional code and justice...”. By the way, this is the most important beyond gaining status or being recognized by people.

University life has many disadvantages, mainly it comes to liability, because there your parents don't help you anymore. In college, it seems that universe conspires against you. Having a social life is very improbable, professors ask a lot of homework, projects and tests, you have to manage your free time (if possible).

One huge advantage is that you can live several types of experiences. Try the ability of time management, meeting different people, learning new things etc. Another interesting point is that the student won't have a limit. It's possible to succeed in an academic career as grad student. Despite all bad things above mentioned, in my opinion, having a university degree is wonderful because by being somebody much better, you could live a bit better and build a bit better world.

In conclusion, to get a university degree is to try to improve as human being both intellectually and personally. We have to understand that entering a place where thoughts are wherever you lookis an opportunity for changing your thinking and making the difference in whatever you do.

Patricia - Pros and Cons

2011-11-30T15:17:00.000-08:00

Having a university degree: pros and cons.

One of the most important questions after high school is: “Should I go to college?” The answer depends on many different factors, but in most cases the answer is: “Yes, I need to go to college”.

Nowadays there are many jobs that require a college degree, especially in the medical and engineering fields. Certainly having a degree is important, but just having a college degree doesn’t guarantee you a good job. In fact, there are many graduated people who are unemployed.

In my opinion, having a college degree is important because more options are opened up to you in the job market. You will have a better chance to make money and, in addition, college helps to create a well-rounded person with better social and academic skills.

Some of the cons I can mention are that the college fee is very expensive, you also don’t have the chance to earn money right after coming out of high school, you are constantly exposed to a highly competitive atmosphere, you are always exposed to high stress, you are not able to eat correctly and you don't get too much sleep.

Finally, when deciding if college education is required or not, the student must weigh up all the pros and cons as well as other more personal reasons. Going to the university allows a student not only to become an expert in the chosen field, but also to become a conscious and political citizen, a person who really thinks and acts ethically.

Flavia - Complaint letter

2011-11-20T08:02:00.000-08:00

Dear Virgulino, good morning!

First I would like to thank all the help, and communicate you that I arrived from Brazil today and I'm anxious to begin my study here in Australia.

However, I would like to inform you also that the house you rented me isn't in the conditions that we had agreed. There are problems in every room of the house. Well, I'll start detailing the problem on the bathroom: there isn't a shower, there is only a pipe through which the water comes.Also, there isn't a toilet seat, there is only a hole in the ground. In the bedroom, there isn't furniture and there is such a little bed. I won't talk about the living room, where is the living room? It doesn't exist! Now I'll speak of the kitchen: like the bedroom, there isn't furniture, there aren't forks and dishes.

As you can see, it is difficult to live here this way. How can we solve this?, because I already paid for being here, but not in these conditions.

Well, I’m waiting for your position about my problem (or your problem).

Thank you!

Flávia

Bruno - Biography

2011-11-06T16:44:00.000-08:00

A Modern Archimedes

by Bruno

September 25, 2011

Are the good students crazy?

This month an unknown student discovered a new method for development in engineering, and after discovering it he had he had a peculiar celebration, he started to shout "Eureka, Eureka...", then he stripped off and after taking off all his clothes and he started to run by the Polytechnic Institute at University of Sao Paulo. However, people were afraid then they called the Police. Our guy, blind of happiness by his discovery, took his bicycle and fled.

Evidences show that the crazy man went to the beach, maybe he is in a nudist beach. One of evidences are photos taken by the cameras on the highways that link the capital to the coast. Witnesses saw that he tried to steal one parked motorcycle, before he got naked. Fortunately, he could not get (remove the got) the vehicle started and chose a bicycle of one friend. Many other things occurred, but, due to shame, the witnesses didn't tell us how Anderson continued his celebration.

Coincidences with the past?

Maybe one of the most intelligent men of all times is Archimedes, the legend tells that in his city, around 250 BC, the King of Siracusa asked for Archimedes, who was the kingdom's scientist, for him to solve a little problem, that was: the King had ordered a crown for a blacksmith. After some time he brought it, but surprisingly it didn't have the same weight as the original material provided (gold). The genius of Archimedes, in front of the problem, took a long time, he didn't take a bath, but one day, after his servants forced him to take a bath, in the bathtub he noticed one of the fundamental laws of nature, that the volume of a fluid displaced the mass of the object, this correspondence between the volume and the mass (the density) could be used to blame the blacksmith. The legend tells us that after his discovery he ran by the streets screaming: "Eureka, Eureka...", that means "I found it , I found it..."... coincidence?

Keilla - Complaint letter

2011-10-25T14:42:00.001-07:00

200 Flinders Street

MELBOURNE VIC 3000

October 30th, 2011

Dear Sir Barriga,

I really need your help with this.

I’m a student from Brazil. I’ve come to Australia for an exchange programme and I’ve lived in your rented house. However, I’ve had some problems. I can’t even open the taps because the plumbs are rusty, so I’ve gotten some water from the neighborhood. The chairs in the kitchen are uneven, and then I’ve patched some wooden boxes to sit on. And the carpet in the living room is ragged. It’s been very ugly to welcome visits.

If these repairs very difficult to do, I´ll suggest you fix the plumbs at least. It’s the most urgent because I haven’t taken a shower and made any food. And you can repair the other things as soon as possible according to the contract that I’ve signed.

I don’t wish to go elsewhere and hope that a solution can be found.

I expect a reply soon and I will appreciate your help. Please contact me at the above address or by phone 7010-1111.

Yours sincerely,

Keilla

Glauber - Complaint letter

2011-10-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

Gláuber Wampo

Rua Prestes Silva, 1242.

02332-003

Dear Fulaneto,

I am a little upset with you because I’ve worked hard every day. Yet, you don’t give me my money.

I know that you have always paid me on time. I think that you have some problems that's you haven't paid me yet. However, I need the money. I have to pay the rent and my mother is hospitalized and the hospital is very expensive.

So I ask you to pay my salary today. Sorry about being as forward as that. I can’t stand doing it, but I am really in need. I really expect that you are not upset with me.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Camponogara.

Fabiana - Complaint letter

2011-10-25T12:23:00.001-07:00

Second Composition

Mr. Wilson,

I am writing this letter to express my dissatisfaction about the salary delay. In the first place, it isn’t correct to delay the salary of people that are working for you. People need to receive their payment at the end of the month. Nobody works for free in this life.

Day in day out, I have always done my work rightly: deliver activities on time, I´m never late, I do a good work and everyone in the company likes my job including you, so I don’t understand the reasons that caused this terrible situation.

Nowadays, my family needs my financial help to live. My salary is used to pay all the bills of the month. I have a little sister and I pay her school, buy clothes, toys, dolls, food, medicine, etc. She really needs me. You have a family too, and probably your salary is used for the benefit of them, so I hope that you understand my words.

I apologize if I was rude in this letter, but I am very worried. I believe that in life, we must do our best for people, and unfortunately you didn’t act this way. I wish you paid my salary as soon. My life is driven by honesty and I hope yours too.

Kind regards,

Fabiana

Pricila - Complaint letter

2011-10-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

São Paulo , October 05.

Mrs. Brian Evans

I'm writing to inform you about a very strange situation. It has been already twenty days that I haven’t been paid. At first, I thought it was a mistake but after I observed that many employees hadn’t been paid too!! The employees of this factory chose me to represent them, and try to solve this problem!!

I know the factory is going through financial difficulty, but we need to pay the bills of our homes. Nobody was informed about the late payment and it is very serious!! We are ready to make a deal, and looking for a good solution for both parties!! If you don't pronounce about it, we will be obliged to go on strike!! I hope it will not be necessary and that all will be resolved peacefully.

Respectfully yours,

Pricila Barbosa

Patricia - Complaint letter

2011-10-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

1524, Prof. Lineu Prestes Avenue

Butantã - São Paulo/SP - Brazil
Postcode: 05508-900

Phone: 555-3850

28 September 2011

Mr. Thomas Gray

The Administrative Officer
Alpha Enterprises
343, Alvarenga Avenue
Butantã - São Paulo/SP - Brazil
Postcode: 05578-900

Dear Mr. Thomas

I am writing to inform you of my dissatisfaction with the delayed payment of the employees this month. Every month the payment is made on the 5^thday, but this month there was a big delay that affected our bank accounts. This error put me in a difficult position, I particularly got into debt and I felt very embarrassed because I wasn´t able to fulfill my commitments.

To resolve this problem I would appreciate you could make the current payment with an additional sum, in order to correct my bank situation. I also suggest that the payment could be made through bank transfers instead of receiving cash at the department.

I'm afraid that if these conditions are not met, I may be forced to take legal action to receive the total amount of money with interest rates.

I look forward to your reply soon with a good explanation and proposal. I didn’t want things to be like that, but I have to demand my rights. Please contact me at the above address or by phone.

Yours sincerely,

Patrícia E. (Sales manager)

Rafael - Inventions

2011-10-05T03:56:00.000-07:00

Biribol... What is it?

Biribol is a water sport similar to volleyball but played in a swimming pool. It was invented in the city of Birigui -that´s why the name is Biribol- by the teacher and undertaker Dario Miguel Pedro. Around 1950, Dario met with friends on weekends and looked for a way to have fun. Then he had the idea of to use the swimming pool of his house with two friends, and with a ball they started to play imagining a line that divided the swimming pool. With time the sport developed. And in 1968 the game was created with rules, official measures of the swimming pool and, of course, volleyball net. There are four players on each side.

This sport is very good for our health because it helps in our fitness and in keeping us fit. Moreover, it is very good for having fun in a hot summer day. However, Biribol is not very practiced in the winter unless in a heated swimming pool.

So, Biribol is an authentic Brazilian sport and nowadays there are some competitions around the state of São Paulo. Who knows one day Biribol can be in the Olympic Games?

Danielle - Biography

2011-09-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

Francis Galton: Short biography of his last years

Francis Galton was a member of the Royal Society family and since his youth he was considered a prodigy child. In his family there were many scientists, among them Charles Darwin, who was his cousin.

Galton was a scientist of the XIX century that wrote more than 340 paper and several books. His studies were relevant for several scientific areas, such as meteorology, geography and statistic. However he devoted the last years of his life to eugeny, which contributed to the knowledge of human genetic years later.

Eugeny was one of the first studies that allowed to understand the physical and intellectual variability of human species. That theory is connected with the heredity, because the human features are shared by related, mainly parents and children and siblings. Heredity is essential for genetics fundaments.

In spite of the areas that Galton worked, the eugeny was really relevant for Genetics, which is based in the phenotype and genotype association. Therefore, knowing the variability of human characteristics, as described by Galton, could induce the geneticist to study the chromosomal variability. Then Galton was and is very important to science.

I chose to write about Galton because he was a great scientist and brought important contributions to genetics, making evident the biological variability. Genetic has allowed us to identify the cause of different diseases as well as several species that were morphologically classified as one unique species previously.

Anderson - Biography

2011-09-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

Bruno C. Mota, or how to make a smart kid?

What is a star made of? What is the distance of the moon from Earth?... those types of questions were made by a little Luiza every night before going to bed, looking through the window. I want to marry an astronaut to go to Mars, she was used to say. Nice times... little Luiza became Lula, she went to the university and obviously, as it always happens, she never studied to answer the questions she used to ask when she was a child; sky was not the most important stuff on her life. By that time, questions like boyfriends and those kinds of relationships were the most important thing on her life, that is why she decided to make an experiment to date her nerd classmate, Paulo.

Paulo grew up in a normal family, with parents and siblings, he was always a smart guy and of course at the university, he was not going to change, he was still the smartest guy in class.

Lula and Paulo became boy and girlfriend for a while, until a really awful accident happened, Luiza was waiting for a paulinho... “Oh my god! how am I going to tell to Paulo?” was her question after knowing that she was pregnant... at the end, she wrote a note to Paulo, saying “I have something important to say to you, come to my house tonight.” When Paulo arrived, he noticed it was all dark; but when he opened the door he saw the faint light of the candles and Lula sat on the table with food around her. “Baby, something happened after that night we spent together, after the party of the university, I am not the same after that, I mean one plus one now is three, do you get it?” said Lula, and Paulo answers “we must to get married, we are on the 80’s and at this times people get married after that kind of accidents, we are not going to be the exception.”

Finally, on July 27th, 1983, in São Paulo, Brazil, little Bruno was born; a 6.5-pound baby with brown eyes and hair. His parents were very happy to have him in their lives. Since his first years, Bruno was really bright and alert, he was a quick learner, everything seemed so easy for him that his parents always felt proud. He began to grow and the questions about space became more and more making crazy his parents who didn’t fully understand anything about the sky, stars, planets. Lula and Paulo as really smart people decided to answer all their son’s questions by buying books and toys about astronomy including spaceships, astronauts figures and also an amateur telescope, which at the end became his best friend at nights.

As any different kid decided to study something that people use to say that is boring, Physics, and it was not enough, he continued with a master degree on Astrophysics. At the end, all of that study served for something: it answered the questions his mom used to ask when she was little Luiza.

Now Bruno is considered one of the best scientists around the world regarding the sky. He is so young to know too much about stars, but there is an explanation, he has never been to a party, he spent all of his time studying and every night looking at the stars’ position, he did not have time to go to parties on Friday night. He was called to be part the directory of the national observatory of Chile, “La Silla”, now he must be at USP studying his PhD about the sky, to continue being one of the best in his research area. Maybe someday he will try to make the same experiment his mother did with his father... to have a family... but something is certain, he will be nominated for the Nobel Prize soon.

Rodrigo - Inventions

2011-09-25T10:11:00.001-07:00

One of the most important inventions of the 20th century was the internet, that was invented in the 60's by the U.S.A. military. It was during the cold war, witch divided the world in two parts: one capitalist, the Americans and other socialist, the Russians. The Americans were afraid of an imminent attack by the russians at their information base, and because of this, after much research, the internet was invented.

The internet changed the way we live, currently almost everyone is connected almost all the time. The number and the speed that the information comes to us is almost unbelievable. With the internet we can do a lot of things in the comfort of our home. With the social networks like facebook, myspace, orkut, we find a lot of old friends, we make new friends, we are always in contact with our friends and family. With the webcam and programs like skype we can see and speak with everyone, everywhere.

Of course not everything is perfect in the internet's world. The internet, like anything, has a limit for use it. Some people get addicted and forget how to live in the reality. Nowadays we often send an email to people that are in the other side of the aisle instead of go there and talk face to face with the person . Another problem is the sedentary, more and more the internet facilitates our lives and because of this we do not have to leave our homes to do anything, everything you want, you can ask by the internet and comes home, without you leaving your chair.

So, in my opinion the internet revolutionized the world, after its invention the life style of all people has changed, and like every invention, the internet should be used for the good of the people, and with no exaggeration.

Marcelo - Inventions

2011-09-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

The Phone

Many people say "Alexander Graham Bell invented the phone", but it is not true, who invented the telephone was Antonio Meucci in 1860. Meucci was Italian. He invented it because he needed to talk to his wife, who was sick and she always stood upstairs in their house.

The main benefit of the phone is to talk with other people in real time, even if the person is in the other side of the world, and talk by the phone is cheap.

The downside is that people talk a lot on the phone and they don't visit their friends and family, so people became more impersonal.

In my opinion, the phone helps a lot, the benefits are better than the downsides, but I think that the internet is going to replace the phone, the internet is easier to use and cheaper too.

Braulio - Biography

2011-09-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

Gregori Perelman and Millenium Prize.

Grigory Yakoslevich Perelman was born on June 13, 1966 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His father’s name is Yakov and his mother’s name is Lubov. They are a Jewish

family. Perelman has been learning mathematics since 1975, when his talent was appearing.

The Poincaré conjecture, proposed by great French mathematician Henri Poincaré in 1904, was the most famous open problem in Mathematics. The problem is,

roughly speaking, about characterization of the three dimensional sphere. In 1999, the Clay Mathematics Institute announced the Millennium Prize Problems, in other words, US$1,000,000 prize for the proof of any of the seven conjectures. Only the Poincaré conjecture has been solved in 2002 by Grigori Perelman, that declined the award.

In May 2006, a mathematician committee voted to award Perelman a Field Medal for his work. The Field Medal is the highest award in mathematics, like Nobel Prize in Science. However, Perelman declined the prize again. He was the first person to decline these prestigious prizes. In Perelman words:

“I’m not interested in money or fame”. “Everybody understood that if the proof is correct, then no other recognition is needed”.

The last news about him is that he is unemployed, living with his mother in a small house in Petersburg. Nowadays, Perelman is known to be the most intelligent and weirdest person of the World.

Flávia - Biography

2011-09-25T09:59:00.001-07:00

Marie Curie

She was born in the capital of Poland in Warsaw on November 7, 1867. When she was young, she moved to Paris with the financial help of her sister.

She graduated in first position in Mathematics and Physics at University of Paris in Sorbonne. She was the first woman to teach at this prestigious school.

She married the professor of Physics Pierre Curie in 1895 and then adopted the name of Marie Curie, and before her marriage she was called Maria Sklokowska.

In 1896, Henri Becquerel encouraged her to study the radiation emission of uranium salts. With her husband, Marie began to study the materials that produced the radiation, looking for new material with the hypothesis that it should exist in certain minerals. Indeed, in 1898 they deduced that explanation: there were certainly some components that would release more energy than uranium, then on December 26, 1898, Marie Curie announced the discovery of this new substance to the Academy of Sciences in Paris.

With Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, she received the Nobel Prize of the Physics in 1903, in recognition of extraordinary services obtained in their investigations of the radiation phenomena, three years after they identified the radioactive elements polonium and radium. She was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize.

Pierre was appointed professor at the University of Paris in Sorbonne in 1904 and he began researching for x-rays.

In 1906, she succeeded her husband in the chair of General Physics at the University, after he died.

In 1911, she received the Nobel Prize of Chemistry. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was given her in the same year that the Academy of Sciences in Paris rejected her as a partner.

She was the first person to receive two Nobel Prizes in different fields. The only other person was Linus Pauling, but Marie Curie was the only person to win two Nobel Prizes in science.

Marie Curie died of leukemia in 1934, surely because of the massive exposure to radiation during their work. In 1995 her remains were transferred to the Pantheon in Paris, becoming the first woman to be buried at this site.

In my opinion, she was a person who left her mark on science, even in an age so full of prejudice and sexist. She showed the world that women are as able as men to perform a scientific function. Many other women do not even have a chance to study, or have the opportunity to take a scientific position. I'm sure that our planet has lost a lot because there has been prejudice in science.

Silvia - Inventions

2011-09-19T04:46:00.000-07:00

Composition: An important invention. (final version)

I used to think that the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell but after a little research, we can see that many scientists dispute the credit for this invention. But as usual the Americans Elisa Gray and A. Graham Bell have become the best known.

The telephone emerged from the creation of the electrical telegraph. Though the early researches of the telegraph were from the fourteenth century, in the seventeenth century many scientists in many countries were searching for other ways of sending multiple telegraph messages simultaneously over a single telegraph wire by using different modulated audio frequencies for each message and these efforts led directly to the invention of the telephone, or 'the speaking telegraph'.

The invention of the telephone made people closer at a time when transports had not been developed yet. At the beginning, they were heavy and the sound was not so clear. In the course of time, they became much lighter and achieved a better performance.

The disadvantage of the telephone is that it needs wires to connect people. That’s why nowadays we may have much more cell phones than telephones. Another disadvantage is that it is not so secure. If somebody wants, he can hear our conversation without our awareness.

I chose to tell you about the telephone because in my opinion it can be considered one of the most important invention in the whole telecommunication development process.

Fabiani - Tabloid Article

2011-09-19T04:41:00.000-07:00

For the first time Flávia Macionni admits the use of botox!

After being seen several times in one of the most famous aesthetic clinics of São Paulo Macionni admitted during the week, on a news site, that she had already made use of botox. It’s however doubtful and uncertain how long the diva has been making use of botox. Asked about it, she replied that it was the first application that she made. However, sources report that the scientist and now actress does applications for more than 10 years already.

This however, is not the first controversy in which Macionni is referenced. The actress seems to be going through a bad phase in her career. Some fans say that in her shows Macionni doesn’t meet anyone else for photos and autographs.

Gossip has it that the actress had undergone a rehabilitation treatment due to alcohol addiction for more than a year, which would explain its ups and downs in her mood and her less frequent performance.

Apparently, this doesn’t seem to be a good time for the Diva. The question is whether Macionni will overcome this bad phase or whether he will fall into the same mood of most of the artists after they achieve success.

Pricila - Inventions

2011-09-18T08:16:00.001-07:00

The invention of the computer.

There is not just one inventor of the computer, as the ideas of many scientists and engineers led to its invention. These ideas were developed in the 1930s and 1940s, mostly in an independent way, in Germany, Great Britain and the USA, and were turned into a working machine. In Germany, Konrad Zuse hit upon the idea of building a program-controlled calculating machine, when he had to deal with extensive calculations in statistics. In 1935, he began to design a program-controlled calculating machine in his parents' home in Berlin. This was the grandfather of our computers.

In modern times, the computer is very important. It’s used both for leisure and for work! We can know the world using the computer and have fun! We can store photos, music, work, etc.

The disadvantage of the computer is that sometimes people don't go out and have fun to use the computer. The computer is a technology that is always moving forward, we have new computers every year, with new programs and types. Thus, the computers we buy today is will probably be outdated in a few months. In my opinion, the computer is very important to most people in the world! One of the most usefull tools developed for the computer is the internet, it helps us to communicate with people, make friends, have fun, etc. I could not live without the computer.

Patricia - Inventions

2011-09-18T06:50:00.000-07:00

The refrigerator: a useful and interesting invention of the modern world.

One of the most notable inventions we use daily at our homes is the refrigerator, also called fridge. Its history is very interesting but a little bit confusing, because there are a lot of people involved in the creation of this household appliance.

The first known artificial refrigeration system was demonstrated by William Cullen at the University of Glasgow in 1748.However, he didn´t use his discovery for anything. In 1805, an American inventor called Oliver Evans, designed the first vapor-compression refrigeration machine, but only in 1834, Jacob Perkins modified Evans' original design, building the world's first refrigerator and filing the first legal patent for refrigeration using vapor-compression. In 1918, William C. Durant started the Frigidaire Company in order to begin the first mass production of refrigerators. Until then, the refrigerating system needed to use some flammable and toxic gases and only on 1980s more efficient refrigerators were developed providing a safer and low-toxic device.

The great advantage of having a fridge at home is the reduction of spoilage of foodstuff. It permits people to eat more fruits, vegetables and meat that can be stored for longer periods. Keeping the food and drinks in the fridge is healthy and hygienic because it decreases the reproduction rate of bacteria. Another advantage we can mention is the duration of the product. Some fridges can last for more than 10 years with a good performance.

A disadvantage of fridges, nowadays, is the great energy expenditure because it needs to be plugged 24hs a day. Despite some modern models being equipped with a thermostat that can control the temperature and turn off the freezing system, it is still very expensive to maintain a refrigerator.

Finally, the refrigerator is such a miracle of the modern world that we sometimes don´t give it the deserved recognition. In my opinion, every the little thing that can make our life easier and healthier must be valued. The fridge can be a common and silly thing for many people, but try to live without one to see how difficult it is.

Caroline - Inventions

2011-09-18T06:45:00.000-07:00

Cell phone – the most important invention.

I think that the most important invention is the cell phone. It was invented by Bell Labory in the USA in 1947, but it was impractical comparing to what is considered a portable handset today. The cell phone weighed 80 pounds (36 kg), and the AT&T service, basically a massive party line, cost US$30 per month (equal to $337.33 today) plus 30–40 cents per local call, equal to $3.37 to $4.5 today.

Nowadays, you don`t need to ask me why the cell phone is so fantastic because everybody uses it to talk with somebody, play games, listen to music, take pictures, surf the web, in other words, to do everything.

However, you can ask me why I chose the cell phone to write about, since we have a lot of good inventions like the car, the subway and the internet, etc. I `ll tell you. The cell phone connects people and the world. We use it to study, work or just relax. You can see people with cell phones in all the places: streets, parks, subways, cars, schools, even, in other countries! Cell phones are cheap! Everyone has one, it`s accessible and portable! You can write a quick text message if you need to say something but you can`t make a call. This is very common in the cinema, a meeting or in the traffic.

The best of everything is: The scientists couldn`t produce any evidence that the cell phone is dangerous to the health. The only thing that we need to concern about it is the addiction in teenagers that use the cell phone to everything during all the day, but this is a surmountable problem, as parents tend to put limits on cell phone bills. Now I need to ask you. Do you thing it`s possible to use the cell phone for a short time? Consider how many functions it has. Can you imagine the world without the cell phone?

Fabiana - Inventions

2011-09-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

A great discovery was the invention of the lamp. The lamp was invented by Thomas Edison in the USA in 1879.The inventor made numerous tries to conclude that carbonized cotton could produce light for 40 consecutive hours.

This invention brought benefits to all humanity. Before, people depended on the candles to survive: the candle has a short lifetime and the light that is produced by it is weaker than that of the lamp. Nowadays people can have nightlife, they can go out more comfortably to have fun, they can read a book or study until the wee hours. The invention of the lamp was a milestone in History.

Unfortunately, lately people aren’t using the electricity wisely. They squander the light overly, forget lamps lit and aren’t looking for new sources of energy. It takes a lot of money to produce this energy.

In my opinion, the invention of the lamp was fantastic! I can’t see my life without lamps. When the power goes out from my home, it is terrible! Depending on candles to perform my daily activities, would be really awful! So it is necessary for people to save energy because one day this energy can end.

Junior - Inventions

2011-09-17T19:35:00.001-07:00

The air conditioner.

Willis Carrier invented a mechanical system to condition the air in Syracuse, New York, in 1902. He was a 25-year-old engineer who was called to solve a problem at the textile company Sackett-Wilhelms Lithography and Publishing Co. In wet and hot days the paper absorbed humidity and this dilated the paper, so the colored lines weren’t aligned with those painted in cold and dry days in winter. Willis knew laws of Physics; he thought about taking the humidity out of the factory by decreasing the air temperature with pipes artificially cooled, this was the first process like an air conditioner.

The air conditioner is a way in which the humans can adapt themselves to the environment; it shows as the human being can make good things for everyone. In fact, it is a machine used everywhere and wherever you go. The thermal comfort is the most important sensation preferred by people. Another essential characteristic provided by air conditioning is food conservation. The global population increases everyday, so that it’s necessary more food and, consequently, it needs to store it properly as well.

Thermal machines release an exorbitant quantity of heat by system of heat exchanging. Therefore, systems of air conditioning bring many problems to society, like the employment of energy and the efficiency loss. Few years ago systems of air conditioner released Chlorofluorocarbon, which damaged the ozone layer. However, fortunately nowadays, this gas cannot be released anymore, an international law prohibited it.

According to ideas above, this invention is very important for society and economy, but we have to prepare ourselves for fast changes soon, adaptation and mitigation are necessary because the great use of energy becomes more and more dangerous for Earth life. In my hometown, Fortaleza, I needed this invention so much because there it is very hot and for people to work indoors , air conditioners must be turned on.

Sidney - Tabloid article

2011-09-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

Exclusive: Rafaela getting married!!

Rafaela Penachioni (21), the Super Star actress, who starred the films "Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)", "The Expendables 5" and "Fast And Furious 8 - Operation Alaska" is planning to get married this year.

After three years together, Rafaela and Brad Pitt decided to marry.

Two separate sources confirm Rafaela was seen trying a wedding dress on Beverly Hills street, a famous bride's stylist street.

The ceremony is going to be intimate and informal, and the "I do's" could take place at their house in Miami with the presence of a few relatives and close friends.

Ika - Inventions

2011-09-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

BICYCLE INVENTION

I know the bicycle isn´t a current invention, but it was an important one and it can be a good alternative to help the environment.

The bicycle was first ridden in Europe in the 18th century, but it was drawn by Gian Giacomo Caprotti, a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, in 1493, and it was certified by some researcher.

In 1862, some exclusive ways in Paris were opened, in the city parks, for bicycles. And in 1875, Michaux Company produced the first bicycle of Europe.

In 1868 in Paris, there was the first racing bike, but the winner was an Englishman.

In 1898, bicycles arrived in Brazil coming from France but just in 1948 it was produced by Caloy and Monark.Currently, Brazil is the third biggest bicycle producer of the world.

When I ride a bike, I can feel the wind on my face and it gives me a sensation of freedom.

Bicycles don’t pollute, and they are cheaper than another kind of transportation and I can do exercise.

I rarely ride a bike in SP because I´m afraid of the traffic and the safety of doing it.

My husband likes it very much and he rides his bike on weekends. I need to have courage to do the same because now I have one bike lane near my house on Sundays.

When we went to Paris and Amsterdam last June, we rode bicycles a lot, but there I felt happy and safe because since the 18th century there are permanent bike lanes .

Amanda - Biography

2011-09-13T10:54:00.000-07:00

Keilla Nazima is known, in the fashion world, by her creative and sustainable productions. She creates clothes with recyclable products like blouses of pet bottles, dresses of old credit cards and skirts of plastic bags. This ideia revolutionized the fashion world. Keilla is known by her benevolence too because she always donates part of her wage for charity.

Keilla was born on April 8, 1989 and she’s the oldest daughter of her parents. They have always taken pride in her because she was a brilliant student in college and a kind girl too. She studied Fashion in college and stuck out: her dresses were creative and cheap because the materials necessary to the production were recyclable.

She won international recognition too. Keilla earned a scholarship and went to France where the renowned French stylists approved her ideia. From that moment on, she was admired by the whole fashion world. Nowadays Keilla is a brilliant stylist and looked up to by her talent.

I chose to talk about Keilla because she is a great example of a nice person. She respects nature and helps poor people. Respect and benevolence are very important qualities in the present world.

Eliete - Letter to a friend

2011-06-13T15:43:00.001-07:00

102 Roma Street,

São Paulo

10 July

Dear Ana,

How are you?

I am writing to tell you a little about my weekly routine and my friend’s routine too.

I am from Brazil, I get up at 7 o'clock during the week, On Monday I work and dance. On Tuesday I chat on the net and watch tv, but I don't like to watch soap operas. On Wednesday I listen to music and go to the movies, On Thursday I read the magazine, I rarely read the newspaper and I cook for my family. On Friday I eat pizza and go to bed early, because I have English course On Saturday early and after I go to the park, do you go to the park? On the other hand, On Sunday I sleep very much and when I get up to go the mall and after I go to church. Do you go to church?

My friend Rose gets up at 8 o'clock On Monday, She has breakfast and goes to work, On Tuesday she goes running and plays volleyball, but she doesn't like to play soccer, On Wednesday she goes for a walk and listens to music, but she doesn't watch tv, because she doesn't like it. Do you watch tv? On Thursday she uses the net and works out, On Friday she studies English and cooks for her husband. During the weekend she likes to walk her dog, she takes care of her children, she goes to the mall with her family and likes to rest.

A hug

Eliete

Anderson - Telephone Complaint

2010-11-30T05:14:00.001-08:00

O: - Hello!
C: - Hello! I’d like to make a complaint.
O: - What’s your name, sir?
C: - My name is Thomas Robinson.
O: - What’s the problem, Mr. Robinson?
C: - I bought a mobile by Internet, but you sent me a bicycle! I want
to exchange it!
O: - Did you order a mobile?
C: - Yes, I did!
O: - Do you live alone?
C: - No, I don’t. I live with my wife and my son.
O: - Can your son ride a bicycle?
C: - No, he can’t! But I don’t understand why...
O: - You should teach your son how to ride a bicycle...
C: - But, I need a mobile in my work!
O: - You should relax. I think that a bicycle is more interesting than
a mobile. You can go to different places and bicycle is better for
your health... but unfortunately you want to exchange the bicycle for
a mobile...
C: - Oh! No! I thought about it now. I changed my opinion about
bicycles. I want to ride a bicycle and go to different places and I
want to buy a bicycle to my son!
O: - Ok! Do you pay with credit card?
C: - Yes, I do.
O: - Ok, Mr. Robinson, I will send you a bicycle to your son!
C: - Thank you!
O:- Thank you! Bye!

Five days later Mr Robinson received in his house a new mobile.

Roseli - telephone complaint

2010-11-30T05:07:00.000-08:00

Onofre drugstore Luciana, Can I help you ?

Good morning Luciana, I’m Roseli , I bought some medicine yesterday
And I haven’t received it yet, then I’d like to know if there was any problem.

OK, but I need some information to find your order. Please, what is your phone number?

It’s 2251-4909.

What is your CPF ?

It’s 123.456.789-66.

Ok Roseli, I found your order. I’ll transfer you to the delivery department.
Hang on , I’ll put you through.

Onofre drugstore delivery Alfredo.

Hello Alfredo, I am Luciana and I am transferring Roseli for you to check
why her delivery is late.

Thank you. Roseli, What is happening ?

I bought some medicine yesterday and as I already said I haven’t received it yet, then I’d like to know if there was any problem.

Could you confirm your phone number ?

Of course, it’s 2251-4909.

Yes, I found it. Your order will be delivered this evening.

So, I will be waiting for it. Thank you.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Beatriz - Telephone Complaint

2010-11-28T14:13:00.000-08:00

(Dialing)

Op. : Nutrella, good morning.

Me : Hello, my name is Beatriz and I need to make a complaint.

Op. : Yeah, sure. What is the problem?

Me : I have been a client of this company for a long time, so I decided to contact you, because I have never had any problems.

Op. : How can we help you Beatriz?

Me : Last week I bought some bread at the supermarket near my house and when I tasted it I saw small pieces of rubber, mixed in the bread, so I decided to call you because I thought it was a serious situation.

Op. : Sure, but I need to transfer your call to the Technical Department. Please hold on for a minute.

Assist. : Beatriz, my name is Roberto and I’m a Technical Supervisor, I have been informed about what happened and I need some information.

Me : Yes. What kind of information?

Assist. : I need to know the lot number and expiration date of the product.

Me : The expiration date is December 10,2009, and the lot number is 0810 0800 RJM4

Assist. : Ok, Beatriz. Tomorrow I will send a messenger to your house to collect the bread for analysis.

Me : No problem.

Assist. : To do this I need your address.

Me : My address is Paul Earnest Street 100 apt. 55.

Assist. : Once the product is tested we will send you a report to know what actually happened, and certainly we will replace your product.

Me : I’ll be waiting for you.

Assist. : Thank you for trusting our company and we will do everything in our hands to detect the problem.

Me : Thanks

Assist. : Thank you madam, and have a nice day.

(This is a true story, and a few days later I received the Technical Report and some products of Nutrella).

Cleyton - Pros and Cons

2010-11-20T06:13:00.001-08:00

Good and bad things about studying at USP

Everybody who studies at USP can be happy because we don’t need pay for our courses. Moreover, the student of USP can have lunch for R$ 2,00 and use the free local transport inside the campus. Other good thing are the optional courses. Everybody can watch any class about any theme to learn and know more. At the end of your studies, these classes are accounted as extra activities.

But, USP has some problems too. The work stay-aways are constant and there isn’t anything that you can do to solve it. At least one stay-away occurs every year. There are days when the food of the restaurant (that, where the lunch is R$ 2,00) is too bad. Something like colorful eggs and other strange things. USP is so composed of public buildings. So, it has problems of infra structure like most of the public places.

So, what I can say is that USP is a good place to study, but you can’t be demanding. If you are somebody who can survive this “challenges”, you’ll have a good experience in a university in fact, where you can experiment and learn a lot of ideas, moments and meet people.

Augusto - Short Fiction

2010-11-16T11:32:00.000-08:00

Matter, a little genetics and a big medley of feelings and psychiatric diseases...

Sarah Truman just smiled and waved as a car crashed into the back of hers. She gently left the car and said, almost happy:

 That's OK. We'll solve it later, just give me your number.

A little surprised and very proud of herself, she came back to her car and went away. She couldn't be more satisfied about her decision. She knew that one year ago, that single happening would have pulled her down the whole week.
Instead, she arrived in her job glad she was fine and ready for one good work day. Everybody kept staring at her a little curious, a little envious and a little scared. She really wasn't the same person since she’d done it.

*********************************************

 As we can see – continued Clark Truman, not far from there – we can't see any stress symptom at this patient, and even no signs of stress-induced disease. Sarah Truman used to be an ultimate example of stress complications and damages. Headaches, warts, many kinds of eye outbreaks, social and professional problems and even heart diseases were observed.

The audience was astonished. Was that a real and definitive cure for that complicated disease?

 In this scenario, the stress situation may lead to damages in many levels. Sometimes, as we've seen in Sarah's case, depression. Sarah tried to do away with herself many times, spanked her own children twice and absolutely gave up her life in consequence of those intense stress crises. Many years of treatment weren’t enough even to make her stop the suicide attempts. That's why our staff decided to try the Intensive Psychiatrist Behavior Changing, which we called IPBC.

Clark was glad he could withhold his emotions and approach this topic with such distance and detachment. After all, he was proud for what he had done.

*******************************************************

When Sarah arrived, Clark was already home, as usual. With an old and corny sweater and his terribly unfashionable favorite glasses, Clark was lain in the sofa reading carefully some academic reports, while their youngest child filled in all his most important documents with flowers and teddy bears.
Sarah just walked directly to the kitchen and came back with a cup of steaming hot tea.

 How was your day?
 Excellent. People from all around the world were in the conference this afternoon. They're very interested in the IPBC and specially in your successful case.
 What about the researches?
 Ow... It's amazing! All the tests with rats and even monkeys are encouraging. I really think that soon we'll be able to apply the IPBC to other psychiatric disturbances. Tomorrow we'll present it to a multinational company that intends to invest more than 15 millions dollars in our project! Do you know what it means?
 I'm so proud of you.

Sarah went to bed, and only woke up when the alarm rang 5 AM. Clark kissed her on the forehead and brushed his teeth. He knew it would be a big day.
Clark arrived early at the company and waited anxiously for the investors. At 7 AM he started:

 What does a psychiatric disease mean? Are there physiological differences between a person with a mental disease and a healthy one? Actually, there are. As we know, many people suffer from chemically induced psychiatric diseases. An under production of serotonin may lead to a depression state, an excessive adrenaline production may lead to a stress outbreak... Feelings are chemical reactions... Psychiatric diseases are chemical imbalances.

Clark couldn't withhold his enthusiasm.

 The psychotropic drugs are nothing but substances that supply the brain's lack of production. That way, a chemical intervention may help many patients with psychological problems. For many years, our laboratory has been researching the human brain in order to discovery how and why these substances are under production. And we've deeply described those control processes. Some neurons are able to stimulate those productions and others to inhibit them. Nowadays, we're able to know precisely what each of them makes.

Clark sipped some water, more to give the audience some time to think than because of his thirst, and continued:

 After decades of study, with some help from nanotechnology we finally developed the Intensive Psychiatrist Behavior Changing. This surgical procedure consists of making some microscopic scars in specific regions of the human brain disabling some neuron activities. This way we're able to inactivate some substances production suppressors or supporters.
 But, if the suppression of one substance is totally blocked, so the brain begins an uninterrupted production... How could we control it?
 Actually, many groups of neurons are able to do it, so we can choose how many we're going to damage. After many researches, we're able to know how many is necessary. That way we can definitely heal some psychiatric diseases. During the past two years, we did three successful cortisol/adrenaline control surgery for extremely stressed people. Our company is very proud to say that in all cases the problem was completely solved and those people are able to live a normal life, as they couldn't for years. Now, we're trying to expand the IPBC to other substances and consequently to other diseases, like depression, attention deficit, schizophrenia and others.
 What you're proposing seems to be a definitive process. We aren't able to reverse the IPBC. Do you think the process is reliable enough?
 My first patient was my own wife.

Clark knew that this would show them how he trusted in the process. The conversation continued for a while, but after his convincing arguments the points were more about curiosities and bureaucracies. It was almost dark when he left the company. Tired, but very satisfied.
The company decided to fund the IPBC's researches and the technique was deeply improved. Almost one decade after, they were able to deal with almost all psychiatric diseases. People all over the world did the IPBC and the success ratio was impressive; People disinterested in sports or math could easily change it in matters of hours. Depressed people could decide how much Serotonin their brain would produce.
Clark Truman became the most famous name on the psychiatric science and her company the richest of the medical area. The IPBC became very popular and widespread.

**********************************************

Sarah turned off the telephone and came complaining about her third inconclusive call to the bank. Sarah entered he room and patiently talked about many big absurdities that were happening to her bank account. Almost snobbishly, she explained to her husband what was happening. Clark was outraged about the situation.

 Just calm down! Everything is gonna be OK! They're from the bank! They're supposed to complicate our lives!

Sarah sweetly giggled and went to the kitchen. Clark couldn't stop thinking that the IPBC changed her humor, but our humor is directly related to our ways of thoughts, our ways of life.

 That's not my wife. - Clark whispered to himself.

********************************************

Clark's company had been growing since IPBC was created. Everything was wonderful, except himself. Many years later, people were used to deciding about their personality. Clark became each day more alone and reserved. Focused on his own research, but not as it used to be: sharing and trying results, but lonely and quiet. Nobody knew what he was doing.
The IPBC was now a fever. Everybody wanted to be braver or more concentrated. It really bothered Clark. He never allowed advertisements of his company, but it wasn't necessary. Instead, he always tried to convince people not to do the IPBC:

 Try to accept yourself!

Now it was out of control. Other companies began to do the IPBC, people requested the government to do it. To be stressed was considered to be disrespectful to other people, to be depressed is an exclusivity for those who deny the surgery. And then began the psychological dictatorship. More than ever, you had to be what seemed the normal.
Clark was going to have lunch and heard:

 I'm going to get Nicole Kidman's nose, Angelina Jolie's mouth and Michael Phelp's discipline for sports.

Next week the report spread all the company and after, all the media: Clark was going to have the IPBC. “Why? What are you going to change? How did you decide?” Clark didn't answer anything.

***************************************************

Clark entered the surgery room. Only one reliable member of the staff knew what to do:

 Why are doing this? Do you know what it means?
 Have you seen what I've done? Can't you see those people on the streets? They are not better people, they are other people. I've turned everybody into the same framed person. They don't know who they are, neither do I.
 Those people, now, have the choice to be healed of serious diseases. They can live a normal life!
 What the hell is a normal life??? Hm? What is the human being if it isn't a portion of flaccid and perishable matter, and a big fucking medley of selfish feelings and psychiatric diseases? That's what you are. Your depression, your happiness, your anxiety and all the trouble in your mind. We can't separate who you are from your suffering. That's all the same thing. We studied enough to know that what we think, HOW we think, our conclusions and everything else are directly related to our feelings. I have always been against all this bullshit of psychiatric chemical intervention. I really think that stopping depression and other diseases by using psychotropic drugs was like creating zombies. How could I do this? I must have been too hopeless about Sarah to do this... I turned the world into a big margarine advertisement!

Sarah stared at them through the surgery room glass. She couldn't hear them, but she knew exactly what was happening. She was very upset about his decision, but only that. She wasn't able to flounce or to stop the staff. She just stared with wet eyes.

 Look at those silly, naive and cold eyes.... Is that Sarah? It isn't her. And she knows it.

Clark and Sarah kept the eye contact until that the anesthesia made him get sleep.

************************************************

Apparently Clark woke up the same person. Even he was surprised. But everybody, including him, knew that things had really changed.
Clark was an extremist. He refused to feel anything unpleasant. Sadness, anger, anxiety, stress... Now he lives like a dog. No worries, no hard feelings, no complaining, no growing and absolutely no conflict resolutions.

 It was like a suicide. Painless for my family and friends. Now I just am.

Nancy - Short Fiction

2010-11-14T04:46:00.000-08:00

Diverting the attention of everybody

It seemed to be as a routine. My father left us in the school very early and went to the farm. I loved that school to which I had moved that year. It was located in the highest place of the town and had a large place where we used to play during the breaks. I had learned new games and had made different friends.
The class had finished for that day. We were ready to go home, but we couldn't. At least for some time. An unusual movement was taking place at the train station and we could not take the train, said the station officer. Three police cars were parked in the street behind the station. It was the first time I had seen so many vehicles together in that little town. Fortunately, my brother was with me but I started to be scared, I just wanted to go home. My friends were also upset about what was happening. We used to go home by train, a twenty minutes trip and fifteen minutes walking, always hungry but happy. That day was going to be different and we could not tell our parents, we didn't have telephones nor any way to say that we were going to be late.
My brother, who is two years older than me, was trying to protect me, but as a boy, he was more curious than me. He went to the corner of the station building and looked at the front side of the building. He beckoned to me to follow him. As I watched what was happening, I couldn't believe. There was a freight train parked and many policemen carrying heavy guns that I had never seen before in all my life. Some of them were ready to shoot and two were waiting for an exact moment to open the wagon sliding door. My imagination had gone to the war stories my mother used to read for us in Japanese. Few minutes had passed and the officers finally opened the door, but no one was inside the wagon. They acted in the same manner for the rest of wagons but nothing happened. The operation had finished and the policemen seemed to be disappointed. Our train arrived and we went home with a long delay.
What we heard in the next day was the follow: as we were in the military dictatorship time there were terrorists escaping from the regime and they were supposed to be hidden in the forests of Ribeira Valley. The police was chasing them that day. But it was not all. While the military police was performing the operation, somebody had stolen one of the police car and we heard that it had been found intact in the neighboring district, ten kilometers away from our little town! The guilty was never found.

Cleuza P. - Pros and cons

2010-11-09T18:05:00.001-08:00

Being retired

To be retired brings many advantages. First of all, the free time
increases, for example, you can spend much more time practicing sports
or other leisure activities. Also, you find more time to do courses
that are not necessarily about work topics, which can be some hobbies.
Due to the fact that you don’t have schedule obligations, you can spend
more time with your family.
On the other hand, your salary probably will decrease, also your
relationships with friends will decrease too, once most of friendships usually
are at work. You won’t have more working trips and many people can see
you like an unemployed and unoccupied person.
Almost one year ago, after thirty five years working at the same
place, I retired. That changed my routine a lot and I got more free
time. In my case the free time is useful for staying more time with my
daughters and practices a sport that I like. Also, I got a new
hobby, I started studying different languages like English and
Italian. On other hand, what happened is that many people ask me to do
a lot of things, because they think I am unoccupied.

Nivaldo - Short Fiction

2010-11-09T17:56:00.000-08:00

PICKING UP THE BOTTOM OF THE TRUNK

The City
In the fifties São Paulo was forming the city of nowadays. There were car industries, among others, being established and exploding an atmosphere of progress on all sides. At that time, an environment was being created in which the new middle class was generated.
Geographically saying, there was the city center where all things went on and where the commerce shops, offices, bars and restaurants and cinemas and theaters were settled. The people worked and played in the center.

The neighborhood
I used to live in Vila Pompéia, at that time considered outskirts of the city. The place is quite hilly. There were a lot of hills then transformed in streets all unpaved.
On one side in the valley there was a mulberry tree in the edge of a stream that snaked through the streets where the public school and the ice cream shop received the children
At the top of one hill, there was the center of the neighborhood where the church rested out along with small commerce around and the bus stop with long lines of the people struggling to enter in the CMTC bus, the metropolitan company of buses. On the other side at the top of another hill, today Cerro Corá Avenue, there was a house where someone was killed and his spirit was there asking for vengeance. On the valley between the two hills a small farm was placed where people would go to buy fresh milk.

The People
There were child groups as the street top group, street down group and so on. The children had two or three pastimes to spend the afternoon after the school homework. We played soccer on the street, today Pompeia Avenue. Eventually when a car came the game stopped and we waited it to pass. There were also games of season as flying kites or releasing balloons we had made, all those mixed with playing tops and marbles.
On Sunday morning the people surrounded the church, at first to watch the mass and after to flirt with the girls leaving the church. In the afternoon guys went to the banks of Tiete River to play soccer on the place where today the Marginal Tiete is.

The Family
My grandfather by my mother´s side was Italian and arrived in Brazil in 1920 with a lot of Europeans, perhaps fleeing out the first Great War. He married a Brazilian girl, my grandmother, and they had 14 children. My grandfather and grandmother by my father´s side were Spanish and they had 3 children in Spain, they passed through Argentina and more 3 children and finally they arrived to Brazil and more 3.
The families of the brothers were so close. They helped each other and economically grew with the development of São Paulo. In general all the family was together in special occasions having lunch, often homemade capeletti, and drinking red wine which my grandfather had bottled at home.
These pieces of live explain a bit the nature of the formation of our society, with a lot of immigrants that arriving to São Paulo and mixing with the people from here. It generated new workforce, new ideas, new ideals, and a new life.

Beth - Short Fiction

2010-11-09T17:55:00.000-08:00

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

I needed to choose one point to begin talking about my life. I think it is good starting when my father’s parents came from Syria. Firstly, they decided to live in the countryside of Campinas where they lived for approximately 20 years. After that time, my grandfather caught a lung disease which caused him a large amount of suffering until his death.
Soon, my grandmother and her 11 children had to get another different way of life. They considered living in a big city could bring more opportunities and they moved as soon as possible. The place they had chosen was property of my mother’s parents where everything happened. My parents, João and Izabel, suddenly met and fell madly in love and married three years later.
In 1956, their first-born was born, me. My parents chose my first name based on an epic film acted by Elizabeth Taylor. Even before I was born, they had already decided the first daughter would receive this name.
I am the oldest child of my family and since the tender age of childhood I had to take care of my younger sisters, this responsibility making me feel a stronger child. On the other hand, my first day at school showed that I needed a lot of care because after my mother let me in a classroom I was crying a lot and my fragility and sadness were obvious for everyone else.
I was not considered an excellent student , not a bad one either, but in general I was always successful in exams or courses. I studied High School at Fundação Bradesco, which provided a technical school Business Administration. This Course was very important to help me to choose my profession later. At that time, I got my first job. I was working during the day and studying at night. As soon as I went to University I had got a new job in an American bank which provided an interesting kind of work and a good monthly salary for four years. Afterwards, I worked in other companies that offered good promotion prospects. At the same time, I made a lot of friends in those jobs and one of them was the most important friend who later became my husband, Francisco.
One year later, after my marriage, my daughter was born and this enjoyable event gave us pleasure. Isabela is her name. She was the first grandchild besides being very nice and beautiful girl with her adorable blue eyes, she transformed the family’s life. Isabela grew up and her success with everyone delighted us.
I would like to say that I dealt with motherhood and my professional career at the same time and that caused me no great difficulty and worry. It was possible or easier for me because I had my parents who helped us every time we needed.
Nowadays, I am feeling calm and satisfied with my life and when I look back, I can see that many objectives were achieved. However, I was willing to do a lot of things such as studying, learning, working and so on. Therefore, I am really looking forward to starting a new job which I have passed in open competition.
I can imagine when one is reading my writing, he/she will think : Isn’t there any sad or unpleasant fact to relate in this life story? The answer is: I am living a very satisfactory and pleasant life , so I can say that at this moment I can’t bring anything bad to my mind.

Roseli - Pros and cons

2010-11-09T17:49:00.000-08:00

Driving to work

I usually go to work by car. I take this opportunity to take the kids to school, so it is more comfortable. In the company I have reserved parking area, and I can arrive late or maybe leave late.
During the journey I like listening to music, and thinking about anything.
And on the way back, I usually stop by the supermarket, to buy things I need, or to go to other places.
One problem is the traffic of São Paulo it is not so fast and it is becoming increasingly complicated, I should pay attention to the traffic, besides it is more stressful, and sometimes more expensive than public transport. Finally if I need to go somewhere in the path it will be very difficult to park.
So, I prefer having a car even with all the disadvantages because it gives me more autonomy.

Tiago - Pros and cons

2010-11-09T17:44:00.000-08:00

To have a job while you are a student

To have a job while you are a student has many advantages. First of all, you can leave your parents’ house and do amazing things. Is it good? Yes. For example, you will have your own schedule and more privacy. Also, you will have a business experience and more money independence.
However, when you have a job and study at the same time, you can have some disadvantages. Firstly, you will have less study and free time. Secondly, you will have more responsibility, because you will have to follow working hours and working orders.
Despite the advantages, if I have the option I prefer only to study, because it’s easier and more profitable for the academic results. After all, I can work and have more independence in the future.

Beatriz - Pros and cons

2010-11-08T14:50:00.001-08:00

THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF HAVING A CAR

Firstly, having a car is very good., . The car is much faster than the bus and is more comfortable. Sometimes you can be alone or with someone. If you are stressed [E1] you can relax listening to music, news etc.

The car helps people do many things, for example, go to the supermarket, doctor, vet, dentist, and others.

And the best is traveling to many places.

However, having a car has many disadvantages, such as buying a car is very expensive, . The car is very dangerous in the roads and it can cause be some accidents, or be stolen. Also, you can get stuck in traffic, or have to take bus or taxi.

Sometimes they cause accidents because the driver was drunk.

You must have a driver’s license, pay licensing, the car insurance, annual review. Also, you must pay for adding fuel, to washing the car and other things.

Having a car is very expensive.

Despite the disadvantages, I still prefer having a car because I live in a city where public transportation is very bad and not safe.

But in the near future, when the metro lines are increased I intend to leave the car.

This is almost certain in my mind.

Anderson - Pros and cons

2010-11-08T14:47:00.001-08:00

The advantages and disadvantages of using computer to do homework

Nowadays, there are many people that have a computer. Using a computerto do homework has some advantages. You can search on internet someinformation about your homework.
It’s not required paper and you don’tneed pen or pencil to write. Besides, if you make a mistake you don’tneed an eraser to correct.

However, there are some disadvantages to do your homework using acomputer. First of all, you need a computer, of course. If a problemhappens with the computer, there is a possibility that you lose yourhomework. You should be careful when you search information on theinternet, because there are many incorrect texts.

I prefer to do my homework in the computer because it is very practical,and I don’t spend a lot of sheets of paper. If you pay attention whenyou search information on the internet, you won’t have problems.

Lucas - Short Fiction

2010-11-07T03:52:00.001-08:00

The daily fear

I had dreamed of becoming a journalist. Perhaps the reason of it was my mother when she said that “truth is the first of values” – normally after some mischief. However, the more I grew up, the more I realized that in your daily lives we are set to compromise with truth. From this painful contradiction my career would be traced.
Journalism, the big one, is my life choice. Besides the difficult nature of the job, I had to come down with another ugly fact: I chose the most dangerous job in my country. In the last ten years, more than two hundred journalists have been murdered (or simply “disappeared”) due to their work as “truth-seekers”. Roberto B., who was shot dead in front of his family last year by drug-dealers, once said to me that “Here in Ciudad Juárez we journalists have two possibilities, either compromise with truth, or with fear”. Once more I faced the contradiction.
After five long years studying in foreign countries, I came back last year to become a journalist in CJ. What was my surprise when I found out the obvious fact that all the newspapers of the city are owned by the same person. Mister A. Maya. “Things go like this nowadays”, I thought, It is the effects of globalization and monopoly”. However, when I received an email inviting me to a job interview in the very house of Mister A. Maya, owner of Ciudad Juárez Daily News and all means of communication as far as El Passo Texas, I had to stop believing.
Here everybody knows the source of CJ’s violence. It is an intricate system entangling a failed State, global corporations hunger for cheap labor force for the “maquiladoras”, and bundles of outlaws who fight for taking control of coca’s routes to the US. How do all these things fix together? I have no idea. But if there is a Truth, it is our duty to look for it.
When the piece of white paper in front of me asked to fill in the blanks with my full name, and my social security number, I gave one more step toward desolation. After all the ‘writing text’ of CJ Daily News would be just another mise en scene for hiring biased journalists. Either work, or your conviction. Either truth, or safely sleep. Probably my roommates – who would know exactly how to fill in suchblanks – were “son of someone” or just a father trying desperately to feed his newborn children. Who knows? What I know is there is no place for ambiguities in this job. Either you are a journalist, or you aren’t. Either you live by their rules, or you live with fear. I made my choice.

In the most optimistic scenery, which is a hollywoodian one in fact, I’ll become famous delivering encouraging speech worldwide for (ironically) the coca consumers of Ciudad Juárez. I received one or two awards, and a polite nomination to running for the Pulitz. My death would be quickly and abroad. A soft end for somenone who let his hometown dying slowing in the desert. In the worst scenery… well… nobody knows how Mister A. Maya will received the news that a “rebellious” and “trouble-seeker” candidate named Carlos B. has used his failed writing text for application in CJ Daily News to illustrate the first page of the brave new newspaper of Ciudad Juarez: The Daily Truth.
I have to face the fact that my life is in danger now. But I don’t care. I have chosen the Juarez daily fear. As everyone else.

Eda - Pros and cons

2010-10-29T04:36:00.000-07:00

Living in a big city has many advantages. First of all, you can enjoy the best entertainment opportunities like theaters, exhibitions, shows … Also, you can take the best chances to have a good job and good vocational training. As a result, you get better perspectives of career. Moreover, if you have a serious disease you can find any hospital and good doctors easily.
However, living in a big city also has disadvantages. Firstly, the air is polluted, it is very dangerous for our health, sometimes breathing becomes difficult. Secondly, you can't relax or feel safe, violence makes life very stressful. Also the traffic jams make life worse.
I was born in a small city and I hate traffic jam, polluted environment, noise, competition... So, I love staying at home, reading a good book and relaxing. But, I'm retired and I know young people don’t think like that.

Vivian - Pros and cons

2010-10-27T06:11:00.000-07:00

Internet shopping has many advantages. Firstly, what is more convenient than buying what you need without leaving home? After all, when you buy a product in the store, you’ll have to take it home, light or heavy, with you by car or bus, because most shops don’t have delivery service. Besides you save money with the delivery service, you can also save the freight rate, since many sites offer free shipping. Secondly, there is a great deal of comfort to do their shopping on the net, since you won’t face queues and you’ll buy what you want at any time of day, without having to worry about holidays. Finally, there are hundreds of shopping sites with different products, you can search all sites, compare prices and you can still choose the best deal in a click.

However, shopping on the Internet also has its disadvantages. Firstly, anyone with a card can shop on the Internet, even if a card is stolen. Secondly, you can’t touch or try the product until you receive your order at home. It is also more difficult to return products purchased online, sometimes impossible to return, while in physical stores it is easier. Finally, you don’t have to wait in queue or spend hours looking for a place to park the car but you have to wait for the freight time that is sometimes slow, especially if you choose the cheaper shipping.

Even with all the disadvantages presented, I prefer to buy online because I'm satisfied with the results of online shopping.

Beatriz - Tabloid Article

2010-09-22T05:40:00.001-07:00

Sports Tabloid on August 23, 2010: "My Body Needs Eternal Holidays".

These words were said by Ronan "The Phenomenon".
The Phenomenon has been one of the world's best soccer players for many years.
Nowadays it's not true, and some people believe this.
Ronan is well known for his soccer talent, money and scandals with women and transvestites. This is very bad for his image.

Ronan loves his career very much but he doesn't train soccer a lot. He prefers to go out at night, to have a drink, eat a lot and go out with other women even during his marriage.
Ronan, you need stop now! You are very famous and very rich; people like you. This is the best moment for you to be well known for the good soccer you play!

If he continues to play soccer in the future, people will say: Ronan was very fat, tired, ugly and his life was fun and he couldn’t play anything.
Definitely, people will always remember bad things about his life, then it's most important for him to stop now, because as he said his body really needs eternal holidays.

Cleyton - tabloid article

2010-09-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

Mariane found wearing a red lingerie

Yesterday, at 7:00 pm, Mariane was found at “Thursday and beer” (a party at ECA on Thursday) wearing a red Lingerie and dancing up a local platform. She used the place as a stage to her performance of Lady Gaga cover show.

Around 8:00 pm, the university guard arrived to stop Mariane. She was under effect of drugs and had drunk about 8 cans of beer. According to local students, she had never done it. “She’s a good girl with good influence in the academic center” they said. So, it’s changing after the happened.

Pedro, academic center president, said that he will keep her out of the weekly meetings. Because of it, Mariane has plans of migrating to Africa to work as an advertiser of Robert Mugabe government.

Natália - Tabloid article

2010-09-22T05:30:00.001-07:00

Celullari: The new love of the biggest advertising executive of Brazil?

Mariane is the Best advertising executive of Brazil. She earns on average one million dollars/month, currently.
She started her graduation in 2008 at University of São Paulo, year in which she moved from Mogi das Cruzes, quiet town of the state. She lived in Mogi for 20 years.
Mariane, was always very smart and talented, developed her work brightly and became famous...
Her campaigns won international fame and Mariane traveled a lot...knew many countries, met many people, had many romantic relationships...she was always very discreet, but we, of magazine Tititi, found something really impressive about the paulista millionaire: We found Who is the new Love of the biggest advertising executive of Brazil!
Last weekend we saw Mariane taking an ice cream with...nobody but Edson Cellulari...coincidence (or not), this week, the actor finished her marriage to Claudia Raia (a marriage of 10 years!!!).
Yes! the discreet advertising executive can be the cause of the couple’s separation!
Do not miss the next edition! Interview with a millionaire advertising executive and Edson Cellulari...we are sure Mariane, the beaultiful businesswoman is the responsible for the end to the solid union of Celulari and Raia...

Beth - Essay on Immigration

2010-09-22T05:09:00.000-07:00

IMMIGRATION IN OUR SOCIETY

According to the Helsinki statement immigration is considered a human right and must be guaranteed everywhere. In reality this rules is not considered by many countries. So, even if we are living in a plural society, we can feel significant increase in intolerance of immigration.
Most of the time, specialists claim that cultural differences are responsible for the unacceptable face of immigration. We know that the Japanese or Chinese people don’t have European culture and an American culture either. By the way, Asian people have lived an orderly life in the USA differently from Afro-Americans who have had difficulties to immigrate or to stay in this country. Also, people of South American or East European origins are frequently refused by some Western European or North American countries although they have more cultural approach than Eastern people
The narrow-minded opinions against immigration have proved to be very selective. In fact, the socioeconomic condition is the main cause for refusing immigrants by society. However, migrations within Western countries with highly developed economy have not caused resistance among them, as well as migration between underdeveloped countries.
The socioeconomic aspect gets evident around the old colony immigrants who have long cultural experience and even though they have been reject as everyone who comes from the underdeveloped countries.
Nowadays, we have many cases over the world that cause immigrant rejection because of their bad socioeconomic condition. In the USA this act has regularly occurred on the border with Mexican people. Recently, everyone can see the news about restrictions of immigrants in Arizona state at special against Latino and also poor people. On the other hand, it is very rare in this country to find strict limits on immigrants who come from developed place. In this way it can make a question “Would it be everybody legal immigrants?”
In conclusion, the large majority of people accept migratory movements between similar economies. Also they assume that movements must be avoided between different economies. Therefore, it is clear that the Immigrant will always have a great difficulty to deal with cultural and socioeconomic difference.

Lucas - Essay on Immigration

2010-09-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

Immigration

Immigration and globalization are today the two hot topics concerning the futures of States. Strangely enough, these two concepts work toward different directions. When we think of globalizations patterns of economic or social-cultural interactions we usually conceive a harmonic conviviality between different – or even antagonists – worldviews. In this “optimistic” account, ethnic discrepancies turn into global benefits for everyone as for example increasing profits worldwide, deepening our cultural understanding or preventing military conflicts in the borders. However, hardly can anyone state the same regarding immigration. Instead of praising pluralism and searching for new ways for doing politics, the immigration debate in the western countries nowadays brings up the oldest feature of human society: the fear of the stranger.

The end of Cold War has let out an enormous amount of local tensions worldwide. One example was the rise of new capitalist economies in Europe during the 90’s after the breakdown of the Soviet system. At first they were praised as welcome brothers in Europe Union. It has taken just a couple of years for xenophobic movements to start their campaigns against the East European countries. Although episodes of intolerance are relatively common in this context, the case against South-North migration is a more powerful one because it goes beyond European case, affecting all the developed countries in the world. Second, it seems to be the pattern of cultural struggle in the next decades, literally a “clash of civilizations”. Old colonies (in the European context) and poor neighbors (in the US) become the origin of massive immigration fluxes responsible for supplying the low-rated jobs in rich countries. Some demographers, for example, predict that in 2050 protestant whites will not be the majority of U.S. population. Maybe even English will have lost its hegemony as the only official language…

For the cultural and economic establishment of developed countries it sounds catastrophic. The increasing rates of unemployment and violence are commonly used as argument for those who look forward to enclosing the economy and strengthening the legislation against illegal immigrants. But a second look can provide us with a better picture of the circumstances. Beginning with the question if immigrants are the cause of unemployment - which is a kind of absurd when we realize that immigrants and natives do not compete with each other for the same jobs (immigrants take in general unqualified jobs and lower wages) - in the long run demographic rates compel us to be skeptical about anti-immigration laws. The decline of native population is a pattern in all industrial societies. It means that in the future the current lack of unqualified employers may yoke the lack of qualified employers in the same economies. It is not an absurd when we consider the fact that the dynamism of U.S. culture, along with the history of Western Europe, is one of the fruits of the nineteenth century’s fluxes of immigration. At first, a low-rated job might attract a poor family from a distant country, looking for a new life. But in two or three generations, considering the system of educational opportunities in developed countries, their children and grandchildren might become the next generation of brilliant scientists, professors and politicians. Just look at the Syllicon Valley, the Ivy League or the White House in the U.S. How many foreigner surnames will we find out? The American situation can be read as the paradigmatic situation for Europe and all others countries which intend to establish themselves as the new world potencies.

Anderson - Tabloid Article

2010-09-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

The Star News
August 25, 2010

Adriana’s unlucky night

Adriana, a famous singer was involved in an incident last night. Her career started 5 years ago, when she sang Madonna’s songs in pubs and restaurants in São Paulo. In 2008 she released an album called “Songs of Drugstore”, her most important album. She has married Cristiano Ronaldo (an important soccer player from Portugal) since last year.
Last night, Adriana crashed her Ferrari F40 in a police’s car. She was annoyed and argued with the police officer. A fan, that was walking around there, argued and fought with the policeman. A police dog was frightened with the tumult and bit Adriana´s leg. So she went to the Hospital.
The incident caused various consequences to Adriana: her car was destroyed, she was fined in $5,000.00 and the next show in Buenos Aires was canceled. We haven´t talked with her since the incident.

Jeconias - Tabloid article

2010-09-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

Suzan at restaurant

Despite her unsuspected face, Suzan has a bizarre dark side. According to an eyewitness she was seen doing terrible things! Suzan was on a restaurant and a woman made a negative comment about her nail polish and hair. That was enough to start a violent reaction! Suzan seemed to lose control of her own body, and just hit the woman on her head with a tray. The friends of the poor woman tried to defend her, but Suzan just included them on the punishment.
She liked to hold the two heads of the women by the hair and hit one against other, hit the heads on a corner of the table and make them eat their shoes. The woman clearly regretted having made the comment just tried to escape, but Suzan wasn’t satisfied and increased the degree of punishment. The eyes of the woman were full of anguish.
After all the action, the woman, with only one tooth on her mouth and a tremulous voice, asked for forgiveness and said: “thank you for the drubbing”. Such acknowledgement was the condition imposed by Suzan to accept the request of forgiveness.

Tiago - Tabloid article

2010-09-13T05:14:00.000-07:00

Baseball player earned and lost $1.000.000,00 by one day!

Anderson (21) has been the best player of Major League Baseball since 2008. So, he won the last three election as “The best player” organized by the American magazine The world of Baseball Game.
Although his professional life is going wonderfully, his conjugal life is not in a good time. The Brazilian striker signed a new contract with his club New York Mets on Friday morning (08/19). With this contract, he will earn 4 million dollars a month! Unfortunately, Anderson was surprised by his wife - She saw him and a fan together in a party of the American team. They split up last Friday afternoon (08/19).
The justice ordered for the Brazilian striker a payment of 1million dollars to his former wife monthly. So, only one day was enough for the sportsman to earn and to lose $1,000,000.00!Anderson has been single since last week-end. Fortunately for his wife, the new millionaire of New York!

Ezequiel - Essay on Immigration

2010-09-11T06:15:00.000-07:00

Connections.

On August 17th, our English class received a visitor from Belgium. The guy is friend of Elton’s. We had an interview with him, which is reflected in this composition about immigration in our society.
Nowadays, it is common to think of the concept of “transnationality”. If we consider companies that have been created in one country but now sell products everywhere, and have become “multinationals”, we can understand a bit more about what is to belong to a globalized world.
Businesses have to be done, meetings must happen, congresses have to be made. I know this is not “immigration” strictly, but it is a kind of habit which helps to make come true the dream of an Earth without borders, a Global Village.
New generations are used to using the computer to make friends from a lot of places and cultures, which means the idea of being from this or that nation is becoming weaker. For them, there is not a strong feeling of patriotism, because people usually move virtually from a country to another in a few seconds and this is just a reflex from what happens in reality: “our planet is smaller than it used to be.”
We can see that the quantity of immigrants, no matter where, has increased. It is so due to higher speeds and lower prices in transportation. People are more confident about travelling and making a living in another land. This kind of phenomenon helps us to be more tolerant and open-minded to others’ beliefs, customs, ideas, and behaviors and, last but not least, frontiers.
On the other hand, there are local people that usually become afraid of new folks in their area. They are very conservative on this and try to make immigration more difficult. In some cases, it happens because of high costs of taxes, partly used to support welfare to illegal immigrants from poorer countries.
This prejudice turns into anger and there are some parties stating that immigrants mustn’t continue in a place that is not theirs. Sometimes, they try to hurt or kill foreigners to intimidate others to come to “their country”.
But, in our Global Village, what is the meaning of “own”? Just because you have been born somewhere, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the place is nobody else’s. Sometimes you’re more connected to someone in the other side of the world, but have never met your own neighbor! In this case, what would be the place you belong to or the nation that is just yours? It seems that these questions are losing their logical meaning in our era. There are no more space to radicalism, let’s leave it out and enjoy the fantastic and fast connections we can make anytime, which are possible just because we are in the 21th century.

Carlos - Essay on immigration

2010-09-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

About Immigration

Last week we received at our English Class the visit of Louis, a Belgian young man that came to Poli as an exchange student. He told us about the immigration life in Belgium.
An interesting fact I learned from the interview was about the multilingualism of Belgium. This country is divided in three Communities or three Regions where the local population speaks different languages. So someone that is thinking of immigrating to this country has to think about this. In the Flemish Region (Flanders), for example, the main language is Dutch. Wallon Region (Wallonia) is a German-speaking Region and at the Brussels-Capital Region the official language is French. Although these three languages are official languages at these Regions, Belgium has also different local dialects.
Our interviewee spoke to us in English. As it is usual in European countries, in spite of a mother local language, English is the academic and business language, so the most recent young population speaks English as a second language. As our interviewee came from the Belgian Region where French is the official language, he has an English with a French accent.
Louis was invited to visit our English Class because we had studied a lesson about the Patel brothers whose family immigrated from an Asia country to Kenya – Africa. So the family had a native spoken language and at the new country they had to speak the local dialect or the Swahili and English, because Kenya is a multilingual country. When the two Patel brothers, Vijay and Bhikhu were young they had another immigration experience. They moved to the UK. In this new country they made fortune.
As a subject of our English Class we listened to a tape with the Patel brothers answering about their immigration experience in the UK. As Louis they speak English with an accent, but differently from Louis’s their accent is not a French accent. I suppose they have an Asian or African accent.
When a person is thinking about immigrating to another country there are several important questions to think about, as local rules about immigration, for example. Nowadays, the European countries are becoming increasingly xenophobic countries, probably due to economical reasons. This is a serious question to consider when someone is planning to immigrate. The most secure way to immigrate is to have legal papers. Someone with no legal papers living at another country has to survive with a psychological strain every day - What can happen to me if I’m caught without papers?
Louis spoke to us about the liberal immigrant context that they have in Belgium. The immigrants, even those who live there without legal papers have no problems with the authorities. He gave us an example of this. His Brazilian Portuguese teacher lives there without papers. When the authorities ask for her papers and she can’t prove that she is in a legal situation in Belgium, the authorities by their turn don’t take her to prison, she is not deported. She is advised to get official papers or to move. Louis told us when this happens, she would move to another place and continues to live in the country.
I don’t think of immigrating to another country, but I would like to have another experience abroad. I lived one year in London where I started my English language studies. Although I had this experience I don’t have fluency in English. Now I would like to live at least one more year abroad in an English speaking country, to finally improve my English and to have an academic experience too. For this I’m having English classes at IME-Jr.

Suzan - Tabloid Article

2010-09-09T17:26:00.000-07:00

The big revelation

Jeconias Guimarães, 28, is a physicist that affirms to have discovered a bigfoot community on the USA west coast. The discovery happened during a scientific trip when he was looking for flying saucer wrecks that would have fallen in the area.
Although many “bigfoot hunters” had explored the area for decades and never managed to register the animal, Guimarães was so lucky that not only did he document the animal’s existence but also affirms to have fallen in love with a female.
Asked about the attraction that he would have found on the “Beautiful girl” he describes her as one warm body and shiny hair! He is very happy although he did not find any UFO.
Love is in the air! Have a good weekend people…

photo by Suzan and Jeconias

Nivaldo - Essay on immigration

2010-09-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

IMMIGRATION

The suburbs of Grenoble, France, were the center of the attention when unemployed teens attacked some policemen in July. They were burning cars and transforming the neighborhood in a battlefield. The state of Arizona, USA, recently enacted a law that allows policemen to inquire citizens about the regularity of their situation of immigrants and to take action if they are illegal.
So there are a lot of physical and psychological walls that try to serve as barriers to immigration. Would they work?
I don’t think so; not at all. My thesis is that people try to survive better where they can, and if to live better they have to leave behind a poor and low-expectation country and then they live on the crumbs that the developed country provides, they will do that. The current development model enables such differences. So for a long-term solution of the problem, it is necessary to change the model, that is, to change the expectations of the people that live in the countries which are origin of such movement.
Nowadays the economic crisis exacerbated the felling against immigration. In general, the majority of people are against it and even the moderate political parties are at least in silence to avoid losing votes.
On the other hand, the number of immigrants and descendants are growing.
As we can see in the following table, taking the USA as example, in the last three decades there was an effective growing of immigration.

Immigration numbers

* Projections and graph courtesy Population Environment Balance, Sources: U.S. Census Bureau2; Statistical Yearbook40, Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services
Average 195,000 per year from 1921-1970

It is interesting to see how this plays out in the real world. According to journalist Roy Beck, in California it is necessary to construct a new classroom every hour of the day, 24 hours per day 365 days of the year to accommodate immigrant children. The financial cost is borne by native households, who according to a National Academy of Science report, pay an additional $1200 per year in taxes because of mass immigration. Even so, the primary concern to environmentalists and Sierra Club members is the tremendous environmental impact that will be incurred as a consequence of continued U.S. population growth. (Source: Wikipedia)

Yes, it is impossible to absorb the number of excluded on the world through immigration.
80% of the natural resources are spent by 20% of population of the world, and not to mention the shame of exploitation of resources of less developed countries.
In conclusion, we need a new economic order. A new economy that solves the existing economical inequalities and correlated problems such as waste of energy and pollution
It is very difficult to think how to make it. Perhaps the poor countries together outside of the arranged game of UN will take some kind of action.
For sure the design of new solutions with the Capitalism as we know it today is impossible. A lesson that has to be taken from developed countries. Something new has to be thought and put to work changing selfishness for sharing and death for life.

Mateus - Essay on immigration

2010-09-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

IMMIGRATION IN OUR SOCIETY

Millions of immigrants have helped in the making of the history and development of many countries. In the United States, for example, the economic development has been supported by those who have given their lives for being part of the labor force. Countries in Europe, such as France opened their borders to a diversity of workers in order to rebuild the country after the Second World War. The more immigrants stay in a country the more its level of multiculturalism will increase. However, the lack of integration between different cultures and the increasing number of illegal foreigners have made a controversial stereotype of the immigrants.
According to BBC, 60% of Spaniards link immigrants to crime. In Italy, newcomers can be deported promptly. Many countries also moved up the agenda and even considered changes in their immigration laws, e.g., France and the US. The latter encourages local police to check the immigration status of people and the former proposed new rules that would allow immediately expulsion of foreigners.
The resentment against immigrants is rising, but how far can it go? Are the politicians being guided by the atmosphere of intolerance? Or do they rely on the selfishness of their people? If Europe or the US still depends on the immigrants because of ageing populations and falling birth rates, why are they kicking out (or avoiding the entrance of) many people? The answers to these questions might be unknown, but there is a chance they are related to the attitude of not being open for integration, since this is always difficult due to the existence of different beliefs.
Another point of view is the consequences for a nation of loosening the visa laws, i.e., opening the country for newcomers rather than restricting the entrance. If illegal immigrants find out about such a place, it will turn out to be a magnet for people who want to stay and live without paying taxes. Additionally, the increasing population of foreigners can make a region develop a unique culture, apart from the rest of a country, as in the Canadian province of Quebéc, where the French-speaking majority have influenced a separatist movement.
In many countries, from colonial times in the past through the early 21st century, people from around the world have migrated to different places, including the now so-called under-developing nations as Brazil. Despite their different languages and cultures, they arrived to build new lives and find new perspectives for their family. As a result, they have contributed to the countries they have adopted and are part of the frustrations and accomplishments of those nations.

Marcos - Essay on immigration

2010-09-09T16:57:00.000-07:00

Historical approach of the immigration in Brazil.

The history of immigration in Brazil began in the early 19th century with the end of slavery. The Slaves (Africans who had to work without salary) didn’t have to be forced to work in farms, and the farmers had to search for other workers to their farms. The Portuguese were the first that came, to work in the coffee plantations in the countryside of São Paulo State, from that time on, many other people around the world also came.
The most expressive number of immigrants that arrived in Brazil was undoubtedly the European, mainly Portuguese, Italians and Germans. Europe was going through the World War I and many people fleeing from the war came to Brazil, especially to work in the aforementioned coffee plantations in São Paulo and Minas Gerais States and in the agriculture of the South of Brazil, such as in Santa Catarina State.
Arriving in the seaport of Santos, the Italians and Portuguese moved toward the countryside of São Paulo and Minas Gerais and the Germans to South, Santa Catarina State. They started by finding work and building their homes there, and bringing the remaining of their families that were still living in Europe.
From the last decade of 19th century to nowadays, it has been clearly observed another kind of immigrants in Brazil, coming from Asia, especially the Japanese and Chinese. These other immigrants have decided to settle down in the city of São Paulo, and have been working with trade market, e.g. selling a great variety of thing, including technologic equipment, clothes, food etc.
Around the world immigrants have not been very approving toward immigartion, but here in Brazil, immigrants are seen as people who help us to build our country and culture and who bring us a little bit of each nation.

Roseli - Tabloid Article

2010-09-08T07:47:00.000-07:00

The next Adriana’s husband.

Adriana is a famous Brazilian actress, who had many husbands. The last was
A fireman with wonderful physical attributes. He was younger than she. They were always on the beach, where people paid a lot of attention to them.
Then when he died, she had a surprise, he was involved with drugs and another woman.
She has been single since this event. Now she is making a trip to Europe by ship.
Adriana says her next husband will be older but not very much, prettier and richer than the others, a real prince for her. She intends to give a big party to introduce him to society.

Mariane Rodrigues - Tabloid Article

2010-09-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

Scandal at ECA

Today ECA (Communication and Arts School) woke up shocked like we had never seen before.

Last night, September 20, one event happened much awaited in the last months: the costume party Melindrosa. Everything was going well at the party until the arrival of the great character of night: Clayton.

Clayton Silva, 20 years old, is a student of journalism very known at ECA. Being one of the most popular directors of the athletics, he surprised everyone by showing his “new side”.

Since the beginning of night when the party began, Clayton was seen very excited and drinking a lot. After a few hours – and many beers, vodka, jurupinga and other drinks –at the sound of Madonna he was excited and….took off his clothes! shirt to one side of the room, pants thrown into the crowd and underwear .... well, nobody saw where the underwear ended up

Some people said that his dignity was lost amid the mess. For two hours the success of the dance floor was the "naked dance" until the organization of the party had to interfere to end the "attraction".

It was really a scandal in University and everyone at USP has heard about what happened.

Poor Clayton, after the party his popularity has been shaken and will decrease…or not? Only time will tell…

Renata - My home

2010-07-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

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.

Fernanda - A biography

2010-07-14T15:38:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

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. "

Flavia - Profile

2010-07-12T18:19:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-12T17:25:00.001-07:00

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.

Patricia - Informal letter

2010-07-10T05:51:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-10T05:48:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-10T05:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Henrique - A Biography

2010-07-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-04T13:35:00.001-07:00

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.

Claudio - Biography

2010-07-03T19:24:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-03T19:13:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-03T19:08:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-03T17:12:00.001-07:00

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.

Rafaela - B1 - email to a friend

2010-06-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Yara,

Are you OK? I'm fine, studying a lot, this weekdays as tests begin!
So I live with my mother and my brother, my parents separated when I was 10, but I always see my father. My mother is a saleswoman, and my father is a realtor, my brother is 16 years old and studies.
We live in an Interlagos district of the southern zone of São Paulo, it is a quiet neighborhood, there are three supermarkets, a public hospital and there is the Interlagos circuit which is famous for hosting the championship of Formula 1, among others as bars and some restaurants.

Well, we talked more in class!

Kisses, Rafa

Claudio - U1 - Something about home

2010-06-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

I live in an apartment with my wife and my little son. Last February, we moved to this place. We are very happy with our new home. The neighborhood is different. There are more trees and the life seems to be better. Here, we can stay away from the noise of the cars. A big city like São Paulo offers many opportunities for a job or a study. However, we are always in a hurry, we are afraid of robbers and we drive everyday in heavy traffic.

The new apartment is bigger than the previous one. The bedrooms are really spacious and comfortable. The living room is decorated with folk pictures; there are small sculptures by modern artists, too. We like that kind of mixture between different kinds of art. In a corner, we have the piano. I bought it two years ago when I started to study music at the University. We have some other musical instruments in a specific music room where, sometimes, we use to play music on the weekends with friends. In that place, we have a library with several books about music, scores and compact discs.

I love my kitchen because I like to cook very much. My grandmother was the one who inspired me to learn to cook. I began cooking meat, rice, potatoes and pasta. She taught me many things about Italian and Spanish food. One of my favorite foods is ravioli! I enjoy inventing a meal for us. Today, we prepare more natural food than before.

In my parents’ house, we used to cook a lot. Usually, we invited many friends for a dinner; after that, we played the guitar and sang popular songs. We are a "musical family" in which everybody likes to make music. My father sings folk songs and my brother plays his own works in the guitar. I compose contemporary classical music and I study some scores writing papers about that.

We decided to move here because we wanted a safe and more natural place for our son. Unfortunately, life in big cities is more and more unsafe and we have to look for private security. I hope it will change and we will have a more peaceful life in the future.

Ednei - B1 - Profile

2010-06-01T12:14:00.001-07:00

Surname: Antunes
First name: Nelson
Age: 80
Job: Police officer (retired)
Religion: Evangelic
Birthday: February, 21
Country: Brazil

He is my father, he is married to my mother and they have ten kids. Like in the comics, my father is my hero, he always gives me support in everything. I'll talk here about the history of my father because he has a beautiful life story.

He usually wakes up at five o´clock in the morning on weekdays, but in 2001 after waking up he had a heart attack when he was in the bathroom. It changed the lives of my family. My father was taken to hospital and he had two heart surgeries, after many (several) weeks my father recovered.

Now, he likes to fish, play pool and watch soccer. In his free time, he goes to our family ranch, he loves the nature. He likes to eat fish and he loves to ride a bicycle.

My father has not seen me for two years, but we always talk on the phone, he says he misses me, and I miss him too.

Claudio - U1 - Travel log

2010-05-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

North of Argentina

Last year I traveled with my wife to the north of Argentina. We had been planning that trip for several months. We wanted to know that region of our country because a friend had recommended that we should visit some historical places like "the Cabildo" and the Salta Cathedral, and the marvelous landscapes.

We arrived at Tucumán city on July 1st. We had reserved a room in a Francia Hotel, located in the heart of the city. Foremost, we had a shower. After that, we ate a sandwich and decided to sleep; we were exhausted because of the trip. The day after, we visited the historical House of the Independence Declaration and walked downtown. We bought some typical clothes and candies as a gift for our friends and family.

After we had stayed in Tucumán city for three days, we went to Salta. Until we arrive there, we passed by many quiet and agricultural villages. In those places, indigenous people still live, and they conserve their culture as thousand of years ago. They do the Incan rite, the Pachamama ("Mother Earth"), in the month of August. They sing and dance their songs using traditional instruments. I like that kind of traditional cultural expressions a lot.

The Salta architecture is very Spanish and interesting. In the surroundings, there are other kinds of architectural style and primitive houses can be seen. In the province of Salta, we went to the picturesque town of Cafayate where we visited several vineyards. Cafayate's wines are famous for their high quality. The vineyards are often located in mountainous terrains. My wife and I have the same taste for wines. We love Cabernet and Malbec but we like to try other native wines too, like the "vino patero", a wine made by stepping on the grapes with the feet. After five days, we came back to our home.

I think, in that trip, I have learned a lot about the cultures and the differences between human beings. Each person belongs to a specific culture. Very often, we believe that the only way to do something right is our way. The inhabitants of those regions, especially those who live in the mountains or in the Puna desert are very different from us. The way they think and believe belongs to their culture. The earth can't be separated of the human being. They consider the nature and the human being as a totality where everything is closely related.

On the other hand, I missed so many things from my home, particularly my usual meals. I am accustomed to eating fresh fishes and a big variety of vegetables and fruits almost every day, and I could only find that sometimes in some good restaurants. Even so, I would like to go there many more times!

Solange - B1 - Profile in a letter

2010-05-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

Hi, Elton
How are you?
I’m fine. I’m in a new internship and I’m living in two homes.
On weekends, I stay in my mother’s house with my family in a small town, Taboão da Serra. My mother, my father, my sister and my nephew live there. I love them.
Monday to Friday, I stay in my boyfriend’s house. His name is Laerton. What tell you about him? He’s very friendly and kind. I love him. He is twenty-six. He works at Atento and he is a Physics student. He studies at USP.
He lives in a house in Rio Pequeno. It’s in São Paulo. His house is near my job and near the college, so I’m living there. I like to live there because Laerton is very funny and we talk about many subjects. Sometimes we watch films or listen to music at night. I love it.
We always study hard and we don’t have free time, but sometimes he invites me to go out or watch films at home. On Saturday mornings, we go to English course together. After that, have lunch and he goes to work. On Sunday, he goes to his mother’s house, too. He doesn’t like sports and dance. He likes to stay home with his family and he likes to play with his pets. He has four dogs. His favorite dog is Baby. Sometimes, he likes to drink beer or wine on Saturday evenings.
On weekdays, he gets up early, takes a shower, has breakfast and goes to college. He has lunch about midday and in the afternoons he studies at home. In the evenings, he goes to work. He works at night and arrives at home about two o’clock AM.
In Laerton’s house there are three rooms. There is a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. It’s a small house, but we like it very much. We don’t have big furniture, but we are ok there. We have many books, DVDs and CDs and we have a lot of fun.
See you in next class
Kisses
Sol.

Wellington - B1 - email to a classmate

2010-05-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

Hi love, how are you? I'm fine, but I miss you. When will I see you again?

This week I studied very much, because next week I have a test.

The course of French is very interesting, I learned some new expressions,
I met a classmate who went to France last year, his name is Joaquin,
he 32 years old, is married and has one child.

Also I went to a lecture on Walter Beijamin, I was pretty cool, there were two
speakers who spoke about the Weimar Republic, and also the interwar period
in Germany.

I'm also eager to go to the theater.

I love you

Kisses

Regiane - B1 - Profile

2010-05-26T16:12:00.000-07:00

Claudia is my best friend. She's from São Paulo, but now she lives in Manaus. She's a speech therapist too and she loves her job. She is married, her husband's name is Luiz. He works hard in a big computer firm, but he likes cooking in his free time! They have a daughter. Their daughter's name is Giovanna, she's thirteen and she's a student. Giovanna is lovely! She’s very intelligent and participates in large groups of challenge on the internet. Claudia works hard but helps Giovanna on the challenge. She likes making origami, to sew and to surf the internet in her free time and she loves Japanese food. She loves running, so she participated in São Silvestre and will participate in the marathon of Rio de Janeiro! On her holidays, she comes to São Paulo to meet her friends. She’s very special!!!

Monica - U1 - Travel log

2010-05-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

The Trip of my dreams!

In September, 1997, I went to Europe with my parents. It was the trip of my dreams - although I still have a lot of places to visit! We went to France, Germany, Italy, England... We spent about a week in each country.
In Paris, we could walk for hours because the city is very plain; in Rome, we saw the ruins - Rome is a museum in open air - we also saw the Pope; each place has its charm, it is hard to talk about something special because all the trip was wonderful...
The food, the people, different behaviours, the language, the way we tried to communicate with the others on the streets, bars, restaurants, buses, subways...
In England and Paris there were flowers everywhere because of the death of Princess Diana! Everybody was only talking about this! It was a great loss for the English people!
In Germany, going to a city near Stuttgart, where my brother was playing tennis in a championship, we had to stop to ask for direction and we met a taxi driver who spoke Portuguese with us! He spent some time in São Paulo 2 years before, can you believe that?
Something amazing also happened when we went to Italy. In Assis, 2 days after leaving the small and cosy city, there was an earthquake that destroyed some buildings and the famous church!
I spent my birthday in Nice - South of France - and the manager of the hotel we were in surprised me with a big and tasty cake with candles and everything that goes in a birthday cake! "Nice" thing to remember!
When people ask me what I liked most I say: I liked to have been there! It was marvelous!

Juliana - B1 - email to a classmate

2010-05-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

Hi! What is up?

This week has been tiring, I did a test.
The university is very interesting, my classmates are very nice.
My work is wonderful, I love a friend who works with me, her name is Mary, she is
39 years old and lives in Caieiras city, just like you. You know?
I am anxious for Sunday to arrive to go to the theater. Do you have your English activities this week?
Well, I do!
I like the English classes very much. We are lucky to have an excellent teacher and very good classmates.

I miss you too.

Kisses.
I love you!
Ju

Maristela - U1 - Tourist leaflet

2010-05-25T05:33:00.000-07:00

Discover good reasons to visit Greenland

Greenland Happy Tourism is a very reliable company that has worked since 1984 by developing entrepreneurship and marketing of Greenland adventures. This leaflet brings you several pieces of information about Greenland as a tourist destination.

Join us and have a happy adventure!!!

Travel Routes
a)By air to Greenland from Denmark
You can take a flight to West and South Greenland from Copehagem by the Greenlandic airline Air Greenland.
Onward transport to the towns on Greenland’s west coast takes place by airplane or helicopter. Contact your travel agency or Air Greenland for more information.
b)By sea to Greenland
You can go cruising from Iceland, to the USA or Canada

Accomodation
Hotels – The four-star hotels include Hotel Arctiv in Ilulissat, Hotel Sisimiut in Sisimiut and Hotel Hans Egede in Nuuk. All of them have suite bathroom/toilet, telephone and also TV.

Four seamen’s hostels – Originally cheap and basic overnight accommodation for sailors. Today, they are standard hotels and offer breakfast which is included in each hotel rate price.
Bed and breakfast – Arrangements with Greenlandic family or in sheep-farmer for basic overnight accommodation.

Currency
Danish kroner

Landscapes

The Ice sheet – It’s a huge ice cap where travellers could have an extreme experience to cross the ice sheet. The ice sheet has covered parts of Greeland for the last 2-3 million years.

Midnight Sun – It can be experienced in north of Arctic Circle from a period of a single day to five months. It depends on how far north you travel. The most northerly town is Qaanaaq.

Outdoor adventures

Greenland offers you several outdoor adventures such as trekking, anlgling, kayaking, mountain climbimb and even paragliding on the ice cap. Several travel agencies could be contacted if you were interested.

Angelina - U1 - Letter

2010-05-25T04:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Emily

How are things with you? I’m very well!!
My big news is that I’m dating an Australian player of field hockey team.
I met Geoffrey Flynn in a currency exchange downtown four months ago, when he asked for me information about the exchange rate of the day in English. He is a tourist in Brazil, he is from Adelaide.
Now, I’m receiving Geoffrey in my home because we are dating. He still wishes he could know exciting places of São Paulo city and also I am taking advantage of this situation because I’m always speaking with my guest in English.
Then, we have visited beautiful places of São Paulo and we have especially watched several soccer matches at Morumbi Stadium. What exciting experiences! Geoffrey loves Brazilian soccer matches and he is a fan of Ronaldo, a famous player of Corinthians team.
Geoffrey and I also went to Sesc Pinheiros, near my house, and we watched a concert with a Brazilian composer and singer Edu Lobo last month. How wonderful! Geoffrey loved it!
Last weekend we came out of Eldorado mall and we were walking when I was attacked by a thief who made off with my handbag. The thief stole all my money, credit cards and cell phone! How horrible!
Geoffrey is in his twenties, he’s tall and very good-looking. He is very sensitive. I love him.Thank goodness for that!
I can’t believe that I found a handsome fiancé from a foreign country in my fifties.
Next year we are going to get married and live in Australia.
By the time we’ll have opened a joint checking account at Bank of Brazil because my money is all there.
Hang on! You’ll receive our wedding invitation.
I’m waiting for your news!
Keep in touch,
Angelina

Regiane - B1 - Profile

2010-05-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

Matheus - B1 - Profile

2010-05-24T04:06:00.001-07:00

Rita is a teacher. She is Brazilian and lives with her family in Salesópolis, a small city in São Paulo state. She teaches for little children in a public school. Rita is married to Paulo, and they have four kids, one son and three daughters. Her son is Matheus and Monike, Maiara and Marina are the girls of the house. Rita doesn’t like cats, but she loves dogs, and she has one named Boris. Boris is a puppy.
The city where Rita lives is very quiet. Rita works four hours a day and in her free time she is a housewife. She likes to watch TV; she doesn’t miss one chapter of soap operas and her favorite kind of movies is comedy. Rita is very happy, she loves her family and every Sunday she goes to Church, she prays and thanks, because her family is healthy and united.
In a few years Rita will retire, and her idea is to buy a little house in the countryside and to live there with her husband.

Irene - U1 - Travel log: Visiting Turkey

2010-05-19T18:42:00.000-07:00

Two years ago I had the opportunity of visiting Turkey, a country situated between Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It was an old dream that came true because I was very curious about the Turkish culture. Due to the fact that my youngest daughter was studying in London at that time, I decided to take a flight in order to meet her and then we went together to Istanbul. This city is really wonderful and full of palaces, mosques, gardens, markets and museums from the sultan´s time. In Istanbul, we visited Bosphorus, a strait which divides the city in two parts, and links the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. We crossed the strait by boat and saw beautiful and enormous buildings in both sides of the Bosphorus. We also visited some famous Turkish Baths and the Spicy Market, a space full of typical products, like dry fruits, almonds, rugs and colourful handicraft. When we visited the beautiful Blue Mosque, a local guide explained to us all about the Muslims’ religion. Turkish people are used to praying five times a day and before entering the mosque they have to take off their shoes and wash their hands, their feet and their faces in a tap installed out of the mosque. They have to kneel facing Mecca, the city where Mohammed was born. As you can realize, I enjoyed our trip a lot and I recommend that you visit Turkey as soon as possible.

Andre – U1 – Travel log: Go Center-West

2010-05-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

During my last vacation, I went to Goiânia, a city inside Goiás state. Because of work, I needed to choose when my vacation would be long before I could plan anything. But there was a very old trip plan in my family: To visit my cousin in his house, in Goiânia. My mother and my aunt went there once, but my father and I had never been there before. Goiás is located in the central part of Brazil. It’s known for being the home of many famous country music singers and for its farms.
So, because my parents and my aunt are retired and I’m the only one who cares about vacations now, we decided that we should go to my cousin’s house, in Goiânia. Because I like to drive, I convinced my family that we should go by car. The main arguments were that it’s quicker, cheaper and a lot funnier. My father has a ’93 Subaru Legacy, that is a very powerful and comfortable car despite its age (and very cheap if you are interested) so we decided that it was the right car to take this trip. My cousin gave us directions and tips on how to get there through Minas Gerais state. So, on December 8th, we packed our bags and hit the road by 5 am. It was a very rainy day (in fact that day São Paulo had problem with floods). I was the first driver and my father said that he would exchange seats with me if I got tired. After more than 330Km I didn’t feel tired at all… and neither at the 660Km mark. So I drove all the way to Goiânia and we reached my cousin’s house by 7 Pm, after 980Km.
My cousin’s apartment is very big and it’s located in front of the administrative center of Goiânia and Goiás (because Goiânia is the capital). Many governmental buildings are just across the street or just few minutes away on foot. It’s a beautiful city, with lots of trees and plazas distributed around the city. It was founded by Pedro Ludovico Teixeira, a politician that decided to move the capital to a new city during the 1930’s because Cidade de Goiás, the old capital, was starting to get crowded and its geography had limited the expansion of the city. Goiânia was founded on October, 1933.
But we didn’t stick to Goiânia only. We spent a day in Brasília, Brazil’s capital, that is placed 200Km to the Northeast. There we visited the congress, the senate, Paranoá Lake, 3 Poderes plaza, Brasília’s Cathedral and walked past many embassies. And we also spent a day in Cidade de Goiás, the old capital. It’s a small city in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains. We visited the old government headquarters. Every year, on the anniversary of Cidade de Goiás, it is once again proclaimed the capital of Goiás and politicians move from Goiânia to work there. It’s placed 150Km to the Northwest of Goiânia.
We left Goiânia on December 18th. I drove all the way back to our home, and didn’t feel tired. Did I miss anything from home? I think I just missed my beloved baseball and my computer (my cousin’s computer didn’t have any cool games), but I survived. It was a trip that I’ll never forget. And surely it encouraged us to travel more by car. It’s comfortable, cheap and the views you get when driving are fantastic.

Letter - Simone - U1

2010-05-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

Asking for an opinion
I’m writing to a friend who is spending some time in London. I’m asking her some suggestions to an unexpected visit of an English-speaking person

May 10th, 2010

Hi Juliana,
How are things in London?
I hope you are doing a good job right there!!
Here, it’s fine but I wish you could be with us next month.
I’m writing ’cause I have some news to tell you and I think you can really make me a suggestion …
Do you remember Thomas Grisham from Canada? I’m sure you remember him. He’s that one who talked to us for a long time during the last World Congress of Pharmacology in San Francisco.
Grisham is arriving in São Paulo within two weeks and he’ll come to make some presentations in our department and at UNICAMP. Maybe his wife comes together. They’ll stay in Brazil for about ten days. The problem is our boss who asked me to be with them for at least three days. I know that Grisham is an easygoing person but I’m worried about my English and I need to do my best. I hope I can make myself understood with my English skills. When they come to Campinas, we won’t have much time, so I’ve planned to take them to drink draft beer or one “caipirinha” in the traditional Giovannetti bar, a pleasant place. In São Paulo, Karen promised to help me. At first, we thought about taking them to visit the Butantã Institute where they could see loads of studies about poisonous snakes. Right after that, I thought that it could be interesting if they could visit an informal place like…Rosas de Ouro’s Square – I remember you said it is an exciting place!! - or even…our National Soccer Museum…’cause almost all foreigners enjoy samba and soccer!
Do you think it is a good idea? PLEASE answer ASAP!!
Waiting for your suggestions,
ooooo
your friend,
Simone

Letter - Fernanda - U1

2010-05-17T18:02:00.001-07:00

São Paulo, 10th May
Dear Lily
How are you doing? Here everything is OK. It has been a long time I don’t have any news of you. First of all my sister sends kisses for you. I am writing to tell you the good news. I was invited to go to the USA to stay there for three months, now I have to look for or find a place to stay. I am looking for a host family to stay with. I think it would help me improve my English speaking once I would practice very much. I’ve done a list of possible houses where I can stay. One of them is a single woman’s house. She works all day in a clothing store but she offered to show me the city on her free time. Moreover, she doesn’t smoke and doesn’t have pets, which is great because of my allergy.
There is another one, a couple’s house but they have a baby and in their profile they ask for the person to take care of him on weekends. Certainly, I am not interested in taking care of babies, but I think it is a safer house. They live downtown near a subway station, which is very good. A family house seems more reliable than the single lady’s. Both offer breakfast and individual bedroom, though.
I am very confused and I am afraid of choosing the wrong place. A friend of mine told me that he had stayed with a host family that looked very good, but in fact, most of things offered on the web site were not as they had said.
So, what do you think about this? As I know that you’ve lived at the same place I will go I thought you could make some suggestions, couldn’t you?

Miss you
Fernanda

Profile - Edenise - B1

2010-05-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

Surname: F*********
First name: Ediane
Age: 27
Job: nurse
Religion: Spiritualist
Birthday: February, 26
Sign: Pisces
Country: Brazil
Address: *****************, Jequié-BA

She is Ediane, she is married and has two daughters. Her husband is Lourival and her children are R***** and A** L****. Her father is Edilson and her mother is Eunice, she has two sisters. She has a pet, it is a beautiful dog, its name´s Fofonildo.

She gets up at six o´clock in the morning on weekdays, because she takes the children to school and then goes to work. She works in a hospital and in Family Health Program. Her life is very busy!!!But she loves her job!

She likes dancing, goes shopping and relaxes with family in her free time. She loves cooking too! The food she makes is very good. She doesn´t smoke, but she sometimes drinks.

Ediane is Edenise´s sister. When they were kids, they played and also fought, that was funny! Currently, they are close friends, share many happy moments and Edenise is A** L****´s godmother.
It is Ediane´s profile! This is for you to know a little of her life!

email to a friend - wallace -B1

2010-05-06T12:27:00.001-07:00

Dear Fabio,

How are you? I'm fine. Here's an email in English. It's good practice for you and me! I heve classes in English at the Sao Paulo in university. I'm in a class with eleven students. They're all from states: Paraiba, Ceara, Pernambuco and Sao Paulo. Our teacher's name's Elton. He's very funny and a very good teacher.
I live with a Brazilian family in a small, new house far from the centre of town. Neuza and Valmir have a daughter and son. Their daughter, Ingrid, is 19. She's a student at Anhembi university. Their son, Leandro, is a doctor for a hospital. He's 20. They're all very friendly, it's easy to understand them.
Anhembi is very big and very exciting! The restaurants and nightclubs are expensive, but the student bars and cafes are cheap. It's cold now, and it's lovely to be near the country side. I'm very happy here.

Email me soon!

Regards, Wallace.