Monsters and candies.

WHAT'S HALLOWEEN?
Trick or treat! Halloween(All Hallows' Evening, literally the evening before the 'Feast of All Saints') is a party celebrated on the night of 31st October.Halloween celebrates a lot of things, like the lives of people who aren't with us any more.

ORIGIN.
Its history isn't clear...3000 years ago, the Celtics(people who lived in Ireland, England, Scotland and France) celebrated the end of year on 31st October with the Samhain. They practiced religious and spiritual rites because they thought that this night dead people resurrected.

TRADITIONS.
At night, people disguise as monsters(zombies, ghosts, whitches, vampires...) and go house to house saying 'trick or treat'(disguised people ask for candies and if they don't get them, they do a trick to the people who don't give candies). 

Jack-o-lantern is a carved pumkin used as a lamp to scare bad spirits.
Most popular sweets: nutty ghosts, spider cakes, frigthful sweets, shortbread fingers...
People gather around a bonfire and they tell scary stories.

FEATURES.
-Characteristic colours are orange(represents the fall Harvest) and black(represents the darkness).
-Halloween symbols:
   *Owl (good luck charm).
   *Bat (bad augury).
   *Black cat (spirit's reincarnations).
   *Ghosts (they represent the deseaseds).
   *Masks (they're used for scare bad spirits).
   *Moon (it's a midpoint between life and dead).

-There are some superstitions too:
   *A person born on Halloween can see spirits and talk to them.
   *If you ring a bell, you can scare bad spirits.

SCARY SONGS.
Here is a video with scary songs from movies.


And this is an actually song from a group called 'Evanescence' that I think is perfect for Halloween.



Hope you enjoy it!

Vertigo.

Last weekend I watched a very, very, very interesting film:

It's about a policeman called John Fergusson who saw a man falling from a roof. Then, he began to be fright of heights. He retired from his job because of his vertigo. One day, an old friend called John asked him a favour: he had to keep watch over his wife Madeleine because his friend believed that she was possessed by a spirit. John began to keep an eye over her, he followed Madeleine all day. Suddenly, she fell in the sea. John ran to save her. When she waked up, they began to talk and John fell in love with her.They went to visit a church. She ran up the stairs and she jumped from the roof. John couldn't believe what he had seen, she was dead.

John was very sad for a long time. One day, he saw a woman who was alike Madeleine called Julie. He asked her to have dinner together and she said 'yes'. She fell in love with him, but John only wanted to transformate Julie in Madeleine. He bought her the same clothes and he took her to the hairdresser's to change her hairstyle. She did all that he wanted because she loved him too much. But John didn't know a thing: SHE WAS 'MADELEINE'. All had been a plan from his old 'friend': His wife was really mad, but he used Julie for deceive John and make him believe that she was died. Who really died was the real Madeleine because John's 'friend' threw her from the roof. John realised of it when he went with Julie to the church where Madeleine died. He was very angry. A nun came into the church and Julie felt so sorry that she got frightened and fell from the roof and died.

I think that Vertigo is a very good film because it's interesting from the beginning to the end. It's a very passionate film with a lot of mistery. I recommend to watch it. It's wonderful!

Bob Marley, reggae representant.

BOB MARLEY'S LIFE.
He was born in 1945 in Nine Mile, a small village situated high in the mountains of Jamaica, an island located in the Caribean sea. This village hadn't got running water, so the people gather rain water with a reservoir. Bob's parents were Cedella Malcom and Norval Marley (a white Jamaican, captain in the Army) and they had troubles for marrying because Norval's family strongly disapproved their union. Bob Marley died in 1981 because he suffered a fatal heart attack. You can visit his birthplace because a Mausoleum is placed on it.
There's a map where you can see Jamaica.

JAMAICA.

Last discoverer of Jamaica was Cristobal Colón in 1504. The original habitants of the island were the Arowak indians. In the 17th century, Jamaica was the world centre of piracy. Buccaneers led by Captain Henry Morgan plundered the Spanish Main bringing such riches to the island that it became as wealthy as any of Europe's leading trading centres. In the 18th century, Jamaica became the distribution centre of slaves for the entire New World, because there were a lot of black fugitive slaves (maroons) of the West Indies and Guiana.

RASTAFARI CULTURE.

Rastafari name comes from Ras (prefix used for Ethiopian princes) and Tafari (name of Haile Selassie before being crowned) because a man called Garvey said a prophecy for an African king and they thought that Hailee was the savior. That prophecy was the seed for Jamaican Rastafari. Garvey's objective was that black people could return to Africa.

The 21st of April 1966 his Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie visited to Jamaica and he had a profound impact upon Bob (he instructed Bob for the Rastafarian faith). Some of Rastafari habits are:

-Smoking ganja (that habit appeared because it was considered the wisdom seed).

-Wearing dreadlocks.

-Being vegetarian ( because they think that we must defend animals.

-Listening reggae.

There's a photo with a ganja's leaf on a background make with the colours of Rastafarian flat (green, yellow and red).

REGGAE.

Reggae is a type of music characterized because there are regular cuts on a music background know as beat.

Bob Marley's famous specially because of his music. He played reggae with a band (Bob Marley and the Wailers).Bob's music role was promoting peace and cultural understanding.

Ones of their first big hits and recording songs are 'Judge Not' and 'Do you still love me?'.

I think that some of him songs are great, but they aren't my favourite type of music.

Here's my favourite song of him, 'No woman no cry':

"Life is music, music is life".

I think that music is a very important thing in my life. Listening to music makes me happy, we can create an ambiance and we can transmit our feelings.
When I listen to classical music I feel relaxed, and when I listen to pop-rock I feel with a lot of energy. I listen to music all the time because I feel better.
I have been playing the flute for nine years and last year I began to play the piano too. I love music, I play in a band and I think that all people should learn to enjoy music because it's wonderful.
I like classical music and pop-rock but I like lots of songs of differents styles of music like:

-Sicilienne Op 78 by Gabriel Fauré for flute (classical music):




-I saw her standing there by The Beatles (pop music):




-The show must go on by Queen (rock):



-Billie Jean by Michael Jackson (he mixed different styles like pop, rock and dance):



-I like soundtracks from some films like Chariots of fire:




And what do you think about music? Tell me!

Ones and others.

There's a list of words that are different in British English or in American English. Hope you enjoy it!

BRITISH	AMERICAN
TAXI	CAB
TUBE	SUBWAY
FILM	MOVIE
PAVEMENT	SIDEWALK
TROUSERS	PANTS
BISCUIT	COOKIE
AUTUMN	FALL
HOLYDAY	VACATION
LIFT	ELEVATOR
FOOTBALL	SOCCER
FLAT	APARTMENT
MAD	CRAZY
PUB	BAR
RUBBISH	TRASH
SWEET	CANDY
TIN	CAN
TORCH	FLASHLIGHT
POSTMAN	MAILMAN
LORRY	TRUCK
TRAINERS	SNEAKERS
CHIPS	FRIES
QUEUE	LINE
CURTAINS	DRAPES
MOTORWAY	HIGHWAY
MAIZE	CORN