A series of unfortunate events

Last weekend, a family that I know invited me to go skiing. As I´d never been before, I was very excited but also a bit nervous. James had warned me about how difficult it was, so I went expecting to fall over...a lot!

The town of Tredos.

The town I stayed in, near Baqueira, was beautiful. In England, there aren´t any mountains like the Pyrenees, so it was a stunning landscape for me to see. It was also the first time I´d seen snow this year, having been in warm Cabrera for most of the winter.

Then on the Saturday, I went skiing. I struggled into the ski boots and started to practice. After finally getting to grips with the technique, I attempted to ski down a large slope. Predictably, I went flying and landed in a pile of snow. But by the end of the day, I´d improved and wasn´t doing too badly.

Expert skiier. 

Then on Sunday, I wasn´t going skiing again, so decided to visit a nearby town of Vialha. I took the bus there and saw some of the sights. Then when I tried to get the bus back, I encountered a problem - I´d completely forgotten the name of the town where I was staying! So I jumped on the bus and hoped for the best. After about a 30 minute journey I got off the bus, in an area I´d never seen before. There were a lot of French people there, and     I´m not sure whether or not I was still in Spain. There were no buses going back for several hours and I didn´t have my mobile with me, so I started to walk back. After a 3 and a half hour journey, I arrived back in Vialha, exhausted and worried.

I think I´ve taken the wrong bus...

Even though it was an unfortunate day, I still had a great time skiing.

From now on, I´ll make sure I remember where I´m going. But I did get to briefly go to France!

Brendon

Copa del Rey basketball

Last Saturday we went to watch Barcelona play in the basketball Copa del Rey play-off semi-finals at Palau Sant Jordi. The stadium was very impressive, located behind the beautiful Montjuic Castle and next to the Olympic Stadium. Outside there were some interesting statues and fountains, complementing stunning panoramic views of the entire city from the top of the hill. There was a real carnival atmosphere (it was carnival after all!) and because it was a play-off day featuring four different teams there were fans from all over Spain dressed up in fancy-dress costumes, singing and dancing. As Real Madrid were playing we expected some hostility in the air, but the rivalry was friendly and the fans mixed freely - it was nothing like the 'el clasico' football matches! Barcelona won in a close first game, while Real Madrid went on to defeat their semi-final opponents easily to set up a mouth-watering final for the following day.

 We both really enjoyed our day out. The basketball was exciting and played to a frentic pace, while the fans and the amazing atmosphere helped us to continue the carnival party we had started at school the day before! If you ever get the chance to watch a basketball game at Palau Sant Jordi you should definitely go!

Word of the week

Smug - presumido
Definition: To be excessively self-satisfied    
A synonym:    arrogant - arrogante           

 

e.g. In 2008, Cristiano Ronaldo said in an interview "I am the first, second and third best player in the world". This is a very smug opinion of his own ability.

Phrase of the week

To see red - estar enfadado 
Definition: To lose one´s temper and self-control completely. 

e.g. The man saw red and hit him.

Pancake Day!

Like Pancakes? Well today is your lucky day...if you can get to Britain!

Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake day, is celebrated every year in the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The festival is linked to Easter, and marks the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. We´re not sure why, but for some reason we eat as many pancakes as we can. In James´ house they have a competition to see who can eat the most! Usually the winner is James! Another fun activity is flipping the pancakes when cooking. In Brendon´s house this usually results in pancakes on the ceiling!

As the day is devoted to pancakes, many weird and wonderful new fillings have been tried. Have a look at this website link to see some of the different fillings: 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/uk/newsid_2817000/2817277.stm

Here´s our Princess flipping pancakes. 

But traditionally the most popular are lemon juice, maple syrup and jam. What do you like in your pancakes? Do you have any strange ideas of what you would like to try?

Carnival Clowns

The traditional Catholic celebration of Carnival, marking the beginning of Lent, prompted parties and festive activities throughout Spain this weekend. Here in Cabrera, the school held performances in the local sports centre in the afternoon. People wore fancy dress costumes, (including the teachers!) and the students prepared dances for a competition. Coming from Protestant England, where we celebrate Shrove Tuesday instead, we were unsure of what to expect.

Last week, we went to Barcelona in search of our costumes. After a days brainstorming and shopping, we eventually decided on clowns. However, these weren't just any old clowns. We were to be sad clowns! Payasos tristes! Despite the lure of some wonderful tartan suits, we settled on top hats, bowties and face paints. We managed to keep the idea a secret until the day of the festival. After an hour or so of struggling to use the paints, we finally emerged looking slightly scary (especially to Brendon´s host family!). 

The festival itself was really enjoyable, and we must give special mention to the presenters Pep and Jemma. We were both impressed with the standard of dancing: the students performed some excellently choreographed and inventive routines. There was even a Beatles song! 

In conclusion, although we both love the pancake feast of Shrove Tuesday in England, the carnival was a more exciting and entertaining festival overall. 

Roll on March and, hopefully, some sunshine!

Los dos payasos!

Former Barça manager to Leeds?

Radomir Antic, the former Barcelona and Real Madrid manager has been bizarrely linked to the manager vacancy at Leeds United. He is one of only two people to have managed both Real and Barca, and previously won a Spanish league and cup double at Athletico Madrid. He was also in charge of Serbia at the 2010 World Cup.

Since Simon Grayson´s departure from the Leeds hot seat 2 weeks ago, many names have been linked with the job but surely this is the strangest. If he does become the Leeds boss, he will join Scottish superstar Robert Snodgrass and Argentinian Luciano Becchio, who both previously played for Barcelona´s B and C teams.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/7484166/Antic-keen-on-Leeds-post

I think he´d be a great choice as manager!

Brendon

Presentations

We've uploaded some of our presentations to the link at the bottom of this page. 

Valentine's Day was yesterday, but I'm more excited for Carnival this weekend. We have a surprise in store involving costumes....

http://www.slideshare.net/santfeliujb/presentations

Have a nice day!

Snow in the U.K

Good afternoon! It's a nice sunny day here in Cabrera, the kind that makes us thankful that we're not in England this February! Here's a collection of photographs from the Guardian newspaper website showing the snow in England this month. In the second you can see Arsenal F.C's stadium, the Emirates, in the background.

These brilliant snowmen were made in Victoria Park and Finsbury Park, both of which feature in the 'London Parks' presentation. 

Happy Birthday Charles!

Yesterday was the 200th birthday of legendary English author Charles Dickens, a true master of the English language.

We showed you this clip in class, and you seemed to enjoy it so if you'd like to see it again, here is the link. It is from the 1969 musical adaptation of Oliver Twist.

''Please sir... can I have some more?...''

The Monastery of Pedralbes and Parc Güell

On Thursday 26th of January we went on a trip to a monastery. The trip was part of the 2nd ESO group's Geography module, and the school kindly invited us along. The day began with a 45 minute coach journey to the monastery, during which we played cards with some pupils and discussed the previous night's 'El Clasico' (Barcelona drew 2-2 with Madrid, but went through to the semi finals of the Copa Del Rey after winning the first leg). We arrived at the Gothic 'Monastery of Pedralbes' at around 9am.

The monastery was founded by King James II of Aragon for his wife Elisenda de Montcada in 1326, and her tomb is preserved there. Today it still houses a small group of nuns, and also functions as a musuem.

The place was incredibly peaceful and beautiful. The students had a guide, but as neither me nor Brendon can understand much Catalan, we were free to explore the site ourselves. It was quite spectacular to stand by the fountain in the middle of the cloister, surrounding by orange trees!

After we had explored the monastery, the coach took us to Parc Güell. It was our first time visiting the popular tourist attraction, but we both agreed that it was one of our favourite parts of Barcelona. We ate a picnic and took some pictures with the famous dragon sculpture. My favourite part was the prehistoric-looking columns! After all that excitement, I slept all the way home on the coach. It was a great day, and we want to thank the school for taking us and the students for making it such an enjoyable and funny experience.

Cheers!
James and Brendon

An extraordinary lunchtime!

During the first week back in January, Brendon and I (perhaps more me...) decided to take a short stroll at lunchtime. Our destination was the small castle at the top of the hill (it would be classed a mountain where I'm from!) behind the school. Castle Burriac, the ruins of an ancient castle ruled by the Sant Vicenç family, stands imposingly at the top of the small village of Cabrera de Mar. It is constantly overlooking the place, and Brendon can even see it from his bedroom window! Thankfully it's beautiful: light-coloured stone walls and the Catalan flag blowing in the breeze. Although we've always wanted to take a walk up the hill to see it properly, we had never got round to it in the first term. So, finally, on a bright and warm January afternoon, we decided to set off for the summit during our 3 hour lunch break.

After around 10 minutes walking we began to appreciate that it wouldn't quite be the lazy stroll that we'd been expecting. Retrospectively, I can now conclude that we underestimated the hill! Neither of us are as healthy as we should be, and the incline soon made us tired. After around an hour we finally made it to the top (after investigating a hippy camper van with a KISS-style head stuck on the top). The amazing views ensured that our efforts were worthwhile. The castle has been well preserved, and as you walk through the ruins you can picture scenes of battles and ancient opulence. From the top you can see the whole of Maresme. The views of the Mediterranean Sea and the surrounding towns are absolutely magnificent. We decided to enjoy these views; to reward ourselves for the climb by relaxing at the top for a while and taking it all in.

Once we finally decided to start walking back to school we realised that we had been a lot longer than expected. I arrived to my afternoon lesson late, sweaty, and out-of-breath!

Verdict: Visit Castle Burriac, but not at lunch time!