luni, 29 octombrie 2012

Halloween

    Hello everybody! As Halloween comes soon I want to post something about it here.

    Fisrtly : Halloween is a yearly holiday observed in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Puerto Rico, northwestern and central Mexico on October 31, the eve before the Western Christian feast of All Hallows. In the Catholic Church this festivity is the equivalent of Day of the Dead. Halloween activities include Trick-or-Treating or Guising, costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, etc.








 Secondly: I want to post a story which is considered to be the halloween legend and lore.

"The Jack-O-Lantern"

    The legend of the Jack-O-Lantern comes from Ireland from about the 18th century. With some variations the basis of the Jack-O-Lantern is as follows:
There was a stingy drunkard of an Irishman named Jack who tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree. Then Jack quickly cut the sign of a cross into the trunk of the tree, thereby preventing the Devil from climbing down. Jack made the Devil swear that he wouldn't ever come after Jack's soul again or claim it in any way. However, this did not stop Jack from dying and when he did he was not allowed into Heaven, because of his life of drinking, being tightfisted and being deceitful. And because of the oath the Devil had taken Jack was not allowed into Hell either. "But where can I go?" asked Jack. "Back where you came from!" replied the Devil. The way back was windy and dark. The Devil, as a final gesture, threw a live coal at Jack straight from the fire of Hell. To light his way and to keep it from blowing out in the wind Jack put it in a turnip he was eating. Ever since Jack and his "lantern" has been traveling over the face of the earth looking for a place to rest.

The moral of the story: Don't mess with the devil !!!

 

 Thirdly : Some quotes about Halloween.

 1. " There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit front porch. "     - Robert Brault


2. " I don’t know that there are real ghosts and goblins, but there are always more trick-or-treaters than neighborhood kids. " - Robert Brault

  3. " Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night. " – Steve Almond


4. " A grandmother pretends she doesn’t know who you are on Halloween." - Erma Bombeck


 5. " True love is like ghosts,which everyone talks about but few have seen. " ~ Anonymous


And some more interesting facts about:

" Ghosts, Bats and other Halloween stuff... "
 
  • Halloween is based on an ancient holiday 'All Hallows Eve'. It was the one day of the year where dead spirits were allowed to walk the earth.
  • Bats fingers are actually parts of its wings and their "fingers" are bigger then their body
  • Bats always turn left when exiting a cave
  • "Phasmophobia" is a fear of ghosts.
  • Of the 4000 species of mammals on the planet, there are 900 different species of bats.
  • Worldwide, bats are the most important natural enemies of night-flying insects.
  • 9% of Americans report having been in the prescence of a ghost.
  • During WWII, Americans tried to train bats to drop bombs. They failed.
  • Wiccaphobia: Fear of witches and witchcraft.
  • Samhainophobia: Fear of Halloween.

    Guys, HAVE A SPOOKY HALLOWEEN!



    And,by the way :)



    Monday's expectations

    Dear my teacher and my fellows,

        How are you? I would like to write here about my further expectations on this novel. Sincerely I expected more pleasure from its reading but I think it will be forward but anyway,I am very curious what will happen.
      
        I expect that Pip will be more happy in the future. He will share with his sister about everything as he does this with Joe,his brother-in-law. And maybe he will get rid of that bad man who demanded Pip to bring him a file and some food. I consider him as a negative character. I am looking forward to read those passages where Estella will be present. I want to discover if she is truly a positive character as I think. I want to see her place in this novel,too. Maybe she will become Pip's good friend or even his sweetheart. I am very interested in this character and I also think that she will be my favourite character. I think that this story is full of adventures and actions and certainly Love must be present in it.
      
    So,I will try to get pleasure from the reading and I am sure that I will discover everyone's place in this book.
    Good luck to everybody and as our dear teacher always says: " Be positive and positive things will happen to you!" I like it.It encourages me a lot:) and by the way- " Do not forget always to smile because as my dear Kate said that Smile is the priority of everybody!" and also I want to add that someone can fall in love with your smile:)

    sâmbătă, 27 octombrie 2012

    My realizations

       Dear teacher and fellows,

        How are you? I want to share with you my impressions on those passages that I have read.
      
          During the reading of this novel,I found some characters in it. The main character was a little boy who was six years old. He is a positive character. His full name was Philip Pirrip. So,he called himself Pip and came to be called Pip. Because of the fact that he was an orphan he lived with his sister - Mrs.Joe Gargery and her blacksmith husband - Joe Gargery. They lived in the marsh country,down by the river,within,as the river wound,twenty miles of the sea. The boy never saw his parents : Philip and Georgiana - they died and also their infant  children - Alexander,Bartholomew,Abraham,Tobias and Rofer died.
          The boy relieved his pain trying to imagine his parent's appearances from their tombstones and from the shape of the letters on them. He liked to go to the churchyard but one day as he stayed there he was scaried by a fearful man with a great iron on his leg who jumped out of a hiding place and grabed Pip by the throat.
    He demanded that Pip must bring him some food and a sharp. Then the man disappeared telling to the boy that he would cut out his heart and liver if he didn't obey. The boy went home.
          In the boy's words : " My sisters, Mrs.Joe Gargery,was more than twenty years older than I....; She was not a good-looking woman,my sister;and I had a general impression that she must have made Joe Gargery marry her by hand.; My sister,Mrs.Joe,with black hair and eyes,had such a prevailing redness of skin that I sometimes used to wonder whether it was possible she washed herself with a nutmeg-grater instead of soap.; She was tall and bony, and almost always wore a coarse apron,fastened over her figure behind with two loops,and having a square impregnable bib in front, that was stuck full of pins and needles.; She made it a powerful merit in herself,and a strong reproach against Joe,that she wore this apron so much.; Though I really see no reason why she should have worn it at all : or why,if she did wear it at all,she should not have taken it off,every day of her life." there is his sister's direct characterization.
         There is also Joe's direct characterization  : " Joe was a fair man,with curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face,and with eyes of such a very undecided blue that they seemed to have somehow got mixed with their own whites. He was a mild,good-natured,sweet-tempered,easy-going,foolish,dear fellow – a sort of Hercules in strength,and also in weakness." Pip described Joe as his best friend with whom he liked to talk but he could not understand why a man as gentle and sweet as Joe would ever marry a woman as mean and hard as his sister.
       When Pip went home,his sister was not at home,she was looking for him,there was only Joe. When she came home she disgraced Pip and asked where he was. He told to her that he was in the churchyard. After,they had their dinner and Pip succeeded to steal some food and ran off into the marshes to find that man.
        Here I stopped. I will read more because I am curious what will happen further. I liked it,but it is a little bit difficult because as in the previous book there are many unknown words and no time to look them up in the dictionary:) Guys,what about you? Do you like this book?


    marți, 16 octombrie 2012

    My expectations from "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

    Hi everybody! As we have read the previous book " Frankenstein " and have done a presentation on it (about which I am very sorry and I apologize our teacher because I am so emotional,I will do my best to change my being and to become stronger spiritually),we must to read another book,that differs very much from Shelley's. I like the Dickens's manner of writing and his novels. In my opinion,it is easier to read them and they are more interesting. Last year,the second year students (Irina and Anne) made a beautiful presentation of this book,drawing a tree on which they put down all the names of the characters from this novel,but they emphasized more on Estella,a young beautiful girl. They told us some interesting things about this novel. I had even understood that it was (maybe) a dramatic one. I will discover this. Right then,there was a great curiosity to this book. They had even told us they we would be supposed to read it and told us very little abut it.So,they were right:) I will try to enjoy this book if I have time to do it and to read it not in a hurry.Good luck to all of us!!!!!