FIRST SAND STORM OF THE SEASON



My neighbourhood   10/01/2012

My "spooky" neighbourhood   09/03/2012



These two pictures have been taken from the same point, at the same time in different days. The first one is a typical clear and sunny day in The Canaries, and the second one shows a phenomenon known as CALIMA.

"Calima" means dust or sand in the atmosphere. This dust/sand comes from the near Sahara Desert. When this dust storm is accompanied by hot and strong winds the phenomenon is called SIROCO.

Fortunately, this happens only twice or three times a year, specially in the Autumn and in the Spring.

So are you tired of snow already? At least snow melts down: we have to remove dust when the storm is over (outside and inside houses)...Paradise doesn't exist after all, don't you think so?

MARTENITSA

Dear  participants,

According to an old Bulgarian tradition on this first day of March I'm sending you a "martenitsa" with which I wish you health, cheerful spring mood and good luck!

Best regards
Lilia Hristova

Click here to know more about "martenitsa"

It's Carnival time!

Culture, languages and ICT

Carnival Queen 2012 (picture by www.listas/20minutes.es)

Carnival is one of the most popular festivities in The Canaries. Even though it is celebrated in all municipalities, the Carnival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria might be the most flamboyant and eye catching of all because of its richness and number of participants. It is followed by Maspalomas Carnival, the most cosmopolitan since we have participants and visitors from all over the world. People enjoy all kind of shows and activities in the open air during three weeks of fun. Among the most popular shows we have The Queen Gala (video) and The Drag Queen Gala (video). The contestants for the Queen's throne wear very heavy dresses (called fantasies which weigh up to 100 kilos) which prove the designers' creativity and skills. On the other hand, Drag Queens are characterised by wearing high platform shoes with which they have to perform on stage in front of nearly 5,000 people who had previously queued for three days in order to get a ticket for the show.

Carnival Drag Queen 2012 (picure by www.eldia.es)

The Cabalgata (the big parade) is also one of the craziest events, with more than a hundred decked coaches followed by thousands (usually more than 250,000) of citizens and visitors in disguises and official groups like murgas (group of singers with ironic and funny lyrics) and comparsas (group of dancers). Every night (but specially at the weekends) there are free parties on the streets (called mogollón) and the Carnival finishes with the Burial of the Sardine: the Sardine fish represents carnival, so its burial means that the party is over; this is an allegorical party, and everybody dresses in black costumes and pretends being in a funeral (a hilarious funeral). And the best of all: safety! Even though the number of participants may sound scary, the truth is that the rate of criminality and delinquency is practically non-existent. So, what are you waiting for? Hurry up, the party is coming to an end!

Carnival is a great opportunity to create motivating activities for language learning, and thanks to the vicarious experience offered by the Net, there is no need to travel physically to different parts of the world in order to get to know this festivity. Here you have some online ideas for Carnival activities (by courtesy of Oxford University Press).

Hi everyone, hope you're doing good. Just booked my air ticket and got excited about the study visit as it's approaching. I wish you all the best and melting, it's still freezing here, temperature's gone up to minus 3 :-) though. Looking forward to meet you all. Cheers

WELCOME TO OUR GROUP 

CEDEFOP confirmed on January 9th the composition of our group. We will be 16 + 1 participants in total, so we welcome (in the order they appear in CEDEFOP's list)...

The weather in winter - picture taken on 1/1/2012

 
• Liesbeth Pennewaard, from The Netherlands
• Philippe Anckaert, from Belgium
• Renata Müllerová, from The Check Republic
• Zofia Kozielska, from Poland
• Rudolf Reisenberge, from Austria
• Lilia Hristova, from Bulgaria
• Anna Kulinska, from Poland
• Krzysztof Lichy, from Poland
• Wiktor Kostrzewski, from The United Kingdom
• Maria Badinska, from Slovakia
• Viktória Tafferner-Gulyás, from Hungary
• Fenisia Serembe, from Italy
• Maria De Cillis, from Italy
• Evelyne Sacchet, from France
• Eva Karlsson, from Sweden
• Daniel Batteauw, from Belgium

All the participants have already received a welcome letter via e-mail  (download) as well as some information about the hotel and reservation tips (download) 

We must say that as host institution we are glad because all the participants have replied with great enthusiasm and motivation, so we thank you and welcome you once more, and we also look forward to meeting you in Maspalomas.

PROMOTING OUR PROJECT



 5th Conference of Official Language schools in the Canaries

The 5th Regional Conference for professionals working in Official Language schools took place on November 4th and 5th, 2011. This biennial event has been used by our institution (EOI Masapalomas) as the perfect platform to promote our European projects, including our Study Visit "How to Integrate ICT and Foreign Language Learning in Language Schools in Spain": Miguel Suárez (Principal) and José Rodríguez (Secretary and Organiser) ran a one-hour workshop on the different European projects being implemented at EOI Maspalomas, so that we could inform other colleagues about the nature of this kind of European action, bringing attention to the value added of this event and pointing out the benefits for the institutions visited as well as the opportunities for European cooperation.
Not only are these events important to disseminate our project, but also to promote ourselves and to identify and contact speakers and host institutions. These were also the goals for publishing a short statement issued on the December local education magazine "Sabías Que..."

GETTING READY FOR OUR STUDY VISIT




Cristina Figueroa (National Agency Head for Study Visits)
and Miguel Suárez (EOI Maspalomas Principal)

  
 The Study Visits team has welcomed our institution in Thessaloniki (Greece) and Madrid (Spain) on 22nd and 23rd September (2011) for the knowledge sharing seminar for study visits organisers. Both Miguel Suárez (Principal) and José Rodríguez (Organiser) have enjoyed the company of many experienced organisers of 2011/2012 study visits and selected representatives of the different national agencies. We have been informed about recent developments in education and training in Europe, we have shared with the organisers who hosted study visits in the previous years our concerns and challenges about organising visits, we have learned from one another, and we have given and got advice on how to organise a good quality visit so that you can learn and enjoy a fruitful and lively sharing experience with us in Maspalomas.



José Rodríguez (organiser) in Thessaloniki for the knowledge sharing seminar