Ötzi's Blog

Xmas in Spain

2009-12-21T11:11:00.000-08:00

In mid-November you can start seeing Christmas trees where you walk, lights on the balconies and ornaments in the stores. Christmas carols are heard in supermarkets, toy stores and even at school. Is night very early and Christmas is near.

When we celebrate Christmas in Spain, families gather to share and enjoy the joy of this celebration. At this time emphasize a lot of ornaments and lights in many streets and houses. A symbol of Christmas, important in this country, is the Nativity scene is a representation of the birth of Jesus that you can see in shop windows and at the entrance of many houses. Also during these days you can hear the voices of children singing Christmas carols.

The most important days are:

• 24th DECEMBER, CHRISTMAS EVE: on this day we celebrate two traditions that are: making a special dinner in family with typical foods (turkey, a huge variety of seafood ...) and go to midnight Mass at 12 at night.

• 25th DECEMBER, CHRISTMAS: it is also often to have lunch in family and in some cases; Santa Claus visits the homes of some children to give them some presents.

• 31st DECEMBER, NEW YEAR: in all the squares of Spanish cities, you can see millions of people waiting for the clock to rings 12 hour, then for each chime they eat a grape.

• 6th JANUARY, THREE KINGS: is the favourite day of all children, the day that they are waiting impatient for their gifts. The previous day in the afternoon, you can see the Procession of the Three Kings and greet them. Then, before going to bed, children leave three glasses of champagne and a bit of nougat and they go to bed. Next day morning they discover the gifts. For lunch you buy a twisted roll of kings, a sweet pastry with a shaped ring, which contains a little surprise inside. It is said that the person who gets it will have lucky year.

Paula Estévez

4 ESO A Col·legi Madre Alberta

Xmas in my family II

2009-12-21T11:08:00.000-08:00

Before the night of the twenty-fourth of December we usually decorate the house with a Christmas tree and with a Christmas crib and more decorations that we put in the house.

The night of twenty-fourth all the families meet in a house and they go to the midnight mass, where there are people that sing Xmas songs. In our school, for example, we celebrate the midnight mass, and a lot of people go there every year with their families and you can saw a short interpretation of the birth of the child Jesus.Then we go to our houses where we have dinner all together,is tipical eat Christmas soup like starter and suckling pig like a main course. When we finish to have dinner we open the presents that Santa Claus put near the Christmas tree,but Santa Claus is not very typical here. A lot of people celebrate Santa Claus day but is bigger the celebration of the sixth of January, when the three Wise Men come with a lot of presents,and is tipical eat the twisted roll of kings, these is a dessert that is a donut-shaped cake inside it you can find in your piece of food a bean and if you find it you have to pay the twisted roll of kings next year, but at the same time you can find a figure of a king and if you find you have to put a crown.

The next day we celebrate the Christmas day, we normally meet again with our family and we have lunch and we stay with our family all the day.

The twenty-sixth we make the same that the day of Christmas because we celebrate the second fest.

Another party is the last day of the year, all the people celebrate New’s Year Eve.

This is a funny day, the last twelve seconds in Spain we eat a grape for each second.

You always finish with all the grapes in your mouth, is so funny see all the people that can’t eat the grapes so quickly.

The last fest is in sixth of January,the Wise Men put the present at night on fith of December. But now the Santa Claus day is more similar because if you open the present on twenty-fourth of December you have more days to play with them.

Marina Daviu

4 ESO A Col·legi Madre Alberta

Xmas in my family

2009-12-21T10:55:00.000-08:00

First note that currently there have been some changes in the way of celebrating Christmas. Years ago we celebrated Christmas and Eve together with my mother's family, leaving the second Christmas party and the Magi to the paternal family. Eve is reserved for the four that are in my family.

Now we celebrate all festivals together, both the paternal and maternal family.

On Christmas Eve we all meeting in a house (each year we are changing), we make a lunch-dinner nibble (“pa amb oli” and stiff). Arriving about 11 in the night, we get in a circle and pick up a piece of paper which is written the title of the song that we sing. This is a typical night where grandparents tell their war stories again and embarrassing anecdotes from parents. It's a family night of enjoy and many, many laughs.

The next day is Christmas dinner at my grandmother’s, my grandmother, like every year, delights us with its delicious seafood soup with stuffed squid and, as second course, rabbit with baked potatoes and their secret sauce, which only I know my family do. After dinner we sat in the lounge and handed out gifts, my uncle wore Santa Claus and distributed them.

In Eve, as I said earlier we celebrate only the four in my house, cook dinner with my mother, a good stiff and smoked salmon that brings us some friends from Galicia, every year. Arriving eat twelve grapes and then by videoconferencing congratulate the whole family at once.

Finally the day of wise men make a meal in my house, first a cream of zucchini with pepper and after rack of lamb. Then my little cousins are the lane (ridden by my mother) of the Magi to find gifts.

So in short is how we celebrate Christmas every year.

Carmen Bestard

4 ESO A Col·legi Madre Alberta

THE THREE WISE MEN

2009-12-21T10:37:00.000-08:00

It is a Christmas custom of catholic tradition that the three Wise Men brought gold, incense or myrrh for the baby Jesus on 6^th January. The tradition still continues and the Three Wise Men bring presents for all the family in every house. Children always write a letter to them telling them which presents they want, but if they have been bad during the year, they bring them coal, (sweet coal). On January 6^th it is a tradition to eat a ring shaped pastry which is called “roscón de reyes”.

Sandra Porcel

4 ESO E Col·legi Madre Alberta

New year’s Eve in Spain II

2009-12-21T10:29:00.000-08:00

December 31st is a very special day because it is the last day of the year. I spend the day with my friends and my family on the New Year’s Eve. The most important moment is dinner time.

All my family go to my aunt’s and we have dinner. After dinner we play bingo until the end of the year. We eat twelve grapes and we listen to the twelve strokes of the clock of ‘’La puerta del Sol’’ square in Madrid. That is typical in Spain. Then I stay with my family an hour, and finally I go to a party to celebrate the beginning of the New Year with my friends.

Tania Oliver

4 ESO E Col·legi Madre Alberta

New year’s Eve in Spain

2009-12-21T10:21:00.000-08:00

New year´s Eve is the last evening of the year. In Spain it's a very important event. Everybody celebrates a big party and people usually wear beautiful clothes. First, I have dinner with my friends, then at quarter to twelve, we get ready for the twelve grapes, because at twelve o’clock we eat twelve grapes when we listen to the twelve strokes of the clock of ¨la puerta del sol¨ square in Madrid. Later, I go to a discotheque with my friends. It is a custom to drink hot chocolate and ¨churros¨( tipycal Spanish pastry ) in this disco at 6:00 am. Finally, we go home because everybody is very tired.

Elena Giménez

4 ESO E Col·legi Madre Alberta

CHRISTMAS:

2009-12-15T00:47:00.000-08:00

In many cities and towns, preparations for Christmas start at the beginning of December, as they start to decorate the streets and big stores with colourful lights with Christmas motifs, such as snow flakes, bells, bows…
The chronological order of the Christmas events in Spain is as follows:
December 8th

- This is the public holiday of Immaculate (Feast of the Immaculate Conception) which marks the beginning of the religious Christmas celebrations.
December 22nd
- All over Spain people never stray far from a TV or radio as the Christmas lottery is drawn over a period of many hours. Everyone buys tickets for this lottery in the hope of winning the biggest prize and the winning number usually means that a lot of people from the same village. Besides the big three prizes there are thousands of smaller prizes shared by many people all over Spain.

December 24th
- Christmas Eve is called Nochebuena in Spanish (Goodnight) and it is the most important family gathering of the year. In the evening people often meet early for a few drinks with friends then, they come back home to enjoy a meal with the family. Most bars and restaurants close in the evening. Prawn starters followed by roast lamb would be a typical meal rounded off with a typically Christmas sweet called ‘turrón’ which is a nougat made of toasted sweet almonds. Another typical festive sweet is called ‘Polvorones’ which is made from almonds, flour and sugar. Cava, which is a catalan champagne, would be the chosen drink for the Christmas toast though plenty fine Spanish wines will also be consumed with the meal.
December 25th
- Children may receive a small gift this morning becaus the day for presents is 6th of January, when the Three Kings bring many gifts for the children. Christmas Day is a national holiday in Spain so shops are closed yet it is not a day of great celebration but rather a calm day when people go out for a walk, drops into a bar, etc. Another large family meal at lunchtime is common though it's becoming more common to see families eating out on the afternoon of Christmas day.
December 28th
- This is the day of ‘Santos Inocentes’ (Holy Innocents) and is the equivalent of April Fools' Day when people play practical jokes on one another. Often the national media will include a nonsense story in their broadcasts. In some villages youngsters of a village light bonfires and one of them acts as the major who orders townspeople to carry out civic tasks such as sweeping the streets.
December 31st
- New Year's Eve is known as ‘NocheVieja’. It is a big celebration all over the country with street parties and special nights in hotels and clubs everywhere. Until midnight people tend to stay at home and on the stroke of midnight it is traditional to eat 12 grapes, one on each stroke of the clock to bring good luck for the New Year. In Madrid and other main cities revellers congregate in the main square (Puerta del Sol in Madrid) and eat the grapes along with a celebratory bottle of cava then head out into the night until after sunrise.
January 1st
- A low key public holiday with plenty people sleeping off due to their excesses.
January 6th
- King's Day creates a frenzy in families, little children, and stores all over Spain. This is the traditional holiday, and the "last--minute--waiters" rush through stores and commercials to find the needed gifts they kept on putting off. Children go to bed early; some even search the skies for the Kings and their party as they cross the night from home to home placing gifts and pastries in each house. This is the time to wrap gifts, and open the closets to prepare them for the morning, and seeing in the outstanding expressions of the children their cheer and merriment. Also, bakeries prepare coal, blackened/greyish sugar lumps that look very much like coal, which is given to children, more as a joke than anything else.
January 7th
-The day after receiving their gifts children return to school, their parents go back to work and Christmas in Spain is all over for another year.

Ana Juan

Mireia Pardo

Nuria Ferragut

3ºESO C

Col·legi Madre Alberta

Our Christmas

2009-12-15T00:37:00.000-08:00

We are going to explain the celebration of Christmas in Spain: traditions, details, meals...

First we’re going to start with:

-Important dates (when everybody has got holidays):

·24th Decemberà Christmas Eve, we celebrate a dinner and we go to the

midnight mass.

·25th Decemberà This day Jesus Christ was born. We have a special lunch.

·28th Decemberàthe day of the Holy Innocents. We spend tricks on people.

·31st Decemberàis the last night of the year. We have dinner with our family and we dance and sing all night. Young people usually have fun parties. When the clock sounds at 00:00 everybody eats twelve grapes to the rhythm of bells. This event is called New Year’s Eve.

5th Januaryàat night, children wait for the magic kings to come
6th Januaryà children who have been good get presents from the magic kings but those who not, receive sweet coal. These presents are put under the tree. With the family we can eat a special cake which has a little dummy and a bean. Who finds the dummy is the winner and who finds the bean pays the cake.
MEALS:
-Main meals: stuffed soup, prawns, stiff with spinning egg.
-Desserts: ‘polvorones, turrón’
-Condiments: toasted chestnuts (we toast it in the fireplace at the end of the dinner with our family)

Marta Riutort

Isabel Dameto

3ºESO C

Col·legi Madre Alberta

CHRISTMAS IN SPAIN

2009-12-14T06:35:00.000-08:00

Christmas in Spain starts at the begining of December, when all towns and cities are decorated with Christmas lights illuminating the streets. At home we put Christmas trees, wreaths and ornaments.

On December 22nd, two important events take place. Students are released from school for their winter vacations, and perhaps more importantly, it is announced the winning number of the famous Christmas Lottery in Spain. This lottery, by far the biggest in Spain, is a tradition practised by many people who wish to win the grand prize as it would make them instantly rich.
The night of 24th December is Christmas Eve, and all the families come together and share a dinner. Children receive gifts from Santa Claus.
Christmas Eve is celebrated with two very important traditions: eating and going to Christmas mass (known as ‘Misa del Gallo’).

Eve is 31st of December and families celebrate this event by eating twelve grapes at midnight as a symbol of good luck in the New Year. Each one is taken at every last twelve seconds of the year.
New Year is also celebrated in Spain. Families often eat together and send many postcards and Christmas cards to wish family and friends a happy new year.

Spanish children receive gifts from the "wise men" (‘reyes magos’) the night of the 6th of January. It is common that children leave milk and cookies to the wise men before going to bed that night.

Nuria Solivellas

Nuria Páramo

Diana Patiño

3ºESO C

Col·legi Madre Alberta

SPANISH CHRISTMAS

2009-12-14T06:24:00.000-08:00

HOW DO WE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS IN SPAIN?
Christmas is a fantastic time for spanish community.

It starts on the night of the 24th of december with what we call in spanish "Noche Buena". It's a dinner. Around nine o'clock the family meet for the celebration. The typical meal is seafood soup, shrimps and turkey or fish. As dessert we have nougats. Some are made of chocolate, almonds, folk egg and sometimes coconut. During that night Santa Claus brings presents for everyone and leaves it under the tree.

The next day is the most important one. Family meet for lunch.
On the Balearic Islands we celebrate also a meal on the 26th.

All the city is illuminated with colorful lights, trees and the representation of the birth of Jesus. Also the houses are decorated.

Then comes the last day of the year. Many people go to the most important square of the city and waits until the bell sounds, others watch it in their houses. We dress up very smart and we have a great dinner. At twelve o'clock while the bell sounds we eat every second one grape until twelve. Many people go to bed that night around eight o'clock in the morning because they go out to celebrate it!!!

The next morning we celebrate the first day of the year. In some houses we eat lentils because they think it gives luck for the following year.

The last important day of christmas is coming. It is the day when the three Magic Kings come. The night before, on the 5th january they leave under the tree all the presents.
We go early to bed , around ten o'clock, very nervious. We put under the tree food and drinks for them and for the camels.
On the morning, we go to our parents bedroom and all together we go to see what the Kings had left us. If our behaviour has been good during the year, presents would be left, if not they leave us only sweet carbon.
Thanks Kings, as the last possibility had never happen to us!!!

Alejandra Fiol

Nieves Garcia

3ºESO C

Col·legi Madre Alberta

How do we celebrate Christmas?

2009-12-02T02:55:00.001-08:00

An approach to our regional Christmas traditions.

A new academic year, many things to share!!

2009-09-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

Hi Comenius Friends!!

Next October your teachers will attend the first Comenius meeting of the season.

Madre Alberta School (Mallorca) will host them and they'll prepare the activities for the rest of the academic year.

Let them know your proposals of activities before October 14th.

Hugs!

Ötzi's Group

2009-07-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

by Maex Böhm, class 8d, KRS

Pitbull

Hi I`m Maex from Postbauer-Heng that’s in Bavaria (Germany) and I want to tell you something about my favourite rapper.

He is called Pitbull.

At first I want to tell you about his life.

Pitbull was born in Miami, Florida on 15. January 1981.

His real name is Armando Christian Pérez and he`s a Cuban -American rapper and he sings often in English but he also sings Spanish.With his song „culo“ he became famous.He brought out five Albums:2004: M.I.A.M.I. (Money Is a Major Issue) 2005: Welcome to the 305 2005: M.I. Still A.M.I (Money Is Still a Major Issue) 2006: El Mariel 2007: The Boatlift My favourite song from him is Te Querio. Here is the link if you want to listen to it. Pitbull - Te Quiero

2009-07-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hey!
My name is Fabian, I’m 16 years old and I attend the 10th class of the secondary modern school in Neumarkt, Germany. I wrote this article already during the Easter Holidays in Bavaria and because of that I was able to relax, to meet friends and to listen to music … the whole day.
In the following sentences I’m going to introduce my favourite singer and songwriter to you. His name is Paolo Nutini, born in Paisley on the 9th January of 1987. The 23-year old lives in Scotland with his family. The boy with Italian origin (because of his father), wanted to become a popular musician all over the world, since he was a child.

The style of music … you can describe it as Indie Rock but there’re still influences of other artists, like Oasis, the Beatles and David Bowie, for example.
The first album he produces with Atlantic Records is named “These Streets” with ten top songs. The songs, I like the most are “Jenny don’t be hasty” and “Rewind”. They are all about love and the everyday live.
The last two years he has worked on a new album called “Sunny Side Up”, which will be released in June.
I play the guitar strings too, so I hope, that there’re many summer and sun hits on the CD to play them at the beach and the sea in summer time.
But not every country knows him as a big artist. So he isn’t very famous in countries such as Spain and even Germany. That’s a pity, I think!
Ad because of his less success he hasn’t got a lot of concerts in Germany the next time L I hope that it will be changed soon.

But in my eyes, he’s one of the greatest singers and songwriters all over the world and I will never stop listening to his marvellous music.

If you want to get further information about Paolo Nutini or to buy the new album in June, please visit his homepage:
http://www.paolonutini.com/

I hope you like my short report about Paolo and I’m looking forward to reading reports about you and your favourite bands or singers.

2009-07-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

Nightwish

Hello my name is Christoph Altmann. I am 15 years old and I would like to tell you something about my favourite band called Nightwish.
At first something about the band members:
The keyboarder Tuomas Holopainen, the front man.
The new singer Anette Olzon (2007) before Tarja Turunen
The guitarist Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen
The bassist Marco Hietala

Now something about the history of this band and the success:

The band a Finnish Symphonic Metal band from Kitee.
The keyboarder Tuomas Holopainen, Tarja Turunen and Vuorinen have created this band in 1996. The international breakthrough came in 1999 because their album Oceanborn was a big success. Between 2001 and 2005 the band had no commercial success although her singer Tarja Turunen had a beautiful voice.The commercial success came in 2007 with their new singer Anette Olzon. The band released the Dark Passion Play album with her. In my opinion it is the best record of Nightwish.

The band brought out 7 albums:
Angels Fall First (1997)
Oceanborn (1998)
Wishmaster (2000)
Over The Hills an Far Away (2001)
Century Child (2002)
Once (2004)
Dark Passion Play (2007)

I think Nightwish is one of the best bands ever, because they have really good live performances with many special effects and they make great song.
For example:
Amaranth, Nemo, Over The Hills an Far Away

2009-07-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

by Maex Böhm, class 8d, KRS

Big Daddy My favourite film is called „Big Daddy“. In this film are popular actors for example “Adam Sandler”. It is a very funny movie. The movie is about Sunny who is played by Adam Sandler. One day a little boy called Julian stands in front of Sunny’s house with a letter in his hands. The letter says that Julian is the child of his roommate but his roommate is on a business trip.Sunny wants to put Julian in a house for homeless kids but on this day there was a holiday and Julian and Sunny spend the day together. On this day Sunny notices that he likes the little boy and he says to other people that he is the father of Julian but this is not the truth. Sunny makes no boarders for Julian. Because of this Julian gets in a vulgar manner. Later on he wants to visit the school but if he really wants this he has to change his bad language into good language.

Europe day

2009-05-07T03:53:00.000-07:00

The Europe day is the 9th May, it has become in the European symbol with the European flag, slogan and the European anthem. On 9th May, 1950, Robert Schuman presented the Schuman’s declaration, it explains the organization of UE. Europe celebrates this day with the European anthem, a parade of flags of European countries, European songs and European dances. The European anthem is “ Oda a la alegria”. The European slogan is “Joined in the diversity”. And this is the European flag.

Marina Jaume

Nerea Caldés

Col·legi Madre Alberta

3ºESO A

EUROPE DAY

2009-05-06T03:04:00.000-07:00

Do you know that... ?

THE FLAG:
There are twelve stars because the numer twelve is the number of the perfection, complete and unit.

THE ANTHEM:
This is not only the European Union anthem, it’s also the European anthem.The melody comes from the Ninth Symphony composed in 1823 by Ludwig Van Beethoven.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGHHk0B4BDs (clic here to hear the anthem)

THE MOTTO:
United in diversity” is the motto of the European Union.
The motto means that, Europeans are united in working together for peace and prosperity, and that the many different cultures, traditions and languages in Europe are a positive thing for the continent.

THE EURO:
The euro notes are identical in all countries but each country has its own coins with one common side and one side with a distinctive national emblem.

HAVE A GREAT EUROPE DAY,
ENJOY IT!

Mar Estarellas

Elisa Montes

Col·legi Madre Alberta

3ºESO A

What is Europe Day?

2009-05-06T03:01:00.000-07:00

You may have come across a reference in a diary or elsewhere to the fact that 9 May is "Europe Day" and perhaps asked about its significance.Probably very few people in Europe know that on 9 May 1950 the first move was made towards the creation of what is now known as the European Union.In Paris that day, against the background of the threat of a Third World War engulfing the whole of Europe, the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman read to the international press a declaration calling France, Germany and other European countries to pool together their coal and steel production as "the first concrete foundation of a European federation". What he proposed was the creation of a supranational European Institution, charged with the management of the coal and steel industry, the very sector which was, at that time, the basis of all military power. The countries which he called upon had almost destroyed each other in a dreadful conflict which had left after it a sense of material and moral desolation.Everything, therefore, began that day. That is why during the Milan Summit of EU leaders in 1985 it was decided to celebrate 9 May as "Europe Day".Every country which democratically chooses to accede to the European Union endorses its fundamental values of peace and solidarity. These values find expression through economic and social development embracing environmental and regional dimensions which are the guarantees of a decent standard of living for all citizens.While Europe as such has existed for centuries, the elements which united it, in the absence of rules and institutions, have in the past been insufficient to prevent the most appalling tragedies.The integration of Europe will not come about in one day or even in a few decades. Deficiencies are still numerous and there are evident imperfections. The project which was begun just after the Second World War is still very new. In the past, efforts at European union were based on domination of one group over another. These attempts could not last, because those who had been conquered had only one aspiration: to regain their freedom.Today's ambition is completely different: to build a Europe which respects freedom and the identity of all of the people which compose it. Only by uniting its peoples can Europe control the mastery of its destiny and develop a positive role in the world.The European Union is at the service of its citizens. While keeping their own specific values, customs and language, European citizens should feel at ease in the "European home".

Rebeca Razquin

Col·legi Madre Alberta

3ºESO A

Happy day of Europe:

2009-05-06T02:52:00.000-07:00

Why do we celebrate the day of Europe?

On May 9, 1950th, Robert Schuman presented his offer for the creation of an organized Europe, indispensable requirement for the maintenance of pacific relations.

This offer known as " Declaration Schuman ", is considered to be the germ of the creation of what nowadays is the European Union.

On May 9 there has turned into the European symbol (Day of Europa) that, together with the flag, the anthem, the motto and the unique currency (the Euro) they identify the political entity of the European Union.
In the Day of Europe there are celebrated activities and feasts that bring Europe over to his citizens and relate the different peoples(villages) of the Union.

Laura Giménez Álvarez

Cristina Carballeira

Col·legi Madre Alberta

3ºESO A

HAPPY EUROPE’S DAY!

2009-05-06T02:47:00.000-07:00

During 59 years on the 9th of May it’s celebrated the day of Europe. This day Robert Schumman presented his offer for an organized Europe.

From this day, the day of Europa, it has turned into the European symbol; besides the flag, the anthem, the motto... it has turned into the political entity of the European Union.

On the 9th of May there are celebrated activities that bring Europe over to its habitants who live on the European Union.

Maria Cerdá

Irene Cutillas

Col·legi Madre Alberta

3ºESO A

HAPPY EUROPE’S DAY!!!

2009-05-06T02:43:00.000-07:00

The 9th of may, we celebrate Europe’s day.

Anthem, symbols and flags, in this day comes back.

We also remember the peace, in a day like this.

With the euro we pay, our food everyday.

We want to express with one word, the union of the world: UE.
With the best wishes, happy Europe’s day!!!

Paula Estévez

Natalia Cózar

Col·legi Madre Alberta

3ºESO A

Poem of Europe Day

2009-05-06T02:34:00.000-07:00

The 9 of May
is the Europe day.

All the europe lands participate in this celebration
because the lands are a unification.

The euro is the currency symbol of the European unity,
and it is used for almost the whole lands community.

The 9 of May 1950 was the date of Schuman Declaration,
and it is also the Europe Day celebration.

Another symbol of Europe is the flag,
which is blue with yellow stars.

The 9 of May
is the Europe day
and you can come to celebrate it.

Adelaida Hernaiz
Col·legi Madre Alberta

3ºESO A

EUROPE

2009-05-06T02:26:00.000-07:00

Wouldn’t you like to know Europe?
Europe is a place you’ll definitely love
With the sea and the mountains and the stars above
I’m sure you’ll find the treasure cove
Europe is a bond between the people of the world.

Wouldn’t you like to know Europe?
From London to Paris,
From Prague to Madrid,
From Berlin to Rome,
Europe is a place you’ll definitely love.

Wouldn’t you like to know Europe?
Europe is a place full of culture
Where you can discover the secrets of nature
You’ll enjoy the peace brought by the dove
Europe is a place you’ll definitely love.

Sofia Diamandopoulos

Aina Torres

Col·legi Madre Alberta

3ºESO A

My favourite song is "Jueves".

2009-04-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

The song is composed by the group: “la oreja de van gogh”. The singer was Amaya Montero with her band, but a few months ago, she decided to start a new musical career alone. Now the new singer is Leyre Martínez.

The song is about a Thursday 11th of March as it remembers the train accident occurred in Madrid, in which one died lots of people. It is a love story that reflects the feelings of a young woman, that always takes the same train as the boy she loves. But the 11th of March they have an accident and both died.

I think it is an exciting song that expresses the feelings a person have when you're deeply in love.

I hope that you like it!!! **

Paula Estévez

Col·legi Madre Alberta

3ºESO A

My favourite band is Estopa

2009-04-27T01:32:00.000-07:00

Estopa are a popular Spanish rock/rumba duo from Cornellà, Spain. The band consists of the two brothers José and David Muñoz, who sing using a unique combination of sounds reflecting many genres, including rock, rumba, flamenco, and “sonido callejero" – street sound that does not easily fit into any category. The band has commented on such difficulties by stating the following: "We don't like to be classified easily." They are similar to the band “Los Chichos”, a rumba band from Spain, popular in the 1970s.
Members:
José Muñoz is the younger brother, born in 1978. He plays the guitar for Estopa and sings backing vocals, as well as lead vocals on a few songs. He is not married. David Muñoz is the older brother, born in 1976. He is the lead singer and also plays some guitar. He is generally the more outgoing of the two, and likes to read. He is married.

The website is: http://www.estopa.net/

Belen Dalmau

3ºESO C

Col·legi Madre alberta

My favourite singer is Carlos Baute.

2009-04-27T01:28:00.000-07:00

My favourite singer is Carlos Baute.

He was born in Caracas on the 8th March 1974.

He started when he was 13 years old in the group “Los Chamos”. He has worked as a model and has participated in an American soap opera.

In 1999, when he recorded his album "Yo nací para querer...", he moved to Spain. Since then, he has recorded many albums and has had a great success. He has also worked in Spanish TV programmes as an actor or a presenter.

He has done many tours to present his work around Venezuela, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Spain... and he has also won many prizes.

Some of the things that have made him have a great success are his concerts and way of dancing, which are spectacular, and the fact that he composes his own songs.

His last album, “De mi puño y letra”, was put on sale the 1st April 2008 and has been very successful since then. This summer he has done a tour around Spain and latin America.

This album includes the song “Colgando en tus manos”, which he sings with Marta Sanchez, another Spanish singer. This song is the actual number one in Spain.

Natalia González

3ºESO C

Col·legi Madre Alberta

The Oxford Murders

2009-04-27T01:08:00.000-07:00

The Oxford Murders is a Hispanic - British movie directed by the Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia, based on the novel of the Argentinean writer Guillermo Martínez, ‘‘Imperceptible Crimes''. The premiere was in Spain on the 18th of January 2008.

An elderly lady appears murdered in the lounge of a house on the outskirts of Oxford. Her body is discovered by two men who meet for the first time: Arthur Seldom, prestigious teacher of Logic, and Martin, a young American student, newcomer to the university who hopes that the famous teacher will oversee his doctoral thesis. The murder of the old lady is the first of a series of murders. They are almost imperceptible crimes, but each of them come accompanied with a message: an image, a different sign on every occasion that, death after death, gives the main character a clue that has to be solved using logic. Following this path not only means they have to test their mathematical convictions but their own way of understanding the world of the teacher and of the student. Do we know reality? Is it possible to reach the truth?

The stars of the movie are two prestige interpreters, the young actor Elijah Wood, the veteran and unforgettable John Hurt, and the feminine presence of the Spanish woman Leonor Watling.

You can see part of the trailer clicking on the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmLuTfUgaLk

Nicole Vicente

3ºESO

Col·legi Madre Alberta

Penélope Cruz:

2009-04-20T01:42:00.000-07:00

She was born in April in 1074 in Alcobendas, Madrid. As a child she was already imitating TV commercials. She studied classical ballet for nine years. She was trained by Angelo Garrido. She first became famous when she appeared in ``La fuerza del destino´´ and in a Italian serial called ``Rose´´.
Her first films were ``Jamón, jamón´´ , ``Belle Epoque´´ and ``All about my mother´´ for which she won academy awards.
She worked in America from 2001 to 2004. After that she returned to Europe where she won the David di Donatello award in an Italian film ``Don´t move´´.
She speaks Spanish, French, English and Italian and she is compared for her beauty to the most famous actresses like Sofia Loren.

My favourite Spanish film of Penélope Cruz is ``Volver´´ by Pedro Almodóvar which was released in 2006.
The film is about Raimunda (Penélope Cruz), her daughter, Paula, and her sister, Sole, who travel from Madrid to their native village to visit the graves of their parents and aunt, who died on a fire many years ago.
Then they visit aunt Paula, an old senile aunt who brought up Raimunda after her parents death. The old lady says that their aunt is alive and living with her, but they don´t believe her.
They return to Madrid and one day Raimunda finds her daughter waiting for her at the bus stop very upset. She confesses that she killed her father Paco, who was drunk and tried to rape her. While Raimunda is hiding Paco’s body, Sole calls her to tell that their aunt Paula had died. Is in that moment when the situation changes and the past returns (volver), full of mystery and suspense.
When Sole comes back after the funeral in Madrid she finds her mother hidden in the trunk of the car and she takes her to her apartment where secrets from the past are disclosed.
Finally Raimunda discovers her mother is alive. Is her mother who burnt the house because her husband was sleeping with her sister.
Paco wasn´t Paula´s father. Raimunda had been raped by her own father when she was young.

I liked this film because it was a blend of comedy, tragedy and thriller.
The actors were well chosen for their parts and the plot was interesting. The script was well written, but most of all I liked fantastic performance of Penélope Cruz. One doesn´t get tired of watching her.

Laura Ferrer

3ºESO A

Col·legi Madre Alberta

MY FAVOURITE ACTRESS: PAZ VEGA.

2009-04-20T01:31:00.000-07:00

Her real name is Paz Campos Trigo, but she choose the artistic name of her grandmother. She began the studies of Information Science, but decided to leave and move to Madrid to devote herself to the interpretation. Her early work done in the television were the series: "Más que amigos", "Compañeros" or "siete Vidas". Her first major film role was on the film "Lucia y el sexo" (2001) by Julio Medem.

During the same year, also acts in the film Sergi López "Sólo mía" by Javier Balaguer. She was nominated for the Goya Awards in 2002 for both interpretations, getting the prize for Best Actress for her work on the orders of Medem. In 2002 she had a brief participation in "Hablé con ella" by Pedro Almodovar, and was also one of the protagonists of “Al otro lado de la cama” by Emilio Martínez Lázaro.

On May 30, 2008 received a medal from the city of Seville in recognition of her work.
In October 2008 she incorporated to the serie LEX, starring with her old companionof siete vidas, Javier Cámara, for a collaboration in some episodes.

I liked her performance in the serie siete vidas, I saw it and I never lost any episodes, it was very funny and her character “Laura” was very funny. In my opinion she acts very well.

Adelaida Hernaiz

3ºESO A

Col·legi Madre Alberta

2009-04-18T03:47:00.000-07:00

By Maximilian Nißlbeck, class 8 d, KRS

Coldplay

Hi! I am Max I am 15 years old and I come from Seligenporten that is in Germany. I visit the Knabenrealschule Neumarkt and today I want to tell you something about my favourite band. The band is called Coldplay and is from England.
At first in want you to tell something about the band members:
The lead-singer is Chris Martin and he also plays the piano and the rhythm-guitar.
Jonny Buckland plays the lead-guitar and is a background-singer.
The drums are played by Will Champion and he also is a background-singer.
Last but not least! Guy Berryman plays the bass and the keyboard and he also is a background-singer.

Now something about the band and its history:
The music styles of Coldplay are called Britpop, Soft-rock, Alternative-rock and Pop-rock. Other samples for Britpop are Blur, Oasis and The Verve.
Martin, Buckland, Champion and Berryman created the band in September 1996.
At first the band was called Starfish but later they took the name Coldplay from a band from a friend of Chris Martin. In March 1999 they brought out the Safety EP. The EP is a rare object for collectors because there are only 500 copies of it. In spring 1999 Coldplay undersigned a five-album-contract with Parlophone. They still produce their songs there.
The band wants to have a good teamwork that’s why Martin put up two rules for the band:

- 1. Everyone gets the same part of the earnings
- 2. No drugs! If anybody use drugs he will kicked out of the band

The band brought out six albums:
- Parchutes (2000)
- A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)
- Live 2003 (Live-album 2003)
- X&Y (2005)
- Viva la Vida or Death and His Friends (2008)
- Prospekt´s March (EP-album 2008)

Coldplay is one of the greatest live bands in the world and one of the greatest bands ever. I want to show you that with my favourite song of them. It is called Fix You. There you can see a live video with the song. If you can not click at this link Coldplay - Fix You (live).

Here is the song-text:

When you try your best, but you don't succeed

When you get what you want, but not what you need

When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep

Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face

When you lose something you can't replace

When you love someone but it goes to waste could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home and ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you High up above or down below

when you're too in love to let it go

If you never try you'll never know

Just what you're worth Lights will guide you home and ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face

When you lose something you cannot replace

Tears stream down on your face and I

Tears stream down your face I promise you

I will learn from my mistakes

Tears stream down on your face and I

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you

2009-04-18T03:40:00.000-07:00

Hey boys and girls,
my favourite band is very famous in France, I think. It`s MANDO DIAO a Swedish Rock Band. They are from Borllänge and they make music together since 1999.They play Indie-Rock, Rock & Roll, and Garagerock. They are so great, it`s unbelievable!!!
Their new Album "Give me Fire" is on of their best Albums they ever made. In my opinion the song Give me Fire and Mean Street are won of their best.
But the song Down in the Past is very good too.
When you are interested in listening to the band here some links:
http://service.gmx.net/de/cgi/derefer?TYPE=3&DEST=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHgHujQ3X2eg (Give me Fire)http://service.gmx.net/de/cgi/derefer?TYPE=3&DEST=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJKc_yPkv2kU (Down in the Past)http://service.gmx.net/de/cgi/derefer?TYPE=3&DEST=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Day65D2kAH5Y ( Meanstreet)
If you like Mando Diao like I do then you maybe can join me in ICQ or Youtube.
Or if you want to know more about the band you can contact me too.
You will get my ICQ number and Youtube account if you write a short e-mail to
oetziblog@gmx.de
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Other bands I like are:
The Subways, The Killers, The Ramones, Rolling Stones, The Beatles,Oasis, Snow Patrol, Razorlight, The Liberties, Bob Marley, The Who, Beatsteaks, The Hives and many more.

Philipp Koppold, class 8d, KRS

"Fuera de carta"

2009-04-02T03:10:00.000-07:00

My favourite film is “Fuera de carta”.It is a very funny film.In the film there are many spanish actors.Most of the actors are my favourite actors.

The film is about a chef who has got a luxuvious restaurant the chef wants to win a prize,the Michelin star.This prize would make the restaurant the best one.But the main character has some family problems and he realises that the most important thing is the family and not having many luxuries.

Elena Valverde

3 ESO D

Col·legi Madre Alberta

My favourite movie

2009-04-01T02:52:00.000-07:00

and what about your favourite movie?

Why don't you talk about some interesting movies from your country? Favourite actors, actresses, directors...

Choose your favourite ones and tell us why!

My favourite song

2009-04-01T02:46:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

we would like to thank you for all your nice contributions to the blog. Now it's time to change the topic and we would like to know what's your favourite song! You can tell us about the group, the singer, the meaning of the lyrics and why is it important for you. So, let's start making new contributions!

Cala Petita

2009-03-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

It’s not easy to choose a place in Majorca as my favourite one. There are many places I love in this island. Some islanders use to call it “sa roqueta” , the little rock, in an affectionate way.

Perhaps one of them is a cove called Cala Petita. Its name means "tiny cove".

When the water is calmed and the streams run in the right direction, you can find there extremely crystalline and calmed waters.

Cala Petita is a virgin cove, that means there are no bars, no parking area, and no crowds of noisy people around. If you know the way to go, fortunately there are no signals, it’s only fifteen minutes from the streets of Portocristo, Yes, the town where Rafa Nadal relaxes during his short holidays between tournaments and where he is rather known as “Rafelet” than the ATP's number one.

Perhaps if you go there you can find Rafa quietly fishing from the top of a defence tower placed at the edge of the cove and built during World War II.

On its surroundings you can find earth turtles and hedgehogs. If you have a swim early in the morning you can say hello to a couple of cormorants that use to visit the cove.

Toni Martín

Madre Alberta Comenius Team

2009-03-15T14:17:00.000-07:00

STRAUBING TIGERS -
ICE HOCKEY - IN BAVARIA
CLASS 8d
VISITING THE ARENA, THE TEAM, THE PLAYERS
REPORTS :

The team of the Straubing Tigers

In the team of the Straubing Tigers are 22 players. The half of them are Canadians and the other players are from Germany and two are from America.

Eric Meloche is the captain and is from Canadia. Bob Manno is the trainer and the second trainer is Georg Franz. Mike Bales is the first goalkeeper.

They went into the DEL(Deutsche Eishocky Liga) in 2006. At the moment they are on place 13 and they aren't in the Play-off's.

Bob Manno: (coach)· He was born on 31. October 1956 in Otario near the Niagara Falls.· He is half an Canadian and half Irland.· He is trainer since 29. November 2007.

Eric Meloche: (captain)· He was born on 1.Mai 1976 in Lachute .· He is 178cm tall and weight 92kg.· He scores 73 scores in the DEL.

written by Marco Koller, Andreas Weißmüller, Carl-Jonas Schubert and Daniel OrelThe history of the Straubing Tigers:

In winter at the beginning of the 1940s children played on a lake near the powder tower and delivered games like icehockey. As a founder of icehockey in Straubing counts the 14-year-old Max Pielmaier at that time.

In the middle of the second world war he formed with his 16-year-old friends Max Pelkofer and Harry Poiger a young team.

At the 1st February, 1942 it came to the 1. point game in the history of Straubing as they played for the area championship.

After the Hitler youth at the new organisation from the Straubing Tigers they decided to join the TSV 1861 Straubing. In 1981 the icehockey department separated from the TSV in 1861 and played under the name EHC Straubing.

After 21 years - in April, 2002 Straubing EHC hadn't any money.

After that the professional departments separated and founded the Straubing Tigers.

In 2005/2006 the Tigers came in the first league called (DEL)

The Arena of the TIGERS

Construction time
In November, 1967 the ice stadium was initiated. At the beginning it only was an ice surface with rostrums, but without roof. After the season 1975/76 they started the construction of the roof and to the season 1976/77 the roof was finished. The ice stadium in the powder tower was beside the Curt Frenzel stadium in Augsburg the only half-open stadium in the highest German ice-hockey class, the German hockey league, because the facade was not closed to the east.

This side of the stadium was closed in summer 2008 by a building measure whose end was delayed by arson in July, 2008 till October. It was built by Straubing TSV, the predecessor's association of the EHC.

The stadium now is in the possession of the city of Straubing. The stadium was modernised constantly, for example, by the new building of the south rostrum in the season 2001/2002 which also contains the new player's cabins.

Since 24th October 2008 the stadium is closed and thereby the capacity has changed. Today the stadium has a capacity of 5,800 places from what 4.436 standing places and 1.364 seats are (+400 VIPs).
Name
The urban ice stadium was named after the nearby powder tower. The powder tower was a part of the medieval city walls, it is as a relic of the city fortification at their northwest end. In it the gunpowder stocks were stored since the 13-th century.

Advantages
– all preparatory plays free
– all home matches of the double round DEL, in the VVK price 3 point plays, in addition, freely
– all cup home matches freely
– no stress with the advance booking -
– no queuing at the box-office

Capacity Whole: 5. 800
standing places: 4. 436
seats: 1. 364
Vip places: 400

Cala Mayor beach.

2009-03-09T02:45:00.001-07:00

This is a very quiet and lovely beach, where you can relax, sunbathe and swim. The water is crystalline and frequently calm. In summer there were a lot of people, often teenagers and tourists because there is an hotel where they can book in. Round the beach there are rocks and caves where you can take photos, relax or swim there. At the right side of the beach there is an old tower which connects to the rest of the beach by a bridge.
Also this beach is a good place to practice skim because the seacoast is really flat and the waves are appropriate to play this sport.

Mireia Borrás Vaquer

3ºESO-C

Col·legi Madre Alberta

Jaime III

2009-03-09T02:35:00.000-07:00

Jaime III is one of the most famous streets of Palma de Majorca. It’s located in the centre of the town. It has a lot of shops and departments stores. It’s one of the streets that all the tourists visit. There you can find all types of clothes, shoes and accessories. If it is raining you don’t get wet because part of its pavements are under arcs. Whenever you go there you will find many people. I like very much shopping there. Next to Jaime III is Borne where are located more shops. Sometimes I go there with my friends and we take a lot of photos. Also we sometimes go to Can Joan de S’aigo. This is a Cafe and you can take some typical food, per example: ice-cream, hot chocolate, “ensaimadas”...
If you come to Majorca don’t forget to visit this place.

Mónica Gracia

3ºESO-C

Col·legi Madre Alberta

SOLLER:

2009-03-09T02:27:00.001-07:00

Soller is an attractive town on Majorca´s north-west coast. It is situated in a bowl-shaped valley surrounding by the mountains ``Serra de Tramuntana´´. The port of Sóller is three kilometres away from the town.

On the main square there is the Saint Bartolome´s church. It is surrounded by restaurants and cafes and it has beautiful trees. It has old paved narrow streets. One of them leads to the railway station. Another road leads to the port where you can go by tramway or by car. You can also go to the charming villages of Fornalutx and Biniaraix.

Soller is famous for its oranges and lemon groves and terraces of ancient olives trees. Winter here looks like spring because everything is green and beautiful contrasting with the yellow and orange colours of the trees laden with fruit.
Soller became prosperous thanks to emigrants who came back rich from France and to its textile industry. Its people are very hospitable. In fact nobody close their doors.

An ideal place far from the hustle an bustle of other tourists places. You can enjoy walking as there are many paths in the mountains. For those who want to enjoy sunbathing and the beach the port of Soóller is the best place with regular tramway service.

I have wonderful memories of spending e days in Sóller, on the beach. It is a good way to escape from the busy and noisy city.

Laura Ferrer

3ºESO-A

Col·legi Madre Alberta

“El Parque del mar”

2009-03-05T07:29:00.000-08:00

My favourite place in Mallorca is “el parque del mar”. It is a green park located beside the cathedral of Palma and the antique wall of the city. Until the sixties the sea was coming up to the wall of the city. With the construction of the road of the maritime the sea remained closed. Now this space is called “el parque del mar”. In its central part there is a water source and surrounding it there are gardens, park games and some sculptures.

This park is very quiet. In summer I go with my family there and we park the car inside the parking. Then, we go walking or cycling. There are bicycles available for renting. This park is near “la Plaza de la Reina” and near “ el Borne” and “Jaime III” where you can find trendy shops like Zara, H & M... I like this park because it is nice and it is near a lots of shops.

Irene Cutillas

3ºESO-A

Col·legi Madre Alberta

THE PORT OF POLLENÇA.

2009-03-05T07:24:00.001-08:00

Pollença is located at the north- west of Majorca. Its harbour is very little but shelters many boats and yachts during summer. As being a very small village, all the people know each other. The enchanting villagers are rivals in way, the ones in the centre against people who live on the coast.

It has two important celebrations:

- “Los moros y cristianos” which remind us when King James I fought to conquer the moorish village. It is celebrated on the first weekend of August.

- “El pi de Formentor” is celebrated in winter. It is like a little adventure for the young people. First of all, it takes place in Cap de Formentor. From there, people cut a pine tree and take it from there to the city centre with ropes surrounding it. It is pushed and pulled by all those who participle in.

Elisa Montes

3ºESO-A

Col·legi Madre Alberta

Cala Ratjada

2009-03-04T09:10:00.000-08:00

Cala Ratjada is a fishermen and tourist village located in the northeast of Majorca about 65 km from the city of Palma. I like this place because I can enjoy its wonderful sea views and its clear and crystal waters. The best time to go is in summer because it’s when there are a lot of fun, fairs and festivals and the restaurants and bars are open. During the winter season, most of restaurants and shops are closed.

I also like Cala Ratjada’s hotels because you can find there a lively atmosphere, with funny games and you can enjoy the swimming pool as much as swimming in the sea. Also if you don’t want to be at the hotel all the time, you can go horse-riding on the beach or go cycling and enjoy the sea views.

In the evenings you can go for along walk and after that you can have a drink or a cocktail in any bar. On Saturday mornings there is a small market of handicrafts where you can buy a lot of things.

Natàlia Garaña

3 ESO D

Col·legi Madre Alberta

Cala Pixat

2009-03-04T08:57:00.000-08:00

My favorite place is Cala Pixat.

Cala Pixat is in the western coast of Majorca, near Port d’Andratx. You can only get there by boat, that’s the reason why most of people don’t know it. The cove is hidden and people can’t see it from the shore.

I love Cala Pixat for its views of Sa Dragonera, its clear water, and for the two coves there. You can walk to one of the coves, but if you eant to go to the other one you have to swim.

There is a rock in the water, it is a big rock and the bottom there is a hole. You can swim through this hole under the water. It’s funny!!

Elena Giménez

3 ESO D

Col·legi Madre Alberta

THE FAKE TALES - OUR SCHOOL BAND

2009-02-27T09:08:00.000-08:00

THE FAKE TALES - BAND OF THE KRS!!!

A report about the school band of the KRS-Neumarkt

At our school, there are four school bands.

This report is about the first school-band.

We are five guys of the tenth class and our favourite hobby is, to make music.

We`re called “the fake tales”.
The head of the band is Mrs. Garcia, one of the three music-teachers at our school.

But she will leave us soon because she will become a mother.

The frontsinger of the band is called Lukas.

He is 15 years old and he also plays the Rhythmguitar. He is playing the guitar since he was eleven and it`s really nice to listen to his guitarplay.

On the Leadguitar there is Stefan.

He plays the guitar since he was eleven years old too.

Up to now he is 16 years old and he is a great musician.

Jan is 15 years old, and its his job to make the bass sounds.

Besides that he takes care of making jokes and he always is able to make the band laughing.

Sebastian 17 years, and Bastian 16 years are the two drummers in the band.

Yes, that’s very uncommon for a band but it`s no problem.
Both of them love it to produce loud sounds and so it`s secondary who of them has more skills.

We all have a big friendship and that’s the reason why we are polled so good on each other and so I think I`m right if I say that we are playing well together.

We are influenced by the typical American and English artists like the

Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Ramones or Eric Clapton.

But we think its very important to present German bands like Madsen for example.

We just enjoy it and we always train hard to play the songs exactly like the famous bands.

Last year we had the idea to take three days just to work on the Coversongs and on the program for our schoolcarnival.

We got the permission from our director.

Now we actually passed these three days two weeks ago and we all miss it.

It was a great time for us to play music all day long und we had very much fun. But now we are back in the usual life, sitting at school and preparing for the final exams.That’s it.

So we say goodbye and let the good times roll…!

Love & Peace,

The fake tales

2009-02-26T10:29:00.000-08:00

HORSE MARKET
in
BERCHING
-
the biggest winter folk festival in BAVARIA
-
extracts from reports
of class 10d KRS
about
this popular, social and political
event in
the district of Neumarkt i.d.Opf.

Excursion to Berching on 4th February 2009

There were again nearly 20 000 people who came to Berching for appraising glorious decorated horses. At 9 o'clock sharp the traditional start of the single performances of the horses was carried out.

Amongst them, there also stood the oldest horse named Charly, a Shetland-Pony-mongrel with the proudly age of 43.

Not only ponys but also cold-blooded horses, for example “Tony“ and “Nero“, which are still used for forest operations, were shown to the public. Afterwards it was possible to see the individual horses in proximity. All in all there were shown more than 150 horses and harnessed teams on the biggest winter public festival in Bavaria.

The real highlight of the event was the Bavarian prime minister Horst Seehofer, who made a speech about the readjustment of the fee for the physicians and he responded to the decay of the milkprices.

The about 100 demonstrators, consisting of farmers and doctors saw a censorious culmination of their income situation, which would jeopardize their survival.

Minister president Seehofer, who was voted in his office the year before, talked about the current problems like Federal State Bank, economic crisis, health conflict and protests of farmers, and he pleaded for a premium medical supply for the population.

The real beginning of the annual “Rossmarkt“ in Berching was in the Middle Ages and it was first mentioned in 1628. An evidence of the introduction of a “horse inspection“ is shown in the council order of 1722.

At first the aim wasn't to display the horses.

The veterinarians were rather to avoid contagious horse epidemics. Greatest importance was attached to the health of the horses, because in former times they were after all working animals and conveyances and ensured their owners survival

Nowadays admittedly you can see horse friends and political committed visitors on the marketplace of Berching. And beside them there are also a lot of salesman with their booths, where you can buy nearly everything, from trousers, buttons to sausages made of horse meat.

This year there have been about 250 booth oweners licensed.
On February the fourth of this year, our class drove to Berching where the “Rossmarkt” is placed. It’s the biggest winter-folk festival of the province Bavaria that takes place every year in February.
In the shopping streets you could see lots of booths that were put up on the left and right and there were different goods like candy, spices, clothes and cleaning materials offered. After two local politicians had expressed themselves for about thirty minutes concerning the beautiful town of Berching and the “Rossmarkt”, the long expected prime minister of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer went behind the microphone. He asked for the return to tradition, the ancestry and the “Down-to-earthiness” as well as the humanity, also from pages of the politic.

Report on the Berching Horse-Fair

The Horse-fair has taken place in Berching since 1920 and is a huge festival for horse-fanciers and for the local people every year again. Not only people from near but from all over the world can be seen. You can find beautiful horses there and stands where you can buy almost anything you like. As far as the eye can see lots of people are waiting for the horses passing by or seeing well-known politicians.

Our class rode with a bus from Neumarkt to the traditional horse-fair which took place on 4th February. On arriving there we had to force through the crowds of people. We were passing more than a hundred stands until we reached the market place where a big stage was built up. We were watching horses of different races which were decorated wonderfully.

But there were not only people showing interest for the four-legged animals but they were interested in listening to the speech of the Bavarian Minister President Horst Seehofer as well. About a hundred doctors and farmers were demonstrating against the government’s health and agrarian policy. By holding posters which read: “Our income is too small” or “The price for milk is too low” they certainly attracted a lot of attention.

But before Seehofer spoke to the crowd the mayor of Berching and the District President (Landrat) of Neumarkt saluted the people waiting full of expectation. At last Horst Seehofer, who was welcomed by a traditional Bavarian brass band, climbed up the stage.

At first he turned to the demonstrating doctors and farmers. He guaranteed to try his best to solve their problems. The main topic of his speech was the current international financial and economic crisis, which is also a huge problem in Germany. In general he talked about decreasing taxes and sinking prices for diesel which is used by farmers. On the whole Horst Seehofer promised the people a lot but time will show what becomes reality.

Rossmarkt in Berching

About 125 festively decorated horses and thousands of onlookers on Wednesday are back to the traditional market in the Oberpfalz, the Rossmarkt Berching. According to the police came from 15,000 to 20,000 visitors to the fair, as the largest winter festival in Bavaria applies.

After the festive lift the horse into the city center, the Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) keynote speaker at a political rally. In his speech he was limited to the existing and future agricultural policy. The internal party leadership disputes at the CSU, said he disagreed. Seehofer has also been adopted by about 100 demonstrators welcomed. Doctors and dairy farmers were protesting against the health and agricultural policy.

The market is considered the largest one-day winter festival in Bavaria. Each year, more than ten thousand visitors to the town to the lift of more than 100 beautifully decorated horses and teams to be admired. Up to 250 showmen, traders and business people offer their goods and services.
The tradition goes back to meeting an old rule back. In the 17th Century in this city was the first time a decree was issued that horse owners for their animals need to perform health checks. This disease should be avoided. From 1926 there was a horse and foal market. While it was the pet trade was now no more horses and ponies sold. The horse owners participate in the Ross market only partly, to their four-legged proud to present. But they boost premiums up to 50 euros per Ross. Some horse owners have for decades come to the Brauchtumspektakel.Geschäftsleute offer their goods and services.
Meanwhile, the market is because of the political rallies with senior politicians supraregional known. In particular, the speeches of Franz Josef Strauß aroused great interest. Former Bavarian Prime Minister was from 1973 to 1984 five times in Berching until today, no other speakers, as often occurred in the Rossmarkt.

Banyalbufar

2009-02-26T07:40:00.000-08:00

My favorite place is Banyalbufar. It is located at the nord-west side of the island. It is my favorite one because I use to go to Banyalbufar during the summer with my parents, and there are a lot of beaches. I think that the beach is beautiful and the water is very clean. In one of the beaches there is a little waterfall. There are horses and a lot of meadows.

Last summer I saw a concert in the center of the village. The concert was long but funny. The food is very good, and there are many different types. There is a route called “Port des Canonge”. The country is beautiful and the people are nice.

Marina Jaime
3ºESO-A
Col·legi Madre Alberta

PASSEIG DES BORN

2009-02-26T07:29:00.000-08:00

My favourite place in Palma is Passeig Del Born. It’s a place where you can have a drink, relax and meet people. It’s like a meeting point for young people.
The passeig des Born was built for the welcome Queen Isabel II.
It starts at the Plaza de las Tortugas and it ends at the Plaza de la Reina.

Passeig Des Born.
Plaza de las Tortugas.
Plaza de la Reina.

You can find a lot of shops like H&M, Zara, El Corte Ingles or fast food restaurants like Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds and Boccatta. There are also coffee shops and restaurants. Near the Passeig Des Born there is El Parque Del Mar, where the cathedral is located.

We like this place because you can have a lot of fun there.

Henny Holtschneider.
Andrea Alorda Roca.
3ºESO-A
Col·legi Madre Alberta.

Valldemossa

2009-02-24T00:15:00.000-08:00

My favourite place is Valldemossa. I don’t live there, but it is place where I like to go with my family.

Valldemossa is very nice when it rains.

I use to go there in winter when it snows and it’s even more beautiful than in summertime that its crowded of tourists.

In Valldemossa you can taste the famous coca de patata (sweet cake made from potatoes) and drink a mug of hot chocolate.

I always go to this village with my family we go to a typical place to eat and drink the local specialities.

There is also a very beautiful garden which is like a small labyrinth.

You can also find typical souvenirs in its shops.

Every year the students of 3rd Secondary go to Valldemossa and I like it very much.

Elena Valverde

3 ESO D

Col·legi Madre Alberta

Santa Ponsa

2009-02-23T01:35:00.000-08:00

Santa Ponsa is a tourist center placed on the coast west of Mallorca, inside Calvia. Developed in the surroundings of a bay, with the beach and a natural port that receives a lot of pleasure boats, it is one of its principal attractions. In addition to the sports centre, Santa Ponsa offers to his visitors the possibility of practice golf. Those that decide to spend his holidays in Santa Ponsa can stay at hotels and apartments of good quality and at detached houses used as residences of summer holidays. It is a tourist center adapted for all the ages, with a varied offering of shops, bars, restaurants and snack bars, in addition to next tourist attractions, like the water parks.

Pamel Garcia

3ºESO C

Col·legi Madre Alberta

PALMA’S BEACH

2009-02-23T01:19:00.000-08:00

My favourite place in Mallorca is Palma’s beach. It is located in the south coast, near the cathedral, and it’s mostly visited every summer by the tourism.
Surrounding the beach there is a pathway where you can ride a bike or skate ... and where many people run or go for a walk.
Also there is the main port where we you can see all the boats and yachts anchored at the docks along the coast. It's our favourite place because it is where almost every weekend we meet to go for a walk and chat about our stuff.
We hope that when you come you can enjoy it!

Natalia Cózar

Paula Estévez

3ºESO A

Col·legi Madre Alberta

Puerto Playa

2009-02-19T07:45:00.000-08:00

Puerto Playa is located near the centre of the town of Colonia de Sant Jordi, just outside the port. The white sandy beach is about 155 meters length. It is an urban beach, with a small promenade. There are services such as a rental of deckchairs and umbrellas and there are some good snack bars and restaurants nearby.
I have chosen this place because the landscape is one of the most beautiful ones and it is one of the quietest places on the island.
A lot of tourists go to this beach because it is a wonderful place.

Ana Ruiz

3ºESO C

Col·legi Madre Alberta

My favourite place: The palace of The Almudaina.

2009-02-19T07:23:00.001-08:00

The Real Palace of the Almudaina, situated in front to the Cathedral on the ancient walls, was built after the Catalan conquest of the XIII century . During the centuries XIII and XIV was the residence of the kings of Mallorca and after that, the residence of the governators. In 1963 the works of restoration of the palace started and nowadays is used both as a museum and as an official site to celebrate ceremonies and receptions of the King of Spain during summer time.

Inside I can highlight the following rooms: the Playground of the King, the Gothic chapel of Santa Anna, the hall of the Throne, the chapel of Saint ‘Jaume’ and some bathrooms of the Islamic period.

I have chosen this place like my favourite one because a few years ago I went with my grandfather to visit it and it carries me good regards.

Adelaida Hernaiz Martorell

3ºESO A

Col·legi Madre Alberta

The Sóller Railway.

2009-02-16T01:47:00.000-08:00

On Majorca we have one of the most popular tourist attractions, this being the Soller railway and its unique 19th Century train.
This railway has connected the city of Palma de Mallorca with the small town of Sóller since 1912. The train travels through beautiful landscapes, and has completely retained its original character. The train is powered by an electric locomotive and is the only one of its type that is still in use today. It is particularly beautiful during the months of February and March when the almond trees are in blossom, and the orange and lemon trees are full of fruit.
On arriving into the town of Soller you can then take a tram journey down to the famous fishing port of Soller where you can admire the many boats whilst eating Paella (traditional rice dish).

I have been on the Soller train a few times now and it’s one of my favourite journeys.
Hope you like it as much as I did.

Nicole Vicente

Col·legi Madre Alberta

Porto Colom

2009-02-16T01:07:00.000-08:00

Porto Colom is my favourite place.
I spend every summer there. It has a lot of tourism because of its beautiful and relaxing beaches. Many of the hotels there are small, but very intimate. Also, there are many typical restaurants from different countries. Furthermore, it has a lot of discotheques and karaokes to enjoy during the nights. It is a place to meet people at swimming pools, parties and beaches.

http://www.portocolom.org/
In this page you will find some information about Porto Colom like prices of hotels, how to get to the most relaxing beaches, and the different types of excursions that you can realize.

http://www.calador.net/Calador/index.php
In this page you will have information about Cala D’Or. It is a beautiful place near Porto Colom where you can also relax and enjoy its different restaurants and parks.

Neus Nicolau 3ºESO C
Col·legi Madre Alberta

Cité de l'Automobil

2009-02-10T02:45:00.000-08:00

Birth of the collection: Hans and Fritz Schlumpf were born in Italy. In 1940, at the age of 34, Fritz was the chairman of a spinning mill in Malmerspach. In 1935 the Schlumpf brothers founded a limited liability company for the wool industry, and their fortunes grew. Fritz collected cars and, from 1964 on, housed them in his Mulhouse spinning mill… the future museum.

A strike becomes the "Schlumpf's affair": In 1976 the Schlumpf brothers sold their factories. In October of that year the Malmerspach plant had to lay off employees, and a strike broke out. The Schlumpfs fled to Switzerland.

The car collection was classified a French historic monument in 1978 by the Council of State. It was later sold in 1981 to the National Automobile Museum Association.

Museum's opening: After many ups and downs, the museum opened to the public in 1982 under the aegis of its association. In 1999 this association asked Culturespaces to modernise the museum and its operations.

Year 2000 renovation: To bring the National Automobile Museum of Mulhouse into the 21st century, Culturespaces renovated the museum.

The collection: The collection is displayed in three main sections:
- The Motorcar Experience,
- Motor Racing,
- Motorcar Masterpieces.

ATTACH YOUR SAFETY BELT !!!

Jean Schneck

Lycée Jean d’Arc

Colmar

2009-02-09T13:32:00.001-08:00

In Elsass, the town I prefer is Colmar.

It’s a beautiful town, and the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin.

In spite of its 67 000 inhabitants, Colmar is a human size town: it’s not too big, and not too narrow.

Colmar is a flowered town, where it’s pleasant to walk in summer in the many pedestrian streets. Colmar is crossed by the Ill, a tributary of the Rhin, that gives its her name of “Petite Venise”.

We can add to it that Colmar is the driest town of the France, where it “never” rains! The eternal sun is reflected by the bright colours of fronts of half-timbered houses.

Colmar has a rich heritage. Frederic August Bartholdi, the man who built the Statue of the Liberty, was born in Colmar!! For the occasion, a “mini” Statue of the Liberty has been placed in Colmar.

Colmar is so an alive town, with festivals and pleasant to live!

Mélodie Wachtel

Lycée Jean d'Arc

The European tower, her Gourmet Restaurant and her “Mall”.

2009-02-09T01:00:00.000-08:00

The European tower is one of the well-known symbol of Mulhouse. Built in 1969 to 1972, she was inaugurated in 1973 by the mayor of Mulhouse, Emille Muller.

History: the European Tower is 112 meters

meters per second. One is especially made to desserve the gourmet restaurant at the last floor.

A “Built-in” Gourmet Restaurant:

The restaurant is situated at the last floor. Only gourmet meal with a panoramic view on all the town.

Meat, vegetables, duck liver, salmon on toasts, Caesar salad, pasta, Italian meals, and everything good. For dessert, all flavours available; chocolate cake, fruits of season etc…Just three words: Enjoy your meal!

A brand new “French Mall”:

Since the 17th October 2008, an all new commercial center is on the road. It is made of 50 stores and restaurants. 600 places of parking and more than 19.000m² of fun.

My Words:

The European Tower is a very important symbol of our town. It’s a very funny & cool place where you can eat, talk, buy, with all the complicity of french people!

The European Tower is the real crossroads of Europe: Germany, Swiss and France.

Kévin Simon

Lycée Jean d'Arc

MALLORCA’S CATHEDRAL

2009-02-04T03:53:00.000-08:00

My favourite place in Mallorca is the Cathedral. It is a Gothic cathedral. It gradually emerges into view when ships and boats approach Palma, giving the city a beautiful appearance. It also gives an impressive view at night, when the Cathedral is reflected in the water, as shown in the picture.

The cathedral attracts lots of tourists because it is one of the five biggest cathedrals in the world and it is very well known, but also because it has an interesting story behind it:
One night in 1229, as Jaime I was on his way to recapture Majorca, his fleet was struck by a terrible storm. He promised the Virgin Mary that if he survived nature’s fury, he would make a church in her honour. And after the storm had blown over, finding himself safe and sound, he immediately undertook the project. It was a vow that was to take an inordinate amount of time to fulfill. The construction begun in 1230 and the cathedral was finished in 1601.

The cathedral is located in the city centre and it is near the port. A lot of people usually have a walk in the surroundings.

Natalia González
3º ESO C
Col·legi Madre Alberta

Puerto Portals

2009-02-03T04:48:00.000-08:00

Puerto Portals. My favourite place is Puerto Portals. It’s located at the nord-west of the island. It’s one of the most popular and wonderful places to go. It’s famous for its transparent water beaches and for its luxurious shops.

Every summer a lot of people from around the world go there, including famous people as Antonio Banderas or the Spanish Kings. At night you have a lot of varieties of restaurants to dinner from Japanese to Italian food. Shops are usually opened until 11.00 p.m because of the tourism.

It’s my favourite place because when I was a child I went there to watch the sea which is one of the things that I like.

Marina Lladó

3 ESO C

Col·legi Madre Alberta

A nice corner in Sant Joan

2009-01-29T05:34:00.000-08:00

It’s a place where not many people go… it’s my grandparent’s plot of land.

It’s a quiet place with very few neighbors.

It’s a place where you can relax and think without worries.

It’s a green place because there isn’t any electricity and my grandpas use the solar panels.

It’s an ideal place to do sports, trekking on the mountains (it’s ideal to walk) ride a bike, run…

I mainly love it because it's a quiet place, the views are very beautiful, there aren’t any noises and especialy because in the diferent seasons there are diferent colours.

Green in winter, many diferent colours in spring, yellow in summer and diferent sorts of brown in autumn.

Maria Arbós Cabot

3 ESO D

Col·legi Madre Alberta

Freystadt - my favourite place

2009-01-22T07:07:00.000-08:00

Freystadt

today I'd like to tell tell you something about Freystadt. Freystadt is a small city close to Neumarkt. It has a area of 80,53km² and 8795 inhabitants. It has very much communities: They are called for example Aßlschwang, Rohr, Richthof,
Burggriesbach, Schmellnricht,Forchheim, ... - these are all small villages ... close to Freystadt.

Important places are, the shopping centers, the "Maria Hilf" church, the schools , a natural swimming pool and the new markt place.
The postcode is 92342.

If you want to see the mark place, look there:

http://www.freystadt.de/hp1386/Homepage.htm

This is our city's crest:

http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Wappen_von_Freystadt.png&filetimestamp=20080328175309

If you want to see the whole city look here:

http://www.internetstadtplan.com/Freystadt/revilakmap.html

Christoph Körner, class 8d, KRS NM

Volksfest Time in August!!! A big fair each year!!

2009-01-22T06:55:00.000-08:00

The Jura Volksfest - the biggest fair in and around Neumarkt!!

There you'll have a great time!

Now I´ll tell you something about the biggest annual festival in Neumarkt.
There were in 2008 about 250.000 people, this is a new record for the city of Neumarkt.
There you'll find quite a lot of fairground rides(Fahrgeschäften) and celebrated.
Last year it was on from the 7th.-17th August.
There played eleven bands (show, rock and folk). 1 liter of beer cost 5,40€.
At the beginning and at the end of the festival there are each year big fireworks.
This is the best time of the year - and it's during our school holidays.
The fairground has a area of 13000 m².
In the beergarden there can sit about 5000 people.
There are the two festival halls which are crowded with visitors from all over Bavaria.
The first festival was in 1850.
On the last day of this fair there is the famous horse market. There are horses and quite a lot of people, too.
On the area were about 10 big rides and very much little rides, last year - so you can have really great fun there.
You can eat there very much different food, for example a big Breze(Breze), a famous Bavarian food.

If you want to find out more about this big event please have a look at the following websites:

Watch the Video please:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS37ag6nD2I&eurl=http://www.news-aus-neumarkt.de/video-feuerwerk-volksfest-neumarkt/&feature=player_embedded

There are some photos:

http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Juravolksfest_Neumarkt_2008-08-09.jpg&filetimestamp=20080819163053

http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Neumarkt_in_der_Oberpfalz_1.jpg&filetimestamp=20080820204431

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/MrEdding/Feuerwerk_10.jpg

http://www.galerie-neumarkt.de/showgallery.php?cat=812

Christoph Körner, class 8d, KRS NM

Nuremberg Central Station

2009-01-22T06:44:00.000-08:00

Hi it's me again - Daniel!
Today I want to tell you sth. about the Nürnberg central station.
Nürnberg is a metropolis very close to our city (Neumarkt);
it takes about 20-30 minutes to go there by train.
The train station is not just a normal train station.
There are 21 tracks and every day there travel about 130,000 people with 466 trains.
It is 20.214 m² big and has 4 Flors.
The opening was in 1844.
In the trains station there is a shopping mall with about 60 stores.
You can go shopping there from 8 am to -9 pm.
You might go there and get a new hair cut or just sit in an internet café, do your bank businesses; there are various phone shops, flower stores and so on.
The building is 165 m large and 70 m wide and the highest point is 35 m high.
It also has a connection with the subway U2 and an s-bahn.

Daniel Dambietz, class 8d, KRS NM

The most beautiful Golf Course - around Neumarkt

2009-01-21T08:19:00.000-08:00

Golf course: Hilzhofen

Hi I´m Kevin from Germany and I want to tell you something about my favourite place in our region.

It´s the golf course in Hilzhofen near Neumarkt.

I only have to walk some metres till I reach the big site. It was built in 1992 and was finished on my birthday, in September 1993. The main season for golfing there lasts from March to November. It was very expensive to build this big golfing area.

In the club there is a restaurant, too. It´s called “Il Golosone”. There is only Italian food. You can eat pizza, spaghetti or veal chop. But veal chop is the only German food you´ll get there.

If I´m bored I really like to go to the golf course because it´s very relaxing. You have to pay a lot of money but it´s worth it. You can play nine or eighteen holes. Sometimes there are competitions. But if you aren´t a good golf player you shouldn´t participate. The best players from Bavaria take part in these competitions.

If you are not as good at playing golf you could go to the “neighbouring" golf academy. There you can learn how to play golf. There are about ten golf teacher who will show you how to become a good player. If you are male then you have to go 5810 metres and if you are female you have to walk 5183 metres. You can see, that you can lose weight, too, if you practice golf regularly.

That are the main reasons why I like this golf course so much.

You have fun and stay fit, too!!

Kevin Öchsl, class 9c, KRS Neumarkt

"The Wolfstein Castle" - our town's landmark

2009-01-21T07:57:00.000-08:00

The history of the castle “Wolfstein”

The origins of the castle, still, lie in darkness.

One thing is sure, however, at about 1120 a certain Ulrich V was there.

After the present archaeological findings the castle was established in the late Staufer time (1st half till the middle of the 13th century) as an imperial ministerial seat.
Since 1283 this landmark of Neumarkt was called after the "Wolfstein" family.
In the 14th century the Wolfstein family could increase its possessions in the neighbourhood of the castle more and more.
From king Karl the IV the family got in 1349 the privilege of beeing allowed to build a town below the castle, with all rights a middle aged town at that time had.

From the middle of the 14th century on two famlilies had to share the possessions of the castle, however, which appeared to be very difficult.

In 1434 they received from emperor Sigismund a privilege after which the castle and all people there should have the same rights as the town Neumarkt and its citizens.

This imperial privilege was above all also directed against the "Wittelsbacher" princes who wanted to enforce their ruling over the area.

In spite of all rivalry between Wolfstein and Wittelsbach sovereigns there were also periods of good cooperation.

Above all Friedrich v. Wolfstein often stood in sovereign services; among other things he was also active as a princely advice for the count palatine and Dane's king Christof.
His "loyal services" gave him in 1442 the "high jurisdiction" privilege about the castle district and two other villages.

The Wolfsteiner could not profit from this power increase, nevertheless, very long.

The pressure on the Wolfsteiner rule became obvious under count palatine Otto I.

Now that was a little part of the history of Wolfstein.

http://www.wolfsteinfreunde.de/besucher/bildergalerie2.php?k=6&kp=Notice:%20%20Undefined%20variable:%20kp%20in%20/www/vhosts/wolfsteinfreunde.de/html/besucher/bildergalerie2.php%20on%20line%2064

Tobias Fürst, class 9c, KRS Neumarkt

Möninger "Berg" (hill) - the secret place!!!!

2009-01-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

Möniger Berg - The secret place!
Now I`ll tell you something about a secret place, where there is no noise and where you can do extreme sports, too.
Only a couple of people know, that you can do extreme sports there.
We ride with the bikes so fast, that we easily jump more than 3 meters wide.
On the Möinger "hill" there are a lot of trees and you can cycle there, if you are very good at cycling, but you must be careful.
There is no track anywhere,and you can you hurt yourself very quickly.
We don't wear a helmet. When we ride, we try to do some tricks and we have fun!
On the hill is a church from where you can have a wunderful view over the countryside.
There are events every year. For example there is a classic-concert.
The "mountain" is 600 meters high.
I can´t show pictures of us while cycling there at the moment, because everywhere is snow now so that we can't cycle. We don't ride our bikes whent it's raining either.
In winter you can sledge with sleighs or ski if there is enough snow.

Christoph Körner, class 8d, KRS Neumarkt

ICE HOCKEY - our favourite sport

2009-01-19T13:48:00.000-08:00

*Ice hockey*

by Christoph Körner und Daniel Dambietz, class 8d, KRS Neumarkt

So here is some information about the extreme sport Ice hockey.
Normally the teams consist of 22 players. Only 6 players can be on the ice, the other players have to stay outside the field. The ice rink is about 56 m long and about 26m.
A game lasts 60 minutes divided into 3 parts.
After every post there is a break of 15 minutes.

*Something about the field:*
On the right and on the left side are goals. They both are about 122cm high and 183cm long. Each goal has a goalkeeper. The field has 5 parts. The bluelines are the attack-, the Neutral-, and the Defence zone.
Every player can go everywhere on the ice, except on the neutral field age the door.

*Terms:*

*Time-out*: every team has one time-out of 30 seconds in one game

*Penalty shot*: the performer can move from the middle line, to the goalkeeper, and try to shoot a goal, but he isn't allowed to go back. The Penalty shot ends after a shoot. The game will be continued with a Bully.

*Bully*: One player from each teams goes in the middle and tries to get the puck.

*Offside*: While playing to the opposite goal at the same time as the puck must cross the line before or opponent player or at the same time with the first attacked player the blue line.

*Icing*: Is when the puck crosses the red middle line and the opposing goalline directly or indirectly. Then the referee will whistle because of the No-Touch-Icing-Rule.

*Rules:*
It isn't allowed to shoot or pass the puck with a high-sticking (over theshoulder height) and to pass with the hand, too.

*Penalty:*Small penalty (2 min) / small bank penalty (2 minutes against the team)

* Small to medium fine / penalty Bank (2 + 2 min)

* Medium + disciplinary punishment (2 + 10 min)

* Large penalty (5 min + automatically playing Disciplinary Punishment)

* Disciplinary penalty (10 min)

* Run-disciplinary punishment (possibly playing + game lock (s))

* Match Penalty (5 min + + Run at least 1 game ban)

* Penalty shot (penalty)

The "Franken Center" - my favourite shopping mall!!

2009-01-19T13:43:00.000-08:00

Franken Centre, the most beautiful place:
My favourite place in Bavaria is the Franken Centre.
It is in Nuernberg and it's a big shopping centre.
There you can have everything you want or need. It is a place where very many people go to for shopping; it has a big glass roof. It's perfect if you just want to relax, too.
There are three floors with an area of 40.000 qm.
You can go there by car, train, bus, and tram. There are about 100 shops.
There are often gigs in the centre.
The Franken Centre has a website:www.franken-center-nuernberg.de .
I hope that this sounds interesting?!

Christoph Körner and Daniel Dambietz, class 8d, KRS Neumarkt

The "Palm Beach" - Adventure Pool in Nürnberg

2009-01-19T13:34:00.000-08:00

My favourite place is the ,"Palm Beach“ in Nürnberg!

There you can relax and you can have fun!! There is just everything: a diving platform, 3 different pools(one pool makes waves, the other is good for the body - spa and wellness- and the last pool is a big whirlpool), an outdoor playground and my lovely place is near the glides, they have 5 different types of them.
You can go to a solarium or you can go to the restaurant of this place.
The one thing that isn´t good and correct is the very expensive entrance fee, it is too much!!!
A day in this resort place "The Palm Beach" is like a holiday on the beach to me because I have never been in holidays, so far )-: ....
There would be much more to say about this place - I only told you now what I like on it!!!!!
For more Information: www.palm-beach.de.

Renè Daller, class 8d, KRS Neumarkt

Pölling - my favourite place!!

2009-01-19T13:22:00.000-08:00

Hi my name is Daniel,
and I am from a little village near Neumarkt called Pölling.
I want to tell you something about my home village:
The distance from Neumarkt to Pölling is 3 km. 3000 people live there.

There are many sport activities.
There is a soccer club and tennis court which also is owned by a club. Pölling has special kind of sport. This sport is very, very special in Neumarkt and the farer region.
It is “American football”.

In the village there are also shops and businesses.
There is our famous bakery called “Feihl”. Special is that the bakery head office is in Pölling. "Feihl" actually is a quite big company with many branches all over Bavaria.
There also a butcher here. We have two banks. It is the “Raiffeisen Bank” and the “Sparkassen Bank”. A little magazine shop is also there. It sells magazines and tobacco products and many other things. A flower store with many wonderful and different kinds of flowers we have here.
And many other kinds of shops and business is here in Pölling like a doctor, bike store, two hairdressers and so on.

We have a Catholic church here. Everyday there are church services. Next to it is our library.
But it isn’t very big. A larger library is in Neumarkt.

We also have a school and a kindergarten.
For young girls and boys there are one or two events on each month, maybe a movie evening, a party or something else. But if you were 16 or older you can drive to the two discos in Neumarkt.
How you can come there???
You can go by bus, but that doesn't work at night. It only goes during the day. But this is no problem, because Pölling has also a train station, were you can drive to Neumarkt to the discos at night or generally to see the city, shopping or something else.
Is that not enough, you can easily go by train to the next biggest city called Nürnberg.
It takes you not more than half an hour to go to Nürnberg.

I hope I could give you some interesting information about my home village.
I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Daniel Dambietz, class 8d, KRS Neumarkt

Hausheim! The funny but crazy place :-)!

2009-01-19T07:13:00.000-08:00

“Holla”,
my name is Tobias.
I am from Hausheim near Neumarkt and I like our little village with about 500 citizens very much!!
We have a big playground with a volleyball and soccer field there.
In summer we do sports there every day. I play soccer, baseball,volleyball or I just meet my friends to chill there together ;-)!!
In winter our little village "hill" is a good place for skiing or sleding downhill on the snow.
Behind Hausheim is a big hill called “Dillberg”(595 m high) there you have a wonderfull view and sometimes when the sun is shining and when the sky is blue or at sunset this place is like in a dream!!!
It is also a good place for for cycling or driving downhill with the mountainbike the deep tracks through the woods are just great fun and kind of adventurous - funny but crazy.(Check smile :-)!

Tobias Fürst, class 9c, KRS-NM

Tyrolsberg - A small village but a big history!!

2009-01-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

Tyrolsberg
Hello,
may I introduce myself first:
My name is Johannes Moosburger, I’m 15 years old and I go to the “Knaben Real Schule “ in Neumarkt. Every day I have to go by bus to school. But the trip lasts only 10 minutes from our house to school. In Munich or other big cities it could be much longer.
For my whole life, I have been living in this (Tyrolsberg) most beautiful village in the world.
The name of our little village is Tyrolsberg, and today there live about 200 inhabitants, around our Catholic chapel and our snuggish pub.
OK, some others describe Tyrolsberg as a little spot in the middle of nowhere.
But on the other hand others like it very much, and so do I.

But first, let me tell you something about the history about my village.
In 1280 it was the first time that Tyrolsberg was mentioned in a tax list. That time, Tyrolsberg was owned by two peers: Albrecht von Wolfstein and his brother Gotfried von Wolfstein.
Both lived in a knight´s castle, about 5 km away, east of Tyrolsberg and the castle was placed on a big rock about 300 m above the little town of Neumarkt.
Today the knight´s castle “Wolfstein“ is only a ruin, but the big tower is in good order.
From top of the tower, you have a good view even to the farmland of Tyrolsberg.

The castle ruin Wolfstein with it´s tower.
Some historians think that Tyrolsberg had been a little grange at that difficult time of the middle ages.
More than 300 years later, in the year 1611, already 6 farms had been existing there and they were a part of the monastery Seligenporten. You can find this on an old map-document of the monastery.
Monastery Seligenporten
But back to today.
Our village is special, and – let´s say, a little bit famous for its big old oak in the middle of Tyrolsberg. The big tree must be about 400 years old or even more.
Under the oak there was a small grotto built with a statue of the Virgin Mary inside.
Just have a look to the following picture.
It appears beautiful and seems to have some kind of a touch of romance.

Because of this small grotto the people of Tyrolsberg organize a big festival for two or three days, every year in May. On that weekend nearly all the villagers are on their feet, Bavarian music is playing all the time, you can have lot of barbecue food, good tasting domestic beer from big beer mugs and it is also usual that there are offered home-made cakes and coffee. A lot of people or complete families come and celebrate the festival together with us.
Interesting for tourists for example is our little church

http://www.berngau.de/hp130/Tyrolsberg.htm

and a fountain next to it. The church has a very old altar which was hand-carved and was colored partly with Gold and Silver. The fountain has a bronze statue on it, a copy of the good herdsman.

Because Tyrolsberg is nestling between middle mountains, a lot of forest and a widespread farmland, you will find many, many people walking or hiking around, jogging or biking or doing some other sports in the surrounding of our village. In wintertime it is often possible to practice cross country skiing or to go sledging.
In my free time I´m playing football on our village football field or playing street hockey together with the other kids of the village. That’s perfect, because most of the time there is no car on the street, so it is not dangerous.
You see it is very nice to live in that little village called Tyrolsberg, without any traffic jams or traffic noise, fumes and too much people.
If you like a lot of nature and living next to a paddock, Tyrolsberg would be the right place for you.

Johannes Moosburger , class 9c, KRS Neumarkt

Something more about Neumarkt

2009-01-17T03:15:00.000-08:00

Hi my name is Daniel,

and I live in Pölling which is a borough (more like a village) of Neumarkt.
I want to tell you sth. about me.
I am 14 years old, have got blue eyes, and I am 1.60m tall and have short hair.
My hobbies are volleyball, playing football on the street, cycling and chatting with my friends.
By the way I play volleyball on a team for a club here.
And I go to the Knabenrealschule Neumarkt which is actually a very nice school but - there aren’t girls!!
Next to our school - very close - there is the our city's open-air swimming pool.
It is 993 square meters big and designed for non-swimmers-, swimmers- and there is an adventure basin.
Close to our school is a little lake which is called "Schlossweiher" - "the castle's lake" and this lake is just next to our Girls school!

I hope my little text interested you.

Daniel Dambietz, class 8d, KRS Neumarkt

An ecological swimming pool!

2009-01-16T02:06:00.000-08:00

Hi today I was at the ecological swimming pool in Kemnath.
The pool has been here for a long time but many things have changed.
The water now is frozen, so you can go ice-skating. The pool has a chute and two footbridges.
At the edge reed was planted. In spring there swim small newts and water Springer "jump" on the water. The water no longer contains chlorine or other chemicals.
A few years ago, the swimming pool was not as natural as it is now;
once the floor was made of concrete, which after a long time has been cracked and water expired. Now the soil is kind of a plastic film, which is very slippery in the summer.
The whole area around the pool is free of charge. Moreover, the bath has got a baby pool, where there is the water is not any deeper than 40cm.
There is also a large playground with trampolines, 2 swings, a sandbox, a rocker and a kind of water playground that looks like a stream; this stream runs into the baby pool and after that into the main pool. The water is "regenerated" in about 100 m distance.
Again, there is a sled hill were you also can sled.
Right next to the hill, there is a miniature golf course with a basketball court. The outdoor pool is now even more natural as it was then, but behind a partition wall was cleared a large area, where many trees once stood )-;.
You can always find in summer the staff of the Water Watch, a rescue team which is based there to watch the swimmers.
Incidentally, the bath at various depths for nonswimmer (0.70 m-1, 35m) and swimmers (0.70 m-2, 70m) have been built and is designed for people who love the beach and the like nature. On the site we can not ride a bicycle, and no dogs are allowed.
For even more security this year were 2 cameras installed. Unfortunately today, I could no longer take pictures, because it is too dark, but images follow.
That's all for today!!
bye bye René
class 8d, KRS Neumarkt

Freetime in Neumarkt

2009-01-16T01:57:00.000-08:00

Hello, I'm Matthias and I'm 15 years old.

My favourite place in Neumarkt

is the soccerfield in Altenhof.

Altenhof is a borough of Neumarkt.

On this soccerfield I often meet friends and we usually chill out there.

Sometimes we also play soccer but in winter it's a little bit too cold for it.

It is a pity, that the gras on this field isn't in a very good condition, I think one should care more about this special place - so that you could play soccer there all through the year.

Next to the soccerfield, there is also a little place, where you can play volleyball, too.

I'm sorry but I don't have any pictures so far of my favourite place.

Bye.

Matthias Pragner, 8d, KRS Neumarkt

Hello again from Kemnath!!

2009-01-14T09:57:00.000-08:00

Hello again from Kemnath,

today school was wonderful.
After school I went to a friend and we took photos from Kemnath. We have a kindergarten, where I went to, and it is beautiful. Right next to the Kindergarten is a great sled hill where you can perfectly sled. And just next to the sled hill is a small playground, which was renewed. Then there is “The Swan lake” to see, but today there are only ducks.
In Kemnath there are many paddocks and a horse ranch just behind my house. There is a big lawn, sometimes there are wild- living animals to see.
Our village also has a chapel and a stream through the whole of Kemnath flowing; in the summer you can catch frogs.
Kemnath is known for its fountain with the four trees, the fountain is each year at Easter decorated with painted “real” eggs.
Our village (Kemnath) is one kilometre away from the village Postbauer-Heng.
There you can find the Train Station and we have a supermarket in Postbauer-Heng. In addition, there are also two schools, one primary school and a kind of highschool. But the best of Postbauer-Heng is that there is a beautiful toy store.
Renè Daller, class 8d, KRS Neumarkt

Kemnath - another village near Neumarkt

2009-01-13T09:52:00.000-08:00

Hi students and teachers from Mallorca,

My name is René and I´m 14 years old.
I´m from Kemnath, that´s a very small but nice village in Bavaria, near Neumarkt. There I can do things like:
- go to the open air swimming pool,
- go to one of our three playgrounds
and as there is a wonderful and exciting natural forest me and my friends are planning to build a tree house there.
I’ve been living in Kemnath (there are 1000 people living) since 13 years, before I lived in Nuremberg the second biggest city in Bavaria.
My hobbies are: writing letters, driving my bike and listening to the latest song charts.
My school (Staatliche Knabenrealschule Neumarkt i.d Opf) is the BEST, although it´s only a boy school but the teachers are the best they are just cool.
My school is so popular that we needed to construct an annex with six more classrooms in it.
We have over 40 teachers and over 800 pupils.
We can buy our lunch at school. Most of the pupils come by bus. I must go over 10 kilometres by bus. After school I mostly go to the city center in Neumarkt to do some shopping (-:
I hope you can understand my text.
Soon I will send you some photos of my village.

saludos

René Daller, class 8d, KRS Neumarkt

Pilsach - a village near Neumarkt - my favourite place

2009-01-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

In my opinion the nicest place in the Oberpfalz is "Pilsach".Pilsach is a little village near "Neumarkt" in Bavaria. It*s near the place where I live with my family and my pets. The reason why I like Pilsach so much is because all my friends are living there. Some of them I know scine I was a little child. The only things that you can do in this little village is hanging around with friends and driving with the scooters through the forest. You can also watch a garden which teaches you about flowers and trees. This garden is near the lovely church wich you can see on the picture.

Around Pilsach there are a lot of green areas.Maximilian Odörfer 8 d KRS-Neumarkt

Hello from Germany, Bavaria

2009-01-12T08:17:00.000-08:00

Hi,

to the students and teachers from Mallorca!

Soon students from our school will send

some nice pics and articles about our Bavarian home in the "Oberpfalz" region to you.

Thanks a lot for your articles!

They are really nice!

My colleagues and me, all, wish you a happy and healthy new year 2009 - and all the best, of course, for our Comenius Project.

Andrea Götz,

English Teacher; Comenius Teacher ;-)

La Reserva del Puig de Galatzó

2008-12-11T13:33:00.001-08:00

My favourite place in Majorca is situated in the south-west of the island, in the municipal district of Puigpunyent, and called La Reserva del Puig de Galatzó.It is a place very green, there are waterfalls and you can have a lot of adventures. I like to go there with my family and my friends in the spring and summer. You can swim in any of the waterfall-pools there but what I really love is the adventure because with my friends I can go abseiling, climbing or crossing over rope-bridges. The animals, donkeys, rabbits and birds can be touched and fed. At mid-day there is a show with birds of prey and there you can have a picnic with all the family and friends in a special place were you can make a fire and have a barbecue. This is my favourite place to spend a good day.

Natàlia Garaña Cunill

3 ESO D

Col·legi Madre Alberta

"Cala Blava"

2008-12-11T01:19:00.000-08:00

My favorite place is Cala Blava.

I like this place very much, because it has very beautiful sea views. There are beautiful houses; also there are beautiful buildings where a lot of people go on holiday. There is a small mountain where you have a very nice sea views and you can see dolphins. In this mountain you can go camping.

Personally, what I like most is sea views because I like the sea very much. There is a small beach where the water is very blue and also there is a small bar. Anybody that goes there will like it very much.

Kerly Cabrera Villavicencio

3 ESO D

Col·legi Madre Alberta

"Las Gaviotas" Alcudia Beach

2008-12-09T04:36:00.000-08:00

My favourite place is “Las Gaviotas”, situated in the North of Majorca, in the area of Alcudia beach.

This place is where I feel good, where you can either read a book quietly or have a good time with the people from the place. But the best thing is when you arrive at the beach and you see the bay surrounded by mountains while a soft breeze caresses you, which is always welcomed in summertime. The crystalline waters also invite you to jump from the wooden mooring which ends far away from the shore, where parents fish with their sons in a relaxed atmosphere.

Just a moment… what are we talking about? Rewind… the truth is that I like Alcudia beach because, apart from what I already mentioned, I can also meet my friends and go swimming or jump from that same wooden mooring to a buoy which is far away from the beach. When nightime arrives one can go out to the best nightclubs or go to a concert.

That’s Alcudia beach!

Elisa Garcia Braem

4 ESO E

Col·legi Madre Alberta

My favourite place is...

2008-11-25T02:18:00.000-08:00

A nice way to introduce oneself could be writing some words about our favourite places from the region we live in.

Tell the rest of your Comenius' mates what's your favourite place in Alsace, in Mallorca or in Ober Pfalz.

If you want to participate in this activity you have to write a short essay about your favourite place and e-mail it to your Comenius teacher and she/he will post it in this blog.