POEM

OLD

Old, kind and wise of advice

Lived his life with two sons, but no wife

His sons meant the most of all

Even though they let him fall

No one he despised

Not even those who left him on ice

Everything were so cold

No he rest his soul

MAN

Dear diary

I’ve just arrived my foster family, an old couple. They’re white and don’t seem to like Aborigines. I’ve barricaded my door to the little cottage I’ve been given, and now I’m lying on a low brown crib with a slim madras. I’m afraid of course. Afraid I’ll never see my mom again, and my sisters, who were sent away to an institution. Seven days ago I was jailed. I heard from a boy in the jail that the white government wants to “whiten out the Aborigines”. The policeman said it was to my own good I was sent away. What’s all that crap supposed to mean? Never have the white man tried to adapt the Aborigine, and never have we insulted them with activities. We were here first!

The world’s not fair… so isn’t Australia, my home

Travelling - post 5

“Liverpool trial for boring 45 000 to death” 

– will probably be the headline of tomorrows disbursement of Liverpool Daily Post. What a letdown! Two chances were all the managed to make. The result; 0-0 and an unhappy André.

Okay, it wasn't that bad after all. Seen from the positive side I did get to see my heroes in action. Both Steven Gerrard and Ferndando Torres, who’s my favorites, played the whole match. But even they couldn’t manage create something good against Brede Hangeland’s Fulham. Still, experience singing “You’ll never walk alone” among 44 999 other fans was outstanding. It’s a song sung before every Liverpool match on Anfield the last 40 years, so in was remarkable to be a part of the history.

Fulham having a free-kick in the match that enden 0-0 

No I’m going to finish packing my bag and get ready for my flight home to Trondheim. The week has been filled with a lot of great experiences and I had a really good vacation although the Liverpool-match was a little disappointing. I hope you've enjoyed following me along my journey and feel satisfied with what I’ve told you.

So long!

Travelling - post 4

Good afternoon!

Today I woke up early. The thought of the today’s’ match kept me awake for a long time last night. After all it’s like a dream come true. Because I fell asleep late, it would probably be normal to wake up late, but not in this case. A bird crashing into my window made me jump out of the bed, so when I already was up I thought of experiencing a little more of Liverpool. I got dressed, went down and ate a marvelous breakfast before I began a short walk towards the Centrum of the city.

Liverpool has a lot of culture to offer and in 2008 Liverpool was the European Capital of Culture. It was a historic year for Liverpool and the city was visited by millions. As much as seven museums and six galleries take place in Liverpool and it’s the hometown for the world famous rock band The Beatles so there would be a shame if they didn’t have their own dedicated museum too. I went to The Beatles Story to learn about these rock-icons and see how they lived. After paying £11.95 I entered a dream for Beatles fanatics. All over the place there were pictures and articles from the band. There were stations were you could listen to their music and se some of their videos. There was also a small documentary on a big screen that told me some facts about The Beatles. For instance The Beatle consisted four members; Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. It was established in 1958 and ruled the hit lists until it was official dissolved in 1970. It’s been calculated that all in all, the band has sold more than 1 billion records all over the world.

The Beatles

The visit at The Beatles Story sure made a good impression because it was well organized and included everything about Beatles, I think. I really enjoyed the visit at the museum, and I will definitely recommend it to people visiting Liverpool.

Now I’m sitting in the lobby of my hotel, Hampton By Hilton Liverpool City Centre, waiting for the ordered taxi to take me to Anfield Road. Anfield is the ground of Liverpool FC and I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to visit it for many years. I stopped outside the supporter shop in the city on my way back to the hotel earlier today, as you can see on the picture down here. I’m thrilled about the match and hope “we” will collect all the three points today. I’ll write again when I get back.

Me standing outside Liverpool FC's supporter shop

Wish us good luck!

Travelling - post 3

Hello again!

Cruise ship on Liverpool's harbor 

It’s been three days since I last wrote, but now as I’ve finally arrived Liverpool I think it’s time for you to get at least a little updated. The cruise I took wasn’t exactly the worst boat to be on, because everything there was well decorated and looked really expensive. The facility on the boat could have been better of range than just casino, swimming pool and mini golf, but I still enjoyed it. After all there was good to just relax for a couple of days. I’m just glad I didn’t get sea sick as I use to get. Well, enough about the cruise! Here in Liverpool there’s raining, raining and raining. Since I left the boat early this morning, the rain hasn’t even had a minute break. But I shall not complaint, England isn’t actually known for its’ good weather, and I’m not here for walking in the park. I’m here to watch some football! Liverpool Football Club has always been my favorite team, and I’m exciting to finally get the chance to see them live. But the match against Fulham has kick-off at 4 pm tomorrow, so today I’ve only bored myself with TV and a quick visit at the supermarket. On TV I saw a

St. Georges Cross, also known
as the national flag of England

documentary about England itself and saying it wasn’t interesting and instructive would be lying. I learned that England’s flag is called St. George’s Cross and has been used in almost 500 years. The Red Cross on a white background is only for England, while Britain has its’ own flag. There are over 51 million people living in England and the country even has its’ own national motto; “Dieu et mon droit”, French for “God and my right”.

Weapon-shield of England saying
"Dieu et mon Droit" 

The rest of the day will be spent on the hotel’s restaurant. It’s too bad they don’t serve breakfast in the evening, because I must admit I love the typical English breakfast! I realize I have to wait until tomorrow comes before having this delicious meal, so I think I’ll go for a steak. I’m really looking forward to the match tomorrow. Seeing my heroes crunching Fulham will be a perfect end of this great week.

C ya later alligator!

Travelling - post 2

Hello!

Today has been a very exciting day! I went to Gibraltar by bus at 11 o’ clock, and didn’t get back until the clock had passed 11 again. There was so much to see and experience there. As you may know, Gibraltar is a British Oversea Territory. That means they’re owned by British superiority, but without being a part of the kingdom of Britain.

Red English telephone box. This was the
first thing I saw after passing the border

When I first arrived Gibraltar, I got myself quite a laugh! After the passport control, in the middle of all the heat, stood a real classic; a red English telephone box! It was quite stunning to see an English telephone box placed as south in Spain as you get. But I couldn’t stay there all day taking photos of it, so I passed the runway of Gibraltar who’s actually the boarder too. After I’d walked it, they closed it for both cars and people, and a plane took off. Fascinating, I think, using a runway as a border. I discovered after walking some minutes in Gibraltar’s streets, that all of the cars here had yellow license plates like in Britain. I even saw a red, London double-decker transporting tourists. All this, in addition to the telephone box, almost made me feel I was in London. It’s significant that Britain has affected the area a lot. Only around 29 000 people lives there, but as well as every one of them speaks English. That’s a huge difference from outside Gibraltar in Spain. To top everything, I must tell you that they even use pounds in Gibraltar.

Monkey chills at The Rocks on Gibraltar

I had already seen a lot from Gibraltar, but I joined a guided trip to see some more and maybe learn some history. Our guide took us with a cableway to the top of “The Rocks”, which’s a giant cliff/mountain with view over whole Gibraltar. On top of The Rocks, there are monkeys living free. It’s actually the only place in Europe where there are living monkeys in free condition. It was fun to see the monkeys because they hang over the railings without bothering there was 400 meters straight down. The guide told us we could see three lands at the same time (Spain, Gibraltar (England) and Morocco) while we also stood in Europe looking at Africa. For many years ago, The Rocks were like a fortress that fought unauthorized back home. In the red and white national flag of Gibraltar who was adopted 1982, we can see a castle representing the fortress and a key below the castle who symbolizes the fortress significance, according to the guide.

National flag of Gibraltar

After the guided tour I found a lovely charming restaurant with view over the harbor. The food there was great and the atmosphere was calm and sedative. I really enjoyed Gibraltar and I thought it was really fun to experience an English-speaking place like this. It was also interesting to see all the comparisons to Britain.

Bye bye!

Travelling - post 1

Hola!

The Spanish flag

I've just arrived Costa Del Sol, more specific Malaga in southern Spain. The city with over 550 000 inhabitants is like the capital of mentioned Costa Del Sol, which means Coast of the Sun. The weather her is so much better than it was in Trondheim, so I’m glad I finally got some time to spend abroad. I suppose everyone know how the Spanish flag looks. Have you ever thought about the hot colors that matches the weather? I did along my flight from Trondheim while reading in a magazine about Spain. For a fact, the red and yellow colors on the flag were first used on the sea in 1785. Maybe because they wanted to bring the sand and red mountains whit them as they crossed oceans. The magazine also told me that Malaga is one of the oldest cities in the world.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
was a famous Spanish painter

I’ve been here in Malaga a couple of times before, which I find pleasuring because I’m only staying here for three days and don’t want to spend two of them locating stuf. For an example I’m well known with Calle Larios, the well decorated Main Street here in Malaga with lots of shopping abilities. From my earlier experiences I know Malaga is an exciting place to stay, because there are many things to do. Many different things, but it’s important to remember that you often have to create your own fun. Tomorrow I’m planning a visit to Gibraltar, a smaller English town 120 kilometers from Malaga. I’m now sitting on an internet café close to my hotel called MS Maestranza trying to find out which bus I need to take. I recently asked a native about where I could find information about the times the busses leave, but he only seemed confused. It turned out he didn’t speak English! According to the magazine I read, many of the Spanish aren’t so happy about speaking English. This may be because they don’t feel their knowledge in English are good enough, or maybe they just don’t get it. I’ve heard from a friend of mine that not everyone I Spain learn English at school. I think that Spain with a huge tourism shall be more open to English as language and make sure everyone get the opportunity to learn it.

After visiting Gibraltar tomorrow, I’ll probably see if I can manage to visit the Pablo Picasso museum of Malaga the day after tomorrow, which is a popular place for tourists. Many tourists come to Malaga only for this museum and because this is where the one and only Picasso was born.

A part of Malaga city 

I can truly say I’m looking forward to my stay here in this sunny city. As you know i'm only staying here for a few days, so i'll be busy! Off course I’ll try to write something after visiting Gibraltar and after my visit here in Malaga I'm heading north for a cruise that’s going to take me to charming Liverpool.

Adios!

About the butterflies - an analysis

“About the butterflies” is an analysis from the short-story”Butterflies”, by Patricia Grace. It sums up the story and goes through it very well. The way the story is analyzed is great because it tells you about the whole story, while you get the narrators point of view on the text divided into paragraphs. After reading the analysis I knew more about the “Butterflies” than I did before. It also explained a lot of things from the text. In short-stories, you often got to read between the lines, and here has the narrator of the analysis picked out the hidden facts and shared them with us.

The analysis showed me how to write a good analysis, because it includes all the important parts like settings, characters, themes, summary and own opinion.

po <3 

How English language affects and influences me in every-day life

Every day I read and hear English. A day without English would be odd to me. From the time I drive to school, until the time I go to sleep, I hear a lot of this international language. I’m a person who loves to listen to music, and I can truly say that over 90% of the music I listen to has English lyrics. When I watch TV, the programs are often in English. And when I go to the internet, English commercial and texts are all over the place. Right now, I’m doing my English homework while writing and reading English. Every time we use English, we get a little bit better in it. Therefore I think it’s great that English influences me as much as it does, because it’s a very important language and helps us communicate with the rest of the world. Without being able to speak this important and international language, you’ll miss a lot.

po <3

Mind maps

Here's two mind maps I created during last lesson

• Different strategies to learning English
• Why do we need to learn English?

Enjoy! :)


po <3

me, myself and I

Hi everyone!

My name is André Aasen, and this is my new and fresh English blog. Here I'm going to post tasks we do in English lessons at school.

I'm a boy at the age of 16. I love being active, and i play handball for Strindheim IL, and also a little bit fotball for Nidelv IL. I spend much of my spare time training. I train every day and love it! I also like to hang out with friends and my girlfriend. My lovely house is placed in Fossegrenda in Trondheim, and I'm a student at Thora Storm high school, I must say I really like my school day. My class is superb and all the teachers are great!
I'm a guy with tons of energy, and i like to use it.

po <3