How are you all ?

HI all
I hope your all doing well
its been really a long time but  i like to ask about you all and how your all doing ihope evrey one of you doing well& have a nice life
best wishs for you all
Fatina

Hi all

its been 2 years for this blog, idont know if any one comes here any more for me its my first time aftter the course
i hope all of you are doing well , jast wanted to say Hi
Good luck all in your life

It is My NEW Post, please don't read it!!

My post at this time, ofcorse has no meaning, I am almost sure that no one will view it, even no one will feel its presence.
Well, I have no problem to put that post even it has no meaning ( ofcorse it has a meaning to me).

I am feeling very tired , of being away from home, I feel that am wasting my time away from my family, I miss the target of my presence here.

I don't have any target of writing that post, except I feel that I am fully charged with various feelings& all of that feeling are from the type which disturbs any normal person.

Some times I am feeling lost, am in a place which no one is knowing exactly who I am, I don't have any memories with the places & persons around me, every face I meet is totally new to me, in the beginning it was amazing, but now came to be very boring.

After all of the new people I met & staring in each face to try to relate it to one of my memories, I found that I am almost going to forget my self, my person& personality, I feel no presence for me even, same as you are watching a very exciting movie, you live with the events& scenes, but you never be one of the movie characters.
Actually I was trying to convince my self, that I can make my own memories, friends, society, but seems that I failed& all the relationships came to be a big fake, why it came like that ?? what is the problem I had ??

The problem that all the faces UI met were not real, all the people out of their home are wearing false musk, I was wondering I feel I am different, unique some times& I discovered that I am the only one who is walking in the streets with his real face, no musk.

Masks that I met were two types; a mask which is a copy of the real face & the other one was a musk with various shapes different from the true face.

let's blog

Dear friends,

How are you? I am not sure whether anybody is still reading the blog.

Anyway, I've decided to share a few thoughts with you. I've printed the whole blog out, it's more than 100 pages (can you believe it) and have been reading and re-reading our posts and comments.

I can't explain how many memories and smiles they brought back to me. I really hope that we will return to this space again.

Perhaps we can discuss some guidelines on how to manage the space better, some basic rules, all the rest is open to a dialogue and negotiation.

So, what are you doing?

Warm regards,
ralitza

to free pharaoh

Hi Ashraf,

Sadly, I realised today that you have deleted all your posts. Why did you do that? I really don't inderstand?

Your posts made our blog different. Please,can't you resend them, or are they forever lost?

You know I am writing my dissertation, which is based on my experience of the class blog. Do you mind if I interview you or I can post the questions on the blog for you to answer them?

I can't make sense why so many emotional decisions were taken regarding the blog.

Can I ask the students who are still reading the blog to write and tell me how they feel about the blog now, a month after the end of the course.

Warm regards,
ralitza

something left from the week

Hi,

These are some of the questions we asked on Wednesday. Can I ask the students who haven't posted their answers to do so? It will help me plan my next blog with students better.

In the meantine, we'll keep this blog as long as we want to keep it and find it useful. We might have to agree, though, on how to go about it in the future. By answering those questions, I hope we'll be able to evaluate the experience and decide on the way ahead.

Evaluation of the experience

1. How would you describe your first blogging experience now after 8 weeks of blogging?

2. Did you find it useful? Why/Why not?

3. List some of the benefits of blogging for you.

4. What might be a reason for the lack of participation on the part of some students?

5. Did the blog manage to address your specific student`s needs?

6. Do you think blogging should be intergrated in the language classroom? Why/Why not?

7. How do you see the role of the blogging teacher. How can she/he encourage students to write?

8. What suggestions for the future use of students' blogs would you like to make?

Regards,
ralitza

a message on the BC intranet

Hi everyone,

Thank you for going along with me and showing involvement and commitment to our blog.

It was an extremely enriching experience for me as well. I hope it has showed us the way ahead.

And ....

This is a message that I just read encouraging teachers at the British Council to invite students to check out the podcasts on the British council website.

The message reads:

Are your students having a break from English classes this summer? Suggest that they practise their English in a fun way with LearnEnglish Podcasts - they can listen on their computer, or download them to their mp3 players. They're free, and there's something for everyone - from kids to adults and from elementary to advanced level learners. New materials will be published each week.

You and your learners can find LearnEnglish podcasts at:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts.htm

The following podcasts are available:

LearnEnglish Elementary Podcasts are magazine-style programmes for learners at Elementary level. Each programme has got many activities that your learners can do on their computer while they listen, or print out and do when they want. Each programme is accompanied by many hours of support materials that can be printed off or done online.

LearnEnglish Stories and Poems Podcasts are for learners at Intermediate to Advanced level and contain stories by our resident writer, Chris Rose. All stories are accompanied by support materials that can be printed off or done online.

LearnEnglish Themes Podcasts are for learners at Intermediate to Advanced level. There is a recorded article which is accompanied by support materials that can be printed off or done online. There are also links to many other activities on the same theme.

LearnEnglish Professionals Podcasts are for learners at Intermediate to Advanced level and cover a wide range of topics of interest to the business person or professional. Our weekly podcasts are accompanied by an audioscript which includes a comprehension activity and often tie in with the magazine articles on our site.

Enjoy the podcasts and enjoy your summer!

Warm regards,

Ralitza

evaluation

Hi everyone,

This is our final week. I’d like to invite you to reflect on the whole experience of blogging and decide on whether you'd like to continue with the blog or not. There are three tasks for you to do this lesson:

1. Do the surveys. The questions are: Do you want to continue with the blog? Do you want us to open the blog to a wider audience?

2. Do the evaluation questionnaire.

3. Read how the other students have answered the same questions and comment on their answers.

Here is the EVALUATION QUESTIONNAIRE.

A) Reflection on your posts and participation on the blog.

Look back at your posts and write a short paragraph evaluating the quality and regularity of your writing. Consider the following ideas:

original idea (no copy paste from internet resources)
target reader (how easy to read and of interest your post might be for your reader)
organisation and paragraphs
range of vocabulary and grammar
spelling, puntuation
use of enhancement: pictures, videos
regular posts of average length

What do you need to work more on?

You can use the scale from 1 to 10 ( 1- very poor, 10- excellent)


B) Evaluation of the experience

1. How would you describe your first blogging experience now after 8 weeks of blogging?

2. Did you find it useful? Why/Why not?

3. List some of the benefits of blogging for you.

4. What might be a reason for the lack of participation on the part of some students?

5. Did the blog manage to address your specific student`s needs?

6. Do you think blogging should be intergrated in the language classroom? Why/Why not?

7. How do you see the role of the blogging teacher. How can she/he encourage students to write?

8. What suggestions for the future use of students' blogs would you like to make?

Thank you.

Regards,
ralitza

oO Japanese Culture Oo

Each country has diffrent culture and taditinion from one to a nother, so because I like Japanese language I would like to Know more and more a bout "Japan"..

JAPANESE LANGUAGE…

Japanese Language: Japanese (nihongo) is spoken in Japan, and essentially nowhere else. The Japanese language is distinct from Chinese and Korean, although the written form uses Chinese (kanji) characters, and is not known to be related to any other language.


JAPANESE FASHION…

The modern and traditional styles of Japanese fashion including Japanese street fashion, (Tokyo), Kogal and traditional Japanese fashion (kimono).


Japanese Food…

The Japanese cuisine offers a great variety of dishes and regional specialties. Some of the most popular Japanese and Japanized dishes are :
•Rice Dishes
•Seafood Dishes
•Noodle Dishes
•Soya Bean Dishes
•Nabe Dishes
•Yoshoku Dishes

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Fruits and flowers... Waterfalls... Gardens hanging from the palace terraces... Exotic animals... This is the picture of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in most people's minds. It may be surprising to know that they might have never existed except in Greek poets and historians imagination!

Location
On the east bank of the River Euphrates, about 50 km south of Baghdad, Iraq

History

The Babylonian kingdom flourished under the rule of the famous King, Hammurabi (1792-1750

BC). It was not until the reign of Naboplashar (625-605 BC) of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty that

the Mesopotamian civilization reached its ultimate glory. His son, Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562

BC) is credited for building the legendary Hanging Gardens. It is said that the Gardens were

built by Nebuchadnezzar to please his wife or concubine who had been "brought up in Media and
had a passion for mountain surroundings".

While the most descriptive accounts of the Gardens come from Greek historians such as

Berossus and Diodorus Siculus, Babylonian records stay silent on the matter. Tablets from the time of Nebuchadnezzar do not have a single reference to the Hanging Gardens, although

descriptions of his palace, the city of Babylon, and the walls are found. Even the historians who give detailed descriptions of the Hanging Gardens never saw them. Modern historians argue

that when Alexander's soldiers reached the fertile land of Mesopotamia and saw Babylon, they were impressed. When they later returned to their rugged homeland, they had stories to tell

about the amazing gardens and palm trees at Mesopotamia.. About the palace of Nebuchadnezzar.. About the Tower of Babel and the ziggurats. And it was the imagination of poets and ancient historians that blended all these elements together to produce one of the World Wonders.

It wasn't until the twentieth century that some of the mysteries surrounding the Hanging Gardens were revealed. Archaeologists are still struggling to gather enough evidence before reaching the final conclusions about the location of the Gardens, their irrigation system, and their true appearance.

Description

Detailed descriptions of the Gardens come from ancient Greek sources, including the writings of Strabo and Philo of Byzantium. Here are some excerpts from their accounts:

"The Garden is quadrangular, and each side is four plethra long. It consists of arched vaults which are located on checkered cube-like foundations.. The ascent of the uppermost terrace-roofs is made by a stairway..."


"The Hanging Garden has plants cultivated above ground level, and the roots of the trees are embedded in an upper terrace rather than in the earth. The whole mass is supported on stone columns... Streams of water emerging from elevated sources flow down sloping channels... These waters irrigate the whole garden saturating the roots of plants and keeping the whole area moist. Hence the grass is permanently green and the leaves of trees grow firmly attached to supple branches... This is a work of art of royal luxury and its most striking feature is that the labor of cultivation is suspended above the heads of the spectators".


More recent archaeological excavations at the ancient city of Babylon in Iraq uncovered the foundation of the palace. Other findings include the Vaulted Building with thick walls and an irrigation well near the southern palace. A group of archaeologists surveyed the area of the southern palace and reconstructed the Vaulted Building as the Hanging Gardens. However, the Greek historian Strabo had stated that the gardens were situated by the River Euphrates. So others argue that the site is too far from the Euphrates to support the theory since the Vaulted Building is several hundreds of meters away. They reconstructed the site of the palace and located the Gardens in the area stretching from the River to the Palace. On the river banks, recently discovered massive walls 25 m thick may have been stepped to form terraces... the ones described in Greek references.

http://wonderclub.com/WorldWonders/GardenHistory.html

an interesting site

Hello,

There is an article in today's Gulf Times about the Arab influence in Spain. If you are interested in the topic that Ahmed started with his impressions and wonderful photographs from Al Hambra, you can check out The Islamic Culture Foundation (Fundación de Cultura Islámica, FUNCI) site on:

http://www.funci.org/en/

There are some interesting articles on The World of Science in Muslim Spain and Campaigning Against Forced Marriages.

Tell me what you think.

Regards,
ralitza

Mesopotamia

Thousands of years of History

Mesopotamia is apart of the holy land Tigris and the Euphrates rivers they join together in the shatt Al Arab near Kurna grows ancient tree called Adam and Eve's tree.

The earliest traces of human presence in Mesopotamia date from the old stone age (25,000-5000 BC) most preeious assets –Ideas, art technologies , writing and mathematics began finding their way from Mesopotamia to Europe and to the rest of the world.

Many great civilization have prospered and Ultimately turned to dust in Mesopotamia.

1)Sumer(4500BC-2340 BC)

This civilization began in the south of Mesopotamia under went enormous changes for example Agricultural Knowledge, irrigation and
Building techniques so they built dozen city state
(Eridu,Ur, Urak,Lagash,Larsa and others)

2)Akkad (2340BC about 2000 Bc)

Sargon I their powerful monarch built an empire that stretched from Taurus mountains from Anatolia in the north and the Mediterranean to the west.

3) The Babylonians (1760 BC – 1595BC)

Babylon became an important city under the rule of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC)
The capital became the economic and religious center of empire.He left behind a highly elaborate lode of laws

4) The Assyrians (1830BC then 827-612 BC)

for 3,000 year northern Iraq had been occupied by the Assyrian a Semitic people.
Nineveh was the capital of Assyria in the 612BC

5) The Neo Babylonian Empire (792-595 BC)

Nebuchadnezzar 11(605-562 BC) was able to create anew empire that restored the glory of ancient Babylon.

I hope you all liked my last topic in this course
For more information (Book)
Iraq an ILLSTRATED HISTORY and GUIDE
By Gilles Munter
Translated by David Stryker

The videos from you tube

Fatina

today's lesson

Hi everyone,

One of the topics that we are going to discuss in class today is money.

• What are good ways of earning, making, investing, saving it?
• Does a lot of money always bring unhappiness?
• Does money talk and if it did what do you think it would be saying?
• Are women notorious for wasting /spending money?
• And if you were a millionaire , how different would your life be?

It's high time we talked business. isn't it?

See you later,

ralitza

P.S. Don't forget to bring your credit cards with you.

Merkel : People are eating twice a day

BERLIN (Reuters) - Bad agricultural policies and changing eating habits in developing nations are primarily to blame for rising food prices, not biofuel production as some critics claim, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.


Environmentalists and humanitarian groups have stepped up campaigning against biofuels, arguing they divert production away from food and animal feed while contributing to sharp rises in the price of cereals and milk products.

But Merkel, whose country is Europe's largest biofuel producer, said the rise in food prices was not mainly due to biofuels but to "inadequate agricultural policies in developing countries" as well as "insufficient forecasts of changes in nutritional habits" in emerging markets.

"If you travel to India these days, then a main part of the debate is about the 'second meal'," Merkel said.
"People are eating twice a day, and if a third of one billion people in India do that, it adds up to 300 million people. That's a large part of the European Union," she said.
"And if they suddenly consume twice as much food as before and if 100 million Chinese start drinking milk too, then of course our milk quotas become skewed, and much else too," she said referring to EU limits on dairy production.

Biofuels, which are seen by supporters as a way to increase energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are made mainly from food crops such as grains, oilseeds and sugar.
Critics argue there are few, if any, environmental benefits for so-called first generation biofuels. They have also been blamed for increasing grain demand and pushing up prices at a time of growing threat of famine in some parts of the world.

The FAO and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have said biofuels were "one of the main drivers" for forecasts of food price increases of 20 percent to 50 percent by 2016.
(Reporting by Gernot Heller, editing by Kerstin Gehmlich and Mary Gabriel)

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1721113520080417

-------------------

well .. hummm people shouldn't eat twic a day ? lol that's funny

Realistic

writing experiment

Hi,

Did you enjoy the task? Why/Why not? Reflect on the task.

There is one more week left together in class and perhaps on the blog. Next week we'll be reflecting on the work done, on the blogging experience, and think of the way ahead.

What would you like to do next week in class and any suggestions concerning the blog?

Have a nice weekend and enjoy the blog.

Warm regards,
ralitza

P.S. Thank you for staying behind and discussing the blog with me.

a writing experiment

Dear all,

Here are three topics for you to choose from. You have 20 min to write on the topic of your choice. Then comment on at least three other posts. Good luck!

The topics are:
1) Your thoughts and ideas after reading IF by Rudyard Kipling.
2) Your plans for the summer holiday.
3) How would your life be different if you were a millionaire? What would be the best and the worst things about it?

Warm regards,
ralitza

Alhambra

The Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex of the Moorish monarchs of Granada in southern Spain (known as Al-Andalus when the fortress was constructed), occupying a hilly terrace on the southeastern border of the city of Granada. Once the residence of the Muslim kings of Granada and their court, the Alhambra is now one of Spain's major tourist attractions exhibiting the country's most famous Islamic architecture, together with Christian 16th century and later interventions in buildings and gardens that marked its image as it can be seen today. Within the Alhambra, the Palace of Charles V was erected by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1527.


last summer i went there and i took lots of pictures, i just wonna share it with you :)



a view of Alhambra from a near hill , as you can see there is no decorations at the outer walls because the decoration was made of holy scripts at the period, so they was using it only inside

one of my friends in front of the summer palace in Alhambra

Inside Alhambra

one of the Fountains

The court of the lions. ( the lions were under maintenance when i took this picture)

a picture of the court of the lions at 19th century

Realistic

Cochleography

The new Technology of printing pictures on chocolates

All of as like chocolates there are a lot of deferent kinds of chocolates all over the world with a lot of varieties ,I like you to come with me and visit this company who had mead this amazing printer who prints on chocolates.

Cochleography

is a newly patented technology that makes it possible to reproduce any picture, image, or message right on the surface of delicious chocolate.
Can be used for wedding gifts or, baby shower gifts, birth day party favors or unusual birthday gifts, or business promotions and much more.

Getting started is simple - just find the chocolate that is right for you, upload a photo or imageand text - and create a memorable personalized gift.There is deferent kinds of shapes

Deluxe Lollipops
Chocolate Picture Bars
Jumbo Lollipops.
Standard Lollipops
Greeting Cards
Heart Boxes
Portraits
Chocolate Cards
Deluxe Portraits with Truffles
Party Favors
Belgian Chocolate Truffles
Chocolate CDs
Chocolate CoinCookies

And much more in this collection, there is one shop in Qatar at AL Mall center that has this Cochleography , if any one likes to visit it .

I find it nice I hope you enjoyed my topic .

Fatina

A Trip to Turkey (Istanbul )

t

(The Palace Of Dolman Bahce)

The smear holidays are coming and every one of as is planning where to go for vacation some of as will take a trip around the world and the others will go back home to their counties to vista there family's and there friends.
I choused for you one of the most nicer counties in the world its Turkey at 2006 I had a nice smear trip for 2 weeks to this Gorges county Turkey that has the civilization of the east and the west countries together , it was my first time I went to this country .I will tell you in this topic about one of the Palaces in Istanbul it’s the" Dolma Bohcha Palace "

The most impressive historic place is the dolma bahcha palace its a reminder of the sultan's who governed the ottoman Empire ,it is a sea side palace with a cresting work of art , the elegant gate of the palace looks like crochet Lace , entering through main gate you pass green lawns with roses, bushes and ancient trees then you come to large fountain.

The interior decoration was concerned particular attention was given to the ceilings, on the walls there are a land space pictures and figures painted on stretched linen.

The floor are all example of artistic workmanship , all the furniture dates from the 17th and 18th centuries , there are about 75.000 objects and jewels.

The most important object is the heavy chandelier in the throne room which is a gift from Queen Victoria also the carpets make a special impression on the visitors .

The other section of the huge palace it is the(Harem) or women's section it is also an eye catching section.
I hope one day any one of you visit this beautiful palace .

I like to recommend some please if any one likes to visit Istanbul you can see(the princes island , the blue mosque ,bursa city (go up to the mountains and have barbeque) the local shops , to the leather factory and to the sweet factory(Lokoum) there more places that you can visit in all the city s of turkey .

Fatina

ididnt use any web pages in this Topic only the videos i took them from (You Tube) only

the Pictures i took in my trip.

a weekend task

Hello,

I'd like to ask the students who were present on Wednesday to write a summary of what we did in class for those who didn't attend. Can you consider the following questions:

• What did we discuss in class? What ideas did we agree on? Did we have a difference of opinion on any of the items we discussed?
• What are the homework tasks?
• Summarise the projects that students are advised to take part.
• Describe how you felt during the lesson. What did you find useful/not so useful?
• Any other comments you'd like to make.

Thank you!

And have a nice weekend!

KEEP BLOGGING!

ralitza