London is full of amazing Museums and most of them are free of charge!

I often go to the Museums, I like seeing the exhibitions, visiting the Museum shops, packed with all sort of wonderful objects. I look at the groups of students visiting the Museum with their teachers… and I always find myself wishing that you could view all of these wonders. Today I’ve just space for two museums, but if you are interested I could write more in the future. I send you some websites just in case you would have a virtual tour!

Natural History Museumhttp://www.nhm.ac.uk/ Entry is free!

The Museum opened in 1881 and its architecture is impressive…

Many films have been filmed here, e.g.  Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, One of our dinosaurs is missing …

Here you are some of its main highlights:

In the Central Court you can meet a terrifying Tyrannosaurus Rex, unearth Baryonyx bones and inspect the Triceratops skeleton in the world-renowned Dinosaurs gallery. You can distinguish the facts from the myths about why dinosaurs died out,  explore 160 million years of the dinosaur era, find out what the dinosaurs looked like, what they ate, how they evolved, discover hundreds of specimen displays, including four moving animatronic dinosaurs.

The center piece of the mammals’ gallery is the awesome life-size model of a blue whale suspended from the ceiling. It’s the largest creature that has ever lived, bigger even than the dinosaurs, and still alive today!

In addition, if you come in winter you will find the fantastic ice rink  placed outside.

The British Museum     http://www.britishmuseum.org/ Entry is free!

The British Museum was founded in 1753 (!!!), the first national public museum in the world. From the beginning it granted free admission to “all studious and curious people”. The visitor’s number has grown from around 5.000 a year in the eighteen century to nearly 6 million today.

The free resources for school visits are just amazing!

Visiting the Egyptian mummies is a must: The ancient Egyptians preserved not only the bodies of dead people, but also many different animals. These bodies are called ‘mummies’ and you can see lots of them here.

If you want know everything about wonders in the ancient world (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome, Medieval Europe…) this is the place you should visit!

My question is: Which of the museums you’ve visited have you liked the more?

Voabulary:

Highlights: The most important things

Unearth: To dig out of the earth (desenterrar)

World-renowned: Famous all over the world.

Ice-rink: area where people can ice skate or play winter sports.

WELCOME BACK!

As I said in my last visit, here is a new article about how different is my life in London.

One of the most surprising things I can see every day is that most of the Londoner pupils wear school uniforms in Primary and Secondary, state and private schools. As you know in Catalonia it is customary to wear uniforms only in some private schools.

I have found many opinions for or against school uniforms… You can think about and find your own opinion.

This practice dates to the 16^th century. Nowadays the Government believes that school uniforms play a valuable role in contributing to the ethos of schools: The Department for Children, Schools and Families strongly encourages schools to have a uniform as it can instil pride, support positive behaviour and discipline, encourage identity and support for school values, ensure pupils of all races and backgrounds feel welcome, protect children from social pressures to dress in a particular way, nurture cohesion and promote good relations between different groups of pupils.

School uniforms are required to be fair for both genders, to be reasonably low cost and to tolerate religious freedoms, e.g. allowing male Sikhs to wear turbans and female Muslims to wear headscarfs. Normally it is a blazer in the school colours or a white shirt or blouse; a tie, trousers or skirt in black, grey, or blue, and black shoes. It could also be a shirt, sweater, and tie or a polo shirt and a sweatshirt.

SOME OPINIONS FOR:

“Uniforms give students a sense of belonging to a particular school and create an identity for the school in the community.”

“A school uniform can improve learning by reducing distraction, focusing on schoolwork and making the classroom a more serious environment”. “

“A uniform means students don’t have to worry about their clothes. When everyone is dressed the same, worrying about what you look like isn’t so important. There is no competition about being dressed in the latest trend, which would put a great deal of financial pressure on students and parents. Potential bullies have one less target for their insults; it’s hard to make fun of what someone is wearing when you’re dressed exactly the same”.

SOME OPINIONS AGAINST:

“If students wear school uniforms, they will have lack of imagination or won’t be able to show their expressions or originality”.

“I believe it blocks the student’s ability to be different and unique. A student should be able to show how he is different and express themselves.”

“Wearing uniforms promotes a form of uniformity characteristic of militarism”.

“Uniforms are expensive.”

My question is: Are you for or against school uniforms? Why?

Vocabulary: Customary: usual, habitual

Ethos: valors, comportaments

Bullies (pl. de bully): el que molesta, es fica o fereix persones més petites o vulnerables.

This article is dedicated to all the “futboler@s” kids of the Salvat Papasseit.

Football is the most popular sport in London.

For the 2013-2014 season there are 6 London clubs in the Premier League (wow! 6 teams in the Premier, in Barcelona we have just 2 clubs in “Primera División”).

Here is the list:

There are some good Spanish players in these clubs:

Santi Cazorla, Mikel Arteta, Nacho Monreal, Jon Toral and Héctor Bellerin play for Arsenal.

Fernando Torres and César Azpilicueta play for Chelsea.

Roberto Soldado plays for Tottenham.

Adrián plays for West Ham United; he is the goalkeeper (or goalie).

Most clubs’ nicknames come from when the club was originally founded.

v  For example, in 1886 workers at Woolwich Arsenal Armament Factory decided to form a football club. Today Arsenal keeps the name associated with that origin: Gunners, and a cannon in his badge.

v  The Thames Ironworks Football Club, founded in 1895 for metal workers, became over time West Ham United. His badge shows one of those men’s tools: two crossed hammers, and the club has been known as the Hammers ever since.

v  Fulham’s nickname (“Cottagers”) comes from the famous cottage which is an iconic part of Fulham’s Craven Cottage ground.

And finally, my question:

Do you know why followers of Barça and Espanyol are called “culés” (or “culers”) and “periquitos”?

Vocabulary

Goalkeeper: his duty is to prevent the ball from entering in the goal.

Gunner: in the British Army, an artilleryman (in Spanish: artillero)

Badge: a distinguishing emblem or mark worn to signify membership, employment, achievement, etc (in Catalan: escut)

Tool: in Catalan: eina

Hammer: a hand tool consisting of a heavy usually steel head held transversely on the end of a    handle, used for driving in nails, beating metal, etc. (in Catalan: martell)

Cottage: small simple house, especially in a rural area.

Hello again!

It’s very difficult for us, Mediterranean people, to understand the importance that nice weather has in countries where sunny days and warm temperatures are so rare!

Last winter has been long and very wet. There have been important floods near London. The sun was weak and often hidden behind dark clouds. Hats, gloves and scarves hid people’s faces and hands… So sad!

Suddenly in March the temperature rises and the sun really shines. And the city changes! Parks and gardens fill up with smiling people and some curious facts start…

In the week, clerks and students, shoppers and workers, have lunch outside, eating and laughing…

At the weekend the parks are full of families and friends playing football, cricket, rugby, volleyball, lacrosse…

People take off jumpers, jackets and socks, and walk barefoot on the grass.

Thousands of small colourful flowers appear on the ground. Daffodils mark the start of the spring and they are everywhere… Also in many buttonholes!

Everybody seems happier! Spring is perfect time to visit London.

Finally… one question, a difficult one!: What  are the two essential things you need to play lacrosse? 

Vocabulary:

Flood: the inundation of land because of heavy rains or high level of a river.

Buttonhole: the hole in the clothes for passing the button… (En català: trau, en castellà: ojal)

                                                     Regents Park