The goodbye post

Today is my last post in this blog. We finish English classes soon, so the blog project will be also finished. I leave a big piece of me here, my experiences, changesthat had place in my interests, everything I explored for write it here.

I must admit that in the last month English became for me pretty important, I started to do a lot by my own. One of these activities is listening songs in English and learning by heart their lyrics. I know it's something very basic, but for me it's like a revolution to relisten songs of my adolescence or childhood and focus on what they say, on their message. All the rock and punk bands and artists like Avril Lavigne, Green Day, Sum 41, Blink 182... I grew up on them!

But there is one more group, related more with my childhood. I remember very well that my dad switched on the disc of The Kelly Family while we're travelling by car. There are three songs of them I'm listening at present and I just keep wondering about their style! The long hair (men's hair ir even loger than the women's), strange clothes and in general the group that consists of members of one family!

Today I know much more about Spanish and Latin American culture so this clip make me laugh, because they mix Brazilian samba with Spanish guitars and show a stereotypical image of Spain, where all women wear flamenco dress and all men some king of Spanish tuxedo. But then again, the part of song that is in Spanish is very well sung! No American accent ;)

I like very much the spirit of this song, when they play and sing around the bonfire... This clip has just a great screenplay and costumes!

And the last one, very touching. Do you hear harmony between Angelo and Paddy's voices? I love it!

End of story! :) With this nice accent I want to invite you to rediscover your tastes of some time before. I'm sure it will be an awsome adventure!

How to be a clever traveller

The contemporary world permits us travel and visit the most extraordinary places in different continents. Moving by plane became the most demanded way of get around the world, in spite of prices that sometimes we have to pay, especially for the long trips like through an ocean or a whole continent. Fortunately, there appeared a group of people that want to travel more and spend less in flights.

Recenty I came by an advertisment about an online training course about how to save money in fly tickets. It's tomorrow, on Tuesday, and the man that was inviting everybody to enrol, explaining that it was free. He's going to talk about a subject that is not so well-known: that in the pages where we can buy or book flights appear errors which last only for few time. The errors mean, of course, lower prizes.

Until a few days ago I would say that it's a secret knowledge, only for the initiated. The reason of why I was convicted of this is because of my flatmate's friend who has already been to different exotic countries using this method. One day when my flatmate wanted him to let her in on it, he refused. He didn't want to share his ability with others.

However, in the case of the training course it seems to be more open and available for wider public. What's more, everyone can easily buy a book titled "Biblia Taniego Latania". It's 447 pages for only 59zł. If interested, click here: Biblia Taniego Latania.

I need to add that thanks to their fanpage on Facebook I found a great offer of flight from Amsterdam to Lima for only 370 euros!

After having discovered this book, in Empik I found another, "Wakacje za pół ceny" of the journalist Anna Kłossowska. There are a lot of tricks how to travel cheaper, too. I really recommend it to you!

Ok, so it was just an invitation to do not think that travell is only for well-off people and that where there's a will there's a way. Have courage to make your dreams come true!

Peruvian Christmas

Hi there!

I have been absent for some weeks, but today I retake my blog with new force! I want to tell you about Peruvian Christmas. For some minutes I hesitated if I should write about it because I have never passed Christmas there. The only thing I can do is to present what I read about Peruvian Christmas' traditions. It's a good lesson for me too, because if I didn't need to write a post here, I wouldn't read nothing about this subject, I would still remain ignorant! (Recently, I became quite... lazy. I hope it's only the Christmas time, food and a lot of free time...)

So here we go. First of all, we have to remember that in December in Peru there is between spring and summer. The temperatures in Lima oscillate around 18-24 grades, so the wheather is warm. For this reason, we will never see snow in this part of the Earth. That's the first and the basic feature of the Peruvian Christmas that I used like an introduction.

Plaza de Armas, the very central place in Lima

The Peruvians go to a mass celebrated around midnight, or to a mass of December 25. For them the second day of Christmas, December 26 when we remember saint Stephen, Christian martyr, is not holy day of obligation.

Plazas and parks are not only places to decorate with Christmas Tree of lights, but also to perform carols. Children or adult choirs sing there to share with the pedestrians a little of happiness. It's also very common that children and adolescents go with their school groups to visit hospitals, retirement homes or orphanages.

In many companies the employees receive something like Christmas basket that contains the basic products they eat in the Christmas dinner: champagne, panettone (sweet bread with raisins), rice, tables of chocolate, walnuts, raisins, etc. Their employers can give them also peacock, to prepare in home the most important dish of the dinner.

At midnight they are all hug one another wishing "Feliz Navidad", Merry Christmas! The head of the family give a speech and after they drink a toast. They distribute the presents and watch fireworks.

In some houses people have Christmas tree, in others the Nativity scene that is more common than in Poland. It reamins without the figure of Baby Jesus. At midnight the smallest child put it in the manger. It can very small, symbolic, but in a lot of cases it has very local, traditional character.

 

Of course, there can't miss typical music in form of Christmas carols! In this one, the children sing that they will bring to Mary and the small Jesus typical products of Peruvian handicrafts: chullo (a type of hat), coloured poncho, charango (a Bolivian and Peruvian instrument)... And, obviously, they ask where he was born? The answer is that in Peru! Because they call him traditionally: cholito (a person with indigenous heritage, indian and Spanish blood).

I don't know you, but I learnt a lot writing this post! :)