20 Years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Germany celebrated on Monday 9, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which marked the beginning of the reunification of Germany and the end of the Cold War.

2009 is a great year to visit Germany and experience history where it unfolded. After more than 28 years of German division, the Berlin Wall fell overnight from November 9-10, 1989, marking a historical event of global significance. Today, 20 years later, Germany, Europe and the entire world look back, in order to look forward. Thanks to the peaceful revolution and the Fall of the Wall, millions of people were united as the two separeted German coutries were reunified.

The balance between East and West was again established.

Germany as a destination has become a country without borders, thrown open to visitors from all over the world. A country which is impressive in the way it connects the past, present and future; a country which also cordially invites you to visit the relics of that time and relive history.

R.

Circus of the Sun

Maybe you have heard about the spectacular “Cirque Du Soleil”, or maybe not. But here, you will get a short look into this magical world, that has shocked and amazed all continents around the world.
It all began when a group of street performers in Quebec (Canada) decided to get together and jointly create a venue for their passion. The leader of the group, Guy Laliberté, has ever since the foundation in 1982, created some of the most thrilling and innovative shows in the world.



Through the 1900s and 2000s, Cirque has expanded rapidly, and nowadays around 4,000 people are working in this huge community, and the artists are from 40 different countries.

Cirque Du Soleil is not a traditional circus with animals. The shows are based on histories and is concentrated on telling the audience a story, full of beauty, elegance and elements taken from the Idea of a Circus, with clowns, fantasy and unreal creatures. All of the artists are elected because of their undoubtful talent in acrobatics and gymnastics.
The shows are influenced by ballet, opera and rock with features from medieval and baroque. All the garment is very colorful and the effects from the make up give a magical illusion of the contortionists, jugglers and clowns.
During the shows there is live music playing and the spoken language is "Cirquish", an imaginary dialect created by the company.

If you want to have a piece of this delightful and absolutely stunning adventure, Cirque Du Soleil is coming again to Rio de Janeiro, january 9th, performing on of their most marvellous shows: “Quidam”!

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/

E.J.L.

It’s decision time

The year is ending… And most students who are finishing high school want to enter a college. In the USA, some universities and colleges use tests like SAT, ACT and GRE. Otherwise, many colleges have rejected these standardized tests; they prefer to evaluate students through other means, such as the grades the student received in a previous school.
In Brazil, the entrance examination is known as Vestibular, each college usually has its own test. The government wants to unify this, with ENEM, the student wouldn’t need to make registration in several college tests.
But, are we, teenagers, prepared to face all this pressure? I don’t think so. A research made by Federal University of Santa Catarina in 2003, with 754 teenagers - vestibulandos and pré-vestibulandos (how students who will take vestibular are called) brought out that 43% of them showed stress symptoms. Young people with stress have been related in different places, like the USA., Turkey, Pakistan, Japan, Sweden, France and South Africa. Some consequences are: low self-esteem, eating disorders, clinical depression, homicide, suicide, antisocial behavior, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia and drug abuse.

All these disorders can be avoided with parents' support, giving theirs sons and/or daughters affection and safety. The parents can’t force a child to become an adult of a sudden. Each thing has its time.
As Jim Morrison would say “Time to live / Time to lie / Time to laugh / Time to die / Take it easy, baby / Take it as it comes”.

F.

This is Halloween!!

Halloween

Halloween is nowadays known as a night (typically 31st of October), when children wear scary costumes such as witches, zombies, ghosts and vampires.
They go from house to house, knock on the doors, with the message “trick or treat”.
This comes from a threat to ask for candy, “give me a treat, or I will play a trick on you”.
This holiday is celebrated in various countries all over the world: Canada, New Zealand, U.K., Japan, Bahamas, United States, Australia, Scandinavia and many Latin American coutries where its known as “Noche de las Brujas”(night of the witches).
Originally, Halloween has its roots from Christian Missionaries, and the Day was called “All Hallows Eve”, which was the night before the Holiday of “All Saints holy day”.
This day was used by the Christian Missionaries to convert Pagan people into christianity.


Jack O' Lantern
During Halloween, it is very popular to decorate your frontyard with a carved pumpkin, which you personalize with a face and put a light inside it.This pumpkin is known as
Jack-O’-Lantern, which has its origin in an old Irish legend. Old Jack was a stingy man and when he died he couldn’t enter heaven because of all his bad actions. So, he carved a turnip and put a burning coal into it, making a kind of lantern to use to find a place to rest in the darkness. Since this time, Irish children carved turnips to scare away witches.
But, when Irish people moved to America, instead of turnips, the children carved pumpkins and put a candle inside to remember the story of bad old Jack and the lantern.

E.J.L

Woodstock 40th Anniversary

40 years ago, more specifically from August 15 to August 18, in 1969, it was held at a farm near the town of Bethel, New York, a music festival which put together almost 500 million of students, artists, workers and people - very high on LSD - celebrating love, peace and music. In spite of it, just 200 were arrested and only 2 of them died.
At first, tickets were sold for US$ 18, around 186,000 people bought it. But on the day of the event, fences were destroyed and it became a free festival.
Under rain and mud, the crowd watched concerts of artist such as Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Santana, Sly & the Family Stone and The Who. Many bands are no longer on the road or its members have already died, but they surely wrote their names in the history of the music.

Photographed by chance, the couple above became worldwide famous. 40 years later, asked to summarize the festival Nick says, “The main message of Woodstock was: Look, we are young, and this is what we do. We get together and become stronger to protest against what was happening at that moment, and also enjoy and have fun. We help each other, and after we went away in peace".

One of the shows at Woodstock:


F.

INTO THE WILD

This time, we have chosen to write about a famous park founded in 1973 . The name of the park is ‘Ibitipoca’, which actually means cleft in the mountain range. It is located
in the city of Lima Duarte near Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais.
The first inhabitants in the area were the Aracis Indians. They lived in the caves on the mountains, where travelers also settled down when they were passing through the state.
The forest reserve includes several natural attractions like the natural pools, look-out points, waterfalls, caves, ‘beaches’ and mountain peaks, which attract almost two thousand tourists a week.
The fauna and flora have a lot of diversity. There are more than 800 plant species that include bromelias, orchids, lichens, albertina and ferns. Ibitipoca Park has not only
plants, but also a wide variety of animals like the maned wolf, vinaceous-mountain lion, biscutate swift, masked titi monkey, breasted parrot, black howler monkey, silvery monkey, coati.
Some wonderful places to visit are: the 'Caminho das Águas', which has a variety of attractions such as ‘Cachoeira dos Macacos’; ‘Prainha’, with clear, cold water from ‘Rio do Salto’; ‘Lago dos Espelhos’, with water that reflects the sunshine; ‘Ponte de Pedra’, a particular landscape - a huge tunnel that was dug by the force of water; ‘Janela do Céu’, a drop of 20 meters from ‘Rio Vermelho’.
We absolutely recommend this park, because it is a must-see if you are in Minas Gerais. Beautiful, immune and idyllic nature, it will be an unforgettable experience for your inner adventurer.

E.J.L.

Changes...

For the first time in years, the Olympic Games will be held in a developing country in South America – Brazil. Consequently, we will have to spend about 25 billion in the infrastructure needed for the games. Besides that, a great deal of problems like public transportion, violence, lack of rooms in hotels and many others will have to be solved in seven years.

People should remember that the 2014 Soccer World Cup will also take place here, causing expenditures that could triple in a few more millions or billions depending on the situation of Brazilian stadiums.

Many Brazilians think seven years is enough time to make all necessary changes to host games of this level. On the other hand, many critiques concerning the Brazilian Olympic bid are very relevant: lack of a consistent public policy directed to sports in the country, and the need for profound structural changes in Brazilian sport organization.

We just hope the changes to come are better than the 'portuglish' translations on the signs :D

R.