The Orient Express - a strange encounter (II)

Locomotive Class 363, Orient Express, Praha-Smíchov train station, Czech Republic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dear Mom.

Hi! I’m heading for Venice. Today, I boarded at Orient Express from London and met two interesting people in the compartment.

First, I met a cute girl who wants to be a musician. She said she got to Europe all the way from New Zealand to major in piano. We had a conversation about music and promised we’d make a performance one day.

And then, I encountered a nice looking guy. He’s from Ivory Coast. He is a magician. Since it was the first time I met a magician, I got interested in his story. He told me he’s heading for Paris and trying to do a great magic trick. He’ll steal Eiffel Tower from Paris! It’s just between you and me…

Anyway, I’ll get to Venetia Santa Lucia Station tomorrow.

I can’t wait to see you.

Sincerely,

Marco

A film review - "My Sister's Keeper"

Cover via Amazon

Here is a film review by one of my students Yuuki who recently watched "My Sister's Keeper", a film adaptation of Jodi Picoult's novel. This is his second draft, and unfortunately he forgot to include a summary paragraph at the end (again!), so I will leave it up to you to decide whether you would like to watch this film or not.

This is a 2009 drama directed by Nick Cassavetes and starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vassilieva, and Alec Bladwin. This story based on Jodi Picoult's novel of the same name.

Anna (Abigail Breslin) was born as a savior sister. Anna is conceived to be a genetic match for her older sister Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who suffers from leukemia, to donate organs, blood and tissues to keep her sister alive. When Kate turns 15, she goes into renal failure. Anna, eleven years old, realizes that she will be forced by her parents to donate one of her kidneys. Anna tells her mother Sara (Cameron Diaz) that she does not want to donate any of her organs and starts to sue them for rights to her own body.

The film is interlaced with flashbacks that detail Kate and Anna's close relationship. In a flashback, Kate also meets a cancer patient, Taylor (Alec Baldwin), whom she begins dating. After a date, they kiss outside Kate's house. After this, he becomes her boyfriend and starts her support. A few days later, Kate is crying because Taylor hasn't called her for several days. Kate learned he has died. Kate latter attempts suicide by overdosing on painkillers, but Anna stops her.

Kate makes a request to go to the beach one last time. Her father Brian removes her from the hospital for the day and takes her and the kids to the beach. When Brian arrives home to pick everyone up, her mother Sara overreacts and demands that Kate be returned to the hospital immediately. But Sara later shows up at the beach, where they enjoy a final family outing.

Yuuki's avatar

Get a Voki now!

As you can see we are having lots of fun with these avatars, using the characters we create to practice introductions and other language that we learn in the classroom. Of course it is a bit funny to hear your own voice on a recording... Yuuki(11yrs) bravely plunged in and did a very good job!

Well done!

I made this in class!

Good job Yuu!

Dinner, Movie and Rugby

A Big, Big THANK YOU to all our students and friends who came to our Dinner, Movie and Rugby night. It was a tremendous amount of fun! and I must congratulate you all on bringing such delicious snacks - we really had a feast :)

See you at the next one!!

Tana

Paragraph using idioms

When I entered university, I lived in a small town near Tokyo. That was the first time I lived alone. I felt it was a feather in my cap. I had nothing but a small bicycle. But I felt happy every day. I wasn’t afraid to lose my shirt because I always lived on a shoestring. I didn’t become hot under the collar because everyone helped me kindly.

I found a part-time job in supermarket. The owner was a bit of a stuffed shirt. So I tried to keep his shirt on and to handle our customers with kid gloves.

The experience taught me a sense of responsibility.

Yuuki

Poster project - Pakistan