November Awards

Being at the end of our second month we’ve reached at a good point in getting acquainted with each other through out the posts and comments the students have made. Once again, all posts are very interesting and show your efforts and surely your teachers are congratulating you for that.

Willing to embellish your continuous presence on our blog, we came to the thought of choosing the virtual prizes of the month from the sea world and specifically among the creatures living in the reefs due to their variety and fine colours

Fran from Spain wins the famous clown fish, for her post was the most popular this month (11 comments). Clown fish, well-known from the movie "Finding Nemo", communicate via sounds. Researchers found out which technique they use to talk with each other: They move their jaws and teeth. With movements of their jaws and the friction of the teeth they produce different sounds and crack noises. Clownfish are native to warmer waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans, including the Great Barrier Reef and the Red Sea.

Second prize (11 comments on her post too) goes to Stefania from Italy and it is Angelfish. It originates from the Amazon River, Orinoco River and Essequido River basins in tropical South America. Its body shape allows them to hide among roots and plants, often on a vertical surface. Naturally occurring angelfish are frequently striped longitudinally, colouration which provides additional camouflage. 

Third prize the guppy, also known as the millionfish, is one of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish species in the world (females 4–6 centimetres long, males 2½–3½ centimetres long). Guppies are native to Barbados, Brazil, Guyana, Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad and Tobago, the US Virgin Islands, Venezuela. This one goes to Maria Tersenidou from Greece (10 comments on her post).

Stefania from Italy (again!) is the top commentator of this month (10 comments) and her prize is a Brain coral. Brain corals are so called due to their generally spheroid shape and grooved surface which resembles an animal brain. They are found in shallow warm-water coral reefs in all the world's oceans. The life span of the largest brain corals is 900 years. Colonies can grow as large as 6 or more feet (1.8 m) high. Brain corals extend their tentacles to catch food at night and during the day, they use them for protection by wrapping them over the grooves on their surface.

Second prize is a precious coral or red coral and this goes to Rosemary from Italy (7 comments). The distinguishing characteristic is their durable and intensely colored red or pink skeleton, which is used for making jewelry. Red corals grow on rocky seabottom, typically in dark environments. The original species is found mainly in the Mediterranean Sea. It grows at depths from 10 to 300 m. In the underwater caves of Alghero, Sardinia (the "Coral Riviera") it grows at the depth of 4 m. The same species is also found at Atlantic sites near theStrait of Gibraltar and at the Cape Verde Islands. Other  species are native to the western Pacific, notably around Japan andTaiwan; these occur at depths of 350 to 1500 m in areas with strong currents.

Pillar corals are a type of hard coral which live in the western Atlantic Ocean. They are one of the digitate corals which resemble fingers, or a cluster of cigars, growing up from the sea floor, but without any secondary branching. Pillar corals can grow to be up to 2.5 m tall. They can grow on both flat and sloping sea floors at a depth of between 1 and 20 m. This last prize goes to Fran from Spain (again...!) he sent 7 comments this month.

As an extra trophy for every winner we will offer them the opportunity to publish their next posts by themselves. Therefore, we welcome new blog editors! Congratulations to all of you!

What to do in Badajoz

Ifeba is institution fair of Badajoz, each year organizes fairs related with the different economic sectors, in which present the main companies to generate commercial relations, multiply his contacts and present novelties. Began to operate in 1989.

Written by David

What to see

THE SIGHTSEEINGS OF MY TOWN
The sightseeings of my city are in the old town of Badajoz.
The principal monuments of my city are:

PLAZA ALTA OF BADAJOZ(SQUARE)
The Plaza Alta of Badajoz (Extremadura, Spain),

was for centuries, the centre of the city which had been Muslim fortress.
It has got arches which were markets held in the Middle Ages. There was also a venue for events and meetings of all kinds.

ALCAZABA
The Alcazaba of Badajoz is situated in the old part of Badajoz and surrounded by the river Guadiana .It is from 12th century .The Alcazaba of the monarchs of the kingdom ¨TAIFA¨. Inside the Alcazaba there are gardens.

TOWER OF ATALAYA OR TOWER OF ESPANTAPERROS.

Espantaperro’s Tower, also known as the Tower of the Alpendiz or its true name. Alpendiz tower is a watchtower adjacent to the fortress of Badajoz, originally Almohad and octagonal. Built in 1169, it is about 30 metres.
Following its construction in the 16th century, a Mudejar Tower was added to the temple .
It has recently been restored.

By Alejandro, Antonio, Fran and Juan

Sightseeings of Badajoz

By Juan

"If Paris were on the sea, it would look like a small Bari..."!

People from Bari love to repeat that "if Paris were on the sea, it would look like a small Bari"!
It is a joke, of course, but it says a lot about the pride (and sense of humour!) in our area.
Ours is a city with a deep sense of history and art, with very rich cultural roots living together with a modern business outlook. Bari was already an important city under the Greeks, then it became a Roman municipality and was later ruled by the Saracens, the Venetians, the Normans, the Aragons and finally the Bourbons, before becoming part of the united Italy.
Our dialect is a mixture of all these influences, and many people still speak it in private situations, with the family, or with friends. Among young people vernacular words are often used as a kind of slang.
This is a nice video we have found on YouTube, which contains several pictures of the city and uses a traditional song in Bari dialect as soundtrack.
Enjoy it!
By Vanya and her class

Welcome to Bari!

Bari is an Italian city with 320,160 inhabitants, capital of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region (‘Puglia’ in Italian). It is located on the south-east coast, on the Adriatic Sea. It is known for being the city where the relics of St. Nicholas lie. That privilege has made Bari and the splendid Basilica dedicated to the Patron Saint one of the greatest centres of orthodoxy favoured in Italy. The city is situated in a heavily urbanized area, which is one of the most important and populous in Italy. Bari is soon going to become one of the 15 metropolitan cities in Italy; in fact there is a ‘strategic plan’ which aims at realizing the first part of this project by 2015. It is also a major terminus for trade with the East and its port is the largest passenger port in the Adriatic Sea. The city has a strong maritime tradition and has always been the central point in the commercial, political and cultural contacts with Eastern Europe, consolidated thanks to the famous Festival of St. Nicholas, which takes place on 7th-8th-9th May. An important trade fair, the ‘Fiera del Levante’, takes place in Bari every year, in September. It involves exhibitions from many sectors and industries and attracts many exhibitors from Italy and other countries, especially Mediterranean. There is also a "Fair of Nations" which displays handcrafted and locally produced goods from all over the world.
Bari is home to a University of Studies and a ‘Politecnico’. The city boasts a unique historic centre (the so-called ‘Barivecchia’, which means ‘old Bari’), with narrow and winding streets, where you find the most important medieval monuments (the Basilica of St. Nicholas, the Cathedral of St. Sabinus, the Swabian Castle). The modern city centre is instead the grid-shaped Murat district, which is probably the largest shopping area in Italy and contains a large number of high street stores and smaller shops.

Written by: Margherita, Alessia, Caterina, Rosemary, Stefania from Italy

What to do: festivals

Carnival!

The carnival in my city is one of the best of Spain.
We’re going to tell you some information about the history of the carnaval in my city:
The carnaval Started on 1815 after the independence war.
This event has centuries of history, in the century XIX we had very important comparsas riding in carriages or horseback.
The carnaval disappeared from 1936 to 1980 beccause the Civil war forbade the celebration.

Nowadays, we have a murgas contest . The murgas are groups of people who meet to make a humorous criticism about the city life singing in a setting, in Lope de Ayala theater. They dress up about a subject or a character or something like this. We have 42 murgas but every year we have more. The murgas are like this:

We have comparsas too. The comparsas are groups of people who dance in a march-past whith original costumes like that:

We have 40 comparsas with more than 3500 people who form the parade.

The people who don’t participe in murgas o comparsas dress up and have a party in the street with music.
The carnival in Badajoz is the participation of the Dressed-up people in the street.The carnaval is in February on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
In these days we have an importan celebration, its name is the burial of the sardine. This day is the end of the celebration and we go to ‘’San Roque’’ (street) on Tuesday to eat grilled sardines.

Written by:

María Benítez, Gema, Alba and Raquel

What to see in Badajoz

Sightseeings

In Badajoz there are six Museums:

Archaeological provincial museum of Badajoz, Museum of fine arts, Museum of the metropolitan cathedral of Badajoz, Museum of the city, Extremaduran and Latin-American museum of contemporary art of Badajoz, and Museum trurino of the bullfighting Extremadura club.

Puente RealIt is called Royal because two years before the King and Queen of Spain put the first stone in the beginning of his construction. It is a modern bridge, with rail for bicycles, investor as panoramic sight and joins the newest zone of the city with Elvas's Avenue that leads to Portugal, to the University, Fairground, medical services and fairground enclosures.

Puerta Palmas is a monumental door of the wall that was surrounding Badajoz in Spain, located opposite the Bridge of Palms. The ending of this construction dates back of 1551. It is the most representative monument of the city.
It is integrated by a commemorative arch and two cylindrical towers of solid aspect. In the exterior front the arch is of half a point adorned with a shield of Carlos I. In the interior front there places a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels. The towers used as royal prison until ends of the 19th century.





The Cathedral of Badajoz (or Cathedral of San Juan Baptizer) is placed in the Plaza of Spain, in the center of Badajoz. In this temple took place the marriage of the future king don Fernando VI with the Portuguese princess dona Barbara de Braganza in 1729, which was a queen of Spain up to the death of the first one in 1758.

Written by Silvia, Irene and Laura

THE ORIGINS OF BADAJOZ

THE ORIGINS OF BADAJOZ

Ibn Marwan:

This well-know muladi with the nickname of “ Al Yilliqui”, was son of the wali or governor from Merida. In the year 875. Ibn Marwan is able to impose its conditions to build Batalyaws without paying tributes to Cordoba, being born this way the Kingdom of Badajoz.

AL-MOSSASSA

With this name that means “The Foundation of Badajoz” the city has commemorated its origins from 1998. The celebration is held at the end of the month of September and beginning of October, the Arab foundation of the city. In these days Badajoz returns to the 9th century.

Written by: Daniel, Nacho, Luis and Sergio

The history of Drama

In the era Drama was known as Dravescus and was a trade center and military camp on the Roman Via Egnatia. Drama has excellent water resources and may owe its name to this. Drama was also under the Ottoman Empire. In 1912 during the first Balkan war Drama was occupied by Bulgaria. Drama was again occupied by Bulgaria troops from 1941 to 1944 world war II. There is a street named Armen named after Armen Kouptsios a hero of the Macedonia struggle (1904-1908).

 

 
Some of the biggest villages in my town are: Arkadikos, Panorama, Mavrovato, Kallifitos, Choristi, Kalos Agros, Adriani.




Article by Natalia Ananiadou

Attractions of Drama

Drama has a big mountain Falakro. Falakro has got big trees and rivers. You must visit Falakro because it’s a magic mountain. Falakro is a mountain of the village of Volakas. Volakas has many hotels and Greek taverns.

Falakro is a Ski Center also.

More I like this photo because it is a beautifull place

Article by Michael Anastasiadis

ECONOMY of DRAMA

In the recent past the economy of the drama area relied heavily on the local paper and textile-clothing industries. However, these industries have either closed down or moved across the border to Bulgaria, with a devastating impact on the local economy and employment. Other sources of revenue include agriculture, consisting mainly of tobacco plantations, small-scale mining(particularly of marble)and forestry. Recently, there have been efforts to exploit the rich local natural environment and to develop ecotourism. There is a modern ski resort on Mount Falakro. Drama also hosts an annual short film festival…



Article by Sevasti Chatziignatiadou

Where is Badajoz?

Badajoz is in souhtwest of Spain.

Badajoz has got a river, The Guadiana and it is the capital of one of the two provinces that are part of the Autonomous Community of Estremadura.

Its climate can be defined as Mediterranean , with Atlantic influences. It was part of the Aftasí Kingdom and it was a strong border city; It is the biggest city of Estremadura.
It possesses a strategic situation in the border with Portugal. We are just 14 km from Portugal.

Written by Cristina and Silvia García

The Hidden Town (Drama)

The town of Drama is a capital of a Greek prefecture of the same name. It’s population amounts to almost 40.000 people. According to theories so far propounded, Drama owes it’s name either to its abundant waters or to the small size it had throughout it’s history. Part of the contemporary history of Drama is a local soccer team Doxa Dramas (glory of Drama), the legendary Mavraeti (black eagles). This team made the town known to all Greece during the nineteen fifties. Drama is a very nice city. Especially in winter. Drama has the privilege of continuing a national tradition that starts from the prinaple of the deep mists of prehistory. The sources of Santa Barbara forming a unique habitat in the heart of the city. Where people are hospitable and good...

Article by Maria Tersenidou, Zoe Karapetrou, Maria Tseheridou, Flora Xaralampidou
Published by: Maria Tersenidou

The Cave of Maaras in Drama

I want to talk you about the Cave of Maras. It was discovered in September 1978 by team of Greek and French serologists. Aggitis River is flowing though the cave its very beautiful place and many people go for a picnic. Every day there are many tourists.

Article by Savvas

Tasos from Greece

Hi my name is TASOS

I’m 14 years old

I from Greece and

I live with my parents

My hobbies are football computer games

I have 3 best fried Alex,Chris and Jim

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