Heaven on earth

Today we`re going to a real heaven - full of small islands with gold beaches and crystal turquoise ocean around, without noticeable horizon joining the sky and water which looks like endless highway for ferries and planes at once - that is French Polynesia.

It`s a place where lots of newlyweds from all around the world would love to spend their time, but not only them - I think that every person dream about it! There`s quiet, lot of nature, many beautiful views which no words can describe. But where is it exactly? Well, it`s hard to get there due to small airfields and a very long way from the closest continent. It is situated between Australia and South America, near the International Date Line on the Pacific Ocean. That is why the ticket prices are so high - one way ticket from Poland costs about 14000 PLN (4000 USD). But there is no price to get to heaven, don`t you think?

French Polynesia is administrated by the French Republic and the official language is French, but English is widely spoken. It is composed of 118 geographically dispersed islands stretching over an expanse of total land area 4,167 square kilometers. 67 islands are inhabited and total population of country is about 260,000 people that live mostly in or near the capital of French Polynesia - Papeete. Every year islands are visited by 200,000 people. Not much for such a beautiful place, but taking into account the price you have to pay to get there.....

The most popular activities there, as you can imagine, are water sports e.g. diving, surfing. But many people comes here just to enjoy resting at clear, blue water with colorful reefs and fish and colorful nature around. But don`t worry about venomous snakes or insects. There aren`t there! 

Huh, what a great place it is! I always dreamed about it and I hope that one day it will come true...

It is really hard to describe the beauty of this place with words. Maybe the movie below will do it 😉

Some facts about Rio Carnival

Hello again! It is a pleasure that you have visited my blog again :) 

So today I will tell you about Rio de Janeiro Carnaval.

As you may know, every year, 40 days before Easter, in the capital of Brazil starts the greatest  and the longest carnaval all around the world!

The first festival dates back as far as 1723 and every next year it was bigger and more colorful. About two milions people came there from all over the world, but in fact most of them are not from Brazil due to high ticket prices that costs from 55$ to 3000$ and which are not affordable for typical Brazilian. Fortunately, inhabitants are able to watch the parade on the television. 

Acording to the tradition ritual, during the opening ceremony, King Momo (king of the carnival) takes the Silver keys from the hand City Mayor then raises the keys to open the festival.

Parade is like a competition where a lot of dancers from more than 200 different samba schools, from Rio prepare performance based on dancing and creating show on colorful, themed floats. The focus of the festival is the parade that takes place at night on Sunday and Monday, in the Sambadrome stadium. 

Today's Carnival derived from the ancient carnival of Romans and Greeks held to welcome spring and honor the beauty of life. For Brazilians, Carnival is thier pride and opportunity to honor the beauty of human body - like the ancient Olympic spirit - and express the unique culture of the Brazilian Samba dance through traditions.

Below I put some video from carnaval. I hope you will enjoy it :)

Taste of France

Hi again! 

I hope that you didn’t eat a lot today because today we are going to France to taste some delicious dishes!

What comes to your mind when you hear about French cuisine? I’m sure that most of you will be probably thinking about different types of chees, wine, frog legs or escargots de Bourgogne. But now you can forget about them. I will prove that French cuisine means something much more than that….

First you have to know that French meals play a large part in organising social life. Eating has its own collective ritual and it is one of the day’s main activities for French people. They have three major meals, that is:

1. Breakfast known as “le petit déjeuner”

2. Lunch known as “le déjeuner”

3. Dinner known as “le dîner”

Le petit déjeuner is always a sweet breakfast which contains baguettes or croissant with jam or Nutella and with orange juice. Then they have a famous lunch punctually at every midday which consist of several parts - entrée, main dish, chees, desert and coffee. The meal is often accompanied by wine. Water is also an important part of typical French meal so it has to be on each table while eating. Now let’s move to dinner. This meal is served usually between 8 pm and 10 pm. For the most of French people it is a hearty dish which consists of three parts- hors d'œuvre or entrée.

In France every region has its own traditional meals but today I will take into account the major meals in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

The first one is Gratin Dauphinois which is made from potatoes and crème fraîche- fresh cream in English. Potatoes are thinly sliced, covered by cream and cooked with garlic.

The second one is Quenelle which is a typical lyonnaise meal. Quenelle consist of semolina of durum wheat or flour, butter, eggs, milk or water and seasonings. 

Next there is also Raclette which is my favourite one. A modern way of serving Raclette involves an electric table-top grill with small pans, known as coupelles in which we can put slices of raclette cheese, potatoes, salami, and some types of ham such as: jambon cuit or viande des Grison. Ingredients depend on what you like and what want to eat, but I assure you that it’s really delicious!! J

However, we can’t forget about Tartiflette, which contains potatoes, reblochon cheese- made in the Alpine region of Savoy and having its own controlled designation of origin, lardons and onions.

The last one which is worth attention is Soupe à l’ognion gratinée – it is French onion soup. This meal is served with croutons and cheese. 

 I hope that I inspired you to prepare today’s meal! J

British vs American English

Hello!

Have you ever wondered how many differences are between British and American English?

Today I want to show you some tricky words which may not make a difference for foreigner who learn English. The most noticeable difference is obviously vocabulary. For example Americans go on vacation, while british people go on holidays, or hols. New Yorkers live in apartments, Londoners live in flats. British would say that you have a sense of humour and Americans that you have a sense of humor. And the famous school game which is called in British English “noughts and crosses” is known in America as tic-tac-toe :-)

When you want to send a letter to London or to New York you need to pay attention on the postal code but that’s only when you are thinking about England because in America there is ‘zip code”.

If you drive a car in Britain you have to remember that you have to go on a petrol station to refuel your car and not to a gas station.  British pack things into the boot and Americans into a trunk. And before going shopping in London we would say that we have to park the car in the car park and in Chicago that we have to do it in the parking lot.

Furthermore, we can see a difference in the collective nouns. In American English collective nouns are singular. For example stuff refers to a group of employees, band refers to a group of musicians so they would say that “The band is good”. But in British English collective nouns can be singular or plural. For example we can say that “The team are playing tonight” as well as we can say that “The team is playing tonight”.

There is also a small difference in the past tense verbs. For example in the past tense Americans tend to use –ed ending unlike to British who tend to use the –t ending.

For example: learn -> learned or learnt, dream-> dreamed or dreamt, burn-> burned or burnt.

When it comes to the past participle form Americans could say: “I have never gotten caught” while British would say: “I have never got caught”. Brits only use got!

Spelling is also important when we want to learn English. There are some words, such as: advertisement, mobile, clique, either, neither, missile, envelope and many others, which have a different pronunciation in British English and in American English.  

So it is important to remember about this small changes in English when we are planning our vacations in America.

Below, I put the video which in a funny way presents what people think about British and American English and how to distinguish them.

What do you know about Australia?

Hello!

Today I want to share with you some interesting facts which I have read about Australia. First of all, you have to know that Australia is a huge country which could englobe majority of the European countries and many others, as you can see on the picture below.

 However, the largest central part of the continent is unpopulated. Most of people live on the coasts. Total population of Australia is 23 million people and about 15 million live in the metropolitan areas. Some people are even saying that there are much more kangaroos than people :)

The society of Australia is multicultural but the ethnic people who have lived there from fifty thousand years are Aboriginal Australians. It is the oldest living culture in the world and until 60’s of the last century they were considered as a “part of fauna and flora”. During the period of colonization, thousands of Aboriginal Australians died because of the unknown so far diseases such as flu. The Others were murdered by the colonists. In the 2007 the Prime Minister of Australia apologized them for crimes of a “stolen generations” – the children from the interracial relationships which were stolen and given to a “white family” to provide them a better future.

Australia is also known as a country of innovations. Did you know that Australian people invented Wi-Fi or flight recorder. Commonly known “selfie” is their product too. This word appeared because they like to make words shorter. The other common abbreviations are: “BARBIE” which refers not only to a doll but also to barbecue, “ROO” which refers to a kangaroo, “ARVO” which means “afternoon” or “AUSSIE” which is used to denominate an Australian.

Finally, you have to know that in Australia there are many dangerous species of animals such as box jellyfish, sharks, snakes, redback spider and many others creatures which really like to sneak home.

I hope that some of this information will be useful. Have a nice week! :)

Osaka

Hello again! 

Lately I was thinking about spring coming and the first thing that came up to my mind was a desire of a breathtaking trip. That’s why today I will share with you some information about Osaka, the city of Japan.

Osaka has been known as NANIWA in Antiquity. It is one of the main industrial, cultural, educative and entertainment center of Japan. The city takes seventh place in production of gross domestic product on the world. In the 3.8 million’s city there are 30 000 factories and plants!

But Osaka is something much more that industrial city, when you look at the pictures you might say that it’s a completely different world….

Amazing old buildings, beauty of nature fit perfectly with modern infrastructure. Everything is in order and harmony.

 

Osaka Castle, called also gold or glittery castle. It is Osaka’s best showcases with a long history and tradition. The castle was built and rebuilt many times. 

 



Shinsaibashi – city’s main shopping area where you can find Geishas, traditional Japanese female entertainers who act as hostesses and whose skills include performing various arts to entertain customers. 

  

 

The National Museum of Art where we can find inter alia masterpieces of Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso and Max Ernst. 

Shintō is a Japanese ethnic religion which focuses on ritual practices to be carried out to establish a connection between present-day Japan and its ancient past. The religion is based on Japanese mythology and its name means “way of the gods”. In Osaka there is a famous buddish temple called Shitennōji.