Gracias, amigos.

We have just left you on the bus to Madrid -or on the road to Portugal- and we have mixed emotions: we're happy because the activities have been a success, but we're sad because you're gone and we miss you a lot. Thank you very much for visiting us, and have a safe journey home, friends.

Spanish Tapas

Luísa from Portugal has asked me to tell her about the origins of the Spanish "tapas". The origins of our typical, healthy snacks -or so history has it- are related to our kings.

The most recent one -end of the XIXth century- assures that Alfonso XIII, during a journey in the southern province of Cádiz, asked for a sherry wine at a country inn. The keeper put a piece of ham over his glass, to prevent the typical wind in the area to put sand in the wine. The king, and all his followers, asked for a second round -of course, with tapa-.

This story makes some sense, since "tapa" comes from the verb "tapar" - to cover- but seems unlikely, as there are documented cases of wine served with their tapas already in the XVIIIth century.

A much earlier version -Middle Ages- has another of our kings -Alfonso X "the Wise", could it be otherwise?- as the inventor of the tapa. As he suffered from several ailments he ordered that every inn and tavern in his kingdom of Castille should serve drinks with some food, to prevent alcohol from affecting his subjects too much.

Spanish kings care!

I've take this from arrakis.es:

La Tapa, so as to be meaningful, has to be eaten between main meals as food that allows the body to survive until lunch or dinnertime.Some authors assert that the tapa was born when, due to an illness, the Spanish king Alfonso the 10th, the Wise, had to take small bites of food with some wine between meals. Once recovered from the disease, the wise king decreed that no wine was to be served in any of the inns in the land of Castile , unless accompanied by something to eat. This was a wise precaution to counteract the adverse effects of alcohol on those people who, through lack of money to buy a nourishing meal, drank alcohol on an empty stomach.
Apart from the story of the royal disease we should consider the theory that the tapa first appeared because of the need of farmers and workers of other unions to take a small amount of food during their working time, which allowed them to carry on working until time for the main meal.This main meal, rich in fat, was so heavy to digest that a “siesta” had to be taken for a couple of hours before going back to the fields or to the workshop. Longer working hours in the morning meant an easier workload after the meal.

We have already planned a tapas dinner in April. It will be at the "Manzano Bar", the temple of tapas in Navalmoral.

Enrique (IES Augustóbriga).

The New Armada

Centuries after the great failure of 1588 -though falsified and magnified, a failure- that took ships and hundreds of men to the bottom of the Atlantic, the Armada is back in all its glory. The new Spanish Armada are notably our tennis or baskeball players, and latelty, also our footballers, that have passed (miracle?) from being a sad team with a sad game unable to reach the important phases of a big tournament to win the last Eurocup. We witnessed incredulous how the Red reached the final, and how they defeated... Germany! When it finished, everyone fell in a deep silence. We were not used to that. Some minutes later, euphoria took over us and all the country was celebrating that historical occasion on the street.

Now I really think this team can do even better: England played well, they deserved at least one goal in the second half. Spain didn't play that good, but they wisely controlled the game, letting the others run. When that happens, you're watching one of the real big ones. I'm sure that England, when they recover some important players, will be a dangerous team, corageously fighting till the end. See you in Old Trafford. In the meantime, I'm sorry, Bristol. We won, we hit first and we're enjoying the moment!

Last Snows of the Winter?

Remember that movie -"Smoke", 1995- in which Harvey Keitel took a daily photograph of the same corner of his area, outside his tobacconist's? I've been taking this picture all winter long. Because it's being a long cold winter here, like those before the global warming -ha, ha-.

Is it Stavanger, Norway? NO!! It's Navalmoral, West Spain. Not quite the picture foreigners who visit our country -i.e. our beaches- have of South-West Europe. Those mountains are over 2000 mts high and it's been snowing well below the 400 mts. Spain has been suffering wave of bad weather after wave for the last weeks: rain, wind, snow, and low, chilling temperatures. I wonder when it will finish. It usually does -I hope-. We're all looking forward to the weather's warming up a little. And... why not? Those summer landscapes, dreams and beaches.

This blog is meant for all the educational communities at Silainiai, St. Svithun, The Grange, Sao Miguel and IES Augustóbriga (not just teachers). So give us a glimpse of the wintertime in your area! Open your windows to the rest!

Enrique (IES Augustóbriga)

Merry Christmas to everybody, that part of it has passed, and Happy new year 2009. Somehow I joined it too. Audra

BOAS FESTAS!

De Portalegre, Portugal, para todos os AMIGOS do Mundo das aprendizagens activas e reais, os votos de um Natal muito Feliz, cheio de Paz e Alegria, e de um Ano de 2009 gordo de êxitos, sucessos e projectos realizados!!!

De Portalegre, um ABRAÇO ALENTEJANÃO!!!

FELIZ NATAL!!!

FELIZ 2009!!!

Merry Christmas from Spain

We're on holiday! Two of our students in the second year (13 years old) have prepared this presentation for you. Our Media students in the higher secondary education are also preparing presentations about Xmas 2008 that we will show you back in January. In the meantime, be happy and have fun. From the IES Augustóbriga we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We also recommend you to watch this video. It's great! A proof that distance no longer matters (unless we create it ourselves...):

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=9nT8d5fP0Vk