Workshop about Stress

I participated in one interesting workshop this week about Stress. This problem is very common in Canada, which has a high level of stress in its population. The workshop talk about negative and positive causes of stress, a disease that can  lead suicide.

"Rio de Janeiro" - Brazil

My presentation to my classmates is about Rio de Janeiro, the city where I was born and lived in my home country. Rio was founded on January 20, 1501. The Portuguese thought the bay in front of the place was a river, so they named the city "Rio de Janeiro" (River of January). It is a beautiful city, with many beach of clear sand, such as Copacabana, famous all over the world; Ipanema Beach, inspiration for the song "The Girl from Ipanema" (Garota de Ipanema); Leblon; Sao Conrado; and Barra da Tijuca, the last of  which once where I lived for many years, in front of the ocean of clear and crystalline water, and, whenever possible, I walked the sidewalk for many kilometers. Rio has a huge "urban forest", the Tijuca Forest, the biggest in the world. It is also the land of carnival and soccer. Rio will be home to the Summer Olympic Games in 2016, and Brazil as a whole will have the Soccer World Cup in 2014, with many games in Rio.

Thanks, Joseph

Thanks for the attention you spent with every student, correcting our pronunciation and teaching us new things. Thanks for the diversity of your classes with listening, writing, grammar and computer, which I did not have much experience. Thanks for the variety of movies, such as FireProof, and grammar. Thanks for the variety of trips to Toronto Island, the Reference Library, the amazing concert at Roy Thomson Hall and CBC Radio, featuring Sounds of the Season, with beautiful sounds in a pleasant room, with coffee, food and gifts.
Happy Holidays and 2012 with joy and success!

Lunch at the Chinese restaurant.

On Friday, Dec. 9, I attended a lunch with friends of the class 4-5 and the teacher Joseph. It was very nice and my first time in a Chinese buffet, drinking hot water with food. There were good food and interesting soups, fruits and a special produt of coconut, one with the name "nata coco." That was the first time I saw this. Brazil, my home country, is a excellent producer of coconut and used it in  many desserts: candies, cakes and many biscuits, coconut water, coconut milk or just eaten as fruit, which is delicious. 

The Santa Shuffle - Salvation Army

On December 3rd, the Salvation Army held a walk and run to raise funds to assist people in need. Seneca Hill School attended the event where my husband and two children ran. It was a nice event on a cold Saturday morning, where a Salvation Army band presented music of Christmas, with snacks and hot chocolate. Almost 1,500 people attended the event.

Spatial Experience

 Yesterday, my family and I had an extraordinary experience. We went to my children´s school, where two telescopes were installed by an amateur astronomer. We could see the Earth's Moon with its craters and the dark side. We saw Jupiter and four of its moons and many stars. The astronomer, named Chris, also showed a star that had exploded a long time ago and when there was the explosion, the rest of the star formed a ring in the sky. Chris said that if you look right in the middle of the ring it is possible to see a small star. It was beautiful, despite the cold "below."