Nightmares, ghosts, trees and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I think that everybody, at least once, has had a horrible nightmare. Some people say that they are triggered by events that you live through the day or shocking things that you see and store in your memory.

I remember when I was little my whole family used to rent an old house in Coquimbo for the summer. We were usually about 12 people distributed in 3 or 4 bedrooms. Mostly teenagers and children. Once one of my cousins from the south came with us. He is from Temuco. One day, we were watching a movie at night. At that night cartoons were even weirder than now. I really don't understand how could I ever be interested in seeing 4 mutant turtles with the names of famous Italian Renaissance painters that learnt ninjutsu from a mutant rat called Splinter.

Anyhow, after watching the movie we all went to bed. There weren't many beds so my cousin from Temuco had to sleep in the couch. It was a typical night in Coquimbo. Very dark, windy and chilly. Every two hours you heard the train passed a couple of blocks from our house, the branches of the trees outside the house created strange shadows in the walls with the street light that entered the living room and the windows were usually gently hit by the motion of the branches against them.

It might have been around 3AM when we heard an awful scream. "Al-wanda!!!!"-my cousin cried out. He kept repeating that word, screaming, and shouting like crazy. We all woke up and went to see. He was crying. Apparently he had had a nightmare but he was so terrified he couldn't speak. Everybody kept wondering what could that word mean... Al-wanda. My mom thought it was a famous criminal in the south, or somebody he knew back there. After a few minutes he calmed down and said "Al-wanda... the rat... Splinter, outside". Nobody had a clue about what he was saying. But suddenly he pointed outside and repeated the word, and somebody said "algo-anda"... Complete silence followed and then we all laughed our hearts out. After a few minutes we all came back to bed. We had had enough of mutants suspense for the night.

Ok, now it's your turn.
This is a themed blog session. Just try to follow the directions given in class. Remember to keep it clear, simple, and use different paragraphs to separate your ideas. 


You have to write about 180 words and, as usual, you have to leave comments on at least three of your classmates' posts.

Ted

One of my favorite websites is Ted-Talks www.ted.com. I really like it because it has lectures from very well-known and knowledgeable scholars and scientists that talk about a wide range of topics, from science, nature and the human body to theater, art, and education.
I use this website every week to ask some of my students to practice listening to specific-content lectures. If they have difficulty understanding, they can use subtitles provided they are in English, of course!! And if they are still having difficulty understanding, they can read the transcripts with me in class and check for useful vocabulary and discussing later about the topic.
There is one new section in this website that I like a lot. This is Ted-Ed. It also has lectures but these are accompanied by very entertaining and illustrative videos that make your understanding of the topic a lot easier. http://ed.ted.com/lessons Another important feature of this website is that once you finish the lecture, a set of 5-6 questions appears so you can assess your understanding of the topic and you can also answer some questions and dig deeper into the topic if you find it interesting. I definitely recommend it!!

Now it's your turn!
You have to write a blog and you can choose between these two topics:

Option 1
- Write about a career-related website that you enjoy visiting:
You should
-provide a link
- Describe the website (sections, features, etc)
- say how often you visit this website
-explain why you like it

Option 2:
Who is a person/expert on your field that you admire?
You should say:
- Who she/he is (short biography)
- What she/he has done (examples of their work)
-Why you like her/him.
- Include his/her image.

Write about 170 words.
Add comments to at least 3 of your classmates' blogs.