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23.03.2008
Just a couple of things
Fundraising, Easter and evil vacuum cleanersYesterday we went to WallMart to sell personalized Easter eggs. It was a fundraiser for our track team. We had a bunch of chocolate eggs and different colors of icing. When someone ordered an egg we put a name on it. We had a pretty good spot just in front of the cashiers and since there was unbelievable amount of shopping people (the stores were closed on Friday), the line was kind of long and thus lots of customers who had nothing to do while waiting ordered some eggs. I don't know yet how much money we fundraised, but WallMart said they would double the money we made. Sweet!
I also underwent a huge step to adulthood yesterday. I bought 6 pairs of socks myself. (Well, not really – thanks for helping me Mrs. Heiko). But still – got new socks :). It's funny when I'm reading it again, the first sentence of this paragraph sounds like I'll talk about something totally different.
We were also talking about Easter tradititions the past couple of days. And guess what ... so many Canadians already told me that they would like to go to the Czech Republic over Easter (well, they were mostly boys :)). I was suprised, but nobody told me that the Czech tradition is inhuman, violent or whatever and that we should stop it. They said that traditions are fun instead. I like that opinion.
If you are an English reader who now feels confused, I've got an explanation for you. So ... the following is a Czech and Slovak (maybe eastern Europe?) Easter tradition. The boys cut willow branches and make "sticks" from them. They took 8 withies (hope that this is the right word) and make a "pony tail" from them. Finally, in the Easter Monday morning they chase the girls and hit them on their butts with the "sticks" while saying Easter carrols. Then the girls are supposed to give the boys an egg. The tradition says that the girls are being hit because it will make them younger. Then there is a second part – the afternoon. The girls can pour cold water on the boys. However, this has kind of diminished and for instance I've never experienced a girl pouring a water on me ... so far. And yeah ... if you're wondering we (at least the boys) really enjoy this tradition.
The next thing I'm gonna write about are the Transactional English classes, because we've been doing a really interesting things recently – critical reviews. At first we started with film reviews and watched two movies during regular classes (I can't imagine this happening in the Czech Republic). I was away for one of them (Edmonton track meet), so guess what was my homework. Watch a movie! Now we've moved on to even more interesting thing – a resturant review. Thus, the task is to go to a restaurant and review the food, service, place, etc. However, my friend and I don't have a car (and can't drive respectively), so we only went to Tim Hortons (a Canadian "fast food" which is focused on coffee, donuts and stuff like that). So can you imagine you go out to eat during English? It was great! Now the sampeling and eating phase is over and the next week we'll be writting the review ... or maybe making a movie about it, if we find an easy-to-use software to make it. We've got about ten minutes of video and we need to add comentary, maybe some effects and stuff like that. Do you have any ideas what software would work the best for that purpose? I have absolutely no experience with that and I've only heard about Windows Movie Maker.
The last thing I wanted to mention here today is the Canadian vacuum cleaner. However, my experience with it is limited to two of them so far, so I might be totally wrong. Still, lets have a look. How does the vacuum cleaner here look like? It's big, heavy and so loud. Moreover, it has so many features you'll never use. For example, there is a light bulb on the front – maybe so you can see what's happening when you're vacuuming dark places. However, the light makes the front thick, so it's almost impossible to vacuum places like under your bed. (Yeah, those are exactly the spots where the light was supposed to be in use) Furthermore, the front is heavy and thus hard to operate. I can really imagine the seller of this item telling his or her customer about all the great features the vacuum cleaner has. "Look at the light in the front, it will make your vacuuming so easy and fun." However, the contrary is the truth. How come no one can have a vacuum cleaner that is good for vacuuming and nothing else? Tell me who needs stuff like lights on it. Maybe it's hard to sell it without it.
Happy Easter!
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Movie (Ted - Mail - WWW)
So the movie project is finished :) It turned out that the Movie Maker is exactly the program I needed - easy to add music, narrate time lines and add some effects. And that's it - it doesn't have tousands of functions you'll never use. Although the programm fell couple of times, I nevers lost any work since it has a recovery function. If you wanna make a simple movie I highly recommend using it.
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