Examen de français

I received the below mail today... needless to say, on last couple months I went ZERO times...however I always love to make exams (doesn´t necessarily translates in wanting to see the results:))

Bonsoir à tous!

Je vous rappelle que l'examen de français aura lieu mardi 19 juin à 19h dans le local habituel. Je ne serai pas là, mais quelqu'un viendra vous donner les copies et vous surveiller!

Si vous avez des questions, vous pouvez m'envoyer un mail, je vous répondrai volontiers.

Je vous envoie ici le récapitulatif de ce qu'il faut savoir pour mardi prochain...

Vous recevrez vos résultats chez vous, si vous avez réussi (la réussite est fixée à 60%). Si vous êtes en échec, vous pouvez passer l'examen de la 2e session, qui se déroule le 28 août à 19h à l'Institut. En cas d'échec, je vous enverrai un mail pour vous prévenir...

L'examen est seulement écrit. Je donne une note orale en fonction de votre travail de toute l'année (pour ceux que je n'ai pas beaucoup vus, ça va être difficile...)

Comme je ne serai pas là la semaine prochaine, il y a des chances qu'on ne se revoie plus. Je vous souhaite donc bonne chance pour l'examen, mais aussi (et surtout), bonne route, et tout le bonheur du monde à chacun d'entre vous. J'ai eu beaucoup de plaisir à vous connaître et à partager mes mardis soirs avec vous!

Caroline

B1 : Récapitulatif
Vocabulaire
- l’expérience et le parcours professionnel
- le parcours scolaire et universitaire
- l’heure et les moments de la journée
- les nombres
- les jours de la semaine, les saisons, les mois
- la famille
- les bâtiments d’une ville
- la chronologie
- les sentiments
- les loisirs
- les pièces d’un logement
- les monuments
- l’orientation dans l’espace
- les mesures
- la description d’un personnage
- la description d’un lieu
- les comparatifs
- les superlatifs
Grammaire
La phrase
- la phrase interrogative (où, quand, comment, pourquoi, combien, à qui, quel, qui, est-ce que, avec quoi, qui est-ce qui, qu’est-ce qui, qui…)
- la réponse à l’interrogation (à cause de, parce que, oui, non, si…)
- la proposition subordonnée relative (j’aime les hommes qui s’habillent bien)
- la proposition subordonnée circonstancielle de temps (quand il fait beau, je vais à la mer)
- la comparaison
- il y a
Le verbe
- le présent de l’indicatif
- le passé composé conjugué avec l’auxiliaire avoir et l’auxiliaire être (accord du participe passé)
- l’impératif présent
- le conditionnel présent
- le gérondif
- l’imparfait
- le futur simple
- le futur proche (je vais + infinitif)
- le passé récent (je viens de + infinitif)
- le présent progressif (je suis en train de + infinitif)
- verbe + infinitif avec ou sans préposition « à » ou « de » (je veux voyager, je préfère continuer à discuter, j’ai arrêté de fumer)
- les verbes pronominaux
Les prépositions
- les prépositions de temps
- les prépositions de lieu
Le nom
- les pronoms compléments
- le superlatif de l’adjectif qualificatif
- quelqu’un/quelque chose
- ne…personne, ne…rien
Compétences de communication
- rédiger un Curriculum Vitae
- comprendre un Curriculum Vitae
- se présenter à un entretien d’embauche
- comprendre un texte informatif
- donner son emploi du temps habituel
- donner son avis
- demander et donner des conseils
- s’excuser et se justifier
- raconter un souvenir au passé
- raconter des événements
- demander et donner des informations sur un itinéraire
- décrire un logement
- raconter une histoire au passé

Crowd at Lisbon Airport Arrivals

Can someone explain me why Lisbon Airport is the one that have, proportional, more people waiting for the arrival of friends and family? (no, I didn´t base myself in any statistics)

Even though, cannot be considered as a hub given the small air traffic, gives always a warm welcome to everyone that arrives and can see most of the times, 3 or 4 times more people waiting than the ones arriving.

I must say, that I love to see and feel that welcome!

Portugal - May 2007

I spent the weekend before the last in Portugal!!
What can I say more than that was simply fabulous!!

Unfortunately, not enough time to see everyone:(

Hope to see u soon, and do not forget that you have an open door here in Brussels:)

PS: sorry for long time without writing, now I’m penciling everything in a row.. maybe too much, but have fun watching the pics.

Limbo

With the almost extinction of the Limbo, will I get my salvation as a non-Baptized?
It´s time also to applaud the church decision!

Fading practice?

Limbo has been in limbo for quite some time, but is now on its way to extinction.

A Vatican committee that spent years examining the medieval concept published a much-anticipated report Friday, concluding that unbaptized babies who die may go to heaven.

That could reverse centuries of Roman Catholic traditional belief that the souls of unbaptized babies are condemned to eternity in limbo, a place that is neither heaven nor hell. Limbo is not unpleasant, but it is not a seat alongside God.

Catholic doctrine states that because all humans are tainted by original sin, thanks to Adam and Eve, baptism is essential for salvation. But the idea of limbo has fallen out of favor for many Catholics, who see it as harsh and not befitting a merciful God.

The Vatican's International Theological Commission issued its findings — with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI — in a document published by the Catholic News Service, the news agency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The commission is advisory, but the pope's endorsement of the document appears to indicate his acceptance of its findings.

Limbo, the commission said, "reflects an unduly restrictive view of salvation."

"Our conclusion," the panel said in its 41-page report, is that there are "serious theological and liturgical grounds for hope that unbaptized infants who die will be saved and brought into eternal happiness." The committee added that although this is not "sure knowledge," it comes in the context of a loving and just God who "wants all human beings to be saved."

Extracted from LA Times

Series

I never expected to be so addicted to the American series, but Dr. House, Carnivale and Heroes are superb and quality productions.
I surrend! And seeing it with a good company is even better!

Brussels - May 2007

Most of the Pictures thanks to Lori!

Mons - May 2007

Cesária Évora- May 2007

Saudade...

Oslo - May 2007

London - March 2007

Misspellings

Funny this article that I found on the internet…
We all make mistakes in google search that we can correct given the further suggestion, however do we know what are the most common misspellings (or should I say mispelings?).
My highlight goes to Britney Spears, which hits 2 times on the top20… that might have some correlation with the fans??

Everyone has certain words they struggle to spell correctly. When it comes to spelling, we're not perfect you can count on us to occasionally botch recieve (sic), accomodations (sic), and relavant (sic). With the Scripps National Spelling Bee on the horizon, we figured it was a perfect time to come clean about our erroneous ways.
The superb spellers at the Bee will rake in even more Buzz this year with the finals being televised in prime time on ABC. Searches on "spelling bee" have doubled over the last week and we've seen related search spikes on "national spelling bee," "spelling words," and "commonly misspelled words."
What are the common words that vex our searchers? We applied our best spell checking skills to the data and came up with this list of the top 20 misspelled words in Search...

1. Wallmart (Wal-Mart)
2. Rachel Ray (Rachael Ray)
3. Amtrack (Amtrak)
4. Hillary Duff (Hilary Duff)
5. Katherine McPhee (Katharine McPhee)
6. Britany Spears (Britney Spears)
7. Geneology (Genealogy)
8. Jaime Pressley (Jaime Pressly)
9. Volkswagon (Volkswagen)
10. Wikepedia (Wikipedia)
11. William Sonoma (Williams-Sonoma)
12. Tatoo (Tattoo)
13. Travelosity (Travelocity)
14. Elliot Yamin (Elliott Yamin)
15. Kiera Knightley (Keira Knightley)
16. Kelly Pickler (Kellie Pickler)
17. Brittney Spears (Britney Spears)
18. Avril Lavinge (Avril Lavigne)
19. Rianna (Rihanna)
20. Jordan Sparks (Jordin Sparks)

Coiffure Liliane

After many many many questions about what's the Coiffure.

You can see a flavour on this photos, a video of the last in-house performance and also a link to their internet site.
Coiffure Lilliane

I can say that's quite an alternative place, I would not call it fancy, but have an own environment and special taste.

Portugal

5 months later here I go again....

25MAY
19h35 BRUSSELS BRU TP 615 - 21h15 LISBON
28MAY
18h55 LISBON TP 618 - 22h25 BRUSSELS

Where is your vote?

#1 - You are a social liberal. Like all liberals, you believe in individual freedom as a central objective - but you believe that lack of economic opportunity, education, healthcare etc. can be just as damaging to liberty as can an oppressive state. As a result, social liberals are generally the most outspoken defenders of human rights and civil liberties, and combine this with support for a mixed economy, with an enabling state providing public services to ensure that people's social rights as well as their civil liberties are upheld.

#2 - You are a social democrat. Like other socialists, you believe in a more economically equal society - but you have jettisoned any belief in the idea of the planned economy. You believe in a mixed economy, where the state provides certain key services and where the productivity of the market is harnessed for the good of society as a whole. Many social democrats are hard to distinguish from social liberals, and they share a tolerant social outlook.

#3 - You adhere to the Third Way. The Third Way is a fairly nebulous concept, but it rests on the idea of combining economic efficiency - i.e. a market economy with some intervention - with social responsibility. The focus is emphatically on the community as a whole, and not necessarily equality per se. Adherents of the Third Way range from moderate to conservative in their social views, and have recently been willing to take a "tough" line on a range of social issues.

#4 - You are an ecologist or green. You believe that the single greatest challenge of our time is the threat to our natural environment, and you feel that radical action must be taken to protect it - whether in the enlightened self-interest of humanity (in the tradition of 'shallow ecologism') or, more radically, from the perspective of the ecosystem as a whole, without treating humans as the central species (deep ecologism).

#5 - You are a market liberal. You adhere to the traditional liberal belief in freedom, and take this to mean negative rather than positive freedom - i.e. a slimmed-down state is the best guarantor of freedom. You will therefore support a laissez-faire economic policy, and you will be reasonably tolerant on the social front - though less emphatically so than social liberals.

#6 - You are a classical socialist, believing in equality of outcome as a principle. This might mean greater equality (e.g. Old Labour), or as close to absolute equality as possible. However, you will believe in an extensive public sector, covering not just public services (transport, healthcare etc.) but probably also the 'commanding heights' of industry (e.g. iron and steel). Your views on personal morality will be reasonably tolerant, in general, but there is considerable variation within this political group.

#7 - You are a libertarian conservative. You hold that the free market is the best way of organising economic activity, but you combine this with adherence to more traditional social values of authority and duty.

#8 - You are an anarcho-capitalist. Anarcho-capitalists take the Jeffersonian belief that "that government is best which governs least", and extend it - "that government is best which governs not at all". The theory of anarcho-capitalism is that the market can replace the state as a regulator of individual behaviour (resulting in private courts, private policing etc.).

#9 - You are a communist. You believe, at least in theory, in absolute equality of income - and you oppose the whole capitalist system per se. You want to abolish the market economy and replace it with one in which the workers (usually meaning the state) control the building blocks of the economy. Your views on personal morality will vary; traditional communists tended to be more authoritarian, while modern "eurocommunists" tend to take a liberal line.

#10 - You are a Christian democrat - or, in the UK, a "One Nation conservative"; in other words, although you share the usual conservative belief in stability and duty, you believe that such duties include a responsibility on the part of the better-off to help those who are less fortunate. You will be socially conservative, but in favour of a mixed economy where the state does have a role in providing public services. Christian democracy arose after World War II, succeeding more doctrinaire Catholic parties dating from the 1870s.

#11 - You are an anarcho-communist, aiming for a society without the state, based on small, decentralised groups living communally.

#12 - You are a fascist. You combine a strong belief in the nation with authoritarian social values, and a willingness to impose your views upon ot

hers. You strongly oppose immigration, and are willing to take radical action to combat it.

Thanks to a friend of mine for the posting!

I will tend for #2.

Geração recibo verde

por Clara Martins

Primeiro foram apelidados de 'rasca', por serem uma geração sem ideais, quase fútil. Hoje são impedidos de pensar muito sobre o futuro, sob pena de se reverem num cenário não muito risonho.

No início eram os 'rascas'. Foi Vicente Jorge Silva que fez o favor de os chamar assim, num memorável editorial do Público - de que era na altura director - sobre um protesto que visava o aumento das propinas. Referia-se a uma geração de jovens portugueses - hoje ainda jovens mas não tanto - que considerava vazios de ideais e fúteis pelo hábito da vida sempre facilitada.


- Mas porque seriam rascas, o que os marcou e onde estão agora?

Quando eram miúdos viam todos as mesmas séries na televisão, adoravam e comoviam-se com o 'Marco'; alegravam-se com o 'Verão Azul', comiam todos as mesmas cinco marcas de bolachas disponíveis no mercado, os mesmos gelados, passavam férias no Algarve, em Benidorm, ou então na 'terra' dos pais ou avós.

Ainda se lembram de demorar um dia inteiro a chegar ao destino, do outro lado do País, a cantar e a jogar durante toda a viagem, com um piquenique pelo meio, debaixo de um frondoso pinheiro numa qualquer mata ainda por arder. Começaram a fazer reciclagem nesses piqueniques, quando diziam aos avós e ainda aos pais que era feio deixar aqueles restos para trás.

Assistiram ao advento do hipermercado, que lhes mudou a vida, enchendo-a de variedade, nos dias de romaria à grande loja e, mais tarde, ao enorme shopping.

Começaram a vestir Zara quando ainda era diferente e tornaram-na uniforme. É lá que ainda se revovam camisolas de lã já cheias de borboto a cada inverno, e se reforma o roupeiro com as novas tendências, porque a carteira não permite outras aventuras.

Ainda leram muitos livros, e continuam a folhear, uma mão na obra, outra no rato.

A Internet só surgiu nas suas vidas quando a maioria já tinha ultrapassado a 'fase do armário', não puderam, como agora, esclarecer as suas dúvidas existenciais através do Google e, apesar de não terem lá muitos ideais, inauguraram o conceito 'festival de verão', habituados à natureza, em contacto com a qual brincavam quando eram miúdos, alheios à Playstation que só se popularizou quando já eram jovens adultos.

Depois veio a universidade, e o estatuto de estudante vai-se ainda prolongando ao longo da vida desta gente que nunca terá uma reforma e que vive entre o recibo verde e a bolsa de investigação.

Normalmente tudo começa com um estágio profissional, a luz ao fundo do túnel para quem acaba o seu curso. É o primeiro passo no mundo do trabalho, a primeira experiência e às vezes única na área em que se estudou.

Ser bem sucedido é, para esta geração, trabalhar na área que se elegeu para estudar, não fazer muitas vezes o caminho com destino ao Centro de Emprego da área de residência, que está em constante mutação, e ter um salário que nunca ultrapassa (nos casos de maior sucesso) os mil euros.

Estão agora na casa dos trinta, mas a maioria continua a viver como se tivesse 20. A casa dos pais é sempre uma boa (e económica) alternativa, mas a casa partilhada continua a ser uma opção comum. A vida comunitária de estudante prolonga-se no tempo, e vai adiando decisões de estabilidade.

Nunca fazem greve porque os seus empregos são demasiado precários e habituaram-se a ser pouco reinvidicativos. Talvez pelo trauma de voltarem a ser chamados rasca de cada vez que se lembram de manifestar insatisfação por algo que não é considerado um ideal 'maior'.

Vivem sem saber se terão trabalho no mês que vem, fazem um novo tipo de 'biscate'. Entre o recibo verde e a bolsa de investigação, sorte têm aqueles que conseguem um contrato - a termo, é claro - e, já agora, por mais de um ano.

O 'pessoal da bolsa de investigação' chega aos trinta (e tal) sem nunca ter feito um único desconto para o Estado, apesar de trabalhar há anos, sem nunca ter recebido um subsídio, sem quaisquer regalias sociais. É um estatuto cada vez mais comum que pode durar anos.

Não conseguem comprar casa e já se habituaram ao cartão de crédito, aliado precioso para os últimos dias do mês.

Não fazem poupanças e vivem no limbo entre a casa alugada, a viagem de autocarro ou, num estádio já mais complexo, a cada vez mais comum relação à distância. Cada um tem de migrar para onde há trabalho, o que significa tantas vezes ver a vida em comum reduzida ao fim de semana.

Há muitos designers nesta geração sem amanhã. Os que podem ficar por cá com toda a segurança são médicos ou informáticos. Os outros todos, até os engenheiros civis, outrora tão solicitados, fogem cada vez mais para outras paragens.

No dia do trabalhador, lembrei-me de generalizar sobre uma geração com razões para reinvindicar. Pouco valorizado, o seu trabalho é precário e mal remunerado. São interessados e competentes, mas ainda assim têm muita dificuldade em construir uma carreira interessante.

Há 201 anos, a 1 de Maio de 1886, centenas de milhares de pessoas reivindicaram uma redução das horas de trabalho nas ruas de Chicago. Essa manifestação prolongou-se por dias e da batalha entre manifestantes e polícias resultaram vários mortos, de ambos os lados.

O 1º de Maio ficou então marcado pela luta por oito horas de trabalho diário e foi chegando aos vários países onde hoje continua a celebrar-se o Dia do Trabalhador.

- Mas o que significa agora este dia? Se tivessem coragem de falar, qual seria o grito de guerra desta geração outrora 'rasca' e hoje periclitante na corda bamba da empregabilidade?

PS: foi isto que aconteceu a minha geracao de que apelidavam de rasca?