Shakespeare - "The Greatest Dramatist of All Times"

I was given the honor of interviewing the known to be "Greatest Writer of All Times", the one and only William Shakespeare. To avoid looking like a complete moron, I had been doing some research of the British poet, dramatist and actor. (Google my precious friend, he never fails.) Mainly I already knew most of the answers to the questions I would ask, but however, I was curious to hear the answers from him.

Since Google obviously didn't exsist on Shakespeare's time, I'll allow myself to imagine that he arose from the dead to answer my questions. Nice guy that Shakespeare!

How was the family situation when you grew up?

- I was my parents' third child of eight in total. We lived all lived together at a place called Stratford-upon-Avon in Great Britain.

Which school did you attend to for your education?

- In 1553 they esablished a new school called King's New School. The curriculum was strict and the school gave lessons as latin grammar and classics to offer the students a comprehensive education. To be honest, the question of which school I was thinking about going to wasn't even a question, since this school was only a half a kilometer from my house.

You got married quite young, would you mind telling me about it?
“Young? I was a man in his best age!” he says and laughs. – Well, when I got married I was 18 years old. The woman I married to, Anne Hathaway, was 26 years old. Some might say we rushed into marriage without knowing what we were doing, but Anne was already 3 months pregnant with our lovely daughter Susanna.

Susanna wasn’t your other child, could you tell me about the others?
- My daughter Susanna was my first child. She was born the early spring 1583. Nearly two years later was Anne pregnant again, this time with twins!

You have a great number of written works, how many are there?
- I have written 38 plays and 154 sonnets in total. Quite a large number, if I can say so myself.

Thanks a lot for the interview; I appreciate your kindness to take some time to answer my questions. As an end I would like to ask you a question. A question I am sure I am not the only one curious of the answer. Of all your plays and sonnets, which one is your favorite?

- You are certainly not the only one to wonder, and this is an interesting question. Well, many may think that perhaps “Romeo and Juliet” or “Hamlet” would be my favorite play, because those are the most known ones, but personally, I adore the comedy Taming of the Shrew. I can tell you that I really enjoyed writing this comedy, but I would like to make no more comment on this question. Thank you.

William Shakespeare. 1564-1616

Cupcakes

Ingredients
2 ¼ cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla/chocolate
2 large eggs

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. (It makes about 180 degrees Celsius.)
Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and the salt in a large bowl. Add milk and vanilla/chocolate.
Add the eggs to the batter and stir around.
Use a spoon to pour the batter into the paper liners until 2/3 full.
Bake them for 20 to 25 minutes. A trick to check if the cupcakes are finished: put a toothpick down the center of a cupcake, if the batter does not follow, the cupcake is well enough baked.
Cool the cakes for 5 minutes, and then make the frosting on top.

Frosting
100 g butter
300 g icing sugar
1 tablespoons cocoa/strawberry/vanilla (choose your favorite)
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
Mix it all together, and put them on the top of the cupcakes.
All pictures taken by myself.

Brick Lane

Monday November 30th.

Today, we saw a film at school named Brick Lane. The film, finding place in London, is directed by Sarah Gavron. The story is adapted from the novel, also named Brick Lane, by Monica Ali. The movie was released in November 2007, and the actors starring are persons as Tannishtha Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik, Christopher Simpson and Naeema Begum.

The sotry is about a woman, Nazneen, who grew up in Bangladesh but moved to London, in Brick Lane, at the age of 17. Her marriage was arranged, and her husband was twice her age. Her sister stays in Bangladesh, and the two girls keep exchanging letters where they write about their life. Later on, a young, handsome man appears in Nazneens life, and they are having an affair.

The film deals with hard and important problems as religion and politics, and some of the plot keywords are words as immigrants, Muslims, Allah, letter writing, longing, distance, fear, arranged marriage, drowning, England, Bangladesh, 1980s. The film has won several awards, especially for its direction and actors.

I have to admit I was looking forward to watch Bend It Like Beckham, but Brick Lane was no disappointment at all. I liked the movie, especially with the setting and the sound tracks. I know now that watching a movie at school isn't simply for relaxing, and I guess my teacher always has a point of showing us such movies. To learn, of course. I also think I get more value of a film when I am working on it after I have watched it. Then the main themes will be clearer, and the messages from the director will not be so well hidden anymore.

Reflection, My Year So Far

The English lessons at Greåker vgs these months have been different than what I was used to from last year. I can see that the requirements are much higher, and the demands are visibly increasing. I have found it hard to analyze some of the texts we have worked on, especially to figure out the main themes. It's hard to find out what the author actually wants to tell us. Blogging is something I have never done before. I have read several blogs earlier, but never really published my own texts on such a webpage. It has been a bit weird, I think, but still a lot of fun. It sure is a different way of learning English!
I think I have decided to go the direction of science subjects next year, which means I will probably lose the English lessons, something I find quite sad, actually. I think it is fun to learn other languages, especially when you notice how useful they are.

To improve my English I can write more, read more and do more tasks, but to be completely honest - I think the best way to learn the language is to go to the country and live there for a while, whether you are going to school, or simply staying there for holidays. A friend of mine is thinking about going abroad next year as an exchange student. I envy him for his guts to do such thing. I bet he will have a great time, and come home as a perfect-speaking Englishman! Personally I would really like to go to the USA, but at this moment I don't think I'm ready to travel alone around the world. I hope, in some years, that I will go abroad and learn the English language. Maybe for studies during my education!

Hated by a Car

Today, as every Sundays lately, I've been out driving. My driving-theory teacher told me that the best drivers are the ones who start as early as possible. With thought of my (fairly bad) conditions in relation to cars, I think I really need the time...I didn't know before that is was possible to feel hated by a car. It hates me so much I'm sure the car does everything on purpose, simply to be mean and cause me problems. The clutch is an annoying and frustrating unnecessary detail, I think. It has gone so far that when everyone says the word 'clutch' it gives me the chills. My knowledge about cars and engines, mainly traffic in general is a bit low. (I figured that knowing all the signs unfortunately didn't make me the perfect driver. Sigh...) So I thought it would be the most safe for me (and for others) to get some more time [read: some more years] of practice before I throw myself out in the big, dangerous road.
The week of blogging I had to do has already passed, and to my surprise it was more fun than I expected.

This is probably the official end of this blog for now. (If my teacher doesn't give me more tasks.) So everyone: Take care and drive safe(!!!), please.

Rome Wasn't Build in a Day

I have been thinking that maybe we should be a little more patient. Generally, I mean. Things take time, and we just have to deal with it. The English proverb "Rome wasn't build in a day" is telling us that things actually take time, and we have to be patient. Whether it's homework, reaching a personal goal, a sport, etc. It takes time for something to become good, or really great. And when I thought about it, I found out that maybe it will be better if I put some more time and effort to it, than if I didn't. So we shouldn't expect to accomplish something or achieve success immediately.

A Watched Pot Never Boils

It has been two years since I celebrated Christmas. Last year I spent the holidays abroad, in Asia. It's now the end of November. Christmas is right around the corner. It is going to be soon, which I indeed know very well, but somehow it still seems like forever to wait. I am still as excited as a little child for Christmas. It is, with no doubt, my favorite time of the year. Snow. Family and friends. Presents. Santa Claus.

But, as said; A watched pot never boils. A watched phone never rings. A watched mailbox will never get any letter.

So, my conclusion for the time to pass by a bit quicker, is not to wait for it at all. Because if you don't wait for it, it will be here in a second...

Rainy Thursday Saved by Oreos

Thursdays mainly consist of hard work in French, English and especially math. It's almost funny how exhausted everyone are after Thursdays. The rain pouring down outside the window didn't make the day any better. However, the grey day was soon saved when I found some Oreos at home! I've never really believed that it helped whenever someone told me to 'go get some sugar' when I was in a bad mood. Today I can honestly say: They weren't joking. So, if you're ever in a bad mood, now for example? - Go get some sugar.

Knowledge Is Power

I've always heard people say that knowledge is power. I've listened to people telling me that I should work hard to become smart, so I'll get a great influence in the society. Knowledge gives you power. Power gives you respect. Get the picture? Sure...

One day I will definitely change the world! Maybe I'll solve the cancer problem, make world peace, and figure out how to reduce the global warming or save all the hungry children in Africa!

Well, one day... In the meantime I will start by finishing my homework for tomorrow. Let's save the world another day 8-)

Wish of the Day

I wish I could read people's minds

I wish I could fly

I wish I were able to speak every language of the world

I wish I could do magic

But right now, I just wish I had a private jet which could take me wherever I would like.
...The Maldives would be nice.

Living in Norway in this season of the year is just a bit depressing... The non-stop grey, cold and wet weather makes you want to escape to somewhere warm and exotic. Well, my mind will probably be the only thing escaping to another place now. Unfortunately.

Sweet Monday

On a regular Monday when probably most of you drag yourselves out of bed at 6 o'clock to be at a lesson two hours later, I am still having sweet dreams in my bed. Fair isn't it? On Mondays I don't start school until 12, and lucky as I am, I allow myself to sleep four extra hours! Oh, got to love Mondays! This entry is the first of seven entries I will write this week. This is task number 2; Blog for a week. Stay tuned!

Sudden End to Maiden Voyage - Hundreds Died

April 14th, 1912.
The British passenger ship "Titanic" went on its first trip on April 14th. The ship owned by the White Star Line got an unexpected and sudden end to its maiden voyage.

The ship Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic - caused by the water flooded through the bow, and 2.5 hours later the ship broke into two pieces, and sank. Titanic was the biggest and most luxurious ship that had ever been built. It was 269 meters long and had a weight of 53,000 tonnes. Generally, it was believed that the ship was unsinkable. The ship was travelling at 21 knots when the iceberg was discovered by the captain. According to him, it was already too late to stop at that time.

Injuries and deaths
The total amount of people on board, included both passengers and crew, were 2200. There were only lifeboats for half of them. A British passenger liner called "The Carpathia" reached the accident 4 o'clock in the morning on April 15th, just a couple of hours the ship had sunk. The liner managed to rescue 705 people, most consisting of children and women. However, the remaining number of people on board fell in the water and froze to death. The temperature in the water was -2 °C.

1.517 people died in the disaster of Titanic.

Gcina Mhlophe

Nokugcina Elsie Mhlophe was born in 1959 in Hammarsdale, South Africa. She is a woman with a lot of things going on- fighting for freedom, acting, poetry and writing are only some of her interests. In Africa, storytelling is an important traditionnal activity. Mhlophe tells her stories in four of South Africa's languages: English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa. Through charismatic performances, keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read she does her most important work.

After meetings with legendary poets of African folklore and encouragement by others, Mhlophe began to think of story-telling as a serious career.

Gcina Mholphe has travelled around in Africa and other parts of the world to give storytelling workshops. A lot of her work has been translated into German, French, Japanese, Italian and Swahili. Currently, Mhlophe is resident in Johannesburg, and she is staying focused on making books available to poor South African rural communities. This she does by buliding libraries and fill them with locally and culturally relevant books.

Teacher Astrid; Instead of writing an interview, i chose to write a short text about her. Simply to get more flow in the laguage.

The US Embassy

Thursday October 8th a woman from California came to visit our school. She held a presentation where she spoke about the US Embassy, Barack Obama and the possibilities of studying in the USA. In this entry I will write some of the things she was telling us about.

Barack Obama is the first Afro-American, black president of the USA. The vote statistics told us that the plural of Obama’s votes came from women, blacks, youths, people with lower/no education, first time voters, and Jews. Obama has been very active so far this year. He has visited a lot of different countries, been in meetings with foreign leaders, and so on.

The key issues for 2009 US Presidential Election were economy, health care and the war in Iraq. Other issues, indeed a bit less important, were terrorism and illegeal immigration. Their budget for 2010 is at 3.6 trillion dollars.


The USA has always involved themselves in internationnal conflicts, as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recent news: The nobel committee have decided to hand over the Nobel Peace Price of 2009 to President Obama. They're giving him the price because of his visions and work for a world without nuclear weapons. There are a lot of different opinions on this action, and many people think that one should be given the peace price for the difference one actually does make in the world, and not only for one’s visions.

...

This picture caught my eyes today.

ME

My name is Karoline, and I turned 16 years in the beginning of November. I live in a town called Sarpsborg, more specific in the little place called Grålum, where I’ve lived my entire life. In difference from all the others my age I don’t listen to music ”all the time”. Therefore I don’t have any special favorite band or artist. There are so many of them, so alike each other and yet so different from each other, so I find it hard to separate good from bad. Indeed, when it comes to different types of music, I can be more specific about I like and don’t like. Rap and techno has never appealed to me in a good way, so I prefer more slow songs. I also like really old songs, probably because I rarely follow the hit lists with the popular music these days.
My favorite film is with no doubt the action thriller “Taken”. They have revealed that a sequel for the film is already in progress, so I’m looking forward to see it!
Writing or speaking about my future is something I often dislike. My future seems so far away right now, but it scares me that it actually isn’t. I haven’t at the moment decided every detail for my future. Sure I have some dreams and thoughts of it, but nothing is certain. All of a sudden they may change, and I may have other plans. I envy the ones who know exactly what they want to do, but I’ll hopefully figure it out soon. In the meantime all I intend to do is to stay in school and do my best.