How could you?

This time, I brought the green envelope home, because I did not know what to expect. I went into my kitchen, took the cat out and closed the door. I opened the parcel, and the brown bag, took out the suitcase and carefully opened it. Suddenly, my eyes popped out and my jaw dropped- a whole crowd was staring at me from in there: Alice, the Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat, even the White Rabbit with his clock. It was a long moment of silence before I started laughing. I stopped after a while and looked at each of them, then at the card, then I went to show them to Sorin, who of course could not understand what it was all about. I’m looking at the details: the beads on the Queens crown, her face, the rabbit’s ears, the cat’s grin.

How could you? How could you waste all that time just for me?

You bet they will all come to the Conference with me, and I even got an idea what to say at the prize ceremony due to them. I only have one question: do they all need a passport in order to travel to Budapest legally?

P.S. Have I thanked you yet?

Everything is relative

This is from one of my 5th grade groups today and I found it very nice, I hope you like it.

We were working with decimal numbers and I was trying to emphasize the importance of expressing the actions in an accurate way- the link between action and its expression is quite an issue at this age, weather the action is done by them or required from them.
So, I was trying to make them say we place the comma 1 position more to the left or to the right instead of to the end (or beginning) of the number. I told them a funny true story about one student who was so used to place the comma more "towards the door" or "towards the window", that he could not solve the exercises at home because the door and the window were not in the same directions. So, I said, we must refer to left and right, because they are not relative, therefore we will always be precise.

Then, I prepared to go further with the lesson and asked: can someone please wipe the first blackboard? as they have 2 boards in the room. And they asked: which one is the first?
I found this brilliant, especially for 11 year olds. :)

Gheba

For anyone who has been in school in Romania anytime during the last 50 years, "Gheba" means "Maths book", although in fact it's a surname. The name of the author of the most widespread and well-known (and I dare say one of the best) exercise books. It's a plural because he started publishing Maths books in 1958 and now, as he's 91, he is publishing his 34th, and the first he has not "tested" on his own students. Six million copies, if numbers can speak by themselves.
Grigore Gheba's life was changed by a Math book too, a book called "1001 Maths problems", that he loved so much he knew by heart before he was 12.
I am sure his books changed some lives too, maybe more than he will ever know.

Love in th air

It was almost impossible not to break their intimate moment. They were so loving!

First flight

Through the hole, safely wrapped and stamped, AiW's suitcase started its first flight today.

Not through the Looking Glass, but through the window, you will have to check if our Correos delivers it on time to you.


Enjoy everything1

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There is nothing I can say.

My own IT expert

She is as good with hardware as she is with the software. That is, if her own tale gets in the hardware category, because that's what she was doing on the printer- she was hunting it. And it's very hard to catch!

Ready

Beyond technology

You know I'm doing some online tutoring, a 6 weeks etwinning course for advanced users (although not many are really advanced), and it's quite popular, there are over 400 trainees each session.
One teacher there was writing about her first project: a simple Xmas cards thing. She teaches in a village, her pupils don't have computers at home and many of them walk for 14 km in order to get to school. She says: I can't describe the kids' reaction as they got a bagful of letters from children in the UK, Portugal, Poland, Spain, Turkey. They just could not believe it was for real.
This is much more valuable than all the innovative ICT use, mobile technologies, virtual environments and who knows what. At least, I think so. Much more than a European Prize, even.

AiW's suitcase

Packing is an important fact when travelling. If we went through the history of travellers we would learn a lot about the differences in character, attitude, objectives and, of course, wealth.
But nobody can say travellers can set off like it, without a suitcase.
This is my contribution's suitcase for Budapest. A totally handmade pack. Whatever is inside is yours, but you can share it if you feel like it. I hope you enjoy that moment because you deserve it. Have a good trip.

urban Intervention

This is what they call a Urban Intervention, a kind of street art that is more meaningful than other writings on walls. There are many in big town, but this is the first one I've seen in Ávila. We found it out going to the station to take Adela to her train. I particularly like it. Are there similar artistic representations in Bucharest? I'm sure there are.
Rainy, snowy day. wonderful to stay at home and work.

...wherever you are

Click here!

Chasing geometry

This new geometricla way of looking at buildings produces different perspectives and views.


You will probably remember these places, there's no point in telling you about them, even the last one, which is harder to recognize. Where do you situate it?

Sun and snow in Herastrau

Cookies

Even if I do manage my mind, my body feels when I'm angry and reacts. So, today I decided to fight anger by baking. I opened my grandma's notebook at the very first page: the simplest dry raisins cookies, risk-free- you cannot fail in such a simple recipe. Here they are, after a short wile, in my sunny (oh, yes! we have sun today) kitchen. I cannot send the nice smell or the real taste, but it was a nice break, and my grandma was with me. When they got ready, I even had a taster, because Sorin is at home these days.
You can also see my recently started collection of tin coloured boxes from Europe- silly, I know. If it's not too much to ask, maybe some day you can send me a box from the Spain- just the box. :)
You are right, simple things are soothing, sometimes. Have a cookie with me!

The traveler's rest

This is my favourite chair and my favourite place on the balcony, with my newest flower (that survives, so far), the place for spending the few sunny hours these days. I could not use the balcony for a few weeks after my cat died, but I went back to using it a few days ago.
And who do you see up on the top of the chair, ready to share my leisure moments? It's Samurai, the traveler, who has just arrived to my house.
As you see, Frodo already said hello. Don't worry, she is only allowed on the balcony when we are there, because of the flowers, so Samurai is safe.
He rests for now, but his adventurous travels are not over. He does not know it yet, but he will come with me to Budapest, to see the town for you and write about everything- your own field reporter.
Thank you again.

Multi-faceted words

I don't now if I can make you see numbers in a new way, but I do pay more attention to words and the way we use them.
It strikes me that words have more than the dictionary meanings, more subtle nuances that one has to have an intimate connection with the language to really understand. Still, sometimes we can get a glimpse of that if we pay attention.
Here are 4 examples that have the same meaning and in 3 of the cases even the same form, but different nuances.

First (I have already mentioned that another time) "illusion". In Romanian as well as in English, it means something unrealistic, that can never become reality, a mirage. In Spanish, I think, it does not have this nuance, right?
Second: "didactic". We wrote a conference article in our Comenius project last week and it was the English partner who "polished" it, of course. He told us he took out the word "didactic" and replaced it wit "pedagogical" because in English it has a strong pejorative connotation. It can have that in Romanian too, but very seldom and a bit forced.
Third: "compromise". This word has a strong negative meaning in Romanian and maybe in English too, as well as I can tell, but in Spanish it has a totally different meaning- commitment, right? Please correct me if I am wrong!
Last, a word you use often: "stubborn". In fact, it triggered all this silly post. For us here, being stubborn is certainly not a quality, and it's a feature we always nag our children to drop. Tell me about how it's seen in your place, if you want- I'm curious.

One can find out a lot from just a word, and this is amazing for me.
Sorry if this is childish, I'm lazy today and just letting my mind wonder.