Language

Have you thought what does auld lang syne mean?? Come on!! Try to guess - a clue, it is sung in New Year's Eve, when you say goodbye to somebody or when you leave somewhere-.

Now, here it comes the answer...................... In English, it means "old long since" which talks about long time ago. It comes from a poem written by Robert Burns and it takes part of folk songs in Scotland. They have turned this poem into a famous song. It is not only sung in Scotland, also in other English speakers countries.

Melody has recorded two of her students reciting a Scottish poem with its accuracy prounuciation. We post it below in order to show you how different English they speak.

Another thing that we want you to be aware of is that this Tuesday was Burn's Night. It is a tipical festivity celebrated in over Scotland. That day people use to eat HAGGIS, the tradional supper for the Scottish people. Of coure we ate haggis that night and also we danced the Scottish County Dance! It was very entertaining and we have such a good time!!! Below, you will see a video about this dance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09f7-_leb90&feature=related

You will have news from us soon!!

Keep in touch!

Melody and Raquel

Edinburgh's Culture!

Hello again boys and girls!

This is our first week at the schools. So we are knowing everything, meeting everyone (British and Scotish names are so difficult for us). Parsons Green School and Royal High Primary School are where we will spend the next six weeks. They are in the same area which has a very maditerranean name, Portobello.

Here in Scotland, the students start school when they are four and a half years old and finish when they are eleven and a half. So they start at Primary 1 and finish at Primary 7.

Raquel is in P6 at Parsons Green School and Melody is in P7 at Royal High School (we are with the old ones!!)

Do you want to know what is different here???

We have noticed that in every school all the students must wear uniforms! They are wearing a white shirt, a tie and a jumper. The senior pupils wear a black uniform in order to be differenciate from the others ones. Below you can see a photo of Raquel's students.

Which subjects do they work on???

First day, we asked about the timetable and they told us that it changes every week. So, every day, when we arrive at the class we find the timetable written at the board. They work on maths, projects, IT (computers!), French, listenings, writings and readings in English. So, we study their language but they don't study ours but that's the reason for which we are here!!! To teach Spanish to the Scotish pupils!!!

Do you want to be surprised???? Pupils go to school at 9 o'clock. They have breakfast at 10.30 but only 15 minutes. Then, they have lunch at the school from 12.30 to 13.15h. And finally, they go home at 15.20h, you might think they are lucky for having all the afternoon free but I have to tell you, at 5 in the afternoon is completely dark!

Do you want to know how they call us?? Miss Morell and Miss Tarrés. Absolutely yes!!

One another surprising thing is that in the Raquel's school, every morning the class of P6 do WAKE AND SHAKE! They do aerobic by listening a song. They do it in order to wake up and get fit. Below, there's a video which shows you how they do this.

Happy Hogmanay!

We wish Happy New Year from Edinburgh in the Scotish way; Happy Hogmanay.

They don't

eat the twelve grapes like we do in Spain to be lucky in the new year, but they countdown and celebrate the new year having spectacular fireworks. They were amazing!

Afterwards they hug and kiss everybody!