¡A viajar!

Este fin de semana some of los estudiantes del 8o van a Washington DC. Y, ¡yo voy también! I'm excited for the opportunity to travel with the 8th grade students, I think we're going to have a great time. Maybe we'll practice some of our español while we're there!

Have a great fin de semana!

Los hispanos de los White Sox y de los Cubs

What an exciting fall-the White Sox and the Cubs made it to the post season! Both teams have several hispanic players who came to this country to play baseball. ¿Conoces a estos jugadores?

• Octavio Dotel es de la República Dominicana.
• Javier Vázquez es de Puerto Rico.
• Orlando Cabrera es de Colombia.
• Alexei Ramirez es de Cuba.
• Juan Uribe es de la República Dominicana.

• Carlos Marmól es de la República Dominicana.
• Carlos Zambrano es de Venezuela.
• Geovany Soto es de Puerto Rico.
• Henry Blanco es de Venezuela.
• Ronny Cedeno es de Venezuela.
• Aramis Ramírez es de la República Dominicana.
• Alfonso Soriano es de la República Dominicana.

¡Buena suerte a los dos equipos!

¡Hay que estudiar!

Los estudiantes del 80 tienen un examen esta semana. We're almost done with our review of last year's materials so this is our last test before we begin our unidad on Oaxaca, México. Make sure you use your study guide para estudiar. No se olviden-¡el examen es el miércoles!

¡Viva México!

El martes Mexico celebrated el día de la independencia. On Independence Day, Mexico celebrates its freedom from Spanish rule. The Spanish arrived in 1521 and conquered the powerful Aztecs who ruled a large part of what is now Mexico, but was called Nueva España. The Spanish ruled Nueva España for a few centuries until 1808 when Napoleon invaded Spain and made his brother the king. The people living in Mexico took this opportunity to begin working for their independence from Spain. The plan was discovered so the people had to work quickly. On the morning of September 16, 1810 a priest named Father Hidalgo rang the bell of his church to call the people to fight for their independence. This action began the ten year war for independence.

Click on the links below to learn more about Mexican Independence Day.

http://www.inside-mexico.com/featureindep.htm

http://www.mexonline.com/mexican-independence.htm

Las calificaciones

¿Solamente tres semanas? It's hard to believe that we've only been in school for three weeks-everybody seems to have the school routine down already. Progress reports will be going home soon, but you don't have to wait for progress reports to check grades. Log into Parent Connect to check your grades and make sure you don't have any missing assignments!

http://sds.ccsd66.org/parentconnect/

Gold Rush

Much like the price of gasoline, the price of gold is going up. The demand for gold is affecting Guatemala in several ways. The corporation Goldcorp runs the mining industry in Guatemala and is making huge profits there. A number of groups and individuals in Guatemala complain that the presence of this company is hurting the country. Goldcorp argues that it is creating jobs for people in Guatemala and is using part of its profit to improve health facilities and education. Those against the mines say that Goldcorp has caused tensions between towns and even family members. Many Guatemalans say that Goldcorp doesn't understand the history of Guatemala. The people have been exploited for years through wars and many indigenous people, the Mayans, have been murdered for land.
Read this article about the gold mine. ¿Qué piensas? Do you think that Goldcorp is helping Guatemalans by mining in Guatemala and providing jobs or do you think that the Guatemalans should have their land back from this large corporation that doesn't understand their history?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/7569810.stm

El verano en Santa Barbara

¿Qué hiciste este verano? What did you do this summer? I had a busy summer in Santa Barbara, California. I’m working on my master’s degree in Hispanic Language and Culture at UCSB and I’ll graduate next summer.

I spend six weeks there during the summer. I live in an apartment not too far from the campus. I fly out to California so I don’t have my car with me while I’m there. This summer I got around on my bike with its little basket in front that that I used to carry my books and groceries.

I was pretty busy with my classes this summer, but we had some extra excitement. There are usually several wildfires in California during the summer and this summer there was one called the Gap Fire. When it was biggest, the fire burned about 9,000 acres and it was about ten to fifteen miles from where I lived. It took almost a month for firefighters to contain it. Governor Schwarzenegger even came to check out the fire because it was so bad, but I was too busy doing homework to try to meet him. Helicopters were out all night dropping chemicals on the fire to keep it from spreading into the city. Our power went out almost every night for two weeks. I had to do my homework with a flashlight! Take a look at this slideshow that shows pictures of the fire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpUgLThV-4k

The fire made things pretty hot outside, but there was also a lot of smoke in the air. It also rained, but not water-it rained ashes during the night and in the morning so my classmates and I had to buy masks to wear when we were outside because we kept choking on ashes. I didn’t look ridiculous at all wearing mine.

As you can see, I had a pretty busy and kind of bizarre summer. I was ready to come back home to get ready for the school. I’m excited to be back here at Lakeview and can’t wait to get the school year started.
¡Nos Vemos!