Greek Christmas Customs (by Konstantinos Martimianakis)

C H R I S T M A S  T I M E 

Christmas in Greece is not anymore what was  40 years ago. Within the years the growth of world culture and the Western European customs have made the local customs disappear.

Today Christmas appears more impressive and glamorous. The windows of shops are decorated almost one month before, in the cities  litted up the streets and the squares.

The Greeks have fun in clubs, in the bouzouki or they will  watch shows on T.V.

Christmas  day  all members of the family sit in the Christmas table. The day of Christmas is the day that celebrate Manolis or Emmanouil or Manos, Emmanouela, Christos and Christina. Their friends and their relatives will visit them in order to  wish  them.

In old days Christmas was simpler, hotter  close to the real spirit of Christmas. 

A little before Christmas,  the preparations began in order that all to be ready for the big feast. The houses were cleaned  and few days before the Christmas women make  sweets sush as melomakarona, which was naturally eaten the day of Christmas. In the past melomakarona  were exclusively for the Christmas and kourampiedes for the New Year's day. 

Christmas turkey has become very popular as the main dish of the holiday. Traditionally, the main course of Christmas dinner in Greece is roast pork. No matter what the main dish is, one thing is certain: Christmas food in Greece is delicious! The custom of the turkey for Christmas arrived in Europe from Mexico in 1824 A. D. It is now widely used in Greece and has almost replaced the pork meat for holiday fare - but not completely.

Christopsomo is the bread that is made on Christmas Eve, which has a cross carved into the top crust before it is baked. On Christmas Day, the head of the household makes the sign of the cross above the loaf of bread, cuts it and gives a piece to each person at the dining table.

Vasilopita is a cake that is eaten on New Year's Day. Before the cake is baked, a coin covered in foil is placed in it. The New Year is written on top of the cake with almonds. The person who cuts the cake makes the sign of the cross three times above it and then starts serving the pieces, one to each person, the house, Christ, The Virgin Mary and Saint Vasileios. Whoever has the coin in his piece of cake will have luck for the rest of the year.

In olden times in Crete it was the custom for each family in the village to raise a pig, or "hog" (hiros in Greek), which would be slaughtered on Christmas Eve and served as the main holiday dish the next day.On the second day of Christmas the villagers would cut up the pork meat and make:  Sausages, apaki, etc.The Christmas pig was the basic source of meat for many weeks. 

The custom that still exists   today is  the children go  from house in house 2 together or even more and sing the carols accompanying their song with the triangle or even guitars, accordion, Lyra, or mouthorgans.

Today they all buy and decorate christmas trees,   naturally or artificially.

Usually they decorate the trees a few days before Christmas and these remain in the houses until the  Fota.

In Crete's older days  this custom did not exist. They used to decorate small ships.                                                            

The song for our Christmas show!

Well done, guys!

Reading competition results 2011

View more documents from Maria Markaki School of Foreign Languages

A Christmas Carol: Audio version

http://markaki-podcasts.tumblr.com/post/12965845663/this-is-the-story-our-e-class-students-have-to

Hey bloggers, you can also listen to the story while reading it! Just click on the link!

Happy reading and listening! :-)

Halloween

Halloween is a big celebration on october 31st.Halloween celebrated mainly in The United States and United Kingdom.This day children wear costumes like ghost, vampire,wizard etc.They go door to door to collect candys. They knock on the door and ask '' Trick or Treat''?The people give to children sweets,choclates and some other candies!Children also draw on pumpkins faces...

This is a big celbration and I'd like to take part in.

Halloween

Halloween is a annual holiday observed

on October 31 and

it created 2500 years ago,

which commonly includes activities such

as trick-or-treating,antending costume parties

,carving jack-o'-lanterns,bonfires,apple

bobbing,visiting haunted attractions,

playing pranks,

telling scary stories

and watching horror fims.

It's a famous celebration at U.S.A

(United States of America) ,

UK (United Kingdom) ,

Australia and Japan.

More than a thousand years ago the Christian church named November 1 All Saints Day (also called All Hallows.) This was a special holy day to honor the saints and other people who died for their religion. The night before All Hallows was called Hallows Eve. Later the name was changed to Halloween.
Like the Celts, the Europeans of that time also believed that the spirits of the dead would visit the earth on Halloween. They worried that evil spirits would cause problems or hurt them. So on that night people wore costumes that looked like ghosts or other evil creatures. They thought if they dressed like that, the spirits would think they were also dead and not harm them.
The tradition of Halloween was carried to America by the immigrating Europeans. Some of the traditions changed a little, though. For example, on Halloween in Europe some people would carry lanterns made from turnips. In America, pumpkins were more common. So people began putting candles inside them and using them as lanterns. That is why you see Jack 'o lanterns today.
These days Halloween is not usually considered a religious holiday. It is primarily a fun day for children. Children dress up in costumes like people did a thousand years ago. But instead of worrying about evil spirits, they go from house to house. They knock on doors and say "trick or treat." The owner of each house gives candy or something special to each trick or treater.

halloween

Halloween (or Hallowe'en), a contraction of All-Hallows-Eve (as in the day before "All Hallows" or "All Souls" Day), is an annual festival observed on October 31. In recent years the American inspired (and US media driven) commercialisation of this date (previously marked in the UK by children carving lanterns in turnips or swedes and little else - pumpkins being scarce) has resulted in the importing of US traditions such as "trick or treating", costume parties, and carving to the lanterns from real pumpkins which are cultivated specially for this purpose.

A place I'd love to visit

LONDON

A place I'd love to visit is London. I've heard that it's a really beautiful city with a lot of greenery, big shops and attractive sights. One of these sights I want to see is Big Ben because it looks really phenomenal in the photos. I want to stay in the Hilton London Canary Wharf hotel because I've heard it's very comfortable and modern. While I'm in London, I'll go to;

• the London Eye
• the natural history museum
• the science museum
• many shopping centers
• a football match of Manchester United or Liverpool

One important reason I want to visit London is that I will be able to practice my english skills, especially my pronunciation skills. I think this journey is the most suitable for me because I will practice my English skills in a fun way. I hope I go there soon...

A place where I want to go.

                                                      My favorite destination


  The place where I would really like to go is New York.I think that

it is a city with beautifull sites for you to visit and it can also offer you great accomodation.
   A very popular sight that you can visit is the statue of liberty,another very popular sight to visit is the museum of modern art where you can learn a lot about art and artists.Furthermore you can go to the brooklin botanical garden where you can see many different types of plants.In

http://www.new-york-hotels-usa.com/sights.htm

   The public transport in New York is very exciting as you can go to places with many different ways.In my opinion the best way to see the town is by taking the double decker bus tour which will go through the center of the town.Another very good thing about New york is that you will receive great accomodation.You can find very luxurius hotels but on the other hand you can also find cheaper hotels if you do not want to waste a lot of money on your accomodation.In the city there are also some very good restaurants where you can find every type of food you want.You can find Chinese food and recipes from many other countries.    http://www.newyorkrestaurants.com/

   I have never been to New York but I am sure that one day I will go because in my opinion it is one of the most exciting attractions in the world.

   

Horrible bosses!

The last film I saw in the cinema was called ''Horrible bosses''. I know it sounds boring ,but it's a comedy that you shouldn't miss.In this comedy there are three friends that their bosses are really annoying and rude to them .So they decided to kill them ,but sometimes many things just not go well .Of course I'm not going to tell you the end . I saw this film and I couldn't stop laughing .It's a fantastic film and I can confirm that!

A film review

Last Saturday I went to Talos Plaza with my friends to see Johny English:Rebron .I saw the trailer in Youtube and it was very funny.Johny English is a retired special agent because he has made a mistake during a speech of the President of Africa.He had to protect the president because there were assassins at the speech who killed him.Now English is in Thibet and he learns karate from a xiaolin master.English returns to London for his next mission.His mission is to find the cause of the assassination of the African President .In my oppinion the movie was very unexeptable and funny.I enjoyed the film.Starring: Rowan Atkinson

Film review

One week ago I went to the cinema with my friends Aliki,Tony and Xrisanthi. We saw the movie "FINAL DESTINATION 5". This movie is a horror film. It was amazing!

The director of the film is Steven Quale. The writers of the film are Eric Heisserer and Jeffrey Reddick. The main actors of the film are Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell and Arlen Escarpeta. In this film a man in a bus has a dream about a bridge which is destroyed and all his friends die. After a few minutes the dream is real. All the things he has seen in his dream become real. So he tells his friend before the bridge is destroyed to get out of the bus and go away from the bridge. They listen to him, so they are safe now. After that event, they don't feel so good. Suddenly, one by one start to die!

Article.

In this post I will write an article about my favorite teacher.

                                                     The best teacher I have ever had                  


 I've had many teachers in my life.Most of them were good and friendly; however, there were some bad teachers too.But the teacher that stood out for me was my English teacher, Jim Tsigkenis, who taught me a lot of great things.

 The main reason I like this teacher is because of his character.He's thoughtful,friendly and also he is very helpful to us because whenever we need help he's there.He is always patient and waits for us to answer. Even if we don't know the answer, he gives us time to find it out.

Another thing I like about Mr. Tsigenis is what he does in his lessons.He tries to make us understand what he is saying and not just read what the book says.Furthermore, he is making the lesson more interesting by telling jokes once in a while.In addition to that, he asks us to bring information about certain sights in England from the Internet so that we can practice English while we are surfing the internet.

I think Mr. Tsigenis is the best teacher I've ever had and I wish we have lessons with him the next year too.His lessons were very pleasant and fun. I also wish all the teachers were as good as him.

Essay

In this post I will write an essay discussing the advantages and disadvantages of being rich and successful.

Many children wish when they grow up to be very rich and successful, but not everything is wonderful in these people's life.At first glance it looks like it will be a wonderful life,however when you get older you realize the disadvantages and the advantages.

Some of the advantages of being rich and successful are that you are able to travel all over the world.You are also able to build a very big house in the country.Another thing you can do if you are rich and successful is that you can buy very expensive clothes or go shopping and buy whatever you want.

 However,there are some disadvantages of being rich and successful too.One of the disadvantages is that you may worry about losing your money.Furthermore you might not have enough time to do everything you want,like visiting your family or your friends or maybe doing the hobbies you like as you will have to work hard to make all those money.

 In conclusion,being rich and successful can be very nice but there are some more important things in life like having a family and being happy.In my opinion I would rather have enough money so that I am able to live a comfortable life with my family and be happy than be rich and successful and do not have enough time to do things that make you happy.

__________________________

Text corrections (I am leaving your original post as it is so as for you to be able to compare it with the corrected version):

Many children wish to be very rich and successful when they grow up, but not everything is wonderful in these people's life. At a first glance, it looks like it will be a wonderful life; however, when you get older you realize that these advantages are followed by certain disadvantages.

To start with the positive side of fame, one main advantage of being rich and successful is that you are able to travel all over the world. (why? explain!)You are also able to live in luxurious houses built in a dreamy location. Another thing you can do if you are rich and successful is that you can buy very expensive clothes or go shopping and buy (acquire/ purchase-> use synonyms!) whatever you want.

 However, there are some disadvantages of being rich and successful too.One of the disadvantages is that you may worry about losing your money.(What are the results of this? e.g. increased stress. Expand every argument!) Furthermore, you might not have enough time to do everything you want,like visiting your family or your friends or maybe doing the hobbies you like, as you will have to work hard to make all this (uncountable noun!) money.

In conclusion,being rich and successful (wealth and fame-> use synonyms!) can be very nice (impressive/ enchanting/ exciting-> use more advanced words than nice!), but there are some more important things in life, like having a family and being happy.In my opinion, I would rather have enough money so that I am able to live a comfortable life with my family and be happy than be rich and successful and not have enough time to do things that lead to true happiness (paraphrasing!).

An article

GRAFFITI

The earliest forms of graffiti date back 30,000 B.C.E in the form of cave paintings and they were painted in caves all over the world. Today, graffiti has developed very much. Some of the most common styles of graffiti have their own names. A "tag" is the most basic writing of an artist's name, it is simply a handwriting.

Last month an exhibition took place in Heraklion, on a very big wall close to my neighbourhood. Artists from all the Heraklion went there and painted lots of beautiful graffiti. Some of my friends and I painted our own graffiti. All of the graffiti was wonderful, and I always enjoy it when I see that wall.

However, sometimes graffiti can be annoying and also very offensive. Artists very often paint their graffiti on private property which is very annoying. Graffiti can also be very insulting because fans of football teams insult other football teams by painting graffiti.

Despite these objections, I like this hobby and I will keep painting graffiti in the future. I am sure it will continue in the future, and I think graffiti will develop very much.

Holidays

Last week we did not have English lessons so me and my family went on holiday in a hotel at Ierapetra on Saturday till Tuesday.There we had a great time we were on the beach all day long and at night after we ate dinner we went for a walk in Ierapetra.After we returned from there the next couple of days I stayed in my friend's house were I had a lot of fun.On Friday I stayed in playing computer games and watching TV.Finally on Saturday I did my homework for my English lesson on Monday and on Sunday I went to the beach with my family and our friends.

An Article

In this post I will write about an unusual sport.

                                                                      Wife-carrying

 Can you imagine a sport where the husband has to carry his wife and run carrying her?Well this sport exists and it's called wife-carrying.It began in the Northern Europe in the 70's although now it takes place in most of the European countries.

 The first time particularly wife-carrying took place was in Germany in 1973.This sport also required very strong men because they had to be able to carry their wives.A good thing with this sport is that the ticket is not expensive at all so everyone is able to watch it.

 There aren't really any problems with this sport the only objection is that if you want to watch a particular couple you'll have to run with them.So you don't need to spend a fortune buying expensive equipment because you don't even need one.

 In my opinion this sport is very exciting and also very funny to watch. But I wouldn't like to take part in it.I think that this sport will continue and in a few years it will take place in much more countries .I definitely recommend you to watch this sport because it's so much fun.

music

Here is another one of my favorite songs from the band Red which I found in youtube.The song's name is Faceless .I hope you will like it. 

A formal transactional letter (complaint)

Dear Sir/Madam

We are writing regarding our stay in your hotel. We want to complain because your brochure was misleading.

First of all, the fridge in our room was not working so that we could not conserve some fruit and food that we had brought with us. The results of this is that all our food went off. Your brochure also claimed that the television was having satellite TV chanels. Actually, only two local channels were available and they were not in English. We needed very much the TV because in the noon, the sun is too hot, so we stay in the hotel and want to watch news and some sitcoms.With that television, we could not watch them.

Another problem we faced is that the beach wasso polluted, that the sea was deep black maybe because of an oil spill. We could not swim there, so we had to go to other beaches which were very far from the hotel. Finally, the town centre was not as close to the hotel as your brochure claimed.

We think that these problems are serious enough to request a refund of 500 euros and a letter of apology.

We look forward to receiving your reply.

Yours faithfully,
Minas Papadakis

A piece of homework.

In this post I will be writing a formal transactional letter (complaint)in which I'm complaining about the accommodation I have received in a hotel where I recently went with my family.


  Dear Sir/Madam

 We are writing to complain about the accommodation we have received at your hotel and also about your brochure which is misleading .

 Firstly, your brochure claimed that there are TVs with satellite TV channels . However, when we turned on the TV, there were only two local channels available and they were not even in English.In addition to this, your brochure claimed that there are luxurious apartments and that they all have fridges. Unfortunately, the fridge was not working; therefore, we could not possibly have cold water in the room.

 Secondly, it was written in your brochure that the hotel is only a few metres away from the beach. Nevertheless, when we arrived at the beach we saw that it was not suitable for swimming, because it was very dirty.To make matters worse, you stated in your brochure that the hotel is minutes away from the town centre, but this is true only if you use the car. So we had to walk to the town centre for almost an hour.

 We believe that  your brochure is definitely misleading and, as a result, we would like a full refund of 700$ because we were not satisfied at all with the accommodation we have received at your hotel.

 We look forward to receiving a prompt reply.

Yours faithfully
Stergios Mavrikakis

An essay about TV

WATCHING TELEVISION IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME

Every family has a television and sometimes more than one. Have you noticed that there is a television in every house? Almost everyone watches TV for more than 2 hours a day. Some people think that the television is not just a waste of time, but it influences all of us in a very bad way, but some others think that it is a helpful and informative invention.

To be honest, some television programs are often very informative, such as the documentaries, the news, and the weather forecasts. Also, some programs can be very amusing, entertaining and funny; for instance, a sitcom called "Friends".

However, there are many disadvantages of the television. Young children, spend a lot of time watching TV and sometimes,the programs which they see are inappropriate for them. Also, the television may be a bad influence on teenagers if it shows beautiful and thin people. There is a very common negative image that the TV shows again and again. Many actors are smokingon stage, so the people who watch them want to start smoking or keep smoking.

Ii conclusion, I believe the television can be a very bad influence, especially on young people, and everyone should watch TV less than two hours a day.

youtube videos

So here are some of my favorite video game videos that I found in youtube like Call of duty Modern Warfare 2 and NBA 2k11.And my favorite commentator Chris smoove.


COD MW2 video

COD MW2

NBA 2K11 video and my best commentator

 And finally NBA 2k11 video with my best commentator again

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE VIDEOS AS MUCH AS I DID.

Writing an essay.

In this post I will be writing an essay about television and its advantages and disadvantages.I will give my opinion for the following sentence.

                             Watching television is a complete waste of time                            


Nowadays, all houses have at least one television.But is television always entertaining?A lot of people like watching TV; on the other hand, there are some people that almost never watch TV.

One of the benefits of television is, firstly, that some programs can be educational, such as documentaries, which contain plenty of information about animals and other topics of interest. What is more, television can be amusing when you watch sitcoms and, finally, it can be informative when you watch the news that give you information about the whole world.

However, the TV also has its disadvantages.One of them is that there is violence in some programs, like in crime series and there are also some gory scenes that can sometimes be frightening and disgusting. In addition to that, the TV can be addictive, as many people spend so many hours per day on it that they do not even communicate with their friends.

In conclusion, I think some TV programs can really be entertaining and useful for children and adults, although some other programs can be a waste of time and can also influence people negatively.

My favourite horror films (trailers)

My favourite type of film is the horror films,and my favourite  horror movie is the ring(in this post I will show you new horror movies, so I don't show you the trailer). I don't like the movies which are full of gory scenes, they are disgusting. I like mostly the suspense. However, these are the trailers of some of the best new horror movies I have ever seen;

(this is really nice)

Husk (2010) trailer

The descent (2005) trailer

Shutter (2008) trailer

If you see these films, they will terrify you, but I'm sure you will enjoy it.

A report

To; Mr Winterfield
From; Minas Papadakis
Subject; Making the library more popular

Introduction
In this report, I will make some recommendations about how to make the library more popular and appealing to the youngsters.

The library
Today, the library has many problems which must be solved. For example, it is dark, so people cannot read well. The furniture is not comfortable, and also there are not enough books. Finally, people complain that the librarians are unfriendly and unhelpful.

What teenagers enjoy
Teenagers want to study or do some research, but they cannot do it in their houses. They need the library, but if the library is not a popular comfortable library, with a wide variety of books, they usually stay at home. As for their preferences about the books, they like mystery, fantasy crime and detective stories mostly.

Recommendations and suggestions
As I said before, if a library is not appealing, the young people do not visit it. So the library must be improved. It needs to be more spacious, comfortable, well lit, with a big variety of books, and it must be in a peaceful location. The books should be in Greek and English and, in my opinion, a computer room is important if the people want to do some research. I hope my suggestions prove helpful.

Report.

In this post I will be writing a report about a library.

To: Mr Springfield
From: Stergios Mavrikakis
Subject: Making the library more popular.

Introduction
In this report I will make some recommendations about how to make the library more popular with young people in your area.

The library as it is now
At the moment the library has a lot of problems.One of the problems is that there is a limited range of books.Also, the librarians are very unhelpful and sometimes they do not even answer your questions.To make matters worse, the chairs are very uncomfortable and some of them are broken. The library is very dark and sometimes it is even hard to read.Finally, the library is not well painted and it is not clean at all.

What teenagers enjoy
The things that teenagers enjoy are detective books,comics,or romantic stories . Also teenagers may need books in different languages for example in Greek and in English.In addition to that,teenagers may need a computer room for people that do not have Internet access and want to do some research.

Recommendations 
I believe the things that the library needs in order to become more popular are: Firstly, it should be well-light, spacious and have comfortable chairs.Secondly, it should have a wide range of books.Also the library has to be in a peaceful place and quiet for the people to read.The old librarians who where unhelpful should be replaced with new friendly and helpful librarians.Finally, it would be a good idea if the library had a computer room for research.I hope my suggestions helped .

One of my favorite songs.

This is a video of one of my favorite songs Feed the machine from the band Red.I really like the music of the song and the lyrics.I found it in youtube while I was searching for other songs from this band.I love this song and I hope you'll like it too.

A frightening video

This video is a very scary video. I have showed it to most of my friends, and they all said that it was one of the most scary videos they have ever seen. I agree with them, I haven't seen such a frightening video again. I found it on youtube, while I was watching at a horror movie's trailer.I hope you will enjoy it.

Some of my favourite songs

I like a lot of songs, but all of them belong to dance music, like the songs I've put below. I don't like a specific singer or band. I like many different electro, tecktonk, house and techno songs. Here are some of the songs I really enjoy listening:

 Ocean's Four Feat. Adam Clay - Beautiful Life

This is one of my favourites. It's really nice.I mostly like it because of its wonderful music.

DEV - Bass Down Low ft. The Cataracs

This is also one of my favourite songs. It's popular because it is a great song with brilliant music and lyrics.

What I like and what I dislike about my town.

In this post I will talk about my hometown Heraklion and the things that I like or dislike about it.

What I like about my hometown Is that it's lively because of the people that walk on the streets and talk to each other.I also like that my town has alot of sights where you can visit. What I dislike about my hometown Is that It doesn't have a lot of greenerey or parks and it's also quite polluted.I wish there were a lot of parks for the children to play or public basketball courts courts or public tennis courts.Things that don't even exist.I wish there where more of these things that would make children's life much more fun.

Formal letter (reply to a newspaper)

Dear Sir,

I read your article about traffic, one of the worst problems of a big city.I totally agree with your statements. There is a large number of cars in the streets, and that is indeed a very serious problem which must be solved immediately.

To make matters worse, the traffic lights usually do not work, so there is a complete chaos in the streets. Also, at night, people usually use their car to get to the centre of the city.As a result of the countless cars on the roads, there is air pollution and there is not enough parking space.

In my opinion, there are two important solutions for the problem of traffic; Firstly, every family should have only one car. Another car is not very useful. Secondly, people should use the bicycle more. It is cheaper, small and environmentally friendly.

I think everyone should own a bicycle, and use it, of course! I hope my ideas prove useful.

Yours faithfully,
Minas Papadakis

Futurists

In this post I want to talk about the subject of futurists that we discussed in today's lesson.

So here is some information that I found in a site about this subject:

The terms most commonly refer to authors, consultants, organizational leaders and others who engage in interdisciplinary and systems thinking to advise private and public organizations on such matters as diverse global trends, plausible scenarios, emerging market opportunities and risk management.

The Oxford English Dictionary identifies earliest use of the term futurism in English as 1842, to refer, in a theological context, the Christian eschatological tendency of that name. The next recorded use is the label adopted by the Italian and Russian futurists, the artistic, literary and political movements of the 1920s and 1930s which sought to reject the past and fervently embrace speed, technology and, often violent, change.

Visionary writers such as Jules Verne, Edward Bellamy and H.G. Wells were not in their day characterized as futurists. The term futurology in its contemporary sense was first coined in the mid-1940s by the German Professor Ossip K. Flechtheim, who proposed a new science of probability. Flechtheim argued that even if systematic forecasting did no more than unveil the subset of statistically highly probable processes of change and charted their advance, it would still be of crucial social value.^[1]

In the mid-1940s the first professional "futurist" consulting institutions like RAND and SRI began to engage in long-range planning, systematic trend watching, scenario development, and visioning, at first under WWII military and government contract and, beginning in the 1950s, for private institutions and corporations. The period from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s laid the conceptual and methodological foundations of the modern futures studies field. Bertrand de Jouvenel's The Art of Conjecture in 1963 and Dennis Gabor's Inventing the Future in 1964 are considered key early works, and the first U.S. university course devoted entirely to the future was taught by futurist Alvin Toffler at The New School in 1966.^[2]

More generally, the label includes such disparate lay, professional, and academic groups as visionaries, foresight consultants, corporate strategists, policy analysts, cultural critics, planners, marketers, forecasters, prediction market developers, roadmappers, operations researchers, investment managers, actuaries and other risk analyzers, and future-oriented individuals educated in every academic discipline, including anthropology, complexity studies, computer science, economics, engineering, evolutionary biology, history, management, mathematics, philosophy, physical sciences, political science, psychology, sociology, systems theory, technology studies, and other disciplines.

Futurology

Main article: Futurology

Futurology or "futures studies" is often summarized as being concerned with "three Ps and a W," or possible, probable, and preferable futures, plus wildcards, which are low-probability but high-impact events, should they occur. Even with high-profile probable events, such as the fall of telecom costs, the growth of the internet, or the aging demographics of particular countries, there is often significant uncertainty in the rate or continuation of a trend. Thus a key part of futuring is the managing of uncertainty and risk.

PHONE CALL IN A HAUNTED HOUSE

As soon as the phone rang, she knew something was wrong. Emily answered, and then a strange scary voice shouted;"Get out of my house!". Emily started to panic.She had to find her ball which had fallen into that old house and leave immediately.

But then, she thought that it was a joke by her friends and breathed a sigh of relief. She got in front of the window and asked her friends if they had played this joke on her, but they swore it wasn't them.

After that she asked herself who it was."Was it a joke or was the phone call by a ghost?"she thought.She tried to investigate the phone.

To her surprise, the phone was too old and broken, so she thought to her self"How could it ring like an ordinary phone?". Finally, she noticed that the phone was not plugged in! She tried to get out of the house, but the door was locked... Then, her friends heard shouts and screams. From that day on, they didn't see Emily again...

Reply to article.

Dear Sir

I am writing this letter to reply to an article on the newspaper about traffic.


I totally agree with you.I have a lot of problems, especially when I go to school. I cannot arrive in my lesson in time.I am usually late because we get stuck in traffic.

Another way to get stuck in traffic is when you go to the town center,especially at the weekends.Also, there is traffic congestion when it is raining because all the people return from places they were by car in order not to get wet.Finally, traffic can be an important problem when you drive at noon because everyone returns from their jobs and the children return from school.

Therefore, a solution that I want to suggest is to use the means of public transport more.This will help the environment because not everyone will be using their own car and it will help us, too, as we will not pay for petrol.Another solution is to commute by bike. In particular, people that cannot afford to buy a car can buy a bike which is much cheaper.

I hope my ideas prove useful and we can finally solve the problem of traffic.

Yours faithfully
Stergios Mavrikakis

Story.

A threatening call

As soon as the phone rang,she knew something was wrong.It was a usual Friday afternoon for Sue.She was preparing dinner as she always does in the afternoon,but suddenly the phone rang. It was a man with a strange voice who said to Sue, 'Give me all the money that you have and I will not hurt you'.

After Sue heard the man's words, she was very frightened and hung up the phone.She was terrified and scared so she decided to call her friend John.She told him about the threatening call and asked him if he could come to her house to spend the night.

Although he thought it was just a joke, John decided to go to Sue's house to spend the night.While John was sleeping on the couch and Sue on her bed the man that had phoned Sue broke into the house quietly from the kitchen's door.He searched for money in the kitchen, but he didn't find anything there.Then he walked in the living room where John was sleeping.He searched for money there too,but he hadn't seen John into the dark.John heard him while he was searching for money and woke up.

When John woke up surprised by the noise, he saw the thief .He hit him with a vase and the thief passed out.John sighed with relief and woke up Sue.Sue couldn't believe her eyes,and told John that she was glad that she had invited him to spend the night at her house.After that, they called the police together and they told them to come as soon as possible.When the police came, it was morning already and after they took the thief away, everything was alright again.

Review about a concert

2 days ago Tiesto gave a concert in my town, Heraklion. The concert took place to "Pagrition" stadium. It was flooded with people that day, almost all seats were taken because Tiesto has never come to Crete before.

Tiesto was perfect. The music was so beautiful because he is a very talented and experienced dj. The lights and the sound effects made the concert more interesting. The audience was enjoying the well-played music quietly, and whenever a song finished, they were clapping and some fans were shouting.Generally, the atmosphere in the stadium was great.

There were, however, some disadvantages of the concert; for instance, the sound system.It was so old, that the audience couldn't hear clearly. Also, the tickets were too expensive, and last but not least, the noisy fans were annoying the audience.

I would thoroughly recommend Tiesto. I am sure you will enjoy it if you go and see him.

Short films

http://www.dvolver.com/moviemaker/make.html

This is the link you have to visit to visualize your story by creating a short film! Good luck!

An e-mail to Pam

Dear Pam

Thanks for your last e-mail. I'm glad you had a great time in my housewarming party. I'm writing to answer your questions.

After the party there was only chaos in the house: the tables were full of cans, glasses and boxes of pizza, and on the floor there were spilled drinks and glass from a broken glass. My parents weren't there, so I had to vacuum and tidy up alone.Regarding the photos, I'd like you to give me two of copies: the in which I'm with john in front of the window, and the other one, in which everyone is in.

Concerning your diary, I'll give it to you on Saturday. You asked me what I'd like to do in your party. I'd love to admire your new house. As for games, we can play the same games we played in my housewarming party. Also, we can explore your new neighbourhood.

I look forward to visiting your new house. I hope you'll like it, and let me know if any problem comes up.

Yours,
Minas

summer adventure

Three years ago, my father and I went on a trip to a lake called "Gergeri".After we enjoyed looking at the beautiful scenery and taking a lot of pictures, we got in our old car to return home.

As I said before, our car was actually too old. So, while my dad was driving, he smelt a strange smell like fire. Then, we saw smoke given off from the car! After that, we stopped and my father tried to fix it, but it was too difficult... So, we were in the middle of nowhere and there was no signal on our mobile phones.

After 20 minutes, we decided to leave our car and find a village or a town. We were thirsty because of the very hot weather and a bit hungry. We found a church, but unfortunately it didn't have a fountain.

We had been searching for about an hour when we finally found a village.We drank a lot of water and ate some food. There was signal, then, for our mobile phones, so we called my uncle and asked him to come and finally he came and we got home.From now on, I won't get into an old car again!!!

summer story!

This is a story of one of our summer experiences.This story is not real.

On the sixth of July in 2009 I was on holidays in Athens with my family and some of our friends.

The fourth day of our stay in the hotel, while we were having breakfast I noticed that my favorite band was staying in this hotel too.When I finished my breakfast, I went to their table and asked them for an autograph.All four members of the band gave me an autograph and I was so excited that they asked me if one day I wanted to play guitar with them. I answered that it would be great if they had free time after the breakfast.Then they said that they did not have anything else to do.

After the breakfast I went to my room and took my guitar.I ran at their bedroom and we started playing the guitar.We had a really good time and I talked with all the groups of the band.They told me that they would come to Greece again after 2 years and I was looking forward to their new concert.After two hours I finally left their room.

I really had a great time and I think I was so lucky to stay in the same hotel that my favorite band was staying in.

review!

Subkulture's concert took place in Pangrition stadium on 5th December of 2010.All my friends and I as well as lots of other people went there.The concert started at half past eight but we arrived at nine o'clock, so all the seats were taken.

I liked almost everything about the concert but I really enjoyed the atmosphere which was amazing all the fans were screaming and dancing and the lights and the special effects were amazing.I had never seen something like this in my life.Also the sound system was brilliant.Some of my friends said that it was ear-splitting, but I disagree. I think it was great.

The only thing that was really annoying in the concert was that some people from the audience were throwing coca cola cans on our heads.At least no one was hurt.

In conclusion I thoroughly recommend anyone to attend a concert of Subkulture. It was just an amazing experience.

What about sports?

Don't you just love sports?

I have had basketball lessons for 3 years,swimming lessons for 2 years and the last 3 years i'm having tennis lessons.I really love tennis i watch all the matches and the grand slams and especially Roland Garros and Wimbledon.My favorite tennis player is Gael Monfils who is the number seven in the world right now and i would really like to be like him one day.Of course i never forget the other sports like basketball which i play almost every day with my friends.

I hope you enjoy sports too.So if you do like sports say which sports do you like in the comments :)

Favorite movie !

In this post i will tell you about my favorite movie and the kind of movies that i like watching.

My favorite movie is.......I don't really have a favorite movie either so i will just tell you about a couple or a few of them.

One of my favorite movies is Harry potter and the half blood prince.I have watched all the Harry potter movies and i have most of them in DVDs.In this movie something really terrible happens that i think made all of us sad :/ Dambledore dies :( but it was still an amazing movie.

Another very good movie in my opinion is The Pirates Of Caribbean On Stranger Tides. I think it was one of the best movies in the series of pirates of Caribbean because of all the new characters and the new places that Jack Sparrow goes with Penelope Cruz in his side and Blackbeard with his crew.

Check these movies out I hope you find them interesting too :)

My music preferences!! :)

So this is a few things that i want to say about my favorite music and my favorite song :)

I really love rock music and metal but i can listen to any type of music except traditional..

When i was younger i wasn't really listening that much to music i just liked it.I really started listening music every day when i have free time when i started playing the guitar.

I don't really have a favorite song but i really love a few and i listen to them all day long :D so here are some links.If you want check them out!~~~>

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPE9uSFFxrI

2.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZNCrLV8W_M

3.I don't even know how this song is called but if you don't want to see the video just open an other window and do something else :/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W8pHS5T3qI&feature=channel_video_title

E-mail time :)

This is another piece of homework and particularly a composition to a friend.

Dear Pam

Thank you for your email.I'm glad you had a good time in my housewarming party.The reason that I'm writing to you is to answer all the questions that you asked me in your last e-mail.

Firstly, you asked me if it was a trouble to clean up the house after the party.To be honest, it was a big trouble to clean the house at midnight by myself, but I managed to finish before four o'clock.Secondly, you asked me which photos I want you to give me.I'd really like the ones that we are diving in my swimming pool. Also I would like the one that Jason tripped and everyone was laughing at him.Another photo that I want you to give me is the one that we are all together.

You also wanted to know if i had found your diary; the answer is yes ! I found it yesterday when I was making my bed- it had fallen under my bedside table.I'll give it to you when I pay you a visit to check out your new house.The good news is that I will visit you very soon! I hope you don't mind if I come tomorrow afternoon. Ohh, I almost forgot! You asked me what I want to do when I come to your new house.It would be fantastic if we could swim in your swimming pool.Another thing that I would really love to do is to see all the new cool stuff and furniture your new house has! You know, I really love doing such things.

Anyway,that's all for now. I can't wait to visit your new house!Let me know if any problem comes up.

Best wishes

Stergios

informal letter

This is the same composition as my classmate's one.An informal letter to a penfriend:

Dear David

As for my personal details, I'm Minas and I'm at the same age as you.I live in Heraklion, in Greece. Heraklion is the biggest city on Crete.

I live with my parents in a house close to the centre of the town. In Heraklion, there are lots of sights, parks and shops to visit.That's why I like living here, and also because all my friends live there, too.

In my spare time, I love creating songs with a program called "vitrual dj" which I have in my laptop. Also, I like blogging, fishing, painting and now, in the summer, I like snorkelling and exploring the seabed.There are also many things I like doing in my free time which I will explain to you when we meet.

I want to have a penfriend because I would like to improve my English especially my writing skills and also I want to learn more about your country: what you eat, if you have any strange traditions and other similar things.

I look forward to your next letter.

Yours,
Minas

A piece of homework.

The following is one of my compositions, an informal letter to a penfriend. I hope you find it interesting. :)

Dear David,

I'm Stergios and I'm thirteen years old. I'm glad you wrote to me after you found my profile on the Webpal International site. I come from Greece and I live in Heraklion, the largest city of the island of Crete.

My parents, my older sister and I live on the outskirts of Heraklion, in Danti's street. Our house is quite far from the city centre, but it is only a  five-minute walk from my school. I really enjoy living in Heraklion because all my friends live here and there are many things to do.

When I have free time I really love playing tennis in the local tennis club. Also, two of my favourite activities is to listen to or play music, especially rock music, and play computer games. I really like meeting with my friends and spending time with them, and particularly now that it's summer! We often go to the cinema or to concerts of our favourite bands and we rarely go shopping.

The reason why I want a penfriend is because I would love to learn more about your country. Another more important reason is that I want to learn more about your interests and also that, in this way, I have the chance to practice my English.

Looking forward to your next letter!

Bye,

Stergios.

Music preferences

I couldn't help but wonder what your favourite type of music is! Please write about the groups or singers you mostly listen to and include one link to a YouTube video of them that you like the most!

I am looking forward to your posts! :-)

some information about me...

Hi everyone, I'm Minas and I'm 14 years old.

I'm very happy to be a blogger. From now on when someone asks me to say my favourite interests, I'll answer "blogging!".

Except blogging, I like, swimming, painting, playing basketball etc.

Hello!

Hi, here I am!! (:

Hello!

Hello everyone...

My name is Stergios and I'm now a student of B1+ level of English...

Me and my classmate Minas decided to start this blog for fun and also in order to improve our English. We'll be posting about current affairs that we consider interesting and also pieces of our homework, such as compositions.

Some things that you should know about me is that I enjoy playing computer games, I've been playing tennis for three years now and I love spending time with my friends, especially during summer holidays.

Posting soon. :)

Welcome!

Hello boys! Welcome to the fantastic world of blogging!