There’s no place like home

My name is Jessica Thompson and I used to live in the country with my family. We have a farm and my youth is overflowing with good memories of my childhood with me, my father and my older brother riding horses, or me and my mother feeding the noisy and over-excited chickens. I loved it there when I was a child, but as I got older I started to get bores. The town was too small and the people were always the same.

When I turned eighteen, I decided to study in the city. In the beginning I was speechless. I have never been to the city before but I truly believed that I belonged there. All the fumes from the cars that pass by you in the morning, the never ending rush of people, the entering and exciting from the subway that feels like some kind of ritual. Everything about the city thrilled me.

I always came home at the weekends. My family never seemed to stop asking me if I was okay, how I was adjusting to school and the city. “Have you made some new friends?” my mother asked. I always answered with what they wanted to hear and what I believed to be true at the time: “of course mother, the people here are very nice”, “yes father, I never walk alone at night”, “yes mother I’m alright, why wouldn’t I be?”

However, I started to have a lot of work to do and I couldn’t go home every weekend anymore. That was when I really started to miss my family and the country-side. I started to miss the hot, home-made meals that my mother makes, instead of the frozen dinners in front of the TV. I missed watching movies with a cup of hot-chocolate in my hands, nestled into the sofa, covered by an old blanket and surrounded by my family. I missed helping my father feed and brush the horses.

Suddenly, the noises of the city became just noises, car fumes became just pollution, the rush of people became just stressful.

After a few more months, I couldn’t take it anymore. I decided to transfer to the college in my home town, where I finished my degree.

Now, I’m a twenty-five year-old published successful writer, working in my cozy home in the country-side, next to my family. I now realize that there’s no place like home, don’t you agree?

Raquel Silva nº35147

Narrative text; Option 1- Write a story which begins: “It was a cool August evening and everything was quiet and peaceful”

It was a cool August evening and everything was quiet and peaceful. Ian, a thirty-four year old History teacher, was taking a stroll with his long-time girlfriend, thirty-five year old lawyer Roberta, through the streets of London when, all of a sudden, a black Hummer pulled over (by the sidewalk). Two men, wearing ski masks, quickly got out of the vehicle, opened the trunk and pulled a third man from it. Unlike the first ones, this man’s face wasn’t covered (by any sort of tissue or fabric); instead various shades of black and blue, a shattered nose, multiple missing teeth and a swollen eye served as his “ski mask”. After pulling him out, the ski masked assailants left the bloodied mess that was the third man, right there on the sidewalk, driving off from the area. Ian quickly ran towards the man, trying to see if he was still alive, whilst Roberta was dialing nine-one-one frantically as she was much shaken from seeing the state the victim was in. After the ambulance arrived and stretched the mangled man to the hospital, Ian decided that it had been an overly stressful experience, so the couple returned home. When they were about to go to bed, the lights and water of the house went out. Befuddled, Roberta decided to look through the windows (in order to see if it was a street wide problem). To her surprise, a black Hummer was parked right across the street. Scared, she called for Ian. Nobody answered. Almost hyperventilating and with a clay pot as a makeshift weapon, she ventured to the unknown.

Daniel Fernandes – 35086

Communication- Class Q & A (Follow-up questions)

Questions in bold – Answers in italic

19- Something Ana regrets doing in his/her life is singing karaoke at her 17^th birthday. (Why)She only knew the choruses.

20- Someone you’ve ran into (this person must be someone that you really admire/ excluding family): The coach of Torreense. Because the team emanates from her (Ana) town.

21- The name of a song you know the lyrics: “Moves like Jagger” by Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera.

22- Name a place you don’t want to be seen at (must be a place you really dislike): Estádio José Alvalade, because she doesn’t like Sporting Clube de Portugal and also because she has to cross the area near the stadium every day.

Daniel Fernandes – 35086

the questions I asked Maria

What was your most embarassing moment?
Maria told me that her most embarassing moment was the time when she step on the stairs of her school, with everybody right behind her!

What is you favorurite band?
Maria's favourite band is SUM41

What is your favourite place in the world?
Maria told me that her favourite place in the all world was Paris.

Ana Sofia Praxedes nº35469

unforgettable adventure

It was a hot summer night. The stars were as brilliant as ever, we could hear the seagulls near our house and the wind passing softly trough the windows. Inside the house, the TV, putting some annoying advertisement. And suddenly, in the middle of the night, one of my friends screamed “let’s go to the beach!”. Me and the girls, at first thought that she was crazy, but under the circumstances it seemed a really good idea, after all.

The excitement of going on an adventure all by ourselves to the beach during the night was big! We took my mum’s car (no one had a driver license) and we went to one nearly.

When we arrived the excitement got even bigger. The beach was more beautiful than ever; the sea was calm, transmitting peaceful and the moon was reflecting in the water. No one around. There were five of us and we decided to go swim for a while. The thing was that no one remembered to take bikinis and towels… but with a deserted beach it couldn’t do any worse if we went naked, right? We took our clothes and we ran for to the sea. The water was warm and the waves around us made us feel like we were being hugged.

After some time under water we decided to get out and we ran to the place where we leave the clothes but surprise:  the clothes weren’t there!! Our chins were trembling and our hearts started to beat faster. At some point we felt fear, “our clothes were stolen, someone is playing with us”, we thought. Embarrassment already filling us up, the scare tricking us.

We continued walking and finally found our clothes in the exact same position that we leave them. It seemed that the sea current had taken us to another place, not far from there – what a relief! Happily it went well and we ended the night contemplating the sea under the sky and laughing about the situation. A nice and – certainly – unforgettable adventure!   

Ana Sofia Praxedes nº35469

The four questions I asked Fernanda

Fernanda's favorite idol is no one, because she doesn't like famous people.
She would like to live in Australia, because australian people is nice.
If she could be an animal, she would be an elephant, because they are cute and they are fat, but everyone loves them, and they make funerals to the elephants that die.
Saying their loved ones the things she doesn't have the courage to is the thing that Fernanda has to do before she dies.

The four questions I asked Carolina

1. Something Carolina regrets doing in her life is : not confronting people who treated her badly because she is too nice to them. 2. Someone you've run into (this person must be someone you really admire): Robert Pattinson in Twilight's premiere in London. She was on the red carpet. 3. The name of a song you know the entire lyrics: Amazed from Duncan James because she had a platonic crush on him. 4. You don't want to be seen at ....? (a place you really dislike): Africa, because of the diseases.