CHASING PAVEMENTS by Amanda Benites and Ketwly Martens

Fanfic style story based on the character Adele from the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

As I looked through the window, some children were playing outside in the rain. It seemed that they did not know that life was hard and that one day they would grow up and have to face their future. Oh the youth! I had so much energy back at the time, so many things I did and the best thing is I don’t have a single regret. Now, I am almost 80 years old, moreover my memory is not as good as once was, but somehow the rain outside reminded me the summer I went to Paris looking for the answers about my past.
After I finished school, I went back to Ferndean, my so called home and I started to ask questions about my past, but no one would answer me, he somehow was ashamed to talk about my mother. Mr. Rochester said, she was a French singing girl, who left me alone with a strange family for a man who had quite good fortune. That answer, clearly, did not satisfy me.
When I was growing up I would always catch myself thinking, why did she leave me? Did I do something bad? Did she not love me? I was always wondering how my life would have been if I had had a mother, in fact, the closest person that came to be like a mother to me was Jane, who was always kind to me. Later on, I wanted to know more about my past; since no one would help I decided to ask permission to Mr. Rochester, to go to France to look for my mother. He denied my request right away, but Jane with her kindness managed to change his mind. He was always sweet when Jane was around; and because Jane did not have a mother of herself she understood me very well.
After a long ride of carriage, I got to Paris and went looking for the address that Mr. Rochester gave me; it was where he last saw my mom working. Then, when I got to the Hotel and asked around they said that there was never a woman singing in there, it was a new building and owner and no one knew anything about a singer called Celine, so I decided to find a hotel to spend the night and the next morning I would try to find her.
While walking on the streets of Paris on a raining day, I was enchanted by the beauty of that city; it looked even prettier when it was raining. But suddenly the distraction faded away and a thought came to my mind: “this is crazy, I don’t know anything about this woman, and I don’t even know where she lives or if she is alive”. However, I had travelled so far, to get the answer I always wanted, I could not give up, although I was felling lost since I left Paris very young.
Time was going by too fast, and I had already spent a month looking for my mother, going to places that, maybe, she would have worked but I could not find any leads of where she was, she seemed to have had disappeared. I start to doubt, was coming to Paris a good decision? Maybe Mr. Rochester was right, it was not worth it. I asked myself should I give up or should I just keep chasing my pavements? Maybe it would not lead anywhere but who knew what the future could bring it.
One day I decided to go one last time to the Hotel where she was last seen, and as I stare at that beautiful building an old man was sitting in the side selling candies and we started talking. Before I knew, I was telling him about my life and whom I was searching for. So that’s when he asks if my mother was the beautiful Celine, whom used to sing and had a lot fun with men. He starts telling me that after she left her job and ran away with a man, which did not work out as she expected. He did not treat her right, and since she was an independent woman she left him and came back to the city. She got her job back, but she was not the same anymore.
Nobody knew what had happened to that beautiful and powerful woman that once made many men looked at her when she was passing by. He said that she used to drink a lot, and when she was drunk she talked about a little girl that she had and did not care about. No one knew if that story was true or not, since when she was sober she denied it. I do not know if she was ashamed of what she had done, or was scared of the true. The old man said that she worked there for a while, until the place was sold. After that she was never seen again.
I never found my mother and I never got the answers that I needed. Some people said that the famous Celine was killed in a carriage accident, or killed by a lover of jealousy, or she was living in nurse home. I guess we´ll never know what truly happened, since I never found her, but in the end it did not matter who my mother was, but who I had become over the years. I decided to stay in Paris and study music. I had a great carrier as a piano player and one of the nights I was playing, I found the man who could love me for who I was and we lived happily for many years. After he died, once a week I started holding a poker game and drinks for the ladies at my house. We had fun, remembering the old good days of our youth. I guess the old habits never end.

8º Festival de Cinema de Maringá

The 8º Festival de Cinema de Maringá started last friday (20) and this year's edition approachs a very important  subject: Education. It is shown the way education is made in schools, in people's houses and neighborhood, on the streets and everywhere around.
In the agenda, we can find a lot of good stuff, such as short-films, feature-films, discussions on specific themes and workshops about cinema. The films are showing our culture, art and history in a very peculiar way and making every small actor or even ordinary people look like movie stars. It is a good way to spend the time, especially to see how cinema and education easily walk on the same road.

Pery de Canti organises the festival one more time and, different from the previous editions, it is happening in more than just one place this year. It is possible to watch the sessions in Vila Santo Antônio (on the square), Jardim Alvorada (at the Social Center), Shopping Catuaí and UEM (near Restaurante Universitário). UEM is still the main scenary for the event and the only place where the presentations start at noon and the discussions happen.

In the end of the Festival, all the films compete: there are 35mm and digital short and feature-films, fiction, documentary, animations and experimental films. In 2010 212 films were subscribed, 183 short-films and 29 feature-films; 37 were chosen.

The Festival ends up on May 27th.

Welcome to a paradise

João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba, is the third oldest city in the country and was classified by the ONU in 1992 as one of the greenest cities in the world. It offers to the tourist 10 beaches of clean and calm waters. It has a rare historical patrimony. The city is the eastern extreme of the Americas, where the day comes earlier than anywhere else in Brazil.

There are many hotels, hostels and inns in João Pessoa, the city has camp sites too. So, everybody can find a good accomodation because there are many options.

People can stay in the beaches every morning, playing football and frescobol that is like a beach tennis, walking near the sea, sunbathing, eating or drinking something in a bar near the beaches.

Young people can go out at night to the bars in the beaches or to a nightclub. There are also many shopping centers where they can watch a movie or eat something. In January, occurs the “Summer Festival Paraíba”, the best shows that warms up your summer in the biggest and best summer festival of Brazil. It’s a good option to the young people.

Older people can visit some of the important buildings in the baroque style that exist in the old town center and the Station Science, Culture and Arts, designed by Oscar Niemeyer that was inaugurated in 2008.

Every evening, on the bars near the Paraíba River, you can see the sunset with the sound of Ravel’s Bolero.

There are fairs with local crafts and the famous “Craft Market” that has more than 120 stores which attracts the tourists.

The “Mangai” is an obligatory stop for tourists who visit João Pessoa because this is the best restaurant of typical food of the region. There you can find many exotic dishes.

Certainly, João Pessoa is a very good choice of holiday because there are many beaches, bars, shoppings, important buildings and tourist points. You can relax and enjoy a lot a trip like this.

Mad Men

I’m not exactly a TV series lover, actually I hardly ever watch TV. That’s why I had to do some researches on the Internet in order to find any series that I could possibly enjoy and, as a part of my English class activities at university, report my experience with it here. Guess what? I’ve found what I was looking for!

“Mad Men” might not please everyone’s taste; it is set in an advertising agency during the 1960’s, which means it has lots of historical references, old-fashioned vocabulary and its characters have some odd and unacceptable behavior for nowadays patterns. But the possibility to get to know more about one of the most influential decades to the western civilization’s behavior is exactly what got me interested in watching it.

Women were confronting the hollowness of their housewife lives, they were looking for career opportunities; whereas men were sexist, adulterous, racist and homophobic. The show description is very clear: "Ethics in the workplace, smoke-free environments, sexual harassment and ethnic diversity were workshops of the future." But all of that were about to change during the 1960’s, a decade of transformations.

Mad Men is an adult drama, an anthropological and character study but, of course, it has some moments of dark humor. For me, it’s been worth watching it.

http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men

We are the future

Today I was wondering how I could contribute in this blog without writting too much and doing things in a tiring way. The thinking process which made me choose what I choose is not something which someone would get interest. So let us go to the point.

As things goes on in our classroom and University I believe that education has to be thought and re-tought on and on. I'll post a link about "It's noon" network. I have presented a seminary about this at UEM but unfortunately just few fellows understood what it was about. "It's noon" is a new way of realizing the education process - by using technology and all the tools available.

This video is about a workshop for English teachers that took place in London. http://www.youtube.com/user/ProjetoEGO?feature=mhum#p/c/1/sHa9k0hX-Zk


At http://itsnoon.net/eletrocooperativa/ you can find something interestin for your life as teachers.

Gilmore Girls

There is a TV series called Gilmore Girls that tells the story about a single mother and her teenager daughter. Even though it seems a common story, it's not. The main character named Lorelai Gilmore is a unique person, with a strong personality, and looks more like the sister and not mother of Rory Gilmore. Lorelai was born in a rich family, but she got pregnant with only 16 years old. So, instead of getting married like her parents wanted to, she ran away from home to live in Stars Hollow. Which is also a unique town.

This is a very special serie for me. When I started watching I was 11 years old and lived with my also single mother. It ended when I was 16 years old, and until today I watch it whenever I have some free time. Through the years, Gilmore Girls has taught me so much in the matter of American culture than any trip I've made. It was because of this amazing series, and it's complex and unstoppable dialogue that today I have a much bigger knowledge of the U.S.A and its culture.

The characters are my role models. Lorelai is always fun, without forgetting her responsibilities. And Rory is a cute girl, who wishes to major in English in Harvard. She studies very hard to achieve that, and because of her mother, she also developed a fun personality. I guess, in a way I studied very hard to be majoring in English at UEM because of Rory.

I chose this series because it has influenced my life in so many ways, that I can't even describe in such a small text. Its dialogue is one of the things that most amazes me, and that will be my focus for the English class project.

I hope people can see what I see when I watch Gilmore Girls. If not, at least have fun with the episodes.

Off the Map

I have been watching TV series for some years now, and I started watching because I wanted to improve my English and maybe I learn something interesting. I watch many series, but for the past few months I have been watching a new TV series called Off THE MAP. It’s a new medical drama that tells a story about seven doctors who try to help people in South America. Each of them has their own personal tragedy and that´s why they are running from their past. So far my favorite character is Dr. Ryan Clark, because she is still a mystery to me, and I still don’t know anything about her past. I have always liked medical shows, such as Grey’s Anatomy and House but I don’t know why. Although I do not like hospitals or anything that relates to that, I like seeing the gorgeous scenery and how the doctors save people’s lives. I think it’s so rewarding. However, last week I found out that they are thinking about canceling the show, since it’s not getting too many hits. I hope they keep it! This has come to be of one of my favorite shows and I look forward to watching it every week.

If you feel like watching; you can go to this site
http://www.ch131.com/