Book report: The Hobbit

Introduction
These last couple of weeks I have read 'The Hobbit' by Tolkien. I chose this book because it saounded interesting when the librarian told me about it, and I appreciate fantasy books.

Summary
'The Hobbit' is about a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. One day thirteen dwarfs and one wizard visit, and talk him into joining an adventure that will put their lives in danger. Little did the dwarfs know that  Bilbo would save their lives several times.

What I liked, and why?
I like the world in which the story takes place. I really enjoy fantasy and magical worlds, and this is no exeption. I like the way Tolkien describes the surroundings and the creatures. I also liked that there are some drawings and maps in the book. It makes it easier to imagine the world he is talking about.

What I didn't like, and why?
I didn't really like the old language. The order of the words is often weird; and made it hard to follow the story sometimes. It was easy to fall out when I read, I was reading, but did not know what I had just read when I stopped.

What I would change to make it better?
I would probably change the language a bit so it would be easier to follow. There were a lot of songs at the end, so I would removed a few of them. I also wouyld have given all the dwarfes other names, then it would have been eastier to tell them apart.

Which book I would like to read next
I would like to read 'The Lord of the Ring' series. I have seen the movies, and enjoy them a lot. After reading this book, it made me realize that I would like to read the following story and see how Tolkien wrote that.

At least 10 words I learned from the book

1. Mutters - to complain or grumble morosely
2. Devours - to eat up greedily
3. Torch - something that serves to illuminate, enlighten, or guide
4. Repent - to feel remorse, contrition, or self-reproach for what one has sone or failed to do
5. Cram - to force, press, or squeeze into an insufficient space
6. Threshold - a piece of wood or stone placed beneath a door
7. Jostling - to makes one's way by pushing or elbowing
8. Squabbles - to angage in a disagreeable argument, usually over a trivial matter
9. Prod - to jab or poke, as with a pointed object
10. Pondered - to reflect or consider with thoroughness and care

The differences and similarities between Austria and Norway

Introduction
The purpose of this report is to look at differences and similarities between Austria and Norway. Two coutries that are very mush alike yet so different.

Population, size and currency
Austria has 8.4 million people in the country with the space of 83,855 km2. Norway has an area of 385,155 km2 and only 4.9 million people living there. Norway is almost five times larger then Austria, but still Austria has almost doulble the amount of people. Austria is a part of the EU, os they have the euro as their currency. Norway is stubborn and will not agree to be a part of the EU, so NOrway has the currency of NOK. 1 euro is a total 7.6 NOK.

Nature and winter sports
Both Austria and Norway have lovely nature, and have a lot of mountains. Three-quarters of Austria is dominated by the alps. Alpine skiing is a prominent sport, but snowboarding and ski-jumping are aslo widely popular sports. Austria has many ski athletes that are considered som of the greatest alpine skiers of all time. Norway loves winter sports as well, asnd some of the most populare ones are cross-country, biathlon, alpine skiing ands ski-jumping. Norwegian athletes have traditionally raised internationally in these sports in competitions.

Food
The two countries have very different traditional foods. Austria food looks very good, but the Norwegian ones do not look that appeling. Both of them probably taste fantastic. The most known dish from Austria is called Wiener Schnitzel. This is made with boneless meat, mostly pork, thinned with a hammer, then coated with bread crumbs and fried. It is usually served with a slice of lemon and either potato salad or potatoes with parsley and butter. The most traditional dish in Norway is called fårikål, that literally means "mutton in cabbage". And that is what it is, pieces of mutton with bone, cabbage, whole black pepper and a little wheat flour. This dish has to be cooked for several hours in a boiled in their skin. Another famous dish in Norway is called Smalahove, this dish is half of a ship head. The skin and fleece of the head is torched, the brain removed, then the head is salted, somthimes smoked and dried. The head is then boiled or steamed for about three hours and served with mashed rutabaga and potatoes. In some cases the brain is cooked inside the skull and then eaten with a spoon or fried. It was mostly eaten by the poor, but today it is considered a delicacy.

Conclusion
I would recommend taking trips to both Austria and Norway, breath and taste the coutures. You will have the opportunity to experience a lot of beautiful nature, and with a lot of wonderful mountains. The food is a very interesting part of the countries, and are something that you should taste for yourself.

Formal letter

Dear Sir,

I assist the committee of the Medieval Society which organized the medieval fair last Sunday. We read your newspaper report and want to address some of the things you wrote about the fair. In your article you stated that the archery display was rather tedious and that visitors were unimpressed by the medieval dancing display, but we received emails telling us otherwise. Kids loved the archery display, and we received positive comments about the dancing. There were few parking spots, and we are truly sorry about that. The people that were able to get a parking spot enjoyed themselves. You also stated that there was a small number of demonstrations pertaining to traditional cookery and craft skills. Unfortunately we did not have enough space to host much of this, but what we did provide got a good response from the audience.

We would like to ask you to print another article about the medieval fair addressing these issues.

Regards
Marit C. S. Reinertsen

Nightmares

Dear Heidi

Lovely to hear from you. I'm sorry to hear about your problem with nightmares latley. Reading your letter actually got me thinking about the subject.

When I was about seven years orl I watched the movie 'The Exorsist'. My friend had seen it several times, and it was one of her favorite movies. I did not share her opinion. That must have been one of my worst days, I was shaking.

After telling my parents about the movie, we agreed that I should sleep in their bed that night. When I went to bed I had a creepy feeling that someone would crawl over me. At last I was able to fall asleep, and the dream I had is inked into my memory. I'm in a totally white place, and suddenly massive white walls are coming from nowhere and accumulates to a house. Suddenly I woke up, I was sweaty and very scared.

I really don't know why I thought that dream was so scary, because it was a really nice house. Anyway, when I got your letter and read about the nightmares you have been having, I thought about the nighmare I had. I noticed different patterns in our dreams and I started to google mightmares. I found a case written by professor Erik Harald Schultz, and his theory is that there are three different kinds of anxious dream stages. The first one is anxiety dreams, the second one is nightmares and the third one is night terrors. Anxiety dreams are the stage as normal dreaming, you are then in the lightest sleep. The dreams you have in this stage can be very uncomfortable, but you don't wake up. Nightmares are the kind of dreams that wake you up, you will then be sitting with the feeling of fright and anxiety. Nightmares occur between teh deepest dream stage and the dreamless sleep. Night terror am I not going into since it is caused by a sleeping sickness.

As you said in the letter, you do ot wake up from your dreams, but that you sleep so restless that you do not get into the deepest sleep. It sounds to me that you are having anxiety dreams. Dreams like this can often be caused by stress. I can be caused by any kind of stress. This kind of dreaming is stressful by it self. I read that many find calmness in yoga and meditation.

I hope this can be a little helpful in your struggle.

Write back soon and let me know how things are going.

Best wishes
Marit

My secret ambition is concealed with a MAC brush

My secret ambition is to become a makeup artist. To play with makeup and be creative on peoples faces. Makeup has been a passion of mine since my teens, in that time I have learned a lot.

To become a makeup artist you need to be highly devoted to your goals, this is not a profession that is easy to find success.

Colors is a important part of makeup, you need to know about primary colors and secondary colors. In addition, to know about theory. You also need to be willing to try different colors together, even though they may not fit well together. Who knows? Maybe they actually do.

To become a good makeup artist you need to be a daredevil and be willing to try out things that nobody ever has before. You need to be able to step out of your comfort zone and dare to take chances.

I believe that I have these qualities to become a makeup artist. I enjoy experimenting with makeup and trying out different techniques.

I would love to do my passion for a living, if I got the chance I will work my hardest to accomplish my dream.

Synthetic elements, so functionable

A synthetic element is a chemical element that is handmade and will not occur naturally in nature. We have many different types of synthetic elements around us in our life, and the most common types are synthetic fibers, synthetic rubber and plastic.

About half of all fibers we use are synthetic fibers, and the four dominating synthetic fibers in the market are nylon, polyester,acrylic and polyolefin. A big part of clothes in the market have a certain percentage of synthetic fiber in it in addition to natural fiber. There are a lot of different kinds of synthetic fibers, but most of them have the same common properties; they are heat-sensitive, resistant to most chemicals, resistant to most insects, fungi, and rot, and they are flame resistant.

In world war ll, nylon was used for was equipment, such as parachutes because the fiber is so strong. The material was wanted by women for stockings, but it was too expensive. The middle class and the lower class women would draw a black line down the back of their legs so it would look like they were wearing nylon stockings. Now nylon stockings are more common and more available. Women can use nylon stockings when ever they please.

Synthetic rubber and plastic are also materials we see all around us in our everyday life, and some of us will maybe not realize how much of it we use everyday. Rubber is a very strong and elastic material, and it is water repellent. Rubber is often used for shoe soles and rubber boots because of it's way to resist water and its way to easily bend. Rubber doesn't breathe, so when you use rubber boots, you will easily feel sweaty and warm on your feet. Rubber is also used as tires because it is so strong. Plastic is typically seen as water bottles, containers and wrapping for food. Even CD's are made of plastic. Plastic comes in many variations, from oft to hard, from paper clips to spaceships. It has in time displaced many traditional materials such as; wood, stone, leather, paper, metal, glass and ceramic. These materials are not good for the environment, such as plastic that contains contains nurdles, which are raw materials that all plastics are made of. They are tiny pre-plastic pellets that kill large numbers of fish and birds that mistake them for food.

This all leads me to the conclusion that synthetic materials are such a big part of the 21st century that we will have a hard time to put it aside and not use it in the future. There will be invented a material that is environmentally friendly and serves the same abilities. Let's hope so.

Why am I taking cambridge?

I came here to EF New York to improve my english and had no plans to take an exam. When I came here I learned about the cambridge exam, and there was no question for me, that is an exam I will take.

For me it is important to expand my CV, and I think it would be a waste of money to go here for 9 mounths and have nothing to show for it. A cambridge exam is a paper that will be there for the rest of my life and will help me get into a good course of study. Even though I don't know what I want to study when I come home to Norway yet, I know that I want to study in english. This year will make it easier for me to do that, and I belive that the cambridge will help me to get in to a study in english.

I think these 10 weeks will be very hard, but also very helpful when it comes to take the exam. This will definitley be different from the english classes I have had this far. More structure and more strict classes will help me to consentrate and pay attention. I am a person that easily get unconsentrated, so I think this will make a big different.

This is an exam that will help me a lot, and I will do my best to get a good score.

Copenhagen Fashion Week is held twice a year in Copenhagen, Denmark. It consists of a market week with 3 big fairs at the locations Bella Center, Oekshallen and Forum, and a diverse range of fashion shows at City Hall and a myriad of different locations, as well as showrooms and events all over town.

Copenhagen Fahsion Week also offers a programme open to all, for consumers, citizens and tourists. This open part of the week, Copenhagen Fashion Festival, is developed in collaboration between Wonderful Copenhagen, Copenhagen City Center and Copenhagen Fashion Week.

The first actual fashion week was held in 2006, then organized by Danish Fashion Institute. Prior to that, fashion fairs have been held since 1981. Today the event takes place in February and August, and is the Nordic region's largest fashion event with more than 1,600 exhibition and 2,800 branded collections, in addition to 35-40 runway shows on the official show schedule.



Copenhagen Fashion Week is organized by the company Copenhagen Fashion Week and Danish Fashion Institute, which aims to promote Danish fashion in international markets. Among the fashion houses that stand out in Copenhagen Fashion Week are Ivan Grundahl, Bruuns Bazaar, By Malene Birger, Munthe plus Simonsen, Rützou, Baum und Pferdgarten and Day Birger et Mikkelsen.

Utopia

When I search Utopia on google.no I got 67 700 000 results. I found two links that caught my attention, one about a music festival called Utopia, and one about a hotel called Utopia World Hotel.

Utopia Music Festival is a festival placed in Hawrelak Park in Edmonton, Canada. It is an annual music festival in the summertime. Last year it was in the middle of June, but the information for 2012 hasn't come out jet. The festival have some known and some unknown artists playing, such as Ani DiFranco, LIGHTS, David Usher and Suzie McNeil. The range of music genres a wide, with folk, reggae, electronic and acoustic pop. Utopia is open for all ages, and to addition to music you will also find gourmet cuisine, The Utopian Village and market to find earth, animal and friendly items. There is something for everybody at Utopia who's focus in unity, diversity and love.

This is a festival I would love to attend, especially last year when LIGHTS was there. I like what I read, and want to experience as many festivals I can, and Utopia is now on my list.

Utopia World Hotel is a five star hotel in Syedra, Turkey. The hotel contains 559 rooms in total, and 1118 beds. Utopia offers a aquapark and spa, the aquapark contains many pools, one with 300 meters of length and countless water slides. The spa is there for you and offers a fitness center with a sea view, jacuzzi, a indoor pool, Turkish bath, a sauna, steam room, masseurs, and much more. If you can't get your relaxation on this trip, it's not the hotels fault. The hotel don't only provide for relaxation, if you feel a little restless, they have a big range of activities you can do.

They have a tennis court, mini football,volleyball field, mini basketball, table tennis, water polo, aerobics, billiards, motorized water sports and non-motorized sports.

They also have offers for night activities, live music one night a week and special night parties.

Utopia World Hotel looks like a very nice hotel, with a lot of stuff to do. I would love to go there once.

My home, Lørenskog

I come from a town called Lørenskog, 20 minutes with train from Norway's capital, Oslo. I've lived there since I was four, and I don't remember that much from that time, but what I remember is that there were old buildings, not that many of them, and a lot of family houses. A lot have changed in Lørenskog since that time.

Lørenskog don't have a city status, something that the mayor desperately want. Lørenskog is getting bigger every year, with extended malls, upgraded and new schools, a new culture house, new buss terminal, a new public park, a new hospital, and this only in a few years. It is getting discussed if we are getting the metro from Oslo all the way out to Lørenskog too. In addition to all of this, it has also been build a lot of new houses, residential areas and a lot of people are rebuilding their houses to big "Hollywood" houses.

The people has also changed a lot, when my family moved to Lørenskog, we were three families with children in the street. A lot of the older people have moved to smaller apartments and sold their houses to new families with children. My family is one of the old ones in the street now. I live in a perfect place to race children, ten minutes walking distance to the primary school, lower secondary school, and one of many upper secondary schools. We live in between the train station and the center of Lørenskog, with the malls and buss terminal. We also have a big forest on the edge, it's a nice place to take a bike trip, and in the winter we get ski tracks.

I like to live in Lørenskog, I'm not the biggest fan of all the building, but it makes it easier to get around.

Here are the view from my bedroom - you can also see one of the big new houses to the left

The Lives They Lived

Miracle on Ice
You can read the article here

1. Who is the main subject about?
     Them person that is the main subject in this artical is Robert Ettinger. lie-lay-laid. lay-laid-laid

2. What details, anecdotes and accounts from other people illustrate the subject's personality?
     Robert was a very brave person who listened more to his head and heart than what he was told. His son tells about him during the war, when he didn't lie down when he was told. A lot of people that lay down were killed, but he was not. He liked the thought about extending life, and was very determined to get an answer to make it happen, his hope is to be woken up one day and live longer.

3. What overall impression do you have of the person from the article? What gives you that impression?
     Robert seemed like a very kind and fair person. He fought for his country and risked his life, as an answer to this, he went in to study and research cryonics.

4. Why do you think this article was published in The New York Times?
     I think this story about Robert was pubklished in The New York Times because he desided to be frozen after death.
5. If you were to write more in-depth profile or obituary for the person which details from this article would you include? What additional information would you need to find out? Which people do you think you would interview to get this information?

The movie that changed my life

We all had to write a true story about something that made an impact in our life, I chose to write about the time I watched a scary movie. I got an A- on it.

The movie that changed my life


When I was around seven years old, my life turned up side down. One of my friends at that time showed me a movie that would scar me. I really regret my decision not to walk away the minute we started watching the movie. It was one of the scariest movie ever made, and it is called The Exorcist, and is rated R.

What was I thinking to see that movie? And the weird thing is that my friend's mom bought the movie for her daughter, and it was one of her favorite movies at the time even though she was only seven years old! She thought the movie was funny. I don't get it.

When I walked for dinner after seeing the movie, I was terrified, even in the perfect day light. I was shacking. It must have been one of the longest days ever, I was really dreading nighttime. I eventually told my parents about the movie, I was crying so hard. My parents said that I could sleep in their bed for the night, I was so relived. I thought it would be okay, I struggled a lot with nightmares already, and it always helped to sleep in their bed. But I couldn't be more wrong.

The dream I had that night wouldn't seem scary if I described it, but it was the worst dream I ever have had. I woke up a lot that night, sweating and crying. I imagined that demons would crawl over me and jump over me and always watching over my shoulder.

I didn't sleep in my own bed for over three months, and I dreaded for the nights to come. I now get scared of the smallest and weirdest things, and I will never be able to see a scary movie ever again.

April 25-28, 2011 Tornado outbreak

We have to write a blog about a natural distaster that is even going on now, or very reasently. So I chose the extreme weather here in US this April.


April 25-28, 2011 Tornado outbreack


Starting on April 19, the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center began to discuss this storm system, and the possibility of an outbreak of strong thunderstorms. A large area of possible severe storms for April 25–27 was forecast as the Storm Prodiction Center, a division of the National Weather Service, issued a moderate risk of severe weather for three consecutive days, centered over Arkansas through Tennessee.


April 25, 2011
By the late-afternoon hours of April 25, several tornadoes had been reported across a few states, including two which caused significant damage in Oklahoma and Texas. The Storm Protiction Center issued a particularly dengerous situation tornado watch for much of Arkansas and parts of Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana. Tornadoes were scattered that day until early evening, when an intense tornadic cell tracked near the Little Rock metropolitan area and a tornado emergency was declared for Vilonia, Arkensas. Tge tornado caused significant damage in the town. Reports says four people were killed. A strong EF3 tornado struck Hot Springs Village that evening as well, causing severe damage and 1 death. Another tornado caused extensive damage to Little Rock Air Force Base. Severe flooding continued across a large area from the Red River valley to the Great Lakers.


April 26, 2011

A high risk of severe weather was issued for April 26 for portions of Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. A large particularly dangerous situation tornado watch with very high tornado probabilities was issued that afternoon for that same area. Widespread tornado warnings were issued in that area later that evening, and tornadoes caused damage.

Tornado watches were also issued for the Lower Great Lakes in the afternoon, and supercells began to track across southern Michigan in the early evening. Several counties in Michigan were placed under tornado warnings, including Kent, Montcalm, Ionia, Kalamazoo, Cahoun, Barry, Eaton, Midland and Bay counties. A tornado was later confirmed in Allegan County. A possible funnel was spotted in Kalamazoo County, and seven people were injured by a lightning strike in Portage. Further east, severe thunderstorms caused scattered wind damage and large hail across Pennsylvania and New York. Two-inch-diameter hail was reported in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. An isolated supercell moved across Central New York throughout much of the afternoon, producing golf ball-sized hail in Syracuse, and spawned a very brief EF1 tornado in Verona Mills, causing primarily tree damage.

April 27, 2011

For the second day in a row, it was a high risk of severe weather for the Southern United States, and late that morning the Storm Predicting Center increased the probability for tornadoes to 45% around Meridian, Mississippi to Huntsville, Alabama. During the afternoon, a tornado emergency was declared for Neshoba County, Mississippi as a large tornado was reported on the ground by storm spotters. This powerful EF5 tornado caused incredible damage near Philadelphia, Mississippi where homes were swept away, vehicles were thrown, and the ground was scoured out to a depth of 2 feet by the tornado. 3 people died in this tornado when a mobile home was picked up, thrown into a wooded area. A widespread complex of supercell storms overspread the states of Mississippi and Alabama and violent tornadoes began rapidly touching down as the evening progressed. Four tornadoes were officially rated as EF5 that day. These tornadoes impacted several counties in the states of Mississippi and Alabama, especially the towns of Smithville, Mississippi; Hackleburg and Phil Campbell, Alabama; Philadelphia, Mississippi; and Rainsville, Alabama. This marks only the second day in history (the other being the April 3, 1974 Super Outbreak) that there were three or more EF5 or F5 tornadoes.

A separate complex of storms occurred earlier that morning and caused communication and warning problems due to power outages, so people didn't get any warning of approaching tornadoes later that day. A squall line of severe thunderstorms packing strong straight-line winds and numerous embedded tornadoes impacted North and Central Alabama and parts of Middle and East Tennessee in the early morning hours. These storms knocked out power and telephone lines in a few areas, these outages would become much more widespread as the day continued.

The SPC shows 260 tornadoes were reported in the preceding 24 hours. It also broke the record for most tornadoes in 24 hours with 188 (53 of which were in Alabama), breaking the record of 148 set by the 1974 Super Outbreak.

April 28, 2011

Tornado watches were issued for the Atlantic Seaboard from Pennsylvania to Florida, but tornadoes were predicted to weaken and become more isolated. Even so, several people were killed across the region and tornadoes were reported in Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Maryland. In the wake of the tornadoes and severe thunderstorms, widespread flooding hit the Midwest, South, and Eastern Seaboard, with extensive flood and flash flood warnings issued. The last tornadoes of the outbreak touched down that afternoon in eastern North Carolina, but they were all weak.


Confirmed tornadoes

Confirmed Total	Confirmed EF0	Confirmed EF1	Confirmed EF2	Confirmed EF3	Confirmed EF4	Confirmed EF5
336	119	146	50	23	11	4

From: Wikipedia

Art by Maria Björnbom-Öberg

Maria Björnbom-Öberg was born in 1985 in Sweden. She works as a tattooartist in Sweden, she has a long education with art, and work as a freelance artist on the side of her tattoo job.

She uses Trimarker and Promakes to draw potraits, but feel also comforable using aquarelle. In the last year she has been drawing potraits of blogers, and sent the pictures to them afterwards. She films under the prosses of a picture, speed it up and puts it out on youtube, it's so much fun to watch the making of a great picture.

The pictures are downloaded from her website, and the movies are from her youtube-profile
Promarkers

Aquarelle

Animal Farm Essay

Here is my essay about Animal Farm. I'm very happy about the grade I got on it, A+.

Animal Farm Essay

The two pigs, Napoleon an Snowball, play big parts in the book about Animal Farm. They both wanted to have the leader role at the farm, but they both realize that there is only room for one leader and that one of them has to step down. Napoleon and Snowball argue a lot, and Orwell wrote this about it, “Snowball and Napoleon were by far the most active in the debates. But it was noticed that these two were never in agreement: whatever suggestion either of them made, the other could be counted to oppose it.” Later the arguing gets more intense, “These two disagree at every point disagreement was possible.”

After Snowball has led a successful harvest, he wins the trust from all of the animals. Snowball works to improve the farm and only want what's good for the farm. He has a lot of good ideas for the farm, and his windmill becomes a huge problem for Napoleon, and he tries to turn the whole farm against Snowball. Snowball wants all the animals to build a windmill together so their work would be easier. All the animals are voting if they want to build the windmill or not, Napoleon means that the windmill is pointless and advises the animals not to vote for the windmill.

Earlier in the book, one of the dogs gives birth to a litter of puppies, but dies right after. Napoleon then take the puppies to educate them and make them his own guards. After a while all of the animals forget about the puppies, sensing they never were seen after the birth. When it becomes obvious for Napoleon that the animals will vote for Snowballs windmill, he becomes jealous and angry. The puppies come in to the meeting and attacks Snowball under the meeting, casting him away from the farm, and Napoleon uses them to take over the leadership.

When the windmill they have built is destroyed for the first time, Napoleon has no trouble blaming Snowball, “do you know who is responsible for this? Do you know the enemy who has com in the night and overthrown our windmill? SNOWBALL!” Napoleon only talks Snowball down, so he seems like a better animal and the leader, and all of the other animals believe him.

Napoleon is very self-centered, and sees him self almost as a God, in his head he was so much more important then the other animals. No one referred to him only as “Napoleon” after he became the leader, he was always referred to as “our Leader, Comrade Napoleon”, The other pigs also give him different titles such as, Father of All Animals, Terror of Mankind, Protector of the Sheep-fold, and Ducklings' friend. He always ate alone with the dogs guarding him, and made them taste the food in case someone tried to poison him. Napoleon also changes the commandments, so they work better for himself. For an example, he makes it acceptable for the pigs to sleep in the human beds. He means that it is not a violation of the old commandments since they do not have the sheets on the beds.

Snowball comes back to the farm, and a discussion starts about whether he was a traitor or not. Squealer, Napoleon's right hand, tries very hard to keep everyone against Snowball, and tries to convince them that Snowball worked for the humans all the time. Boxer argues against it, saying that Snowball was fighting too bravely in the battle to be a traitor. The other animals want to think good about Snowball, something Napoleon does not like at all. Napoleon tries so hard to get the other animals angry at Snowball, and tells them that Snowball poisened his food.

I think that Snowball only thought about the animals good and wanted the farm to succeed in the best way. It seems like Napoleon cares more about being the king, and keeping the farm as his kingdom. He brainwashes the other animals in a way, and uses Squealer to make it happen. Napoleon is more self-centered then Snowball. They have a huge disagreement, and are fighting hard for the spot as leader of the farm. Napoleon uses more violence than Snowball to get what he want, and he lies to the other animals for his own fortune. Although Snowball and Napoleon had a lot of differences, they also had a lot in common. They both wanted to be leaders so badly that they both were very opinionated and stubborn. They both refused to fail in their mission, and yet Snowball did 'fail', as he was cast out by Napoleon.

My festival

Wo got an assigment to write an press release about a festival or make our own festival. I made my own festival, and my press release became like this.

Let yourselves be inspired

This summer the new inspirational music festival Inspo will be the place to be 25 June-1 July 2012, on the island Risøya in southern Norway. The festival concentrates on inspiration, and wants to gather people together to inspire each other. They will have a lot of activities and concerts every day for the whole week. They will offer at least two seminars everyday, that will deal with subjects like confidence, identity, comfort zone and so much more. You can also stop by for a little while at one of many stands and hear about organizations like Fair Trade, WWF, Green Peace and Red Cross. The festival also wants you to be active and have fun together, so football matches, sand volleyball matches, plunge contests are just a few of the activities that will make the team spirit shine. If you are not a very competitive person, yoga can be a great alternative for you. The island has a lot of places to sunbath and take a dip.

There are a lot of artists who will play every day, and you will have a huge range of different and inspiring types of music to chose from. A few of the fantastic artists are Lights, Paramore, Maria Mena, Keizers Orchestra, Owl City and The Script. They will also make an appearance at the festival store to meet with you while they sign cds and t-shirts that will be available for sale all week.

The festival wants to concentrate on nature, unity and having fun with each other, so alcohol and drugs are not allowed. Everyone is allowed to be themselves! 

Fair Trade - The Story

We have now goten a assigment to search and write about Fair Trade.

Fair Trade is about giving all the money we spend on the Fair Trade products to the farmer, what we pay is what they get. Ussualy take something for them selves, but they don't have the opportunity with Fair Trade products.

The power we have as consumers is to help small family farmers in developing countries, get organized and develop their buisness skills. The farmers can get 2-4 times more when they sell their products Fair Trade direct to the marked world. With the money they get for their products they can develop communities, keep their kids in school, create scholarship programs and get electrical lighting.

"Fair Trade is not a product, not a brand. Fair Trade is a story", Chris White, TransFair USA.

Fair Trade combines stringent environmental criteria with the highest income and labor standards of any product certification.

Fair Trade inshures fair price for farmers, fair wages for workers, safe working conditions, direct market access, community development, democratic desition making, sustainable forming methods, environmental protection.

Farmers are the big winners in Fair Trade, they are making more money, they get more independent and are able to take care of their own land. The ecosystem is better, and they are able to leave more for the next generations.

Approximentely 5 million farmers, workers, family and community members in 50 countries benefit form Fair Trade. 500 companies are licensed to market Fair Trade certified products. 2000 of retailers in the USA.

1 of 7 billion

Since we soon will be 7 billion people on this planet, a website har been opend - http://7billionactions.org/ - here people also can post stories, and thats what we are going to do to. We will not put it on the 7 billion website, but here on the blog. I'm going to tell about my trip to Mali in Africa, with one of the churches I was active in.

The trip that opend my eyes

One of the three churches I was singing in have a well project going on in Mali. They collect money for this cause, since Mali is one of the countries in Africa that don't have coastal. The church organize a trip to Mali every five years, and I signed up. Only five people would get sponsored, and we were six people that signed up, so I was the one that didn't get picked for the sponsoredship, but I payed the whole trip my self. We also hade teen that lived in Mali in their childhood and leaders from the church.

We took the plain from Norway january 1st of 2009, and came home january 12th of 2009. It was a long trip, but so worth it. We traveled from Bamako to Timbouctou, and down again. We stoped a lot of places, and visited a lot of people and villages. Me and to ofters got to visit a little family, and eat dinner with them. They served all the food they had, and were so happy to shear all they had, just for a happy moment and worry about tomorrow later. I was so special and moving to be a part of that, even though they don't have a lot they were so happy. We took a walk around in their village, and everyone was so happy, lauhing and greating each other. The kids ran around, playing with sticks of wood and stones, making their own fun. Wery different from home, when kids sit in front of the television, palying playstation.

We also visited a huge well that we are helping to build, the well is so deep that you need a camel to drag the water up. It is a long way to the closest village, so people often have to walk the whole day to get there. And if your family don't have a camel, you can't get the clean water. The people that were there were so greatful for the work that we are doing to help them, so they gave us a sheep and a bag with sigarets. After the trip to the well we visited the family I got to eat with earlier, and gave them the sheep. I have never seen happier people, that is a moment I'll never forget.

The trip to Mali has been the most educational and special trip I have been on so far. I got to see a lot and meet a lot of wonderful people. It was such a eye opener to see how they live and what makes them happy. The kids had so much fun when we took pictures of them and showed them the picture on the screen on the camera afterwards. We took a lot of pictures on the trip, but the pictures of the kids are the one i like the most. It is som mush contrast between being happy of the smalest things, and the people at home that takes a lot of things for granted. I'm so happy that I got the oppotunity to go on that trip and would not hesitate to go again if I got the chanse!

Here are some of the many pictures I took. The two last pictures are from one of the other girls, Marie Svendsen Nerheim.

Organizations

To day our assigment is researching to organizations, and compare them.


Greenpeace
- Started in 1971 by a small team of activists belived a few individuals could make a difference
- Largest envioronment organization in the world
- What they do:
   - Protect oceans, whales and seafood
   - Protect forests
   - Stop global warming
   - Push for no new nukes
   - Eliminate toxic chemicals


World Wildlife Fond (WWF)
- Started in 1961 by a little group in Europeans
   - a group of :
         - scientists
         - business and political leaders
- Work in more then 100 countries
   - more than 1.2 million members from USA
   - close to 5 million members worldwide
- Vision:
   - To build a future which humans live in harmony with nature
- Mission
   - To conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth
- What they do:
   - Building a future where human need are met in harmony with nature
   - Protecting the future of nature, for over 50 years
- Goals and strategies
   - By 2020, WWF will conserve 15 of the world's most ecologically important regions by working in partnershio with others to:
         - Protect and restore species and their habitats
         - Strengthen local communities' ability to conserve the natural resources they depend upon
         - Transform markets and policies to reduce the inpact of the production and consumption of commodities
         - Mobilize hundreds of millions of people to support conservation


My thoughts and comparisons
I think that both of the organizations are doing wonderful work all around the world. They both work to protect the nature and animals. I love animals, and are so happy that someone are trying to make the world a better place for them, and the nature are a big part of that. If the nature are destroyed, both humans and animals will suffer. I think that more people should become aware of what we are doing to our planet, think about the global warming we are creates. It's sad to see how many people dont care about the planets future, and are indifferent.


- Both of the organizations as I mention over, are working to save the nature, oceans, and animals.
- WWF have been 10 years longer than Greenpeace, but Greenpeace is the biggest envioronment organization in the world.
- Greenpeace have a studentprogram to teach "greenleaders"

The Nobel Peace Prize

The winners of the peace prize for 2011 has now been announsed, the Norwegian Nobel Committee have desided to devide the price in to three equal parts. The prizes are this year given to three women for their non-violent struggel for womens rights and for their participation in peace-building work. The three hard working women is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Twakkul Karman. 


Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ellen is president for Liberia, and is the nations first female president. The Norwegian Nobel Committee think that Ellen have participated for a better economy and the social development and made the womens place stronger in her periode as president. 


Leymah Gbowee
She started the peaceorganisation Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) in the 90's. In 2003 she tok intiative in Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, that made an peaceagreement and ended the second citizenwar in Liberia.


Twakkul Karman
She is a journalist and a politican in Al-Islah and a humenrights activist. She co-founded the organisation Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC). She participated in demonstration by the university in Sanaa, she got arrested under the demonsatrations. She is the youngest person to ever resive the Peace Prize.


Information about The Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is a prize that is awarded annually in Norway by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The peace prize are one of five prizes that are annually awarded since 1901. 101 persons and 23 organisations have resived the Peace Prize. The sermony is celebrated 10 desember every year in Oslo town-hall, because thats Alfred Nobels day of death. He gave his fotune in his will to a fond that will use the income to give out the Nobel Price every year.


The sermony contains speetches, music and the awardgiving, people from the whole world are partisipating in this event.