Universidad Europea de Madrid

"The Transition": the car-plane of the future

What do you think about this car-plane the "Transition" which is expected to be available in 2011? Terrafugia has completed its flight testing of the Transition POC (Proof of Concept). It's a plane that you can land at the airport, fold up the wings and drive home. Great idea! 20 years from now will we all have "Transitions"? Just think of the traffic jams in the sky! Check out Terrafugia.

• Publicado por shakespeare•
• 3 comentarios

The International Space Station

The International Space Station is often in the news,and has been since 1998. We know that there was a basic structure and that other components have been added over the years. We hear about the people on board, the difficulties they have, the experiments that are carried out. We know the ISS is up there and that it is quite an achievement.

Watch this presentation via computer graphics. You'll see the components come together piece by piece. What a difference from the original project. Open it full-screen so you can see the information onthe sides too. This is really neat, cool, awesome, sweet....chuli, chachi, guay, alucinante. O sea, mola mazo!

VOCABULARY:

The news: las noticias

carried out: llevar a cabo

come together: juntarse

full-screen: pantalla completa

the sides: los lados

neat/cool/awesome/sweet: maravilloso

http://i.usatoday.net/tech/graphics/iss_timeline/flash.htm

• Publicado por shakespeare•
• 3 comentarios

Happy New Year- 2010

Happy New Year! Happy 2010 ! Oh, that looks futuristic just like 2000 or 2001 did a decade ago. And what about 1-1-2010? That looks really strange, doesn't it? Well, a week has already passed and we're still sitting here, writing 2009 by mistake and staring at the computer screen, wondering what the future will hold.

Have you made your New Year's Resolutions yet? Are they the same ones you made last year and the year before? Is this THE YEAR when you're finally going to get it together? Did you start the year off right, start in on your fitness program, your diet, your personal Stop Smoking campaign, or are you waiting for a more auspicious date like maybe 10-1-2010 or as the Americans would write it 1-10-2010? Shall we procrastinate perhaps until the day before exams begin, or till next semester, or possibly till Groundhog Day or your birthday or.....1-1-2011 (ouuu, that looks really cosmic. That's only 11+ months from now. Maybe we should just leave our great plans for personal development till next year.

So, where were you on New Year's Day? Were you sleeping it off?
Were you outside, enjoying the day from beginning to end?

This is where I was as the 1st day of the year 2010 came to an end. Wendy

VOCABULARY:

staring: to stare: mirar fijamente
wondering: preguntándome
will hold: ofrecerá, sostendrá
get it together: organizarme
start X off right: empezar con buen pie
auspicious: prometedor
procrastinate: dejarlo para el último minuto
Groundhog Day: día de la Marmota
sleeping it off: reculperándose

Last year's NEW YEARS post:
http://comunidad.uem.es/shakespeare/2009/1/7/new-year-s-resolutions-2009

• Publicado por shakespeare•
• 1 comentario

An inspiring book: "Three Cups of Tea"

"Three Cups of Tea" : One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time.

by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin

This is an important book.......right now! It's an outsider's inside look at what schools mean to people who want to educate their children, especially their daughters, and can't. It shows first hand what Mortenson was willing to do to bring hope to isolated villages, in this case in Pakistan and Afganistan.

He found a need and found a way to fulfill that need, by building schools. Then he searched for collaborators and funds. And he's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Read it.

www.threecupsoftea.com

• Publicado por shakespeare•
• 1 comentario

England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the USA

We hope a lot of you got to English-speaking countries this summer. We did.

Rod took his UEM LAB logo to Derwent Water in the Lake District, Cumbria, England.

Victor, a professor in electronics and communications, sent a photo from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Cristina and Victoria visited Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
Maybe some of you did too!

From Scotland we received photos from Lorraine, "A couple of adorable highland cows having an evening snack! And St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh during the famous Festival.

León, a professor in the business school, sent this from the Rodgers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The US is well represented, "from sea to shining sea". Here's Megan in front of her parents' house in Pennsylvania and in Washington, D.C. with the Lincoln Memorial in the background.

Kelly was in D.C. too with her Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Sisters.

I went to California and then over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to visit old mining towns way out in the Nevada desert. Here's our rented car, a hybrid, at (el puerto de montaña)Sonora Pass. Altitude: 9,674 feet

Amy crossed the Atlantic Ocean and half of the Pacific this summer. Here she is on the TEACUP ride at Disneyland, AND at Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii !

If your photos are not available here, check the UEMLAB web page.
https://portal.uem.es/portal/page/portal/UEMLAB/PHOTO%20ALBUM/PHOTO%20ALBUM%202009-2010/UEM%20LAB%20REPORTERS%20around%20the%20world

Wendy

• Publicado por shakespeare•
• 1 comentario

"Summertime, and the livin' is easy" WAS easy!

George Gershwin's "Summertime"---- Have you heard this song? Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald, Janis Joplin, Scarlett Johnsson and many other recording artists in between have sung it. SUMMERTIME? Doesn't your summer vacation seem like a long time ago?

Sit back, close your eyes and listen to this song for a couple of minutes.

What were YOU doing in the summertime? I'll be attaching more of YOUR pictures in the next few days. Keep sending them in.

Megan says it looks like Paris, but it's really Las Vegas!

Eva,who studies business adminisstration, (ADE) reports that she was in Alicante, her hometown.

Yes, the UEM LAB logo appeared on the beach in Cuba.

Here's Ilene , relaxing in Menorca.

Emilio sent this photo from Tenerife.

• Publicado por shakespeare•
• 1 comentario

Where were you this summer?

Here's the first edition of the map: UEM LAB REPORTERS around the world!

Alba Bueno and Javier Tejero, 2nd year medical students, were checking out the map when I took these photos this morning.

Come down to the UEM LAB in Building A to see the map yourselves. You'll see that many of you sent photos, some from as far away as Japan and Brazil. Others came from Hawaii, California, Pennsylvania and Washington DC, There were several from England and Ireland and Germany. And many from SPAIN: El Escorial and Madrid, Alicante and Tenerife.... Viva España!

You still have a chance to participate. Send your photo with the UEM LAB logo to wendy.frankel@uem.es

See you on the bridge!

No! No! Not in San Francisco. On the UEM bridge!

Wendy

• Publicado por shakespeare•
• 6 comentarios

Disembarkation Card: SPAIN

Disembarkation Card: SPAIN

Welcome back! You’ve probably been off traveling to other countries this summer. Or maybe you were just relaxing at home. You’ve met new people and visited old friends and family. The ports, airports, train stations and bus stations were crowded. Maybe you heard other languages at the beaches and museums, pubs and restaurants. You might even have attempted to practice your ENGLISH!

Have you ever thought about the documents the tourists have to fill out when they come to our country? Here’s a copy of the declaration what was handed out this year. Notice that it is in Spanish, English, French and Arabic. Do you speak all those languages? Do you speak at least 2 of them?
Print out the form. Scratch out the Spanish. Then go back and fill in the card. Is it easy?

Vocabulary:
Welcome: bienvenido
Crowded: llena de gente
Languages: idiomas
Attempted: Intentado
Fill out: rellenar
Hand out: repartir
Scratch out: tachar

Look at those lovely phrasal verbs!!!!! Welcome back to school.

--Wendy Frankel

Disembarkation Card: SPAIN

• Publicado por shakespeare•
• 1 comentario

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!

A footstep on the moon.

Did you see the moon landing on July 20th, 1969? I did. I was an exchange student in Mexico City. We watched it on a black and white TV. The reception was pretty fuzzy and the sound wasn't every good, but we were certainly aware that it was an historical moment. Years later I was working at the US Cultural Center in Madrid. We had a MOON ROCK on exhibition for several weeks. It was in a glass case and there was a security guard. Many people came to see that rock. As I recalled it looked like..................a rock! Check out this web page. Maybe it was one of these. Check out the NASA interactive web sites too.

Wendy

• Publicado por shakespeare•
• 0 comentarios

UEM LAB Students Around the World!

This is the UEM LAB Logo which is used by our UEM LAB REPORTERS. In September and October you may see the UEM LAB REPORTERS ON THE BRIDGE, interviewing people in English. Well, now it's YOUR TURN to become a reporter this summer. Actually it's even easier than that. All you need to do is print out one of the logos (under each logo there is a direct link to the image) and take a picture of YOURSELF with the logo, or even just the LOGO in front of a famous place you visit.

Send the photo to me as an email attachment. wendy.frankel@uem.es . I'll print it out and put it on the bulletin board at the university. We'll also put it into the UEM LAB photo album. Let's see how far and how many places our UEM LAB reporters can go this summer.

Here's a double logo for the UEM LAB that is easy to print out:

Have fun! See you soon! Wendy

http://img8.imageshack.us/i/copiadeshakespeareblueh.png/

This is the UEM LAB-English Language Program Logo. Notice that it is blue, black and white instead of the International logo which is red, black and white.

• Publicado por shakespeare•
• 3 comentarios