Thursday, October 11, 2007

Group E: Elena

Photo by Ivan Makarov

After a long search I finally found this wonderful picture of McWay Waterfall beach in Big Sur (California) - one of the few waterfalls in the world that empties directly into the ocean. Why did I choose it? It is simply my essence: a fusion of those elements that can make me feel as living in paradise: sun, sea, sand, silence broken by the sound of waves and waterfalls...pure nature. As a matter of fact, one of my passions is meditation and by contemplating images representing uncontaminated landscapes (such as the one above) or by listening to relaxing music made of sounds taken from the natural world (the sound of burning fire, of water or wind, the bird-song,…) as in New Age and Indian songs, I can relax and look for what I would define as ‘my peace of mind’. I like daydreaming a lot and above all dreaming about things that perhaps I will never realize in my life, for example by looking at this image I can dream of me walking on that beach…plunging into the water…or lying down on the foreshore and look at the sunset…or just listening to the sounds surrounding me! Yes…definitely this is me!

The first two websites that I often use - above all when it is time to travel - are two forums regarding travelling: the first one is intopic and the second one is ilgiramondo; they are really interesting and useful because there you can easily find suggestions, opinions, travel diaries and videos, thus, every kind of information about places to go, climate, transport, hotels, resorts, special offers,... and what is most important is that the people who write these forums have actually visited the places they are talking about unlike so many travel agents!
Then, for study reasons, I quite often visit the bbc website and the online Guide to Grammar and Writing: the bbc learning English section is so useful to practice listening and pronunciation, to acquire new vocabulary and, if you are interested in it, to learn something more about Business English. As regards the online Guide to Grammar and Writing, I believe it is one of the easiest way to solve your doubts about English grammar, punctuation and style.
Finally, I often use the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary to search for the meaning or usage of new words or simply to check their pronunciation.

I look forward to reading your comments!

See you!

Elena Vivian

9 comments:

Martina Urbani said...

Hi Elena!
How are you? When I read your introduction I had such a feeling... The words you used have a very evocative power. In fact, your detailed description makes me think of peaceful and wild landscapes. Also Camilla, our peer in the group E, is very fond of journeys. She wishes to go to Polynesia.

Have you ever seen “The beach” (the movie with Leonardo Di Caprio)? Your presentation suggests all those images of uncontaminated nature...Do you know that a friend of mine went there (in Thailand)? She sent me a postcard of the beach where the film was shot. It’s definitely impressive!

You chose the image of the McWay Waterfall beach in Big Sur (California) in order to introduce yourself to us. I think this is a very good choice! Water is the symbol of purity because it’s fresh and crystal clear. So this is undoubtedly an important feature of your personality. I think you are honest, genuine and spontaneous. Moreover, you didn’t choose the image of a calm lake or a smooth sea; you decided for ruffling waterfalls.

I think this choice is very relevant because you don’t represent yourself as a quiet and reposeful person but you want to present yourself as a girl with a strong and impulsive personality. Maybe, in order to control your strong personality you love practise meditation.

Some years ago, I took a yoga course...it was a fantastic experience! Unfortunately I don’t practise it anymore but maybe in the future I will try it again. Have you ever tried a joga course?

See you soon! Kiss
Martina Urbani

veronica bozzato said...

Hi Elena!
What a wonderful picture! I look at it again and again and every time I would like to be in that amazing place! I think that you chose the right image to represent yourself, because you wrote that you love sun, sea and silence and you like meditating… and when I first see this picture I immediately desired the same things! We have much in common since, like you, I love nature, seashore and daydreaming! I often wonder about travelling in new and interesting places throughout the world, and it happens especially when I see pictures of marvellous landscapes or when I hear the story of the journeys of other people.
Thanks for suggesting me the websites http://www.intopic.it/forum/viaggi/p1/ and http://forum.ilgiramondo.net/, regarding forums about travelling. I did not know them, but I think they can be very interesting in order to find useful pieces of information sent by people who actually travelled to those places.

See you tomorrow

Bye, bye!

Veronica

Camilla said...
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Camilla said...

Hi Elena!
Well...it seems that ilGiramondo has had a lot of success among our peers, isn't it?But I didn't know the other forum you suggested us, so thank you very much!
The photo you posted is really beautiful...it is my favourite one among all the photos posted in the blog! I think we've got similar passions and ideas because you told me you liked my photo too!
I'm also similar to you as regarding peace, nature...the sound of waves is the most relaxing sound ever!
I’m really sorry for the girl who lost her life in Seychelles, I remember I heard about it on the news. Things like that can happen all over the world, but the role of a specialized tour operator is exactly that of knowing as much as possible about a destination, in order to sell it to clients as well as possible, giving them as much information as needed. In the office where I worked, we used to sell just Polynesia and Seychelles 8 hours a day: I think we knew more than a tipical travel agency!

Going back to your post...I cannot criticize anything about it! I just can tell you that I'm not so interested in grammar websites, I defenetly prefer old-fashioned books!!!
See you tomorrow!

Camilla

Selena said...
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Selena said...

Hi Elena!

These are what we think might be your mistakes.
Instead of "that can make me feel as living in paradise" it could be better "as if I lived in paradise" because we think it's an hypothetical sentence.
Are you sure about "passions"? is it countable? we have doubts.
Your sentences are probably too long and so it is difficult for the reader to understand you easily. You should avoid the preposition "by" before -ing form verbs.
You should avoid definite articles if you are talking in general terms: "natural world" instead of "the natural world.
We think it's better writing "of bird-songs" instead of "the bird-song" because we are not talking about the song of one specific bird.
The right preposition afer the verb to dream is of. You should use "dream of myself" instead of "dream of me".
In a list you have to mantain the same verb structure: "looking at the sunset" instead of "look at the sunset".
We don't sure that "search for" is right. We suggest "to look up".

See you on Wednesday

Selena and ElisaS

elenavi said...
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elenavi said...

Dear Martina, Veronica, Camilla, Selena and ElisaS,

first of all I want to thank you very much for your helpful and lovely comments, and here I’ll try to answer all your questions because, as Sarah said us, we “need to follow the basic rules of oral conversation in an online text format”, so I ‘MUST’ answer you!
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Dear Martina, your are always so sweet and your way of writing really reflects your tenderness…You asked me if I have ever seen “The Beach” with Di Caprio, but unfortunately I have seen only a part of this movie; however, I can remember its amazing setting!
What struck me at most is that, just by looking at the image I put in my post, you pointed out some qualities that actually characterize my personality: I believe I am genuine, spontaneous and my impulsiveness is really like a ruffling waterfall that I try to rule over through meditation…Unfortunately, I have never followed a yoga course; however, I hope to have the chance to try it in future!
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Dear Veronica, I am really pleased that you liked my post and, above all, my photo!!! I hope to have the opportunity to talk a bit more about your travels (and also about our beloved dogs)...
Moreover, I am really glad to read that you found the websites about travelling interesting… Hope they can be of help for your future journeys!
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Dear Camilla, you are right! IlGiramondo should thank us for the great advertising done in both our posts!!!
I hope to have the chance to speak with you a little more about your job experience as a tour-operator…it is one of the jobs I’d like to do in my future!
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Dear Selena and ElisaS, I really thank you for your tips; I will certainly try to make shorter and simpler sentences… Since ever this has been my problem both in English and German! Just a doubt: could you please explain me why I should avoid the preposition "by" before -ing form verbs?
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Thank all of you again!

See you soon!

Elena

Martina Urbani said...

Hi Elena!

How are you? Thank you so much for your nice compliments!!!

In the near future I think I will start a yoga course.

So if you wish to try such an experience, just let me know it and I will be very glad to give you some information about the price, timetable and so on.

Have a nice day!
Huge kiss
Martina

ps: thank you so much for lending me your notes of Glottodidattica!!!