I got this email from a dear friend today, and I thought it too good to keep only for myself, so enjoy:

Here is a totally different perspective on life.

Imagine that you had won the following prize in a contest:
Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400.00 in your private account for your use.
However, this prize has rules, just as any game has certain rules.

The first set of rules would be:
Everything that you didn't spend during each day would be taken away from you.
You may not simply transfer money into some other account.
You may only spend it.

Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400.00 for that day.

The second set of rules:

The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, it’s over, the game is over!
It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.

What would you personally do?
You would buy anything and everything you wanted, right?
Not only for yourself, but for all people you love, right?
Even for people you don't know, because you couldn't possibly spend it all on yourself, right?
You would try to spend every cent, and use it all, right?
ACTUALLY This GAME is REALITY!
Each of us is in possession of such a magical bank. We just can't seem to see it.
The MAGICAL BANK is TIME!
Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life, and when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us.
What we haven't lived up that day is forever lost.
Yesterday is forever gone.
Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time....WITHOUT WARNING.

SO, what will YOU do with your 86,400 seconds?
Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars.
Think about that, and always think of this:
Enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.

So take care of yourself, be Happy, Love Deeply and enjoy life!

Here's wishing you a wonderfully beautiful day.
Start spending.

This is a very simple but beautiful text that I got from a friend and adapted for you:


Noah's Ark Everything you need to know, you can learn from Noah's Ark. 

ONE: Don't miss the boat.
TWO: Remember that we are all in the same boat!

THREE: Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.
FOUR: Stay fit. When you're 60 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.
FIVE: Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.
SIX: Build your future on high ground.
SEVEN: For safety's sake, travel in pairs.
EIGHT: Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
NINE: When you're stressed, float awhile.
TEN: Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
ELEVEN: No matter the storm, when you are with G-d, there's always a rainbow waiting.

Worldcup!!!   it's amazing how football can promote such a change in people, students talk a lot when the topic is football, that's so fantastic that I decided to publish a text that I got from Oxford about Pele. I hope you all read, then we'll have even more things to talk about ! Enjoy!!

Pelé helped to make football one of the world’s favourite sports. He was born with the name Edson Arantes do Nascimento in Brazil, on October 23, 1940. His father was a football player, but in those days football players didn’t get a lot of money. When Pelé was ten, he began to work, cleaning people’s shoes in the street. On Saturdays he went to the football stadium and cleaned the shoes of people watching the matches there.
One day Pelé said he wanted to be a professional football player. His mother was angry but Pelé said, Mother, I was born for football’. Pelé began playing football for a small team near his home, and when he
was only sixteen, he went to play for the Santos Football Club. He got four goals in his first match. When he was seventeen years old, he played for the Brazilian team in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. Brazil won the match with Sweden five goals to two (5‐2). Pelé got two of these goals, and Brazil won the World Cup for the first time. Pelé played for Brazil, too, when they won the World Cup in Chile in 1962 and in Mexico in 1970. He is the only football player to win three World Cups. November 19, 1969, was a very important day for Pelé. There were 80,000 people in the stadium watching him play for Santos. They wanted to see him get his 1,000th goal. When he got the goal, he took off his famous number 10 shirt and put on a number 1,000 shirt. In all his 1,363 football matches, Pelé got 1,281 goals. That’s nearly one goal in every match! Pelé helped to stop a war for a time, too. In 1967 he played a football match in Lagos, in Nigeria. At that time there was a war in Nigeria, but the war stopped for 48 hours for everybody to watch Pelé playing football.
Pelé stopped playing professional football in Brazil in 1974. But today – all this time later — many people remember him and think he is one of the truly great footballers of all time. He called football ‘the beautiful game’ and he played truly beautiful football.

As I was reading 'The Procrastinator's handbook' by Rita Emmet , I decided to share some of her interesting thoughts with you. She believes that we can start taking control of our lives by changing some of our habits,  so she suggests that you ask yourself these questions to evaluate your case:

1. Do I postpone important things in my life because the others' priorities always come first?
2. Do I compromise to so many things that I don't find time to do any of them and I always feel  overloaded ?
3. Do I think that I don't have to do the things the others do to manage/organize my time?
4. Do I upset my family and the people I like when I am overloaded?
5. Do I postpone important tasks related to my finances, relationships, health and career and then I do the least important ones?
6. Do I say 'yes' to so many ' amusing events' that they make me tired and then they become less amusing?
7. Do I many times feel shattered, frenetic or exhausted because I am overloaded?
8. Am I afraid of losing something so that I say 'yes' to everything?
9. Do I spend time with people or groups that I used to enjoy, but now are not fun anymore?

Well, if you said 'yes' to any of these questions, part of your procrastination problem is that you have to start saying 'no' to some of your requests.

Shocking , huh? I had to say 'yes' to some of  them too... , then if you got interested, the title of this book in Portuguese is: 'Não deixe para depois o que você pode fazer agora' - Rita Emmet

Confusing words !!!!!
People have been asking me to include them here. So there you go.
The  words 'travel' , 'trip' and 'journey'  are normally confusing for some people.
'Travel' is a verb, a noun and an adjective. So you can say: I like travelling; he travels every week; I travel a lot or I don't travel so often. Then, as a noun you can say : My travel to Canada was awesome.In this case you are going to talk about the events and stories that happened there ( 'travel' here means a series of journeys, or an account of someone's journey). You can also say : My favourite travel .
And finally  you have the word as an adjective: a travel agency; a travel guide and travel websites.
'Trip' on the other hand, is more used as a noun , that's why we say: I'll have  a business trip next week; My trip was very short.
We also have the word 'journey' that is the act of travelling from one place to another, so when talking you can use 'journey' to say what happened from the starting point until you got to your destination. E.g. My journey was full of funny moments; I had a pleasant journey, everything was fine.
So, that's it!   I hope that next time you talk about that you remember these tips!

Hello everyone!     So here we go again, this week there were some interesting discussions.
Then  I'll start with football, because of the proximity of the Worldcup;  we were saying that nowadays with so many players making use of anabolic steroids and many other artifices to enhance their performance , it's hard to find one of these guys   in perfect conditions to have a long career. The opposite , on the other hand is more common, like injured knees,  and more recently the famous Beckham who had his  Achilles's tendon torn . So, what's becoming frequent is to see these players retiring at a very young age , having gone through at least one surgery, but of course with their deep pockets ! 
      

Blue = Idioms

Green = expressions 

red= informal

purple = Figurative language, metaphor

Hey  Hey !!!

It seems that the idea of making this blog more alive is getting some visitors!   I'm glad you are one of them ...
so today there was this basic class in which we spoke about work, so some terms that appeared were:
nowadays = hoje em dia; from now on = de agora em diante;  not much = nao muito; a lot = muito ( these two have to be used when you are talking  about things that you do, for example ,A : Do you like chocolate ? B: Not much! or B: Yes, a lot ).   So keep on asking questions , and  we will have a nice glossary for everyone to access.     So long !

Dear readers!!!

It's time for us to move on to something more challenging!!!After discussing  the issue with my fellow students I got some ideas that will certainly involve you a little bit more.

I decided to post - possibly every working day - new expressions and vocabulary learnt in classes. That will practically kill two birds with one stone , so that the ones who read it will have new stuff published every day and the ones who don't have the habit yet will have more motivation to start doing so ! 

Also, I will be using this color system to help you identifying language as you will have probably noticed in this text. So you will be able to make comments as well as making questions about them.

So welcome aboard !

Blue = Idioms

Green = expressions 

red= informal

purple = Figurative language, metaphor

Cultural Information:

.  

Bumper stickers are often used on commercial vehicles so that employers can receive feedback about the driving habits of their employees.

A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles - although they are often stuck onto other objects. Most bumper stickers are about 8 cm by 30 cm (3 in by 12 in) and are often made of PVC.

Here are some funny bumper messages:

He who laughs last thinks slowest!

A flashlight is a case for holding dead batteries.

Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math. 

6 Things you need to know when you travel...  Tested recently...


It's a very good idea to read about the place you are going to visit... Even if this is a simple guide in your language.
Many times you listen to many stories about the places, and when you get there, you have a completely different impression... All right , some of them might be true , but it's safer to count on real facts about the area too.
Get maps , I know girls... for us women... it's such a difficult task, but it helps you to have an idea of the size of the place and calculate approximately the distances between a shop and your next point of interest ! You can also use them to show people where you intend to go, and believe me, they get happy to tell you how far or close you are from your destination.
Check the weather forecast preferably a week before, and if possible get the average temperatures for the different seasons of the year.  It helps you a lot when packing, and avoids big surprises and difficult situations.  If you know someone in the area , even better, they can give you the real situation.
Get familiar with the currency you are going to use , make sure you understand the coins and the notes. Coins in special can trick you by the size, like the American ones: in size a Dime = 10 cents is smaller than One Cent, and a Cent is smaller than a Nickel = 5 cents; at least the biggest is the quarter = 25 cents...  so play a little bit with them before using them, it will keep you away from embarrassing situations. 
Get as much information as you can about the food , in this requisite trust your fellow compatriots ! because they will probably feel the same when comparing the food. Brazilian is one of the best cuisines and also very cheap! We have so many varieties... That's why many people miss a lot our country when they leave.
Save beforehand! When you start converting the currency at the place you are with ours, you get nuts... Depending on the place , ou money is worth  half of a unit, sometimes almost a third... so it's better to get ready to be able to spend according to the local prices, which normally are not our reality , so that can make you depressed and with the feeling that you are suddenly poor !!


well, these were fundamental to me, but I'm sure you can help me enlarge this list, would you?