Ideas+for+video

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media type="custom" key="902513"media type="custom" key="902515" We will have the most recent information at the top of this page and the oldest at the bottom, similar to the chronological order in blogs.

10) Metro de Caracas
By Samir



This is the "Metro de Caracas". It is the most used transport in our capital city. It is a train that goes from one side of the city to the other side. It is very used and in some hours like 5 p.m., it is very hard to use it. Now they are expandin all the lines of the train to conect the north of the city with the south. I think that it will take several time, but when it will be ready everyone will be happy.

I posted this image becouse I know that in Japan you have the fastest trains and they are realy modern. And I also know that by the big quantity of habitants in Japan the trains get overloaded with the pasangers.

9) Gaita
by Eduardo

 The **Gaita** is the name of a Venezuelan folk music from Maracaibo, Zulia state. According to Joan Corominas, it may come from gaits, the Gothic word for "goat", the skin generally used for the membrane of the furro.  It popularized in the middle 60's of the XX century in all the country, and it fused with other types of music like salsa and merengue in the 70's. There are many famous Gaita groups like: Maracaibo 15, Gran Coquivacoa, Barrio Obrero, Cardenales del Éxito, Guaco, Koquimba, Melody Gaita, Estrellas del Zulia, Saladillo, and many others. This information was taken from Wikipedia. [|Here] you can get more information about this Venezuelan music.  
 * This is the famous Guaco group. **

Personal comment:  The Gaita is a very popular music in Venezuela, specially in Christmas. All the families come together and listen to this particular rhythm. The lyrics of the Gaita are also know because of its humorous side. You need to know only three maybe four steps to dance. I specially like Gaita because it's very easy to dance and to have fun doing it.

8) Arepa By Gabriel


Arepa is delicious. It is basically made with corn, salt and water. It is stuffed with cheese, vegetables, or any other ingredient. Usually people eat arepas at breakfast or at dinner but it could be eaten anytime. Sometimes when I leave a party, I go to a restaurant and order an arepa. I especially like to eat it only with cheese and butter, and I really love fried arepas.

How to cook an arepa: "There are two ways to make the dough: the original, highly laborious method requires the maize grains to be soaked, then they are peeled and ground, this is done by pounding the grains in a larger mortar (pilón) to remove the pericarp and the seed germ, only the cotyledons of the maize seed are used to make the dough, this product (mortared maize or "maíz pilado") was normally sold as dry grain which were then boiled and ground into the dough. The second, easier, and most popular method today is to buy pre-cooked corn in a dry flour form, specially prepared for making arepa and many other maize based dough dishes. The most popular brand name of corn flour in Venezuela is Harina P.A.N. It's usually made from white corn but there are yellow corn varieties available. The flour is mixed with water and salt (some people add oil, eggs and/or milk). After being molded by hand, or in a special mold, into a patty, the dough is fried, grilled or baked." This information was taken from Wikipedia. [|Here] you can get more information about this delicious food.

7) Our delicious Cuisine
//**<span style="COLOR: rgb(178,28,212)">by María Gabriela **//



Cachapas are a part of traditional <span class="wiki_link_ext">Venezuelan cuisine. Like <span class="wiki_link_ext">arepas it is a popular "outdoors" food, particularly in roadside stands. They can be pancakes or <span class="wiki_link_ext">tamales of fresh corn dough, the latter (cachapa de hoja) are wrapped in banana leaves and boiled. The most common ones are made with fresh corn that is ground and then mixed into a thick batter and cook on a <span class="wiki_link_ext">budare like <span class="wiki_link_ext">pancakes ; the cachapa is slightly thicker and lumpier because of the pieces from corn kernels. It can be served with many toppings, but traditionally with butter or margarine and any variety of white cheese (queso blanco) on top. They can be prepared as an appetizer or a full breakfast, depending on the size. Cachapas could be very elaborate, some including different kinds of cheese, milky cream or jam. Venezuelan Corn Cakes: Cachapas Recipe All this information and the picture above was taken from [|Wikipedia]
 * 10 ears of corn
 * 2 tablespoons sugar (avoid if the corn is too sweet)
 * 1/4 cup milk
 * Pinch salt
 * Corn oil, for sauteing
 * 1/4 lb fresh cheese

**
 * <span style="COLOR: rgb(186,54,206)">I really like the Cachapas, specially when I eat them as breakfast. They are sweet and have an strong corn flavor. I prefer to eat them with butter and white cheese. They are typical from here, and there´s not a truly Venezuelan that hadn´t try them at least once (but if you try them once you´ll want to keep eating them *hehe* ^_^). I wish you could try them, for sure you would like them.

6) The Beauty of Nature
<span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(248,255,0)">by Jeanette <span style="COLOR: rgb(55,146,47)">**<span style="COLOR: rgb(44,178,21)">“La Gran Sabana” is a huge land extension in the South side of Venezuela where you can find a lot of natural beauties including the “Angel’s waterfall” (which is the highest waterfall in the world), and the “Roraima Mountain”. I posted this Picture because the South of Venezuela is for me one of the most interesting places to visit of our country. Here is the comment google earth shows about the Roraima Mountain when you click in its name:

//“ Google Earth Community:// //Roraima ´The Crystal Mountain´// //Mount Roraima belongs to the geological formation called “The Roraima Group” which is located in the South-east corner of Venezuela. These sedimentary rocks are considered some of the oldest on earth, raising some of them more than 3.000 meters over the sea level. When the first plant life appeared these rocks were already 1.4 billion years old. The present day tabletop mountains, called “Tepuy” by the Pemon Indians, who inhabit the surrounding areas, are the remanent of the ancient continent of Gondwana, which were eroded by thousand of years of rain. The name Roraima in Pemon Means “The Mother of all the streams” and its height is about 2.810 meters. over the sea level. This particular mountain covers a surface of 44 square mile.// //Original// //Posted by: Jose_Miguel_Perez_Gomez ”// ** You can find more information in the [|Gran Sabana website]. There you’ll find pictures and traveling routes. I hope you all like it as much as I do. <span style="COLOR: rgb(255,0,165)"> Published by J eannette on Monday 23rd, 2008 in  [|her blog].

5) USB Bands
<span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,250,0)">by Berta

[[image:http://i32.tinypic.com/2zscidj.jpg align="left"]]
Kanako mentioned she had a band and asked if we had any at USB. Right this morning I saw this poster on a wall about [|a Festival] that will take place this Thursday and Friday in our campus. What a coincidence!

There are ten band names that I suppose are made up of USB students, but I am not sure. The music club is organizing the event and there will be metal and poprock groups. I am sure I would not have noticed the poster, had I not read Kanako´s comment yesterday.

I didn´t know there was even a music club among [|USB´s student groups.] I wonder if my students know about the club, the festival or the bands and if they have time in their busy schedules to go to these in-house afternoon concerts.

4) Students´ match
This is the match between Japanese and Venezuelan students. The latter were assigned three students each, but since Samir and Zyrus were absent Tuesday June 17th, I decided to place my name too. Remember to write a comment, ask a question or answer theirs at least once a week. They will be posting on Mondays. We will post any time during each week.


 * Ayumi M. Eduardo || Mari María Gabriela || Maki Gabriel ||
 * Ayumi O. Eduardo || Reika María Gabriela || Kanako Gabriel ||
 * Kaori Eduardo || Yuri K.  María Gabriela || Yuuko Gabriel ||
 * Haruka Jeanette || Azumi Sergio || Kyouko Samir and Berta ||
 * Terumi Jeanette || Nozomi Sergio ||  Miho Samir and Berta    ||
 * Yuumi Jeanette || Yukari Sergio ||  Youko Zyrus and Berta    ||
 * ||  ||    Yuri Y. Zyrus and Berta    ||

3) About Venezuela
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2) June 17
Eduardo proposed today to write about Venezuela, our culture, our way of life, etc., in the blogs.In this way you would not only be exchanging information with our Japanese friends but you would also have a specific topic to write in your blogs. I had intended blogs for free writing about anything you wanted, but this idea was accepted by the rest of the participants who were present (5/7).I'll check with Dr.Mazzarelli if this option is fine with them.

Towards the end of our class today, we decided to keep the information we will exchange in this project __**both**__ in the personal blogs and in this wiki page, "International Project". It is a simple matter of cutting and pasting the same picture and paragraph in both places. This way our Japanese friends can write their comments in the wiki but Venezuelan students can keep their blogs (there were some mixed opinions with regard to the blogs since some of you like them and want to keep using them, but others are not so happy about them, but were willing to keep them open and continue writing entries).

1) Ideas June 3
Here we will discuss some of the ideas for our project to be shared with students from a college in Nagasaki, Japan. Their teacher, Dr. Sergio Mazzarelli, and I thought it would be a good idea to provide our participants with some international cultural interaction. Today we discussed some ideas about this possible project with Gabriel and Ma. Gabriela in class and Eduardo and Sergio online.

<span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(63,255,0)">Eduardo said : Sergio, I just realized that you and me are going to work in pairs for this project. What do you want to do with our topic. Please write to me in the discussion area of my page.

<span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(245,255,0)">Berta said : Anyone a baseball fan? Baseball is very popular in Japan and that could be a possible topic.

<span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,253,0)">Berta said : I just got a mail from Dr. Mazzarelli and I will quote a couple of sentences that I feel will help us get some focus: "Your students may talk about anything that has meaning for them, enriches their life, etc, and be sure that what they say will not be seen through narrowly materialistic glasses, so to speak. Please encourage them to be spontaneous. Also, in Japan baseball is the sport that has the most following, so if your students want to talk about baseball in your country, that is fine too". I will send you an email today to tell you more about possible activities.

<span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,241,0)">Berta said : Well there is nothing new here. I had mentioned the possibility of just having a picture you took and write about it instead of making the video. But it will be up to you. I have seen some interesting use of [|Snapvine] which allows you to create talking photos or photos with a voice message. Have any of you explored a similar tool?