Veterans Day

Hi again, 

In today's post I'm going to tell you a little bit about what I found regarding Veterans day. Did you know that it had a different name? because I didn't. 

Remember that WWI, also known as the "Great War" oficially ended with the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, but the actual fighting ceased 7 months before when an armistice or temporary cessation of hostilities between allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of the war. Five months after the Treaty of Versailles president Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day. 

Several years later, exactly in 1938, the eleventh of November became a legal holiday - a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as Armistice Day.

Although, in 1954 after the experinece of WWII and the Korean War, it was decided that the name of Armistice day should change for Veterans Day, to honor American veterans of all wars. 

Well that's all for today, I hope you've found this as interesting as I did. 

Bye for now. 

MOHAI

It's me again. And guess what? I have some new information to share with you. Yesterday my teacher Frieda took us (my English class) to the MOHAI (Museum of History & Industry). It was such an amazing experience because we had the oportunity to learn about different aspects of Seattle history. For example did you know that Amzaon and Microsoft are from Seattle?

Inside the museum, which by the way is beautiful, one of the first things that gets your attention is a hydroplane hanging from the ceiling. As you enter you see how all the exhibitions are divided and located in different rooms and stories. It would be really difficult for me to describe everything that was inside but at least let me tell you about some of the objects that caught my attention. 

Probably we now consider this to be part of every day life, but in the years that follow WWII one of the first Jewish settlers in Seattle named Albert Rosen noticed that the majority of people who came to the city didn't have a proper suitcase for such a long journey so he invested all his money ($300) in a luggage company and invented "Dura Edge" an upholstered metal biding that reinforced the corners and edges of suitcases. 

Another intresting object inside a museum is on the fourth floor a real WWII periscope, and what makes it even better is that it works and you can look at the ships around the museum and imagine how it might have felt inside a real submarine watching an enemy boat approaching. 

Finally let me tell you about another gadget which I found interesting, it was a Zune mp3 player developed by Microsoft in 2006, and the thing that makes it interesting is the history behind it because remember that the real competitor for the ipod it was supposed to be the Zune, but we all know which company won in the end. 

That's all for today. Have a nice weekend!

The Ave experience

Hi to you all

As part of our second assignment our teacher asked us to go to the Ave, you may wonder what the Ave is? Well the Ave is one of the main streets located in the commercial heart of the University district of Washington. Right in the heart of the Ave we were told to interview some of the local store owners to find out about some information about their businesses.

As my friend Antonio and I were walking along the Ave, we decided to enter into a Mexican restaurant called Chipotle, but they were too busy and didn't have time to answer any question. This also happened in a Thai restaurant so we decided not to interview anyone in another restaurant.

Then we visited the American Apparel store where a really nice lady answered our questions about opening and closing hours. Just opposite the clothes store we entered a Drug's store named Bartell Drugs, inside we look for an employee and he said that he wasn't allowed to answer to one of our questions due to company policy.

Finally in our way back to campus we found a second hand book shop called Magus where one of the owners told us she was busy and only had time for a couple of questions. I asked her if the had any expensive books and for my surprise she answered that the had some books worth couple thousand dollars and my friend Antonio asked her if he could trade a book and she replied that he could get a discount but not just trade it.

That's all for now I will tell more as soon as I get more free time.

Emanuel’s biography

Born on January 6th 1986 from a loving Mexican family in the city of Toluca, which is located one hour away from Mexico city. I have two older brothers Nahum and Benjamin, my father is Alfredo and my mother Ruth. They divorced some years ago and now I live with my mother and grandparents. 

I was born and raised in Toluca where I studied from kindergarten to University. When I was in elementary school I met my best friend Jorge; he is a really nice person who cares about others and is really worried about animal rights. We have been friends since we were 10 years old. In secondary school I met a girl named Karen who is also one of my best friends, unfortunately we have been losing touch because we live in different cities.  

I obtained my bachelor's degree in 2013 from the Faculty of Languages in the UAEM university, after that I worked in a hotel as a bellboy but I didn’t like it. After some time I was unemployed and my brother told me that one of his colleagues was looking for an English teacher, that's when I met my current girlfriend Angelica; she used to be my boss. After six months working with my girlfriend in a small school I decided to apply for a job in the UAEM University. Luckily I got the job and started working as an English teacher in two different universities. I really like my job, though sometimes it is challenging because some of my students are not interested in learning English but in general is a really nice job but a salary increase wouldn't hurt. 

Biography made by Alfredo Emanuel León Casasola

 Bye for now