A visit by Tim Easton.

On Tuesday 15th November, Tim Easton will be visiting us.  

Here is a link to his webpage.

http://www.timeaston.com/


He will be talking with us and explaining a bit more about his music and he might even sing and play one of his songs from his new album.

Later on in the evening, he will be having a concert in Palma.

Mallorca: The party island

The Balearic islands are quite a famous destination for people who like partying. Ibiza and some parts of Mallorca especially such as Magaluf and Arenal are really popular and you've probably heard about them. Actually, as Mallorcan people we are more used to other kinds of festivals which also take place on our island. The difference is that the parties we know are smaller, they take place during the whole year and there are different ones all around the island; the variety is huge and you can find very boring ones but also extremely fun ones and some others which are quite strange. 

Es Much 

This festival takes place in a little town called Sineu which is in the middle of our island. If you go to the festival you have to wear pink clothes and be ready to get wet! People who go to "Es Much" eat, dance, drink, dance and walk around the town and have fun watching a kind of parade where some people wear funny costumes. Besides, there are kind of water slides in some streets which are very cool.

Holi festivals

The origin of these festivals comes from an indian tradition. In the past years, they have become very popular taking place in a lot of towns around the island. If you go to a holi festival you'll get wet and full of paint while you're dancing to the rhythm of latino and electro music. We always have a lot of fun at these festivals!

Romana

This festival takes place in our hometown Alcúdia near to an ancient Roman town, during an entire summer night. As in most of our festivals, you'll have to wear a costume; in this case, white clothes to dress as if you were roman while you dance until the sun rises.

Beata 

This is actually not a festival but it's a traditional event that we find good fun. It consists in watching and being part of a parade where you have to carry a jar. People dress up as demons trying to destroy your jar and it's pretty fun. You also have to wear traditional mallorcan costume.

I hope we can go to some festivals together during your stay in Mallorca.

Miquel and Julienne

SUMMER VIBES IN MALLORCA

Hey summer lovers out there! (sarcasm ;P)

Dear friends from Birmingham, have you ever seen the sun? Do you want to see a blue sky? Feel the wind on your scalded skin. Swipe up to discover the paradise:

Mallorca is commonly known for its beautiful and heavenly  beaches (there’s much more than just Magaluf or El Arenal). The best part about living on a piece of earth surrounded by water is wherever you go, there are beaches! You are able to reach from the nearest to the furthest one:

Near the urban city: from 0 to 20 minutes from the centre. You can go by bus, an easy way:

Illetes

Cala Major

Ciudad Jardín

Hidden away: from 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Not very visited by foreign people. Magic beaches characterized by white sand and blue water.

Platja es Carbó:

Es Trenc:

- Sa Calobra:

Finally, we are going to give you some tips for your survival at this maravellous beaches:
Swimwear (or not, it depends on the beach)
Sun protection
Water
Food
Towel
Ensaimada (of course).

We hope you like our advice!

Aina Roselló, Julia Gorrías and Mireia Jiménez.

SURVIVING IB

Hi KES students,

The IB programme is for all of us a new adventure and a new way of life and each of us have got different aims and illusions to realise. We are Carme and Judit and we are going to explain our little experience since we started the course and the ideas we have with regards to it.

The IB seems difficult but we are full of ideas to assure that it won't be always like this.

Now we are a little stressed because we have more work than we were used to, but we think that it will change our lives. Because if you transform the difficulties into energy or into positive things, then, everything is easier!

Why is the IB difficult?

-Because it is too much work

-A new way of settling things

-New classes

-The books are too heavy

-And you could find one hundred more difficulties

But, let's see how to achieve it:

-Working a lot at home

-Being a positive person

-Transforming the difficulties into new challenges and positive things

-Doing original and creative stuff

-Helping and being helped

-Doing things that make you proud of yourself.

So good luck to you too!  

READING IS COMING (do you get it?)

Hey you my little pumpkins!!!

Today we are here to talk about the topic (the absolutely wrong one) that said “reading is boring”. If you're one of those who thinks that way let's say we are not going to kill you, we are just going to hurt you reaaaally reaaaally bad.

But don't panic, you have a chance. At the end of the text you'll have changed to the dark side, if you know what I'm saying...

Let's start with the reasons of why you should read often:

-It is an educational resource: It improves your spelling, your writing skills, it opens your mind, and last but not least it may help you with some school work (essays).

-For a couple of hours you stop being you and start being someone else. That means that all the things you have been worrying about just disappear and that's obviously a good thing for your mind and you.

-You can find a book for every single taste. I mean, not because you didn't enjoy a book (probably a school one), does it mean that all books in the world are boring, it means that that book you read was not for you. THE POINT IS TO FIND THE KIND OF BOOK YOU LIKE.

-Everything will change but a book will always be a book. And it's the way we can access to the past.

-You can experiment the joy of finding people with the same favourite literature genre (like the writers of this amazing blog).

-Books are the proof that confirm that humans can do magic.

We hope that you like it and that you joined us on the dark side, and don't forget: may the force be with you.

Gabriela and Tanit

LOVELY BLOODY FOOD

LOVELY BLOODY FOOD

Hello dear future friends! We are here to talk about our delicious (and sometimes disturbing) gastronomy. We can assure you that you will eat tasty and healthy food (probably a bit more than you usually do in your country).

To start, our diet is based on olive oil. We use it for almost everything. We use it to fry stuff, which is much healthier than butter, we put it on salads and something we eat almost every day is bread with salt, olive oil and tomato. On that, you can put ham, cheese, etc.The Mediterranean diet is known because of its variety. That is because we always have fresh local products, we have vegetables, fruit, meat, fish and seafood all year.

            LIST OF TYPICAL MALLORCAN DISHES

Meat dishes

-Bread with ”sobrassada” (a special cold meat, we will talk about later).

-Roasted piglet with baked potatoes.

-Rabbit with onion (yes, rabbit, and a really cute one).

-Snails with garlic mayo (oh yes, we eat snails too).

-“Frit de matances” (a fantastic meat dish you make with the leftovers of the pig: kidneys, liver and many other innards).

-“Dirty” rice (a rice casserole with meat and snails).

Fish dishes

-Grilled squid.

-Fish “tumbet”.

-Fish rice soup.

Vegetable and fruit dishes

-Vegetable “tumbet”.

-Trampó (tomato, green pepper and onion salad).

-Melon with ham.

-Stuffed aubergines.

Desserts

-Ensaïmada.

-Apricot pie.

-Potato buns.

-“Gipsy arm” (cake dough roll with cream.

All this sounds amazing (maybe not the snails), but you still don’t know anything about the most disturbing and gory part of our food culture.  We call it” ses matances”, which could be translated as “slaughter” or “butchery”.“Ses matances” consist of all the family meeting in some house in the countryside, where a pig is killed and all the parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts and children participate in stuffing bowels with “sobrassada”, mixing it, etc. In conclusion, all the family work together to get all the food you can get from the pig.

To kill the pig, you make a knot on its foot and hang it up from a tree and you stab it once or twice and you wait until it bleeds out. Of course, you keep all the blood in a bucket, it will be used in “frit de matances”, which was mentioned previously. Then, you chop the meat and make different cold meats, sausages, etc. Even though it can be considered cruel, it is an important part of our culture and somehow we appreciate it. They don’t take place when you come, so if you are sensitive, don’t worry.

Big virtual hugs!!!

SEBASTIÀ, ROSALIA AND MARIA

MALLORCAN MUSIC

Hi guys from the Northlands,

today we want to introduce you to our Mallorcan culture explaining how our music is like.  It is divided into two main groups:

1.- Traditional music “boleros” which consist of the combination of different instruments such as the xeremia (similar to a Scottish bagpipe), the zambomba and the drums. People who dance it wear traditional costumes used by landworkers in the past.

2.- Contemporary music, represented by some rock and pop bands such as “Ossifar” and the unique singer Tomeu Penya whose most popular songs are “D'una gatera me vaig casar” o “Illes dins un riu”. This typical Mallorcan man has international recognition.

In the last couple years this music had been decaying but luckily now it is reviving and becoming as popular as it deserves to be, not only for grannies but also for youngsters like us.

Every Mallorcan song represents how Mallorcan society was and is nowadays so that's the reason why it's so popular.

Don't get mad if you don't understand a word of the songs. No one does.

Hope you liked our post, or at least, you didn't hate it.

See you soon.

Bye!

Álvaro and Jaume Toni