Youth Ambassadors 2012

The Youth Ambassadors program is an opportunity for public school students to spend some time abroad in Washington DC and get to see all the sights and study in schools there!

In order to participate you must be a public school student, have fluency in English and one year of volunteer work!

Normally 35,36 students from Brazil are chosen every year to participate in this dream, and in the 2012 edition one of my ex-students from the Access Program, Thais Dias de Quadros, from Porto Alegre, is the only representative from Rio Grande do Sul to go to the United States! I am so proud of her, because she was one of the best teenager students I have ever had! She deserves it!

Here is the video of her interview for one of the news here in the state! Good luck!

Incentivating Students to Write

One of the ideas I had to make students write creatively is a blog. Each one of the Access Program students has to create a blog, and all the writings thery were supposed to do in class now they post in their blogs. In this way they will explore their creativity, learn how to use a new tool and also connect to other people all over the world.
You will see the links later!

Have a great a night!

TV Shows

One great way of learning English is through TV Shows!

I recommend some:

Friends
How I Met Your Mother
Desperate Housewives
The Amazing Race
Sex and The City

These are some, which ones do you recommend?

Travel Insurance

It doesn't matter where you go, you need one. As much as you think that nothing will happen to you, something will happen to you. I had travel abroad three times before and I never had to use it. This time, that I twisted my ankle, I didn't have one, because I trusted in the travel insurance of the credit card. So, when you travel, please make one.

ISIC is the most famous one! And here is the link for that!

http://www.stb.com.br/servicos-para-viagem/seguro-viagem.aspx?idPlano=7

So don't forget: preventing is always the best medicine!

How to make decisions

Why is life so hard sometimes?

We have to make decisions all the time, some are hard and some are easy to make. Right now I am facing this problem, which makes me very anxious. I need to make decisions about where I will be working this year. I have different possibilities, some of them are well paid, but don't give any stability, and they give me freedom of how many hours I want to work and I can have a good personal life. The other is my opportunity of changing careers. However, it demands a lot of hours and my social life may never be as good again. I said to myself before that I would give myself some free time, in order not to get crazy, but now I do not know what to do.

To have a better personal life but with no expectations of things changing or to have a better professional life, without being able to live properly? Actually the second option is possible to have a personal life, but not sure of how much $ I will be able to make, so I would have to teach part time.

It is funny that in the business school you learn how to make decisions, using criteria and stuff. But what is theory seems so far from practice. Nowadays if you have a business, and you are just sitting on the couch waiting for them to happen, not getting any kind of update or adaptating yourself you might as well disappear.  Even as a person, you need to adapt yourself according to the situations that are coming your way.

What makes life interesting is the uncertainty of the future. I have to think like this, because if we have everything going according to our plans you know exactly what is going to happen. So that's what makes life so exciting.

New Year - Promises

So...2011...a new year...so time to make plans about what we want to happen in our future...

so...don't forget to use WILL for that, when you are not sure about it, or that you just decided:

I will get a new job.
I will get married.
I will lose 10 pounds.
I will study more.

you can also use BE GOING TO for your intentions, when you are certain about what is going to happen:
I am going to start working out.
I am going to open my own business.

now it's time for you to make a list of your plans for this year!

Happy New Year!

How to plan a cheap trip!

For those who want to spend little money but to have a great trip abroad, I have great news: It's possible!

 For example, I just planned my trip to the US and I didn't spend much. I will spend three weeks there and I will visit Miami, New York City, Washington D.C. and Orlando.

It helps if you can stay at a friend's house, that saves a lot of money!

Let me show my expenses:
Plane ticket POA - Miami - 657 dollars
Plane ticket Miami - New York - 100 dollars
Hostel in New York for seven nights - 220 dollars
Bus ticket from New York to Washington D.C. - 25 dollars
Hostel in DC for two nights - 79 dollars
Plane ticket DC - Orlando - 75 dollars
Hotel Orlando for seven nights - 220 dollars
Bus Orlando - Miami - 30 dollars
Friend's house in Miami for a week - 0 dollars (yahoo!!!!!)
Tickets for the theme parks for six days 300 dollars (you can save money here if you have friends working there)

Total cost: 1706 dollars = 3070 reais

600 dollars for extra costs

It is cheaper to do this than going to Recife or Fortaleza for example!

One website to save money on plane tickets

http://www.melhoresdestinos.com.br/

you can also follow them on twitter: @passagensaereas

Welcome to my Blog!

Então pessoal! Esse é o meu blog. Aqui vocês saberâo mais sobre o meu trabalho e também terão a oportunidade de praticar a língua com alguns artigos e links para estudo da língua inglesa. Também terão dicas sobre viagens e intercâmbios.

Abraço!