Handball

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Rebecca Steffen, Switzerland

Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven payers each (six outcourt and one goalkeeper) passing a ball using their hands with the objective to throw the ball in the goal of the other team. A usual game is including two periods of 30 min. Modern Handball is played on a court of 40 by 20 meters and at the end of both sides is a goal in the middle. Each goal has a 6-meter zone where just the goalkeeper is allowed to stand in. If you want to throw the ball in the goal, and score, than you have to throw the ball away before you step in the zone. This type of sport is an indoor activity. The game is fast and high-scoring. High qualified teams are scoring between 20-30 goals in one hour. Body contact is permitted in the whole game. It’s very important to defend your attackers. This sport is more brutal than a lot of people think. There is no equipment mandated, even though there is a lot of body contact used.

The game was invented in the 19th century in Denmark. The first official match was played in Germany in the same year. The first international games were played under these rules for men in 1925 and for women in 1930. Since 1972, Handall has been part of the summer Olympics in Munich. The sport is very common in a lot of European countries.

Andy Schmied one of the best players in the world.

Rules:

To win the game you have to follow a viarity of rules which are:

  • After you received the ball, you have to pass, keep possession, or shoot the ball.
  • The players aren’t allowed to touch the ball with the feet, otherwise possession of the ball goes to the other team. Only the goalkeeper is allowed to do it as long as it is in the 6-meter zone.
  • If you are in possession of the ball, you have to dribble or make your three steps.
  • The ball may not be allowed to pass back to the goalkeeper when he is standing in the zone.
  • Notable scoring opportunities can occur when attacking players jump into the goal area. For example, an attacking player catch a pass while launching inside the goal area, and then shoot or pass before touching the floor.

A standard match has two 30-minute halves with a 10- or 15-minute halftime intermission. At half-time, teams switch sides of the court as well as benches. If a decision must be reached in a particular match, and it ends in a draw after regular time, there are at maximum two overtimes, each consisting of two straight 5-minute periods with a one-minute break in between. If this not the end of the game, there will be a penalty shootout. Each team has three time-outs per game. During the game you can substitute players as much as you want.

  • Left and right wingman (LW/RW). These typically are fast players who are good at ball control and wide jumps from the outside of the goal in order to get into a better shooting perspective at the goal.
  • Left and right backcourt (LB/RB). Goal attempts by these players are typically made by jumping high and shooting over the defenders. Normally, it is advantageous to have tall players with a powerful shot for this position.
  • Centre backcourt (CB). A player with experience is perfect on this position who acts as playmaker.
  • Pivot(P). This player tends to help with the defence, setting picks and helps to disrupt the offense’s formation. This position requires the least jumping skills; but ball control and physical strength are the most required.

If you have the chance to play this sport, take the opportunity and have fun. It’s a fast and dynamic sport how have a lot of changes and variety in each game. It is not easy to be successful and not a sport with which you can be a millionaire like soccer. If you want to be successful you have to start when you are young and it has to be your passion.

Handball is one of my favorite sports, and that’s why I used to play it for a long time. It’s a very active, challenging, high scoring and fun sport. I live playing in a team, that’s why I choose this sport. It’s metal thinking, push each other and let your aggression out. There are a lot of tricks, but patience to learn all these and to use it in the match. All the time there is something to do. You speak a lot during the game, that you act together as a team, that’s the most important thing. I played as a left backcourt. You take focus on a strong shoot and jumping high. The possession is perfect for me, because I’m tall, so I can throw the ball over the others.

Malta

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It’s a very small island, near Sicily in the Mediterrean sea. They used to be under British rule but they have been Independent since 1964. So everyone speaks English, locals can also speak Malterese, which sounds like Arabic, English and Italian. The climate of Malta is typically Mediterranean, with hot, dry summers, warm and sporadically wet autumns, and short, cool winters with adequate rainfall. So the best time to go there is during summer and spring. 

I went there for the first time with my friends three years ago. We loved it as much as we came back every past year there during summer , so for 3 consecutive years we had our vacation there in July or August for two weeks. We met a lot of people who were from everywhere, like Spain, France and Italy, so it was good also for new friendships!

There’s not a lot of things to do, but we liked the people, stay there in the beach and the atmosphere. During the night you can have fun in a famous part of the Island called Paceville, in which you can find a lot for pub, disco and cool restaurants:

 

During the day indeed you can visit some beaches, there’s not a lot of it, but these are so good. For example: Mellieha, Golden bay and Ramla bay. There are another different beaches you can visit which aren’t with sand but with rocks, still so beautiful to visit and stay there. Melliha is the famous one, It’s pretty good but alway crowded, so I don’t really like it, I prefer another beach called Golden bay, everybody doesen’t want to go there beacuse it’s take a lots of time go there and the way it’s pretty difficult.

Malta is very famous for its history, it has a lot of museums and archaeological sites, I went to all of them. It was a really interesting and great visit even if you have to walk a lot. These are the name of archaeological sites that I think everyone has to visit if come to Malta:  Scorba, Ta Hagrat, Hagar Qim and Tarscen, 

There’s some photo:

Also Malta, being in the mediterrian, has very good food. The typical meal is the Ftira panino, a typical sandwich in which there are olives, tomatoes, tuna capers and olive oil. I tried it and It’s so good! Another typical meal is fish, every type of fish, all the maltenese people are so good at cooking it. There are also some good Pizzeria, even if you are not in Italy you have to try it because they are so good at cooking it!

You can arrive in Malta easily with its airplane company called AirMalta, you can find a really good price and it’s so comfortable. Probably the travel in an airplane might be turbulent because of the wind in the sea. 

As far as your money goes, Malta is one of the best buys in Europe. All the meals are under €10 ($13), guesthouses for €60 ($79) per night. Plus cheap local wine and lots of pastizzi (ricotta-filled pastries) and pizza for less than a euro each! So yeah I really love Malta also for this, all the things are so cheap.

Caterina Zanetto

How to Be Introduced into Death Metal?

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By Simon Briand, France

Death Metal is a heavy metal subgenre. It is supposed to be more brutal and violent than any other kind of Metal subgenre and any other kind of music. Most of the time, Death Metal is labeled as brutal music without any means or purpose, listened to by beer-drinker dolts or violent brainless yobs. Nevertheless, in spite of the violence of the genre, this music is quite complex and the brutality is used to emphasize some themes that are very important to the bands. Furthermore, the listeners aren’t as dumb as some people may think. In concert, Death Metal fans just like to enjoy the flow of the music with some Heavy Metal rifs, such as the circle pit, the mosh pit or the Wall of Death… Today, I’m going to share with you some of my favourite titles from the best Death Metal bands to introduce you to this unfairly misunderstood genre . So be prepared for a good dose of heavy and loud music!

There is an exemple of a good Wall of Death, not as violent as it seems.

Death (Florida 1983-2001)

“Death,” with their first album “Scream Bloody Gore” released in 1987, created Death Metal (even though there is a debate where some people argue that the first true Death Metal album is “Seven Churches” (1985) by “Possessed,” However, I don’t consider this band as the creators of the genre.) Death was led by the talented guitarist-singer Chuck Schuldiner, who brought more and more virtue to the genre throughout every album. He is a legend to guitar players and people who want to emulate him. None of these albums are bad. They’re all unique and will uplift you. My personal favourite is their first album, but if you’re not really into sheer violence, you can begin your path with “Human,” released in 1991. If you like this album, you should listen to all of them. This song below is the one that introduced me to “Death”:

Cannibal Corpse (New York/ Florida 1988)

This band is one of the most well-known bands when you begin to get into Heavy Metal. Cannibal Corpse is also known for being a Brutal Death Metal band and for their graphic album covers drawn by Vince Locke. In fact, their lyrics are quiet graphic as well, telling us some gory and chilling stories, surrounded by the violence of the music to emphasize the violence of the stories (“Inhumane Harvest,” for instance, talks about kidnapping people for their organs as if they were cattle. If you’re sensible, do not watch the video clip), sung with a deep growly voice. I know for sure that it doesn’t fit everybody, however, I’ll make you discover the track “Scourge of Iron” from the 2012 album “Torture,” a heavy, but very technical track.

Obituary (Florida 1984)

Another band from Florida. In fact, most of the first Death metal bands come from the city of Tampa in Florida, and Obituary is one of the founding fathers of the genre. The band is different from the other ones because of the atypic growl of the singer John Tardy. With their album “Wolrd Demise” released in 1994, Obituary talks about the pollution problem that were occuring back in the 90’s (which had worsen more and more up to our days). This band is also special to me, because it’s one of the band that helped me to get into Heavy Metal, thanks to their cartoonish video clip “Violence”, a good title to describe the track and the band.

Cattle Decapitation (San Diego 1996)

Finally, a Death metal band from the West-cost. This band is labeled as Brutal Death Metal, and for sure, the music is as brutal as the lyrics are. Indeed, this band is mostly writing about the negative effects of human beings on our planet, we can say that they’re kind of misanthropic. Cattle Decapitation portrays throughout their album some distopian worlds where either animals are taking the control over humans or where Earth is giving back to humans everything they’ve done towards the Earth. The better example -and the best album in my opinion- would be “Death Atlas”, such a technical, beautiful and bitter album wich manages to spread the feelings of the band about this theme. In this album from 2019, it seems that they’ve predicted the current COVID event with “Bring Back The Plague”. However, I want to make you discover my favourite track “The Genocide”.

Sepultura(Belo Horizonte 1984)

We will now leave the United States for Brazil! Sepultura is the first band that my father showed me, back when I was still a child and a novice. This band is the biggest Metal band in South America. Always reinventing themselves, they were adding some tribal rime into their music as they were progressing throught time. Being born in Bazil, the membres are pollitically involved because of the corrupsion, propaganda and dictatorship’s issues. They’re lyrics often talk about repression, dictature, but also the Brazilian/ tribal pride.Nevertheless, a lot of the first hours fans do not continue to listen to Sepultura nowadays, because their first frontman, the great Max Cavalera, left the band in 1996, because of some issues with the band (after that, he began different project, whom “Soulfly”, “Cavalera Consperacy” with his brother, former drummer of Sepultura, who left some years after his brother, and “Killer be killed” for my favourites). He was replaced by Derrick Green (who is a great singer as well). The last album with Max Cavalera was “Roots” in 1996, the albums that would follow are considered less good, however, in my opinion, the best album of this era is their last, “Quadra”, released in 2020. However, I’m gonna to share with you the track “Territory” from Chaos A.D. (1993).

Gojira(Ondres 1996)

We end up this retrospective with a French band, and one of the most well-known Death Metal band in the world, having, for instance, opened for Metallica. Such as Cattle Decapitation, this band cares a lot about the Earth and the marine’s life, showed with tracks like “Flying Whales” or “Toxic Garbage Island”. They’re playing a Progressive Death Metal, a screaming voice rather than growling one, even though it’s quite complicated to find the limit between both of them, and some new guitare sounds that you won’t here anywhere else. They’re really close to natural theme and tribal rime, listening a Gojira’s album is a trully transcendantal experience, they manage to fill you up with a lot of emotions and the result is breathtking. The best exemple is their 2012 album “L’enfant Sauvage” (French Words which mean “The wild child”). This album is one of my favourite and it’s the one that I recommand you if you want to listen to Gojira, with the mezmerizing track “The Gift of Guilt”, a song so powerful that it could make you cry and relax you by the same time.

With this little selection, I hope you will be interessed by this new genre of music that is not the most listened nowadays. I wanted to share with you my passion and introduce you this genre which can deal with a lot of very deep subjects. If Death Metal interessed you, just search some more band who could fit more with what you research in music, I’ve just shared you some of my favourite band, there is some more that you can search if you want to discover more, it’s a very wide world:

Rotting Christ (Greece), Dying Fetus(Maryland), Bolt Thrower(England), Entombed (Stockholm), Massacre(Florida (Tampa once again)), Bloodbath(Stockholm), Disma(New Jersey)…

One of the line-up of Death, the creators of Death Metal.
One of the softest Cannibal Corpse cover that I could find. You can find some more in the internet if you’re curious!
The Back of the last Sepultura’s album “Quadra” with their iconic S shape logo, one of the best logo that could exist!

Three types of climbing

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by Natascha von Arb, from Switzerland

” The best view comes after the hardest climb “

At the beginning I will describe the three types. The first types is, “Bouldern”. When you go bouldern you don’t need anything to help you climb. You climb only with the power in your arms, leg and whole body. The second types is “Free Climbing”. For Free Climbing you need also nothing to climb, just, a safety rope. The third type of climbing is “Ice Climbing”. For Ice Climbing, you need a safety rope, crampon, ice screws and an ice pick. In the next part, I describe the three types in detail.

Kletterarten - welche gibt es und was zeichnet sie aus | Klettertrip.de

Bouldern

Bouldern is my favorite type of climbing. It is challenging, because you need so much power for reaching your goal. When you go bouldern, you need just a climbing harness, or you can do this without one. By bouldering you do not go as high as usual when you go climbing. You can bouldern in a climbing hall or you can also do this on a rock. For bouldern on a rock, you need a partner. This photo shows you, when you fall that you fall on the bouldering mat. The mat is good to take with you because it is light and you can carry it like an backpack. This you need just for bouldering on a rock, because in the hall you have the mat on the floor. It is for your safety if you should fall. You can go bouldern in a hall without much climbing experience, but for bouldern on a rock you need much experience and power.

Klettern im Aktivurlaub auf Reise.de

Free climbing

The second type is also my favorite of climbing. It is free climbing. This type is the most famous type of climbing. You need a climbing harness, saftey rope, climbing finches, climbing helmet, carabians for safe you. For this you need a climbing course because without an course it is too dangerous. You never go alone and you must know how you to save your partner. Climbing is not just for fun, it is a dangerous sport type. Free climbing you can practice in a hall or on the rock. In summer, most climbers go to the rock and in the winter they go in the hall for training. A free climber makes long routes on the rock and goes higher than a boulder climber. It also requires very much power and especially technology. Most climbers also go bouldern for practice the technology and build up the power in the arms, legs and the whole body strength.

Melissa Le Nevé, Melissa Le Nevé controlling Bionic commando 8c+ at Jesuswand, Germany, Fabian Buhl - PlanetMountain.com

Ice climbing

Ice climbing is a type for experienced climbers. It it not so easy. Ice climbing is for example: you climb up a frozen waterfall. This is not without risik. I have never tried it, but maybe one time I will try. This type of climbing is done with a mountain guide if you have no experience or not trained. For the ice climbing you need special equipment. You have to read this in the first section.

Eisklettern: 3 Locations für die frostige Challenge | #BeatYesterday

I hope I gave you some information about How?, Where? and What you need? to go climbing. For me, it is a very great sport and also an impressive sport.

La ciudad Blanca

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Manuel Benavides, Colombia

Today, I am going to talk about my home city, Popayán. I will show you our culture,typical food and our main traditions.

Popayán, la ciudad blanca (y deliciosa) de Colombia

Popayán is a small city in the south of Colombia. It is one of the oldest cities in Latin America as well with almost 500 years since it was founded. We have a religious and traditional culture inherited from Spain, but also a mix of them between black and native people. This city has been my home my whole life and I am so glad for that.

SEMANA SANTA

Semana Santa de Popayán se salva de su viacrucis – Luis Fernando Velasco Chaves

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Your message has been sent

CARNIVALS

The Pubenza Carnival began as a celebration of the multiculturalism of my city. It starts in the first week of January. We have parades, cultural shows, singers,dj’s and some parks to play with Carioca,talcos,and colors. At night we have clubs, shows and many places to drink.

TYPICAL FOOD

CARANTANTA: It Is a corn tortilla. EMPANADAS DE PIPIAN:It Is empanada that you can find just in Popayán.

NOCHE BUENA :It is a combination of fried in syrup with puff pastry. This dish is only made in December.

My Top Four Songs

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NICO SANWALD, SWITZERLAND

My name is Nico and today I want to write about my top 4 songs and why they are worthy to be on your playlist.

My favorite one of them all is “Rewrite The Stars” by Zac Efron and Zendaya. With it’s catchy track and emotions, it is a perfect song for a lonely night when you’re thinking about your crush or boyfriend/girlfriend. It is perfect for duets and you can put your full mood into it.

My second choice is “All I want” by Lauren Spencer-Smith. Lauren put all her emotions into this song and you can really hear it. Just a perfect song if you are in the: I hate my ex, but I miss him/her mood, as well as for an emotional solo performance in your room or even at the talent show of your school.

Mt third place is “Pancakes for Dinner” by Lizzy McAlpine. I love the acoustics in the background and the words that she used to write the song. Here as well, written and sung with emotion. The voice just fits the song perfectly. Perfect to sing in a sad phase of the day/week. I can identify myself with this song, because I flew to the United States and who knows, maybe I will sing this song to somebody after my journey.


My fourth place is “What Christmas Means” by Paige Gold. This is my absolutely favorite Christmas song. With it’s almost normal track, you could listen to it the whole season. It’s a song that won’t get out of your head as you listen to it even once.

The Best Experience I’ve Had for the Moment

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By Mariana Tobón (from Colombia)

Since I started to travel with my family and even alone visiting different countries, I had never felt that freedom to do whatever I wanted to without asking my parents or my guardian at that moment. Then I found EF last year ( 2019), and I planned my trip to go to Malta with them to study English. I chose Malta because it was the cheapest course they offered me at that moment. Even though I didn’t know anything about Malta ( like the location, culture, weather, even the main language where they also speak English), I decided to travel there.

When I arrived in Malta, I was so nervous because my English at that moment wasn’t good. The first person I met there was my host mom when I showed up at her house ,which was 20 minutes walking towards the school, then my roommate that night. The class schedule for each week , EF had prepared a welcome party on Mondays, a midweek party on Wednesdays and another on Fridays. Thanks to them I met lovely new people easily and make new friends.

Malta is an archipelago located in the central Mediterranean below Italy. It’s famous for its diving, architectural sites, and festivals. Malta is also a popular film location. Some films like Gladiator, Troy, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Game of Thrones have scenes filmed on their landscapes. I could visit some of the most famous places.

Valleta is the capital of Malta

Popeye village

Malta has been the most awesome experience in my life for the moment. I got to know new different cultures, meet lovely people who are still my friends, and I created unforgettable memories that will last forever.

The Beginning of the Space Travel Era?

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The launch of SpaceX's Crew Dragon for the Demo-2 mission.
Changseok Lee, South of Korea

I think everyone wants to travel in the universe because the Universe includes many secrets. Humans have always wonder about it. Many people study the universe. They and I believe the Science will prove it. We have always wanted space travel and Intellectuals are trying to find a second earth. Many things are only in our imagination.

We have always relied only on government agencies, but now it is different. Recently Space X successfully launched a manned spacecraft. It’s a sensation because it is the first time that an enterprise has succeeded. That’s a remarkable development.

Article Author’s Name: Changseok Lee

Date: Nov. 18. 2020

Class: A2.3

Switzerland

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By Simon Gygli, Switzerland

Switzerland is a small country in the middle of Europe. I was born there and, actually, when I’m not in the USA, I live there. So I will tell you something about this beautiful country.

In Switzerland, you can do a lot of activities. We don’t have an ocean, but in summer you can swim in our rivers or lakes. Most of the time in the summer we have sun and more than 25 degrees (77 Fahrenheit). If you don’t like to swim, you can go hike in the mountains or rent a bike to visit a city.

Photo by Simon Gygli

In the winter, most of the time the weather is very cold, but the good thing is we have snow. So you can go skiing in the mountains. It’s very fun! If you cannot ski, you can rent a sled and go down the hill.

If you like sports, you can go to see a match of ice hockey or soccer. These are two of the most popular sports in Switzerland. When you go to the stadium, there is usually a full house and it is a great atmosphere.

Photo by Simon Gygli

The specialty food in Switzerland is fondue. For a “fondue” you take a big pan, full it with cheese and cook it. When the cheese is hot, you put the pan on the table. Now everybody can put a piece of bread on his fork and put it in the pan. You can also eat fondue with potatoes.

Cheese Fondue | Rocky Mountain Lodge

Top 3 Recommended Japanese Dishes

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By Takumi Osawa, From Japan

I’m going to recommend Japanese food and drink. There are many kinds of Japanese food. I chose the three dishes. You should try to eat and drink it, when you come to Japan.

First, Ramen.

Ramen is very popular in Japan. When you eat ramen in winter, it will make your body warm. Most Japanese people like ramen.

In Japan, there are so many ramen restaurants so that it shouldn’t be very hard to find a ramen you like. In other words, you can try so many types of ramen.

But I think it’s very hard to find a ramen which suits your taste, so I’m going to give you special information. I really recommend “miso-ramen.” “Miso-ramen” is the most popular of many kinds of ramen in Japan. Of course, “Miso-ramen” is my favorite ramen. If you can’t decide which kinds of ramen to eat, you should try to eat “miso- ramen.”

Second, Sushi.

I know you’ve already known “sushi”. “Sushi” is also very popular food in Japan. I can say that Sushi is traditional Japanese food. Sushi has a history of over 1,300 years.

There are many sushi restaurants in all of the world so that you can try to eat sushi easily. I think many people have eaten sushi ever. But original Japanese sushi is different from sushi you’ve eaten it outside of Japan. I can’t explain how different its taste is. But If you try to eat sushi in Japan, you can recognize the difference between original Japanese sushi and sushi you’ve eaten ever.

I’m going to give you special information. I recommend drinking Japanese-sake with sushi. The combination between Japanese-sake and sushi is very good. If you are more than 20 years old, you should try it. But Japanese-sake is very strong alcohol, so be careful not to drink too much.

If you have a chance to come to Japan, you should try to eat sushi and enjoy original Japanese sushi.

Third, Japanese tea.

Japanese tea is a very healthy drink. It helps for your health. Japanese tea is called “ocha” by Japanese people. I want you to remember “ocha” and want to you use “ocha” when you visit Japan.

Japanese tea is loved by most of Japanese people. Japanese tea goes well with many Japanese food. I recommend drinking Japanese tea with sushi. The combination between Japanese sushi and Japanese tea is very good.

There are two types of Japanese tea. One is cold Japanese tea, another is hot Japanese tea. Both of them is very good teste. You should drink cold Japanese tea in hot season. It makes your body cooler. Also, you should drink hot Japanese tea in cold season. It makes your body warm.

You can get a Japanese tea easily at supermarket, convenience store or vending machine in Japan. You should get a Japanese tea when you visit Japan. Enjoy drinking Japanese tea.

Takumi Osawa

November 16, 2020

A2 / B1 English Communication M / W