Cider

Cider is a traditional drink that is made from apples. This drink consists of fermented apple juice. It’s very popular in Asturias.
It’s made in a ‘llagar’. Apples are collected from the trees and stored until they are ripe. Then, they are crushed to get the liquid. The cider is kept in big barrels until it ferments. Then, it is bottled and sold. There are two types of cider: the acid cider has alcohol. The sweet cider hasn’t got alcohol.

It is peculiar the way it is served. In this ritual the cider must be ‘escanciada’. The taste is different when a good ‘escanciador’ (person who serves the glass of cider) works properly:He (or she) rises the bottle over his head and makes the cider fall against the edge of the glass. When it strikes the glass it becomes oxygenated. That action is called ‘escanciar’. Then, you must drink it at once. You don’t drink it all. Some dregs stay at the bottom of the glass.

That´s the way you have to "escanciar" (Villa is from Asturias and he knows it well)

It is drunk in traditional festivals in Asturias like the ‘Amagüestu’. In this festival adults and children drink cider and eat roasted chestnuts. Children drink sweet cider, of course!. Adults always take the alcoholic drink and sometimes, when the party finishes, they are not very sober.

Here is Marina showing us how to do it

Cider is popular in Asturias because we used to have a lot of apple trees and lots of apples every two years (there’s a good harvest every two years). It is drunk since the Roman period. In the nineteenth century they started to bottle it. They started to ‘escanciar’ it.

Yurena Gancedo y Marina Granda

Mirian´s family

My name is Mirian, I live in Asturias, in the north of Spain. We are a common family: my mum, my dad, my sister and me.

My mum is called Juana. She is forty-six years old. She is a cleaner and she works in a hotel near our town. My dad is called José Ramón. He is a fisherman. My sister’s name is Noelvis. She is twenty-four year old. She doesn’t work. She is a student. She is studying at University in Gijon. My aunt lives ten kilometres away from us. She has got tree children: Angel Roberto is thirty years old; Patricia is twenty-eight yeas old and Dario is twenty-five years old. I like playing football with my cousin Dario.I also have another cousin Abraham. He is five years old. My little cousin is very nice. He says that he wants to marry me. My grandfather, my mother’s father, lives alone in a house, near us, so I can spend a lot of time talking with him. He isn’t mean and he sometimes gives me some money.

Write to me soon. Kisses.

This is me, with my parents, my sister and my brother in law in the day of my First Communium

Selhovians present at Open House Hofstad Lyceum

Some five hundred pupils from primary schools, together with their parents, brothers, sisters and even grandparents visited Hofstad Lyceum today during The Open House. They were impressed by the cultural manifestations in the auditorium, the climbing wall in the sport's center, the exhibition of all subjects in classrooms and in the canteen and above all: the huge variety of possibilities the school offers for exchanging projects. Getting in contact with Europe. In the hall Mr Klinkenberg had organized all kinds of videoconferencing and a special stand was dedicated to......... the exchange with IES Selgas in Cudillero!! Selhovian student Maxime Dekkers was one of the student-guides, showing the visitors all about our project!

More pics of the Open House can be find here: http://www.hofstadlyceum.nl/fotos/thumbnails.php?album=189

Lars in the newspapers!!

Today Lars Hoogelander appeared in two Dutch Newspapers: De Loosduinse Krant and HaagWestNieuws, together good for 65000 readers!! He stood eye-in-eye with a real Roman warrior, facing an enormous sword. Of course he was not afraid at all!! It was all within a project concerning The Old Rome in which Lars took part last Friday. He is one of the Hofstad Lyceum students studying Classic languages (Greek and Latin) as well as Classic culture. Now please, Lars, tell us all about your experiences with that remarkable soldier! We are most curious!

ASTURIAS

Lying in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula to the north of the Cantabrian Mountains, The Principality of Asturias covers an area of 10565 square kilometres. The Cantabrian Sea, to its north, has given shape to an irregular coastline full of estuaries, prominent capes and countless as well as varied beaches, some of them with important extensions of dunes.

The highest mountains can be found near the southern border, which also corresponds with the border of the Cantabrian hydrographic basin, with peaks surpassing 2.000 metres. The easter corner is occupied by the calcareous Picos de Europa with very famous peaks as The Naranjo de Bulnes with 2.549 metres.

The climate is Atlantic with mild or even cold winters and with a regular annual pluviosity that makes of Asturias a very fertile and green land with abundance of forests and pastureland that alternate with high mountains, sandy beaches, foggy areas, sunny places…

Rivers carry much water and there are various and important ones.

Asturias was the first nucleus of resistance against the Moorish invasion of the Peninsula and the first Christian Kingdom in year 760.

Two of the cornerstones of Asturias economy are agriculture (cereals, vegetables and fruit) and stockbreeding (mainly cows for milk production). But Asturias is, above all, an industrial region, specially after the decline of the fishing industry. It is very rich in minerals (coal, mercury, zinc, iron, manganese and copper). Nowadays these industries have been substituted by other industries such as metallurgic or chemical industries.

This is our region and we love it a lot.

Miriam Seivane, Sergio Torres

The winner of the "My bedroom assignment" in Cudillero is: Eva!!

My bedroom is green. It’s small, It is about 8 or 9 square meters, but I've got all my things in it. It has got a green and pink big bed. The curtains are white. From the window I can see Jose's chickens and a street. It is a light room.

It has a big wardrobe. I have a cushion in my bedroom. You can see over the bed, my big beautiful cat.

Next to the bed I have a bedside table with a lamp, money, my mobile phone and a box on it.

The floor is made of wood, the same to the wardrobe. I have a big white rug. I have five book shelves in the walls, with photos and books. I have a lot of books (but I don't like reading), boxes, perfumes, a CD player and a lots of CDs. I love music.

When I get up at seven o'clock I listen to music. Then I put on my clothes or I have a bath. I go to bed at half past eleven. I always put the alarm clock at night. When I don't get up on time, my teacher puts me a bad mark. I spend a lot of time in my bedroom and I like it.

Bye, bye.

The winner of the "My bedroom assignment"in Holland" is: Sandrine!!

Dear Yurena, how are you? Again a mail of me.I hope you like that!This mail is about my room!My room is quite big and the colours of the walls are apple green and blue.I have a largo desk, and a normal sized bed.My window is precisely above it (my bed).Sometimes that is very annoying because if it rains much I can hear it when I am sleeping.I also got a tv! I am his biggest fan :DAnd my computer (who is broken) is on my desk.I also got a night table.At the moment there is a mountain of tissues on because I'm ill.I have got three cupboards in my room.One for clothes, one for my books, and another one for my sport clothes, I really like sports.In my room there is on the wall a white board, you also have that at school.There are pictures and other things on it with a magnet.And the most important thing of my room....... MY MIRROR !!! ok that was a joke :D It is nice because there are some stickers on it and his form is like a wave.I also send some photos of my room! Best wishes Sandrine