"I bet he wasn't folding laundry."

Carol Greider, winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine, on what she was doing at 5 a.m. when the big call came, and her thoughts on learning of President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.
Read more.

Psychiatry and Art

The idea that there is a thin line between creativity and madness has been around for centuries. But now, for the first time, there's some insight into why the two might be mirror images of each other. The list of great artists who might have suffered from some sort of mental illness is almost endless: Edgar Allan Poe, William Blake, Lord Byron, Sylvia Plath, Georgia O'Keeffe and Virginia Woolf are only the tip of the iceberg.Read More.

The University of Valencia has organized an exhibition of great interest at La Nau (C/Universitat, 2). It opens tomorrow with a Lecture by Hélène Tropé (Paris III). "Madness and Inquisition in Spain in XVI and XVII c." is the title of the talk that will take place at The Paraninfo.

The agenda for this term

"Moving on Theatre Company" will be coming to our school with a new play "Food for Thought" on Wednesday 16th of December. There will be two shows, one at 11 and the other at 19.00. The show, as all those who came last year will remember is easy to follow and appropriate for students at basic and intermediate levels, although advance levels are also welcome.

The Coordination is also organizing a visit to MUVIM. In the above link you can download the audio file with an introduction to the visit.
Those interested should ask their teacher or contact the Department Coordinater at the blog address.
There will be a Guide in English and no entrance fee.
The permanent exhibition includes the main thinkers since the Middle Ages to the present day Darwin, Diderot, Marx, Einstein, Freud, etc.). Besides there is another exhibition of Valencian Design. There is the possibility of taking photographs of the labels of the posters with your mobile and translate them in English or, alternaltively write inspired captions of the ones you like best..

As the groups are limited to twenty people, we have to organize the visit in advance in order to book with the Museum, so, please, let us know your name and the best time and day for you. The visits will be between the end of October and beginning of November.

Finally, those who love OV films have the option of watching Tarantino's and Woody Allen's last releases at UGC, Babel or Albatros. Check with the daily paper for times and theatres. all of them have discounts with the EOI student's card!

E-vent

Please write to me at eventeoivalencia at blogspot.com

Not in English!

This week the programme at The film institute in Valencia does not include any films in English, but for film fans this is always an opportunity to get to know work from Argentina, France or Italy. If you see any of these films don't hesitate to tell us about it and recomend the best choices to our readers.

Welcome to the new academic year 2009-2010 at Valencia EOI

Hi everybody!

This message is to welcome you all to "e-vent", the English Department Culture Blog at Valencia EOI. As you can see a few changes have been introduced to make it easier for you to find the contents.  Different tags will lead you to contents organised around five main areas: welcome, audio and video, agenda, cinema and students. This last section is for you to take the floor and publish your best pieces. Don't hesitate to ask your teacher for help.

As last year, the aim of the Cuture Coordination is to foster the relationship between language learning and the understanding of the world as a set of shared values, behaviours, customs, arts and symbols. The agenda will include information about whats on at The Film Institute in Valencia, at the Theatres, but also Exhibitions, Lectures and Courses. We understand that we are living in a global world in which English is widely spoken. As Spanish citizens who speak English we want to be able to communicate world wide with a variety of people who speak different tongues but whose common language is English.

This year's programme includes a trip to New York in March (13th to 20th) given that the one to London was so successful. This trip will give us the opportunity to visit Manhattan, the MOMA, and other sites we have been familiar with by watching films and reading novels located there.

We will also reapeat The English Tea Experience due to the interest both of teachers and students to share recipies and contribute to a good cause. We shall have interesting people talking about relevant issues, a visit to MUVIM, a show and some other funny activities.

Any suggestions? Do you want to collaborate?

Students contributions

Writing in the blog is still scary for some students. Luckily, some of them have decided to take the floor and write again.
Ximo Rey

An adventure story

I heard about this documentary in a podcast from The Guardian Film Review. I found it so amazing that I wanted to share it.

The situation today: peace or war?

Conversational strategies between men and women differ. Traditionally, men rulled silently inside the family and women complained. They cried and shouted. They claimed: "This is unfair!" When they remained quiet, it was because they complained to the priest in church. He always found ways to motivate them and keep them going as good wives. Keep reading.

The place of women in language: On gender, sex and power

Dr. José Santaemilia, Associate Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the Universitat de València, as well as a legal and literary translator will be at the school this evening at seven oc'clock.

The title of his talk is "The place of women in language: On gender, sex and power" . Until very recently, women have been largely invisible in language. In this talk Santaemilia will introduce students to the field of gender and language studies, which looks at history, philosophy or psychology to understand the reasons for women’s subordination in language, for the different conversational strategies used by men or women, or for linguistic sexism.

International Book Day

Today, as you all know, we celebrate The International Book Day, The same day Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare died, according to tradition. But 2009 has not been a very good year for publishers, who are undergoing a great crisis due to a growing competitive digital industry. Small bookshops are suffering most from this situation. But in our Information Society traditional literacy is becoming something of the past. Digital literacy is what is at stake now because we are running the risk of leaving a great part of our population behind if we do not do something to fill the digital gap. See Europe's Information Society
to read how ICTs affect our lives every day.

VI EOI National Conference

Towards New Horizons was the title of the EEOOII Conference held in Las Palmas (The Canary Islands) last week. About 300 teachers from most Spanish Autonomous Communities attended it (April 2-4). Most Local Governments have committed themselves to the modernization ot the Official Language Schools as languages are becoming more and more a deciding factor in the opportunities offered to the citizens. Besides, as an Arabic proverb says

Jim Jarmusch, at the Film Institute

This week, the Film Institute is showing Dead Man, an anti-western, by Jim Jarmusch, an American independent filmmaker and script writer, whose films are admired by some of us because of his original approach. Stranger Than Paradise and Down by Law are some of his early films. Jarmusch worked as an assistant to director Nicholas Ray. Through Ray's efforts, he became a production assistant on Wim Wenders' documentary, "Lightning Over Water" (1980). Read more at the wikipedia.