Christmas and Santa Claus

Christmas is one of the world’s biggest religious and commercial festivities. It is celebrated every year on December 25.

Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus, but since then, numerous other traditions have been mixed with the originals. The word Christmas originated as a compound meaning "Christ's Mass". "Cristes" is from Greek Christos and "mæsse" is from Latin missa (the holy mass).

Popular customs include gift-giving, decorating Christmas trees, display lights and garlands, church celebrations, sharing traditional Christmas foods (e.g. baked turkey and gingerbread cookies) with family and friends and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive.

Who was Santa Claus? Father Christmas (or 'Santa Claus') has become the face of Christmas. He is based on a real person, St. Nicholas, which explains his other name 'Santa Claus' which comes from the Dutch 'Sinterklaas'. Nicholas was a Christian leader from Myra (in modern-day Turkey) in the 4th century AD. He was very shy, and wanted to give money to poor people without them knowing about it. It is said that one day, he climbed the roof of a house and dropped a purse of money down the chimney. It landed in the stocking which a girl had put to dry by the fire! This may explain the belief that Father Christmas comes down the chimney and places gifts in children's stockings. (copied from google!)

In my country we have a similar holiday, but it’s non-religious. We celebrate it on December 31 and call it “New Year”. Santa Claus is also called different name “Grandfather Frost”. But in general we celebrate it the same way. It is a time for families, fun, and festivities! A time of family gatherings and holiday meals. A time for ornaments, gifts, decorated trees and twinkling lights.

I think Christmas is one of the biggest holiday all over the world which is loved by almost every person, especially by children and it is something more because it brings hope and happiness to people.

My plans for 2011

It is time to take a rest and think about my plans for 2011.
I have complited level 4 in ESOL, but I still have 169 hours left, so I think it is better to continue studying English on higher level course for 2 days a week in next semester.
Also I've complited Certificate III in Financial Service (Bookkeeping), so now I can move on either Certificate IV in Financial Service (Bookkeeping) or Diploma in Accounting.
Sometimes it's seems to me to much studying and I want to stop it for a while, but at the same time it's better to finish the sooner the better.

Halloween

Halloween is celebrated on the night of October 31st mostly by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting sweets.

Halloween spread across Europe over 2, 000 years ago. It was a cultural, religious and Celtic tradition celebrating the end of the harvest season. Although it was not called Halloween at first. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Druid traditions. Then later in the 7 century because of the Catholic Church's influence, it began to be celebrated as “All Saints Day” to honour all the Saints who did not have a special day of their own. So the term Halloween is from 'HALLOWMAS'. ‘Hallow’ means holy or Saint; it is the eve of the feast of ‘All Hallows’ Eve (often shortened to Hallow Eve) or "All Saints' Day". Over time the name has been shortened to Halloween. In the 19th century it was brought to North America by Irish immigrants.

In my country we don’t have such a holiday. I can only compare it to New year, because that's then all children dress-up.

About food

I'm not conservative when it comes to food, I like trying new cuisines and dishes from all over the world. I like everything: spicy, not spicy, salty, sweet and so on.
I find Australian food pretty boring, but what is good in Australia that you can find different kind of food here. And also I have to say that lamb and pies are very delicious in Australia!!!

Two-week break

It was great to have two-week holiday! I enjoyed not having to get up early each day!
The first week when the weather was good my daughter and me went to parks with our friends and enjoyed playing outside, having BBQ and just enjoyed the sun and warmth. But last week it was cold again, I didn't like it but still we went to a children's festival, to a theatre for Gruffalo kids play, to a swimming pool and caught up with a lot of our friends.
My daughter and me had very active holiday, so I didn't have much time to clean my house or do homework for my studying!!! Shame on me :))

The Stories of the Chinese Moon Festival

The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. According to traditional Chinese culture, the moon is a carrier of human emotions. The Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. One of the legends says that Lady Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since and you might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival. The other one is about Jade Rabbit. An empty-handed rabbit offered his own flesh, jumping into a blazing fire to cook himself, so the sages were so touched by the rabbit's sacrifice that they let him live in the Moon Palace where he became the "Jade Rabbit".

Car and Bike Expo

Last Wednesday in TAFE it was a Car and Bike Expo. My group and I enjoyed it very much. We saw many interesting cars and took a lot of photos which you can see above here. Then we got some information and brosures. Afterwards we had some BBQ sausages and chat to each other. It was very usefull!

Father's Day

It was a Father's Day yesterday. We don't have such a day in my country, but we have an Army Day and we congratulate all men and boys on that day. Women and girls present gifts, prepare tasty food and organize some concerts for them.

My daughter was happy yesterday, because her father came from overseas. My daughter and her Dad spent all day together. She prepared and presented some gifts for him in childcare. One of them was a postcard where she painted her father and herself. It's very fanny picture! The second one was a picture with her coloured hand prints. It was so lovely! The third one was a Diploma for the Greatest Dad in the world! Her father was touched by her presents.

Integration into the country

My feelings about integration are quite positive. Nobody called me names and I haven't ever felt like the "odd one out". Perhaps even the opposite, I remember when I first came to Australia I was pregnant and people were always interested in asking me about my due date and what I wanted. It was so kind. In Kazakhstan nobody ever asks these questions!

Then when my daughter was born I got a lot of compliments about her. I was very surprised how open people are here.

My personal experience tells me that in my everyday life my only language difficulties are with expressing myself in English, but maybe it might be different when I have to try to find a job. Maybe in the future I will face some language problems.

My weekend

It was quite busy weekend. I tried to do a million things around the house. I had an unsuccessful shopping trip. I had to think about and organise my daughter's birthday because she is turning 3 in two weeks time and I'm a little bit nervous about it because it's her first party and some things may not go as I planned.

But still we had a good weekend. On Saturday morning we went to one of our friends for a kind of lesson for kids and it was a lot of fun. Then later in the evening we had a dinner with our good friends that we haven't seen for a long time because they were overseas and have just come back.

Language-learning tips

Here are my ten language-learning tips:

1. Go on holiday to English-speaking countries;
2. Talk to native English speakers and your neighbours;
3. Watch TV, movies, cartoons and news in English;
4. Listen to the radio;
5. Listen to English songs;
6. Read newspapers, magazines and English books;
7. Use computer programmes;
8. Use a bilingual dictionary;
9. Write down words on stickers and put them on the wall where you can see them often;
10. Make your own blog and practice writing there ;))

Festival in Kazakhstan

The biggest festival around the country is for Nauryz. It is the spring festival on 22 March which simbolise the beginning of New Year. There are a lot of competitions during the day, for example horse riding or playing Dombra (Kazakh traditional music instrument) and singing songs made up on the spot. On this day family get togethers and people do traditional sports, dance, eat food and drink. It's very positive and kind celebration.

My lovely city

I really like my home city which is Almaty. It's the biggest city of Kazakhstan and very nice place to live. The people are very friendly and open. The city is surrounded by one of the highest beautiful range of Tien-Shan mountains. You can skiing, hiking, cycling, climbing and everything you like. There ia a good weather and bright shining sun most of the year.

About me

Hello everybody. My name is Tatyana. I 'm from Kazakhstan. I immigrated in Australia 8 months ago. I have a daughter. Now I'm studying English and accounting at TAFE. After finishing my courses I'm planning to find a job.