This semester I intend to produce the same writings and project assignments I ask my students to work on. Therefore, I will be posting my own written production, which you´re all invited to comment on. Our class´ first stage of the project is to write about a festival; this time writing about it as if we had been there. Here is my try:
*** Adjectives have been highlighted in orange.
*** Defining and non-defining clauses have been highlighted in purple.
Cologne: Multicolored Festivity to Warm the Frozen Heart
Kölle Allaf! This unencrypted message to some of us, Spanish speakers, welcomed me to the most incredible carnival ever. Freezing temperatures and the sounds of a language I barely understand did not prevent me from feeling the warmth of the people speaking it. Do accompany me through the streets of Cologne in Germany.
At 11 minutes past 11 on November 11th every year, Cologne streets are dressed with the most amazing lively tones to defy winter colors. Picture this: you standing in the middle of Cologne´s main street, you are definitely cold, freezing cold, not alone though, a human swarm greeting each other and exchanging both smiles and long thin cylindrical glasses filled with a bright straw yellow-hue liquid (that is right! beer!). Later, at a bar, golden after golden vial, which you can kindly reject by covering them with a beermat, are placed in front of you.
Out in the streets again there is no time for grieving, there is only time to be amused. Green, red, yellow, a full array of dancing ballons float to match the masquerade of multicolored festivity-goers who populate the already busy streets to welcome the masters of the event: here he comes; peacock-tail crowned; chain around his neck; a girdle with glitzy stones; a sceptre, which represents fertility, in his hand: the prince, who, in turn, is accompanied by his fellowman, the farmer, to finally let me awe in surprise as I see a graceful feminine figure, "thre Lieblichkeit," who is no longer a gracious being to me as she approaches to let me realize she is a he, which, my nice German host explains, is the way the virgin (one of the carnival´s main characters) is represented every year.
It is time for us to go back home; Cologne Carnival is not any closer to an end: cheering crowds will continue singing kölsch chants I will not be able to understand soon but which will forever make my heart feel alive and my love for Germany and their friendly people sprout.
By Ángela Forero Aponte (who has never been to the Cologne Carnival but wanted to do this writing exercise for her students).
*** Adjectives have been highlighted in orange.
*** Defining and non-defining clauses have been highlighted in purple.
Picture retrieved from http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2176/2242952594_08cbfee8f5.jpg
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