Saturday, March 19, 2011

Trip to Delta Blues


Today we are talking about Delta Blues. It is a style of music which was born on the shores of Mississippi (famous and biggest river on the USA).

This story about visiting the virtual copy of this place in Second Life. It was lesson-practice for English conversation.

We (Tony - teacher and me - Anatoly) teleported there (Mississippi Delta Blues) to the center of a small town right on the railroad track.

Railroad track

There is one thing which is the character for this place: brown-color dirt.

We were standing on the dirt and looking around.
Tony said “I am sitting on the grass”
Let’s do exercises for practicing English: just talking about what we are doing, what are we seeing etc.
“Good idea” I said. So “I’m walking to upstairs and going to the wooden porch.”

If we are jumping we should say “I’m jumping.”
While Tony was answering his friend who came in his home in Real Life, I was sitting in this chair

And I was looking this blue car. It is a Vintage Roadster. This model looks beautiful.
Vintage Roadsters: 1931 Ford Model A
We were moving to the house that was like Nike Caraway’s house from the novel “The Great Gatsby” by Fitzgerald.
We opened the door and went into the room.
“Native English people say ‘We went through the door,’ ” Tony said.
“Can you turn on the light?” I asked.
“Another way this sentence could be ‘I turn on the lamp’ ” Tony answered.
We turned off the lamp and continued our journey.
I asked Tony “What are these flowers called?”
“These are called sunflowers,” answered Tony.
We are walking along the railway.

Tony said “Look down. You can see rocks and gravel.”
This is a magnolia tree. It is the state tree of Mississippi.
( bird : cardinal main tree / favorite)

We are going around and around and around (the sim).
This is a cotton field

The Dockery Cotton Plantation was a 10 thousand acre farm. (I am used to square kilometer => unit of area. 10000 acres is 40 square kilometers).
This photo is from Second Life. The owner left there some junk. There is hay for animals. The hay is in haybails.


This photo is from Real Life.
Discription Description

If you have a shed for keeping animals, it is called a barn. (= not hay is in haybails ?)
If animals live in a shed, the shed is called a barn.
We discussed this tractor. I thought this tractor needs repair.
What has happened to the metal on the the tractor? Yes, the metal has rusted (ox-i-dized)
This is a rusty, old farm tractor.

Opposite, on the other side of the railway, we can see a boat for relaxation.

We were walking along an old wooden bridge to the other side of the river.


After that we were warming near a fire on the dirty but very colorful bank of the river side.

The people could ride after listening to Delta Blues. The motorcycle needs gas pumped into it
pumped => pumpt

We discussed Ice cooler freezer or Ice machine (I didn’t know this one before) and bucket

Let’s go in there.
I could stay behind this wooden counter and sell things (My job would be cash register). OK. I’m counter and now it needs to tide here. I asked Tony “If I give you $20, will you take the junk out of my shed and throw it away?” (Junk and Stuff both mean "everything you see, without giving a name").
Tony answered “There are two metal barrels between us”.
I said “Make the junk in the shed neat. We can make a deal”.
We finished this action and went farther. far-ther
It is a creek (small river)



We went to down on the bank of the creek and stayed on a pier. We could see some barrels and trash like this flowing in the creek.

Oh! A lot of insects here. Take care and let’s come back.

We were walking along the path and arrived at a place with a picnic scene.

It was a great trip and good practice for Everyday English.
Of course we must listen to the music of this place (music of Charley Patton, Henry Sloan, John Lee Hooker, Howlin Wolf, and Robert Johnson).

Anatoliy Learner (my nick in Second Life).

External links:
2009 Blues Trip

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