FLYING FROM RIO DE JANEIRO TO SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Johan Cruyff, The Flying Dutchman

Today, The Beans have continued their English classes reviewing some aspects of the Past Simple with the irregular forms. 

After doing some exercises, the family has adviced Edgar Bean, who has an offer to play in the Brazilian Football League, to continue with the family and try to find a better offer in the European Leagues. The family has been discussing about legends like Pelé, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Buffon and Messi, people who have changed football forever.

Tomorrow, it's Saint Valentine and some Beans have been talking about their memories about their first dates after reading a little more of Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol.

More information: Past Simple (Irregular Verbs)

The family is flying from Rio de Janeiro to San Francisco, California. It's a 16-hours flight again, and The Beans are a little exhausted because of the rythm of the Carnival in Rio. This is the main reason because some members of the family have decided to read some English grammar books and some English novels that Eli Bond-Bean and Natalia Bean bought in their last staying in New York.

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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. The consolidated city-county covers an area of about 121 km2 mostly at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Grandma at the Summer Solstice Festival (1967)

San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, all named for St. Francis of Assisi. 

The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. 

In World War II, San Francisco was a major port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. It then became the birthplace of the United Nations in 1945.

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After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, massive immigration, liberalizing attitudes, along with the rise of the hippie counterculture, the Sexual Revolution, the Peace Movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines.

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Success is no accident. 

It is hard work, perseverance, 

learning, studying, sacrifice 

and most of all, 

love of what you are doing or learning to do. 

Pelé

ELI BOND-BEAN'S BIRTHDAY IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The Beans celebrating Eli's Birthday

The Beans have had an intensive day today. They have just arrived to Santo Domingo, the capital of Dominican Republic and they have gone directly to the hotel to rest a little before starting their English classes.

They have revised the Future with Going to and Countable and Uncountable with Much, Many and A lot of before celebrating Eli Bond-Bean's Birthday. It has been a fantastic morning full of happiness and joyful.

More information: Going to

Next, Nereyda Bean has invited the family to know lots of things about Dominican Republic: its sights, its landscapes, its food, its history... and the most important and beautiful, its people.

More information: Much, Many, A lot of

After this wonderful trip, the family has been talking about this Caribbean country and they have played a little to enjoy this unforgettable day.

You don't get older, you get better. 

Shirley Bassey

'ELEVATOR PITCH': CREATING AN ALIBI IN 2 MINUTES

The Beans on the top of the Empire State

Today, The Beans have lived an intensive day. The family is still in New York City enjoying the city and its sights and working to improve their English. 

They have talked about the Adverbs of Frequency and the Prepositions of Place and Direction.

More info: Adverbs of Frequency

Firstly, the family has been involved in a terrible scandal when a local newspaper has accused them of being the main suspects of the fire in Trump's Tower. Without time to call the best lawyers, the family has demonstrated that if you work together you have more possibilities of success and they have been preparing their alibis. After being interrogated by the Metropolitan Police, all of them have returned to the hotel free of charges and without any doubt about their innocence. It's always better to have a good relationship with the Police.

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Next, The Beans have decided to visit the Empire State, a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, the building has a roof height of 380 m and stands a total of 443.2 m tall, including its antenna.

Eli Bond-Bean and King Kong

The site of the Empire State Building, located on the west side of Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets, was originally part of an early 18th century farm. In the late 1820s, it came into the possession of the prominent Astor family, with John Jacob Astor's descendants building the Waldorf–Astoria Hotel on the site in the 1890s. By the 1920s, the family had sold the outdated hotel and the site indirectly ended up under the ownership of Empire State Inc., a business venture that included businessman John J. Raskob and former New York governor Al Smith. 

Download Transport Vocabulary

The original design of the Empire State Building was a for a 50-story office building. However, after fifteen revisions, the final design was for a 86-story building, with an airship mast on top. This ensured it would be the world's tallest building, beating the Chrysler Building and 40 Wall Street, two other Manhattan skyscrapers under construction at the time that were also vying for that distinction.

The Beans and their rescue plan

When they were leaving the building, they have been astonished to see that Eli Bond-Bean was on the top of it kidnapped by King Kong. Quickly, they have thought a rescue plan to liberate Eli from King Kong's hands. The plan has been a total success.

Then, the family has decided to go to the zoo and talk with the bosses about a King Kong's adoption. They had got another point here. The zookeepers have never thought about this possibility but they have accepted The Beans' proposal.

The Prospect Park Zoo is a 4.9 ha zoo located off Flatbush Avenue on the eastern side of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City. Its precursor, the Menagerie, opened in 1890. The present facility first opened as a city zoo on July 3, 1935, and was part of a larger revitalization program of city parks, playgrounds and zoos initiated in 1934 by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. It was built, in large part, through Civil Works Administration and Works Project Administration (WPA) labour and funding.

More information: Transports

The Beans with Barbra in her apartment

Finally, the family was exhausted. They have lived too many emotions in a day. The Grandma has received an incredible phone call.  

Barbra Streisand was on the other side of the line and she has invited all the family to a private concert in her apartment to relax and charge batteries.

Hold the line, Barbra! I'm going to talk with my family about your invitation. 

Barbra? Are you there? It's an enormous pleasure for us to come to your home and assist to your private concert. Taking profit of your trust, I would like to listen to "If you go way". 

See you later, my friend.

All I know is just what I read in the papers, 

and that's an alibi for my ignorance. 

Will Rogers

ELI BOND-BEAN: YANKEES, A HISTORIC BASEBALL TEAM

The Beans arriving to the Yankee Stadium

Eli Bond-Bean is a Yankees' fan. This is the main reason because the Beans are going to visit the Yankee Stadium today. It ¡s not possible to watch a Yankees match because the season doesn't start until March but The Beans have visited the Stadium. 

The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. 

They are one of two major league clubs based in New York City, the other being the New York Mets of the National League. In the 1901 season, the club began play in the AL as the Baltimore Orioles, no relation to the modern Baltimore Orioles. Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the franchise, which had ceased operations, and moved it to New York City, renaming the club the New York Highlanders. The Highlanders were officially renamed the Yankees in 1913.

More information: New York Yankees Official Website

The team is owned by Yankee Global Enterprises, an LLC controlled by the family of the late George Steinbrenner, who purchased the team in 1973. Brian Cashman is the team's general manager. The manager position is currently vacant. 

Babe Ruth, Jimmy Reese Allen Cooke & Bubbles Hart

The team's home games were played at the original Yankee Stadium from 1923 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2008. 

In 2009, they moved into a new ballpark of the same name after the previous facility was closed and demolished. 

The team is perennially among the leaders in MLB attendance; in 2011, the Yankees had the second-highest attendance.

Download Yankee Stadium Guide

Located in the Bronx, Yankee Stadium is just over the bridge from Manhattan and is home to the New York Yankees baseball team. The new Yankee Stadium opened on April 2, 2009 and the first pre-season game was played on April 3, 2009 against the Chicago Cubs. 

Yankee Stadium is located across the street from the location of the former Yankee Stadium, which was referred to as The House That Ruth Built. The new stadium incorporated state-of-the-art stadium technology and increased the inventory of high-demand luxury seating.

The Beans are going to visit some things at Yankee Stadium:

Eli Bond-Bean inside the Yankee Stadium

Firstly, Babe Ruth Plaza. Located outside of Yankee Stadium, along 161st Street, Babe Ruth Plaza recounts the life of Babe Ruth, perhaps the most famous Yankee

After, Monument Park. Features interesting display with all the New York Yankees retired uniform numbers, as well as commemorative plaques for important players, managers, and events at Yankee Stadium. Monument Park opens when gates open and closes 45 minutes prior to the start of the game.

Finally, New York Yankees Museum. Located on the Main Level near Gate 6, the New York Yankees Museum features memorabilia, life-size statues and exhibits.

I was born and raised in the Bronx and my grandfather and my brother Garry were huge Yankees fans. One of my first memories is of them listening to a game on the radio and screaming at the radio. My brother would cry when they lost, and when I was really little, I didn't know why he was crying. 

Penny Marshall