Category Archives: enewsletter

Did You Know&

Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina has a population of around 3 million, (metropolitan area of 13 million) and there is a 12,000 strong Greek community. Emigration from Greece to Buenos Aires peaked between WWI and WWII. Today, the Greek community of Buenos Aires is the largest and wealthiest of its type in Latin America. Many are successful businessmen, ship owners, scholars and writers.

Buenos Aires’ most famous Greek immigrant is Aristotle Onassis, a refugee from Smyrna, who arrived in Buenos Aires on September 21st, 1923. Onassis was involved with tobacco manufacturing, before buying his first merchant ship in the early 1930s. In 1932, Onassis was appointed Honorary Deputy Consul of Greece to Buenos Aires. He later became one of the world's wealthiest men.

Key West Diver Find

A diver discovered a 40.2-carat emerald embedded in a conch shell while diving at the site of a Spanish galleon wrecked in a Florida Keys hurricane 380 years ago.

The diver, who unsurprisingly does not want his name revealed, discovered the giant raw emerald while washing shells in a classroom laboratory. “Out popped a 40.2-carat emerald,” Patrick Clyne, vice president at Key West-based wreck salvage company Mel Fisher Enterprises, said Monday. “It was one of those freak-of-nature things that somehow got swept up in the conch shell.”

The diver had gathered the shells from a dive off the Spanish galleon Santa Margarita, which sank Sept. 6,

1622, about 30 miles west of Key West. “This is an excellent indication that the Margarita had raw emeralds

smuggled aboard the ship,” Clyne said. “There were no emeralds listed on its cargo manifest.” There were no

estimates for how much the emerald might be worth. But in 1985, a 77.7-carat emerald from the vessel

Nuestra Senora de Atocha, a sister ship of the Santa Margarita, was appraised at $1.2 million. The vessels,

part of a 28-ship fleet that left Havana on Sept. 4, 1622, for Spain with treasures from Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, sank during a hurricane.

Meeting News from New York

Our guest speaker at our december meeting was Amy Gissen, who gave a great slide show and lecture about Myanmar, truly one of Asia's jewels.

For details of forthcoming meetings email newyork@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email updates at click here at our website.

New York meetings are held at The Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street (btw Greenwich St and Washington St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive on the first Saturday of each month at 4 pm.

Hogmanay in Edinburgh

Edinburgh is making big efforts to entertain shoppers in the weeks before Christmas. It also plans to lay on what it claims to be the world's biggest Hogmanay party to welcome in the New Year. The Christmas illuminations will be switched on from Nov. 28, and there will be a German Christmas Market with more than 20 traders from Frankfurt, in Princes Street Gardens, which will also be the site of the Edinburgh Wheel (until Jan. 5) – the UK's tallest ferris wheel.

For the 10th successive year, Edinburgh's Hogmanay is a four-day programme to say farewell to the old year and welcome in the new (Dec.29 -Jan.1). Among the free highlights are the Torchlight Procession and Fire Festival, the Night Afore Fiesta (Dec.30, with massed pipes and drums and the world's largest ceilidh, a Celtic-style party), the Hogmanay Triathlon, and Huskies at Holyrood.

The vast Royal Bank Street Party (Dec.31) is free, but entry is by pass only: get one by joining the First Foot Club (£15). As well as entry to the party, this offers the holder discounts in shops and attractions, privileged booking for ticket events and a chance to enter members-only competitions. To join, call the First Foot Club membership hotline (0131 473 2056) or register and buy tickets on the website.

Lake Diving, 4 Miles High!

Scientists are set to explore the world’s highest fresh water lake 4 miles up in the Licancabur volcano near Antofogasta in Chile.

Their aim is to find out how the organisms that live there can survive in such a hostile environment. They will do this by taking samples and diving to the bottom of the lake.

Although the lake at Licancabur volcano is covered with almost two feet of ice during much of the year, the expedition will take place in the southern hemisphere's spring, when the lake is not completely frozen.

The information they hope to gather will help astrobiologists devise strategies and technologies to search for life on planets like Mars during future missions.

Learn English at Youth Hostels in the UK

The Youth Hostels Association (YHA) has teamed with English Out There to offer English language courses for visitors to London. Accommodation will be at one of six YHA hostels in the capital and the packages include bed and breakfast, an Underground pass and tickets to some famous attractions.

The language lessons are designed around themes or tasks, and students can choose how many they want to take from 20 modules. The students are expected to be mainly families or young people, who want to combine a holiday with improving their English.

Websites: yha.org.uk and EnglishOutThere.co.uk.

Source: britainexpress.com

Meeting News from Ontario

For information on Ontario meetings, please contact: Svatka Hermanek:

shermanek@schulich.yorku.ca or Bruce Weber: tel. 416-203-0911 or Paul Webb: tel. 416-694-8259.

Meetings are held on the third Friday of January, March, May, September and November. Usually at the Woodsworth Co-op, Penthouse, 133, Wilton Street in downtown Toronto at 8.00 p.m.

Fly Me To The Moon!

A space team in Canada is looking for three people to help pilot a rocket into space. This is part of a competition modeled on the 1927 contest to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, won by Charles Lindbergh. Canadian Arrow is one of two Canadian teams participating in the contest. Another 20 international teams are also racing to send the first manned commercial rocket into orbit. The first to get their three-person vessel 100 kilometres into space and back wins the title. The winner will have to repeat the flight again within two weeks to win a $10-million US prize. Geoffrey Sheerin, the leader of the London, Ont.-based Canadian Arrow project, said he is looking for smarts, a sense of adventure, and bravery.

“It's open to absolutely anyone. The possibility for anyone to fly is there,” Sheerin said. “We would like you to have some aeronautical experience, understand of aviation, and also hopefully to have some knowledge of rocketry.”

Fave Websites of the Month

The Beetle likes cityguide.travel-guides.com

Here you can select from a number of cities around the world and compile your own guide, for free. There is a very diverse set of headings from which to chose, e.g. history, cost of living, getting around, shopping, excursions, major sites, tourist information, street maps, nightlife, sport, culture, special events etc.

If you are going away for the weekend and don’t want to buy a guidebook or just want to do some digging around, this is an excellent resource.

New Sources for Genealogists

Here's a new resource for genealogists. Origin Search is a search engine just for finding family history information. You do have to pay a fee to use the service, but you can try out the Irish resources for free.

Take a look at their website