2014.

Tomorrow is the last day of 2014 and sincerely, this has passed so fast. Many things have happened to me, some of them were good others were bad but the important thing is that I have learnt from all of them. 2014 started losing a person so important for me, maybe it was the worst thing that  has happened to me in this year but in the end, I have understood that If someone do not want to stay with me, I have to let her/him go.  In 2014,  I have learnt that I have to faith more in myself that I do not have to surrender even when the things can not get worse. Also, that I have been able to get all the things that I have always dreamt, one of these is studying English at the university. If myself of the past could see me, he would not believe that in the future I would be as I am. By the contrast, I am so proud that how I am today and the long road that I have had to walk to be where I am.

Christmas!

As we all know, today is an special day for everyone in the world. Yes, today is Christmas day!, a date that  people wait the whole year for many reasons, for example for spending a good time with their family  or in the case of children to play with the gifts that Santa has left the night before. Since we were child, our family, has told us the same history about Christmas, Santa and the three wise men, but nobody have thought that maybe this things are not as our parents have told us. 
Today I am going to talk about some curious things that in the last years I have discovered either by teachers, internet or television.

First of all, I have believed all my life that 'jingle bells' is a typical song of Christmas, but the last year my English teacher told me that this song it was not written for Christmas,  it was written for Thanksgiving day. Besides, Christmas seems to be an ancient tradition, nevertheless, it was not an official holiday in America until 1870.

In addition to this, people believe that the word 'Xmas' is created for this people that do not believe in God, but by the contrast, this word is Greek, an according to my Greek teacher 'X' means Christ in Greek language. Also, the Christmas socks that we usually put on the chimney have it origin when three unmarried girls that they could not marry because they had not money , put their socks in the chimney to dry it, and during the night of christmas it is believed that Santa put in the socks a sack of gold and the next day they could marry because they already had money. 

In conclusion,  there are a large number of speculations about Christmas and all of their traditions. I have shared with you which I considered the most interesting. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!! 

Second '' Práctica evaluable'' .

THESIS STATEMENT :  Spanish food is much better if we compare it with American food because       although American food is more tasty, Spanish food is much more healthy and variated.

I. POSITIVE ASPECTS OF SPANISH FOOD.
     A. Spanish food helps you to stay healthy.
     B. Most of our food contains natural products. (EXAMPLES)
              -Vegetables.
              -Fruits.
              - Meat and fish.

II. NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF AMERICAN FOOD.
     A.Most of the food contains fat and they are made with bad things for ourselves.
     B. If we ate some types of food we can have problems with our weight.
              - Pizzas.
              -Hamburguers.
              -Hot dogs.

III. DIFERENCES BETWEEN SPANISH/AMERICAN FOOD.
     A.Most of the American food is fast or junk food.
     B. We eat more healthier things than American (EXAMPLES)

CONCLUDING SENTENCE : In conclusion, American food can be more tasty and attractive than   Spanish food, but not more healthier.

                 

First ''práctica evaluable''

One year ago, I started watching some American TV  Series in original version on the Internet.  When I asked my friends If they had watched any tv series in original version, they told me that they preferred watching Spanish tv series because they understand it. Nevertheless, I prefer watching series in English because I love this language and also because it is a good way to improve it. Another reason is that when we watch for example, '' How I met your mother'' in Spanish the jokes which they say do not have sense because these only can be understood by American/English people. As a result, if you watch this in V.O. and you know anything of this language you can understand it and this can helps you to know new jokes or new expressions that are not normally used in Spanish. To my mind, there are not negative aspects on watching American series in V.O. , because a thing that helps you to know more than you knew before and also you have a good time watching them , it is not a bad thing, it is something that we should do more frequently.

'The meaning of happiness'

Last months, specially since I started the university, one question is always in my head: ''What does it mean to be happy?''. This seems one of the question that children usually ask and we do not know how to answer it. Today, I am determined to find the way of explaining what I understand for this thing that make us feel a feeling that nobody can describe.

When I was a child, the teacher explain us that it is a process originated in our brain, it is an experience that we know happens because our nervous system trigger an answer and we feel what we called '' happiness''. Although she explained me this thing many times, I did not understand what was this strange word.

A year ago, I overheard a conversation between my father and my sister, she told her that to find the why we are happy and what does it mean, we should do the things that make us feel this ''happiness''. This moment was when I understood that happiness could be singing in the shower, painting or remember a good memory of the past.

Now, I believe that happiness is just a word, a word that all of the people and the things that we love build it. If we are happy with a person or doing a certain activity, we try to spend the most of our time with him/her or doing it. If we find something that make us really happy, our life will be better for us. This is not something that only lasts one or two days, it is something that burns inside of us and does not go out.

All in all, look for answers and try to know why we are happy has only one solution: find it for ourselves. We need to go out, we need to learn for ourselves. We need to understand it for our own way and do not let anybody else tell us what is it. So go out, go out to find what makes you happy.

INTRODUCTION/CONCLUSION

-INTRODUCTION-

Nowadays, television is bad for us because it has become in a way to influence us to bad habits, to not have a good education and to not talk properly. Some tv channels maintain a huge struggle for establish themselves as <<the most watched>>. This causes most of the time that they make strategies to attract us and then, achieve this wanted position. Every time that I think in this issue, I only remain a quote by Groucho Marx : “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”  This is totally true, they do not realise of these acts and the mistakes that they are making.


-CONCLUSION-

All in all, I do not know what they pretend. Maybe the solution is not in our hands, or yes, maybe the important thing is put other first and apart us from the people and the things that through our live only can help us to continue with the society that we are making now. 

'KARMA'

Last monday, I finished reading Bad Karma, a book writen by David Safier. The book is about a woman, who works in a television program, she has a husband who she cheats  and a pretty daughter, but her busy life do not allow her to see her.  By the contrast, she is so happy because she has won an award, until a piece of debris falls on her and kills her. Then, because of her bad behavior she is reincarnated into an ant, and she has to do good things if she wants to achieve the most high status( 'status of' ) in this case is a dog.  I strongly recommend this, because it is a good book and when you are reading it, it makes you think so much. In my case, when I was reading it, I could not stop thinking about if Karma really exists. Well, I believe in it. All the people who hurt me in a moment of my life, finally they have ended suffering. In a manner, believe in karma is a way to maintain me peacefully, because when somebody hurts me, his/her bad behavior will come back to them. Nevertheless, for other people karma does not exist, they believe that things happens because they have to. One example of karma is now popular in our lives : Many politicians, famous people  that have stolen money, despite of having enjoyed it, they have finally been caught and they are still in jail. Besides, karma makes us spend our lives doing good things for receiving so much good things. For this reasons, for having a good life and for being happy we should do believe in karma.

University life vs high school life.

As students, our lives are always based on studying for exams and doing works for the class. We have advanced throughout our lives and now, that we are in the University, could we say that the life in the university is much more better than the life in the high school?

While in the university you have a timetable more irregular (one day you have to go three hours others four..), in high school you should go six hours without changes except if the teacher is ill. Also, in the high school you study subjects that you do not like ( such as maths or chemistry in my case) as long as in the university you are studying the degree that you love although there are subjects that you fancy less. Furthermore, the exams in the university are in January and June whereas in the high school you do an exam biweekly. 

On balance, life in the university is better than life in high school, there are many clear differences, but the most clear is that in university we can live more relaxed and also have more time for preparing our exams and at the same time go out with our friends.

Outline an essay

Thesis statement: The possibility of having a gun in a house has made the world more dangerous, because of it there are many accidents, the violence has increased and people feel unsteady.

                 I.Why is forbidden to have a gun?
                 
                  1.  Guns don't encourage the peace.
                  2. Increase the number of murders and accidents.
               
            II. Effects of having a gun in the society.
                      
                 1.Easy access to guns makes the death something common.
                     2. Children can learn that violence is good.

            III. Things that we can do to stop this issue.
                
                 1.Stablish new high-standars.
                 2. Fine every people who have an unregistered gun.

Concluding sentence: Since people are allowed to have a gun, the life has become in something valuable. People can shoot you if you have an argument with him or her in spite of solving the problem pacifically. This thing along with all of the essay makes me to come to a conclusion: Guns are not the answer. 


            

Thesis statement // Gun ownership

The possibility of have having a gun in a house has made the world more dangerous, because of it there are many accidents, the violence has increased and people feel unsteady.

Halloween!

Last night, my friends and I celebrated Halloween night, like every year we went to a friend's house and we dinner together, after we told scary stories. Yesterday, one friend told an history that it really scared me, the story was about her house, she told that during the night of halloween she heard strange noises, like steps and whispers and she believes that there is a spirit in her house. When she told it, all of my friends face turned pale because the place where we were was the house of this girl.
Afterwards, we started disguise for the party, some years back we disguise of saw, Mexican skull.. but this year, as we are studying outside it has been difficult to prepare a good costum, so we decided to dress up of a typical skull. The night was amazing, when we go to the pub where the party was, there are a lot of people, and we passed a good time. Finally, there was a costumes contest and we were a second position, so we received a prize.


Here some pictures of the night:

Me and my friends

Me with ''The mad hatter''

PROBLEM/ SOLUTION: Racism

Racism in Spain has been increasing so fastly, since the inmigration of many foreign people looking for work or simply for living in ''good conditions'' some Spanish people most of them older people influence young people  to not accept Muslims, Arabians.. this behaviour  affects our image, not only as a country, also as a person.

One solution to the problem is try to persuade narrow-minded people that they are people like us and does not matter the colour of the skin, also, that they come to Spain to do for a living and not all come to steal, but by the contrast this solution is very difficult to solve  because the people who believe all this things will still thinking whatever they want.

Another thing that we can do to meet this need is convince the media to give more importance to this issue,  for example, TV talk about many things throughout the day, but I only listen anything about racism twice a week as much. To my mind, TV would have to talk more about that fact because it influences all over the world, and if we watch and listen to it, probably we might realise about the damage that the racism causes.

In conclusion, we need to solve this problem as soon as we can, because in the future is so important to create open-minded people who knows despite of the difference of skin color, we all are people, and we also have the same human rights.

Advantages or disadvantages of studying abroad.

Actually, many students go abroad to study their careers, this fact has become more famous since the appearance of some grants which allows you to study wherever you want for some months or even all the year. All of us would want to live this adventure without thinking, but sometimes when we make fast decisions, we forget that not everything can be good.

On the one hand, going to another country to study is a good way to learn how to do the things from home like do the laundry or cook your own food. Also, learn new traditions, try new food and if you go for example to English-speaking countries you can improve your English or if you go to another country you can learn a new language such as German or French.

By the contrast, when you go abroad, you are far from your house, and it can be difficult because there are days in which you need some support from your family because you are sad. Besides, you are in a different country with different traditions, timetables, and it is difficult to get use to it.

All in all, the beginnings are never easy and less if you are far from your family, but this thing, is not an obstacle that impede you to take advantage of this experience,learn new things and enjoy it as much as you can.

Block method: Beyoncé/ Lady Gaga.

In the last years, Beyoncé Knowles and ''Lady Gaga'' (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) have become in global artists. I would say that it is the only thing that they have in common, as you can see in the photograph they are so different.

On the one hand, Beyoncé born in Houston, she is a luxury and a hot woman who started her career during her childhood in many TV contests, but after, she rose to fame with the group Destiny's Child and she started to working alone since 2003. She has a powerful voice and she usually sings R&B songs. Her live performances are impressive because of her voice and the spectacular costume. Beyoncé has also worked as a actress, she appeared on the film Pink Panther (2003).

By the contrast, ''Lady Gaga'' born in Manhattan , she is a extravagant woman who is a dancer, singer and songwriter. She started her career appearing in school performances and after she studied in New York University's Tisch School of arts. In 2008, she started singing alone after being part of a rock band and also working as a songwriter. She sings dance-pop songs. Her live performance are also weird, she usually wears extravagant costums like a dress made of meat. Although she studied interpretation, she has not appeared in any film.  Lady Gaga and Beyoncé are so different, but one with her extravagant and her originally songs and the other with her elegance and her powerful voice, have been able to capture the whole world. 

Books or Films?

Actually, people prefer go to the cinema to watch a film rather than reading the book.
I have always said that we do not know the importance of read books. Read books is not only read the  typical book that your teacher obliges you to read for an exam, read a book is a way to create a new world, to feel new feelings that you do not feel in real life and also to find little details, descriptions that you do not see in the film. I have many examples of this, such as Harry Potter's saga. All of this books are better than the films, and it is because in the book J.K Rowling put many important things, many details, which  do not appear in the films, and all of this details are essential to understand the movie, but obviously you do not know this thing if you do not read the books before. Other thing that I hate is  people that do not read the book because they do not like the film, my question is : When we judge things without know it? There are a lot of books that are much better than films, but also there are  films much better than the books, but one thing is clear, we can only express our view If we watch the movie and read the book. 

Venice

A place that one day I will visit is Venice because is the most beautiful city in Italy.

Venice is a ancient city which is surrounded by water from the Adriatic sea. This authentic city fleet above the sea and this is the reason that Venice is a quiet place.

The fact of being surrounded by water allows you to visit this lovely city by a gondola, in this gondola you can see the best architectures of the city, the peaceful streets and the bridges. All these things illustrates the art, the history and the beauty of this city and they had made that Venice had been declared World Heritage sit.

One of my favourite places in Venice is San Marco's square. It's the unique square in Venice. 

It's a huge square which was built in the IX century .One disadvantage of this is that the square is often flooded because is located in the low part of Venice.

In this square are situated the San Marco's basilica and also the Ducal palace which was also a jail.

Apart from this square you can also visit the San Giorgio Maggiore basilica or the Giorgio Franchetti Galery.

Here, more pictures of Venice:

The big canal of Venice

A lovely street of Venice

 Rialto's bridge

Describe someone.

Today in class, we practiced how to describe someone, so here's my description.




My mum has always been my role model. Since she was fourteen years, she started to work in a shop with my grandmother and although she is the little sister, she had to do the lunch for all of her sisters. Now she works in my restaurant as a cook and she only has one break-day. Despite of having a little free time, she keeps her happiness because she says that anything makes her lose her smile; also, she is so fighter because she wants the best for me and my sister, but she is a bit suffer and she really cares about the things. There are a lot of things to say about my mother, but this things make me that  I see her like a person I want to be in the future.

The daffodils

Yesterday, my teacher posted on her blog a post related with poems, it made me remember the last year.
Last year, when I was in the high school  one of my favourite subject was Universal Literature.
It was my favourite subject because I love literature and also because I learnt a lot of things.
I have good memories of those classes because the teacher knew how to create a good atmosphere and also because he is a excellent teacher and a good person.

He read many poems by different authors, but one in particular was special for us.
We were learning the romanticism, he taught us the characteristics and when we studied the English romanticism, he read us a poem of William Wordsworth.
William Wordsworth was a english poet ,who with Colleridge published the Lyrical Ballads. They were called the poets of the lakes because they lived in the Lake district.
The poem that the teacher read to us was called The Daffodils:

I wandered lonely as a cloud     
   That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

                                                                         

Daffodils in Cornwall

When all at once I saw a crowd,
   A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
   And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
   Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
   Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
   In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
   In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
   Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils                        

At the end of the course, when we were tired and nervous because the PAU exam was near, he read the daffodils over and over,  and he said that we always be his daffodils and this helped us to calm.

Romeo+Juliet

Today, I'm going to talk about cinema.

My favourite film is Romeo+Juliet, it's a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, as you know William Shakespeare is a British writer who wrote a lot of tragedies such as Lady Macbeth and Hamlet.
Romeo and Juliet is a fatal  love story between two teenagers whose families are enemies.
Juliet belongs to the Capuleto's family and Romeo to Montague's family.
The story starts when Capuleto's family decide to celebrate a party and Romeo Montague and his cousins sneak in the party.
The destiny made that the glances of Romeo and Juliet were exchanged and the love appeared at the first sight.
After the party Romeo decides to visit Juliet, and he stay behind her balcony.
They fell in love absolutely but the rivality between their families makes that they get married in secret.
Finally, the pressure of not being able to show their love and the obligation by the Juliet's father to get married with Paris make the suicide of the two teenagers.

There are many films about this story but my favourite is which was released in 1996, it was directed by Baz Luhrmann, and it is special because is not the typical history of Romeo and Juliet, it is updated for our times, of course also it is my favourite because Leonardo Di caprio appears on it.

“Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- its everything except what it is! ''- William Shakespeare; Romeo and Juliet.

Tonight I'm feel positive.

Sometimes the life put us in difficult situations, but always it's to make us stronger. 

These situations show us that we have not give up if something is wrong or ifi something doesn't be how you expect.

There are many days when  this situation is too much for us, when we only want to give up, but this moment is when we have to draw strength and still fighting.

Because maybe after that bad days, it will come a day  when you realize that something it's over,  that you got it, and then is when you say: It was not easy but I reached it. 

A few months after, you will look at the past and you will feel proud of you, probably you will feel a personal satisfaction for overcome the difficult situation and it can not buy with some money.

Remember: You can't have a rainbow without a little rain.

Hello! Welcome to my blog.
This blog will be used to write for the Prácticas de Redacción, one of the subject of my first year in English Studies degree.
I'm very happy to put into practice this new kind of writing, and I think that is another type to improve my English.
I hope that all of you including the teacher visit my blog.

Best Wishes.

Corpus.