My trip to England

Two months ago I went on a trip, a trip to improve my English. I spent a whole week living with an English family (very kind and hospitable), and also going to lessons to a local English academy.

We were a total of about sixty students from the IES Virgen del Espino. The first day (Saturday) was a little bit busy. I woke up at four o'clock because we were meeting at five o'clock in the High School to take the bus that took us to Madrid airport. The plane took off at ten o'clock and arrived at half-past twelve in Bristol airport. After that, we took a bus that took us to Totnes, our destination. When we arrived in Totnes they distributed us in different families throughout the town. We were prepared to spend thirty-six consecutive hours with our respective families. 

On Monday it was our first day at the academy. We had to get up early. When we arrived at the school, they divided us into two groups. We did many funny things; except for the test that was necessary to prove our English level and to make the groups for whole rest of the week.

From Monday to Friday we went every morning to the academy and we learnt new things (local legends, customs…) and we also reinforced some grammar aspects. In the afternoons (or before lunch, from twelve o'clock to six o'clock), we did many different, interesting and funny activities, such as trampolining, going to the cinema, bowling, visiting different towns, gymkhanas... 

Saturday was a different day. We spent the whole day visiting a big city called Plymouth, in my opinion, very beautiful. It was the city where one of my native teachers was born, and his father guided us throughout the city, explaining to us the history of some of the most important monuments in the city. 

Sunday was our last day, we woke up early to take the bus that would take us to the Bristol Airport. They divided us into two different groups: the ones that would arrive in Bilbao (few people) and the ones that would arrive in Maddrid some hours later. 

This trip has been an amazing experience that proved us that we can live with a real English family talking English all the time…GREAT!!!

Is graffiti an art form?

For the last decades, graffiti have formed part of our street life. They are practically everywhere, in buildings, buses, in the railways… But is it considered art?

Some may think that it isn’t art, that it is disrespectful, and I understand this, because there are some graffiti that are just simple lines or words that are painted on private houses, buildings and just spoil public elements, not to say that it's really hard to clean them. I think that their main problem is the location. From my point of view, they should be promoted and be given more space in the streets for them. Some are just stunning, incredible works of art.

Some graffit are city-funded, that is, they are created to beautify the environment with some spectacular art work. In fact, in some cities like Stockholm or neighbourhoods like Brooklyn´s Bushwick, you can find enormous walls, for people to paint on them, to express themselves. You are even encouraged to paint on them. I think this is a great idea. Through graffiti there is a feeling of freedom and creativity, because street art is not just about painting on the walls, but about expressing yourself or your way of thinking. You don't need to be famous or be supported by art galleries and museums, you can just put your work when and as you wish in the streets.

However, now, with the social media, there are more graffiti artists that shows their works, and why they do it. Some of these would rather remain anonymous, because of legal and privacy reasons. And even some of the graffiti artists don't tag their work, and the mystery continues. The best part of this is that in most of the cases they are never like you think they really are!

There is also a kind of ‘hidden reason’ in the graffiti world: which is that painted streets show a colourful world that makes a life happier, because, it adds uniqueness to boring grey walls. You walk through, and it just draws a smile on your face. It motivates you. It makes people get inspired.

Now if you saw someone making a huge and beautiful mural, with incredible details, colours... Wouldn´t you call that person an artist?

The Large Hadron Collider

What can you do with a 27 kilometer tunnel that runs sometimes under France, sometimes under Switzerland? The answer is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). It is made up of two tubes, near 1500 electromagnets and liquid helium that cools everything to less than the temperature of the outer space. 

It took hundreds of scientists and engineers from many different countries around the world to build it. Directed by the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), the LHC has been operational since 2008 and involves 2500 staff and 12000 visiting academics representing 600 universities. As we can see, it is an international project.

How does it work?

The tubes are used to force particles to travel at near the speed of light. In fact, the accelerator, known as the two tubes, is used to get two particle beams to travel in opposite directions at almost the speed of light one in each of the tubes. These beams are kept in the tubes with electromagnets, some bend the beams, some focus the beams, and the rest are used to squeeze each particle closer to the others.

The objective is to focus and bend beams at a particular moment, and it is this collision that scientist are interested in.

The tubes are used to force particles to travel at near the speed of light. In fact, the accelerator, Known as the two tubes, is used to get two particle beams to travel in opposite directions at almost the speed of light one in each of the tubes. These beams are kept in the tubes with electromagnets, some bend the beams, some focus the beams, and the rest are used to squeeze each particle closer to the others.

Scientists hope that by colliding particles beams they will be able to answer some of the most interesting and challenging questions of physics, such as the theory that says that gravity only works at large scale and not in the aspect of the tiniest part of matter. This is one of the questions that famous scientists, such as Stephen Hawking, have been trying to answer but they haven't been able to.

Why couldn't you be the one to answer it?             

Drugs

Hello to everyone! Today I´m going to talk about drugs and their effect in society.

According to the RAE a drug is a substance preparation with a stimulating, depressing, narcotic or hallucinogenic effect. When we talk about drugs we relate them directly to dependence, violence or addiction. However some of them have benefits for us or are used for medical treatments such as marijuana, may be used for asthma, spasms, muscle convulsions, pain and as an enhancer of cancer therapies in places like Germany, Italy, California and Holland. But it´s also true that drugs cause a lot of problems.

These lasts years the consumption of drugs has increased: alcohol and marijuana are the most consumed ones, and cocaine addiction increases every day. Nowadays young people like to try drugs because at first they cause them happiness and wellness, but the long-term effects can be terrible for their health: like the destruction of neurons; development of psychiatric illnesses such as psychosis, depression or schizophrenia; injuries to the liver; malfunction of the kidneys and nerves; development of contagious diseases such as AIDS or Hepatitis; heart problems such as heart attack; early death…

They also cause problems in our society, there are 4 million accidents each year because of drugs, 38% of homicides are committed under the effects of them, they are also cause for unemployment, family problems and divorces.

There are different ways to consume drugs: snorting, smoking, through injections, orally… Now it is very easy to get drugs, so you have to be very careful and not fall into this dangerous area.