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?

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.

Magic Places in the Province of Soria

One day in our last Easter holidays I decided to take a trip with my family. We decided to make a route along some interesting places from the province of Soria.

In the morning, we went to a small medieval village called Calatañazor. We walked through the streets of the village during approximately one hour and a half. We saw interesting things like the monument dedicated to Almanzor, a muslim warrior that was defeated in a battle that occurred in the village during the Reconquista; the medieval streets of the village, with the cone-shaped chimneys, very common in the zone; the architecture of the houses, and the shops selling typical souvenirs from the area.

In the highest part of the village, we visited the Major square, where is located the “Rollo” (during the Middle Ages, this was a place of punishment where the thieves were exposed for several days).

A few meters from the square, we visited the castle and we enjoyed the view of the area form the viewpoint located at the top of the main tower.

Then, we looked for a restaurant to eat.

In the afternoon, we travelled to a very popular natural place called “La Fuentona”. During the car trip, we saw the pine trees and the sabine trees, which are very common in the place. When we arrived to Muriel de la Fuente, the nearest village to La Fuentona, we left the car and we started to walk. Firstly, we wanted to visit the waterfall that carries the same water that drops in La Fuentona. During the walk, we enjoyed the sun, the green colour of the trees and the plants, and the crystalline water. Sometimes, the water was so clear that it looked green or blue. When we arrived at the waterfall, the landscape was magical. The waterfall only contains water after periods of abundant rainfall.

Then, we walked a few kilometers more until we arrived at La Fuentona. The river Abion is born in this natural lake. Under the water, there is a set of natural galleries. Some of them are under the water and others are above the water. There are some legends that say that the Laguna Negra and la Fuentona are connected through this set of natural galleries. It is not known whether these legends are true or not because the underwater galleries have only been explored 100 meters under the floor, the rest is unknown.

After enjoying in La Fuentona for a while, we returned to the car, with a little stop at a pub to have a drink. Then, we visited “La casa del Parque”, an ancient nobleman palace that is nowadays a museum about La Fuentona and the nature of the area.

After that, we returned to Soria but during the returning trip we visited “el sabinar de Calatañazor”, a natural place with hundres of sabine trees, that are very common in the region.

I enjoyed this trip a lot and I would like to repeat it a soon as possible.

Opening Minds

I think it’s quite necessary to talk about the LGBT collective. Even if  we think that it doesn’t affect us, it affects all of us. I want to talk in this blog about the problems related to these issues. It doesn’t matter how much the thinking of some people has evolved, there are many people who still do not realize that it doesn’t matter who you love if you are happy.

I guess many of those who are reading this blog have received a good education from their loved ones, and you will not think that loving someone of your same sex or wanting to change your sex is a disorder/illness. Unfortunately, many people think that it is. Not just people like us, teenagers; I am also referring to adult people sometimes influenced by religion. Yes, you might think that I am crazy, but I am not. In many countries, because of religion, if you are homosexual, you can be jailed or you can be directly sentenced to the death penalty, and this is real. It's scary to think that by loving someone you're going to have to live hard moments, because people are going to judge, humiliate, reject and hit you.

Fear, the fear of not being able to be yourself, of having to hide from your family, from everything. There will be times when you will have to leave everything to be happy. Because of the roles, because girls can’t want to dress with wide clothes, or go without makeup. Because men aren't allowed to put on makeup, they shouldn't go shopping. For all those heterosexual women and men,that have been judged because they didn’t follow the role imposed by their society. Because we live in a world where everything is labelled, a world in which you can’t be yourself, you have to be as society dictates. And no, this can’t go that way, we can’t keep on closing our  minds. We have to open our minds, open them to new things. Because it is easier to think “better the devil you know than the devil you don´t”, but that's not true.

All together we must normalize things: by educating the youngest and the oldest. Because everything we know and we will do in the future is marked since we are young, we have to fight, because you may not need it now, but you may need the help of someone in a near future. It can happen to you, to your children, or even to your friends. But, perhaps, demonstrations and claims are not going to be enough. It is necessary that everyone does their bit, organizing talks, normalizing things. Because I want a better future for me and my loved ones, that is why we have to be united and fight for our rights.

Brainstorm on GMOs

Hi readers!

Today I’m going to talk a little bit about GMOs, which stands for Genetically Modified Organisms, and I’m also going to explain my opinion on this subject. Before I start, I want to make clear that I’m going to focus on organisms meant for human feeding (mostly vegetables), mainly because covering the whole subject of GMOs would take massive explanation on topics I don’t even begin to comprehend. Having said this, let’s start.

First of all we have to know what GMOs are in the first place; according to wikipedia, "A genetically modified organism​  (​ GMO​ ) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques’’. And how can this be useful for us?

• They have given plants resistance to droughts, pests and diseases since 1996, and also increasing massively the average yields and its sustainability, decreasing the cost of production, and therefore, the general cost of products on this sector without decreasing its income to their producers.
• It can provide us with cheaper ways of obtaining bio chemicals, and hormones, like insulin, which can be now easily produced by genetically modified bacteria, instead of having to use full grown mammals, like pigs and cows, to extract the hormones from their livers.

There are thousands of uses more, but for the sake shortness of this post, you’ll have to research them by yourself.

Then, Why don’t we use this technology more often? The answer is ignorance. A great percentage of people think that GMOs are bad, mostly because people tend to smack gibberish about what they fear. There are rumours that say that GMOs can generate from economic crisis to cancer, but all of them are just nonsense, which may be originated from the misunderstanding of research articles to the association of nuclear power (which is the origin of cancer misconception) with any kind of genetic alteration. There are too many ‘’fiction tales’’ out there for me to explain them all, but I’ll try to give some basic ideas on this technology.

First of all, I have to say this, or I swear my head will explode: THERE IS NO NUCLEAR ACTIVITY INVOLVED. Having that out of the way, you can sit down, there’s a long path ahead:

• Opposite to popular belief, GMOs are exhaustively tested, and go through lots of laboratories and standards before it even reaches the soil (FDA,EPA,USDA,etc…), which means that you probably won’t have your ‘’tomaco’’ soon.
• Pesticides GMOs produce are much worse than ‘’old’’pesticides. Although it would be good news for farmers who unconsciously mix all the pesticides available like it was some kind of shampoo mix laboratory scientist we all played to be in the shower when we were kids, it’s not like that. Recent studies have shown how their pesticides only affect their targets, and don’t kill the bees or your children.

In conclusion, GMOs are too demonized, but if you research a little bit, you’ll discover they aren’t bad at all, and definitely not responsible of any dementors, wingardium leviosa or Illuminatis, just some ol’ regular veggies, that won’t kill people.

Coachella

I´m going to talk about Coachella and what it represents. It is an arts and music festival that is yearly held  at the Colorado Desert, in Indio, California. Actually, it is a very big festival that is celebrated over two consecutive weekends every April. Many people attend it, including celebrities like pop stars, movie stars, famous bands and sometimes even the famous angels of Victoria´s Secret.

The event has many types of music, like electronic, rock, indie, hip-hop and pop music. But, apart from the music, it also has visual art elements, like giant sculptures or figures all over the valley of Coachella and most of them are interactive.

There are several stages across the grounds that this festival has, and they host constant live music by many popular singers who perform on them. Coachella is one of the biggest and most popular music festival in the USA and all over the world. This festival is also well known for the tradition of people wearing hippie clothes from the 70´s.

The first time the festival was celebrated was in October of 1999, and it was founded by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen; now it is organized by Goldenvoice. In 2000 they didn´t celebrate the festival, and finally in 2001 they celebrated it in April, and from then, it has been celebrated during those days.

Half a million people usually attend this festival, and you have to be quick if you want to get a ticket to go to it, because it usually takes only 1 day for all the tickets from both weekends to be sold out. Also, you´ll have to break your piggy bank, because it is expensive. But, is it worth it? Well, many people say it is, because it is very well decorated, all the staff and the people working there are super friendly and it is a great opportunity to meet really interesting people. Besides, there are many kinds of music that you can enjoy and some of the most famous music artists perform there. And last but not least, according to many people, it is one of the best experiences you can have to make irreplaceable memories.

Prejudice

We spend our life judging other people based on our ideas on how they look, what they did in the past, what they eat, how they speak, where they are from, or even what other people think about them, but in fact without having much idea about them. We usually think that these prejudices disappear when we know someone in a better way but although we may not notice it, the image that we have of someone after knowing him is still strongly influenced by things he cannot choose or that are not directly related to him. 

According to the dictionary a prejudice is a “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience”. They affect our society a lot and the way in which we see people. For example when we see someone who wears glasses, some people tend to think that that person is more intelligent than he wasn’t wearing them, and although it is an old stereotype, people frequently use glasses to have more chances in job interviews.

The origin of prejudices is stereotypes and they are caused because of generalization. Stereotypes can be defined as fixed general ideas established by a society towards certain types of people or certain characteristics in them. They are often used and strengthened by films, series or stories in which their use is very frequent. Sometimes they are used in a supposedly funny way or as a method to make the narratives of a story easier to follow, but the problem with them is that in many cases they can be offensive and lead to prejudices and discrimination, which is the worst consequence of them.

Maybe the clearer example of this is racism, which is the discrimination and contempt to people with physical or cultural characteristics that are different from your own. This discrimination is caused by anyone who only accepts people who are “like him” considering himself better than people from other racial groups.

Although nowadays we are more open minded and prejudices don’t influence us as much as in the past, they are still very present in people and society. In our everyday life many people suffer discrimination as a result of them. As Einstein said:  “What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice”.

People have usually more prejudices and are less open minded when they have less experience with people different from them, because they have false and general ideas as a consequence of stereotypes and the lack of a real contact with the ones that they tend to judge. This shows that when you open your mind you realize that in fact prejudices are most of the times false and that it’s not fair to judge anyone without really knowing him.