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.

Risks and benefits of Genetics

Nowadays, scientists are investigating and developing new ways of genetic modification. Great advances have been made through the years. Some examples are the production of insuline or animal cloning (like Dolly the sheep). Nevertheless, the science community doesn’t always have in mind that playing with life can carry some consequences. The study of these consequences is called bioethics.

In scientific language, bioethics is the study of the ethical aspects and the risks of life sciences (medicine and biology, mainly), as well as the relations of man with other living beings. Bioethics suggests that not all alterations or genetic operations carried out by human beings are correct. An example is the prenatal genetic alteration, cloning or chosen mutation.

These studies are related to all kind of science, but to resume we are going to focus just in the most important aspects of genetics that can have beneficial or harmful consequences which should be taken into account. The main points are: medicine, agriculture and food, environment and human genetics.

Regarding medicine, we can observe many benefits thanks to genetic alterations. For example, the prevention of genetic diseases, the production of medicines, different uses in forensic medicine and paternity tests or gene therapy. However, there are also some consequences, such as side effects from the consumption of genetically modified products or the creation of new diseases.

In relation to food and agriculture, genetics can increase the production amount and the nutritional value of food and at the same time increase the strength and duration of harvests, food and animals. But having in mind other points of view, that would mean a total control of the food market by multinationals in biotechnology.

Then it is the environment. On the one hand, modifications in genetic structure can produce biodegradable plastics or bacteria which feed in pollution. On the other hand, if the modified species are not controlled, there could be a displacement of natural species and genetic pollution could occur. It consists of uncontrolled transfusion of genetic alterations.

From my point of view, human genetics is the most questionable part of bioethics. I agree that this kind of development is important, and it is good to have knowledge of the full human genome, but the creation of human clones or altered people may be really dangerous. It should have some limits. Using it to avoid human genetic diseases is right, but if we start using it to create our own personalized children just to make them perfect...well, you just have to watch GATACCA.

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.