Christmas

Christmas is a festivity of the christianism where people celebrate the birth of Christ.  It is celebrated the night of the 24th December in great part of the world and most families get together to celebrate it. They eat turkey, cod, pork and lamb and a Christmas tree have place in one corner of the house. They also make the Advent wreath and sing Christmas carols around the hearth. This is a tradicion of the Catholic Church, for instance. Nativity scenes are put on the tables; they represent the Christ's birth where shepherds, animals, The Three Wise Men attend and finally, the star is placed on the top of the tree.

On the other hand, Anglican and Orthodox Church have different ways of celebrate it. Anglican Church also celebrate Christmas the 24th December. However, Orthodox Church celebrate it the 7th January. English speakers use the word Christmas that means the mass of the Christ; spanish speakers use the word "Navidad" to refers to the nativity of the Christ; For instance, in Germany, they day "Frohe Weihnachten" that means the night of blessing.

Despite not believing in Christ, some families celebrate Christmas because it is custom and tradition. Moreover, this is a season of gladness and happiness when people have a rest and reunite with their family. This is a gesture that everybody likes and in Christmas they attempt to be happy and enjoy the holidays. Hence, I love Christmas although currently it is becoming a business because it fill us of illusion and reminds me the best times of my life: it is a time when I am happy and I enjoy being with my family and friends and giving and receiving presents from 'Santa Claus' and 'The Three Wise Men'.

Elephants

Elephant is my favourite animal. The elephant is the biggest terrestrial mammal. It can measure until four metres by high and weigh like 100 people. It is very strong, but he is peaceful: doesn't like fighting. They live in herd and they have an old female as a chief. Moreover, they travel around without ceasing; never settle in one place and look for vegetables and water for drinking. Also they shake their ears when they are getting angry and attack. I love them because they are really clever and lovely. I have a lot of things about elephants and it is like my lucky charm.

10 things that you don't not about elephants:

1. They can't jump.
2. An adult male can weigh between 6-7 tons.
3. The sound they made is known as trumpeting.
4. Elephants can live up to 70 years.
5. Adult elephants sleep standing.
6. Elephants need to eat more than 200 kilos of food a day, so they spend about 16 hours a day eating.
7. They are capable of swimming long distances.
8. When males turn 12 leave the herd and take their own course.
9. They can run at a speed of 40km / h over short distances.
10. They are herbivores and eat mostly grass and bark of trees.

Musicals

From my point of view, musicals are the best theatrical and cinematographic genres. Musical is a very entertaining genre where actresses and actors sing and dance to the sound of music. Through the songs are transmitted the love, the fight, the secrets, the pettiness, the humility, the deeper and purer feeling, the friendship, the relationships and even they transmit positive messages to the society. Furthermore, we get in a situation while we are interpreting a play, since we have to transmit a concise and clear message. Therefore, we became more sensitive to feelings.We also learn to vocalize and speak out avoiding shouting. On the contrary, it is a difficult genre to practise. In fact, the musical was born in USA when a Europe company of dance mixed with a theatre company in 1866.

Some of the best musicals I have ever watched are: 

My fair lady

 Moulin Rouge

Grease

 Hair

Chitty Chitty BangBang

 Mary Poppins

My favourite band

I would never say I have a favourite band. However, this band has gone with me every time I have travelled by car. M-Clan CD was bought by my father when it hit the shelves in 2004 and it became one of the best CDs I have ever listened to. Unconsciously, I sing these songs when I am walking and they accompany me. Strangely, the songs has formed part of my life, thus I associate each one to a different moment of my childhood and frame of mind, independently they are good or bad. The song I like the most is "miedo", since it is full of sense and feelings. Now, when I am enough mature, I understand the meaning of this song and every time I like it more. I will translate some parts:

To begin with
I will say this is the end
It is not a happy ending
It is just an end
But it seems to be there is no turning back

Fear
of coming back to the hells
Fear of you to fear me
of having to forget you

Fear
of loving you without want it
of finding you suddenly
of not seeing you anymore

BRUCE ALMIGHTY

A few days ago, I decided to watch the film Bruce Almighty in English, since I had watched it a lot of times but it in Spanish language as usual.  Surprisingly, I found, as a result,  a film that it had nothing to do with that. It seemed to me a completely distinct film with plenty differences between one film and the other. The nuances, the idioms, the accent,the dialogue, the volum of the voice… To tell you the truth, I enjoy more this time than the others  10 times I have watched it. On the contrary, I got a little dissapointed because of Jim Carrey’s voice. I expected to find a man whose voice was really funny, in contrast, it was funny but not that stupid as I thought. Even so, this is a film full of comedy and good moments that make you laugh. The argument of the story have been perfectly pondered and thought, so for me it is still being one of my favourite American's films. As a conclusion, I have thought henceforth I should watch films in both languages in order to criticise each general area and judge what I prefer in each part.

Why it is sometimes hard to express ourselves?

Have you ever felt it was hard to express your emotions or feelings? Some feelings  such as love, ire or sadness are difficult to show. If we know the reasons why it happens, we can solve it.
Habitually, when we keep something to ourselves, it leads to depression and strees. What to do? Below I will write three steps to get over this situation.

1. Be confident
A low esteem brings the incapacity of expressing feelings, since the person thinks he/she has not the right to ask for anything. Also they think that people are not interested in them, so they think their opinions are not interesting to others. Therefore, they choose to keep things. If a person don't think they are valuable, it is not worth to express to the world. We must remember every person is unique and everybody has the right of expressing their feelings.

2. Have esteem
Do not give all for lost. This is a negative thought. People think that although express their opinion or how they feel, there not will be solution. Hence, the person get demotivated. This lack of hope can bring big discomforts and problems because without a positive and optimistic attitude, people fall in stagnation and resignation and they just know to complain. People should express what they feel without fearing of rejection. Every person has their own way of thinking and we have to respect them.

3. Nobody is perfect
The perfectionism is a bad election in this issue. People make mistakes. Thus, this is an irracional feeling if we think we must be perfect, since there is no human who doesn't feel bad in determined time. Do not be afraid of expressing your emotions. Store and hide what one's feel could damaged health in a long time. If it is unable to express themselves in a trusty atmosphere, at least write and draw out all the negativity felt.

7 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD TRAVEL

1. Escaping from the grind .
All of us hate routins, monotonous days and feeling stuck in the middle of our life. We need a change and we don't know why and when. First of all, think there is no hour and there is no days, you choose the destiny and the time.

2. The nicest feeling of the absolute freedom.
You don't need advice from people around you all the time. It is the desired time to feel free. No schedules, no commitments. Make real your plans and don't worry, you can change them at any time.

                                       

3. Learn new languages and improve what you already know.
It is moment to put into practice the languages you have been studying at school or university. Also, you will learn new ones. Learning a language is not only to know the grammar or the ortography but also to understand their idioms, their sense of humour and to wrap in their style of life. It is funny to know some words in each language.


                                       

4. Discover the wonderful people you have never met.
Being abroad around people you don't know will lead you to meet people in strange and unexpected situations. You will meet people that will change your life or even your mind. They can be anywhere.


                                         

5. Being independent in a unknown world.
This will help you to be more responsable. Here you have to make up by yourself if you want to get anything. How to discover a new place to visit, how to use the public transport, how to get a job or an accommodation... Every step you make you will feel proud. This will help you to value things you are getting by yourself. Likewise, we learn to be ingenous when we have to solve a problem.

                                       

6. Develop your abilities: be more generous.
In this type of trips, you will meet really friendly and nice people. Therefore, it is essential you know how to act. You can not be selfish if you want a positive experience in your travel. Thank people who share their experiences with you and help you in many aspects.

                                         

                                       

7. You will learn to know yourself and the others.
.As I said, a travel can change your mind and your life. You will ask who you are and who you want to be. Maybe, being abroad is the best time to make decisions because you are away from everything. At least, you are growing as a person. When you come back you are a different person, but actually you are the person you have never met, yourself.

                                   

                                       

                                         

The racism and the xenophobia

Nowadays, we are used to what we see everyday. However, the changes in our countries and lifes disturb our mind, especially if it happens close to you. People are sociable by nature but we do not realise what we are able to do when something is not good seen by us. The question is: ¿Why is not good seen? ¿Who said that? and ¿Why do we obey to them? I will never understand why people persist on hating different people that actually are people like us. The only difference is that they haven't got the same skin colour or they have differences in religions or customs. It is truth that many of them are sunk in poverty and illness due to the difficult conditions of life they have. It would be good for them to help them in order not to feel despised. I understand people who feel threatened when some foreign come to the country and it is normal they think they will get worse their wellness. They are only looking for a place to live moderately well. I consider black-skinned people or poor people are intellectually, socially and morally equal as us. They just have a bad condition of life and it is important that we know how to put ourselves in their place to understand them. Besides, a solution for this issue is difficult to find. However, like we are afraid of unknown things, we could get closer of these things and realise how wrong we were. Reading books or on the Internet, travelling and meeting these people is the best thing to do to discover they are better than our mind can imagine.

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway is one of my favourite writers. Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fictio. His life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works as well as additional works published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.
 I like this author because I studied him last year and I read one of his more important works: "The Old Man and the Sea" written in 1952. Later, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. The work has two central themes. On the one hand, it is inspired by a true story occurred in 1935: an old man who fight against a big fish and sharks; On the other hand, the story is full of symbolism and epic sense: it represents the fight of the man with the life and nature which he faces with his weapons: the expertise and the technical. The secondary themes are: the danger, the friendship, the hope, the bravery, the loneliness, the humility and the human dignity. Moreover, the work transmites to the reader a lot of values. Desafortunately, he committed suicide in 1961 due to depression and healthy problems.
Finally, the writer also frequented the famous Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain. Some Hemingway's quotes that I like are: “It's good to have an end to journey to; but in the end it's the journey that matters.”; “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”; and “An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with fools.” 

Social networks: pros/cons

Social networks are having great importance in today's society. These days people are used to surf on the Internet and they use social networks every time more. Social networks give us the opportunity of meet new people or back to talk to old friends you thought you would never come back to know about them. Moreover, there are social networks to search relationships or just friendships. By social networks people usually disseminate information to people to know some issue in particular such us: missing people, advertisement, some people movement and even the strikes are said by them. On the contrary there are many cons in this issue, above all in young people. Children and teenagers who use social networks are introduced in a cloud world where they don't realise it is not real. Maybe they meet people who are not like they say to be. Also, our information is public and someone could hurt us. There are hackers who dedicates their time to control people's nets. In conclusion, social networks has helped us in much aspects. However we should be careful with we upload and say by them.

Reflections and thoughts

Currently, people don't realise what they say. It is truth that nowadays people give their opinions increasingly which leads to talk without thinking. I know it is a world moderately developed and this is a country where you have freedom of expression. However, we have passed from an stage in our life of shutting up because of the system of government to talk without arguments and reasons. I understand everybody feel the necessity of talking. I support this. I need to talk when I have had a problem. I need talk when I have a discussion with my family or my boyfriend. But I don't question people or criticize and much less insult them or say what they don't want to hear only because I need to talk about everybody to feel better myself . Most people don't realise they are hurting them. But they doesn't matter because they are unconscious. Most people go to the psychologist when someone says something wrong to them for ages. I know I am not going to get anything writing it here, but I am going to release my emotions what most people want to do, but insulting others. Don't try to surpass others, try to surpass yourself every day!

Some places where I would like to go

Sometimes I wonder where I would go if I needed a change in my life or just a break like the holiday when we go to the beach or the village. There, we can enjoy our nature and its surrounding. We can breath pure air and to be in contact to the wet soil because probably it has just rained. So that I would like to visit all the nature of the world. Moreover, it is something not everyone likes to do. People prefer to enjoy playing video games or drinking alcohol.
I love beautiful sceneries and the range of animals. At the moment, I have only been to big cities such as: London or Paris. However, I would like to visit more natural places such as: Undredal, Norway a small village to visit. I would be amazed to be there and enjoy the nature!. These colourful houses highlight in a country setting surrounded by green.

Another place would be the isles of Greek. I am interested in it because of the greek mythology I studied at school. Greek mythology is full of legends and stories of gods and heroes. These white houses on the isle form a really beautiful scenery in the middle of the nature.

Finally, I will write the last place, since there are lots of them. So, I have written what I like the most.
The last one is a city I was eager to see when I went to England. However, I didn't have enough time and I wish I could go. The name of the place is Bath in Bristol. This scenery impressed me when I saw it.

Despite loving nature, I am also interested in big cities. If there is something I want to do all my life is travelling around the world.

Home-made recipe

This morning I have learned how to cook cupcakes or as everybody say: 'muffins'. The recipe is really simple and I was taught by my sister who is a excellent cooker!

These are the ingredients:

2 cups of white flour.

1 cup of warm water.

1 cup of whole wheat flour.

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

1 tablespoon of dry yeast.

1 teaspoon of salt.

Cornmeal.

Instructions: How to cook

1. In a suitably sized bowl, mix the warm water, vegetable oil, yeast and salt.

2. Beat in the white flour, followed by the whole wheat flour; mix thoroughly.

3. Oil the surface of the dough's surface and allow to rise for 30-40 minutes.

4. Knead the dough until soft; then cut into six pieces and roll each piece in cornmeal.

5. Form each ball into muffins, four inches in diameter.

6. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 175°C for 15 minutes.

On the other hand, If you prefer that they are made of chocolate you have to add 150 grams of chocolate.

This is the result:

It is the first time I cook. I know they are a little broken down, but I promise I will improve my cooking! I really enjoyed doing this activity. I recommend you!

Describing a person

All my life I have been next to my sister, so she is really important to me. She is the same age as me. We are 17 and we are twins. She has got hazel long hair and deep dark eyes. She is medium height and average built. She is also important to me not only because she is my sister, but she has a significant role in my life. She makes me laugh even when it is impossible. She's the only person able to get my mood better. She is friendly and sympathetic. She always listen to me when I need it and try to give me some advice, I really admire her due to her strenght. She is always smiling. Undoubtedly she is a happy person. She is extremely discreet and reserved. Sometimes it's hard to her to explain what she thinks or feels. Therefore, it's difficult to me helping her. I actually love her in spite of our fights from time to time. Another thing I admire is her creativity and imagination. She is good at drawing, writing and designing. What she like the most is dancing, reading, going to the cinema, making up herself...To sum up, she is the best sister I could have and we get on well because we are really similar personally.

My favourite place

I never know what to say when people ask me what is my favourite place. I don't have any place preferred. However, there are a lot of places where I feel more relaxed and pleasured. I also love lying down and planning my life. I think of things I love to do or what I would like to do in that moment. A good place to chill out is to be in a desert island. As I have never been to a desert island, I am good at imagining it. I know is the typical everybody imagines but it's a beautiful scenery.  It's something like this:

I think If I were there I would have my thoughts clears. I would never feel stress or anxiety. On the contrary, one of the places I feel comfortable is in my bedroom. There I can read whenever I want and I can relax in bed. Moreover, no one disturb me and I can dream awake. My bedroom is the place where I do my homework and my projects too.
I have forgotten to say I am a nature lover and their sceneries. I love being in the village with my family surrounded by plants and trees. There you only hear the sound of the ditch and it is a good place where tranquility reigns. There is nobody near the plot and It 's a good way to spend a few days in calm and peace. As well as the beaches where you only hear the sound of the sea and their waves.

Making lists

Fear of living
Fear of dying
Fear of freedom forbidden
Fear of being frightened
Fear of being scared
Fear of the truth
Fear of not listening to the truth
Fear of threats
Fear of threaten
Fear of disappoint
Fear of being disappointed
Fear of loving
Fear of being loved
Fear of falling in love
Fear of being the lover
Fear of cannot walk
Fear of not keeping on the way
Fear of cannot dance
Fear of not feeling alive
Fear of feeling alone
Fear of falling down alone
Fear of forgetting who I am and who I was
Fear of oblivion
Fear of eternity
Fear of the ephemeral
Fear of everything while we are alive
Fear of anything when we are dead

Last Monday at lessons I learned with Raymond Carver that every person is afraid of something.  I read his poem and i found it like a good oportunity to create my own one.

Likewise, this poem reminds me a M-Clan song which is one of my favourite groups. Here below I leave the link:

My last summer

This summer I have been to Bournemouth, England. I went to an academy in order to improve my english and to meet new people. Now, I could say that it was the best summer of my life. I met people of all nationalities. Different languages, different cultures, religion and ways of thinking. However, the most important thing it happened to me was my beautiful german friend, Luana. We were in the same class. We were always laughing in lessons. In spite of not talking the same language, we became best friends. We understood each other very well. She surprised me. I never thought she was to be so important to me. She is really kind, friendly and generous. I miss her so much, but we usually talk by whatsapp and in spring she will come to Spain. I mean with this it doesn't matter the language you talk if your destiny is to be friends. I think we are soul sisters.