Christmas

My Christmas has been great! At Christmas Eve, all my family gathered at my house, full of decorations, and we had a lovely dinner. After that, we sang Christmas carols, and they gave me so much presents, it was great! I have to confess that being able to see the relatives I love and spend such a great time with them makes Christmas one of my favorite holidays of all year!
Hah. As if.
I couldn't feel less "Christmasy" in all my life. Every year is worse than the other, because it's all the same and it is becoming too monotonous for me to handle. Almost all my family (not all of them, because it's pretty clear that some of them can't stand each other enough to reunite for a family dinner) gathers at Christmas Eve at my house, which is less decorated every year that passes since my mother is tired of decorating it and I don't feel the "Christmas spirit" enough to do it. So this year, with the absence of the Christmas carols and the dim light of the Christmas tree, which was the only decoration we bothered to put, we prepared the table. And through all the evening, all my relatives told me the same stupid comments that I am so tired to hear, like "do you have boyfriend yet?", "how are your studies?", "oh, look, how weird, Alazne with her laptop, hahah", "why don't you go out more?", "have you lost weight?", "you should eat healthier, you know", "why are you always checking your mobile?", etc.
When we sat at the table for dinner, I have to admit that I felt more at ease when I avoided my family by chatting with my friends through whatsapp or simply reading. And I don't really care that was bad form, I can't stand my relatives because they still treat me like a kid, but when it's convenient for them, they treat me like an equal. So no, I don't see worth my time trying to pay attention to them at dinner. Also, you could think that at least I have the presents because, you know, it's Christmas. Wrong. With this goddamn crisis no one has a spare coin to waste for presents, so...
But well, not everything was that bad. One of the things that I absolutely admire of my mother is that we barely have something to eat the rest of the year, but when we have a family reunion I don't know how she does it to make enough food to eat for the rest of the month. God bless her pure heart. My aunt, who works at a bakery, couldn't come to the dinner, but she brought a lovely marzipan cake:

So the dinner we had was rather quite nice. Another thing I love about this time of the year is that I am able to make presents. I LOVE making presents. Therefore I convinced my brother a few days before, when we were still in Murcia, to go buy something nice for our mother. We went to a market next to the University that had lots of interesting things. One of the stands sold pretty glasses and could engrave in them anything you wanted, so we finally decided to buy a red (my mom's favorite colour) glass with my mom's name engraved in it. When we gave it to her, she gave us a big hug and a lot of kisses, while saying sorry because she wasn't able to buy us anything. 

But I didn't care at all. Because that glow in her eyes and that smile on her face was the best present I could ever had. Merry Christmas everybody!

Practice 4

Task: Write a short Problem/Solution essay (around 250 words) about any issue you consider worth analysing.

DISCRIMINATION

Society has always discriminated lots of different groups through history, and that is a fact. Although we may think that nowadays there's almost no discrimination in our world compared to the past, that is a wrong way of thinking.
There's still hate in every corner of our society represented as homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny... And all of those people have found poor reasons to explain why do they hate those parts of society. For example, homophobic people say that homosexuality is a sin because "the Bible says it's Adam and Eve", and nothing else. Also, xenophobic people believe that white people are superior, as well as misogynists think that all women are stupid or simple sexual objects.
All these problems can be solved if all of us cooperate and take action to make the world a better place and to eliminate discrimination. The most important thing to do is to educate our children, because they are the future. Therefore, we must show them respect and teach them that everyone has the same rights, even though their cultutre or their beliefs are different from you. Other things you can do is to speak up whenever you see an injustice. Don't shut your mouth and look away, defend the victim no matter what. You can become an example for other people.
In conclusion: we can pretend that there aren't any problems in our society anymore, but if you really care, you will take action and change things.

Ferguson

As always, I'm going to write about a situation that infuriates me a lot: Ferguson. Maybe some of you don't know what that is, so I will explain it briefly: It is the case of the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was shot dead in August at the hands of a white police officer in Ferguson, in the state of Missouri. He supposedly did it because "Michael had committed robbery" and "it seemed like he had a gun", all of that being false. It led to protests and heated debates in the United States and other countries. After three months of deliberation, the grand jury decided not to charge the agent, which made the citizens of USA make huge protests across the country, around the date of Thanksgiving. In this entry we are going to analyse why Darren Wilson (the police officer) is guilty of murder.
First of all, we're going to talk about the trial. The prosecutor was Bob McCulloch, being regarded as having a strong prosecutorial bias in favor of law enforcement and an unusually strong prejudice against his accusers. This man has a controversial past that doesn't let him be just or impartial, and it had made things only worse in Ferguson. Plus, we can see how the civil rights attorney/MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Bloom points out through her twitter that Darren Wilson's cross-examination was a joke:

The worst of all is that Michael Brown's family learned the veredict through social media. The court didn't even tell them directly.

Now, let's focus on what really happened. Darren Wilson did NOT know about the robbery: there were reports of a robbery, but all the articles from CNN, NBC, The Times, etc. made it clear that Darren Wilson did NOT know about the robbery at the time.

"But didn't he rob a store?". Well, I mean, the cashier at the store didn't think it was him but yeah, I forgot that the penalty for stealing is public execution without a trial or any process that seems like the logical thing to do. Yeah, death penalty, you are totally right, thank you for pointing that out!

Oh my god.

Also, can someone please explain this to me?

The prosecutor for both cases was Bob McCulloch! Coincidence? I think not. He recommended that charges had to be imposed (felony assault) against this black officer, and did everything in his power to assure that Wilson was let off for murder.

Well, another interesting thing about the case is the "stolen cigarettes". If Michael Brown had stolen the cigarettes from that store like police said he did, where are they? Would they not confiscate them for evidence? Hmm. Food for thought, huh?

But anyway, the most important part about this is the shooting: sixteen people testified Michael Brown had his hands up when he was shot. I don't know how you see it, but that is a universal sign of surrender. So, regardless of attack, he surrendered. Therefore he shouldn't be shot at 6 times. And while Darren Wilson said he did it in self-defense, we should see when you can claim self-defense in America.

1. You must use force to protect yourself when in danger for serious injury or death. 

2. Unless you are in your own house, you must retreat if possible before resorting to force. 

3. You must show that you did not start the altercation.

4. Finally, you can't use more force than necessary to stop an unprovoked attack.

With these points proven, let's see what Darren Wilson did:

He was NOT in danger for SERIOUS INJURY or DEATH.

He DIDN'T RETREAT.

He STARTED THE ALTERCATION.

He put AT LEAST SIX BULLETS INTO MICHAEL BROWN.

All these evidences should have been more than enough to put that pig in jail for murdering an innocent teenager that didn't do anything to deserve his death. He was even a very big hearted boy, as one of his acquaintances said "Mike Brown was a kid who didn't want to play football, even though he had the body for it. When asked why, he told his friends that he didn't want to hit anybody".

The only "good thing" we can take from this is that it has awared society from its situation and the racism that it is still present nowadays. Michael Brown has basically started a revolution, both in the streets and on the Internet, with trendings like #blacklivesmatter, #handsupdontshoot, #wecantbreathe and #ferguson.

It warms my heart, and it gives me hope for a future where these things won't happen ever again. I fully support the people who is raising their voices right now to change things for the better.

Practice 3

Task: Write a short Opinion essay (around 250 words) positioning yourself against something most people agree (but you do not).

DRINKING

The vast majority of people gasp horrified when I tell them that I do not drink. And for some strange reason, they always ask me "why not?". Well, why would I? Although drinking is the normal thing to do when you go out with your friends at night, I see it as an unnecessary and stupid activity.
First of all, they say that they drink to have fun and to become more extrovert, so they can make friends more easily. If you can't have fun without drinking, I find it really sad, and you have a serious problem. Besides, are you telling me I have to drink alcohol so the substance affects my brain and therefore meet new people that way? What kind of friendships could you possibly form in that state? Please.
Furthermore most people also use the excuse of "everyone drinks, so...". That is as logical as when everyone jumps off a cliff and you jump after them. And because "everyone drinks", if you tell them you don't, they insist you to drink. It doesn't matter if you have problems with alcohol or it is a personal decision: they won't respect you, and that is something that irritates me a lot.
Also, something that I will never understand is when they're talking about a drink and they say "oh yeah, I've tasted that, it's horrible", and however they still drink it.
For all these reasons, drinking will always be something absurd and dumb to me, even though that is what everyone does when they go out.

Problem/Solution paragraphs: Energy and fuels

Most of the energy is created by burning fossil fuels: coal, natural gas and oil. The problem with this is that these resources are not infinite. If we continue using them like that, it is expected that the world will run out of these kind of fuels in thirty to forty years at most. Therefore, it will no longer be possible to generate power to operate factories and vehicles or to light and heat our homes. With this problem, we can think of two solutions:
The first solution is to improve conservation efforts. In order to do this, we could encourage the installation of high-efficiency light bulbs in houses and offices. We could also make laws mandating the recycling of whatever possible, or tell people to use more public transport, although these things will not avoid the eventual run out of fuels.
Then the second and better solution would be the alternative sources of energy. One example of the current alternatives to fossil fuels is solar energy. Solar energy is directly obtained from the sun so it is easily accessible and pollution-free. It can be used both to heat water and buildings and to generate electricity, but mostly in countries that have ample sunlight.
In conclusion, in order to have sufficient energy for the next century, it will be necessary to develop and encourage the use of alternative energy sources all around the world.

Practice 2

Task: Write an outline for an essay. Include a thesis statement, supporting ideas and details.

GLOBALIZATION

I. Introduction
Thesis statement: Despite many people being against it has some disadvantages, globalization has way more advantages to offer us that could resolve some problems or conflicts.
II. Internet is a great tool of communication which is very related to globalization.
  A. You can meet new people from all over the world.
  B. You can keep in touch with family or friends who live far away.
III. Nowadays migration is easier than in the old times.
  A. You can see more people from different countries and or religions.
  B. It creates the interculturization.
    1. People understand better each other.
    2. There are less conflicts and less xenophobia.
    3. People become more open-minded with everything else.
IV. Economic globalization is not as bad as people think.
  A. It doesn't make small companies "disappear": the war between companies happens even in the same country, so foreign ones are not special cases.
  B. It offers us products that we possibly could not find in our countries and they could be helpful for us.
    1. Food.
    2. Medicines.
    3. Machines.
V. Conclusion: Therefore, we should ignore people who critizise globalization, because in the end we can observe that it has too many positive points to be a bad thing.

Spaghetti carbonara

Pasta is known to be one of the easiest dishes to prepare in the whole world. The vast majority of people know how to make macaroni or spaghetti. So today, I am going to show you my mother's recipe to make some delicious spaghetti carbonara. Are you ready? Let's start with the ingredients!

INGREDIENTS (2-3 people)

- 250g spaghetti
- 200g bacon
- 50g butter
- 1l milk
- 125g grated cheese
- 1 yolk
- Pepper
- Salt

And now, let's begin cooking!
First of all, fry the bacon in a little pan. After that, put in a wok the butter, the milk, the yolk, the cheese, the salt and the pepper. Stir everything on high heat until it mixes well. Then, others would tell you to boil the spaghetti in water, but here's the special trick my mother uses: put them in the wok where the sauce is cooking! When the heat bends them enough to put them entirely inside the wok, stir the spaghetti and the sauce on medium heat for 10-12 minutes, until the sauce thickens enough. Finally, pour the bacon in the wok, mix everything and there you have it! Delicious homemade spaghetti for everyone!
Now I will leave you here some images if you have some doubts about the process:

(click on the picture to see all the process)

Enjoy your meal!

Thesis statement

Are human rights far more important than animal rights?
Although human rights and animal rights may have a similar importance, the vast majority of human beings will consider far more important their own rights: maybe because of our selfish nature or simply because we don't empathize too much with animals, since we consider them intellectually inferior.

Social networks: pros and cons

BLOCK METHOD

Social networking is a fundamental part of our life nowadays, we use it to communicate with other people, to earn new information, etc. But some people say it is not as great as it seems.
On the one hand, social networking allows you to get a hold of people faster, as well as look up for information about friends and family or news. Furthermore, social networks make you able to find people from your past that you would never think you'd see them again, or even meet new people. Besides, social networking makes easier the communication with others, as the vast majority of networks allow you to chat instantly with everyone.
On the other hand, not everything about social networks is perfect: it has its flaws too. Sometimes it can be slow and not so helpful if so many people are on the same networking device saturating it. Also the information you may find in there could be inaccurate or simply fake, so you must see if it has a reliable source. Moreover, social networks can be dangerous since it is easy to obtain your personal information, and therefore you should be careful with the new people you meet on the internet. Finally, one clear disadvantage about social networks is the misunderstanding or misinterpretation when you talk with someone: it is not the same to chat with people on the internet than  talking with them in person.
In short, although social networks have made our lives easier and are very useful tools, we have to know how to use them correctly, as they are a mixed blessing.

Contrast/comparative paragraph: My life in high school and my life in college

POINT-BY-POINT METHOD

Even though high school and university are both institutions of learning, they differ for me in at least three ways. The first difference between high school and university is their social atmospheres. In high school the building is usually smaller, and students are, for the most part, well acquainted with each other. In addition, students in high school have the same timetable everyday, thus helping them to know one another better. On the university, the building is bigger and people are constantly coming and going, therefore you rarely see the same person twice in a day, which accounts for fewer people being acquainted with each other. The second difference between high school and university is their policies about homework. In high school, homework is required because is supposed to help motivate students to study. Knowing they have to submit assignments in algebra or history gives students an incentive to keep up with these subjects. However, in university most homework consists of studying; very little of it is written and turned in, and that is because in college we are supposed to be more mature. If students do their homework, it is to their advantage; if they do not, the teachers will not force them to do it. The student is only wasting his own money if he neglects his course work. The third and last difference between high school and university is their attendance policies. In high school, students must attend class to get assignments and personal help in a certain area. Furthermore, high school students are less responsible; therefore, they need more guidance, which they can receive by going to class. In university, students may skip classes if they choose and ask their classmates to acquire missed assignments or tests (although I feel the same guilt when I don't go to class as when I went to high school). It is the student’s responsibility to make work up. In short, in spite of these differences between high school and university, they both serve me the same purpose: their function is to prepare me for the real world.

Practice 1

Task: Write an opinion paragraph (125-150 words) about something you really like but most people don't like at all.
One of the activities that I really enjoy doing is writing, something that the majority of people seems to hate. I can understand that, because society has always presented writing as a work, not as a hobby. I may love writing because, since I was little, I've loved stories. I remember myself begging my mother to read again a tale that she read to me for the seventh time. Then, I learned to read, that I enjoyed a lot, and consequently I learned to write. I realized I could write my own stories, and that is what I did: I filled notebooks with my own inventions, and I also had diaries. This is why I'm in a good mood when I write something, but the day I don't, I feel very frustrated. Also, I think my love for writing could be related with my personality: I'm very shy, and maybe too quiet, so I obviously communicate better by writing than by speaking, as I remember that when I was little, I talked with my father through a notebook that we shared. Because of all these reasons, writing is a big part of my routine, something that I adore with a passion and that I will never change for anything, as many others would probably do.

Halloween

Three days ago, it was All Hallow's Eve, or in short, Halloween! It is a holiday especially celebrated in Great Britain, Ireland and USA, since it formed its origins there. But this has changed quite a lot lately. The holiday has expanded through most of the rest of the countries, included Spain. So now in this country, the 31st October, people dress like spooky things (ghosts, witches, mummies, etc) and children go trick-or-treating on the streets.

This Halloween, I didn't dress up or make up, basically because I'm very lazy for these things and I didn't know what to wear. So I only wore black clothes and this hat that I made a year ago for a costume:

Yeah, this is the costume I wore last year for a comic con

At night, I went for a walk with some friends through town, and then I went to their flat to watch a movie. I watched Sweeney Todd, which I've never seen it before until then. In the movie appeared Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, so of course I liked the movie. Then, when I came back to my flat, I talked to my flatmates of how was their Halloween. Some of them watched movies too, and one of them went to a party and had a lot of fun. Plus, her make up was amazing (actually, it didn't surprise me since she's studying art), and it's a pity that she didn't let me upload here some pictures, because you'd surely love it.

Finally, let's talk about marketing. It always overwhelms me how quick things change and how early they sell stuff for certain holidays. Being Halloween in the last day of October, there was already merchandising of it before the month started. And the other day, when I went to the supermarket, I saw that they were already selling Christmas sweets, like nougat. And it wasn't even Halloween yet! In America they're always joking about this:

And I find it kind of sad that nowadays we live in such a hurry. Why do we need to buy everything so early? Do you know the torture that is your mother buying nougat and telling you that you can't eat it until Christmas? It's awful. And it shouldn't be allowed. Also, I know that we the Spaniards are known as people who do everything in the last minute, and that we want to prevent it, but I think we have surpassed that barrier a little too much. Just give it a thought: what is anyone going to do with all the Christmas stuff since November? Most of the people will probably have to remove the Halloween decoration yet, for god's sake. 

So with this said, I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween. And please, don't talk about Christmas until it's actually Christmas. Thank you.

Opinion paragraph: Abortion

So, after thinking a lot, and as I read some comments on the internet, I decided to give my opinion about abortion, because this subject is pissing me off: "I really don't think abortion is a good excuse for the lack of care that someone had. Except in cases of rape. But aside from that, there are some many ways to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. Why does a little soul must be punished for the lack of oversight of its generators? If you don't want the baby, there's adoption, I think it causes far less suffering than abort, because there are people who really are willing to love this new being".
First off, you can be using three forms of protection, and still have an unplanned pregnancy. Birth control is not flawless. It helps, of course, but no matter how responsible someone is being, they can find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy. "Well if you choose to have sex you have to be responsible for and accept the possibility you might get pregnant and have a baby. You shouldn't have sex if you don't want a child!". Children are not a punishment for sex!! We don't deny smokers cancer treatment because they accepted the risk by smoking, we don't deny people who got in car accidents medical attention because they took the risk by driving, hell, we don't even deny criminals who shoot others, and OD on drugs medical attention, so we sure as hell can't deny a pregnant person medical attention because they took the risk by having sex.
Pro-lifers seem to forget that pregnancy and childbirth itself, even if adoption follows, can ruin a person's life, and is extremely transformative, be it in a positive or negative way. You are never going to be the same once going through that. It changes your body, your hormones, your emotions. Many people experience crippling sickness and complications, causing them to lose their job, lose their home, have to drop out school, etc. Prenatal care is not cheap. Mothers who fall pregnant may struggle to feed their already living breathing feeling children and lower their quality of life if forced to carry a fetus the don't have the means to provide for or deal with. And it all comes down to the fact that people cannot and should not be made to sacrifice their bodies for a pregnancy they do not want, for whatever reason they do not want or can not have it. We have an awesome thing called bodily autonomy. Meaning nobody can use our bodies without our consent. Even when we are DEAD. If you and I got in a car crash, and I died, and you desperately needed one of my organs to survive, you STILL couldn’t take that organ, even though it is of no use to me, to save your own life, unless I had consented when I was alive to be an organ donor. Therefore, claiming that a fetus has a right to use a pregnant person’s body for 9-10 months, has the right to take over all the pregnant person’s organs and body chemistry, has the right to change their body forever, not only does it give a fetus more rights than anyone else in the world, it also gives the pregnant person less rights than a dead body.
There is also a major flaw in that first argument, which is “Except in cases of rape,” because in that statement, they're proving that it really isn’t about the fetus. If they truly believed that fetuses had rights, were sentient souls deserving of a chance at being born, it wouldn’t matter whether they were conceived through rape or not, would it? Fetuses that result from rape and fetuses that result from loving relationships are biologically the same, so why does one deserve rights and the other not? Perhaps they have internalized misogyny which causes them to believe that females deserve to be punished with unwanted pregnancies because they had sex.
I am pro-choice because I am pro-pregnant person. I am on the side of the living, breathing, loving, crying, feeling, struggling people who find themselves carrying a pregnancy when it is not convenient, and I am pro-giving them the option to protect themselves, their jobs, their goals, their bodies, and their pre-existing families, by supporting their access to a safe and legal abortion with no judgement.

Body language

I will always be amazed by the stuff that you can find on the internet so casually. Scrolling through twitter, I found a link of a video that caught my attention. It was a TED talk about body language, a subject that I always found very interesting since I was little. According to the video, body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success. You can watch it here:

To be honest, this speech left me a warm feeling in my chest and a great confidence, like I could achieve anything I wanted. Because it's true. I have experienced this myself sometimes, and I know some facts about body language related to some of my acquaintances' experiences.

First of all, the "Wonder Woman pose":

I learned this from my mother. She does look like a powerful, confident woman, unlike me, because I usually just stay hunched most of the time — as I said in an earlier entry, I'm very pessimistic so this posture is the normal thing for me. So when sometimes I'm feeling down or not very confident, she always says to me "honey, straighten up, put your hands on your hips and smile!". And it does work! I strongly believe that changing our posture can change our moods, make us more or less confident and more or less perceptive. And I can prove it with some anecdotes.

For example, in high school we had a new ICT teacher who was very, very, very intimidating. All of my classmates were afraid of him, and he liked to treat us like "fools" because "we didn't know the most simple things about technology". And of course when we had to give our homework, he loved to pick someone to be in front of the whole class and ask them, so he culd get them to say something wrong and embarrass them. So one day he called a girl, he got in a "Mr. Burns posture" and said: "You know? When I see you with your legs crossed, your notebook hiding your face and your nervous laughter... It's like you're at my mercy. I feel powerful! Mwahahahahah!"

I swear to god I will never forget that teacher

Also, my father loves to tell me some stories of "the old times", and he once told me one referring to body language. He worked as a seller and he had to read a book about body language for his formation in that job. Surprisingly, the knowledge of the body can have a great effect in business and negotiations, as he discovered soon. He had to sell some books to a customer who wasn't very convinced about them, and they had a reunion. My dad noticed that the customer had his arms crossed: that meant that he wasn't being perceptive. Then, he pretended to drop his pen so the customer would pick it up and have his arms open. After that, it was easier for my father to convince the customer, and he finally sold those books.

On the other hand, I studied body language and self-defense at P.E. when I was in high school too, so I learned a lot about hand movements and stuff (have you seen "The Mentalist? Jane usually catches the criminal because of body language). Also, I learned that this subject is an important factor in self-defense, as we can see in the basic posture: 

"You have to try not to transmit hostility but quite the opposite, so you won't keep a threatening or defensive posture. This facilitates the element of surprise in the response. Standing with both hands raised to the height of our face and showing the palms of the hands is a basic position for the start, because it protects our head and let our hands be near the opponent, accelerating our response time."

Actually, our P.E. teacher told us that he used that once, when a guy with a knife wanted to rob him. The thief thought he had all under control, because he was threatening an unarmed man in the middle of the night. But the poor guy ended up on the floor crying of pain with a broken elbow. Yes, appearances can be deceiving.

This is why I think it's very important to learn the control of your own body. It can be the difference between success and failure, and it can have a great influence in your confidence. So while we practice our writing skills, I highly recommend you to look for some interesting body language facts, too, because they can help a lot when giving a speech or something similar. And I'm sure that this fascinating subject will be the key to reach our dreams, as shown in the video.

Describing a person: Clara

Although my friend Clara is very absent-minded and clumsy, she's someone I can completely trust because of her kindness and strength. She behaves like a 4 year old, specially when she's talking, because she's half-German and she doesn't fully master Spanish nor German. Despite her German family, she doesn't seem like a stranger at all: she has dark, blonde hair (almost brown) and brown eyes. She doesn't have the typical pale skin either, so you can normally think that she's just Spanish. She's very happy and cheery, and you can know that by looking at her bright smile that she's always wearing. She's very gentle and kind, and also strong, and I think it is because she spends a great amount of time in the hills: she loves nature.She can have fun with the most simple things, and that's why I love spending time with her: I always laugh when I'm with her. She also helps me a lot, and that is something that I'm grateful for. So although sometimes I find her childish behaviour annoying, I think it is one of the charms of why she became one of my best friends.

Gorka's birthday

Yesterday, October 13th, was my brother's birthday. I've been thinking on writing about this because of two reasons: first, I thought how much he has changed and I realised that it is because maybe time is passing faster everyday for me? I don't know, that thought is scaring me. And second, I'm very angry and I think God or whoever is up there is playing with me or maybe the Universe hates me.
But, well, let's explain this thing from the start. My parents are divorced: I live with my mum here in Murcia and my brother lives with my dad in Granada. As this last weekend was my grandma's saint, and also on Monday it was my brother's birthday, we made a family lunch on Saturday to celebrate it and we told my brother Gorka to go. So he came on Friday to stay the weekend, and he could go back on Monday because in Andalucia there was a holiday, so he didn't lose any classes. Let's take a look at my brother when he was little and how he is now:

Gorka (4 years) and me (5 years)

Gorka (17 years)

I have to say that when I saw him in the bus station I started laughing and said "Holy fuck, you have a beard!" (yeah, we don't see each other very much). But apart from that detail, he's still the same, right?

So, as I was saying, on his birthday we woke up very early to go to Murcia. I heard my mother walk into Gorka's room, switch on the lights, and say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!". I got up and I could hear all the smooches my mother was giving to him as I thought "poor boy" and walked into his room to congratulate him. Then, my mum asked him that typical, stupid question that I never understood: "How do you feel with 17 years?". He looked at her with a horrible face and said "sleepy". Well, what else could he had answered?

He got a lot of money from our family members, and I gave him a League of Legends hoodie (he's a videogame freak and he absolutely loves that game). Then we went to Murcia and said goodbye to him, and I went to class as usual. 

Until then, everything was fine. Afterwards I went to my flat and while I was having dinner, he sent me a whatsapp saying "look at what dad gave me for my birthday haha", with these pictures:

Kitties...? ARE YOU SERIOUS DAD? COULDN'T YOU THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE FOR A BIRTHDAY PRESENT?? WHY KITTIES??? WHY???? *frustrated screeching*

I swear to god, I want to kill someone. This is so unfair. I've been without a pet since... well, since my parents got divorced. My first and only pet I've ever had was my dog Beltxa, and my brother has another dog named Txuri, too. In the divorce my dad decided to take the dogs with him and take care of them. So I didn't see my dog too much, and it was kind of weird. We've been with our dogs since we were 8 more or less...

Beltxa as a puppy

Txuri as a puppy

Recent picture

"But you can still visit him whenever you want, duh!". The thing is... my dog passed away last Easter. And they told me that two months later, when I went there to visit them. I miss him a lot, and I think of how lucky is my brother to still have his beloved Txuri, that I love a lot too, but it's not the same. And now, he also has two cats.

This is why I'm mad. This is why I want to scream and cry, why I'm completely sure that the Universe hates me. Because I am being left behind, and I'm feeling so lonely it hurts. 

Never underestimate the love of a pet. It can have a great effect in your heart.

Descriptive paragraph: My favourite place in the world

I've been thinking about this subject quite a lot, until I decided I wanted to describe a place that has always been special for me: Marchamalo's salt works. This place isn't in use anymore: in fact, it is considered a protected area for the birds that come there to stay in summer. It is located right behind my house, so I can get magnificent views from my bedroom, like these ones:

Pretty great, right? Can you tell that I love my window? But apart from the fantastic views that it offers, there are more motives to consider this place unique. It is enjoyable to walk through the salt works, which are huge, even though some people say it is banned... But no one listens to them, so whatever, it's not like we're doing something wrong - except for the people who don't live in La Manga, who throw all the trash there in summer. Ugh, I hate them. In the uncountable times that I've been there, specially with my dogs and my brother, it always felt like we were on an adventure: discovering new places, watching a group of flamingos right next to us, etc. Feeling the crusty ground under your feet in summer, burying your feet in the mud in winter (usually in the middle of the rain, which feels great), smelling the salt, the humidity, hearing the seagulls... You can truly feel free at the salt works. It's a very peaceful place to go, and I have wonderful memories of that place. I remember those times when I was sad and I went there to walk my dog under the rain: sadness always left as I walked there. Also, how to forget those amazing summer afternoons with my friends, where we rode our bikes around the salt works and we spent the time watching the birds and chit-chatting. Because of all this, Marchamalo's salt works will always be considered my most precious place in the entire world.

Developing a paragraph

In a paragraph you can find three types of sentences:
- Topic sentence: It's usually the first one and it express the main idea of the paragraph.
- Supporting sentences: They are used to expand the main idea and the paragraph, and with them, you explain the idea, give an example, etc.
- Concluding sentence: It's the last sentence of the paragraph and it basically tells the idea of the topic sentence, but it's expressed with different words.

_________

Here is the paragraph I developed in class:

My mother always said that she had a bit of everything when she talked about her children: my brother and I. She said that because, although we're physically alike, our personalities are completely different. While my brother is very extrovert and socializes a lot, I'm very shy and introvert. People say that I'm hardworking, I love reading and I hate sports. My brother, on the other hand, has always been lazy, and instead of reading, he prefers going out or playing some sports. He's very loud, noisy, and blabbers a lot. I, on the contrary, am very quiet and I don't talk too much. My brother is a person who, unlike me, always tells the truth, no matter what could happen. He's also very optimistic and passionate, and he gets angry very easily, while I'm very pessimistic and I have more patience than him. Seeing all these differences that are between us, you can understand our mother when she says she has the day and the night.

Fear

Fear of not being good enough.
Fear of losing my friends.
Fear of not recognizing my brother.
Fear of disappointing my mother.
Fear of heights.
Fear of not seeing the real world.
Fear of not having enough.
Fear of having too much.
Fear of feeling.
Fear of being hurt.
Fear of time passing through.
Fear of living more than others.
Fear of being left alone.
Fear of the future.
Fear of the unknown.
Fear of not being happy.
Fear of being too happy.
Fear of being misunderstood.
Fear of losing.
Fear of change.
Fear of myself.

God bless WiFi

Here I am again, writing another post. But this one is special because... I'm writing it in my flat! Yay!
Well, maybe you don't see it like a big deal, but being without Internet for more than 2 weeks... It has been horrible for me and my flatmates. So imagine our faces today when we received a package that contained this magnificent router:

After cheering and jumping with my flatmates for like, 10 minutes, this made me think... How did we become so dependent on the Internet? Is it simply because of how is our generation? I swear, one of my flatmates has been grumpy since we came here because of the lack of Internet and today, when she saw the router, she almost cried of happiness. But I don't blame her, it's been the same for me. And I don't think it is because we are "greedy kids that don't go out because they're all day on the Internet or playing videogames", as our parents say. We are conditioned by society.

Nowadays, everyone works better with computers, tablets, or even mobile phones, and it is easier to obtain information through Internet. Without going any further, I obtain almost all the University material through its webpage, and I have to say that it really was a nuisance. I had to bring my laptop everyday to University so I could download stuff and make this blog. Anyway, now that I have WiFi, I have to say that it is absolutely great to be at home and work comfortably on your desk.

But it's scary, isn't it? Knowing the fact that we can't work without technology anymore... And don't say we can, because I have proof! My mother worked at an hotel a while ago, and one day, all the computers in the hotel crashed. The chaos took over them: they weren't able to distinguish the rooms that were occupied or the ones that were cleaned, because all that information was in the computers!

Now imagine: the Internet, that marvelous, wonderful place where most of the world's data is saved... What would happen if one day it suddenly crashed too?

HeForShe

Hello everyone! How is it going? Well, let's start this... I personally think that I couldn't come up with a better subject for my first post. And I say this because, wow, what a coincidence! It's related to my blog theme. I'm going to talk about Emma Watson. That actress who played the role of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies? Yeah, that one.
The thing is that last weekend, she gave a speech supporting the HeForShe campaign, a project run by UN Women in support of women's equality around the globe. Watson, in her role as a Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women, denounced the negative impact that rigid gender roles have on both men and women. Here's the video:

Someone finally said it! Thank you, Emma.

"So, what's the matter?", you'd ask me. Well... It looks like Watson has been threatened. And my question is, why? Because she spoke out the truth!? This made me mad, but as I kept reading information about it, it didn't surprise me. The ones that threatened her were 4chan users. I have no idea what kind of website is 4chan, but this is not the first time that they do something like this.
It seems they have bad reputation, as I could see with my own eyes a while ago when they declared war on Tumblr users. Tumblr is a website that supports feminism, the LGBT community and people of color. This may seem like a good thing, right? But I know for sure that they support those communities too much, to the point of being extremists and hating on white men. But that is not the point. The point is that 4chan users hacked a lot of Tumblr accounts to upload there nsfw pictures that were very triggering to the majority of the Tumblr community. And they did it just because this website supported all those communities and they're against them.
So, getting back to Emma's issue... The users on 4chan, which has been also one of the major conduit sites for the stolen celebrity nude photos, are sending the clear message that they think it's okay for any anonymous person on the internet to leak naked photos of Watson whenever they please, saying that they will do it at any moment. And I saw some of those 4chan users' comments, that said things like "That feminist bitch Emma is going to show the world she is as much of a whore as any woman", and "She makes stupid feminist speeches at UN, and now her nudes will be online, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH".
... Just how much of a stupid, mindless jerk you have to be to behave like that? Don't you find it sad that, at this time of the history, year 2014, there's still people in society who think like 50 years before? As I see it, feminism nowadays should be something of common sense, and it shouldn't be this hard to obtain equal rights for everyone. But, as always, the problem is in the education. We need to educate ourselves more and better to obtain results: I have always thought that.
In conclusion; I'm not sure if in the end this was a real threat or it was just an ugly joke. What makes me angrier is that, if they actually leaked pictures of Emma, it wouldn't be to see her naked. It would be to see her hurt, and to get the pleasure of humiliating a woman who offended them just by standing up for herself and for other women.