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.