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.