sábado, 17 de diciembre de 2011

A DISCONSOLATE POEM FOR OUR TEACHER

A proposal of making up a poem
Our English teacher has asked us to do
And here we are like a commitment solemn
Doing our best in something completely new.

What will be the next
In this fascinating adventurous course?
A speech, a writing, or maybe a text

At least it is in English, and not in the Old Norse.

ADVICES FOR TOURISTS BEFORE ARRIVING TO A CITY.

In fact everything has to do with getting the right information, so about INFORMATION, things like:

- Try to bring with you a guidebook in order to know in advance and afterwards in situ what you can see and visit in that city: places like main squares, interesting parks, museums and their timetables, main streets, important buildings, how to arrive from one place to another (public transportation), map of the city, etc.

- Your first visit should be to the tourist information to know if, apart from the typical visits, there is something new happening on that moment in the city. For example, if you are interested in theatre (plays, street theatre, puppet theatre, etc); in operas house; in a travelling exhibition being showed at that moment; conferences that you could be interested in; etc.

- Accommodation.- In order to choose the right hotel, search on internet a hotel which is close to the center or at least a good connection between city center and the hotel. Depending on how big the city is, you may go walking which is the best means of transportation! I am not very in favour of this touristic buses, which shows you the city in a couple of hours, but if you don´t have much time it can be a possibility. But the point sometimes is how can I choose a good hotel in the sense of being acceptable and not very expensive? Of course by internet there is a lot of information, some comments of users, but are they trustworthy? We thought it would be a good idea, a good business, to create a website with information about the quality of the hotels. A website independent from the hotel´s website so that every tourist can leave his/her comments on it. This information would be very useful in countries like Italy where tourism is older than here in Spain and for example a three stars hotel does not correspond with a three stars hotel in Spain. Here it is a good one but in Italy is almost sure that it is inferior. People get quiet disappointed about it.

- Language.- The best thing is to know the local language as Sir Richard Francis Burton used to learn in his travellings. When you don´t speak the language of the locals you lose information, knowledge, the local culture and also the feeling of being a part of the city. So try to make yourself understood by using a dictionary or these books made for tourists with useful expressions of the daily routine and even with the pronunciation. Don´t feel ashamed to make mistakes when you talk to people. They will help you for sure. On the other hand, a good proposal for the city council would be to place signs and pictures which tell you how far a location is and their directions.

- Transport.- Be informed about the different public transportation the city has such as trains, buses, underground, etc, and if there is an unique ticket to be used for all of them. You will save time and money!

viernes, 16 de diciembre de 2011

We Are All One (English Subtitles)


WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES..

WE ARE ALL ONE (Subtitulado Español)


Wonderful video which tells us that we are a part of the nature but we behave as if we didn´t. This video summarizes in a way the whole subject of global issue we have studied in the last weeks. Enjoy it!

jueves, 8 de diciembre de 2011

Our visit to the exhibition...

The painting I chose in the exhibition is a Pop-art painting, modern art. It is a canvas and depicts the main square of a city. It is a contemporary painting, it belongs to the present time, and also narrative art, represents elements of everyday sort. Although the background of the painting is grey, the author makes use of different colors and different tones. And to do this he or she enhances some of the objects by using darker colors. For example people´s hair colors or people´s hat colors.

What the author wants to express is the daily routine of a specific day and a moment of that day: Sunday morning. I came to this conclusion because they are very well dressed and are in the picture, apparently, in a very relaxing way. He/she draws the people quiet crowed together, in fact, all the persons who has painted are in the space which goes from the center of the painting to the bottom. They are physically very close but emotionally they are not paying attention among themselves. Some of them are reading the newspaper, having a coffee, walking, etc. It seems it is a big city and that is the reason why they don´t know. They look at us like if they want to step out of the canvas. It looks like if painter´s wish is to connect us with them psychologically or intellectually..

domingo, 27 de noviembre de 2011

GLOBAL ISSUES

Pharmaceutical corporations are nowadays one of the most profitable and influential industries in the world. It so happens that most of the scientists work for non-independent institutions instead of independents as universities or non-profit-making foundations. By this I mean that their interests are the interest of any corporation: to find profitable products. So, what happen with the scientists who look for the truth and the knowledge?

Investigations are not followed by scientists who really research the health problems but by economic interests. These corporations have also become the supplying companies of information and formation for their own professionals. Consequences can be devastating for our population. They launch their own campaigns for the need of new medicines to solve health problems that they create themselves. That is the case of for example the vaccination campaigns. They have created this ¨fear¨ in our society by which people think that epidemics have disappeared due to vaccination. And this ¨fear¨ comes, as every fear, from the ignorance.

If we have a look at the evolution of every epidemic or contagious illness, before that the vaccination became widespread, the mortality rate had drastically reduced thanks to the improvement in the society living conditions. However, vaccination campaigns are implemented without reliable information of secondary effects and risks. And the reason is that the vaccines industry needs to produce new products and create new customers by creating new vaccines. And how do they find new customers? By selling to the governments their campaigns and their products. What governments? One of their main objectives are third world countries when what they really need is economic help to improve their living conditions...

martes, 22 de noviembre de 2011

U2 & Pavarotti - Miss Sarajevo (subtitulado español)


Moving song interpreted by two geniuses Pavarotti and Bono-U2. This performance is also wonderful, it combines 3 languages together: English, Italian and a Croatian poem at the end of the song recited by Bono in Croatian. Here you can read a continuation of the poem, in English, whose author is Ivan Gundulic. The song, apart from being a singing against war, it was dedicated to Miss Sarajevo who was assassinated during this war.

O lijepa, o draga, o slatka slobodo.
Oh beautiful, oh dear, oh sweet freedom
The gift in which are all treasures
High God has given us
True source of all our glory
The only decoration of this Dubrava
All silver, all gold,
All human lives
Cannot repay your pure beauty!

lunes, 21 de noviembre de 2011

Do you know why ¨pizza marguerita¨ is called that way?

On the summer 1.889, the queen Marguerita di Savoia and the king Umberto I went on holidays to Napoli. The queen looked forward to tasting the famous napolitana pizza. The persons in charge of this task were a famous pizzaiolo, Don Raffaele, and his wife. They prepared a pizza with mozzarella cheese, tomato and basil (albahaca) in honour of the three colors of the Italian flag (white, red and green). Marguerita loved it so much that the pizzaiolo decided to name the pizza after Marguerita.

viernes, 18 de noviembre de 2011

La leyenda de los sentimientos

I love this legend I used to tell my groups in the long trips in the bus... I didn´t find it in English, maybe someone dares to translate it?


Cuenta la leyenda que una vez se reunieron en algún lugar de la Tierra todos los sentimientos y cualidades de los seres humanos.

Cuando el ABURRIMIENTO había bostezado por tercera vez, la LOCURA, como siempre tan loca, les propuso: ¡vamos a jugar al escondite! La INTRIGA levantó la ceja intrigada y la CURIOSIDAD sin poder contenerse le preguntó: ¿Al escondite? Y, ¿Cómo es eso?
Es un juego, explicó la Locura, en el que yo me tapo la cara y comienzo a contar desde uno hasta un millón y cuando yo haya terminado de contar, el primero de ustedes que yo encuentre ocupará mi lugar para continuar el juego. El ENTUSIASMO bailó entusiasmado secundado por la EUFORIA. La ALEGRÍA dio tantos saltos que terminó convenciendo a la DUDA, e incluso a la APATÍA, a la que nunca le interesaba hacer nada. Pero no todos querían participar. La VERDAD prefirió no esconderse... ¿Para qué? si al final siempre la hallaban. Y la SOBERBIA opinó que era un juego muy tonto (en realidad lo que le molestaba era que la idea no hubiese sido de ella)...y la COBARDÍA prefirió no arriesgarse.


Un, dos, tres... comenzó a contar la LOCURA. La primera en esconderse fue la PEREZA, como siempre tan perezosa se dejó caer tras la primera piedra del camino. La FE subió al cielo y la ENVIDIA se escondió tras la sombra del TRIUNFO, que con su propio esfuerzo había logrado subir a la copa del árbol más alto. La GENEROSIDAD casi no alcanzó a esconderse, cada sitio que hallaba le parecía maravilloso para alguno de sus amigos... que si un lago cristalino para la BELLEZA... que si una hendida en un árbol perfecto para la TIMIDEZ...que si el vuelo de una mariposa lo mejor para la VOLUPTUOSIDAD... que si una ráfaga de viento magnífico para la LIBERTAD... así terminó por acurrucarse en un rayito de sol. El EGOISMO, en cambio, encontró un sitio muy bueno desde el principio: aireado, cómodo... pero sólo para él. La MENTIRA se escondió en el fondo de los océanos (mentira, se escondió detrás del arco iris). La PASIÓN y el DESEO en el centro de los volcanes. El OLVIDO... se me olvidó dónde se escondió el Olvido, pero eso no es lo más importante.


La LOCURA contaba ya novecientos noventa y nueve mil novecientos noventa y nueve... y el AMOR no había aún encontrado sitio para esconderse entre sus flores.
Un millón!! contó la Locura y comenzó a buscar. La primera en encontrar fue la PEREZA... a sólo tres pasos detrás de unas piedras. Después se escuchó a la FE discutiendo con Dios sobre Teología y a la PASIÓN y el DESEO los sintió vibrar en los volcanes. En un descuido encontró a la ENVIDIA y claro, pudo deducir dónde estaba el TRIUNFO. Al EGOISMO no tuvo ni que buscarlo, él solo salió disparado de su escondite, que había resultado ser un nido de avispas. De tanto caminar sintió sed y al acercarse al lago descubrió a la BELLEZA, y con la DUDA resultó más fácil todavía, pues la encontró sentada en una cerca sin decidir aún dónde esconderse.


Así fue encontrando a todos. Al TALENTO entre la hierbafresca... a la ANGUSTIA en una oscura cueva... a la MENTIRA detrás del arco iris (mentira!... en el fondo del mar). Hasta el OLVIDO... ya se había olvidado que estaba jugando al escondite. Pero sólo el AMOR... no aparecía por ningún sitio. La LOCURA buscó detrás de cada árbol, bajo cada arroyo del planeta, en la cima de las montañas, y cuando estaba por darse por vencida, divisó un rosal y pensó: el AMOR siempre tan cursi, seguro se escondió entre las rosas... tomó una horquilla y comenzó a mover las ramas... cuando de pronto un doloroso grito se escuchó... las espinas habían herido los ojos del AMOR, la LOCURA no sabía que hacer para disculparse: lloró... rogó... pidió perdón y hasta prometió ser su lazarillo.
Desde entonces, desde que por primera vez se jugó en la Tierra al escondite, el AMOR es ciego... y la LOCURA siempre lo acompaña.


Mario Benedetti

martes, 15 de noviembre de 2011

KENYA

I have a friend who this summer went to Kenya to work with a NGO in a refugee camp. She wrote a kind of diary in her blog and it is really worth it to have a look. Some texts are written in Spanish and Catalan, but many of them in English and she is very good at languages in general buy specifically with the English so I recommend it to you. And also her experience there that it is very moving with all those kids around and people without food and nothing in fact... well,, this is the address:
www.laia-kenya.blogspot.com

...and enjoy the music!!

lunes, 14 de noviembre de 2011

Opportunity cost

In economy there is an expression which I like a lot and it is ¨the cost of opportunity¨. Basically it is what we don´t get or what we renounce when we take a decision. Or put another way, the benefits you could have received by taking an alternative action.
You can apply this theory to economy, for example, if an asset such as capital is used for one purpose, the opportunity cost is the value of the next best purpose the asset could have been used for. And also you can apply it to real life. For example if one evening you decide to go to the cinema, the cost of opportunity would be the alternatives not chosen and lost (in a way) at that moment. It would be easier if we knew the outcome in advance but this is known only looking backwards.

viernes, 4 de noviembre de 2011

Tan tan, ¿quién es? El otoño otra vez..

My entrance of this week has to be with poetry. Today my oldest daughter who is only three years old surprised me with this poem from Federico García Lorca that learnt today at school:

Tan, Tan
¿Quién es?
El otoño otra vez.
¿Qué quiere el otoño?
El frescor de tu sien.
No te lo quiero dar.
Yo te lo quiero quitar.
Tan, tan
¿quién es?
El otoño otra vez.

Beautiful, isn´t it?

Do you know that Federico´s family had in total 4 houses?
The first one is the house where he was born in Fuentevaqueros in 1.898, very well-known for everybody. Federico´s father, named also Federico, inherited it on his wife death, Matilde de Palacios. They were married 14 years but without descendants so Federico got married again with Fuentevaqueros´ school teacher, Vicenta. They had 4 children: Federico, Francisco, Isabel and Concha.

The second house (1.904) is in Valderrubio, just 3 Km away from Fuentevaqueros. At the time Federico lived this village was called ¨Asquerosa¨, just like that. He usually omitted this name in his works because he didn’t like it so when it meant his village he never mentioned the name of ¨Asquerosa¨. To me this is the most genuine house, specially the servant´s small house, where he spent so much time talking to them and where there are still a lot of letters written by him.

The third one (1.909) is in Granada and it is the only one which was not kept. When Federico was assassinated, his father sold this house before leaving to New York. It was next to Isabel La Católica Theatre.

The fourth and last one is ¨La Huerta de San Vicente¨ (1.925), the last house Federico´s father bought. This one was a summer house for the family and it was named of ¨San Vicente¨ in honour of Federico´s mother, Vicenta. When Federico´s father bought it in 1.925, the house was 2 km from Granada´s center, in what it is known as ¨la Vega de Granada¨. Now it is in the center so the views that Federico saw from his balcony as he wrote have changed a lot…

Have a good weekend !
Rocío

lunes, 31 de octubre de 2011

Boundin´ Pixar short film

I hope you like as much as I do ! Enjoy it.

¨Boundin' is a 2003 short film, shown at the start of the Disney-Pixar film The Incredibles. The film was written, directed, narrated and featured the musical composition and performance of PIXAR animator Bud Luckey. The film features a sheep that lived in the American West whose elegant dancing is very popular with the other animals. One day the sheep-shearers arrive and shear it for wool. Having lost his coat, the sheep becomes shy and loses the confidence to dance so elegantly. It is whilst in his bare state that a benevolent jackalope comes across the little lamb and teaches him the merits of "boundin'" rather than dancing (that is, getting up whenever you fall down). The sheep is converted and its joy in life is restored. The sheep's wool eventually grows back in the winter, only for it to be cut again, but his pride is now completely unshaken and he continues to "bound". It is also implied that the jackalope has helped other animals before the sheep.¨

Boundin' Pixar Short

jueves, 27 de octubre de 2011

Olive oil mill 15th century Almazara ¨Las Laerillas¨Nigüelas

Hi everybody! How are you?

My entrance of this week has to be with the place I am working at this moment: an olive oil mil or ¨almazara¨. I will write just a general description of the mill, what you would see if you come. For further details you are all welcomed to see it. I will be still the following three weekends there.

OLIVE OIL MILL OR ALMAZARA ¨LAS LAERILLAS¨ -NIGÜELAS-
It is an olive oil mill which was built by the Arabs in the 15th century. It was working till 1.920, so not too much time ago! Then it was closed and opened again in 1.991 by Nigüelas´ Town Hall initiative. The good thing is that has been preserved through the years in a very good condition. It is said to be one of the best preservative olive oil mills from that period in Andalucía, probably in the whole Spain.

You can see there how a cooperative works. From the moment the olives are brought from the olive trees, till the oil is produced.

There are two mills to crushed the olives:
1. A mill of blood: called this way because of its roman origin.
2. An hydraulic mill: powered by water.

And also two long beams made of wooden (12 meters each one) built to press the mass in order to obtain the olive oil after crushing the olives previously.
I will explain also the differences between ¨cold and hot press¨ which has to be with the oil quality and its uses. And how workers organized their lifes during the harvesting season.

And of course much more information. It is a very fascinating place where you can feel the history on the walls!

If you want to see picture please enter Nigüelas´ town hall web site-

Enjoy it!
Rocío Martín

martes, 25 de octubre de 2011

From the sun to the moon
a rainbow of colours
it is seen in the sky,
everyone has its path.