Spanish New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is a really important day of the year around the world and here in Spain we have some special traditions to celebrate this day.

It is known that we love to go party hard, but before that it is common to have dinner with your family and friends at home, with typical dishes prepared for the occasion, similar to Thanksgiving in America. When the New Year starts at 00:00, it is pretty much the same as in the rest of the world.

The Grapes is the most typical tradition on New Year’s Eve. While in the rest of the world they just do a countdown for the last seconds of the year (and I don’t underestimate that, but dude it isn’t as funny as our stupid grape thing…), here in Spain we have a full ceremony to enter the new year.

In Puerta Del Sol, a famous square in downtown Madrid, there’s a big clock that sets the 12 Strokes of Midnight. That moment is broadcasted in TV all over the country, except for the Canary Islands, where there’s a difference of 1 hour, so they celebrate it later. With each stroke, we eat one grape; with a period of 2-3 seconds between each (for us to eat the grapes, obviously). When the twelfth one is eaten, the New Year has begun.

We could say that without the grapes tradition, the New Year’s Eve would be unfulfilled. The whole country stops to do it and it is quite funny to receive the year with the mouth full of fruit, maybe just to justify all the sweets you have eaten during the holidays...

(Some images will be added soon.)

Thanksgiving Day

     I would like to say thanks to my parents and grandparents for everything they've taught me and the memories we've shared and to every person that has helped me through life.

     To my parents, because they've been there all this time and I hope they ever will. Because of the things they’ve given me and the ones they haven’t because they thought they shouldn't. Because of all the things and places they made me discover and the things they taught me. For all that and more, thank you.

     To my grandparents, the one who are still here and the ones who aren’t. The ones I knew and the ones I didn’t, even if that sounds weird. Thanks for being you.

      And to all my friends, partners, people I know and the ones I never heard of until that moment when they helped me, when they gave support when I asked and also when I didn’t, to me as a friend or as a completely stranger. To everyone I didn’t thank in the past and to the ones I did too, again, thank you.

      For all these reasons and many others, thank you all because my life would be different without you.

White Sparrows

Couple of weeks ago María José, Ria, Andrés and I did a small presentation on a song. Here it is.

Related photos:

Here you can see a man crying at a funeral. This picture describes the song perfectly because in the song the singer’s lover dies. The black and white colors emphasize the sadness of the picture. This picture is very dramatic, moving, and powerful.

In this picture you can see that two persons are holding their hands in the rain. In the song the singer says he was holding the hand of his girl while they were trying to shelter from the rain. The picture is really moving, powerful and romantic in this context.

Here we can see a white sparrow in the ground who wants to fly. In the song the singer tells these sparrows fell from heaven and carried the girl away. This photo is very spontaneous and very beautiful.

In this photo we can see an eclipse over the clouds, with a great contrast between dark colors and bright/warm colors. The relation with the song is that it expresses the sadness of the man.

Song: White Sparrows by Billy Talent

Activities.
Fill in the gaps.

Today I walked down our old (1)______

Past the (2)______ where we'd meet

Now I dine alone in our old seats
The cold wind (3)______ right through my (4)______

And I feel like I'm getting old
But I wish I was getting old with you
I held your (5)______ when we took shelter from the rain

She laughed as we picked out our children's (6)______

White sparrows fell from heaven and carried her away
Black (7)______ cut the strings of my heart, I kneel and pray

Her clothes hang in the closet still
The phone sits on the windowsill
And every time it rings it gives me (8)______

My heart just stopped when I was told
Doctor, doctor, on the phone
Said my (9)______ was never coming home

I hold your casket gently walking to the (10)______

Dark clouds (11)______ the sun won't shine again

White sparrows fell from (12)______ and carried her away

Black arrows cut the strings of my heart, I kneel and pray

They gave her one more day
To say the (13)______ I couldn't say
I'm crying in pain, crying in pain

And I'm not looking for answers
No, I'm not looking for answers
But dear God, why did you choose her?

White (14)______ fell from heaven and carried her away
Black arrows cut the strings of my heart, I kneel and pray

They gave her one more day
To say the words I couldn't say
I'm crying in pain (crying in pain)
Crying in pain
Our love will (15)______
I'm crying in pain

Triathlon

What's up you reader? In case any one apart from teachers is reading this blog. I don't think so... Let's get some sport knowledge.

Triathlon came up as a bet between athletes to see which of them was the best one: a swimmer, a biker or a runner. Some people say it was originally created in France, where they called it Les Trois Sports (The three sports).

Triathlon is a sport made up of 3 different ones. In its most popular version, those sports are swimming, cycling and running.  In this events, different athletes have to compete between them to see who is the fastest and better one. They start with swimming, continue with cycling and finish up with running. There are so many different competitions, but the most popular ones are:

• Hawaii Ironman World Championship. Kona, Hawaii.
• Nice Triathlon. Nice, France.
• Enduroman Arch to Arc. From Marble Arch, London to the Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
• St. Anthony's. St. Petersburg, Florida, USA.
• Escape from Alcatraz. San Francisco, California, USA.
• Wildflower. Lake San Antonio, Northern California, USA.
• Norseman Extreme Triathlon, Hardangerfjord, Norway.
• Ironman 70.3 World Championship, Henderson, Nevada, USA.

Triathlon is an Olympic sport since the Sydney Games in 2000. The spanish representatives in triathlon for the London Games are Javier Gómez Noya, Mario Mola, José Miguel Pérez, Ainhoa Murua, Zuriñe Rodríguez and Marina Damlaimcourt.


I'm sure they'll win all the gold medals. See ya!

An Italian Cooking Day

Hi there! I wanna talk — write actually — about my experience cooking four-cheese pizza with some classmates. In fact, someone's forcing me to write about it but... nevermind.

All this cooking thing began as a school project — and, of course, finished like that as well — to promote healthy habits and a healthy diet. We chose Italy because of alll the ingredients they use for every meal, because in Italy people is really healthy and skinny... Because we wanted to eat pizza. And we actually did, cause we made two and taste one of them, to prove it was edible and no one could get sick the next day. Always taking care of you guys. You know you need us... Grow up!

Everything was undercontrol during the cooking/shooting  — Yay! We shooted it... forced again, you know? Trust in me. We only had to repeat the take it out of the oven scene like 5 times, but everything went well. In earnest, we had a great time cooking both pizzas. If you want to know the recipe or how everything was, check out the video bellow.

That's alll for the moment. Hope you enjoyed our little cooking show (if you can really call that a show). See you!

1,000 Cranes for Peace

ALCOHOLISM PROBLEMS

Have you ever had a problem with someone because of the alcohol? Does alcohol affects you in a direct or indirect way?

Even if in this picture it seems that drugs are worst than alcohol, 'they are actually  the same'
(mostly because alcohol is also a drug...)

         Sometimes you have a friend or a relative who is overdriking everyday or gets drunk many times. It's always difficult when you met someone whose personality is great when he or she is not drunk, it's the kind of friend you like to have, and you discover a completely different person when he or she drinks in a party or, what is worst, starts driking everyday from the morning to the evening. Well, it could be funny if you're drunk too but, you know, we're under age and it's supposed that we shouldn't drink until we're 18 (Irony Mode: ON). Anyway, the thing is that it's not healthy for the person and you, another friends and family, should help him/her to stop drinking. How can we do that? you're asking right now (no, I'm not a mentalist or something). Here are some ideas, that you don't really need to follow because maybe yours are better but my imagination has limit.

#1. DON'T TELL HIM/HER THAT HE/SHE IS DRINKING TOO MUCH (OVERDRINKING).

       That's not to solve his/her problem, it's to help you. It can be (and normally is, skipping those people who don't give a damn about anything) a cause of fight and, believe me, a drunk friend is not a kind and funny person in a fight. Of course, if you want to broke your friendship with him/her, here you have the solution.

#2. Help him/her to stop driking.

       It's not difficult if you get help from proffesionals who know how to do that. Family and friends is always so important to help someone with it. For example, if you're in a bar, party and stuff with him/her, remember him/her not to ask for alcoholic drinks. He/she would say 'there's no problem, it's only one' or something like this, but even one can get him/her to get 'addicted' again. If he/she colaborates and really wants to quit from alcohol, it's not too difficult.

#3. If he/she doesn't colaborate, at least don't let him/her to do things shouldn't be done drunk.

      Try to do #2, but if the person doesn't want to quit from alcohol, let's quit him/her from activities that cannot be done when you're drunk. The most typical example: no car driving. Maybe if he/she undertand you cannot do many things when you're drunk, he/she will colaborate with tip #2.

And that's all. See you!

Día de la Paz: La historia de Sadako Sasaki

A consecuencia del enfrentamiento entre Japón y Estados Unidos durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el 6 de agosto de 1945 se lanzó contra Hiroshima una bomba nuclear americana. En pocos segundos, la ciudad quedó totalmente destruida y miles de personas murieron al instante.

Pero una niña, Sadako Sasaki, logró sobrevivir en los alrededores de la ciudad con tan solo 2 años. Años después, cuando tenía 11 años, empezó a enfermar. Se le hinchaba el cuello y le salían puntos morados en las piernas. Se le diagnosticó leucemia en febrero de 1955, provocada por la radiactividad de la zona desde el impacto de la bomba.

En agosto de 1955, Sadako recibió la visita de su mejor amigo, que le hizo una grulla de papel. Según una leyenda, si hacía 1.000 grullas de papel, los dioses le concederían un deseo. Sadako omenzó a hacer grullas de papel. Estuvo haciendo grullas de papel durante toda su estancia en el hospital, gracias a los papeles de regalos que les hacían a otros enfermos y a papeles que le traía su amigo de la escuela. Pero no consiguió llegar a las 1.000.

El 25 de octubre de ese mismo año Sadako Sasaki murió, con tan solo 644 grullas hechas. Sus amigos y familiares terminaron de hacer las grullas restantes y enterraron las 1.000 grullas junto a ella.