WHAT'S IN THE JAR? - Helping a charity

WARNING: I am aware that this text may be a little too long, but for Christ’s sake we’ve done so many things and I could not forget to mention any of them. So, if you feel strong enough, sit, relax and read.



Last week we celebrated what we called the 'What’s in the jar?' game, an activity that concluded the charity project we've been working on in the past English lessons. You're about to discover how it all came to life.

A couple of months ago, during a rainy morning I assume (we had terrible weather those weeks), our beloved English teacher came in saying nonsense: we had to do research on British charities. She split the whole class into different groups based on who we wanted to help: animals, environment, people in need, people with diseases, etc.

The next day she went a step further, we had to choose a charity from each group to compete with the other ones to become the amazing charity that 4º BD would support, all as one, as a family. And so we did. My group, which was supporting people with diseases, was composed by Carmen González, Lucia Martínez and me. We chose Clowns without borders. We had to prepare an activity to raise money and expose it to our class mates in order to choose the best one, the one the whole class would have to organise. We thought of organising a costume party (because of the clown related charity) and a costume competition, and we would raise money asking people to pay for the party and, if they wanted, to enter the competition. We had the idea, it was time now for the fighting.

The battle had started. We all supported and defended our charity as the best one like a brave warrior would do with its kingdom. Someone once told me that when enemies attack your kingdom you don’t flea, you show them why it is your kingdom. And, oh boy, we took that as a motto. But, in the end, there can only be a winner. Those bastards I call friends decided to vote for Cáritas. The battle was over, and we had been defeated. I don’t want to be taken for an arrogant person, but I still think everything would have been better if my group had voted for my proposal: Alzheimer Society. But, in any case, Miss Celis archived her purpose: we had an activity to organise and a perfect opportunity to learn how to do everything in English. She was actually the true winner.

The next hideous step came later, after Alessandra’s marvellous lessons about money. Different tasks were assigned to everyone. I believe I had to wash dishes, but I don’t really remember. We were all told to spread the news about the activity in the social nets… I didn’t, I’m a bad boy. The winning group had to write tons of letters to contact with a hundred people in order to arrange the activity on a certain day at a certain hour in a certain place with certain materials that certain people had to provide to us. And god, it was horrible. At the end, the whole class had to take part in the contact thing so we wouldn’t take the risk of sending something that could get a 'No' as an answer, but we finally archived. Everything was ready, it was time to raise some money.

Before going on with the story, you might be thinking: Iván, what does this activity even consists on? Well, I’ve been trying to create mystery by not telling you which activity stood as the winner, the one the bastards voted for, but I am about to do. The winning group proposed to organise a game in which people would have to guess the exact number of candies a jar contained, paying €1 to take part. The winner would be the one that approached more and would take the candies home. That was the activity the bastards I already mentioned considered the best idea, so it was chosen.

The day finally arrived. 11 May 2013. 10:15 AM. I was in charge of preparing all the materials that were necessary for the activity, so I made a great effort not attending my technical drawing exam to cut papers and move tables. I’m still very emotional, don’t want to talk (write) about it. And the best thing was that, after all the preparations, I couldn’t be there because I had to do the freaking technical exam at 11:15, during the break time. To release all my anger, I did a 9.75 points exam in 35 minutes :D we actually repeated the activity again the next week to raise more money, so I was able to be there and can honestly say it was a great experience. The event finished. The Cáritas representative thanked us for all the work we had made, took the money and ran away.

The project concluded with the winner announcement: Paula Ruiz from 4º A got the right number, but I am proud to say I got the 2nd place in the podium saying there were 876 candies, when the actual number was 877. She was kind enough to share the prize with our class, without the needing of threatening her.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our experience. This whole charity-supporting project has been a great experience and I think all the students from 4º BD can be proud and take something positive from it. Event with that, I would politely ask for the possibility of not doing more projects like this one until next year, this has been stressful enough.

My special ability

I was told to find my special ability, something I'm good at and proud of. I am creative. I can think of great ideas easily and I think it is something really special and useful.

It's really easy for me to create things when I have to, but at the same time you cannot force me to do it, because I won't. It’s not that I have something against you, it’s just… I can’t. I kind of have to be in a creative mood and sometimes, many times, I’m not in that mood. It’s easier for me to plan any school project or to create drafts about my special ability, for example, but being focused and in that creative mood is the key to get my ability to another level. The process of creative is really different every time, but I always find it interesting, due to my ability and my gift to do it.

There’s no such practice or anything to start being creative. There are some people who are more creative than other and that’s fine, but there’s something you can do to improve on it or to try to be creative. Get inspiration. Find it in movies, music, books… whatever. There must be something or someone who inspires you in some way to do normal things in life so there must also be something or someone that makes your creativity get out. It’s basically the most important part of the whole process and what makes you improve or train, to inspire yourself. Apart from that, nothing can really get you to let your ideas grow more than the action of getting inspired.

It’s obviously really helpful and useful to be creative. Nowadays, it seems like everything has been discovered and done but you have to be original and creative, or as some people say: re-invent yourself, to success in any projects you have in life. You see, I’m being creative now, it’s useful.

This is all about being creative. My ability is not one of those hobbies you get interested in and you can go practice it during the summer, but it’s still something really nice and special, and I’m really proud of it.

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!