What about the future?

Lately I've been feeling inspired about everything around me. I'm thinking about future and how scary and amazing it can be at the same time. I'm living that time that we should choose colleges and get into them. I’m living that time when all your family and friends ask you what career you are going to do and which university you are going to go to, but the true is that I don't really know what I want to do. And this gives me a feeling of enormous stress, because I am a person who always has all things planned and for the first time in life I am letting things go and deciding as they go. 

I think of when I was little, had all my adolescence planned, all my dreams ordered and now ten years later nothing has turned out to be what I had planned. I think the problem we have is that we plan things too much, when we are born we have the planned life until approximately 21 years in the sense of studies. I think we really forget the meaning of life, we forget to live and with this I mean for example having a weekend to do things that we like.Unless it's holiday day or summer we can’t do it because we have planned everything we have to do.

 This is simply my opinion, but I am based on a few days ago, some friends made me a surprise for my birthday in which it consisted of going to spend the day in another city, I had all that day planned, it was something different and I sit very well, it helped me to forget for a few moments of all the problems. By this I mean that future isn't just about college and jobs. It's about friendship, love, adventure, opportunities, living at the moment, no regretting things, enjoy every single second because tomorrow we may not be here anymore.

 Future is about now and youth. Enjoy now, because now is the future.

PAU’S WRITING

I think that “Buy nothing day” is a great idea, because we are living in a society where we are always buying things, and most of the things we buy aren’t important. We need to understand that we have to consume less and produce less waste. This idea is so important just because we have to teach the new generations, that we can´t spend our days spending our money on things, just because they are a new trend or something like this. We need to learn the meaning and the importance of our consumer habits.

In conclusion, we have to decide if we really need a thing or if we are only spending our money on it just because it has a discount.

WELCOMING EMAIL

Hello my name is Carla, I'm 16 years old  My main hobbies are reading and listening to music.

I have many goals; the main ones now in the short term are to pass the course with good grades, and to go to live a time away from my friends and family to be able to become independent and in a way, to leave the comfort zone.

In the long run are to travel as much as I can and to be able to work on what I really like and it makes me happy.  I have many more goals but these would be the main ones.

I have clear that I am going to find many challenges to reach all my goals, some of these challenges may be for example If I fail an exam, I will have to make an effort and study much more for the next one. And if I don’t have money to travel and live in another country I'm going to have to work hard and save a lot of money to fulfil my dreams or I will have to wait more time to make the trip. The people who can help me to achieve my challenges are my family and friends, the people who support me and help me in everything.

“You can let your failures define you, you have to let your failures teach you.”

This is my favourite sentence of Obama's speech, It's a very inspiring and motivational phrase. I think it is very important to make it clear to children that although we often fail in studies or anything, it doesn’t mean that this defines us, we have to take advantage of that failure to learn from it, and not to fail again in that way.

Looking Back

This last year, I think I have improved a lot my level of English. Especially in the part of writing, if I compare the texts I've done this year, with those of last year, this year's texts are much better. And I also gained so much in vocabulary.

In my opinion the activities that were more useful to improve my English were watching films, blog yoursays and news and also read the 3 books because doing this activities I learn a lot of vocabulary and with the blog I learned how to improve my writings I think that with the blog we learn so much because we are free to write about what we want an that's an important fact. In my personal case I am more motivated If I can write of what I want.

I don't find useful to learn English is Kahoot because I think that Kahoot is more useful to revise if we have understood the concept right. 

I think that the best activities which I can show my English are our blog.

The nest year I would like to continue doing tasks on the blog , read more books and also whatch fils or videos to improve my vocabulary, because as I said before these are the activities where I improve more my English. 

Formal letter

                                                                                                                                    11,ReinaSibil·la 
                                                                                                                               Fortià
                                                                                                                         Spain/Girona

45, Oxford Street, New York                                                                           31st, May 2017  
     NY 10051 United States                                                                                                                  


Dear Sir/Madam 

I am writing to request information, on being au pair in Usa, because in two years, after studying I would like to go to Usa and work as an Au pair.

I am from Spain, I have so many doubts about how I can go to work in the USA being Spanish, what documents I need, If I have to have a special driving license and how long I can be working there. I'm so excited to be au pair and work, I hope you can solve my doubts

I look forward to hearing from you about. Thank you for your time and consideration.

What's wrong with volunteer travel?

This TED talk is about what's wrong with volunteer travel, Daniela, a girl that has been living in Cambodia for six years. Says that she started her work in Cambodia as a volunteer. With her group they wanted to create a school and educate the poor children, but after a time working on that project, they realized that they weren't doing the things right.

They realized that before creating anything they had to learn like it was the life in the country, and then discover how they could really help the children. And with this she means that before helping we have to learn.

She also says that there are a lot of fake orphanages that collect money from unknowing tourists coming from all over the world, money from people volunteering in these orphanages. 

Says that by volunteering we are only giving our sympathy and by learning we have empathy with the people of that country. 

And the issue is, that the big players on the "voluntourism-market" are not interessted in long-term-development-results,solutions etc. All they care about is how to maxamise their profit.

GAP YEAR

Cleveland murder suspect Steve Stephens kills himself after pursuit

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/18/us/cleveland-facebook-killing-video/

This news is about Steve Stephens suicide, the man who killed 15 people live on facebook.

He killed himself in Pennsylvania after a police chase, officers said Tuesday.

For two days, authorities across the country scrambled to find Stephens, the man wanted for the death of Robert Godwin, a self-taught mechanic and grandfather of 14.

"We're grateful that this has ended," Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said. "We would prefer that it had not ended this way because there are a lot of questions, I'm sure, that not only the family, but the city in general would have had for Steve."

Godwin, 74, was shot Sunday while walking home from an Easter meal with his children in Cleveland. Stephens later posted video of the elderly man's death on Facebook.

On Tuesday, two of Godwin's daughters, Debbie Godwin and Tonya Godwin-Baines, met with Joy Lane, the woman who identified herself as Stephens' former girlfriend, CNN affiliate WJW reported.

"Steve really is a nice guy. ... He is generous with everyone he knows. He was kind and loving to me and my children," she told CBS News.

PERSONAL OPINION

This news is horrible in the sense that I don’t understand how a person can kill so many people and end up committing suicide, if from the beginning he wanted to commit suicide then why he had killed innocent people among them a poor two year old.

It breaks my soul because I saw that live, I saw how he killed a poor old man in front of my eyes (through the screen) and I could not do anything. I think it was a Saturday I was on twitter and everyone was talking about that live so I went to see what was that important, so that man get out of the car and shoot the old man.

I don’t understand how being a direct and knowing the location of the man the police let him kill 15 people.

And this just makes me think about how dangerous is live in the United States and how important it is that they put a gun control now.

Chechen authorities deny media report on 'mass detentions' of gays

https://www.rt.com/news/383152-chechnya-gay-detentions-report/

This news is about a gay detentions report in Chechnya, a Russian newspaper has reported that "over a hundred men" were recently detained in the Chechen Republic and at least three killed because of their homosexuality. The report on alleged detentions and killings was published on Saturday by Novaya Gazeta.

Citing "a big number" of unnamed sources in the Chechen interior ministry, president's administration, prosecutor's office and the local LGBT community, it said "mass detentions" of men who are gay or are "suspected" of being gay have occurred in Chechnya recently.

But a spokesman for the Chechen leader has denied the reports.

The head of Chechen interior ministry's press service, Magomed Deniev, told RBC media company that he had had no information on any such detentions and suggested the report might have been "an April Fools' joke."

Commenting on the report to RIA Novosti news agency, Karimov said that "men in Chechnya lead a healthy lifestyle, practice sports and have only one [sexual] orientation, defined since humankind creation.

"There are no other orientations in Chechnya," he told RIA, adding that his statement is supported by "high birth rate" in the region.

"If there were such people [gays] in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have any issues with them, because their relatives themselves would be sending them to places, from where no one returns," the official told Interfax.

PERSONAL OPINION

This news is horrible, how can they torture and kill a person just because of their sexual orientation,

And I am sure that the citations of this news are false (By this I mean that people lie and don’t tell the truth) because I have read thousands of news related to this homophobic act and there was enough evidence to see that it was real.

I read that they had men in concentration camps like the Nazis with the Jews, who did not feed them and who were killing them.

And regarding what he says about homosexuality does not exist in his country, this is false, I'm sure it exists, but people should not say it out of fear that they do things like these poor men.

I believe that the authorities have to intervene and stop all this and also make sure that it does not happen again because it’s a crime against humanity.

‘Serial Killer’ drug strikes UK after causing deadly addiction epidemic in U

https://www.rt.com/uk/386488-heroin-serial-killer-drug/

This news is about a new drug, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned that a new drug, known by the street names ‘Serial Killer’ or ‘Drop Dead,’ is being blamed for a series of fatalities in Britain. First this drug was found in the United States and now we are talking about UK.

Until now it has been responsible for 3.050 deaths amongst heroin addicts in the US, “ and in the UK six drug users have died.

“Serial Killer” which is a mix of heroin with fentanyl or its chemical derivative carfentanil, an opioid used by vets to tranquilize elephants, is reportedly 100 times more potent than street heroin.

The NCA has confirmed that the ‘Serial Killer’ drug was responsible for these fatal overdoses.

Tony Saggers, chief of Drugs Threat and Intelligence at the NCA, issued a statement staying:

“The NCA’s operation with West Yorkshire Police to locate and disrupt an illicit drugs laboratory during the last 72 hours has indicated that it may be a source for the production of fentanyl and other analogues.

“I am particularly concerned that drug dealers within established heroin markets may have purchased fentanyl, carfentanil, or similar substances from this facility. They may not know how dangerous it is, both to them when they handle it, and to their customers.”

PERSONAL OPINION

I don’t understand, and I will never understand to begin the need that a person has to get high, from my point of view it's like, there are not enough bad things in the world and enough diseases that you have to ruin your life with drugs?

But unfortunately I know people who have been part of the world of drugs, now thank God no longer but have been in contact with drugs like heroin, and according to what they have said, They took it to flee from their life, not to focus on their problems and because they were in a moment of their life horrible with depressions and without knowing well that is what they were doing.

Seeing news like this breaks my soul, because bad people can use this drug to kill people I don’t understand the need to create new drugs, but of course this is a business. I hope the police better control these things because it’s horrible.

How I see myself in the future

Every day I think about the future, about my future and I came to the conclusion that I don’t know what I will do in the future.

It's like I have many projects in mind but really now I'm not doing anything to make these projects come true.

Once I finish high school I think I'm going to take a gap year, to work and think about what I want to study . I have a friend who is working in Los Angeles of au pair and she is going very, very well.

Maybe I go one year to work abroad to another country, I think it’s a great opportunity to go to another country to work, and also it’s a unique experience because it helps you with the language and you can meet incredible people. But I'm afraid, because as it is the world you don’t know what kind of family you can find or how they will treat you.

If in the end I don’t leave for a year or a few months to work in another country, surely I will end up going to university, to study what? Something related to companies: business administration or marketing and public relations.

Because in the future I see myself working in a company although I would also like to be able to work as event planner I think it’s a job with a lot of responsibility but very interesting.

And of course in my future plans, I have included living in the United States for a while. So more or less these are the plans I have for my future.

Coachella

                                      

Today I’m going to talk about Coachella (The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, located in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley, in the Colorado Desert.

It’s one of the largest, most famous, and most profitable music festivals in the United States and all over the world. The 2016 festival sold 198,000 tickets and grossed $94.2 million.

This year Coachella has been from 14 to 16 and from 21 to 23 April. I really don’t know why they make it last two weekends but I think it's fine because as they are the same performances if you can’t go someday you always have another weekend to go.

Although this year has been a bit improvised because when the tickets came out Beyoncé was part of the performances and then cancelled her performance.

Apart from this, this year from what I have seen in videos has been impressive.

In addition to being a music festival, you could say  that it’s also a style meeting, all the most important models, actors and celebrities go to this festival and show their outfits.

I hope to go in two years, because I think it’s a unique experience and apart from meeting lots of people, you can see your favourite artists. And best of all, they broadcast the live performances on youtube.

The only downside I would put is the price, It’s that is very very expensive.

    

Thirteen reasons why.

Today I'm here to talk about Thristeen reasons why, a new american television series based on the 2007 novel Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and adapted by Brian Yorkey for Netflix.

It’s about the death of Hannah, a poor girl who for two years has suffered bullying in high school, before dying she records 13 tapes.

"Hello, I'm Hannah Baker, get comfortable, because I'm about to tell you the story of my life, specifically why my life ended, and if you're listening to this recording, you're one of the reasons." That’s the beginning of the first tape. She leaves the 13 tapes to people who have made her decide to commit suicide. Each tape it’s about a different person.

I started 13rw  without any expectation and it has really surprised me. The message that conveys this series is impressive.

It makes you reflect that before saying anything, we have to think about how can this affect in others.

That if we feel bad we have to ask for help and we don’t have to care about the opinion of the others. It’s our life we ​​can do whatever we want.

I think that everyone should see 13rw, both teenagers and older people, because it teaches you how teenagers really are, Is the first series I see, which deals with issues such as bullying, rape, suicide and depressions.

So I highly recommend it because as a personal experience, it has made me reflect a lot on my life, about people around me and especially about my attitude to others. After 13rw,  I’m going to think the things before saying them and try to never disrespect anyone because we are not really aware of the damage we can cause.

Our society

Maybe I’m too young to talk about the world and society, because as many people say I have lived very little to know how things have to go. But I just want to give my point of view and my opinion of our society.

Nowadays we are living in a world that is a completely madness, our society is a madness too. 

We are living in a world where most politicians are corrupt, where there are terrorist attacks almost every day, where the politicians instead of giving money to health, spend money in wars, and where the greatest world powers like USA, Russia and China fight in a competition to see who has greater military and nuclear power. And these things are just an example of thousands of other things that make our world crazy.

But focusing on our society, in the first place we live in a technological society I will not go into details with this, because I already dedicate a post on the blog. But it’s a good example to start telling the truth about our society.

 Secondly, I could put the importance we give to our social reputation. And by this I mean, that for exemple, if I’m poor but has come to the market a new mobil like the iphone 7 or as a new adidas sneakers, even if I’m poor I'm going to spend the little money I have on that. For what? Because I am not going to be less than the others, I have to pretend that I am in the same social rank. In this example I have generalized but it’s clear that not everyone is like this.

Another of the things I hate most about this society is the sexism towards women. Come on guys we are in 2017, you have to mature, and see once and for all that women have the same rights as men.

And finally although we have so many mistakes more I have to highlight, the little value we have to things. We wait with longing months to have a thing and once we have it we take away all the value we had to that thing.

NASA discovers entire new solar system

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nasa-new-solar-system-announcement-today-aliens-latest-image-picture-look-like-a7593621.html

Scientists have found an entire solar system taht could support life.They have made one of the greatest discoveries in history, they really found seven planets that are in orbit around a relatively nerby star.

And three of them appear to satisfy many of the most important requirements for life, they are the same size as Earth and could feature a rocky floor and water.

Scientist hope to do extra work to discover what is on them and how they are formed, and if they detect certain molecules in the atmosphere, they can be almost sure that aliens can be found there.

Scientists say that living on the planets would be a beautiful sight.

In this planets everything would look a lot darker than usual, the scientists said. The amount of light heading to your eye would be about 200 times less than you get from the sun, and would be comparable to what you can see at sunset.

Despite that, everything would still feel warm, the researchers said.

MY OPINION:

   This news is exciting and incrediblethe same time, Every time there are more things that can prove that there is life on other planets.

Personally I believe that in these seven new planets that have found there is life, I do not know what kind of life if humans like us or aliens or anything else, but I am sure that there is life in other places.

I think this news is very interesting but they have taken a long time to give it, because surely for years the nasa knows of the existence of these planets.

Apart from this, I am very excited to see that more is discovered on the planets and to be able to discover if there really are more people in the world

                                

Hunger in the world

• Do you know which are the countries with major malnutrition and nutritional problems?What are the causes of hunger?
• With the years has situation improved?
• "What can we do to distribute better the food in the world?"

Racism and Homophobia

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Transgender-Woman-Shot-to-Death-in-Englewood-414766533.html

This news talks about the murder of a transgender woman in Englewood and I think is related with the global issue of racism and homophobia to the collective LGBT.

Transgender Woman shot to death in Englewood

Transgender Woman shot to death in EnglewoTransgender Woman shot to death in EnglThe victim who was a 24-year-old transgender woman was shot to death Tuesday morning in the Englewood neighbourhood on Chicago's South Side.

The family and friends of the victim knew her as Tiara Richmond but she also was knew as Keke Colliner, said an advocate.

Tiara was in a car with a male in the 7300 block of South May Street when the man shot her. When the police arrived, they found her Richmond lying on the ground nearby with gunshot wounds to her chest, arm and hand.

Richmond was the second transgender woman killed in Chicago in less than six months, the other woman who was killed was found with her throat  cut in the 4500 block of West Monroe, according to authorities.

Personal opinion:

This news is very sad, It’s clear that we don’t know what happened exactly and what were the boy's reasons for killing her but first of all this news is terrible, I will never understand how one person can kill another, never. You're taking everything away from that person how can you live with that.

 And then the fact that she was a transgender woman. The LGBT collective it have always been despised and criticized and of course, not accepted by many people. I am completely in favour of them, is to say I have so many friends who are gay and that doesn’t  mean that they have to be treated differently from the other people.

I find it embarrassing that in the century that we are people kill people for being themselves or criticize them for being of the collective LGBT.

Technology Addition

Today I’m here to talk about Technology addition because I think it’s an issue that effects us all. 

Nowadays see people with their phones everywhere is the most normal but I think we are not doing things right. I’m the first to admit that I'm always on my cell phone, always and that’s not good. 

As a personal experience I have to say that I use the cell phone for everything, from talking to friends to reading books. And many times I wonder, “When I let my life depend on an electronic Device?” of course my life doesn’t depend on the cell phone but it’s a way of expressing this addiction.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees that this is getting out of hand, we only have to see children of 7 years, who already have a phone, it’s crazy because they don’t have the need to have one. When I was little me and my friends spent the afternoons in the park playing or playing anywhere but playing. Now children play with game consoles, they are missing experiences and memories of childhood because many of them spend the evenings in front of a screen.

Even when I'm 16 I'm losing things in life because I'm so hooked on tecnologies, this thing is a complete madness. Many times when you stay with your friends even being next to each other we talk on the phone or just hang out with the phone and it’s like you have your friends in front, and you prefer to spend the time in front of a screen than talking with them.

To this kind of things I mean when I talk about the addition to Technology and now I only can think “What are we doing with our lives?”

SKAM

Today I’m here to talk about a new series that I discovered this Christmas. This series is from Norway and It’s called Skam (that in Norwegian means shame), the series focuses on the daily life of teenagers at the at the Hartvig Nissen School in West End Oslo. At first glance it seems to be another stupid series for teenagers but I already tell you that it has nothing similar to the others.

I started to hear about this series in early November on twitter but only a few people talked about it, at the end of November, thousands of people were talking about the series and I’m not kidding, at least more than 25 people told me to see Skam because I wouldn’t regret it.

So I started it on a weekend without any expectation, the result was that I saw the first season and part of the second in three days It was a complete madness, because the series in norwegian so I had to saw it with subtitles in English.

I have to say it's one of the best series I've ever seen, it’s not like the typical ones. It deals with topics such as homophobia, racism and both mental and physical problems. Skam have taught me a lot of things and values.

So I recommend it a lot to everyone

Here I leave some quotes of the series:

"War doesn't start with violence. It starts with misunderstandings and prejudice."

"We live in a society because we need each other. People need people"

"People experience horrible things every day, and they still manage to be nice to others"

“That all people in this world are equal and that no person should be talked about behind their back, violated, jugded or ridiculed"

"So if you hear anybody use religion to legitimise their hate, then don't listen to them, because hate doesn't come from religion, it comes from fear."

Trump suspends US refugee programme and bans Syrians indefinitely

 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38777437


The new president of USA Donald Trump, has banned the entry of Syrian refugees into the US and 

He has also halted the issuing of visas to the nationals of six other mainly Muslim countries. He said that the measure were part of a new measures to "keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US".

Now, all refugee admissions have been suspended for four months.

Mr Trump signed the order at the Pentagon after a ceremony to swear in Gen James Mattis as defence secretary. During the ceremony, he said: "I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America.”.

During the election campaign, Mr Trump suggested a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".

The executive order has been met with criticism from rights organisations.

MY OPINION:

I’m completely terrified by this news. It’s assumed that we are in 2017, we have to move forward and support and help each other.

I don’t know what he is doing, he is promoting hatred towards Islam and this is completely crazy, because he is an important person and every decision he take has a repercussion in the world. What he has done should be banned. In my point of view you can’t forbid people to enter to your country just because of religion.

And another thing I want to say is that he has only prohibited the entry of people from countries where he has no business.

How many years have we been fighting for the equality of people and rights? So many years of fight for a person like him to come and throw everything away. This new measure that he has done is simply embarrassing and only shows the type of person that he is. 

The poor refugees, I'm sure that they would love to be in their country with their families and not running away from their house.

And I think as he continues to make decisions like this, he will create many more problems in the world of those that already exist.

Personality Test

The results of the test that we realized the another day in class, say that my type is INFJ and the rate is that I'm 41% Introvert, 19% Intuitive, 25% Feeling and 9% Judging.

I'm agree with that results especially with Introvert and less with the 9% of Judging, because I think I don't have a preference of Judging.

Quiz on fashion and personality

The result of the fashion quiz, says that my style is Urban, and I'm totally agree with that.

Vocabulary: 
frilly
bold 
instinctively

Americans are like children

Michelle Obama, Barack Obama’s wife. Gave her las interview as US First Lady. The interview was with Oprah Winfrey and she talk about her husband, and about the Obama administration's legacy.

She said that children respond to crises the way that they see adults respond and to reinforce that argument she gave the example of a toddler who bumps his head on a table and checks with his parents to see if it should hurt, and depending on the parents response, the toddler will have a reaction or another.

But she also added that she thinks that Barack Obama has been a parental figure for his nation. And all the inhabitants would be the children, so referring to the example given above, If Barack would say in thimes of crisis and turmoil that it would be okey and the americans should look at the future.

She finally said that all of this taught American kids to stay focused and know that their work and lives were not in vain.

Read more: http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/americans-are-like-children-level-3/

My Opinion

At first I didn't understan well the news, but then I realized that Michelle is absolutely right. When we are young and we get hurt with something our reaction also depends on the reaction of our parents.

 So in politics It's totally the same. If our president tells us that despite the crisis the country is going well, our reaction will be good. And if the tables were turned our reaction would be bad.

By this I mean that our reaction depends on another person. And I think Michelle is a very smart woman and I'm completly agree with what she thinks.

Purpose Tour Experience

On november 22 after 6 years being fan of Justin, I was able to attend to his concert in Barcelona. He came with his tour to present his album Purpose.

That day I arrived at the Palau Sant Jordi, at half past eleven, and I was so late because I had standing tickets and means that to be at front rows I should had camped at least two days.

But me and my friend, we had a lot of luck, because some friends of mine. They arrived at eight in the morning and they left us stand beside them in the line.

I remember that once inside we were very surprised because we were pretty close to the stage.

Justin started the concert and immediately I lost the others so I had to spend the concert alone. But that was not a problem because I enjoyed it very much.

When I saw him for the first time, I was in shock, And I'm here writing this and I can not find the words to describe everything I felt, so I can only say that it was magical and unique.

I started the concert in row 12 and end on the 5. And I can only thank God for letting me experience such a magical experience like this, because I think life is, after all, these magic moments that you live.