Final reflection

Today I am going to write the last post in this blog. I am going to do the final reflection.
First of all, I would like to give my opinion about the English Project that we have been doing since first of Batxillerat.

When I realized all the work we had to do last year, I felt astonished, but in few days I got used to it. I started to work hard because I saw that it was the only way to improve my English level, which was so bad. I used to write a lot every term and trying to talk about new ideas for me with the objective of use and learn new vocabulary for me.

This year, I used to do the same. I tried to do the high number of posts as possible but this year we had more work than last year so it was more difficult for me, and I couldn’t carry out my objective.

Although I did fewer posts than last year, this year I used to introduce more key words with the objective of enrich my vocabulary.

From my opinion, I have to say that I agree with this English Project. This project helped me a lot with my English not only for write, also for speak and understand conversations, etc.

However, it made me stressed with all the constantly work, because I did it little by little, because I do not like leave all the work for the lasts days, so moreover, with this project, I learned to be constantly with my work.

To sum up, I would like to say that this project is a good opportunity for people who don’t go to extra English classes like me, because you learn the most important things for move in one English country: write, speak and understand.

Now, is time to look back and compare my first writing in 1st of Batxillerat (email to Gemma) and my last one in 2nd Batxillerat (Advantages of life in the country versus life in the city).

In this last writing, I used to write with more maturity, more vocabulary with different grammar constructions, etc. About my first writing, there was no linking words, no structure, etc. So is easy to see how they have changed in two years.

Furthermore I improved a lot my fluency. When I started to write my blog compositions in 1st of Batxillerat I used to spend a lot of time doing them, and now I can do them quickly and also, I think, better. Is really difficult for me choose my best writing because I did a lot and there are a lot for choose. Moreover, I think that there are more than one that are correctly written.

About my oral English, I also have improved since my first one. In first oral presentation I was so nervous and also I had a bat pronunciation. Now, I speak with more fluency and although I have to continue improve my pronunciation, I have improved it a lot. Here you have an example: my first oral presentation and here, the presentation about my Research Project, that I think that is the best I’ve ever did.

If you want to cheek it by yourself, here you have the link of my 4th of ESO blog and here my first Batxillerat blog and portfolio.

Everything is done now and the only thing missing is thank you for this English Project that has helped me a lot to improve my English! :)

Good luck!

La Trinca

La Trinca was a Catalan music and show group set up by Josep Maria Mainat, Miquel Àngel Pasqual and Toni Cruz. It has been one of the musical phenomenons more popular from the 70’s decade and of the beginning of the eighties in Spain. They started in 1969 and finally, they dissolved the group in 1989.

Their original artistic proposal was based in the social and politic criticism always from the humor and parody point of view with cheeky concerts. They created 38 CD’s during the group life and, moreover they appeared in some TV programs.

I started listen this music group when I was really young, when my grandmother was listening to them in the kitchen while she was doing the lunch during all the morning with a radio cassette.

Nowadays they appeared again in scene with the famous Buscant La Trinca in TV3, which is a program that searched three singers that looked like the real group with the objective of make a musical and act in different cities. They wanted to find La Trinca from the 21st century

La Trinca has a lot of really good songs. Specially, the one that I like more is La Guerra de l’enciam, that talks about the commercialization of the own products to other countries, that is the same say: the Common Market.

Here, you can listen my favorite song of this music group, but I’m sure you have heard it some times!

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

This is the title of the book that I've read in the third term. Now, I'm going to sumarize it:

Tess is the eldest daughter of a country family, the Durbeyfields. She has a lot of brothers and sisters and she has to help their parents. When they find out that their true ancestors are the noble family of the d'Urbevilles they think of a wedding between Tess and one of them. So, she moves to Trandtridge where she works and lives with the noble family watching for the chickens.

There, she meets Alec who seems the perfect gentleman for her. However, everything changes when they were drinking and dancing with all the workers and Tess wanted to go home. Alec offered himself to brig Tess at home but he raped her in the middle of the forest. She returned to her home and she had a baby. Her family is really angry with her and they don’t want to know anything about the baby and it died by an illness.

She wanted to start her life again and she went to work in a dairy. She learned a lot of new things and moreover, she met a boy; Angel. They felt in love but there was a problem; the families. Angel was from a noble and religious family and they wanted a maiden for him, and Tess was from a modest family and the important thing for them is that he was a gentlemen. Despite this, they get married in December in the dairy house. They were really happy. The only thing that made change their happiness was Tess’s past. She wanted to tell him before, but she couldn’t. Angel decided go to Brazil for a while because he doesn’t accepted Tess’s past.

Everyday Tess family goes worst and she met again with Alec of the d’Urbervilles, who didn’t know that Tess had a baby. When Tess father’s died, Alec offered to her family go to a house that he gives to them. Angel never returns and their writings never arrive. Alec convinces Tess that her husband will never return and he decided try to marry Tess again, he loved her. At these moment, Angel returned and Tess decided kill Alec and go with Angel. They try to escape from the country but police arrested Tess and finally, she gets executed.

Although it’s a sad story I will recommend to people who like thriller novels. When you start reading you cannot stop because every moment are happening interesting things.

Accounting and finances

Hello! Today I’m going to talk about the degree that I want to do at the University. If I enter to it, I would like study Accounting and finances that is the same that Business Studies. It has changed its name because of Bologna Plan. I will study it in Girona.

Accounting and finances is the perfect degree for people who are interested in all the different areas of one company. After this degree, we will be able to negotiate and understand the economic and business information, analyze and synthesize it with scientific sense. Also, I hope we will be able to understand the reason of the problem of the business activity and solve all or some of them. In conclusion, we will be able to analyze complex business situations and give the correct answer for its solution.

The job opportunities of this degree can be manage one company, work in any department of all the companies, work in a consultancy, in an audit, in public administrations, economist of the state and things like that.

If I don’t enter to this degree because of the mark (is difficult because it’s a five), or maybe because of the number of students, I don’t know! I will do Management and Direction of Business, also known ADE.

The only thing that it’s missing is decide if I will go everyday by car or train or I will rent a flat in Girona, I don’t know it yet! I will do it with Ariadna Julià and maybe we will do some of our subjects in English, and we will continue improving our English level day after day.

I hope start well this new period of my life and that everybody chooses the correct way taking account that is a difficult decision for some of us.

See you!

Necessity or dependence?

There is no day that that we do not use any technology like computer, mobile phone, television, mp3, and things like that.

In my view, we are so dependent from all these new technologies. Few months ago we could saw this dependence with the historical snowfall here, in Catalonia. A lot of places around the zone did not have electricity, we have been cut off from the rest of villages and we could not move from our houses.

With this blackout we could improve that we cannot live without mobile phones, computers, and specially, electricity, that is the same say, new technologies.

Moreover, if one day we miss our mobile phone in any place, and we usual use it every day, will be difficult for us spend one day without it, so it means that live without all these comforts make our life harder. By the way that they made easier our life with their appearance, their disappearance make our life harder again.

To sum up, I would like to say that we have to decrease our use of all these new technologies. Although is hard to get out of the habit, we have to try it, because nowadays we are living as if our life had been molded by them. Think about that: is necessity or dependence? I think we are so far from necessity, we are abusing a lot of new technologies.

Hypochondria

We can define this topic in three words: “SICK OF NOTHING”. Who is the person that does not have any friend who is complaining all the time about one or more illness?

Nowadays our society is full of people that every time they hear something related with an illness, think that they have all these symptoms and moreover, they start to become obsessed with it.

Hypochondriac people are persons who believe all the time that they have a hard illness or several illnesses at the same moment. Although medical diagnosis state that we are talking about some healthy persons, they will deny it and will continue believing that they are ill.
The reason of hypochondria is not known but some points that can influence in it are following:

• Obsessive parents: All of our parents want the best for us, but sometimes their protection is not good. In some families parents try to protect a lot their daughters and sons and it made that in a future, these children maybe will have problems like that. They will be paying attention to their symptoms every minute of their lives, and these symptoms will have no important meaning.
  
  
• Internet: A lot of people when are feeling bad or with some unknown symptoms, they start to look at the Internet for the cause of it. On the Internet there is a lot of forged information and also, maybe you will be looking to one illness that you don’t have and you will damage yourself.
  
  

There are a lot of famous people who are hypochondriacs, for example: Woody Allen, Andy Warhol and Charles Darwin.

What do you think about it? Do you think it is not true? I think that all of us are hypochondriacs but in different degrees. If you think that hypochondriacs do not exist... what happened around the world with Swine Flu? Everybody believed that they had all the symptoms and they were so good!

Improving my English since 4th of ESO

Four days ago, while I was searching some information that I needed from last year, I found an English writing from 4th of ESO. I started to read it and I felt astonished because comparing it with the compositions that I’m doing now, they are really different. Although vocabulary and grammar is not the point that I’ve improved more since last year, I should say that I have improved both of them. Now, I’m going to rewrite the composition trying to correct all the mistakes that I found.

Writing 4th ESO Laura


Taking account that this is one of the first writings that I did in English is easy to improve it, but I think that the part of writing that I’ve improved more is the literal translation.

Moreover, I improved a lot my fluency when I speak. When I used to go to classes of English apart from all that I did in the High School and in the School my pronunciation was so bad, and although nowadays is one of the things that I should continue improving, it had changed a lot.

Well, I think that talk about my improvement with an example it’s easy to understand and check it by yourself.

See you!

Babysitter, "barman", ... something more?

Hello everybody!

Today I’m going to talk about my laboral life. I started “working” when I was fourteen years old. I started looking after a child. He was ten years old and I made classes to him. He’s my neighbour and now he’s doing 2nd of ESO. We enjoyed these summers a lot.

Every morning, we met at nine o’clock and I made some classes to him, including Maths, English, Catalan, Spanish, etc. In the afternoon we used to go to my swimming pool, to the beach, go cycling, walk, or simply, spend some time relaxing ourselves watching TV.

I spend two summers looking after him, the two years before being sixteen, the legal age to start a real work. Since this moment I started to save some money little by little and I realized how expensive live day after day is.

I did sixteen years old on 15th June of 2008 and I was able to start working harder and seriously. The first place that I worked and it’s still the first, because I did not worked in another place, is Mas Gusó. Mas Gusó is a place situated in Sant Pere – Sant Martí d’Empúries road where you can relax a lot. There is a really good atmosphere and also is a really touristic place. It has a restaurant, a wine cellar, a bar, a supplies shop, a fashion shop, Internet, and a lot of things.
This year I’m going to work again there for 3rd year. I work as a “barman”. I make cocktails, big ice creams, drinks, etc. Moreover, I go sometimes to the kitchen because my mother worked there and now I know how to make all the plates.

Last year I did the same summer working hours everyday because of the Research Project, but this year I’m going to do a split shift one of more or less nine hours. At the end of the day I feel really tired but it takes reward at the end of the month!I really like work there; there is a good atmosphere with all the employees and also with the employers. We often make parties during the night. We go to some pubs, to the beach etc.

I like have some working days in my life because is the only way that you start to realize how hard is live nowadays. In my house I never ask for money to my parents. They pay me the food and all the other things I need, I buy them by myself with my money. It is a good way to take responsibility with yourself and start to be independent from your parents.

Cistella

If you cross Figueres, Vilafant, Avinyonet de Puigventós and also Vilanant, you will arrive to one village quite significant for me. This village is called Cistella.

Cistella is a village surrounded by forest and mountains with more or less 26 square kilometres and 260 inhabitants. It is not far from Alt Empordà’s capital, more or less fifteen minutes in car. This small village is not a touristic point but neither it is not empty.

This is the perfect place for some days of relax. You have all what you need for a short period. A small shop of supplies, where you can find a little bit of everything, two bars, and a good restaurant. All of them are situated in the middle of the village, in the square.


Cistella also is a good place to take a hike. You can walk to Vilarig that it’s three kilometres from Cistella. Also you can go to Terrades, Llers and if you are so sporty you can arrive to Lladó and a lot of villages more.

My mother is from Cistella, so since I was a child, I go there every weekend. When I was little, I used to go from Saturday morning to Sunday night with my brother and my two little cousins. Now, we only go on Sundays. We meet all the family there and we have lunch all together.

My father and I don’t like stay a lot of time inside the house, we like walk and go outside, so a lot of Sundays, after have lunch, we go around the village. Moreover, we go to the vegetable garden and we take some lettuces, tomatoes, chards, and a lot of vegetables more.

After spend some time with my family and walk with my father, my brother and I took the car and we return to Sant Pere, because we like to see the football match from the team of our village.

This habit of go every weekend to this village has made arouse a special feeling to me and I really like go there because it is a place where I can forget my studies for a while and also is a got way to relax myself.

A good remedy for migraines

One year ago, I started to have a lot of strong migraines, and finally doctors after a lot of tests, diagnosed me a critical state of anxiety and distress that was causing these migraines.

After know the origins of my headache I started to look for remedies, because the effect of the pills takes a lot of time before his appearance.

One of the remedies that I found is the acupuncture. There are a lot of people who do not believe in it, but I can say completely that this remedy works.

Acupuncture is a technique of traditional Chinese medicine that consists in introduce little needles in strategic points of the body where the energy passes and by this way, you attack against the pain, in my case, the migraine.
I can say surely that this method works very well. When I go with headache in the surgery, she removes the migraine completely from me and when I’m quite okay she makes me a treatment with the objective to suffer less migraines or do not suffer it to often and hard.

When my mother told me this method I was afraid, because stick needles around all your body seems very painful, but I totally changed my opinion after a lot of sessions.

One distraction that I have when I’m lying on the stretcher is count all the needles that she puts to me, but it’s impossible, because I do not feel nothing when she puts most of them to my body.

Also, a lot of people do not want to go to this therapy because they are afraid of the people who practice it. In my case, I go to Sant Gregori, a village next to Girona, where a woman called Carmen practices me this technique of traditional Chinese medicine. She learned to practice it when she was really young when she went to China, and now she practices it as her job.

Well, I sincerely recommend to you this method, because it’s really efficient and moreover is not expensive and it does not only cures migraines. Last year aproximately for these days, I made a sprain in my ankle and the acupununture solved me this problem.

Easter Holidays

Hello everybody!

Today I will talk about some things that I did in the Easter Holidays. As you know we had a lot of work, so I couldn’t travel in any place.

First of all, on Saturday I slept a lot, because I was really tired of study a lot without any break-time during a lot of weeks. On Saturday’s afternoon, I went to Girona with my mother and I went shopping, I needed it! After that, in the night I went out with my friends around the village, because next day, on Sunday, I had to wake up early.

On Sunday, at nine o’clock in the morning, I left my house in Sant Pere and I went to Cistella, my grandparents village. As we do every year, we wanted to do some fritters (using fourteen kilos of flour!). After leave all the ingredients in my grandparents house, my grandfather said me if I wanted to go with him, and we went to Vilafant, and we saw the “gastronomic trade fair of the rabbit” like every year. After that, we returned to Cistella, and I kneaded a little bit all the mixture to help a little bit my brother that is the person who mixes it until the end. I spend all the afternoon making fritters, and I burnt my hand! In the night I went to SiKim in Empuriabrava because one group of my village was playing there and we wanted to listen them as every concert that they do.

During all the week I didn’t do anything interesting, the only things that I did was sleep until ten o’clock every morning, made the lunch every day and do a lot of work.

On Friday, my father, my mother, my brother and I met with all the people who work with my father and my mother and we had lunch all together and in the afternoon, we made fritters again, because they wanted to do some and nobody did not know how to do it.

On Saturday morning I finished all my work, so I had three days for enjoy and relax myself. On Saturday afternoon I went to Figueres with Laura Peña, we spend a nice afternoon there, and after that, we went to Castelló where at twelve o’clock of the night we took the bus direction Chic. I spend a really nice night to finish with the Easter Holidays.

On Sunday I stayed in home, watching television, sleeping and relaxing a lot, and more or less at seven o’clock I went with my parents to have dinner in L’Escala’s port. after walk one hour around the beaches. After that I went to the beach in Sant Pere Pescador with my brother and his friends while they were fishing.

And the last day, but not the less important was coming. On Monday 5th we wanted to celebrate my great-grandmother’s birthday, she did 102 years this day, but the night before the lunch with all the family she get ill and now she is at the hospital. I do not know what will happen, but I hope that she will get better in time, she is really strong.

Well, this is a “little” summary of my Easter Holidays, and I hope you have enjoyed them a lot, but with a happy ending! ;)
See you.

London

Unluckily we have returned from London. We set off from London on Tuesday 16th of March and we arrived at home in the night.

In my opinion, it has been a fantastic trip. A lot of new experiences and sensations made it unforgettable.

I have enjoyed a lot these four days in London and moreover I think that I have learned a lot of things related with history, culture and of course, I think that my English has improved. We had to speak English always that we wanted something or happened something. You know, in London police are so strict...

Furthermore, I think that this trip has been useful to connect ourselves. It has been a great opportunity to open ourselves with other people of the same course that we had a closer relationship and we were like a big family enjoying a great trip!

I cannot say which part of the trip was the best, because I enjoyed a lot all of them, but one of the funniest was Madame Tussauds. All the wax figures were very real. I liked it a lot. Moreover, other place that I really liked was Picadilly Circus. I know that it only was a crossroads but the environment that this zone had was perfect: shopping, people... city environment!

About our hotel, I think that it was good. It was very well situated, really near from the centre of London. With two or three stops of the Tube, we were in the middle of the city.
I’ve never been in London so my objective was focused in enjoy a lot of this city and I did it very well.

To sum up, I would like to say that this trip would not have been the same without all the free time we had, so we have to be grateful to our teachers for the confidence that they gave to us giving these free time.

Furthermore, I have to say that in my point of view, if one trip it’s really good organized it will be fantastic, and I think that our trip was really good organized. Everyday we did a lot of things and we never wasted time, so great jobs teachers! ;)

I will never forget this trip, I promise!

CARNIVAL 2010

Hi everybody!

As you know these last weekends have been Carnivals from different villages, and they are still continuing. I get dressed of military. We were thirteen.

The first day that I went to Carnival’s party was Saturday 13th of February. I decided do not go to Roses on Friday because the weather was really bad and I always fall ill very quickly, so I preferred to stay in home and feel really good in Saturday.

On Saturday, at five o’clock of the afternoon the Carnival started in Sant Pere. We went to the floats parade and we enjoyed it a lot. Later, we went to my house and we had dinner. At eleven o’clock of the night, we went again to the floats parade. The weather was really cold, so we stayed all the parade under the float dancing, dancing and dancing! Finally, we went to Centre Civic where we met with other friends. I can describe this day with one word: FANTASTIC.

Last weekend, was Castelló’s Carnival. In Friday I went to Empuriabrava but I only did the float parade because I was really tired from the week and I decided go to sleep. Moreover, my parents and my brother were looking the parade and I did not wanted that they had to come again for me to Empuriabrava.

The last day that I went to Carnival was Saturday 20th, in Castelló. We did not arrived late, but all the floats were already and we were the last float of the parade so we finished very late. After that, I went with all my friends to the party and we met other people there. In my opinion I think that there were too much people there, I was feeling really overwhelmed. I decided to leave the party and go outside. Since this moment I can say that the night finished for me. Since this moment started a lot of things that I did not want that they happen, so my last Carnival night did not finished from the best way possible.

After these two weekends I can say that 2010 Carnival is finished, because next weekend I will not go to Fortià because I have a lot of exams next week and I have to study a lot because I want good marks from my exams, and I will to the same like a lot of animals in winter; hibernate!

Good luck for the exams to everybodyy!

CAKE

Hello everybody!

As you maybe will know this weekend have been Sant Pere’s Carnival and obviously last afternoon – night I going out party with my friends. After pass a really good Carnival, I woke up at one o’clock of the midday and I had lunch with my family. After that, seeing the situation of my family (my father working harder like every day, my mother was feeling really bad, and my brother was working with his “buggie”) I decided to made a cake. I’m sure you know the way of do this simply cake, but I’ll write it here if someone do not know how do it! :)

First of all, I switched on the oven with 180 degrees. Secondly, I started adding:

• three eggs
• one lemon yogurt (it can be natural, doesn’t matter).

I used the jar yogurt to add the correctly measures of sugar and flour:

• three jars of flour
  
• two jars of sugar

I mixed up a little bit this mixture and I added a packet of Royal. Then I mixed up all the ingredients with the mixer and I put the mixture to the dish that I dipped before with butter. Finally, I put it in the oven. I waited for 35-40 minutes and the cake it’s already! For finish with it, I added icing sugar under the cake.


Every Sunday I’m studying or with my friends, and today I was tired from yesterday's party and I decided to do something different, and I wanted to do something for my family and how I like cooking, this is the result of a little part of my Suday afternoon!

See you!