Xmas day

Yesterday I celebrated Christmas day with my family again. After the Christmas hangover, everybody wake up and started helping my mother, who was asleep since approximately four hours. We laid together the table and then we moved all the Christmas food (it seemed impossible but there were more food than at Christmas Eve dinner) to my granny’s house, who lived exactly next to me. Then all together have dinner and sang some Christmas carols, but this time my family weren’t drunk enough so we didn’t receive Christmas bonus. After dinner we gave the presents to my little cousins, or rather, we gave presents to my aunts and uncles because these Christmas presents are always clothes, and I think that clothes aren’t presents that you are waiting for when you are six or three (then the six of January my cousins receive their presents, which are, of course, millions and millions of toys). After that we went to the Valencia’s fair that is enormous and very very funny. We spent a lovely time in the fair; my cousins enjoyed it a lot, and I too (I really love the fair). Then we went to buy dozens and dozens of churros, and then we returned to my granny’s home and we ate the churros with some hot chocolate. Finally we gave up the paper of the invisible friend (and on the sixth January we gave to our invisible friend his present). When everyone had one paper with a name of one of the family everyone returned to their home.

Xmas Eve

Two days ago I celebrated Christmas Eve and my father’s birthday with my family. It’s an important day and everything has to be perfect. At morning my mother, my little brother and I walked up early and we prepared my father’s present. When my father waked up we gave to him his present; he liked it so much. After that we started to decorate the house because we always celebrate Christmas Eve at home and all my family come to have dinner. We put the Christmas three, some garlands and the crib (I really hate it). Then we started doing the dinner (my mother cooks very well but I’m a disaster cooking). We did some odd chicken with vegetables. At first it seemed really really inedible but then it seemed more edible. After that we have lunch and then we have a siesta. When we woke up, we started to clean the house and we laid the table with this entire cutlery that we only use in special occasions and are so ugly, in my opinion, of course, for my mother it’s “very very beautiful” and she can’t understand why I don’t like it. When we finished with the Christmas decoration, we continued doing the dinner. We cooked some seafood, salad, some strange sauces (this kind of sauces that are doing with millions and millions of ingredients) and soups; in conclusion a dinner for a regiment. At 9 o’clock my family arrived and started drinking and eating a lot and at 10 o’clock the 90% of my family was drunk and they were singing carols and giving Christmas bonus to us (my cousins and I). Then with the money recollected, some of my cousins and I went to the disco and have a really really good time. At 9 o’clock this morning we arrived home. Everybody was sleeping except my poor mother who was already preparing the food for Christmas day.

Cold mountain

Yesterday I saw a dramatic film, directed by Anthony Minghella in 2003, called Cold Mountain. I liked the film very much. It’s a very good film, I loved it. This film is based in a Charles Frazier novel.

Cold Mountain won the Academy Award, the BAFTA award and the Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, for Reneé Zellweger performance (she was amazing in this film), and it was nominated for other awards.

I took this film of the UJI’s library because I have heard about it before and I love the cast of the film (the three main characters are Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Reneé Zellweger), it’s brilliant.

The film tells a love story between Inman (Jude Law) and Ada (Nicole Kidman). Ada is a lady who lived in the city but she moves to the country with her father because of her father’s illness. Here in the country he felt in love with Inman. Ada is always waiting a declaration of love of Inman but he is very shy and he doesn’t know how to express himself.

One day starts a war so all the men have to go to combat against the Americans. Inman has to go too so Ada goes to say goodbye to him. He finally declares his love to her and he goes to combat.

Ada remains at her home with her father, who dies some days later. Ada goes through hard times without her father, without Inman, and without all the comforts that she had at the city, but she doesn’t want to return to the city, she wants to wait for Inman. And this way the days pass.

Inman combating at war, thinks all time about Ada and he always reads her letters. One day he is seriously injured on the neck and he is pulled out of the battlefield. Being injured he receives a letter from Ada in which she says that he is waiting for him, she misses him and she needs him next to her. After reading the letter Inman run away to Cold Mountain to return with Ada, so he turns himself into a deserter so he is persecuted and he is condemn to death penalty.

While, in Cold Mountain, Ada is in despair and needs someone to help her with the housework and it’s when Ruby (Reneé Zelweger) arrives. Rubi and Ada became inseparables. Rubi cheers up Ada.

Inman cross lots of dangers and he was injured several times. But finally he achieves to arrive to Cold Mountain and he meets up with Ada. They are very happy together, but their happiness doesn’t last so much time because the Home Guardsmen find Inman and they kill him.

The film ends several years later with Ada, Ruby and their families celebrating Easter. Ruby is married, and she has an infant child and Inman has given Ada a little girl, Grace.

I recommended the film to you, it’s a masterpiece. I’m sure you would like it ;)

A big error

This week I heard a terrible piece of news. A man, who was twenty-four, had been arrested for allegedly rape a baby, who was only three. The baby was his girlfriend’s daughter. The man was looking after her. The baby was seriously wounded and she had terrible burns around her little body. The man that raped the baby took her to the hospital the same day of the alleged rape.
This kind of news, that we unfortunately hear so frequently, make me shiver. I can’t understand why these men can do this, they’re insane.
Two days later of the publication of this terrible notice at the news I returned to hear it. The reporters said that the baby had dead. This end didn’t surprise me at all, it was predictable because the baby was seriously wounded and it’s a common end nowadays. How many babies, girls and women will dead at the same way? It’s really horrible.
And yesterday I heard again the item of news. For my surprise (and for everyone’s surprise) the man didn’t rape the baby, she only fell down of a swing and this caused to her a terrible brain hemorrhage, and this hemorrhage caused a strange allergic reaction in her skin, similarly to burns. The man has been plead not guilty because the baby didn’t has any sign of rape, but I think that his innocence doesn’t compensate him all that he has passed and all the things that were said at the news. Now the man has pressed charges to the doctors that examined the baby and all the media that said that he had raped the baby.

Kate Moss

I’m doing a work, in computer science, about the anorexia and the bulimia. In this work I talk about what are these problems, what are their causes and consequences , what are their simptoms, which are their medical treatment and the influency of the TV, radio, magazines, in conclusion the mass media, in that diseases.

Yesterday I was reading the newspaper on the internet and I read an article where Kate Moss was criticized because she encouraged the anorexia (Kate Moss is a famous british model and the idol of a lot of girls and women in the world). The british model said in a fashion magazine that “ There’s nothing better that being thin”.

This statement have been used as a slogan by the web pages that defend the anorexia.

In my opinion the magazine that published that article shouldn’t have published the statment of Kate Moss and I think that this british model is an immature. In my opinion this model can do anything she wants but she should realize that she is an idol for a lot of girls and women in the world and her words are very important for these people. I think that she should realize that a lot of people love her and they have helped her in her path to fame so the less that she can do is help that people too and I think that saying to them that “there’s nothing better than being thin” she isn’t helping them.

On the other hand, the magazine shouldn’t have published the article, they should have censure it, because they knew the consequences that Kate Moss’words could have.

We have to stop the anorexia because it’s a desease that is very difficult to cure. The first that we have to do is doing a tracking of the models, because there are a lot of them that have anorexia and they’re imitated by many teenagers and women. We can stop the anorexia but we need the help of the mass media too.

Against the sexist violence?

The dane NGO ‘Born og Unge I Voldsramte familier’ has published a very polemic advertising campaign, on the internet, against the sexist violence.

This advertising campaign consists in a kind of ‘game’ called hit the bitch. This game consists in that the ‘player’ has to hit a woman that is insulting him. The person who is playing the ‘game’ hit the woman with a man’s arm that he controls with the mouse or with the webcam. He has to hit her about ten times and the woman each time appears more and more injured. There are two scores, the woman score and the ‘player’ score. The woman score decrease as the ‘player’ is hitting her and the player score increase . Finally the ‘game’ finishes when the player is a 100% macho man and the girl lying on the floor says to him that he is 100% idiot.

This advertising campaign only is available in Denmark, because ‘Born og Unge I Voldsramte familier’ has prohibited its reproduction because of the excessive traffic that they have recieved. So now if you try to enter in the official page of the ‘game’ ‘hitthebitch.com’ there is an informative sign explaining why the entrance to the page is restricted.

I think that this advertising campaign isn’t correct because althouth after the ‘game’ there are some signs that tell you that you’re an idiot and a monster, the person who have played the game have hit the woman and maybe he liked it. I think that there are another best methods to stop the sexist violence, there is no need to hit a woman(althouth her isn’t a real woman) for that.

Here I leave the link of the video, spread by ‘Born og Unge I Voldsramte familier’, the dane NGO, where we can watch, but no play, that game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSbr2xLKBrA&feature=related

NEW GLASSES!

(Here I leave a photo of these curious glasses.)

This morning I was reading some news on the internet and there was a very interesting and curious one. A Japanese company, called NEC, has invented some glasses( Tele Scouter) that can translate, almost simultaneosly into writed words, a conversation in any language into the language you want. The glasses have a microphone and a camera that recieve the words of the person you’re looking at. This sounds are sended to a tiny computer, situated on the wrist of the listener, and that computer sends the information to a server. This server does the translation of the text into the language that the listener wants and then the new text return to the glasses like text messages. These messages appear in a kind of slide viewer situated on one of the lens of the glasses. Although this translation of a text into a different language seems complicated, the inventors of the Tele Scouter said that only takes a few seconds.

The glasses have only been presented in a Tokio trade fair, but for the next year(2010), said its inventors, the glasses will be for sale.

At first when I saw this new I was worried because these glasses could compete with tranlslators job, could be a terrible rival for the interpreters and for lots of tranlator companies. But then I realized that it maybe couldn’t be a rival, the price of this invent is 1,2 million euros!!!

The building industry

Yesterday I read an article about the building industry. The article was writen by Javier Marías, a spanish writer, translator and publishing (He’s one of the members of the “Real Academia Española”). I don’t use to read articles but this was my yesterday’s homework; we had to do a short summary about it and then read it at the next spanish lesson. So when I finished my lessons in Castellón I returned home and I started to read María’s article. At first I didn’t understand the ideas of the text so I had to read it several times. I started to understand the opinion of the author and the topic of the text started to interest me. Javier Marías critized the attitude of some groups specifically he critized three groups; the mayors, the builders and the regional directors. He wrote that these groups are rogues, they don’t matter if they destroy cultural heritage or if they destroy the ecological balance, they ruined the country to benefite themselves, and the worse thing is that the State allow this.

After read this article I have been thinking about this problem, the excessive building. Marías is right, nowadays they’re building everywhere. They’re destruying everything and every time we have less contry to enjoy ourselves. In our country, Spain, they are building excessively. Marías said that only in Spain we build more than in some of the most populated european contries together. Anyway the prices of the apartments don’t fall, they are everytime more expensive so people can’t buy them and many flats are uninhabited, but they don’t stop building, they built more and more flats and houses. Furthermore nowadays there are a lot of unemployed people that can’t buy a house.

I think we can change that situation and we can conserve the countryside in order to

people can enjoy it.

Friday.

Yesteday was really boring day.

I woke up at 10.00 am and I had a shower. Then I did my housework(Do my bed, tidy my room, take the dog for a walk…), and some of my homework (only I did some of them because I only had to spend at university two hours so I had all the afternoon for doing the homework).

After that I had lunch. I ate a delicious soup and a piece of meat. While I was having lunch I watched a very interesting TV programme. The presenter was speaking about an strange new drug that was introduced in the drink and caused unusual effects in our body.This drug canceled our willpower of reaction.

After that I went to Sagunto’s station for taking a train to Castellón.

When I arrived to Castellón I took the tram that goes to the Jaume I’s University.

At 3.00 pm I went to class and then I returned to home with Susana by train. Susana and I spoke about the yesterday’s rain because during the jorney we saw some streets that were flooded.

After the train stopped we got out and I returned home.

I helped my mother with the washing up.Then I continued doing my homework until 9.00 pm.

After doing my homework I had dinner with my parents and my brother and we talked about our days.Then I watched a TV programme and when it finished I went to bed.

Euskadi.

This week we celebrated the “9 d’Octubre”, is a traditional celebration of Valencia and we had a long weekend.

My family and I took the opportunity and went to pass that days to Euskadi.

Euskadi is a lovely place at the north of Spain. Euskadi reminds me of Switerland because is as green as this country. The bad thing of this autonomous region is probably the weather, It’s almost always raining and the sun hardly ever shines, but when I went to Euskadi the weather was good, I mean, It didn’t rain until the last day.

We arrived to Euskadi the 9th of Octuber at 14.00. First we went to a village called Zarautzthat is famous because is Arguiñano’s village. Karlos Arguiñano is a famous Spanish cook. In Zarautz there is also the Arguiñano’s restaurant, called Zatetxea, so we decided to had lunch there. The food was delicious and its price surprised me because there wasn’t expensive at all. After having lunch we went for a walk along the beautiful beach that was in front of the restaurant. We sat and saw some people surfing.Then we took the car and continued the travel.

We arrived to Ispaster the village where was the small hotel where we slept all that days. The hotel was lovely. It was in the middle of a shadow. When I woke up I only could see green mountains with no roads or buildings, only trees, cows, and flowers, it was really beautiful. The hotel rooms were small and rustic. I sleept with my small brother in one of them. The room had a big wood desk, a wardrobe, two beds, a sofa, and a little television. On the walls there were some pictures and lamps. The dinning room had a big sofa and next to it there were three tables.

Next day we woke up and had breaskfast together in the dinning room. Then we went to visit fishing ports of some of the small villages, and some beaches. In all the beaches there were surfers or people with canoes. After visiting that we went to the “Ermita de San Juan de Gaztelugatxe”. The chapel was on a big mound. It was surrounded by water.

The track towards the chapel was long and hard but when I arrived to the top I saw the landscape and I liked it so much, it was incredible. Then we had dinner and returned to the hotel.

Next day we visit Bilbao(Bilbo in Euskera) and San Sebastián(Donostia in Euskera). In Bilbao we went to visit the Guggenheim. It was next to “la Ria” of Bilbao. I like the Guggenheim so much because it was really original and interesant. Then we went to visit San Sebastián. San Sebastián is more beautiful than Bilbao in my opinion, Bilbao is more industrial. In San Sebastián we visit “La playa de la Concha” and other beautiful places. After that we went to buy some souvenirs for my friends.

Last day we went to “Saint-Jean-de-Luz” a really lovely village in France. We visited itsfishing port and its shops. Everything was expensive so we didn’t buy anything. Then we returned to Spain and spent a lot of hours in the car. Finally we arrived home.

I enjoyed this travel, I liked Euskadi very much, it was like being in paradise.

"Playa de la Concha" (San Sebastián)

Fishing port (Lekeitio)

Guggenheim(Bilbao)

“E.San Juan de Gaztelugatxe"(Bermeo)

"Jatetxea" (Zarautz)

Thursday.

This morning I went to University at 10.00 pm by train. We had spanish and english lessons. In spanish we learnt how to speak in front of an audience. We will have to do an speech about a present theme like the new abortion law or consumerism.This speech is done by groups of four persons.In English class we've corrected our homework.

After my lessons I went to the library to buy a German-Spanish dictionary,because I'm learning German too.

Then I took the tram to the train station.Once I was here I caught a train and after 30 minutes of jorney I arrived to Sagunto and I got out of the train.

When I arrived at home I had a snack and then I did my homework.

Now I'm writting on my blog and then I'm going to have dinner and watch TV with my family. After that I will go to bed because tomorrow I have more lessons.