The end of this walk

Come with me and hold my hand,

I’ll teach you everything I know.

But be careful and don’t be afraid

Because you’ll have to get involved in this game.  

Come with me in this short walk,

I’ll show you that you can trust yourself.

You’ll be able to overcome your limitations

And will do things you didn’t know you could.

But be careful and don’t be afraid

Cause you’ll have to work and never come down.

Come with me but don’t forget to feel free,

The route will end and you’ll have to continue alone.

Your friends will follow their way 

And the goodbye will be inevitable.

But be careful and don’t be afraid

Since everything you’ve learnt will be part of you

And now you know that it worth it.

Thank you for being part of this walk. It wasn’t easy and sometimes it was hard for me to find the time, but it was a great year. Not only did we learn that Rome wasn't built in a day or that the beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but also that we can do things that we didn’t know and that pretending that we are brave we'll get to be brave (I really loved this Amy Cuddy’s speech). It is time we said goodbye and followed our own way, but I really wanted to say all of you that you were the best classmates and the best teacher I could imagine. Have a good summer! 

Cien palabras

Last Thursday we could assist to the presentation of a microstories’ book published by the EOI and written by the school’s students and teachers. As an activity, we had to write some microstories in class and some of them were selected to be published in the book. 

The presentation was a great event where we could listen some of the stories and also enjoy other activities. There was a presentation, after that it was the first part of the reading, concluded by a piece of music. In the second part, we listened to some other stories and another piece of music. The conclusion was so beautiful: there was a reading of three other stories with a background piano melody, marvelous! 

It was a nice experience, I think that the event was very well organized and the stories were fantastic. In this moment I am reading the book and I think that there are very good stories on it. 

Relationships: boundaries and love

Some days ago, we had the opportunity to assist to a lecture about relationship given by Richard Harvey: “Relationships: boundaries and love”.

It was very interesting the way Richard Harvey started, telling us that when we talk about relationships, we need to have three types in mind: the relationship with ourselves, with the others and with the world. “Who I am?” is the first question we have to ask ourselves and, after that, we must think about other questions: who are the others, what distance is there between us, who are the others to me, how are we similar, what makes us different, and how I judge the others. 

I found the lecture’s subject very stimulating, because it is something that affects everyone. The most interesting point to me was the one related to how to have a healthy relationship. Harvey talked about six kinds of relationships and he represented them with his hands to show us how these relationships were. 

I would say that despite having no time to talk a lot about the subject, Richard Harvey told us the most important details about the relationships, enough to make us think about who are we and the kind of relationship we have with the others and with the world. I have four points in mind after this lecture: to know myself; to communicate with the other; to discover the difference between love, desire and need; and to become emotionally intelligent. Thank you, Richard Harvey. 

Sometimes the Internet is a blessing

Despite knowing that Internet has a very long list of disadvantages, I am going to talk about two of its greatest advantages.

Firstly, I could mention some great changes that the Internet has introduced in our lives referred to communications. Not until I went to live outside, did I realize that trying to contact with my family was so important. Some years ago I was living in Belgium. In the past, it was impossible for people to communicate; they only could do it by letter. Nevertheless, in my case, I was able to talk with my family by Skype, I could call my boyfriend by FaceTime and, what is more, I had the possibility to see what people I care did thanks to Facebook or Gmail. It is an enormous advantage of the Internet, isn’t it?

Secondly, I want to talk about business. For people who have a job like mine, the Internet is a gift. When I went to the University, teachers used to tell us that when they were young they had to spend a lot of days looking up information in encyclopedias and going to libraries. I imagine that they wrote translations using a typewriter (and before typewriters, they wrote them by hand), they had to send them by post and maybe they sent advertisements to newspapers. Probably they wished they had a computer if they knew they were going to be invented. For me, it is very easy: I can have an own webpage showing my services, I contact with my clients by phone and e-mail, I work in my computer, I find all the information on Internet and I send my work by e-mail. Internet is a blessing for freelance people.

What I am trying to say is that the Internet also has a lot of benefits. I think the important thing is not to abuse and not to forget that people you care is beside you, not on the other side of the screen.

Book fair in Granada

For those of you who like reading, this information is going to be interesting: this weekend it is going to be the presentation of the book fair in Granada. If you want to see the webpage and read the programme, you can click here.

This year, we will have some good news related to culture in general. If you spend more than ten euros buying one or more books, you will have the opportunity to go to a spectacle, such as a concert, a play or a monologue, without paying for it. If you want to see the spectacles’ list, you can click here. 

Enjoy the book fair!

Climate Change Affects Biodiversity

According to an article wrote by Anup Shah in Globalissues.org, one of the most important impacts of climate changes is the way it is affecting biodiversity. This issue has not only an impact on animals and plants, it has also some risks for human security, such as an alteration in the food chain upon which we depend, a change in the water sources and the disappearance of some plants that are used to make medicines and other resources we rely on. 

But the impact on biodiversity is extremely important and it is causing dire consequences that are going to increase in the coming decades. The Secretariat of the Convention of Biological Diversity explained in the UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, celebrated in May 2010, that:

Loss of Arctic sea ice threatens biodiversity across an entire biome and beyond. The related pressure of ocean acidification, resulting from higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, is also already being observed. […] In addition to warming temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events and changing patterns of rainfall and drought can be expected to have significant impacts on biodiversity.

One of the examples the author focuses on is the impact on biodiversity in The Arctic, a place that have had the highest rates of warming. 

As the article explains, the only problem is not the reduction in the extent of sea ice, it is also its thickness and age. When the Arctic has less ice, it has a less reflective surface, which causes a more rapid melting.

There is also an impact on the species adapted to the environment. Not only the polar bear is affected, but also the algae that grow under the ice, the invertebrates, the birds, and the fish and marine mammals. All of them are in risk and can disappear in the next decades. 

The reason why I have chosen this subject is because this issue, in my opinion, is one of the most important that we are living. I am worried about the climate change, but also about the impact it has on animals and plants. Some time ago, I watched a documentary in the TV that talked about poles melting and its impact on polar bears. I knew that there was a problem with that, but watching it in action was shocking. I know that there is not a magic formula to eradicate this issue, but there are some ways to reduce it and we should have them in mind and practise them. People probably don’t pay much attention to climate change because it is not an immediate problem that is affecting to us, but it is a problem that can have an awful end.