Missing Syria girls' families criticise police over letter

This year has been a dreadful year, bearing in mind all the terrorist attacks that happened. First in France in the offices of Charlie Hebdo, then Tunisia, Mali, now Paris again... And the vast majority of the attacks are held by young persons that furthermore, were born here, and with here, I mean Europe. For that reason I decided to look for a new of this year about girls going to the war, and I found this case.

SUMMARY
The families of the three students from London believed to be in Syria, have criticized that the police has concealed important information before the girls’ disappearance. They believe that they could have done something if they had known that one of the friends of their daughters had traveled to Syria and that the police had talked about it with the girls.

 The police and their families believe that Shamima, Amira and Kadiza, who escaped and flew the last tuesday 17th of February to Turkey, are reunited with the Islamic State in Syria. Police talked with the students about their closest friend (another student) who went away in December to Syria. Then, in another meeting, the police gave them three letters to take to their parents, three letters asking permission to take information about the beliefs and about the life of their friend by detectives. But, unfortunately, this letters have never arrived to their parents’ hands and finally, Shamima, Amira and Kadiza had escaped a few weeks later. The letters were found by the girls’ families hidden in their bedrooms.

For this reason, the parents and relatives of the students have criticised the police and detectives for haven’t told them face to face what happened to the disappeared friend of their daughters, because, maybe, they would talked to their daughters and keep an eye on every move they took. But also, it was impossible to see something strange because all the girls had a normal behavior.

PERSONAL OPINION:
This case I find it extremely shocking. Shamima, Amira and Kadiza are only a teenagers like me who have been educated at an English school, their families aren’t radicals and unexpectedly they disappear to go to a country where are happening some terrifying and insane things. It must be hard for their families not know where their daughters are, what are they doing and what kind of ideas they have in their young minds. I start to think about what happened in Paris 2 weeks ago, and I ask a question: what are we doing wrong with those young people and teenagers who were born in European countries? Why they decide to leave a safe and modern country to live the war? Honestly, it's so shocking...

VOCABULARY:
-Counter-terrorism detectives: detectius antiterroristes
-Gather: Reunir

The horror unfolded Paris

Last Friday 13th of November, 6 terrorist attacks took place in Paris held by 8 jihadists, which caused the death of 132 people and more than 350 wounded. This is an attack by the recruited mans of the Islamic State, who sowed fear in the country.

First of all, it is important to remark that more than a religious act, this act is related to politics and revenge. France, prior to the attacks, bombed Syria where civilians were killed. The Islamic state, also known as ISIS, answered with the killing of Paris. Consequently, France returns to attack the ISIS and calls for collaboration to Europe. In other words, a war begins between a progressive country and a terrorist group, where the most damage ones are the citizens.

Secondly, the next point to consider is the big shock and damage that have caused the killings worldwide. The incident occurred in France, a safe European country. For this reason, it not only hurts French people, but also the rest of Europe, a continent that shares moral values. However shocking it is, murderers of this kind are daily in countries like Syria or Iraq. Because of this, people question: is more worth a French life than a Sirian life?

Summarizing what has been said before, what we are experiencing these days is nothing more than a political conflict between two countries, where the ones who are hurting are innocent humans, whose lives are unfairly snatched.

Review: PS: I love you

Holly is a smart woman married to Gerry, the love of her life. Therefore, when a disease kills Gerry it also destroys Holly's life; they were married 7 years. The only person that could help her in everything had gone forever. Nobody knew Holly better than Gerry, so he left devised a plan for her future.

Before his death, Gerry wrote to Holly a series of letters that would lead her not only in her grief but also in a journey of rediscovering herself. The first message arrives on Holly's 30th birthday as a cake and, for her amazment, a tape with a voice message from Gerry, who orders her to get on the road to "held itself." During the weeks and months, exactly during a year, Holly receives more letters from Gerry in the most incredible ways, each with a new adventure for Holly, and all finished in the same way: PS, I love you.

Holly's mother and best friends, Denise and Sharon, begin to worry for her because they think that Gerry's letters are keeping Holly stuck in the past. However, what really do each letter is pushing Holly for a new future. Gerry, through his letters suggests the young widow rebuild her life, smile again: fall in love without fear. 

With Gerry's words as a guide, Holly embarks on a sensitive and exciting journey of rediscovery, in a story about friendship and about the strength that can have a love, to the point of turning the death of someone to the beginning of a new life of another. 

                                   

PERSONAL OPINION

When I started to watch the movie, and the beginning was the death of Gerry, I thought: why??? But then, when the letters began to arrive, I was sure that the film would not disappoint me. The vast majority of the scenes of Holly's memories excite the viewer. My favorite is the one that shows how Holly and Gerry meet when they were teenagers. It is a story that can inspire anyone. I really recommend it. 

Review: DEAR JOHN

John is a soldier of the special forces, an attractiveguy, that during his period of leave goes to visit his father in South Carolina. Savannah Curtis is a beautiful college student from a wealthy Southern family that is at home for spring break. John and Savannah are from different worlds, but when they meet by chance on the beach, are immediately attracted to each other. The meeting turns into a whirlwind romance for two weeks and their feelings quickly deepen until it turns into a passionate love. When John is forced to return to the forces, Savannah has to go back to college. In that moment, the couple promises to write to each other. Through continuous correspondence, their love blossoms and deep romantic love story continues.

As time passes, John and Savannah can be seen only sporadically. The period of John in his detachment abroad extends and the life of Savannah carry on. While the situation in the world becomes increasingly complex, Savannah is constantly worried about the safety of John, and John is torn between his dedication to his work and his desire to return home and start a life with Savannah. Despite the increasing tension between their desires and responsibilities the couple struggles to keep their commitment. But when unexpected tragedy occurs John returns and his return provokes an emotional confrontation where the couple is forced to discover whether their love can survive.

John discovers that Savannah married Tim, who is seriously ill. Then, John decides to sell the coins from his father to pay the treatment of Tim. Tim survives two months and later, he dies. The film ends when John and Savannah meet in a pub and they hug each other.

There is an alternative final, where Tim survive, and after 5 years, Savannah writes to John, to tell him that Tim is ok and that she will always be thankful of meeting him. Savannah is outside her house watching the moon, and John is watching her hided, next to the house. 

PERSONAL OPINION:

Being a crazy fan of love stories, Dear John was one of these films that made me cry like a little girl watching the end. Dear John is not the typical romantic and idealistic story: the fact of having problems with their relationship (like John being a soldier in the war) makes the film realistic.There's also a relation of John and is father that is interesting and emotional. I really liked the alternative final, which in fact, is the real final of the book version. It shows that John did what he has to do to make Savannah happy, even if he is in love with her. I like the idea of a final of a couple that are deeply in love but they decide to not being together for the good of the others. 

Composition Dorian Gray’s book: BEAUTY

Physical beauty has an end, but the beauty inside us is forever.

From my point of view, beauty is not the most important element of our lives, as Lord Henry says to Dorian Gray. There is something more than a gorgeous face and a fair hair. We are humans because we have a soul, feelings. What makes us beautiful is how we are with the others and how we treat them. In the book Dorian Gray, the portrait would be the human and Dorian the portrait. Youth perhaps is and incredible stage of our lives accompanied by beauty, so it is necessary for us to be conscious that it will last, and that it is not as essential as we probably think.

Maybe when our youth goes our beauty will go with it like Lord Henry says, but we will still be the same person with a beautiful soul!

PODCAST: Joke!

Fashion Bloggers: CHIARA FERRAGNI

Nowadays, fashion bloggers are so popular around the world. I want to share with all of you my opinion and make you know more about this movement with an example: the italian girl Chiara Ferragni.

Fashion bloggers started to create their blogs since 2007, approximately. Most of them weren’t professionals of the fashion world, they just were young people, students and teenagers who hung their daily outfits on the Internet, specifically on the web Blogger. People started to follow them in their social media and over time, they became famous around the world.

Chiara Ferragni, in 2009, was a normal italian girl who was studiyng law in the univeristy. But then, she created a fashion blog, showing her own style and finally she gets famous. Her web page is called “The blonde salad”, and now she has over four millions followers on instagram. Her webpage grow so fast and now a group of persons are working in it. Two years ago, she created her own brand of shoes, which people really liked and which at present their price are around the hundreds of dollars. Later, in 2013, she has been employed by Guess as a model. Today, Ferragni is a successful business woman, a great fashion designer and an attractive model.

I knew about Chiara when I created my instagram count. She’s so stylish! Her outfits are very original and I’m every day visiting her instagram account because I enjoy watching her ideas. It’s like she puts her personality in her clothes, and that’s what I like of her.

Follow your dream, achieve your goal

In this post, I am going to talk about the my say called “Follow your dream, achieve your goal”. I found a video which explains better (with a story) this title. Here it is:

In this video, appears a group of children watching a football match in the window of a pub, and the owner makes out all the kids screaming. A young girl saw what happened and she has an idea: create her own slide projector. She works hard sometimes sleepless, goes every day to the library, looks for pieces in wherever… Finally, she achieved her objective and makes happy all the people of her neighbourhood, specially those kids that one day she saw. She becomes the hero of those guys.

This video can be summarized in one sentence: if you believe in yourself, you can get whatever you want. And I absolutely agree with this affirmation, because I think that if you don’t give up and keep trying, one day you will get your objective. It’s just a mixture of attempts, perseverance and hard work. If you don’t have money, you can recycle like the girl of the video and continue with your project, if you don’t have knowledges you can learn them; even if you think it’s impossible it can be possible.

Nothing is impossible (inside the reality); you only have to try and try. You’ll spend so much time, but it will never be a wasted time, because in the end, it will be worth.

Climate Change: the future negative effects

This Monday is celebrated the Paris Summit 2015 about the climate change. For this reason, I looked for a new related to the future negative effects of the climate change. 

SUMMARY: 

The organization "Climate Central" demonstrated through a publication of an image, which would be the impact of the climate change in famous cities, most of them the one who are near the beach. The image is a worldmap that shows that cities like València or Barcelona will be under the ocean in a few years if we continue polluting the atmosphere, and the poles continue to melt because of the human activities. Even the streets and houses of New York and London, would disappear. It is evident that the simulate worldmap doesn't reflect the possibility of building a protection in a future.

What this image pretends, is to make people aware about what's happening, before de Paris Summit of this Monday 30th. A picture is worth a thousand words: this is what the organization Climate Change has pretend. 

PERSONAL OPINION: 

As the pictures shows clearly, if we don't do anything to stop the climate change, the future generation will recieve our disasters. This Monday all the world will be waiting for what the governments will decide to do, and of course, we have to act individually now. We have to begin with our basic activities, like having a shower or driving a car. It seems like what we do in our lives it won't change anything, but if all of us do something? What if everyone replaces the car for the bike? What if all of us stop buying industrial and polluting products? What if our countries promove reneweable energies? If we think in this way, maybe we'll stop the climate change. 

I really believe that all of us have to act right now, and start to educate children to take care of the world. Just in this way we'll avoid the creation of men and women that live to consume, with a materialist life. 

Kenya bus attack: Primary school head teacher plays dead to escape slaughter by Islamic extremists

SUMMARY:

The director of a primary school, explains how he saved his life acting like a dead during a slaughter in Kenya, where some terrorists set off the bus 28 passengers for not being Muslims.

Douglas Ochwodho , the survivor, said that all the people who weren’t from Somalia or who weren’t Muslims, were separated from the others and they had to lie on the ground because the terrorist had to kill them. One after another, until it was his turn. They weren’t sure if Douglas was dead or not, but when they see that he was lying with the other bodies, they thought that someone already shot it.

When Al-Shabab escaped from the crime scene, Douglas got up and went to the road for help. A truck stopped and took him to his school, which is located in Mandera. He said that he was on that bus heading for his home because the school had closed for Christmas holidays.

Ochwodho’s brother explains that Douglas was very lucky. The radical group didn’t shot him because the confusion was the blood that was in his body, which was not his: it was of the bodies he had next to him.

Al Shabab, to stop the bus through several bullets, but the driver resisted. Then, terrorists launched a grenade and finally, they controlled the bus. Once uploaded, they told to the 60 passengers to recite the Shahada, a religious creed, and if they didn’t know how to read it or say it, they had to die.

Among the 28 deaths, 19 were men and 9 women. 17 were teachers.

PERSONAL OPINION:

I support the right of freedom. All the freedoms that a person can have. Each person decides to be, in this case, believer or not. And if you decide to be a believer, only you can chose what religion you want to practice. Personally, I am a Muslim and I respect all the religions around me. So, I think honestly, that it’s extreme and inhuman what those people did. I think above all, we are all humans. And the first thing that should exist between us, is the respect. I think this "war of religions" is useless. It’s just that, a war, and according to what I know, none of them have anything good.

VOCABULARY:

-Hijacked: segrestat

-The killing spree: l’onada d’assassinats

-Slaughter: massacre

WHY IS HUMOR NECESSARY? THE BENEFITS OF A GOOD LAUGH

Could you imagine a week without laughing? A day without smiling? As the comedian Charles Chaplin said: A day without laughter is a day wasted. This affirmation is completely true, not only because of the feeling of well-being that a loud laughter causes within us, but for the several benefits of it. Most sudies showed that humor is mentally and physically healthy for humans. 

First of all, it lowers blood pressure, which means that reducing our level of stress hormones, our body cuts simultaneously tha anxiety and stress. Secondly, a good laugh triggers the release of endorphins, our body's natural pain killers. This scientific discovery can be associated with another Chaplin's quote: To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain and play with it. The third advantage is that it boosts T-cells, the cells that help us fight off sickness: it can be our disease prevention for winter! Furthermore, laughter stimulates the production of serotinin, a natural anti-depressent. And finally, it can help us tone our abs! This happen because our stomach muscules expand and contract while we are laughing out loud and it is a great cardio workout too. 

To sum up, having a good sense of humor accompanied by a cheerful attitude, can lighten up our spirit, make us feel emootiond like calm and pleasure, and also be protecting our body from illness. If you do not find a reason to laugh, just do it to improve you health!

Email to my teacher: Future and Dreams

Hi Sonia!

In this email, I will explain practically what is in my young mind right now, what it is like to see the world through my eyes and what will be my little contribution to make our planet a better place. Basically, you will know a bit of me and my dreams. Hope you like it!

I consider myself as an optimist and active person, bearing in mind that I am, like millions of teenagers, in a confused stage of my life. It is true that my daily routine it is not as dynamic and fresh as I would like, but I always see it all in a positive way, I really enjoy every moment. A peculiar feature of me is that I am a bold girl, and I admit that this is totally good! Because if I make a mistake, I just have another lesson and experience. My incredibly self-control helps me to face challenges without being so obsessive and If there is something I learned from adolescence is to be more confident and happy with yourself, have a permanent and indelible smile in your face, and spread this happiness to those who surround you.

Now that you know a bit of me, you have to know who will be the future me! Since we were in school, our parents and teachers asked about what we are going to do with our lives, who we want to be. Personally, I am of those disconcerted students that are not sure 100% of their future, but I have an idea.

When I close my eyes and I imagine where I see myself in 10 years, there are three places that comes to my head.

One of them is an office, being a businesswoman. I have a strong interest about how does it works the current society, I feel attracted by specifically the marketing, and why not, I would like to have my own enterprise. Another point of this profession that captures my attention is that the world of business had always been manly; I think we need more women in a field like this!

My second option is to be a journalist. If I finally decide to study journalism, it will be aiming to investigate. I feel appeal to show the truths hidden in this world, and speak up for those who are afraid. She is not a journalist, but my model to follow is Malala Yousafzai; I admire her with all my strength.

The third and last place where I see my future me, is in front of kids, teaching. Since I was a little girl I have always helped my classmates in every doubt or difficulty that they had, and I felt satisfied. I currently do it, it fills me to know that with my help my friends or brothers understand the lessons. Education is a key for our world, because students of today are the citizens of tomorrow, so If I can contribute, I will feel compensated.

This year has begun the countdown, and we are all minded that we have to make important decisions in a few months. Whatever my choice may be, I will work so hard to achieve my goal.

TED: A life lesson from a volunteer firefighter

In this video, Mark Bezos explains us his experience as a volunteer firefighter in a specific situation that he lived. There was a fire in a house and when his friend (that worked as a volunteer too) and him ran rapidly to the house. The friend arrived first, so he had to save propietress's dog. But then, when it was Mark's turn to act, the captain just told him to enter the house and look for a shoes to the propietress who was in pyjamas and barefoot crying outside. Bezos wasn't expected that but he did it anyway. Weeks before all of the firefighters and also Mark recieved a letter to thanked them. 

This experience that he lived, has a moral quote in the background: "If you have something to give, give it now"-Mark Bezos. He suggest us to act. You can clean a neighboor park, sirve food in a social lunchroom, help kids with their homeworks. Maybe we can not save a life of somebody but we can influence in somebody's life positively. 

From my personal point of view, his speech is so inspiring. As Mark Bezos says, I really believe that every little sign we do to other people can brighten others day. I mean, with just smiling or listening to them can make a difference. And also it feels good to be nice with them. That is the true meaning of humanity; that makes us humans. 

THE NEW SYSTEM PROJECT

Capitalism is a system that has proven to be unfair and problematic. Has only done and caused problems and catastrophies of all types, from the socials inequalities to climate change. We need a new system that takes us from the ostracism to which we focus. 

Many important figures, are uniting them to demand a new system to replace the obsolete and failed capitalism which reigns and rules today. Prisons are increasingly full, the currency imbalance is growing, the Earth can't supports climate change and pollution: economic liberalism demonstrated that it is not the solution.

That is why we need another and different system, that will make us more collaborative, involving consciousness us in the future of the planet, that make us more solidarity with the most disadvantaged and make us realize that the world still has a solution.

We always think that big changes are impossible, but that's not true. What is needed is a bit of each of us, start from the daily life and go forward, because we will be more and more over time,  and finally we will get to our goal: a better world.

That's the video I have found, I'm sure that will makes you think over. Hope you like it!

FINAL REFLECTION

1. Can you see an improvement on your level of English in the past year/s? Where, for example? 2. Which activity best shows your level of English?

My English level has improved so much since I was studying in 4th ESO until now, finishin 1st Batxillerat. Chiefly, because this year we have done so many oral presentations, which helped me to improve my pronuntiation and speak fluently. I think my vocabulary is better and large now; when I have to do a mysay in my blog, I use to remember words that we have worked in Vocabulary's classes. I use formal expressions and some phrasal verbs in my essays too. I have to say that I can use verb tenses more correctly than before. The activity that shows better this improvement are the essays.

3. Which activities were really USEFUL for you to improve your English? Why?

The activities which were useful for me to improve my English were honestly, the oral presentations. Doing oral presentations, you work so many things in one activity, I mean, you have to use verb tenses correctly, use so much vocabulary, improve your pronuntiation, etc. I believe that the best way to learn a language is speak it. But it's not the only useful way for me. Listening to videos, songs and films, makes you be more conscious about what are you listening, and these activities aren't boring, they are funny and dynamic! Another useful activity is the grammar book. You can work in it in your house, quietly. 

4. Which activities did you NOT find useful to learn English? Why not?

I don't think that there's any activity than can't help me to improve my English level, every exercice we do is enriching. 

5. Which activities would like to do again next year to keep on improving your English?

Next year I want to carry on with the oral persentations and doing listenings. Discussing moral issues in class would be such an amazing activity for me!