Human Rights

Nowadays, human rights are not as omnipresent as they should. In many undeveloped contries human rights are an "idealistic" thing. Global problems as children exploitation or some kinds of slavery are a good example of the violation of human rights.

What is must be done in order to avoid this violation, laws should be stronger, more strict. Laws must not allow that our rights could be violated, human rights should be above everything, nothing is more important than human rights. 

This is a problem that governements should be aware of, and they should protect our rights as John Locke said in his political works. No one is above our rights and the task of our governements is protecting this rights.

Formal letter

103 of Elm Street

Empuriabrava, 17487

President Mariano Rajoy

Complejo de La Moncloa

Avda. Puerta de Hierro s/n 

28071 Madrid

Spain 

I am writing to notice a growing problem in our society. Falangism is gaining strength. It is gaining strength as neo-nazism or french fascism does. 

For part of our society, Falangism may seem the answer to all our problems, but it isn't.  50 years ago, we were in a dictatorship that strangled Spain's freedom, our freedom. We are in a democracy since 40 years ago, we cannot lose this value that we expensively regain.

This fact is unacceptable, and I request him that please, do something for democracy.

Kind regards,

Pepito Juan de la Mancha.

A new frontier: Trip to Mexico

Day 1: Spain-London

Departure from Barcelona-El Prat Airport at 09:00 pm with destination to London's Gatwick Airport. In London, we'll stay a night before taking the next's day flight.

Day 2: London-Cancún

From London Gatwick Airport we'll take our flight at 12:00 am with destination to Cancún. After 12 hours of flight, we'll arrive in Cancún's Airport where a taxi is going to take us to the hotel where we are staying: Hard Rock Cancún.

Day 3: Relax in Cancún

After a tiring trip, we may have jetlag. So this day in focused on relaxing and enjoying the fantastic tropical weather that the Yucatán Peninsula has to offer. Also, the hotel offers some activities such as snorkeling, gym activities, paintball aim contests, show, etc... All focused on entertaining ourselves. At night we've got a booking in the Japanese restaurant in the hotel. In that restaurant, we will see how the food is cooked in the Teppanyaki style.

Day 4: Chichén Itzá-Ek Balaam

Today we are going to the most emblematic Mayan ruins of the whole Yucatán peninsula: Chichén Itzá. In those ruins, we've got a tour arranged to show us how Chichén Itzá was built and all the story that concerns the city. At lunchtime, we will go to Hubiku cenote where we are having lunch and have a swim in the cenote. After that, we go to Ek Balaam, another Mayan city. After the visit to Ek Balaam, we return to the hotel.

Day 5: Tulum-Cobá-Akumal Bay

In the morning we go to the Mayan ruins of Tulum, a  Mayan city nearby the sea, where there is a temple dedicated to the Wind God. After the visit, we go to Cobá the city with the highest Mayan pyramid, Nohoch Mul. Cobá was also one of the main cities of its era, being so important as Chichén Itzá was. Then, we have lunch at a restaurant nearby Cobá's entrance and finally, we go to Akumal Bay where we are going yo have a snorkeling afternoon with the Caribean aquatic fauna. Finally, after the swim, we return to our hotel.

Day 6: Sian Kaan

This is our last day doing trips around Yucatán Peninsula and we will spend the day in the Natural Park of Sian Kaan. This natural park is the home of a large variety of species such as dolphins, sea turtles, pelicans, even eagles...

Days 7,8,9: Just chill

Last 3 days in Mexico, so we are going to spend all our last 3 days in Mexico enjoying our time in the caribean beaches. 

Day 10: Cancún-London-Spain

After this fantastic week in Mexico, we are going to return home by taking the plane that takes off from Cancún's Airport at 9.00 pm with destination London Gatwick Airport, arriving there at 8:00 am. Finally we'll wait 5 hours before taking our plane to Barcelona.

Can we live without computers?

Computers. Computer are an essential part of our society but are we able to go back to the past and live without computers?

In my opinion, we can't. After growing up with a computer in our home we've developed a "connections" with it because computers have made our lives much easier. Easier to get information, easier to communicate with someone... Everything is easier with a computer. Even our phones are alike a computer, but they fit in our pockets!!

So in my opinion, we aren't able to go back in time and live as we did 30 years ago, and that's because computers have made our lives much easier.

Learning English my way

I've been learning English since I was 6 years old more or less, and in all the years I've learned many ways to learn English. I think that the best way to learn English is to combine the theory with the practice. With that, I have to say that the method that is applied in Spanish schools is not the best. 

For me, teachers should teach grammar basics, but instead of practicing grammar all the time, students should apply what they learned in a dialogue or in oral exercises. And instead of homework, students should try to understand series or movies in English or at least with subtitles. 

In conclusion, for me, those are the clues, the best ways to learn English. And thanks to my experience, I know that this method works.

Esperanto's idealism

Esperanto is a language that in my opinion will globalize our world and "destroy"  our cultural differences that make us unique.

As I said, if Esperanto is the global language, all cultural traits that identify us as a Spanish person, a French person, a Japanese person would disappear with time. The Internet and intercontinental trips have led us to a state of "less uniqueness" of the cultural traits that distinguish our cultures, an example of this is the cuisine, because all around you might find a Japanese or German restaurant.

Under my point of view, Esperanto is a language that could have negative effects on our cultural diversity.

Research Project Letter

Dear tutor,

I'm writing this letter because I want to ask how I should organize my research project about animal extinction. To introduce this research project I thought of explaining what is extinction and also explain the five big extinctions that happened throughout Earth's history, such as the Dinosaur's extinction.

After that, I want to focus in our time, which are the causes of animal extinction, concretely I want to focus on human activities and how they affect to the ecosystems, putting the example of the Dodo bird.

Finally, I want to propose some ways to prevent animal extinctions in the future, so our diversity can remain as it does nowadays.

So that's my research project's organization and I'd be glad to know your opinion about it.

Kind regards, 

Xavi Bech Struck.

Slavery resurgence

Dear delegates of the United Nations,

I'm here to denounce a fact that can't continue, it can't resurge. Yes, I'm talking about the resurgence of slavery. The same slavery that some historic figures as Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King have fought.

Seventy years ago we agreed to declare the human rights, but if we don't act, all the efforts we put in that declaration will be futile. All the efforts we put will be meaningless. Is that what we want? Going back in history? 

My answer to it is no. I will do all that is in my hand to evade that situation, and I hope that you, after listening to me, will do the same.

Thank you for your attention.

Toxic friend

Hi Damian,

I need to tell you something, and I'll be honest. You are a toxic friend, and you're ruining my life.Since you offered me to smoke weed, my life has gone wrong. Until that moment I had never done anything bad, anything that could affect my life.  So I offer you two solutions to this problem: or we are no longer friends, or we see each other less than we have done until now.

I'm sorry Damian, you were a good friend when we met for the first time, but you've changed, and I won't follow your steps. That ain't me. I hope you'll understand me. Please, answer me.

                                                                                                    Your friend

                                                                                                                   Xavi

My research project

Do we know what we eat?

In my research project titled "Do we know what we eat?" I'm going to find out the pros and cons of the transgenic food. First of all, I've chosen this topic because Genetics and Biotechnology are possible degrees that I'm going to do next year. First of all, the objectives of the research project are: to find if transgenic food is harmful to our body, prove if transgenic organisms are better than normal organisms, and study how the farming of transgenics has affected the locality of Castelló d'Empúries.

In my theoric part, I've researched the history of the transgenics since the Prehistory until now, then the processes that are used to produce transgenic food, after that the tools that are used in those processes, and finally I've researched the pros and cons of the transgenics and I gave my opinion.

In my practice part, I planted some ecological corn and some transgenic corn, and then I compared its growth. As I saw the transgenic corn grew faster than the ecological, so I concluded that transgenic corn is more efficient. For studying how the farming of transgenics has affected Castelló d'Empúries I studied the local gardens. In my study, I considered that the only transgenic that is farmed in Castelló d'Empúries is corn, and then I investigated which was the proportion of transgenic corn in front of ecological corn. The proportion of them was around 75-80% transgenic corn and 20-25% ecological corn.

In conclusion and as showed, transgenic corn is more suitable for farmers because it grows faster and it increases their earnings. And in my opinion, transgenics can make our life better but they need to be more regulated.

Should boys always ask a girl out or can a girl ask out too?

Boys are meant to always ask a girl to go out, but I want to ask something: if women are defending the equality between genders why they don't do things that are supposed to be done by men?

I mean, we don't have to be always the ones that have to ask to go out because a relationship is a thing of two, and not always the man has to take the first step. With that I'm not saying that things must change, I just say that we can break conventionalisms and do things in a different way rather than the one we are used to.

I don't want to be "revolutionary" in this issue, but a good alternative would be talking the possibility of going out together and how this relationship is going to work. I'm not well-informed when it comes to open relationships but for what I've heard, many aspects are talked(such as having affairs with other people, if you can repeat the person with who you had an affair if there are "rules" concerning this kind of aspects that may be important  to be talked before you plunge blindly into the unknown).

In conclusion, I think that maybe it doesn't matter who is going to ask going out but the most important part is to talk how the relationship is going to be or how is it going to work instead of worrying who is going to ask going out(at least that's my opinion).

"Why do we love?" questions

1.Discuss. Why do we love? It’s heart-breaking and complicated most of the times yet do we need it at all?

Why do we love? It's a question that is hard to answer, because everybody loves for a different reason, so I cannot give an answer to this question.


2. How does the video define love? Put the words in order

intoxicating-2nd

heart-breaking-3rd

beautiful-1st

soul crushing-4th

3. What are the 5 Philosophers mentioned?

Plato

Arthur Schopenhauer

Bertrand Russell

Siddharta Gautama(Buddha)

Simone de Beauviour

4. Watch again and write each Philosopher’s view on love.

Plato - Love makes us whole, again.
Schopenhauer - Love tricks us into having babies
Russell - Love is escape from out loneliness
Buddha - Love is a misleading affliction
Beauvoir - Love lets us reach beyond ourselves

5. Vocabulary work. Which Philosopher says what?

Dependance on another means boredom and power games-Beauviour

We succeed in perpetuating human species and perpetuating human tragedy-Arhtur Schopenhauer

Quench our physical and psychological desires-Bertrand Russell

It enriches our whole being together-Rusell

Attachments are a great source of suffering-Buddha

Love is the longing to find a soulmate who makes us feel whole again-Plato

Love infuses our life with meaning-Beauviour

Nip&Tuck dialogue

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_JuEj0pm1r0d1Q3T2dtbGVfSDA

Nip & tuck
Scenario: Two men in the shower of a changing room of a  public pool.
Characters: Edd, Ed.

Edd: Ah, la vache. Your name should be Sd instead of Ed, or maybe XSd.
Ed:  Fuck you Edd, you’re a fucking nigga, you can use your dick as a belt, I’m not so overdue as you, YO!
Edd: Shut up little Johnny, it’s enough with ur sis saying that. Maybe it’s a family thing, should ur mom meet my yogurt gun?
Ed: Screw that, man! Damn you! How you dare to say such things? My family is not going to see your wiener.
Edd: Can  you stop talking ‘bout m’ meatboy? You know, it’s a HUGE topic ‘n’ we don’t have much time.
Ed: That’s disgusting Edd.
Edd: Okay, look, do I look like that british vampire? I think that I need a ROLO ROAD DA!
Ed: You have thrown the soap with your stupid pose and I won’t catch it, not with you around me.
Edd: Don’t worry I will wait ‘till you grow up a little bit, kiddo.
Ed: Daaaaaaamn son... Fuck you. I’mm have to escape from you. Anyway I’m  going out of the shower.
Edd: Okay m8. We should go fast as Sonic to go to our reunion with that spiky-haired attorney.
Ed: Fine... But I need to go home and pick good clothes. I won’t go there in a swimming suit.
Edd: As you wish, but I thinl u look quite sexy in that bikini. No kidding.
Ed: It’s not a bikini, it’s a full-body swimming suit. BAKA!

Joke Podcast

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzU74YGlyZxkYThLaThkNUc0NGs/view?usp=drivesdk

TED Talks opinion

Last week in my english class we watched a video about what a psycologist consider the motor which make us go forward and reach our goals. For her it's grit. I agree with her, but I think there is something more than grit, there is also greed. 

I consider grit as the main reason of reaching our goals, for me the video in the link below is no more than a long way to say "If you will, you can". But I think that greed is also another reason why we keep struggling to reach our goals. You know, the feeling of getting what you want, to make big efforts to be the best in something, to get an enormous satisfaction from getting your goal achieved and then you want more and more, you'll never get satisfied and ever and ever wanting to be better, and expanding your goals more and more. That's what, in my point of view, define us as humans, the greedy animal who wants more and more and keeps progressing and reaching goals day by day.

After having written more than a 100 words for my composition about my opinion of the video, I think that I've make clear which two reasons make us progress in life.

Link: http://www.ted.com/playlists/158/graduation_now_what

Email to my teacher about my long-term goals

Dear teacher,

I'm not sure about my goals, I just have time to think about them, you know, my whole life in front of me. Despite of the fact of being young, my short-term goals are like anyone else's in class, finish Batxillerat and start my studies in college.

About my long-term goals... Well I guess that long-term goals now are going to be different, in maybe one, two, three or even twenty years. Now as a teenager I've some goals, then as an adult my goals could be very different, or even the opposite of what I want now.

Anyway, I think that I've written too much for a single 100-words composition, so I'm going to stop writing here.

A fairytale

Rite of passage presentation

Videos:

-https://youtu.be/fZOAAXZhbcw

-https://youtu.be/hezz1e_nXbg

-https://youtu.be/fy-vCiAY1hM

Evaluation:

My mistake in th presentation was my lack of communication with my workmates because thought that the presentation was the day after, and obviously it wasn't, but I was clever enough to improvise with all the knowledge I had about the bullet ant. 

Rite of passage

Stag party

Stag party is one of the most common rites of passage in the modern era of the occidental world. Stag party is a party that takes place the day before you get married. It is more common among men, but also women do a stag party.

In a stag party the groom has to be dressed in an hilarrious way, and then they go to a bar to drink alcohol and rave in a disco sometimes. It is common among men to go to a striptease club, because for the groom it is his "last night of freedom".

I cannot talk about women, because I'm not a women, so that's all what I can explain about the stag party.

Rebel songs -Smells like teen spirit

Lyrics:
Load up on guns; bring your friends
It's fun to lose and to pretend
She's over-bored and self-assured
Oh no, I know a dirty word
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello
[Chorus]
With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now; entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now; entertain us
A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido
Yeah, hey
Yeah
I'm worse at what I do best
And for this gift I feel blessed
Our little group has always been
And always will until the end
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello
[Chorus]
And I forget just why I taste
Oh yeah, I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard; it's hard to find
Oh well, whatever, never mind
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello, how low
Hello, hello, hello
With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now; entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now; entertain us
A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido
A denial, a denial, a denial, a denial, a denial
A denial, a denial, a denial, a denial
Meaning: 
This songs is meant to advertise of the danger when the teenagers start to be more rebel, when they want to go out in the night and have some special kind of fun, taking pills. And it also talks about the danger or the people who are outside in the night waiting to do mugging to a  teenager by surprise.