Monday 8th of March

Everything began at about 10 o'clock on Monday moorning it started snowing.
At break time the teachers us to go home, because it was snowing a lot. After lunch at 3:30 the lights went out because of the snow all. In 7 o'clock it started snowing and the streets of Castelló d'Empúries were white, it was beautiful.
At night there wasn't only electricity either, for this reason the night was very boring.
The next day up and the view was impressive and they weren't any classes because there wasn't any electricity. At lunch time in 2:15 electricity came back in some places of village. The rest of the places the electricity come back on at 4 o'clock in the moorning. Now the 15 th March there are still some villages in Catalonia that don't have any electricity.

Manias

Everybody has some manias, even though these manias are often very insignificants. For example I am very maniatic about order, cleanliness and food. But it's curious that not everybody has the some manias.

Apart from this there are peolple who have more manias than others, and these people are called maniacs.

Moreover, a film has been made about this, and the star was Jack Nicholson. He was very good in role.I recommend this film.

But also if a person has a lot of manias it could be bad for these people, because they could have problems with people around them. Apart from us, famous people also have manias, for example Rafa Nadal, bounces the ball twice beffore he serves.

Peoople think that their manias are correct and the best, but I think that all manias are correct as long as you respect other people.

I think also that some manias are copied from the parents.

The Pianist

Wladyslaw Azplman is the main character of this drama. He is a well known Polish pianist. He lives in Warsaw with his family, they are Polish Jews. When the war starts all the family are sent to a getto in Warsaw with other jews and he ears his living playing the piano in bars and cafes.

Then the family are seperated and they are sent to differnet concentration camps, some of this family die in the camps.

Wladyslaw escapes from the camp and some people help him to hide. He lives in different apartments and his friends bring him food. After a time, nobody comes and he goes to another house, because the Germans are very near. He hides in this house, but then the Germans come. A Germans captain friends him but he doesn't tell anybody and he gives him some food. Later the Americans and British arrive and the war finishes. Wladyslaw is saved but most of his family have died.

This film won three Oscars; for the best actor, the best director and the best script. In my opinion this is a very interesting film, because it shows us how the jews lived during the war, but there are scenes that are very shocking. I liked this film because it is about real life and it makes you think a lot. The director of this film was Roman Polanski, he was Polish and he lived in Poland during the nazi invasion.

On the Street

This article is about illegal street sellers who can be seen in many parts of the region.

The majority of Catalunya's illegal street sellers are from North or Subsaharian Africa are they ordinary young men or are they people who are depriving the shopkeepers of trade.

According to one shopkeeper, the street sellers can became very aggresive. If we ask them to have they have a system of signalling to warm each other, when the police are coming they moveon as soon as the police arrive but they're back again very quickly.

This piece of news affects me because in Santa Margarita is beetwen Castelló and Roses in summer there are a lot of illegal street sellers, they sell cheap productes with false makes, for example watches, sunglasses, caps, etc. This isn't good for the shops that sell the real makes.

Food and drink

The different countries in the world have a different food and drinks. Moreover each country has its own typical dishes and different diets.

In my country we follow the Mediterranean diet and the specialists say that it is the best and healthiest diet. However that doesn't mean that everybody follows this diet.

In other countries the diet changes and these people don't follow its diet.

The diet in my country is the healthiest in Europe, because there is a lot of variety, the meal are made with different kinds os fish, meat, a lot of vegetables, cereals...

But in recent years the people of Europe haven't followed this diet. I think that the cause of this is that people don't have time for their meals and for this reason they buy ready cooked food. And they don't practise sport recently in Spain there are a lot of cases of obesity and overweight, for this reason I think that we should solve this problem.

People of my age are not usually obese but the problem starts from age. The country with the most cases of obesity is North America.

T.V

For me television is on of the best inventions of technology, because it was invented long time ago and has changed a lot.

Every day everybody watches the T.V for more than an hour to see serials, films, programmes, news, etc.

Every day I watch T.V more than 1 hour. I like watching television, for the serials and the news, I think these are the best things on T.V.

A part from Internet the T.V is one of the things that attracts more people and of the most important media because you know what is happening in the world, from the misery to the good things.

Some people define the T.V as " the idiot box", but I don't agree with this expression because if T.V didn't exist there would only be Internet. A part from this people of my age T.V is a very important things.

I also think that watching too much T.V is not very good, because it can damage your eyesight and you lose a lot of studying time.

In coclusion I think that watching T.V an hour a day does not hurt anybody.

History

Before the first civilizations there is evidence that the man knew the effects of certain plants such as opium poppy and used. In all civilizations, from the Assyrian to the current twenty-first century, humanity has consumed all the drugs for various reasons, religious rituals, and medicinal habits. Alcohol and tobacco are the drugs that killed more but are legal drugs.

Uses

A lot of drugs can be used as medicines for various diseases. But many drugs are used for recreational purposes, or for their psychological effects. This is a social problem in many countries. In most cases, the drug also has other harmful effects on health behaviour. The fact that many of these drugs are illegal in most countries has increased black market of these substances.

-A drug is a part of living beings where there is substance to be used. For example: Valerian, the drug would be the root, where it is extracted from the chamomile.

-From the point of view of psychology a drug is a substance with affects on the nervous system, capable changing the state of mood, knowledge and usually create addiction.

Trends in economic benefits globally

According to the report prepares annually by the UN, during the year 2005-2006 the market for illegal drugs was stagnant. The report says 42% of global shipments of cocaine and 26% of heroin were intercepted.

In 2006 opium production in Afghanistan would have grown 45% a year and represent 49% of total production worldwide. Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan are the golden triangle countries of highest opium production.

Tobacco

Tobacco is a legal recreational drug produced, among other things, with various species of the genus Nicotine that contain nicotine, although much of the nicotine in this product is added artificially. All governments agree that tobacco is a dangerous drug. But they do nothing to stop smoking because they earn lots of money to tobacco

Particular case of marijuana

Marijuana and hashish have been completely illegal in the Catalan countries, until recently. In Catalonia some hospitals have seen that in making marijuana tea, smoked, etc. Have beneficial effects on people with pain, nausea and vomiting that cannot take antimetic or other drugs, for example alleviate cancer or AIDS patients, caused by radiation.Taking marijuana, hashish and hallucinatory fungi is legal in Amsterdam. But in Spain the use of cannabis is legal with a prescription and therapeutic use.

Sanctions

Eating or taking illegal drugs in public spaces can mean a fine between 300 to 3000 Euros. In Catalonia consuming illegal drugs in public spaces or possession for personal consumption is not a crime, but you are fine from 300 to 30.050 Euros.

Observation of my oral presentation

My oral presentation was with Ignasi and we used a power point for recurse. On the power point there were some images about the subject. Also I use the support.And presentation lasted more on less 8-9 minutes, 4 minutes each person.

During the presentation I looked at the people of the class a bit, in particular I look at the teacher. Moreover, sometimes I read notes, but in the last paragraph I read all of it. All through the presentation I use a few gestures.

We organized the ideas in order of importance but, we left out the definition of drugs. When I explained the ideas I used some conectors. The grammar of the oral presentation was correct and varied with phrasal verbs and topic-related vocabulary. I used some sentences linkers; with, and, also, moreover,etc. And pause fillers.

My pronunciation was correct, but some words were difficults to pronunce , so I checked with the teacher. I think that I could improve the tane of voice.

From my selfevaluation I think I culd improve a little in everything, but on the other hand I think that I didn't do too badly. For this reason I think I deserve a 5,5.

Crisis

At the beginning of 2009 a crisis began all over.
The first country that was affected was USA, later the crisis extended all over the world.
When the crisis got to Spain the people were very scored. And these people were right, because Spain like most countries in Europe has been affected by the crises. This situation is caused because the economy in Spain is based on the construction, tourism and both, are the first to be affected by the crisis.
Now, we are in 2010 and the crisis countinues the same.
And the president of Spain tells us that we will get over this situation, but I think that it's not true until a few years have past. The economists in Spain tell us we will over this crisis beetwen 2011-2012 I hope so.
I think that you can see the crisis in all families in Spain. Especially in my family, we did more thinks than now, for example we travelled more.

Podcast

Fashion

Nowadays fashion changes continually. In Spain girls follow the fashion more than boys. Perhaps girls buy more clothes than boys but they are cheaper and boys buy more brand makes. Girls prefer to have a lot of clothes so that they can wear different clothes every day. You can see this especially in people of my age, 17-18.
Hier clothes are quite expensive especially in the little shops but now there are a lot of chain stores for example Inditext. Where you can buy cheaper clothes and a lot of variety. Boys like spending a lot of money on trainers, and perhaps they buy three or four pairs a year.
Nowadays in spite of the fashion a lot of people prefer to follow their own style, for example the style of clothes depends on the music they like.
I also think that the world of clothes is the least affected by the crisis.

19 Monturiol

Castelló d'Empúries

17486

Hi Kiron.
Thanks for your letter. I'm glad to hear you're well. I'm writing to answer you question about where to go on holiday.
I can recommend you my area, especially my village Castelló d'Empúries. Here you can choose between: the mountain, the sea or cultural tourism.
On the one hand if you choose the mountain you can go trekking to Sant Pere de Rodes or Maçanet de Cabrenys, these two posibilities are nice, because the places are pretty and they are surrounded by nature.
On the other hand if you prefer to visit the sea you can go to my village. The beach is about 3 km from Castelló and there you can go different sports: kite surfing, windsurfing, rowing, sailing and canoing. All these sports are very enjoyable and competitive.
But if you choose cultura tourism my village is perfect for this. In Castelló there is a medieval Prision, it was built in 1336. Prisioners were sailors and they made marks on the walls to count the years and they drew pictures of ships. The second important cultural monument is the "Basilica", it is gothic and romanesque and it was built in S. XIX.
The weather is usually good In July and August it is hot in the afternoon there is a sea breeze. In winter it is cold and windy but often sunny.
I hope you can come to visit me soon.
All the best.

Studies

Now I'm studying first batxillerat social in IES Castelló d'Empúries.
In Batxillerat there are ten subjects and four of these are optional subjects. I my case maths, economy, business studies and French. I think that this level there are to many subjects, I think that there should be a maximum of eight subjects.
Other subjects are compulsory in Batxillerat. And I think that some subjects shouldn't be compulsory, because they are not very well chosen. Also in class they aret too many people. I think if the classes were smaller, then people would pay more attention to the teacher.
When you are sixten you have to choose if you you went to study scientific techological or social subjects. This is very difficult because at this age you don't always know what you want to study when you leave school and you go to university.
Moreover I didn't go on the trip that went to the university and now I don't have any information about this. I would like study economy but if I can't go to university I will study an upper grade subject at technical college.

Protesting in the sreet doesn't change anything.
At the moment in the streets there are a lot of protests and demostrations, but they don't change anything. In spite of this the subjects of the protests are important. The demostrations are for various reasons, peace, discrimination, anviromental problems, contamination, education...
On the one hand I agree that the protesters are in the street because it is the only way to get the autorities to listen to them. On the other hand thise people don't do any harm to anybody. But sometimes protesting in the sreets doesn't change anything because there aren't many people who demostrate.
When they are demostrating they occasionally break something are hurt somebody, and then the police are often too hard with them.
In conclusion protesting is good, provided that protestants don't do any harm to anybody.