CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD

  Christmas is coming and everyone is excited around the world because of that. But, how does every country celebrate Christmas? Every place is a different world, and there are a lot of curious and interesting costumes around this celebration.

  In Scandinavian countries, the typical Santa Klaus is known as Ded Moroz, and he is an elder and tall man, with a white and long bear and blue or red clothes. He always has a big bag with a lot of gifts. He has a magic stick, and he can froze everything with it. He gives all the gifts in person every New Year Day. 

  

  In Austria and Hungary, young people dress up like a Krampus, a Christmas devil, and what they do is to scare children saying that if they haven´t been good, they will directly go to the hell.

  In Italy, who gives Christmas gifts is the Befana. She is a woman who looks like a witch. Every January 5^th, the Befana  visits Italian children and if they have been good she gives them gifts and candy. Although she is a witch, she is a cheerful woman who flies with her broom.

                                               

                                                    

  In Spain Christmas starts on December 22^nd, with the National Lottery Raffle. San Ildefonso School´s students, are the children who give the prizes. There is typical to eat 12 grapes on Christmas Eve to change the year, and Santa Klaus is not the only one who visits Spanish children. There are also the Three Magic Kings, who give presents to the children on January 5^th, during the night. There is a show in every Spanish city, where the Three Kings tour around the streets and they throw candy and gifts. Besides that, what have always to be in a Spanish house on Christmas are the typical sweets called “turrón”, “polvorón”, “mazapán” and of course the best Iberic ham.

                                         

So, every place is different, but every place is unique. Merry Christmas!

THANKSGIVING TRIP

   Tomorrow I am leaving to my first Thanksgiving trip. It will be a week, and I am sure that is going to be one of the best of my life. I am going to Santa Fe, to the Grand Canyon, to the Zion Park, and to Las Vegas. I have always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon and to Las Vegas and I can´t believe that finally I am going to do it!

   It is going to be hard to travel by car so many hours, because in Spain everything is smaller, and every city is closer from each other, so I am not used to do that kind of trips by car. Anyway, I am so excited about the trip and I am sure it is going to be something that I will never forget.

   In this moment I am aware that I am really lucky because I am here. These months here in the United States have been amazing and I have enjoyed more than ever, and I am happier now that I am about to do the first long roadtrip of my whole life. This week I hope to find the best part of this country, because although in Europe a lot of people think so, I know that the United States are not only high buildings and big houses. In this trip I am going to visit the Grand Canyon, and I am sure it is going to be one of the most beautiful landscapes that I have ever seen.

   So, after a few stressful weeks finally I have a break to enjoy and take fresh air! The only thing that I have to do right now is to pack my luggage and prepare myself to have a wonderful week! 

SOMEDAY

   She decided that she had to write a list when she was 9. A list of every country where she wanted to go. There are a lot of countries on that list 11 years  later, but the problem is that she doesn´t know how to make true her dream. She has never travelled by plane, and every single day, she waits for that moment.

   But it isn´t easy. Not now. Now everything is difficult for her and for her family. Her mother is unemployed and his father can´t win money enough with his job. This year, she can´t study at the university anymore, because the cost of her courses has increased  and her family doesn´t have money to pay it.

   But her family is not the only one in that situation.  In Spain thousands of families are suffering the biggest crisis that the country has had ever. How could she come her dream true on this moment? She knows what she has to do in this moment. She has to find a job and help to her family. She can´t go out to have dinner every Saturday anymore, as she was used to do, or buy clothes once a month. Now it is time to sacrifice herself, to forget everything she has always wanted, and to think just about what her family needs. That´s it.

   Anyway, although she will have to wait to go to all those countries on her list, she knows that someday she will do it. She doesn´t know when or how. She doesn´t know how much time is going to last this situation. But the only thing that she knows is that the list that she started to write when she was 9, and that is saved in the last drawer of her desk, someday will come true.

THE MOST TRAGIC HALLOWEEN

  Halloween is supposed to be a terrific celebration.  But what happened in Madrid, last October 31^st was the most terrific that could happen.  Four girls died and one is in the hospital, in a really critical situation.

  Everything started in the club “Madrid Arena”. There was supposed to be a big party, with the famous dj Steve Aoki. But all the signs are that the organization that was responsible of the event sold almost the double of tickets that they could sell. There were around 15.000 people in one club for 9.000, and the result was catastrophic.

  Suddenly, someone fired an illumination flare in the club, and everyone wanted to get out at the same time.  But the problem was that there were too much people, and according to the witnesses, just one exit was opened.  It produced an avalanche of people, and the result was, three girls died because of the crushing, two girls seriously injured (one of them died three days later), and lots of people fainted and moderate injured.

  The three girls who died there were 18, and their names were Katia Esteban, Cristina Arce and Rocío Oña. The girl who died three days after was Belén Langdon, and she was 17. The several injured girl who is still at the hospital, is María Teresa Alonso, and she is 20. Doctors say that, even if she gets survive, she will have consequences forever.

Spain is appalled with the horrible news, because it happened because of the organization´s irresponsibility. It is shameful how they acted selling more tickets they could, and of course, the tragic new has to make people react. Something similar happened in Germany in 2010, and this can´t happen again.

Rocío Oña, Cristina Arce and Katia Esteban

  As a result of the incompetence and the negligence of the club and the awful organization, four innocent girls lost their life in the most tragic Halloween that Spain has lived. They just wanted to go to the concert to see their idol, and they couldn´t come back never. 

MY "YAYO"

   I just received one of the worst news that I could have. My grandfather died yesterday and I couldn´t say goodbye to him. That´s something that you know when you leave your home. You know that something can happen to the people you love, and now I feel that bad news are worse when you are far away.

   My grandfather had been at bed for one year. He stayed his last year of life without going out not even once, so I know that he was suffering and that this is the best for him. Anyway, I´ll miss him so much, and I´ll never forget him.  In his last year he couldn´t walk, go out or even talk, but he could love and make feel people important. Every day that I went to visit him, he just wanted me to lead him by the hand, and I could be like that for hours, just talking to him, although he couldn´t respond, because I knew he loved that, and he was happy when I talked to him. Sometimes he kissed my hand, and smiled to me.

   My grandfather had an interesting and amazing life. I think he was a lucky man, and although he has suffered so much, I hope he was happy with the life that yesterday ended. He lived a lot of experiences as a child and as a teenager. He had the opportunity to live in different countries and he learnt so much about other cultures and people.  As an adult, he was a respectable dentist, and an awesome father and husband.

   He lost his wife twenty years ago, when a cancer ended his life, and since that moment, I think he wasn´t the same person anymore. I don´t know where people are when they die, but I hope he´s finally with my grandmother.

   He was a good man, an awesome father and husband, and a lovely grandfather. My grandfather. And I´ll love and remember him forever, and I´ll be always proud of the last name he gave me. TE QUIERO, YAYO.

  I travelled a lot of times when I was a child. The problem is that I didn´t appreciate a lot of things in those moments, because I was too young. Now, I love travelling and I have enjoyed my last journeys so much. Here are my last trips around the world.

BARCELONA

  It is not necessary to go to other countries to enjoy your trip. I have been several times in Barcelona, even I lived there when I was a child. But every time I go there is as the first time. I love walking around “Las Ramblas” or “El Parc Güell”, and visiting places as “La Sagrada Familia” or “La Pedrera”. It is my favorite city in my country.

SAHARA

Sahara camps of refugees in Algeria is a place where you don´t have nothing to see. There aren´t monuments, famous places or colorful landscapes. But the people, the feeling of being useful, and the awesome image of the stars in the sky above you every night, were some of the reasons that made of it one of the best journeys of my life.

AMSTERDAM

  I went to Amsterdam past April with some friends. I think it is an amazing city, beautiful, clean and ecological, where the main transportation is the bike. It is cultural and impacting. You can find beautiful and interesting museums as the Van Gogh Museum, or Anna Frank´s house, and you can also find places as peculiar and shocking as the Red District or the Coffee Shops.

UNITED STATES

  This is my 5^th visit to the United States. I have been before in California, New York, and twice in Florida, and now I´m here, in Oklahoma. I don´t know if I could live here, because everything is too big and is too far for me. However, I love this country and its people, and I think that here, every state is a new world, and you always discover something different in each one.

WHAT YOU MISS WHEN YOU AREN´T AT HOME

  Sometimes you don´t know to appreciate what you have at home until you go to other place. I have been my whole life living in the same place, in Valencia (Spain), and I had never thought about the things I would miss if I had to go far. But even if you love travelling, and even if is something that you have always wanted to do, is impossible not to miss a lot of things from home.

                    My town, El Puig, a little village near Valencia

  I arrived to Oklahoma two months ago, and this time has been enough to miss a lot of things of Spain, and to appreciate that anything is as comfortable as home. I miss Valencia, its orange groves and its beaches. I miss too the sunny Sundays eating Paella with the family in the open air, or in a restaurant close to the beach. I miss to walk to everywhere, without using the car for everything, and a good Spanish dinner with “tapas”, “sangría”, and the best company: my friends.

                          

           Some of my friends              Part of my family

           in a fancy-dress party

  I miss also to walk around my town and to know everyone. To say “Hello” to every single person that you see in the street.  And of course, I miss all my people. My family and my friends, and all those people who make my life easier and happier.

  I have to say that I don´t change anything for the time I´m having here, but anyway, it´s impossible not to think sometimes in everything you miss from home.  The Spanish jam, potatoes omelet, the beach,  parties on the street, to play in the band of my town, my house, my family, my friends, and sometimes even my university! But, there is no doubt that everything can wait a couple of months more, because right now I´m so happy in Oklahoma and nobody can make me go back to Spain!

                     

BYE, BYE ERASMUS

   Erasmus is an Exchange program between European´s students.  This program has reached 25 years in 2012, an millions of students have enjoyed it. Most of them think that it has been one of the best experiences in their lives, and now, it is in serious danger.

   During an Erasmus, people start from the beginning in another country, with different people and with another culture to learn. Is a door to Europe, to know how people live in other places of the same continent. Is a big opportunity to open you to the world, to live alone by first time, to be an adult.

   But now, the big crisis in Europe is threatening this possibility. Brussels has declared that the program doesn´t have enough money to cover all their students. This means the end of the dream for millions and millions of Europeans, who are waiting from their first year as university student their Erasmus course.

   This is a sad new for me. I´d love to do Erasmus next year, because for me is always interesting and necessary to go to other countries, and to learn languages, cultures and people. I feel I´m so lucky because now, I´m having one of the opportunities of my life. To be in the United States for a year.  I don´t know if the Exchanges Programs with United States are in danger too, but now that I´m living here, I´m surer than ever that everyone should live this opportunity.  It doesn´t matter where. But in Europe, the most popular program is Erasmus, because is closer and cheaper than anyone else, and because it has a lot of places more than Exchange programs with other continents.

   So, if Erasmus program finishes, it will be the end of the dream for millions of students who don´t have the possibility to leave their country, and it is so sad. People need to open their mind; they need to live abroad because it is very important to understand the world. And now that I´m living this experience, I can say it will be a big mistake if these kinds of programs disappear. 

LAVUELTAALMUNDO.NET

   Sometimes you want to travel and you don´t know how to start. It´s difficult to choose the best places, prices, hotels…  So, you need some help to prepare your adventure.

It can be useful for you when that happens to look websites that talk about travelling. As far as I have seen, my favorite website of this kind is lavueltaalmundo.net (thetriparoundtheworld.net). Is the website of Xavier and Carme, a Spanish young couple. They have travelled very much around the world, and they have seen a lot of interesting things that they explain in their web.

   They have also some solidary projects around the world and they talk about them too. They have Spanish, English and Catalan version, so you can choose your language.  In this website you can find information about who they are, about their trips, about their projects, and also help for people who want to travel around the world. They give good tips because they have lived so many experiences during their trips.

   I have to say that the English version is simpler and doesn´t have a lot of information. Spanish version is much better, because there you can find all their trips explained in detail, a lot of tips, and really beautiful proverbs and citations about travelling that you can´t find in the English version.

   I like to look this site because you can discover new options of travelling, and you can learn a lot of things that wake up your interest in other places. You can find also a forum where you can ask and talk with other people about travelling, and you can share your experience with others.  So, I recommend this site to everyone who loves travelling, because it can be a kind of guide for you if you want to do a journey. But even if travelling is not in your plans, this is a good website to learn about other countries and cultures, so it is recommendable for you too.

THE DREAM WILL COME TRUE

  She told me before dying that I had to come true her dream.  She never had the opportunity to have desires or ambitions. Her job was to stay at home and work for her family. She had accepted that and she loved her life, and everyone loved her.

But what anyone knew, was that she had inside a lot of dreams, dreams that she never would come true. She had an adventurous spirit that never could show to anyone, but that I have always perceived when I saw her eyes.

  My grandmother had a difficult life, but she never complained about that. She was happy with what she had and she didn´t need anything else. But her biggest secret dream was the only thing that she couldn´t do in her life. She wanted to travel around the globe. She had been years planning that journey, although she knew that she couldn´t do it. Six months, twenty countries, five continents, and a lot of illusion.

  That day, she was lying in her bed as every day. When she called me, I thought that she wanted just a glass of water or something like that. But what she wanted was something much more important.

  When she told me about to cry that I had to make her dream true, I didn´t know what to say or what to do. I just smiled and I promised her that I would do it, although I didn´t know how or when I had to begin. It was a hard decision, but finally, I decided to do it, because I thought that she deserved it.

  So here I am, in this plane. The plane that finally is going to do possible mi grandmother´s dream, and as she told me, I will send her one postcard every week, because although I don´t know how or where, I´m sure she´ll see every one of them. 

FIVE PLACES THAT I WANT TO VISIT

There are the five countries on the top of my list of places where I want to go.

India

India is the first place in the world where I want to go. I think that its colors, contrasts, and variety make of this country a special place in the world.

People say that India is a country that doesn´t let anyone indifferent. Or you hate it, or you love it. And I already love it although I never have been there, but I will!

Taj Mahal in Agra (India)

Australia

Amazing beaches, incredible landscapes and a whole world to discover. This is what I expect of Australia. I have heard that people there is kind and generous, and that who visits Australia, immediately falls in love with the country and with its splendid views and places to go.

I don´t know when or how, but I´m sure that I will go there even earlier than expected!

                 Sidney (Australia)

Kenya

I´d love to do some solidarity work in a place as Kenia. It is a country where you can do such a nice gesture as help people and live a lot of experiences at the same time. You can enjoy the African savannah and I think that you can learn a lot of things from this place.

I would love also to know how people live in a country as different from what I´m used to see.

                 African savannah in Kenya

               

Chile

I don´t know a lot of things about this country, but what I know is enough to be sure that I want to go there.

It is a place where you can enjoy awesome landscapes and views: mountains, glaciers, fjords… But besides that, I have heard that food and people are wonderful too.

                 Santiago de Chile (Chile)

Greece

I think that what I could find in Greece can be summarized in amazing art and history, and beautiful beaches and cities.

I have always wanted to visit Greece, and I´m sure I will!

                 Mykonos (Greece)

THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL

   For me, any film that reminds you of something that has happened in other places, where you have never been and you don´t know if you will be, is a good movie, in general. In the case of The best exotic Marigold Hote”, I was totally transported to India, where the story takes place.   The film tells the story of a group of English retired people, which decide to travel to India to find something that is missing in their lives.  Each one with his own problems, Evelyn (Dench), Graham (Wilkinson), Douglas (Nighy)  and Jean Ainslie (Penelope Wilton), Muriel (Smith), Norman (Ronald Pickup)  and Madge (Celia Imrie), embark on a trip which finally wasn´t what they  had expected. They thought they would be in a luxury hotel, living the best of India. The Marigold Hotel they discover is only the remainder of what it was one day. The group is received effusively by Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel), a young and inexperienced entrepreneur, who isn´t able to keep his hotel. At first, everyone is deceived and complained about the hotel. But with the time, they discovered a new way to see the world, and they all fell in love with a country full of contrasts and gentle people that offers everything they have.    I could almost smell Indian´s odors and I could feel the chaos of the city of Jaipur.  Directed by the English director John Madden, and adapted from Deborah Moggach´s novel These Foolish Things, “The best exotic Marigold Hotel”, has a wonderful cast, which helps the audience to submerge into the film.   I think that one of the most awesome things of India is its contrasts, so maybe, I´d like to see in the film more about the other face of India, not just the poverty.
   I recommend this film because of many reasons. But the most important thing in my opinion, is that “The best exotic Marigold Hotel” made woke up my interest about India and about its culture, and showed me that if we look around us, we can find a lot of interesting things that we didn´t even know.

"At the end, everything will be ok. If it´s not OK, it is not the end"

                            The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

   I have enjoyed a lot of books in my life. I have read some of those books just for entertainment, and others because I thought they could show me a lot of new things. One of my favorites was A Thousand Splendid Suns, the second and last (at the moment) novel by Khaled Hosseini. This book made me cry and feel a lot of emotions on every page.
   Khaled Hosseini was born in Afghanistan forty seven years ago, but he has lived in the United States since he was fifteen. He studied medicine and worked as a doctor for over ten years, until he wrote his first novel The Kite Runner, in 2003.


   In his novel, the Afghan author tells the stories of two unfortunate women, in a country where the revolts for achieving power are in the street every day. Mariam and Layla live in this context. They are two children with a considerable age difference and from different places, but both with a tragic story behind them. One day their paths cross and their worlds are turned upside down. In time, they´ll discover that their lives haven´t a lot of value in a place as Afghanistan, and that they need to give support to each other if they want to survive there. They have to fight together for their happiness, although it´s something difficult.
   I loved how the book was written. I could feel every emotion as mine. This novel makes you learn about human suffering and cruelty, but also about willpower and overcoming obstacles. You can´t imagine how people can suffer in countries like Afghanistan if you don´t walk in their skin, and that´s exactly what happens in this novel. You can feel in every moment almost what the characters are feeling, and you can understand why they´re doing what they´re doing. Once you start, you can´t stop reading until the end.

   In my opinion, maybe there is too much suffering in the book. You feel constant distress while you are reading, and it is so hard for people who have never felt this kind of emotion. However, it is something that has happened in other places of the world, and I think that we need to know it.
   I don´t recommend this book to people who are just looking for entertainment or having fun. This novel is much more than that. We have a lot to learn of people such as Mariam and Layla. If you are a reader who wants to know how far human suffering and cruelty are able to go, and how women can survive in these situations, you have to read this book. 


"Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.”

                        A Thousand Splendid Suns

My Blog

   There are a lot of places in the world where I´d love to go. I think that travelling is one of the best ways to learn about culture, tolerance, and life in general. It opens your mind and can make you a better person. I haven´t been to a lot of countries, but I´d like to. For now, it is difficult for me to travel around the world, but in my opinion, there isn´t only one way to do it. You can travel from your own house, wherever you want. You only have to take a book, or sit in your couch and watch a good film, and you can be transported to the other side of the world.

So, in this blog, I want to talk about places. No matter which places. Just places where we can find so different manners, people and landscapes. I haven´t been in a lot of these places, but I have learned about them through books and cinema, and I´ll talk about novels and films that have woken up my interest in some cultures and histories.
   I think it is important to know how people are living in other countries; how they suffer, how they survive, how they enjoy life or how they have to overcome the obstacles. And it is these things I want to talk about. About places around the world, about ways of living, about what´s happening on other countries, and about these special films and books that can help you to travel in other way.



     As the British writer Pico Iyer said: “Travel is like love, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.” So, let´s travel!