Marina d’Or 2019

Last year, fulfilling my little sister's dream, at the end of July, my family and I went on a trip to Marinador "Holiday City".

We took a Santiago-Valencia plane and when we got there, a train to Oropesa del Mar, Castellón. A taxi picked us up and took us to the door of the hotel.

Once there, we had to wait a couple of hours to complete the check-in since there were so many people.

We went up to the rooms and everything pointed to those being the best days of our summer.

The hotel surprised us every day at breakfast with the visit of one of the mythical mascots of Marinador (Pirate Meow, Pulpita, Golden Turtle, Tito Lorito, Simarina, Garfiodor and Poseidor "and at night they offered shows for all the children who were there (My 7 year old sister had a great time!).

During the day, we made excursions to water parks, beaches, games, swimming pools, spa, etc.

Before returning to Galicia, we spent a day in the centre of Valencia and went shopping!

Last day, at dawn (5:00 a.m.), we went to the airport to take the plane and return to Santiago. It was all over now :(

We met new people and spent wonderful days with my family !

Au pair in Ireland 28 August 2016 to 3 July 2017

I have always wanted to travel and get to know other cultures, when I finished the Cycle of Infant Education I decided to leave, it wasn´t something easy since I had never traveled outside of Spain and much less alone. When I left I was 21 years old, I also didn´t know what was waiting for me, since I could leave a good or bad family so I took a risk. I started the search and it wasn't easy but I was lucky enough to find a great family in County Kildare in the village of Leixlip. The family consisted of three children, Erick 8 years old, Anna 9 years old and Cristina 11 years old, their parents Robert (Irish) and Miriam (Spanish).

The Irish family and me when we visited Santa´s house. 

I made friends quickly there, in the end we finished a group of three girls (Carmen, Maria and me), who shared our experiences, we were like a family. 

María, me and Carmen in St Patrick`s Day.

Carmen, María and me in Guinness Store House.

During my stay in Ireland I have been able to travel to London, Edinburgh, Belfast and some towns in wonderful Ireland.

Me with a Scottish in Edinburgh.

Me in Edinburgh Castle.

Me in The Giant´s Causeway, Northern Ireland

Me and María in The Giant´s Causeway

In Belfast with the famous big fish.

The Guinness Lake, Wicklo, Ireland.

The Cliff of Moher, Liscannor, Co. Clare, Ireland.

London

Howth, Ireland.

It can also fulfill my mother's dream which was to go and see me and meet the family I lived with and the environment I was in. It was a short but intense trip in which we were able to enjoy ourselves and I especially gained strength to continue the months I had left in Ireland, my mother enjoyed herself as a child and fell in love with Ireland and its people. For me this has undoubtedly been one of the best things that has happened to me during my stay in Ireland.

My au pair experience has been great, I have been treated like one of the family. I liked the education I received in Ireland, they were autonomous children, I also liked the school education, they worked on projects and only had thirty minutes of homework a day, except on days with good weather they didn't send homework so they could enjoy the day playing outside.  

The culture is similar to that of Galicia so it didn't take me long to get used to it, the only thing was the food and the climate (in one day we could go through all four seasons) and

I also liked the Irish people a lot because they are sociable, very nice people and above all if you need something they are always there. On one tour we were told to stop with the map open anywhere and see how quickly someone helped us, we did and it was true, this doesn´t happen everywhere. 

No doubt I would repeat it again and I recommend it because besides learning another language you learn many other things and above all you value much more, since you have to find your life in an unknown environment for you, for me it has been the best thing that has happened.

Ireland will always be present in my life, what better way than with a tattoo of an Irish cloverleaf.

My dream trip to Italy

When I was 17, I went to Rome with my class. I loved that trip for many reasons: I could travel with my friends, the culture of the country, the gastronomy and the different places that we visited. For this reasons I would like to take a trip through several cities of Italy in 10 days.

On the first day I will arrive to Rome. When I will land, I will go to the hotel and take a little walk through the city. On the second day I will visit Vatican City in the morning. In the afternoon, I will visit the historic centre of Rome. Some places that I can visit are Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Piazza di Spagna y the Piazza del Popolo.

On the third day, I will go to visit some wonderful places of Rome like the Colosseum or the roman forum. On the fourth day, I will visit some village in the south of Toscana. I will spend the night in a hotel of Siena.

On the fifth day, I will visit some places in Siena like the cathedral and Piazza del Campo. In the afternoon, I will visit some villages in the north of Toscana. This villages will be Monteriggioni and San Gimignano. On the sixth day, I will go to Florencia. I will visit the historic centre and I will learn about the history of the city. Also, I will go to Pisa to see the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.

On the seventh day, I will go to Venecia to see the wonderful channels and the Piazza San Marco and their surroundings. On the eighth day, I will go to Milán and I will visit their beautiful churches and cathedrals. On the ninth day, I will return to Rome to enjoy the city and prepare for the return trip. Finally, on the next day I will return to Spain with a dream came true.

I would like to share this trip with my friends. This is because they have the same dream as me. They want to visit the wonderful places that exits in Italy. We know that are more places to visit in Italy. But these places make us all very excited.

The best week of my life!

I want to talk about the best experience of my life! I love music, I think I´m listening to music everytime, even when I´m studying I listen to classic music. My favourite kind of music is metal music. In order to listen to metal music, the last summer I went to Resurrection Fest in Viveiro. I saw that Parkway Drive was going to the festival and I though "I don´t mind if I only know this band, I need to see them". When I see all the bands that were going to play in this festival I almost had a heart atack because I realised that I love the most of them. The day before the festival I was nervous as hell, I think these day I slept two hours. Before the festival I was talking with a lot of people that were going to go in order to make friends. I met all this people in person in the festival and it was awesome. We made T-shirts for everyone, these group of people were called "Resupiña". I made a lot of friends from a lot of places from Spain and nowadays, they mean a lot to me.

All the festival was insane, and I had a really really good time, I felt very sad when I had to go home. All the concerts I saw were awesome, I discovered a lot of bands and I enjoyed a lot the bands I knew before the festival. I enjoyed especially Parkway Drive because I love them a lot, I love their music, they do their songs with a lot of passion and when they played in the festival you could see that they were enjoying playing their songs and making people happy. I will put here some photos of the concert and a link if you want to see the concert and if you like metal music.

I plan to return to Resurrection Fest this year because it´s going to play one of my favourite bands in the world and a lot of good metal bands. I´m afraid that this year it´s going to be complicated to go due to coronavirus but I´m positive and I am going to think that I will return and I will have a really good time with my resufriends!

MY WHOLE LIFE DEDICATED TO…

When I was a child I always went to the rhythmic gymnastics competition of my sister. I watched her from the grandstand of the pavilion. I couldn’t wait for my fourth birthday to come around because children had to be four years old to start gymnastic lessons. My first exhibition was in 2003 and it was an emotion-filled moment. That day we received a medal, MY FIRST MEDAL, and it was such an important medal for me that I put it aside in my bedroom. Today I still preserve it.

Seven years later I started to compete in National Champions. I was very nervous and confused because it was a high leap; I passed from training three hours a week to three hours a day. I thought I couldn’t be able to put up with that pressure. I was wrong; I trained very hard day to day and I won one Galician Championship after another for four years until I left my gymnast period. Even I represented Galicia Team in Scholar Age Championship during four years which Federation allow you compete.

 

I never believed I could get all of that and I’m very proud myself for my persistence and not only for my records. This is the thought that I will like to transmit to my gymnasts. At the age of sixteen I started the first course to become a trainer. I continued for two years more to obtain the national degree. . Today I’m rhythmic gymnastics coach and I’m training four groups at afternoons. There are many difficult times as a trainer but there are many happier ones that make up for all efforts. 💪

Take a bucket of popcorn and... Learn English!

Nowadays, we have at our disposal an infinite number of series on various topics: action, love, adventure, history... And with all of them, we can learn new vocabulary to use in our lives.

Watching these series in our native language can serve us as entertainment, but if we change them to English, we can enjoy different benefits. For example, it helps us to better understand the language and practice listenings. In addition, by having subtitles, we can more easily recognize the sounds and pronunciations of words. Without evading the amount of new vocabulary that we learn and the way to express it.

To get started with these practices, some tips should be followed. You have to start little by little, putting the original audio and subtitles in Spanish. When you think you are already mastering it, change the subtitles to English. The most important thing is to lose the fear of not understanding the dialogues! 😎

Some of the series with which you can start, and which at the same time are very entertaining, are the following:

• Game of thrones. Surely many of you have already seen it, but in your language. For those who don't know, it's about the fight between different dynasties for the Iron Throne. Therefore, it's perfect to learn war vocabulary and also vocabulary from the fantasy world, in addition serving to practice listening comprehension, thanks to the accents of the characters.

• Skins. It's an adolescent series that relates the problems of a group of friends: drugs, sex, alcoholism, anorexia... With this series, you will be able to learn colloquial and everyday vocabulary. The language of young people of the moment. In addition, you will empathize with each of the characters, and you will even drop a tear. This is a point in favor of working on feelings.

• Black mirror. It's a science fiction series where the top of how technology affects society is mainly covered. Each chapter is independent of each other, so they could be conceived as small films. It's perfect for acquiring new concepts related to technology or the problems that sometimes entails. With this series, you will draw many conclusions...

• Peaky Blinders. It's the most famous series about gangsters. It's set in Birmingham in 1919. In this case, this series already has a higher level of English, so it would be aimed at those who have a little more command of the language. The accents of some actors are quite closed, but based on practice, they can be understood without problem.

• Vikings. Another of the most famous series of the moment, set in Scandinavia in the 700s. This series is full of action, and with it you will learn about Norse history and mythology. Also, the actors speak very slowly and clearly, so many times you won't even need the help of the subtitles.

• Sense8. I can't explain much the plot of this series, because I would make many spoilers, but it has been a series that had a great acceptance and at the same time, a great rejection. The actors come from many different countries, there's even a well-known Spanish one. So, thanks to this, you can hear many types of accents.

And that's all! I hope that list of series has helped you, and that you can improve your English with them.

Leave me a comment if you have already seen one, or if you want to recommend another one that isn't there! 😁😍

Italy. A dream fulfilled

Since I was a child I always knew that I would live in Italy (for some time). It was the year 2016 and after starting my second university degree I had a clear objective: I wanted an Erasmus experience in Italy. After doing the paperwork, I had the fortune to get a place for the eternal city: Rome. It was my dream, but it had just begun.

This was my room:

The room had two floors. The main floor had two Doric columns, a sink and a shower in a corner behind the bed. This bed was under the stairs of the second floor.

The upper part had another double bed. The ceiling gave off an indirect light. It had painted a fresco of a sun in another depth, illuminated with a warm dim light. It was lovely to see the ceiling during the night, without a doubt the most beautiful one I ever saw in a room... But what I liked most was the morning light, entering through the huge window.

It was perfect from the beginning.

From that moment I lived a beautiful year, visiting the places I had dreamed when I was a child: the Coliseum, the Fontana di Trevi, the Imperial Forums, the Vatican City, the Pantheon and the Circus Maximus were some of the first places…

I had some very intense months, visiting places and meeting new people. I tried to know other cities around Italy, and that, among other places, took me to cities such as Verona. There I visited Juliet's house, and I met the wall of lovers. The wall is located at the entrance to the patio of the house, and couples write their names on it, to preserve their love for the rest of their lives.

Another of the cities that I was able to meet was other of my favorite ones, for its entire cultural legacy in the Italian Renaissance. Florence. I love the Renaissance. Since I was a kid I read stories about Leonardo da Vinci, and I admired him for all his abilities. When I was 18 years old I bought a famous video game called Assassin's Creed, set in the city of Florence in the Renaissance, and of course, when I was there, I made a wonderful photo imitating Ezio Auditore (the protagonist) ...

I was in many small towns and villages, but I could spend hours talking about them, so finally I will talk about my experience in the city of the canals: 

Venice

I had the great opportunity to visit Venice in the most important event of each year: Carnival. History, beauty and mysticism that Carnival of Venice has…  It’s unique in the world. All people have a maximum respect for their conservation, and the costumes they use are works of art…

Beyond the gondola rides, the canals, and the magic of the city, the best moment was without a doubt in the middle of Piazza di San Marco. A group of ladies was posing for the journalists who were covering the event and without thinking twice; I got in the middle of the photo to immortalize the moment. Everyone laughed, including the ladies, who were very serious before!

I am sure that I will live in Rome in the near future, I love Italy in all its virtues, and I still have a lot to discover. Sincerely, if you have not decided to visit it yet, I can only say one thing. 

Do it, you will not regret…

One Piece

Hello everyone, today I am going to talk about one of my passions that is the One Piece manga. The author of this incredible work is Eiichirō Oda, a japanese manga writer. This piece begin in 1997 and continues in development at one volume per week. It has more than 900 volumes, exactly 941 and and he has only made 70 percent of the complete piece.

One Piece has sold more than 450 million of copies around the world and has a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author. Nothing less than 320.866.000 of copies until 2014.

One piece is a pirate adventure manga in which the premise of the main character is to become the king of the pirates but this is impossible without his “nakamas”. Nakama is a japanese word that means a great feeling of friendship but more than a family, it is like your friends become your real family and you feel that you need to protect your nakamas at all cost. Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Ussop, Chopper, Franky, Robin and Brook are the main members of this kind of family.

I knew this work when I was only a 10 years old child and I've been seeing it since then.

Since I met One Piece I have read many mangas. The culture of Japan is fascinating and mangas are impregnated with all that culture. You can learn a lot reading mangas.

I think you should reads this kind of literature. Almost every manga has a impressive plot and make you spend hours reading. And could teach you about friendship, conflict resolution, overcoming, honor, not giving up... You can contact me if you need any recommendation.

The dance in my life

Since I was a child, I liked a lot of activities when I had free time after school: Roller skating, swimming, aerobics ... But since I was seven from now, I decided to practice dancing.

Practicing dance I had the best moments in my life and the worst too. I started dancing in Lalin in a little group who`s name is Máisquedanza, but now is a big group with 400 dancers between 4 and 60 years old. During the year, we practice one hour per week because all of us are students out of our town, on Fridays is the only chance that we can met. In every year we make 2 public dancings at the end of june with the end of the school course, except in my case because we participate in a few competitions.

Last weekend, in Lalín was presented the Stars Dance competition, organized by a dance company from Portugal. Máisquedanza presented 11 choreographies and 7 of them have won, also winning the prize for best school, best dancer kids, and revelation choreographer. The two choreographies that I presented with my group won two first prizes.

In Máisquedanza we practice modern dance: jazz, lyric, contemporary, fusion, hip-hop ... we don’t focus only in one of them, we try to play all of them. I know I'm not going to be a professional dancer, because to this can happen. I would have to leave Lalín and maybe Galicia to study in a dancing studio. So while I can, I will continue dancing for many years, because with the dance I have grown, it has helped me in bad times and has known how to thank me for the effort, the perseverance and the falls in each and every one of the actions I have had, which were not few in fifteen years that I have been practicing dancing.

My exchange to Hunstanton

I will talk about my student exchange experience in a little village called Hunstanton. I visited Hunstanton when I was 16 with my classmates, I stayed there 3 months in a house with a family who lived there and with a friend and classmate called Martín. 

I remember that I have to get up very early for going to the high school, in comparison with my spanish high school it was very formal and modern, we had to spend 5 hours there but they were very enjoyable because we adapted very well to the class. In the afternoon we usually went for a walk in the town because there was not much to do or see. During our stay there we visited some cities such as London or Cambridge, these cities socked me a lot for their monuments and their expensive souvenir prices too.

Despite I was entertained and happy with my classmates and my family, once a week a receive a visit of my big brother because he was working in a close city called Stevenage, we usually picked the car for taking photos in different places of the village or for visiting nearby villages.

However, my stay there has negative points too, specially if we talk about food and weather. It was very hard to adapt to food costumes because they tend to add mayonnaise to all kind of food, something that for me is disgusting. Weather is another problem that we have experienced in this country, raining is very common in October and November ant that harmed our experience in someway because it limited us for doing certain things.

In conclusion, I would recommend exchanges to everyone, specially if you go to a country where they use a language you want to learn because it's the best way to practise and to learn it.

Hunstant high school

What I've learned from the Municipal Museum of Helsinki in terms of education

In the visit at the Municipal Museum of Helsinki I could understand how Helsinki has become what it is now, and the thing that surprised me the most was specially that once the Russian Empire was defeated and the Civil War was ended, Finland started to build a new society based in the education of all the people. It was very interesting to see how the classrooms were here years ago because if I compare them to the classrooms in Spain nowadays, there are no significant changes.
Although the museum shows how this city was evolutioning in many aspects, I would like to focus in the Educational System. I found in this progress an example to follow for other countries because until the 1960s, a date that is not so far away from the actuality, the level of education in Finland was pretty low, in fact, only one in ten adult had completed their basic education reaching an university degree. Nowadays, the ninety nine percent of finnish people complete compulsory basic education, a fact that can surprise anyone.  When we talk about improving our current Educational System here in Spain it feels like a really far and utopian future, but we can see from here that it’s not impossible.
Another thing that was very surprising for me about the museum was how didactical it is for the children. You can touch and feel everything, the old rooms and bars, the old toys... As a future primary school teacher, i found this fact very useful because pupils can learn about history through a museum in a fun and enjoyable way.

To sum up, I think that teachers should take in account that learning process has many ways of carrying out and they have a lot of different types of resources to do it. They should be in contact with museums and other teaching-learning places to achieve a productive impact on students, letting them acquiring new knowledge in a didactic way. Pupils should know that: learning is a fun and useful process, that they need to become cultural people in the future and take part in the society, and it is also very important for them to understand this because if they do not do it they will be demotivated in school and their curiosity will be getting lower while they are growing up. It is our goal, as teachers, to make students clear that learning is a life-long process and we all keep learning until the end of our lives; as Michelangelo said “I am still learning”.