The end

This is my last post in this blog and probably (if all finishes good) my last English homework post. During the last 2 years I have been writing in this blog as English homework but what I have posted is my life, my interests, my stories, my concerns… so I think that the final blog should be a little reflection of the blog.

Moreover this blog will keep my hard work during the batxillerat years and will keep too a part of my personality. During these last days I have looked at my posts and I have seen that sometimes my posts have been repetitive with the football, the exams or the topics of the news ( most of them about science, football or technology) but this is because these are my interests and things that are important in my life.

Furthermore it have been a good experience this blog because have helped me to write better and to don’t be thinking in this like all homework and essays but I want to be honest saying that I’m happy of having finished it because it has been too a responsibility and a constant work during these years.

Finally I want to say that it’s true that we have had always a lot of time to do the posts but I usually have finished the posts on the last or the penultimate week. I’m proud of my work and I hope people who read the blog appreciate all the hours and the passion I have invested here.

The end - :$

The refereeing

If you have read old post you may know I was referee during a year. I arbitrate little children in football-7 matches and they weren’t many important but these matches were my first job. I started to earn money by working of referee and I liked to control the match and to be responsible of what happens in the field. I only was doing that during a year because the next year I started the Batxillerat and I thought it will be difficult to combine the school, the playing football and the refereeing, so I decided to stop being referee but I keep that like a great experience.

This year I have seen the opportunity of starting the refereeing in football-11. This is the opportunity to start a real job with responsibility and make some money during the year. What is good to combine this with other activities is that the matches use to be only on the weekends so during the week you know you will be able to study or do homework. So the great memories of the past experiences help me to decide to start the course for becoming referee. I have just started the course with two teammates and I’m seeing that this is what I want to do the next year!

Bad times for a FC Barcelona supporter

I probably have said my favourite football team in other posts but if you don’t know it I am a FC Barcelona fan. In this last weeks, Barcelona has lost the Spanish cup final, has been eliminated from the Champions League, and has lost a lot of possibilities to win the Spanish football league. In the next weeks the Champions League semi-finals and final will take place and it will be the first time in a lot of years that Barcelona won’t be there. For me it has been a big deception the team’s performance this year and it’s complicated to accept that.

I remember during these last years, when the team made a splendid performance and all was going well, that all was fantastic and everybody was happy. With the pass of the years we started to view all that as normal and we demanded that Barcelona won trophies and moreover that they played well. I can remember that my father told me that we were living an extraordinary era and that it won’t last forever. He advise me that we were demanding too much and untenable.

For me, the extraordinary period of Barcelona has finished and now we see that we demanded too much. Every match is difficult and all requires a lot of work. We see how now Barcelona probably will finish the league in the 3^rd position and have arrived to the cup final and everybody criticize the team. It’s true that is not easy to accept a big change but we will have to accept that because it seems that the team will face a difficult situation in the coming years.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Plot:

The film is about a stockbroker from Wall Street called Jordan Belfort. At the beginning of the film Jordan starts to work in Wall Street and early start the brokerage firm Stratford-Oakmont teamed with his partner Donny Azoff. Their company starts with some childhood friends and quickly grows in number of employees and their status in the trading community and Wall Street grows too by scamming costumers. All their life turns around the drugs, prostitutes and parties which draw the attention to the authorities and make him popular in Wall Street. Belfort is being investigated by FBI and starts to keep his money in a Swiss bank. Finally the FBI discovers all his illegalities and sent to the jail during 3 years but with a lot of privileges due to his money. At the end of the film he has already left the prison and is a motivational speaker making a lecture about selling.

Opinion:

It’s an entertaining story that shows all the excesses of the rich people. The fact that is based on the truth life of a stockbroker makes the story more believable and interesting. Moreover it shows the lack of ethics in the in business.

 In addition, about the justice, in the moment when Jorden is sent to the jail it seems that finally justice is done because he is going to pay for the scams he has done and for all the excesses with drugs but finally he have an easy stay in prison with privileges because he is rich. In my opinion this lets the justice in doubt and makes me think if really justice is equal for everybody because, following this example, a drugs lord who has won a lot of money illegally can stay in prison with privileges.

Carnival and exams: Hard days for batxillerat students

The carnival is coming and it seems that we won’t have fun at all because we will be thinking on our exams. This year the two-weak exams of the end of the 2^nd term have just coincided with the two weekends of carnival so we will have to study hard these days.

About the carnival, this year we will dress up like Eskimos. The decision of this disguise it was difficult. First of all, nobody agreed about a disguise, so we proposed several ones and then we voted. Between the options, we could choose sailors, soldiers, animals… But finally the votes indicate that most of the people wanted to dress up like animals. The problem was that there were more girls than boys and while almost all the girls votes the animals disguise, no boy votes this one so we don’t want this disguise. When the girls chose that they wanted a polar bear disguise, the problem was quickly solved because the boys decided to dress up like Eskimos to choose something with a little relation.

After this decision, after prepare the “carriage” and after all the problems we have had, finally we won’t be able to enjoy the carnival due to the exams. Two weeks of almost every-day exams wait us, and we won’t be able to have a little enjoyment before it. Hard days for batxillerat students.

"La que se avecina"

“La que se avecina” is a popular Spanish TV series. This series is focused on a neighbourhood community of an isolated building called “Mirador de Montepinar” located on the outskirts of a big city. This is a comedy series which debuted on 2007 on “Telecinco” and became very popular. Currently is being emitted on “Telecinco” on Wednesdays at 10:30 pm. Until now, they have made 7 seasons and more than 80 chapters which each one last about an hour and a half.

The plot is about this neighbourhood where there are several families that face different problems and use to solve them in an extravagant way. They are all funny characters which are used like a satire of many types of the Spanish society. They use witty and catchy phrases which have made the series so popular. Although they use to face daily problems related with the economic crises, they use to add some current situations like it could be the evictions, the divorces, the political corruption.

Although most of the characters try to be funny, there are some ones who always take the leadership and who are the funniest. For me the funniest characters are Antonio Recio, who is a fish wholesealer; Amador Ribas, who is a divorced former banker currently without job who wants to enjoy his life; Fermin Trujillo, Maxi and Enrique Pastor.

Film: Gladiator

This film called Gladiator is a film about a Roman commander that due to difficult circumstances becomes a slave and a gladiator. I decided to do this post about this film because I have seen this film three times and I have always liked a lot. I saw it for the first time when I was 10 years old and it made a big impression on me. Then I saw it again when it was said Barcelona players saw the film before a final and I appreciate more thins that the first time like all the physiological traits the film has. For me the film is a very good example of striving until the end and always keep fighting for achieve what you want and what you think although the difficulties but always whit the senses of honor and good ethic. Finally some days ago I saw the film again on the television and this is the reason why I decided to make this post.

The plot is about a great Roman commander called Maximum who is faithful to the old emperor who treats the commander like a son. The problem starts when the emperor is killed by his real son. The new emperor sends some murders to kill the commander for jealousy. When the commander is going to be killed he escapes but after being some days away he is captured by other romans and he becomes a slave and a gladiator. The emperor has also killed his family so his goal now is to revenge. He starts to win a lot of fights and he with other slaves are sent to Rome to play some fights for the emperor and Roman people in the Coliseum. He becomes very popular there and the when the emperor meets him he can’t kill him unfairly in front of the citizens. The emperor organizes a lot of difficult fights for him and making a lot of traps to prejudice Maximum, but he keep going and achieve to win all the combats. At the end there is the fight between Maximum and the emperor who tamper the event by hurting the gladiator hardly before the fight. Finally Maximum wins the combat but dies and is represented as he finally meets his family (his son and his wife).

1st term and the difficulty of deciding

 These are the last days of the first term. In general it have been like other years but these last weeks we have had a lot of exams and in addition we have to finish research project to correct it all without any mistakes.

But what I think for me is being the hardest this year and the thing about I want to talk in this post is the hard decision we have to do this days to choose our future degree and our future life. During all this year and part of the last one all the teachers, relatives, and mates have insisted in the importance of choose well because this will be my future, but I haven’t made the decision yet. Actually I chose the scientific batxillerat to keep the maximum number of options available and because I really like biology but about degrees I don’t know because I don’t like any specific part of the biology more than others so it’s a bit difficult to decide.

Moreover this term we have been asked in different subjects to write of about our goals, future, etc. and I really don’t know but I use to put some degrees related with biology and the human body but I don’t know if it’s what I will do in my future. ´The last day we were asked about the degree we want to hear about in the university lectures for February.

I really have thought since the start of the batxillerat that I could do the selectivitat and then I would decide the degree I would do depending on the mark of the exams. It seems that this finally won’t be possible but I think we need more information about different degrees and to see how people work in their jobs and more because in my opinion we are obliged to do a lot of general subjects that make us unable to decide well if we are not very decided on we want to do. Moreover I think it's impossible for most of the people that with only 18 or just 17 to decide what they want to do the rest of their life.

Is it better to live at home or on campus when you are at university?

The accommodation is a difficult issue for students and their parents. The campus offers you short way from the lecture halls and moreover, what I think is more important, provides you the case to meet new people and improve your relationships with them while you are on the campus. 

However, to stay at home is another possibility that provides you the sensation of staying in your safe zone and the help of your family for any problem. 

For deciding between this two options you have to take in account your income level and that if you go on a campus you will suffer a big change in your daily life.

In conclusion, I think that it could be a good experience to live on a campus to adapting easily to the university life but if your income level is too low or you don't want to see big changes in your life to live at home is also a good option.

The last year in the high school

This is (probably) the last year in the high school before going to the university or whatever we want to do. So this is the last of six long years but probably this will be the hardest and the one that will seems longer. After all these years studying now we have to make a last effort to achieve our desired goal. I really hope that all these years finally have a good reward for the work done.

It has been difficult to restart working and adapt to the routine. Moreover we are working a lot to prepare the PAU which are the final exams that allow you to go to the university and to finish the research project.

For all these reasons I know it will be a very stressful year but we have to have fun too and consider that this will be the last year that we can stay all friends together in our village.

I will try to work hard this entire course and try to have some fun too and make this last year memorable!

Girona F.C.

This year Girona has made an impressive season and has finished the league in the fourth position. That has been very impressive especially because the last season Girona it finished in the last positions and near the relegation positions, and this year with almost the same players has achieved the play-off position. This has been probably for the new young coach called Francesc Rubí whose has received a lot of nice words because of this year.

Moreover this fourth position it let to Girona the possibility of play the play-off and to get promoted to the first league. Girona played the first part of the play-off against Alcorcon and the whole qualifier finished with a result of 4-1 for Girona. Now, the team has to play two matches against Almeria who finished in third position in the regular league and who is the harder team in the play-off. The squad have arrived to this part of the season with a lot of problems of injuries and with important players like Acuña almost injured.

I hope that Girona gets promoted because is a team near here, which I can see in its stadium and surely that if it does, I will go to the stadium the next year to see some matches.

An anecdote is that when the season started nobody went to the Girona’s stadium because people thought that it would be another painful year near the relegation, but now, when the team is near the achievement the stadium is always full and the tickets finishes quickly.

The blog

I have been doing the blog all this year and this is probably the last free post I will do. When the course started and I knew that I would have to do the blog I didn't like that because I thought that would be boring and a lot of work. We are approaching the end of the third term and I have done almost all the post ( I haven't done the tasks that we have to do in class) and it hasn't been too hard, but the problem is that sometimes I had to do 3 or 4 your says in the last 4 days, because I had been a bit lazy during the term. Instead of  the first thought finally the blog have helped me a lot in English because it demanded me to do short essays regularly. 

Moreover another important thing is that have made me think in my opinion of news and different topics and express these opinions, which I think is very important because with the blog I have seen that we usually hear news or hear topics, but we don't really think in the topic and in our opinion, so the blog have helped me to think in that and to realize in what I really care.

In my opinion the hardest work has been to choose the topics for the "your says" because it had to be a good topic which you can talk a lot about it, so it had to be a topic that really like you because if you don't like you wouldn't talk good and you will do a short and poor post.

Finally I have to say that I'm waiting to do the blog the next year and that I probably will use the same blog.

To get a job for the summer

This year is the first I can work on summer because my birthday is in the end's of August and the last year I couldn't.

Currently I have just distributed my CV for Empuriabrava and Castelló, especially in "campings" and supermarkets. It's a bit difficult to get a job because of the crisis and because I haven't got experience in any other jobs. This is a great disadvantage especially in these times when there aren't many jobs and there are a lot of people with degrees and other things that can't get jobs too. Apart from that the worst is that in a lot of supermarkets and "campings" is that you can let there your CV, but they usually phone only to people they know and that usually they didn't let there their CV. 

For the moment I only have received a call from a supermarket called "Aldi" but I had to refuse the offer because they only had a job in Roses and I couldn't go - that's another problem because I can't go too far every day.

So I don't expect any offer for any job for the moment. Therefore I probably will have to work with my father in the farm and recollecting things in the countryside, which is the thing I have tried to avoid all this time because is a very hard job, in the countryside, with the sun, whit mosquitoes, whit sand and dust, and especially backache because of the action of pick up vegetables from the ground. 

Exciting end of season (football)

This weekend it will decide which teams will be relegated and in the second league, which teams will be promoted. This year the league, if we talk about the first ones, it has been very boring because since the start of the season Barça had a good difference of points against the second, so this year the most exciting part of the league have been to see the teams that can be relegated and the teams which can go to play to European competitions. If we look at this, it have been very interesting because there are a lot of modest teams that have been in high positions and that are still playing for achieve a good place and to go to Europe. For example this weekend, we will finally see if Real Sociedad will achieve to go to the Champions after its magnificent season and a lot of others teams as Betis or Rayo that have been a great surprise for this season.

On the other hand, when we are approaching the end of the season, when each team only have to play a match more, four teams can be relegated: Mallorca, Zaragoza, Celta and Deportivo. Only one of them can survive in the first league and in my opinion it will be Celta because although they aren't the one with more possibilities they are the ones that with the matches they have to play can be saved easily. However the team that depends of itself is Deportivo because if they win they will be saved, but the reason that makes me doubt is that they play against Real Sociedad that want also to win to achieve a Champions place.

Moreover the first positions for get promoted in the second league are very interesting. This second league have been very exciting especially because Girona has made an awesome season and has been a lot of time in the second place that provides a direct promotion to the first league. There are still two matches to play but if Girona doesn't finishes in the second position they have another opportunity to be promoted because they will have to play the play-off's against the teams since de 3rd position until the 6th.

There are a lot of matches to be played and it depends on a lot of results but my preferences are that Girona rises to the first league and that Celta survive in the first league. About the European positions I want that Real Sociedad finishes 4rt as prize of his season.

End of football season (My team)

This last weekend we finish the football league and my football team has finished in the 8th position which in my opinion is a good position for us.

First of all it have to be said that we have played all the league with the half of the team that are "cadets" that they are younger and they should play in a lower league so I'm very happy for our result. Five weeks ago we were in the 6th position and we were very exited but the last four matches were against the first four teams of  the league so our coach decide to  challenge us and he said that if in these four matches we get 4 points of the 12 possible he will invite us to a dinner with all paid. For this reason these last four matches have been very interesting and exiting. We started with a draw against the team in the 4th place so since these moment we only need 3 points more that means to win one of the 3 last matches. We lost the next two matches and it arrives the last match against the 2nd placed that was a team called Salt, near Girona. We started losing the match but with a bit of fortune we achieve a penalty and finally we won the match and our coach couldn't believe it. 

We are very proud of this end of season, and now we only will play some friendly matches.

Here is the league table with all the information.

The only thing that haven't been good at all this league is that how is written in the table we received 69 goals, and taking in account that I'm goalkeeper that's not good numbers, but I also can say that only 29 of this goals have been scored to me.

Without hope at the end

These two last weeks will be almost painful for us :(. In these two weeks I have twelve exams, so more than one exam per day if we take in account that we only go to the high school five days per week. I have exams of all the subjects, and the worst is that now these weeks are approaching and all the exams are well organized, seems that some teachers want to laugh at us or to complicate our lives making changes at the last day or adding more exams to the following weeks, forcing us to come more days and extending our calender , to discourage us even more.

Apart from that, although hypothetically we finishes the exams on 7th June, now some teachers have added more exams later, and to force me more, I also have to come a weak more to make the research project, which compelled me to measure and weight all the students of the high school to get information before the summer.

These dates are also the important dates to know our marks and the dates where teachers calculate the average mark that used to change, usually to worse for some reasons or others. So it isn't hopeful to know that are approaching two weeks of exams, knowing at the same time that you will finish them exhausted, bored, unhappy and finally usually unfairly prejudiced.

Neymar, the new promising player for Barcelona

As the most of the people here I am "culer" that means that I'm a F.C Barcelona fan and in the last years Barcelona has won a lot of leagues and cups and has became the best team of the last decade but in this last year it seems that all this is coming to the end because although they have won the league, the semi-final against Bayern Munich finishes with the dream of this last years that we haven't appreciate too much and that we have thought that all this goals, leagues, championships and statistics were normal, and now we are starting to see that probably we won't revive another seasons as magnificent as these ones.

Related with this, yesterday, on Saturday the Neymar signing became official and this is the future hope that all the "culers" have this moment because since a lot of years Barça have tried to sing him and is a brilliant and promising player that has become the higher sum of money that the club has spend in all it's history.
Neymar has cost 54 millions € and it could seem very expensive, but it becomes ridiculous compared with the offer of Madrid that was of 120 millions, but finally Neymar decided to come to Barcelona because he had a pre-contract and because he has been always declared as Barça's fan. Moreover he is going to have a salary of 7 millions per year and he will be a Barcelona player during 5 years. 

Music

I'm a bit strange in my liking in music, because a lot of people like different types of music and different groups but a lot of Catalan groups for the lyrics of the songs and what they say and in my case is completely different because I use to like English music that is with fast beat and that usually didn't the lyrics didn't say nothing important. The stereotype of this songs and artist is Pit Bull, David Guetta, Flo Rida...

I always have said that I don't like Catalan songs because they are very slowly but in the other hand the English songs used to be fast, catchy and the reason I think that I like more the English songs is because I think that is easier to rhyme the words in English. However I have to confess that there is one slow and Catalan song I like and is the only one, this song is "fil de llum" of Andreu Rifé that is a song that I listen the first time in a advertisement of a series in the TV and I don't know why because is very similar to the other Catalan songs but I liked.

In the other hand the English music I like it used to be played in Flaix FM so is my favourite radio channel that I used to listen every time I'm going somewhere with car. The last two songs I have heard of this style that the lyrics are very poor but I like a lot are "Drinking from the bottle" and "Internet Friends" that are two silly songs that now are played everywhere.

A series

This is a series called "perdidos en la tribu" that in English could be "lost in the tribe" or something similar, and the series consts of another part called "perdidos en la ciudad" that in English could be "lost in the city". This series is about some Spanish families that goes to live two or more with a tribe in Africa or South America and they have to learn all the manners of the tribe, on the other hand "perdidios en la ciudad" is the second part of the series and some members of the tribe have to go to the city and learn our manners. 

One day, by chance, I saw this program and I start watching, I liked and then I saw the second part.

The Spanish families used to have fear of all things there and fear of dirty and a lot of families return home earlier, by contrast the tribes here used to be very intrigued for all and used to have fear of the highs and the cars, but when some time have happened all the members of the tribes became fat and lazy so they didn't want to return home because here they haven't had to hunt to eat and they can do nothing and go parties.

Batxillerat

I want to dedicate this entire post to talk about the batxillerat in general because this week we have received the bus of the UAB, and they have made as a presentation of the university and have talked about our future and what we can do to increase our possibilities to get a good job. This isn't new for me because since I start the batxillerat everybody have told me that now is the important moment when I have to get good marks because this will decide my future but this time with the bus of the UAB is the first time I have felt that the university and the future is near. Apart from that this has coincided with the weeks of exams and this is a support to study more but the exams pass and every exam I feel more tired and I want to study less, because there are a lot of homework and football trainings and I haven't time to do anything else.

My plans for the future is to get a good marks in the batxillerat to have a good average like 8 more than less and then study a lot for the "selectivitat" to achieve entering the university in something like biology or nursing. I know that to achieve my goal I have to study hard, keep calm and apart from that something that is very difficult to comply, to study and work every day.