Blog de Cristina

Sent by Estela Alvarez, a fourth year student. 

A long time ago single women who had a romantic meeting always went with a chaperone who kept an eye on the couple, whereas nowadays people can flirt from their personal computer while they are surfing the  Internet because there are websites where they chat possible partners up. It seems incredible, but there are people who go out with someone without having ever seen them .

Certainly, we live in a stressful world and some people are too busy to look for love. As a result, new ways of meeting the person of your dreams are coming along. Actually, travel agencies arrange special trips only for single people and TV programmes organize blind dates for their contestants. But one of the most original systems to meet your Mr or Miss Right is a speed date, which is becoming more and more popular in different countries, especially among young people.

It consists of a group of people, where there is the same number of men and women, who are gathered together in a room where they have a few minutes to find out as much information as they can about each other in order to see if some of them is their perfect soul mate. At a speed date a person talks one to one to a member of the opposite sex during a while and as soon as a bell rings the participants have to move on to the next person and then, they start a conversation again. At the end of the event they submit to the organizers a list with people they fancy and they would like to see again because they believe they could be compatible. If the other person also feels the same attraction the organizers will get them in touch .

 In Spain a sort of “speed date” is becoming fashionable between university students, although this way to meet a possible pick-up is slightly different. It is called «traffic lights party» and it is usually celebrated in discos. It consists of wearing a sticker with the shape of a traffic light in the lapel and the colours of the signal have different meanings, so if you are wearing the green light switched on, it means you are not engaged; the yellow light means you are single but you are not especially interested in meeting anybody; and the red colour means you already have a boyfriend or a girlfriend.  Funny , isn’t it?

This review has been sent by Irene Miguez Garcia, 2º Basic Level

“Alice’s Adventures in

Wonderland” is a book written by Lewis Carroll, who was born in 1832 and was the third child in a family of eleven children.
It’s a fantasy story which takes place in the country while two sisters were sitting under the trees on a sunny day. One of them, called Alice  was too tired and sleepy while the other one was reading a book. Alice fell asleep and the story started. The book tells strange and stupid things about strange people too, in a country where everybody was mad. In Wonderland there were a lot of strange people, for example the Cheshire cat, which was always grinning and vanishing every second, the Hatter and March Hare who were always drinking tea in a boring party, a White rabbit who was always worried about the time and the mad Queen, the Duchess, a pack of cards and a Queen of hearts who wanted to cut everybody’s head.
Alice lives unbelievable adventures that she couldn’t understand, like ” The Croquet game”, where the balls were hedgehogs and the mallets flamingos, she suffered many changes too, getting taller and smaller when she ate or drank  some things, she was in a trial only with animals, etc.
At the end when she was feeling afraid, sad, unhappy and worried, she woke up, it just was a stupid dream.
I think the book was a little bit difficult and it wasn’t because of the language, but it was difficult for me because it’s all nonsense! And I thought I was always lost while I was reading it.
I didn’t like it so much, maybe because it’s a story for little children and it’s a little childish , although I think it’s  quite difficult to read for them, so If I were a little child I wouldn’t choose this one, although the title sounds fabulous!   

Kindly sent by Estela Alvarez , a fourth-year student at the EOI 

Humanity has achieved amazing exploits for thousands  of years. For example, the control of fire and the invention of the wheel in the primitive communities or the sophisticated trips to the outer space nowadays. But if I have to choose one of the most outstanding achievements of mankind, it’ll the Pyramids of Egypt. I find them absolutely fascinating because they are still surrounded by mistery in spite of their age. Actually, nobody knows exactly how these extraordinary structures were built. Although it is thought that ramps, levers and pulleys could have been used to move the huge stone blocks which pyramids were made of, the fact is that archaeologists, engineers and other experts don’t fully agree  about the way they were constructed.

What I find particularly impressive is the perfect geometry on their slants. Moreover, the pyramids face towards specific stars, so it is a proof of the vast knowledge of Astronomy the ancient Egyptian civilization had. There are people who think that this famous monument is a vestige of an alien colony in the Earth built by creatures from another planet. I respect the beliefs each person has, but from my point of view, these people have seen the film «Stargate»far too many times. Anyway, I’m a bit more agnostic and I agree with the scientific research which has shown the pyramids were simply tombs of pharaohs.

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