joke!

how to make stress your friend

Psychologist Kelly McGonigal has been teaching people for more than ten years how to avoid stress, turning it into the enemy. Now, recent research has changed her mind, and so she wants to do with us: stress isn't harmful for our bodies, but how we face it can bring serious increase of heart disease risk.

It shows up that the effects on our bodies such as sweat and heart pounding that we've always associated with negative feelings aren't that bad. Stress is preparing us to face challenges, to do our best on whatever we're doing and consequently, succeed. Another amazing result of being stressed is that we become more social: the pituitary gland pumps out oxytocin, a neuro-hormon that makes us become more compassionate, empathetic and even sorround ourselves by people we care about.

To conclude, I must say that with this talk I haven't only learnt about how to stand stress but also some new vocabulary such as nudge (gentle encouragement or reminder), seek (search, look for) or vessels (where blood flows through)... So I feel like the only thing I can say about it is thanks. Thanks Kelly for teaching us! :)

terrorism

Terrorism is a global problem. There are many ways of terrorism, one of the most recent is the informatic one, on the internet. But by now, the most common is the aggressive one, the one that causes death, terror and pain. If you read the word carefully it won't be difficult for you to understand where it comes from: the act of causing terror among people... Now think, is it a good way of trying to change things?

Of course it is not! They can't see that the only thing that terrorism gets is hate, fear and chaos.

In my opinion terrorism is the worst way of manipulation. Some organizations may even rule like a lobby, but there's no point on achieveing power by the force. We live in a democracy, and although we still have a long walk before we reach an equal society based on respect, honesty and truth, we must try to keep it improving. Terrorism is nothing but a stone on the road to freedom and we must wash it away.

How? You may ask. It's not going to be easy. I haven't said it is something we can fight within a few days. Even though, we must stand against it and try to erradicate it: together we can do anything. Together... And with some help of our governments, who must ignore any pressure they might recieve from terrorists, and also be truthful to us (but that's another issue to deal with...).

looking back

During this year I've noticed an improvement in my writing thanks to the huge amount of opinion essays we've done. Even though, I think that my best skill in English is not writing but listening and speaking. Perhaps speaking doesn't show off that much because I'm a bit shy when talking to someone who has to evaluate me, the I get nervous and start making absurd mistakes. It's been very useful for me to write that exhausting number of essays. In contrast, I don't really like writing on the blog, I prefere to handle my writings to the teacher. Something I also dislike a little is to evaluate my peers. next year I'd like to continue doing oral presentations and basically all the stuff we've been doing this year.

In conclusion, I've liked this schoolyear and I'm eager to start second of batxillerat.  

sleep for memory

Scientists in China and the US have recently discovered the connection between the quantity of sleep and the way neurons do their job. As it seems, the better and more we sleep, the better our brain works. This improvement of our sleep improves at the same time our memory. Scientists have proved with their experiment that subjects having more sleep were more likely to learn more and fatser than those sleeping less. They explain this phenomenon proving that when we sleep our brain reviews everything that we have done during the day, including that what we have studied.

I think it is fascinating to see how science can explain some incredible things such as this curious fact. Some rimes I've read in articles and books that the loss of sleep and, basically to stop sleeping, can boost our mental capacity and our brain habilites. This investigation, however, shows that it is actually the approrpiate amount of sleep what improves our mind.

More info at:  http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27695144

maleficent

Maleficent is the re-edition of the traditional Disney film Sleeping beauty. It tells the story from a different point of view, from the sight of Maleficent. At the beggining, you see a young fairy living in a magic forest. When she meets a human boy, who's come from the humanlands looking for some gemes to sell, she rapidly falls in love with him. After some years of friendship, when they are sixteen the boy kisses her promising eternal love... But this love disappears as he grows up and becomes more and more mean and ambitious. This ambition leads him to do something terrible: he betrays Maleficent when the king, in his deathbed, offers the crown to whom kills her. When he fouls her and cuts her wings, she becomes dark and dangerous and some years after that, during the new king's daughter's baptism, she appears and curses the baby. Then, the baby is sent to a cottage to be raised by three fairies who are not very able to grow up a human. Maleficent looks patienly and closely to Aurora, until something extraordinary happens...

I've really liked this film. This version of the classic offers a different point of view and represents a huge contrast with the traditional version of the sleeping beauty. Publics of all ages will enjoy this film: the little ones because of its amusing part, and the older ones because of its critical part, as well as the memory from their childhood.

welcome summer!

Welcome summer!!

Wow... It's been such a long wait for summer to come, but finally it is here. The weather is at last warm, I've finished my exams and school is about to come to an end. 

This weekend has been crazy, crazy enough to greet summer. On Friday afternoon I went to the swimming pool, as usual, but after that I went with my family to our favourite restaurant in Empuriabrava. Then, on Saturday, I woke up early to finish some stuff from school and, at eleven I met with Francesc (my new sailing partner) to train. We sailed about two hours and when we finished I rushed to Torroella de Montgrí, where I had an appointment with Vicenç Pagès (a catalan writer) for my TDR. After two hours of interview, I wandered around the streets enjoying a festival about magic they were having. Afterwards, we went to Palamós to visit my grandparents. We went shopping and then we slept in our flat by the sea.

On Sunday I woke up early in Plalamós and quickly got on the car way to st.Pere. On the road we stopped again in Torroella to have a magnific breakfast of croisants and orange juice and then we continued our return. At about eleven I arrived in st.Pere, where Carles (my coach) was waiting for me to train again with Francesc. We've sailed almost four hours and in the afternoon I've been in La Gola just enjoying the sun, the wind and basicly...  Summer!