Sleeping is Good

Everybody likes sleeping. It has a lot of benefits we aren’t aware off, although oversleeping can cause some health problems. Several researchers show us that the average time we should sleep is between 7-9 hours a day. Sleeping well has a positive effect in our physical appearance because our limbs are more relaxed, our skin looks better, and we don’t have under-eye bags. However, on today’s post we are going to get focused on other advantages that are less known and that we shouldn’t forget.

• The main advantage is that a good snooze extends your lifespan. A scientific study has discovered that women between the ages of 50 to 80 who slept less than five hours passed away sooner.

• Another really important leverage for students and elders is that it helps improving your memory. For example, if you are studying English, you would do it much better and quicker after a good night sleep because your mind is wide awake. 

• Last but not least it helps reduce stress which is something that most people suffer from nowadays in our society. When you sleep well you have a better control of you blood pressure which plays an important role in your heart and hence you feel less distressed. 

All in all, sleeping enough helps you mentally (mood) and physically. These are some of the benefits, but it also helps to avoid having accidents, to improve your grades or to spur your creativity.

What I want you to see with this post is that, for some hours a day, we should forget everything that surrounds us, like technological devices which can lead to sleep disorders. We shouldn’t take sleeping for granted and as Raymond Jean says: “If you sleep better, you can certainly live better.”

The possibility to choose your future

Do you know that moment in which someone asks you about what you want to be when you become an adult and your answer is “I don’t know it yet”?

Yes, we have to make lots of decisions when we may be unready for it yet.

For example, that moment at the end of Secondary Education in which you have to decide what you are going to do when you finish 4th year. Here in Spain you have about thirty possibilities (including the different types of Baccalaureate, the different types of Vocational Training, “FP” in Spanish, and the possibility of dropping out after Compulsory Secondary Education) and it’s practically impossible to be a hundred percent sure of which of them you are going to choose. But you have to select one. 

And some years after that election, if you want to study at the university, you have even more different options. In Spain there are more than one hundred university degrees. Yes, more than one hundred degrees, you have read that right. It can seem an overwhelming decision to make, but we can also consider it from another point of view. We can face it taking into account that, the more possibilities there are to choose from, the more opportunities there are to study whatever we really like. 

Some years ago, there were not so many possibilities to choose your future. It was very likely that what you wanted to work at when you grew up was not among the degrees to study. Some years ago, if you wanted to study something a bit different, there was not a specific degree for you and you had to compare the subjects of some of the degrees that were available to look for the one that shared some of your interests. However, if you want to study those same subjects today, you will probably find a degree that fits you perfectly or almost perfectly. 

Some years ago, you were the one who had to adapt to the degree in which they dealt with similar topics to those you wanted to study. On the other hand, today it looks like if the degrees come by demand, you will find the subjects you want to study in one degree or another. Obviously, if you are a very fussy person, you may not find one that fits you perfectly. 

The only drawback that this has is that if you are hesitating between choosing one or another degree because you like both of them, you can’t opt for one because the other doesn’t exist. Choose what you choose, you won’t be able to say you don’t have the opportunity to study whatever you like the most. Because, nowadays, you have the opportunity to choose your future.

This piece of news will change the world

We all have one thought in mind, a thought which never leaves our head, always the same concern: global warming. At school, on television, on the newspapers…, they have told us this is a very important problem, but not as much as it really is. This is such an important problem that it will finish with our world in a few years if we don't do something.

This is no problem to Trump, who doesn’t believe in this danger and won't help for research. Hopefully, the best scientists  in the USA continue investigating despite of him. There is one scientist who may have found the solution for our most important problem in this aspect, which is the pollution of the seas. 

Sarah Molina (who has Spanish backgrounds) is said to win the Nobel prize this year because of finding the solution to a problem we are all thinking about. The parents of Molina came to the USA in search for a better life, her father achieve the American dream and, thanks to this, Sarah has always had the best education and she could continue investigating about the global warming with her own money and no with public grants, because Trump wouldn't help on something like this.

The final solution is the result of a combination between molybdenum, hassium, platinum and ununoctium. Mixing all this in a huge quantity and the accurate measurement will make that all kinds of plastic get dissolved; this has already been proved successful. There are other mixtures to eliminate other kinds of elements which are also polluting the seas. Although these ones haven’t been proved yet, we are quite sure that Sarah is right.

As most people who read this blog are from Spain, I am glad to say that the first places which Sarah wants to help are in the most polluted coasts of America, but also in Spain! As she is from here she doesn’t forget her origins.

To sum up I think this is one of the best news I’ve read in a very long time, because we are clearly living in a world where it is better to have lots of likes to a post than having a clean planet, despite the certainty that it’s going to disappear before we think if we don't act now. I hope this will open your eyes to stop polluting the only planet we have, although, at least, it seems that now we may have a solution.

Education and the Internet

The Internet is a huge source of information. Everything you want to know about, you can find it in the Internet. Not so many years ago, if you wanted to expand your knowledge, you had to go to a library, search for a book and, if you were lucky, you would find one of your interest.

Nowadays, if you want to know something, you just have to type it in the browser and immediately you will obtain results about your search.

The Internet is a very powerful tool but it can be dangerous: not everything that you can find in the Internet is true and, by downloading files and programs from an unknown source, your computer can become infected by viruses and other types of malware.

The Internet can be dangerous, yes, but if you use it carefully and in a sensible way, it can be very helpful to you.

The internet can not only be used for searching information, but for learning and practising your knowledge too. There are plenty of courses in the Internet about several disciplines like languages, maths, geography, biology… and some of them are free. You can also use the Internet to communicate faster with your teacher and classmates to solve your doubts. There are some platforms in the Internet specifically designed for didactic use that can be a good support for your school classes.

The Internet, along with books, is the great adversary of misinformation for many people. Nowadays, if you don’t know something, it is because you haven’t searched for it.

All in all, it’s important to think about the Internet as a very productive additional way of learning, not as a substitute for schools. I’m not talking about being a self-taught person. I think the Internet and the school are very powerful by their own, but they are even more powerful when you combine them both together.

What to watch in 2019

Yesterday I was watching YouTube on my phone when suddenly an advertisement of one of my favourite series came up. It was of Game of Thrones. I became  really excited and I remembered  how I got hooked to this series. One day, I was talking with my aunt about series see had watched. I wanted her to recommend me something she liked and thought I could enjoy. She then told me about Game of Thrones and how see was hooked on it. 

She sparked my interest in it and a few days after I started with it. I got so hooked that I finished the first season in one day. I continued watching it and suddenly I realised that only one season was left. I finished the last season and I felt a little bit sad because I loved the series. However, the next day I called my aunt to tell her that I had finished and she told me that the last season was going to be released in April 2019. In that moment I became really happy, although I knew this time it was really going to be the last time I watched new episodes of Game of Thrones. Now I am looking forward for April to come so that I can see the new season. I suggest everyone to watch it with their family or friends, but if there is someone that doesn't like to see blood or harsh scenes I don´t recommend you to watch this series. If you feel like you are going to like it, go and watch the previous seasons, so that you can enjoy the last one in April. 

Furthermore, also in April 2019 one of my favourite cinema sagas is going to finish. I am talking about The Avengers. I got hooked to this saga because of my cousins; they asked me one day if I wanted to go to their house to watch the first film. I liked it so much that I have seen all of them more than 5 times. Moreover, I have also seen other Marvel movies because of this saga. I think that these movies are not only for children but also for older people, you can watch them with your family or with your friends.

All in all, I can say that I am really looking forward to this April. It makes me a little bit sad that two of my favourite things to watch finish, but at the same time I really want to see how both end up. I also like to think that even though afterwards there will be no new episodes or movies, I can still watch the old ones again. Maybe even one day they will decide to film extra seasons or moies. To conclude, I would like to say that I think that if you haven't seen any of them this is the moment to take a seat and start doing it.

Amancio Ortega Scholarship

In 2018, two students of our high school (the IES Virgen del Espino) obtained the Amancio Ortega scholarship. This is going to be the subject of this post.

This scholarship, for those who do not know, consists of one year of paid studies in the United States or Canada. To be able to aspire to the scholarship, it is necessary to fulfil certain requirements, among them, to have a 7 of average grade in the 3 first years of ESO and an 8 in English. If they meet these requirements, candidates must submit to a pre-selection test. This consists of Oral Comprehension, Written Comprehension and Written Expression exams.

The tests were held during the month of November in the capital of each community. There were different options depending on the city in which you lived in. For example, if you lived in Soria, you could choose between doing it in Valladolid, Logroño or Zaragoza. Our two students did it in Zaragoza. You could also choose the day and the time. Both candidates chose to do it on the same day, but they did not agree on the time: one preferred to do it in the morning while the other did it in the afternoon shift.

If you study English, French or any other language in the high school or at an academy, you will have noticed that the exams are of the same kind that you do each year, but there are two missing: the Grammar and the Oral Exams. There was no exam of the former type, but there was one of the second. During the last two weeks of January, the 1800 pre-selected candidates did their Oral exams. They consisted of talking about 3 minutes on a personal topic, such as family or hobbies, and then answering the questions of the interviewers, everything, of course, in English. In this case, it was not necessary to move to another city, since the test was done via Skype.

From the 1800 pre-selected candidates that we have mentioned before, only 600 won the scholarship, 100 of them from Galicia (remember that Amancio Ortega is Galician). Our two students belong to the small group of 500 winners from the rest of Spain that next year will go to North America to study.

It only remains to know where exactly they will go! USA or Canada? Sun and beach or mountains and snow? Will they return tanned or pale? It seems that we will have to wait to guess...

Women's rights

2018 has finished and, without any doubt, it has been one of the most symbolic years for women. During these twelve months, millions of women around the world have joined their forces to fight against male chauvinism and patriarchy with the intention to create a world full of equality.

Although there are still millions of femicides and a lot to fight for, in this post I am going to highlight the situations that have shown us the fact that this movement is about to finish with inequality. It is also necessary to mention that those women who participate in it are supported by millions of men.

The first situation I will highlight is the great strike called on the 8 th of March in Spain. Its slogan was “The World Stops Without us!” and women showed it to us by paralyzing the country as they did in many other countries, teaching us that nothing would work without them.

We also have to focus on the great number of women that have received an award this year, but we have to emphasize on the historical Golden Globes Gala, dedicated especially to them. It is worth mentioning the historical fact that, for the first time, a woman has been awarded with the Chemistry Nobel Prize and another one with the Physics Noble Prize in the same year, recognizing women's relevance in different working fields.

And last but not least, I want to stress the reduction of gender pay gap between men and women in some countries. There is still a lot of difference, but this is one of the best measures that the government has taken to join the fight for equality.

I could mention a million situations that this daily battle is achieving for changing our lives and our world into better ones. We cannot forget that, for the first time in Spain, there are more female ministers than male. In 2018, Saudi women were finally allowed to drive, and the “Me Too” movement, which has uncovered many sexual harassment cases and condemned them, was born. The fact that a lot of things have been achieved these last years doesn’t mean that we have to stop fighting, so I hope this 2019 everybody will join the movement and fight for equality, that is the real meaning of feminism. Let’s fight with them!