life is beautiful (La Vida es Hermosa)

iNdiA!! :))

2009-10-24T19:39:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone!

This time, I’m writing about our trip to India. It was really cool! I loved it! The only thing I was sad with, was that we were just more a less a week with our family. But I learnt a lot of things about India that I had never thought about and also I think that India has changed a lot of things. Learning with Arge was really fun (:

The first place we visited in India was Bombay. There we went on a local tour. We saw: Gate of India, the Taj Hotel, Nehru Park and many other places. I think that Bombay, is like any other metropolitan city but it also has its dark part like the slums. I hope that someday, everyone can live comfortably. In Bombay, appa had a pleasant surprise as he saw an old friend of his, in the bus of our local tour. At first, he hadn’t noticed his friend but then, they were talking and talking the whole day. The only thing I didn’t like in Bombay was the weather as it was raining and raining all the time. We stayed in Bombay for just 2 days.

Then we went to Chennai in a train called Kongan Railways. This train is famous as it passes through the ocean for more than an hour, but we couldn’t see the scenery as when it passed that way it was midnight and we were all sleeping.

In Chennai train station, Shankar chithappa and Janani akka came to receive us. Then we went to chitappa’s house. There achi, thatha, varshini, Santhi athai and Mini chiti were waiting for us. I was realy glad and sooo happy to see them all after soooo much time.

We just stayed a day there and then we went to Delhi in a super fast train :) Well, actually I didn’t feel it soo fast but at least we reached Delhi in a day and half. Delhi is really a beautiful city just that I hated the climate. It made Arge and me feel that Torreon’s heat was far better.

In Delhi we visited the Qutub Minar, Lotus Temple (Arge and me were dying there, as we had to walk barefoot like200 mts. But the problem was that the heat was unbearable and we had to run real fast to get into to the temple), the Red Fort and other local things :)

From Delhi we went to visit Jaipur. This city is also called the Pink City, because in the olden times most of the buildings were in that color.

I really liked the architecture and everything in Jaipur; it was like in the Aladdin’s story. Here for the first time we saw a cobra dance. Well, actually it wasn’t like in the movies but the snake was trying to do dance. We also went in an elephant ride, it felt really cool, and it was real fun. We also visited real beautiful palaces there. It looked really amazing.

From Jaipur we went to Agra. There we visited the Taj Mahal. It was really cool as when I saw it for the first time I was still really small and I didn’t actually remember well. I still remember a funny thing that happened here, while appa’s was taking the photos, he stepped wrongly and was about to fall down.

Another places, we went to; were Varanasi and Bodgaya. These two are religious places. The first one is supposed to be the holy city for the Hindus and the second one is the place were Buda is said to have received the enlightment. In Varanasi, I was a bit disappointed, because even being the holy place it was really dirty. I think they should take more care for that city.

After visiting those cities, we went to a place called Bhubaneshwar. There we visited a place called Konark Temple. It is called the Sun Temple. It is supposed to have had the tallest tower than any other temple in its period. There I climbed a tree into a branch and after I was down appa and Arge told me that a big lizard was just aside me and I hadn’t even noticed it!

After visiting all these places in Northeast India, we returned to Chennai. In Chennai, we stayed for some time with Balu thatha, Gomathi achi, Janani akka, Varshini, Shankar chithappa, Mini chitti, Santhi athai, Ganapathy mama, Mishal and everyone. We saw movies, went shopping and did a lot of things. The sad part was that we just stayed there for 3 days :(.

After Chennai, we went to our house in Coimbatore. Achi and thatha also came with us. Here we saw Aparna, Devi athai, Soori mama, Lalitha achi, Samy thatha, Mani mama, and Perrito! In Coimbatore we also did many things. Mani mama took Aparna, Arge, Varshini (a weekend she, Shankar chithappa, Mishal and Mini chitti came) and me to an ice cream parlor called Boomerang. I liked the way they sell you the ice cream because you could choose different types of ice cream and they’ll mix all that up with chocolate, cookies, wafers, etc. Meanwhile we were staying here; we went to a falls called Kovai Kutrallam. Kovai is the short form of Coimbatore. We also went to Kanyakumari. In this part of India, 3 seas get together (the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabic sea). Here we saw PTR mama and Salom aunty & her family. But before going there first we went to Madurai were we went to a temple and then to Sivakasi. Sivakasi is appa’s hometown. It‘s called as Little Japan, as it is one of the most famous fireworks places in India. Here we visited the school where appa had studied his whole primary studies. From there, we went to Tiruchendur, there appa offered his hair to Murugan (a Hindu god). Amma also offered her long long hair before appa, but in Tiruapdi. In Kanyakumari we visited a monument and a prayer centre. After finishing this part of our trip, we returned to Coimbatore. Amma didn’t accompany us as she had her laser operation in Coimbatore.

In Coimbatore, we visited Lalitha achi’s and Devi athai’s house, and we also went to Marudamalai (it’s a temple in the top of a hill) and many shops.

After a week, the time had come. We had to return to Torreon and continue the routine. It was sad to leave them all, but I’m sure we’ll see them soon! (: We flew from Coimbatore to Bombay and from there to London. In London, appamma and I changed airports while Arge and Dra. stayed there. From there we flew to Orlando, meanwhile they were going to Mexico City. Arge and Dra. arrived Torreon before us, as we lost our flight to Mexico City in Orlando, and we had to stay overnight and take a flight to Dallas and then to Torreon.

Well, now in Torreon we’re again in the same work and everything again!

It's really funny now, because when our friends see amma, they get really shocked, as they didn't expect to see her like that, with the hair really really short. :)

That's just me!

2009-09-05T19:05:00.003-05:00

Just posting a drawing I made for a homework.

We had to draw something that expresed how we are, our personality and character.

I chose a tiger cause I think that I'm really intense, temperamental (ask my parents and friends :P). I also think that a tiger has a friendly side and also a dark side (meaning getting angry easily, not having patience, and so on).

I think that I'm that kind of person. The thing, I guess that I would like to change is the bad characters in me. But most importantly I should keep on going with the good things I know and learn :)

Hope you liked the drawing!

Just 2 days from now!!

2009-07-02T18:04:00.005-05:00

Hi all!!

This is a really short blog before going to India. :D
I’m really excited as we’ll be flying to India in 2 days from now. This time Arge and Dra. Lilia will also come with us. We’re going in an India wide trip (: we’ll just visit the most important places there as we won’t be staying longer than 40 days. Achi and thatha are a bit sad as we won’t be staying the whole trip with them. I am happy that I'll learn about India with Arge in this tour as I and Arge don’t really know much about it.

I hope and think that this visit to India will be really great.

Well, I’ll write about the trip when we return from there.

Copa Confederaciones

2009-06-28T17:25:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone!
Today Brazil won the Confederations Cup against USA. The match was really interesting as in the first half USA was winning with a 2-0, but in the second half Brazil woke up and showed its magic and made 3 goals. The American goalkeeper (Tim Howard) made a difference as he saved many shots.
Dempsey made the first goal of the final at just 10 minutes. Then Landon Donovan made a goal in a kickback. Brazil started playing their game in the second half. Without even a minute of the 2nd half Luis Fabiano put the ball in the net. He again headed the ball into the net for the draw in a wonderful play of Kaka. Lucio, the Brazilian captain made the goal of the victory again with a heading. This was just 6 minutes before going to extra time. So the match was really exciting as both teams played well, one in the first half and the other in the second.
Kaka won the golden ball as the best player of this tournament.
Before all this, in the semifinals, I was totally surprised when USA won against Spain as it was my favorite for winning the Cup. Then in the 2nd semifinal: Brazil vs. South Africa, I thought that Brazil would easily win but the match was really tough. Brazil passed to the final with a last minute goal of Dany Alves in a direct free kick.
Well, now let’s wait for South Africa 2010. 346 days for the World Cup to start.
Spain is my favorite team to win the World Cup but let’s see what happens.

Changes

2009-06-05T20:42:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone!!
Here everyone is really happy as we’re about to start holidays. This first year in junior high school was different. There were so many changes!! Still it was really nice.
I made new very good friends, and also got attached very much with some I knew since before. Just now a week before starting summer holidays, I started to remember all the things that happened this year and see the photos. We all have changed a lot!! I can’t believe it,, we’re all so different!!
So many unusual things happened.
First of all, people I never thought I’ll get along with them became some of my closest friends. Then our class which we never thought like one is now so united.
Then, the -Influenza Break- struck me hard as just 1 week before we had returned to school from Easter holidays. At first, it was ok to relax but after 3 days I was counting the days to return school.
Yesterday, a phrase that our Biology miss told us, kept me thinking. “Change is the only constant thing in life”. I remembered that I had often heard that phrase before but never thought about it until now. I liked it very very much. I think that it very real
Even though we don’t like the changes most of the time they’re for our good. So, what’s left is to over face and get over them.
At this moment, I’m really excited and happy because Arge’s coming and we’re going to India, but at the same time I’m feeling a bit sad as some of my closest friends aren’t going to be at the school next year. So, now just wishing the friday not to be the last day we ever meet. Hope all this new tech help us to keep in touch.

Go Green!

2009-05-03T14:17:00.006-05:00

Bonjour!!
Well, right now for me it’s so boring…we’re in this kind of Influenza Break (swine flu break). It’s been nearly a week without classes and we’re supposed to enter again on Wednesday. I just hope that they don’t postpone it also. I think it’s quite right to do this for the health of everyone but now I question myself that how are we going to recover all the things we were supposed to see last week...

In this little “holidays” we saw 2 movies: Minority Report and Artificial Intelligence A.I. Both of them are science-fiction. They show the way they think that we'll be and things we'll create in the future, in order to create new technologies and make the life easier. In Minority Report they create a precrime system. They have 3 precogs who can see the murders so by that way they avoid the death of many people. Here the problem was that in some cases there was a minority report so not always the vision was true. In A.I. they create robots who'll be able to love, this is kind of strange because the robots also have the same feelings as us. The problem was that they didn't know if humans would be able to give back they love they received.

Right now, I think first about the planet. That all this global warming thing is going to affect and change the world totally in some years…so what’s about to happen, is something that I can’t imagine. There are so many things happening these days.
We have to try to make our best because the earth is the only place till now, where we can live. We’ve got to help, by recycling, using energy-savers appliances, and going green!

Shantaram

2009-04-29T18:36:00.002-05:00

Hi all!!
This time I’m writing about a book called Shantaram. It’s written by an Australian who after escaping from the prison, where he was sentenced for robbery and heroin addiction, comes to India. Most of the book is non-fiction but there is also fiction.
Gregory David Roberts gets a false New Zealand passport with the name of Lindsay Ford. After arriving Bombay, he gets a guide called Prabu (Prabaker), who later becomes his friend. Prabu takes him to the slums and the black markets in the city. He also goes to Leopold’s, where he meets Karla (a swiss-american woman, of whom Lin fell in love from the first time he met her), Didier, Modena, Ulla, Maurizio, Letita, Kavita, Vikram and many others. Lin and Karla have a close relationship. One day, Prabu invited Lin to go for vacations to his native village (Sunder village). They stayed there for nearly six months. Lin learned a lot about Indian culture there, and also learned Hindi and Marathi. He became like a brother to Prabu and part of their family. Prabu’s parents called him Shantaram Kishan Kharre. Shantaram meant man of peace, or man of god’s peace. Lin went to live in the slums. He worked as a doctor. He met new people as Johnny Cigar, Raju, Mr. Qasim Ali Hussein, Anand, Rafiq, Jeetendra, Radha, Abdullah Taheri, etc. One day, Abdullah took him with Abdel Khader Khan (Khaderbhai), Nazeer, and others and they talked about philosophical things. Once, while he was attending some people, Karla passed by to visit him. He was very shamed to be seen by Karla in that condition. After finishing, Lin invited her to join him to eat at the Village in the Sky. There he hears about the Sapna killers. They were supposed to be a gang that killed the rich people to give it to the poor ones. With Khaderbhai too he talked about them. One day, Karla asked him to help her get her friend, Lisa out of Madame Zhou place. Karla arranged everything and Madame Zhou accepted to leave Lisa, but with the condition that if Lisa returned she would never be able to go out. Lisa joined them and they three left that horrible place.
Lin also took care of Khaderbhai’s nephew Tariq. He had to teach English and his culture. He looked after Tariq for 3 months. During that period, Tariq and Lin became close friends.
Lin also met a Nigerian called Hassan Obikwa.
A hard cholera fever occurred in the slums. Radha, Parvati, and many others fell sick. Karla also helped him to attend people. Lin did all he could, but still when the epidemic finished, 6 people died.
One day, Ulla told Lin to meet her outside Leopold’s at 1:00 at night. When Lin arrived there, some people took him to the police station.
Lin found out that he was there as someone discovered that he had escaped from the Australian jail. He was sent to the Arthur Road Prison, where he tried to get stronger and remembered his Australian life. Four months passed, Lin was told that a man had come to release him; Vikram, Khaderbhai had sent him. When Lin was out, he also paid for a man called Raheem to be released. Vikram told Lin that Karla had left the city. Khaderbhai asked Lin to work for him, so he joined the Bombay mafia.
Lin started his instruction with Khaled Ansari, to learn the black-market money trade, and then he learnt the gold-smuggling trade with Madjid. Finally, he was about to start the passport business with Ghani.
Ulla came and told him that she’ll tell him where to find Karla if he helped her. Ulla was in some trouble along with Modena and Maurizio and she needed money. Karla had written a letter to her from Goa somewhere near Masupa. After searching Karla the whole day, he sits by the beach. Just then, Karla appears. They start talking and spent a week visiting the shores. When Lin was about to go, Karla told him not to return to Bombay. She told him that if he went away it was all over between them. Lin left her. In Bombay, Ghani told Lin that the Sapna guys had killed Madjid, and then he presented Krishna and Villu. They were experts in the counterfeiting arts. Krishna was a light-box man, he could duplicate the effects of any passport and Villu was a stamp man. He could make any stamp. They became good friends. Lin went with them everyday.
Prabaker gave him the news that he and Johnny were going to get married.
3 African men wanted to kill him and Obikwa told them that they were tourists and when they found where those men were staying, Abdullah, Lin and others went to fight against them. At last, Abdullah forced them to tell who arranged it, finally they told that it was Maurizio Belcane.
The next day, Johnny told him that Anand Rao had killed Rasheed. It was the first murder in the slum, so everyone was really worried. Anand had done the wrong thing for a good reason. Rasheed sold the kidneys of his wife and sister and in the end he ran away. In the hospital they were claimed dead but half an hour later they were alive. Lin told Kavita to make an article about Anand and his case. Sometime later, the story became famous. The women were called “The blue sisters” and as people visited them as a miracle they became famous.
Lin helped people with illegal passports get into other countries by a system called double-shuffle. He also worked with Lisa in film industries contracting foreign stunts.
Some days later, Lisa killed Maurizio as he was disturbing her and Ulla. Lin arranged Obikwa to take the body away and clean the place. Modena was injured so Lin took him to the hospital. He told Ulla to return to Germany.
The ambience at Leopold’s had changed, new people came. Vikram and Lettie had got married. Johnny’s and Prabaker’s weeding was a very happy one. Lin gave Prabu a taxi as his wedding present and 5 thousand American dollars for Johnny.
One day, when Lin was returning from the film set, Khaled told him that the cops thought Abdullah was the Sapna guy and had killed him. In Leopold’s, Johnny told him that Prabaker had had an accident. Prabaker was in the hospital, he was really bad. The doctors told them that he’ll die and indeed some time later, it happened. Lin was really upset. Khaderbhai, Khaled and the others had disappeared and Lin felt alone. His closest friends had died and Khaderbhai wasn’t there and all together he felt terrible.
3 months passed. Everyday Lin smoked heroin, he was really weak. One day, Nazeer came and took him away. When he woke up, he saw Karla. He asked her how she found him; she replied that Khaderbhai had sent her. Half an hour later, he woke up beside Khaderbhai. He said that he had a work for Lin. He told Lin that in 3 or 4 months he would be ready. Lin had lesson of riding horses with Nazeer and their friendship grew. Khaderbhai told him that they were going to go to the war in Afghanistan, and that Lin will come as an American.
Time passed and they prepared to leave to Afghanistan. They flew from Bombay to Karachi, Pakistan. Lin used 4 passports in Karachi. He met a lot of new people; Lin had met them all before...the first time he met Khaderbhai. He then realized that Khaderbhai had included him since the first time. There were many people from different parts of the world. Khaderbhai explained about the war. Sometime later, the Pakistani police searched the hotel where they stayed. They knew that someone close to them had betrayed them so they needed to be careful. Lin remembered read a note from Didier, which said that the woman that had betrayed him was Madame Zhou. Many crazy things happened in Afghanistan. Lin learned a lot of things about Khaderbhai and Karla, about how he went to the jail, between many other things. One day, he got really angry at Khaderbhai and he refused to go with Khaderbhai. That had saved his life, cause after days that Nazeer, Khaderbhai and others left, Nazeer returned with Khaderbhai’s dead body. Lin and everyone became really depressed but the named the oldest man as their guide. Most of the men who started the journey started to die one by one. At the end, just Nazeer, Lin, a boy called Ala-ud-Din and Mahmoud survived.
When they returned to India, some people didn’t know that Khaderbhai had died. Some time after he left Ghani, Nazeer and his men killed him. He was the one that had betrayed them in Pakistan. Krishna and Villu were freed. New followers came to Khaderbhai’s gang. Now they were a different kind of people, so many things had changed. One day, Lin saw Abdullah, he thought that he was going crazy, but then Abdullah told him that in the attack he was taken to New Delhi and there he had recovered himself. They had new types of tasks and all. One day, Lin met with Modena in Leopold’s; he said that he was waiting to Ulla’s return. So many things had happened since he had come to Bombay. At the end, he has 2 options to go to the war in Sri Lanka or go with Karla. After leaving Karla, he went to the slum. Prabu’s parents were there, they were really happy to him, and Parvati gave birth to a boy whom they named Prabaker.
Lin had changed completely since he stepped Bombay for the first time. A new life was ahead of him.
I liked a lot this book. I think it shows a part of India, well exactly about the life in the Bombay slums. It’s really good.

Doggie =)

2009-04-25T13:07:00.003-05:00

Aloha!!

This time, I'm just uploading a photo of a dog, that I made in a soap and later painted it :) hope you all like it.

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-03-19T22:35:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone!
This time I’m just going to tell a little about the movie Slumdog Millionaire. This movie won 8 Oscar’s this year, including best film and best director (Danny Boyle). It also won the best original song with Jai Ho of AR Rahman.
The plot of this movie takes place in Mumbai, India. It’s the story of Jamal Malik, the movie starts telling that he was 1 question away from winning 10 million rupees in a contest called Who wants to be a millionaire?. Everyone is confused as they don’t know how a boy from the Bombay slums could have reached till here as doctors, scientists and many others couldn’t pass the 1 million rupees question. Jamal is being questioned by a police officer and that’s when he explains all the events that happened in Jamal’s life, the ones in which he based to answer the questions.
Jamal and his brother Salim became orphans in a religious fight. They both run away from the place and in the way they find Lathika. Jamal and Lathika become very good friends. Sometime later, they are found by Maman who tells them that he will help them but really he was training them to beg. After finding out what will happen to them; Salim, Jamal and Lathika try to escape. The 2 boys manage to escape leaving Lathika behind. Many years had passed; Jamal and Salim went through many things. One day, Jamal and Salim return to the slums to search for Lathika. Salim kills Maman after finding Lathika. He and Jamal have a fight. Jamal leaves as Salim threatens him with a gun. After many years, Salim joins another criminal band and Jamal works at a phone calls company. There he finds Salim’s phone number and gets in contact with him again. Jamal stays with Salim for some days and at that time he meets with Lathika. She tells him about her life those days. He asks her to come away with him, he tells her to meet him the next day at the train station. The next day, she goes but Salim and the others prevent her from leaving. Jamal decides to enter the TV program -Who wants to be a millionaire?- just for Lathika to see him. Lathika, Salim and the others were taken to another place, there Salim thinks about all the mistakes he committed and gives Lathika his cell and tells her to escape. The program host was very angry and amazed with Jamal. Jamal had at last come to the 10 million rupees question, as he didn’t know the answer he decided to use the application of –call a friend-. That’s when he calls Salim but Lathika answers and she says that she doesn’t know and has never know the answer to the question of who was the 3rd musketeer. When they were young Jamal always told that he and Salim were Arthos and Porthos and that Lathika was the 3rd musketeer, whose name they never knew. Jamal just chooses an answer without being sure of it, as his only desire was to be with Lathika and not winning the game. Jamal wins the game and takes the 10 million rupees. Salim kills the criminal leader and himself. The movie ends when Salim is in the train station and he sees Lathika there.
Appa says that in India some people think that the movie isn’t as good as it shows the poor part of India now that it’s growing, while others think that this is also the reality so why not show it. In my opinion, I think that we should also know other things more than just the nice part of somewhere. The movie is very good and the time really goes fast watching the movie. I liked it.

INKHEART

2009-01-30T22:16:00.004-06:00

Salut!!
This time I’m going to write about the first book called “Inkheart” from a trilogy of books called “INKWORLD”. These were written by Cornelia Funke. The original title of the book is Tintenherz. It’s in German but has been translated into many languages.
In this one they start to tell us the whole plot of the books. Well here comes the story. Once there was a book binder called Mo, who had a magical power which was that he could bring to life anything that was in a book just with his voice. 10 years ago, he was reading a story called “Inkheart” to his wife and 3 year daughter (Meggie). In that moment something strange happened. Hs wife disappeared and 3 men and a marten stood in front of him. Later after reading the book once more, he discovers that they were called Basta, Capricorn and Dustfinger with his marten called Gwin. Mo was very sad has he had read into the book his own wife, so he decided not to read aloud again in his life. One night, Meggie saw someone outside her house in the rain, so she called Mo. Mo went downstairs to see who was there and found Dustfinger. Mo told Meggie to go upstairs but she hide there to overhear the talk. She just heard strange names and understood nothing. The next day, Mo told Meggie to get ready to go with an aunt of her mom called Elinor. Meggie didn’t understand the need but accepted. In the way they saw Dustfinger and as Meggie didn’t like him she came out of the car and asked Mo to tell her what was going on so she could get into the car. He didn’t want to tell her but Dustfinger told her just something’s and she accepted. When they reached Elinor’s house they were amazed as she had more than 1000 books. Meggie saw Mo giving a book to Elinor ad telling her that she should take care of it. Then, Elinor saw Meggie. Mo was shocked, as Meggie read a page were there was a picture of a thing alike to Gwin. One day, after Meggie started to get along with Dustfinger, Basta and other blackjackets (the ones that worked for Capricorn) came and took Mo with the book with them. That night Dustfinger disappeared and so Meggie and Elinor found out that he was a traitor. Elinor then told Meggie that the book they took was the wrong one. Elinor, Meggie, and Dustfinger leave Elinor's house to follow Mo to the village were Capricorn was staying. There Meggie finds out the whole truth. Capricorn shuts Mo, Elinor and Meggie. Dustfinger escapes before they could shut him up. Capricorn wants Mo to read him out gold from books as Treasure Island and when Mo reads One Thousand and One Arabian Nights instead of gold a boy comes out and a Capricorn’s man vanishes. Capricorn shuts all of the again. In the night, Dustfinger comes and gets Mo, Meggie, Elinor and the boy called Farid from their cells. They all go to a village nearby to find a copy of Inkheart. Elinor finds out the address of the author of Inkheart. Mo was sure that Capricorn would have never thought about the author of his book. In the meantime, Farid got attached with Gwin and Dustfinger. He never left Dustfinger’s side. Mo, Meggie, Farid and Dustfinger went to see Fegnolio (the author). Dustfinger doesn’t want to come in so he and Farid stay in the car. Fegnolio finds out that Dustfinger was standing there by the way Mo and Meggie asked questions. Fegnolio goes out and see him and when Dustfinger sees that Mo and Meggie told Fegnolio about him he starts to run away with Farid behind him. Mo leaves Meggie with Fegnolio and goes out. In that time, Basta came and takes them back to Capricorn’s village. Mo, Elinor, Dustfinger and Farid make a plan to help Meggie and Fegnolio. Dustfinger also presents Farid to Resa. She was a Capricorn’s maid who had lost her voice when Darius read her out. Farid saw that she looked like Meggie. While Meggie and Fegnolio were there, Basta finds out that Meggie also has the same power as her father. Mortola (Capricorns mother) wanted to prove that for herself, so she gave a book to Meggie so she could read it aloud and see want happens. Meggie read out a little tin man. Capricorn ordered Meggie to read out the Shadow for him. Meggie and Fegnolio still had time to change the story as Meggie was to read it the next week. In that week Fegnolio changes what Meggie is supposed to read out. He makes her to read that the Shadow will kill all of Capricorn’s men and himself then destroy itself. That day Mortola finds Elinor and shuts her with Resa and Basta. Meggie starts to read the paper and the last part she couldn’t make it out. Mo and Dustfinger had planned another thing but when they saw Meggie they didn’t follow their plan. When Mo saw that Meggie couldn’t read the last part he took the paper and read it. Everyone except Mortola and Basta were dead. These 2 had escaped. Meggie also saw that she had read Fegnolio into his own book. After this, Meggie, Mo and Resa went to live with Elinor. Also Darius was put as Elinor’s assistant. None of them knew what happened to Dustfinger and Farid. They just knew that he had the last copy of Inkheart.
Just 4 days ago the movie of this book was released. Brendan Fraser acts like Mo. I think the movie will be very interesting but I suggest to read the book then see the movie.

Happy New Year!!!

2009-01-03T18:13:00.004-06:00

Hola!!!

This post is to just convey my late new year wishes to you.

I hope this 2009 is a year full of prosperity and good health for the whole world.

It would also be great if all our wishes come true and all the people took conscience and started thinking green.

So, the only thing I have to say is Feliz Año Nuevo!!! and good luck! :)

Lets see what happens. At the moment have fun and enjoy the time.

Posada in our house!!!

2008-12-29T21:01:00.001-06:00

Hi all!
Now I’m writing about the first posada we had in our new house.
It was with all the students who are working with appa in the lab (Argelia, Natalia, Cheve, Ale, Viri, and others).
First we asked for posada (it’s like to ask for hospitality) by singing. This is like a representation of the event when Jose and Mary asked for hospitality from house to house if they could stay there the night when Jesus was going to born. Then we broke the piñata. There 2 boys who are my neighbors also came and hit it and they took more sweets than we did. We had fun doing this because we hit the piñata with our eyes covered so some of us couldn’t hit the piñata but as the piñata was very resistant we had a second round without covering our eyes.
After all these things, we ate tamales!, tostadas, qekiss (muffins), a panque (a type of bread) and my brownies. We drank some very tasty ponche and champurrado (amma made it). Everything was very very delicious, but just a little thing was wrong. It was that my brownies which I got it burnt at the bottom during baking. So we have to make a strong effort to eat them, hahahaha. The normal part tasted good. Argelia made the qekiss and they were very delicious. I saw her making them and learnt its preparation. We bought some of the tamales and others maestra (miss) Agustina brought them. For the tostadas, each person brought something, and we could take whatever we wanted.
While eating we were watching videos on YouTube. Some of them were very funny and we also saw a video of Charice Pempengco. I was impressed with her because she sang very nice. You should hear her songs if possible.
We had a wonderful time!

Summer Holidays 2008

2008-08-15T17:10:00.001-05:00

Hi!
This time I’m going to tell all the things I did in these vacation.
The first 3 weeks I went to the museum to help in the summer course. This year theme was Ecology. So we visited many parks. This time Gera and I helped Flavia with the ensayadores group. In that group there were kids of 6 and 7 years. We told them how to plant a tree, make dough similar to plasticine and other things. In the course we went to Jimulco. It’s a region in Torreon, but its like 2 hours and a half from the downtown. Jimulco was very green and fresh. We went to see the river and the surroundings. We saw an eagle, mapache footsteps and other nice things. We also visited a park called Fundadores. There we saw how they clean the water. We also played games about taking care of the water. Later in the museum, we made recycled paper. We also went to a park called Las Etnias. There we made compost. Everything was fun and we learned many things.
When the summer course finished I went to appa’s lab and helped Sarahi in her experiments. The experiment was about bacteria that grow on oil. I helped her by writing the readings of the protein, enzyme activity and other things. I learned many things. It was fun.
I also went to Kung Fu Panda with Sarahi, Jorge and Yaira. The movie was very funny. I also went to the premiere of The Mummy with appa, amma, Sarahi and Jorge. It was very interesting. I liked both movies.

This was all the things I did in these holidays. All were fun.

Pasatela Super!!

2008-08-12T20:10:00.003-05:00

Bonjour!
This time I’m writing about Sarahi Garcia.
Sarahi is my sister. She is a very good person and also very intelligent.
In the holidays I went to appa’s lab and I helped akka with her project. I helped her to read the enzyme activity, protein activity and other things. She explained me many things. It was very interesting. I learned new things. I also went with her, Jorge and Yaira to see a movie called Kung Fu Panda. It was fun.
Today in the morning Sarahi started her trip to Athens, Georgia, USA and right now she is there. She is going to study Masters in UGA. Sarahi got a full scholarship.
Sarahi is also a very good gymnast. She is a national judge in gymnastics.
We all are going to miss her very much.
See You Soon Akka!

Miss Universo 2008

2008-07-17T20:22:00.006-05:00

Holaa!
Well, now I’m writing about Miss Universe 2008.
The Miss Universe competition started in1952 as a local beauty competition in Long Beach, California. Now it’s one of the most important beauty competitions in the world.
Last year’s Miss Universe was Riyo Mori from Japan. My dad, mom and I thought that Riyo shouldn’t have won because Miss Venezuela was more beautiful. Now Riyo looks better.

This year’s edition took place in Vietnam and the judges were: Roberto Cavalli, Donald Trump JR., Nadine Velasquez, Louis Licari, Jennifer Hawkins, Taryn Rose, Nguyen Cong Khe, Joseph Cinque and Eesha Koppikhar.

This year top 15 where:
Miss Venezuela; Dayana Mendoza
Miss Kosovo; Zana Krasniqi
Miss Mexico; Elisa Najera
Miss Vietnam; Lam Thuy Nguye
Miss South Africa; Tansey Coetzee
Miss Australia; Laura Dundovic
Miss Japan; Hiroko Mima
Miss Dominican Republic; Marianne Cruz Gonzalez
Miss Italy; Claudia Ferraris
Miss Colombia; Taliana Vargas
Miss Russia; Vera Krasova
Miss Hungary; Jazmin Dammak
Miss Czech Republic; Eliska Buckova
Miss USA; Crystle Stewart
Miss Spain; Claudia Moro
After this, these 15 misses modeled in swim suit and the judges gave their mark. In this part Lady GaGa sang her hit Just Dance.
After this they gave the names of the top 10 that passed to the next round. They were:
Miss Kosovo; Zana Krasniqi
Miss Australia; Laura Dundovic
Miss Spain; Claudia Moro
Miss Mexico; Elisa Najera
Miss Colombia; Taliana Vargas
Miss USA; Crystle Stewart
Miss Dominican Republic; Marianne Cruz Gonzalez
Miss Russia; Vera Krasova
Miss Italy; Claudia Ferraris
Miss Venezuela; Dayana Mendoza
These 10 misses now modeled in night dress. I liked very much the dress that used Miss Venezuela. It looked very nice.
Now last year’s Miss Universe Riyo Mori came and told some words. They also showed a video of some things that she made during her reign.
The Misses that passed to the last round were:
Miss Colombia; Taliana Vargas
Miss Venezuela; Dayana Mendoza
Miss Dominican Republic; Marianne Cruz Gonzalez
Miss Mexico; Elisa Najera
Miss Russia; Vera Krasova
This last round is supposed to be very difficult as the last 5 misses have to answer a question that one of the judges makes them.
After some time Donald Trump Jr. gave the cover with the results.
The results where:
Miss Universe 2008: Dayana Mendoza; Miss Venezuela
1st runup: Taliana Vargas; Miss Colombia
2nd runup: Marianne Cruz Gonzalez; Miss Dominican Republic
3rd runup: Vera Krasova; Miss Russia
4th runup: Elisa Najera; Miss Mexico.

Here everyone thought that Elisa Najera could be Miss Universe 2008 as she had won the best body. We also thought that Miss India, Simran Kaur Mundi could be in the top 5. Now everyone is very sad.

The best national costume went to Miss Thailand, Gavintra Photijak. I thought that Mexico was going to win that one because Elisa’s dress looked very beautiful.
Miss Congeniality was Miss El Salvador; Rebeca Moreno.

Mexico has had only one Miss Universe. It was in 1991 with Lupita Jones. India has had 2 Miss Universe; in 1994, Sushmita Sen and in 2000 with Lara Dutta.

Miss Universe is an interesting competition. I like it!

Graduacion de 6º

2008-07-06T18:50:00.007-05:00

Holaaaaaa!!!!!
I’m going to tell you about my graduation this year.

In Mexico the graduation in 6th grade is very important as we finish our primary school. On Friday, 27th June, 2008, our generation (2002-2008) had the graduation. It was in the auditorium of Cuidad Universitaria de la UAdeC. Everything was very nice.

In the morning before the graduation, we went to my akka, Sarahi's house. She ironed my hair and made the hairstyle for the graduation. I liked that hairstyle and all my friends appreciated it too.
First we had the mass and to be honest everyone wanted to sleep as it was very boring. In the mass, Nancy and Mauricio read a passage from the bible.
After the mass there was the change of escolta. There the abanderada (person carrying the flag) told some things (we didn’t understand what she told) to the new abanderada and after that she gave the flag to the new abanderada and like this the change of escolta finished.
After this the director and owner of the school; Mr. Guayo Gutierrez del Bosque, his sister; Mrs. Susana, the coordinator of Spanish; Miss Lulu and the coordinator of English; Miss Silvia passed to the dais. Then Mr. Oswaldo (sports teacher) called Miss. Rocio to pass to announce the list of students of her group (6º A). When each person heard their name they went to get a paper and a disc which contained a video. When everyone had passed from that group, Mr. Oswaldo told who got first place and second and so on. When they had given the certificates to the people that had first, second and third place in both Spanish and English; Miss Grisel from (6º B) passed to do the same and when they had finished giving all the things. A girl from that group, Saidee passed and gave a little speech in english. After that my Spanish teacher, Miss Alma passed to do the same. After everyone had passed, they gave the certificates. I got first place in both English and Spanish. After that Miss Angelica from 6º D passed and did the same. After that Mr. Oswaldo told something about me, that I don’t remember well. Then I passed to the dais and they gave me 4 certificates (1 for 1st place in the Olympics of Knowledge in the our region, 2 certificates for passing in the Math Olympics (one given by the school and the other by the SEP) and other for getting a average of 10/10 in my generation) and a letter from the SEP that congratulated my parents and me for my average of 10 out of 10 in all the grades. After that Mr. Oswaldo said something and then I passed to read a little speech in Spanish. When I finished they put a video that was made with photos we had taken throughout the year. We were all happy and also laughing about the photos. When this finished we played a song called Titanic by flute. When we finished Mr. Oswaldo thanked everyone, and the graduation was finished. I took photos with all the teachers and with Mr. Guayo. Everyone there congratulated me. Dra. Lilia and Yessica had also attended the graduation ceremony. In the evening there was a party but I didn’t go.
All the years from 1st to 6th were fun.

UEFA EURO 2008

2008-07-06T15:54:00.012-05:00

Hiiiii!!!
This post is going to be about UEFA’s Euro2008.

This edition of the Euro2008 took place in Austria-Switzerland. It started on Saturday 7th June and finished on Sunday 29th June. It was very exciting to see all the matches. I liked it very much, it was fantastic.
The teams that participated in the euro were:

Group A:

Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal,Turkey

Group B:

Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland

Group C:

Netherlands, Italy, Romania, France

Group D:

Greece,Sweden, Spain, Russia

After the first round, the teams that passed to the quarter finals were from group A: Portugal and Turkey; group B: Croatia and Germany; Group C: Netherlands and Italy and from group D: Spain and Russia.

The results of the matches in the quarter finals were:

-Portugal 2-3 Germany
-Croatia 1-1 Turkey (1-3 p)
-Netherlands 1-3 (aet) Russia
-Spain 0-0 Italy (4-2 p)

Now, only Germany, Turkey, Russia and Spain passed to the semifinals.
In these matches the tension was very high as all the 4 teams were playing very very good.
The results were:

-Germany 3-2 Turkey
-Russia 0-3 Spain

The finalists of the Euro2008 were Spain and Germany.

I think it was easy for Spain to go forward as Germany wasn’t at the level it had been in all the other matches, but even though it was a very interesting match.

Spain hadn’t won the Euro Cup for 44 years and it hadn’t been in the final for 24 years. So now that Spain is the champion of Europe, all Spain is very happy.

Spain also won another title; its midfielder, Xavi Hernandez was named the Castrol Player of the Tournament for UEFA EURO 2008.

Now many people in Mexico say that Spain could be a candidate for winning the FIFA’s World Cup.

Santos Laguna - Campeon

2008-06-02T21:58:00.006-05:00

Yo Soy Campeon y Tu Tambien (I am the Champion & You too)

Hi!!

Sorry for not writing for a long time. It’s that I had exams and many things.

Well, now I’m writing about the Champion Team of Mexican Football League - “Santos Laguna”.

Santos is the foot ball team from our Laguna region (comprising of our city Torreon, Gomez Palacio and Lerdo). They won the finals against Cruz Azul yesterday (3-2).

Santos was created by the IMSS (Instituto Mexicano de Seguro Social) on 1983 and it is a glory that it has won its 3rd National Championship in this 25th year. It was in 2nd division 5 years, and it played its first game in 1st division on 16th October of 1988.

Now the Comarca Lagunera is very excited about this triumph. This is the 3rd National championship for Santos. The first one was in summer of 1996 and the second one was on summer of 2001. Now in Clausura 2008 it’s again the champion. It was Super Leader during Apertura 2007 but lost in semifinals.

The members of this Santos team are:

Goal keepers: Oswaldo Sánchez, Miguel Becerra, Francisco González

Defenders: Iván “Guti” Estrada, Fernando “Tano” Ortiz, Rafael Figueroa, Edgar “El Hobbit” Castillo, Osmar Mares, Juan Pablo Santiago

Midfielders: Daniel “El Hachita” Ludueña, Fernando Arce, Walter “El Lorito” Jiménez, Juan Pablo “Chato” Rodríguez, Paco Torres, Jorge Barrera, Alberto Soto, Johniee García

Strikers: Christian Benítez, Vicente “El Toro” Vuoso, Oribe “Cepillo” Peralta, Mario Sánchez, Agustín Herrera

Coach: -Daniel “El Travieso” Guzmán

Some players in Santos are from other countries such as Argentina & Ecuador and they have contributed a lot for this win.

You can know more about Santos in the following link

http://www.clubsantoslaguna.com.mx/Aspx/

Everyone is very happy because this team deserved the championship.

Amigos de la India en Torreon

2008-03-10T16:45:00.002-06:00

Bonjour!!!!!!!
Now I’m going to talk about our friends Mr. Babu Anthony, Ms. Agi, Achu and Appu.
We met them in Torreon, amma’s doctor told amma that there is another Indian family. After some time we met them in our house, and came to know that they are from Kerala (a state near Tamilnadu, our state). They are very friendly. Issac (Achu) is about 4 years and Jacob (Appu) is 1 and a half years. They are very cute. Appu and Achu played with me, while appa was talking with Babu Antony uncle and amma was cooking and talking with Agi aunty. Later we ate rasam, rice and so on. Some days later we went to their house, there we saw some of their photos and ate delicious Indian food. They also told us that they lived in Dominican Republic and Mr. Babu Anthony had also lived in Bombay, Bangladesh, South Africa, Turkey, Bulgaria and Egypt, before moving to Dominican Republic.

We were sad as they left Mexico. On 22, December we accompanied them to the airport as they were leaving for India. Now they are in Vietnam and we are maintaining contact with them. We are happy to know them, as they are very nice people. We miss them here in Mexico.

Guess who?

2008-02-10T20:55:00.001-06:00

Priviet!!!!!!!!! (hello in Russian, i am not sure of spelling)

?????? dollar award to those who find out who it is!!!!!

Fairies

2008-01-27T18:53:00.000-06:00

Hola!!!!!!!
Do you like my drawings? Please choose the one which you like most and tell me why?

Vacation Cine Festival

2008-01-06T18:49:00.000-06:00

Honichiyua !!!!! (Hello in Japanese)
This post is about all the movies I saw at home during this christmas-New Year holidays. Most of them were very good.
First we saw “Ocean’s Thirteen”, it’s very thrilling and also has funny parts. George Clooney acts as Danny Ocean. Also Brad Pitt and others act here. This is the third part of this series. In this movie they try to break down a new opened hotel-casino. It’s very good.
We then saw “Ratatouille”, this one is about a rat who wants to become a chef. Sometime later it becomes friend of a human and controls him by his hair when cooking. Like this they work in a famous restaurant in Paris. It’s very nice.
We also saw many tamil movies:
“Anbulla Rajinikanth”, this Rajini movie is more or less sad. In this film little Meena has a heart problem and she is also not respectful, so they hire a person to take care of her. However she doesn’t change, but after seeing Rajini she changes. And many changes happen. At the end Meena dies and everyone is sad.
“Dharmadurai”, is also a Rajini film. This movie is very very sad. I cried in most of the parts. In this movie Rajini’s brothers take money from him, put him in jail and other sad things happen. Even though it’s a sad film it’s very good.
"Veera”, is also acted by Rajini. Here he first marries Meena, and then he goes to town to participate in a music contest. First he isn’t allowed to participate in it, but then with the help of the owner’s daughter he participates in it. He then wins the contest. He becomes famous. When returning to his village he finds out that Meena and her father have died. Then he and his mom returns to town. There the owner’s daughter wants to marry him. He doesn’t want, but at last he marries her. Sometime later Meena appears. He then acts as 2 different persons. It’s very funny.
“Mapillai”, is another Rajini’s film. In this film Rajini gets married to a rich girl, without her mom knowing it. The girls mom doesn’t wants her daughter to get married with him , as he isn’t a rich man. After they are married, Rajini challenges his wife’s mom on many things. All those things are very joke. The movie is very funny.
"Rajathi Raja”, is other Rajini film. It’s very funny. Here Rajini double acts. The first character is accused of a murder that he didn’t make, however he is put into jail. Later he escapes of jail to find the truth. On the way, he finds a man who looks like him, and asks him to be in his place. He also says the man that after he finds out the truth he will take him out of the jail and also give money as a reward. The other man accepts. From here many exciting and mostly funny things happens.
“Sri Ragavendra” is Rajini’s 100th film. It’s very good. It tells about the life of Sri Ragavendra. It was very informative. But I didn’t understand many words they said.
“Unidathil Ennai Koduthaen”, is also a sad film. In this film Roja, Karthik and others act. The story here is how Roja becomes a famous singer, with the help of Karthik. But Roja’s family doesn’t want Karthik. Then many things happen. It is good.
“Panchatantaram” is a joke movie. In this movie Kamal Hassan and his friends go to Bangalore to celebrate his birthday. There many interesting and funny things happen. There are too many funny consequences of their trip to Bangalore. It’s very funny.
“Ooty Varai Uravu”, is a Sivaji Ganesan film. Also Nagesh and other old actors acted there. It’s a funny movie. This movie is a very old movie, but I liked it.
“Thamirabharani” was good. Vishal, a new actress and many others acted here. It’s about a family that’s separated, and how they get united. It’s very funny. I liked it.
“Billa” 2007, is a remake of Rajini’s old movie Billa. This one is acted by Ajith. Nayanthara also acts in this movie, among other actors. The film is stylish and it is very fast. I liked it.
“Polladhavan”, is a title of one of Rajini’s old movie. Dhanush acts in this movie. The movie is mostly in a flash back. It was good.
We also saw two dappa (very bad) movies: Cheena Thana and Unnale Unnale. They weren’t good. I didn’t like them. They were super boring.
Hope you liked this post!!
Sayonara!!!!!

The Lost Continent of Mu

2008-01-03T16:43:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone!

I read a book called “The Lost Continent of Mu”. It was very interesting. It was written by James Churchward. Sra. Paty lent us this book. It tells about the ancient civilizations. It says that a long time ago there was a continent where the entire human race began. The civilization in this continent was very advanced. They also say that when a great catastrophe was going to happen, some of its habitants went to live in the other lands of the earth. Mu was destroyed by the water, air and fire and it collapsed down. In the book it also says that the islands of Hawaii and all the islands of that region were part of this continent. In the book it also comments on the similarities between all the great civilizations of the world. It also say that in Mexico, the original Mayans were of white race and that some time later people of dark skin came and took all their things and told that the pyramids were made by them. It also explains some signs from the sacred book of the death of the Egyptian culture. Also it tells about some tableaus of the Indian Culture. It also mentions that the place where Adam and Eva of the bible appeared symbolizes Mu. All the civilization and great people in the history of the Earth have mentioned about Mu. It details many signs of different civilizations and explains them. It reaches the conclusion that the continent called Mu really existed. I came to know many interesting things from this book. I liked this book.

Happy New Year

2008-01-03T16:31:00.000-06:00

Hola!!!

My warm new year greetings to all of you. Hope this new year brings good things to everyone.

Denounce Domestic Violence

2007-11-11T18:08:00.000-06:00

I drew this today for a competition in our school against Crime & I chose domestic violence as my theme.

ALZA LA VOZ - RAISE YOUR VOICE

NO LO ACEPTES - DO NOT ACCEPT

NO TE CALLES - DO NOT SHUT YOUR MOUTH

DENUNCIALO - DENOUNCE IT

Hope my drawing represents the theme.