3rd new (last term)

Gastronomy

Ham is the pig’s hind leg, treated and cured to achieve its characteristic aromas and flavours.
There are many kinds of ham, but the best one is the ham from Iberian pigs fed with acorn. The leg of this animal is cured for eighteen months in a very specific temperature and humidity levels.

Now, with more extensive international sales, the ham is more widely available than ever. However, Iberian ham’s quality and unmistakable flavour have made this product outside of Spain, one product very popular. So, it recommends to try it in his native land: Spain.
In addition, Iberian ham is ideal for snack and for health because helps to reduce levels of bad cholesterol (it was shown by scientific studies).

In the most zones of Spain serve the ham thin slices on a plate called “tapa” and with a good glass of wine.
This one is one of the most typical Spanish appetizers and it is perfect to whet the appetite.

Link: Bahia magazine, nº51, April 2008

I've learnt these words:

- unmistakable = inconfusible

- flavour = sabor

- acorn = gla

2nd New (last term)

Water is vital, but how much should you drink?

The water is a fluid very important in our life because without it we wouldn’t alive.
Our body is made up of a 60 percent of water. It seems that the water in our body is essential to permit our basic functions.
The water in our body not only moist the tissues like the mouth, eyes and nose; it also cushions our joins, regulates our body temperature, helps our body gets nutrients, and flushes out waste products.
Because our body can realize all these functions it’s very important to consume enough water each day. But how much water we should drink everyday?

The general guideline is:
- To pay attention to your thirst because if you drink according to your thirst, you will stay hydrated.
- As hotter your surroundings, more fluids you will needed to consume.
- Exercise, illness, pregnancy and breast feeding are also factors that increase our bodies' need for fluids.

There are other liquids which can substitute the water because they also towards hydration. Some examples of the other liquids are: tea, coffee, fruit juices, milk, soups and things like that.
These fluids can also be found in water rich food like fruits and vegetables, which are great for your body because they keep you healthy and hydrated.

Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/05/16/hfh.water.guidelines/index.html
Date: 17/05/08

I've learnt these words:

- Moist = humitejar
- Tissues = teixits
- Flushes = tirar
- Breast feeding = amamantar

1rst New (last term)

Life in Barcelona is as expensive as New York.

This year, the Catalan capital called Barcelona is the 20th city with the most expensive prices in the world (eight more positions than last year) and New York is 18th on the list.

North American cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and more have lost between 10 and 15 places on the ranking of the most expensive cities of 2005, 2006 and 2007.

The cause of this phenomenon has been the dollar’s developed with the Euro's entry. This new coin since 2000 has become the only currency in these last years, and now the live in Europe it’s very expensive. So, the first eleven most expensive cities are European.
Barcelona is in 24th position which is quite low in the ranking of 2005, in connection with buying property and prices and salaries.

I think the Euro, in general, hasn’t been a good change in Europe because this new coin is more expensive than the last (the “pesseta” in Spain) and it has been a problem to the society. Yes, because everything has risen in price and it has made life more expensive.
Well, the Euro can be an advantage and easier at the time to travel in Europe than before, but there is much difference between the Euros’ value and pesseta’s value.

We have to go careful and to pay attention when we go to shopping!!

- Link:

One magazine called Amigos - 03/2008

- I've learnt the word coin (moneda), dollar's devalued (la pèrdua de valor del dolar) and currency (the same that coin=moneda).

Abandon of the pets

Each year a lot of pets are abandoned, especially in summer or when it begins the holidays. Theses animals abandoned use to be cats and dogs because they are the pets commonest.
This abandon of the animals by the families, sometimes are when the families go to trip because they can’t take its, or nobody can look after of them; and sometimes, the reason of the abandon is when the pets’ owner ill-treat them, then the animals fell ill, they go around the streets and nobody help them.
Now, there are some received homes (cases d’acollida) which take care theses abandoned animals.

Theses houses or dog’s home look after the abandoned animals, but theses Centres need financial help because there are a lot of expenses:
- The animals when they arrive are nervous, irritable, starved, scared and often very ill. So the animal Centre needs a veterinary.
- All organization dependant on their members and their helpers for they make it.
- The animals are fed and help in pens until they can find new owners for them. This is a very costly.
- The home has all the other normal costs, insurance, repairs, spare parts, electricity, telephone, petrol costs and the staff payments.

There are various ways of helping; a donation to help pay for new cages or adopt theses needed animals. With theses acts a lot of animals will have a better live.

Country Holidays

Country Holidays

Get away from the crowded coastal resorts and enjoy the peace of the countryside. An increasing number of people are spending their holidays in Catalonia with its natural beauty and Mediterranean charm.
The province of Girona has attracted these tourists because it offers two types of holidays, sun, sea and sand or mountains, nature reserves and such like People of all ages, whether they enjoy sport or simply want to relax in peace and quiet are discovering rural holidays in Catalonia.
Here, there is a wide spectrum of activities to offer: near to the beach you can practice sailing, diving, surfing and if you can have a bird’s eye view of the Costa Brava, you can parachute out of the plane in Empuriabrava, the place where a lot of parachutists from all over the world go; and to the mountain you can practice hiking, climbing, cycling or BTT, and in winter you can skiing in Puigcerdà. And more sports.

Costa Brava offers rustic farmhouses, camp sites, small country hotels and apartments near to the beach. The landscape with the climate, the culture and the food attract a lot of people.
In the summer, a lot of towns like St. Pere Pescador, which has got seven camp sites, welcome a lot of tourists from many countries around the world.
In the winter St Pere Pescador there are a few people, approximately 3500, but in the summer the number is bigger, the town reaches to have 60.000 people.

Some Costa Brava’s towns are: Llançà, Port de la Selva, Cadaqués, Roses, Empuriabrava, Sant Pere Pescador, L'Escala, L'Estartit, Pals, Begur, Tamariu, Llafranc, Calella de Palafrugell, Palamós, Sant Antoni de Calonge, Platja d'Aro, S'Agaró, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Tossa de Mar, Lloret de Mar, Blanes.

The sales

Each Catalan will spend 250 euros in the sales.

Around 30.000 stores in Catalonia opened their doors to the public giving between 30% and 50% discounts.
This year, approximately, the Catalan consumers have spent around 250 euros each one, an increase of 5% of the last year.
Due to the lower temperatures this winter than other years, there hasn’t been enough winter stock of coats and there has also been a lack of sizes.
More than ten million shoppers were predicted to visit the larger stores in all the State.
According to a study, 27% of purchases have made last(durar) the sales.
Also, the study shows that 40% of the interviewed shops agree in changing the length of the period of the sales, whereas it is(sigui) after the 15th January.

At the beggining of the year, always the sales have a lot of clientele. I like go to shopping, but when is the time of sales I don't like it, because always when I like some clothes there isn't my size. And an other problem is that there are a lot of people to shopping and it is very stressful for me. I know that the price of clothes are cheaper but I preper go to shopping tranquillity.

Plastic bags

The Fight against Plastic Bags

I hadn’t been in Lidl (a supermarket) before last weekend, and when we went to pay the buy there, we had to buy a plastic bag too. It was the first time that we had to pay a plastic bag because the supermarket that I use to go, I haven’t to pay the bag. Well, since this time I have informed about plastic bags and now I put here a little information about that.

The plastic bags arrived here 40 years ago, approximately. Only in Spain to make 92.000 tones and the families consume 15.330 millions in the year-350 for person-. And the alarm is only the 10% of plastic bags finish in the bins. They are very polluting for the environment, although we continue to use it, maybe because we aren’t aware the problems that plastic bags cause... but we would to think about that.
Every week, the Catalan consumers use 10 million plastic bags, used just to transport goods once, from shop to home, and in the end up in the rubbish bins in Catalonia. There are some people that re-used for domestic waste products but the vast majority are binned or thrown away in the countryside. This means that over 190.000 tons of unnecessary plastic waste is being produced each week and, of course, this increases in the summer.
This happens because the bags are free in the most of shops and supermarkets.

For this reason, I think that like the Lidl supermarked does, to pay the bags to take the buy; it is a good solution to avoid a bit this problem. Others solutions can be to go to buy with wicker basket or to committed to re-used bags like material or paper.
The Government wants that the consumption of plastic bags falls a 50% until 2010, an idea that ecologists are very agree but the supermarkets and the plastic factory reject.

3000 new teachers

3000 new teachers so foreigners can learn Catalan

The lasts years, It has arrived a lot of foreigners from around the world, and the schools are desperate because there aren’t enough teachers to teach so many pupils and students.

This new people don’t speak the national language, so the children and theirs families have to learn Spanish or Catalan in Catalonia.

That is a big problem, and for this reason The Ministry of Education will crate 3000 new posts to help foreign students to learn Catalan.

500 schools, which have a high percentage of foreign pupils, have been selected with the hope of achieving language and cultural integration.
In the last seven years the number of foreign students in Catalan schools has risen from 2% to 13%, on average but some schools as high as 50%. Therefore, it is extremely important to teach Catalan and so integrate them into that society.

We know this problem because we live this situation in our High School, like an others of the around of Castelló d’Empúries.

Lack of waiters

Last day, I watched on TV the problems that waiters have at the time to work, and now I want to tell you something about this topic.
Here, I leave a little introduction about waiters’ world:

Working as a waiter in Catalonia is difficult because the season is so short. This means that it is difficult to find staff. So, the town’s restaurants and bars are understaffed.
The Institute of Hoteliers calculates that on the Costa Brava around 1000 restaurants are desperately needed. It became obvious last year that few people wanted to work in this sector for different reasons.
One can see this both by their inability to speak languages and the quality of service.
Some restaurants use students or workers from Spanish speaking countries, although there are a lot of restaurants which have foreigner staff at height of the tourist season.
From the point of view of the people at the time to work of waiter is that there are two main problems for anyone:
- Long hours, which include bank holidays and weekends.
- The low pay, it is around 935 euros for month (the average).

I think that the lack of waiters is a common problem, not only in Catalonia, because the conditions which have the people are the same in the most of places.

That's all... Bye