GOING BACK TO NORMAL

Will the world as we know it go back to how it was after this pandemic? Now that we're starting to have more freedom and people are going outside more frequently, it feels like all this situation is finally over. But is it? We can never be completely sure that the Coronavirus is eradicated. A new wave of infections could happen and we would have to stay at home again.

What bothers me the most is the persons who are irresponsible and think they can do what they want, disobey all the rules and precautions and justify their behaviour by saying the virus is over. Because of their fault, there will be more cases and we'll go back to quarantine. It's not so difficult to respect the established boundaries and be careful. 

Taking for granted that the virus is finally exterminated, how will our way of relating be affected afterwards? Probably we will all be more conscious about germs and cleaning, and personal space will be more respected. Maybe public establishments will put harder rules or healthcare will implement them.

I really look forward to next summer because that's when everything should be back to normal, I have lots of plans but I'm worried there won't be as many tourists. Considering our economy strongly associated with tourism, we could be negatively affected.

ACCEPTANCE

After being in isolation for over a month, I think I’m getting used to this new lifestyle. It feels good to be able to decide your timetable and what you want to do. The only thing I miss is seeing my friends in person. Apart from that, quarantine is not so bad, it’s like a permanent weekend. I also miss walking outside, I had never wanted to go for a walk so much until now. It’s such a shame I don’t have a dog as an excuse to go out…

I don’t really like doing homework at home, it’s complicated to concentrate and motivate myself to study. I end up procrastinating and then it all gets accumulated. I started working outside on my terrace. It helps me focus, and it’s a lot quieter and sunny.

I started working out a little, and I began painting my nails again. I had forgotten how entertaining it is to decorate them. I also created new accounts in social media I had never used before, this way I feel more in contact with other people and get to practice my written English, it’s the default language almost everywhere.

Staying at home is going well for me, but I miss going outside a little.

QUARANTINED (2020)

This past week, I've been staying at my house like everyone else. I've also been more active on the internet and realised lots of people post texts on social media saying we must work together to stop the virus from spreading. I agree with it, what I don't like about those publications is that people make it seem like hard work to just stay at home and only go out for important reasons.

I understand it can become stressful to be in the same space all the time, but searching for ways to entertain yourself is very easy, considering the majority of the population has access to internet and Wifi. It's crucial to be careful at this time yet unnecessary to make a big deal out of our small actions.

CARNIVAL DAYS

This weekend, we celebrated carnival in my town. Carnival is an event that happens only once a year, and it's one of the most outstanding ones between younger people in rural areas.

I'm in a group called "Els Festucs", we all wear a different costume every year revolving around a character. We also prepare a few choreographies using short parts of popular songs. This year we dressed up like the people in the video clip "Mamma mia" from Abba, the attire consists of a full bodysuit made of shiny fabric with very big golden sleeves and platform shoes, it's beautiful. The woman who made them got really emotional when she saw us wearing her design in real life, she worked extremely hard to finish the work on time, considering we're about a hundred and thirty participants.

Last year we won the first prize for the dancing contest, this time, on the other hand, I feel like people don't put enough effort or energy into the choreographies. I'm not sure we will win this time because we make lots of mistakes.

PD: We won!!!

FIVE DIFERENT SHOTS AND ANGLES

1. POINT OF VIEW SHOT:

I liked this picture because of the intensity of the neon lights, you can place yourself in the person's situation and imagine what they felt like in the water slide. It almost looks like they're travelling through a portal and are about to appear in a magical world.

2. CLOSE UP SHOT:

I chose this shot because I found beautiful the colour combination. I also thought it was an interesting detail that the candies in the background were out of focus, giving more importance to those in the front.

3. HIGH ANGLE:

In this image, crown shyness is portrayed. Crown shyness occurs when many trees are together and their leaves grow in a unique way where they don't touch each other, leaving empty spaces. I picked this angle because you can see how tall the trees are, making you feel very small.

4. WIDE SHOT:

The fourth picture is a wide landscape. In the front, a few birds are flying close to the surface of the mirror-like lake. In the background, a forest goes around the coast. Behind the trees, you can see the peaks of some mountains. I chose it because it made me feel relaxed and calm.

5. SLANTED ANGLE:

This is a picture I took of my cat, her name is Lulu. I was trying to decorate a box by wrapping it with paper but she decided that laying in it to take a nap was more important. I chose the image because I thought it looked kind of cool. 

THE FIRST PONG MACHINE INSTALLED

This picture was taken in November 1972, the first Pong video game machine was installed at Andy Cap's Tavern by Allan Alcron and Nolan Bushnell. A week after the installation of the machine, it stopped working correctly because it was overflowing with the quarters clients inserted to play. 

Pong was one of the earliest arcade games produced and the first one developed by Atari. The creation of the game started as a training exercise for Allan, Bushnell had hired him because of his experience in electrical engineering and computer science. Nolan explained to him what he wanted him to implement in the design: digits for scorekeeping, two paddles and one moving spot. 

Bushnell decided to assign the project to Alcron after visiting the Magnavox Profit Caravan where he played the table tennis demonstration and felt it lacked some quality. Allan designed the first Pong machine and added special features to make it more catching in August 1972.

HYEONSEO LEE'S ESCAPE FROM NORTH KOREA

Hyeonseo is a woman who recently made a TED Talk explaining her experience as a former North Korean citizen and how she managed to escape.

Hyeonseo had a family where getting food was never an issue, she didn't know what hunger was. One day, her mother received a letter from one of her coworkers saying how by the time she was reading it, her and her family would be dead because of the extreme starvation they were suffering. That was the first time Hyeonseo heard the people in her country were hurting.

Due to the famine of the 1990s, over a million North Koreans died. She was secretly sent to China at the age of seventeen to live with some distant relatives and she would not see her family for the next fourteen years. While Hyeonseo was in China, she was captured by the Chinese police. They asked her infinite questions to make sure she was a native Chinese since someone had accused her of being North Korean. If a refugee gets repatriated, they send them back to their native country where the government imprisons tortures them or preforms public executions.

Ten years later, Lee restarted her life in South Korea. She started having problems with her identity, who she was and where she was from. After some time, Hyeoseo got a phone call, she was informed that her family would be moved to an isolated part of the countryside because some of the money she sent got intercepted. She was able to guide her relatives until Southeast Asia, during that time they were almost caught several times. One of them, Hyeonseo had to pretend her family was deaf and she was their caretaker because they couldn't speak Chinese.

They were caught in Laos's frontier, Lee had to bribe the guards and they let them out. Not long later, the family was put in jail once again. This time she didn't have enough money to pay for another fine. An unknown man saw how she was struggling and gave her all the money necessary. He wanted to help North Korean people, not expecting anything in return. They got reunited in South Korea and began working and training to adapt to the new lifestyle.

Hyeonseo Lee how explains she wants to give North Koreans a chance to escape and prosper.

THE LIVES OF YAKUZA WOMEN

Yakuza women are the wives of the men that belong to the Japanese mafia. In Japan, it's a delicate subject to talk about and you must never pronounce the name "Yakuza" in a normal speaking voice. Instead, you have to mention it in a low voice tone or rather make a gesture with your hands pointing at your cheek and then moving your finger along the cheekbone.

Anh Wisle, a Ykuza model

The women are very reserved and it's complicated to gain their confidence, in other to get closer to them you must gain their husband's trust first. Their everyday life is the same as the one any other Japanese housewife would have. There's only one difference, they will always be anxious to know if their husband will come home at night.

You cannot become a Yakuza as a woman, only men can. However, a woman who gets married to a Yakuza man automatically forms part of it. Their responsibilities depend on the status the husband has. Per example, a woman who is married to the leader is the consultant, she must manage the finances of the group.

All Yakuzas have a tattoo which covers the back and extremities, they act as armour or protections (Omamori) and are not meant o be shown. Once a woman is married to a man in that cercle, it's extremely hard to leave and get reintegrated into society.

Original source

DOUBLE STANDARDS

Everyone should know to call someone "fat" is offensive. But, on the other side, calling a person that they are too thin or skinny is not considered as disrespectful. I don't understand why, after all, it means the same thing. One is the opposite of the other, yet being called "skinny" hasn't got such a negative connotation.

I used to be overweight three years ago. When I was a little bit younger, I ate lots of junk food and eventually I gained some extra weight. During that time, no one told me or even tried to refer to the fact I was fat, I realised by myself. When I lost all the finally at a healthy range and they weren't used to my new image. (This is just excess kilograms, suddenly everyone was telling me I was too skinny. I was my personal experience, I'm aware that lots of people are shamed for being fat on a much bigger scale than thin people).

A few individuals preach that anyone is acceptable and can be happy at any size. They say it doesn't matter if you are overweight, and they are right. What I don't agree with is the romanticisation of being overweight or obese and the health problems it causes, they deny that that kind of lifestyle could be harmful or dangerous for you.

I believe you can actually be happy with the way you look at any weight as long as you are healthy and it's not causing any issues.

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

Isn't it ironic how I made an entry saying new year resolutions were dumb? Well, now I'm writing one...

1. My first resolution is to exercise a little more, I already do it but I'd like to be more constant.

2. I want to graduate high school, I usually always pass my subjects but I see graduation as a small achievement for myself (even is secondary education is compulsory).












3. To not dye my hair. Two years ago I decided to get some pink highlights done. Because of the decolouration (I have medium brown hair), it got really dry and it lost its natural form. My goal this year is to resist the temptation to dye it.
 <<<<<<<<<<NO

4.  I need to change my clothing style, I've got a pretty basic wardrobe and I don't usually use very bright colours. That has to change, I want to include new and different pieces and discover my favourite style.

THE HISTORY OF HORROR

1. THE GOTHIC NOVEL:

• Who invented the gothic novel? The first known gothic novel is from the author Horace Walpole.

• What was the title of the first gothic novel? The Castle of Otranto
• When was it published? 1764

• Wich elements of horror do you remember? I remember  - The characteristic vocabulary in gothic novels we read.

- The horror video we watched about a pumpkin getting cut for Halloween.

- While watching the video, we compleated a text from it where a few words were missing. 

- The blog post I created where I searched for words I hadn't heard before along with a paragraph where I included those words.

- Another blog post I made where I talked about my favourite horror movie and my favourite scene.

- We read the story "The black cat" by Edgar Allan Poe and then completed a few questions about It.

- After reading "The black cat", we worked the vocabulary in the story and wrote down the words we didn't know.

- We watched a horror short in the class called "Lights out" and then commented If we found it scary or not.

- We also watched another short called "The smiling man" and then made a summary using the past tenses.

- We made groups of three or four students and started thinking about the script of a short film we had to create using all the material of the horror stories we had learnt.

- In the last class, we gathered together the groups we had created and started writing down all the ideas we could use in the horror short.

2. DISCOVERING LITERATURE:

Choose one of the topics of "discovering literature" and make a summary of It.

Dracula: vampires, perversity and Victorian anxieties

The characteristics of a vampire match the fears of the society of the late 19th century: fear of immigration, sexual promiscuity and moral degeneration. The vampire novel "Dracula" was published by Bram Stoker in 1897.

"Dracula" has lots of contrasts and shows old ways of thinking and also new ideas. Stoker uses the protagonist of the novel to portray all the fears that haunted the Victorian end of the 19th Century. Scientific rationality is put against folklore and superstition; old Europe against modern London, traditional notions are threatened by corruption and depravity.

The way Dracula moved through the crowded areas of the city without raising suspicions is a reference to the fear people had of untrammelled immigration because of It's the relation to higher levels of crime and ghetto communities. The novel also references Jack the Ripper's murders in 1888 and the location of Jacob's Island. The Ripper's murders had created panic in the press with the Jewish community. Because of the secretiveness of Jewish ghettos, It was thought they were the reason why the crimes had never been solved. The Jews were seen as having close relationships with those in their circle, probably also with the ones who had committed the crimes. "Dracula" closely shows those fears and they then lay behind the apparition of The Aliens Act in 1905.

3. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR STORY:

• Who is Edgar Allan Poe? He was a romance novel writer at the beginning of the 19th Century. He wrote poetry, novels and short stories. He mostly is known for his horror and fantasy-themed novels and is considered the father of psychological terror.

• When and where was he born? He was born the nineteenth of January 1809 and he passed away oh October seventh 1849 at the age of forty. 

• What was he famous for? He was mostly known for his horror and fantasy-themed novels and is considered the father of psychological terror. He was also one of the first science fiction writers.

• Did he get married? How did he die? Yes, he got married to Virginia Eliza Clemm. The way he died is still a mystery but there are many theories about the cause of his death. alcoholism, epilepsy, rabies, carbon monoxide poisoning...

• Some of Poe's most famous works are: "The Raven", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "Metzengerstein" and "The Gold Bug.

4. ALFRED HITCHCOCK:

• What's his nickname? "The master of suspense".

• What was his most famous horror film? According to many websites, some of his most famous films are Psyco, Vertigo, Notorious, The Lady Vanishes and The Birds.

• What was his main contribution to horror? He created many unique horror films which contained new and fresh ideas portraying, per example, "the thin line between sanity and insanity".

5. COMIC RELIEF:

• What is the comic relief and why is it used in horror films? Comic relief is a funny or less serious scene in a film in order to release some of the tension created by a dramatic scene. 

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