VaLe'S bLoG...

TLP Reflection

2007-04-04T08:45:00.000-05:00

From the teen life project, I learned a lot of things. I learned more about global warming's causes, effects, and solutions, I learned about teamwork, and I learned a whloe lot about the better uses of internet.

Before the teen life project began, I was in denial of all the environmental problems happening in the world because of global warming. People are dying because of the heat, people are dying because their crops are dying, and to summarize what is happening to the world, we can say... it is dying.The causes for global warming are mainly human-made causes, like deforestation, the burning of fossil fuels, the excessive use of electricity, and all the C2O that is let out in the air daily. Some solutions I learned that are effective are:
1. Reduce the C20 emissions by using less electricity and using less cars.
2. Reduce deforestation so more trees grow to make C20 into normal air.

The teen life project also taught me how to work better with partners and in groups. With my partner Valeria, I had a lot of disagreements, but at the end, we agreed on one thing. Working together with someone is a valuable lesson that will help you all throughout your life, like in your job for exampole, so I am very haapy about having learned that.TLP didn't only make us work in partners, but also with people from other schools. I worked with people from Malaysia and United States. We communicated by e-mail, and we split parts of the project so it would be easier.

What I really learned about was the different uses for the internet I didn't know of, like google reader. It really helped me a lot to communicate better with the students from other schools, and it REALLY helped me to make the research and to do the documentary

2007-03-26T07:08:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of the song, I felt like I was in a rainy forest, and it was all scary.Then, I imagined the animals from the movie "The Jungle Book" like Baloo and Sherkan(a bear and a tiger)cheering everything up. Afterwards with the organ,I felt in a party of a long time ago, say the 1900's, with all the classical music and people balldancing and having a good time, like in the party in the ovie "Terror Tower".

The song made me feel Irish, like dancing with all the leprachauns and jumping, wearing those skirts, and then it became like more techno-like, but still Irish, like in a discoteca in Ireland. Also the song made me feel like happy and joyfull, and I imagined the movie "Snow White", where she was dancing with the little dwarfs in a circle, and the little animals of the forest where joining them, all joyfull. I also thought of the movie "Shrek" because there is a part that everybody is dancing, celebrating the marriage of Shrek and Fiona. The song made me feel like I was a pirate in the high seas, and I were fishing the biggest fish, and I caught it, so we were celebrating it by eating the large fish and drinking a very salty coke and goofing around with my friends.In some parts I felt as if I were in a ballet class with Suad, and she was yelling to the teacher that she hates ballet because she thinks it is stupid. The song reminded me of a song that I found my little sister dancing one day from a movie. It also reminds me of a Nancy Drew game I was playing that was about a ranch in Texas.

I felt as if I were in an Indian ritual or listening to and Indian song. I can also imagine myself in Texas with someone belching while singing, like he drank a lot of beer and was singing drunk. Then I imaginedmy uncle wearing women's clothing and singing like a girl.

2007-03-06T20:07:00.000-05:00

Everybody has an opinion about what should be done to reduce global warming effectively. My opinion is that the first thing we should start doing is to reduce the gases emitted by cars and other automobiles, that could happen by people using less cars, less often, or cars could be made with solar energy. Here in Cartagena, there are people who care a lot about what is happening in our planet. Other people couldn’t care less. When I ask someone around here what they think should be done about global warming, they don’t even know what to say, because they are not interested in the subject, but they should.

People all around the world are talking about global warming and many people are doing something about it. By walking, carpooling, using less energy, and doing many more things, people are showing that they care about their environment. In the other hand, some people continue the process that is causing global warming and make it worse, like in some places they continue polluting and exceeding too much. In the United States, they constantly show people that walk to their jobs, walk to school, they invent solar energy powered things to save electricity, and do other things just for the environment. We should all be like those people, because I have been learning that people are not like that, and just because they think it won’t affect them, it will. People mainly think that global warming won’t affect them because in the news they are always saying that in a long period of time it will happen strongly, but the truth is, it has, and it is happening strongly right now, it just might happen that they didn’t know, because they do not care what they have caused to the environment all along.

When we are in family reunions, or simple talking in dinner, we always bring up subjects like school, sports, friends, and things like that. When I try to bring up the subject of the environment, my family gets really into the conversation, and we talk a lot, often dispute about what is happening. In other families however, they don’t even talk about it, not even a little bit, as if they weren’t concerned, and I don’t think that is the right way to be acting, because we should all be concerned about our world, and what we have done to it.

In an article I read called NASA scientist rips out Bush on global warming, there was a small part of it that came to my attention, and it was the following:
“He certainly is not in denial of the existence of climate change problems,” Hansen said.
What was interesting to me about this article was that in the rest of the article, and as you can see in the title, it said that Bush wasn’t as experienced and concerned in the subject as he should be, so people were criticizing him for that.

As this is the last research report I decided not to research so much, but to write what I was seeing all along in people and global warming and people. And this is how I am concluding my report, and I hope you have liked my recent posts about global warming, because I really enjoyed doing them, because I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know before.

Soultions for Global Warming

2007-02-24T18:32:00.000-05:00

Every day, more and more pollutants are emitted into the air, causing damage to the ozone layer. As you go to school, either on car or on a bus, many harmful gases are thrown out, and as you may think that you don’t make a difference, but you do make a difference. For example, 25% of the total carbon dioxide emissions of the United States are from cars and trucks. If people would ride bicycles, skate, walk, or even use skateboards as their main transportation, we could reduce the amount of gases emitted, and make the terrible situation better.

While I was reading and researching solutions, I found this really interesting article in the Time Magazine written by John Doer, in September of 2006, and this is a part of the article that really drew my attention, because I think it states the opinion of many people about global warming, also my opinion.

After dinner one recent night, family an friends were discussing their
views on global warming. With clarity and wisdom beyond her 15 years, my
daughter said, "Dad, I'm scared and angry. Your generation created this problem.
What are you going to do to fix it?"

As I am sure you all know, deforestation is also a big issue nowadays, obviously not as big as global warming. Did you know that deforestation and global warming have a connection between them? Well, if you don’t I’ll tell you. Trees take up the carbon dioxide that is floating around and they turn it into air we can all breathe, so, in a simpler way to say it, trees eliminate carbon dioxide, making the air a little bit more clean, about 15%, because we emit more than we eliminate, an that is what is a cause for global warming that we may stop.

Here in Cartagena, most houses have a rule that is pretty much this “Turn off the lights when the room is empty”. But, why is it important to do so? Well, excluding the fact that your electricity bill will come much higher than usual, you are also helping to stop global warming, maybe if only a bit. In case you didn’t know, every kilowatt of electricity produces about one and a half kg of carbon dioxide, and that is a big cause for global warming we can also stop at least.Also, here in Cartagena, we do a lot of carpooling to save energy and to emit fewer gases. Carpooling is when you give somebody a ride to another place in your same car, so you don’t use two cars, so you don’t emit as much gas.

Continuing my research I found a part of an article that I really like. The part I got from an article called “Common Sense on Climate Change: Practical Solutions to Global Warming.” What I find interesting about it is that it is all true. There are people who really don’t care about what is happening to their planet, or what will become of it. What is funny to me is how people (adults) can be such airheads and completely miss the point of what we kids are trying to tell them: STOP POLLUTING!! :(

The part of the article was the following:

Mark Twain might as well have been talking about global warming when he
famously remarked, "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does
anything about it." For years we have heard so much about the causes of climate
change, that we’ve missed the fact that there are simple, practical solutions
that can slow this growing problem.
Next week I would like to learn more of the opinions that different people
have about global warming, because I think it is going to be very interesting to
learn about that.

References:
-Earth On fire
- Global Warming

What Have I Learned This Week

2007-02-18T01:30:00.000-05:00

In this week, I have learned plenty of interesting facts, like what causes global warming, what are the different ways in which we can help, what effects does the over pollution have on us, and many more things like how in your everyday life you pollute the air and don’t even notice. Most of the information from the last three posts I got from this cool website about global warming. Other information I got from an article in the newspaper my dad cut a long time ago, from the newspaper “El Universal”. Other small information I got from my Encarta, which is an encyclopedia on my computer, and I also asked my grandfather some questions.

What Are People Doing About Global Warming?

2007-02-18T01:16:00.000-05:00

Some people are not as interested in the subject of global warming as others, but some are taking action about it. People all over the world are trying to reduce the global warming issues. People are walking more, driving less, spending less electricity on what isn’t needed, planting trees and carpooling among other things. The government is taking action too. The governments of all around the world are trying to make hairspray and deodorant companies make their products based on less harmful gases than before, so it reduces the harm. Here in Colombia, I think there are only few people who are really really interested in the subject, because there are more important issues to face in here.

Hurting the Environment

2007-02-18T01:02:00.000-05:00

Everyday, we a hurting more and more our environment by the ways I told you in the last post, but what is happening? Well, all that pollution is going up right through our heads and into the ozone layer, where a huge hole is appearing. It is as if the gases were just eating up the ozone layer! That hole in the ozone layer is causing the heat from the rays of the sun to come through more clearly, making more heat. All that heat is warming up the ocean, causing a big problem. Algae is a type of “sea plant” that cannot live in warm water, and the heating up of the water is killing them, killing also the millions of organisms that feed from this food, so it is making a huge total “destruction” to Earth, or as my grandfather names global warming… self destruction, I like the name.

What Are We Doing For Global Warming To Occur?

2007-02-18T00:32:00.000-05:00

Well, as you may or may not know, we are the major causes for global warming, but what are we doing to cause it? Electrical pollution causes a big part of global warming. Electrical pollution is when some types of electricity causes pollution. The burning of fossil fuels to make electricity causes major pollution. Fossil fuels are made of dead plants or animals. Oil and petroleum are both fossil fuel. In the United States, petroleum is the source of 38% of its total energy. Everyday you make pollution, either by using a car, watching TV, and using a refrigerator.
I you look at you house, you can see a lot of wood pieces. Those wood pieces would obviously come from a tree. Cutting trees can be really harmful too. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and trees collect it to make air for us to breathe. Here in Cartagena, when you are going to your farm or a place not so close, you can see people burning trash and letting out huge amounts of smoke ¿, which makes a huge impact for all of us, although people do not find out or do not care about it like we do.

Causes and Effects of Global Warming

2007-02-10T21:12:00.000-05:00

Global warming, those are the two words that people everywhere around the globe are mentioning. What is really global warming? Global warming is the notable rising of average temperatures in Earth’s atmosphere and the rise of sea levels in various coastal spots of the planet due to ice caps melting and making water excesses. Now, scientists are making researches, and they are predicting that in the future years, temperatures are likely to increase even more , but how much more is very difficult to predict, because greenhouse gas emissions, the gases that are in part responsible for global warming, can be emitted in different amounts, so we don’t really know how much there is going to be.

But, what is really causing global warming? Burning of fossil fuel and land clearing are just two of the many activities that release greenhouse gases, which were mentioned earlier. There are many other causes, like the natural causes for example. In the artic tundra and wetlands, methane gas is emitted, and methane gas is a greenhouse gas, and they are gases that trap the heat inside the atmosphere, not letting it out. Another natural cause of global warming is that there is a climate cycle, where climate varies, that changes every 40,000 years. Man-made causes are the most responsible causes for global warming. Pollution is one of the main causes. Gases emitted in factories really harm the environment. When oil and coal mining takes place, methane gas is escaped. Population increases, and so does global warming, why is that? Well, as you know, as population increases, more food the Earth needs, and farms may provide part of that food. As more farms are made, more animals grow, and manure lets out some methane into the air. Cars are responsible too. Like you know, cars let out lots of harmful gases, and now, there are thousands of billions of millions of cars running around the streets of every city, and letting out more gases than ever before, and on top of that, now some people own more than one car, making even more pollution. Another reason for global warming is the cutting of trees. Trees convert harmful gases into oxygen that we can use. As more trees are being cut down, less gases are turned into oxygen, so those gases make the holes in the atmosphere.

The effects of global warming are the ones we really need to be worried about. Here in Cartagena we are suffering from one, rising sea levels. Because we live in the coast, at sea level, there have been floods in he streets because way up in north pole, the atmosphere is way thinner, and the gases are making a hole in the ozone layer up there, and the ice is melting, making more water, so here, there is more water too, and we are literally sinking. Another effect is diseases that are spread. Dry areas are now being more humid, and in some places that humidity attracts mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are spreading diseases from one place to another, making more people sick. The amount of floods are now increasing, and the moment in which they will happen are unpredictable, and that is a big issue.

Global Warming: Will It Affect Us?

2007-02-04T01:22:00.000-05:00

In this post I am going to answer this question, which is really interesting:

· Do you think that global warming will harm your environment?

Actually global warming IS affecting our environment. Because global warming is melting all the ice caps, water excess is creating, and here, we are at sea level, and recently, there have been a lot of floods caused by high tides, because of the large amount of water omin from the poles, we are sinking.

My Community

2007-02-04T01:12:00.000-05:00

In this post I am going to asnwer these quesstions:

-What do you like about your community?

-What are your favourite hangout places in your town/city?

My part of the community (where I live) is the residential part of Cartagena. What I like about it is that, unlike any other place, everything is near from one another. For eexample, near my house is the supermarket, the tennis courts, the soccer court, the baseball court, the hospital, the park, and most of my friend's houses, so I can walk from one place to another in about 5 to 10 minutes.

There are many places that we hangout in, like restaurants, the cinema, but mostly the "campito", where there is a baseball court, a socer court, a pizza stand, and a candy and junk food store.

Food

2007-02-04T01:00:00.000-05:00

In this post, I am going to answer the following question:

·What kinds of food and drinks do you have where you live?

In Cartagena, the climate is very hot and humid, so we don't drink alot of hot chocolate and that stuff. Because we are next to the ocean, we are given large amounts of fish, so we eat fish regurarly, mostly when we go to the islands. Here, we drink Coca-cola, like in most countries, and sodas and juices, cold stuff, just to freshen up. We also eat a lot of "arroz con coco" which is Sanish for rice with coconut, it is delicious, although some coconut is put into it, for me, it doesn't taste like coconut at all. Although we live in a very hot limate, we love "ajiaco", which is a soup with chicken, rice, corn, and vegetables. Like in many other ocuntries, we eat hamburgers, pizza, fries, chips, and more junk food, that is waht us kids mostly eat!

My School

2007-02-04T00:24:00.000-05:00

Hi, today, I started reading the teen life wiki, and I found some very interesting questions that I would like to respond in several differents posts. In this post I will answer this question:

·Does your school put on a lot of extra curricular activities or after school programs for you?

My school does have alot of extracurriular for us, and they are all sports (the ones that I know), and there is basketball,soccer,volleyball and softaball, I play soccer three times a week on our soccer court. A problem in our school with extracurricular activities is that sometimes we get too much homework, proyects and stuff, so we are at times unable to attend, and that makes it difficult for us to make the teams and play at toruaments. Every year, a different school is chosen to host the binationals, wih is the competition where some of the shools of the country play against each other in different sports.

Colombia... Poverty All Around Us

2007-01-15T07:51:00.000-05:00

Hi! My name is Valentina, but I am usually called Vale. I am 12 years old, and I am turning 13 on June . I live in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, a city that is literally in the ocean, because we are at sea level. Our school, Colegio Jorge Washington, is in the center of the city, unlike most of the other schools here, which are far away from the city. A remarkable feature of our school is that it is located right in front of our best beaches. The school has many extracurricular activities, like sports. I am in the middle-school girl’s soccer team, and I play as defense, although I am not very tall. On the weekends, my friends and I usually go to eat at night in different restaurants here, like Macdonalds, Crepes & Waffles, Del Otoyal, and El Corral.

Some really important issues that we face daily here in Colombia are poverty, and crime. They have all increased largely in about the past 20 or 30 years, so everything is very different than how it used to be, and it has changed from good to worse.

Poverty is very common her in Colombia, mostly here in Cartagena, although there are also some very rich people. The poor and the financially good people live in separate areas, but not very far from each other. Lack of jobs are the main cause of poverty, although some poor people work as street vendors on the street, just trying to make at least some money. Street vendors are very common here, and they are always selling things like candy, glasses, earrings and necklaces, and purses. They are mostly seen near hotels. Because of its beautiful beaches, Cartagena gets large amounts of tourists, and that is an opportunity that street vendors have to raise their sales. As a last resource for desperate poor people, they start being “mulas”, and transport drugs from one country or city to another, and although most of them are caught and penalized, some get away with it, and earn a lot of money and happens rarely.

Some poor people start kidnapping and robbing some people, and that is why I say that the crime in Cartagena has increased dramatically in the past few years. My mother tells me that when she was young, about 30 years ago, she could walk from neighborhood to neighborhood without even worrying about being kidnapped or robbed, because it was so rare. Now, for kids like us it is very difficult not to worry about somebody robbing or kidnapping you, because it is an everyday matter. Cell phones, Ipods, and purses are basically what robbers are robbing today, because they are the most valuable things you carry around daily.

If we don’t do something about these very serious things, nobody will take care of them for us, so little by little we can make a difference in our city, or even country, so I am trying to do something about them.

~ My Vacations~

2006-11-04T18:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, on Friday, I went to Miami so today, I could get on this cruise. Our flight was supposed to leave at 9:00 A.M, but it left a little late, at 10:00. I mostly slept during the flight, but a little kid who sat behind me kept yelling "Superman Superman!" and it was really annoying, and he was lkicking my seat often.

When I arrived to the airport my dad was waiting for me, and we went to the hotel. In the hotel, alot of people where staying, and I knew all of them, they were friends of mine. At night, we played cards, Uno, where I won most of the times, because I learned to played when I was still little, and I have had a lot of practice. For dinner, we had some pizza, but it was very ugly and cold, so nobody ate. After we ate, I went upstairs to my room to talk with my friends by messenger, and I told them all about the trip. Afterwards, I went to sleep, bacause it was late and I was very sleepy.

Today in the morning, immediately afetr I woke up, I went to my moms room to wish her a happy birthday, because she turned 334 today, yay!My breakfast was basically my normal breakfast here, cereal with chocolate milk. We were a little late for the cruise, that is called Navigator of the Seas, nad it is going to go through the islands of the Carribean. The cruise is absoulutely beautiful! It has and ice rink, glass decorations, lots and lots of lighting, and the scenery is beautiful. We just departed from the dock, and it is 6:00 P.M, we lasted about 4 hours at the dock, and now I am feeling a little dizzy, there are alot of waves.

PS: On the next post I am going to tell you all about my trip!

←A Good Message→

2006-10-30T08:20:00.000-05:00

Monsters Are Due on Maple Street is a story written by Rod Serling in 1960. At the end of the story, when the two figures are, that I think are aliens, are talking, I think that they mean that we humans are "destroying” ourselves by all the fights we have over little things, all the killing that is performed in our world, and all the conflicts that leads us to bigger and worse problems.

I think that we should try not to fight over small things, just for suspicion on somebody. Instead, I think that the best thing we can do is talk problems over, and resolve them in a peaceful way, where nobody gets hurt, and no conflict is made by people. Today, that message needs to help us even more, because nowadays, conflict and crime is big in the world, and many people loose their lives over suspicion and conflicts, which never end happily. We need to follow this message that we don't need to fight, because it can really help us for the future, where I really hope things can go well without the need of conflict and all those bad things.

Monsters Are Due on Maple Street was a good story that adapted well to the time when it was written, because of the technology. T.V was new there, and radios where practically the biggest advance, because television was not quite like ours today, because they didn’t have television all day, instead, only a little time. A way in which we can change this story to adapt it to our time period would be by changing its technology. Back in the story, the only way of knowing what was going to happen was by radio, now, we have T.V, and computers with internet. A way that that would have added confusion is by maybe, a portable computer with its battery charged didn't work, and that would be like the car didn't work, and they both don't need electricity, so that is a way to update the story. Now, I think we don't know any more about UFO's than we did back in 1960, but there have been a few apparitions that are seemed to be aliens, but I don't believe in them, although I do believe that there NEEDS to be another life form, whether in this galaxy or not, because we couldn't be the only life form in the whole entire universe, that would be absurd!

This Weekend I...♥

2006-10-29T04:14:00.001-05:00

This weekend, I did alto of things. On Friday, I went to school as usual. I had been waiting all day for soccer practices, where we would have two games. One of the two was going to be against Rea Cartagena, and the other would be against Britanico. When school was ending, like at 2:00 P.M, it started to rain furiously, and we supposed the games were canceled and they were. I was very upset because I really wanted to ply although the games ended late, so I wouldn't have time to go do my nails and my hair for Isabella's party, that was later at night. Isabella did a party that was a dinner at her house, with very few people. I arrived there at about 8:00 P.M, and the party was very fun. About 10 minutes after I arrived, Isabella's parents had a surprise for her... It was a Chiva! We all rode the chiva, where we danced, sang kareoke, and did many more things, like tells jokes and gossip. After we arrived to Isa's house again, a delicious dinner awaited us. We ate meat lasagna, which was delicious, with bread and coke. Afterwards, arrived the dessert. An Alaska was the dessert, and although I don't like Alaska very much, I ate a little, which about a million brownies that were delicious. After we ate we danced, and then we each went to our house around 11:00 P.M. On Saturday morning I woke up really late, at 12:00 P.M, because I slept late. Then Lissette called me to invite me to the Club Cartagena to practice the Halloween skit. I got ready, and he picked me up. We didn't go directly to the Club, we stopped at the Hotel Caribe to pick up a book that was made up of stories we had each written, and my story was published, along with everybody else's, it was so cool! hen we where going out of the hotel, it was raining, and Catalina called us to tell us that everybody had left the Club and gone home, because they couldn't practice in the rain. Then, Lissette went to my house, and there we took a bah, and decided where we would go that night. A huge mess was started when people disagreed on where they wanted to go, and the decided where to go by votes between the Corral, and the Otoyal, and the Otoyal won. At the Otoyal, we had a lot of fun, and we ate delicious food. After that, we visited the Campito for a short time and then, we went to my house to talk. We laughed a lot, told a bunch of jokes, and played. We had a lot of fun this weekend!

[[An Outer World Journey]]

2006-10-29T04:14:00.000-05:00

5:17 A.M-
I guess, that to start this diary my religious "coach" is making me do, I will talk about myself. My name is Lucinda, and I live in Munchok, Huntsvilla. Well, in case you humans don't know where that is, I'll tell you. You live in Earth, and I live in another Galaxy, Minea, and my planet is named Setis. My world is actually similar to yours, except... we are not humans, we are Nuts. You know the fairies you imagine in your world would be like? Well, we are somewhat like that. We have a human body with wings, and our world is much cleaner than yours, because we need no cars! Our day is not 24 hrs. like yours, it has 36 hrs. here, and that is 12 hours of A.M, 12 hours of P.M, and 12 hours of C.M.

Our religion is really odd, it is called Ulimep. It is based on the belief of our creator being an ant, named Longor, who created the world on 234 years. Like the religion of Islam in your world demands for a religious journey if able, we are demanded for one too. In the journey, we are supposed to travel aross the forst of Oompa, and find Longor, the Holy Ant, who is supposed to be a glowing green ant, and today, I am starting my journey.

6:01 A.M-
I had my bags packed a week ago, and I am really excited to get going ad start. I am not going alone though, my best friend Maggie is joining me, along with a couple of other friends too, but I don't like them so much, so I don't talk to them, and I don't think I will. My mom is repeating the same words she kept saying for the last week "Take care, be patient, and that is how you'll find him." I am leaving in about an hour, at 7:00 A.M. I just can't believe I am finally going to the Oompa Forest, because so many people have told me wonders about it!

7:15 A.M-
I just started my journey and I feel like a grownup lady, although I am just fourteen. We haven't traveled long, and we are stopping in a cafeteria to buy some "fuel" for the trip. "How much money do we have?" I asked Maggie.

"About...10╛, or 15╛, because I found some money on the floor on our way in" (╛means Fretans, wich is our currency here)

" The total is 9.98╛, including the jar of peanut butter that this girl broke", said the cashier. The girl that broke the jar was actually me, when I bumped into a shelf while paying. We had wasted almost all of our money, and the chances of us finding money on the floor, enough to eat some more, we almost none.

7:52 A.M-
Now, we are returning to our trip, and something awful just happened to me. While trying to get a delicious chocolate bar I bought back at the store, my backpack fell into the middle of the starting forest, and we need to get it soon, before someone, or something gets it before us. "Let's continue, do you really think that we will stop our trip for you? leave your backpack down there and let some diabolic creature down there burst it into pieces" said Cristina B., an annoying girl which makes part of the group of girls that I despise. Once we got down, it took us about an hour to get the backpack, which was very heavy, and continue our trip.

11:32 A.M-
The Oopa forest is beautiful! It is full of flowers, like blue Russponnes, red Oliveras, yellow Moonflowers, and many many orange Carnatons. The trees are so high, we are flying directly above them, almost touching them! There are many animals that I didn't know which appeared next to us. A blue flying bird with and ovaled beak seemed very attached to us, because he started to follow us for about half an hour, until he stopped in his nest, where two adorable babies waited for him, with hunger. Aso, we saw some types of squirrels, but they were blueish-yellowish color, well, a mixture of the two, but is wasn’t green.

1:58 P.M-
Now, we are resting in the ¼ part of the forest. Around me, there are like a million little birds, trying to get some of my food, which consist on a razzapple juice, and a banana. Suddenly, a black little cat shaped animal comes toward me, looking very cute and innocent, but then, it grabs my forest map, and runs away! We started chasing the little vandal until we finally caught it, with difficulty, but we did it.

6:23 P.M-
After the first part of the exhausting trip, we made our tents in a tree –free space, where there was a lake. We took our bathing suits and our wing covering and dived into the lake, it was so cool! While diving, we saw a strange creature, like a shark, that was circling us in a dangerous way. Suddenly, the creature bit one of our companions, Shirley in the leg, and she was bleeding really badly. We took her to shore, and we put a piece of clothing around her leg, and waited until she stopped bleeding, and cleaned her wound. Although it wasn’t very big, her wound made us a little tardy on our trip.

6:45 C.M-
At this hour, it is time to sleep. Maggie and I are going to stay awake for a short time, just to gossip and tell scary stories. Suddenly, from the middle of nowhere, we see a green, glowing light outside our tent. We were very scared, but that didn’t stop us from gong outside to “investigate” the matter. I couldn’t believe it! It was Longor! He was a glorious sight, and I felt really blessed, for nobody had seen him in just one day! We called the other girls, and then we prayed to him and he went away.

8:22 C.M-
After we completed our mission, Maggie and I decided it was time to pull the other girls a little prank. We took the tents of the other girls and threw them into the water, so they would wake up in the middle of the lake, floating! I can’t just imagine their face when they wake up! I am just going to call my mom and tell her to expect me home by tomorrow evening, and I will just wait for her surprise!

Because my religious coach told me just to write a diary until I find Longor, I will stop here, but I just can’t tell ho excited I am, and I hope you learned that you are not the only life, we exist too, and we know everything about you guys, so take care, because you never know what to expect from other people.

My 11th Birthday!

2006-10-14T21:12:00.000-05:00

For my 11th birthday, I planned to do a trip to my godfather´s farm. The farm is very beautiful, it has a pool, a cabin, 2 bridges, a river, and it is located on a high hill, where there a millions of beautiful flowers of many colors. Tha partywas supposed to be like this:
1. The guests were going to arrive in my house.
2. We would go in vans to the farm
When we got to the farm, we instantly "explored" the farm, and a lot of people loved it! Afterwards, we dived into the water, wich was taken right out of the river(it was clean!, so it didnt have chlorine. Some people wandered into the trees and found a little puppy that they called Scott, because it looked like the puppy in the toilet paper commercial.The puppy was very cute, and after the party I took it home. After that, we decided to go into the hill to roll from it to the bottom, and it was very fun! We ate pizzas made by my dad, who is a great cook. The party was awesome, and everybody liked it, even my boring sister did! Then at the end of the party, it was time to sing happy birthday to me, and I was very excited. When they were singing, I saw that my mom left, and was sneeking in with a large box. After the song was over, they put my face in the cake, and my mom reached out to me to give me a present , that was inside the box. When I opened it, I couldnt believe my eyes. They had bought me a pair of new skates that I had been wanting for a long time. It was a wonderful birthday, and everybody enjoyed it.

→ My Worst Birthday←

2006-10-09T08:32:00.000-05:00

On my 9th birthday, I invited some friends to a “wonderful” island to pass the night for my birthday celebration. I invited about 7 or 8 friends because some of them were sick, and some didn’t have permission, so they couldn’t go.(1)When my mom made the reservations, she was told that the hotel was very neat. When we were getting there,(2) we played, we ate, and we danced. (3)Oh, we were very surprised!The hotel was instead of divine, horrible.

The rooms didn't have any airconditioning, one of the rooms had a bee nest in it, and there was a dog sleeping on th front desk! Since there was no food, we had to eat in a nearby restaurant. In that restaurant, (4)we ate fish,rice, and coke. After we ate, we decided to see the pool. The only thing that was acceptable in the hotel was the pool, although it was a bit murky. (5)Diving into the pool, we took pictures of each other in the air. (6) Whenever somebody is taking a picture, I stay away, because I am not photogenic at all. The party lasted for one night in the island, and we had lots of fun at night. Because in the birthday card I told them to bring skates, at night, when it was pitch dark, we decided to "explore" the island by going through it (7) by running, by skating, and some walking. The next day, we returned late to our homes. The return trip wasn't as calm as the other one, because there were (8)huge,abnormal sized,killer waves moving the boat.

At the end, we didn't have so much fun as we expected to. Some people were even dissapointed in my party. That is why I can't say it was one of my best parties, although I can say it was my worst!

1: prepositional phrases
2: independent clauses
3: yes, no interjection
4: series of objects
5: participial phrases
6: Adverb clause
7: Phrases
8: modifiers

[[ My Dream Carrer ]]

2006-10-07T23:11:00.000-05:00

People have always thought of "What is going to be my carrer when I grow up?"well although most girls think of things related with fashion, when I grow up I want to have my own hotel. I love to travel and be in different kinds of hotels, and I've always wanted to own my own hotel, where I can choose the design, the restaurants, the pools and everything else.

There are millions of things that I love about hotels, but the ones I like the most are the pools, because I have always liked to discover new types of pools, like for example, I have seen pools with playgrounds in it, and I have been to pools with fish swimming around you(although I didn't like it so much). Another thing that made me like hotels is their rooms, including the bathrooms. Rooms always need to be comfortable, and I think that if one day I have a hotel, the best part of designing it would be the rooms, because when you enter a hotel, the room is a big part of your stay. The bathrooms in the rooms are very important because in some hotels, it is just the best part. Another last thing that is important in hotels is the food. You can't always expect good food in hotels, so when I have my hotel I will make sure that I have food that everyone likes, because in some hotels I have been to, the food is gross.

Some really great hotels that are my "role models" are the Atlantis Hotel in the Bahamas, and the Nick Hotel, in Orlando. I really like them because the whole family can have fun in them, they have excellent entertainment and activities, and their food is great (from what I have read).

I really hope that I get to have my own hotel, because it seems like a fun carrer and a good experience. I hope you get to appreciate hotels as much as I do, because they are absolutely great!

○--A Usual Thing--○

2006-10-02T07:46:00.000-05:00

Everyone has made errors in their life; they may be big, small, or normal. I have made lots of mistakes in my life, but I don’t regret doing most of them, because I learn from them. The way I usually deal with problems is with patience, although sometimes people can take out my patience, like when someone is yelling at me, I completely loose my patience and start yelling at that person, because I can’t stand people trying to correct me by screaming, and that is a bad habit I have. When I have patience I usually have time to think about what I have done and what I need to do to correct it. I usually think what way would affect me in the best way.

One error in my life that I constantly look back to is one that I made long ago. When I was in 4th grade, I got into a big problem one day at school. It was a normal day of school, but in recess time, I got into a fight with a girl of my class, because she was going to cut in line. We were both called to the principal’s office when we were shouting and a teacher heard us, and stopped us. In that time, our principal was Mrs. Miriam, and I was very scared of her. She told us that fighting is very bad, and we made a big error, but she punished the other girl more, because I wasn’t the one cutting in line.

Next time I deal with a problem like this, I will try to call a teacher before I react in an angry way, because reacting like that only leads to more consequences, because that is a big mistake.

--> My Trip On The Radiance<--

2006-09-30T23:05:00.000-05:00

On the 2005 summer vacations, my family decided to go on a cruise trip from Canada to Alaska. The trip started in Vancouver, where the cruise started its journey, and then we went to Juneau, Alaska. On the cruise, Stefano, my cousin was also there, and his family too. The cruise, called Radiance of the Seas, was absolutely beautiful, it was big, it had a wonderful design, it was all glassy-like, you could see the ocean from any part of the cruise, and you could also easily entertain yourself there. The first day, my only goal was to explore the cruise. I had so many things to see, that I didn’t know where to begin. In one of the last floors, there was a buffet, where you could get free ice cream whenever you wished for some, and there also was a room, where only kids from 10 to 14 years could enter. The room had videogames, a mini soccer field, you could play x-box, and there were millions of other things to do there, and there I spent most of my time.

One of the great features of the ship is that it had a theatre. Every night they did a show on whatever topic they wanted, some of the topics of shows I saw were comedy, sports, international dances, karaoke night, bingo, and many more. Although it is quite crazy, there was a pool on the outside of the ship. It was very cold ( we were in Alaska!) but it didn’t matter to me, I threw myself into the warm water, and it was very cool, because it had a sandy bottom, it
wasn’t cement.

When we finally got to Juneau, we did lots of things. First, we went shopping for things to bring to my family and friends, I brought each one of my friends a cute little teddy bear, and they loved it! After all that shopping we went to a helicopter ride and we landed in a glacier, although I can’t remember its name. Seeing, and being in a glacier was one of the best experiences in my life. There was snow, and I was practically standing in ice only, so I was a bit scared that I would fall. I also drank from a spring of water on the floor ( it was’nt as bad or as yucky), and it tasted really fresh.

Our return trip to Canada was as good as the first trip, although I didn’t want the vacation to end. I had a really great time on the cruise and I hope I have another experience like this, and I think I will because on Novembrinas I will be heading to the Caribbean islands on a cruise, and I hope I have as much fun as I did last time.

A Fun Experience

2006-09-25T08:07:00.000-05:00

This year in English class we have started to do our own blogs. I could have never imagined that it would be so fun. At first, I thought that it would be very fun to have a blog, and actually, it is. Blogs are great, they help you express yourself in your post, and you can do free posts about whatever topic you want, and now I think that is very cool because I have always wished to write things(in this case posts) about any topic I want. Sometimes it is harder to do posts in your lbog because in English, we cannot express our ideas as much as in Spanish, so I would think of it as an obstacle or difficulty.

My expectations and feelings about the blog are the same from the beginning, because I have always thought that it would be fun and easy, but it is also easy to do and entertaining. The technical aspects of the blog postings are much easier than I thought they would be, because you can put pictures easily, change your background, and do other things in just half a minute, and it is not so complicated.

Something that surprises me about blogging is that you can comment about blogs of other, people, and people all around the world can read your blog and comment about their feelings and ideas. I think that blogs are a great step into learning new things about how to improve your writing, and now we know how to make, and maintain blogs, and we have all learned those things, so blogs really improve your education.

<--SOCCER-->

2006-09-24T00:26:00.000-05:00

Soccer is a sport that I really enjoy playing. It is emocionating, and it keeps you healthy and active. Last year, I tried out for the school soccer team. It was really exciting and fun. I did the best I could, and because of that, I got into the team last year (when I was in 6th grade). This year is going to be totally different. I am more experienced now and I am not one of the smallest players.

I am a little concerned about my entry in the team, because I dont think I have done my best this year. Between the summer vacations and now, I have not practiced anything, so I am not doing as good as last year. Because I am not one of the smallest players, I think that I have a better chance of getting into the team than not, but you cant always be sure...

I really hope that I get into the team, because I absolutely love to play soccer, so I will try my best so I will get even better and better.

A different story

2006-09-18T07:39:00.000-05:00

In English class, we read a story called “Three Skeleton Key”. I liked this story much more than the other ones we’ve read in class! This story is suspenseful, and a little gross. A part of the story that I didn’t like, because it wasn’t realistic at all, was when they described the rats as big, intelligent, man-eaters, it was so unrealistic, that I was actually amused by it, because of the exaggeration the author comitted. A part of the story that kept me intrigued, was when the rats where coming into the lighthouse, and the men fighting them off.

This story reminds me of a story I read a long time ago, but instead of rats there were spiders, but they were also surrounded by them. Another thing this story reminded me of is when I went to a farm one day, I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I was sorrounded by mosquitoes, they were all over me! In total, I enjoyed the story because it leaves intrigue about what is going to happen next. If you want to read a fun, but not funny story, I really recommend “Three Skeleton Key”, although a lot of people didn’t like it, I sort of liked it.

...Saw III...

2006-09-16T19:45:00.000-05:00

Saw III is a movie that I have been waiting for a long time. I think that Saw and Saw II were very good movies. They are supposed to be scary, but it is more suspenseful than scary. In August 27, the movie will be released. I am expecting it to be as good as the others, full of suspense and intrigue. You can also see the Saw III official site, I honestly think it is very good. The movie seems very cool. Although I HATE scary movies, I can watch Saw over and over, because it is so interesting. Saw I and II are one of my favorite movies, so I really recomend them to you. I hope you see Saw III when it is released here in Colombia, I know that I will! If you don’t watch it , you won’t know what you’ll be missing out of!

A terrible loss...

2006-09-11T07:59:00.000-05:00

People everywhere are mourning because of the death of the famous enviromentalist, Steve Irwin. He was 44 years old, and his death was caused by a stingray while he was diving over it. Dina El Nabli wrote an article for Time for Kids, telling us how this great person helped the entire world understand animals and help them.

Irwin spent his life facing danger in the wild. “Crikey!” Irwin would shout
while wrestling crocodiles or handling poisonous snakes and spiders. His
brave adventures were designed to teach the world to respect wildlife.
Irwin also fought against the hunting of wildlife and worked with
animals in their own habitats.

I think this is a terrible loss for everyone. He was a person who helped
endangered animals, helped preserve habitats, and saved thousands of different animals around the world. I am really sad because of this happening, but I know that he really made a difference in the world and he made people
understand animals more.
Halloween

:.:Friend's Blogs!:.:

2006-09-04T08:36:00.000-05:00

This is my friend Victoria, she is very helpful with me, I can always count on her, and she is a very good friend. - http://vito25.blogspot.com/

This is my friend Isabel, I like her very much because she is very fun, I always have a good time with her, and she is very crazy, that is why she is a very good friend.

My friend Lissette is very special. She is always around when you need her, she is helpful with you, and she is very smart.

How technology helps in school..

2006-09-04T08:26:00.000-05:00

I think technology helps in school a lot, but it also brings us bad things. Calculators can help us in math, although it makes us a little lazy to actually do the work. Computers help us search for information on the web, but it can also let you see things that you shouldn’t be seeing. One GREAT advance in technology is television, but it makes you not do your homework sometimes and it distracts you a lot.

I have a lot of expectations with the blog this year, I think it is going to be very fun, and I think we can use the blog to share ideas, comment about things, give advice, and many other things, but in all I think it is going to be the greatest, although we haven’t done it before, I have great expectations for it.