MY SUMMER 2011

This summer will be fantastic. The beach, ice-creams, holidays, the sun and more.. This summer will be the best ever!

In eleven days, I will go to Modena, the city where I was born. I will stay there for two weeks, in my uncles' home. I love city, mainly I love Modena, the shops, the center, people. It will be an incredible trip. I wish that I will have a lot of fun with my cousins, my chilhood friends and my ucles. I will go to see Modena center, a lot of commercial center and obviosly.. I will play volleyball! I will do a volleyball competition with my cousin Andrea, so I will engaged also in Modena. My cousin promised me that if we win, we will go to Gardaland. That's fantastic!








After I will return to Tertenia and finally I will go to the beach every day, I will swim in the sea, I will eat a lot of ice creams but after I will not gain weight because I will play volleyball :) Maybe I will do a competition in a small village near Tertenia, in the night! The last summer I played beach-volley at the same competition and my team and I won 500 euros. I wish that this summer I will win again. 











But there is a problem.. a lot of my friends will go to do holidays and two friends will go to study abroad with AFS. I miss them very much but I will have fun with my cousins.

This summer....

I have always dreamed of going abroad, to stay with another family and learn another language. I saw lots of organizations with which i could do this, but as always, it cost a lot of money. So my mother decided to contact an old friend of hers.. and now this summer I'm going to Germany!!

I will leave for Germany on the 21st of July, and stay there for a month. The town where I'll stay is called Schwenningen, and it is in south Germany, near the swiss border :) My host family is very small, just my "German mum" Beate, my "German dad", and my German sister Stefanie :D

Me and Stefanie are the same age, so she has organized a lot of things for us to do when i go to her house :) I will go school with her for a week, which in reality is her last week of school, then the other weeks will be a pure GERMAN IMMERSION :D

One weekend I'm going on a bike ride to raise money, and i will visit most of south Germany! Then I will be going waterskiing one day, and camping for another weekend.

Germany should be great, it's so close now :D :D 

Another thing I'll be doing during the summer is 'city camp'; City Camp is a full immersion in English. Children from my village, Gairo, will attend this camp for 5 days, in which mother-tongue tutors will teach the children English. I will be the helper, meaning I have to tell the children off in Italian when they are naughty ;) 

 

The rest of my summer will be very easy to plan: chill out at the beach. 

My summer is pretty planned out I guess, and I can't waitttt! 

  

I am what I am today because of communication

In my last post I talked about the weakness of communication, which is very simple: the modernization of ways to communicate. But communication isn't always a bad thing, it's actually very important.
The human being in order to dialogue with somebody needs words; he can't go through life with out having interacted with somebody. If we didn't have words, our brain would be chockablock full of feelings and ideas, but without words nobody can get that information across.
Nowadays communication doesn't just rest on face to face conversations, but as I said before, it's being modernized. In my last post, I criticized this new way of communication, but in this post I will show the positive aspects that it has, because like everything, it has its pro's and its con's.
In a world ruled by technology it's no wonder man has invented ways to talk via chat, via video etc.
This new way of communication is definitely a lot faster than how our ancestors used to communicate, via letters, and I guess this is what the modern world requires! Something fast, that will send some information from side of the world to the other. It's a very useful thing, like the computer, so emails, facebook, skype, our mobile phones, these are all thing that contribute to make communication faster and more efficient. It's a great way also to keep in touch with people who live on the other side of the world, to not lose contact, to not lose old friends. We have to embrace technology in our lives, but without overdoing it. It so important to know that we have got the facility to go on the internet and get in touch with people, we know it's there, but we don't always have to use it.
The future is at our doors, and we haven't seen half of it yet. Communication will continue to get modernized, because that's how the world goes. With every spin, with every movement man is already thing about 'the big next thing', because that's the world that we live in, in a world of innovation, of modernization, of promise, of passion, of imagination.

But for me, nothing beat a face-to-face conversation, it's what makes man a man, it's what makes us what we are.

Communication: Is it a good thing?

Communcation is the key to get yor feelings across to someone, to let somebody know everything that's going on inside your head. Without communication, we would have trouble expressing ourselves, and also keeping a relationship with a person.
The art of speaking is something not everyone has, so we have got to make the most of it. Communicating doesn't just have to be through speech, it can also be through gestures, which is how people who aren't able to talk, communicate to other people.

But now in the modern day, talking to people is becoming very rare. Why? Because people nowadays prefer to communicate on the computer, by chat, by skype, by facebook, in other words the virtual world is becoming more important than the real world. I probably speak to my friends a lot more on the computer than what i do in real life. It's freaky how much technology has taken over our real lives. To be quite honest these ways of communicating are taking over our lives at an uncontrollable speed, and we can't do anything about it.
Communication is losing its power.  Face to face conversations are so important, but sometimes we forget this importance and only think about chatting on the internet, or texting. We tend to forget how important actually real conversations are, and this is very unfortunate for a conintent where the lanugage is so important and we must preserve it.
Disabled people find the internet very easy and useful to communicate with others, especially when having the disabilty to not be able to talk, which is something that can be very problematic. Through videos, and scripts they can easily be understood be others, but this doesn't necessarely mean that they are happy.


A word is what describes something that we find on this planet. Without words, we woudn't be able to communicate like we do.

We need to remember how important face to face conversations are, and how much communication is important to our community. Our lives can't revolve around the computer and a virtual life.

COMMUNICATION TODAY

Technology is the main character of the modern age.

Since the industrial revolution, technology evolves day by day. Now we are in a completely  industrialize world  where grass and forests give way to development and buildings. There are a lot of negative aspects but now we are in a modern society and it's impossible to go back in time also because technology give us a lot of good things: advanced medical cares, to work at home, to know a lot of people, to be informed to our world, to do scientific discoveries  etc..
Now I will say how technology can be useful for the comunication:

Advanced medical cares: with the technology we can save life to many person or we can ameliorate people's life. People with disability can communicate with special PCs that play written words. People who don't hear can hear with hearaids.

To meet new people you can use: Internet, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger.. and more. They are virtual meeting places, where you can share and show your emotions, your life. You can talk with people who are far away. More, if you want to be famous you can load some video on youtube and all the world can see you. On Facebook I met two friends from my childhood, I talk and see my uncles and I have a good time.
Internet is speeder than a normal missive, it's very serviceable.

To be informed:

• Internet isn't a controllable media like the TVs are, wich are controlled by powerful and rich people. In each moment there is some information to tell the world, it's like a constant TV news. Every day I read the Repubblica and Corriere della Sera sites and there is more information than TV news.

• New papers: everyday 5 millions new papers are sold. It's the most important way to be informed. With new papers we can know news by all the world.

Royal Wedding.. what a bore!

'' The wedding of this century '' '' the most beautiful wedding'' '' the wedding of my dreams '' and more, and more, and more.. STOP!

Yes, it was sure a beautiful, incredible, and unique wedding.. but now people are exaggerating. In this period I hate the journalists: they talk only about killings, kidnappings and.. the royal wedding! I didn't watch this wedding but each TV news talks about Kate's dress, the Queen's yellow dress, William's few hairs, Pippa's dress, Camilla's hat.. The media has transformed a beautiful thing into a boring one. For example they talk about how Kate waved at people. They said that she waved a lot of times ( 4 times, exactly! ) and this means that she is a sure, not shy and determinate person who married William only for money and to become famous. Wow, immediately all journalists became psychologists! They talk about William and Kate's kiss. They say that it's a rapid and not romantic kiss, but I'm sure that if the newly married couple had kissed with 'passion' they would say that the kiss was too exaggerated. 
Moreover, they compare Diana to Kate.. a horrible thing. They are two beautiful women, they have two different characters and above all, they are two different people! Each small particular gets compared. I think that it is an unnecessary and hateful thing that hurts Kate. 
I hope that William will keep journalists away from their private life, because it's difficult to live without privacy: an example is Diana, who suffered a lot for this reason.






 Beyond the wedding, William and Kate are a good married couple and  she didn't marry him only for money but I think that they must be careful:  paparazzi can end this wedding! I estimate Kate because she doesn't care a lot to the old rules of the Royal Family, she is a modern princess. For example, sometimes she wears dress not branded but she is always beautiful! 






Keeping out critics, this is a 'modern tale', no? So I hope that they will live happily ever after :)

The royal wedding

Being English, the 289th of April was a very important day for me and my family: it was the day of the royal wedding.

I could almost consider William and Kate a 'perfect' couple, in a way that I hope one day they will be a fantastic king and queen for my country. It was a happy wedding, everybody looked happy, and it was definitely very different to the last wedding of lady Diana and Charles.

The church service was so happy, and you could see the love in their eyes. The queen also looked delighted that her nephew was getting married, and she looked adorable ^^
Kate looked stunning in her wedding dress, a simple yet beautiful gown. The part I like the most was the balcony kiss, and it did actually bring a tear to my eye.

Many italians seemed to have criticized the wedding left right and centre, and they actually seem more interested in this day than the English people. The English population was and is very happy for the newly wed couple, and hope that one day they will be our future king and queen.

For me, this truly was a fairy tale wedding. It was perfect in every way. The media did their bit, and the lunch and dinner was strictly private, as it should be. They are normal people, but with a big weight on their shoulders: they represent England, and proudly.


- Francesca

MADRID.

My first school trip.. it was W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L!

First, I want to say thanks to our teachers, prof Basoccu and prof Lanza, who allowed us to transform our dream in reality.  

Second I want to say thanks to my school mates, who allowed me to have the best time ever in Madrid!

Madrid is.. undescribable. It is a perfect city for me: clean, calm, hot, modern but, at the same time, full of history and beautiful monuments. Madrid is like me: solar, extrovert, moderate, not too modern, not chaotic and nice and maybe it's for that that I love it very much. A surprising thing was the sky in Madrid: it was light blue without clouds. There wasn't a polluted sky and also the air was clean.

People are fantastic like Madrid. People are cordial, engaging, welcoming, they all seem friends.  Spanish culture can be seen in the people because they don't speak a lot of english and other languages but they try to help you understand them and they are very patient. For example, in the bar, I sad : <Can I see a glass of water> instead of 'drink'; the bar-man was laughing and he tried to make me understand with gestures. It was a funny scene. 

We asked people: < what do you think about Berlusconi?> The people were funny and everyone talked to us about Berlusconi.

We had  fun with Madrid people!

Monuments and buildings are 
amazing.
In the centre of Madrid it seems like 
the time stops and this is the most surprising 
thing that I have seen. 
It felt like I was in another century, 
it was like a dream. 

Museums are.. too big! 

The Reina Sofia (visited on the first day) was great. The 'Guernica', a Picasso masterpiece, was the most beautiful painting. I don't remember other things :P

  

The Thyssen (visited on the second day ) was the most beautiful one for me.  On the second floor there is modern art that is very interesting and not boring like the old art. I think that the Thyssen was interesting also for my art teacher: after two hours she still hadn't come out, we think she got lost!

The Prado (visited on the last day) was scary: it was very big and BORING! There are a lot of rooms and, even if I had had a map I would have got lost. 

My purchases. I bought a lot of souvenirs, like some t-shirts of Madrid, for me and my parents. Shops are great and they weren't expensive. The best purchase was a t-shirt of Hard Rock Cafe Madrid, a very big museum of rock. It was the most interesting museum ;)

Food was very great but the Italian one is the best! 'Tortillas the patatas', a tipical spanish dish, was very good. My favorite spanish dish is 'paella', a 'masterpiece' of food!

My birthday in Madrid. Yes, I celebrated my birthday in Madrid! what a luck! For my birthday we went to see a

Flamenco show in a beautiful restaurant. 

Flamenco is a spanish dance 

with an involving rhythm, but the 

Flamenco wasn't the true show: 

My class and I made the true show! 

We sang together 'Volare', a famous 

Italian song, and after we danced 

the 'Macarena'. 

The clients of the restaurant really enjoyed it.

 It was the best birthday ever! 

But I think that my village is better than Madrid.... Ahahah.. Only joking! 

Sky in Madrid

MADRID, I MISS YOU!

MADRID - frank

We are now back from Madrid, and it was amazing! 

It was not at all what i expected! I expected a dirty city, with not a lot of history and people that spoke english ;D
But I arrived and it was beautiful! Very clean, and had some fantastic monuments. And guess what, nobody spoke english! Yeah so we all had our share of embarrassing moments when trying to speak spanish, vale :D
I loved the city life, it was very calm, and everything had it's flow.
I expected to find a starbucks cafe, and I did... I found 4 :DD I had a starbucks everyday, the best coffee in the world! <3 


What we did day-by-day.
We left Jerzu at 3 o'clock on tuesday 29th March, and we headed to Alghero airport. At alghero we caught the plane to Madrid at half past 9, and once in Madrid, we caught the bus back to the hotel. First impressions? Madrid by night is amazing! And the hotel looked more like a maze than a place where to relax!

Atocha train station

On wednesday, we woke up and went to have breakfast in a restaurant down the road, called la Vera. We had big croissants with either coffee, tea or hot chocolate! We then walked around Madrid, and visited The Reina Sofia museum, the train station of Atocha (It had a rainforest inside!!) and plaza mayor. For lunch hey left us in a massive shopping centre, where we bought lots of clothes! For dinner we went back to la Vera restaurant, and we had chicken soup, and chicken and chips. After dinner we went out to a local square, where we saw a flamenco show in one of the cafés of the square.

The royal palace

On thursday we had breakfast and then went to the Thyssen-Bohermisza museum, we also visited the Plaza de Cibeles. In the afternoon we went to the royal palace, a beautiful massive palace. For dinner we had Tortilla de patatas, a spanish dish, which was very nice! and also a spanish salad of tuna and lettuce. After dinner we went back to the local square , where there was a man playing with fire.
On friday we had breakfast and then went to Puerta del Sol, where there was a lovely fountain and a monument of a bear! We also went to the academia de San Fernando, and in the afternoon we went to the Prado museum. This was they day in which we also went to the hard rock café! Where many people bought some clothes from the rock shop. After dinner we went to Plaza Mayor, where there was lots of entertainment. 

paella

On saturday, we packed, had breakfast and then went to Plaza de Espana. We then had lunch at la Vera, and we had the amazing paella, which was yummy! We then went to collect our suitcases, and headed back to madrid airport, where we caught the plane back to Sardinia.

The trip to Spain was amazing, I miss Madrid so much, it was one of the best holidays ever!! 

Nobel peace prize 2001-2002

What is a nobel peace prize? 

According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who:

...shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.

Each year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee invites qualified people to write down nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, and then it is awarded by a committee of five persons who are chosen by the Norwegian Storting.
Now let's talk about the nobel peace prizes given in 2001 and 2002:

2001

In 2001 this award was given jointly to the United nations (U.N)  and Kofi Annan:

"for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world."

They gave this award to U.N because the only way to have a peaceful world is the global cooperation of the United Nations. Other, it was the centenary of the United Nations so it was an award to celebrate the importance of U.N and to celebrate all the important work made by U.N. 
Kofi Annan is the secretary of the UN, and he received this award because he fight for human rights, especially against Aids and also international terrorism. He dedicated his life to the United Nations, and as a secretary he is important because he gave a new life to the organization. So he received Nobel Prize both for his engagement with United Nations and for his engagement to preserve human rights. 

2002
In 2002, this prize was awarded to Jimmy Carter (former president of the United States), for his:

"decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development".

After leaving his politic life, Carter in 1982, he founded the "Carter center" at Atlanta to highlight the importance of human rights and peace. Thanks to this activity, this brought some ideas to stop conflicts between different continents. 

What can we do to help the world?

Everyday lots of people waste things, like food, leaving lights on, so wasting electricity when not needed, using too much water etc. What can we do to stop this?

A simple and easy way to reduce this waste is : recycling.

There is no need to throw things away in a bin that will just get burned and never used again. Mostly in Sardinia, lots of people throw things in the fire, meaning that this material can never be used again. With recycling the things you throw away get reused to make new things. Like plastic bottles, if thrown in a recycling bin, the material can be used again to make new bottles and new things out of plastic. This happens for the other materials too. Any material used to make things, can be reused to make other things. 

People are also very wasteful with food, because if we don't like something we throw it away, but on the other side of the world, children and families are dying of hunger, and we waste so much food, not knowing how lucky we actually are to have all this food in our country.

An other way to help the planet is saving energy and water.

A lot of people waste a lot of water and energy. At home, people use too much water when they have showers, when they have baths, and even when they wash the dishes. In Sardinia for example, water is also used to water the gardens, because lots of people live of vegetables grown themselves. This water is the water that is supplied to the whole village, and sometimes people use too much water than what is necessary. 

We, living in Europe, are very spoilt. We use too much electricity. We leave lights on in the house when we aren't even in that room, in the summer we use air conditioning which uses a lot of energy. Also we leave many electrical appliances plugged in even when we're not using them. And we don't think about the fact that many people don't have running water or electricity. 

An other thing that is killing the planet is pollution, which is causing the hole in the ozone layer. 

In the city a lot of cars are used to go to work and the gases are polluting the air. In the city there are a lot of industries that produce smoke and many dangerous substances that are left in the air or that pollute the water.

The problem is that these substances are left, in the air or in the water, illegally and people drink polluted water and breath polluted air. 

A solution is to increase a public transport system because a bus consumes the same amount of a car but a bus carries 70 people and the car carries 5 people. We can increase also the metro system in the big cities or in the little cities we can ride bikes that are the best way to not pollute.

I think that the best way to not pollute is walking and for fat people it is a very good thing ;)

Listen to this song: it's a hymn to the world.

Why 'Stairway to heaven'?

Read toghether the text of this song:


<There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold 
And she's buying a stairway to heaven. 
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed 
With a word she can get what she came for. 
Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to heaven.> 

There is a lady cynical and materialist who believes that building a stairway to heaven she will obtain all she wants.

<And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune 
Then the piper will lead us to reason. 
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long 
And the forests will echo with laughter. 
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run 
There's still time to change the road you're on. 
And it makes me wonder. >

But if we follow the piper, nature can continue to live and we are saved from all materialistic world, from money and from cynism. And, also if we go the wrong way, there are two paths we can go by.

<And if you listen very hard 
The tune will come to you at last. 
When all are one and one is all 
To be a rock and not to roll.> 

You must listen very hard to this tune that says that only the union between us will allow to 'not roll', to save this world and our morality.


For us, this song is a hymn to nature, to right values, to love and to save the materialistic world. So this lady is the emblem of wrong values and she represents (unfortunately) our world, and, for this reason, we put fire as the background of our blog: fire represents evil, society, but there is an other path you can take: a stairway to heaven.
'Heaven' is simply peace. 'Heaven' is happiness, 'heaven' is right. 'Heaven' is what a man wants and we must not lose hope to reach 'heaven'.


                                                                                                                                                       A.

Interest

Volleyball, volleyball and a lot of volleyball! This is my passion.
It's a beautiful team sport, where you must trust your team mates: the team becomes an only person.

Volleyball was invented in USA, by William Morgand, and now it's the second most popular sport in Italy.

 My team was born 4 years ago, in Tertenia. Its name is EUREKA VOLLEY and I love my team: there are a lovely people, a good coach and we are a strong and a formidable team ;)

When I play volleyball I don't think about bad things: there are only me and a ball, nothing else.

Volleyball representes my social side, instead reading representes my need to be alone.

When I read I travel in my own world, I think and it relaxes me. When I read I get strong emotions because I think I'm another person and I immerse myself into another world. 

Reading is food for my mind!

Step two: Interests (1)

Yoga
To all you stressed teenagers, don't you ever just sit back and relax?
Well, one of my favorite things to do is yoga.
Yoga is a great sport/hobby which makes you completely relax, forget about everyday things and just think about yourself. Yoga is a way to relax, but still keep fit - with loads of exercises it's a way to work out, but still keep a free mind.
According to yoga, our body is made of energy: this energy needs to flow throughout our whole body all the time, we haven't got time to be stressed - being stressed sucks ( it makes you break out!! ).
If you want to do yoga, you have to have the right mentality. It's kind of stupid that lots of people think that some sports aren't cool - and one of these is yoga. Yoga, to be honest, is the best sport i've ever done :) I used to play volleyball, yeah that didn't go well.....
Yoga keeps me relaxed and i can keep slim at the same time. It's just a perfect combination.


Other interests
If someone asks me about my other interests, well everyone says the same: reading, watching TV, texting blah blah.
I love reading books, especially science fiction and crime - from there my passion for forensic science!
I love forensic sciences, and spend all my sunday nights watching 'CSI sunday' on 5 USA ;) It's just really cool what technology and even the human brain can discover. Kind of why I want to go to Biology university :D

I also enjoy swimming, even though I can't find a good swimming pool over here that doesn't teacher you the boring: 1,2,3 BREATH!
I used to dance, used to because i can't find a good school in this country. I miss it, i used to do ballet every saturday, and i loved it so much.
And then that's it really, not a very interesting person but hey.

Keep reading! :)

Step one: Being a teenager

The teenage years have always represented the hardest years in someone's life. The problems related to these years are various, from school to family to friends to love.
One of the most biggest problems which is present during these years is that of being a victim of violence, of betrayal, of rape etc.. Some teenagers don't realise how bad this thing is untill you see it, feel it or even just hear about it.


The film ''SPEAK'' is a fantastic representation of what can happen to a teenager, just like us.
The film is centred on a girl: Melinda Sordino. This girl is a perfect example for someone who has been betrayed and hurt. Melinda was raped at the age of 13 by an older guy called Andy. She was at a party and, scared, she called the police. The betrayal is shown when all her friends dump her because she was a 'squeeler', because she told the police about the party. From here there are some problems related to her relationships with others because she turns into herself:

-She has a difficult relationship with her family, because her parents don't pay attention to her, and are busy at work.

Parents must pay attention to us, be sensitive, be available and altruistic towards their children because most of the time children lie or hide a serious matter because of shame.

- Classmates should not judge, make fun of or isolate a person because if this person is weak she will suffer a lot. This is called bullying: some people make fun of other people just to make themselves feel better, without thinking about the consequences and also how that person may feel.

- There is also a difficult relationship between the student and his/her teacher. Students feel that teachers should be more open and understanding towards them, and for us teachers should be a point of reference when we have problems at school, not someone we're scared of because of tests etc.


One thing you should never do is be silent and bottle everything in. The truth should always be told, and Melinda figures that out towards the end of the film.
At the end of the film infact she speaks the truth to a friend and her mum, letting everything out and feeling better.

The number of rape victims is increasing day by day unfortunatly and it has to be said: it's a very cruel thing.


Teenagers of the world, if you ever get raped, hurt, or bullied, talk to someone about it! Keeping quiet doesn't serve anything..

VIOLENCE MUST BE REMOVED AND PUNISHED!