Category Archives: Students’ Corner

Weddings

General, Students' Corner,
Written by Sandra Garcia Corte , 4º year

To start with, I have to tell you that I have been to many weddings in my life since I was a little child. This is because my mother has a lot of first cousins. In fact, they can be more than 20 ! 

Anyway, despite me having gone to so many weddings, I just really enjoyed my self in the first one.

I was with my aunt in my grandma’s house one day, when the door bell rang. It was my aunt’s boyfriend wanting to tell her something extremely important… As everyone was expecting (except my aunt) he showed her a beautiful golden engagement ring !  Of course, she said Yes !

The wedding took place three months later. (I was six years old). It was on the 4th of February and to  everyone’s surprise  it had snowed a lot the week before. Fortunately, that Saturday, the sun was shining.

The groom arrived before the bride. He was wearing tails and my mother was with him because she was the maid of honour. Half an hour later, the bride arrived. She looked gorgeous with her beautiful white dress and veil covering her face. I was one of the bridesmaid and my cousins were page boys.

More...They got married in a small chapel in the countryside. My grandfather, who was the best man walked the bride down the aisle. During the ceremony they pronounced the vows and exchanged silver coins, as usual. The significance of this ritual is sharing the worldly goods.

After the service, they stood outside for photographs for a long time. As they were leaving the Church, the guests threw rice over them. Besides,  my aunt threw her bouquet of flowers over her shoulder towards the crowd.

Then, we went along for the reception. We stood on the grass, by the river outside the restaurant and everyone drank cider and champagne for hours!

Later on, we entered the restaurant to have lunch; we took places. When the bride and groom came in looking wonderful, everyone stood up to welcome them with lights ! The meal consisted of 3 or 4 courses. After the meal, the couple decided to cut the wedding cake together. As they were cutting it, my dad proposed a toast. Afterwards, the best man gave the first speech. It was about the fact that  in marriage, you have to give and take… Finally, we danced the whole afternoon and even the whole night.

The next week the new couple left for their honeymoon to Egypt !!

At a Hospital

General, Students' Corner,

Last Saturday a friend of mine was badly injured in a car crash because he was under the alcohol effects. Fortunately, the accident was near Villa so the paramedics could get there before it was too late. They examined him and realised that besides suffering from shock, he could barely  breathe and there was blood everywhere. They rushed him to hospital and as soon as he arrived he was taken to the operating theatre to have an operation. His lungs were quite damaged but during the operation the doctors realised that his stomach was injured as well. Eventually it turned out worse than the surgeons expected so the operation lasted quite a bit more.

         After having been operated he was taken to intensive care and the nurses gave him an injection to avoid him the pains. Unfortunately his condition deteriorated overnight: he began to throw up, had a temperature… but it was all because of a virus so the doctors prescribed him some painkillers and antibiotics. After having healed the virus, the doctors discharged  him from hospital and gave him some advice as having a healthy diet (because of the virus), giving up smoking (because of the lungs injury) and keep away from the alcohol for a couple of months because he could be hooked on it.

         Nowadays he has scars because of the stitches he needed and is walking on crutches until the twist ankle gets better, if it doesn’t, he might need surgery. Moreover he has got rid of all the alcohol he had at home.

This essay has been sent by Estela Ramon García, 4º year

Mobile Phones

Students' Corner,

This article has been sent by Estela Álvarez Cortina. Level: Advanced 

Technological development has changed our lives and mobile phones are a good example to realize how they have already become a part of our daily routines.

The first mobile phones were only  used  by business people who were working for important multinational companies and travelled a lot. However, it seems that everybody has a mobile phone nowadays. 

I think mobile phones are a reflection of the current consumer society. In fact, there are people who buy several mobile phones every year and they boast about having the latest models. Obviously, firms don’t miss this opportunity to increase their profit and they often bring out new devices, every time more sophisticated. Those first huge gadgets which had heavy batteries are past history because they were absolutely different from the modern mobile phones, which are light, very small, tiny, and you can carry them on your pocket.

Moreover, networks want to seek  new customers, so they offer attractive bargains and discounts. For example, if you move from one network to another, it gives you a new mobile without paying a single  euro. Or if you sign a contract with a network, you can talk free for two hours a day. In spite of bargains like these, personally I prefer the  pay-as-you-go option because it allows  me to have a better  control over the money I spend. And when I run out of credit I can top up my mobile phone with a simple SMS, so it is very convenient.

One of the main advantages of mobiles phones is that they allow us to keep in touch easily. Actually, years ago, when they hadn’t been invented yet, the principal system of telephone communication were the landlines at home or in the office and the payphones in the streets, whereas today, thanks to mobiles phones, you are communicated wherever you go. You rarely get cut off because, in general, there is a good reception, except in isolated places where the sound can be a bit broken up or when the line is bad.

For me, another advantage of mobile phone is the text messaging system. If you are in a noisy place where it is difficult to hear a conversation, you can send an SMS. It is discreet because nobody can read what  you are typing or the message you have received, as well as being cheap: it cost less than the price of a call.

Although  most of the people use their mobile phone only to talk with other people, we can also use it as an  alarm clock, as a video game, to take and send photos… Certainly, mobile technology is improving all the time and today we can surf the Internet from our own mobile phone and we can download music that later will sound as ring tones.

In my opinion, mobile phones are very useful. I remember when I bought my first mobile phone years ago. That day it got me out of a tight spot because I went to the cash machine to withdraw money and the machine didn’t give me back my credit card, so I used my new mobile phone to call the bank and cancelled it.

But on the other hand, perhaps mobile phones have a little disadvantage. We have turned into slaves of them, we are reliant on the mobile phone and I think few people can live today withthout one nearby. I don’t understand people who are hooked on mobile phones and spend all their time talking or sending messages, even when they are driving. They are totally reckless!! I use the mobile phone everyday, especially because of my job, and sometimes I feel like a prisoner with a pair of handcuffs, so I would like to hang up .

On balance, mobile phones have more advantages than drawbacks, they have made our lives easier, but we must be aware of using properly. And finally, I’ll give you some advice: If I were you, I would connect the voicemail at weekends and I would cut off the mobile phone. Believe me, it is a rest.

A firefighter

Students' Corner, , ,
vietnam.jpg

This description has been sent by Irene Miguez Garcia , a student from 2ºNB

In the picture I can see a few children.

They are very young, I think they are between 5 and 10 .

Some of them are naked, without any clothes or shoes, without anything, and the rest are wearing old, small ,ragged clothes, for example, the little child who is in the background  is wearing a dirty white shirt, and the boy who is on the left is wearing black shorts and a dirty  white shirt too. The couple of children who are on the right are wearing something similar to pyjamas.

They both look sad, nervous, scared.. They are in a war, so I think it`s something normal. They are shouting, crying, they are running away from an explosion, and there are 4 soldiers behind them. The girl who is in the middle has  her body burned, I know it because my mother has told me things about this picture, and in her face we can see all the suffering she is feeling.

The picture was made during  the Vietnam war, between 1958 and  1975.It was one of the worst wars in the world.

A famous singer called PINK, from Vietnam has written a song about the Vietnam war, she felt all the fear of the war when she was a child, and this is the  chorus of her song:

“This is my Vietnam

I’m at war

Life keeps on dropping bombs

And I keep score”

She tried to show all the pain that she felt with this song, called ” My Vietnam”.

This picture makes  me feel sad, because when I see pictures like this one I know I`m really lucky to be here, in my country, with a family who can give me food, a place where we can sleep and live well,  a family who give me love, and that`s the most important thing.

It was one of the most brutal wars which put an end to lots of lives, a war where  the weakest people are always the losers.

A Firefighter

Students' Corner, ,
bombero_gato.jpg

This description has been sent by Juan Carlos Perez Corsino, student from 2º NB.

In this photo I can see a man, I think he looks about thirty-five. I can’t see his hair because he is wearing a helmet to protect his head. He is wearing a firefighter uniform which is  black and  has long sleeves with yellow stripes. He is also wearing black gloves and has a radio around his waist, perhaps to talk to his  colleagues. He looks worried and tired. He might be  working, because behind him  there is a building  destroyed by the  fire. He is holding a brown cat;  I think he has  rescued it from  the fire.I think this work is very dangerous and hard, but it is very important too, and you must feel a very  important person when you have  rescued  other people.

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