It was worthwhile?

People usually ask me about my English. "It was worthwhile to be in Canada for 4 months?"

To be honest, sometimes I fell like I have to prove it myself. My time in Canada was great. That´s for sure!!! But what´s about my main goal? Have I reached my "English goals" or have I screwed it up? I guess this is the main reason I want to pass the CAE and I still blog in English (besides the fact if I don´t have any goal in a short-term it would be easy to leave English...)

People say "Why don´t your try TOEFL? Business Schools always ask for a good mark in TOEFL". But you know what? TOEFL piss me off. You have to speak with a computer (puaj!!) By the way, do you know the reason? Because of the Asian people. To pass the old TOEFL you had to study lots of Grammar, writing and listening. And the thing was that Asian people always got high marks... without knowing how to speak!!! That´s the reason why in the new TOEFL you have to speak with the computer. And as I said before, it sucks! If I can´t stand speaking with a voice-mail, how the hell I´m going to speak with a computer that asks me what is my favourite film? No way!!!! :-/

Pluton is not a planet anymore? NO WAY!!

Firstly, after learning the contries and their capitals, politicians decided to change everything (unify Germany, separate Yugoslavia and Checoslovaquia...)

Now, suddenly and whitout asking anybody, scientists have decided to quit the label "planet" to Pluton. Come on!! And now, what am I supposed to do? To complain the exam I failed in EGB because I forgot Pluton?

What is gonna be the next? To change the name of the Oceans? Or maybe the Earth is plain...

You know what? I´ve just decided I can neither stand with this change nor accept Pluton is not a planet anymore. So, DON´T LET THEM TO ROBE YOUR PLANET AND WHAT YOU LEARN WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD and shout with me as loud as you can for Pluton´s status:

"Pluton is a planet" "PLUTON IS A PLANET"

Things I missed when I was in Vancouver

Two little things I missed when I was in Vancouver:

• Olive oil.
  
• El tranvía de Olga Viza.

And things I didn´t miss:

• Gallardon´s buildings, roadworks and the likes.
  
• Summer Hot.
• Spanish politicians making their best -even in summer-.
• Traffic jams.
• ....
  

And now the next goal is..... to look for a job. After all this time, when I find it I guess I gonna go through a beautiful "posttraumatic vacation syndrome" ;-)

PD: Y ahora para la piscina, yepa!!

Ya estoy aquí..

...porque he venido!!

Battle for Spain

"A civil war is not a war but a sickness", wrote Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

The thing is every time I go to Chapters I buy a book. In this case about the Spanish Civil War. It´s said that if you want to read a good book about the Spanish Civil War you have to choose English authors. Why? Because it´s supposed they can remain more objetive than the Spanish historians, who could be moved by political interest or suffer lack of neutrality.

The point is this book has good reviews from El Pais, El mundo, ABC.. so I guess it is worth it. The first version of this work was published in 1982 and this new edition has been improved with new documents from the Russian and German archives. I´ve only read the Introduction but I can´t help it quoting this:

" Yet the Spanish Civil War remains one of the few moderm conflicts whose history had been written more effectively by the losers than by the winners"

And if you take into account that the truth is always the first victim of war... Well, as I said before this book can be worth it.

PD: Tambien, manda narices el comprarme un libro de la Guerra Civil en inglés ;-)

An inconvenient truth

Last weekend I went to the theatre to see "An inconvenient truth".
To be honest, I don´t know if the message is too alarming but the thing is that even if only 20% is true, this planet is fucking off.

For this reason I strongly recommend to see this documentary (better in English version). Al Gore has done a really good work and I give him my hand. He has been able to present the issue in a easy way so it´s not neccesary to be a scientist to understand what´s going on... and what is going to happen if we don´t take care of our planet.

This could be the nutsheel:

• There is a direct relationship between CO2 concentration and the Global Warming.
• The higher the CO2 concentration, the higher the temperature and the shorter the winter and autumn.
  
• If this pace continues on, Artic could be ice free in less than 50 years
• And if this is the case not only the sea level could rise by more than 5 of 6 meters but it could be a dramatically change in the weather because the currents of the oceans could be affected by the new fresh water
  
• Etc, etc....

What's wrong with me?

It seems I've developed some kind of "tech" allergic reaction. Otherwise I'm not able to cacht the point.

Look all these points:

• When I arrived in Toronto my cellular phone died
  
• When I arrived in Madrid from Toronto, my ADSL stopped to work.
• During my flight to Vancouver I broke my headphones.
• One week ago my second headphones ended in the botton of one lake
• The last straw was my digital camera. I destoyed the screem during my scramble to Cypress Lake.
• By the way, one month ago I broke my glases as well - I know my glasses are not really a Tech item but...-

So, what am I supposed to do now?
Should I expect my laptop is gonna be ripped in London when I go back to Spain next Friday?

Cypress Peak

Here I am. New hike with Wanderung... To be exact, it wasn´t a hike but a Scramble. What difference does it make? Scrambling is between hiking and climbing. In other words, is more difficult and the goal is to reach a peak. For example, with this scale Muniellos is a hike and Perdiguero is a scramble. With my own scale I´d say Cypress Peak is "only for fieras".


And what can I say about this scramble? Awesome.
15 k, 1400 meters gain elevation. Only a few minutes were spent in the trees. The route ascends a large boulder slope followed by the fantastic views of all the peaks and glaciers that surround the Squamish River Valley. And I have to say pretty dangerous as well. In fact the guy who organized this scramble strongly advised us to bring a helmet because of the rocks. But the effort was really worthwhile. Do you see the second photo? Cypress Peak is the peak you see on the left.

And you know what? We were 11 people in 3 cars, but to arrive to the botton of this peak we had to ride a big american four-wheel drive vehicle for 15 km (all together at same time) that the organizer put at our disposal. Awesome, isn´t it?.

By the way, I´ve never said before how these hikes end. It´s easy to imagine... in a Pub with a beer in one hand and a hamburguer on the other What did you think? ;-)

PD: No, we didn´t get lost but I broke my camera at the beginning. Well, it seems to work but the screem is dead. In fact, all this pictures were shot my way -this camera hasn´t got visual len- but they look cool.

It´s raining.....

It´s been raining the last 2 days. Everybody is pretty upset and it seems I´m the only one that likes this weather....

















The trick is that you only have to thing about the weather that you have to suffer in summer in Madrid: hot like hell, drought, lack of water, nights without sleep... Suddendely you realize you feel relieved and you don´t really miss the hell of Madrid.

For sure this opinion would´ve been totally different if I lived in Vancouver ;-)

n th Hiking

Wanderung again. In this case we hiked "Goat Mountain". Almost 1400m elevation gain in 13 km. Pretty hard but it was worthwhile. That´s for sure.

In this photo you can see "Coliseum lake", which is in the base of "Goat Mountain"

And you know what? In this hike we didn´t get lost. Yes, I know, hard to belive but true (yeah!!)

The Tipping Point

Chapters is a big book store that you can find in all the cities of Canada -and I guess in USA as well-. Honestly, I love to get lost myself in this store. You know I can´t stand with crawded rooms like supermarkets and the likes -that´s the reason I don´t like "La casa del libro" in Madrid-, but I am able to be in Chapters for hours.

Besides there is always a Starbucks inside this store, so you can choose a book, ask for a coffee and start to read it. And if you don´t like it you only have to put it back in the bookcase.

The thing is that everytime I go to there I buy a book. I allways find something interesting. The last one was "The Tipping Point". When I saw the tittle I was sure that I have read a good review about it. But I didn´t realize what this book is about until I read the back cover. "The tipping point" is the moment when a little change, idea, social behaviour crosses a hot point and spreads everywhere making a big different. "Just like a sick person can start a epidemic of the flu".

One good example: What was the tipping point for "Jarabe de palo"? No doubts it was the Ducados ad. and the worth of mouth -by the way, do you remenber when most of people though "La flaca" was Juan Perro´s? .. maybe this misunderstunding helps as well.

It´s easy to see that in business, in life, in relationships... we always try/avoid to reach the tipping point. It always makes the different between sucess and failure.

By the way, don´t ask me if I liked the book. I´ll read it when I am back in Spain.

Mexico´s presidential elecction

Some days ago I asked to a Mexican guy what the hell was happening in Mexico. I´m sure you know the issue: Obrador has challenged the count and claims the presidential elecction has been a fraud -only 240.000 votes (0,6%) difference -
To make a long story short, this guy told me that the real problem is that "Obrador clings before hand he will refuse to accept the final result even if a recount confirms Calderon´s victory". And, if this is the case, how can Mexican people relay on Obrador, his idea of democracy and lust for power?

I´m getting used to.....

Honestly, I´m getting used to American-Canadian Cafes.

Yes, I know, it´s supposed there is nothing like the Spanish Cafeterias. It doesn´t matter where ever you are, you allways will be able to find a cafeteria and to ask for a "cortado, con leche, solo, cortado corto de café, con sacarina..."

But the thing is that when you want to stay alone for a while - maybe relaxing or maybe just reading a book- the Spanish cafeterias are not the best room to stay. And I´m not talking about the likes of Starbuck´s but the likes of Jave Café.

Java Café is a small and cozzy café settled in Broadway Avenue where you can just relax reading a book in a comfortable armchair and listening to Pop/Blues music.. And what can I say about the desserts? My God! The triple-chocolate-muffin must be a sin because it tastes too good to be free of side effects.

Ice Cave

Near Edith Cavell there is a small glacier and sometimes nature is capricius...
Can you see the black point on the botton of this photo?


Well, that the entrance of the ice cave. Awesome, isn´t it?

Stone trees?

There is neither trick nor cheat.
So... How the damn can such a trees grow up in a stone wall??!??!??

- This photo was shot in Rampart Creek-