Olentzero...

Olentzero is a basque Christmas tradition. It is the equivalent to Santa Claus.

The Olentzero is a charcoal that is represented as a thick man that likes to eat and drink well, shabby and stained with coal. He lives isolated from society, in the forest, dedicated to make charcoal. Every winter he comes down from the mountains to the villages to bring presents to the children.

Here are some pictures of him...

The Olentzero song is here in this video in Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEe18R5tYF4

Feliz Reyes!

Los Reyes Magos is a typical Spanish holiday celebrated on the 6th of January. It represents the three kings that went to visit Jesus when he was born. Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar were guided by a star that led them to Belen. They gave Jesus 3 gifts. Gold, incense and myrrh. Each gift is symbolic. Gold acclaims Jesus as King of Kings, the aromatic incense acclaims Jesus as God, and myrrh (substance or perfume used in embalming dead bodies) recognizes Jesus as a mortal man.


It is also typical in Spanish families to eat "roscon de Reyes"the 6th of January. It is type of biscuit that has a little present in the inside. It can have whiped cream or candied fruit. It totally depends on the consumer of the "cake".


This is a link to go visit the "Magic Kings":
http://www.web.buzonreyesmagos.com/

Happy New Year 2010!!!

Happy 2010!!! Today is the last day of this fabulous year 2009. Aww what a pitty...but the year that is coming is going to be better than the year that just ended, I'm sure.

Some curious ways of celebrating the New Year are the brazilian and the colombian. Here, have a read.

Brazilian New Year

In Brazil the lentil signifies wealth, so on the first day of the New Year they serve lentils and rice. A sacrificial boat with flowers, candles and jewel

ery is sent to sea from Ipenama, a beach in Rio de Janeiro.

* This picture is New Year in Copacabanna, Brazil.

Colombian New Year

In Colombia, it is tradition to make a puppet of a person that represents the New Year. The figure is made from old cloth and stuffed with straw and fireworks. It is usual to wear yellow underware to attract love in the new year.

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!! Today is December 27th, two days after Christmas and I forgot to wish to everybody a very happy, joyful and warm Christmas night.

So this is it for now, Merry Christmas!!!

Look, here you can send Christmas e-cards to all your friends and family!!!
The e-cards are free!

http://www.123greetings.com/

Summer Holidays

This summer was unforgettable. I visited countries I had never visited before. I discovered new cultures, languages and different ways of living. Europe is a very complex continent, and I had the chance of visiting five European countries: Germany, Austria, Italy, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland.

In Munich, Germany I have a new baby cousin which I was looking forward to meet. She is 10 months old and she has an older sister who is 2 years old. They only speak German so I had to learn some words to be able to speak with them. In Munich, I visited the enormous and majestic City Hall. It is built in a gothic style with decorative statues in every corner.

Innsbruck is a small city located in west Austria. Its characteristic river, Inn, flows down straight from the Austrian Alps.
Salzburg is another city in Austria. It is worldwide known for Mozart’s birth place. We had the chance to actually be in this great musician’s house and enjoy his music in an official opera. We learned he had seven children but only two made it to adulthood. http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Austria/Bundesland_Salzburg/Salzburg-323407/Things_To_Do-Salzburg-Mozarts_House-BR-1.html

Milan is the “fashion” city of Italy. The expensive shops; such as Prada, Gucci, Dolce & Gabanna or Louis Vuitton are the icons of this wonderful Italian city. The extravagant Duomo was located in the main plaza, and it was there for anyone to admire. http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/milan-cathedral

In Vaduz, Lichtenstein, I learned that the small country is 160 square kilometers. We visited the duke’s official castle and Lichtenstein’s peculiar museum.

Finally, I visited Switzerland. Bern, apart from being known for its spectacular fondue; it was also the home of Albert Einstein. He was born in Germany but he shortly immigrated to Bern to begin with this theory of relativity. http://www.einstein-bern.ch/index.php?lang=en

As you can see, my vacations were not only relaxing, they were also very enriching culturally. I visited Mozart’s house, Einstein’s house, the Duomo, the Alps…and the best thing was that I lived this marvelous experience with my loving family.

European elections 2009

European elections 2009: Spain

A new political party is challenging Spain's traditional bi-partisan system with the promise of a "third way" in the upcoming European elections.
Centro Democratico Liberal (CDL) aim to take Spain's two main parties, the PSOE and the PP.
Sean O'Curneen, the leader of the CDL, is heading the list of candidates in Spain, where there is only one constituency and MEPs are elected on the basis of proportional representation.
European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) hopes to win the vote of Spain's foreign population with a promise to end corruption.
"Our main objective for these elections is to let people know there is an alternative," Mr O'Curneen said.

Spain had 50 seats. 2 Left, 1 Green, 21 Socilaists, 3 Liberal, 23 EPP.

European elections 2009: Basque Country

PNV wins European Parliament elections in Basque Country with 28.5%.
According to official results, Basque Nationalist Party PNV won Spanish Socialist Party in the Basque Country. PP obtained more than half million votes than PSOE in Spain.

Peer to Peer, Open Source, Open Office

Peer-to-peer

Peer-to-peer are networks that are used for sharing files/data. You can share music, videos, films or any other data in digital format.
The clients initiate the download/uploads, and the servers respond to these requests. The servers and the clients are anonymous.
Some examples of these networks are: Napster, KaZaA, CAN,Gnutella, E-mule, BitTorrent.

Advantages
All clients provide bandwidth, storage space, and computing power.
Most networks are free.

Disadvantages
Possibility of allowing viruses/spyware.

Disrespect of the artist’s right to copyright.

Excessive use of bandwidth
Too much clients could mean slower data transfer for all users.

Open source

Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process.
It includes a source code and it´s distribution is free.
Open Source has a better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility ana a lower cost.
Intermediate steps such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.
The rights of the program must apply to everyone who uses the program.

Open Office

Open Office is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing and more.
It is available in many languages and works on all common computers.
It can read files from other common office software packages.
The download is free.
OpenOffice.org 3 has the LGPL license. This means it can be used for many purpose - domestic, commercial or educational.
To achieve OpenOffice.org 3, software engineers have worked for over twenty years.

Nuevo Gobierno Vasco

- Partidos políticos representados en el Parlamento.
PSE-EE, PSE, PP, UpyD, EAJ-PNV, Aralar, EA, Ezker Batua
- Nombre del presidenta del Parlamento y partido político.
Arantza Quiroga. Partido político, PP.
- Nombres de los candidatos a la presidencia del Gobierno.
Juan José Ibarretxe; coalición PNV-EA. Patxi López; PSE-EE.
- Nombre del candidato ganador.
Patxi López del PSE-EE.
- Partidos que votaron a favor del ganador y nº de votos.
PSE, PP y UpyD han votado a favor de Patxi López con 39 escaños.
- Partidos que votaron a la candidatura que no gano y nº de votos.
PNV, Aralar y EA apoyaron a Juan José Ibarretxe con 35 escaños en total.
Ezker Batua se ha abstenido.
- Las diferentes carteras (consejerías) del gobierno actual.
- Los nombres de los diferentes consejeros (ministros).
Los ministros/as hacen un compromiso de fidelidad a las disposiciones del Estatuto y la Constitución, y la referencia a la ciudadanía vasca en lugar de a Euskadi.
El nuevo Gobierno Vasco tendrá 10 consejerías que serán dirigidas por cinco hombres y cinco mujeres. Su composición es la siguiente:
Consejero de Interior.................................................Rodolfo Ares
Consejera de Educación, Universidades e Investigación…..Isabel Celaá
Consejero de Economía y Hacienda............................. Carlos Aguirre
Consejera de Justicia y Administración Pública...............Idoia Mendia
Consejero de Vivienda, Obras Públicas y Transportes......Iñaki Arriola
Consejero de Industria e Innovación............................Bernabé Unda
Consejera de Empleo y Asuntos Sociales......................Genma Zabaleta
Consejero de Sanidad y Consumo.................................Rafael Bengoa
Consejera de Medio Ambiente, Planificación Territorial,
Agricultura y Pesca.....................................................Pilar Unzalu
Consejera de Cultura...................................................Blanca Urgell

Faculty of Veterinary Science - Melbourne, Australia

This is another interesting website about a Veterinary University in Melbourne, Australia.

http://www.vet.unimelb.edu.au/faculty.html

Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida

The last months in school we have had the advantage of initiating some orienteering lessons to learn about our options in the future.

I have been told that the best carees for me, according to my personality and abilities, are those that include science, such as doctor or engineer.

I enjoy working with animals this is the reason why I chose Veterinary Medicine as my future career. The College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida should be a fantastic choice.

http://www.vetmed.ufl.edu/college/

Carnival

This is my designed homemade costume:

" Carnival Hooray!"

Amazon.com’s Game Downloads Store Launches With 600+ Downloadable PC Games For Less Than $10

The Amazon Game Downloads store, www.amazon.com/gamedownloads, features more than 600 games for the increible price of $6.99 or $9.99. As a bonus for exploring Game Downloads store, they are offering three free, full-version games – “Jewel Quest 2,” “The Scruffs” and “Build A Lot.”

If for any reason someone misses this launch offer, there is no problem. Every game in the store is available for a free 30-minute trial.

Game Downloads store will continue to evolve over time, and they will appreciate the users opinion on how it can be improved.

This is an example of the game "Jewel Quest".

This game is "Totem Tribe".

And finally this game is about detectives and it is called "Hollywood".

Destruction in the Basque Country

On Monday 26 of January 2009 the Basque Country suffered from a very significant cyclone. We were warned during the week-end but we never suspected this storm was going to be the way it came out to be.

The students of ASB came to school at 9:00 am, as we normally did. When we arrived, a huge surprise was wating for us; ther wasn´t electricity in the school! The lights did not switch on, the classrooms were freezing, and the roof of the hall was blown away. When the students realized the gravity of the situation, joy was in their face.

¨If we do not have electricity ...this means we do not have school.¨
¨We cannot have class with no light, no heat no electricity.¨ I bet many of us thought that way.
However, the teacher´s situation was different. The students were out of control and the teaches were nervous. They couldn´t keep all of us save so they finally decided that the best way of protecting us was sending us home. That is exactlly what we did,we called our parents and they came to pick us up.

In San Sebastián the wind blew so roughly that the police had to help the people that were on the streets.



As you can also see this cyclone also caused severe floods in some businesses. This business for example is Mercado de la Ribera.

New Year Resolution

1.With today´s technology, fast typing is very useful and one of my goals this year is to learn how to type faster.



2.I love traveling and this year I would like to visit Grece.


3.China is now becoming a very important country and so is it´s language. Learning chinese is a good idea.




4.Scubba diving is a very relaxing sport and begin able to do it in the Pacific Ocean will be great!




5.On November 2008 my German baby cousin was born and I´m looking foward to meeting her.