My English competence in 2015

Reading my posts from this year, the one that I think it's my best is: http://crazymindedteen.blogspot.com.es/2015/02/teenage-routine.html

I have chosen this one because it's really personal and when I write something about what I really like it's easier to write. There are other posts where I wrote about something personal but this one really define me.

Listening my pod casts from this year, the one I prefer is: http://crazymindedteen.blogspot.com.es/2015/02/podcast.html

In the precedent post I said that my pronunciation has improved a lot so it's quite normal that my last pod cast is the one I prefer. The topic of this pod cast was one we did in class, so the topic isn't why I chose it. I think my pronunciation in this one is better than the others that's why.

Goodbye

This is it, after two years of doing this blog for the English class, I'm done!

Actually, I have enjoyed doing this blog because it had helped me a lot to improve my English. Comparing my first composition with the last one I think I have improved. I can't say that I have improved a lot because I think that a the beginning of the year I already had a good level. Of course reading the posts from last year or the ones from the beginning of this year I can see a difference.

About the oral presentations, I improved more with the oral presentations than I did with the writings. Obviously I don't have a perfect pronunciation but it's better than the one from the beginning of the year. 

Formal letter to UNICEF

UNICEF Association

London, England

NW11

15th January 2015

UNICEF Association

New York, USA

00501

Dear Mr. Lake

I am writing this letter to you to ask you if you could send more help to the English groups of UNICEF to Zimbabwe. We have some groups deployed there but they need more help and we can not send people there because they already are in others countries trying to help with the starvation. I wish I had not to ask for help but we really need more people. We do not know what to do any more, we have already done more collect journeys to collect money to buy and send medicine. Thanks to those journeys some people decided to be benevolent and go there to help, but unfortunately there are not enough. 

I am looking forward to your answer.

Yours faithfully,

Claire Stylinson. 

AC/DC

Next 29th May I'm going to AC/DC's concert in Barcelona. You could think that I'm just okay, but I'm not. I'm totally freaking out! AC/DC! I repeat, AC/DC! I'm going to see one of the best Rock and Roll groups of all the time in concert! I'm dying inside.

My dad was the one who showed me all the Rock and Roll groups, a lot of them are those that he listened to when he was young like AC/DC, Rolling Stones, Queen,etc. So when I saw that AC/DC was going to do a concert in Barcelona I knew I has to go. My dad was okay with going, he never saw them in concert. The tickets were quite expensive but it's worth it, you never know when you'll have this opportunity again, and the group isn't really young, maybe they won't do another tour, who knows. We are going to the concert with a friend and some friends of our friend. We will go to Barcelona early in the morning so we will spend the day outside the place where the concert is and try to have good places for the concert. The concert start at 22 pm and it will end late so we decided that we will spend the night at a hotel in Barcelona.

I only can think about the fun I will have. Some people, of course people that don't like AC/DC, think that it's stupid to go because this group is old and nobody likes this kind of music. But me being me and loving this group and others I just can't wait. I can't even believe it. This group is one of the best and the members are legends! I'm just so excited!

Funfair, festival and friends

Last weekend was a "big" weekend, on Thursday and Friday we didn't have school, so we had a four-day weekend. That was great because I was able to relax a lot, more than I actually do. I didn't spend four days in bed or on the couch though, only three. 

On Thursday I went to the mall in Girona with my best friend, we spent the day there until five in the afternoon. When we came back at home we got ready to go to the festival (we call it "barraques" here) in Figueres. We went to the festival at 11 pm with another friend of us. We went to some attractions at the funfair (the funfair and the festival were near to each other) and then we met with my boyfriend and his friends there. The night was really nice, it wasn't too cold and it was really fun. We had some drinks so everyone was laughing and having a good time. We found some of our classmates there, they were quite drunk too like us.

We  decided to go back at home at four in the morning, we said goodbye to each other because that night I went to sleep at my boyfriend's house. We woke up quite early considering we went to sleep late. We literally spent the day sleeping. I went back at home on Friday evening. 

Saturday mornin I cleaned my room like every Saturday morning and then did nothing for the whole afternoon. On Sunday I spent the day in my room doing nothing productive, just sitting in my bed with my computer and phone. On Sunday afternoon my parents and sister went to the funfair with some friends so I had the house for myself. It was relaxing, because there was no noise. And of course it was still too short because next day it was Monday and nobody wants to go back at school.

Summer Vibes

This is it, summer is coming! Good weather is already here, swimming pools and gardens are being cleaned and... school is ending!

This year wasn't a good year for me at school and I'm going to repeat my last year but that's not a problem, I'm not sad, angry or anything. But I'm so happy that summer is almost here.

This summer I'm not working, my father always works and some summers my mom works too and this summer she works, so I'll stay at home and help cleaing the house more than I already do and my parents will give me more money. The good things about not working is that I will have a lot more free time and I already know what I'm going to do. The boring thing I'm going to do is the TDR, but I don't think I'm going to stress a lot beacuse I like the topic ("The Hippie movement"). So this summer I'm going to spend time with my friends, train as much as I can, try and improve my skateboarding skills and, that's something I talked with my parents and something I really want, I'll buy a guitar and learn how to play it. Of course I will enjoy my swimming pool.

The not so good thing is that next year I won't have much money as I had this year , I'll survive though.

So yeah, these are my plans for this summer.

Dance the whole night!

In one image he was dancing enthusiastically and in the other he was bowing head, ashamed, after the bullies laughed at him "spotted this specimen trying to dance the other week". Those pictures were spotted by Cassandra Fairbanks, from California, on 4chan. She then tweeted them on Thursday, asking help to identify the man, "Anyone know this man or who posted this? There's a huge group of ladies in LA who would like to do something special". On Friday, he was successfully identified as Sean from London and he has been sent VIP invite to dance party in LA. In a later tweet, Ms. Fairbanks said of her group of 1727 women: "We would like to fly him to LA for a VIP dance party with the coolest and most awesome ladies in LA, please help...".Musical superstars like Pharrell Williams, Moby and Andrew W.K have all lent their support to the Londoner now know as Dancing Man. Pharrel asked Cassandra to keep him informed about the party and tweeted to Sean: "Never be ashamed of yourself". He says he'll pay the party. The same warm sentiment was offered by Moby (Richard Melville Hall) who offered his DJ services for free.

No one should ever be ashamed of what they are and how they are. This man is not a professional dancer, neither are the guys that posted the pictures and that horrible comment, the ones that laughed at him because he was dancing and enjoying the concert he was at. No one is perfect, everybody, everyone of us, have our defaults, we shouldn't be ashamed of them, especially when this man, Sean, was just dancing! It's seems that people still don't understand that words hurt, sometimes more than physical pain. Bullying is a huge problem now a days, a lot more now with all the social networks. A lot of people kill themselves because they're being bullied, mocked and insulted, and why? because they are themselves, because of their bodies, because of their religion or their sexuality and, the one that I'll never understand, because the ones who do it consider themselves "normal" but nobody is "normal". What's "normal" in the first place? Everyone is different!

What Cassandra Fairbanks did is really kind, there should be more people like her. All of this have a happy ending thanks to her and all the people that helped her. Sean shouldn't be ashamed of how he dances, nobody should be because the ones that make others feel bad, they aren't worth it and they should be ashamed of doing this. 

Expensive parties

Six fraternities of the University of Michigan celebrated a party at a ski resort which caused a bill damage of $500.000. At the beginning it was estimated $75.000 damage but after a full assessment of the 45 rooms and connecting hallway plus the loss of revenue and damage to the brand's reputation has seen the price multiply by six. Now, the fraternity that originally apologized, Sigma Alpha Mu, don't want to pay the bill, according to Batty Owens, general manager of Treetops in Gaylord.

Owens told MLive: "The destruction done to Treetops Resort by University of Michigan fraternity students in mid-January is now near or beyond $430.000."

While an investigation is ongoing, the university said that they expect the students who are responsible to pay the bill to the Treetops for the damages.

Owens also called on Sigma Delta Tau to contribute to the payment, which includes cleaning fees.

It turns out that members of other organizations from the Ann Arbor, Michigan school did a similar case at an another hotel the same weekend. The damage done to Boyne Highlands resort is also estimated to be worth tens of thousands. Since then the six fraternities implicated in the two parties have been suspended by their national organization while the university and police investigate the incidents.

Sigma Alpha Mu President, Joshua Kaplan said his members are embarrassed and ashamed of the behaviour of some members and that his fraternity accepts full responsibility and will be working with the management of the resort to pay for all damages and cleaning costs. "This behaviour is inconsistent with the values, policies and practices of this organization" said Kaplan. "We will work within our own organization and with university officials to hold those who are responsible accountable for their actions" he commented.

Suspension by their national organization means that the members of the fraternities involved may continue to live in their campuses house but can not participate in social activities, including parties or representing their organization at university functions.

What all those students did is really inappropriate and, excuse me for the language, really stupid. I agree that when you're at a party you just enjoy and if you have been drinking and are drunk you don't think in the consequences of your acts. But I don't know why and how people can break things, that aren't even theirs, during a party. I mean, when you are at a party you drink, dance, play and talk with people but you don't break things. Even more when you are in a public place, a hotel where you have to pay for  the rooms and the time you stay there, I would understand if maybe during the party something fragile breaks but the whole room, they even break the ceiling! I totally agree that the hotels want to receive money for the damages, it's normal. If I was the one judging that case I would make the fraternities pay, help at the reparations and they wouldn't be able to participate at any university activity.

Social network: Twitter

Twitter had been created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass. Twitter is a social network where you can send and read 140-character messages, these messages are visible by default but can be restricted. These messages are called "tweets" and you can retweet and favourite them. On Twitter you don't have "friends" you have followers. The fact of trending on Twitter is when a lot of users talk about a topic and to make it easier they use the "#" at the beginning of the word or sentence. The more popular trending topics are about celebrities, events, sports and world conflicts. There are accounts on Twitter that are verified, the fact of being verified validates the identity of the owner of the account, examples of verified accounts are celebrities accounts.

Do people have moral?

There is an Instagram account, called "The murder mall", that mocks eccentric and homeless people. The account publishes pictures of people at the Surry Hills Shopping Village in inner city Sydney accompanied by cruel captions. One of the worst thing is that almost 2000 people follow the account which makes fun at unfortunate people as overweight and homeless people, police officers and anyone being "comic" to the owner and contributors of the account.

When this article was published there were 270 posted pictures on the account and a lot of Instagram users commented their disgust to the account commenting pictures or tweeting about it on Twitter.

The account had been reported and deleted but if you put "#murdermall" on Instagram you can see that people still use the hashtag posting inappropriate pictures of unfortunate people.

I'm totally shocked about this account, it's just so disgusting how people can laugh at unfortunate people and the fact that the account had almost 2000 followers! How can people do that? Don't they have a moral? I think that's just another problem of the "internet generation", people hide behind their computers and phones screen an make fun of other people that they don't always know, like in this case, the majority of the time people who use internet and social networks to make fun and insult people are the ones who have some kind of problem in their life, above all teenagers and young adults. It's a good thing that the account had been deleted but the fact that people still use the hashtag makes me sick. Unfortunately, there is a lot more of this kind of account, not only on Instagram but also on Facebook and Twitter, but little by little peoples mind start to change and see that these accounts are not appropriate.

Racist director of human rights charity

Last week a group of Chelsea supporters was involved in an allegedly racist incident on the Paris Metro, one of the men, Richard Barklie, 50 years old, from Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland was a former police officer and human rights activist.

Since the incident Mr. Barklie has been suspended by the Wave Trauma Centre in Belfast where he helped victims of the Northern Irish troubles. Mr. Barklie is one of the three men whose images were released by Scotland Yard as part of an investigation into a group of supporters who allegedly pushed a black man, Souleymane Sylla, off the train and singed a racist song in Paris, France.

The incident happened before of Chelsea’s Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain, which ended 1-1.

Mr.Barklie admitted through his lawyer his involvement in the incident that resulted in Souleymane Sylla being unable to enter part of the train. He said he had an account he wanted to provide to the police that would explain the “context and circumstances”.

Mr. Barklie denied singing any racist songs, he said he travelled to the game alone, he insisted he did not know any of the other individuals captured on the video of the incident and said he has never been part of any “group or faction” of Chelsea fans.

The Wave Trauma Centre said it had suspended a part-time worker pending further investigation into the Paris incident. “As this matter is subject an investigation by the Metropolitan Police it would not be appropriate to comments further at this stage” said a spokesman for the charity.

The three men had now been identified and the force was liaising with the French authorities, none of them have been arrested though. A police spokesman said the force cannot arrest people for offences which happen outside the UK but a number of people have now been spoken to in relation to the incident. Five people have so far been suspended from Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground following investigations into the incident. The club has reiterated its promise to ban for life anyone proved to have been involved in the altercation and is helping police in the UK and Paris. Jose Mourinho, Chelsea manager, said the club are “appalled” by the racial abuse, adding that owner Roman Abramovich is also “disgusted”.

Meanwhile, police are seeking a gang of men, believed to be Chelsea fans, who were heard shouting racist chants at London St. Pancras station on Wednesday evening.

Talking with Noa

Last week in the English class we chatted via Skype with an ex-student from my high school. The reason of it is that she went to Australia, in Sydney, to be an au pair.

She explained us why she did it, her reasons to do it and why she picked Australia. Right now I'm still really really really jealous of her. Leave your town to go to AUSTRALIA to be an au pair and of course practise your English.

She explained us her daily routine, take the kids to school, then go to class, enjoy the beach, go to pick the kids at school, take care of them, which seems really cool to do. She said the family she was with was really nice. The negative thing was that Sydney is really expensive compared to others cities in Australia like Melbourne.

I think she is really lucky to be able to do that. I would love to be an au pair and travel to another country. I already did some research last summer about it and I will probably do it, I just have to wait until I'm 18. I would go to England first, London first and then I would do it again but in Birmingham, Manchester or Liverpool, or all of them. Then I would go to Ireland, in Dublin. I would go there first because of the weather, I like rainy and cloudy days ( I know, normally people prefer sunny and hot days, but not me), the lifestyle there is really different and of course because there are my favourite countries. Then I would go to Australia (the weather is really different compared to England and Ireland but I love Australia too much lol). 

Back to what Noa said, it was really nice from her to explain us her experience and she gave me more reasons to do it. It's an experience you only can do when you are young, so why would I miss it?

Worst dressed at the Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards is the music's biggest night of the year, all the eyes were on the red carped at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles last 8th February for the 57th Grammy Awards.

All these kinds of events are perfect for designers to show their creations and the best of it, is that the creations are worn by celebrities. Unfortunately for some celebrities things don't go well. For example Madonna, Rihanna and Kaya Jones this year.

Madonna wore a disastrous Givenchy burlesque get-up, complete with corset, leather gloves, fishnet stockings and thigh-high boots. At one point she even turned from the cameras and lifted her skirt up flash her thong-clad derriere. (eww!) 

Rihanna didn't looked gross, she resembled a giant cupcake when she arrived in a frothy lurid pink Giambattista Vali creation.

The ex Pussycat Doll star, Kaya Jones, made sure she stood out with her ruffled black gown, which was hitched up to just below the knee, and the yards of fabric that trailed behind it.

These are just some example, there more celebrities who nobody knows how they could wore the dresses they were wearing. I think that celebrities could try and dress better and stop wearing what they wear to get attention. Madonna is now 56 years old, I don't think what she wore was really acceptable. Rihanna looked cute with that dress but I don't think it's glamorous enough for the event or another event, it doesn't have a good form or anything. And then, Kaya Jones, that dress is just ugly, there is too much froufrou on the skirt, there is too much details on the top and the tail... just ugly. 

Not really innocent

Before to start reading I think you should watch the trailer of the film, it might help you to understand the article.

"I don't want my family to see it.": Dakota Johnson says hot scenes in Fifty Shades of Grey are "inappropriate" for her parents.

There are a lot of things we don't share with our parents, it's totally normal. For Dakota Johnson, on of those things is her hot scenes in the highly anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey. She confessed to Glamour magazine: " I don't want my family to see it, because it's inappropriate. Or my brother's friends that I grew up with. Also there's a part of me that's like, I don't want anyone to see this movie - just kidding."

Dakota's co-star, Jamie Dornan, as Christian Grey, also thinks that there are a few people that should perhaps give it a miss too. He admitted that he probably won't be too comfortable when his daughter, now one year old, will be older. "When my daughter's 18, I'm not going to be going, "You've gotta watch Daddy in Fifty Shades of Grey", but there will be greater things to protect her from than dad's ass on the big screen". He said joking.

In order to stay loyal to the story, Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director of the film, did extensive research into the world of BDSM. She recently revealed that she consulted a professional dominatrix for the film and she said she "learned a lot" from her.

She told The Independent: "The sex scenes are pretty intense, so I'm sure people are going to feel aroused - but I've seen them so many times that I tend to forget."

EL James, the author of the trilogy, has reportedly sold over 100 million  copies of the books in the whole world and it has been translated into more than 50 languages. The film is one of the most highly anticipated films of the year, with the trailer having already been watched a massive 45 million times on YouTube. The movie will be at the cinemas on Valentine's day in the majority of the world.

I would be lying if I said that I won't go to the cinema to watch it, but after reading stuff about it I even would go just to watch people's faces, to see how they react, above all men's faces, I'm sure it would be hilarious. 

Teenage routine

In their blogs people usually talk about their passions, hobbies and all, well, me being me I don't really have a passion or a hobby. All I know is that I enjoy listening to music, read, write and do nothing. I don't know if listening to music can be considered a hobby but I know that a lot of people spend free time reading so that can be considered a hobby. (I found my hobby!).

When I listen to music normally I just lay in bed with my phone or computer on twitter or other social networks or I just look at the ceiling, thinking about everything. Also, the type of music I listen to depend in what mood I am, that's also why I write. I mean, depend in what mood I'm I listen to specific music and write. I also write when I think to much about something, above all something that happened that day at school or something between my parents and I. It my be quite confusing, well, us teenagers, aren't really easy to understand.

I spend a lot of time reading, every time I have free time, which is almost always, when I'm at home, when I'm bored and maybe sometimes in class too, not my fault if the lessons are boring... I have this app on my phone, Wattpad, where people can write a book/story and post it, that's maybe why I read a lot, you just have to choice a topic, and find a book that seems good and read it. And it's totally free.

Just before I said that when something happen I write, yes, like a journal if you want to put a name to that notebook even if I don't consider it a journal. Well, I also write on Wattpad, for the moment it's not really a big deal, it's just a story. Nobody have read it and I don't think someone will, I'm sure it's bad anyway. I just like to keep writing that story because I maybe, maybe not, describe a little my life, and also maybe one of the characters, Megan a 17-year-old girl, is based in me, so yeah...

I don't really go out with friends, above all now that I'm grounded, not because I don't enjoy being with them, it's just that I like being in my little world with my music and my books, I try to escape reality and I like it because it works. Some people even say that I'm lonely, but if lonely means to stay away from stupid people and enjoy doing simple things, then yes, I'm lonely.

I don't know what to say more, I don't do much. My life is just like the same day again and again. I go to school, then at home, I listen to music, read, write and sleep, and start again the next day. God, my life sounds so pathetic.

Speaking

Go and travel around the world

One of my biggest dreams is to travel around the world, to visit the five continents. When I say "travel" I mean take some clothes, other necessary things and my passport and just go. If I could I would do it right now, with the money I have I would go to a country here in Europe, find a cheap motel, find a job just to have some money to eat and pay the motel, it could be in a bar or something similar, and when I would have enough money I would change of country, and keep going. Of course I know it would be really difficult but the fact of travelling, meeting new people, learning about other cultures sounds so amazing. The idea of travelling is also to try and go to concerts all around the world and have fun. I already can't wait until I can do it! 

I know you are probably wondering what about studies? The fact is, I don't care. I just want to be able to travel and have fun wherever in the world. I had think about when I will have travelled in all the countries I wanted to, I would go back to London and stay there, I don't know where I would work but, again, I don't care, meanwhile I have enough money to live in a flat and eat it will be enough. For the moment I say London because is my "city dream" but maybe after I will change my mind and stay in another country. Well, of course all of this is a dream, but I promise myself to achieve it one day. For the moment my parents want me to graduate from school and find something to study to have a good job and all, what all parents want for their children, but I don't know what to study. Travelling it's the only thing in my mind right now, that's why I can't wait until I'm 18, even if my parents won't approve it either. Everyone would think that all I want is waste my life, well, maybe it's what I want but I prefer to call it "having fun while I can", like they say, "life is too short", so I prefer imagining a fun life than a boring one.

My Christmas and New Year

As every year for Christmas I went with my parents and sister to France, near to Bordeaux where my uncle, aunt and cousins live. They are from my dad's family, my dad and uncle are brothers. We stayed there five days, too long for me. We arrived on the 24th in the afternoon to be there for Christmas' Eve. My aunt works in a shop so she had to work, not Christmas day of course, so I didn't see her a lot, which is not a problem. I don't really appreciate my uncle and cousins so it was nice that my cousin's girlfriend was there, she's really nice. Those five days were so boring that it was nice to come back, i couldn't wait for New Year.

For New Year's Eve my parents, sister and I went to dinner with our friends, we were 18 in total. It was really funny. After dinner I went with a friend, her boyfriend and, now, my boyfriend to a party. We went to a lounge bar in town, we had a lot of fun. I arrived at home at 4:30am a little tired and maybe a little drunk too. In the morning I woke up at 10:30am totally exhausted but not hungover at all, lucky me! and I spent my day watching movies in bed.