Bye, my friend

Hey, ESO,

Yes, it's the time. Will you let me go, at the end? It's been a long time since I met you, walking throug the corridors, just a kid. Don't you remember? One who was scared of don't fit in with the other scared kids...

Well, it has been a nice time with you, growing up, starting to know how runs the world and starting to know myself and the society.Just like in the photo, I was covered by clouds, and you've been the wind who cleared me up.

Because you, ESO, you have made me change a lot. Actually, I've changed not because of you, but with you, you have seen my growth. I met you a kid, a dreamer kid. Now I am a boy with objectives, hopes, dreams and a lot of strength, positivism and energy to show to the world. Now I'm not as innocent as when we met for the first time, ESO, I've been too much deceptioned and I've met too people. But don't worry, you didn't want to do it to me, I know it, but it's necessary to grow up. I'm not angry with you because of the bad moments you leaded me to, I understand that some things are needed to happen.

The question is, will you miss me? And, more important for me, will I miss you? I hope no much! If I miss you, it would mean that I'm worse that when I was with you. Don't you be offended, you have been a good mate, but I want a better future!

I know I will feel melancholy because of you, because our soungs and our privacity, especially thinking in the moments of solitude, the moments when I closed into myself, the afternoons reading in the garden, doing the homework or listening to music.

And I have to say "Thanks, ESO", because you have brought a very important thing to me... Love. I'm really thankful to you because of that. Forgive me if I left you aside a little bit because of the love, I hope you understand it. Now, my life could be very different without love.

Well, what's left to say? I will miss you, my friend, but I could not start our relationship from zero again (LAZYNESS). I'll see you next year, just from one year away.

I'm leaving you, ESO, thanks for your company, good luck and wish me good things!

My world - Dixit

Dixit is a board game, specifically a card game. It was created in 2008; it's not an old game, but it has the old game's magic. The game rules are simple, but at the same time the game stands out because of it's complexity. Well, all depends of who you play it with. 

The game contains 80 different cards, every one with a different drawing. The cards is the key of the good game: the drawings are incredibly elaborated, with symbolism, beauty, colors, landscapes, objects...

To play there are needed four or more players (I raccomend more than five). I'm going to explain the rules ith examples of 4 players.

At the beginning, each player receives 6 cards. Then, the one who feels more inspired starts playing as the narrator.

The narrator choses one of his cards, he puts it down in the table (the other players can't see it), and he tells a short story, or he makes a sound, or he just says a word. Then, the other players have to choose one of their cards that they identify with the story, the sound or whatever and put it down in the table.

Then, the narrator shuffles the four cards and he shows them like in the photo (without the numbers).

 

Then, all the players exept the narrator have to vote at the same time what card do they think that is the card of the narrator, and here comes the key of the game.

The narrator wins if just one or two players have voted his card. If them all have voted his card he loses, the clue (story, sound...) can't be so obvious! If this happens, the narrator gets -6 points and the others +2 points. 

If no one votes the narrator's card, the narrator gets 0 points and the others get +2 points. The clue can't be too difficult!

In any other case, the narrator and the players who have voted his card win +3 points.

Except of the narrator, every player wins +1 point if someone votes his card.

(I usually play without points, they're no necessary, but they are useful to explain the objectives of tha game and to play with some kinds of people.)

Then, the left player of the narrator becomes the new narrator and they do all the steps again, until all the cards have been used.

I find this game very funny and at the same time to play it you need concentration and a little bit of inspiration, combined with a lot of originality. Dixit makes think in a way we aren't familiarized with, I think playing this game is a good exercice for owr brains.

This game has won a lot of awars in more than one country.

Of course, I love DIXIT!

News in Levels

3rd SpaceX rocket lands – level 3

03-06-2016 15:00

Billionaire Elon Musk has done it again, successfully landing this SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a platform floating in the middle of the ocean. As the rocket's descent speeds up, things started to look a bit rocky, but then out of nowhere, this happened. The Falcon 9 held firm as jets brought it to rest on the aptly named “Of course I still love you” drone ship, making this the third successful landing for SpaceX in a row.
"Lift off for the Falcon 9."
The 70-metre-tall rocket was launched Friday afternoon to deliver Thaicom 8, a telecommunications satellite. After the satellite was in orbit, it took just 9 minutes for the rocket to be safe back on Earth.
SpaceX has a backlog of more than 10 billion dollars’ worth of launch orders from customers, including NASA. If it can keep landing and reusing rockets like this one, Elon Musk is going to be having a very big Christmas bonus.

Difficult words: float (to rest on water), descent (coming down), rocky (difficult or full of problems), aptly (suitably), in a row (in succession – happening one after another), launch (to go up, to start), backlog (work that you need to do).

Read more: http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/a3rd-spacex-rocket-lands-level-3/

Summary:

Elon Musk has reached the third consecutive SpaceX rocket landing on a plataform in the ocean. In the new, they say that when the rocket was comming down, it seemed that the plan was going to have a bad ending, but at the end all runned well and the rocket landed exactly where it has to: in a drone ship called Of course I still love you (what a name to tell during the operation).

The rocket took three days to deliever the satellite Thaicom 8 into it's orbit, but it took just nine minutes to be safe on earth, over the ship that stills loving him.

If Elon Musk keeps saving rockets like this, he will won a lot of money, because a rocket r very, very, very expensive, it costs more than 10 billoin dollars.

My opinion: 

If Elon Musk reaches the objective of "save rockets", that would be a good news for the world of whom who work in satellites, comunication, space-observation... Because the price of every rocket launch could be fewer. Nowadays, a lauching of a rocket like the rocket of this news costro 8 million dollars at least, if the satellite is small. With the improvement of Musk, more contries would be able to put satellites in orbit and the technology would improve in general in this area. I hope he reaches his objectives!

My world - Shunga Jung

Few months ago my brother raccomanded me a video from youtube. This video showed an asian boy, called Shunga Jung, playing the guitar, and he played it very well. I watched the video and I didn't search more of his videos.
Two months later I was surfing on YouTube when I saw a video of Shunga Jung, and this time the way he played made me get interested and I browsed more of his videos. He is special because of his technique: he plays at the same time the melody and the accompaniment, but he plays the melody exactly how it sound in the original song. This is a good example: 

 

(Jason Mraz has invited him to play with him in more that one concert because of this video)

He's really good as well as young! Well, this video is a little bit old, now he is 20. 
I have seen a lot of his covers, and one of my favourites is his cover of Beat it(Michael Jackson):

He does his own compositions as well as covers, he has five albums between covers, collaborations and compositions. 

Today, loooking for information, I have found his official website, and there, this:

Sungha Jung (Born South Korea on September 2, 1996)  

Hi, I'm Sungha Jung from South Korea.

My dream is to become a professional acoustic fingerstyle guitarist.

I had been watching my dad play the guitar for awhile before I finally jumped on it myself three years ago.

Currently, I am taking drum lessons and teaching myself fingerstyle guitar.
I used to not have tabs for the music that I played in my videos.
I just listen and pick them up directly from the sound source in videos available on the internet.
However, recently, I have started playing with original tabs whenever they are available to me by courtesy of the authors.
My old guitar is custom made by Selma to fit my body size, and on it, Thomas Leeb wrote "Keep on grooving to my friend."

As of Jan. 1st, 2009 Lakewood acts as sponsor for my guitar officially.
I'm very grateful to those prominent guitarists who have had a great influence on my guitar playing.
I'll continue to study them and learn more about interpretation of music and various playing techniques.
My daily practice routine lasts for one to two hours when school is open, but I play up to three hours a day during the school breaks.
It usually takes me two to three days to practice and videotape a new piece but sometimes up to a week for more difficult ones.

Last, but certainly not least, I can't thank Ulli Bogershausen enough for being my musical inspiration. 

 It is hard to believe that he plays the songs just listening the music! At least, he needs to know very well the chords, the harmonies and the guitar techniques. Anyway, he is an amazing guitar player.

I have tried to play some of his songs, and I'm proud because now I can play this: 

Feeling proud of playing a song that a little child plays is a rare feeling, I can guarantee it. And even more, because I can not play it as well as him, but I still feeling proud.

Now I am trying with another one, River flows in you, origally played by Yiruma with a piano and arranged by Shunga Jung.

INTERSTELLAR

Christopher Nolan – director, producer, writer 
Jonathan Nolan – writer

We had to chose a film to coment it, a love film. I didn't want to chose the tipical love story, so I thought in other kinds of lovhe, apart of the romantic love. What about a film with "family love"? You could say that Interstellar isn't a love film, but there's a strong connection between the members of the main family. Specially between the main character,Cooper, and his daughter, Murphy. If you have seen the film, you'll understand wha tlove I'm reffering to. The main characters talk about the love too, the love to the live, the survival instinct...

[Film... 1:28:25]

• Cooper: You're a scientist, Brand.
• Brand: So listen to me when I say that love isn't something that we invented. It's... observable, powerful. It has to mean something.
• Cooper: Love has meaning, yes. Social utility, social bonding, child rearing...
• Brand: We love people who have died. Where's the social utility in that?
• Cooper: None.
• Brand: Maybe it means something more - something we can't yet understand. Maybe it's some evidence, some artifact of a higher dimension that we can't consciously perceive. I'm drawn across the universe to someone I haven't seen in a decade, who I know is probably dead. Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that, even if we can't understand it.

 
Plot: In the year 2054 Earth is devasted by disasters, sandstorms and droughts. The mankind realize that the time of living in the Earth has finished. The NASA (now a secret organization of the government) has found a wormhole in the solar system, allowing mankind to reach a new part of the universe, maybe with new planets.
Joe Cooper is a farmer and an ex-engineer and pilot, he is widower and he lives with his son (Tom) and his daughter (Murph).  One day a weird fact guides Joe and Murph to somewhere, and this will change  their future and the mankind's future.

 I don't want to explain more about the plot, NO-SPOILERS.

This film is one of my favourites ones. I love the science films in general, those that could be "real". In the film they talk about warmholes, the relativity, hiper-dimensional places or conceptions, problems with the time and the relativity... This makes me crazy! The relationships in the film are moving, the sad moments and the happy moments are balanced, there is a lot of tension too, but not too much. It is easy to feel empathy with the main characters. I like it also because it is a long finl (169 minutes) and it changes a lot while the time runs. It begans in an original way, then it seems a typical (but a good) science-fiction film, and then at the end... *****. The film is also a criticism of how we take care of our home, the Earth. The film is intense, and after watching it it doesn't let you indifferent.
I love all Christopher Nolan's film, he and his brother Jonathan Nolan are genius.

I raccomand this film to anyone who has time and wants to watch a good film, even to who doesn't like the sciencefiction. 

Interstellar has won a lot of awards too.

Quotes:

• Cooper: This world's a treasure, Don; but it's been telling us to leave for a while now.  

• [comforting his daughter] Cooper: I love you, forever. You hear me? I love you forever. And I'm coming back. I'm coming back.

• Brand: Time is relative, okay? It can stretch and it can squeeze, but... it can't run backwards. Just can't. The only thing that can move across dimensions, like time, is gravity.

• Dr. Mann: You're feeling it, aren't you? The survival instinct. That's what drove me. It's what drives all of us. And it's what's gonna save us. Cause I'm gonna save all of us. For you, Cooper. 

• Cooper: We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down, and worry about our place in the dirt.  

• Dr. Brand: Do not go gentle into that good night; Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

• Cooper: We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we've just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we've barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us. 

Romeo + Juliet - vs.- Romeo and Juliet

We read an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in class, and then we saw a film of the modern version of Romeo and Juliet (with cars, guns, cities...). Now we have to compare both versions and see the differences.

    1.  The firs differece is the sitting: in the original version the action takes place in Verona, Italy. In the version of the film, Romeo and Juliet they both live in Verona Beach, in the United States of America. The story of the film is moved up four centuries in the time-line, from the 16th century to the 20th century.

    2. In the film there is an important symbolism. I have noticed the importance of the water and the fire. The water appears often when Juliet and Romeo are toghether, for example in the aquarium, when they speak for the firs time. The aquarium isolates them of the rest of the guests of the party, giving them privacy. In the swimming pool of Juliet's house they play in the water, and Romeo falls on it too more times. The last time when we can see water in the film is when Romeo goes to the beach when Tybalt murders Mercutio, in the turning point of the story. So I say that the water represents the peace, the lovely part of the film. The fire symbolizes the violence, the hate between the two families, the reason of the tragedy, I saw it since the first scene of the film in the petron station. The place where Romeo lives while he is banished from Verona Beach is related with the fire too: dust, dryness, a hard sun.
    There is a lot of religious symolism. I think the screenwriters have been very truthful to the original version here. I could think it is just because the story changes too much if there's no religion, but I think there are more reasons, because there are a lot of useless "religious advertisments", like the Virgin on a gun. Maybe they are a reminder that the film is based in a story of four centurys ago. Anyway, this is like out of place.

    3. The narrator is the News: at the end the film uses the news to explain what happens after the death of Juliet and Romeo. I find that when the characters speak in verse is pretty nice. Juliet, Romeo, the Friar...

    4. Here is easy to see the meaning of the costumes: every costume is the representation of the character who wears it, it gaves a notion of what role is going to perform each character.

• Tybalt wears the costume of a demon as the demon who is he. In fact, in the party he wants to murder Romeo.
•  Romeo goes like a knight because of his honesty and kindness.
•  Juliet wears a costume of an angel because of her purity.
• Mercutio wears what he wears (I don't have an idea of what he wears) because of his personality in the film.

5. To make the new version, some important objects or places have been changed. 

• The swords have been changed for guns or for other weapons.
• There is no nobility, so the prince of the city has been changed for the police man and the noble families have been changed for rich families.
• The place of the dead of Romeo and juliet has been changed for thechurch, because now the people has to be buried or burned.
• All the problems between the Montagues and the Capuletshave been changed for problems of nowadays.
• The horses have been changed by cars.
• The plague that blocks friar Laurence's message in the book is changed for a post office problem.

There are more differences that I've noticed, for example in the film version all the facts are more public, more things happen on public places, like the church where the final act takes place, the chases in the city or the las scene (the news). Another difference is that in the film they've added tension, in a lot of moments the tragedy could be stopped by few seconds or few meters. Watching the film, even if I knew how it ends, I suffered more.
I preffer the book, basically because of one thing: imagining the story on the present i find ir more false, however imagining it in the past I find it more real.

Love song - Every breath you take (The Police)

Every breath you take   Cada respir que prenguis
Every move you make  Cada moviment que facis
Every bond you break  Cada enllaç que trenquis
Every step you take      Cada pas que facis
I'll be watching you           T'estaré mirant

Every single day                 Cada dia
Every word you say  Cada paraula que diguis
Every game you play        Cada joc que juguis
Every night you stay  Cada nit que et quedis
I'll be watching you            T'estaré mirant

Oh, can't you see     Oh, no ho pots veure?
You belong to me            Tú em pertanys
How my poor heart aches  Com lamenta el meu pobre cor

with every step you take                  cada pas que fas

Every move you make                 Cada moviment que facis
Every vow you break                     Cada promesa que trenquis
Every smile you fake         Cada somriure que simulis
Every claim you stake              Cada petició que estaquis
I'll be watching you                          T'estaré mirant

Since you've gone I've been lost without a trace            Desde que te n'has anat estic perdut sense camí
I dream at night I can only see your face     Somio per la nit i només puc veure la teva cara
I look around but it's you I can't replace   Miro al voltant però ets tu el que no puc sustituir
I feel so cold and I long for your embrace                 Em sento molt fred i lluny dels teus braços
I keep crying baby, baby please           Segueixo plorant, carinyo, carinyo, si usplau...

Oh, can't you see        Oh, no ho pots veure?
You belong to me                    Tú em pertanys
How my poor heart aches         Com lamenta el meu pobre cor

with every step you take               Cada pas que fas

Every move you make    Cada moviment que facis
Every vow you break    Cada jurament que trenquis
Every smile you fake    Cada somriure que simulis
Every claim you stake    Cada demanda que estaquis
I'll be watching you             T'estaré mirant

Every move you make    Cada moviment que facis
Every step you take      Cada pas que facis
I'll be watching you        T'estaré mirant

I'll be watching you          T'estaré mirant
(Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break)

I'll be watching you          T'estaré mirant

(Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play)

I'll be watching you          T'estaré mirant

(Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake)

I'll be watching you         T'estaré mirant

(Every single day
Every word you say) Ooh
(Every claim you stake)

I'll be watching you         T'estaré mirant

 

 

 

 This song talks about a lover who has been left by his loved girl. He cries and he sais that he will always be watching her, hurted and in love. 

I think it isn't a classical romantic song, because he is obsessed and he seems an stalker, but it sounds like a romantic song. I love that song, but i preffered it before knowing the complete meaning.

 

Sting wrote this song after the divorce with his first wife.

Italy

From 29th of March to the 3rd of April I was in Italy with all the 4ESO students crew, it was amazing! First, we went to the Barcelona airport by bus, and we took a plane from there to Italy, to Pisa. We were all insanely emotioned. Luckily, when we were in the bus we were too sleeped to do a lot of noise, and when we were in the plane we remained calmed.

The first day we arrived to Pisa near midday, we visitted the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa and its sorrounding area, and we had lunch there. There I ate my first pizza of the trip (a lot of pizzas more followed this one all along the week).

On the afternoon we did a short excursion through Lucca, a medieval city near Pisa. There I met a cousin of my mother, but sadly we left Lucca quickly. We slept in a hostel in Montecatini.

Next morning we went to Florence and we stayed there all day long. In the morning we visitted Santa Maria del Fiore, known as "il Duomo" too. It was incredibly high, and I liked a lot the internal structure. The most of the people gets stressed on the tight corridors, but I liked them too.

On the afternoon we walked arround the city, we just had to see some monuments. I went to the Medici's museum too. We slept in the hostel of Montecatini again. 

On the third day, we spent the morning in Siena, having a look  at the cathedral and  "La Piazza dil Campo". I didn't really like Siena, I found it nice but I was expecting more. I have to say that we hadn't enough time to enjoy the city, and no one explained us the history of the city or of the monuments we saw in every corner. We had lunch there, everyone on his own (I ate another delicious pizza).

On the afternoon we went by bus to Rome. I remember we stayed a long time in the bus, three hours at least.

We arrived to Rome late, so we relaxed a minute in the Hotel: we found our bedrooms, I took a shower... and then we went all together to a restaurant. After having dinner, we did a tour arround Rome: we went to Piazza Spagna, la Fontana di Trevi... La Fontana di Trevi is amazing. I was expecting an incredible fountain, but a classical fountain, not what I saw.

Rome really impressed me. I didn't had heard opinions about the city of Rome, because when people talks about Rome they usually talk about the Coliseum or about a monument, not about Rome in general. There were sculptures in every corner, fountains in every square... It is majestic.

On the fourth day we woke up early, and after having breakfast in the hotel we took the subway to  the Vatican City. We visited the Vatican Museums with a guide. I found the museums incredible, a lot of art, paitings, sculptures, emroideries... Just amazing. But I got quite angry because of the short time we had to saw it all, we just walked through the galleries and we stopped just in front of the most important things. But what about all the other things? I could be there  looking at every piece for ages! I became really indignate when we walked through the Cappella Sistina in less than two minutes... Well, what we saw was beautiful and I liked it a lot. After that three of us went a moment to see the cupola of the cathedral, the biggest duomo in the world.

Then, we returned to Rome and we had lunch.

In the afternoon we visitted the Pantheon. It is one of the monuments I liked the most, because it is enormous, strong, so ancient, it has a hole in its center and it is still perfect. I don't know how to express how made me feel the Pantheon.

Then we had dinner all together and then we returned to the hotel arround ten and a half. Some of us, including me, did another trip. We went to have an ice-cream at the best ice-cream shop of Rome. It was a little adventure, we had to find it, then we planned to go by bys and at the end we arrived safe. I thought that there couldn't be many differences between a good ice.cream and a normal ice-cream, and was wrong. Anyone who are you who is reading this now, I raccomand you to go to the Giolitti ice-cream shop, it is just incredible.

On the he fifth day we woke up, we had breakfast, and we went to the Colisseum. I expected more of the Colisseum, and I realized that it isn't a place to go and take selfies, laugh and enjoy the beauty of the architecture, but to think in the cruelty of the ancient roman society. They went there and they had fun, they drank, they did parties while people was fighting for his life just some meters away from them.

After the Colisseum we visitted the Roman Forum. Well, actually we walked through it (in that moment I became desperate like in the Vatican Museums). Then we had lunch on the center of Rome (the best luch I had in the trip). We bought groceries in a supermarcet too, because we knew that in the ship the food was so expensive.

Then we went to the hotel to took our equipment and we went to the port by bus. The ship wasn't in the harbour yet because of the bad weather of open sea, so we had to wait. 

I had never been in a big ship, and I enjoied it. Some people got travel sickness, but I loved the movements of the vassel, the changing gravity, it was really funny! My favourite place of the ship was the poop, a kind of balcony above the black sea (black on the night). I went to bed late and I woke up arround eleven. On the sixth day we played games, we talked, we played again... We played a lot: cards, games in the games-room... And, of course, we relaxed. And there's more: a flying instinct possessed my glasses and them flew away into the sea. It was because of the bad luck and because my girlfriend's hair. I love her, but in that moment I hated her a little bit... But it was a funny experience, seeing how my glasses fell slowly... Well, without glasses i didn't see very well, but altought this it was funny.

 

We arrived to Barcelona and the melancholy started. We returned to Castelló by bus and everyone went to his own house.

The worst I can say about the trip is that no one explained us what we were seeing, but in the Vatican. I got angry more than one time because of that, I was disperate! But I enjoyed a lot, it was funny, interesting, hard (we walked a lot), and thousands of things more!