INTERVIEW WITH SERGIO SAINZ-MAZA









1. How did you prepare for the race?

-Going running.

-Good nutrition, I had a balance diet.

-Tranning morning and afternoon, some days I was going to the gym.


2. What did you think when you finished it?

-I was satisfied and I was happy because there was a lot of waves, it caused that I vomited proximally at kilometer six, because I hadn´t taken the “Biodramine” which are pills to avoid dizziness, so it was difficult for me to finish but I finished first in my category.


3. Are you happy with your results?

-Yes, because although my results in swimming pool aren´t very good, in open waters in Sanabria within the 6.5 km reace I was fifth in my category, in which only people from Sabadell won, Galaico: which is a city of Galicia with very good people. And in this proof my results were good and the mark was so good too.


4. Would you repeat the heat again?

-Yes, but I would like to make another longer or harder race, for example in the North or some of 15 km, because I prepared so well that I could have made another even longer race.

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

Country: USA

Director: Nicholas Stoller

Genre: Comedy

Universal Pictures.

Synopsis: Second part of "Neighbors". Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) want to sell their house, but it is not going to be easy because it’s next to a college fraternity, where the girls continually celebrate parties where they claim feminism with the help of Teddy (Zac Efron). To meet the uncontrolled students and stop the parties Mac and Kelly need the help of Teddy and Pete (Dave Franco) to finally sell their house and live far away with their children.

ALERT: SPOILER!!

Personal opinion:

It is a perfect film to watch with your friends any day, it’s a comedy with the actors Zac Efron and Dave Franco so we don’t need more, anyway, Selena Gomez appears too so it makes the movie even better. We laught so much and the movie plot its typical american comedy with parties, feminism, sex, boys and fun. So recommended for teenagers if they want to have fun with their friends.

But we also have to say that the first movie with different actors was better and more funny than this one, it has more adolescent scenes.

WE ARE NOW ON WORDPRESS!

WE HAVE MIGRATED OUR SITE FROM BLOGGER TO WORDPRESS

The new site's adress is still http://www.studentsrus.es, this message is here for the people who were using the blogger adress. We hope this change is for good, and help us keep improving. 

Of course, old posts will not be removed, yet they are also in the wordpress.com site.

Thank you all for your support!

Barbie´s Lake

Is pink your favourite color? Well, you just find a beautiful place where you can travel. It is called Lake Hillier located in Western Australia´s Recherche Archipelago, a beautiful and pink-coloured lake.

This lake is only 600 meters wide but it has stirred a lot of curiosity on tourist and scientists for years, but the fact that this is caused by an algae it is even more surprising.

This argue is called “extremophile” and produces carotenoids, such as Dunaliella Salina, a type ofhalophyte green micro-algae especially found in sea salt fields. Dunaliella salina can obtain a reddish-pink colouring when it absorbs sunlight. However this argue, it is not the only reason why this lake is pink, but also red-coloured microbes, a few species of archaea and a type of bacteria called Salinibacter ruber.

We can find a pink-coloured lake in Senegal too -Lake Retba- which has such a high concentration of salt (40 per cent) so the salt collectors need to protect their skin from the water by rubbing their skin with Shea butter.

Moreover, we can also find this type of lakes in other countries like Spain, Canada and Azerbaijan. They are all protected national parks and the habitat for migratory birds, divers flora and fauna.

Interview with Iria G. Parente

Due to the celebration of The World Book Day in the IES Alonso de Covarrubias we had the pleasur
e of meeting one of the authors of Dreams stones, Iria G Parente. After giving a lecture about the world of literature , the process of writing a book , and interesting topics that covered her story, a classmate and I were able to steal a little of her time and do an interview.

Iria is a Spanish writer, she is 23 years old and she has always written with her partner Selene. They met on the internet and eventually a friendship between them grew. They star writing together for a contest, but unfortunately they didn’t win. However they decided to share their story on the internet for free, and thanks to that a publishing house met them and offered them the opportunity to publish their first book together. It all began with Paper Petals (Pétalos de papel).
So far they have published:

• Alianzas, the first part of the trilogy
• Tales of the full moon (Cuentos de la Luna llena).
• Paper Petals (Pétalos de papel) (you can find it in internet).
• Stone dreams (Sueños de piedra).
• Magic Puppets (Títeres de la magia) (coming soon in September)
• Grafic novel about Stone dreams (coming soon)

And this is the result:  
* Note: Due to our lack of time this will be the first, and I hope the last, post in Spanish in “Studentsrus”.  Exams are so demanding and time-consuming…, you know!  

P: ¿Podrías hablarnos un poco sobre vuestra novela? Para la gente que no la conozca.
R: Sueños de piedra es una novela de fantasía juvenil que trata de Arthmael, un príncipe que intenta recuperar su corona, la cual le ha sido arrebatada por un hermano bastardo que ha aparecido de la nada; y Lynne, una chica que es prostituta, pero no le gusta esa vida y quiere huir de ella. Sus caminos se cruzarán y cada uno tendrá que llegar hasta sus respectivos objetivos de la mejor manera que puedan.

P: ¿Cómo os organizáis para escribir a cuatro manos?
R: Dividimos los capítulos por personajes, cada una se encarga de un personaje y lo narramos en primera persona desde el punto de vista de cada uno de los personajes. Es lo más fácil y lo más cómodo que hace que nos podamos distribuir mejor el trabajo. Yo soy Lynne y Selene hace a Arthmael.

P: Muchos autores usan pseudónimo, pero nos hemos dado cuenta de que vosotras no. Ponéis el nombre, quizás un apellido recortado. ¿Por qué no habéis optado por utilizar un pseudónimo?
R: Pues porque no… no sé, nos parecido lo lógico firmar con nuestro nombre. Yo creo que quien usa pseudónimo es porque o bien no quiere que la faceta de autor le afecto a su vida, o bien se le conoce ya por ese pseudónimo. Por ejemplo Blue Jeans, se le conoce más por ese nombre que por Francisco de Paula. Entonces nosotras no teníamos ningún problema en que se compaginase nuestra carrera de autoras con nuestra vida personal así que simplemente fue por eso.

P: Claro, a mi me chocó que en la saga de los Legados de Lorien no se haya dicho quien es el autor. No sabemos quién ha escrito esos libros.
R: Depende mucho del deseo del autor. Ya te digo que hay autores que escriben y no quieren que eso les afecte en su vida por las razones que sean.

P: SI, porque también hay libros que suelen firmarlos con el usuario de Twitter.
R: Claro, efectivamente. La gente que hace eso es porque ya tiene un público que les relacione con ese nombre. Pues no sé, te pondría el ejemplo de Mike Ligthwood, firmó su libro con ese nombre porque su Twitter era así. La gente lo conoce como Mike, no como Miguel.

P: ¿Cómo describiríais Sueños de piedra si fuera una persona? SI el libro se hiciera persona.
R: Pffff… ¡Reivindicativa! Jajajaj Sería una persona reivindicativa y activista de algo. Jajajajaj. Activista feminista, o algo así.

P: ¿Qué fue lo primero que surgió al crear Sueños de piedra? Más bien, ¿cuál fue una de las primeras bromas o chistes que surgió que estabais escribiendo la novela?
R: Con Arthmael han surgido muchas cosas, nos reíamos mucho. De hecho lo de llamarle piedrecita salió de nuestras conversaciones, no porque Lynne lo dijese al principio. Salió de nosotras, por la traducción del nombre le llamábamos así. Eso y bueno, todos los chistes con piedras que puedas imaginar. Y hay una frase que se repite mucho a lo largo de la historia y los lectores usan a menudo, que es: ¡Ni por todo el oro de Marabilia! Una cosa que también utilizamos mucho es la expresión de “marabilioso”. La gente además hace ese mismo chiste por Twitter no sé cuántas veces y me hace mucha gracia.

P: ¿os gustaría ver vuestra novela adaptada al cine?
R: Siempre digo lo mismo. Solo consentiría una adaptación si la escribe Javier Olivares, que es el guionista del Ministerio del tiempo. Y bueno, creo que porque si nuestra novela fuese llevada al cine o a serie, a cualquier medio audiovisual que te puedas imaginar, tendría que ser por alguien que cuidase mucho a los personajes y yo se que Javier Olivares cuida mucho a los personajes. Y no me he encontrado todavía ningún director o guionista que cuide tanto el desarrollo de personajes como lo hace Javier. Entonces, pues me encantaría que alguien con ese toque, de darles más importancia a los personajes que a la propia trama, lo realizase. Que es lo que hacemos Selene y yo.

P: Si en el caso de llegara a hacerse alguna adaptación, ¿actuarias igual que Veronica Roth? ¿Cambiarias escenas porque veías que en el libro no quedaban bien?
R: Bueno, esto lo hemos tenido que hacer para la novela gráfica.

P: Pero es algo más justificado, es imposible poner todo el libro en una novela gráfica, hay escenas que se tendrán que adaptar.
R: Claro, claro. Esto es exactamente lo mismo. Cuando tú haces cualquier tipo de adaptación tienes que entender que son lenguajes diferentes. El lenguaje literario no tiene nada que ver con el lenguaje audiovisual, tampoco con el visual puramente dicho. Nosotras hemos tenido que adaptar varias escenas para la novela gráfica de Sueños de piedra, por ejemplo hemos tenido que eliminar escenas y al ser una novela tan causal hemos tenido que redirigir la historia. Hemos mantenido la gran mayoría pero por ejemplo nos hemos cargado el bosque de Enfant. Y era una escena que a mí me encantaba, pero había que recortar. Y lo que pasa al final de ese capítulo, que es algo emblemático, lo hemos tenido que llevar por otro lado.

P: El tema de edición para la novela gráfica… ¿contactasteis vosotras con la ilustradora o fue la editorial?
R: Marta hizo las ilustraciones promocionales del libro y quien hace la novela gráfica y los dibujos oficiales de Títeres de la magia es Lehanan Aida. Con Marta nos pusimos en contacto nosotras porque la conocíamos ya que había hecho fanarts de Alianzas y nos gustaba como trabajaba, nos parecía que captaba muy bien la esencia de nuestros personajes y le propusimos hacer  una serie de diseños promocionales para anunciar la novela antes de que saliera a la venta. A Marta le gustó la idea y demás, pero ella no domina el lenguaje de cómic, porque sus ilustraciones son más estáticas y son más de ilustración pura y dura y ella misma admite que no le gusta hacer cómic, no considera que esté prepara o lo que sea. Eso no quita que sea una artista excelente, por supuesto, pero hay personas que sí que hacen cómic y personas que no. Lehanan si lo hace y de hecho tiene una web cómic excelente que se llama Arena, un poco para mayores de dieciocho por si alguien la busca. Y con Lehanan nos pusimos en contacto nosotras y la editorial porque ya habían trabajado con ella, por ejemplo los detalles de dentro del libro los ha hecho ella y han sido por encargo de la editorial.

P: Respecto a Títeres de la magia, que es la continuación de la historia, ¿sabíais desde un principio quienes iban a ser los protagonistas? Entendemos que uno de ellos sea Hazan ya que aparece en la historia principal, pero a otro se lo menciona un poco por encima en Sueños de piedra, ¿por qué lo habéis elegido como protagonista?
R: Títeres de la magia no estaba pensado cuando nosotras escribimos Sueños de piedra, pero cuando lo terminamos siempre nos quedamos con la duda de que había pasado con Hazan, se habla de él pero no se dice nada más. De hecho en el epilogo no aparece, se le menciona un poco y ya está. Pensamos que estaría bien contar la historia de Hazan, ya que al final de Sueños de piedra *SPOILER ALERT* se explica que acaba en la torre de nigromancia porque allí le ofrecen un puesto como estudiante, él acepta ese puesto. Y claro nosotras teníamos claro que Hazan estaba estudiando en la torre y quien estaba con él jajajaj entonces claro, fue pensarlo y decir: pff es que… los shippeo automáticamente jajajajaja Fue en ese momento en el que dijimos que Clarence sería un buen profesor para Hazan, molaría mucho que (y estoy hablando de lo puramente escolar ¿vale? Jajajajaj no vamos a hablar de que más le enseña o no jajajaja no vamos a matizar, si le enseña algo más ya lo veréis en la novela jajaj) fuera su profesor, a nivel académico. *FIN DEL SPOILER*  Además de que teníamos curiosidad con Clarence, ya que de él decimos poca cosa y nos parecía curioso juntar a estos dos personajes.

P: Pues muchas gracias por todo Iria, nos ha encantado charlar contigo.

Palm oil impact

PALM OIL IMPACT

Palm oil is found in over half all packaged items on our supermarket shelves, from snack foods to soaps Demand is still growing, as are oil palm plantations... but at what price to tropical forests and the biodiversity found there?

Global production of palm oil has doubled over the last decade. By 2000, palm oil was the most produced and traded vegetable oil, accounting for 40% of all vegetable oils traded internationally. By 2006, the percentage had risen to 65%. Worldwide demand for palm oil is expected to double again by 2050 to 240 million tonnes. New plantations are being developed and existing ones are being expanded in Indonesia, Malaysia and other Asian countries, as well as in Africa and Latin America.

The establishment of vast monoculture oil plam plantations has a number of serious environmental impacts like large-scale forest conversion and the loss of critical habitat for endangered species. Indonesia is home to some of the most rich and biodiverse rainforest in the world. It contains over 80 endemic species and some of the world’s most unique and iconic endangered wildlife such as the orangutan, elephant and tiger. But these animals are in grave danger. Every hour 300 football fields of precious remaining forest is being ploughed to the ground across South East Asia to make way for palm oil plantations.

In the last 20 years, over 3.5 million hectares of Indonesian and Malaysian forest have been destroyed to make way for palm oil. Almost 80% of orangutan habitat has disappeared in the last 20 years. We are losing over 6,000 orangutans a year. There are now only 400 Sumatran tigers left in the world.

New plantations can also create social conflicts if the rights and livelihoods of local communities are ignored. Not only can this cause negative external impacts but it can also affect the companies involved, and hamper the ability of the companies to expand as planned.

In recent years, the world’s biggest companies have woken up to the environmental costs associated with palm oil and the other commodities they buy. 

In 2015, Indonesia was wracked by the worst forest fires for almost twenty years. The disaster, the result of decades of forest and peatland destruction, thrust Indonesia’s plantation industries into the global spotlight. Most companies are unable even to say how much of their palm oil comes from suppliers that comply with their own sourcing standards. Some companies reviewed were: Colgate-Palmolive, Ikea, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg, PepsiCo, Starbucks...

How can you help?

-Buy sustainable palm oil products

-Sign petitions like:

https://act.greenpeace.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1844&ea.campaign.id=48407

https://www.change.org/p/lu-dejad-de-utilizar-aceite-de-palma-en-vuestros-productos

https://secure3.convio.net/gpeace/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1885&s_src=actions

Sci-fi Classics

Science fiction books have always been a famous and successful genre. Today, we are going to visit some of the sci-fi classics, very famous back in the golden era of this literature, but today a little bit forgotten (when they shouldn´t be forgotten at all)...

I, Robot (Isaac Asimov)

Please, if you have seen that horrible, ignorant and disgusting film of Will Smith, forget that awful thing right now.

“I, Robot” is actually a collection of tales written back in the youth of Isaac Asimov. The book depicts a society in which robots and humans work together, and both depend on each other. The tales cover a grand variety of situations, from dramas full of mystery to a simple argument in a living room in which a man complains about his robotic assistant, always setting out moral and even philosophical problems.

The great thing about this book is that it is not at all fiction. This book (well, Isaac Asimov actually) established the three laws of the robotics, and all today´s robots follow the design and patterns shown inside the pages of this unforgettable book.

It is indeed a masterpiece, essential for all readers.

Dune (Frank Herbert)

Dune is another unforgettable and essential book. It was an instant success back when it was published.

The book shows a galaxy (our galaxy) divided into feudal dominions, all of them loyal to an Emperor (who actually has the supreme force). However, it is a feminine order, the Bene Gesserit, which hasthe most important role: preserving the human race and its technology.

The starring of the book, a boy, heir of the House Atreides, discovers to be a Bene Gesserit, a role only available to certain people, so yes, he is special. From then on, an unforgettable plot emerges and the galaxy will never be the same again...

After this first book, a very long saga was written, but if you don´t have time to read them all, this one, the first one, is actually the best of the saga.

Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

In a not so remote future, the firefighters don´t extinguish the fires, they provoke them by burning down books.

A future society where books (and reading in general) are illegal, and thinking is not very well seen, that´s the world where Fahrenheit 451 takes place.

But all of a sudden, a firefighter, with a normal life, burning books all day long, has a talk with a girl, the girl switches on the mind of the firefighter and then everything begins to happen, leading to an unforgettable end to a plot which makes you stay reading in your room until you finish the very last page of this masterpiece.

It is, indeed (and most of the people agree), one of the best science fiction books ever written, raising not only moral but philosophical and psychological issues. It is just oppressing to imagine, while reading this book, a world where all the things depicted in here happen… and realize that some the “horrible” things which happen in the book are not so fictional…

1984 (George Orwell)

The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner… It is great to see that so many people are interested in copying (and not in a good way, not at all) this glorious masterpiece, and indeed one of the best sci-fi books ever published.

In the pages of 1984 a world, horrible yet attractive and safe, wants to be discovered. The nation, called Oceania, in which the book takes place, is depicted from the perspective of Winston, one member of The Party, worker at the ministries which control the society, literally.

The content of 1984 cannot be explained in a couple of paragraphs, a summary of this book cannot be written, it is just impossible to describe in just a few words the oppression of the Room 101, or how you can feel to know that Big Brother is watching everything you do (because you really connect with the characters of the book).

And let´s not even talk about the issues it raises…

An essential book, unavoidable to all readers, even if you don´t like the genre.

Foundation (Isaac Asimov)

And I’m finishing with my personal favorite saga, and considered (together with the books I´ve shown you, and a few more) the best sci-fi saga ever written. The Foundation saga is formed by around ten books, if we count the prequels (five prequels, by the way). But if you have to read one, you have to read this one.

Foundation is a collection of stories. It depicts how the Galactic Empire, which controls all stars in the known universe, collapses. However Hari Seldon, a psychohistorian (read the book, and you will know what psychohistory is), wants to prevent the collapse of the whole human race.

To do so, he founds two foundations, each one in each extreme of the galaxy, to be the core of a second and more powerful Galactic Empire. The book depicts the progress of the first of those two foundations, immersing you in an epic and unforgettable journey throughout the galaxy.

However, and believe me, once you finish this book, you will want to continue with the rest (because once you finish the book, you will want to know what happens to the declining Galactic Empire, and to the Second Foundation…).

London 2016

If you want to see our trip's photos, just click here!

Hello, we are a group of students from 1º Bachillerato and we want everybody to know about our amazing experience in London. Here, we are going to tell you how we spend these amazing 5 days in the UK. We began with the idea of the trip in September and surprisingly in November our teacher, Luis found a travel offer and this is how it began to become real. 

That day; the countdown started!!!!

The previous day of our trip was Monday, but it wasn’t an awful one, of course, it was, maybe THE BEST one. At 2 a.m. of Tuesday we had to be in the bus station to take the bus to the airport. We were all really excited and, although it was too early we were as if it was 5 p.m. The trip from Torrijos to Madrid wasn’t a relaxing one because we couldn`t stop talking and having fun, we were too excited to sleep!!! When we arrived to the airport; everything took place as it was supposed to, we took the plane and, finally, at half past eight on Tuesday we arrived to Gatwick airport, in London. When we caught our suitcases, a bus took us to the hotel. Once we arrived there, we left them in our rooms and we went to visit the British museum, which was quite near the hotel. There, we had the opportunity of seeing the “Piedra Rosetta”. It is a really important discovery since it was the base to read papyrus. In this museum, there are wonderful statues and sculptures. Greek zone in the museum is incredible, you go into the room and the first thing you see is the famous Parthenon. In the upper floor, you can find an exposition about mummies and sarcophagus of different eras and places. It was a wonderful visit, we would repeat it thousands of times! 

Nevertheless, the day had just started. When we went out from the museum, the teachers decided to take us to see Trafalgar Square. All of us were impressed, and obviously thousands of photos per second were taken.  But that was not all; we also visited Piccadilly Circus, one of the most famous places of London. The square is known mainly because the illuminated posters, as well as the “Eros Fountain”. In addition, there are thousands of shops, restaurants, theatres and pubs. It is, actually, the most living part of London. We had some free time, which we spent in shopping and eating. It had been an exhausting day and we had to be prepared for next day; Tower Bridge and Natural History museum were coming! 

Next day, on Wednesday morning we went to the Natural History museum, which was, maybe, the most interesting one we have ever seen. It was different from other museums; in this one, apart from dinosaur area, which was the most amazing one, there were many sections where you could interact with the museum by games and videos. Later, we had lunch in a kebab and, after having lunch, we went to visit one of the most emblematic monuments of London: the Tower Bridge. We were all amazed by the shape of the bridge and we took there many photos!! After taking thousands of photos, we had some free time and we could observe wonderful London sights. 

Near the tower bridge, there was a man singing Justin Bieber’s famous songs and we kept there listening to him. When he finished singing, we took a photo with him. We were really excited!!

It was Thursday morning and we were absolutely ready to take the train that would carry to us to Oxford. This city, full of a magic, is the place of resident of the most prestigious universities of the world.

First, we visited the “Christ Church”. It is both; a college of the university and the Cathedral of Oxford. This college is probably the largest of the university and many distinguished people have studied there. Moreover, here is where the famous “Harry Potter” film was recorded. We were all amazed by the large dining room as well as the courtyard where the “Quidditch” matches were celebrated in the film. 

After these two incredible days, the greatest one arrived: we did a complete visit of London; the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, red phone boxes, Buckingham Palace, changing of the Royal Guard….

It was an exhausting day, but nothing could be better. 

First, we visited the Westminster Abbey. It was a real surprise since everybody thought it could be boring, but not all. Lot of visitors attempt here everybody and this trip was our turn. Poets, kings, soldiers and heroes; almost the complete history of British. In the abbey there were  was a lot of tombs from different people, especially of royal family and distinguished celebrities. 

After the Abbey we went to visit the Big Ben, as well as the London Eye. We really enjoyed our free time: British lunches, selfies and laughs. Then, we went to Buckingham Palace. In addition, we walked through St. James Park which was large and alive but full of doves and ducks. After a pleasant walk we finally arrived at the Buckingham Palace. In fact, we saw some royal guards. They were may be sick and tired of listening us and our photos, but they resisted incredibly well. 

When we were in our way to the hotel, after such an amazing day, we  went through Oxford street, a great “shopping street” in where you could fine the shop you want, we were all so tired to go shopping, so we didn`t stop in the shops.

And, after these amazing days, our trip was coming to its end. On Saturday morning, our last day in London, we went to Covent garden again to do the lasts shops , we have lunch there, in Covent Garden, and, finally, in the afternoon, we went to catch the bus to Gatwick airport  and … It was time to say goodbye to London .

Of course, in any time of our lives, we will return to London, but it will never be the same. This kind of travels are UNFORGETTABLES and unrepeteables.