The best gift & the biggest learning ....

Travelling is leaving home,
parting with friends
it’s trying to fly;
to fly along new routes
crossing paths
it is trying to change.

Travelling is dressing crazy
it’s saying “I don’t care”
it’s wanting to go back.
To return appreciating the small things
sipping a drink,
it’s wanting to begin.

Travelling is feeling like a poet,
writing a card,
it’s wanting to hug.
Embracing in a doorway
longing for calm
it’s stopping to kiss.

Travelling is to become worldly
it’s to meet other people
it’s to return to the beginning.
It’s to start offering a hand,
learning from the strong,
it’s to feel solitude.

Travelling is leaving home,
it’s dressing crazy
saying everything and nothing in a postcard.
It’s sleeping in another bed,
it’s feeling that time is short,
travelling is to go back.

My dream house

 

 If I could choose my dream house, without a doubt  it would be in La Paz city, in the  Achumani's suburb. I must confess that I have a  real soft spot for this neighborhood, because I was living there for ages and I've been so happy there.

My dream house would be a  magnificent detached house, conveniently situated between 25th and 26th street in Achumani's suburb, thirty minutes from the city centre and ten minutes from Valle de la Luna and La muela del Diablo, two incredible  and ideal places for jogging or cycling.

My dream house would be spacious, with five bedrooms  all of them with walk-in closet, with a living room with a inglenook fireplace,  also with a large dinning room, a cute kitchen, two bathrooms one of them with a fantastic jacuzzi. As well as, with a cellar because my husband love drinking  good wines, and of course, this house would have a large backyard, so it would be a charming place,  especially in summer time. For this reason this house would have  a shed so I love gardening and also I would need  a place for storing not only my tools but also I would need to keep some bycicles there.

This house would be  incredible, because  there would  be some breathtaking views of the woods  surrounding  the glittering Lagunilla Rosa  from all the windows. Moreover, it would  have a large and colourful garden around the house, and a large patio which would be ideal for having some barbecues. 

 

In addition, this house would be really confortable, so it would have cable television, Internet, a pool table, a small gym and a garage with an automatic gate.

Finally I would like to tell you that I adore this neighborhood, so it's safe and friendly, and the most important thing, my dream house would be a short driving distance from stores and restaurants in the local town and of course near to my Bolivian family !!! 

I was forgetting that  it would be near to peculiar jumble sale.  It's a place where the native people sell

vegetables, fruit and handicrafts. It would be five minutes walking from my dream house.

Magic days!

One more time, yesterday and today I've confirmed  that the best gift that The Three Wise Men have given me are my friends. We've enjoyed of some stupendous days together. Without a doubt, this was the best beginning  of a new year! For this reason, I'm really grateful with them and of course with the life....

Stereotypes ....a current danger!

In spite of  the fact that we are living in the 21st century where new technologies  are developed every day and where it is easier to find more information about anything, we still can hear some absurd clichés or stereotypes.

Well, I'll try to go step by step. Firstly, we all know what a stereotype is: 'A fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality'. Some examples of this definition could be:

• Blond women are silly.
• Latin American people are good dancers.
• Doctors have an unreadable handwriting.
• Men are stronger than women.
• Girls love pink.
• Immigrants are people that don't have a higher education.
• People from Catalonia are the stingiest in Spain.
• The Japanese are quiet people.

This list could be dangerously longer, couldn't it? I wonder what the origin of it all is. The answer isn't simple, however, I reckon we all tend to generalize about our bad and good experiences and  this is the biggest mistake we can make, as exceptions break rules!

In this sense, we'd better avoid using some words in our daily life like: all, any, always, never. Among other reasons, because  we wouldn't be recognizing other behaviours that someone had had in the past. At the same time, if we use these words, we won't allow  them to have an opportunity to change their future.
 In summary, if our guiding principle are  stereotypes, we will associate a person o anything only with an incident. In consequence, we will be losing the opportunity to really get to know a person, or a new place, culture, people, language, food, and so on and so forth.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

My 

present

 for you  ...

 a great piece of song,

 I hope you enjoy it....

and

 I hope you 

can 

watch 

this film...

keepers of the flame

 I'm really grateful to all  good teachers for helping me to keep my flame ....I've always  felt inspired for all of them.

Environmental problems and causes

Nowadays, the environment is always in the news and it often seems that the news insn't good. To ilustrate this idea I would like to mention some cases, for instance, we can hear about expanding deserts in Africa, or huge forest fires in Indonesia or her in Spain, or serious shortages of water in some countries or on the contrary flood in others. Also we know about dissappearing forest in the Amazon or mealting ice-caps and increasing radiation levels in the polar regions, increasing air and water pollution in big cities and endangered species and so on and so forth. This list could be endless.

In this sense, I can't avoid wondering if  climate change is a mith or  a reality?

On the one hand, many research have showed that the climate change is the result of  human behaviour. Science doesn't doubt it. Extrem weather phenomena have been triggered by climate change. In 2012 scientists researched 12 natural catastrophes and what was the result? ... The result was that half of the cases have a direct relation with global warming.

On the other hand, some people say that environmental issues don't have connection with  human behaviour. They maintain that 'nature is  wise and it undergoes  some changes  throughout every period of  time simply, because it is the result of the cyclical change on the planet'.

As I see it, the  key issue  as far as the environment is concerned is based  on our current consumer society. In other words, many people buy more than they really need. Every day we are bombarded with ads which tell us, if you need to buy a pair of shoes, don't worry, you will buy two pair of shoes for only a little extra money! ....It apparently seems a bargain ...however, few people ask themselves about where it is made  or who made it and the most important thing what it is made from.

If we did,  we could realise that we are not green or eco-friendly, so we are contributing to the increase in carbon emission rates or in the carbon footprint measure or in the damage the ozone layer.

In a nutshell, the environmental issues are the consequences of  human behaviour in a consumer society. I would like to end this post with a quote from Gandhi, who said: 'There is a enough on Earth for everybody's need, but not for everyone's greed'. I hope we'll celebrate this Christmas wondering if we really need to buy without restraint in order to be happier.