London's life - Seventh day

     The next day, I actually lived a typical english day. It did not stop to rain in any moment of the day, the sky never was so typical of London. For the first time I saw the rain in London, although it sounds rare. That day I dealed with the cold which surrounded all the corners of the city having a relaxing cup of warm chocolate in Starbucks.

     Bad weather made impossible to visit any part of the city. That is why I decided to go back home. Once I got there, since I had some free time, I decided to try to play the piano wich was in the living room of the house that I have already got used to little by little. Rarely I felt as I felt in that moment, I just let go completely and, although I even did not how to do it, I had a good time.

     Definitely now I can say that those weeks, thanks to small moments like those, served to find me. I was alone there and it was difficult for me but sometimes I suppose that it is necessary  to learn how to be alone: being the owner of your life, doing whatever you really want to do, what you love,

London's Life - Sixth day - Fifth part

     Finally, to finish that day, my friend and I went to the Westminster Abbey and The Houses of Parliament, accompained by the most famous clock of the world: the Big Ben. Curiously, that watch, like any other, marks the time but without any kind of doubt, all the hours that you spend there escape from any clock. And that is how I felt for the whole day. In fact, I did not want it to end. It was surreal that I could go for a walk down all those streets, one by one, one after another, so different and so full of the same magic at once. It was my place, which was more than a dream come true. 

     That part of the city was incredible. We took a lot of photos at the Westminster Bridge and talked about how wonderful was to be there, we were really lucky. We decided that we could not leave from there without going into the London Eye. Unfortunately, I left London without doing it but I know that sooner or later I will do it. 

 

 

London's life - Sixth day - Fourth part

     The centre of London is one of the most beautiful places of the world, especially for those who has already fallen in love with this city. That thay, my friend and I continued our way from Picadilly to Oxford Street, going by the white and elegant street which joins both places: Regent Street. That area of London was made for the fashion, for the creativity, for the music, for artists, for tourists, for people from London; definitely, for whoever able to appreciate what supposes an instant there. And that day this place was made for me, such, that I returned a few times during my stay there. That street never was silent and I really liked it. 

   

     Finally my friend and I finished our day around London talking seated in the fountain which is in the middle of Trafalgar Square, opposite the National Gallery and from which we could see, in the distance, the famous Big Ben. I remember that we were talking about our past, about the different things that we have lived. We also made a wish, a wish that we hope the fountain grant us. Personally speaking, I really like believing in the power of trowing a coin into the air and then it lands in the water. I don not know the wish of my friend, but I still remember what was my wish about. And yes, it has been fulfilled, because I asked for living more moments like the one that I was living in the fountain, since I was being actually happy. To sum up, I can say that I have again been, for thousand times, after that moment. Thanks life, thanks luck. 

"The great experience of spending a year abroad"

               

                           

  The great experience of spending a year abroad

      By way of introduction, spending a year abroad while you are studying has become more and more popular nowadays. It is true that all the subjects which we are studying at University are important but, what about the skills that you improve once you travel abroad? Studying abroad for a year means learn a foreign language and finally can speak it perfectly, and also learn things from a different culture, which makes you become an open-minded person. Spending a year abroad is a experience that everyone should live at least once in their lives.

      Firstly, you become an open-minded person because when you are living in a different country from the one where you were born in, you live as people from that country do, being part of a lot of different activities which are typical from there. For example, you usually eat at the time that people from there do, which could be different from the time in which you do it in your country. At the same time, you also try new food, food that you have never expected to try some day. Also, you meet people who do things that you have never imagined to do and they share their experiences with you, which is a really good way to learn. Then you are learning a lot of things about that new culture.

       In addition, one of the most important things when you spend a year abroad is that you learn a language and when you come back to your country, you can speak it perfectly. That is true because when you are abroad, all around you is in that language, so you are listening to it all the time. For example, if you need to buy something, you have to talk with the salesman or saleswoman in that language. Besides, if you need to get to somewhere and you do not know how to do it, you also need to ask someone and talk with her or him in that language. Moreover, once you are abroad, you would meet new people and would make new friends, whom with you will talk in that language so you will be practising all the time. Being abroad for some time is the best way to improve your language skills.

       Added to this, once you spend a year abroad while you are studying, most of the times you have to travel abroad alone, and finally, you learn how to do it by yourself. Once you are in that foreign country, you have to do all the things alone and, to my mind, learning how to live in an unknown place is a really good way to grow up as a person.
      

      To sum up, when you live for some time abroad, you learn things which you have not imagined to learn before, you do things which you have not ever expected to do, you meet people really different from who you are, and, finally, when you come back home, you see life in a different way. Finally, spending a year abroad while you are studying is something that marks a before and after in everybody's lives.

London's life - Sixth day - Third part

  

     London has an own soundtrack, that is what  I realized that afternoon going for a walk around the city centre. On each street, more crowded or less, there was a different artist, with a different style, doing something different and makes you feel, therefore, a different emotion. Being witness of  those small performances was something incredible. It was like living in a continuous musical, in one in which the curtain was never ever down because, in London, the play never stops, the show always must go on.

      Before getting to Trafalgar Square from Covent Garden, we got to Picadilly Circus. Finally I could see again that famous circus, that big screen and all people walking around from side to side. We were exactly in the centre of one of the most famous fashion capitals and you could breath it in the ambience.

        I can actually remember the last time that I was in that part of London. It was with friends, really good ones, friends whom with I keep in contact until now, despite of having met them already knowing that the distance would separate us, because once there was a place and a moment which joined us, and it was London, on summer of two years ago. How happy I was then and how different was being London in that moment... Now I know that it is true, that it does not matter where you are, because the most important thing is whom with you are. Sometimes you have to remember where you were to know where you are now and, the most important: where you would like to be in the near future.

London's life - Sixth day - Second part

  

     After visiting Covent Garden, my friend and I went to Trafalgar Square and I have to say that London had never before been as incredible as it was in that moment. I felt like a protagonist of a film, of a play, of a story, because those streets were the perfect stage for any play. It is actually true that London is a city full of memories, each corner of it hides a small story, like anywhere else does but, provided with the magic which is characteristic of these streets. I remember I was being happy, I knew it with certainty and I handed it to my friend. For the first time I actually felt that I could belong to that place, that it was not so far away from me, that, however, I was closer than ever to there and that I was fulfilling a dream. The best of walking down a city slowly, stoping and looking around, is  that you appreciate the unusual magic which surrounds everything that you are seeing and that instant you can call it "happyness".

London's life - Sixth day - First part

 

     This day, probably, was the one that I would remember most of this trip. It was the best day of my two weeks in London. At last, I could visit London and get sucked into all its beautiful corners.

    That day my friend and I decided to spend our afternoon walking down all the streets of the London centre. Firstly, we visited Covent Garden, which I think is one of the most special places of this city. There is not other place as endearing as Covent Garden is. It is a perfect stage for any film and surely, witness of thousands of stories and lives. Actually I fell in love with its artists, who were willing to bring happyness to all people, hoping to receive any incentive which could improve their destiny, which usually is, in any city waiting for it to enjoy. I consider that Coven Garden is a place made for the art, any kind of art, in which is included the fashion, something that I have always liked. In Covent Garden you breathe elegance in all its corners. There is not anything there which does not surprise you, everything is original.

     Thank to my purchase of a picture, my friend and I listened to the story which made the salesman be there.  The salesman of the pictures used to work with the author of the pictures in his studio and now he was selling them in Covent Garden. My friend could speak with the salesman because, by chance, they were from the same place: from Brasil. Was the happyness of finding someone who is from the same place as you and feel like you were at home what made them start that conversation. Sometimes the world become really small, even if you are in one of the most important cities of the world,

London's life - Fifth day

  

    On that fifth day I attended to a concert celebrated in one of the biggest stages of London: the O2. This stage would have been witness of Michael Jackson if his destiny had been other. A stage which this time would pick up the music, emotion, and feelings  of those people who were part of "Hillsong United". Living that moment I could know and understand the reason and desire which brings the family whom I lived with to the concert. This was one of those unexpected moments, those which you will remember more than those to you are get used. It was one of those moments which you really learn from, in which being open-minded is the only and best chance. That was I tried to do, try to know those senses and forget everything, just feel and live that, regardless of ideologies, beliefs or values. Fortunately, it is true that there is something universal: music. Music joins, creates emotions and destroys others, make some grow and cure others. Finally, that is the only important thing: to let go with this magic and, above all, feel it.

London's life - Fourth day

  

    In that fourth day I met whom would be the best friend that I would have there for those two weeks. He was the person with the happiest smile that I have ever seen. Like me, he was ready for anything and happy to be in London. Thanks to those adventurous words shared between us, I met him, an incredible person who I will always remember. Little by little everything became better and better.

    After school, I saw again H and his girlfriend, with whom the family and me went to one of the biggest and most beautiful parks of the south of London, the Dulwich Park. There is not anything that I like more than the lakes which you can find in parks and, of course, in this park there was one. This park was the perfect place to run to nowhere, to just breath and to think about nothing. I remember I felt really good there. However, that was not the most special thing there, what actually caught my attention from this place were all the names written in each different bench of the park. And I say different because they already were, each bench had already its kind of owner. In my opinion, it was about a small tribute, since in each bench there was written the name of someone deceased. Perhaps that person used to go to that park to go for a walk and used to stop there, to have a rest and look around, or maybe not, But it is clear that  it is something which hides a story and it is a way to have a place for him or her, in which later generations will live thousands of stories and of some way, that person will be part of them.

    A bench in a park is usually stage of all kind of situations, both normal and special and, personally I really like them, because when you are at a bench, you actually are there, it is a place which has the power to make you stop, breath, think, feel and definetly, live. Perhaps, these feelings at the same time that you are feeling a loved person near from you, sometimes could be the answer to our doubts, concerns and fears.

    Finally, I started to love London, to feel good there and to be part of what I was living at the same time that I let everyone who was less unknown than the day before, be already part of me.

London's life - Third day

 

     In this third day, I started my adventure in London, I was about to walk around all its corners being guided just by myself. I had never expected what those two weeks and that decision of flying there alone, would bring me. Now I know that London is magic, but it still exists more magic on the unknown, on what we are most afraid of, on that uncertainty which we overcome when we are brave, when we get to be our best version.

     That day school started. I remember that I felt really good, finally I was alone facing everything new: a big city such as London, a new routine and some wonderful unknown people who the wise destiny got in my way at the right moment. As the beginning of anything, it was not easy, nobody said it would be, in fact, that day I felt more alone than ever and I thought that I was not able to do it right. But, in these situations, you cannot choose between some options, because the option of run away was not valid since I knew that I was there to do exactly the opposite.

     In this first day of class, I could not talk with anybody because once the class finished, everybody left, so I did the same. As usually, things happen in the only way that we do not expect them to happen, so I tried to take encouragement from anywhere and look at this day from another perspective. By this way I faced the second day of class, with enthusiasm and strength and knowing that I was in this beautiful city because of and for something and that everything would be welcome since any difficulty is good to grow up as a person, to climb and to get to where we want to be. That is how it went, sometimes things change if we change our way of looking at them.

London's life - Second day - Second part

      After enjoying the London Eye and also the Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, we decided to go to Trafalgar Square, by walking down one of the most popular streets of London. That street was full of white, because all buildings which were there, wore that colour with an elegance unmatched, characteristic elegance of this city. It was a sunny day, probably the hottest day of my stay there and if this city is beautiful even under a cloudy sky, brightened up by the sky, it is incredible. Finally we got to Trafalgar Square. Personally, I love this place. Trafalgar Square never is a silent place, every day there are some artist giving free his or her talent to the ears of tourists who usually are having a walk there. You can spend the whole day in Trafalgar Square sitting on the stairs which are in the middle of the square just looking at the movement of artists, songs, dances, paintings, juggling, monologues and a long etc and live one of the most entertaining days that you will have there. In my opinion, the role of those big artists should be more valued than it is now, because they have become in an important pillar, pillar which holds all the smiles and laughter of tourists and citizens of that big stage in which has become this cosmopolitan city.

What does love mean for you? Answered by children and by adults

      Love is present every day in our lives, but, what does it really mean for people? Does love mean the same for everybody? Last year I did a job about this question and the conclusion was that love is not the same for adults and for children. Firstly, when I asked a child about love, he or she, generally, used to answer that love is what someone feels when he or she makes another person happy. However, when I asked to an adult, the answer used to be related just to her or his couple. On the one hand, the answers of children were related to family, friends and their fathers. On the other hand, answers of adults tend to be more related to their love live, to that person who they love, without talking about family or friends. Children tend to see love as something which they feel for everybody while some adults forget talking about their family or friends because, perhaps, they are really focused on that person who they love. To sum up, it is important to say that there are a lof of different types of love and that it is something with a different meaning for each person, in spite of the differences related to the age and the experiences lived.

London's life - Second day - First part

    From my point of view, sometimes we lose chances and moments because we have not that security which brings us the known. We are usually afraid of the unknown things and that thakes us back of doing something. In this travel which is life, I think that the fact of meeting new people, visiting unknown places for us or travelling to wherever we have never gone before, can make us live experiences which we will never forget. By this way we can meet people that can become the most important people of our lifes, the ones who you most learn from. But it is true that sometimes things do not go as good as we had thought. When this happens, the decision of knowing the unkown gives us her best present: the learning. That is what I felt  on my second day in London. I visited a new place, learnt some about a new costume that I had never imagined to experience, met new people and feelings of them about the situation that we were living. I will always be thankful for letting me to be part of that, of that day, independently if I enjoyed that time or not, because I think that it is more difficult to let others know us than try to know others.

     That day I went to a typical church of the area where we lived. The family with whom I lived used to go there every sunday. Personally, I do not do it in Spain and I had no idea of how was it in London. However, it was interesting, all people there was really concentrated in their own thoughts and feelings, they listened to the prayers and then they talked with each other about their lifes. I just looked at what they were doing and tried to think about and understand why. I could understand that each assistant had found a kind of family there, a support with whom they could count by this way. This day was the birthday of the daughter of a woman so we had lunch there because they used to celebrate all birthdays there. We had typical english food, of which I have not get used yet.

    After that, we went for a walk to the London center, to those streets that I really wanted to see again. Was that the first time that I saw the London Eye, as big as I imagined, next to the river Thames. The London Eye inspires me freedom, freedom that you cannot find in the middle of a crowded city like London. It is a endearing place, protagonist of whatever theme park, always attractive for a child, object of childhood. In my opinion, it is such as special place that you need almost a special chance like it to get up into there.

London's life - First day

     The first visit of my travel was to the freedom, I mean the one which permeates all the London's parks. Those silent and green parks where people stop. Yes, at least for a moment, they do it and they are happy (or maybe not) but they stop and look around. With "just that" I was very happy those days, because it's true that knowing how to look at people and all the things in general, despite of being a small fact, is what brings you the biggest happyness. When I feel that everything seems to be going wrong, perhaps without finding the solution, I always think about what I would like to do in that moment and it would be to run out to anywhere but far away. I believe that any bad moment would have been better if I had done that. And this park was ideal to do it. It was enormous, full of a green which caught you and made you feel like being anywhere and in the most beautiful place of the world at the same time. I was really happy to be there, and I wanted to learn as much as I could from all the people that I knew I would meet. In fact, that day I met the person who, now I know, I really admire. I will call him "H". I didn't know as much english as I would have liked so I didn't understand everything he said that day but, fortunately, there are something universal in this world: a smile. He was one of those persons who always shows one to everyone he is speaking to. One of those persons that I will never be able to define because I can't even describe. Our lifes, by luck or destiny (or whatever thing that you believe in, as H affirmed) touch other lifes and never ever it is in vain. Maybe this first day my lack of knowledge of the language made me believe  that I didn't have to meet this person and that that meeting would be indifferent for me. But at the same time that I was learning the language, I was learning lessons of my life there. Lessons that gave me, although without knowing it, all the people who was appearing little by little and the ones that I was meeting every day when I was in front of all the London's streets and some free atternoons. And that is the main reason why I am writing those lines that I hope one day make someone, although momentarily, smile.

London's life - Not ready, not set, but go

    To start my diary blog, I would like to write about my experience living in London last summer.
 

     I had never done something like that, it was the first time that I was going to fly alone, to another country (because I had flown before, even alone, even without lifting my feet off the ground). London, a city always special for me, to which unites me something that I haven't discovered yet, but something wonderful. It is said that the fear is the prelude to success, that if you are afraid just before doing something, it means that it worths. We never know, even by previous experiences, if everything will be fine or not, but the fear teachs you, you learn from it. Little by little we learn to see the bad not too bad, because difficult things that you face in your life makes you grow up. And it is the way I  felt in my first day in London.

    Once I was in London, I couldn't believe I was there, it's true, sometimes the time goes by and you don't even realize what you're living. As soon as I could see, in the distance, the London buildings, I smiled, I smiled as I knew that I would do it. How wonderful is London, and I hadn't enjoyed yet his corners... I think that we need a lof of time to do it, there always will be something which surprises you in this big city protected, mostly days, by the rain.

     Now I think about that first day, about that fear, and it's true, things just happen once, you will never be able to repeat something, and that is what makes life beautiful. To know that we should enjoy each moment, each experience, as if we will never live it again, because it's true, any moment will be the same as another previous. Sometimes, life is concentrated in small moments, it may sounds surreal but, we can spend a lot of time of our lifes without living at all and, nevertheless, our life focus on a few minutes. Just that happened to me in London. I lived as if a minute were the last one and I am happy to affirm it (yes, I am not afraid to admit that I was, I am or maybe I will be happy). Nowadays it becomes more and more difficult to admit that we are happy, every time we tend more to look for reasons why we are not happy instead of think about the little things that can make us happy, and it is our biggest problem.