º·..♫ vAl's.Blog ♫..·º

- Teen Life Project Reflection ;)

2007-04-05T01:01:00.000-04:00

Hi,
We are now done with the Teen Life Project, so we need to reflect about how did we felt about it, what did we liked and disliked, and how did it helped us; basically is to tell what do we think about the project that we have made. So here it goes:

The first time that Mr. Hide talked about the Teen Life Project, the first thing that came to my head was that worries were about to come. You know that feeling of preoccupation that you have inside when you are not done with something, and you feel that the time that you have to finish the project reduces faster and faster? Well, I hate that feeling, and that’s exactly what I thought was about to come, so I really didn’t appreciate this whole idea of the Teen Life Project initially. As we moved on with the project, I began to care more and to gain more interest about it. I am that kind of person that loves to gain knowledge and to know every day more, so that when people are talking about for example history, I know what they mean and I can also get involved in the conversation, because one thing I really love is to socialize and to gain general culture too, because that is what we gain doing this project. And that was happening; I was gaining a lot of knowledge about different subjects because we needed to read what other people, from Malaysia and North America involved in the project, wrote. As well, we needed to research for choosing the issue that we wanted to know, write, and learn about.

From the very beginning I was interested in global warming, but I wanted to explore more things to see if I got interested in them, and I did, I got interested in poverty, animals rights, eating disorders, and several more. Even though I was interested a lot in poverty, I lead more to global warming, so I ended choosing global warming and I don’t regret, at all. I gained a lot of knowledge about this issue, and as I gained more knowledge my worries about a warming globe increased. Global warming is an inconvenient truth, like Algore’s documentary, which has a perfect title for a documentary of global warming because it is an inconvenient truth, and people still don’t care.

Doing this project I learned about politics, science, and about fixing some issues with a video camera. I got to solve problems with my partner we had never faced, and this is important because when we are grown ups and we go to college, and have our families we will need to face problems. Therefore, every person needs to know how to solve every kind of problem, and in my opinion every time a person faces a problem and solves it, learns more about how to solve problems.

Causes of Global Warming

2007-03-04T18:43:00.000-04:00

This is my last research on global warming; I have learned many things about the issue. In this last post, I will like to write about some causes of global warming, I know I said on my last post that I will research on various causes and solutions, but I think it will be better if I focus more on the causes of global warming. I believe that it will be better if with opinions we give some ideas of how can we solve or reduce global warming, so I will continue and end up my research with solutions for global warming.

The factor that causes global warming the most is emissions of green house gasses into the atmosphere. Green house gasses in the atmosphere have risen by about a 30% since the past century. The green house effect happens by the sun radiating energy to the earth; energy passes through the atmosphere and earth absorbs much of the energy heating the Earth’s surface, but also some energy is reflected back into space. This process used to take place naturally in Earth’s atmosphere; making the planet earth more suitable for providing human life in it. Greenhouse gasses in earth’s atmosphere make Earth’s surface to absorb more heat energy and stops it escaping from the atmosphere. Usually, greenhouse gasses have molecules with three or more atoms. When the energy penetrates on the molecules, the molecule absorbs heat, it creates a vibration; it vibrates because the atoms are very close together. That vibration produces and releases radiation; this process repeats on and on. Since the industrial revolution, emissions of greenhouse gasses have increase by a lot, making temperature rise. This increase in temperature is causing a lot of damage on Earth.

Scientists believe that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is mainly because of human activities and the burning of fossil fuels. Also, did you know that plant respiration and decomposition of organic substances release more than ten times of Carbon dioxide to earths atmosphere than the amount that is release by human activity? But, don’t panic! Don’t panic! These releases of carbon dioxide have been in balance during the times before the industrial revolution, that's why nowadays, global temperatures have rise dramatically.

Another factor that strengthens global warming is deforestation. Trees and vegetation absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere turning it into oxygen, turning it into a way we can use it and decreasing the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, humans do not take advantage of that support, and instead we are cutting them down. For example, the Amazon rainforest, the largest rainforest in the world, is being deforested. Several days ago, I was reading an article in the news that said that Brazil’s government proposed to turn more than 50% of the rainforest into an area available just for industrial activity. If the rate of deforestation continues as it is going right know, in a hundred years roughly, our great and beautiful rainforests will fade away. The effects on climate if this happens are unpredictable. The reasons for deforestation to take place are for agriculture, to sell timber and other woods, and in general is economy.

I think that all of what we do, we can undo it, like “ctrl-z”. Obviously global warming is not going to stop happening within juts a minute, but little by little we can improve it and discourage global warming until we reach the point where we will be proud of ourselves because “we did it”. Everyone is worried about global warming but there needs to be more action. People talk and talk and don’t do nothing about it. So why you don’t stand up and do something! I’m very happy with the general knowledge I got about global warming. Soon you’ll see the documentary...Hopefully!

references:
deforestation
Greenhouse Effect
Greenhouse Gasses

Next Effect of Global Warming

2007-02-19T08:55:00.000-04:00

As more days go on, my research is going more into my topic; global warming. Every day I get more and more worried because I see that global warming is a fact, and the main thing that is causing it are humans. Its like if people didn’t realize that the more affected will be us; humans. Five effects of global warming will be: human health, weather, sea level rise, agriculture, and animals and plants. Global warming will affect human’s health by making some organisms to spread disease. As temperatures increases, people will die of getting too much stress do to hotter days. Also, mosquitoes will widen their variety, getting to places that are too cold for them. This will make them to spread more diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis. Allergies and respiratory problems will increase as temperature continues rising.

Weather will change dramatically in a future if global warming continues at this rate. Scientists predict that the parts that will be more heated up are the poles. Ice masses in the poles will melt making less ice bergs float on the Arctic and Antarctic oceans. In places where there is small snow fall, in a future there will be no snow fall at all. Nighttime and winters will have higher temperatures than usual. But, also scientists predict that while the globe continues warming, the atmosphere will become more humid making more water vapor go into the atmosphere. They still don’t know if water vapor will push or kind of slow down global warming. Water vapor is a green house gas, but in the other hand it will make more clouds in the atmosphere that will return sunlight rays into space. Storms will increase and will be more severe. Rainfall will increase one percent each time one degree Fahrenheit also increase. People expect that weather will be less predictable and more intense.

Seal levels are expected to rise about from 9 to 88 cm for the end of this century. If this is true, shorelines will change drastically and erosion will take place more frequently and making more damage. For example, the sea level rise will cover much part of the Everglades in Florida. Also, it will sink 6 percent of the Netherlands and also many islands will sink too.

Agriculture will be affected in both ways; good and bad. Good, because there will be places like southern Canada that will have a longer growing season and more rainfall, and also in places in which the climate is classified as semiarid and have some tropical farmlands will receive more water increasing crops or farming. But, forests and many trees will be in some kind of trouble because they will be bothered by more plant diseases and insects.

Plants and animals will be at risk. This is because it will be difficult for them to adjust to global warming effects or to move from their habitats. Both will be seeking for new homes in the poles or in higher elevations, do that were they are used to live will tend to be very hot in a future. For some of them, the move to the poles will not be so easy because they will find obstacle in their way such as, cities and farmlands that will block their way leading that specie to a sort of extinction.

My personal opinion about all these effects is that humans need to make something about it; we are causing too much harm to our very own world. As I said earlier scientists don’t know if the abundance of global warming in the atmosphere will speed up or slow down Global warming, so I think that weather is starting to be less predictable than before.

I will like to continue searching on various causes of global warming and some other solutions too. Then, my group and I will like, kind of choose the best two or something like that and will focus more on those.

Global Warming & The Arctic

2007-02-17T17:05:00.000-04:00

The ACIA, which stands for The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, was an international project that finalized in November 2004. This project was done with the purpose of collecting data, from many sources, to see how UV radiation, global warming, and climate change would affect the rises in temperature of the Arctic making the tides to increase and affecting the globe in many different ways. The project finalized with three reports; a synthesis report, a scientific report, and a policy report. The scientific and the synthesis reports were released on November 9th, 2004 and the policy report was released the 24th. This was important to be done because the Arctic temperatures are increasing at a rate faster than the rest of the world, so this project provided some kind of future result. From the twentieth century the temperature of the globe, without counting the Arctic, has increased 1ºF and in the Arctic the temperature has increased about 4 to 5ºF from the mid 1900’s. The reports that were done by the ACIA have been of much help for the world. They have been a source of veridical information for the people who are working to improve the future of the globe.

One of the effects of global warming will be sea level rise. As I said earlier, the arctic is warming at a faster rate than the rest of the globe, this makes the ice sheets and glaciers to melt and raise tides. According to the report made by the ACIA, the predictions are, that by the end of this century, the sea level will rise about 4 inches. This might not sound a lot, but indeed it is a lot; this will change coastal lines and will cause a lot of erosion. The Arctic Tundra is also involved, it contains a lot of carbon and it can release a lot of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere during a melt. When ice masses melt, because of released green house gasses, it adds more water to the ocean and it makes the ocean to warm. Also, one of the major source of fresh water the earth has are ice masses and by melting they will combine with the salinity the ocean contains making the solution to change because it will combine with other elements.

In my opinion, a way to end or improve this, is by following the Kyoto protocol. If the USA accepts it, Japan will follow up. If Japan follows up, the protocol will gain the support needed to make it an international law. If the Kyoto Protocol becomes an international law, emissions of green house gasses will decrease; the effects of this I think will be usual tides, the Arctic will recover its original shape of ice mass, also the temperatures will decrease until they reach their original point, etc. Climate change is affecting the world worsening it, because for example, the mosquitoes produce a lot of diseases. They are more attracted to places were temperatures are high, so they go to those places spreading diseases.

I will like to continue my research on one cause of global warming. I will like to have one cause, one effect, and one way to improve global warming in this project. This project for me is very interesting because I’m really worried about where the future of this planet will lead to. The cause that I will research will be about the emissions of global warming and how gasses get trapped in Earth’s atmosphere.

References:
ACIA & Sea Level Rise
Global Warming and The Arctic

The Politics of Global Warming

2007-02-05T09:42:00.001-04:00

Some days ago, I was looking at the BBC News web page and I read a remarkable article about the politics of climate change. While I read this article I learned a lot of interesting things about the Kyoto Protocol and how it is working in present days. For those who don’t know, the Kyoto Protocol is like a kind of treaty between the countries that are part of the United Nations to decrease the emissions of green house gasses, and by this way improving climate change. In other words,

The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement made under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Countries that ratify this protocol
commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse
gases, or engage in emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions
of these gases.

The Kyoto Protocol now covers more than 160 countries
globally and over 55% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The major polluters are the following countries (in order):
1.
United States of America
2. European Union
3. China
4. Russia
5. Japan
6. India

The United States is the only country in the globe that has accepted the Kyoto Protocol and then refused it. On March 2006, George W. Bush said that he would not ratify the Kyoto protocol because he thought it would worsen the US economy and because it doesn’t make the developing countries to cut their emissions. The US emits more, by much, green house gasses. It has increased its emission 11% from the 1990’s.

In the other hand, China has decrease its emissions and has improve a lot its economy, so it is not necessary that if a country cuts it emissions it will damage its economy. I think that is what President Bush meant on what he said last March. Although, China is one of the major polluters, it has decreased its emission of carbon dioxide by a 17% from the 1990’s. Even though China is not required to cut its emissions because it is an annex II country, which means that is not a developed country, it has cut its emissions by far.

Russia is a developed country; this means it is part of annex I. Russia’s gas emissions have decrease a 40% from the 1990’s till now. But, this hasn’t been of much help for the country due to that its economy has also fallen dramatically. Even though their economy is very weak, they ratify the Kyoto Protocol because it is a way of earning money. The plan is to use the money for projects of energy efficiency.

Japan, one of the most powerful economies in the world, has also decrease its gas emissions and it needs to because its part of annex I. They feel affection to the protocol; it has the name of one of its cities because the protocol was concluded there. But they say they will not ratify the protocol until the Americans do. Until the Japanese accept the treaty, the Kyoto Protocol will not have the support needed to be an international law.

As well, India, a developing country, has increased its emissions more than 52% from the 1990’s. In my opinion, at this rate it will be vulnerable to be a major polluter in a future. Maybe that is why President Bush doesn’t agree that all developing countries aren’t obliged to cut their emissions.

I think that in part, the Kyoto protocol has been of much help to the world on improving the green house effect. I think that if the United States accepts the protocol and Japan follows up it would be better because it will have the support needed. Imagine if the Kyoto Protocol wouldn’t ever be done what would be of this world? Any of those countries would have decreased their emissions.

For More information visit BBC News -Climate Change.

<----->Hunger and Homelessness<----->

2007-01-29T08:35:00.000-04:00

While doing my network of Google reader yesterday, I read some great ideas of concerning issues. Although all of them were pretty good, the one that most called my attention was one of the issues that April, from Mr. Fisher’s class, wrote. She wrote about poverty mainly, but she specified on world’s hunger and homelessness.

Here in Colombia a huge percent of the population suffer from hunger and live in the condition of having no home. Is very sad when most of the times you are in your car with all your family going to hang out with them and you see that there is an old man that could be your grandfather. You see that man sleeping on a piece of carton on the street and maybe he’s hungry or maybe not, or maybe he is even dreaming that he has a little house, with some food, water, and a cozy bed, while some times we complain because we have to share the bedroom with our sister or because our bedroom is too small. There’s when you start wondering why you complain so much instead of being pleased with all of what you have. How many unfortunate kids right now will not be wondering why they live in the streets, why they don’t have a family, why they need to starve, or why do they work to feed themselves instead of being educated.

I think that where you can see most people living in these conditions is in developing countries more than in developed countries. For example, my teacher of Colombian history told me that in Canada, a developed country, elderly got a health insurance and got a house that the government gave to them. I’m not exactly sure but if this is true, this is the way things need to work in every place of the world. There is no reason why some children do not receive education or for old people to be in the streets begging for money so they can afford something to eat or a medicine.

Here in Cartagena, Colombia, you can see a lot of poverty. From time to time some people between 20 to 50 years old steal things. In some cases, this happens because they feel so frustrated since they cannot feed their families or that they owe somebody that has threaten them and they cannot pay, that they get to a point were the feel the necessity of stealing or to assault. Here there is a new route that was built by “La Cienaga de la Virgen”. This route is called “via perimetral”; people try to evade this route because it is very dangerous. If you are by that route you may be in risk because in that zone live people that is very poor and you see a lot of vandalisms over there.

I think people should think more of these issues. The issues that we’re facing are not jokes, they are reality and we should face them as a team; everybody helping a little. If everybody does something I think we will proceed faster. What are some possible solutions for this issue that you have or you can think of?
Ps: Feel free to leave comments. Inappropriate comments are NOT accepted.

Also if you want to look at map tha shows Global Hunger and also Global Hunger Map 2003

º::·.Teens and the Future of Our World.·::º

2007-01-15T09:06:00.000-04:00

Hi, my name is Valeria, but my friends usually call me Vale, Val, or Valerie. I Live in Cartagena, Colombia, since I was born. I have 3 brothers older than me; I'm the younger, I am 14 years old. I just turned 14 in January; I celebrated my birthday with my friends in a house my family have in the Rosario Islands. I used to go to the Colegio Britanico, but in third grade i changed of school to the George Washington School, which in Spanish stands for Colegio Jorge Washington. I’m in seventh grade and my homeroom teacher is Mr. Hide. My friends and I usually call Mr. Hide, Mr. Hidesitow. My favorite subjects are social studies and math. I also enjoy science classes but not as much as social studies or math. Sometimes my friends call me Valerie because several years ago, when I was in third grade, I had a teacher, Ms. Holzgang, that called me Valerie and I didn’t like it because it was her who began calling me that way. When I was in third grade I used to be kind of like a little devil and I hated her, but now I’m okay with people calling me Valerie.

I follow a normal life here in Cartagena. My schedule begins at 6:00 A.M. when I wake up for school. Classes begin at 7:05 but students must be in their homerooms by 7:00 sharp to prepare and hear the announcements. I’m the vice president of STUCO which stands for the Student council, so I need to stay every Wednesday in a meeting after school. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I stay after school for soccer practices. I’m play as defense in the team of my school. I love soccer, for me soccer is more than a hobby, I enjoy every minute I play it. Also one important thing you must know about me is that I love to draw and paint; in a future I want to be a fashion designer. Another sport I play is tennis. I used to have practices on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, but know I go only on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Last year my academic elective was environmental science. In that elective I learned a lot about what is going on with our world, how we affect the environment, how gasses and the environment behave when they mix. One thing I got very interested about was when we learned a little bit about the Kyoto protocol and Global Warming; I continue thinking about it and I began to become concerned. This is and issue I’m interested about. I will like to know how it will affect the future of our world. I want to know more about how the Kyoto protocol works, the details about it, and which countries follow it. For example, one detail I want to know is the maximum amount of greenhouse gasses that is permitted to emit and what amount of money is the fine if you exceed of the amount of gasses permitted to emit. Also, what will be the consequences of following it, because this protocol is supposed to control emissions of gasses worldwide and also to control the greenhouse effect, but some of the countries, such as China and India, are about to become the major producers of greenhouse gasses.

Obviously, I have other issues I’m concerned about and that affect my life, such as the “guerrilla” here in Colombia or about AIDS. I’m not still certain of what issue I’m going to choose and also I will be with a partner, Valentina. You can let me comments telling me other issues that affect our teen lives and the world.

My Trip to Atlanta

2006-11-05T02:16:00.000-04:00

Three days ago I came from Orlando to Atlanta by car. It was a long but pleasant trip. In Ocala, a town near Orlando, live a close friend of my parents. My parents hadn’t seen him long time ago because he moved to the United States. Ocala is about one hour from Orlando, so on our way to Atlanta we stopped in his house. He has a farm over there and his house is in the farm. The farm is really nice. He works in his farm because he works with horses. My parents were very glad to see him and to see how happy he is with his wife and his work. He loves horses. That’s the reason why he wants to work with them. We stayed in his house for about 4 hours.

When we leaved Ocala was about 4:30 in the afternoon and we had 5 hours of trip from there. I can’t tell much of the trip because I slept almost all the time. When we got to Atlanta it was amazing because you saw the sky and you saw like a million of lights. The lights were airplanes, I was so amazed. I asked my brother why there were so many airplanes in the sky and he answered me that the airport of Atlanta was one of the busiest airports in the world. The Atlanta International Airport is huge, is the biggest airport in the United States.

Today we went to a mall in Kennesaw, a little town in Atlanta. My brother, Pipe, lives in Kennesaw. Kennesaw is a nice town and it isn’t like those towns that you go out and you don’t see even one car. It is like a little busy city. Also it is a town were students live. About most of its population are students.

In the mall that I was today I didn’t found many clothes for the climate of Cartagena. In all the stores right now you found clothes for cold climate because winter is about to begin. Today I was in Claire’s buying some earrings. While I was choosing the earrings there was a little girl with her mom. That little girl was there to make the opening for the earrings. She was crying very much. Today I learned one thing. I learned that here, people doesn’t do the piercing for the earrings when girls are babies, instead they do them when they are a little bit older and that is a big event in the family.

Respond Post To Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

2006-11-05T01:19:00.000-04:00

Hi there,

Some days ago we, my classmates and I, read a story called Monsters Are Due on Maple Street in English class. Our job this week is to do a respond post to the story. Personally, I think that the message of this story is that when people face problems, they need to face the problem as a group instead of fighting and blaming each other. When people face the problems as an individual, usually, they always are trying to blame other person, a kind of scapegoat. At the end they are destroying themselves.

“Understand the procedure now? Just stop a few of their machines and radios and telephones and lawn mowers…throw them into darkness for a few hours and then you just sit back and watch the pattern. And this pattern is always the same? With few variations. They pick the most dangerous enemy they can find…and it’s themselves. And all we need do is sit back…and watch.” This was a conversation I got from the story. The conversation was between two unknown living things. As you can read in the conversation, our most dangerous enemy is ourselves. Also, in that little conversation you can get the message of the story.

I feel that this message is totally true. Usually, when we fight, we follow that procedure. When we fight we are kind of blind and we become desperate to find a scapegoat so people don’t blame us. It would be much better if we stick together as a group to face problems, this would stop or decrease fights and it would be much easier to solve problems.
This story was one of the series of a TV show created in the 1960’s. This TV show was called The Twilight Zone. I believe this message is still relevant in today’s world. People still fight, and almost all the times they fight as individuals so it’s the same thing as 46 years ago.

If I were to re-do this tele-play I would adjust some things to modern life, but the rest is just perfect. I know that right now our major fear are not aliens, but we fear them because we don’t know much of them, so that would be a reason why I won’t change aliens to thieves or terrorist. I think that I shouldn’t change anything and instead do another tele-play with the major fear in present days, so people can compare how the world has worsened or it has became better.

..~My Trip to Orlando~..

2006-10-27T23:32:00.000-04:00

Hi,
Today I arrived to Miami like at 1:00P.M to the Miami International Airport. The flight was comfortable, fast, and calm. I woke up like at 4: 45 A.M in the morning because I needed to be in the airport at 6 O’clock in the morning. While I was in the airplane we fly right on top of Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, and other islands of the Caribbean. The color of the ocean on those islands was beautiful, it turned from aquamarine to turquoise and then to navy, it was wonderful! When I got to the airport with my parents we waited about for 25 minutes for immigration, the lines were gigantic. I was so amazed, there you saw people from all over the world, people with different cultures and customs. Also, there were people with these weird cloths similar to the cloths the Muslims wear and others with a kind of little dot on their forehead like the Hindus. For a moment I thought that they might felt uncomfortable knowing that most of the people are looking at them and talking about them as weird people, but then I just realized that they might be used to it and that we must be a little more respectful because is their culture and we need to respect that. Also, as well as we look at them and think of them about weird people they might be doing the same thing because are very different traditions and customs.

After all the procedures at the airport we went on a little bus to Dollar Rent- A -
Car to, obviously, rent a car. When we got there we realized that my dad’s car license had expired two days ago and my mom thought that she had left her license at our home in Cartagena, but thank god it was in her wallet because if not, you will not like to hear it because it would had been a total disaster. There we had a reservation for a Chrysler Pacifica but we didn’t fit there because we were going to encounter with my brothers and one of my brother’s girlfriend in Orlando and in total we were 7 and the Chrysler Pacifica was for 5 people. Finally we rent a Dodge Durango, it was perfect for us.

When we got out of Dollar, we went, again, to the airport to receive one of my brothers. He had lived in Miami so he wanted to take a little ride through Key Biscayne, Brickell, and Miami beach, but unfortunately we didn’t went to Miami Beach because it was getting later to take the Turnpike to go to Orlando. In our way to Orlando we got lost like a thousand times. When we were on the Turnpike we decided to exit because there was a giant truck, which had burned, blocking the highway. When we were trying to found Interstate95 we got lost. Due, to that we hadn’t ate nothing, we found Burger King. There, we ordered through the drive thru and asked how to find I95. After the instructions they gave us in Burger King, we found the highway, but in West Palm Beach we took again the Turnpike. Finally we got to Orlando like at 11:30 P.M, we were very tired, but at the same time happy because we were going to be all together.

Ps: It will continue...(on my next free post)

Short Story Draft

2006-10-23T08:23:00.000-04:00

Rrrrrrrrrinng---oh god. Emily woke up; her mother was doing breakfast in the kitchen. Why does she make life so hard for her, she is too complicated, Emily thought as she took a slice of bread from the refrigerator.

Emily said, “Good morning momma.”

“Good morning sweetie, what do you want for breakfast?” asked Susan. “Do you want some pancakes?”

“Uh, no, really I’m not sure; maybe some eggs or a sandwich,” answered Emily a little insecure, “or maybe pancakes will be alright.”

Susan was cooking the pancakes; suddenly the phone rang. Rrrrrrrrriiiinnng—it was Chloe, actually she was calling to invite Emily to her house to make the invitation cards of her birthday party. Emily went to Chloe’s house, they finish early, so they went to hand out the cards and then they went to eat dinner. Several days after, it was Chloe’s party. So every girl, who was invited, was getting ready and looking for her outfit.

"Emily, Chloe is downstairs, come down," said Susan.

"Tell her to come to my bedroom," said Emily.

Chloe went upstairs, "Hi Emily, how are you?" asked Chloe, with a happy expression on her face.

"Hey Chloe!" exclaimed Emily, "I'm glad to see you".

"Me too, I was just passing near by, cause my mother is waiting for me at Costco to buy the things for the party, so I just thought that maybe you would want to go with me?" said Chloe.

“Ohh, I will love to, but I need to look for the outfit I’m going to wear for the party, but thank you,” said Emily.

“Okay, see you at the party,” said Chloe opening the door.

“Yeah, obviously, see ya,” said Emily as Chloe went downstairs.

Emily always wanted to be one of the prettiest girls every where, so she started to look for the best clothing she could wear for the party that night. Anything looked gorgeous enough for Em, so she decided to call summer for help.

"Hi Summer." greeted Emily.

"Hi! Who is this?" answered Summer.

"Is Emily you dummy," said Emily.

"Hey! Sorry I didn't recognize your voice" answered Summer laughing.

"Summer, I need some help on choosing what I'm going to wear to Chloe's birthday, please come to my house, quickly!" exclaimed Emily hurried.

"Ok, but first I need to ask my mom because we had planned to buy some things for the trip today, so let me ask her and I call you in 5 minutes, if that's ok with you," answered Summer.

"Sure, I wait for your call," said Emily.

Summer called her mom. "Hi mom," greeted Summer.

"Hi honey, how are you?" answered Marissa; Summer's mom.

"Fine thank you," answered Summer "mom can I go to Emily's house? Is that she wants some help on choosing what she is going to wear and I wanted to help her.”

"Ok, but then tomorrow we need to do what we were going to do today, and tomorrow don't even think of saying to me 'mommy I have soccer classes' because I’m not going to accept it," Marissa advice her.

"Ok!" exclaimed Summer "I talk to you later."

"Ok, bye and also remember to put what you're going to wear on your bed so I don't put it in the suitcase," Said Marissa.

"Ok mom, bye." answered Summer.

Five minutes later Summer called Emily. "Hey, mom told me the same speech of every day; 'Ok, but don't even think of saying, mommy I have soccer practices' or something like that, you know how is she."

"Yes! Every single mother is the same!" answered Emily laughing "but, are you coming?"

"No, she told me 'No!' can you believe that?" said Summer.

"Really?" answered Emily kind of impressed.

"Not really, I was just kidding," answered Emily "I'm going in 5 minutes."

"Umm, okay," said Emily.

"See you later alligator,” whispered Summer.

“In a while crocodile!" answered Em.

When Summer was going into Emily’s house, Susan arrived and called summer, "Hi Summer, can you give this to Em, I bought her some clothes, so she can choose something to wear to Chloe's party."

"Hi Susan, okay, I'm sure Em is going to love it!" answered Summer.

"Okay, tell Emily to call me if she doesn't like it so we can change it," said Susan.

“Okay,” said Summer.

Then, when Summer got into Emily’s room, Em was sleeping.

“Hey Emily, wake up!” exclaimed Summer.

Em was waking up and asked Summer, “What are you doing with all those clothes?”

“Oh right, your mom bought you new clothes so you can choose something from it to wear to the party,” answered Summer, “and also she said that if you didn’t like it you need to call her quickly so that she can change it.”

Emily tried on all the clothes, but she didn’t like anything. Emily was very nervous to tell her mom that she didn’t like it, because she thought that her mom will be disappointed on her. Every time Susan bought Em new clothes, she never liked them.

“Summer, what I’m going to do? My mom is going to be mad at me!” cried Emily.

“Just tell her that you didn’t like them because they were very stretch, I don’t know, something like that,” answered Summer.

“Okay, but before calling my mom I must have what I’m going to wear, because if I don’t have it I’m going to be in trouble,” said Emily.

Emily and Summer spent about two hours looking for Em’s outfit. After a while they found the perfect outfit for Em to wear, it was a black skirt with a white shirt and a black belt, and she looked gorgeous.

“Summer now I need to call mom, I hope she don’t turn to be mad at me,” said Em.

“Just remember to tell her that you already picked your outfit,” answered Summer.

Emily called Susan, “Hi mom, thanks for the clothes.”

“Hi honey, did you like it?” asked Susan.

“Mom I already picked my outfit, but from old clothes, I had, because what you bought was too stretch, sorry mom,” cried Emily.

“Don’t worry, but I’m not going to help you at night if you tell me that something happened with your outfit,” said Susan.

“Okay mom, I know,” answered Em, “but now I’m going to the beauty shop okay?”

“Okay, take care,” said Susan.

Summer and Emily went to the beauty shop to get their hands and hair done. They spent about two hours there. When Emily and Summer were about to finish in the beauty shop, Em called to her house:

“Mom, can you put what I let in the studio on my bed please?”

“Yeah, sure,” said Susan.

Susan put Em’s outfit on Em’s bed. When Emily got home she saw that the white shirt had an orange dot, she almost died.

”Mom!” cried Emily. Susan come into Em’s bedroom and said:

“What happened?” she saw the white shirt and said:

“Oh my God, what happened?”

“I’m almost sure that it was my sister!” Exclaimed Em angrily.

“Okay, I’m going to help you just because it was your sister’s fault” said Susan.

They went to a store to buy a new shirt, Em was happy at the time because she got a new shirt. At the end, Emily had one of the most dazzling outfit of the birthday party. Also, she learned to appreciate what her mother did for her, and made sure, that for next time, her mother bought her something she really looked back for.

"::·.A Cool Experience!.·::"

2006-10-12T19:03:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had an experience that you always remember and that you know you will never forget? One of those experiences that you don't expect and are very funny. Well, I had one and I think it would be kind of funny to tell.

It all started when my brother, Giancarlo, told my father that since he was here, in Cartagena, he wanted to go to the house that we have in the Rosario island. So my father invited the father of Isabella, Bernard, and his family. The day that we went to the island, was the day that the three mastered ship of Colombia, El Gloria, the four mastered ship of Chile, wich is the biggest, a three mastered ship from Brazil, and a three mastered ship from Paraguay were lefting Cartagena, so we saw them and it was amazing! I went with Lisette, Victoria, Isabella and her parents, two of my brothers with their grilfriends, and my parents. We went just to hang there for the afternoon.

In the island we did a lot of things, we went kayaking, we snorkled, take alot of photos, and swim alot! When we were about to left, my parents and isabella's parents decided to stay for the night there. Since we didn't had any cloth for the next day, we went to a little village in the Rosario Island and bought some clothings. Obviously, the cloth werent so comfortable, but we preferred to be cleaned. That night I felt as if I were in an isolated island with anything, It was just as in Desafio 20·06, a reality show inb Colombia. The next day we woke up early in the morning and had breakfast. For breakfast we had arepa de huevo, which is a typical plate from the coast. Cartagena is in the northern coast of colombia. About an hour before we returned to Cartagena, me and my friends went to a little reef, just in front of my house, in kayak. There, we snorkled and I saw a ray just above us, but it was a little deep. I decided not to tell my friends because then they would want to return to the house and I didn't. later our parents called us because it was time to go. We got to Cartagena like at 5 O'clock in the afternoon.

That was one of my memorable experiences. Really, I had a wonderful weekend. I think this experience was very important in my life, because it teached me how to survive without a comfortable cloth, without air conditioner, and a computer. I know this sounds kind of funny, but really I like it and I want to repeat it. Some times you think that you can't survive without an air conditioner or without a computer, but you don't realized that there is people in your surroundings that don't have even with what to eat, so before you start complaining think about it, you are very lucky.

°::.A Nightmare Holiday.::°

2006-10-09T08:56:00.000-04:00

Have you ever think about how would a nightmare holiday would be like? 1) Imagine that your always-dream-holiday is just to begin, you are in the airport, and you loose your tickets 2 minutes to aboard the airplane. You loose the flight and you need to wait for the next airplane. 2) In the airport, you need to wait for 14 hours to the next flight and buy your ticket again. 3) While waiting in the airport, 4)you talked with some friends, read the news paper, and spilled the coffee on your pants. 5) Since you felt sleepy, every 5 minutes you took a nap. You took the nap on a couch. 6) The couch was comfortable, warm, and soft. 7) When you woke up you went to the cafeteria bought another cup of coffee, chocolates, and a sandwich. 8) Oh, what a nightmare!

1. Independent clauses.
2. Prepositional phrases.
3. Participial Phrases.
4. Series of phrases.
5. Adverb clause.
6. Series of Modifiers.
7. Series of Items.
8. Introductory yes, no, or interjection

..::·Solving Problems Properly·::..

2006-10-07T15:54:00.000-04:00

Hi,
Today Mr. Hide assigned us a post about problems and solutions. I think this post may be of interest to many people because I think that everybody have problems.

I have many problems like all human beings. I believe that anyone on Earth is that perfect to don’t have even one problem in his/her life. When I have problems I deal to them in different ways because it depends on my mood and also on the gravity of the situation. I think that the 70% of the problems in my life are with my mom. Almost all of the times that I have problems with my mom I end up grounded. When I am in a bad mood sometimes I deal those problem in a way that is no the best, like ignoring that person or shouting or not trying to solve the problem. The best way that you can deal to you problems is talking to that person in a calm and good way, not ignoring them, and hearing her/his points of views; may be you might be wrong and he/she might be right.

Well, I have strategies to solve my problems, but when I’m under pressure I really can’t apply them because the angerness takes me to do things that I’m not thinking about in that moment. My parents always tell me to think before my actions, I can do that if I have time to reflect, but If I have little or no time to think about what I’m going to do it is very hard to do that. When I was younger my parents always told me to go to my room and reflect of what I did for 10 minutes and then talk to them, all of the times I ended up apoligizing.

Well, One of the problems that most of my friends and I have with our parents it’s to stay out later. I can tell you that if you get upset with your parents and talk to them in a bad way you’re not going to get what you want. Almost all of the times that I had a problem with my mom, the problem is about staying out later and usually I didn’t talked to her in a calmed way and I ended up grounded, so it was worst for me because I didn’t even get to go out with my friends. About A month ago I talked with my parents in a calm way and they talked about it. Know I have what I want; I got to stay later.

Most of my friends are younger than me and they stay out later, so I thought it was unfair to stay earlier if I was older. Every time that I went out for dinner with my friends I fought with my parents because I wanted to stay later, this is the reason why I had the problem with my parents.

After several months, I talked to my father in calm way and he understand me because I gave him good reasons, so he said he was going to talk with my mom. So as you can see, I fix my problem by talking to my parents in a good manner.

..::·::-Soccer in School-::·::..

2006-10-07T15:46:00.000-04:00

Hi,
Like I told you before, one of my favorite hobbies is to play soccer. I’m in the Jr. Varsity girl soccer team. I have practices every Wednesday and Friday from 3:30 P.M to 5:15 P.M. Next week we have a game vs. another school, but I’m not sure of the name of that school. I like very much to play soccer. Through all the year we have several tournaments in different cities. The biggest tournament is binational games.

For this year we have the following tournaments:
· On November 24th to 25th are the MS Cartagena Games.
· On February are the Albania Games.
· On March 1st and 2nd are the Barranquilla Games.
· On March 13th to 18th are the Binational Games.
· On May 4th to 7th are the Mary Mount Games.

Last year I was also in the team. The Binational Games were in The Columbus School of Medellin. We stayed at the club Campestre of Llano Grande. From about eight different schools we got the fifth place. I know is not too good, but that is why we are working very hard to get the first place this year.

I think that is very important to have sport teams in a school because is good to encourage and give the opportunity to students to play sports and like sports. For example in my school, we get to choose extracurricular classes of sports. We can choose maximum two sports. To go to a tournament you need to have good grades, if you have failed a grade and you haven’t improved it you can’t go. So, really it doesn’t affect your grades in school because the people that want to play they want to go to those tournaments soy they put all their efforts to get great notes!

·..::Two of my Favorite Hobbies::..·

2006-10-07T14:25:00.000-04:00

Hi,Since I create my blog I have written some things about what I like, what I want to be in a future, what I do in English classes, one of my vacations, etc. So far I had told you little details of my life. Today I’m going to tell you about my favorite hobbies.

Two of my favorite hobbies are to play soccer and to draw and paint. When I have free time, in the afternoons, I usually draw. Obviously, except when I have home work or soccer classes. Like I told you before, I want to be a fashion designer, and the reason why I want to be a fashion designer is because I love painting and drawing and fashion. I expect to be a great fashion designer. And yes, I want to spend the rest of my life drawing, or being a fashion designer, at the end is the same thing.

Ok, now my other favorite hobby, soccer. I love to play soccer, when I play it I feel like that is what I like to do. In my school I’m in the girl’s soccer team of middle school. Every Wednesday and Friday I stay after school in practices. Also, after each practice I have another soccer class, but independently from the team. I receive that class with Valentina, one of my classmates and one of my best friends! You can visit her blog is super cool!

Expectations Vs. Reflections

2006-10-07T14:16:00.000-04:00

As you can see in the bottom of this blog I posted a paragraph named My Expectations. If you read that post, you can see which were my expectations of making and having a blog one month ago. What I expected of having a blog have similar things of what I have experienced. I expected to be fun and interesting, and so far it has been very fun and super interesting.

Maintaining a web log has both, easy and hard things. Well, it is harder when Mr. Hide, our English teacher, assigned us a topic to write a post, because you can’t write about things you want, eventhough the topic that they assign us are things that we know or we have studied. Each week we need to write two posts; one of them is a free post and the other one is assigned by mr.hide. I love when we write our free posts because we can write about anything we like except unproper things. On you free posts you can put your point of views and add some experiences. The posts are due every Sunday at 7:00 A.M.

I feel that having a blog is very fun. Although sometimes when you’re in a bad mood is boring to go to your blog and write the posts. Also there are times that i feel like if my head was blocked and any ideas come to my head so I don’t have anything to write. Since we have a post I have improved my writing.

My feelings about having a post have changed a little bit. At the beginning I felt a little bored. But know I feel that is more interesting, that you can express in different ways and everyone can see what you feel and what you think. Also I feel that posting assignments is better than writing them by hand because sincerely I really hate writing by hand.

I love to add pictures to my posts. Really when I look at a blog and I see pictures, I feel with more enthusiasm to read the posts and leave comments. So I want people to feel the same way of my blog. I love to have my blog very organized and cute. The settings of my blog I changedthem if I don’t like them.

Of my experience what have surprised me the most is that I have improved my writing so this week one of my free posts got an honorable mention. I care very much that my blog is in good conditions and the posts are great and interesting. I hope that one week my blog get named the blog of the week.

From blogging I have learned many things. - I know is going to sound very funny- but the first of them is how to make the blog. I also learned how to make great comments. To make my posts, most of the times I put some experiences and my points of views. I also learned how to link to places and other blogs.

.:·:·::4-Shopping Lovers::·:·:.

2006-10-07T14:11:00.000-04:00

Hi,This week I started to read a book called Little White Lies. This book is about a girl that wants to restart her life by moving to London. There, she had a high class life, shopping all days and going to famous clubs on weekends. This book makes me think about the all day life of much woman and teenagers. Why? Well, just because we love to go shopping!

When Caro, the girlfriend of my brother, comes to Cartagena we go to The Old City because there are many boutiques, such as Pilatos, Hernan Zajar, and many others. Also when I go to Medellin we go shopping too because there you can find beautiful clothes, shoes, purses, etc. and they are very cheap. If you come to Cartagena, Colombia, I will recommend you to go to The Old City and look also at some boutiques in the Av. San Martin.Do you know why I love to go shopping? No? Okay, I love to go shopping because I love fashion! In the future I want to be a famous fashion designer.

My mother is a very good friend of Francesca Miranda, a recognized fashion designer here in Colombia. Some weekends I go to her factory and she teaches me basic things of fashion designing. I think that if a continue learning those things maybe I’m going to do well in college. I’m very happy of what I’m learning, because I enjoy doing it. I think shopping is one of the best hobbies.

..::Interesting Story::..

2006-10-07T14:06:00.000-04:00

Last week, in English class we read a story called Three Skeleton Key. Every week we read a story in English class. We have read three stories since we started school. From the three stories I've liked two of them. Three Skeleton key makes me think about Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Dead Man's Chest, because in the story appears a three mastered ship. When the three man saw it one of them said "Are you saying that she's the Flying Dutchman?" when they told that, immeditley the picture of the Flying Dutchman in Pirates of the Caribbean II came to my head. In that story they thought that the three master ship was the Flying Dutchman but it wasn't.

The three mastered ship was abandoned because sea rats ate the crew of the ship. The ship crashed the shore, when it crashed all the rats when to the lighthouse, where the three man live while they were working. When the I heard the word rats it reminded me of one time I was walking with a friend, Isabella, to her house. It was late at night and we where going to cross the street. We saw a giant rat! It was grose, the rat was runnig out of a sewer, when we saw the rat we start running and screamin it was horrible! So could you imagine how would it be not only with one rat, but with thousands of them wanting to eat you! That was what happened in the story, all the rats were hungry beacuse they didn't eat for about 4 weeks. They wanted to eat the three man in the lighthouse, poor guys!

I liked this story because when you are reading, you dont't want to stop, you always want to know more. This story is very suspenful, and I love suspense. In English class we have read three stories and none of them were very interesting, it was time to read something of our taste! eventhough the other stories were cool, this one was better.

.·::·.My Trip On The Disney Magic!.·::·.

2006-10-07T14:02:00.000-04:00

Three years ago my uncle planned to make a trip with the family. He thought of going to disney, but his daugther told him of the cruise of disney. He thought that was a great idea beacuse all of my cousins are young and they love disney!

On the 26th of December we traveled to miami. that same day we rent 2 cars and traveled all the rest of the day to Cape Canaveral were the cruise sail from. In Cape Canaveral we went to the NASA. There, a man showed us all the things in there, it was great! On Monday, at the afternoon, was the cruise departure from Port Canaveral. The route of the cruise was first St.Maarten, St.Thomas/St.Jhon,and Castaway cay. It was a 7night cruise.

Silvana, my cousin, and me the first day we went through all the cruise to know all the things that the cruise had. In the cruise we went to the pool, we ate many ice-creams, we went to the game zone, we buy alot of things too. All the nights we went to a room were you could chat with other friends in internet, it was a great experience. I will never forget it!

>= Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter Have Past to History! =<

2006-10-07T13:32:00.000-04:00

Animal lovers around the world are paying tribute to a brave and beloved
conservation hero today. Steve Irwin also known as the “crocodile hunter,” died
after being attacked by a stingray at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.

Steve Irwin was a great and brave man. When I was very young I saw his TV program in animal planet. I loved him, I always dreamed of going to australia just to go to the Australia zoo and watch him. His death was a big impact on humanity. Almost every person in the world loved him. I cant said that every person in the world loved him, because I´m not certain.He said,

"I was actually put on this Earth to promote conservation so people can protect
wilderness areas, love wildlife, and feel energy, passion, and enthusiasm for
our beautiful native animal species.”

His death was caused by a stingray, while he was diving in the Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. "As he swam over the more than 200-pound stingray, its poisonous tail spiked him in the chest. The attack damaged his heart."

I think that he was a great man, he was not only the "crocodile hunter," he was a “passionate environmentalist.” If you want to read more about these, you can visit Time For Kids News web page or Scholastics News web page.

? =]Some of my Friend's Blogs [= ?

2006-10-07T13:30:00.000-04:00

This is the blog of my friend Catalina. She is one of my best friends. She likes to be called Kat!http://kta93.blogspot.com/

This is the blog of other friend; Stefano. He likes to play soccer.

A third neat blog belongs to Augusto. He likes to sail. Also, I called him August.

..··..My Expectations··..··

2006-10-07T13:28:00.000-04:00

Well, my expectations of having my own blog are many. I expect to have fun, and I know is going to be very interesting. The idea of looking at other peoples points of views makes it even more exciting. Also other people can see your opinions and point of views too. Well I know I’m not the best writer, but I make the posts the more interesting I can. Also people that visit my blog can write me comments to correct my errors, that way I'm going to improve each day more.

Technology And Education

2006-10-07T13:18:00.000-04:00

I think technology has advantages and disadvantages for education. One advantage is that we have more sources to find information. Nowadays we don’t have only books or encyclopedias, we also have computers, educational TV programs, and more. Other advantage is calculators. Calculators are good or bad depending on the way people make use of it. Even though technology has advantages, it also has disadvantages. Some disadvantages would be inappropriate content, make people lazy, and is not that easy for some people to afford for it.