Week 19: November 16th to 22nd

WE DID IT! WE MADE IT! WE GOT HERE!

We have just finished another semester from our program! And this is so exciting because we are only missing one more semester to graduate as degreed teachers!

Right now I feel like this semester passed just flying in front of my eyes, but I think that during the process I didn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. This was pretty much a good semester. Although I realized some ugly things from my personal life and now that I know I won't be the best student from the program, I feel like I really learned about my whole process and now I feel that I've grown up so much.

As the semester ends, this project does it too... at least during vacations. 

I don't know. 

I kind of made a dream come true with this homework, to be honest. I have already had three other blogs and they haven't had so many entries like this. Even if this blog is being only read for one person, this exercise is pretty much what I've always wanted to do. 

I feel like this semester my English did improve, my writing kind of got better, at least I've deleted some of the fossils I had, like "people is" or  "I didn't saw". I tried to be more constant with my own process and I feel that it was because of my teacher, and even I know comparisons are not ok, I have to analyze the two messages that I received from my English courses this past two semesters. 

The previous semester I had such an amazing teacher but so soft too. He was always saying that we are the ones who need to be engaged with our process, and he proposed a similar exercise than this one, but it was vague and not really clear for me. I have to admit that every class was a surprise for me because I never knew what was the homework or the task or what part of the course we were in. The thing is that he didn't want to give us homework because he thought the process must be natural.

Now, with my last teacher, the first thing that I notice is that she never spoke in Spanish, not even once, even when we talked to her in Spanish. Second, she did kind of express that it was our responsibility to have our process but, she just told us "you need to create a narrative blog every week to practice your writing, I'll be checking" I think that was enough for us to get engaged and committed with the process. 

So what I can see here is that some teachers... I don't know if it's believing too much on their students, but they think that only by explaining how important a homework is your students are going to get that idea and kind of idealize the homework and enjoy it. No. Most of the times it doesn't happen. Sometimes you just have to assign homework and hope for the best, not trying to convince students but also not leaving the motivation process behind. 

So... yeah, this is how this ends. Thanks a lot for allowing me to have this experience. I think I have never written so much in my whole life... IN ENGLISH. I really enjoyed this.

Thanks for reading. 

week 18: November 9th to 15th

Week 17: November 2nd to 8th

This app called mixer is really cool. These days I've been practicing with it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fhUjZ6iFnzuc61QXyUE_7r_vDZcktJ6Y/view?usp=sharing 

Week 16: Ocober 26th - November 1st.

My favorite apps to read and books in English I have on them. 

About the apps:

I know I need to try to explore other types of text buuuut right now I'm not even able to write a short story in Spanish not even in English. So in this post, I want to talk to you about the apps I like using for reading on my android cellphone.  

I have this app called Lithium which only works for reading EPUB format books, but I have really enjoyed and let me tell you why:

First, it is a very simple app, very minimalistic and I really like this because I don't like complicated apps, I'm already very complicated, I need to simplify my readings.
So this is the first view if the app, you must to have downloaded the epubs in your cellphone so the books can appear on the app.

This is the left sidebar. As you can see, you can add categories, but I don't have any just because I haven0t had the time to organize the boos I have in there. Besides, you can always have the PRO version but the free version is very complete.

These are the options that appear when you touch the 3 dots in the right corner, where you can update the library, so the app searches the new epubs that you have downloaded on your phone. There is also the option of organizing and to change the design of the app. 

I have organized my books in a grid, but you can also have it like a list.

Also, you can organize the books by title, author, added date or last read.

Finally, what I REALLY love are the bookmarks. You have like 5 different colors to mark the quotes and then you can see them this way.
















The other app I use is "Kindle App" which is very similar buuuut a little bit more complicated just because of the system of adding books to the platform.

So, here you need to create an amazon account, then open the app in your phone and synchronize the app with your amazon email and then to add books to the app you need to send the books to the amazon email in .mobi format. So yes, it is a little bit more complicated but the same as lithium.

Books I have in English.

•  Ann and the french kiss
• Finish what you start: the art of following through, taking action, execution, & self-discipline
• heart.shaped box
• how to win friends and influence people
• navy day
• radio silence
• the bell jar
• the subtle art of not giving a fuck
• Into the water

I haven't read any of them. I started "Ann and the french kiss" and "Radio Silence" but... I need to read more. 

Ok, that's all for today's entry. BYE!

Weeek 15: October 19th to 25th

The magic of podcast!

I love podcasts. But this hasn't always been this way. At first, I really didn't like them. It was something like "I need to listen so carefully so this could be a significant experience for me and my brain!" and this was so stressful for me. But with time I've realized that the magic of these audios is exactly that! You don't have to be REALLY ONLY FOCUS on the podcast because listening is something that you usually do, and when you get used to hearing the information from the podcast, it's even easier to get the ideas from the podcast. 

There are as many types of podcasts as types of books. There are ones about reviews of things, like books, movies, tv shows, etc. There are meditation podcasts or podcasts that talk about self-empowerment, or the ones that tell the news, and it's so amazing to have so much information that you can go walking on the street and you just listen to it!

My favorite podcasts are about science, literature, reviews about movies (because I don't like that much watching movies), short news of the day and meditations. Some day I'll share my playlist of podcasts in Spotify.

Week 14: Octber 12th to 18th

I'm here to talk about a bunch of unconnected things... because that's what we do here. And by we I refer to myself and my mind and my ideas.

Have you ever thought about the relation between your feelings, emotions and your gut? Well, I'm one of the people in the world who must deal with the terrible pain of irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS to make it shorter. What I didn't know till last year how much was this related to my emotions, and how sometimes my physical pain was just a response to my stress or sadness. There was when I remembered one of my morphophysiology classes (from when I was studying Bioengineering) that the teacher made us prepare a presentation about the digestive system and I read that the colon was actually the organ with the biggest irrigation from the nervous system. This was better explained by my teacher, but only until the last year, I realized how much truth was that. In the middle of the process, in one of many visits to the doctor for the terrible pain (once I did believe that I was having appendicitis), he explained to me how was related the colon with the stomach, and why I was feeling nauseous. The thing is that the colon needs to do very strong movements and when it does them, it touches the walls of other intestines, like the stomach, and that's when I had the reflex of nausea and wanting to vomit so bad. After the scientific process, a lot of meditation and a good conversation, I realized that talking about a specific person was causing me dizziness, nausea and abdominal pain. When I realized this, it was just like the best new I ever get. I wasn't going to die because of my aches! at least not if I could control them, and knowing the source of the pain (besides beans and spicy food) was a great thing to know. 

In other news, the climate has been so crazy that I'm patiently waiting for my flu, or laryngitis, or something like that. I don't know how do I stay not sick with the daily climate change that I suffer when I go and come back from work. 

Having the kids out of school is like: there is nothing to do, but it's so nice to hear your own thoughts. Yeah, this is the free week in October for schools. It's breathing for us but the truth is that it's never enough. And what am I doing during this time? Spending as much as time I could be in my bed. 

I think I have nothing else to say. 

Week 13: October 5th-11th

Doctor House: My Favorite show ever

"House M.D [Medical Diagnosis]" is a show about Gregory House, a doctor specialized in Medical Diagnosis, which means that he is one of the few people able to find out very strange illnesses in his patients. We may think this is a regular show about a doctor, but his personality is so different and unique that it gives that special touch to this show, and actually was what made me fall in love with it.

House has a very own way to see reality. His maxim is "Everybody lies" and this was something that really hit me when I saw it. Every time he has a patient, he is the last person to see it, he cares more about the results of the exams than what the person may say because the most probable is that the patient will lie. In general, at the end of every chapter, he must go to talk with the patient basically because he is missing information, the patient is about to die, the tests don't show more data to know what is the correct treatment, and the patient must have been lying about something. Then, House explains that if he doesn't know the truth he can not find the cure and the next step in the procedure will be "dying" (with the coldest and cruelest way to say it, including in several times irony and sarcasm).

Of course, the show is not only about him. He is the head of the department of medical diagnosis, so he has a team made of three people. In the first seasons (are eight in total) there are Cameron (a sweet, caring  women who falls in love with him ), Chase (A rich cute sexy doctor), and Foreman (the black neurologist doctor (it's not my intention to be racist but is to show the perspective that House gives about him)). I think that from the 4th to 5th season these doctors quite to their job, and House has a new team.

Every chapter treats very rare diseases and the different methods that House use to deal with the lies of the patients make every 45 minutes worth it. Besides, there is a lot of drama and fun, comming from the human relationships on the show, and the hilarious sarcasm and irony from House.

Now, why do I like it so much? 

And this is where I relate this with my life...

I consider my self a very transparent person. I can tell that I don't have many secrets, and the ones I have are not very relevant. My life has been so clear for the people who know me that actually, it has been a disadvantage for me sometimes, but I have no interest in changing that. I like being transparent, and not hiding when I like or I don't like something... or someone. But, and this is what I learned from this magnificent show, and yes, I didn't have any idea of this and this had never gone through my mind, the fact that I'm transparent doesn't necessarily mean that all the people that surround me are transparent too...

When I watched this show, and I kind of realize that actually everybody lies, and not all the time, but everybody is a potential lier made me feel so vulnerable, and I started thinking on how every single person I had known in my life could have been lying to me in many ways... That was hard broking and actually happened in one of those hard years of teenage. Even it was significant learning, I negate this from time to time to my self because it's really hard to think about how people could be lying to you, and not even noticing because what is a lie for me is not for someone else, until this year...again.

I'm in a moment of my life that I'm rediscovering that people lie, and do so without compassion, or measurement, or thinking about the other... And that's why I wanted to write a little bit from this show in this blog, which has become a place where I'm not only exercising my writing but expressing some ideas, that I would really like to continue doing.

Now some nice pics and quotes from the show:

And now his maxim:

Thanks for reading.

Week 12: September 28th to October 4th

This exercise is pretty basic. I really was thinking about trying to make a different type of text, but today one teacher told us about poetry that you can't write poetry if you haven't read poetry. Actually, I haven't read anything in English, besides academic texts from the university of short quotes from books. And of course the lyrics of a bunch of songs.

So my challenge for this week is to read something in English and try to imitate it so then I can produce something original. (This could be a really interesting exercise, just to make a challenge every week.)

By now I will tell you about this week. Recently (and parallel to my absence in the blog) I've been living some processes in my life from what I've been learning a lot of things, especially in the social aspect of my life. I had always believed that I had some kind of Asperger because there are some interactions between people that I simply don't understand. Now I know that my parents didn't give me the tools to develop in society, but that's another story. Now I'm learning kind of how to behave in some situations that last year I didn't know how to handle it. Now I know a lot of things that I didn't know then, and I'm very proud of it.  (Notice how many times I'm repeating the word "now", that's the only moment I'm living in.)

So this week I had the obstacle of the flu in my life. At the beginning of the week, I was feeling basically terrible, and a tried to do the things I needed to do, but I didn't do them. On Monday and Tuesday, I didn't have to go to work because of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year celebration, (By the way, Shaná Tova Umetuká for you, we're in 5780 according to this calendar).  So my work week started on Wednesday, with some troubles in the morning with some kids, but nothing out of the normal. This day I was feeling veeeery sick, and I had a lot of things to do because on Thursday we had the Math Contest in the school. That day was really heavy too, and I was also kind of in a bad mood, but I remembered the things I've learned and I made the effort to be well, so then I could go to give a private class and go training roller derby. On Friday I woke up feeling even better, but not so good yet, and I had good classes at my school.

I think this is enough for today (actually I think never it's enough because in my mind there are always things to write).

Update Entry: October the second

Trying to explore different writing styles it's hard for me!
Abandoning the blog too. This was really a commitment to my self.
I do hope to get everything done. I've been dealing with a lot of things lately (as always) but sometimes we just have different capacity to fulfill the demand of our life.

The new? I'm adding my twitter around here.

Week 11: September 21th to 27th.

My favorite resources to learn English.

On this entry, I would like to tell you what are my favorite tools to learn Englis, how do I use it, and I may include some apps to give better examples of what I do.

1. Music

Definitely, this is the most common way to learn English, especially when you really like what you hear. I have recommended so many times this practice to many people! What I used to do (and I do it when I have some free time) was that I played a song once. The second time I would listen to the song while reading the lyrics. Then I would try to write down the song only by listening, and going back and forward as many times as needed. After this, I would compare my version with the original and I'd do the proper corrections, Finally, I would write down the same lyrics until I do it perfect. 

There is a little problem with this strategy, and it's that not everybody enjoys music in English, and it's because of the rytimsnot exactly for the language. 

2. Shows

I really learned a lot of English, and some expressions in context thanks to watching shows in English with Spanish subtitles. But this was possible because I already have a connection with the language. Anyway, I could learn several expressions by watching House M.D, C.S.I, Criminal minds, etc. So what I used to do was trying to understand what they were saying and If I couldn't do it, I'd try to translate the Spanish subtitles in my mind and compare to what people in the show were saying. 

3. You Tube

In my time, what I enjoyed to do was watching the live sessions of the Jonas brothers, so basically what I wanted was to understand them, and by the vocabulary, I was gaining from songs, I could understand the context of what they were talking about. 

Reading in English hasn't been my passion, I haven't read a full book in English. So maybe that could be a new oportunity, 

Week 10: September 14th to 20th

Last week my grandpa died. This was our first weekend without him. My grandma and aunt came to visit my family in Copacabana and that made me very happy.
It was a sunny day. I got there late on Saturday night, after my classes At UPB. My father was sick too, actually, he was the real reason why I went to Copacabana that night. I wasn't going to go. I had a commitment on Sunday that I didn't fulfill, because of the unexpected visit. I learned from this, and I hope I won't do it again.
That Sunday I had to go to my roller derby training, it was at 6 o'clock in the afternoon, so If I left Copacabana at 4,  I could have been there on time. But I chose not to go to, so I could stay with my family. It's peculiar how I did that effort... But I haven't received nor even a message from them during this week.

There are some efforts that worst doing them. But there are some others, even if they're for family, that doesn't really matter to do them.

Week 9: September 7th to 13th

A short story...

There are three things you need to know before you read this...

This was actually going to be the first try of me writing a story in English, BUT,  those things don't happen yet. But I got the previous idea from a picture on Pinterest, so I wanted to share some of these pics that give witing recommendations.

https://pin.it/64e6jdiwn33wws

Week 8: August 31st- Septembre 6th.

10 tongue twisters

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Betty Botter bought some butter
But she said the butter’s bitter
If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter
But a bit of better butter will make my batter better
So ‘twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood
As a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood

She sells seashells by the seashore

How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop

Susie works in a shoeshine shop. Where she shines she sits, and where she sits she shines

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he?

Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?}

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tsC-Ys96XDAMjUWQzqK-YkkubIpbsa0S/view?usp=sharing