Adel's Dream House

Everybody dreams of living in big house or mansion, and I'm no exception. So I will give you the details of the house that I'd like to live in. I think most of you will think I'm strange and crazy. However, everyone has his or her own dream.

To begin with, I'd like to live in vast mansion, and I want it in the countryside as the Hollywood stars do. To be more specific, I'd want to live in the countryside far from the city because if it's near I think my wife will waste our money on shopping!!! I hope my friends would live nearby because my friends are mean and they wouldn't visit me because they care more about the cost of the fuel in their cars than me.

I need a large mansion because I'd like to bring 22 blonde maids to take care of me and I wish my future wife would give me freedom to bring them. The mansion would consist of 7 deluxe rooms and 10 bathrooms because the most important thing in the house is the toilet and bathroom because now I live in small house in Brislington and my host family contains a father, a mother, 4 kids and a foreign student (me). In this house there is only one bathroom!!! because of that sometimes I get to school late. Furthermore, I would like to have a big garden with my own lake where I could sit on sunny day and sunbathe.

Outside the mansion, I would need a lot of space for a garage because I would like to have 10 limousines, 7 luxury cars e.g. Maserati, Ferrari and McLaren.

If I had all these things, I'd be happy forever.   

Aseel's Ideal Home - a blog article

The house I would like to live in should be located in a suburb of Zurich, Switzerland and be only 20 minutes drive from the city centre. I would like to have a villa with a big garden overlooking the Zurich Lake with a BBQ area for the summer where my family and I can gather and chat together.

I wish my villa to consist of five bedrooms on the first floor, to be enough for all my family members and each room will have its own en suite bathroom and jacuzzi!. Because I adore cooking, I would like to have a large kitchen like the ones in hotels and to be well-equipped.

If I could I would design the roof to be glass so the sunlight would be able to permeate into the house. In the basement, I would like to have a large indoor swimming pool and a corner for a spa and sauna otherwise I would need to go to the gym.

On the ground floor, I would design a room to make a home cinema because I am addicted to watching movies. The living room I want to be decorated beautifully in the American style with paintings by famous artists hung on one wall.

Letter to Valerie

Valerie has written asking for tips on where to go to see the wildlife in Pedro's country. His reply:

Dear Valerie,

I'm very happy to see that you are going to visit me in summer. We have a lot of different possibilities to choose. I recommend that you go visit Asturias. It is located in the north of Spain and is a very particular region.

I have planned some activities: first of all we can go to see the Cares River, the panoramic view along the canyon that we are going to walk is really fantastic. You will need to bring with you some warm clothes and comfortable shoes for walking.

Next day we can go to the Corrubelos National Park where we can see bears, wolves and a lot of different kinds of birds. Is a very nice and safe visit.

Another interesting plan is to go by bus to the Covadonga lakes. There are three at the top of the mountain and it is something really interesting to experience.

Finally we will go to have a rest at Llanes, it is a small sailors' village where we can eat very well and also relax after our long walks.

You must try the sidra. It is very good indeed and it tastes great but it could be very dangerous for your headache.

Take care and hope to hear from you again soon,

Pedro

An Essay on the Gap between Rich and Poor - by Victor

Wealth is inequitably distributed. Many rich people keep it for themselves and they are quite greedy. I think that since the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis, the differences between rich and poor people have increased and the middle economic class has vanished.

Then we can use wealth better than we are using it now. If some of the rich people accept the idea of giving some money and not going out of the country when we increase taxes that will be easier. Then we can distribute money more fairly. We should help poor people perhaps not by creating more organisations but by helping public places such as hospitals, schools etc. That will help students and people who do not have enough money to pay for treatment.

Secondly some wealth is just useless for the rich but will help poor people. They take too much food and they often waste it and if you look, for example, at Africa, many people need food. If we cannot give that food to them, they will surely starve to death.

The vast majority of people really need money: some of them do not do anything to obtain more but others work really hard for it and they still do not get anything. While the richest people do not need to work and they still earn more in a month than I will earn in my entire life. That is why I want the wealthiest to give a proportion of their money to the lower economic classes. It is just unfair that the government does not tax rich people more than poor people.

We need to increase taxes and distribute the wealth more evenly which can help more poor people than rich.

We can tell third world countries that they can keep the food they produce instead of selling it for ridiculously low prices. For rich people wealth can be shared by giving and not taking.

Anyway we have to change economic issues for poor people. Evidently, in order to bring about the more equal distribution of wealth which we all desire, two things are necessary: firstly, that the minimum wage shall be raised, permanently, far above the level at which it now stands; and secondly, that willing hands shall always find remunerative work; and this must be done, not by charity, not by individual or local action, but by social rearrangements which will be self-acting and self-sufficing. I firmly believe that such changes are not only possible but comparatively easy, for I hold with Henry George, that at the root of every great social evil will be found a great political wrong. Let us seek out the wrong thing, and fearlessly put it right; and we shall then find that man is not so completely out of harmony with the universe in which he exists that thousands must starve in the midst of plenty, and that the actual producers of wealth in the wealthiest countries in the world must continue to live without enjoying a fair and adequate share of the wealth which they create.

SMOKING

Why doesn't the government insist that manufacturers specify all the components in each cigarette packet?
In each cigarette there are components that we don't know about (e.g. sugar, cocoa) and these components increase the addiction. In my opinion, the government doesn't do anything about this issue because it makes a lot of money to raise taxes. Fast food and alcohol are unhealthy and it is socially accepted.
What do you think?

Carmelo Mendoza.

Smoking

What I think about smoking

In my opinion, smoking is not healthy. because, on the one hand cigarettes have a lot of bad things. for example smoking causes disease. But on the other hand it makes people happy and calm. It reduces the stress. and also cigarettes are addictive. because they have nicotine. But actually I think smoking is bad. because, it is not good for your health and very expensive.

JiYoung Moon

Spanish Languages and Culture

In Spain we have a vast mixture of cultures, influenced by Arabic, French, and Portuguese cultures . All of them have a part to play in the different languages or dialects which are spoken by people in the country nowadays,

The most widely-spoken language in Spain is Spanish.It is also sometimes called Castilian. Spanish is the official language of Spain and it is used all over the country, also by the central government, the media and in education, although the regional languages are also used in schools and universities. It is the mother tongue of about three-quarters of the population but most people can speak it and understand it. Spanish it is also spoken in parts of South-America, and in the USA.

In addition to Spanish, there are several other languages or dialects in Spain. Some people in the north speak Catalan (Cataluna), Basque (Basque Country), Gallego (Region of Galicia) ,Valenciano (Region of Valencia and nearby in the South), and finally the Andaluz (Region of Andalucia).

On the one hand we have The Catalan, Basque, Gallego and Valenciano which are kinds of "Languages " that are approved by the region but not by the government which means that even if people want to change it to their Principal language or become independent it is completely illegal!(even if the politics of this regions most of the time is done in their " Language " when they meet the Spanish President they all must speak Castilian).

On the other hand we have Madrileno , Aragones , Malagueno, which are dialects approved by the Government because they are derivations of the Spanish Language. By this, I mean that they speak Spanish but the accents may vary a lot.

Castilian is a very old language, but it has changed over many centuries.

Nowadays, our alphabet is composed of 27 letters and we also have different words from other languages as well as English, Arabic and French. For example la Tilde.

David Jesus Esteban Carmona