Working abroad I didn't have the possibility of working abroad before and it's something that I looking for because I want to challenge myself and learn as much as possible to develop my career.

Influencing people to be more environmentally friendly At no time in recorded history has our planet faced such dreadfully situation, which should be a wake-up call for the entire world. It is certainly true that ordinary people are not able to stop industrial emissions or rainforest clearance, but being eco-friendly is more about doing little things than knocking down the system. One of these things is improving education. Never before have children had to be more encouraged to think of environment. Reaching this goal means an effort of parents and schools. The former need to be highly imaginative, telling stories about saving endangered species or cleaning a forest would be the first step to make them well aware of the importance of environment. Meanwhile schools ought to complete this formation by developing programmes which teach children how to be good citizens in the future, and obviously, environmentally friendly. Media is the other tool to take into account. What is more, not only do public channels contribute to influence people about it as until now, private channels must do the same. Showing as carbon emissions are the cause of melting icecaps, where animals as polar bears have their habitat, might be a means of collective awareness. Personally, media and education both are needed to do their part to ensure the global challenge of turning people more environmentally friendly. Supposing both initiatives would be undertaken, I believe that education would be the most effective to achieve this purpose.

Maths Maths are seeing by many people as a difficult subject at higschool and for that reason they try to avoid it after in their studies. However, are maths so hard to learn? Or maybe is the teacher who is not doing an effort to make it interesting for students? Calculus, algebra or statistics don't seem the best friends of a young student, but changing the way these subjects are taught could make a difference and stimulate students minds. One way to reach this goal is to make young people see how maths work in real life, how important is in economic, engineering and also history. Bringing to class some profesional workers who can explain them how they use maths everyday could be a possibility. Another way would be to do some scientific trip to a science museum. Feeling real science close to them or even doing experiments by their own hands could encougare them to study this kind of subjects. Personally, I believe that both are two good methods to encourage young people to study science. Nevertheless, if I had to choose one, it would be the first of them, which show students maths is not only a boring subject in their schedule.

University Some people say that as nowadays everyone is studying a degree, the value of having one is dropping. For that reason, Master degrees are becoming in other way for specializing. So, are people studying more and more to reach a high level of knowledge or it is because companies requieres this? When people decide to go to the university, not only is the price of the degree they have to weight up, but also it is necessary to think about the accomodation. Many universities have increased their prices lately and grants from goverments have not been increased in the same way. This fact should be revised by people who take decisions. Specializing in a particular field seems to be the new tool to find a job this days. The problem is how to make a decision about what field should be choose. Tutors and relatives advices are important, although, doing what you like the most would be the best option. Personally, I think that it is good to follow your dream or your passion. However, it is important down to earth and have a realistic view of your situation.

Le cinéma La premiere fois que j'ai allé au cinema c'était quand j'étais petit. Mes parents m'ont emmené à un cinéma prochain. Je me souviens de me sentir très nerveux mais quand le film a commencé j'ai tout oublié.

Spanish music When you think of Spanish music what kind of it do you imagine? Supposing you know about the music of this country, most of you would answer flamenco if I asked you. I would not blame you for it, it's what we sell abroad. It is certainly true that flamenco is the most representative part of our culture if we talk about music. However, flamenco comes from the south of Spain and the majority of people who have been borned in the middle or the north of Spain don't see it as their own culture or tradition. Even southern people are not as keen on flamenco as many people think. Older people often like pure flamenco but young people tend to avoid it in general and rather than choose it they prefer rock/pop bands. Nevertheless, Spanish rock/pop bands have to compete for a place on the radio or the TV where until now you only could see american or british bands. In my opinion, I believe that bringing music for another countries and cultures it is great as a way for understanding another cultures or even learning new languages, the place of Spanish music and bands has to be protected, though. Media should support what we make up here. Flamenco is one of this creations, but not the only one.

A town in the south of Spain Motril is a small town that belongs to the province of Granada, which at the same time is one of the eight provinces of Andalucía. There, in Motril, it is where I was borned some years ago and where I'm living today. Since I left higschool I have been living in such differents places around Spain. I moved out to Burgos to study there my Engineering degree, after I went back to Granada to study a Master. When I finished it I found a job in Seville so I lived there during two years until another company called me from Madrid so I moved out to Madrid and eventually I had to go back to Motril. So many places in just eight years. On the one hand, you can meet a lot of new people and see how is life in that places, but in the other I have to admit that is difficult to stay in contact with all of them and it's complicated to do a normal life. I hope in the future my situation will be more settled.

My first entry Hello everyone, This is my first entry in the notebook, so I'm using it as a presentation. I'm Iván from the south of Spain, I'm 27 and studying English and French is now my main ocupation. I'm doing two intensive courses, so everyday I spend four hours having class, two for English and the same for French. I'm here because I'd like to find interesting people from UK, USA, Canada or wherever who are studying Spanish and are looking for native Spanish people. We could do an exchange via Skype. My accent is not very strong, but I have a little bit because in Granada and the south of Spain in general we tend to not pronunce the final "s" when we speak. However, as I said my accent is not going to be a problem :) Regards!