El Palau de la Música

By Raúl Oliver and Albert Zayuelas

We believe that the Palau de la Música is one of the finest buildings in the world and a place that is worth visiting. We think that this structure is perfect and and that is why we have chosen to write about it. Furthermore, it is the only Modernista concert hall that has been declared part of the World Heritage by UNESCO.

El Palau de la Música, an auditorium located in the neighborhood of Sant Pere in Barcelona, was designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner in 1905. It is famous for its spectacular structures.

This building is the headquarters of the Orfeó Català, a prestigious institution founded in 1891 to further Catalan music and culture. Accordingly, the building’s decoration features the quatre barres (from the Catalan coat of arms). Inside the concert hall, on one side of the stage, there is a sculpture depicting the Ride of the Walkiries' and, on the other, the figure of Beethoven, sculpted by Pau Gargallo and Dídac Massana. There is a splendid central stained-glass skylight in the roof, designed by Rigalt and Granell. The façade is made of red brick and decorated with mosaics by Lluís Bru. The Palau de la Música Catalana organizes daily guided tours around the Modernista concert hall and, less frequently, the Lluís Millet Hall and the Chamber Music Hall.

Excursion to the Olympic Canal

By Claudia Beltrán

On Thursday we went on tour with the class. We went to the Olympic Canal for rowing and using kayaks. It was funny but we ended all wet!

At first it was a bit hard but then with the mates it was funny.
After finishing the kayak and rowing we went back to school at lunch time. Everyone was very hungry. It has been a very cold day and we were still all wet.

My Perfect Trip.

By Joselyn Guerrero

I've always wanted to go to Puerto Rico, passing first by Los Angeles, New York City, Dallas and, of course, Miami. And after visiting EE.UU, I wanna go to all the islands of Caribean. Why these places?

Well, I'm gonna to start with Los Angeles, the perfect city, there you can live your life however you want. This place has got fashion on every street, has got parties on every pub and has got sun on every beach. Amazing.

Let's talk about New York, the big apple, the city which never sleeps. You can do everything, you can meet people of the whole world and learn a lot. I think it is the perfect place to mature, because it is really hard to do easy things easily, you have to work so much, if you wanna be an importat person on NY.

Now Dallas, I think Dallas is like a little town but it is a city,so you can live really calm, because everybody knows you and of course you know everybody. This is a "family city", because, if you have children, they can grow up happy, on a big house, with dogs and maybe live on a big farm.

Miami, the Spanish city on a English country. In this city live boricua, cuban, colombians, ecuatorians... There you don't have to learn English if you don't want, because everything is in two languages. Miami is the city of opportunites for poor people who dreams every day with the American dream.

And the rest of the Islands, just for the parties, the dances, and the mad and unconcerned life that I want to live.

Finally, Puerto Rico. I wanna get married there, I wanna have children there and spend the rest of my life there. In my opinion these island has got all the things you need for enjoying, and the calm that sun and the beaches get you. You have got mountain, jungle and beach in the same place, old things and new things too. It is the perfect end for my trip.

Summer holidays
By Anastasia Macovei

Summer holidays are to rest, because all the year we worked, or studied or did somethig else and we have this time for relaxing ourselves. Teenagers have more time to rest than adults. Adults usually work 11 moths in a year and I think that this is too much.

We go to the beach in summer, we spend more time with our parents, with our friends, with these people who we couldn’t see when we studied or worked. The beach is one of my favourite places to go in summer, it relaxes me a lot, and I love swimming, because when I do it I forget completely all. Another thing which I like doing is to meet friends, because when you are at school you can meet them only at weekends. You have to study for the exams or you have to do your homework in your free time.

We have also a short break at Christmas, but we haven’t enough time to rest, and we can't go to the beach, the only thing that we can do is to go to ski.

You can visit interesting places too or you can travel to another country. Doing that you will have more culture, and you will learn how people live in other countries, and I think that is the best that you can do.

ENJOY THE SUMMER!

Educational travels in the summer
By Ada Agustí

Nowadays it's very usual young people go abroad in summer. Young people make trips to learn about other cultures, other languages, to do sport or have a good time. It's a way to spend the time in summer, since it's not good that teenagers stay all their holidays at home in front of theaTV or the computer.

It has a big disadvantage: it's very expensive, because you stay for a short time there. The host families receive few money too, and some of the organized activities aren't interesting. But I think that they are a good and a great experience. You have a lot of companies to choose: EF, Interway, Cie, kingsinternational, Living Languages, etc... And they offer different destinations to different countries.

Travelling
By Marta Nicolás &Guzel Nasibulina

We love travelling. It’s a wonderful activity because you can know different types of food, cultures, musics, religions,…There are different ways of travelling, although some people have never travelled out of their town.

Some people are pleased with sunbathing on the beach or walking around a city all day with a map. A lot of people haven’t really thought about an alternative for their holiday destination. Here you have some ideas:
If you like walking you can go to the Great Wall of China. In this country you can eat different Chinese food, learn about their culture, music,...
You can go to Canada too. There are a lot of beautiful forests and you can see fantastic views and lakes, but the weather is very cold.
If you like hot weather you can go to Brazil, Argentina. There aren’t rich cities but they are magnificent. In Mexico you can eat hot food and drink vodka.
You can go to Egypt. There are pyramids of pharaons. It’s very cool, but the weather is really hot.
If you like touristic cities, you can go to London. There are fantastic monuments, museums, parks and places to visit, for example Big Ben, London eye, Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace (around it there are beautiful gardens with squirrels) and, moreover, you can go by boat in the Tamesis river.
You can go to New York to see skyscrapers. New York is a very big city. If you go there stay more than 6 days. Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Washington are other typical American cities visited for tourists.