Summer Holidays

Hey bloggers! Today, my post will be an optimistic one, encouraging young people to study hard this last term.

You all agree summer is closer than ever, specially in our town which is known for its low temperatures. Despite the fact that we are in May, which is usually a rainy month, some days ago the weather was really wonderful and totally different from what we are used to. Sunny days and a blue sky have covered the town and sun rays have reached our skins. In other words, we have to prepare ourselves for summer.

To tell the truth, everyone finds summer the best part of the year. Studies are over, we don't have to wake up early to go to school, nor study or do our homework. Apart from that, we have plenty of free time to enjoy ourselves with our friends or to go on holidays and discover new places you hadn't been to before.

Summer is the period of time when cities are empty because we all usually travel to our villages, the meeting point during summers. There, you have the best moments of the summer with people you have missed during the year. You go to every village party, a party every weekend, and so on. Summer can be summarised using three words: sun, laziness and party.

 

Nevertheless, not everyone can enjoy their summers. There is a part of the population that will have failed exams in June and need to pass their resit exams in September which is really horrible: they have to study during these 3 marvellous months instead of going out with their friends when temperatures really high, over 25 or 30°C.

My message goes directly to those people, I ask them to study and then they can enjoy the summer. Summer, don't you think it is really amazing? I mean, do you want to lose it because you have done nothing during the year? Work hard during this last term and you can have the best summer ever!

Cookie Monster's Cupcakes

Can you imagine eating one of these? Really are they foodstuff? Yes, obviously, they are the best sweet for someone who really loves food. Since the 20th century when they were first created, everybody wanted to eat one, just one. Probably, they are on the list of things to do and taste before you die, aren’t they? Anyway, why wouln't you want to eat such a beautiful delight? I am sure that you will cry after eating them, although, you may regret eating such an amazing dessert. Why should you eat them? Why? They are so cute… The curious thing about these cupcakes is their name! What is the meaning of ‘cupcake’? This name was given before the current bread we have nowadays to prepare muffins were invented, so they prepared these cakes inside a cup, this is the reason why they are called cup-cakes. It was not so difficult to guess! As you can imagine, cupcakes were invented where nowadays the obesity rate is the highest in the world: in the United States of America. Nevertheless, it is not bad to eat just one to give yourself a small treat, for example, when you are having the worst week of your life, and you have to study for your thousands of final exams. 

Plenty of cupcake shops opened and they became famous, for example, Magnolia Bakery. It is one of the most famous bakeries in the United States. Furthermore, it also appeared on the television in SEX AND THE CITY. Certainly, these bakeries are more frequent in the United States; nonetheless, you can have a cupcake anywhere, no matter where you live.
Believe me; making cupcakes is as easy as pie! The most difficult ingredient is to find your creative side, then, put your best apron on and do it!

The first time I tried to make cupcakes, it was a disaster. After spending the whole afternoon making them, when they finally looked perfect and the big moment arrived to taste them, they were dry and hard. They seemed to be incredible, almost the best I had ever seen, but then, when I tasted one, I was disappointed. Although I had to soak them in milk, I ate them all and I promise you they were the greatest cake I had ever eaten, maybe because they were my first creation… In these situations it is when you have to show that you are strong and never give up. Perhaps you’d be successful next time, maybe not, but, you should keep on working hard until you became a perfect cupcake-maker. 

Once you master the technique, you will can even sell them and earn some money. However, I am not sure you will dare to sell them, just like you may not dare to eat them, such awesome creations just made with your hands! It would be a pity to sell your babies! 
For the most adventurous ones, here it is my recipe for preparing my Cookie Monster’s Cupcakes! Exactly the same face and with the same hair! Aren't they lovely? The first step is to make the base of the cupcake, the muffin. You can buy them so you can jump this step, but they will be better if you make them!

The ingredients you need are: 

• 1/3 cups cake flour
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cus granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

You must preheat the oven to 350 degrees ºF, while you line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Then, prepare the mixture in a small bowl; sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Later, in a large bowl, beat butter until it looks creamy. Gradually beat in granulated sugar until it is fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time until well-blended; beat in vanilla. Beat in flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk, just until it is smooth. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. And finally, bake 18 to 20 minutes. Then, let it cool. Top with frosting.
The last step is to prepare the Cookie Monster topping. The ingredients needed are: 

• Chocolate cupcakes
• 200g butter, softened
• 2 ½ cups icing mixture
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• blue food colouring
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 packet white marshmallows
• 1 tube black writing icing
• 12 chocolate chip cookies (1/2 per Monster with a few to sprinkle)

For the mixture, whip the butter with an electric mixer until it is pale. Later, add in the icing mixture and vanilla until they are evenly mixed. With the mixer running, add in blue food coloring until you get to the Cookie Monster color. Add in the milk and mix until the frosting puffs up. Then, fill a piping bag with a fluted nozzle and pipe on icing and with the writing icing, place black spots on the marshmallows for pupils (place one on each cupcake). Finally, cut cookies in half and place one in the mouth of the monster.

I hope you will try to make them and of course, enjoy them!

It's only a rock!

When people think about rock climbing, they think about people moving like monkeys up a rock. But some of the best rock climbers of the world define rock climbing as an art of progression in the rock, using your own hands and legs, without any equipment.

There are many types of rock climbing: free climbing, classic climbing, artificial climbing, sport climbing, bouldering and the most recent, psicoblock.

Psicoblock is practiced where the only security is when you fall in the water. This type of climbing is practiced on cliffs. When the climber falls, he would fall into the water. This type of climbing has many risks. If you fall in a bad position to the water, you can injure yourself with a rock or with the force of the water. This sport is very popular in Mallorca, where the accessibility of the rocks and the calm waters are a perfect place to climb.

In spite of this type of rock climbing, most of rock climbers prefer free climbing or traditional climbing. In Spain, we have one of the most famous climbing routes: the Northern route of the Naranjo De Bulnes, or Urriellu peak.

However, the most famous place in the world, the “Mecca” for rock climbers, is the Yosemite valley, in the United States.

In my opinion, we should be more attentive to other sports where the only risks are losing a match or finishing in a  bad position.

Guatemala, a country with beauty and poverty

Guatemala is a country located in Central America with extraordinary landscapes but a great number of inhabitants with a bad quality of life. 
Throughout the year thousands of tourists go to this country to visit the Atitland Lake, Antigua (the first capital of Guatemala), the flea market of Chichicastenalgo, the Mayan´s ruins of Tikal, Rio Dulce… The lists of places you can visit and enjoy in this country are never ending. 

However, what I want, is to talk about the poverty of the inhabitants of this place.
Most tourists that visit Guatemala don´t want to see, or know how the Gatemalns live. What they eat or how their houses are. The reason is very simple, we don´t want to open our eyes and realize that there are people living worse than us, and even dying because they don´t have anything to eat.
When my parents went to Guatemala, they realized about the poverty of the country, and they decided to see it through the eyes of the inhabitants. They slept in houses without floors, they took “guaguas”, the buses that Gatelmans use to travel from one place to another. Although they enjoyed themselves a lot, they were very scared when some members of the army, carrying big submachine guns stop them at night when they were traveling from Flores to Rio Dulce in a “guagua”.
This experience helped them realize the fear that poor people suffer. Fear is a very subjective word, most people have fears. In my point of view we can´t compared the fear of these inhabitants with our fears. They are afraid of being killed, they are afraid to die of hunger…, these fears are caused by poverty, and that’s the worst point. We are all humans; however, some poor people believe that they are worse than us only because they had be born in poor areas.

Although they are afraid every day for their lives, they try to search for a reason to be happy, to smile. Poverty is the main cause of their fears, cold nights and hungry.  However it won´t be the cause of their sadness, because they value every single drop of water.

More than fashion

Plenty of people think that fashion is shallow, that fashion only exits for thin, wealthy and pretty people. However, it is not that, it is a way to express yourself, a way to show your personality, your feelings, your thoughts… Considering this, a few weeks ago some of the most important events in fashion took place, the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week of Madrid and the Fashion Week of Milan.

With its new name, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week of Madrid, and its 56 editions, the veterans and new designers had a big challenge to overcome; they had to convince people with their new collections for this autumn-winter. This year, 41 designers paraded and 20 exposed their collections in the Showroom of Ego. With these parades we observed the new forms, colors and styles proposed by the top designers and the new ones, although they did not change too much compared to the last collections. Nevertheless, the most important fact in this edition was that it was the first time that models had been between the 18 and 19 percent of body mass index; it was a very important step for the “Cibeles parade”. 

In the 55 previous editions, there was almost always one model with anorexia or bulimia parading. This was a huge problem because fashion had influenced many children, especially girls that wanted to be as thin as the models without knowing the consequences. Thus plenty of people blamed fashion for anorexia. Therefore, they had a great challenge to overcome, they needed to stop that, no more anorexic people on parades!

In the Fashion Week of Milan we glimpsed the best things of Italian fashion. We observed parades from Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace… but one of the most surprising ones, was a parade were models were not especially thin and they were not ashamed of their body. Those women wore swimsuits and apparels, they were proud of their size and plenty of women must follow their example. This was a significant step for fashion; why do all models have to be thin?

It does not matter about your physical appearance, your wealth, your ideas… because fashion is on a higher level where you express your feelings, ideas, your personality, at the end of the day, it is an international language spoken by everyone.

Fofuchas

Hi to everybody! In this new post I’m going to talk about curious handmade dolls. They are called “Fofuchas” and they are made in a very easy way.

We all agree that when we are bored at home and we don’t know what to do, we usually take out the phone, use social networks or play videogames. Well, this is not the only opinion. Making handicrafts is another option, a very well one; and here I give you a choice.

The “Fofuchas” are made with EVA of different colours (which is a rubber material), plastic foam balls, sticks, bars of silicone and a gun to deliver it. As you can see, all these materials are not expensive and you can find all of them in a corner shop. There are silhouettes you can find on the Internet to make the shape of the clothes, you use the plastic foam balls to make the head, the body and the feet, and the sticks are needed to make the legs. Everything is stuck together with the silicone. Later, you draw the face. Here I leave you some videos in which the process is very well explained:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb5ZEJQzfqc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A6OB0Vv5bg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDxQSuei0jg

There are plenty of blogs in which these foam dolls are shown. The people want to exhibit their creations, some of them just for fun, however, others sell them. Some are expensive because of the work involved. The best thing is to make them yourselves, don’t you think?

http://todofofuchas.blogspot.com.es/p/fofuchas.html
http://fofuchasdemama.blogspot.com.es/
http://davinia-mispequenascosas.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/moldes-para-hacer-fofuchas-encontrados.html

The most amazing part, is personalizing them, so that they seem like the person it is for. You can characterize them in jobs or with additional accessories. You can make them the size you want, the colours you like… Just let your imagination flow through your hands.

These are some personal creations:

I encourage you to make one, what are you waiting for?

South Africa

Hey bloggers! I'll start my post showing you a fantastic country located in the southern hemisphere. I think you will know it from the football World Cup won by Spain in 2010! The country is really amazing. You can see big advanced cities such as Johannesburg or Cape Town, and then have a rest and enjoy the nature and wild animals that are impossible to see in our country. You can go on very exciting safaris for around twelve hours in the sabanah and see the Big Five (lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and hippo) in their natural habitat, as a result, you can see their way of life.

 Firstly, I'll speak about the origin of the country, its development. The Portuguese were to discover it when they were travelling to America, they found the Cape of Good Hope, located at the southern most part of Africa. The Dutch went there to plant lettuce and tomato, they were white people invading a place inhabited by negroes. They had more authority than them and for that reason, more money as well.

In South Africa there is a great difference between rich people and poor people. Rich people are very rich and poor people are very poor. On the one hand, you can see the big houses of the rich and on the other hand, the suburbs were poor live, of which mainly all of them are negroes. At the beginning there was a lot of discrimination from white to black people, nevertheless, Nelson Mandela has contributed to the disappearence of it and nowadays the fight against racial discrimination is being supported.

The big cities, Cape town and Johannesburg for instance are amazing, they have very beautiful sights, high buildings and have great financial influence and importance. People there in their free time go at night to pubs where most of them have concerts or a small group of people singing while others have dinner or just go there to have a good time.

Safaris are perfect to forget about big cities, noise and to escape from our normal life. They normally take place over a few days from dawn until dusk. You can enjoy them and you will like seeing animals that you have loved since you were young in their own habitat, with their family or individuals of their species.

To sum up, South Africa is a marvellous place where you can find everything that you want, big cities with great influence and importance, and relaxation in a different area surronded by nature, by amazing animals that you have always dreamed to see. It is fantastic, isn't it?