REVIEW: SPIRITED AWAY

In this post I wanted to do a little throwback and review one of my favourite movies when I was little (and still now): Spirited away. I remember having this movie in VHS and watching it often and some years ago, when I watched it again after years I really liked it and it remained me a lot to my childhood.

Spirited Away is an fantasy animated movie, but it isn't only for children, it is also a movie for adults. It was released in 2001 and it was directed by Hayao Miyazaki, a famous Japanese director.

I'm going make a brief explanation of the plot, to situate you in the movie. The main character is Chihiro, a girl who is moving with his parents. While they are going to their new house they get lost in a little village and their parents decide to eat in a little restaurant on the street. Because of the food they get transformed into pigs. From this point, Chihiro starts her magical trip to find the way to turn her parents into humans again. Almost the whole movie takes place in a bathouse in which the clients and the employees are magical creatures.

As you can see by the plot, it is little weird movie but I guess that is what caught my

attention when I was little. But besides its weirdness, it is a very complete movie. It is very marked by the Japanese culture and beliefs, which means that there are still a lot of things about this movie left for me to understand because I don't really know a lot about the Japanese culture, it is a story in which the hero is a little girl, it has a beautiful love story and it is a movie that shows you many values through a big variety of characters, each one of them with their own peculiarities.

In my opinion, it is a good movie for children, because it's about adventures and there are funny moments (although some things are so weird that I remember some things were a little bit scary for me when I was little), but it is also a good movie for adults, because there is a lot of symbolism behind it, and the whole movie works as a critique to the capitalist society from the 80s in Japan.

In conclusion, I really recommend this movie because it is entertaining, weird in a good way and if you go a little bit deeper, you'll find a movie full of values and symbolism. 

THE TRAILER:

TATTOOS

Nowadays it is more well-seen, but years ago there was a big controversy around the tattoos. People wearing big tattoos were often seen as problematic people and it was seen as something unsightly. This made some people not be able to get a job because they had visible tattoos or also piercings.

I personally like piercings and tattoos, as long as they aren't covering the whole body of the person. In my case I don't discard getting a tattoo or a piercing someday, but it will probably be a small one or a discreet one. I'm not really into the tattoo or piercing whole-covered bodies, for myself or for others, but I think it shouldn't be a problem for those who like it.

Having your body covered with tattoos shouldn't be an inconvenience for a person to get a job, because it doesn't define if he or she is hard working or not. It all goes to the common appearance problem. We all tend to judge the people by their appearance and I think it is kind of unavoidable, but in my opinion we should try to get over it and force ourselves to ignore our own prejudices.

People's looks (the style, tattoos, hairstyle, etc.) often reflect their personality, so we should say that it's something from the inside that goes outside gets shown to the world, but it's not all the inside that gets shown. It's just a little part and with that you can't determinate how a person is, their character or if he or she is a good or a bad person.

We should accept that people have different likes and different personalities and it doesn't affect their quality as a person. 

FORMAL LETTER

32 Esplais Street

17486 Castelló d'Empúries

20^th March 2016

Mr and Ms Perry

2548 North East Hood Street

97299 Portland, Oregon

Dear Mr and Ms Perry,

The reason why I am writing this letter is because I want to apply for the babysitter job you are interested in. I have seen your advertisement on the Internet and I think I am the person you are looking for. I am a sixteen-year-old Spanish student with a good level of English, but it can always be improved, and that is one of the reasons I would like to work as an au pair. I really like children and I am sure taking care of them would be at the same time fun and a way to learn and improve my English.

I think I match the babysitter profile you are looking for, because I am a tidy and responsible person, I am excited to work with children and I could teach them some Spanish as a new language, just like you request in your advertisement.

Find my CV attached to this letter.

Looking forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Mar Oliva

CHOOSING OUR FUTURE

In this you-say I wanted to talk about something that I have been asked a lot for a while: my future. Last year, when I was in 4^th of ESO, we had to start deciding what do we wanted to do with our future. I didn't know it. I knew I wanted to study Batxillerat and to go to university, but I didn't know what I wanted to study. Now, that I'm doing 1^st of Batxillerat I still don't know it. I don't have to choose what I want to do right now, but it stresses me knowing that the moment of choosing is getting everytime closer.

I think that my problem is that I don't like making important decisions. I feel pressed and I'm never sure of my choice. I'm afraid of, for example, choosing a topic for my Treball de Recerca that isn't interesting enough, that I don't know how to develop, or that after some weeks working on it, becomes boring for me. I'm afraid of choosing a degree that happens to be something I don't like, something I'm not good at or something that is going to be unuseful.

I try to tell to myself that making a mistake is not actually a big deal, because I can always fix it and learn from it, but I feel the presure anyways.

I think that we are tied to decide what we want to do with our lifes too early, and not everyone has an idea of what to go for. Actually, when we finish 4^th of ESO we already have to start deciding: if you want to do Batxillerat, a Training Cycle, to work, etc. And then you have to decide which Batxillerat or Training Cycle you want to do. Focusing more on Batxillerat, because it is what I'm doing, I think that it is already a big choice choosing which

one you want to do. I know a lot of people that don't know what to study at university, and they like some degrees classify as science degrees and others as arts degrees, so it's a difficult choice for them to choose a Batxillerat. I don't really know if it would work, but maybe we should be able to choose the subjects we want regardless of if they are science or arts subjects, because then, at the end of batxillerat, it would be a little bit easier to choose a degree. Because someone who was doubting between a science and an arts one, for example, would have tried both type of subjects and maybe he or she would have a clearer mind than if he or she had only chosen scientific Batxillerat, for example.

I'm not actually a 100% sure it will work, because we also have to think about Selectivitat, the subjects that count more and all these things, but I think it would be a way to make the decision easier, at least for the people who have a lot of doubts. 

WHY ARE THE WARS STILL A THING?

The current situation of the Syrian refugees is worldwide known, and it is a shame that it still continues the war in Syria.

There are always wars in the world, and I pretty sure that it will always be like this, but when I think about it I find it quite shocking. Thinking closely about the wars, they're kind of stupid. Maybe one of the countries or sides is proclaimed the winner, but actually all countries lose. They lose money, lives and also a little of humanity. But there are still being wars.

I'm not going to go into the topic of why there are wars, but of why the countries decide to participate in them. The countries fight for their interessts, economic, territorial or of any kind, but I find the fact that they participate on them shocking, taking into account that they have lived other wars, and they know what it is like. Of course, the for people who decides to start or join a war it's practically sure that they're not going to suffer from any damage, or at least not directly. But they should consider the consequences of a war for the population, consequences that they actually know because pretty much all the countries have lived a war before, and then decide if they join the war or not. The people ruling a country probably weren't in charge when the last war that affected the country took place, but they should know what were the consequences anyways. They forget the mistakes of the past, and they make them again.

In the Syria case, there are European countries involved, countries that suffered the devastating consequences of the World War I and II. In this case, their countries are practically not being affected by their own bombing in Syria, but here is where a matter of humanity lies. Those countries went through important wars and they know how hard is it, and it's not only that they are not helping the Syrians, is that they are attacking them. They are causing the death of thousands of innocent people, while the responsabile ones of all this are safe and comfortable in their houses.

And what I find even more outrageous is that when all the peope who are suffering the consequences of the war (remembering that these countries are participating in making the situation like this), try to go into these countries to escape from the situation in there, th states are closing the borders or they are seeing them as a problem. Yes, they're a problem for Europe, because it's a lot of people at once, but we should remember that part of this problem is caused by Europe.

It's a very complicated world and these problems are very difficult to solve, but I think we should start by analyzing the things, because as it happens in this case, we are creating our own problems, and then we don't know how to solve them. And these problems are not only affecting to us, they are also ending with thousands of lifes. 

PHRASAL VERBS

Last summer I went to Ireland with some friends to learn and practise English. There we stayed with a family and we went to classes and also did different activities.
One Saturday, we were supposed to set off at nine in the morning, so we had to be in the school about fifteen minutes before. I had to get to the school by bus along with the friend who was in the same house as me and we had looked up the timetables some days before. The problem was that we hadn't thought it was Saturday and the timetables were different than during the week. And we found that out when it was too late. 

We sorted out the timetable the day before, so we got up thinking we were on time. Our host mother offered us a car ride to the bus stop, but we turned it down because we thought we had time to go walking. W got there and we waited for the bus, but it wasn't coming so we asked the bus timetables to a woman who was there. She told us the time the next bus was coming and we realized we were definitely going to be late. When it arrived we got on the bus, we sat down and we just wished the bus to speed up. Some stops later, my friend Paula and another one of our friends turned up. They were also late! They sat down next to us and we all switched our mobile phones on. We had plenty pf messages from our instructor saying that we were late and asking us where we were. The four of us tried to make up an excuse and we told him that the bus we were supposed to take hadn't shown up. What we didn't know was that the instructor, who normally went to the school by bike, that day had decided to take the same bus we were supposed to take, so he caught us in a lie.

EMPATHY

Some days ago a video starring some supporters of the Dutch team PSV went viral. This video was shot in Madrid, and they were throwing coins to homeless women, laughing at them and treating them like animals and they also forced them to do push-ups in exchange of money. After seeing the video I was outraged. And I was also surprised because it's difficult to believe there is people like this. I can't even imagine how could this idea go through their minds, and much less how could they do it.

In big cities is common to see homeless people in the streets, asking for money for food, and it is heartbreaking. I can understand if someone doesn't feel like giving them money, because they maybe are not in a good economic situation, maybe they think that people is lying and they are going to spend the money in alcohol, or other reasons. But there is a big step from not giving them money to humiliating them. It's disgusting the way they treated them, knowing the women needed the money, so using the situation to spend a good time laughing at them.

I think this world has an important shortage of empathy. The people who did this didn't clearly think about the situation those women are living and probably (or that's what I hope) if they had put themselves in their position they wouldn't have done that. It's normal everyone taking care of themselves, doing what's the best for them, because at the end it's our life and we have to try to be as happy as possible. But it doesn't mean we don't have to help other people, even if we have to sacrificate something we like. And there is a lot of people who don't do this. I don't mean I am always helping people and sacrifing for them, of course, but I think there is a lot of people that only think what's the best for them and they just do it, without thinking if that's going to cause negative consequences to someone.

And in my opinion, the lack of empathy is one of the things that causes more problems in society, and that's why I think it's important to teach little children the importance of it, to try to make the new generations more empathetic.

THE VIDEO: