Wednesday 29 April 2009

Dancing star

"One must have
chaos and frenzy
within oneself
to give birth
to a
dancing star"
Irvin Yalom at
"When Nietzsche Wept".



"Achieving your childhood dreams"... The last lecture of Raundy Pausch



I saw this video some time ago and for some reason it came to my mind today.

“The last lecture” is the name of the conference given by Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who was fighting against a fulminant cancer. In fron of a 400 people audience, he gave his last lecture called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.”

It is really inspirational. This video is on my “must be seen videos” list. If you have the chance to watch it completely, you will not regret. It is really worthy.

Monday 27 April 2009

First Love...unforgettable...


Why the first love is so unforgettable?

This could be an answer:

"It is said that the first love has such force because we are surprised that someone has put his/her eyes on us".

While you haven ´t seen me, I do not exist. When you see me, you give me life. You recocognize me. You respect me. This is the basis of Zulu´s philosophy. The Zulu greeting is "Sawubona" which means "I see you" and the response is "Ngikhona" which means "I am here". Somehow, love works in the same way.


From the book "Love in small letters"
by Francesc Miralles
plus a bit explanation of Zulu´s philosophy :)

Sunday 26 April 2009

Colors....

I used to think that Life could be only Black or White. Two extremes. No middle positions. Either you are on one side or you are in the other. Mutually excluyent. Good or bad, right or wrong,




Then, when Istarted to grow up and I started knowing more about the world, I found that beyong black and white, there was a big scale of grey colors in the middle. Light grey, dark grey.... grey... Somehow good, somehow bad....




Finally, I realized that things and people are not grey neither black or white as I used to think. They are just black and white... yes, black and white, all together and at the same time. Good and bad, right and wrong...





Despite this, somedays, I just prefer watching life in bright and fully colors.

"Subtext"... Or what you write when you write...

Tales of mere existence are stories about a guy called Lev. Lev sees and lives life in a particular way. In an existencialist way, actually. What he told us and the way he told it to us is really funny.

In this video, called "Subtext" he is trying to write an email to a girl he met on a party and he wants to make a good impression of him. Which word should he use? Check the video. Hidden meanings or connotatios of words could be an enemy sometimes. So, be careful when you write and what you write... lol

Link: http://talesofmereexistence.com

Saturday 25 April 2009

Life is a serie of great events...


Life is a serie of great events that mark our path and take us out from the daily routine. They work as en electrocardiogram. They make your heart beat higher and faster.

Births, baptisms, birthdays, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, parties, seminars, conferences....

You can never imagine how important they are until either you protagonize them or you organize them...

Why is so important to plan this kind of event? I have only find an answer: they mark an “before and after” in your life, they make you feel that you are the protagonist and manager of your decisions.

Every event has its own and special meaning. You only have to define what they represent to you.

Thursday 16 April 2009

Sense of belonging...


We all need to feel part of something. The human being is a social animal. We look for being part, belonging, fitting in.

A family, a community, a club, a peer´s group, a job.... They are all spaces where we try to find connections. Sames values, same point of views, same way to do things, same ethical patterns. May be we will not have everything in common, but at least a few things or just one important thing that makes us feel we belong there and we are comfortable with being there.

We are surrounded by people every day and we might have a lot of social support, but unless we feel we fit in, it will not help.

When we feel we are connected with the world around us, then we feel we are where we were meant to be.

Tuesday 14 April 2009

Decisions, decisions, decisions....


Everything in life is a matter of decisions. Some of them could be easier to take such as what clothes wear today or whether going or not going to a party, but others could be a really headache. Sometimes, life put us in a cross of roads. What should we do? Which road should we take?

Making desicions is not an easy task. We are scared of choosing one or another path. We can even get stuck or paralyzed by the fear. An uncertain future makes us to procastinate. But should we be satisfied by a bad situation only because it is known? Should we avoid a decision only because we do not know what could happen in the near future? Delaying decisions because of the fear to the unknown makes the matter worse. The unknown could make us to feel anxious about what would might happen, however, we should also know that better things could come. When life puts you in a cross of roads, we cannot do anything else than make a decision.

I always received the advice of: “Do what makes you happy”;“Follow you heart, your values, your ideas.” “ Deep inside, you only know what is the best for you”. However, sometimes it is not so clear. We doubt, we think, we re think, we delay, we postpone, we try to see the matter in another way, we try to rationalize it until we start to feel. Emotions appear and make everything clear. Emotions have their own meaning and we need to hear and understand them.

Finally, we decide. We make a choice. Withouth doubts, it is a matter of courage. We move one step forward looking for those things that we want and leaving behind those things that we do not want anymore, that do not make us feel well. We decide. And if we make a mistake with the decision we took, time will let us know but we should know that the only blame that we could have is the blame of trying to find our happiness. Seeking of happiness is the reason of all decisions beyond, despite and above any mistake.

Saturday 4 April 2009

TOEFL ibt... Have you taken it?

Have you taken TOEFL Ibt?
What was your experience?
What would you recommend for the preparation and practice?
Could you give us some tips, links, web resources?
Thanks a lot!
Your help will be really appreciated!

English in Toronto! Patricia `s Blog

"English in Toronto " is the name of Patricia´s Blog. Patricia was my Seminar Teacher at YUELI last March-April,2008. I am not only learnt a lot with Patricia but also I knew and enjoyed many beautiful short stories. She has a very original method to teach English to her students and that makes that students learn more English and enjoy it !

I did not know about Patricia´s Blog until I realized that many visits to my blog became from her blog. She had put my blog as a link inside of her blog! I was so suprised and happy when I saw that!. It is an honor for me to be referred there! Thanks a lot Patricia!

When I started to check her blog I saw that many of my classmates had been referred too. It was so nice to see what they had written, to know more about their life and their learning experience at YUELI. Every student had a Blog and all the assigments were published there! What a great idea! This is a wonderful way to encourage student´s self thinking, creativity and iniciative.

I wish that many teachers, like Patricia, use this tool is their classrooms!

Thanks again Patricia! And I will keep practicing my English with all the resources and links that I found in your blog! It is real useful!

Link: http://englishintoronto.blogspot.com/

Thursday 2 April 2009

2nd April...

It dawned raining. A grey and sad day. Somehow, the weather wore the mourning dress in this Argentinean day.

Argentines do not only cry an ex president but also they commemorate the soldiers that died in Malvinas´s war 27 year ago...

A rainy day... a sad day...

Without words...


I am not a political person. I do not belong to any political party but I do belong to a society. I am argentinean, I grew up in democracy and I can not feel apart from the reation and feeling that the death of the ex-president Raul Alfonsin has provocated among the population. Actually, I am really surprised with such emotional and sponteneous movilization. Thousand and thousands of people went into the streets to show their affection and respect to the ex-president. Spontaneously. I though that spontaneity was not longer a quality of argentinean mass manifestations. Alfonsin made me see that it still exists. Without doubts, this is an historical goodbye.

Who was Raul Alfonsin? It has been said a lot about him lately. All the media has been reviewing his life these last 3 days. More than 70,000 people went to the Congress to say the last goodbye to him. All the political leaders have forgotten about their disputes and have met all around Alfonsín. The whole country has stopped with his death. Alfonsín was the president of Argentina between 1983 and 1989. Was he a good president? History will jugde him. It is still too soon to see background with objetivity. He was human being and he might have good and bad things as everyone. Moreover, when the situation is full os emotions, we need a couple of days to calm down, think better and undestand what happened.

However, why did people react in such emotional and spontaneous way? The question should be: “What does Alfonsín represent?” There were many answers to this questions. People said: “He was a symbol of democracy”, “he was my first vote”, “he was a decent man”, “he was an idealistic and he behaved according to what he thought it was good”, “he was a visionary”, “he promoted the regional integration”, “he was a man of peace”, “he did not enrich himself in the public function”, “he was a real public server”, he meant a change and he meant a hope after the last militar goverment for the country. A Hope. The movilization of all the peope shows that he still means a hope.

May be Quino was right when he dedicated a draw of Mafalda to Alfonsín. Dedication said: “To the only president who can show us that everything that is taught in the school could be true. To Raúl Alfonsin, with affection and gratitude”. Quino.

May be Mafalda is right: Alfonsin represents the hope that everything is possible, that everything could be better, that we can still desire that.

“To the only president who can show us that everything that is taught in the school could be true. To Raúl Alfonsin, with affection and gratitude”. Quino.

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