I play football in a team called IFK Valla. I’ve been playing there for seven years now. We train about three times a week. Our trainer is a very big man, almost two meters long, and he’s got the world’s biggest stomach :-) When we train we’re almost thirty people.

My favourite football teams are IFK Göteborg and Real Madrid. I’ve been to a few IFK Göteborg matches and it’s really funny. Everybody is singing the entire match. When they score a goal everybody stands up and cheers. It’s a really nice feeling. It’s definitely worth go looking at.

One of my big dreams is to play in IFK Göteborg. My favourite player is Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays for Real Madrid but was born in Portugal. He’s really fast and he shoots like a horse.

AC/DC

My favourite band is AC/DC. AC/DC is a hard rock band from Australia. They play, of course, hard rock music and rock’n’roll. They have been active very long, since 1973! So they are old men today. But they are still active. They made an album in 2008 and after that, they went on a world tour and played in many countries, even in Sweden.

The front figure in the band is the lead guitarist Angus Young. When he’s on the stage, he’s very energetic and he does often show for the audience. Angus Young’s brother, Malcolm Young, is the comp guitarist in the band. He and Angus have been playing in the band since they started in 1973.

The singer of the band is Brian Johnson. He came in 1980 because the first singer, Bon Scott, had tragically died. He had drunk too much at a party, and that didn’t go well. The bass player in AC/DC is called Cliff Williams and the drummer’s name is Phil Rudd.

I like AC/DC because they play good music, of course, and because they are so old but still great! That impresses me. In the summer of 2009 I was at an AC/DC concert in Nya Ullevi in Gothenburg. The concert was part of their world tour of the “Black Ice” album, which came out then. The concert was really great. I had to have protection for my ears because they play loud. They played all their best songs and new ones from the new album. That was a memory.

I hope AC/DC continue playing a while. That would be really fun! Maybe I can add one more album to my AC/DC collection!

TAYLOR SWIFT

Taylor Swift is a singer-songwriter. I love her lyrics, but she doesn’t sing as well live as she does in her CDs. All of her songs are about boyfriends or her family. She wrote a song named “The Best Day”. That song she wrote to her parents.

Taylor was mobbed when she was young. She had glasses and she didn’t fit in. She learned to play the guitar all by herself and when she was 13 years old she released her first album. She wrote a song called “ The Other Side”, it was one of the first songs she wrote. “The Outside” was a very emotional song. It was about all her feelings about being mobbed.

Taylor was born in 1989 on December 13, so she is 20 years old now. I think she is a very pretty girl with her blue eyes and blond hair. She is also very tall, 1,80 cm, if I’m being correct. She lived in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, when she was little. Then she and her family moved because they wanted to live near the city where the music company was. Then Taylor got very famous and she wanted to visit her hometown again.

When she got home she met all her old schoolmates, even the mobbers! The mobbers had t-shirts with Taylor on them and wanted to have an autograph. Taylor felt it was very weird but she couldn’t be mad at them because if they hadn’t mobbed her, she wouldn’t have written all the good songs about her life and she wouldn’t have gone famous.

That’s one thing I like about Taylor, she takes everything positive. Even if she was mobbed when she was young, she takes it positive now.

I’ll tell you something about Taylor Swift’s boyfriends. She dated a guy named Joe Jonas. He is a member of the band Jonas Brothers. Everyone thought they were a cute couple but after two weeks Taylor got a call from Joe. He said he wanted to break up. Taylor thought it was very mean to break up on a 27-second phone call. She wrote a song about it, named “Forever and Always”.

A couple of weeks later she started dating a guy named Taylor Lautner. It is very funny about the names, because both of them are called Taylor. Taylor Lautner is also famous. He is Jacob Black in the Twilight movies. But Taylor Swift didn’t have the time to have a boyfriend so she broke up with him.

She has written a song named “Teardrops on my Guitar”. It is about a guy named Drew that she dated in high school. But she knew that they had to break up because she was going o move. It is a very beautiful song.

She has also written a song to her best friend Abigail. That song is named “Fifteen”. It’s about a guy hurting Abigail and life being hard when you are fifteen.

Taylor Swift has won very many prices. Once she won the price for “best female video” and, when she was standing on stage and had just started her “thanking” speech, Kanye West got up on the stage and took the microphone from her. He said: “I think Beyoncé should have the price instead, I like her more”. That was very mean. Taylor was upset at first but then she got to finish her speech.

My favourite Taylor Swift songs are “Beautiful Eyes”, “Fearless” and “Untouchable”. Taylor has released three albums, all of them very good.

My First Mobile Phone

I had my first Mobile phone when I was 11 or 12 years old approximately. When I went on trips with the school, my mother lent me hers, but only when I had trips. My first mobile phone was a Nokia and I loved it because it was my first one. It was a black and white mobile phone but I liked it because it had a thing for changing the casing. I had this mobile phone for 2 years but then I lost it at the Attraction Park in Madrid.

So, I had to buy a new one. It was a Sony Ericsson which was much better than the other. This had a colour screen and the numbers were much bigger. The best thing was that it had a camera, and it was one of the few mobile phones to have it. When I got bored I sold it to my aunt and I bought another one.

The third one is the one I have now. It is a Samsung and it has a camera, MP3 player, videogames and internet. I think I’m not going to change this one until it breaks down. I couldn’t live without a mobile phone.

Boardsports

My favourite sport right now is kitesurfing. It’s like snowboarding on the water and to move you need a kite in the air. It moves you forward over the water. I was in Denmark last weekend with my friend and his big brother. He taught us to kite. I’m not so good at it but I have learned body dragging. It’s what you do before you get up on the board. There are many lines and you must have control over them so you get the kite up in the air. It’s very difficult to do.

I also like snowboarding and skateboarding. I was in Livigno in the Italian Alps snowboarding with my friends and my family. Most of all I like downhill but jumping is funny too. In the Alps the mountains are so big that if you go and take the lift to the tops in the morning, you’ll be done when you’re down again. You never have to go down the same way and that’s what I like the most about Livigno. I have tried many other places to ski, like Trysil, Åre, Sälen, Norfjället, but nothing is like Livigno.

When I was a little kid I loved to skate, in ramps almost always, but also halfpipe and rails. I was very good at it, but my knees would hurt if I did it anymore.

Longboard is also funny but not like skateboard or snowboard or kitesurfing. I don’t know why I fell in love with boardsports. Maybe it’s the danger I like…

Audioslave and Black Jack

I have many favourite bands but if I have to choose one I guess it’s Audioslave. They are a band from London in England, they play soft rock and have their own style.

Their inspiration sources are mostly old goodies like Van Halen, Thin Lizzy and the 80s. Audioslave is world famous and tour all over the world. They have been to Sweden once. My favourite song with the band is “Be Yourself”, I think. The first time I heard them was in a CD-store in Gothenburg and I just felt that “this is good!”

The band sounds a lot like a Swedish band called Takida, at least the vocals in each group are mostly the same.

That was my favourite band and here comes my favourite artist. There are so many great artists in this world but my favourite one is… I actually think it is Black Jack. He is a great singer! Many people know him from his band Tenacious D or for the fact that he is an actor in American movies. He’s pretty big but that doesn’t bother him. It is something that I really like about him. His voice is extremely raw and also light as a feather. He makes singing and rocking fun. These days music has to be so sad and rough, for example metal, but he makes it funny and awesome to look at and listen to. He’s just an exceptional singer.

Cross-country skiing

Actually, my favourite sport is football but I want to write about another sport instead, cross-country skiing.

Cross-country skiing is a typical Nordic sport. It is a winter sport. You have two skis and two poles and special clothes and shoes. I like the sport because it’s funny and you get to see the nature.

I started cross-country skiing when I was about nine years old. Our family went to Team Sportia in Stenungsund and bought a pair of skis each. I started skiing around my house but when I knew how to do it I went to Tjörn’s golf course. There was a lot of snow and much longer. It was really funny.

A year later I got my first roller skis. They’re like short skis with wheels. When I had trained enough, I decided to set up a goal. And the goal was to complete Vasaloppet, the longest ski competition in the world.

It is 90 kilometres long and for the elite skiers it takes about four hours. But you don’t need to be a professional skier to complete Vasaloppet. You can be 80 years old and still do it! Vasaloppet is fantastic!

But why is the name Vasaloppet? There was a king in Sweden, whose name was Gustav Vasa. The Danish king wanted to kill him. It was winter and he had to flee with skis. The skiers today go the same way and they named the competition after him.

Now I practise a little in order to one day cross the goal line. It’s a future dream that can come true. Wish me luck!

The World Cup

This year sees the World Cup in South Africa, one of the most important events in the world. The best football teams in the world take part which means that the media and millions of people will be focused on what happens over the next month.

South Africa is a country that must grow and develop and this event can help it, building better roads, hospitals, schools and creating jobs through the construction of stadiums and hotels. The majority of the population is black and often poor and only a minority is white and often wealthy. The country's favourite sports are football and rugby.

One of the features of the people is that when they see a football game they are very happy and sing together. They also play a trumpet called vuvucela that mimics the sound of the elephant!

The most important person in the country is Nelson Mandela, who has fought so hard to achieve this great event and fight for the rights of black people in general. Also one of the most important things in the world cup is that you meet people from other countries and from your own country too. It is also a great opportunity to help more disadvantaged people and give them our support.

I also want to take the opportunity to say that I HOPE SPAIN WINS!!!!

Dreams

Hi, let me tell you a story about dreams.

Dreams are images of what we want things to be or happen, even how things should have happened.

Everyone has dreams. You maybe say you don’t but in fact you do. Dreams are also a reflex of our emotions. They are people’s shields for not going crazy.

When you are in a dream you feel safe and nothing can hurt you. I think we all need dreams ’cause they help us think, they protect our secrets and emotions.

I think dreams are wonderful. They give you this feeling you never can explain. Sometimes the feelings are positive and sometimes negative. Before I stop writing I’d like to say something:

“Somewhere over the rainbow there’s this castle in the sky.”

Now that’s a place where I wanna be.

Football

One of my favourite sports is football, I think it’s my favourite actually. I started playing for IFK Valla when I was about six or seven years old. When I was little I played forward. Then I changed to defence. Last winter I switched team from Valla to Stenungsunds IF. The first two-three months didn’t go that well. It was when I grew in length and my body didn’t listen to me. It got better when I gained weight but that year I felt that I didn’t go up to my standards. This year a lot has changed. I am in the right weight for my length and I feel stronger than last year. It was hard to get where I am now but I never gave up and kept on fighting, so now it’s going very well.

Right now in SIF we train about five times a week including matches. It’s tough but if you like it it’s nothing. My team is called the Under-16 team but I train with Under-18 sometimes and I have played a match with them once. It’s tough because it’s such a high tempo, but you learn to deliver the ball quicker and not to take dumb risks.

I mostly play as libero but I sometimes play defence centerfield. That’s what I like the most.

Today after the school I’m going training and on Thursday, Friday and Sunday we have matches. I think I’m going to play all of them. My number is 8, like Zlatan had in Inter Milan. My favourite team is Barcelona, I like them because they play very funny football to watch. My favourite player is Yoann Gourcuff. He plays for Bordeaux in the Ligue I in France. Bordeaux is also one of my favourite teams. They came to the quarterfinals in the Champions League, which is a huge success for them.

Final Fantasy

Hi! This time I'm gonna talk about a role videogame that came out 1 month ago. I finished it some days ago and it´s great. It´s Final Fantasy XIII the last FF for the moment, from the famous saga.

The world of Final Fantasy XIII is split into two very different parts. One part is a floating, mechanical city called Cocoon. Cocoon is home to a few million people. These people of Cocoon are frightened of the other part of the world which is outside of the city, a place called Pulse. Anyone who comes into contact with Pulse is believed to be part of a plot to invade Cocoon.

Lightning the main character will have to save both parts of the world from it´s destruction, at the same time Snow will try to find his girlfriend.

This videogame has a very interesting story, at the same time it includes a new battle system and very good graphics. These factors make it an special videogame.

It has been criticized by some magazines and critics because it means a great rupture with the tradition of Final Fantasy. But in my opinion its positive to include variations according to new technologies and consoles as Ps3 or Xbox 360, making the game more attractive in some aspects.

I recommend it to everyone that likes this genre and videogames in general.

Pole Vauting

Last weekend I had a competition in Madrid, it was really nice because the best pole vaulters from Spain were there.

The competition was won by Naroa who has the Spanish record, she jumped 4 metres and 50 centimetres, the second was Mar who trains with me, she jumped 4 metres. I was the fifth, I only could jump 3 metres and 50 centimetres but I liked so much to be able to jump with the best pole vaulters.

As I finished the competition soon I decided to go to visit some friends I have in Madrid and we were having a walk in the center of the city. At night, they went with me to the bus station and then I came back to Soria by bus.

The X games

X games is a yearly multi sport. You compete with other people in almost every sport: skateboard, freestyle, motocross, snowboard, etc.

The winter X games are held in January and February in Colorado, Aspen. That includes snowboard, snow scooter, freeski, snowskate, ski cross, monoski and half pipe.

The summer X games are held in August in Los Angeles. That includes BMX, super cross, surfing, skateboard, rally, moto X speed and style and BMX super park.

The inaugural X games were held in the summer of 1995 in Rhode Island.

The competition often features new tricks such as Tony Hawks 900 in skateboarding. And Anthony Napolitan with the first ever double front flip on a bicycle.

Tony Hawk is a skateboard legend from the U.S.A. He was born on the 12th of May 1968 in San Diego, California. Tony Hawk was the first skater who ever did front side ollie in a ramp. He won the skateboard World Championship in 1995. He also got his own product and video game: Tony Hawk underground.

Check out for more here

http://espn.go.com/action/xgames/winter/2010/index

The Poet and the Women

Hi! I’m Estefanía and I am writing again to tell us you my last trip I made with my class. This happened the 13th of April, the second day after Easter holidays.

My class and half of the people from 1st of bachillerato who are studying Latin like us, went to Zaragoza to see a theatre of Aristophanes called “Thesmophoriazusae” or “The Poet and the Women”.

Well that day we Left Soria at 8 o’clock from the high school by bus and we arrived at Zaragoza at 10.15 more or less. We were late for the 1st theatre and museum so we had to go to the other 3 museums we had reserved to visit them. There we could observe the primitive theatre built for a long time ago by the Romans when they conquered our peninsula, and that is still preserved up to our days.

We spent the whole morning going from one building to another up to the time we had lunch. Afterwards the let us go shopping or whatever we wanted until the theatre of Aristophanes began.

It started at 5.30 and it lasted for one hour, it was quite interesting and funny so everybody liked it. Once it was over we went to the Square “El Pilar” to visit the cathedral and finally at 7.30 we left the city to come back to Soria.

This was an unusual activity that our teacher of Latin prepared for us, it was an entertaining trip and I wouldn’t mind going on another.

Thanks for reading about it

The crazy videogames player

Hi, I´m Javier and I´m going to talk about an article I read some days ago, this article talks about the effect of the videogames on children´s behaviour.

The article says that young people who play violent videogames, even for a short period of time, become more violent and aggressive.

Moreover these chidren try to imitate the characters of the videogame with their friends , this imitation can cause serious illnesses, these videogames could also affect the children academic task because if the child was always playing games he wouldn´t do his homework and it could cause a worse relationship with parents.

In contrast I think that a simple game can´t affect so much the children´s behaviour .because most of the children have a limit with the videogames and they also do sport or meet friends instead of playing videogames.

On the other hand, I read another article which said that playing videogames helps the children to develop their skills such as the visual attention, so videogames perhaps aren´t so terrible.

The Bullfighting Debate

Several demonstrations have taken place all around the world. More and more people are against bullfighting because they consider it a cruel act. This activity means killing an animal just for entertainment.

However some others think that it is some kind of art and that’s an essential part of our culture that shouldn’t disappear. Furthermore, in some regions they declared bullfighting, National Heritage.
That’s right, but just because of that should we keep on practising it? The evolution of our society is obvious why shouldn’t we de the same with this barbaric activity? Romans had gladiators, people killing each other, something unbearable nowadays.

On the other hand the abolition of bullfighting would affect local festivities like the San Fermines or even the San Juanes, here in Soria. What’s your opinion? Think about it.

Carnival

Three weeks ago the streets of the cities, towns and villages were full of colours, life and splendour. We were celebrating carnival. It is known that this festival invites you to dress up as whatever you want. So, if you go for a walk on these days you willl see pirates, witches, princesses, ancient Greeks or Romans, superheroes... which are some of the typical costumes. You can also find policemen, soldiers, flies, bees, or even original costumes as tomatoes, famous statues, chewing-gums... I think this is the best moment to show your imagination and creativity to impress other people. It isn’t difficult because the most stupid thing you find could be the funniest idea. Now, all of you have enough time to think about the one of next year. Come on, don’t be boring!!

THE WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES

I’m Marta, from Soria and I’m going to write about the Winter Olympic Games now that they have just finished. This competition has taken place since 1924, when the first ones took place in France. Before this, the first multi-sport event especially for winter was the Nordic games, held in Sweden in 1901. Like the summer Olympics, they are held every four years, but they don’t coincide with each other. However, fewer countries participate in these games compared with the summer ones. Maybe this happens because many of the sports that are played in the Winter Olympic Games are quite strange or, at least, not very well-known. There are lots of types of skiing, like alpine, freestyle or cross-country. There are also other sports, like snowboarding, skating, hockey, curling and skeleton. These two last ones are new sports that have been added to the Olympic Games in the last years. Anyway, they have become quite famous in these games and lots of people know now about these sports.

As always when we talk about sport at these levels, we also have to talk about doping. It was in 1967 when the International Olympic Committee started to make drug testing protocols. The last Winter Olympics, hosted in Turin in 2006, were famous because of a scandal involving blood doping. This caused the suspension of 12 cross-country skiers. Other three skiers tested positive after the Olympic Games took place and their medals were taken.

This year, the Winter Olympic Games have taken place in Vancouver, Canada. United States is the one that won most medals, with 37, followed by Germany, with 30, and Canada, with 26. Sweden is in the eighth place, together with China and France, with 11 medals so you can be happy. On the other hand, Spain has not won any.