Radioactive!!!

In my high school, in the year 4 there are three classes: A, B and C. I'm in C. Last week, 13th of April, classes A and C had a trip to Trillo, a small village in Guadalajara. We went there to see a nuclear power station.

We went from 8:15 o'clock in the morning to 8:30 in the afternoon.

We took the bus from the school at 8:15. After going to Trillo we stopped in a small village to have a mid-morning snack.

Later on, at 12 o'clock more or less we went to see the nuclear power station in Trillo. As it was too dangerous to go right into to the nuclear power station they explained how the station works by showing some models.

At the end we saw the nuclear station from a balcony. There were two towers like in the Simpsons in Springfield. It was good!

After this we saw some museums about prehistory but they were a bit boring because we couldn’t touch anything.

From 2 to 3 we had lunch and finally we went to a village in Soria to see some monuments and to have some free time!

F1 is getting crazy!

I am Sergio and for those that are not very familiar with the f1, I will explain you the differences with the season before (2008),and new technologies have been incorporated this year
The results of the 3 first races of this year.

AUSTRIA

1. Jenson Button
2. Rubens Barrichello
3. Jarno Trulli

MALAYSIA

1. Jenson Button
2.Nick Heidfeld
3.Timo Glock

CHINA

1.Sebastian Vettel
2.Mark Webber
3. Jenson Button

This is the general position of this year. After you can compare with the classification of the last year with only 3 races.

NOW

1. JENSON BUTTON (BRAWN MERCEDES) 21 ptos.
2. RUBENS BARRICHELLO (BRAWN MERCEDES) 15 ptos.
3. SEBASTIAN VETTEL (RBR-RENAULT) 10 ptos.
8. FERNANDO ALONSO (RENAULT) 4 ptos.
10. LEWIS HAMILTON (MCLAREN MERCEDES) 4 ptos.
16. KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN (FERRARI) 0 ptos.

IN 2008

1. HAMILTON 24 PTS.
2. RÄIKKÖNEN 17 PTS.
3. HEIDFELD 15 PTS.
4. KUBICA 11 PTS.
5. ALONSO 11 PTS.
6. KOVALAINEN 10 PTS.

You can see that Räikkönen have 0 points, is very strange a driver of Ferrary permite this.He had been the winner of the championship of 2007. And L. Hamilton from one year to other have been from 1 position to the 10 position.Is incredible that the winner of the last championship goes so bad this year.

NEW DEVICES AND TECHNOLOGIES IN F1

The KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovering System) : Basically it is a flywheel that the energy during braking is lost as heat is get as energy that gives you an acceleration to increase the performance of the car. This is posible because the steering wheel speed up until the acceleration.

DIFFUSER: Key piece to get more grip in the curves. It is in the rear of the car. The problem is that Mercedes-Brawn and red bull have a diffuser shaped like a channel that gives them more aerodynamic support, it makes them almost 0´5 second faster on each lap. The controversy comes when Ferrary, Mclaren and Renault believe that this is not legal diffuser.this April 14 the FIA ruled that is legal.the race have started, but to see who is the first to have the diffuser of Brawn in the next race.

Easter Holidays in Espejon

I’m going to explain the main traditional Easter holiday events that take place in my village Espejon, they are religious events:

The first Sunday, people go to the church to take a holy branch and to hear mass. They make a procession too.

On Ash Wednesday, people go to church to tell the priest their sins, and to be free of them during the rest of religious eastern events.

On Easter Thursday, all the children go to church in the afternoon and the priest replays the act of

the Last Upper, and cleans their feet.

On Good Friday, in the afternoon 12 men act out the story of the 12 apostles when Christ is going to be crucified, and later the women sing some songs in church.

On Easter Sunday everyone goes to hear mass, and take part in the procession because it is the most significant day, when Christ resuscitated and they pay some money to take off the black dress of the Virgen. A great silence falls.

Cabrejas

I want to tell the reader what is my favorite place and one of its more important tradition. The name of this place is Cabrejas del Pinar, my village. It is located in Cabrejas mountain range. If you want to find it, it is in Burgos road about 37 km from Soria. Cabrejas has a population of around 480 inhabitants. It is one of the biggest villages of the province with 5,000 hectares of pine grove. It has lots if beautiful and important buildings such as; the castle on the top of the village, the Saint Millan church in the center, the Blanca hermitage 3km far from the village, the Ann hermitage where the old cementery is located and in addition you could visit a roman fountain. In fact the Blanca hermitage is used in weddings and during its party and it is a wonderful church surrounded by trees and almost in the middle of the forest. Saint Millan church where masses are celebrated during the whole year.

This village is famous for its mushrooms like the Boletus Edulis or the “Nicalo” and its truffles. Both products could be bought in a local enterprise. In its forest you can also hunt a great variety of animals or just enjoy a good day in the nature. I love my village with its summers in the swimming pool, having lunch in the forest cooking the food using fire, playing football with my friends and enjoying its traditions. I also want to talk about one of its traditions. This tradition is famous in the surroundings villages.

What is the first thing that comes into my mind when I say lots of people, a place to eat in the forest and two hundred kilos of mussels? You could imagine a lot of strange or impossible parties. Even these three things couldn’t let imagination to express easily.

The celebration I am going to talk about is called “The Mussel” in Spanish “el Mejillon”. Every year we celebrate this party. It consists of making everyone of the village help with this event. It is celebrated at the end of August and it stars on Thursday. Its duration is for only 3 intense days. Villagers organize lots of competitions such as football, swimming or “fronton” where you need to pay some money for the registration. At the same time they sell a kind of lottery for winning a sheep and with the money they obtain from the lottery and from the competitions, they pay the bills for the mussels, everything needed in for cooking or whatever and for the music groups. On Friday afternoon everyone cleans the mussels in the fountain; young children, adults and granddads help with this task. On Saturday everyone goes to the pine forest where there is a place prepared called “el Cubillo” for having lunch and also dinner. Some people is responsible for cooking all the mussels with a great tomatoes sauce, others prepared old games so everyone could played after having lunch and there is a brass band to entertain the assistants. At the end of the day some people stay and have dinner and finally everyone return walking to the village. At night there is a music band in the square and adults go there for dancing. This tradition is repeated over the years with a great affluent of people from all Soria.

The fact of celebrating it in the nature and with the collaboration of the entire village is great. This is my view of my favorite place and if you like it you must come and visit it. I promise you will never forget it!

Menorca

Last Summer I went to Menorca, a fantastic island on the Mediterranean Sea, near the coast of Valencia.

Although it is very small, only a few kilometers wide, it has a lot of beaches with little fish of different colours swimming next to you. It also has “wild” beaches called “calas” that are as they were originally because no road passes near them and the machines can’t get there so there is a lot of seaweed and stones and there are some nature reserves in the sea that have a lot of salt and without swimming you float.

Also, it has two important cities; Mahón and Ciudadela, each one at different ends of the island (90 km). They are both very beautiful with all their houses painted white and a lot of smells of flowers around the city. In Mahón the “mahonesa” and the “ajonesa” two important sauces in Spain that got their name from the name of the city. There are some important monuments from the ancient times on the island, like some buildings from Greek and Carthaginian times and some that were very special from before the Greek ones, called “Navetas” that were common funerary buildings for important people or warriors killed in battle.

We entered one and, even though the mummies weren't there, we could imagine how the bodies were organized and deposited there. Their meaning was very important for the island because the ones who built and used them thought that they were like bridges that connected the Earth with the Universe that's why the buildings had a hole pointing to the sky. This gave light to the area in which the most important tombs where situated.

The inhabitants of the area had a very peculiar way of life because only few had cars because the distances on the island were so short that they didn't need a car to go where they want and they are so relaxed, which surprised me a lot.

Sport Crazy

Hi! I’m Marta again, one of the students that posts on this blog.

This last week all Spain has celebrated “Semana Santa”. I’ts a religious week in which the christians living in Spain commemorate Christ’s death and resurrection. Lots of people from Spain, and from other countries, celebrate this week as one of the most important festivities of our country.

Anyway, I’m not going to write about “Semana Santa”. There are lots of people that don’t specially like this week. They don’t celebrate it following the religious traditions, but understand it as a more or less normal week of holidays. I’m one of those people.

This year I went to Murcia for 6 days with some other athletes from places all around Spain. We went there to have fun, to train and to make friends. We went to a sport hall of residence just next to the beach. The hall of residence had two football pitches, two basketball courts and two volleyball courts as well. It also had a huge place to do judo and a Jacuzzi. And the thing we used most, an athletics track. We mainly trained, but we also learnt about sport medicine with a doctor and with an sport psychologist.

We swam a little in the sea and enjoyed the sun, which is quite difficult now in my city because it is usually cold. I also met a lot of friends I already had and, of course, I made new ones. However, my trip did not end as well as I would have liked it to finish. I broke my arm and now I have it in plaster.

Still, I had a great week.

The Mussel Festival

I want to tell the reader what my favourite place is and one of its more important tradition. The name of this place is Cabrejas del Pinar, my village. It is located in Cabrejas mountain range. If you want to find it, it is on the Burgos road about 37 km from Soria.

Cabrejas has a population of around 480 inhabitants. It is one of the biggest villages of the province with 5,000 hectares of pine grove. It has lots of beautiful and important buildings such as; the castle on the top of a hill, Saint Millan church in the centre, the Blanca hermitage 3km from the village, the Blanca hermitage where the old cemetery is, and in addition you could visit a roman fountain. In fact the Blanca hermitage is used in weddings and during the fiesta. It is a wonderful church surrounded by trees and almost in the middle of the forest. In Saint Millan church masses are celebrated during the whole year.

This village is famous for its mushrooms like the Boletus Edulis or the “Nicalo” and its truffles. Both products can be bought locally. In the forest you can also hunt a great variety of animals or just enjoy a good day in the countryside. I love my village with its summers in the swimming pool, having lunch in the forest cooking food using fire, playing football with my friends and enjoying its traditions. I also want to talk about one of its traditions. This tradition is famous in the surrounding villages.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when I say lots of people, a place to eat in the forest and two hundred kilos of mussels? You could imagine a lot of strange or impossible festivals. These three things are hard to imagine together.

The celebration I am going to talk about is called “The Mussel” in Spanish “el Mejillon”. Every year we celebrate this festival. It consists in making everyone in the village help with this event. It is celebrated at the end of August and it starts on Thursday. It lasts for only 3 intense days. Villagers organize lots of competitions such as football, swimming or “fronton” where you need to pay some money to register. At the same time they sell a kind of lottery to win a sheep and with the money they earn from the lottery and from the competitions, they pay for the mussels, everything needed for cooking or whatever and for the music groups.

On Friday afternoon everyone cleans the mussels in the fountain; young children, adults and granddads help with this task. On Saturday everyone goes to the pine forest where there is a place prepared called “el Cubillo” to have lunch and also dinner. Some people are responsible for cooking all the mussels with a great tomato sauce, others prepare old games so everyone can play after having lunch and there is a brass band to entertain the assistants. At the end of the day some people stay and have dinner and finally everyone walks back to the village. At night there is a music band in the square and adults go there to dance. This tradition is repeated every year with a great number of people coming from all over Soria.

The fact of celebrating in the countryside and with the collaboration of the entire village is great. This is my view of my favourite place and if you like it you must come and visit it. I promise you will never forget it!