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Water fest

Galician Festival

Festa da auga: it is a popular festival celebrated in Villa Garcia de Arousa on August 16th. This festival was created spontaneously when, a few neighbors started claiming for cool water for their houses because of the hot weather. Some other villagers started throwing water to help them.

Since 1984 this festival has been celebrated every year. They throw water to one another. They don't eat typical food for this festival and there is no parade but it is still fun.

 

 

Sebastián Lee, Iván Díaz, Marco Martul, Manuel Cabiaglia, Valentina Mercado.

A real Iron Man

Hi! Let me introduce myself. My name is Gonzalo and I´m seventeen years old. I´m very keen on comic books and I also enjoy watching Marvel Movies. One of my favourite Marvel Movies is Iron Man, because I really like the role of the main character, Tony Stark, who invents a wide range of sophisticated devices, mainly advanced weapons and armor. He is the inventor of Iron Man’s armor, which allows him to fly, among other things. Have you ever thought that flying like Iron Man could be possible? Let me tell you that it is for real.

 

A British inventor has built an Iron Man-style flight suit and he has flown it at the Ted (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in Vancouver. His name is Richard Browning and his short flight took place outside the Vancouver Convention Centre in front of a large crowd. He was inspired by his father, an aeronautical engineer and inventor, who killed himself when Mr. Browning was a teenager. Like many of us, he was also fascinated by the idea of human flight.

 

Mr. Browning created his flying machine using six miniature jet engines and a specially designed exoskeleton. He has a helmet with a sophisticated heads-up display that keeps him informed about fuel use. As in the Iron Man movie, he uses his arms to control the direction and speed of the flight. It is easily capable of flying at 200mph (321km/h) at an altitude of a few thousand feet. Nevertheless, for safety reasons, he keeps the altitude and speed low. This amazing flying suit can currently fly uninterrupted for around 10 minutes.

 

However, this artifact hasn’t been approved by the aeronautical authorities yet. For example, in Europe, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which has responsibility for approving all new aircraft designs, including experimental concepts, has not yet formed an opinion on human propulsion technology. Our desire to fly as iron man will have to wait, at least it won´t be possible in the next few years, but better safe than sorry.

Rita Croci

On March 21st, 5th and 4th year intensive invited Rita Croci to share an informal class.  Rita is a 90-years-old lady whose son is the argentine ambassador in the UK, Carlos Sarsale. Rita has been to the Malvinas Islands and she spoke to us about that experience. She shared her views about different topics: The WWI, WWII, music, diversity and even political figures.

She is a widow, she had three children but two of them died. She used to be a social worker and now she’s an active member of Papelnonos, she writes poetry and takes part in a radio show. She likes to write about her everyday life.

To bridge the gap we asked her some personal questions like her interests in music, she likes lots of different genres like Folklore, Opera and Ballet. She told us about her connections with Galicia, she said that she loves the Galician culture and music.

We went deeper with our questions and she told us the experience that scared her most, she remembers that when she was a 7-years-old girl, she saw the faces of the young soldiers preparing to go to the WWII crying, this experience shocked her. Another experience that impacted her was to find a death baby in a plastic bag, abandoned in a dump.

To relax the atmosphere we asked her some happy questions. She told us that her best experience in life was to have children. She talked about her childhood dream; it was to help the abandoned dogs. She hasn’t accomplished it, yet.

But when we had to talk about Malvinas, her tone of voice got more serious. Rita, unlike most of us, had the opportunity to go there (years after the war) and she saw a lot of boots from soldiers who fought in the war lost in the wilderness. We asked her what she thought about the “results” of the conflict and she said that no one won the war, because a war isn’t a win-or-lose fact. She thinks that both countries had to “win” the war to demonstrate the stability of their own position. So Margaret Thatcher wanted to win regardless of the means. She also said that people in the UK weren’t much aware of the things that were happening in the South American continent but the ones who went to war knew Argentineans had a hard time that’s probably why they treated them better as prisoners than their own country. And then our guest propounds a question: why the people who live in the Malvinas aren’t considered “English people”? Why are they called kelpers? A discriminatory word.

But not everything was about war, we also got into topics that are an issue everywhere such as feminism. And yes, if you were wandering, Rita is a feminist. She says that her mother was the only one in her village to dare to wear short skirts and pants, she even cut her hair! She talked to us about her as if no one tried to do the things she did, trying to make us understand that her mother was a revolutionary.

About society in general she said that we have improved 50 years from now and she is glad that she can see the change. Good for us!

That sums up the topics we talked about but we didn’t talk about her personality.

Rita Croci is an adorable lady, there’s no doubt. But she is also a strong person, a mother, a wife and a woman who fought for equality and peace. Her life was about making other people feel better. That’s why she needs recognition; she went through hard times but never let the bitterness of this world steal her sweetness and that’s what we admired the most.

Thank you, Rita for coming.

Stephen King

We recently interviewed the well-known writer, “Stephen King”. He is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy books, who was born in 1947, in Portland, Maine. His ancestors were scot-Irish. Eventually, he lives in Florida with her wife, his 3 children and 4 grandchildren.

Nowadays, he is famous for the best-sellers which he wrote, for example, “Carrie”-“It”-“The Green Mile”. Because of those books he received the 2014 National Medal of Arts and the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Interviewer:  Hello Stephen, I would like you to answer some questions about your life and your works.

Stephen King:  Yeah, sure! I think lots of people are interested in knowing more about me.

I:  Well, tell us about the time you were at University.

SK:  I attended the University of Maine at Orono from 1966 to 1970; I graduated with a B.A. in English. I was active in student politics, serving as a member of the Students Senate. From my sophomore year at that college I wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper “The Maine Campus”.

I:  That’s interesting Stephen. Now, I want to know about Startling Mystery Stories.

SK:  Okay, it was a men’s magazine where I made my first professional short story sale, which was called “The Glass Floor”, in 1967.

I:  Well Stephen, you always say that the 70’s was the most important decade of your life. Can you explain us why you say that?

SK:  Wow, that’s a good question. The main reason is that in 1973 I published one of my best novels which originally was called “Second Coming” and now is known as “Salem’s lot”. In 1974 “Carrie” was published and then “The Shinning”. Finally, in 1975 I finished writing “The Stand”. Those books are very important because they are best-sellers.

 

I:  To end this interview, I will ask you about your future projects. Tell us about them.

SK:  I have different projects for the future, I am writing novels and comics, “Sleeping Beauties” which will be published this year, and “Creepshow Reprint”. Also, I am filming a movie called “The Dark Tower”, and a TV series, “The Mist”.

I:  Well, that’s all for now. Thanks you very much.

SK:  I was pleased to do this interview. Thanks you too.

Iron man
Water fest
Rita Croci
Stephen King
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