Lights out!

This day in age with almost 7,000,000,000 people on the planet, we use a lot of resources and make a lot of waste. It is not uncommon to hear of a campaign to clean up a certain area or save a certain species. In many of the classes this year, we've talked about the ways that we can contribute to keeping this earth livable for the next generation. In English the three words to remember are the three R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

By reducing the amount of resources that we consume we leave more for the future. We can also try to reduce the amount of waste that is left behind, making sure that we only prepare enough food for what we need, instead of having leftovers that will only be thrown away.

By reusing we also reduce the waste that goes into landfills. Instead of throwing away your water bottle to get another, try refilling it, for example.

Finally, recycling programs allow us to reduce this waste as well, by melting down plastics and glass so that they can be remade into new products.

Recently there was a global black-out sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature to try and reduce the amount of electricity used. Many cities all over the world participated and for one hour on this specific day they turned off the lights in the public areas of the city. Read about this event here.

What do you think of this type of event? Have you heard of anything like it happening in Spain? Have you ever participated in an event like this? What are some ways that you can reduce, reuse and recycle in your own life?

A United States Visit

After spending two weeks in the U.S. I wanted to share with you a little bit of my trip. The main reason that I went home is that I was a bridesmaid in a wedding. The wedding took place on top of Jockey's Ridge, the largest sand dune on the east coast of the US. We were really lucky because it rained all day before the wedding, but it cleared up just in time for a beautiful outdoor ceremony. Here is a picture of the bridal party after the wedding.


During the weeks I spent a lot of time with my family and friends that I haven't seen since I came to Spain. It was really good to see everyone, but somewhat stressful as well, because there just wasn't enough time to see everyone!

March 17 was Saint Patrick's Day, a day where we celebrate everything Irish. Its good luck to wear green on Saint Patrick's Day and its tradition that if you don't wear green someone can pinch you....I'm not very fond of this tradition. I celebrated St. Patrick's Day by going to a small concert. The first performers were local bluegrass enthusiasts. Bluegrass is a type of country music that usually includes instruments such as the guitar, the mandolin, the bass, and the banjo.

After they finished playing, a guitarist named Stephen Bennett played. He was amazing! Sometimes I couldn't even tell how he was playing all the notes his fingers moved so fast. He played 5 different types of guitars during the show. I have a couple of videos for you but I'm having trouble uploading them, so here are a few pictures in their place.