The world seen through my eyes...

A Poem Without Words?

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:40:00 +0000

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, but are they really? I love pictures, picture-taking and everything related to photographs, and I’ve discovered that in some cases the saying proves to be true; nevertheless, I’ve recently found myself looking through a great deal of Facebook photo albums full of really good pictures taken in exotic or more familiar places that tend to lose their intrinsic importance because they simply have no captions.

Images and captions complement each other because an image by itself may be shallow at the same time that a stand-alone caption describes something that is missing. Despite of this, many people fail to enhance the depth of their images by not writing descriptions for those photographs. If you’re sharing photos on Facebook or anywhere else on the web for your friends, relatives and family to look at, don’t underestimate the importance of captions as they actually allow the viewer to better relate to both the image and the picture taker and to understand how each image connects to the set.

Captions to images can be defined as titles, short explanations, descriptions or labels that are usually short -one to four words or sentences long- associated to an image. However, while short captions are frequently recommended, they’re not always effective for trivial or obvious descriptions. For instance, imagine you have the following picture:

A caption saying “Ben and Julia kissing” might seem unimportant, so in these cases, it is better to use a short paragraph or two if that means adding value to the image, allowing the photographer to actually capture the image’s situation and providing people with adequate information to understand the picture and logically relate to its circumstances in a relatively small amount of words. Consider for instance using something like “The intense feeling of love still bringing Ben and Julia together after 50 years.”

The main reasons to use captions range from identifying the subject or most important element of the picture without necessarily giving the obvious details, identifying the place where the picture was taken to present relevant cultural or natural information, identifying the rest of the people or things in the picture, establishing when and why the picture was taken, and providing context for the picture, which involves letting the vie wer know the events surrounding that one specific moment in time or the actions that took place outside the frame and that are therefore not evident to the viewer.

To better understand the previous points let’s look at an example. Let’s say you took the following picture:

You could use captions to describe the action taking place and give the details about it without simply stating the obvious, “Linda walking towards Gina.” You could instead try something like “Linda taking her first steps towards her mommy,” which tells more about the significance of the picture, and if you further add “while dad gives her a hand on a sunny day at Gorky Park, Moscow after several frustrated attempts” the caption provides even more context to the picture and highlights the importance of the events taking place around the image.

Although different people have different captioning styles and although certain guidelines are to be followed when writing professional captions for journals or other media, and when actually selling pictures; regular people like you and me can still convey the meaningfulness of a picture to share on the web if writing a decent description for it. Captioning pictures can be both an art and a science, but the fact is that doing so remains a matter of taste. The most important thing to consider when writing labels is the content that you want people to notice in the picture and the stories, if any, behind it.

I recently vacationed in Chile and while there, I visited many historic places such as one of the three Pablo Neruda’s houses in that country. He was an iconic Chilean poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in the year 1971; the place was decorated with his belongings, and the one thing that captured my attention the most was the fact that he had lots of colored glasses because he believed the color improved the taste of drinks, so only people who weren't welcomed at his house would get clear glasses.

The latter explanation would make a great description to the picture below, rather than simply stating “Bar area at Neruda’s house.” It also adds worth and importance to the image as it allows the viewer to know an interesting fact about a whole bunch of otherwise seemingly random colored glasses sitting on a bar station.

Another example could be for instance my visit to Valparaíso, which is a port in Chile that you can see in the picture that comes next:

Rather than just stating the location, something like “Valparaíso's landscape, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2003 because of its historical importance, natural beauty, port's history and unique architecture” could be used to enhance the significance of the picture and let people know more about the site. In other words, if you have a story to share then make sure do so even if the story or the picture will never have the same meaning to viewers than they do to you. It makes all the difference. It is useless to have traveled around the world, been to places and to post great pictures you’ve taken if you and only you know what they are, where and when they were taken, who the people in them are and why you took them.

Of course you won’t always have something to say about a picture, but even a small and simple caption can enhance and draw the viewer’s attention to it. Noun phrases, prepositional phrases, adjectives, active verbs and adverbs can all be used to highlight the most significant information of an image. You can use descriptive captions that say something about the physical attributes of the picture, conceptual captions that explain the ideas you were going for when taking the picture or technical captions that talk about the analytical or theoretical aspects related to the image.

Sometimes letting viewers interpret the picture by themselves is a good idea, but at other times doing so only implies that they probably won’t get as much meaning out of the picture as they would if they had more information on it. Do not assume that viewers will automatically know everything about the picture; make sure the viewer does not overlook the fundamental elements in the picture and that your captions do the job of letting them know instead of leaving them to wonder what the picture is trying to convey. Let the text illustrate outstanding aspects of the picture and let the viewer draw out visual information from it so that he or she can have a guided interpretation of the image.

A picture isn’t always worth a thousand words, so make sure you use at least two or three to let your viewer recognize the meaning of it. "Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Relevant detail, couched in concrete, colorful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience." (by Dale Carnegie)

Images by: Hummer and Nancy R. Cohen @ GettyImages, Cris DeRaud @ Stock.Xchng, Hans Arne Nakrem @ Enjoy Chile, and Edmund Yeo @ Swifty's Blogger

Black Friday Shopping Day in the U.S.

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:15:00 +0000

In the States, the Black Friday (BF) shopping day not only denotes the beginning of the traditional purchasing for the Christmas season, but also marks the end of the Thanksgiving holiday.

The term “Black Friday” has different meanings to people around the world, but it usually holds a negative connotation. In this case, it is a metaphor that compares the day after Thanksgiving to other "black days," characterized by sudden drops in the stock market, such as the one that took place on September 24, 1869 in the U.S.

Having its origins during the 70's, the Black Friday receives its name from the heavy traffic that is observed on this day at stores. People go crazy doing their shopping on Black Friday and the crowd not only floods stores aisles, parking lots and mall escalators, but also the streets overall, which become a complete chaos with the huge sales going on as loads of people push and curse at each other while awaiting anxiously for stores to open.

A different theory suggests that Black Friday represents the time in which retailers turn their red numbers or financial losses into profits or black numbers given the large amount of sales on this particular day. However, making profit only during the holiday season and operating at a financial loss during most of the year doesn’t seem like something businesses would really live up to since their financial objectives require them to make money throughout the year, so the accounting-practice premise seems more like an urban legend to me.

Black Friday may only fall between the 23rd and the 29th of November, always the fourth Friday of the month. Although it is not an official holiday, people typically have the day off due to the Thanksgiving long weekend and on this day most stores offer the lowest possible prices and deep discounts on almost every item they carry. The Black Friday specials are typically published in the newspaper on Thanksgiving Day, although most big merchants release ads earlier both on the press and online, so that people can plan in advance and in order to attract more shoppers.

The sales on this day were originally intended for early Christmas shoppers, but in recent years it has been pointed out that some people shop during BF in order to get huge discounts on items they can later resell, oftentimes online. On this day, customers line up in front of shops from early dawn and for hours to benefit from stores' big sales. Everyone wants to get the best bargains, especially since some stores even give out free gift cards to a certain number of customers, which can be coupled with the savings people can get from coupons and other special deals. Although electronics, toys and jewelry are often the items people search the most; apparel, shoes, and even food may also be sharply discounted.

Most experienced shoppers typically do some research beforehand and visit the stores on the days prior to BF to know exactly where the items they're interested in are to be located. They also do research on the different sales, do some price matching (consisting of retailers letting customers buy items at the lower price that a competitor is charging), collect as many coupons as possible, and make sure to bring with them a list of what they want to buy. Then, they make sure to go to bed early on Thanksgiving Day because they know that they will get the best deals from stores that offer them in limited amounts if they wake up really early.

After opening time, store staff members only allow small groups of people to enter the shop at a time, and customers begin their hectic shopping experience by rushing to grab their items. The morning hours are by far the best to shop, not only because people are more likely to find what they’re seeking after, but also because not everyone is an early bird and not everyone sacrifices to get up early, so as packed as stores might be, it is expected that it gets worse as the day reaches its zenith.

Even though some people like doing window-shopping only, during Black Friday, some other people, like me, prefer not to shop on this day at all. I usually don’t handle well rivers of people, overcrowded parking lots, long lines and packed stores; I never went shopping on a Black Friday in the 5 years I lived in The States, so it didn’t really ever become a part of my Thanksgiving tradition.

Despite of this, Black Friday remains the busiest day for shops and retails at least in terms of customer traffic, although not necessarily in terms of sales' volume since in reference to that, this day usually falls two or more spots behind the weekend before Christmas and other shopping days. My boyfriend, unlike me, typically takes advantage of the Black Friday sales while saving himself some much needed cash, this year in particular so that we can see each other in December (keep in mind that we currently maintain a long distance relationship.)

So as Black Friday broke this year on November 23rd, Mauri put on his comfiest shoes and wore his most classical-casual outfit to embark on his BF shopping adventure. He had already visited the stores, gathered his coupons and done his research. He had also planned on the stores he would be visiting first, starting with the ones that were closer to his house and also the ones that had the deals he thought would run out faster, so he made sure to be there earlier.

My boyfriend had it all figured out from going to bed early thereby waking up early, not taking the car, wearing a comfy attire, carrying an iPod and a PSP, having done the research well in advance, having visited stores on the previous days to locate items, and having collected all possible coupons, but even so, that still doesn’t do it for skilled BF shoppers; I mean they still need a more powerful weapon, and it’s what I’ve called THE “shopping tactics.”

Tactic #1: Divert the enemy’s attention

He had 50 people in front of him at Circuit City, the store he visited first, at 3am in the morning. They finally opened a couple of hours later, and he waited another half hour in line to finally get inside the shop. He was planning on buying a 4G memory stick card for his digital camera so we can take thousands of pictures in December. It was going for $30, but BF isn’t just a normal shopping day in which you walk into the stores to find the discounted items organized and where they’re supposed to be; on the contrary, Black Friday is the day people become animals and spread into the jungle to gather, what I’ve called, their stack of “annual food” even if that means using their teeth and nails in the process. Nevertheless, the orderliness depends on the location and the store, but madness tends to be the norm at least when it comes to Black Friday in Miami, FL.

As my boyfriend was desperately searching for his first article, another customer approached him and asked what he was looking for. My boyfriend quickly made up a story and replied he was looking for something other than what he was actually looking for, and the man in turn, told him that he was looking for that 4G memory stick that was going for $30 when the price usually more than triples. Carrying lots of items around becomes ineffective when people are trying to make the most out of time, so what they do to make sure they get their share of the pie is to actually hide items anywhere around the store so they can come back to them later.

Knowing this, in a very sincere and natural way, my boyfriend proceeded to distract the guy by telling him that the store had actually run out of that item because it was a well-liked one, so the man left the aisle in disappointment while he expressed how unbelievable that was. In the meantime, my boyfriend continued to look until, buried among other stuff, he got to find the only one piece of memory-stick card of that kind.

Tactic #2: Make an intentional misstatement

As people fought to buy that plasma TV at a heavily discounted price and everyone seemed to keep going aggressively crazy at the store, my boyfriend went on to find his next item on the list, so he got to the photo-frame aisle only to realize it was packed with a thousand women who were discussing how great the frames would look on their houses and how their husbands would like one or the other.

My boyfriend approached the group of women and pretended to be a salesclerk. He politely offered the ladies assistance after which they asked if he worked there and he replied, in a very self-assured tone, that he did. Right after his lie, one of the women said she was looking for that digital photo frame that was going for $50 when it usually costs $100. My boyfriend turned around and pretended to look for it and then told the lady that they had probably run out since it was a very popular item. My boyfriend suggested she looked elsewhere in the store pointing out that people usually hid items so they could go back to them. The lady and her friends left discouraged while my boyfriend got down on her knees and kept looking for the frame until he got it. He realized there was more than one so he got back to that woman although she said she had already found one on the DVD section.

Then he had to wait about 45 min in one of the lines to pay for his memory stick and another hour and a half to pay for the other item. As I was listening to the story, I was absolutely shocked at the crazy things he had done just to get his items, and especially at the fact that he had planned on dressing nicely for the sole purpose of doing what he did. My only question is, didn’t these people notice he wasn’t wearing a uniform? Maybe they thought he was an undercover salesperson, but what they didn’t know is that he was actually a clever undercover buyer who fooled them so he could get the same items these other customers were looking for.

Tactic #3: Arouse the approval of the staff

He finally left, and it was then time to go to Macy’s. My boyfriend was smart enough not to take his car and instead walked to the mall. He was infinitely grateful for this as he noticed how absolutely crazy things were at the parking lot after he got to Dadeland Mall in Miami, FL. As he approached Macy’s almost at 8am in the morning, he noticed there were three or four female employees at the front door welcoming customers and still giving out some gift cards. But wait, last year they ran out of gift cards by 6:30am, so how come they were still handing them out at 8:00am? My boyfriend stood still as to observe what was going on, and he discovered that the ladies in the front door were not giving the gift cards to everyone who walked into the store. He said they were mostly giving them to elder people, couples and people who were well dressed.

He was well dressed on purpose as he mentioned staff treats you better if you are nicely dressed, but he was lacking both the age and partner that could make him win the favor of some of these employees. After a few minutes of observing the staff behavior, he came up with a strategy so that he could be one of those people who got the gift card. He approached the store while making eye contact with the one lady he thought could give it to him. She caught him looking, but he meant for her to do so; he kept walking towards her, and as he stepped closer he saluted and made some conversation about the craziness of people and the busy day. He made sure to mention he was getting presents to his family, and this seemed to engage the lady’s attention. He went on to mention he also was getting presents for his girlfriend, that would be me, and this definitely melted the lady’s heart as he left his mark. She handed him a $100 gift card while wished him a Happy Thanksgiving, and as my boyfriend kept on walking into the store while doing the “YES!” gesture we typically make when we achieve something.

Tactic #4: Take advantage of the enemy’s compassion

Once inside Macy’s, he went straight to the area where the items he was looking for were located. He wanted some scarves but only found trash in the box where scarves were supposed to be, so he went on to the next item on his list. He started to get frantic after noticing the item wasn’t where he had seen it earlier on that week. He kept looking and looking miserably, as it was an item that as he mentioned, he “could not, not get,” so he continued to search for it until he saw a woman he decided to approach. He once more pretended to work at this store while he offered assistance to the lady. She actually asked where she could find some apparel that the lucky bastard had happened to see on his way in, so he gave the woman directions and made her leave.

He kept looking unsuccessfully until a white light suddenly illuminated the sky as he found his next victim. He actually saw the only woman at the store who had the item he was looking for in her hands, so he started chasing after her and observing her behavior as to see if he could catch her dropping the item. She dropped another item but kept hanging on to this one, so he decided he HAD TO do something about it or else he would lose it. He next approached the lady and he asked her where she had found that item. She explained herself as my boyfriend asked whether there were more and she replied there were, but scattered all around the place.

My boyfriend, in a very heartbroken tone, mentioned that he had been looking for it for hours and that he couldn’t find it. His voice started to break down as he told the lady that he felt so bad, that it was stupid, that he woke up at 2am in the morning for nothing and that he had been planning on getting that item forever. The lady tried to calm him down as he kept insisting that his girlfriend really wanted it and that it wasn’t fair until the lady finally gave in to his cuteness, tenderness and seemingly sincere desperation.

The lady offered him to stay with HER item, but he refused saying that it was okay and that he was sure he could find something else. The lady insisted even though my boyfriend said he couldn’t do it, and that he would feel really bad for taking it. She emphasized that he should take it since she didn’t really need it, as it was only an “impulse buy.” For the fourth time during the day he succeeded in carrying out his tactics and got his precious item.

One way or the other I can only say CHAPEAU for him! He stayed focused and didn't let himself be caught up in the frenzy; he received all the deals he had been looking for even if he didn’t have a family, team or an accomplice with who to devise a plan of splitting to make the most of time and sales at different stores. He really worked hard to get those items even if what he did might not seem righteous. It was legal nonetheless and the only way not to be eaten as Black Friday “is a zero-sum game” in which either you get what you want or somebody else will. I thought I would share this story just in case you wonder how people manage to survive throughout Black Friday shopping. For people like my boyfriend, the struggle is certainly worth the sweat of their brow; and as for me, I’m still sitting in the comfort of my room not wanting to join the madness that this busy shopping day in the States brings along.

Images by: Brian Edward Dean, Adrian, Kagedfish & Allan Chatto @ Flickr

All Saints' Day in Spain

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:05:00 +0000

With the intention of honoring both acknowledged and unfamiliar martyrs, All Saint’s Day, also known as All Hallows or Hallowmas, is mainly a Roman Catholic and Anglican holiday that gives followers a chance to remember all saints and martyrs throughout history. “Moved from its original date in May more than ten centuries ago to offset the pagan autumn festivals held at that time of year,” this holiday is usually celebrated on the day after All Hallows' Eve (Halloween) on November 1st in Spain and other Western countries since Pope Gregory IV designated its official and mandatory church-wide observance in the year 837. However, churches in the East typically commemorate it on the Sunday right after Pentecost.

The original observance of this day started as a solemnity for all martyrs of the ancient church, “men, women, and children who were persecuted and killed for their faith in Christ,” but because many of the martyrs’ names were unknown, and because many of them died on the same day or in groups; the celebration came about to include all sufferers and believers, and it resulted in a common veneration and tribute to all saints, representing the gradual unity of the entire Roman Catholic Church.

Even if this feast is genuinely considered more of a religious than pagan tradition, the Lutheran or Protestant Church also honors this holiday although in a much different way; they celebrate Thanksgiving and strengthen their devotion through the imitation of faith and other virtues by giving glory to God and not to the saints since they believe that only God can give saints the grace they need to deserve heaven, as on Earth they were miserable and sinners, just like we are.

Today, all the thousands and thousands of people who have died in the past defending their faith are remembered and honored on this day even if their names are not on the list of canonized saints. This celebration is much like the American Veterans’ Day or Memorial Day holidays, in which many people or heroes are admired in a single day.

The liturgical color of this holiday is white, and although each country celebrates in their own way, this festivity is considered an “obligation” day in the West and a “feast” day in the East, which translates in the forgoing of servile work and the requirement of attending mass for followers.

In Spain, followers make offerings on this national holiday; they visit and bring flowers, usually chrysanthemums, and light candles next to the graves of dead relatives during the previous days and on the day of the feast. The Church traditionally celebrates a Eucharist to commemorate all saints, and remind us of our links to those who have passed away. It is customary for people to attend Mass, often held in the local cemeteries, or participate in a march even if no relatives are buried on the sacred grounds. On this day, Catholics “recall men and women of the Bible,” Apostles, Martyrs, Prophets, Hierarchs, Monastics, and Righteous “and praise God for their examples.” People recall their relatives and friends, which makes the celebration more personal and meaningful, and they also “glorify God not just for the faithfulness of the saints, but for His faithfulness to the saints.”

Another typical Spanish tradition is for people to see a performance of José Zorrilla's play "Don Juan Tenorio." This play tells the myth of “Don Juan” and his choice between salvation and perdition, which mirrors the theme of the holiday and has been performed in Spanish theaters on All Saints’ Day for dozens of years.

Even though this represents a day of retrospection and prayers, as with other religious festivities, there’s also room for enjoying the typical All Saint’s Day sweets and favorite gift of relatives during the celebration: “Huesos de Santos” (“Saints’ Bones”), which are thumb-sized marzipan sweets made of egg yolk, almond and sugar, and frequently filled with egg-yolk cream although as time has gone by, Spanish bakeries have started to offer them filed with chocolate, strawberry syrup, coconut and even praline and yogurt. The flavors of this dessert are very concentrated, which makes them sickly. Although the saints’ bones aren’t really bone- but rather cylinder-shaped, they do have the characteristic whitish color that’s given by the sugar syrup that covers them.

Other typical sweets that people are delighted with during this holiday are the “Buñuelos de Viento” (Puffs of Wind) and “Panellets.” The “Buñuelos de Viento” are small, usually fried round-cakes of sweetened, leavened dough, much like the traditional donuts but smaller. They have a delicate taste and although they weren’t originally filled, therefore their name “puffs of wind,” nowadays they can have milk cream, whipping cream or chocolate on the inside. Finally, the “Panellets” were originally handmade sweets made of almonds, sugar, lime, sweet potato and egg-yolk, typically covered with chocolate, coconut or pine nuts, although today they are also industrially produced. These small cakes are traditionally given to Godchildren by their Godparents during this day.

In Catalonia, “La Castañada” is customary as well, which is a tradition that includes not only eating the traditional sweets but also sweet potato and roasted chestnuts with white wine after a family meal, and in many other regions of the country local traditions are also embraced on this day.

All Saints' Day can be seen as the sum of the most important Catholic festivities such as Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost “because it reminds us that it is only by the perfect life and saving death of Jesus Christ that Christians are made saints in the sight of the God.” Although its importance varies from country to country and person to person, and each church holds a different interpretation of who are to be considered saints, All Saints’ Day is an emblematic tradition that has been celebrated for centuries and will keep passing on from generations as the day in which we simply remember all saints.

Images By: Dimitris Petridis @ Stock.Xchng & Consumer.es

All Hallows Eve in Spain

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:36:00 +0000

Traditionally celebrated on the night of October 31, Halloween is the day before All Saints’ Day as its name entails the vigil or “All Hallows Eve” (Hallowe’en) of all saints. As many other Catholic traditions such as Christmas and New Year’s, the festivity of All Saint’s’ starts the evening before, so even though most people only think of candy, costumes, pumpkins and witches on Halloween, and even though it is widely thought to be a pagan tradition, this celebration actually has its origins in the Roman Catholic Church since “the date is simply the eve of the feast of All Saints,” and “many customs of Halloween reflect the Christian belief that on the feast's vigils.”

In the Celtic tradition, “Samhain” was celebrated on the night before November 1st, and this was the pagan festivity that marked the end of the summer and harvest season and the beginning of the cold and dark-day season. Celtic tribes believed that the Lord of the dead made the souls of deceased come to life, which allowed the druids (priests, soothsayers, judges, poets, etc. in ancient Britain, Ireland, and France) to communicate with ancestors and invoke the dead. They started bonfires and cast spells to scare away the deaths, and people used to leave food at their doorways so that spirits would leave happy and leave them alone unharmed. After the roman invasion, the two cultures began to mix and the sketches of the primitive Halloween celebration began to appear, and it transformed through the years until it became the traditional Halloween celebration that people commemorate these days and that has little or nothing to do with what it primarily intended.

Some controversy still revolves around the origins of Halloween and on whether it is genuinely Catholic or Pagan. Although its origins are Pagan, the holiday seems to have more elements of the Catholic Church. For example, the start of the current “trick-or-treat” custom can be found between the ancient and modern European history, in which “poor people in the community begged for ‘soul cakes,’ and upon receiving these doughnuts, they would agree to pray for departed souls.” In the States Halloween is actually not an evening to cry or remember saints or the departed, but rather a night n which kids wear costumes and go door-to-door asking for candy. In addition, the trick-or-treating tradition remains as such mainly by custom since “the naughty and destructive tricks once associated with Hallowe'en seem mostly to have disappeared.”

In the same manner, people dress in evil costumes and wear frightening masks to mock evil, confuse and scare evil spirits while looking like them “because as Christians, it has no real power over us.” The tradition of the jack-o-lantern also developed originally in Europe as a way of decorating streets during the eve of All Hallows Day, and therein the Witch Night evolved. However, some people believe that the tradition of the pumpkins is uniquely American, but the truth is that it has its origins in an old Irish custom according to which a dead man had to walk every night with hollowed-out turnip lantern as punishment for all his sins, which relates to the “authentic Catholic teaching about Purgatory and the need for every soul's purification from the effects of sin before entering Heaven.”

Being the traditional Halloween colors, orange and black represent the color of “ripe pumpkins, falling leaves and glowing sunsets and candlelight;” and the “traditional color of mourning in the West” respectively. The latter is believed to represent sins and evil, as it is the liturgical color of All Souls’ Day (the day after All Saints) while the previous one is believed to represent the fall season and the blazing of bonfires and candles.

Nowadays, the “Halloween” tradition is considered a secular festivity, and it is the result of the different customs that European immigrants took with them to the U.S., many of which are just part of the past in Europe since they only make sense in the integration that the American culture has given to this festivity. Although the tradition remains strong in the U.S. and has been widely Americanized while it has disappeared in most parts of the world, some European countries are resorting back to this holiday. In Spain, October represents the month of candy and every year more schools throw costume parties for the children. Spaniards have and are everlastingly adopting their own version of the tradition, which I have found surprising even though the celebration hasn’t extended as much as it has in the States.

Today was the second Halloween that I spend in Spain and both last and this year my family and I got kids on our door asking for "Truco o Golosina" or "Truco o Trato." It was kind of cute as I had never listened to kids trick-or-treating in Spanish, so I was all excited watching the kids wearing their Halloween costumes and collecting candy around the neighborhood. Even if the tradition remains primarily American and it isn’t officially observed in Spain, people from this and other cultures are embracing it as well, and I think it is a matter of time before the tradition becomes more popular and we start seeing imposing Halloween decorations and customs around the entire European land.

Image by: Mark Miller @ Stock.Xchng

Adeje's Patron Saints' Holiday

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:22:00 +0000

Being the city center and capital of the county receiving the same name, Adeje is proud of its heritage and celebrates every year its ancestral traditions during the city’s local festivities on the occasion of the town’s patron saints: Saint Sebastian, Saint Ursula and Virgin Incarnation. The county’s Mayor, the Culture Councilor and the local parish priest presented the schedule for this year’s festivities last October 4th. This year the celebration lasted from the 6th until the 21st of October and the detailed outline for the different religious and secular activities to take place during those days was also announced.

I’ve only been living in this county for twelve months, and although I couldn’t attend to the rest of the galas this year, I was able to join the crowd of pilgrims for the closing event during the town’s festivities. Splendid, colorful and decorated carts together with traditional Canary groups of dancers and singers wearing classic Canary costumes flooded the town’s streets as they paraded through Adeje. Hundreds of people from the neighborhood and adjacent cities in the South of Tenerife’s Island traveled through the streets as well while they followed and walked next to the many carriages that the different city’s neighborhoods and associations rode.

What I enjoyed the most was the fact that the people riding each carriage would give out to pedestrians typical Canary food and drinks as they walked along and at the same time that singers and dancers livened up the passage. Glasses of wine, beer, sangria, and sodas; typical Canarian potatoes, “gofio” and hard-boiled eggs were some of the items on the menu. Grilled pork chops, chicken skewers, chickpeas, sardines and stew were also part of the list of options. Everything was cooked on the moving carriages and dished out for free when ready; it is the first time I participate in a celebration of the kind, and also the first time I am aware of one like it. The distribution of alcoholic bevera ges would be unthinkable in the U.S. and even worse if it is during midday hours.

Pilgrims also honored the patron saints with offerings of fruit, flowers and vegetables, which they placed at the saints’ feet once they finished the journey. The ambience was pretty warm and emotional, and people’s happiness could be felt as they sang along and enjoyed the Canarian live music. Adeje’s traditions have found their way into people’s culture and allow citizens to bond together while they live those customs in their own way. This is precisely what makes the town and its people special, because their ethnic foods, decorations, music and special activities help them become distinctive.

The entire celebration flowed smoothly as no incidents took place. The local police and a Civil Protection team looked after the multitude, which along with the neatness of the event demonstrated the great organization behind it. It is amazing how the traditions of this town are kept and passed on through generations by means of that symbolic communication that goes past what words can express. It’s wonderful to see how the entire family, from the smaller ones in the house to the elderly participates actively in the festivities, thereby creating a bridge between family members, their present and their past.

I was glad to participate in this event, and I enjoyed not only the music and food but also the carriages. I couldn’t stay until the end of the celebration, but I’ll make sure to attend again next year. Adeje’s festivities are observed year in and year, and regardless of what else may happen, the town’s traditions will not change. Their importance surpasses the economic, cultural and religious lines, and there comes a point at which it doesn’t matter what the tradition is or how it came about, but only that it is practiced. Adeje’s traditions grant great value to their culture, and it is a kind of value that lasts far beyond the moment because it comes from the stability, continuity and identity that it provides for those who participate in such traditions while they make this town unique, link generations, and offer something for every person to hold on to and to rely upon.

“Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening”

Images by: Manuel López & Jessica López

Spring Forward; Fall Back.

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 15:06:00 +0000

With the purpose of reducing energy consumption, the Daylight Saving Time (DST), also known as Summer Time in some countries, is a practice that was first set forth by Benjamin Franklin during the late 1700’s when he insisted on the idea of French people rising early, completing their work throughout sunlight hours, and thereby reducing the amount of lamp oil used and candle money spent by calling it a day earlier. However, this idea wasn’t implemented until the early 1900’s in Europe during World War I (WWI), a few years after “London builder William Willett ... proposed advancing clocks 20 minutes on each of four Sundays in April, and retarding them by the same amount on four Sundays in September.”

Back then, and after the approval of several acts relating to DST by the U.S. Parliament, the time established for changing the clocks was 2:00 a.m. on a Sunday. Nevertheless, the observance of this practice was soon revoked in the U.S. and employed again in the early years of World War II (WWII) for the period of the energy crisis in 1974 through a “double daylight saving time (2 hours ahead) during the summer months.” Finally, during the mid-1900’s the Uniform Time Act set forth the rules of regular DST all over the U.S. extending such period from the Sunday following the third Saturday in April until the first Sunday in October. This provision was later revised during the late 1900’s to change the DST period so that it would extend from the first Sunday of April until the last Sunday of October.

Even though the point in DST has been explained for years and may be obvious to most people, a great portion of the population still doesn’t get it. The rationale behind DST is to facilitate the adjustment of daylight hours with waking time and work hours so that the amount of artificial light needed in residences and the workplace can be reduced. As a result of this, the consumption of limited resources such as oil and coal is also reduced, which allows the world to simply conserve energy and make better use of daylight. This is so because the amount of human activity is greater in the early evening than in the early morning, so the shift forward in time during the period of the year with the most hours of daylight (late spring, summer and early fall) results for instance, in longer summer days, which means people save electric power since they will be home fewer hours or simply don’t need to use power until after the sun sets at night.

It has been proved that the energy reduction in the evening when people go to bed early outbalances the amount of electricity consumed by people who wake up before dawn. This wouldn’t be the case if the DST was not in place because early birds would still consume more energy in the morning without saving any energy in the evening resulting from the extended sunlight that DST entails. In other words, DST “saves energy for lighting in all seasons of the year, but it saves least during the four darkest months of winter (November, December, January, and February,) when the afternoon advantage is offset by the need for lighting because of late sunrise.”

Although the “power use in the commercial and institutional sectors … tends to be more or less constant throughout the day,” DST has been shown to save about 1% of electricity every day in the U.S., which is a small but significant quantity when we take into account that this percentage amount is equal to “100,000 barrels of oil per day.” In other countries the proportion of energy saved reaches the 3.5 and even 5%, “yet, the implementation of Daylight Saving Time has been fraught with controversy since Benjamin Franklin first conceived of the idea,” and outbreaks of confusion and resistance have made obvious that “not everyone is a fan.”

Ever since DST was first implemented, farmers have argued that the time shift gets in the way of their customary work schedule, IT professionals have been worried about technical malfunctioning, and authorities have mentioned “that energy is not always saved.” Furthermore, some complaints have been filed regarding the increase in sleep disorders due to difficulties in adjusting to new sleep schedules, the increment in accidents, and the inconvenience of changing clocks. Other arguments revolve around the increase in oil consumption due to people running errands and visiting relatives during the early evenings of long summer days and those using their air conditioning (AC) devices at their homes for extended periods of time on warm summer afternoons.

Moreover, some people propose leaving the time alone and having darker mornings rather than earlier darker afternoons during winter, reasoning that if “it stayed lighter longer, we would use less energy to light up our homes,” but what they fail to consider is that what we called the “'Normal' time is the way we set our clocks in winter -- when it gets dark in the late afternoon (5:00 PM or earlier).” This means that we actually apply the DST not during winter, but spring, when we set our clocks an hour forward, which allows us “to sleep in until 6:00 AM and not be awakened by the sun at 5:00.” During spring, the days tend to be longer and the sun rises earlier, let’s say at 5:00 AM, but since we shift time an hour ahead, it will then be 6:00 AM when the sun rises. During this time of the year we have more light both in the morning and in the early evening, but since we need most of the daylight during nights, we shift that hour from morning to night.

Although the main idea behind DST is to save priceless energy, an extra public health benefit to DST has been recognized, as it is “supposed to lower the incidents of traffic accidents and crime, and boost the morale of people suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder;” this is supported by several American and British studies revealing that the net number of traffic incidents during DST (evening hours) is reduced by almost 1%, which offsets the smaller increase in accidents occurred during dark winter mornings. In addition, and due to the shifting of one daylight hour from morning to evening, individuals have also more daylight time and sunny summer evenings to enjoy from outdoor activities after work or school.

Different latitudes have different DST clock-change dates, and some countries are not affected by this practice. For instance, there is no DST in India, Japan, and China, and countries near the tropic and the equator are also immune to DST since “day and night are nearly the same length (12 hours)” all year round; however, those countries that are closer to The Poles tend to have longer daylight periods during the summer season.

In the European Union (EU) DST starts the last Sunday in March at 2:00 AM (GMT time), and it ends at 2:00 AM the last Sunday in October (it was today for me,) and the change in all time zones in the union occur at the same instant following the 1996 DST regularization. In the States, the traditional DST as established under the Uniform Time Act has been recently changed with the endorsement of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which states that beginning 2007, the U.S. DST will begin at 2:00 AM and extend from the second Sunday in March (rather than the first in April) and will revert to standard time on the first Sunday in November (rather than the usual last in October.) Unlike in the EU, “in the U.S., each time zone switches at a different time,” and the implications of the new DST seem to be varied.

The new U.S. proposal for extending the DST is assumed to save further energy based on the previous 1975 study yielding the 1% power saving. However, some officials have argued that the study is not only outdated but also inconclusive and that it “failed to consider the net energy impact of extending DST into March.” More recent studies examining the effects of undertaking DST three weeks earlier this year on energy consumption have concluded that such practice is likely to yield only modest improvements on energy conservation, traffic safety and crime prevention. For this reason, “Congress retains the right to revert to the by-now traditional American DST schedule” after the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) completes a study on the net energy impact of extending DST and reveals whether the overall results show a “peak electricity use by shifting some electricity consumption from the high-demand evening hours to lower-demand – and, incidentally, cheaper – morning hours.”

In Canada, some controversy emerged since in certain regions, extending the DST as suggested by the U.S. would possibly call for the amendment of existing provincial laws, as would be the case in Quebec. Canadian authorities initially refused the proposal by claiming that “extending DST by four weeks is unlikely to significantly alter energy consumption patterns in this country” since in some cities such as Ontario “the sun would have set by the time most people get home, even with DST.” Nevertheless, and considering the interrelation and integration of both the U.S. and Canadian economies, Canada decided to follow the U.S. lead this year and adopt the American DST policy.

Some countries observe DST and some others do not, and “throughout history there have been several variants on this, such as half adjustment (30 minutes) or double adjustment (two hours), and adjustments of 20 and 40 minutes have also been used.” Each country or region observes DST it in a different way as it was the case with the extended DST in the U.S. and Canada this year, so although the future of DST can’t be predicted, this practice works and it does save energy.

“Just as sunflowers turn their heads to catch every sunbeam, so too have we discovered a simple way to get more from our sun.”

Image by: Jenny Rollo @ Stock.Xchng

Breast Health is Wealth

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 00:47:00 +0000

Defined by the World Health Organization as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity," health is the word used to describe how one’s body, mind, and spirit feel. Health involves knowing our limits and making informed decisions when it comes to food, exercise, medication, hygiene and other lifestyle choices in order to commit to a better life. Health is a basic human right that entails physical capabilities and social welfare; it is determined by different factors, it changes regularly, and it is subjective since individuals experience it in their own way.

Mental and physical health are interdependent; when individuals are both mentally and physically healthy, their bodies are capable of responding to diseases and restoring their systems to attain homeostasis or balance, and their mind functions the way it is supposed to while they’re free of any kind of illness. When individuals are healthy, they’re also more capable of responding effectively and performing well in every aspect of life, so health is one of life’s blessings that people sometimes take for granted until they lose it.

Although there are many different health topics, today I’m focusing on the importance of breast health. Last week my mom was performed an emergency surgical intervention because she had a protuberance in one of her breast to which she hadn’t paid too much attention. It got to the point where it got infected; it had been growing for a couple of weeks and she decided to go for a self treatment until she realized her breast wasn’t getting any better and if anything, it was getting worse, so after a few days wishing it would go away, she had to go to the doctor because she couldn’t stand the pain.

She went through emergency last Saturday October 20th, and they told her that she had to be immediately intervened. They didn’t have any readily available surgeons, so she was supposed to remain intern and under treatment until further notice. She refused to be confined to a hospital bed on a weekend, so they prescribed some antibiotics and she went back to the hospital on Monday. At that point she still didn’t know what she had, and it wasn’t until later when they told her she had an infection that they couldn’t easily remove and because of it, she had to be “immediately” intervened, so they didn’t let her go.

It was the first time in our lives that one of us in my family is hospitalized, so the news was pretty shocking for me and everyone. Her condition wasn’t too serious, but I was still scared shitless. On Monday the 22nd I went to the hospital after I got out from work and stopped by the house to pick up some stuff she needed. I realized then that the "immediate" wasn't so immediate. She was sharing rooms with a couple of elderly ladies who seemed to have pretty bad conditions, which also made me realized how healthy my grandma is. he's almost 80 and she's energetic and healthy; these other two ladies are younger than she is and still couldn't take care of themselves.

We stayed at the hospital until the visitors time was over and then I got home exhausted. We still didn’t know when she was going to have the surgery performed, and it wasn’t so until Wednesday October 24th, so my dad, my siblings and I kept coming back to the hospital to keep her company. We're not too fond of hospitals and also aren't used to visiting them, so the feeling of being there was kind of scary. As far as my family concerns, we tend to take health very lightly maybe because of the way we've been raised, but at the hospital I saw lots of sick people with a whole bunch of different illness, so it made me aware of how essential health is and how our entire life depends on it and yet we don't always pay to it the importance it has.

The week was pretty catastrophic for me, but the surgery went well and my mom was okay, so it was all good. During the surgery and apart from the infections she had, the doctor also removed a couple of cysts in her breast. Those she had had examined in the past, but different doctors had told her they were benign, so she didn’t have them removed before, not only due to doctors’ advice but also the fact that we didn’t have access to health care resources in the U.S.

After the surgery my mom was relieved although in a bit of pain, and it wasn’t until Thursday midday when she got discharged from the hospital. She’s still under treatment and taking some antibiotics and other medication; we got her flowers on Wednesday and are taking good care of her, but everything she went through could have definitely been avoided if she had only gone to the doctor as soon as she noticed there was something wrong with her breast. It only seems a coincidence that this is the breast cancer awareness month, so although what she had has nothing to do with cancer, I still thought l would write this post and share this information.

Even though small lumps, size changes or pain in the breast area might seem insignificant to some women, they may actually be early signs of breast cancer or other breast diseases, so all women need to be breast aware and pay attention to the breast changes that are not cyclical in their bodies or due to women’s regular hormone shifts. Apart from performing self examinations, scheduling regular clinical breast checks and mammogram screenings is a good step in addressing and helping the early detection and treatment of breast infections, especially for women over 40 and those who have family history of breast cancer since the risk of breast diseases increases with these two factors.

Individuals' most valuable possession is health, and even though being healthy might be difficult nowadays due to people’s lifestyles, emotional state and even genetic composition, being healthy is a key element in our lives, which depends in part on us, so we need to be active in making the right decisions and forgoing some of our favorite foods, habits or activities to improve our lives and achieve balance. There are obviously many things that we can’t prevent, but even then, asking for help and expert advice when needed is an advantage in weathering the difficult times and treating a potential disease on time. Treasure yourself and remember that if you don’t make time for health, you’ll certainly have to make time for illness.

Image by John Knill @ GettyImages

My Movie Review: The Orphanage (2007)

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 00:11:00 +0000

Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, a Catalonian filmmaker born in Barcelona, Spain who was awarded Best Short Film for the movie “Mis Vacaciones” in the year 1999 by the Barcelona Curt Ficcions and also won the Audience Award given by Toulouse Cinespaña on the same movie; filmed under Picturehouse and distributed by Warner Brothers, with a screenplay from Sergio G. Sánchez and produced by Pan’s Labyrinth director and Oscar-Nominee Guillermo Del Toro, “El Orfanato” (The Orphanage) is a horror/suspense movie that narrates the story of a woman who after thirty years returns to live at the large, old and long-abandoned orphanage where she was raised as a kid.

Laura (Belén Rueda) goes back to the institution with her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and seven-year old son Simon (Roger Príncep) with the intention of opening a new center to take care of a small number of disabled children. Simon seems uncomfortable at the new location and keeps having nightmares. He’s later on inexplicably led to finding out two things about himself Laura and Carlos were not planning on telling him until later. As a scary social worker comes visit Simon’s parents and makes a threatening interview, Laura sacks her from the house asking her not to come back.

Suddenly things turn permanently bad as the couple gets ready to welcome their first new residents; and soon after making new invisible friends, young Simon refuses to come downstairs to the opening reunion following to which he sadly disappears. His mother gets anxious and begins an extensive search while months go by without finding any trail of the now missing Simon. Desperate to get answers, Laura resorts to a parapsychology specialist as strange occurrences start happening and ominous presences seem to inhabit in the house. In addition, various signals hint that Simon is in some way linked to Laura's childhood friends, so she has a medium visit the house although at some point her help seems to be useless.

Even though Laura’s husband prompts her to simply leave the house, Laura refuses to go saying that she needs some time alone. Right after, she is drawn into the repressed memories of her past and disturbing revelations begin to uncover while she keeps focusing on getting her son back.

Although the film progresses in and out of reality, The Orphanage remains as a strong piece of work unfolding a sophisticated story that succeeds to blend typical scare elements and sudden shocks with the solid performance of the characters, which all together with the great cinematography, sound, script, music, narrative, powerful ending and perfect editing make of this film a masterpiece of cinema and well worth seeing.

The sequence of the medium was the most impressive I’ve seen in horror movies of the kind, and as the story ended, there was nothing left unexplained, which makes this movie stand apart from many other horror movies whose plot and story behind are weak. Although the genre of this movie is terror, there aren’t any big shocks, but you will still jump from your seat. This movie will actually give you a great excuse not to let go of the hand of your significant other, and that's something not all movies achieve. The scenes aren’t gore or dreadful, but the film still keeps the audience on suspense and every single aspect of the story makes perfect sense, which is great. In other words, there aren’t any loose ends.

Though the film works many different elements together and the story seems obvious at some points, it has a very touching and unforeseen ending as the paths that lead to it are not exactly what were in the mind of the spectator. Watching this film completely changed my perception of Spanish movies as I usually don’t like them all that much since from my point of view they are most of the times full of sex, pointless arguments, weak story lines and lack memorable endings.

Another positive aspect I found in this movie and can’t help mentioning is that cigarettes and smoking are not endorsed or promoted in any way, at least not that I can remember. This might be irrelevant to some but is actually a big plus for me.

The movie was released in Spain and Mexico on October 11th, and I went to see it last Friday October 19th although I had to sit by myself because the auditorium was packed; I certainly missed my boyfriend sitting next to me, so make sure you get your tickets in advance and find good seats when you go see it. It will be released in the U.S. on December the 28th this year and probably much later in South America although my best guess is that it will depend on the success of the movie, which collected about 6 million euros or over 8.5 million dollars in Spain alone in the first four opening days, which is pretty good for a Spanish movie.

The Orphanage is one of the best movies I've seen in ages, and I strongly recommend it to all those who love suspense movies.

Image by: Abandomoviez

The Orphanage trailer (Short English Version)

The Orphanage trailer (Long Spanish Version with Subtitles)

Official movie site: The Orphanage

The Laughs of Nature

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 17:57:00 +0000

Apart from being an outstandingly significant part of nature, providing color to the surroundings, perfuming the environment, brightening the life of newborns, serving as decor for weddings and bridal parties, expressing sympathy for the grieving, being a food supply, inspiring the works of numerous artists, having healing properties and embellishing homes; flowers are also the primary means by which people convey their love.

Flowers have long been admired for their beauty, and they are widely used by individuals in every day life. Because of their variety, colorful appearance, stunning petals and magnificent foliage, they make people happy, and several studies during recent years support this notion. Although some speculation has also evolved around the fact that flowers have blossomed and keep proliferating on Earth due at least in part to people’s attachment to them, there’s no strong evidence of the latter premise.

One of the studies performed by the Rutgers University involved about 150 women, all of which smiled after getting flowers; the research not yielding the same results when the same group of women got candles or fruit. A couple more studies performed by the scientists at this academy also demonstrated that the number of smiles increased directly proportional to the number of flowers received, and that getting flowers to other objects made people more talkative, smiley and intimate. In addition, another study on flowers made at the Texas A&M University revealed that flowers in the workplace help improve productivity.

All the previous means that even if some individuals don’t really get the inherent value of flowers, they are still loved and still seem to lift individuals’ spirits and change their temper to a good mood.

Scientists have gone on to mention that some of the flowers that we know today to be grown in the flower business are only done so for emotional purposes since they seem to be a source of delight and fulfillment. Flowers are said to essentially influence humans’ higher emotional levels, reinforce the feelings of empathy and understanding, and diminish those of apprehension and worry.

Despite all this, we don't need science to support and establish the importance of flowers in people’s lives. Flowers have become a need rather than a luxury and people use them for different purposes all around the world. As ephemeral as they remain, flowers are unique and irreplaceable tokens of love and affection. Because of the great symbolism and meaning they hold, they can only arouse favorable emotions.

Flowers are extra powerful when they are unexpected, and yet even more when they are chosen with care by the sender. By picking different flowers and colors according to the receiver and the occasion, we can convey great imagery. For instance, on Valentine’s 2006 my boyfriend got me a special arrangement with flowers of my favorite color, which also held a little butterfly since I love these winged insects so much. The unusual arrangement made me feel even more special since I didn’t get the typical dozen roses that every other woman was given.

Earlier this week on my 22nd month anniversary with my boyfriend, he sent to my office a beautiful arrangement of yellow lilies holding a butterfly and a little bird. I was absolutely thrilled as he is living in the U.S. these days and I’m in Spain, so the fact that he took the time to pick flowers and find a florist to deliver them here was simply amazing. Furthermore, it had been a while since we last got each other presents on our month anniversaries, so these flowers were a complete surprise.

When the delivery guy came into the office asking who “Jessica Lopez” was, I was between shocked and speechless; I managed to reply while I asked if they were for me and as he repeated “Are you Jessica López” and I assented, I insisted “Oh! But are you sure they are for me?” I got the bouquet with a butterfly card that said that they were supposed to brighten my day, and they sure did.

The flowers made not only my day but also my week. I was with one of my coworkers when I received them and they certainly made her day as well. She started jumping all around the office and got really excited as she expressed how great love was and how lucky I was for having someone who could show me his love in such a great way. I was still speechless and could hardly believe I had just gotten such beautiful flowers.

Later on other coworkers and even customers complimented the flowers as I exhibited them proudly in the front of my desk. I took them home with me afterwards, and my parents, sister and other guests were also delighted and pleased with the gesture. It was a unique feeling that no other present could make me experience.

No matter where we are, no matter how old we grow up to be and no matter how little flowers may last; we love them, and they are simple a “a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out-values all the utilities of the world.”

Image by: Jessica López

Franco De Vita: A Dream Come True

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:51:00 +0000

Being one of the most successful Latin American singers and songwriters, Franco De Vita was born to the Italian immigrants Ferdinando De Vita and Rosa De Vito in Caracas, Venezuela on January 23, 1954. Having three other siblings, two brothers and one sister, Franco lived in Venezuela for a few years and soon after when he was three, moved to his parents’ native land. Ten years later he returned to Venezuela to finish his HS education and then started studying music and taking piano lessons. After being member of a couple of bands during the early 1980’s, Franco released his first solo album in 1984 achieving the gold and platinum record.

After his first few hits, Franco kept on releasing albums and today his discography amounts to over 13 albums, a couple of which have been released in Italian and Portuguese. In addition, some 15 compilation CD’s have also been released with his best songs. Franco has been sponsored by the Sony label during most of his career as a musician although he has also worked with Universal Latino and Sonográfica.

Franco has not only been nominated for several Latin Grammy’s and other awards, but has also won an MTV Video Music Award in 1991, a Billboard Award, and recently during late March this year, he was also honored with the Latin Heritage Award in the U.S. for his long career and his contribution to music; and as the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) announced, “his hits are many and internationally acclaimed, and his fans are faithful, varied, and constantly multiplying. He is unarguably an emblem of the romantic lyric in Latin American music and one of the best selling artists that Venezuela has ever produced.”

During Franco De Vita’s almost three decades of performance, he has worked with several well-known Latin-artists such as Alejandro Sanz, Sin Bandera, Ricardo Montaner, Olga Tañón, Marc Anthony, Frank Quintero, Yordano, Malanga, Alejandro Fernandez, Diego El Cigala, Oscar D’Leon and Carlos Baute. He has also composed songs for Ricky Martin and Chayanne, and his albums usually include romantic and social tunes whose lyrics, the same as their writer, are socially committed to different causes and attempt to stop violence, xenophobia and racism among others.

Considered one of the most important artists at the international level, at his 53 years of age and over 25 years of musical career, Franco visited Tenerife as part of his Stop tour and gave a concert to which a few thousands of fans attended. I had already had the opportunity to see this artist, which is by the way my favorite one, at a memorable concert he gave in the Teresa Carreño Theater in Caracas, Venezuela during the year 2000. At the time one of my best friends actually bought the ticket for me an invited me, and I remember how awesome it was. It was my first concert. Seven years later, I was able to see him again at the Pabellón Santiago Martín in Los Majuelos (Tenerife, Spain) after his performance in Madrid and Vigo, and the concert was simply amazing.

The concert was given yesterday and I got a pass for it since my brother-in-law’s uncle is Road Manager for the Franco De Vita team. We left at around 2 in the afternoon and got there at around 3pm. After having something to eat we met with the band and technicians and later on we left to the pavilion. There, I was able to see Franco sitting in the chairs that later at night his fans would be occupying. They were making sure the sound was right and everything was in place, they performed for a little while and as I saw him interact with the people on his team I realized he seems to be a very human and natural person.

Being there was like a dream come true, as one doesn’t usually get to be so close to their favorite artists like that. I was waiting to be introduced to him, but he kept on being busy for the rest of the afternoon, so I waited. Then the clock hit the 7pm as Franco and his team headed rushing to the auditorium’s door. They needed to leave to the hotel to get fixed and in a jump, my brother in law and I started chasing after him until my brother in law called out his name and he turned around. I got closer and as I stepped next to Franco and he complimented my height, my brother in law took a picture. I was speechless and then he left; and as I know a million of his fans will hate me for life for being there with him and not jumping up to where he was, I’ll just leave them and you with this:

The concert did not start until 9pm, so I stayed all afternoon long saving the best seats with my sister and brother-in-law for us and some friends. I had my picture with him so I didn’t care about the long wait; we went to get some snacks, and we waited patiently. However, there was something that worried me, and it was the 2-meter aisle there was in the front and in the middle from the place our chairs were, which made obvious for me that people would be standing on the way. This wasn’t reassuring as the tickets were not numerated and as I had been there for 5 hours just so I could sit in the first row. I didn’t see the purpose of placing chairs in the middle and then leaving a huge space in front for people to stand.

The doors opened and then the inevitable happened. People started gathering in the front blocking all our visibility, so I used my backstage pass to go talk to “someone” and see if there was something they could do. They refused to do anything about it, which got me on a really bad mood. For a moment then, the security guards started ordering people to take their seats and as we knew it would only be so for a while, my brother-in-law started to move his chair to the front as I tagged along with mine. Then people on the back started moving theirs as well, and in a single second a wave of domino-effect like movement followed next.

We all moved our chairs to the front barricades that separated us from the stage. We were then able to see him as the music started playing. It was the most amazing concert I’ve ever been to, and he played for almost 2 and a half hours non-stop. He played a whole bunch of songs, most of which I was hoping to hear. I was so happy and excited that I can’t even describe it with words. I was able to take some pictures and videos; he had a couple of guest singers one of which was a blind composer that dedicated us a song he wrote about Venezuela, and the other one was Carlos Baute, who singed a couple of his songs with Franco and also did the chorus for one of Franco’s songs. It was simply incredible.

It was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities and I’m very thankful I got it, and I owe it to Mr. Pedro Urdaneta, my brother-in-law and my sister. I know I might not know all of Franco’s songs, and I might not be the most fervent fan he has out here; but he still is my favorite male artist and that’s a lot to say for me since I’m not all that much into having favorite artists or bands. I couldn’t help but to revive all the memories of the first time I went see him and everything my friend did so that I could go with her. It reminded me of a stage of my life that sometimes I wish could come back. During the concert, I also couldn’t help to think of my boyfriend as I listened to the songs and wished that he could be sharing that moment with me, and as he kept calling, I only hoped that someday we can get to go to concerts together.

De Vita has continued to enjoy success as one of the most constantly admired singer-songwriters in Latin America, and his love for the public and fans is what is keeping him performing and alive on stage. For this reason I want to dedicate this post to him and to my friends, as Franco, he’s not only my favorite artist, but also one of theirs.

Images by: Jessica López

Chio Recreational Area

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:24:00 +0000

The Corona Forestal Nature Park was declared so on the year 1987; it has over 46,000 hectares; and it covers the Realejos, Adeje, Vilaflor, Guía de Isora, Santiago del Teide, Garachico, Icod de los Vinos, La Orotava, La Guancha, San Juan de la Rambla, Granadilla, Arico, Fasnia, El Tanque, Güímar, Arafo and Candelaria Counties. This park is the most protected site within the Canarian archipelago and it is mainly formed by the remains of the Teide volcanic rock.

Together with the “Arenas Negras, Las Hayas, El Lagar, La Tahona, Chanajiga, Ramón el Caminero, La Caldera, Los Frailes, El Contador and Las Lajas”, Chio (Chío in Spanish) is one of the eleventh recreational areas that can be found within the Corona Forestal Nature Park (Parque Natural Corona Forestal in Spanish). This park surrounds the Teide National Park and the pine woods (Pinus Canariensis) are highlighted in it for being found all around the region, thereby delimiting the area of the Corona Forestal Nature Park, from which the same takes its name: “Corona” is the Spanish word for ring and “Forestal” is the Spanish word for forest, which means that a forest ring delimits and draws up the boundaries of the park’s territory.

Chio not only is a recreation but also camping area that can be reached by traveling the “Boca de Tauce” road or TF-823 which connects Chio to Las Cañadas approximately at the 12.5 kilometric-point. The road has lots of curves and narrowings, so it is better traveled with a 4x4 vehicle. The park can be found in the mountain on the right side of the road while on the way towards Mount Teide a little over 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) above sea level; it has a soil parking area although the place isn’t equipped for handicapped.

The recreational area is an open and mountainous space provided with pretty big barbecue grills embedded in rock and cement counters where you can place utensils and manipulate food. You need to bring your own gear including cutting boards, knives, forks, plates, napkins and cups. The park is also supplied with wooden picnic-like benches where you can set up your table. Bring a tablecloth if possible, even if it’s just a paper one. There aren’t any drinking water fountains around, so you need to bring your own beverages, ice, food (whether it’s picnic or BBQ) and snacks. Next to the bathrooms, there is firewood available for cooking, so you can get some logs to start your own BBQ fire if you don’t have any vegetable charcoal. Remember to bring a lighter.

Close to each of the barbecue areas you will find small water fountains where you can wash your hands or utensils, but keep in mind that this water is not for drinking. There are public bathrooms nearby, although you should be warned that they are rural, which means the toilets are fixed into the floor. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but it is something to consider if you’re going with kids or elder people for whom it may be hard to kneel down.

At the park, you will not find bushes or grass but rather clean dirt, so avoid wearing sandals or flip flops if you’re looking for comfort. You should also bring a sweater as it may be foggy and sometimes the temperatures get pretty low during the afternoon. Since there are lots of pine trees it may be difficult to actually get sunrays, but it all depends on the day and in where you are located. My suggestion is to bring sunscreen and a cap as well, and to be prepared for different kinds of conditions. The weather may unbelievably but certainly change from one minute to the next.

There’s a garbage area at the entrance although you will not find garbage bins around the park. You need to bring your plastic garbage bags to use during your staying; all the trees are provided with nails in which you can hang them. You can later dispose of all the trash at the designated area when you leave the commons.

I don’t remember seeing any public telephones in the area, so make sure you arrange beforehand if you’ll be meeting with other people at the park. If you have cell phones they may not have a strong signal inside the commons, but you will definitely be able to use them in some areas.

The park is short of shelter or roofed spots where you could rest or cover yourself in case of rain, but then again it hardly ever rains around the area, so that shouldn’t be a problem. The park also lacks playing fields for children, so make sure you bring toys for them and card or board games for the entire family. You can also bring your pets.

Last Saturday October 13th during the long Columbus Day weekend, I got to go to Chio Recreational Area, and I had a really nice time at the park while sharing with family and friends; the whole area was kept clean and neat, so it was a pleasure to be there. It was definitely the first of many visits up there, and I highly recommend it not only to tourists but also citizens who are up for spending a relaxing day in contact with nature. “Live, let live, and help live.”

Images by: Jessica Lopez

7 Islands, 7 Stars

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 11:34:00 +0000

The Canary Islands have a rich, yet diverse history as the different tribes on the seven islands that compose this great archipelago had their own culture and customs back during the Spanish conquest. In addition, the significant migratory flow of Spaniards underlies the different influences that remain strong in the islands as the search for better life conditions during hardship and poverty post-war times took Spanish citizens to other countries and later back to their native land.

Because of the thousands of Canary islanders who furtively emigrated temporarily or permanently to South American countries and mainly to Venezuela during the 19th and 20th centuries, and the comings and goings that have brought Venezuelan immigrants closer to the Canarian coasts during recent years; many are the friendship, cultural and affective bonds that have developed through the years and today bring people from these two cultures together.

Even though these two places are thousands of miles away, Venezuelans share many things in common with Canarians and therefore we hold a special fondness for people from the latter culture. Moreover, many Canarian colonies still exist in modern Venezuela, and a large Canary-born population preserving the vocabulary, customs and traditions of its society keeps passing on these cultural features through generations, more so in Venezuela than in any other Latin American country. By the same token, Venezuela is largely referred to in the Canary archipelago as the eighth island, and more specifically, Tenerife is considered the Venezuelan Miami as most of the Venezuelan immigration concentrates in this insular area.

The Spanish language was introduced in Venezuela by the Spaniard conquistadors, many of which were from the fortunate Islands and participated actively in the settlement and development of Latin America. In fact, Venezuelan Spanish has been primarily influenced by Canarians to such an extent that it may be very difficult for other Spanish speakers to tell the Canarian and Venezuelan accents apart. This can be particularly noticed on peninsular Spaniards who typically can’t distinguish the slightly different pronunciation and inflection shades of both cultures.

Other examples of the Spanish and Canarian influence in the Venezuelan traditions are found in religion, architecture, music, food, and other aspects of the Venezuelan culture. For this reason, many of the customary Venezuelan dishes like arepas, cachapas, and hallacas can be found in the islands as they have become a small part of the local cuisine and culture much like the Bienmesabe has become part of the Venezuelan gastronomy when it is originally Canarian. The Roman Catholic also represents the primary religion adopted by Venezuelans in the same way that the Catholic faith is a symbol of the great majority of Spaniard people.

Because of the links that can be recognized between the Canarian and Venezuelan cultures, many different Canary-Venezuelan associations have been created through the years both in Venezuela and in the Islands in order to promote and drive all aspects of culture involving these two societies. An example of this is the “Club Hogar Canario de Venezuela” (Venezuela’s Canarian Organization) located in Venezuela, that arranges yearly celebrations and observes Canarian holidays in order to commemorate and keep alive their traditions, gastronomy, and even typical dresses no matter if they are away.

On the occasion of Columbus Day this past October 12th, one of the Canary-Venezuelan associations settled in Tenerife prepared a special event to rejoice this celebration by honoring the interwoven Canary and Venezuelan roots of all those Venezuelans currently residing in the island who have a Canary heritage, and all of those Canarians whose parents are returnees, just to give a couple of examples. The event was celebrated in the Guía de Isora County, where a large community of Venezuelans currently exists.

At the fair there were food kiosks selling traditional Canarian food and Venezuelan dishes, desserts, drinks and beer. There was also typical Venezuelan music including Joropo, tambores, Gaitas, merengue and salsa. A live band also livened up the afternoon, and later on a group of Canarian ladies delighted the audience with a great performance of “Isas Canarias,” which together with “Folías” and “Seguidillas” represent typical dances from this culture. Soon after, a combo of kids shook their bodies to the rhythm of the Venezuelan drums in honor to “San Juan” (Saint John) since the celebration was being held in the Playa San Juan (Saint John Beach) area.

At this event I felt like I was back in my native land and it was a nice sensation since for a while I had been feeling like I didn’t belong to any particular culture any longer. I was also able to learn more of the Canarian folklore including their dances and their costumes; there was some very touching poetry as well, and I really enjoyed myself while participating in this celebration.

History is all around and we have a lot to learn from the Spanish and Canarian legacy of our ancestors. Canarians were immigrants back in the days, not only because of their financial needs, but due to the Spaniards’ settlement plans for the Americas. Back then, they established a strong presence in our country, in the same way that we’re now returning by a wave of large-scale immigration to the land of our parents and grandparents looking for a better life. We can’t deny of our routs, and neither can modern Canarians who don’t welcome aliens forget their own history. “The kind of ancestors we have had is not as important as the kind of descendants our ancestors have.”

Image composition by: Jessica Lopez

The Worst Enemy of Friendship

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:54:00 +0000

It is a fact that friendships can be uncertain as there's no way to be 100% sure that anyone we choose as a friend will turn out to be a good one. However, once two friends start meeting each other’s needs and developing an in-depth bond, the fear of the unknown seems to fade away and friends experience happiness as the feelings of reliance, support, communication, trustworthiness, understanding, empathy, and intimacy grow strong. We go to our friends for shelter and they stay by our sides through thick and thin. They’re there for the good and bad times; we believe in them and start becoming what they are, as they also grow to be the family that we get to pick. We need to relate to our friends and share values in common; we need to respect each other and be team players; we need to be loyal and equal so that we can gain our friend’s confidence. In a few words, we need to be friends ourselves, so that other people can be our friends as well.

Building a friendship, like any other relationship, is a process that takes time, and friends start growing closer together, and true friendships are achieved step by step once two friends share their most intimate thoughts and feelings while acknowledging one another. Nevertheless, not all the friendships we grow to develop through the years are the same. In fact, we usually have more than one friend, and we gain more when we benefit from different types and levels of friendships. Not all of our friends have the same importance in our life, and the bonds we develop with different people don’t always have the same degree of intensity. We typically have lots of acquaintances, but only a few people we can call friends. Moreover, we can usually count our truly best friends with one hand’s fingers. Although there are friendships that last through the years, good friendships do come to an end, so maintaining them becomes crucial when variables like distance and change get in the middle.

Even though most people think geographical distance is the main factor why friendships grow apart, the worst enemy of friendship is not distance, but change; and because people change and we can’t change people, many friendships are lost to the alterations that our personality undergoes as we grow older. To illustrate this, think of your college or even high school friends, and think of the ones who are still geographically close to you, but have stopped being your friends simply because you’ve stopped calling, seeing one another or caring for each other whether it’s due to your busy schedules or lives, or whether it is because you’ve made new friends at the workplace or around the neighborhood. Geographical distance may be an obstacle to maintaining a healthy friendship, but it isn’t necessarily the reason why a friendship bond ends, and breaking up is harder to do when it is with your best girl friends.

Take my case for example. For 7 years I’ve been friends with a girl that attended the same school I did, and although we were never in the same class, we happened to develop a close bond because our sisters used to go to the same class, and as we coasted along to parties and extra curricular activities, we got to gradually know one another. After we graduated from HS, and contrary to what I was expecting, our bond grew stronger. We didn’t attend the same university, but we did see each other frequently, we called each other everyday, and we kept on developing this bond that seemed to grow through the years even though about a year after we had actually started our friendship I had to move to a different country. We were in the same time zone during one half of the year, which made it easier within all the difficulties that keeping a long distance relationship implies. We had managed to keep calling each other, chatting and exchanging e-mails as we also sent occasional cards and pictures to keep in touch. We were up to date in what our out-and-abouts refers; we even got to see each other after I left since she went visit me for almost a month to where I lived.

Even though we were apart, our friendship kept being strong, which means that even though there was a lot of distance in between, we were still the same old friends. Both of us had made new best friends at the university, and both of us had a different social life, but I always knew I had my own special place in her heart just like she did in mine. Of course we couldn’t always talk or chat, and we couldn’t always write to each other, but when we did, I felt like I was home. We couldn’t know absolutely everything that was going on in one another’s lives, but I think we managed to keep the friendship healthy considering our circumstances. We survived the first few years apart, but after we got to our 5th year physically apart, things seemed to start going downhill. I had to move again, and this time to a different continent, which meant a different time zone and made it almost impossible for us to actually keep in touch. At the same time, the days have kept passing by as we grow to be adults, as we’ve started our professional lives, and as we’ve made plans for our future. I realize then, that life simply seems to have taken us different paths.

We don’t call, e-mail, send pictures or chat anymore. We do it very seldom, and although I’ve tried to keep the friendship alive, it seems like she has lost interest in me. Maybe we both have. I’ve gotten tired of being the only one to try hard to keep things going, so I kind of have let go of her because if friendship is a two-way street, I can’t do her job and mine. Lots of events have taken place since I left, and I know we haven’t kept up with every little thing going on in our lives, but things have come to a point where I am starting to give up. This is hurting a lot, but I guess it is better if I accept that our realities have changed, and the she has simply stopped caring about me. She has actually helped me realize this without even knowing it. I guess since I care so much for her, I’ve been in a state of denial for the past year and a half, thinking that things between us are perfectly fine when in reality we’re back to being complete strangers.

A little over a month ago she decided to start a new, and her first real blog. I was happy when I heard the news, although she wasn’t the one to deliver them, because I thought it would be a good way to keep in touch. I thought that it would be great to read about her and her days, and in that way keep up to date with her life given that our different schedules don’t allow us to chat or talk all that much. When I’m home she’s working, when she’s home I’m sleeping, and when she’s sleeping I’m working. On the weekends I barely get to share with my family and boyfriend, with whom by the way, I also keep a long distance relationship. My routine simply doesn’t allow me to actually keep in touch all that much with anybody else, but I don’t think I use it as an excuse for what’s happening to her and me since as I see it, this goes beyond our busy schedules.

I’ve felt uncomfortable and even offended with some of her entries, and I think she has felt the same with some of the comments I’ve left on them. The truth is I read her notes with such interest and excitement, and I try so hard to provide support or give advice, be there and simply be a friend and instead, in return, I get either no comments or pejorative remarks. Sometimes she writes entries about how much she misses her college friends or the people she got to know for three months at an exchange program in Canada. Sometimes she talks about how well they know her, and I must admit that I feel like my friendship is worth nothing to her any longer. I’m not talking jealousy here; I’m talking the pain of realizing that she simply doesn’t see me as someone important in her life anymore, or like she misses me or needs my friendship. I could care less about the million friends she makes, but what about my relationship with her? Where has it all gone?

Just a few days ago she opened a Facebook account long after I had been asking her and almost begging her for months to get one. So she did it after all even though she had clearly stated that she wasn’t opening an account in that site, so I had given up on insisting. Instead of being happy, I was sad when I became aware that she is now part of the Facebook community. Maybe not so much because I realized she didn’t do it because of me, but simply because I realized I wasn’t important enough in her life anymore as to convince her for opening an account so we could leave each other messages, go over each other pictures and keep a little more in touch.

So I have a few open wounds that I’m not sure will ever heal. She is the kind of person I thought I’d be friends with for life, and it really hits me to realize that she only did so for a while. I understand one-on-one contact is important to survive, but if we had been able to manage for the past few years, I can’t accept that argument for the way our relationship has been doing lately. I don’t expect her to spare lots of hours so she can write or keep in touch, but I also don’t expect her to forget all about me, and especially, not to do it without being honest an open about it, which at the end is what gets to me the most.

If anything this, is the time I need us to be more in touch since our paths have begun separating so much, and yet all I get is nothing, or rather entries in which I don’t even know if she’s referring to me when she mentions how insulted she gets when “some people” refuse to realize she has changed, she’s not the same little girl that was once 17, and that she hates how people talk about her in ways that are offensive since all they do is reflect themselves and not who she is because they have an “outdated” image of her.

I feel like we have this unresolved conflict, yet every time I try to ask her whether she’s mad at me or what she thinks or how she feels about our friendships, she keeps making me believe that everything is in place. I guess this is what hurts me the most because she has done nothing less than confuse me. I would rather have her be honest and open, and I would prefer talking about whatever seems to be wrong in our friendship. However, she’s the kind of person who avoids conflict, and I guess she likes becoming distant better. If she says everything is okay but then she makes me aside and starts writing things that make me feel like crap, well then I don’t get it. If I’ve done something wrong I can’t know it unless she speaks her mind, but if she refuses to do so, I can’t spend the rest of my life fighting for someone who simply doesn’t care anymore as she did before.

We haven’t initiated an official break-up, maybe because she simply keeps neglecting the friendship as though nothing is wrong. I’ve simply started to become distant. This isn’t about just me or her, but about both of us. I feel like we’ve outgrown each other and the magical bond between us is basically gone. I feel like we got to the heart of life in our friendship since we have laughed and cried, exhilarated and grieved together. We get each other in ways that most people don't even care to, so accepting that life has changed us feels like the end of the world to me. She can’t relate to my life anymore and neither can I to hers, so the abyss between us seems too deep for me to ever travel over it again. I don’t feel like she’s there for me anymore. I’ve tried not to give up easily on her, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job. After all, I never forget the reasons why we became friends on the first place, her virtuousness and character, but my attempts seem to be useless, and I have decided to give her a little time and space because I feel like our friendship has run its course even though I know that she and my friendship with her are irreplaceable.

Even though some people underestimate the importance of friendship, having close and unconditional friends is something we all call for, and especially something all women need. It doesn’t matter if we grow to be married or have children. We’ll always need our best girlfriends. They’re central to our lives and we have a special concern and love for them within a broader set of concerns in our lives. They help us shape who we are because they are more like sisters and the people who will remain there through the years when our hearts are broken, when our children grow up, when our parents die, when our careers come and go, and when our coworkers forget things we’ve done. “Memories dim, children grow, people die... and sometimes friendships, even those we imagined would last forever, just whither away.”

Image by: Sarah Williams @ Stock.Xchng

Compensation and Benefits?… A Joke!

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:10:00 +0000

Even though the cost of living in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) is well below the mainland Spain and European average, salaries in the Islands and overall in Spain are also rather low when contrasted to their European Union (EU) counterparts. Typical salaries for employees in Spain range from €12,000 to €18,000/year although salaries of €30,000 to €35,000/year are considered subsistence level in other equivalent European cities. A salary of the latter range would actually be pretty high and basically unattainable for the average Spaniard worker if you take into account that the minimum wage in Spain is €570 a month, which is equivalent to around $800 at the current exchange rate ($1.42 for each euro.) This makes the country’s economy lag behind that of wealthier neighbors in Western Europe.

Since I came to Europe from the USA, I experienced a serious salary shock. I wasn’t prepared for the low salaries that are customary to this country, and I am still having a hard time making a civilized living and having a secure job that actually allows for financial stability. I earn a net salary of less than €1000 a month for working over 40 hours a week, which is equivalent to a salary of a little over $1350. That salary is comparable to a wage of roughly €5.80/hr., which is about $8.25 an hour; a figure that might not seem too bad as it is well above the US minimum wage, but keep in mind that this is because the euro remains strong against the American dollar, but this wage is actually pretty inferior to that of other European countries and America.

If you consider that I have a Bachelor’s degree you, would agree that I should therefore be earning a competitive salary that’s comparable to my level of knowledge and skills, but this isn’t true for me and for most employees working for Spaniard companies; my miserable reality remains dim. During mid-2005 when I was still an undergraduate student, I used to work for an American company established in Florida, where I used to earn $8.50 an hour as a part-timer holding an administrative assistant position. My salary back then was already over what I am, two years later, making at a higher position and after having earned a degree. By that time I also got bonuses and other benefits; for instance, they used to pay double on days off and holidays even if we didn’t work, so I basically earned almost twice as much as I do now, but working less hours.

The question now is; how are young people supposed to make a living in Spain by earning such low salaries and considering they are also likely to have no benefits whatsoever at their present jobs? The European society is worried that every day more and more young individuals are having a harder time leaving their homes and parents to make their own life, and that less and less of them actually move out at an early age. I can tell you from first hand experience that it’s not like I absolutely don’t ever want to leave home, or like I actually expect my parents to provide for me forever, but under the circumstances, I’m currently left without a choice, just like many other young individuals in a similar situation are while residing in Spain.

Given the salaries that most people my age earn, it is almost impossible to make a decent living unless you share floors, are a millionaire or live with your parents. The cost of living in Tenerife like I’ve mentioned, is lower than that of living for instance, in the USA; but since over here we earn much lower salaries, the average cost of covering one’s needs is more or less comparable. The difference, however, lies in the fact that in the States you can make really good money and you can work for companies that actually value their employees and negotiate with them a fair amount of benefits. You can forget about negotiating your salary or enjoying any benefits on this side of the world. Most employers will not meet your salary demands or provide any benefits. Over here you will only get a full month of vacation and some days off during the year since lots of national and local holidays are celebrated in Spain. You can also benefit from commissions if you work in the sales area, but those jobs usually have no base salary or a really low one (typically below the minimum), which doesn’t make things any better.

Another important point that needs to be taken into consideration is the fact that people absolutely need a vehicle to move around the island since the public transportation services are pretty scarce. In addition, and given that real state interest rates keep going up, the picture gets even darker when you realize your expenses surpass your revenues by a considerable amount. Less and less people are able to actually own property while more and more cash layouts are needed to cover an individual’s monthly expenses; and the tendency for single individuals living on their own keeps going down as a single salary isn’t enough to support a family. For this reason, when the time to make job interviews come some candidates forget about the whole “compensation bundle” and concentrate solely on base salary as the single decisive factor when choosing to accept or reject an offer.

Take my friend Yanett for example. She’s a single mom raising two kids on her own. She receives from her ex a total maintenance amount of €300 a month for the two children, which is a ridiculous amount and less than enough to support two kids. Besides that, she carries the responsibility of being a mom and a dad at the same time. She takes two hours every day to get and go back home from work, she works over 40 hours a week and she’s basically working to the point of burnout so that she can support her kids. She takes to and picks up the kids at school, she does the grocery shopping, she cooks and feeds the kids and she makes sure to play with them, take care of them, help them with their homework, do their laundry, make their lunches for next day and also clean the house. She basically has no time for her own whatsoever, and has forfeited the priceless work-life balance benefits needed to have a decent personal life. She can barely provide for both her and her children as by the end of each month I see her suffering, borrowing money and longing for receiving her paycheck so that she can go buy food for her kids.

Of course she’s not the only one in this situation but the reason why she stands apart to me is because she has absolutely no help from any other relatives; not moral, not financial, not physical, and she lives on this island where the job opportunities are very limited and at a country where the salaries are ridiculously low. She lives by herself with her two children, and the ex happens to be an a**hole. For her, like for many other people, money isn't everything; it's the only thing. It has become her highest priority because as much as money may not buy individuals “on-the-job happiness”, professional fulfillment, or guarantee career growth and professional development; after assessing one’s personal financial situation and revisiting one’s career goals; taking any step to new opportunities for fairly small increases is worth the try and the sacrifice; specially when the long-term potential and raise likelihood with current employers are almost inexistent.

Last Friday I went to an interview with a recruiting company located in Santa Cruz, which is nowhere close to where I live. It took me two hours to get there and back, for an interview that lasted no more than five minutes and at which the recruiter asked no questions about my work experience. The interview was at a recruitment agency, as they’re screening potential workers and their resumes before actually sending them to the real employer. Going to that interview doesn’t even guarantee that my resume makes it to the potential employer, but I had to give it a try as much as I know it is a long shot. This is an example of what people are willing to do to improve their working conditions and especially their financial situations. The job is offering a gross salary of €26.000, which more than doubles the rough €12,000 that I’m making right now for doing a job that’s worth much more than what I’m actually earning.

Most professionals want more compensation, especially if they’re being underpaid and if their work is not being recognized. Of course employers want to minimize the amount of salary and benefits that they give out to employees, but they need to be fair and remember that employee morale has a great impact on whether the candidate stays or leaves a job. “Money talks and often just says, 'Good Bye.’''

Image by: Sanja Gjenero @ Stock.Xchng

The Must Do Of Canarias

noreply@blogger.com (*·.·•¢Hè©h!•·.·*) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 14:03:00 +0000

With the slogan "the must do of Canarias,” and being the second main amusement in the island of Tenerife after El Teide, Loro Parque is a park that represents a natural paradise occupying about 135,000 squared meters of land, receiving nearly 1M visitors (that's right, one million) per year, and serving as home to a remarkable array of flora and fauna. It started on the year 1972 as a parrot park, and it has now become an impressive "zoo" so to speak, holding penguins, sea lions, dolphins, gorillas, chimpanzees, tigers, jaguars, flamingos, and alligators among other species. Despite the different public opinions about this amusement park, I can assure you that it will fulfill your expectations unless of course you imagine it to be the same as going to the moon. I strongly recommend it for both residents and tourists of the island since it provides entertainment for the entire family and is a good way to learn more about animals and their different habitats.

Located in Punta Brava in Puerto de La Cruz, the park holds the biggest Thai town in the world outside of Thailand, and the six imposing buildings that form this town and that are decorated with wooden and golden pieces previously fabricated in Thai, are the first thing you see when stepping in Loro Parque. This town is named after the Thai Princess Galyani Vadhana, who inaugurated it in the year 1993. By a lake located at this town, "Carpas Koi" fish are found. An interesting fact about these fish is that they have different figures in their heads, some of which could be worth up to $100,000 in Japanese bids.

Other than holding a great range of animal species, the park also features animal shows that provide great entertainment to guests. We attended most of them except for the Parrot Show, which we didn't have time to see. The orca show was recently released in Loro Parque during 2006, and the orca pools hold over 22M liters of salt water taken directly from the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the orcas they have there were brought directly from Sea World in Orlando, FL (U.S.) By the time I attended this show, I wasn’t as impressed since the whales were still training and didn't do as many tricks as we were expecting. The show was still good considering it was new, and I especially enjoyed the pre-show animation. You can click here to watch a clip of this show.

After the orcas, we attended the dolphin show, which was the second display I liked best. The dolphins did some cool tricks that I had never seen before. However, the show was nothing like the one they hold at Aqualand Water Park also in the island of Tenerife. In spite of my opinions, the Loro Parque dolphinarium is still considered the most beautiful dolphinarium in Europe, and its different pools hold about 7M liters of salt water. Please note I wrote "beautiful" as in pretty, referring to the dolphinarium itself and not to the show. What I liked the most about it was the fact that the dolphins are right there. You can see them nearby and without any kind of protecting windows or walls, and you can get really close to them, which is something you most definitely won't get to do in Sea World or the Miami Seaquarium as far as I can remember. You can click here to watch a short clip of this show and get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Finally, we attended the sea-lion show, which was the funniest and in my humble opinion the best exhibition at Loro Parque. I enjoyed it a lot even though it was very short compared to the others. These sea lions made us laugh our heads off, so I suggest you check out this video although I must warn you that it is 10 times better to watch them in person. In addition to the dolphinarium and the shows, Loro Parque also has a penguinarium, which holds the biggest existing iceberg outside of Antarctica producing about 12 tons of ice a day. At the penguinarium, we saw three different kinds of penguins: the papua penguins, emperor penguins and the rock hoppers. Again, it is the largest penguinarium in the world that simulates the Antarctic climate depending on the time of the year. For example, our summer represents the winter in Antarctica where there's no sun for the entire period. This means that if you visit Loro Parque’s penguinarium during summer, you will see it all dark and with some special lighting conditions so that the penguins can feel like in their natural habitat. It was very interesting.

Loro Parque also features an aquarium and a shark tunnel that holds about 1M liters of water. The tank accommodates three different kinds of sharks; blacktip reef, nurse and night; which are fed three times a week with tuna, blue fish, squid, and hake. Although the sharks I saw there were small compared to the ones I’ve seen at other aquariums, I was impressed to see them so close through the dividing glass.

Some other amusements at Loro Parque include a "baby station," where "disabled" birds are taught how to fly and feed themselves, an orquidarium, where you can enjoy viewing different orchid species, and an attraction called "Natura Vision," which is an auditorium where a movie about nature and wildlife is shown. The park also has over 750 Kentia Palms, which are originally from Australia, and it also serves as home for some giant turtles and other animals including a white tiger and a female black jaguar. The jaguar was impressive as black jaguars are not as common. Some people confused it was a black panther, but if you look close you can’t miss the whole bunch of spots that she had. In addition to all I've mentioned so far, the park also has a porcelain museum where a collection of artistic porcelain parrots and other pieces dating back to the XVIII century are on display.

There's also a children park within Loro Parque in case you wish to take your kids, and there are many other great animals you would like seeing, such as pelicans, African grey-crowned cranes and rhino iguanas. In addition, you’ll be able to see parrots all around the park. Loro Parque is currently the greatest reserve of parrots in the world holding more than 350 species and subspecies with an exhibition of over 3,500 parrots. Loro Parque plays an important role in the reproduction of many extinct species, which is a great contribution to the conservation of these beautiful birds. Hence you can find a variety of tropical, African, Asian, Australian, and Indonesian species at Loro Parque.

At Loro Parque they offer a tour in which a guide takes you through the park and explains a bit about the history of the animals and they got to the park. The tour lasts about 2 hours and they give it in Spanish, English and German of course at an additional cost. At the entrance you can get a map of the park with the different shows and the timetables, and you can buy a book and many other different souvenirs including a picture of your party taken at the entrance, for you to take home and share with family and friends. There’s a picnic area where you can stop by to eat and rest although it’s always full. There are a couple of restaurants, bars and cafes; but I suggest you take food with you if you really want to make the most of your time at the park. Get there early as the parking fills up quickly, and be ready to spend the entire day at the park. Do not forget your camera, extra batteries and a cap. Take water and snacks with you, wear a smile and have fun!

Image by: Loro Parque

All Children Need Love

Do you know what it feels like to be discriminated against? Most of us have experienced that sensation at some point in our lives, and although society has changed over time, some people still are prejudiced towards certain groups. For instance, there are certain taboos regarding homosexuals; especially about their ability to bring up children. How are members of those groups supposed to feel about the biases held against them? Discrimination is discrimination; no matter what word you use in place of "homosexuals.”

Some conditions have been established on gay or lesbian parents as requisites to conceding them the custody of children; many of those start from prejudices and stereotypes regarding the "gay lifestyle" which is often viewed by society as immoral. Instead of speculating, it is important to take into account the interests of children and be aware of the fact that good parenting has nothing to do with sexual orientation, and for this reason, gay couples should not be excluded from adopting infants.

First of all, and as indicated by the American Psychological Association, there is no evidence to suggest that lesbians and gay men are unfit to be parents. Lesbian and gay couples conduct their lives in the same way that heterosexual parents do. Gay couples have to struggle to offer support to their families; they have the same responsibilities as straight parents do, and they also have to work hard to raise and give their children the guidance that they need to be honest citizens. Based on this, the declaration of parental inability and the denial of custody to homosexual parents should require more convincing evidence of immoral acts or emotional instability. Also, the sexual orientation should not be the only basis on which the reliability of adoptive applicants is established.

It should be recognized that sexual orientation and the ability to take care of a child are two different things. I don’t believe that the sexual preference of prospective parents has an impact on whether a person will be a good parent or not; such aptitude is influenced by the parents’ ability to provide a loving home with all the conditions that a child needs to have a normal growth. For this reason, sexual orientation may only be considered when it seems to negatively affect the child’s welfare. The family interests of homosexual couples are basically no different from those of heterosexual couples; consequently, homosexual couples should be viewed as having a relationship capable of legal recognition with simultaneous legal rights and principles.

Second, children of gay parents develop just as well as children of straight couples do. According to the American Psychological Association, “not a single study has found children of gay or lesbian parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents.” Supported by the evidence, it can be said that there are no significant differences between children with gay parents and those with heterosexual parents. As suggested by the American Psychological Association, home environments with homosexual parents are as apt to effectively support a child’s progress as are home environments with both straight parents. There is also no evidence to indicate that children of homosexual couples are less intelligent, suffer from more problems or lower self-esteem than children of heterosexual parents. Furthermore, there are no facts to prove that the psychological health and emotional welfare of children raised in gay or lesbian families are badly affected in any way.

In fact, available research on the psychological wellbeing of children raised in such families points out that little differences exist in the overall mental health of children raised in homosexual households. It also states that the quality of parenting, not the parents’ sexual orientation, is the most crucial factor for a child's healthy growth and development. Based on all this, the belief of many people that children of gay and lesbian parents suffer deficits in personal development has no valid foundation. On the other hand, many people believe that children having homosexual parents grow up to be gay, but studies on this field have confirmed that children of gay couples are equally likely than children of straight parents to be gay themselves. In reality, most gay people are born from straight parents; which shows that sexual orientation cannot be something children learn from their parents and is not determined by one’s family.

Finally, the interests of children are crucial. As said by a researcher of lesbian and gay parenting, “things such as a stable home, emotional support and loving parents who will care for the children in an appropriate manner are most important.” The goal of adoption is supposed to make sure that the child has a permanent home, with adults who have the skills to be good parents. This principle seems to be violated every time a child's custody is denied to couples who can actually provide favorable conditions that include adequate shelter, food, schooling, love, and all the benefits dedicated to the security and welfare of an infant.

Moreover, at the same time that a critical shortage of adoptive parents exists, there are thousands of homeless and orphan children waiting to be adopted. Yet, lots of infants are taken away from their parents just because of their sexual inclination. In those cases, the discriminatory adoption policies apparently go against both the children and adults' constitutional rights to equal protection, privacy, intimate association and family integrity.

Although nobody really has the right to adopt children, children do have the right to have a family; a family whose definition certainly changes depending on people’s beliefs and education. It’s true that a child’s custody cannot be given to all applicants no matter they are straight or gay; some gay parents are unfit to adopt children in the same way that some heterosexual parents are. Nevertheless, gay couples should not be deprived from adopting children as long as they prove to be fit parents. Being a biological parent doesn’t mean that a person is oriented to the best interest of a child, but still, biological parents have more rights just because they are natural parents.

There is absolutely no reason to deny lesbians and gay men the joy of parenting, as well as to deny the thousands of children who are in need of a good, affectionate, nurturing home, loving parents. It can be proved that this deprivation is seldom founded on lack of ability, but is instead usually based on the majority's perception of homosexuality as contrary to nature and morality. In order to provide a good home to the thousands of children who are waiting to be adopted and based on their best interests, it is necessary to eliminate the stereotypes, fears, taboos and misconceptions that prevent custody and adoption proceedings involving gay and lesbian parents. People cannot judge others only based on their personal feelings about somebody else; it is necessary to really recognize the merits of the prospective parents regardless their sexual orientation even if we don’t agree with it.

Children need more love in this world and it doesn’t matter who give it.

Image by: David Ellis @ GettyImages

All Good Things Come To An End

I just lost another friend and though I thought I would never get used to the pain of losing someone you care about, I’ve been through it so many times before that as hard as dealing with it may be, there comes a point where one learns what to do or not to do next almost instinctively at the face of such situations. The best part of my most recent break-up is that for the first time I don’t feel guilty about it, like I’m missing out on something or like I’ve done something wrong; and this is great since I tend to be hard on myself after doing things that I might have had to do but that still seem like too harsh for me to accept.

By default, most people tend to feel terrible after a break-up as though it was a mistake or as though they rushed into making a decision. As blunt as it may seem to be, I keep wondering why it is that most people, including myself, insist on seeing a break-up as a negative thing when indeed it should be the beginning of missing harmony and relief. If it is otherwise, then why go for it? If you or your friend decided to settle for ending the relationship, it is obviously because things advanced towards a spot in which you couldn’t take the pressure of the friendship anymore and therefore you made a decision or simply realized that such relationship had gone as far as it could.

Break-ups are the inevitable result of friendships that have become a source of stress and conflict rather than being a source of peace and tranquility, and this is when a break-up should be seen as a positive rather than a negative thing.

The most noticeable problem I see with friendships is that relationships tend to be extreme with the balance either on people getting too involved in the relationship, thereby completely absorbing you and the little free time you have; or they, on the other hand tend to have the balance on people getting involved too little, thereby making you feel as though they don’t really care about you and as though they’re not there when you need them but when they need it or can or want to instead. Unfortunately, I’ve been in both ends of the wire and the result has always been the same: I’ve been worn out by these relationships and the people in it, and I’ve always been the one to initiate the break up.

There shouldn’t be any “have to’s” or “must to’s” when it comes to friendships and in those two lies the cause of most, not to say all, friendships’ fuck-ups. This happens when the friendship becomes more of an obligation than it is a realization. It happens when friendships become more of something that you have to do instead of something that you do because you want to. Instead of being about what you should or not do, what you must or not say; thy should be about two people making the choices that affect their friendship and respecting each other’s decisions as much as they may have an influence on one party or the other and as much as we might not agree with our friends or their decisions all the time.

We are to make the choices of what we want to do or not to do within the friendship, and that’s the way it should be since friendships are not about pleasing other people, being what they want us to be, fulfilling all of their expectations or having to explain ourselves to them so they won’t be mad at us for something we didn’t do or say. Friendships are also not about telling each other what to do because we all have different perceptions of what a friendship should be and as much as we like to think we have truth in our hands, all we know is a little fragment of it, and we should therefore let each person live by his or her own experience.

Friendships are supposed to be comfortable and hassle-free, in-depth relationships in which your concern for the welfare of the other party and the degree of intimacy between you and the other person has a place within other aspects of your life and helps you shape who you are without reconciling to all of the friendship’s demands in a way that negatively affects you.

I’ve seeing myself involved in friendships of the two types; the first in which all people did was complain that I wasn’t what they expected me to be, that I didn’t act they way they thought I was supposed to act, or that I didn’t tell them all the things they considered I should have told them. So if I’m not to make those decisions of what I should be, how I should act or what I should reveal, then who is? It hit me when I recognized a pattern; all of the sentences of people within this kind of friendship started with “you” and they all finished with “me”. So it was basically them telling me everything “I” had or not said and/or done around “THEM” until I realized that I wasn’t up for one-sided relationships.

On the other hand I’ve seen myself involved in relationships where all people did was nothing. No calling, no talking, no getting involved and not caring except for the times it was convenient to them or they needed or wanted something, which also made me realize that I wasn’t up for chasing after people, for doing all the work myself, and for simply sticking around a friendship that wasn’t fulfilling in any way. Of course that’s keeping in mind the fact that friendships are supposed to be a two-way street.

At the end of the day it all comes down to two facts: the first one is that people change, and the second one is that you can’t change people. You can however be aware of these facts and learn how to recognize them so that you are able to move on when a relationship seems to be becoming more of a hindrance than it is of a reliever, and there’s nothing wrong with breaking up or stopping a bond that’s going nowhere and that even worse is just taking a lot from you. On the contrary, breaking up on time may save you later distress, especially if there are unresolved conflicts that only one party is willing to fix.

The problem I have is that I tend to get too involved in relationships and although I make sure not to coerce people, I take the relationship so seriously that anything and everything that happens affects me to the extreme. People let me down, I get angry, I break up, I think it over, I forgive them and the cycle starts again. My boyfriend always tells me that I’m just too forgiving and maybe I am, but I was just thinking that forgiveness and stupidity are not the same thing, and if a person fails you once, twice, three times and you still forgive them again then that’s masochism. Maybe I’m not forgiving but stupid and that’s why the same stories keep repeating themselves over when it comes to me and the affective bonds I develop with people. I also tend to be too radical when it comes to relationships that seem to be putting me down. I do not see the grays in between but only the blacks and whites.

Now if there is one thing I can’t stand in friendship is hypocrisy; especially when other people make believe they’re your friends, you buy it and then they stab you in the back by saying they were just pretending to be friends with you because there was a third party in the middle. This is what happened to me in my latest break up and it kind of broke my heart maybe because it caught me out in left field. My “friend” was the kind of guy who would coast along without getting too involved in my life. He was also not the kind of guy who would talk about the significant stuff often, but I had settled for small details he used to have towards me and the fact that he seemed to have a unique sense of humor and way of caring about the relationship.

I moved to a different country and our relationship started to grow apart. I was a bit tired of sending pics and writing e-mails and never getting a reply back, so I kind of decided to take a break for a couple of months until I had gathered the courage to accept that I wasn’t there with him anymore and that my reality was now different. I brought myself to accept those changes and I stopped getting mad for not receiving e-mails asking how I was or what I had been up to. However, this guy came to me saying that I was one of the best friends he had ever had and that he didn’t want to lose me to the distance. He asked me to write him about me and as I understood it, he committed to writing more often as well so that we could keep in touch. He also said I should make sure to write him about how I really was and not about superficial stuff. I thought it was fair.

He sent an e-mail first and I replied the way he had asked. I never got a reply back and all of a sudden we would leave messages on our friends’ sites but no on ours. I kind of felt ignored or left out and decided to send him a message asking whether that was how it was going to be. I kept wondering about what had happened with the whole “I-don’t-want-to-lose-you-as-a-friend” crap and he replied by making a funny remark. I felt insulted cause I was being serious about an issue that was important to me so he replied again asking me what he was supposed to do. I told him I didn’t think it was about me telling him what to do and apparently he didn’t like it.

I then apologized because I thought I might have offended him with my previous message. I didn’t think he deserved the apology so I wasn’t kind; I made it clear to him and I must have triggered something too painful for him to deal with as he stroke me with a more than discourteous e-mail saying that I was a drama queen and that I just loved fights, but he keeps forgetting that two people are needed to fight. He also said that I had invented the conflict and that he had no idea of why I was mad about, but he failed to realize that I wasn’t expecting him to read my mind. If it is true that I never wrote to him openly about why I was mad, it is also true that he never asked or cared about finding out what put me on edge. I was trying to demand his attention with my messages and I was trying to tell him “hey I need you to get involved so we can clear things up” but he didn’t care.

He said that I was the most complicated person he knew and not in a good way, and that the last message I sent him was more of a soap opera than anything else. He said that I shouldn’t have sent excuses if I didn’t think he deserved the apology, but what he didn’t get is that I meant it even if I thought he didn’t deserve it and that’s why I did it. He also went on saying that he had put up with me the whole time because of my boyfriend, and by the time I was reading this I was clueless about what he was saying and I’m still trying to figure out where it all came from. He said that although him and my boyfriend had only known each other for a little while, that he knew my boyfriend was one of the best friends one could ever have and that he hoped our conflict didn’t affect his relationship with my boyfriend.

So I’m not even going to make judgments about his words because we all know how powerful words can be and how many different interpretations we can give to them based on our own perception of the world. I’m also not going to wonder about whether he meant those words or I just happened to be in his bad graces at the time because that’s not going to change what he did or how it made me feel. I rather want to focus on the facts, and the first one that comes to mind is that I never forced him to maintain a relationship with me, not for the sake of his friendship with my boyfriend, not for the sake of anything or anyone else. I also don’t understand where the whole “I-don’t-want-to-lose-you-as-a-friend” comes in as he didn’t need to bother doing that if he honestly was simply putting up with me not to put in danger his relationship with Maurizio. I simply don’t get it.

I might be dramatic and complicated, I might have anger problems and lots of fights; I’ll give him that much, but if we’re speaking truths, I never failed him as a friend, I was always there for him when he needed it and most importantly, I was always true to him. I was always honest, loyal and open. I was real. I gave him advice when he needed it. I offered him a shoulder on which to cry upon without judging him. I opened myself to him without knowing him. I offered him a hand to hold when he felt lonely. I don’t think I ever gave him a reason to be this rude to me, and as bad of a person as he sees me, I still think one can make his or her points without being mean. With this he just managed to make himself look bad instead of making me realize my mistakes. Of course he’ll say I’m victimizing myself because that’s the easy way out, but I don’t care anymore because people think what they want anyway, so I’m done trying to convince them otherwise.

So I kept it as simple as I could for him since I’m so overly complicated…. I didn’t even bother to reply, or ask questions, or give arguments, or feed the fight. As much as I hate levaing conflicts unresolved, I simply removed him from my entire contacts’ and friends’ list where I had him. I deleted his phone number and his e-mail from all of my accounts and I basically eliminated every connection linking me to him that I possibly could. I did make sure however to tell my boyfriend that I didn’t care if they kept being friends since I think this was never about him. I don’t care and it honestly doesn’t bother me if they keep in touch, so as far as it comes to me, they can live happily ever after as I won’t get in the way. I never did, and I’m not going to start now.

And as for you, I did consider you a good friend. I’m sorry you didn’t feel the same. I’m sorry you had to pretend; shame on you. And as for me, I’m walking out the door and not looking back. Not feeling any poorer for what is gone. I got nothing to fear or regret or lose, as I can’t lose something I never had. It’s funny I say that, as this was a man I once loved.

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."

Image by: Steve Woods @ Stock.Xchng

Water: The Essence Of Life

Did you know that only less than 1% of all water on Earth is available for human use? People in the world depend on this very small amount of water for satisfying all their needs. Despite the fact that the supply of fresh water is constantly replenished through the water cycle, and although water is the most common resource on Earth, there’s a limited amount of this valuable substance, so it is important to consider some of the aspects that can help us know more about the water that we drink.

Looking at the different sources of water in the world, it has been reported that 75% of the Earth’s surface is water, and oceans represent about 97% of this total amount. Oceans represent a great body of salt water unfit for human use, so only the 3% that’s left of the total water supply is in the form of fresh water. Now, the greatest volume of this fresh water is locked up in glaciers and ice caps that are unavailable for human use, so when ice is excluded, liquid fresh water accessible for human consumption represents only less than 1% of the world’s total water supply. Our drinking water comes from two main sources, which are surface water found in rivers, streams, ponds and lakes; and groundwater found in saturated areas below the soil. In addition to the water covering the surface of the Earth and stored in the ground, rain, water vapor in the air and soil moisture are also other potential sources of water.

In order to satisfy the drinking needs of people, large amounts of water are pumped from wells and drawn from surface water everyday. But what is the exact amount of water that a person needs to consume on a daily basis? Well, almost 75% of our body is composed by water, and this nutrient is not only necessary for all chemical reactions in the organism, but is also biologically important because the body needs to replace water that is lost through transpiration. There are different opinions regarding the necessary daily intake of water, but the consensus is that the recommended amount of this substance that a person should drink every day is equal to approximately 64 ounces equivalent to 8 glasses of water to keep the normal functioning of the body. This is the amount we’re usually told to drink to stay healthy, but despite of this, a different line of research points out that the actual amount of water needed varies for each person and depends on several factors including the environmental conditions, such as the temperature and humidity, which is the reason why during the hot months of the year we seem to need to drink more water, and on the individual’s weight. Other factors that influence the actual amount of water a person needs to intake daily include the activity levels of each person, diet, medications that are being taken, and the overall individual health. Therefore, there’s no specific standard for everyone since many factors play a role as previously discussed.

If you’re wondering about the health benefits of drinking water, it is important to mention that although people could survive without food for weeks, they need water to sustain life. Since water is involved in all body functions, it provides several benefits to the organism. Regarding the body functions, water helps in food digestion, respiration, nutrients and oxygen transportation, waste product removal, body temperature regulation, and skin lubrication. In addition, consuming adequate levels of water can help fighting off certain diseases. For instance, drinking water can reduce the risk of colon and urinary tract cancer, kidney stones and migraines. Moreover, water helps build physical strength by structuring tissue, providing joints cushioning, protecting organs, and preventing dehydration, constipation and fluid retention.

Learning more about the sources, daily intake and health benefits of water can help us become aware of the importance of this valuable substance in our lives. Even though the U.S. counts with a vast supply of drinking water, it is easy to forget how much we depend on this substance, so do not take it for granted and avoid polluting this limited resource that, after oxygen, represents the most essential ingredient to life.

Image by: Davide Guglielmo @ Stock.Xchng

A Treasure To Be Discovered...

So there I was, sitting under the roof while taking a glance at a few guys who were passing by. They were looking for cash so they came closer to the ATM as to get some money. Among a few other guys, there were a couple that most grabbed my attention; it was interesting at first because most of them were hesitant to withdraw their funds. It was as though none of them was brave enough to step closer to the ATM or as though there was something wrong with it. I thought it was weird and for a moment believed that the machine was indeed broken, but it turned out to be working perfectly fine, so I found kind of hard to believe that people wouldn’t use it; especially since the teller machine was kind of new and had been recently placed where it was. It was also the newest generation of teller machines with some novel and unique functions that the rest of them didn’t have. I thought people would be excited about using it and benefiting from it.

All of a sudden, brave Michigan decided to go first. He was the kind of guy who would attempt several different PINs and after getting it right, he would try to withdraw more funds than the limit permitted. He was so eager to get cash that he kept coming back for money for a few days, so I kept looking at him and at how he kept guessing the PIN every time. He also happened to keep depleting his daily limit at every occasion he got the PIN right and at instances he wouldn’t even give the machine time to have more funds so he could withdraw. It was kind of weird because it seemed like he deep down knew the password but at times he would get it all wrong. He seemed like the kind of person who wouldn’t learn by trial and error, but who would instead keep trying and trying, hoping to get the identification number right some time and then get the most out of it until there was nothing else the machine could give out. A day came in which he kept inputting the wrong code and his card got blocked for security reasons. He didn’t take it too well because he never understood what had happened or what he had done wrong. I never saw him again after that day, at least not by that specific automated teller.

Then I saw Missouri, and this guy didn’t even know where his card or PIN was. I don’t think he even needed any money, but who wouldn’t want some cash? Coming closer to the ATM was like an unconscious impulse on his part. It seemed as though he would do it by custom or as though he wanted to get money just because regardless of whether he needed it or not. I say this because I saw him stopping at a few other cash machines before coming near to where I was, and I certainly saw him stopping at some other ones afterwards, so I guess it was a compulsive desire for money; he would get some every time he simply had the opportunity to do so no matter what. He stepped closer to the ATM I was by, and I kept starring at him confused. It was as though the guy didn’t know what he wanted, but he still needed to try. He inserted the card, he then entered the numbers on the keypad, but he got the PIN wrong each time. Surprisingly enough he still managed to get some cash that the ATM machine was giving out when broken. Cheating only worked a few times for him until the machine got fixed a couple of hours later. After that I never saw him again, not by the machine and not around the area. I guess he was just an outsider who took advantage of the situation. Lucky bastard and stupid machine!

Minnesota came next, and with him what I consider the perfect example of indecisiveness and bipolarity. I saw this guy a couple of times and he seemed at times like he needed some cash and was determined to get it but at others, it looked as though he needed the cash but was hesitant to get it. He seemed like the kind of guy who would leave a task incomplete; he knew the PIN and would hit it right at every attempt, but he would forget to press enter time after time. He would then struck the machine once or three times as though saying “gimme my money!” but he would get nothing out of it. As I saw him, I couldn’t help but to laugh and at the same time get angry at how close but stupidly far he was of getting the freaking money. Machines don’t like to be struck or kicked by strangers you know? Especially not if there’s nothing wrong with them and if the person striking them is at fault. Minnesota kept coming back at different instances, sometimes he looked puzzled and would treat the machine with the least possible care, at other times it looked as though he knew what he was doing and as though he was starting to develop a bond with the machine, but at the end of the day he ruined it with his kicks, and he failed too to get any clean money, just like the other two guys did.

I also saw some other guys and some of them grabbed my attention as well, but like the previous ones, none of them was successful on their attempts to get money out of the ATM. One of them was in need of cash; he passed by while starring at the machine but decided instead to go to the ATM at the other side of the street. The funny part is that he passed by while the machine was broken, he saw it literally giving out free money, but he didn’t want it! I thought it was unbelievable, but true, so I guess it happened for a reason. Then this other guy apparently knew his PIN, but he wasn’t much of a risk taker. He seemed to doubt ATMs as though they were dangerous, and he looked so scared at the machine I was by, that he didn’t even tried stepping closer to it, and he decided to enter into the bank office instead. I thought he was smarter than that but maybe he wasn’t after all. I also saw this other guy who had the PIN with him the whole time but didn’t even know it. It was inside his pocket, but he didn’t notice… In fact I think he didn’t even notice there was a cash machine in front of him, and as much as it seemed like he wasn’t looking for money, he went inside the bank office to retire some funds. He, as the rest of the ones I mentioned and the ones I didn’t, missed his chance to use the new ATM.

And there I kept sitting under the roof holding the money; feeling all these guys’ fingers pushing buttons while entering right and wrong numbers but without being successful, until Massachusetts came around to change my story. Instead of withdrawing, he made a solid deposit, and he fed me with love, trust, respect, patience and tenderness enough to last for a lifetime and enough to get all funds transferred automatically from me in the form of personal riches that he won’t ever find anywhere else. As for me, I’m still here looking back at all these guys who once tried and failed to gain access to the ATM of my life, and at how the ones who did, did so only for a little tiny bit. And this stupid post? Well… it was just my way of showing how I ever stopped being a “treasured to be discovered”, it was just a metaphor to show how guys ever came to me for the wrong reasons and how some or all of them ever had a chance with me but missed it. I do not regret it though, because I waited for the right customer to give him all my cash, and now I’m happier than I ever thought I could be.

Image by: Defensor Fortis @ Flickr

There's "U" and "I" in "Equilibrium"

While the importance of equilibrium in love relationships seems to be obvious, many couples are overwhelmed by their emotions and instead of working hard at maintaining a balance, they focus on achieving equality, avoiding conflict, and making compromises that disrupt rather than create harmony. Because love is oftentimes passionate and irrational, a feeling that can only be experienced and hardly described, it is important to allow intelligence to play its role within the decisions that affect the relationship. Because balancing the amount of love in one’s life can be one of the most challenging tasks, noticing differences, paying attention to conflicting expectations, and giving thought to the possible obstacles that may stand in the way of making a relationship become serious are crucial aspects that need to be taken into account when finding equilibrium in love.

In Chinese philosophy the symbols of yin and yang are used to represent the balance that is inherently found in all things in the universe. Yin represents the dark, passive, receptive, negative and feminine force in the universe that is both contrasted with and complementary to yang. Yang on the other hand symbolizes the bright, active, creative and male force in the universe that represents the source of heat and light opposing but complementary to yin. Yin is often associated with water or earth, while yang is associated with fire or wind.

Since everything in life is described in terms of yin and yang, it is vital to keep in mind that these two concepts are not mutually exclusive; everything has its opposite so nothing is either completely yin or completely yang. In addition, these two concepts are interdependent rather than co-dependent, which means that one cannot exist without the other, and that some yin can be found within the yang and vice versa. Rather than being absolutes, they’re relatives, and because they’re kept in balance one increases as the other one decreases and the contrary is also true. Yin and yang can transform into their opposite and both forces are conditioned by the beholder’s eye. As a result, a love relationship has its yin and yang components (partners) and the absolute source of balance lies within them.

Having partners contribute equal amounts of effort to keep the relationship afloat doesn’t always mean that a love bond is in equilibrium. Finding balance lies instead in the combination of partners’ strength and weaknesses so that each participant contributes as much as she/he can to the romance. For example, Mauri and I don’t focus on each single aspect of our relationship but on the bigger picture. Sometimes the number of calls, the amount of emotional support, or our willingness to give in varies in accordance to our own strengths and weaknesses as well as our current situations. Since we’re both truly committed to making the relationship work, and we truly love one another, we feel comfortable and accept each other’s weaknesses. We understand that we complement each other, that we are a team and that we are not similar or evenly capable in every single side of our love, so we both contribute as much as possible.

Shifting control by means of avoiding conflict in an attempt to maintain equilibrium will only create imbalance. Doing anything and everything for your partner to the point where you always sacrifice your own needs and wants for your loved one only proves that the domination of the other partner and the inequalities therein created could eventually destroy the love bond. Dealing with conflicts, working out differences and finding solutions together through constructive communication are, as an alternative, the ways of achieving real balance within the relationship. As an illustration, Mauri and I always talk about our conflicts and the things that bother us about each other. We understand each other’s needs and are ready to take responsibility in favor of a long-lasting relationship. We improve balance by acknowledging there will be bad times and that although we may get stuck on topics that will be hard to talk about, we’re committed to discussing them.

Although compromising can be an essential part of a relationship, assuming a give and take attitude is seldom the recipe for balance within a love bond or any other kind of relationship. Following personal needs and wants can sometimes yield better results than simply engaging in a state of constant negotiation, which is not to say that making sacrifices is never a good idea or that a decent amount of give and take isn’t healthy. However, real balance comes from making the relationship an important part of an individual’s life and from nurturing the feeling of love while respecting each other’s space and understanding one another’s self-needs. For instance, Mauri and I never bargain for a give and take attitude or a one-sided relationship. We enhance equilibrium by respecting each other’s space and opinions, recognizing that despite our similarities we also have different needs, and by avoiding having unrealistic expectations about one another. In other words, we are aware that we don’t have to sacrifice everything to get the relationship we desire for.

While understanding each other can help in a relationship, the desires of love and the conquering of conflicts go a long way in making a love bond work. Scales are not about putting equal amounts of the exact same things on each side, but about finding the right proportion for all elements. You can put cotton in one side and gold blocks in another and still make the scales balance. You will obviously have to put more cotton than gold or less gold than cotton until they both reach the same proportion to make the scale balance, but it’s all about finding the right amount. The same can be said when it comes to balancing the scales of love. Partners don’t need to contribute the same amount of the same things, but they do need to find a balance between the different roles they play. Bare in mind that balance within a relationship will be increased as balance within us is enhanced. The two are directly proportional because our relationship is nothing less than the mirror image of ourselves, and at the same time partners are mirrors of each other since they unconsciously become what they themselves are.

Mauri and I now wear yin and yang bracelets so that we keep each other in mind at all times. I’m the darkness, he’s the light, and the bracelets have become a kind of amulet for us. I wear the white one to contrast with the darkness I represent for being female, and he wears the black one to contrast with the brightness that he embodies for being a male. The bracelets would then stand for the dots in the yin and yang symbol, and they serve to remind us that there’s a part of us in each other. We are two opposite but complementary forces, opposite because of our gender but similar because of our humanity. It’s all about having a sense of balance since one can't have everything and do everything at the same time.

Image by: Jessica López

Challenging and Tough, but Not Impossible

Long-distance relationships (LDRs) that neither party may have been prepared for in the first place are more common than ever in today’s society. Contrary to the classic consensus, LDRs have the same chances of succeeding as relationships of the local type. (Click here for a previous post and more information on this topic). This kind of relationships unfold a series of issues that include jealousy, lack of trust and temptation, and new questions about dating other people, sharing personal time together, future marriage and relocation may thus arise. Not being able to see each other frequently, lacking the choice of being intimate whenever is desired, and being unable to spend time together in a physical way makes it harder to hang on to, but has not been the recipe for disappointment in numerous long-distance romances. The illusion that LDRs are destined to fail is just a myth. There’s no such thing as destiny or fate, but only two people planning their own future, making joint choices, and leaving their heart in the battlefield to make a LDR succeed. Love by itself can’t conquer any battles, but two people in love can if they work hard.

Is it going to be your dreamed job or me?
Deciding to relocate is a crucial issue that often comes up in LDRs; therefore, it is a good idea for partners to ask questions about their willingness to move right from the get-go, so that expectations are clear and a direction on which the relationship will go is set. Although asking this question at an early stage of the relationship may be uncomfortable, it is extremely important that partners agree on this topic, as it will save them later distress to both when realizing one of the participants doesn’t see relocation as a possibility. Unless looking for a temporary or casual relationship, the parameters of any LDR should be defined from the beginning. As scary as it may be at first, talking about the long-term in the course of a serious relationship implies that you and your partner will eventually live together, so discussing goals, values and dreams and outlining how to move forward, even if it’s just on broad terms, will help avoiding disappointments and useless attempts to keep a relationship going. Knowing that a plan is in motion for a permanent and not-so-long distance relationship may give couples the motivation they need to move ahead with their LDR.

Along with the choice of where to live, other questions come up such as where to move, when and who should do it. These are all important decisions that may seem simple but actually require thorough consideration. Partners should take into account the quality of life, proximity to family, friends or loved ones as well as the financial aspect. The city that you pick to live in will largely depend on the life aspects that the partnership is looking for. Leaving family and friends behind is also a significant element that should be considered. Current job situations and living arrangements should be examined as well since relocating endures an array of sacrifices and disruptions that you might want to minimize. Many partners don’t wish to leave their families or their jobs; for this reason, they need to put all of the aforementioned variables on a balance scale and see which of them weigh more and which will make you and your partner be better off. Bear in mind that we can’t have it all ways, so having an end in sight becomes essential.

In whichever way partners make these and other decisions, it is essential to be realistic and know where the relationship stands. Keeping partners emotionally close facilitates things when it comes to overcoming the physical distance. Opting for a LDR is not always the way to go since they’re not for everyone, but there aren’t any right or wrong answers, only different choices and in any case it is only up to the participants to make a LDR work. Deciding on keeping a LDR is a risk that not always yields positive results. However, being involved in a long-distance romance will unquestionably give you the chance to learn more about yourself, your partner, and about what it takes to actually keep love over the distance alive.

Avoid temptations
Lack of trust and honesty are major threats when looking at LDRs since the absence of physical proximity can sow jealousy, mistrust and doubts. Accepting the challenge of engaging in a LDR means that both partners commit themselves to give and receive equal amounts of trust, confidence and respect. The major problem with most LDR is that their partners can’t take the abstinence for long and consequently; they try to find new sexual partners to fulfill their need for physical contact. Opening yourself up to long-distance intimacy could solve this problem although nothing can replace individuals’ craving for human touch. Be clear on what you want and be ready to say no when a tempting opportunity comes around. If you are really in love with your partner, this shouldn’t be a problem, but if either partner slots in a circle of unfaithful behaviors, then the LDR will be most likely doomed to fail.

Make sure to act in truthful ways because it takes both partners to trust and be trusted. Prevent yourself from getting involved into situations that could lead to innocent and more serious acts of deception that you may later regret. This doesn’t mean denying the charisma and charm of other people, as you’ll be faced with lots of seemingly interesting individuals during the normal course of life, but it should mean acknowledging that you’ve already found a partner and that you don’t want to damage a relationship that has taken you time to build in the past. Avoid giving into things that you wouldn’t normally do under a different circumstance, and keep in mind that adopting a paranoid and accusing approach will only increase suspicions and fears that will in the end lead to lack of confidence and provoke strain between partners. Try to keep away from these feelings, as none of them will help the relationship stay alive.

Remember it is important to keep communication lines open, and don’t hesitate to express your feelings. It is better to talk in due time rather than get caught up into a commitment that you don’t agree or feel uncomfortable with. It may help partners to integrate themselves into each other’s lives as much as they can so that new friendships and daily events don’t seem like they’re out of the ordinary. Avoid obsessing over where your partner is every second of the day and make sure to respect each other’s breathing space. It is not wise to build your life only around your partner since this is rarely or ever healthy whether you are physically close or apart. Remember that you had a life before getting into a relationship, and you should keep having it while finding the balance with your newly acquired romantic bond. This will provide your relationship with security, confidence, and the so longed-for satisfaction that any couple needs to succeed.

Are we making the most of time?
Adapting to a LDR is not simple, but there are ways to make such a bond survive and even grow through the distance. Keeping a good flow of communication is vital to the success of LDRs, but this extends beyond the regular phone calls, e-mails, chat sessions and other communication technologies. Communication implies staying in touch regularly and sharing feelings openly; those that have to do with the separation, making new friends and the frustration of not being completely involved in each other’s lives. Pretending like you’re okay when it’s not the case, avoiding conflict confrontation and convincing yourself that your partner is having an easier time than you are will not make the cut. Give yourself the opportunity to talk and listen so that there’s mutual understanding and the feeling of growing distance is kept to a minimum. Avoid assuming things about your partner and make sure you really talk.

Understand that your partner is having as much of a hard time as you are, so try and spend your time together, either on the phone or physically, wisely and keep complaints to the least possible amount. Avoid building great expectations around how your next personal encounter will be if you want to reduce the chances of disappointment. If possible, talk about the reunion in advance and understand that a long period since you last saw each other may result in awkward silences, nervousness and a feeling of not knowing what to do next. Do not stress over making schedules and planning perfect dates for your next encounter; this will only bring anxiety and will most likely prevent you from actually enjoying your time together. Let things flow naturally and take pleasure in the small things in life even if they are going shopping, taking a walk or staying home playing games, watching a movie or simply talking.

Are we seeing each other yet?
However hard partners work towards a LDR, the length of time that the couple actually spends geographically away from each other can negatively affect the ability to maintain a LDR alive. As a result, deciding on a limit of how long you will be apart is a wise step to take so that the feeling of having to wait forever is lessened. The day will come when participants will have to start planning a serious future, so you might want to consider a conversation about you and your partner’s long-term bond with the intention that life doesn’t seem to pass you by in the meantime. As short as both partners wish for the period of separateness to last, sometimes the distance escapes the couple’s hands. Be patient and work hard to make the permanent reunion happen, even if that means working against all odds when geography isn’t on your side. Evaluate again what weighs more to you and be ready to forgo on things that don’t foster the long term of your LDR.

So what’s my story?
My boyfriend and I have talked about most or all of the previous issues as we share an interest in each other's lives, care for one another and have a love for each other that we hope will only continue to grow as days go by. We can see our relationship going somewhere and most importantly, we’ve come to that point where we can’t picture our lives without one another. Him and I are both willing to relocate with all that implies. It is more likely that he moves close to where I am, as we’ve both had enough of the States, where he currently resides, and as we would also have a harder time getting our papers to live there. We’re Venezuelans. In any case and even though it isn’t clear to us yet where exactly we will live, hopefully in the near future, what matters is that we’re both willing to move so we’re not concerned about the “when and where” at the time. We’ll move wherever we need to move, and we’ll do it whenever we need or can do it, so I guess that’s that. We’ve known each other for two years and a half, and we’ve been over 13 months together although seven of those physically apart.

Naturally, we both have expectations and have a more or less clear idea of what we would like for our future. We’ve considered living close to my family since he already lives in a different country than his parents do. We are short of friends, and we recognize the importance of having emotionally support around, especially during the first few stages of a more serious commitment; we don’t think it would be smart to live apart from both our families, at least at first; and we agree on that going back to Venezuela, where his parents are, is not an option for any of us; at least not now. Under all circumstances, we have kept our feet down to Earth. We’ll have a harder time than we would like, but we’re set to make it happen. Even though he’s willing to move to Europe, where I am currently living, he wouldn’t have legal papers to reside anywhere around. Of course marriage would solve that issue, but we are not ready to submerge into those deep waters yet. We’ll have to work around it although the alternative solutions seem to be scarce. It will take us a little longer to figure this one out since he’s still studying, and I’m currently unemployed. Given that we’re not working, we can’t really talk much about our finances; all I’m clear about is that my dreamed job can wait. I don’t expect to get it now anyway, so to me, my happiness by his side weighs a whole lot more than any financial compensation I could get at any workplace, at least at this point in time.

All in all, we trust each other. We do not fear cheating issues because we’re absolutely committed to our relationship, and we’re deeply in love as cheesy and fairy-tale quoted as that might sound. If you still don’t believe it is possible to trust someone just like that, well you’ll have to try harder and you’ll have to learn to be more of a risk taker. You need to know someone so that you can trust him/her. In any case, we know what having a partner cheat on us feels like, so that’s something we’re never engaging into in our relationship. The latter stays strong because we constantly communicate with one another, and we keep up to date with our plans for the day and the daily occurrences of our lives. We also keep each other informed about new friendships and try to be sensitive enough to talk to each other first before making a decision that could possibly bother the other or endanger the relationship even if it’s just going out with friends or spending the weekend away. We do not ask for permission, but we talk and agree on what it is okay and not okay to do. Moreover, we make sure to leave enough room for each other to breathe and set enough time apart to talk about each other and our relationship, to play, and enjoy from simply being there for one another even if all we do is nothing.

We enjoy from no awkward silences when we meet again, and we barely fight. When we do, we hate it, but we make sure to speak honestly about it and about what bothers us. We don’t agree on everything and we don’t share the same opinions on every topic, but we respect each other’s opinions, and we resolve our differences even if that means saying things the other doesn’t want to hear. We try to give in and find a middle point where we can both be ourselves without hurting one another. We absolutely don’t keep things to ourselves, and we don’t simply act as though nothing happened while expecting the other to calm down and forget about the conflict. We have also talked about the length of our LDR and although we are not sure of how longer it will be before we can be permanently together or when we’ll be able to see each other again, we know we want to make it happen as soon as we can, so we will within all reasonable possibilities. Of course there are variables that we can’t control, so on those only time will decide. We’re determined to keep fighting for each other because we know each other is all we want.

Sometimes it is hard to keep up with the time difference that we have to deal with, as those four or five hours can get in the way of calls and chat sessions, especially when we work, study or participate in extra-curricular activities. We’re clear, nonetheless, on that calling at one or three in the morning is not an issue when it comes to satisfying our need to keep in touch. We adapt our communications to our constantly changing routines, although that can be a challenge considering the time difference I mentioned before. We usually try to set up calling times or chat sessions, although we basically go with the flow and adapt to whatever each day brings along. We avoid being paranoid over missing a day in each other’s lives although we truly hate it when it happens. We try to use Skype as much as possible although we do not have access to a computer all the time, so we adapt accordingly by using regular phone, which can be very expensive, especially if you consider we’re used to talking for at least one hour a day.

A final thought
Despite the many elements required to make relationships work whether they are local or across miles; each relationship is unique, so different relationships may require different skills. In addition, and because the personality traits of partners involved in a LDR widely vary, the abilities actually required to keep a long-distance romance can fluctuate as well. Many people wonder about the "right" number of calls or visits that couples in LDRs should have to keep their romance alive, but the truth is those numbers depend on the couple; both in the partners’ ability to actually call and travel, and also on how much they need to see and call each other. Consequently, partners need to discuss their own communication needs and set certain limits, but always leaving room for flexibility. If possible, set the rules for communication before the separation comes around. This will make it easier on both partners when leaving each other for an extended interval of time.

Keep in mind that with the right amount of effort, there’s always hope for those who are strong-minded about making a LDR work. Even if they’re hard to maintain, the task is not impossible as long as both partners revive memories, trust each other, keep themselves up to date regarding personal lives, talk about their future together, visit as much as possible, make the most of shared time and avoid consenting to deceiving acts as small and innocent as they may appear to be. If you work hard at it and survive the journey, you’ll find your LDR to be the most worthwhile thing you’ve ever done until you and your partner can once again be physically together.

Image by: Paulus Rusyanto @ Free-Stock Photos

The Most Powerful Force in The World

Consisting of the total number of employees actively working or available for work in a specific nation, region, or company at a particular point in time, the workforce represents the most important resource available when it comes to making an organization succeed. However, some degree of employee commitment is required so that recruits stay in tune with their organization to achieve business goals, but if the workforce impact on the success of a company is so evident and essential, then why is it so tough for companies to recruit and retain ‘perfect’ employees, and moreover, are such employees really in the employment market?

Although many positions in different industries are in high demands, many companies don’t have the necessary human resources available to recruit the right, best and most competitive applicants. The decision of hiring new recruits is not simply about filling job openings but about employing people who will stay with the company in the long run, but how and where do employers find perfect candidates? I think the answer extends beyond simply recruiting the people who are most fit for the job, and it reaches out to having the corporation committed to keeping good performers who already are a part of the organization. Nonetheless, many employers fail to spend in their people because training programs can be expensive. Even so, what they also fail to consider are the costs of turnover, of advertising openings, and of spending time screening resumes and interviewing new candidates to say the least. So how can employers have ideal employees if they’re not wiling to invest in their human resources and prepare their people for the kind of jobs they are to perform?

In my search for my less-than-ideal job here in Spain, I’ve come across companies that don’t have a HR department, and the ones that do, don’t adequately use their resources to recruit new candidates. Most of the interviews I’ve been to at both small and large corporations are deficient in orderliness, and people who aren’t nearly prepared for interviewing have performed many of them. I’ve encountered interviewers who seem to ask questions from the top of their heads, happen to go over the resume in front of me making obvious that they haven’t looked at it in detail in advance, and they also seem to inquire about issues that aren’t relevant to the job and most of which would be illegal in the States. Being my field of expertise I can ascertain that the importance of a HR department and of people who are trained to interview and recruit applicants is essential to the success of any organization be it small or big, so sometimes I find hard to believe the informality that characterize many companies when it comes to handling its scarce resources.

As another example, I’ve gone to interviews where they have asked me to describe and rate myself on certain aspects, but in addition to those subjective questions I haven’t seen any other standard measures that would allow an interviewer to actually compare potential employees. I know what employers are looking for and the answers they want to hear on interviews, and for anyone who has this information and even for someone who just uses commonsense, it would be easy to lie during the interview not because the candidate is a liar or cheater, but because the competition is fierce in the employment market and we all want the kinds of job that are in short supply.

One of the interviewers I met with, and who also happened to be owner of a medium-size corporation, told me that he liked my professional profile but that he didn’t like my age. He said young people tend to have less clear objectives and that they tend not to last within the organization. Aside from stereotyping and making discriminatory remarks, he furthermore said that during interviews these candidates would say something about themselves and then they would show different behaviors on the job, but of course he hasn’t thought about the fact that his people are asking applicants to rate themselves during interviews when interviewers should be the ones rating and evaluating candidates. Moreover they’re not asking the kinds of questions that could reveal the true personality of potential employees, but rather those that are for the most part irrelevant to the position in matter.

The most relevant problem that comes to mind is the fact that employers want perfect employees, but they are less-than-perfect employers. To begin with and like aforementioned, job interviews oftentimes lack the formality and structure that they should have so that interviewers avoid typical errors and subjectivity. In addition, employers are frequently reluctant to be up-front about their expectations of the job, and as a result, people like me who are potential candidates leave the interview feeling like they don’t have a clear understanding of the job or of what is expected. Moreover, many employers are hesitant about making job offers when they come across a candidate who has a good chance of being successful on the job. They aren’t ready to offer packages that match or beat those presented by competitors or additional perks that can compensate for less-than-ideal salaries and shifts.

For instance, I’ve gone to lots of interviews for positions that were advertised as administrative, and after getting to the interviewing site, I realized that the job they actually offered was completely different from what they had advertised. Have companies thought about the impact that these misleading ads have on applicants and their thoughts of the organization? If you ask me, I’m tired of feeling like these interviews are a total waste of time. These employers make you go to an interview because they refuse to give you the details of the offer such as the salary, the working hours or the job duties in advance, and they also make sure to sell you a position that doesn’t really exist. Of course you don’t know this until you get to the interview. Once there they start talking about the duties you’ll be responsible for only to make you aware that it is nothing like what appeared on the newspaper.

So the workforce is left facing with managers who demand ideal employees and by ideal I don’t simply mean responsible, organized, determined, friendly, enthusiastic, and innovative people, but I mean candidates who are actually willing to take the crappy salaries that employers offer, become accomplices in the unlawful practices that owners and the company might engage into, people who are willing to work 11- or 12-hour shifts without receiving extra payment, applicants who are willing to sign contracts that state they’re earning less money than they actually are so that the corporation can evade its taxes and people who simply fit in whatever employers need from a newly hired individual, and I don’t mean job-related factors but more personality and attitude traits that define whether the employee will put up or not with the company’s not-always-legal way of doing business.

So there comes a point where it doesn’t matter whether you are truly qualified but rather whether you are willing to take the less-than-ideal working conditions in exchange for the less-than-ideal salary that employers offer. As an illustration, take my case for example. I only got a job recently after a long search that I started five months earlier. Considering I'm a graduate student with a BBA in both Management and HR Management and that I graduated summa cum laude, I thought I had a pretty darn good chance of getting a job. I didn’t have high expectations or ambitions because I know I need to work my way up and that it will be a while before I actually find my dreamed job, but I still thought I could get something fairly close to what I was looking for according to my qualifications, experience, talents and abilities. Well, it turns that that wasn’t the case, and I learned that my abilities don’t make me any more attractive over other candidates, at least not in the employment market of which I’m currently a part, and I realized that in spite of what I was taught in college, the reality out here is different.

I literally applied to dozens of jobs and went to quite a few interviews, and I experienced and saw so many things I didn’t like or understand that I can’t even begin to describe them. Based on all this, I can’t help but to highlight what is in my opinion the poor quality of management at most of the companies I’ve been to. These organizations go for an “employees-are-paid-to-do-a-job” approach that fails to consider the motivational aspect of employment. Employers’ attitude comes down to feeling like employees should be thankful that the owners of the company are feeding them when in reality the company would be nothing without its people. So who’s feeding whom?

If you think of it in biological terms, the employee-employer relationship could be compared to a mutualism in which both organisms involved are supposed to benefit, but in reality many of these associations end up being parasitism as employers benefit at the expense of employees. If employers would spend more time wittily thinking about what motivates employees, then there would be a mutual advantage to both. However, the fact remains that employers want committed employees when they are not willing to commit themselves or the company’s resources to their people.

A couple of other examples can be mentioned to reflect this point, and this time I’m talking about true stories that took place in the States. I once worked for a company that had me training for a week, I was to work for them a specific shift and after I made clear to them what my time availability was; they decided to hire me. All of a sudden after a week of training me on the job, they realized that the shift I was doing was not the shift they needed me to do. Then why the hell did they hire me in the first place to work that shift if they needed someone for a different shift I couldn’t even do because of school? That remains a mystery to me, but the worst part is that they didn’t pay me for the 30 hours I worked because they decided the training wasn’t paid. I would understand they do that with someone they’ll be hiring permanently, but with someone they’re kicking on the butt it is kind of unfair. A friend of mine was also hired to work as a salesclerk for a company who on his first day of work told him they didn’t have time to train him. Then why did they bother to interview him, make him wear a uniform and show up to work if they would be then giving him the “F-you” word on his first day on the job? Like I’ve mentioned above commitment is a key factor.

Further issues arise when employees don’t feel like the company honestly cares about them, and although such a thoughtless practice is far from successful when it comes to managing employees, many employers fail to positively an openly interact with its people. The outcome of this is workers who don’t know what they’re supposed to do and what’s expected of them, which at the same time results in poorly committed employees who become dissatisfied and unmotivated and are therefore more likely to take part in unethical activities. All employees have a sense of their own value, so workers who feel like they’re not being fairly rewarded and treated are more prone to trying to balance the scales. Because of this and because employees need to cover their financial needs, employers need to pay more attention to the importance of having a committed workforce that helps the organization succeed.

Both parties need to be committed to each other so that the mutual relation can work. The problem is many employers are not devoted to their people, and they fear employees going to work for competitors in the industry or giving away confidential information. But why would employees want to be loyal to a company that is not loyal to them? What reasons do organizations give to employees so that they want to be faithful to the company? Employees are not committed to the organization not because they can’t be or don’t want to be, but because they feel the company is not committed to them and therefore, they are not motivated to be committed in return.

Consider the case of my sister who works at a real state agency. Her company requires that all employees have a car and a cell phone, but the company is not willing to pay for gas or the telephone bills that employees incur in the normal course of business, which doesn’t make any sense to me because the company should provide the employee with the tools they need to work; in this case a car or at least a budget for gas expenses and a company phone or reimbursement for cell phone expenditures in any case, considering these are all work-related. In addition, she has a commission-based position so the base salary is around 500 euros that basically is what she spends on the car payment and insurance, gas, and cell phone while her car keeps depreciating and is about to hit the 20,000 miles in a span of less than a year. Then she earns commissions but only if the office sells, and the percentage they get from a total of a 6000- or 1200-euro commission is less than 1%. How is an employee under these conditions supposed to save or make a decent living, and how does this company support employees’ efforts?

Along the same line, company policy dictates that she is to work extra hours during the weekends in case she needs to show a property but without collecting extra pay or redeeming those hours from her regular shift. So you tell me what sense this makes and what sense of commitment this company displays. The company asks employees to go show properties on their days off if necessary, but then they don’t compensate employees for extra hours worked or allow them to recover those hours from their regular schedule. Why do employees keep working for companies like this? What happens is that these employees can’t afford to quit their jobs because as picky as they may be when it comes to choosing what they’re willing to do for a job, there comes a point where one can't meet the expense of being unemployed and one ends up taking anything that comes around even if it's not remotely linked to what one was originally willing to do and even if the working conditions are not slightly close to what is fair and decent.

Although the motivating factors that lead a worker to perform at par on the job depend widely on each person and although they vary from one employee to the other, it is broadly known that people work to obtain something in exchange, and this something comes in the form of compensation and benefits, which have a great impact on employees’ morale, motivation and the quality of their lives. Having a meaningful job, serving customers or simply accomplishing personal goals can be great job motivators for different workers, but at the end of the day work is indeed about the money because it is money what allows employees to pay the rent, their bills, provide for their families and make a living. Therefore, employers who underestimate the importance of compensation and benefits as the basis of a successful business that recruits and retain its people are at fault.

Nevertheless, attracting the best employees is an effort that entails more than average-paying positions. People want more from work than money and even though workers’ needs and wants are highly situational, most employees simply want to feel like they belong to the company and like they are an important part of the company’s mission. Employees usually look for recognition because of their accomplishments and they additionally want a stable job that gives them an opportunity to grow both personally and professionally while they are also able to apply their knowledge on the job for the company’s benefit. Workers need to be provided with timely feedback so that their performance can be accordingly aligned to the company’s goals and purpose. For this reason it is essential that employers focus on what matters to their employees if they are to achieve business success.

As I see it, the bottom line is employers often forget that the most important resource is the human resource because that is what moves the company and keeps it going, and employers can’t make customers happy if they don’t make their employees happy in the first place. What motivation do employees have to sell a product, offer a service or provide customer care if they don’t feel they are cared for by their employers? And the same results are obtained when we think of employees who feel threatened that employers will replace them in the first slight chance they have to recruit “more fit” workers to occupy their positions. Moreover, many employers also underestimate the importance that workers place on such things as a fair salary, flexible working hours and prospects for advancement and career paths within the organization, which are all elements that employees consider when making their decision to join or leave a company.

A good position is not only about having a good job description or a list of job duties that the employee is supposed to perform, but it is about a good working environment and working conditions, which include compensation and benefits. It is about forming employees; training them and making them better prepared for the positions they fill. But when most or all of these elements are absent, then we face employees who need to look out for themselves and they’re therefore always thinking of finding a better position, looking for a better job and simply giving a shot even if it’s long to other opportunities that may pay better results and provide them with a better chance of making a decent living and feeling like they’re cared for.

Because workforce commitment is highly influenced by organizational practices, employers need to participate actively in addressing the company’s issues that are likely to affect the organization’s people in the future. Recruiting and retaining the right employees is a crucial factor, in which training plays the most important role. Workers want to succeed at their jobs, but they can’t if they’re not provided with the necessary tools and skills and with a clear idea of what they’re supposed to do. Employers can’t overlook the fact that people are the most important asset to the organization and for this reason they deserve to be adequately treated, and the necessary resources need to be invested so that a culture of mutual commitment develops within the organization in such a way that the business is ultimately directed to achieving success.

Image by: Davide Guglielmo @ Stock.Xchng

Sleep: Not an Option

Did you know that human beings might need to spend at least 1/3 of their lives sleeping or nearly twenty-four years in bed over an average lifetime? Representing a basic human need and a part of individuals' life, sleep is vital to people's health and wellbeing. However, and despite the importance of sleep, many individuals take it for granted and don't get enough of it while subsequent constant sleep loss may result in common health problems. Although most of us suffer from sleep difficulties at least a few nights per week, sporadic cases of insomnia don't generally signify a big concern; nevertheless settling for a permanent sleep time of 4 to 6 hours a day can interfere with our daily lives.

While different abnormalities in the organism, emotional disorders, work shifts and other age, health and lifestyle conditions are tied to sleep problems and prevent a large number of people from getting the amount of sleep they need, those individuals who actually have the option of getting 8 or more hours of sleep but would rather choose to stay up late doing other things, should benefit instead from the much-needed rest that our minds and bodies require to function normally and stay healthy. As unimportant as they may seem, constantly staying late partying, talking to friends, playing online, working extra hours or studying, among others, are all factors that can drive individuals away form getting the right quantity and quality of sleep their bodies demand.

The exact amount of sleep required varies from person to person depending on people’s individual needs, health, age and lifestyle. For instance, some people are well rested after only 6 hours of sleep, but because of the human biological composition and our early hereditary makeup, individuals are not ready to run on small amounts of sleep for such genetic structure hasn’t developed as fast as to match the pace of the hectic society in which we live. In spite of these facts, experts at the National Sleep Foundation assert that getting 8 hours of sleep for adults and 8 to 9 hours for teenagers is desirable. Moreover, children usually need more sleep than adults, so specialists have estimated that kids between 3 to 5 years need 11 to 13 hours of sleep while children from 6 and up to 12 years need about 10 to 11 hours of sleep. A more detailed table published by the National Sleep Foundation allocating the number of hours needed for each age group can be found by clicking here.

More and more investigation studies conducted by sleep researchers and scientists have been revealed to confirm that deficient sleep causes health problems typically associated with hypertension, diabetes and weight gain, as well as neurobehavioral impairments (having the same effects as drinking alcohol); daytime drowsiness; irritability; apathy; moodiness; impaired memory; microsleeps (lasting from 5 to 10 seconds); stress; anxiety; increases in accidents, injuries and behavioral problems; deficiencies in the immune system; reduced concentration, learning and productivity; reduced longevity, reaction times and hypnagogic hallucinations (experienced between wakefulness and sleep), all of which are typical signs related to inadequate sleep. This means that depriving ourselves from sleep will not make the cut if we are to remain fully alert, creative, energetic and in a good mood during the normal course of our daily activities.

People are oftentimes motivated to spend less time sleeping and more time working, but they need to recharge their batteries during the night so that they can think more clearly during daytime. The problem is most individuals feel like they can’t afford what they believe to be the ‘luxury’ of spending so much time sleeping, yet the key lies precisely in that sleep is not a luxury but a necessity, or put in other terms is not an option but an actual need much in the same measure like diet and exercise are. Although individuals may condition their bodies to sleep only a few hours a day through their internal biological clock, the outcomes in the long term will negatively affect different aspects of a person’s life. For this reason, and because sleep seems to be required for survival, getting a good night sleep can mean the difference between performing well and falling asleep while at school or work.

When we scrimp on the amount of sleep we need, even if we only cut an hour, we develop a "sleep debt," which is defined as the “accumulated sleep that is lost to poor sleep habits, sickness, awakenings due to environmental factors or other causes.” Now, if that sleep debt becomes too large, it can lead to sleepiness during the times at which we should be awake and alert, and even if we don’t feel sleepy, the product of the sleep debt will inevitably get in the way of our every day doings and our ability to function. In addition, sleep researchers confirm that individuals can’t regain sleep lost throughout the week by increasing the amount of sleep hours on the weekends; doing this will only interrupt our sleeping patterns and our body’s circadian rhythm, which is an internal 24-hour cycle that takes place in the organism to control different physiological processes and functions.

Furthermore, the circadian rhythm is influenced by daylight in such a way that we naturally tend to get sleepy at night when it’s dark and are energetic during the day when there’s light. Since our body’s functions change during day and nighttime, the circadian rhythm regulates them by ensuring the appropriate levels of each occur at the times they are supposed to. Brain tissue regenerates and memory is consolidated during night sleep, which makes developing an adequate sleeping routine extremely important.

To enhance our sleeping habits it helps to maintain standard sleep and wake schedules so that our bodies can become used to a regular waking and bedtime. In addition, avoiding alcoholic and caffeinated beverages, and heavy meals before sleep and during the day as well as eliminating cigarettes near bedtime or during the night, getting regular exercise and improving on the control of the sleep environment such as light, noise, temperature, pets, sleeping surface and sleeping partners can all help in standardizing sleep in a way that ensures we’re getting enough of it for optimal performance. Even though the exact reasons for sleep remain a mystery, many of the body's major organs and systems continue to work actively during sleep, which makes this process so important for our minds and bodies. The sleeping brain is not a resting brain and the range of activities of it is central in regulating physical functions, revitalizing the body, and enhancing thought processes when awake, so that third of our lives that we should spend sleeping has a dramatic effect on the other two thirds.

As a shift worker, my brother used to be forced to sleep during the day while both the activities taking place around him and his circadian rhythm hinted at being awake. Although he was only on such schedule for 2 months, his body developed poor sleeping habits that remained long after he went back to working regular daytime hours and that still stay put to this day. What began as a “perfect excuse” to stay awake during the night has now become his new lifestyle. He is a smoker who gets very little if any sleep. He works only 4 days a week out of which 3 of them are 12-hour shifts. He leaves at 9:45am and gets back at around 11:15pm, but he doesn’t go to bed until 5 or 6 in the morning. He only gets a couple hours sleep for most of the week except for his days off when we have to wake him up at around 2pm for lunch.

He is moody most of the times and extremely irritable; to the point where any and every single subject has become a taboo topic to talk about around him since he gets aggressive and angry no matter what’s being said or how. He also tends to eat once or twice during the night but unlike the characteristic signs of most common sleep disorders, he hasn’t gained any weight whatsoever. He seems to forget that there are other people living around him as he speaks loud on the phone at 4am in the morning, as though it was completely normal, while interrupting my sleep. Sometimes he blasts the speakers with resounding music when everything else is silent and everyone else is trying to rest. He drinks lots of water and simply has a completely upside down routine that not only is affecting him but also affecting those around him to some extent.

I don’t know if any or all of the previous signs mean that my brother has some kind of sleep disorder, but it looks to me like he does. My parents insist to him on going to bed earlier and normalizing his schedule but he says he isn’t sleepy when the night falls, but of course he isn’t if he sleeps during the day.

Remember that sleep is one of life’s most basic activities and a necessity for the normal functioning of individuals “without which the body cannot make do for very long any more than it can without food or water. Deprived, it will suffer; and, in its efforts to restore the homeostatic balance of sleep and waking, it will make its demands imperative!” Sleep matters; so take time for it.

Image by: Hilary Quinn @ Stock.Xchng

Best Carnivals in The World

Taking place every year during February or March and in the wait to receive the Catholic Lent, Tenerife’s Carnival finds its origins in the Roman festivals of Lupercalia, Saturnalia and Bacchanalia, which were celebrated to honor the gods of bread, harvest and wine with the purpose of saying goodbye to the winter season and welcoming the New Year. As the Roman Empire expanded throughout Europe, what today represent typical Carnival traditions, were passed on to Conquistadors of Latin-American countries and The Canary Islands. As a result, Tenerife’s Carnival has become the most popular and multitudinous festival of all the ones celebrated in the Canary Islands and the European Union (EU), and despite the evolution of these festivities in different countries throughout Europe and the world, Tenerife’s Carnival represents a traditional festive activity celebrated by the town of Santa Cruz and characterized by joyful elements such as thematic costumes, shows, exhibitions, and parades accompanied by dances, noisy music in the streets and featuring an ambience that prompts people to participate and have fun in a healthy way.

Carnivals emerged as a reaction to the fasting period that precedes Lent and as a way for people to have fun, drink, wear costumes, mock the Catholic Church and let go of all the things that they felt oppressed by. The first few written references of this festivity go back to the late 18th century, and based on the testimony of writers and travelers of the period; it was the wealthy families of the island who regularly held fancy dances in their homes while the lower class celebrated in the street. Due to political confrontation, Carnivals were later on prohibited until the year 1945 in which women of the town began to organize secret masked celebrations in attempt to hide their identity, and this practice became so popular that in the year 1980, after general Franco’s death, Tenerife’s Carnival was officially declared a “Celebration of International Tourist Interest” which resulted on a big festivity that made it to the Guinness Book of Records for the large number of people who participated in the gala.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, and as carnival itself started to grow, the different traditions that characterize the Island’s holiday also began to emerge in the form of "cabalgatas,” “rondallas,” “comparsas,” and “murgas” that would gain greater importance to this festivity in later years. The cabalgatas (Spanish for cavalcades) are named after the "caballos” (Spanish for horses) used to transport millions of dozens masks and dozens of people in costumes to the first few Carnival parades celebrated in town announcing the festivities. The cabalgatas usually travel through the main streets in the city of Santa Cruz. In addition, the “Coso” is also typical which is like a second cabalgata only more important. This parade is said to be the most significant display lasting for hours during which all participant group expose their songs, lyrics, garments and creativity to their fullest ability. The rondallas are large bands of street singers and musicians who perform Spanish traditional songs and opera pieces while playing string instruments to accompany their songs. Although during the 1960s they were the classical and true protagonists of Tenerife’s Carnival, they have progressively been overshadowed by the spectacular increase in the number of murgas and comparsas.

The comparsas are colorful dancing bands that unlike the rondallas play wind instruments to accompany their songs. The groups usually include participants of both sexes who frequently wear the same costumes and perform songs resembling those of Brazil and Latin America while adding their own choreographies. They became more common as of the turn of the 19th century. During the 1920s and 1930s the murgas also emerged, and these are satirical singing groups who originally played cardboard instruments and painted their faces to interpret farcical songs characterized by critical and humorous lyrics full of satire and irony related to current happenings in the island as a way to protest and convey the audience the bands’ views on political and social issues. The murgas have evolved considerably, and their participants now wear highly elaborate uniforms. Due to their great success, the female and children versions of these bands have also been created.

The first murga received the name of “Nifú-Nifá,” (Fufa), and it was founded by a group from another murga called “Los Bigotudos.” Because the word “murga” was prohibited at the time just as any other word that had any kind of relationship to the Carnival festivity, this band invented the word “Afilarmónica” by putting the prefix “a-” to the word “filarmónica” (philharmonic) to express that they were exactly the opposite of a philharmonic. However, the true intention behind this new word is found in the first six letters of the expression: “afilar” (Spanish for sharpen), which in other words means that their purpose was to criticize with their songs and lyrics, so the term “Afilarmónica” has become the generic name for murgas nowadays. In addition to these, the “Agrupaciones Musicales” (Spanish for music bands) are also common in Tenerife’s Carnivals. These are typically groups of families; friends or neighbors who wear the same costume with the peculiarity that they are normally inspired in Mexican traditions, and their songs include genres like merengue, bolero and ranchera.

As of the year 1910 contests of rondallas, murgas, comparsas and agrupaciones musicales began, so it wasn’t until that year when a true distinction between the different categories was made. Tenerife’s Carnivals mainly celebrated in the town of Santa Cruz have become the most prestigious carnivals in Europe and the most safe and participative ones in the world. In Santa Cruz people take the streets and everyone joins the crowd wearing a costume. Multitudinous dances are performed with orchestras until dawn as different shows are offered in different points and stages throughout the city. All islanders gather during these festivities, and the celebration usually lasts 27 days in which different important galas take place such as the election of the Carnival Queen, the election of the Drag-Queen, competitions of street bands, processions, parades and the cavalcade, all of which make Tenerife’s Carnival a season of true party and fun not to be missed by both residents and visitors. This year Carnivals started on January 30th and they will last until the 25th of February.

The gala to elect the Carnival’s Queen is a yearly event that represents a main entertainment of Tenerife’s Carnival. During this gala hundreds of journalists are present to broadcast the show and different TV stations compete against each other to capture each minute of the event while transmitting it through national and international TV stations in an array of countries. This gala accounts for the exaltation of beauty of female islanders. During this show candidates show up on a stage of about 4,000 squared feet sponsored by different companies, financial and commercial institutions, recreational organizations, and casinos. The gala is characterized by the majesty of the queen’s dresses, which usually are of great dimensions as they can be over 16 feet high by 13 feet long and weigh over 220 and up to 450 pounds. Queens display these garments with such elegance that often makes people overlook the effort required to actually wear these outfits.

Moreover, every year each municipality organizing Carnival festivities prepares a Carnival poster. This tradition entails the use of colorful proposals usually designed by famous and well-known artists from which the event managers pick the most attractive one. By the same token, the Carnival Song is selected each year as the anthem of the festivities. Finally, the “Entierro de la Sardina” (Spanish for Sardine Funeral) typically celebrated on Ash Wednesday gives closure to the Carnival’s festivities, and this procession is considered the most profane and uninhibited one of all Carnival celebration. The tradition is for people to wear black clothes, go bury and later set on fire a giant sardine made of cardboard, rags and cloths by the Island’s prisoners. The fish symbolizes the Carnival spirit so people go to its burial singing but at the same time crying because the festivity is over. During the parade widows shout desperately because of the dead of the sardine and bullies to the Catholic Church are made by participants who go dress as popes, nuns and bishops blessing people and at many occasions carrying with them objects that hold sexual undertones. The ultimate conclusion, however, takes place over the following weekend during the first Saturday and Sunday of Lent in what is known as the celebration of “Piñata Chica” (Piñata Weekend) with more shows, dances and parades.

Temporary funfairs and amusement parks are also installed during this celebration while the city hall typically disables some parking lots in order to set the Carnival Fair. Young people usually celebrate the festivities by doing a “botellón” (Spanish for big bottle), which is a practice that brings people together mainly to smoke and drink during nighttime. This custom typically takes place at a public area where different groups of people meet while bringing their own liquor and beverages, typically rum, whisky and vodka with ice and sodas to share with friends. This tradition is not exclusive to Carnival’s festivities, but it is without a doubt one of the main events for youngsters, the only difference is that during Carnival they do the botellón wearing costumes, and more people flood the street than at other occasions. The botellón usually lasts between two to four hours but they typically extend until sunrise during the Carnival festivities. The amount of alcohol consumed largely depends on each individual although for most people the idea is to get wasted. Although this custom has been banned in many Spaniard cities it is still allowed in Tenerife and regardless of the many problems associated with it, young people turn to ‘big bottle’ because it is much cheaper to buy drinks at the supermarket than at clubs or drinking holes.

Tenerife’s Carnivals are not only well known in Spain but also worldwide, and although it has been widely said that the island’s celebrations have become the second most famous Carnival in the world after those held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Tenerife’s Carnival recently received an award as the “Best Carnival in The World” because it’s said to be the most safe and spectacular one out of all celebrated. The recognition was awarded by ‘Fama’ Magazine, which is a Spanish monthly publication edited in New York, which distributes over 1M copies in the States. Despite different public opinion, these two regions are still disputing the first place when it comes to best Carnivals. What it is for sure is that Tenerife’s Carnival is one of the biggest in the world, and that the massive participation of people together with the sophisticated preparation of this festival makes the city of Santa Cruz the most famous one of the Canary archipelago. This already popular destination, with its year-round blast of sun and beautiful beaches is in even greater demand during carnivals, so make sure to make your arrangements well in advance if you’re up for joining the Tenerife’s crowd during the festivities.

Image by: Carnaval de Tenerife

The Gift of Love

Originally based on the Roman Feast of Lupercus with the celebration of Lupercalia, Saint Valentine's Day (V-Day) is rooted in this pagan tradition that dates back to the third century. Throughout time, a part of the Christian tradition has also been instilled into this holiday, and over the centuries, Valentine’s has been strongly associated with love, romance and sweethearts in every country around the world until it has become what it is today the modern observance of “the day of love.” Even though this celebration typically revolves around romantic love, in many countries the day is also associated with friendship and other kinds of love. The holiday falls on February 14th every year and although different cultures honor it in their own way, the overall idea is to pamper our beloved. Usually, love messages and tokens are mutually exchanged; dinners are arranged; cards, chocolates and candies are sent; and presents are bought to show our loved ones how warmly they're thought of and cared for.

Even though the importance of Valentine's and the customs relevant to this day vary from person to person, Valentine’s is most awaited and can have an effect in the life of lovers, but it can also become a nightmare for single people who may feel left out and lonely during this day. However, there aren’t any limits to what can be done during Valentine’s, and this holiday isn’t just meant for lovers and sweethearts, but also for all of those who are close to our hearts whether they’re family or friends. Sometimes people forget that Valentine’s started as the day of love, and love is not limited to romance.

Despite the sentimental aspect of Valentine’s, this holiday has been highly commercialized during recent years. V-Day has become the second major event for the greeting card, flower and candy industries after Christmas, so it is most likely that you’ll find costly items during this season due to the great deal of people purchasing and sending gifts across states and countries. I believe this holiday is primarily intended for businesses’ financial gain, especially within the American society in which this tradition is most widely celebrated, but the importance of this day is that it comes from the heart, and it is not about fancy dinners or expensive presents but rather it is about showing our loved ones that they’re cared about. Valentine's Day existed long before the greeting card and chocolate industries came about, so the idea is to center on our beloved and let them know how we deeply feel.

The key to a charming Valentine’s is not on spending lots of money on gifts, but on making the holiday our own by celebrating love, which is the real reason for this day. Instead of going for the usual dinner and flowers, giving each other small gifts with a lot of meaning can make all the difference. Remember that the thought and the intentions are what count, so try something atypical and let your feelings be guided by love. Of course you can never go wrong with candy, roses and a romantic dinner if your pocket allows for it, but keep in mind that spending is not the essence of Valentine’s and that you can still make this day special without incurring into great money outlays. Get creative and do what feels right for you but always keeping in mind that the most important thing is to dip in love whatever you do.

Although roses are universally accepted as the flowers of love and even though the ones that come in red are people’s favorite to give out during Valentine’s, this day is not about everyone doing the same things or buying the same presents; it is about doing something special for your loved ones. Find something unique that demonstrates to those you love that you really have taken some time to pick out their presents and find something that holds an intimate meaning to you and them. Show them that special connection either by giving or doing things for each other, sending their favorite flowers, a little something that they really wanted, or simply a gift that represents your familiarity with them and your acknowledgement of the love you share. Those gifts always hold a greater significance that money could never buy.

I had never celebrated Valentine’s with a date until February 2006. I would usually get my friends cards or little hand-made gifts, but I never had any guy asked me to be their Valentine’s or anything like it. The meaning of this holiday changed for me last year when I was finally able to celebrate with my boyfriend. He took me out to dinner and he sent me flowers. He sent a present and chocolates. He also gave me a beautiful card, so I guess we celebrated for all he years we were lonely. During that year, I sent him 21 Valentine’s e-cards. One for each Valentine he had spent alone ever since he was born. So even though this day involved some of the typical presents, we made it special because we made it our own.

For instance I picked out those 21 V-Day cards to send my partner with a unique message, and I also made a special letter for him with the words “TE AMO” (I love you in Spanish) in two pieces of red paper that I then filled with pieces of black cardstock and a unique message. I wrote within each letter a message containing words that started by that particular letter and kept on explaining my darling why I love him and what I love about him. He was delighted and thrilled, so this year I’m already planning on the next little special something that I’ll give to him on this day. By the same token Mauri picked a special teddy bear for me, and he also picked a very delicate and special flower arrangement with flowers of my favorite color, which was different from the usual dozen of roses that every woman got thrown on her front door during Valentine’s.

This year we’ll be spending Valentine’s by ourselves since Mauri and I are not physically together. However, we’re making it as special as we possibly can for each other, which I think is thoughtful and tender. To me, Valentine’s is more than just a day in which businesses make money and vendors talk. It is more than just a day to give out presents and make last-minute purchases. Valentine’s holds a different meaning since it is a holiday to honor affection, and to me it is all about the greatest present of all: the gift of love. Love is something that every relationship needs to keep it alive and going over time, so although Valentine’s gives me an excuse to make the day extra special, I celebrate the day of love every single day with my partner, and we are committed to making every day romantic. We keep communicating, caring for each other and showing our tenderness, concern and love, which is all that really matters to us.

I’ll leave you with a quote now since my boyfriend likes them so much, “Valentine's Day only comes once each year but the love, passion and romance can be enjoyed every day.” Mauri I love and I hope we have a great Valentine’s Day across the distance!

Image by: Omar Franco @ Stock.Xchng