Travel and Ecology

Travelling

I still remember my trip to Morocco three years ago. It was a two-week experience and my best summer holiday ever!

I took a nearly two-hour flight to Marrakech in a low-cost airline with my father and my elder brothers. There, a guide, who had been a colleague of my father when they were twenty, was waiting for us.

We visited many different Moroccan cities travelling by jeep. Sitting there, I could see a lot of high rocky mountains through the window.. In every mountain pass, there was a small poor stall where a man offered us gemstones whose price was extremely cheap; my father told me most of them were false and, as the man was watching that we didn't buy him anything, he decided to give me one, only due to the fact that I was a woman!

They have beliefs and a religion very different from ours.

Considering their customs, I think the strangest one for me is their food and the way they have lunch.

Firstly, you had to take your shoes off; after that, kneel around the table and finally, start eating with your own right hand! Everybody ate from the same dish and, if you considered the food had been delicious, you had to burp to prove it! I think in Spain that would be a really impolite and rude behaviour.

And what about Moroccan people? In my opinion, Moroccan men are a little

bit rude in general. On the other hand, women are really helpful, kind and generous. Moroccan inhabitants are also polyglot because they can speak about five different languages such as Arabics, which is their official language, Tamazight, which -for berber people- is their mother tongue, English, French, Spanish...

It's clear to me that travelling abroad is a fantastic experience for anyone because you can understand much better other cultures and I think this can be really useful to avoid conflict in The World.

Laura Ayora Morante 1ยบ Bach B

THIES: A SENEGALESE CITY Thies is a big city situated in the Northwest of Senegal, which is an African country, near the Atlantic coast. It has about 600,000 inhabitants who have a strange kind of life, from our point of view.

Thies has three official languages: Kurunkรก, French and English. But the mother tongue is the African language (Kurunkรก), sure. Most of the people are muslim, because this is the most widespread religion in Africa.

I know some of its customs and traditions because my mother worked there 20 years ago.

She told me that the most curious thing of the city were the houses: they were all made of mud!

Most of the people who lived at slums were big families with a lot of children, so overcrowding was common in this city.

Two important customs were that people never ate with their left hand, due to their religion, and always the women were the ones to go and find some water, walking long distances.

Obviously, Thies’ inhabitants had been poor for ages, so their meals often consisted of simple dishes of rice (maybe with some seasoning).

However, festivals in Thies were really beautiful and cheerful: men played “Djembé” and other instruments while women and children were dancing African dances in colourful dresses. I would like to enjoy one of these funny parties!

On the other hand, Thies is in the African Savannah, so there isn’t much vegetation: the typical tree is the “Baobab” and it is the biggest tree in the world!

My mother also told me that there was an enormous variety of animals, such as elephants, snakes, monkeys…It must be great!

Consequently, one of the most cheerful (but expensive) activities for the tourists were the “Safaris” (if I could pay for it, I would do it). Owing to the large stretches of land, running was one of the most practised sports.

However, dancing was more widespread among women.

My mother told me that people were really nice, polite, frank, cheerful, etc.

But specially pleasant was the social life: they lived in community and had good relationships with their neighbours. Life in the street must be more pleasant than here!

After all the things she has told me, I think Thies is a really beautiful and interesting city. In my opinion, this is a very different continent but very interesting, too.

I want to travel there!

Lara Torres, 1ªBach A SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD: Portsmouth I am writing about a trip which I did last summer. I went to Portsmouth in order to learn English.

I stayed in a dorm with student from others countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Greece and Spanish people too!

While I was living there, I didn’t get used to the timetables and meals. We had lunch earlier than I do in Spain. Moreover, I hate English food, especially the breakfast.

We had three hours of lessons all the mornings. And after lunch, we had freetime. Unless we went to the city-centre, we would be at the seaside. When we went to the beach, we spent much time sunbathing or playing volleyball. I really liked this place because it is very clean; people take care not to throw away rubbish. On the other hand, water was colder than Mediterranean water.

I didn’t swim a lot but the students who came from others countries such as Germany or France often dived into the sea.

In the evening, we went to a common room where we stayed with othercourse students. That was my favourite part of the day. We shared music and watched some films.

In my opinion, going abroad is a fantastic experience: you make new friends, know other culture and learn other languages. Before starting this travel, I had been very nervous but, eventually, I loved the experience.

Although my friends and I come from different places, we enjoy the same music and films and we eat similar food such as pizza or hamburgers. I think the western world is getting the same culture and a new identity.

Elena Jimenez, 1ยบBach B

Pollution, Global Warming and Climate Change in 400 words.

Climate Change is nowadays one of the most important problems on Earth.

This phenomenon is due to human activity: toxic gases such as carbon dioxide produced by factories or exhaust fumes from transport polluting the air.

On the one hand, this toxic atmosphere is the cause of some diseases, for instance, allergy and asthma: in huge cities like Mexico, people have to wear masks, owing to the fumes of cars, motorbikes, planes… On the other, global warming is occurring as a result of carbon dioxide emissions, because it absorbs and retains heat in the atmosphere and, as a consequence, global weather patterns and temperatures are being upset and this is called Climate Change.

If we don’t stop this, we are going to suffer extreme consequences.

Firs of all, the ice caps are melting due to the increasing temperatures.

Consequently, sea levels will rise and cities or villages in the coast will be flooded in few years. Therefore, people who live there will have to move to other cities and a lot of islands won’t exist any more. There will be a lot of citizens living in a limited space! Furthermore, many people will have lost their jobs which depend on tourism (hotels, restaurants, amusement parks..)

This situation is very dangerous and we have to find a solution for future generations. However,this is difficult because everybody has to be aware of the problem and make an effort.

First, in a personal level, I think each person should use a means of transport that doesn’t pollute, such us bikes, public transport or walk more often: we could thus reduce the number of cars circulating and their emissions. Besides, in my opinion, we should pay a congestion charge in all big cities.

At home, we must separate and recycle rubbish and stop using plastic bags: we should use reusable cotton bags instead. We can choose not too buy things with excessive plastic package.

We should also choose renewable energy produced by wind farms or solar panels.. and reduce the use of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas which produce a lot of carbon dioxide.

The government should pass environmentally friendly laws and all factories should meet certain standards in order to reduce their toxic emissions.

This is a vital matter for human beings, as well as the other living beings in our planet. Therefore, everybody will have to do something about it.