The First Goodbye

“I just can’t stand waiting this long everyday. What do they talk about anyway?” José whispered without moving his lips too much. “Oh! At last, why did it take so long?”
“You should have gone then, I wasn’t going to end the conversation because you were waiting ”, said Raúl, “I enjoy talking to people who actually know things. This teacher, Enrique something, I don’t remember his surname, is probably the most learned person in the whole school. Yesterday he was giving me some advice...”
“So, wanna do something at my place?”
“No, I’m not in the mood right now, in fact we’ve got homework for tomorrow and I want to sleep well tonight.”
José was already walking out, “Doing homework, huh! See ya later then.” Raúl sighed.
The following morning, they were laughing about a classmate who once farted in History class and the teacher locked the boys in until the smell was gone. It was one of those past events that were brought up constantly and they laughed as hard as the day it actually happened. Outside it was misty and the windows were blurred because of the cold, no-one could see the schoolyard from the inside, and the room looked much smaller. Suddenly, when the laughs died down, Raúl said, “What are you going to study when we graduate? If we graduate, of course.”
“I want to be a doctor,” said José.
“That was a quick answer. So... when did you make up your mind?”
“Last year I guess. Why are you so interested?” His eyes wandered over the classroom and seemed to be reading what Mrs Ortega had been writing on the board.
“What? Why shouldn’t I? It’s your life, you’re my friend. Do I really need to ask you those things? I mean, why didn’t you tell me before? It doesn’t offend me though, well to some point it does. We’ve been friends for more than four years now, four years of having the same conversations, telling the same jokes and you don’t take just one minute to tell me that. Are we not supposed to talk about serious stuff?” Some people turned around, but as neither of the two spoke they turned again.
“I’m sorry,” said José, “but it’s not such a big deal.”
The bell rang and Raúl turned to his left to clear the window.
“It’s just drizzling. Let’s go outside,” Raúl said as he stood up. “I feel kind of frustrated, you know. At this point of my life all I want to do is have fun, enjoy the time left. But I can’t do it this way, not without sharing it with you. Anyway, are you even interested in what I’m going to study? Do you already know?”
“I am interested” said José.
“I don’t know what I’m going to study, really, and we are almost four months from graduation! I can’t think under pressure. But that’s another problem.” He cleared his throat and spoke in a lower voice. “I think I’m not ready to leave school right now, leave these people or leave you. I would give anything for one more year.” He scratched his forehead roughly. “You know what’s funny? I have always had this thought that we were meant to be friends. We like most of the same stuff, we have the same sense of humour and we never had a problem with each other. And now we’ve got one.” José stayed still. “Or that’s how I feel these days, because I’ve realised that what I know is your favourite food or what you do on Thursday afternoons, you get what I mean? Knowing how you react, what’s your opinion about anything, what you like or dislike about people including me is what I want to know. In fact, I have never known what you don’t like about me.” A cool breeze was blowing and they walked towards the classrooms for shelter. “I’m sorry, going back, I think a four year experience should have told us something about each other, but they didn’t seem to be enough. The way I see it we have never been ourselves, we always tried to be someone else to get on well. You with your ever lasting good humour, your pessimistic view of the school and teachers, and any other attitude that’s typical, just don’t seem to be right. I can feel it, you are different.”
“Well,” said José, “being optimistic I think I know one thing about us; we’ve still got so much to learn. I certainly know that. I am happy to have you beside me.”
Raúl rearranged his hair, “I am too, believe me. But university won’t wait and we don’t have much time to learn from each other as you say, it will lead us to different paths and we won’t see each other as often. I can’t even imagine myself next year”
“Ok, change subject. It’s depressing”
“Right...” minutes passed, they ejoyed themselves watching their classmates play football. “So... how’s Julieta doing?” Raúl asked, “I haven’t seen you together since, I don’t know.”
“She’s fine, we’re fine, it’s all going great, as usual.”
“Not convinced?” He smiled. “Where is she?”
“Somewhere south I guess. Family trip.”
“And you’ve been together for... two and a half years?”
“I guess, but I’m gonna dump her before graduation. After that I want to start a new life alone.”
Esteban, one of the football players, approached them. “José, Raúl, wanna play? We need you both to have a game. It’s not so cold once you start moving”
“Sure, I’m in” said José.
Raúl looked unsurprised, “I’m not playing. Thanks anyway”

What its like to be an outsider

To be left apart, to be the one no one talks to, whose commentaries vanish before someone else starts speaking.
Making full effort to be included, to be one of the group, to be remembered, to be known. It is so difficult to overcome that feeling, sometimes we think it is better to surrender, when life seems to be unfair.
To share, to be called. How do you achieve that?
How do you get to say what you want to and not what you think they might like to?
How do you feel? Jealous, about everyone else, as you are waiting for a miracle to happen and finally be accepted. And when you have made it you can’t even notice how you did it.
Sometimes we try so hard to achieve something that we don’t notice how simple it is.

The sound of silence - Nevermore

A video made for an english activity. It has some problems with the timing. The activity consisted in choosing a song to later analyze it as a poem, to practice for the IB oral test.
Hope you like it.

Elvira de Aciar

A song writen by me, and played by me and Anton. Dedicated to an ex-saint patric's english teacher, for her birthday.

Thank you very much Elvis!! (real name: Elvira Llobeta, Aciar is her husband's surname; and Elvis is her nickname)

Review: Shakespeare For Managers

I got Shakespeare for Managers by Rolf Breitenstein as a present and at first I thought it was a book for people interested in being a manager, investor or something related. To my surprise, the book could be read by any ordinary reader who definitely does not have to have any knowledge of Shakespeare or business.
At first the book talks about Shakespeare, his achievements as a playwright, and compares him with today’s investors, economists, CEOs, etc. For example Shakespeare had 10% of the Globe’s income, the theater he worked in, he bought land and properties in different places of England, he risked his career by making different kinds of plays the English were not accustomed to.

Later on there is an analysis of twelve of Shakespeare’s plays which focus on the behaviour of the characters (their characteristics, their strengths and weaknesses), also on the situation each one experiences. This is directly compared with a firm or company where every character plays its role according to their position, e.g. a king is today’s chief executive officer. All of this can be used as a guide or introduction to the business world, and also to Shakespeare’s because you get to know his style, the topics he wrote about which touch on many aspects of life, such as love, hate, death, friendship, doubt,

patience, among others.
In the last few pages there are interesting summaries of his 37 plays (which have no comment on business matters). These are ordered into tragedies and comedies, which are chronologically arranged and the histories, which follow a true historical order; Breitenstein considers that Shakespeare’s plays are too long and summaries are extremely useful, quoting “brevity is the soul of wit”.
There are also three of the most famous speeches “To be or no to be” from Hamlet, “Quality of mercy” from The Merchant of Venice and “All the world’s a stage” from As You Like It. These are very clever speeches, which are written eloquently and have huge power of language, rich in metaphors and other literary devices.
The book is original and practical, also comic, because of the informal analysis, and the alternative endings the author gives to most of the stories. These are usually short; they show that if something or someone had acted differently or if technology had existed in Shakespeare’s plays, the outcome would have been different.
I had never read anything about Shakespeare before, and with just a few lines and phrases it has opened my mind to another world. The whole idea of the book derives from the quote “To buy or not to buy: that is the question”, which summarizes the manager topic with ‘Hamlet’s’ most profound soliloquy. When reading the book, you get to compare different opinions, conclusions and points of view on the same topic, and that way you get a general meaning of Shakespeare’s works.

Pablo Craig

Impact of technology - '60 minutes' Radio Program

Today in english class we have heard a radio program talking about technology. It described how did "this" technology influenced the americans in their work, with their family and with their friends.Summarising, americans who take part in the "Bestbuy experiment" have become dependant of thechnology, because of their long hour works and because it lets them work whenever and wherever they want. This way the common division between family and work does not exist, and unconciously work takes family-time to be done .The working hours encreased and productivity too in 35%, but time with family has been shortened of course, but people seem to be happy with this change. Wiring every room in your house with telephone, TV, and internet is just ridiculous, it makes people sedentary, and there is no purpose or excuse of going out if you have everything you need in your life at home or elsewhere. I think there is an unnecessary use of thechnology nowadays not only in America (which has been an extreme example), but everywhere with young people who cannot take their eyes off the cellphone, computer, ipod, among others. technology has it's good part, that's why it has been made, but not knowing how to use it or for how long makes it uncontrolable, because it is everywhere.The interviewer of the radio calls the americans who like their working conditions "brainwashed" and i think it is correct. They think it is normal to abuse of technology, everything in abuse harms in a certain way.Life today is too acelerated because the world has created this tendency, people just don't take their time to enjoy life; being relaxed and out of preocupations. I don't believe this people are truly happy with their lives.

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