TOEFL Practice 3

Today my writing practice will be about the Showtime in Motown. This is a fundraising show that the Young Detroit Builders (YDB) organize every year. The show is a talent contest where the winner gets $1,000. YDB is a non profit organization that works with youth that has problems to get their GDE and that struggles with the daily life of Detroit. The participants of the YDB program come twice a year to share some days with us and get a international experience. Many of them have never been outside Detroit in their life, and coming all the way to Dowagiac is a big deal. Every year, as an exchange and also because we love Detroit art and culture, we go to Showtime in support.

This year the show was good but it was not as good as the past years. The performers were talented, no doubts, but the organization and the energy of the public was not very positive. It was visible that there where different kinds of problems with the show in particular but with the whole program as well. Nowadays, is not easy task to run a non-profit organization and to change the world with it. The world's power are getting better and better in stopping and discourage the work that we do in the non-profit sector. The reasons can seem obvious, they do not want us to change the world and create conscious human beings. They want matrix-type followers and not encourage rebellious youth, like the ones preparing themselves with the YDB. I hope they get over the crisis they are having now (if they are in crisis, I do not have a real idea, is just my perception), not just to have a great Showtime next year but also because their work is very important for the local communities and I really believe they are doing an amazing work.

On another matter, the journey to Detroit was good for the participants at IICD. For the August Team it was the first excursion they needed to organize. They had been here for two months but the February and May team were the ones in charge of organizing the common actions and trips to the lake. They did a good job, dividing everybody in the transport available and making sure we all had a good lunch bag with healthy food for the way back home. So thanks to them at 2:30, the 25 travelers were ready to go. After 3 hours we got there…

I love to drive everywhere, but in the US specially, and yesterday was even better because we had a almost full moon coming with us the whole way. I have to be honest, when you drive there is nothing better that good company, good music, good coffee and a full moon or a starry sky (of course a good car also helps).

TOEFL Practice 2

So. Yesterday it was impossible to study. However, my life this days is mainly in English, so I take that as an indirect practice for the TOEFL test.

We watched the documentary HOME (2009). I will link the complete English version here for the ones that get encourage to watch it after reading. It is totally worth to spend one or two hours analyzing and enjoying this movie. The photo is beautiful and the message is simple: “change or die”.

The amazing landscapes and the slow narrations makes you feel like in an amazing brainwash session. And yes, it can be that you take the message as a brainwash, but who cares, true or not, global warming or not, Earth is changing, is getting rid of us, and that matters.

So yes, the message is to prove how global warming is accelerating the clock and how climate change will challenge us.

The participants at IICD took it very positive, even the religious ones didn’t complain. They even decided to take a one month initiative, some will quit plastic bags, some will quit car to go to town, some will take shorter showers and I will not eat beef that is not grass feed, organic and grown in less than 100 miles around home.

Did you know coal, gas, oil comes from the accumulated energy that the trees had store underground? Yes, the trees take the energy of the sun and store part of that energy, the part they don’t use to grow. That ancient storage is what we suck out of Gaia to create our society the way we know it today. So look around and realize that everything you see is made of sunlight.

Enjoy the show.

http://youtu.be/jqxENMKaeCU

TOEFEL Practice 1

Ok. Hello there, mute readers of this silent girl. So this days I have been studying for my TOEFL exam. One of the tasks (one of the difficult ones) is to write. So this week I will simply write (of course, in english). I will practice my writing by telling you some lies... or not. The thing is that I have to practice, not just grammar, but to write without giving my opinion. Perhaps that’s the hardest part. To write about something without having an opinion. I was train to have an opinion on everything. May be this is the first time that I have to train in not having an opinion.

Yes, you cannot have an opinion in everything. You may not have opinions on scientific subjects (not because I don’t understand or care, but because they are facts... or at least they look like that).

Ok. As this is the first post and the first practice exercise of the day the lie will be about yesterday (and it will have an opinion, fake or real, doesn’t matter, an opinion will be).

I went to Chicago to see Ani DiFranco singing in “The Vic” theater. We, friends and I, arrived just in time to get good sits. Once there, we decided to have a coffee. Of course they do not sell coffee in a bar! who wants coffee in a bar? Lola and her friends. So then we try to go out and for our surprise they didn’t allow us, they simply will not allow us to go out and in again. Perhaps this is normal to people who goes to this kind of events, but for us was totally insane. How come we were not allow to go and drink a cup of coffee and come back in? what if we wanted to smoke? (which we didn’t because we don’t smoke) I thought may be they have that policy to prevent people to resale or reuse the tickets. Which is also crazy because they have pretty good control of the bar codes and, actually, half of the people has the ticket in their phone... and also, this kind of things happen south of the border, in this country you can even pay yourself out of any grocery store without cashiers or someone looking that you didn’t steal something.

Well, we didn’t got coffee. But the concert was great! Ani is one of the most amazing women in the world. She is simple and powerful. The band that came before was also good. I didn’t recall the name (I will google it later). They were a trio from Brooklyn, quite crazy and original, hope I could understand the lyrics.

Enjoy the video this song is amazing live! If you are subscribe to get the updates of my blog to your email (which I doubt) sorry if you get tree emails a day, but I really need to practice for my test and this is the best way.

Peace!


The name is Pearl And The Beard

Sin Título

Cuando observamos de cerca aquello que nos da la vida, ese aliento que a veces parece faltarnos, ese destello que nos da recuerdos, esa palabra que inspira... se nos olvidan ellos. Los otros. Y sí, es una necesidad olvidarlos, hacerlos a un lado, disfrazarlos, taparlos con arquitecturas ilusorias y paredes de justificaciones políticas, religiosas o hasta históricas. No, Los otros siguen ahí, y nuestro camino cada vez está más cerca. Se ensancha y se ensancha la vereda que nos hará compartirlo todo, que nos hará renunciar a la discriminada costumbre de alejarnos, disminuyendo al otro, pecando de superioridad sólo porque hablamos un idioma más que el de nuestra madre. Ellos hablan 5, a veces 6 lenguas distintas; ellos tienen un lenguaje directo con dios, tienen acceso a la tierra y la saben mejor, son ellos los inventores de la agricultura sustentable, del pan, de la tortilla, del frijol. La grieta que nos divide es aquel aliento que nos falta, que a ellos los mata, es pues por eso que me entrego, me entrego a esa diferencia, me declaro inepta... soy suya, soy para ellos, soy para los otros, soy de los de abajo, soy a la izquierda porque ellos son a la izquierda. Renuncio a mi nombre, renuncio a mi placer de media clase, renuncio o muero, ya no hay de otra.