My Summer Vacations

My Summer Vacations

Well, my summer vacations started on June 6 of the current year, when I went to my friends to the Laguna de Apoyo and then we went to Granada. After that, we followed different plans for our vacations. On June, I went out A LOT with my friends: We went to Moods, Broder, El Karaoke, The Reef and we also went out to have dinner or lunch. My mom always said that I was a bum because I was never home and all I did was to go out and party; nevertheless that was not all I did during June, on June 21 I went to Costa Rica with my sister on a road trip, which was really nice because I don't really have a good relationship with her and in this trip we grew closer to each other and we developed a better relationship. In Costa Rica, what we enjoyed the most was THE FOOD! Because in Costa Rica, there are a lot of American franchises which are not present in Nicaragua, therefore we took advantage of that. The place we visited the most, I would say, was Starbucks. Literally, we went to Starbucks each and everyday more than one time a day, specially because we are both complete coffee addicts, also, we went to Wendy's and Tony Roma's a lot. 

We came back to Nicaragua on July 6, and when we came back I had an accident in which I injured my meniscus, a cartilage located in the knee. I didn't give it a lot of importance and then on my birthday, July 14 when I went to Moods I guess I damaged my knee once again and this made me go to the hospital the next day to get my knee checked. I had to wear a cast and crutches until the day before we entered school, and I asked the doctor to take it off before because I would get too tired if I wore a cast and crutches during school, since I have to walk a lot and carry many heavy books. So, right now, I can't really do many things with it right now. Right now I am really sad because many of my friends are leaving soon to go to college, and I think that that is the saddest thing about my summer, specially because my best friend is leaving within a week.

I would say it was a good summer, but it was not the best because of my knee. I just hope that my next summer will be better because it will be one of my lasts summers since the school year after that one I will be a senior. I recently started school a couple of days ago and I can already feel the pressure of junior year, specially because I'm taking 3 AP Classes and 2 Pre-AP classes; add that stress to the stress of the SAT and to find the right colleges to add my college list for next year and that makes a really stressful year, nevertheless, I think I will do just fine. 

The Black Death

The Black Death was the most devastating disease during human history and it occurred during the Renaissance. It was an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague which is caused by the bacteria Yersinia Pestis. It was originated in China and was passed on by merchants who crossed the Silk Road until it got to Russia. Later on, this disease was all over Europe. The Black Death killed a 60 percent of Europe's population, which is a big number considering the population at the time. It took 150 years for the population to recover. 


The disease started all because people were not so clean at the time. Fleas carry the bacteria, fleas were on rats and people didn't care about rats at the time, they let them walk over their food, etc, and just didn't care. At first huge buboes appeared over the neck and under the armpits, later on large black spots appeared on the arms, legs, and the rest of the body. When these dark spots appeared it was sure you were going to die. Bocaccio describes the symptoms of the plague vividly: "In men and women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumours in the groin or armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg...From the two said parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere, now few and large, now minute and numerous. As the gavocciolo had been and still was an infallible token of approaching death, such also were these spots on whomsoever they showed themselves." 

The Characteristics of the Renaissance

Renaissance means "rebirth". This is a cultural movement that took place from the 14th to the 17th century. It began in Italy and it later on spread to the rest of Europe. Some characterisctics of this movement is that painters stated using perspective on ther work. Also, there was an educational reform. People were more humanisctic and the idea of the "Renaissance Man" was developed. A "Renaissance Man" was someone who was good at everything he did. In the religious point of view since people started being more humanistic there was a backdrop in christianity, there were less believers. People were aware of the change, everybody knew that eveything was different. Leonardo DaVinci and Michaelangelo are the two most famous painters of the Renaissance. The made magnificent paintings with perspective. Michaelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sixtine Chapel and Leonardo DaVinci is best known for The Mona Lisa. It has been known that The Mona Lisa was originally a self-portrait of Leonardo but then he decided to make her a woman. There are many curious things about Leonardo's paintings: in most of them, there is always somebody pointing up.

As said before, the Renaissance started in Italy and it spread slowly through Europe. The invention of the printing press allowed this to happen much faster. After Italy, it spread to Italy's neighbor country, Portugal. It arrived because of Italian merchants. After Portugal, it got to Spain, it first started in the city of Valencia and then to the rest of Spain. Then, the renaissance got to Northern Europe, and change here was so significant that it was called the Northern Renaissance. In Englad the greatest change it had was in the English literature. As an example of this there is William Shakespeare, one of the greatests poets in history. Later it spread to Germany and Hungary at lastly it got to Russia. The Renaissance affected Russia in many ways, but mainly in architecture. Prince Ivan the II introduced this type of architecture to the Russians. And a Russian monk was the first to make Russian Vodka.

How does technology impact your everyday life?

Technology has become something very important in our everyday life. Everyday, whether we know it or not, we use technology in our life. Some people have become dependant on technology. I can relate to this because I use my cell phone all day long, and when I don't have it I just need it. We use computers for everything, to save information, to make researchs, to watch videos, to socialize, etc. Humans have just become dependant on technology. Iphones, iPads, iPods, computers, Blackberries, etc. I'm sure that most people own at least one of the things I mentioned before and that's because we thing that we need these things to be happy and to be productive people.

Qur’an

The Qu'ran is the religious book of the muslims. This book was verbaly revealed to Muhammad by the angel Jibreel through 28 years and was later on writen down. Muhammad and his followers memorized the Qur'an and used to recite it amongst themselves and other people or to tell other people about Allah. There are many rewards in reciting the Qur'an and there are some stories in the book that are very important to most muslims because they are of great moral values.

Link :)

Ramadan

Most muslims fast during the sacred month of Ramadan, I used to think that they only did this but they don't. I read an article which described what muslims did on this month. Other than fasting, they make a special night prayer and including reciting the Qur'an. Also this is called the month of patience and for those who are patient the reward is Heaven according to the article. It also said that by doing good deeds that come from the heart on this month, that will be rewarded on Heaven and if muslims are not good people during this month and don't do their obligations they will be punished with 70 obligations in another time. As I said before, muslims fast during this month, they can't eat nor drink anything while there is still light, when the sun goes down they have a great feast commemorating que holy month of Ramadan.

Click here for the article. :)

The roots of Islamic terrorism

I was on the New York Times web page and saw an interesting article about muslim terrorism. This article talked about how Islam encourages people to atc violently but at the same time to atc peacefully. The Koran says that no religion shall have fighting but it also says that he who doesnt die in battle dies as an unbeliever. Mohammad, The Prophet expanded the Islamic religion through military conquest and died in battle. Al Qaeda mixed many ideologies into one in which terrorism seems "good". I think that this is wrong, if you are to expand a religion you should do it with love not with military conquest and submission. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/27/opinion/27iht-edpabst.html