Chilean culture

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By Benjamin Martin, Chile 

The Chilean culture is so rich in different areas like food, dances, myths, etc.

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First of all I want to talk about the delicious food of Chile. In Chile we eat things like the “Pebre”, the Pebre it’s a seasoning of tomatoes with chopped onion, chili, coriander, and chives. Usually served in a little clay dish or  you can put the pebre on the food that you are eating at this moment.

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Another typical food of Chile are the “Sopaipilla”, a Sopaipilla it’s  a flat circular deep fried ‘bread’ made of pumpkin and flour. This food normally its eaten in the winter period because the sensation that this “bread” leaves you is so awesome, the body like it gets hot immediately, and that is the felling that you need in winter time.

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One of the most recognized drinks in Chile is the “Mote con Huesillo”, this wonderful drink is cooked dried peaches and stewed corn served as a drink, this drinks usually drinks in summer, because this drink makes you feel a little bit more fresh inside of you.

 

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The famous dance in Chile is called “Cueca”; this dance is a parody of the courtship of a chicken and rooster. The dancers wave handkerchiefs above their heads during the dance. These handkerchiefs can symbolize the feathers of the bird or the rooster’s comb. The choreography (movements) of the Cueca consists of circles, moving in semicircles back and forth (known as half-moons), and turning towards the partner and then away and repeat those steps all over again. The men wears a Chilean cowboy hat, shirt, flannel poncho, riding pants, short jacket, riding boots, and spurs and the women wears a flowered dress with an apron. In fact they are another type of Cueca called “Cueca Brava”.

 

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This myth originates from an island called Chiloe which is located in the south of Chile, this myth it’s related with the quantity of fish that the see are going to have. Basically if  she dances facing the sea then the people of Chiloe will be happy as this ensures that the sea is brimming with fish and seafood. However, if she dances facing the mountains, the opposite happens and the food from the sea will be few and far between as it becomes infertile. The people of Chiloe then call for her to return so that once more they can have fish and seafood to feast on.

 

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In conclusion, it could be said that the culture of Chile is so rich and different in so many areas, originating a diversity of beliefs and new theories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barack Hussein Obama

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By Giulia Bamberger, Germany

Barack Hussein Obama is an American politician who is a member of the Democratic Party. As a candidate for the office of the president, Obama won the first preliminary elections in Iowa, 2007. He was the first Afro-American president in America.

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961. Two years after his birth, his parents were divorced. After this happened, Obama moved with his mother to Jakarta, Indonesia. There, he went to an Indonesian state school.

In 1971, he went back to Hawaii and went to a private school. There he finished high school with honors.
After he was at Occidental College in L.A, for two years, he traveled to Columbia University in New York. In 1983, he received his Bachelor of Arts in political sciences.
In 1985, he traveled to Chicago and decided to study law at Harvard Law School. He took his final examination at Harvard in 1991. After that, he went back to Chicago and worked as an advocate for civil rights.

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Barack Obama as a child with his mother Stanley Ann Dunham

Obama entered into state politics in Illinois in 1992. He started a campaign for the mobilization of Afro-American electors. By this campaign, he mobilized 150,000 electors. Four years after that, he was elected into the Illinois state senate by the southern constituency. There he took on the leadership for public health service and welfare.
In this legislative period, he supported working-class families and homosexuals. Furthermore, he succeeded with new remedies for AIDS research.
In his second legislative period, 2002, he required the police to use a body cameras and worked further at a health insurance system, which he succeeded.
In the year 2004, Obama gained acceptance in the preliminary elections without problems because of many political personalities that helped him and the two biggest Chicago newspapers.
Obama began his first period in office in the American Senate in 2005. He used a lot of time for training into his position. In the following two years, Obama was one of the most active politicians. He succeeded with 152 decisions.

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Barack Obama with the former President of Germany Joachim Gauck

Barack Obama always was against the Iraq war and against the politics, which George W. Bush operated in this regard. He wanted a gradual withdrawal of the troops from Iraq, which ended after 16 months. Obama wanted to diplomatically counter conflicts with Iran in international cooperation.

After the election in 2017, where Donald Trump won the presidency, he had to move out of the White House with his wife Michelle and his two children Malia Ann (19 years old) and Natasha (16 years old).

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Barack Obama with his family in the White House

By Giulia Bamberger, Germany

Hamburg – The Most Beautiful City in Germany

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By Frauke Sindt, Germany    

If you ever travel to Germany, you have to go to Hamburg. The city at the waterside. The city with the musicals. The city in which everything goes slower and easier.

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One of your first trips in Hamburg should be to the harbor. Go to the “landing pier” with its floating pontoons. Hamburg is truly unique. The small restaurants, shops and bars directly on the water are floating and so it not affected by the ebb and flow. If you love fish, you should go there for lunch. What you can also do there is a boot tour. So you can see the city from another perspective. You will traverse the harbor, the warehouse district and you will drive by the new Hamburg’s Elbe Philharmonic. You will see the city from another perspectiv and have a special view of it.

Near the harbor there is the symbolic St. Michael’s Church in Hamburg. The viewing platform can be reached on foot over 453 steps or by an elevator. On the top of the tower you have an amazing view over the harbor and the city.

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If you want to have the chance to travel to hundreds of places in less than 10 hours, you have to go to the “Miniatur Wunderland”. There are buildings of many places from all over the world in miniature. If you want to get a better impression of the miniature world, check out this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkmg3Y64_s

Portugiesenfest

After a long day in a wonderful city, the stomach announces itself towards evening. For dinner, you should definitely go to the “Portuguese Quarter”. There are many small restaurants with Portuguese food. Enjoy an evening with a good meal and a glass of wine.

The nightlife in Hamburg is not only St. Pauli with his “Reeperbahn”. With all the bar and clubs. It is the “red light district” of Hamburg and known worldwide. Not everybody likes it. For all the other people who do not like to stay there, Hamburg has many other possibilities. You can also enjoy a evening at one of the musicals like “The Lion King”. There are lot of bars, restaurants and clubs in the other quarters.

Enjoy your stay in Hamburg!

By Frauke Sindt, Germany

Expedition America

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Emma Andersson, Sweden

emma yoseExpedition America is a travel provider that works with staff from examples EF schools to plan and create packages for every people unique needs. The organization main goal is to create a memorable and safe experience for everyone. I went to the Yosemite Park with Expedition America and I liked it a lot. The guide was really good and gave us good information about everything.

Expedition America is a full service tour and offer trips that includes hotel accommodations, activities, event tickets, sightseeing and transportation.  The organization prioritizes safety and security and keeps sure that every guest has an enjoyable and safe experience.   As I mention before, the guide we had on our trip was very good and it’s because everyone who works for Expedition America must undergo a training progress with several interviews. It is a high standard of the staff and its zero tolerance policy!

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The travel provider offer trips to examples Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco and Yosemite Park and a lot more. The Organization offers also their customers to create their own trips. You can choose between several options of sightseeing, theme parks, museum and shopping, as you want. While I was in the Yosemite Park, the guide took a lot of pictures that he shared and sent to the whole group later.emsi yose

From my own experience I liked it. We got a lot of free time and the guide was always available for our questions and helped us when we needed that. It was a long bus trip, took about 6 hours but Jeremy, our guide, made a Whats Up group that everyone could be a part in and decides together when we wanted to take a break or if we just wanted to ask any general questions.

Beauty 2.0

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By Natda Vongkhamchanh, Germany

 

What is beauty? That’s a question we have to ask ourselves before we start to discuss this topic. To be honest, it isn’t that easy to answer because everybody has his own imagination of beauty. Furthermore, it depends on where or in which time you live because it’s different in every country. Unfortunately, a common beauty ideal exists due to our generation of digitalization and media. We all know that being thin, tanned; having long hair, clear skin, big eyes and full lips are the accepted features of a beauty. While surfing on the internet, using different kinds of social media or just looking in some magazines, it’s remarkable how many advertisements and photos influences people in a negative way. They try to convey perfect looking women and men while using editing programs, for example Photoshop, to correct all the peoples flaws and delete everything they does not fit in the current beauty ideal. The following YouTube link will show you what is the impact of using Photoshop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUF2zbgBXwE

 

Even as a child we are confronted with a beauty ideal when we are playing with Barbies – a typical symbol for a perfect beauty. Little girls just look up to them and take them as an idol. Additionally, make-up plays a big role in a female society.

schonheitsideal-L-lrxkeRWomen try to hide their natural beauty behind make-up to feel accepted especially with men. What people mostly do not know is that there are also economic reasons that influence that industry. They try to encourage people to buy things to maximize their profits by convincing them that they feel more secure and more beautiful with their products. Furthermore,they manipulate us in an indirect way which we, and especially young people, do not recognize. The saddest part is that we can’t prevent it without feeling unaccepted by society. It seems like the only way we can fit in is when we fulfill the ideal.

 

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Not only women are affected by this problem but also men who feel pressure to achieve the “perfect” athletic body which leads to the fact that a lot of men get into an obsession with fitness. In some cases, they can’t stop taking several kinds of synthetic proteins or other pills to push themselves.

 

 

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All the things I mentioned can have a negative impact on young people, especially girls who try very seriously to attain those beauty ideals. Some try with normal sports and others with  diets, but in worst case, they do not allow themselves to eat and lose fat in unnatural ways.

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This easily leads to eating disorders or anorexia which means that these girls focus on avoiding calories by throwing up and/or excessive exercise. Their senses of themselves are distorted so they lose the relationship with reality. Furthermore, depression and self-harm can be a result of it.

 

But what to do about it? There aren’t instructions to avoid it but here is some advice which may help you. Just try to think about how advertisement really works. You have to make sure that a beauty ideal isn’t natural and only imagined. Just remember – NOBODY is perfect and that everybody is beautiful in their own way. It’s also good to remind yourself constantly about some of your own good features. Try to accept yourself the way you are and avoid comparing yourself with others because it’s in vain. Everybody looks different, so just accept yourself and love your body the way it is and you’ll find happiness.

There are some campaigns which support this viewpoint, for example the Dove ‘Real Beauty’ Campaign. They compare the typical beauty ideal with some realistic women with curves and as you can see the women on the bottom seem to be more happy than the Victoria’s Secret Models. They accept themselves and love their bodies how they are.

BEAUTY CAMPAIGN

Fairtrade Products

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By Esperanza Ortiz, Chile

FAIRTRADE PRODUCTS

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Fairtrade is an organization, whose products are made by companies who care about the right of industry workers and also about the product itself.

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Fairtrade products are made by workers with reasonable hours of work, as well as  kind and  good treatment of all the people who work there. These products are made in an pleasant environment by employers who aren’t exploited and are willing to work.

Moreover, fairtrade products are produced by small businesses, which suffer from economic problems, mostly because they are marginalised by conventional trading systems and big companies. The organization “Fairtrade International”  lends them money in order that the small business owners can sell and work for themselves. When one of the  businesses starts making money, it has the obligation of paying the money  back to The Fairtrade organization.

For that reason and because of the resonable salaries, Fairtrade products are more expensive. Paying more for Fairtrade products is totally worth it because you are saving yourself, your world, and industry workers. Besides it’s good for you and your health because the origin of the product you are buying is really important.
Nowadays there is a new thought which says that products can absorb energies. For example, if you buy something you are going to eat and it is made or harvested with machines or by tired, upset or mad people you are ingesting their bad energy.

For that reason, I’m sure that Fairtrade products are better than regular products for the buyer. Spending more money by buying Fairtrade products is not a waste. Also it’s a good cause for the world. The only way to end poverty in our world is by allowing poor people to earn money. If we continue supporting big companies, we are aiding  only a few businessman in our world who sell and earn tons of money while almost half of the population are poor consumers. That’s why by buying Fairtrade products we are helping tiny businesses and by doing that we are ending poverty.

Furthermore, Fairtrade products are good and necessary because they are making a difference. They respect workers and treat them nicely, which is something every single company should do. You never know, maybe someday you will have to become an industry worker, or  your kids. It is not fair that people who don’t have the opportunity of choosing where they want to work are forced to spend their lives working too hard and not been well paid. This is simply inhuman.  We have to support Fairtrade products so we help to grow the world’s economy and the health of buyers and producers.

 

California Cities

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By: Fahad AlOtaibi, Saudi Arabia.

 

California Cities

 

 

My first visit in California was so extraordinary; I arrived at the LAX airport on 22nd of July.a1 hollywood

I stayed in Los Angeles for a week and it was one of the best places that I’ve visited, I went to both Santa Monica and Venice beaches.

I loved Los Angeles for a lot of reasons which are Hollywood, palm trees, Beverly Hills, Melrose, the Grove, the weather and many more things.

 

After having fun and a good time in LA, I went to Santa Barbara to the EF School.a1 santa barbara

I loved many things in SB and they are the weather, the beaches, and so many nice people. I like to lie on the beach and drink my favorite soda with my friends.

EF school offers the students of the school plans on the weekend, wherever you want to go to.a1 las vegas

So, I went to the office and I got in the Las Vegas tour. It was so marvelous. It is a city that never sleeps, and I went into every hotel on the strip. They were so exciting.

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The two last places that I want to visit in California are San Francisco and San Diego. I must choose one of them because I do not have enough time to visit both.

 

Zero Waste Lifestyle

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By Lea Schagen, Germany

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Some of you may have already heard the term “Zero Waste Lifestyle” or at least you can image what it implies. There are people in today’s world, who refuse to produce waste. Sounds like a bad joke, doesn’t it? This is what I thought when I became aware with this topic for the first time, which was in class here at EF. We watched a Ted Talk about a pretty young woman who lives a zero waste lifestyle in New York City.

First of all, I would like to explain to you guys why this topic is so important for us.

Trash is intimately connected to every environmental problem we face today, from climate change and habitat destruction to water pollution and chemical exposure. This is no exaggeration, it is the ugly truth. All the trash we produce in our daily lives has to go somewhere after we throw it in the garbage, but, unfortunately, the majority just ignore this question. We produce tons of trash, especially plastic. For example, when we go to “Ralph’s” for our lunch, it will be packed in plastic, or when we brush our teeth before going to school, our toothpaste comes out of a plastic tube. Of course in the end, the packaging will be thrown into the garbage. Then it ends up at one of the numerous landfills or, even worse, it soils the ocean. This leads to the deaths of millions of animals and destroys our ecosystem by polluting the water. Moreover, a lot of CO2 as well as other dangerous gases are produced while manufacturing the plastic packaging etc, as well as in the process of “recycling” or burning trash because there is no more space at the landfills.

A turtle is caught in a fishnet trap. The Rainbow Warrior is in the Mediterranean for a three month expedition “Defending Our Mediterranean”. Greenpeace is calling for the creation of marine reserves in the Mediterranean Sea, as part of a global network covering 40% of our seas and oceans.

From my point of view that it is an important issue, especially for young people, like us as EF students, because we want to enjoy our green planet our entire lifetime. For this reason we have to start today! It won’t change anything if we are not going to start with ourselves!

At this point I come to young Lauren Singer (26, NYC)

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She was an Environmental Studies major in college and has always been interested in the environment, but then she experienced some moments through which she became aware of how much trash she produces every day. That led to the decision for Lauren to live a zero waste lifestyle.

On her blog http://www.trashisfortossers.com/p/the-steps.html the young women explains that “To me, Zero Waste means that I do not produce any garbage. No sending anything to landfill, no throwing anything in a trash can, nothing. However, I do recycle and I do compost”.

It sounded definitely far-fetched for me in the first moment and I guess most of you would think the same now, but, according to Lauren Singer, there are only two steps needed to attempt a zero waste lifestyle. The first step is to evaluate, which means that we all should be more aware of the impact we have on the trash that is sent to the landfill every day. Furthermore, we should ask ourselves every day if we really need all this stuff to be happy., or if we would rather be even more happy by protecting our environment. Ok I can see that this sounds pretty idealistic. Anyway in my personal opinion is that this is a good start to at least begin thinking about the trash-issue our generation will have to deal with in the near future.

The second step Lauren mentions on her blog is transition, which means we should start to downsize and properly dispose of the unnecessary things. You need to be creative and start making your own toothpaste, for example, or start with easy actions like using a glass bottle to refill with water or taking your own bag to the grocery store instead of buying a new plastic bag every time.

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To put it in a nutshell, the intention of my article was to create interest for a zero waste lifestyle and first of all to make you as EF students more aware of the importance of reducing our waste. I have to admit that I wouldn’t be mentally strong enough to stop buying make-up, which unfortunately, is mostly packed in plastic. Nevertheless, I am sure we can have an positive impact only by facing the fact that trash is a problem which we need to be aware of in our daily life.

 

Chile

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by: Isidora Canas, Chile  

 

 

 

Abortion in Chile

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By Isidora Villagran, Chile

I want to start this article making it clear that all of the things written here are based on official news, mixed with my own opinion. The abortion is a topic widely discussed in these last days in my country because the Chilean Senate approved the decriminalization of abortion in 3 cases on August 21st.

“In an arduous discussion, the Senate dispatched by a narrow majority and in its last process the initiative to the flexibility the strict regulations and to allow the legalization of abortion in case the mother is in danger, if a fetus is not feasible or when the pregnancy is the result of a violation. Chile is currently one of the few countries in the world where abortion is illegal in all cases, in a sample of its conservative tradition.

The Chileans woman had to wait almost three decades to regain the right to choose if they interrupt their pregnancies in case their life is in danger, fetal unfeasibility and rape. In a historic ruling that has been followed and expected both by the authorities and as citizens, the Constitutional Court rejected Monday the requirements of the right-wing opposition that sought to paralyze one of the projects of the greater symbolism of the second government of Michelle Bachelet.”(http://www.lavanguardia.com/internacional/20170803/43297583830/chile-aprueba-historico-proyecto-despenalizar-aborto.html)

I want to explain a little bit about the 3 situations, so after they can be related to my point of view. (http://3causales.gob.cl/causales/)

1 Risk the woman life: When the life of the pregnant woman is at risk, one of the three causes of the bill that decriminalizes voluntary termination of pregnancy seeks to enable women to have access to the necessary medical treatments to preserve their lives, even when the same imply the interruption of the pregnancy.

2 Fetal Infeasibility: This causes that in cases where the embryo or fetus suffers from a congenital structural or genetic alteration of a lethal nature, the woman can decide whether or not to interrupt her pregnancy. Forcing the woman to carry out the pregnancy, or forcing her to wait for the death of the fetus, is to keep her in a permanent state of mourning.

3 Pregnancy due to rape: This reasoning establishes that the pregnancy can be interrupted when it is the result of a violation. In these circumstances, the bill states that if the woman who has been pregnant due to a rape, does not want to go ahead with the pregnancy, she can’t be required to continue it. What is proposed is that she has the possibility to decide and thus prevent a new denial of her will.

 

In my personal opinion, Chile, despite having made great progress with regard to the issue of abortion, there is still much more to do. Since we are in the year 2017, and only three cases have been approved, I think that already it is time for women in my country to have the right, duty and freedom to decide what they want to do with their lives and bodies without depending on what the government and state decide. We are one of the 7 countries in the world, in which free abortion is still not legal, due to the thoughts that this will increase abortions and deaths, as well as creating depression for mothers. But proven by experiments and figures, countries in which free abortion is legal, the number of abortions has not increased. The number of deaths from illegal abortions has decreased. Chile is considered an underdeveloped country, but I think that related to this topic, Chile is too traditional.

I do not think abortion is a positive process, but I support the choice that each person has the right to choose and evaluate their own.

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