Month: August 2018

By Patrick Schnauffer from Stuttgart, Germany

Do you want to travel to paradise?

The Maldives are definitely the perfect destination for you

Located in the Indian Ocean the Republic of Maldives consists of several atolls with altogether 1,196 islands. On 220 of them. live the Maldivian citizens and 87 are for touristic purposes. Back in the past when the Maldives were under British occupation, the local people gained a living just with the fishing industry. This has changed in 1965 when the Maldives became an independent republic. Since this time, the importance of tourism has grown enormously, so that the country developed into one of the most significant travel destinations worldwide.

If you travel by plane, you will arrive in Male which is the largest and likewise the only “city” of the Maldives as well the capital of the country. Approximately one third of all the citizens who make this main island their home is quite crowded.

So, if you want to spend your vacation on a lonely island having the feeling of being apart from the rest of the world instead of experiencing city life, you can choose several types of accommodations located on the beautiful atolls spread around the capital island of Male.

Beginning from common hotels to the most luxurious resorts, you can barely imagine until you have visited them; there is a wide range of apartments that you can select from.

Typical for the Maldives are the resorts where you live in your own house out in the ocean which is built on wooden stakes. A private pool and direct access to the sea is included! Those apartments are connected to the main island of the hotel with a wooden footbridge so that it’s easy to reach the restaurants and SPA areas of your resort.

While spending your vacation on the Maldives, it never gets boring. You definitely should not miss diving in the Indian Ocean and exploring the amazing coral reefs all-round the atolls which provide unique flora and fauna waiting for you to be discovered. Moreover, it is quite worth it to rent a kayak and paddle to some lonely islands by having the chance to relax where you are the only one far away from mass tourism. Likewise, I would recommend to you a scenic sightseeing flight over all the Maldivian atolls.

Depending on the hotel you are staying in you are being offered the possibility to enjoy a dinner directly at the private beach of your hotel meanwhile watching one of the most beautiful sunsets you have very probably never seen anywhere else before.

So in my opinion, it is a perfect decision to travel to the Maldivian Republic because you got so many different things to explore on those amazing islands with its unique nature. Nowhere else in the world you will have that feeling of being definitely in paradise. So pack your suitcases now and book your unforgettable trip to this gorgeous country. I promise you won’t regret this decision!

Just have a look inside this travel destination by checking out the link below!!

Maldives Introduction Video

Santa Barbara has a lot of beautiful places to see. The city has a lot of enchanting streets and little corners to watch the Hispanic architecture. In downtown Santa Barbara  has the busy state street wit a lot of stores you can buy a lot of things, there is also a open mall calls Paseo Nuevo, sometimes the give performances. If you keep walking down you will find a lot of niece restaurants and you can eat some really good Mexican food. When you keep walking at the and of the street their is the big beach with a big harbor and a pier. the pier is really long and has a lot of sea food restaurants, there is a lot of life there and the view is beautiful. Outside of downtown Santa Barbara there are beautiful parks to go to like the botanic garden. Of course the ar also other fun things outside of downtown like museums, zoo, hiking and a lot more. Santa Barbara is also really good located in California you can easily move trough the state.

Written by: Gabriela Lli Albert                                                                                                             From The Netherlands

Before start speaking about gluten-free diets we should, first,  explain what gluten is. According to the Celiac Disease Foundation gluten is a general name for the proteins found in wheat, rye, barley and triticale – a cross between wheat and rye. Gluten helps foods maintain their shape, acting as a glue that holds food together. Gluten can be found in many types of foods, even ones that would not be expected.

But if Gluten is only a kind of protein found in some grains, such as the proteins found in other foods, why people had stopped eating it?  The reason is that gluten is bad for certain people. These people are gluten-sensitive or gluten-intolerant, which means their bodies produce an abnormal immune response when breaking down gluten during digestion. In other words, these people are allergic to gluten. About 18 million Americans have gluten sensitivity, according to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.

However, people without diagnosed celiac disease have started taking up gluten-free diets, clamming that their health had improved after they started doing it. In fact, according to the Mayo Clinic, 80 percent of people on gluten-free diets do not have a celiac disease diagnosis. Experts worry is, that going on these diets without explicitly needing to could be detrimental to a person’s health, as gluten-free foods are often nutrient-deficient. Dr. Refaat Hegazi, medical director for Abbott’s Adult Nutrition, says that going gluten-free can affect the body in many ways. Some like weight lost, nutrient deficiencies or even cognitive function.

After an awesome EF travel in Santa Barbara, I’ll move to LA for a week. My father has a friend in El Segundo, just in the south of LAX airport. He’ll welcome me in his house and I’ll be alone during the afternoon. I plan to go to hollywood, beverly hills, the famous venice beach and the santa monica pier.

I’ll see some baseball games, because i’m crazy about this sport!

Esther Broekhaar, The Netherlands

If you want to go to Los Angels, you can go with EF Activity. It was the nicest trip that I took.  My friends and I went on a day trip. At 8:45 a.m. I was standing in front of the Transfer Centre with backpack, ready to go!

After a two hours drive in the bus, we arrived at Venice Beach. We saw the beach, the famous skateboard park and the canals. I thought that the skateboard park was bigger. It was fun to see a lot of people skateboarding. There was also some spare time. My friends and I took a lot of pictures, ate ice cream,  bought a license plate with the name of Los Angeles.

The next stop was Beverly Hills. We walked through the expensive shopping street to the Beverly Hills sign. In the street, you will see a lot of expensive and beautiful cars. In Hollywood, there aren’t sirens from fire engines or ambulances. It is quiet in the city for the famous people. After a lot of pictures, we rode the bus to the Hollywood sign. At the top of the mountain, we had a view of the city. It was amazing to see the Hollywood sign. The sign was unfortunately too far away to take a good picture.

In the evening, we went walking over the Walk of Fame. We saw a lot of famous people’s names. I didn’t know that there were so many stars.  The whole street is full of stars. There was also some time for shopping and having dinner. I liked that there was so many people on the streets at night, that make the city more alive. At 7 p.m., the bus drove back to Santa Barbara.

It was an amazing day!

Charlotte Wossner, Switzerland

Since my first day here, I saw a lot of differences between the United States and where I live in Switzerland. I love both countries, but there is a lot of diversity.

First of all, the language. In Switzerland, we have four official languages : German, French, Italian and Romansch, but most of the people speak German or French.

In the US, most people only speak English and a lot of states also speak Spanish, like here in California.

My second difference is the education. In Switzerland, we have to go to school for at least 11 years. So, in the State where I live, we have 6 years of primary school, 3 years of secondary school and then we can choose between four different schools to continue or you can do an apprenticeship for 3-4 years. A lot of people don’t continue school and do an apprenticeship and don’t go to college and university. The universities in Switzerland are not as expensive as in the US.

I don’t know a lot about the American schooling system, but it’s quite different in Switzerland and I’m sure that I don’t have to get into the details, but they have k-12 school (High School), followed by college and University.

The third biggest difference is the store opening time. In Switzerland, the opening hours are not very long, from Monday to Friday usually from 8am to 6:30pm, on Saturday from 7:30am to 5pm and on Sunday, most of the stores are closed. Restaurants usually have a resting day and stop their kitchen service at 10:pm.

Howsoever, in the US, I was surprised to see that some of the shops are open 24 hours and this all the week ! This is great if you need something in a hurry or just want to do your shopping when nobody is around ! But personally, I couldn’t work with their working hours…

Despite these differences, both countries are amazing and I’m really happy that I had this opportunity to visit the United States I miss my home country, but I had an amazing time here in the United States !

Basel, Switzerland

Zurich, Switzerland

Grand Canyon, Arizona, United States

Bernou Hazelhoff Roelfzema, The Netherlands

Why would you want to buy vintage clothes or recycle your clothes? Here are some good reasons why.

1. Vintage clothes prevents the creating of more greenhouse gas
2. It conserves energy
3. It generates new materials
4. It is easy!
5. It is fashionable

1) Clothes are mostly made of organic material, meaning that it originates from natural sources and that it is biodegradable, but rubbish heaps are not giving the clothes enough oxygen to let the organic material break down. It will develop to anaerobic digestion. The progress will result in dangerous greenhouse gases, in a dump. The gases will go into the atmosphere, which will lead to the globing warming. When you recycle 100 million pounds of clothes it has an effect on the environment equivalent to removing 26,000-35,000 cars from the road.

2) The process of making clothes takes a lot of energy. Every item goes through  manufacturing process that uses a lot of electricity and water.

3) Clothes that aren’t suitable for reuse should still be recycled! Even if they are torn or stained, old clothes can be turned into wiping rags, insulation, paper, yarn, and more. It costs less to make these items from recycled textiles than virgin materials, saving both money and resources.

4) Even though you can’t put your clothes into your curbside-recycling bin, recycling them has never been easier. There are thousands of bins across the states, conveniently located by the places you frequent the most like schools, grocery stores, and strip malls so you don’t have to go out of your way to help the environment.

5) Vintage or second-hand clothes are also stylish. If you match some new and old clothes, or over sized clothes with skinny clothes you will have a cute outfit. You can just go crazy with it. It is all up to you. You will also help the environment.

I often go to thriftshops to buy second hand clothes because of the reasons above this. In my home country we have a few stores but also here in Santa Barbara you have a few nice ones. Some clothes do look really bad, but you need to just keep looking and you will find something.

Barbara Funicello, Italy

Have you ever thought to jump from a bridge tied to a rope? Would you leave your country and travel around the world?  How likely is that you would try food made from an animal you’ve never eaten before? If you would do any of these things, it means that you are and adventurous risk-taker and you seek excitement.

Anyway, not everybody here would be ready to venture into new experiences, especially the dangerous ones. In fact, people usually play it safe: they prefer to live in their routine, stay in their comfort zone and they don’t want to deal with something that is not familiar for them. Apparently, this attitude reduces the possibilities of negative consequences, but is it really good for us, or does it have some bad aspects?

Jean-Paul Sartre says that “to know what life is worth, you have to risk it once in a while“. He means that if we always avoid risks, our lives would become boring and monotonous. It may be harming our chances to improve and enrich ourselves. For this reason, sometimes it’s important to take a risk and try to exceed our limits little by little.

Furthermore, many studies demonstrated that taking risks helps people to develop skills like creativity, confidence, problem-solving, perseverance. Instead, dull people can’t be versatile, able to adapt to different situations and face problems to find good solutions.

On the other hand, it’s better not to do dangerous activities to excess for our health and security. Everyone should strike a reasonable balance appreciating the importance of risk-taking in a sensible way, just to spice our lives up a little bit and make them more interesting.

In my life, I always try everything new because every experience teaches me something and helps me to grow up. My last adventure was to decide to come here, in Santa Barbara, far from my country, from my family and my friends. It was a hard decision since I came here alone, but I put fear aside. I’m going to leave this Sunday and I can definitely say that it was great: I met new friends from all over the world, I learned a lot about myself and I saw beautiful places. I simply recommend to everyone to dive into life.