What Do You Do To Prolong Your Lifespan?

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By Helene Messie, France

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A lot of people in the United States of America don’t eat healthily, there is a huge percent of obesity in this country. But one state is different from the others : California. A lot of Californian people want to have a perfect body and for that they eat healthy food. I have also to say that being healthy is not just to eat healthy and to do sport, no, it’s almost like a philosophy of life.

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Wednesday, the 21 of February, I went to State Street and to the EF school to ask people four questions. I talked with three persons : Dan, an EF student; Jessica, a native English speaker and Carolina, a women I met on State Street.

The first question: What do you eat in the morning?

In the morning, Dan eats French toast with butter and drinks water. He is an athletic person. Jessica eat cereals and Carolina likes to eat bacon with eggs and pancakes with her coffee but not every day.

The second question : Do you think that you eat healthy food (that you eat healthily)?

Dan told me yes because for him it’s important. Jessica told me yes too and Carolina told me that she don’t really eat healthy. She doesn’t really give an importance to that.

The third question : Do you like to cook healthy recipes ?

Dan told me that he doesn’t really cook. Jessica said yes and Carolina said no because it doesn’t interest her.

Fourth question : If you had the choice between a soda and a fruit juice, what would you choose?

Dan and Jessica would choose the fruit juice and Carolina told me that for her, it depends of the time of the day.

• With this survey, I can say that Dan is an athletic teenager who isn’t really interested to have a healthy lifestyle but pays attention to what he eats. Jessica may be a healthy person who likes to cook healthy recipes and Carolina isn’t really interested to be a healthy person.

Let’s watch this short video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35qoEXCHIwM

This video shows us how to prepare healthy lunches really fast. Because sometimes, the reason why we don’t eat healthy food is that we miss time for the lunch. So now, no more excuses !

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A Flood Channel as a Home?!

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By Jasmin Maucher

The first thing that you think about Las Vegas is the city of the million lights, the gambling capital of the world,  luxury hotels, show girls and having fun. It is a city full of glamour and extravagant individuals. The image created by films like “Hangover” or “What Happens in Vegas”  is definitely true!

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But the city has two faces. There exists another side of that extreme-loving city, a side away from all that glitter, that is also true. What we don’t think or don’t want to think about is that an estimated  9,432 homeless people live in Las Vegas, 300-400 in makeshift homes of the colorlessness and darkness of the long flood tunnels. Do they choose this life or do they have no control?But why should any human being want a life of poverty, the cold, filth, loneliness and lack of comfort?

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Most of them got into that situation because of drug abuse, unemployment and run ins with the law.  But the opinion of a lot of people working in charity organizations is that, if you want to get out of this dire situation, you can make it. There are a lot of organisations that try to give them a hand out of the tunnels into a new life. They try to give them shelter, medical help, social assistance…. in short, a second chance in life. So why don’t they want to change their situations?

Well, perhaps it takes too much effort or their self-confidence has shrunk to a minimum. Lots of them might have no perspective, no hope. Some of them also want to live that life to escape  from the social obligations. They want to live a life where they don’t have to wake up very early, go to work, behave like they have to behave to be a member of our society. They don’t want to have to fit into a pattern.

Some even say that they have some privacy, and strangely, a sense of security. Most of them also say that the live in the tunnel system isn’t as bad as they expected. People sometimes get so comfortable down there, that they even forget they’re living in a flood channel. They receive food stamps so they have enough to eat and they don’t have to pay a rent, which is very expensive in Las Vegas.

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So is it  a self-built prison or a kind of freedom? People nowadays work so hard for a future in which they don’t have to work and can do whatever they want to do during the day…Can you compare that freedom? I don’t know! Our contribution to make those lives a bit brighter might be to make them feel more accepted and treat them in a respectful manner,not like a leper. Most people avert their view when they pass by a homeless person. Why do they do that? Why do you do that? Give them a smile! Make eye contact! Talk to them! It can be so easy!

Olympic Games History

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Tom Lumiere ,  France

The Ancient Olympic Games were religious and athletic festivals held every four years at the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, a city of Greece. Competition was among representatives of several city-states and kingdoms of Ancient Greece. These Games featured mainly athletic, but also combat sports, such as battle and the pankration, horse and chariot racing events. It has been generally written that during the Games, all conflicts with the participating city-states were suspended until the Games were finished. This cessation of hostilities was known as the Olympic peace or accord. This idea is a modern illusion because the Greeks never suspended their wars

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The modern Olympic Games (French: Jeux olympiques) are best international sporting events presenting summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world’s principal sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. The Olympic Games are adhered every four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by developing every four years but two years apart.

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Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games. Baron Pierre de Coubertin (French) founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, principal to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure and authority.

Pierre de Coubertin

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The reason why I choose is that since I was young, I have been

going to every summer Olympic Games: ‘Athens in 2004, Beijing in  2008, London in 2012, Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and I will go to Tokyo in 2020’ .

 

 

Dogs for People with Challenges

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By Luca Wislsperger, Germany

For many years people had to go through difficulties and had to struggle with doing certain tasks or activities by their own, but now they can have a support dog.

Emotional support dogs are dogs that provide comfort and support in forms of affection and companionship for an individual suffering from various mental and emotional conditions. An emotional support dog is not required to perform any specific tasks for a disability like service dogs are. They are meant only for emotional stability and unconditional love.

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There are 2 different types of support dogs:

One kind is the emotional support dog which can assist with various kinds of mental and emotional conditions like anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder/mood disorder, panic attacks, fear/phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal thoughts/tendencies.

The Therapy dog which provides affection and comforts to individuals in hospitals and nursing homes. It is also used, as you can guess, for therapies so the clients have certain lessons together with these dogs to cure different types of diseases.

The second one is the service dog that is helpful for people which are limited by their disabilities so they function as an assistant for performing a normal life.

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Have you thought of making your dog a service, therapy or emotional dog?

Some people say that the dog is the humans’ best friend. Whether or not this is true, it is certainly a fact that dogs can provide a lot of help and companionship for those with disabilities. If you have been wondering how to make your dog a service dog, an emotional support dog, or a therapy dog, there a lot of companies like “USA Service Dogs” that help you to train your dog to these kind of assistant.

Here is a link to a website where you can train your own dog: https://zoomroom.me/portal/own-your-own-zoom-room/?utm_campaign=1045189562&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=247365016752&utm_term=%2Bown%20%2Bdog%20%2Btraining&adgroupid=58184426624

How much does a service dog cost?

The price range for a service dog can be anywhere from $3,000 to train it personally to as much as $35,000 if you use a popular and expensive organization.

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It generally takes 1–2 years to train a service dog. The dog must be trained to mitigate your disability and must behave appropriately in public to avoid being removed. This means there are two main facets of service dog training: first of all public access behaviors and secondly disability-related work and tasks.

Rescue Dogs:

There is also another type of support dog. It is used for environmental catastrophes like the heavy mud slides in Montecito the previous month.

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For this disaster the firefighters use highly trained search dogs, most of them were schooled by the “National Disaster Search Dog Foundation”, located in Santa Paula.

It’s a private non-profit organization where the dogs are trained for about 8-10 months. Afterwards they can tell you if a body is either still alive or dead. Furthermore, they can differ between a live body and fresh clothes. The dogs which are only trained to detect dead bodies are called “cadaver dogs” or “HR” which stands for human remains dogs.

Tomorrowland Festival : All about Unity

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Gladys Lebrun, Belgium

You probably never know the real meaning of “enjoying yourself” before experiencing the electro music festival “Tomorrowland.” Belgium sure is a small country, but definitely full of resources, and as far as the fun is concerned, Belgian people know what they are talking about. Everything is made for you to spend a really good time during the four days and the festival takes place in July. So if you are lucky, the weather can be really good in Belgium these days.

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What is it?

Tomorrowland is one of the biggest festivals in the world. With over 180,000 people, every country is represented in this festival. This is the real thing about it, you feel like you’re taking part in something bigger. With over 12 stages, the festival is open from Friday until Sunday and from noon until 1 am. So, you will definitely never get bored. DJs from all around the world come to Belgium to meet an eclectic public, for example : David Guetta, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Avicii or Tiesto for the most famous, but the festival welcomes also less famous DJs, like the young Henri PFR well known in Belgium.

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“Yesterday is history, Today is a gift, Tomorrow is a Mystery”, this is the slogan of the famous electro music festival Tomorrowland and it’s a pretty good summary of the state of mind of the people coming to this festival : Just enjoy the moment.

Why do you absolutely have to go there?

Definitely to have fun and enjoy some time with your friends, but, the best of all, is that you will have so many crazy stories to tell. Because anything can happen at Tomorrowland, everything is possible. When I was at the Tomorrowland festival for the first time, I was so excited to experience it because it’s a really big event in my country, Belgium. So many people come from all over the world just to appreciate the music. It was so crazy to meet people from different cultures. I met a Brazilian guy and when I asked him “Are you enjoying the festival?” He just answered “I’m having the best time of my life “. That’s why every fan of music should experience this festival because anybody on earth can have fun there.

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Furthermore, most people camp during the five days just outside the festival area. Even there, there’s a lot of ways to enjoy yourself because the party keeps going after the festival. The facilities are also great. There’re shops, a supermarket, a radio station, a hairdresser and so many places to eat food from different countries. This is the perfect spot to meet new friends to enjoy the festival with.

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The only thing wrong with Tomorrowland is that the tickets are sold out in 30 minutes so you have to be very lucky to get the chance to go in the Festival. I’ve been there twice but only the years where there were two weekends instead of one so obviously you had more chance to go. But never stop trying to go, I swear, it worths the wait.

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Finally, I will share with you some of my best memories at the festival.

 

 

15 Question Interview with an EF Student

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  1. If you could drink only one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

– Water.

  1. What is your biggest goal in life?

– To be happy all my life.

  1. How old do you think our substitute teacher Kevin is?

– 28.

  1. What do you think you will be doing in 20 years?

– I think I will have a good job and my own family, and hopefully be married.

  1. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would that be?

– I think, in Spain.

  1. Who is the most important person to you?

– My sister.

  1. What makes you happy?

– The sun, going out with friends, my family, and eating.

  1. What makes you sad?

– If I see other people being sad or unhappy.

  1. Who is your biggest inspiration?

– My grandmother.

  1. Do you have any big regrets in life?

– My ex-boyfriend.

  1. Why did you come to Santa Barbara?

– Because I wanted to learn English in a sunny place and I heard a lot of good things  about Santa Barbara.

  1. What do you talk about to avoid awkward silence?

– Always asking the other person questions.

  1. Where is the best place to spend a Saturday night?

– In a good club.

  1. What would be the first thing you bought if you won 10 million dollars?

– A car and a house.

  1. What is important in a best friend?

– That you can always go back to the same person, knowing that she would never abandon you.

Oktoberfest

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by Jasmine Jacobs, Germany

 

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Oktoberfest is the world largest and most popular folk festival in the world. A folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music. It is located in Munich, in Germany. Every year over 6 million people from all over the world come to Munich to be a part of it.

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One of the most popular traditions is the first draft from a freshly tapped cask of beer. This tradition signals the start of Oktoberfest.

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On one day you can see the splendid carriages of the Munich breweries. Every spectacular carriage is different and unique.

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It’s a 16-18 days folk festival. If you are over 18 years old you should visit the big tents. There you can listen to German folk music, drink the traditional beer and eat the traditional food. Warning: The beer is really expensive, it costs approximately $12.

There are 14 big and 15 small tents. In all these tents there is space for over 100,000  people. Every year all tents are completely full.

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To wear traditional German clothes is a fun part for all visitors. Women where a ‘Dirndl’, which is like a dress, and men wear leather trousers.

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This folk festival is not only a fun event for adults. In the outdoor area there is a huge range of fun activities for young people so it’s not necessary to visit a tent. You can have a lot of fun just being outside.

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7 German Foods You Have To Try

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By Kira Maria Wasserthal, Germany

My name is Kira. I’m from Germany. I have lived there since I was born for 19 years. I’m really into German food because it’s so delicious and multifunctional. So I think everyone should know something about our really good food.

  1. Pretzel

In Ge1rman you don’t say “Pretzel” you say “Bretzel” with a long “e”.

A Pretzel is a type of baked bread product made from dough most commonly shaped into a twisted knot. It also has salt on it. Salt is an important part of the Pretzel because with salt it tastes way better than without.

      2.Käsespätzle

Käsespätzle is my favori2te food here in Germany. Käsespätzle are a kind of soft egg noodle scalloped with cheese. You also put fried onions on it. This tastes so good!

For really good flavor you have to make the noodles by hand. It’s really easy.

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3. Sauerkraut

“Sauerkraut is finely cut cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria. It has a long shelf life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid that forms when the bacteria ferment the sugars in the cabbage.” This is the definition of Sauerkr6.aut from Wikipedia.

But I have to say that Sauerkraut isn’t really good food for everybody. To be honest I don’t really like it because I just don’t like the taste of it. But some people really love it. So you have to choose for yourself!

      4. Weisswurst

Weisswurst is typical Bavarian food. In the part of Germany where I live (Hessen), it’s not as common to eat Weisswurst like it is in Bavaria. But when I go to Munich (it’s the capital of Bavaria) I always e7.at it because it’s soo good!

I would say Weisswurst is similar to the normal Bratwurst (sausage in English) because the form is the nearly the same, but it looks different. In the image below you can see how a sausage looks if you have never seen one before:

Grilled barbecue sausage

Weisswuerste are usually eaten as a mid-morning snack. They are made fresh every morning. It has a really mild taste. That’s why it’s also really popular for children.

5.Fleischkäse

The next one is “Fleischkäse”. You can also say “Leberkäse”. It consists of corned beef, pork and bacon a9.nd is made by grinding the ingredients very finely and then baking it as a loaf in a bread pan until it has a crunchy brown crust. You can also eat it with bread. I always eat it like this at school. It’s way better!

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    6. Schnitzel

Schnitzel is also a really typical food in Germany. Even though it’s originally from Austria (Wiener Schnitzel) it’s still popular in Germany. In every part of Germany!

German people often eat this with fries or with mashed potatoes. Some people ea11t Schnitzel without any dip. Some eat it with ketchup. It depends on your taste.

You can also eat your Schnitzel with different kind of sauces like cream sauce (then it’s called Rahmschnitzel) or mushroom sauce (then it’s called Jaegerschnitzel) and so on.  There are many different options.

      7. Schweinshaxe

A “Schweinshaxe” is a roasted ham hock. “The ham hock is the end of the pig’s leg, just above the 12ankle and below the meaty ham portion”.

It is especially popular in Bavaria! In my part of Germany it’s called “Eisbein”.
You can eat Schweinshaxe with “Knödel” or Sauerkraut.
Here you can see Knödel:

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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

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.

 

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