ALMATHNA -SAUDI ARABIA 

Trees provide breathable air, timber, fuel, food, shelter, medicine and beauty. Without trees, we could not live. They can help us think better — Plato and Aristotle did their best thinking in the olive groves around Athens, Buddha found enlightenment beneath a bo tree, and Isaac Newton realised his theory of gravity when an apple fell from the tree under which he was sitting — and they can help us feel better.

Many of today’s pharmaceuticals are derived from trees. Aspirin comes from willow bark; yews are the source of Taxol, used in the treatment of some cancers; ginkgo biloba improves circulation; tea tree oil is beneficial for skin infections; cinchona tree bark contains quinine, the basis of many anti-malarial drugs; and Pycnogenol, which protects against deep vein thrombosis, is made from pine tree bark.

the tree give us a clean air and a clean place and it make the place more nice the leaf when we see it it give us a good feeling and how are the life beatifull 

Mariana / Uruguay

“Life is a play that does not allow testing. So, sing, cry, dance, laugh and live intensely, before the curtain closes and the piece ends with no applause” said Charles Chaplin one time. Since I was a 15-years-old girl, this quotation has made me think about how to live my life to the fullest, enjoying every single moment. Even if I had to study all the weekend instead of having free time because I understood that if is it your choice, you have to do your best although it may not be easy.

But, why the hell am I talking about this? Maybe another question can help: Why would someone go out of her comfort zone? Why would I leave my happy and ordinary life to live for a while in another, completely different country alone? I mean, “alone”. Let me explain to you from the beginning.

I am always thinking about my future, my projects. Last year, I was finishing my degree in civil engineering in Uruguay and also planning to move with my boyfriend this year, when  this opportunity came to light. It was about living for one and a half months in Santa Barbara taking English classes at EF. I thought it was the moment to say “yes” and I could not have made a better decision.

I am going to talk about my experience emphasizing the amazing Cultural Exchange you can have sharing your mores, customs and culture and asking and being interested in each single little detail that is part of a different country in the world. It’s incredible how everyone thinks that his country is “normal”, and it makes me wonder “what is normal?” “for who?”.

We are so absorbed in our reality that it is difficult to open our minds to the world. In Santa Barbara, I stayed in a house sharing my bedroom with a French girl first and then with a Japanese girl. My  host family was a couple, Marietta from Philippines and Billy from U.S.A. Also, there was an Italian man staying there. Then, we were five people from countries with different native languages. Amazing!

 

Not only did we learn a bit of each language, but I also gained an understanding of their lifestyles, their traditions, their countries. For example, in Italy they drink expresso coffee. It is stronger than the American. Italian people are very proud of their country.  About France, I don’t know if I actually learnt so much, but I spent lots of time with my roomie trying to say some easy phrases or pick up lines in French, and it was very funny. Also, we were attempting to translate and explain some expressions and idioms which are amusing in our own countries.

 

From Namiki (Japanese girl), just the day I met her, I felt the strong need to know about her language seeing that Google’s Translator didn’t translate her name in the right way. They have three types of writing: hiragana, katakana and kanji; they can use any one of these and it’s okay, or at least that is what I understood.     

In my class, I have mates from Austria, South Korea, Germany, France, Spain, Argentina and Chile. Also, I met people from Brazil, Hungary, Switzerland, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, etc.; so I am going to talk about some interesting things that I learnt about these countries.

In Switzerland, your first language depends on which part are you from; it could be French, German, Italian or Romansh. The most incredible thing is that there are just eight (8) million people! There are lots of work and there is no homeless! I met one girl from this country who not only speaks German for the reason that she belongs to this part of the country, but also she speaks Spanish and Dutch because of her parents’ origins. Also, I met a Swiss guy who speaks Italian and his parents are from Serbia. I had the pleasure of listening to the passionate story about this little country which has been in war almost always. Adding two different interesting things, people from Switzerland kiss three (3) times each time the say hello, and they don’t have one person who represents their country like a president, instead of that there is a group of people.

The most different culture is from South Korea, I think. Firstly, they have two ages, one from their country and the other is the international one. They are 1 year old when they are born and, on the other hand, they change their age the first day of  each year. I mean, everybody who was born in the same year has the same age no matter when his true birthday is. Another thing that caught my attention was that every man who is over 20 years old has to be in the army for at least one (1) year to be prepared for a possible war against North Korea.

What can I say about Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Spain and all the other Spanish-speaking countries? Maybe I didn’t really learn about them, but it was fascinating that, despite speaking the same language, we have a pile of words with different meanings and uses. It is really funny. Besides, each person has her own accent. It is wonderful that the same language is so varied and versatile.

To sum up, I didn’t even tell the half of what I experienced, what I learnt in Santa Barbara. My mind was astonished by every little different thing I saw, I heard, I smelled, I tested, I felt. It was an excellent experience. It made me wonder if it would be good to have another experience like this, maybe larger, around the world. And the answer was very simple: Why not?

 

By Jasper van Heest and Linda Sandberg, The Netherlands & Sweden

Los Angeles, the City of Angels.  In Los Angeles, you will find a lot of restaurants, from cheap ones to really expensive and luxurious ones. It depends on what you want to eat, but you can find everything you wish for.

In this article, we will discuss our favorite restaurants from affordable ones to some more expensive ones.

Catch LA

$$$$$ – Catch LA is a really expensive, exclusive and luxurious restaurant located in West Hollywood,  8715 Melrose Avenue. They mostly serve seafood. A lot of celebrities visit this restaurant. If you would like to have dinner here, you need to make a reservation in advance. The vibe here is really chill and luxurious at the same time. We recommend the mushroom pasta and the truffle fries.

In our opinion, this restaurant deserves 5 stars because of the mix between good food, drinks and a nice atmosphere.

 

 

 

Tao LA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

$$$$- Tao LA is located at Selma Avenue in Hollywood. It is a really nice and exclusive Asian restaurant with a lot of different kinds of food and cocktails. This restaurant is pretty expensive. You should make a reservation in advance. This restaurant has a relaxed and lush vibe as well. It feels like you have a lot of privacy here because it is really dark inside of the restaurant and it has a mysterious atmosphere .

We really like this restaurant even though it is expensive. We think that the place deserves 5 stars and we can highly recommend that everyone should try the tuna and also the Moscow Mule, if you are over 21 of course.

 

Cecconi’s Los Angeles

 

$$$ – Cecconi’s Los  Angeles is located at 8764 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood. This is a really pleasant and laid-back restaurant. You can find different kinds of Italian food like pizza and pasta, and they also have a really nice bar that you can enjoy. The people who work here are very friendly and help you with everything you need. This is also a location where many celebrities go for dinner so, if you are lucky, you can spot one.

We recommend the pizza here, and we gladly give the restaurant 4 stars, because its a really good restaurant with good service and food, but it has nothing unique and, compared to the restaurants above, it is not 5 star quality food.

 

 

Beauty & Essex Los Angeles

$$$ – Beauty and Essex  is located at 1615 Cahuenga Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028. This restaurant is one of our favorites in Los Angeles. They have a lot of different types of food, from Asian to traditional American. Something we really like about this restuarant is that you enter into a small jewelry shop and go through a secret door where you can find the restaurant.  This place has two floors. On the first floor, you will find the restaurant shown in the third picture above, and on the second floor, it’s more of a loungeplace where they have a DJ who plays music. It has a really cozy vibe and the food is really good. They also change their menu on holidays, for example on Thanksgiving they have a special Thanksgiving menu.

In our opinion, this restaurant deserves 5 stars because of the mix between good food, drinks and a nice atmosphere.

 

 

 

The Butcher The Baker and The Cappuccino Maker

$$ – The Butcher The Baker and The Cappuccino Maker is located on 8653 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069. This is a very popular brunch/lunchspot in Los Angeles, but you can also eat dinner here. We recomend everyone to go here at least once, and especially for brunch when the sun is out. The food and the service is really professional so everyone will feel welcome here. Because it is such a populare place, you might have to wait for a table if you do not make a reservation before. This is definitely our favorite place to have lunch, so we give this place 5 stars. A little tip from us is that you should order the “artlatte” because it is very instagramfriendly.

 

Urth Caffe

 

$$ – Urth Caffe Melrose is located at 8565 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA 90069, but they also have a place in downtown LA. This is a popular lunchplace for people who like to eat healthy food. They have many different salads, sandwiches and juices and almost everything is vegetarian/vegan. From the outside, it looks pretty, but in our opinion, the inside does not look that attractive. It is very basic and they should make it more modern. The food here is okay but nothing special according to us, therefore, we cannot give this place more than 3 stars, but it is still a delightful place to go to if you want to have a quick, healthy lunch.

 

We hope that our little guide can help you to find the perfect place for your different foodmoods around Los Angeles.

Diede Wagner, The Netherlands

How can we decrease the quantity of homeless people in the USA? Well, that is actually a very good question and a quite important one. ”There is a lot that happens around the world we cannot control. We cannot stop earthquakes, we cannot prevent droughts, and we cannot prevent all conflict, but when we know where the hungry, the homeless and the sick exist, then we can help.”~ Jan Schakowsky. Jan has a good point of view, but why is it so hard to help the homeless people?

America versus Europe
Are there more homeless people in America than there are in Europe?
The answer is yes. Not only because America is a lot bigger, but the percentage is also a lot higher.
One of the reasons is the financial crisis in 2008. Since that year, the number of homeless people has increased. In this period, the prices of the houses had increased, but the salaries did not. Therefore, a lot of families had to live on the streets. Also natural disasters and health problems are a huge factor that leads to people becoming homeless. Europe does not have as many natural disasters as America, and if there are, they are much less fierce. Another difference between America and Europe concerning homeless people is the health care and income. In most of Europe, people have to be insured, and even if you are not, you have the right to be helped. Because of the income unemployed people get in Europe and the health care they receive, it is much more unlikely for them to become homeless in Europa than it is in America. 

Volunteering
Volunteers America works to prevent and end homelessness through different services. They reach out to homeless people by talking to them on the streets and mobile outreach services. Once they are in contact with the homeless people, they are going to make up a plan how their service can best help them. The plan can be for a homeless individual, a whole family or just a child. Helping homeless people is more than only taking care of a new home, it is also about giving support and advice on how to get and keep a job. They have to become independent again. It is a long and difficult process until independence can be achieved but with the help of volunteers, it is possible.

Statistics
The state of Alabama has the highest number of homeless. Number two is Arkansas and third is California. Alabama has 6,080 homeless people with a population of 4,875 million. Arkansas has 2,712 homeless people with a population of 3,004  million. California has 113,925 homeless people, with a population of 39,45 million. California has the most homeless, but in comparison to the population it is the lowest percentage. In Santa Barbara, a city in California, there are 900 homeless people. The new council wants to built emergency shelters. In order to do that,  Homeless Emergency Aid Program called (HEAP), will give the city of Santa Barbara 9.4 million dollars.

Conclusion
Although there are a lot of volunteers who want to decrease the number of homeless people, there are still too many. Once you become homeless, it is very hard to go back into society again. The number of homeless people is still increasing and there is not much we can do at this moment. Because America is so different in comparison to Europe, it is hard to use the same method to decrease homelessness.

 

Yerin Lee, South Korea

Are you a high school student? How long have you studied in one day? If your answer is over 15 hours, you might be an Asian.

Nowadays, in South Korea, there is one TV series that talks about the educational fervor, named ‘Sky castle’. It describes Korea’s excessive education in reality. In the series, students are like racehorses. They just study to be accepted into the top universities, even if it’s not their aspiration. It’s not only a problem for Korea. Many Asian countries, such as China, Shanghai, Hong Kong and India also have excessive pressure of education. Their high school curriculum is the same as US college freshman or sophomore courses and there are less extra curriculum activities than US high schools. This rigid system is because they have examination-oriented education. In many Asian countries, they just focus on the result of grade, not on the process. Also, these countries have university focused social values, which means almost everyone, including companies evaluates candidates based on the fame of their universities.

For these reasons, students have to enter the top universities, so they have to study hard and compete with others who are their friends. In addition, they are under the pressure of parents who really value their success based on entering a famous university. In these environments, if they don’t have the self- will to study, this pressured situation must be difficult to endure.

Recently, the Department of Education tried to introduce an evaluation system which is not focused on grades. This system evaluates students’ achievement through participation. They require work which is not academic, but more practical, for example, composing music with a group or creating a virtual country themselves. However, despite the government’s intentions, most parents offer private after school lessons to their children to do these extra activities more easily. Therefore, even these new evaluation systems become competitive.

This phenomenon called ‘credentialism in education’ triggers students’ depression or even worse their suicide. In reality, in the countries referred to before, especially India, there are several cases of student suicide. It is a serious problem but is becoming more serious rather than less. To prevent this problem, students’ parents have to pay attention to their children and governments have to develop more effective evaluation systems. Also, companies have to evaluate their applicant not only by the level of education, but also by a candidate’s capacity and abilities.

Raquel Esperanza Knecht, Switzerland

Rosalia Vila Tobella, known as Rosalia, is a singer and songwriter from Spain. She was born in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Catalonia and is 25 years old. She is well known in Spain for her number 9 studio album “Los
Angeles”. After her collaboration with J. Balvin “Brillo” she became internationally famous.

Her Family never really listened to Flamenco. She only heard her mother play artists like The Beatles, Queen and other English or American artists. Rosalia grew up in Barcelona, Sant Esteve Sesrovires, so not a city with a lot of Flamenco input, but the area El Baix Llobregat had many Andalusian immigrants. It is similar to Los Angeles and the Mexican immigrants – you can feel, hear and see the culture, it is all around you.

She heard Flamenco for the first time when she was thirteen. She used to go to a park with some friends and they listen a lot to Flamenco. That’s when she started to love it. Later on, she started to sing and perform and had the opportunity to perform at festivals and collaborate with other Spanish artists. She also posted videos of herself performing on Youtube and gained a lot of followers and a fanbase. Rosalia moved to California after singing at Universal Studios, which sponsored her first Studio Album “Los Angeles”. That is how her career started.

“For me flamenco is the most honest and visceral music that exists. That’s why it captured me… You have to implicate yourself in it, if not it doesn’t work.” (Rosalia, 2018 Billboard)

The song “Malamente” is her most popular song and she even went golden in the United States Latin charts. It is her first song from the second studio album “El mal querer”. The album was inspired by the anonymous novel “Flamenca”. It presents a toxic relationship of a Gitana “Chips woman” in Spain. The concept of a twisted romance is dynamic and alive, one moment chill and temperate the next.

But what makes Rosalia’s music so special?

It is the way she interprets Flamenco. She makes it modern, but the Flamenco inspiration is still there. You hear it, but at the same time it is something else, her own style and that is what makes her music so special. She is the inventor of a new kind of Flamenco with some Urban classic, Hip-hop, Trap and electronic in it, while the spotlight is still on the rhythmic handclaps (las palmas) and the romantic guitar (toque). She introduced the world to a new music style.

So give it a try and listening to a new style with some Flamenco flavor.

 

Football in USA is very important for American people. It’s the most developed sport in the country. It’s the one that brings in the most money whether for professional teams and players or for universities, with clothes or diverse products. We can find the most prestigious stadiums  in the country and in universities, such as the Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles and Levi’s Stadium in San francisco. But what is the worst problem that meets the NFL and the NCAA ?

The California State account 3 NFL teams :

Los Angeles Chargers  had just 1 appearance in Super Bowl, but have never won the Super Bowl :

Los Angeles Rams  had 3 appearances in Super Bowl and won 1:

San Francisco 49ers  had 6 appearances in Super Bowl and won 5:

Oakland Raiders  had 5 appearances in Super Bowl and won 3 :

Bad news for California the Oakland Raiders will become in 2020 Las Vegas Raiders, The Raiders’ move to Las Vegas comes after years of failed efforts to renovate or replace the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, which has been rated by multiple sources as one of the worst stadiums in the NFL. The Raiders pay additional compensation to cover the US$1,000,000 annual loss the Coliseum incurs by hosting Raiders games. This relocation makes a lot of scandals in California because the team was at Oakland for a long time and the fans expect that Coliseum Stadium will be reopened one day. 

NCAA in California : 

In California it’s not just NFL teams that are famous, there is the college football, too. Football is very famous in universities. The most famous programs in California are :

Bruins UCLA ( Los angles) the program has won just 1 National championships :

UCS Trojans ( Los Angeles) the program has won 11 National championships :

Stanford Cardinals University the program has won 2 National championships :

University of California the Golden Bears ( Berkeley) the programs has won 2 National championships :

This year one NFL team will participate in the Super Bowl 2018. California football is becoming more important with increasingly strong teams.

 

 

Ilia Vuillermet France.

 

We  are going to describe the differences between living in the home-share and in the host-family.

At first, we will describe the home-share. In the home-share the people need to share their room with 3 other students, in total 4 students in one room. It depends on the home-share, but at least there are 22 people leaving in one house, so of course is going to be a bad experience for someone who doesn’t like to be with other students around or need more space for his day a day living.  On one hand, there is a positive view of the home-share, and that is that you meet lots of people from very different countries and you learn from them about their different cultures; there is another point and is that usually you never get bored in there. On the other hand, there is no privacy and the living there sometimes could get a bit difficult and stressing. In the home-share there is not enough food for some people. To do the laundry you have to pay $3.50 per laundry load.

If you decide to go to a host-family, you could be in a really good one or in a home that is not a good fit. Sometimes,  the host-family could be really far away from the school, or be not as clean as you are used to, the food could be not good or there is a possibility that the host-family doesn’t give you food on the week-end. Otherwise, if you are in the good family the best point is you can share the American culture, and that’s really good. You can also have host-siblings with your same age.

Sometimes you need to pay for the internet and the washing-machine and other times there is no washing-machine. Instead, you need to go to the laundromat. If you are less than 18 years old you have the curfew and in each house you have to respect the house rules.

Daniel and Manon.