efsantabarbaranews.com

By Mireia Bach – Catalonia and the city of Barcelona have a long tradition in the textile industry for centuries that allows us to talk about fashion. We have well known designers and famous brands that show all their work. That’s why the Generalitat de Catalunya trusts them to create the 080 fashion week twice every year. 

Barcelona is home to a growing fashion industry, and twice a year – January and June –  the community shows off its skills at the 080 Barcelona Fashion event. Every year, over 30 brands and designers such as Custo Barcelona, Celia Vela, Ze Garcia, etc.  occupy a new culturally important location to show each design in the catwalk shows with the looks that will be hitting the streets and the most trendy clothes and accessories. New talents combine with well-known international brands to offer to the audiance the opportunity of seeing different styles, trends and new concepts. If you have the pleasure to assist in one of the shows, you can see international famous models walking on the runway such as Ariadna Lima, Winnie Harlow, Irina Shayk, Alessandra Ambrosio, Doutzen Kroes, Miranda Kerr, John Kartajarena and many others. 

However, there is an important problem in this type of event. You can only enjoy the catwalk with an accreditation. There are three types of accreditation. You can have one if you work in the press and you want to report and write about it – Accreditation International Media or Spanish Media -. Another way to get in is by lottery. You need to enter on a web page, fill in the form with your personal information and then just upload it. If you are a lucky person, you will receive an email with your accreditation for you and one companion – Accreditation Open Area -. The last type of accreditation is the Invitations, but normally these are for important people that are involved in the fashion industry.

In my opinion, it would be better if the people who are interested in fashion could enter, at least one time, to see and enjoy the show. It’s too complicated to get in. However, I try to enter every year with any lucky. That’s the reason why one time, I decided to go around the show area to see all the fashion ambient and also celebrities. It was a great day, the opening area was full of bars and food trucks for all the people. Also there were a big entrance for all the famous audience, and you could saw them in the front door while the media press were making some questions to them. 

If you are interested and do you want to get involve in all this life style, you should go there once in a live time!

[ http://www.080barcelonafashion.cat/en/past-editions ]

Luna, Belgium

Netflix is an American media-services provider founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California. It’s basically a platform that offers a subscription that allows you to have access to multiple series and movies selected by the organization. It has become really popular over the past recent years and the Netflix&Chill Hype has taken over social media. The question is : “How did Netflix change entertainment?”

Initially, when apps and streaming weren’t a thing they sold DVDs delivered to your door. With time, it became bigger and more popular. This is when Netflix decided to start self-production: “House of Cards” was their first big break and sparked off their popularity. It was the start of a huge amount of Netflix-produced series and even movies. Because they’re only available on that platform, it attracted more people to start subscribing. This is when they decided to introduce binge-watching. By making entire series available, they allowed people to watch series without having to wait a week for the next episode. It gave consumers more control over their time because they could choose when and where they watched their favorite shows. They realized it worked a lot better than building up suspense by making the people wait between each episode.

Their algorithm is a pretty big deal in the company and every decision that is made is really thought through. Their main goal is still making money and that’s why they can’t put every single movie or series on their platform. They have to make changes and give the subscribers different options at different times. For example, during the wintertime they will make a Christmas section where people have access to all kinds of Christmas-related content. They get people excited by announcing arrivals of different feature shows weeks before so it builds up suspense. For example, three weeks ago they announced that the entire Harry Potter saga will be available on the first of November. This is just a strategy to make sure that people will come back, and it works.

To conclude, Netflix is a nice and legal way to have access to all kinds of entertainment. It brings people together and allows them to relax without worrying about catching a virus on their computer or wasting hours trying to find a good stream-site with good quality content. I personally use it and I love it a little too much. Almost every night before I go to sleep I watch an episode of my favorite series such as : Grey’s Anatomy, Vampires Diaries, Friends…

ALMATHNA-SAUDI ARABIA

n 1984, a researcher named Roger Zurich noticed a curious pattern among patients who were recovering from gallbladder surgery at a suburban hospital in Pennsylvania. Those who had been given rooms overlooking a small stand of deciduous trees were being discharged almost a day sooner, on average, than those in otherwise identical rooms whose windows faced a wall. The results seemed at once obvious—of course a leafy tableau is more therapeutic than a drab brick wall—and puzzling. Whatever curative property the trees possessed, how were they casting it through a pane of glass? 

In the late nineteenth century, the pioneering psychologist and philosopher William James proposed a distinction between “voluntary” and “involuntary” attention. When you cross a busy intersection or pore over a spreadsheet, you are depleting finite reserves of voluntary, directed attention. The antidote is not, as one might first guess, to sit quietly in a darkened room. “The environment has to have some kind of stimulation to activate your involuntary attention—your fascination,” Berman said. Urban environments can certainly elicit involuntary attention (honking horns in Times Square), but they do so in a harsh, peremptory way that requires voluntary attention to override. Natural environments, on the other hand, provide what Berman calls “softly fascinating stimulation.” Your eye is captured by the shape of a branch, a ripple in the water; your mind follows. 

As a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, a decade ago, Berman conducted a study in which he sent volunteers on a fifty-minute walk through either an arboretum or city streets, then gave his subjects a cognitive assessment. Those who had taken the nature walk performed about twenty per cent better than their counterparts on tests of memory and attention. They also tended to be in a better mood, although that didn’t affect their scores. “What we’re finding is that you don’t have to like the interaction with nature to get the benefits,” Berman said. Some of the walks took place in June, whereas others took place in January; most people didn’t particularly enjoy trudging through the harsh Michigan winter, but their scores jumped just as much as in the summer trials. Not surprisingly, those whose directed attention is most depleted seem to get the biggest benefits: an end-of-workday nature romp probably packs a greater restorative punch than one first thing in the morning, and the boost is five times bigger in people who have been diagnosed with clinical depression.

ALMATHNA.ALMUHTARISH-SAUDI ARABIA

I waked up in haloween day at 6:30 AM to put the make up on and take shower and eat my breakfast and then i ride my car to ef school and it was amazing i watch all the students wearing a custom and every want to win and after that i went to state street and i eat my lunch with my friends and walked on the state for a litel while and it was really fun we enjoyed alot we stayed their intel 11 pm and then i went back to my home and got to my bed . 

Luna, Belgium

This was my first time experiencing Halloween in the USA and I wasn’t disappointed ! Tuesday we went with a group of friends to the movies and saw the new version of the movie Halloween which was quite scary. On the actual Halloween day we had a great time at school and seeing everyone in costume was really funny. I loved that everyone played the game. Me and three other girls were dressed as the Pink Ladies from the movie Grease. We didn’t win the contest but that was not even a possibility considering other people went all out with the makeup and dramatic effects ! It was crazy to see how realistic some of the bloody injuries looked. All in all I had a nice time and I liked seeing another kind of Halloween.

Andrea Rojas Fernandez, Spain.

One of the most important things that there are in Spain is the gastronomy. There are a lot of different types of food and many specialties.

For example, one of the most important is the good cured food that we have there. For example the ham, cheese…

Secondly, another thing that characterizes Spain is the typical Spanish omelet.There are different forms to cook it and the ingredients can vary. My favorite only uses potatoes, onion and eggs. I have eaten it also with ham and sausage.

Furthermore the shellfish that we have is so good, a typical Spanish plate is the “Pulpo a la Gallega”. It is served with cooked potato or potato puree. The most important thing for this dish is that it isn’t very cooked. The cook used to use pepper to give more flavor.

One meal that we used to do a lot in summer is “Gazpacho” or “Salmorejo”. It is a soup of tomato that has a lot of different types of ingredients and it is so healthy and cold. So it is one of my favorite foods in the summer. The differences between salmorejo and gazpacho are the ingredients. The Salmorejo only has tomato, garlic, oil and bread. However the Gazpacho also has pepper and cucumber. These meals used to be served with egg and ham.

Andrea Rojas. Spain

My day started like a normal day. I woke up at 7:00 am and I came to the school. When I arrived at the school, my class was full with people of other level and it was nice because I could meet more people that i didn’t meet before so I liked it.

When I was in class, the teacher brought a lot of muffins and it was fantastic, we started to carve and decorate our pumpkin.

After doing our pumpkins we went out of class and we started to be with people from other classes and the rest of teacher began to distribute food and it was fantastic. Furthermore , while we made the pumpkins we took advantage of makeup. Moreover we decided to dress up with black clothes because we din’t want to be so disgusted.

In the school a competition of costumes and pumpkins were organized and it was fantastic and so funny because everybody was so motivated and wanted to participate.

Finally, to finish my day I went to The Habit to eat with my friends and then I went to State Street to do trick or treat.Yesterday was fantastic!

Halloween at school

The 31th of October is always a big holiday here in the US maybe that’s why we got free from school so that we could celebrate this with all international students but I also saw a few locals at school. First we had to go into our own classrooms where we had to carve out 2 pumpkins to compete in the pumpkin competition. This is a competition where we compare all the pumpkins and the winner get’s a free ice cream/pizza party, the second prize is only a pizza party and the third place is only an ice cream party if I remembered it correctly.

another very cool pumpkin

pumpkins from my class

When everybody finished they’re pumpkins we had a cozy little party with the class and after that the whole school gathered around at the parking lot for the costume competition between the student and between the teachers. The teacher’s first place was the space couple and the student’s first place I do not recall. When this was done we had a pinata and we gathered around this pinata to hit it so that all the candy would come out of it.

This was pretty much my halloween because I had to play a important soccer match that evening.

Sebastiaan Han

Alejandra Cabanas, Spain.

Yesterday was 31stof October, twhich means it was the Halloween day. In Spain,we celebrate it, but if I compare it I couldnt say we celebrate. Here, in America they it like a really celebration, they do a real party for it!

It was such a good experience for me to expend this famous day here in Santa Barbra. It was the first Halloween for many years that I had dressedp. I dont know exacly what I wanted to seem, But I did my make up and wore black clothes.

In EF they had prepareda competition of the best costumes. I tookictures of one of the best in my opinion.

This one was the final winner of the competition.This is my friend Sara, that asked for a Krean friend to write on her face.

These are my friends Oscar and Lucien whose dressed up as the freakys of the school, it was so funny! And finally, this is my roommate and friend, Celine, she looked really scary.

Also, EF prepared another competition about pumkis decorating, and I took a picture of my personal favourite one.

So, as a conclusion, it was a really nice day thet i have never experienced.