New year´s resolutions

As a pharmacist many people tried to quit smoking every year. They usually come to my pharmacy during the first days of the year,  looking for a solution to quit smoking. Sometimes they can do it (when they follow my advice), but they almost always can not. They usually wasted their money in patchs, nicotine gums or pills. But the funniest thing is that they still smoking and continue chewing nicotine gums, can you belive it? It´s crazy!!they are taking double or triple nicotine dosis each day!!! Maybe the pharmaceuthical industry are behind, I don´t know, but it´s a little bit strange. What do you think about it?

Saint Fermin

In my country you can find many different holidays during the whole year. My favorite one is, the Saint Fermin holiday, it´s a religious holidays in honor of the patron of Navarra. But nowadays is becoming more and more popular for the wild and crazy party during the week. It strats the 7th of July seeting off  "the chupinazo" in the city hall, it´s a firework. The Saint Fermin holiday is famous around the world for "the encierro", it´s a race across the city. Where people runs with bulls, it´s wacky and crowded; however, every year many people get injured during the race, sometimes there are dead. It´s a big price for a race, isn´t it? I prefer to be in a bar wearing a custome clothes (white shirt, white trousers, red sash and red handkerchief), and watch the race on TV. The most tipical foods are bull stew and fried eggs with "txistorra", it´s kind of chorizo. If you are looking for a crazy and a fun week, come to Spain and enjoy Saint Fermin holiday!!!

                         

Jumping the broom...

There are many traditions in the world about wedding ceremonies. Depending where you are, customs changes and things that are very important for ones, are crazy or stupid for others. I am going to talk about " Jumping the broom". It´s an afroamerican old tradition where the bride and the groom jump together above a broom, in the floor of church, during the ceremony. To "sweep" their single life and start a new life together. The meaning of this ritual, is to wish good luck to the couple to make a happy home. Even though it´s important in their cultures, for people who are unfamiliar with this type of events, they may seem a bit stupid. In my country, people sometimes do strange things during the wedding. For me, the most rare is when the guests cut the groom´s tie in small pieces, to make an auction to earn money for the honeymoon. It´s crazy and funny!!!!

                                  

The most tipical food in Spain: Paella!!

If you have thought in Spain anytime in your life, you could remember three or four things: Bullfighters, Real Madrid FC (my favorite soccer team), FC Barcelona, and paella. In this post I am going to explain how to cook a delicious dish, you can make by yourself to impress a friend, your boyfriend or just enjoy a great time in the kitchen. Even though it´s not easy to make it, you can delight yourself with several flavours in the mouth. The most important thing is the raw material, it should be fresh to have a good result at the end.

1) Ingredients ( For 4 diners):

     - Chicken 700 grs ( 8 or 10 pieces).
     - Rabbit 300 grs (4 or 6 pieces) Maybe in your countries it could be difficult to find, you can use ribs instead of rabbit.
     - Seafood ( the most used is crayfish, but we also used mussels, and shrimps)
     - One big spoon of paprika (better not spicy).
     - A few stands of saffron.
     - Half garlic.
     - One onion, one red pepper and one green pepper.
     - Two smashed tomatoes.
     - Salt.
     - Olive oil ( 15 ml).
     - Water.
     - Rice ( 350 gr).

2) How to make it?:

    - Fist of all you need to peel the seafood, and put all the shells in a bowl with salt and water(more or less 1 litre), and start to cook around 1 hour, for a powerful flavour. Keep separate for later.
   - The second step is to fried in a big pan, all the meat with salt and olive oil. Until start to get brown. Add the pepper, the onions (previously cut to) the pan.
   - When the pepper starts to get soft, add the smashed tomatoes, the garlic(previously cut) and paprika to the bowl.
   - Add the rice and the seafood and stir the pan.
   - Finally add the saffron and the seafood broth (previously cast to separate the shells).
   - Cook for 20 minutes, and add more water or salt if it´s necessary.

If everything has gone well you will have a dish like the picture.... Good luck and enjoy!!!

A paradise in Europe!!

If you are looking for an amazing place for relax and enjoy the sea and the sun, you might visit Gran Canaria, a small island close to the western coast of Morocco. Because of its subtropical weather, the temperature during the whole year is between 17ºC and 25ºC, so you can leave your winter coats and your snow boots in the back of the closet. The food is also another point to consider, it is very tasty and cheap. Our typical dish is "Papas con mojo", small potatoes with salt and a red spicy sauce in an earthenware bowl. Another advantage is the price for a vacation there; you can find a five stars hotel pretty close to the beach with an amazing discount. Nowadays it´s a popular holiday destination during the winter for people from Germany, United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries, they even say that it´s cheaper to be in the Canary Islands than stay at home paying for the heating...

Indonesian why not?

People always want to speak the same language English, Spanish, French, Chinese... But if I can speak another new language. I will chose an exotic one, like Indonesian. Why Indonesian? because it´s so cool for a Spanish speaker to say that you can speak Indonesian. Imagine that you are making and interview applying for a job, when the interviewer ask you if you speak another language and you say, "I speak Spanish, English and Indonesian". The interviewer would wowed! Another advantage of speaking and exotic language is that you can impress people in social meetings, they are not accustomed to meet people who speaking strange languages. If you plan a holidays in Bali you can also use your knowledge of Indonesian to flirt when you go out at night , but you should be careful with the ladyboys...

Broken toy by money

Everybody dream to win the lottery but sometimes it could destroy your life. There are many cases that people who ern millions of dollars every year, can lose everything in a short time. They spend all their money in expensive things that they really don´t needed it. In the last years, many NBA players have spent their fortunes in luxury cars,jewelrys and ruinous buiness. The clearest example is Allen Iverson, he spent more than $154 million dollars in less than 15 years, he went from being a star to a broken toy. Off course, I would like to win the lottery, but if I am realist I prefer to continue as I am,  with enough money to live well, and do normal things with my lifelong friends. I don´t want to suffer the bad part of being a rich man: bad companies, exploited people, and begin not to value how difficult it´s to make money working everyday.

New Year´s Eve bloody party in Calgary

If you are looking for a peaceful and safe city in the world to celebrate your New Year’s Eve party, Calgary could be one of your choices. In spite of being one of the safest cities in the world, last January 1 there was a shooting at a New Year’s Eve house party. It has left one person dead and six wounded, after the party ended in a gunfire. This occurred in a Calgary's quiet neighbourhood, located close to downtown. When the police arrived they found five people with gunshot wounds, and more than 50 people remained in the party. When I read this news, I was shocked because I can´t imagine that this kind of things could happen in Canada; also, since I was here I saw in the newspaper quite often events of this type. I throw the question, is Calgary as safe as they say?

A Supersonic Freefall!!!

Men always try to beat new records but sometimes they can die while they are trying it; this is the reason that make so popular this kind of sports. For me the most impressive sport I have ever seen in my life was the supersonic freefall of Felix Baumgartner on October of 2012 in the Redbull Stratos project. He became the first person to break the sound barrier when he jumped to the Earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere, at 21,818 metres (71,581 ft). During the jump, the fastest speed of free fall that he reached was 1,357.64 km/h. He beated two world records at the same time, both the highest and fastest jump. However, this two records almost finished with his life: during the fall, Felix lost control and started to spin so fast, that he lost consciousness for a few seconds. He awoke on time and recovered the stability,  finally he landed safe and sound. He made history with this achievement despite being close to losing his life.
I am not a big follower of extreme sports, when  I was a child I often played traditional sports like soccer, basketball or golf, but I never tried extreme sports. People said that you should feel the risk or the adrenaline rush to enjoy a sport, I am not agree with them. When you play a sport that you like, you can find the balance between your mind and your body, and feel happy.

My first week in Calgary!

Hello my name is Cris I came from Spain, welcome to my Reading and Writing class new blog. I'm going to explain quickly my experience here during this semester,  and all the interesting things that will me happen at the Unversity of Calgary. The first days were difficult because I needed to do many things in a few. It was a surprise for me how people here, are  frindly and affectionate to help me in everything what I needed. The first step was open an account in the bank to have my own Canadian card and even didn't need to exchange money... It's crazy expensive!! The second step was try to find a place to live close to the University with a good price, because Calgary is an expensive city if you compare with Canary Islands, after a hard work during more than one week I found a great Condo close to the Brentwood Train Station, where I can go to my classes walking.