Real Madrid, They are Unstoppable

“Los Merengues” have done it again. Real Madrid CF has won La Liga BBVA title for the 32^nd time in history! For those of you who don’t know what La Liga BBVA is, it is the professional Spanish soccer league which consists of 20 teams. Real Madrid has been completely dominating this league ever since it was founded and created in 1929. Like I mentioned before, Real Madrid has set the bar extremely high for all the other teams since they have won 32 times including this season (2011-2012). It will be tremendously challenging in order for the “runner ups” of La Liga champions to catch up; Barcelona FC is the team which Real Madrid will defeat in this highly watched championship. Barcelona FC is in 2^nd place with 21 titles of La Liga, meaning they are still over a decade away from Real Madrid in order to be tied.  I am convinced that Barcelona FC will not be winning any time soon, making Real Madrid the undisputed champions.

The 2011-2012 season has been intense filled with adrenaline and amazing moments. The season ended up with the following standings (these are the top 5 out of the 20 teams):

1.      Real Madrid: 100 points

2.      Barcelona: 91 points

3.      Valencia: 61 points

4.      Malaga: 58 points

5.      Atletico de Madrid: 56 points

As you can see, Real Madrid was at a 9 point advantage over Barcelona who was the runner up. In regard to the other teams, they were a long way behind, making it virtually impossible to catch up.

This season, Real Madrid set a new record regarding the scores; they achieved something no other team had done. “Los Blancos” reached 100 points in the standings! This had never been accomplished before this season. In La Liga, each team plays a total of 38 matches; earning 3 points when you win, 1 point for a draw and earning none for a loss.

Every time the Real Madrid team wins the title of La Liga, it has become a tradition that the whole team rides in a convertible bus to the main plaza in Madrid called la Plaza de Cibeles. In this plaza there is a large fountain holding a statue of the Roman goddess Cybele, which is very symbolic for the people of Madrid. When the bus arrives, there are millions of people watching and celebrating with the players. Then the captain of Real Madrid (this year it is Iker Casillas) climbs up on the fountain, ties a Real Madrid flag around Cybele’s neck and gives her a kiss on the cheek. Here I leave you with a video of the whole celebration. HALA MADRID!!!

My Brother's Graduation

May 26, 2012 finally arrived, the day my brother Dani graduated from Escuela Campo Alegre where he studied for 14 years of his life! ECA has been a second home for my brother throughout all these years and he has embraced it dearly. My brother could not have asked for a better opportunity than to have studied and graduated from such an amazing and incredible school as is ECA, as well as to have been surrounded by such caring family members, friends and teachers.

Dani was able to complete his education at ECA all the way from Pre-K to 12^th, studying late at night, working as hard as he could to earn goods grades and especially during these last 3 weeks studying for the brutal IB exams. Well, it finally all paid off!!! On Saturday May 26^th, 2012 my brother graduated as an IB Diploma Candidate with Honors. In mid-August of 2012, my brother will start another 4 years of academic studies (and possibly more) at Florida International University.

I can still remember Dani at his other “moving on ceremonies” in the past years. I can recall when Dani moved on from elementary to middle school. Then, a few years later, Dani left middle school to enter high school, and finally his senior graduation at ECA.

After the graduation, we all went to the graduation party which turned out to be a total blast since many people attended and there was booming music with a light show, as well as delicious food. I did not party alone since many of my brother’s classmates have siblings in my grade. So, I was able to enjoy this event with my friends Rodolfo Postigo, Guillermo Chibas, Hendrik Riemens, Lucia Romero, Ryan Kelly and Ivan Lopez.

There are so many words to express how thrilled I am for my brother Dani. However, once he departs on August 17^th, Dani will leave an enormous gap in my family. I can’t even begin to say how much I will miss him and how I will be extremely bored without him. 

Silver Fin By: Charlie Higson

As you read from my previous blog post on our SSR books, there is an obvious preference that I have for action and adventure genre novels. I decided to shift from the adrenaline pumping Alex Rider series, to the Young Bond novels. I finished reading Silver Fin which was the first book out of the 5 of this series. The story begins when young James Bond arrives to his new boarding school in England, Eton and it is one of the best in the nation. At Eton, Bond makes new friends, one of them being his roommate Pritpal. Later on, he encounters another individual who is 2 years older named George Hellebore. Bond is new to the school and has not had a positive beginning, since George has already begun to bully young James. Bond finds out that George’s father is Lord Randolph Hellebore, an arms dealer who supplied nations with weapons after World War I. This results in James’ father knowing about Lord Hellebore because James’ father had a similar job. Later on, the story setting switches to Scotland where James meets up with his aunt, and on his way he assists a boy nicknamed Red, to find his cousin who has gone missing. Red and James learn that Lord Hellebore owns large areas of land next to Loch Silver Fin (which was filled with eels), and the boys decide to creep into his territory. Unfortunately, Bond is caught and captured. Bond is taken to Hellebore, and the Lord begins to explain certain events that had been unclear for James. Lord Randolph had been experimenting with humans in order to create stronger and better soldiers. In the attempt of creating the correct product, the substances were used on people, to see how it reacted. Red’s cousin was one of the humans they used the test on, and he died from the chemical response of the ingredient. Eventually, Bond is drugged with the Silver Fin serum and placed in a cell. James manages to escape the cell which then leads him to an underwater passage to Loch Silver Fin. Surprisingly, George the son of Randolph comes back into the story but on Bonds’ side and both work together to destroy Lord Randolph’s work. Lord Randolph becomes extremely upset and is going to kill both his son and Bond. However, Algar (Randolph’s brother) stops him and both fall into the loch and then are killed by the eels. If you are the type of reader that enjoys action packed moments, I truly recommend this book because the “never ending action” made me feel like reading the book in one sitting. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the books of this series. 

Venezuelan Opposition Primary Elections

Approximately one week ago, on February 12, 2012, in Venezuela were the primary elections to vote for the opposition candidates who wanted to run for mayor, governor and president. These elections were highly anticipated because Chavez’s government announced that first of all, these elections would never take place because the opposition was very unorganized and not united. Second of all, the government said these elections would not be successful because there would only be around 500,000 to 800,000 voters attending. However, the primary elections exceeded both the expectations of the opposition as well as the government because on February 12^th, 3,040,449 Venezuelans cast their votes. At the beginning of this journey, there were a total of 6 candidates running to represent the opposition in the presidential elections. Those were, Henrique Capriles Radonski, Pablo Perez, Leopoldo Lopez, Maria Corina Machado, Diego Arria and Pablo Medina. However, on January 24^th, Leopoldo Lopez resigned his candidacy to join and unify with Capriles. After the results were given, Radonski was nicknamed the “Tsunami” since he acquired one million more votes than the candidate who took second place; Pablo Perez. Capriles had a total of 1,806,860 votes. Most of the young Venezuelan candidates that pertained to the opposition political party called Primera Justicia were victorious, whether it was a presidential candidate, as candidate for governors and for that of mayor. Of course, the next day after the primary results were given, the government made fun of the opposition once again, saying that 3,000, 000 votes were definitely not enough to defeat Chavez in the October presidential elections. Unfortunately, on Friday 17^th, 2012 Jose Manuel Hernandez, the winner of the primaries for mayor of El Hatillo municipality passed away unexpectedly. Not even a week had passed since he won the primaries and due to an operation to remove a benign tumor, he passed away.

 

Presidential Elections October 7, 2012

Santiago Bernabeu

The Santiago Bernabeu stadium houses the legendary Spanish team; Real Madrid. The Santiago Bernabeu has a current and total number of 85,454 seats and is the third largest stadium in Europe. It is located in the city of Madrid, Spain. This stadium was named and honored by Santiago Bernabeu Yesté who was one of the most prestigious sportsmen that lead the Real Madrid to what it is today. Before the Santiago Bernabeu was constructed, the Real Madrid team played in two small fields of only 25,000 people; Campo De O’Donnell and the Estadio de Chamartin. Two banks arranged a credit with Mr. Santiago Bernabeu and Rafael Salgado to purchase the land next to the Estadio Chamartin, meaning they would have to pay that money back to the banks. The construction began on October 27^th 1944 under the orders of two architects named Manuel Muñoz and Luis Alemany. After a little over three years, the stadium was completed and named Nuevo Estadio Chamartin. It had a capacity of 75,145 spectators; 47,500 of them were for standing spectators and 27,645 spectators had seats.

This stadium has been re-modeled and expanded several times to become what it is today. On January 4^th, 1955 the stadium was renamed after the president; Santiago Bernabeu.  In 1982, they had expanded the stadium to 120,000 spectators; however they added roofs on all sides except the east, which reduced the capacity to 90,800. Again, the stadium went under construction which added seats and underground water pipes to keep the field from freezing in cold temperatures. Also, four different entrance towers were installed. This added to 110,000 spectators, but when Lorenzo Sans was president, he created an all seated arrangement which then again reduced the number to 75,328 spectators. Finally, when Florentino Perez was president of Real Madrid, he made the stadium what it is currently today. He modernized it completely, adding new VIP areas and boxes, a restaurant inside the stadium, tours inside the stadium, a Real Madrid Official Shop, modernized locker rooms, a press room and much more. The total cost of the stadium was €1,732,943. The actual pitch/field has dimensions of 107 by 72 m.

I have been in the Santiago Bernabeu only twice, the first time for the tour of the stadium, which took you inside the locker rooms and trophy rooms and on the actual pitch/field. The second time was for a game which was Real Madrid vs. Atletico de Madrid, with Real Madrid’s victory of 3-2. The feeling you get when you enter is of amazement, since the stadium is so massive and enormous.

View of stadium

4 towers on each corner

View of the field from the restaurant

Afrojack

Nick van de Wall, or better known by his stage name Afrojack, is one of the most well-known DJ’s today, all over the world. He was born September 9^th 1987 in Spijkenisse, Netherlands which was where he began to play the piano at age 5 and found a real interest in music. After several years he began to create music himself with a program called Fruity Loops which many DJ’s use today. After Afrojack finished school, he wanted to continue his musical career, and his fame began to grow after he graduated. He travelled to a large city in the Netherlands by the name of Rotterdam. Once he was settled in, he began to work as a waiter in several bars and this is where he became aware of all the night clubs. Nick, ambitious for his fame to increase, began to ask the owners of the clubs if he could be the DJ of these clubs. Going around several night clubs, Nick gained experience and began to create his own tracks in studios. In 2006, Nick then travelled to an island in Greece called Crete.  He stayed there for a long period of time, where he continued gaining popularity. At this time, he also released his first track called “F**k Detroit”. A year later, he created his own label or brand called Wall Recordings and in 2007 became known as Afrojack. His tracks began to be rated as one of the highest in the Dutch dance boards, and he began to work with other high level ranked DJ’s and pop stars such as David Guetta, Steve Aoki, Pitbull, Fedde Le Grand, Sidney Samson, Laidback Luke, etc. Recently, Afrojack has attended many of the most popular techno festivals in the world such as Miami Ultra Festival, Mystery Land and Tomorrowland (which I had talked about in one of my last blog posts). His most recent release, which came out 4 weeks ago, is “Can’t Stop Me” featuring Shermanology. Today, Afrojack is rated as the #7 DJ in the whole world.

Eagle Strike (Silent Reading Book)

Alex Rider is back once again to save the world; Anthony Horowitz has Alex Rider fighting crime for the 4^th time in Eagle Strike. This is the 4^th thrilling adventure out of the 8 books in the series. The story begins in the south of France when Alex is at the beach with his friend Sabina and her parents. Alex is peacefully tanning on the beach when suddenly a large yacht approaches to the docks. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots Yassen on the boat (the man who killed Alex’s uncle). Later on, Alex follows and spies on Yassen, he finds out that Yassen was talking to Damian Cray on the phone. Alex was shocked, why would the world’s richest, famous singer, and caring man be talking to an assassin. Nothing made sense, until later that afternoon when Sabina’s summer house exploded. Sabina’s father was in the house and came out alive, however he was severely injured. After the house had exploded, Alex found a news article on Damian Cray written by Sabina’s father (Sabina’s father was a journalist). Alex could now put the puzzle pieces together; Damian Cray was working with Yassen since Sabina’s father was going to expose Cray’s evil plan. This is why Cray sends Yassen to kill Sabina’s father.

After the whole situation in France, back in London, Cray released a new game system called the “Gameslayer”. Alex knows Cray is going to cause trouble for the world. Because of this, he goes to MI6 and tells Alan Blunt (head of MI6) about Damian Cray and his evil side. The MI6 does not believe Alex since Cray is a peace activist and has done many good deeds in his life. Now Alex does not have the government’s help and has to solve this problem all by himself. Further along the story, Alex realizes what Damian Cray’s evil plan is, to release a nuclear attack on large drug producing areas of the world. Through his game system “Gameslayer”, he manages to hack Air Force One with a pen drive to launch the US’ nuclear missiles. In the end, Sabina pushes Cray out of the airplane and tumbles into the turbines. Alex saves the world once again.

In my opinion, I absolutely 100% recommend this series to people who like adventure books because this will keep you at the edge of your chair until the very end!