The Dalai Lama

              The Dalai Lama is the political and religious leader of the Tibetan community. Likewise, he is the spiritual guide of a lot of Buddhist people around the world. The term Dalai Lama means “Ocean of Teaching”.

            The Dalai Lama´s given name is Tenzin Gyatso. He was born in 1935. His parents were peasants and lived in a small town called Takster. When Tenzin was 2 years old, he was recognized as the reincarnation of his predecessor.

             He began his monastic studies when he was 6 years old and in 1959 he got a “geshe” degree, or Tibetan Philosophy Doctorate Degree.

            In 1950, the Chinese Military Forces invaded Tibet. Because of this, the Dalai Lama took the role of the political leader of the Tibetan community. Since then, he has been fighting against the oppressive communist Chinese governance.

                       

            In 1954, The Dalai Lama traveled to Beijing to talk with Chinese leaders. He tried to obtain peace for his people. He did not get peace for his people, so he decided to go into exile in India. His fight is well-known around the world because it is based on patience, tolerance, and compassion.

          The Norwegian Parliament Committee awarded  the  Dalai Lama  the Nobel Peace prize in 1989. He got that prize  because he has opposed the use of violence and he has proposed  solutions based on tolerance and mutual respect.

Vegetarian food is the best ally for our health

Nowadays, the majority of people work so hard that they do not even have time to eat healthy food. They eat food wherever they can. In addition, they can get heart disease from eating a lot of junk food.

People that eat vegetarian food have good health, have more energy, get less stress, and look younger than others the same age. Likewise, vegetarian people suffer less illness such as heart disease and high cholesterol.

But first, you must know that a vegetarian person is someone that doesn’t eat all meat. They only eat vegetables, fruits, grains, soya, beans, nuts, vegetables, and fats. Yet, a minority of vegetarians add dairy products and eggs to their diet.

Another point is that vegetarian people have a healthier lifestyle. They usually do not smoke and exercise regularly. Some scientific research has shown that vegetarian people are less susceptible to getting cancer.

Some people assume that vegetarians are anemic. They assume this because they don’t consume meat and the iron that our body needs is only in red meat. This is a myth, because there are a lot of vegetables that are rich in iron, such as spinach, peas, beans, sugar beet and potatoes.

In conclusion, people that eat vegetarian food live longer and have a better quality of life than people that eat meat. Therefore, more people should become vegetarians and live in harmony with nature.

Materialistic children

    

These days, to be successful means to make a lot of money. Parents who dream of  getting a big house and a brand new car spend most of their time working. Parents are used to giving only expensive gifts to their children, but they don`t have enough time to share with them.

Parents use their free time to rest, watch tv, and many times, they have to do work at home. Parents do not even have time to eat together.  Instead of sharing time with their children, they give expensive gifts to them.

Children feel as their parents don’t want to share time with them. Children waste a lot of time watching tv and playing video games. Therefore, they watch a lot of advertisements about new brands and expensive things such as clothes and video games.

            Later, when children ask them only for money and the newest videogames, parents complain that children only want money from them. Most of the children may become compulsive shoppers.  

It is important that at least one of the parents work less and share more time with their children. Children need to get involved in sports or culture activities to change their materialistic behavior about getting modern and expensive things.

    

My family

I have three sons and one daughter. My wife and my four children have been living in Chicago for 6 years, so I go to visit them three times a year. Last vacation, however, my family and I decided that they are going to come back to Mexico.

My four children are musicians. They play flamenco, smooth jazz, and Latin music. When I visit them, we play video games, watch movies, have popcorn, and go out together, so we really enjoy those moments.  I am also used to going with them to carry and connect their instruments wherever they go to work. I try to support them in their work.

Last vacation they had a performance around one hour and a half from our house, so we arrived early to the place of the performance. Then we got inside the place with all our instruments, and things as electric cables, connectors, and tripod stands, but when we almost had finished connecting them, my older son told me that we had forgotten a bag with some electrical cables in the car. I went to the car to get it, but when I was trying to open the car’s trunk, I broke the key. I was really worried because I didn’t know if they had brought the spare key. I got back to the theater and asked my children and my wife whether they had brought it. Fortunately, my wife took it before we left the house.

After all, the show was excellent. My wife and I really enjoyed it, so we were really proud of our children when people clapped a lot.

After the show we went to a restaurant. When we were enjoying a delicious meal, my younger son, who is really smart and witty, said, “Dad, your face really looked like  death at the moment when you broke the car key. My family and I laughed out loud.

Despite the fact that we are not living together, we are a really closely knit family.  However, we all feel the need to be back together the way we used to be 6 years ago. For this reason, my family will come back to México soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fZVVnhb1rY

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE INTERNET?

                                            Héctor Salcedo

                                            AP 2

                                            Writing Assignment 1

                                            January  27^th, 2011

       Nowadays Internet is being considered the most important support around the modern world. Indeed, it is necessary in almost all human activities, for example, Internet is being used on education, business, trade, entertainment, politics, sports and news. Furthermore, with internet you can be communicated with friends, relatives and partners around the world.

       I am not good at using the Internet, nevertheless, I have been using it to prepare my Math classes, likewise I have been downloading English podcasts in order to improve my listening skills.  Sometimes my students’  homework is to do researches online about some math topic, nevertheless I have banned the use of the Internet in classes due to many students only use it  to  chat witch each other or to watch some music videos.

                                                                                                         

       Don´t you think it is  insecure to use the credit card on the web because there are many hackers that could take your credit card number?. That might be true but you can get lower prices using the Internet. Last vacation, I got a roundtrip flight ticket 150 dollars cheaper than at a travel agency. My older son has a computer workshop and he told me that it´s easier and faster to get spare parts online.          

                              

       Our kids and teens today are being exposed to a lot of information on the Internet and many people think that government should limit the number of web sites, however I think that it`s not the government’s business and parents should take care of the kind of web sites that our children are getting at.

                                  

       I think the internet is necessary and in a few years Internet services will be used even more than now, I mean that Internet service will be needed at all homes around the world. However, we must be careful to control how long we can use it, for the reason that a lot of people are addicted to the Internet these days and our kids and teens waste a lot of time playing video games, chatting with their friends or just surfing on the web.

NATIONAL MOUNTAIN BIKE CHAMPIONSHIP

Juan  likes taking a ride on his mountain bike in his spare time. He has always ridden his bike for three hours every Sunday and he has been doing it just to stay in shape. Every Sunday he begins uphill at 8:00 and he finishes around noon.

Three months ago he decided to participate in the National Mountain Bike Championship. Since then he has been preparing hard in order to be well prepared and try to win the competition. He has bought a professional mountain bike over the past month and since then he has been training four times a week.

     

Last Sunday around 8:00 A.M. he decided to take a ride to the Calaque. He thought that It would take him about 6 hours. So he began uphill at 8:30 A.M., and after three hours of riding his bike, it broke down and he got some scratches on his legs and arms. His coach called the paramedics to get help.

At the hospital Juan said, “I have been preparing hard for the competition and this accident  won`t make me quit. My coach has already sued the bike manufacturer”.

                                                      

 Two days ago  the couch said, “We won the suit and the bike manufacturer has paid us $ 500,000 dollars, so we have enough money to get a better bike”.

Juan stayed in the hospital for three days and right after he left it, he got the best mountain bike in the world.

Yesterday his coach said, “Juan has already forgotten the accident, so he restarted his training program and he will be ready for the competition. Juan is really sure that with the support of the people he will win the competition”.

                                            

                                                                                                                                                                               

LOOKING FOR A BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE

These days people don’t have time to take care of their family and their health. Most of the time they are working hard in order to get a brand new car and a big house. That causes them get stressed and many times to get sick.

I usually get up at 6:30 A.M. on workdays, and then I do exercise for 30 minutes. After finishing my workout, I take a bath. While having breakfast, I watch the news and as soon as I finish breakfast, I head to work.

I work in a training school as an office assistant from 8 A.M. to 2 P.M. on weekdays and from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. on Saturdays and I work  as a math teacher in a high school on weekdays from 2 P.M. to 9:30 P.M.

In the morning, after checking and reading my most important e-mails, I begin to work. I take lunch around noon. While taking lunch, I talk with my co-workers.

Even if I have a well-balanced meal and I sleep well, I often burn out in the afternoon and I take a thirty-minute nap in my free time. By taking a little nap, I feel great the rest of the day right after perking up.

I have  free time in the high school to prepare the math classes or check the student’s homework but I use some of the free time to do my English homework. I only study English in the morning if I finish my task early.   

Whenever I feel a little stress during the day, I take some time to listen to some relaxing music and do some meditation. That only takes me around ten minutes and it really works.

I turn in around midnight and I almost always drop off  immediately after putting my head on the pillow. I sleep like a log when I am really tired. However, I always set three alarm clock to wake up in the morning just in case I can’t hear one of them.

When I have troubles at work or in my family, that makes me be wide awake at night thinking about how to solve them, even if I am pretty tired. When that happens, I turn on my mp3 and I listen to some relaxing music. That calms me down and I drop off. When that happens I feel drowsy the next day and I need to take a power nap at work. After taking a power nap, I feel better to finish my tasks.

I am trying to be in shape doing some exercise and having healthy meals, however I often get tired and I need to take vitamins. Also I don’t spend  much time with my family. I have been thinking about working less and  sharing  most of my time with my family. I am positive that I will feel better and I will avoid getting health troubles.