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.

MOVING INTO A FOREING COUNTRY

I have been working for an  international electronic company since 2005  here in Mexico and my salary is $2,000 per month. They have promoted me to work in Montreal or Toronto. I am married and we have 2 children.  They are 8 and 10 years old. They are studying in a bilingual school and my wife and I both speak English and French so we are not  afraid of living abroad.

I must  decide in 2 weeks in which city I’d like to work. So we are  analyzing the features of each one of the cities  such as cost of living, crime rate, public transportation, healthcare, climate, neighborhoods and schools. The company is going to provide me an apartment, a car and my salary will be $3,000 per month.

Toronto is considered one of the best cities to live due to the low crime rate, the high quality life and the environmental care . Montreal has the world’s best educated people and has the biggest North American college student population.

 Toronto

McGill University

Montreal

Toronto is the biggest city and the financial center in Canada even though it has a high homeless rate. Montreal is the second most populated Canadian city and it’s one of the main North American trade, industrial and  cultural  centers. Nevertheless the climate is hard, it  annually  snows about  2.4 meters  and it rains abundantly during the year.

View of Toronto's Financial District.

Montreal

The Montreal World Trade Center

Toronto has  427 public schools and also has 80 catholic schools, English is the dominant language but Montreal has two public systems school and also has a catholic teaching system that is subsidized by the city, French is the dominant language  though  English is spoken by many people too.

After we analyzed the information about Toronto and Montreal, we decided to live in Toronto because Toronto has the right schools, the language, the high quality life, the low crime rate and the climate is much better than Montreal  even though Toronto  does not has an International Jazz Festival  and we both love jazz.

STRANGE PHENOMENON

EL TILCUATE

This story is named "El Tilcuate".

First of all I must tell you that I may have dreamed or my grandfather told me about it, I don`t  remember well.

When I was seven or eight years old He used to talk to me about his life`s stories and sometimes He used to tell me an eerie one.

So let`s begin with this story that happened about 40 or 45 years ago.

People that used to go through the hill called " Las Peñas"  for firewood to cook their food or sell it, often said that there was a big snake in the hill near the river, in this time there was plenty of vegetation in "Las Peñas", trees and there was a small river too, the snake persecuted the people who crossed near this place, the snake moved quickly like She had many feet, people named her " El Tilcuate".

Once a woodsman said that He saw the snake eating a boy, so the people who lived near the hill were very scared. After that many people said that They saw the snake on dim nights vanishing near their houses.

Some times after the snake disappeared, no one else looked for her again.