MY GAP YEAR

My gap year will be a volunteering Sri Lanka with an international volunteer abroad organisation. It will take place after batxillerat and before starting the Univerisity. I think it will be good to do it, to relax for a year and to clear my mind for the next one. I will do it with PMGY, a page who helps you a organise your trip. My gap year will last only a month but then I can visit other countries or just relax. 

You will be collected at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo by PMGY’s local coordinator who will be waiting for you at arrivals holding a name sign.

I will get a plane from Barcelona to Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo, and there I will be collected by a PMGY’s local coordinator. Among other activities, I will visit one of the world's largest elephant orphanages, the Iconic Kandy Temple of the Tooth Room and The Cultural Triangle. I will see the famous Kandyan dances, leopards in Yala National Park, chilling on the Mirissa beach, and fishing with sticks in Waligama. 

At the end of the trip I will start my volunteering job at Ambalangoda and join the English teaching projects working in local schools and community education projects. Wildlife, renovation and medical experiences take place in the morning for 3-4 hours and teaching and community programmes take place in the afternoon for 3 hours.

All my accommodation is organised by PMGY. During the travelling I will stay at guesthouses/hotels in the various places we will visit and I will share a room with other travellers. Three meals per day are also included across the whole four weeks of the trip. Most meals are traditional Sri Lankan dishes. All the volunteering is going to cost me £ 849 plus the flights.

London private school may let boys wear skirts

Last year, some boys from a private school in East Sussex wore skirts to school in hot weather as a protest.

And now, the school has started an initiative to change their uniform policy and allow boys to use skirts and girls trousers, since the number of children questioning their gender has increased over the years. They also want to do allow unisex toilets and open sports to al pupils. 

Eighty institution, forty of them primary schools, participates in the initiative. The government has financed with the objective of opening minds on schools about children that question their gender. 

The policy supports neutral gender, and gave to the pupils the option of choosing between wearing a skirt, trousers or both of them. According to the principal there are more girls that use trouser than boys using skirts, and adds that it's a reflection of what society considers normal and what doesn't, and we can change that.

The parents have reacted well to change, the new rules do not force children to do anything. "They just give them a choice."

Paula Weaver, the principal of Allens Croft, a school in England was the first in the UK to change the dress policy a year ago.

A lot of students suffer bullying and abuses from other students so the school is trying to help the LGTB community, too.

http://www.bbc.com/news/education-39921309

I like the new policy because I think that everyone has the right of wearing whatever they want, independently of their gender. Besides, there are people that don't identify theirselfs with the society classification about male or female. 
Some people feel trapped in the wrong body from the moment they are born, there are boys who are convinced they should be girls. Also, there are girls who say they should be boys. Since we were born, society teaches us how a man should look or how a woman should behave. However, many students disagree with these gender roles. I believe that society should not decide what it means to be a man or to be a woman, and neither decide if you should wear a skirt or a pants.

United Airlines Passenger Is Dragged From an Overbooked Flight

A man was violently removed from a United Airlines flight by aviation police officials at Chicago’s O’Hare international airport on Sunday. 
The accident was filmed by another passenger who were screaming and horrified by the situation. In the video you can see how the officers aggressively grabbed, and then dragged the passenger down the aisle of the plane, after refusing to give up his seat to an employer.

The plane was overbooked, so United asked for 4 volunteers to leave the plane offering 800 credit points, but the volunteers would have to wait till the next plane which was going to be the next day. At the first David Dao and his wife agreed but when they realised that the plane wasn't until the next day and they had to be at work, they changed their minds.

So the company decided to put all the passenger's names in a computer and choose 4 of them randomly, casually the same man who offered himself in the first place and his wife were two of the selected. They asked him politely leave the plane but David said that he was a doctor and needed to see patients at a hospital in the morning, so they called to the police and dragged the man out of the plane.

"Everyone was shocked and appalled," a witness said. "There were several children on the flight as well that were very upset."


United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz apologized for having to “re-accommodate” customers aboard the flight and said they were investigating the incident, but many on social media said that the apology fell short.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/nation-now/2017/04/10/united-under-fire-after-man-dragged-off-overbooked-flight/100287740/

I think that no one should be forced to leave the flight when they had paid the flight and it's the airline's problem for "overbooking". Every passenger has the right to stay on board and they had no right to draw and violently throw passengers of the flight.
And even more if you have a job and duties to attend that depends on arriving at your city on that plane.

SCHOOL TRIP (DAY 4)

The fourth day was the last day, which in my opinion was the best. We wake up early, get dressed, and went downstairs to have breakfast. Then we take the bus to go to the Valporquero caves, my favorite visited place. It was very cold and they warn us that inside the cave were 90% of humidity, so we prepared our hats, scarfs and gloves. We slept in almost all the trip and we missed the sights.

The entrance to the cave is located at 1,309 meters of altitude, under the town of Valporquero. The cave is amazing because of its complexity and diversity of geological formations that take place over the years. There are many stalagmites and stalactites that form a wonderful landscape. We visited the seven halls of the cave and the visit lasted about an hour and a half. We took pictures, but can't appreciate the beauty of seeing it in person.

After the visit, we returned to León where we eat and then visited at 4 p.m. La Colegiata de San Isidoro, a Christian temple of Romanesque style built during the XI-XII centuries. It is one of the most outstanding in Spain, for its history, architecture, sculpture, and for the Romanesque luxury objects that have been preserv

ed. It has a Royal Pantheon located at the foot of the church, with Romanesque mural painting, and where most of kings and queens of Leon's kingdom were buried.

I really liked this temple.

Finally, we visited the cathedral of Leon, which was declared of Cultural Interest in 1844. Started in the eighteenth century, it is one of the great works of the Gothic style, and French influence. We made an audio-guide and after that they let us free time.

We went for a walk and bought some souvenirs and food for the trip back. Then we sit in a bar and rest a little, but some doves attacked us so we left. Because it was the last day we were allowed to return to the hotel at 3, so we went to the hotel, showered, dressed and went to dinner. We ask for pizzas and squids. After dinner we search for some pub and with other classmates we enter. At 3 am we returned at the hotel where were expecting us.

SCHOOL TRIP (DAY 3)

The third day we were going to León, so we take our suitcases, we put them in the bus and we prepared the cushions because a large travel was waiting for us. Before going to León we went to Las Médulas. It was the most important gold mine, and largest open pit gold mine, in the entire Roman Empire. It was named as one of the World Heritage Sites, too.

When we arrive at Las Medulas we eat and then we were in the cultural space and there a guide explain us that the Romans employed a type of hydraulic mining which involved undermining the mountains with large quantities of water. The water was supplied with inter-basin transfer. She also said to us that wasn't worthwhile because the work was so hard and the gold obtained was minimum, but o

bviously the Romans had slaves which did the dirty work so they didn't care.

After the talk we did a foot tour to the viewpoint, we walked about three hours, it was horrible because they told us to wrap up us warm and the sun was radiant. We had to climb a steep slope, but finally the views made up for the suffering. We also walked into a natural cave where in the past the water flowed. When we had recovered our strength, we went down, but it was easier because there wasn't pendent, just a descent.

After we get up to the bus and went to León. I wasn't expecting too much of León, but when I saw it, I surprised because it exceeded my expectations. It was full of people, cars, and there was a good ambient, so they had us time to eat. When we went to the hotel, we take a room for four persons, and I preferred Burgos hotel, but it wasn't bad.

SCHOOL TRIP (DAY 1)

In this entry I am going to explain the trip that we did this year to Burgos and León. We were an April 4th and returned the 8th. We were in the bus, so I had to wake up at 4:30 am to be on the road at 5 a.m.. Our first destination was Burgos so we travel for ten hours, we spent the most of the time sleeping. Before arriving to Burgos we stopped at a service station to eat. We arrived at 3 pm, we left the suitcases at the hotel, changed of our clothes and we went to visit the cathedral of Burgos.








My first impression of the city was negative because I was expecting to see more people and environment, but once we went to the downtown already I changed my opinion. After the visit of the cathedral of Burgos, very nice and big, they left us free time to visit the city. Xana, Maria, Paula and I went immediately to a bar to sit down because we were very tired and starving. Burgos is a city known by ''tapas'', so we ask for a lot of food.


After, we went to the hotel for dinner. The room was of the two persons, me and Paula, we had a shower and put our pajamas. Then, Maria and Xana came and we stayed talking a little bit more before sleep.

SCHOOL TRIP (DAY 2)

The next morning, we wake up with sleepy. We went downstairs to have breakfast and then we leave on foot to the Museum of Human Evolution(MEH). It is located 16 km west of the Sierra de Atapuerca, location of some of the most important human fossil finds in the world and declared World Heritage Site as the museum.

A guide shows us the most important things of the museum, we saw some of the original and the oldest fossils founded in the Sima de Los Huesos and a recreation of the brig in which Darwin traveled. She has also explained us how our ancestors were and how they managed to discover the fire, make tools, and how the social organization was. There also was a large-scale brain recreation.

After the visit, which I find quite interesting, we went to Atapuerca to see the archaeological sites. We had to wear a helmet for safety and they didn't let us take pictures. In there the guide explains us kind of the same that in the museum. The visit goes through the Trinchera del Ferrocarril, an artificial passage of open limestone rock, that give rise to three of the most important sites of Atapuerca: Sima del Elefante, Galería and Gran Dolina.

After, we went to have lunch in a small village named Ibea de Juarros and then we went to the Centro de arquelogia experimental (CAREX) and there they explain us how our ancestor did the processes of elaboration and use of the tools, cabins, fabrics, ceramics or art works. She also teaches us how they made fire, tools, haunt and you could see replicas of archaeological materials.

Then we returned to Burgos and the teachers let us free time, that was the best of the day because I was tired and bored of explanations. We visited for the last time Burgos and then we went to have dinner. Later, we returned to the hotel made our bags and despite our effort we couldn't stay awake and we slept early.