My mother´s name is Isabel and my father´s name was Manuel, he died in 1982 when I was nine years old. I´ve got a sister, she is married. I also have got two beautiful nephews, I often play with them. My brother-in-law is a busy person and I hardly ever see him, but when I see him, we laugh a lot. We go to Albacete in holy week, where we play the drum, eat and drink a lot. I’m very lucky because I´ve got a funny family.

Right now, I live in a suburban neighborhood in San Mateo that is right next to a small pond. The pond used to be clear and OK for people to swim in and have fun, but ever since some sewage inadvertently spilled into the area, the waterfront location has given us a great view but little else, as nobody is really willing to swim in the water or go for a ride in a canoe. However, the situation has been improving, and recently we witnessed hundreds of people show up on our street to take part in a regatta that was happening on the beach right behind us, a competition between UC Berkeley and Stanford. Here is a picture of the pond:

I really enjoy the climate of our town because it never really changes throughout the year. One of my teachers has called it a Mediterranean climate, which means that it always stays a constant and comfortable temperature, perfect for those who enjoy being outdoors and enjoying a leisurely life seven days of the week, 365 days a year. What I enjoy most about this climate is that I never have to worry about wearing heavy clothes (even though I do so anyway just because I’m used to wearing baggy sweaters) and my parents never have to spend too much time poring over their heating bills and finding ways to stay economical on using natural gas. However, one bad thing about this weather is that it gets somewhat boring after a while; I begin to look forward to rain and I hope that some freak snowfall may strike our town just to get some variation in the sky. Also, there are no snow days; although we did have one “storm day” when I was a freshman in high school due to poor drainage of the school, the problem has been fixed and we now go through our classes, rain or shine.

In my hometown in Massachusetts, I looked forward to snow days every December, January, and February. They would inevitably sprout up in the school schedule, when there was simply too much of this white, fluffy, chilly stuff for the custodians to shovel out of the way for cars to get through. Getting to stay home and not worry about homework–or anything for that matter–was a blast. I usually stayed snug and warm in bed, flipping through channels on the TV, watching a movie or playing a game, or going out for a sleepover with some friends where we would make some popcorn and have an Adam Sandler marathon. I’d also go outside, build snowmen and snow forts, and fight with my neighbors in massive snowball wars that would last for over an hour at times. Summers in Massachusetts were great as well, because the warmth and brightness of the day were much more intense and the grass in that place was much more green and lush. However, one thing I could NOT stand was the few days during July and August when the thermostat would ratchet up to over 100 degrees farhenheit and I would be stuck inside with wonderful air-conditioning but also with nothing to do.

Besides the weather, the main difference between my hometown in the East Coast and my existence here is the level of rapport among myself and the neighbors. Living in a condominium complex very close to my neighbors, I made friends with a lot of the neighborhood kids and my parents knew basically everyone else in the area, especially since our place was rather cloistered from the rest of the town, set off about a half a mile into the wilderness from the main street that led into the small town center. Now that we live in a house in the middle of the suburbs in a city with a large population, my family and our neighbors are acquaintances with each other but we know little about each other beyond our faces and car brands. Still, I enjoy living in San Mateo because there is a ton of culture and sophistication here. Staying here and going to Aragon High School is a worthwhile experience.

I enjoy many different hobbies and have many different interests. Let me start with the hobby that I have already told you about; I love to watch movies! I especially enjoy science fiction and action movies, particularly those from the 80s and 90s. Movies like Blade Runner and Total Recall that are slightly cheesy from the subtle and sophisticated viewpoint of today but hold an imaginative appeal that I enjoy very much. The most interesting part about watching these movies is marveling at what special effects people were capable of doing before computer graphics ever became possible as a way to create new worlds and show the impossible. The skill and thought that was put into making the miniatures, matte paintings, sets, and lighting that throws the viewer of these movies into another world is simply staggering, and it makes me wish I could have that much skill someday in my life. Check out some of the beautiful artwork in these shots from Alien: Resurrection:

Isn’t it just fantastic? I loove science fiction! Speaking of that, I recently read a book called Schild’s Ladder by Greg Egan, a science fiction writer who does very esoteric and confusing stories about the nature of our universe and the people within it. This story takes place in the very far future, when people’s minds can literally be downloaded and saved onto a computer and “death” as we know it has been wiped out of existence. In this novel, humanity is divided into two types: “acorporeals,” minds that exist without bodies and run on a computer system, and normal, flesh-inhabiting people, who now carry electronic brains and can turn on and off various bodily functions at will. Apparently, an experiment carried out by scientists of this hyper-advanced era messed with the fabric of space and inadvertenly caused a chain reaction which threatens to destroy the universe as we know it. Thus, many people are working to stop this threat to humanity’s existence and figure out a way to reclaim their homes from the expanding ball of nothingness that is wiping these homes out.

However, there are a few people who wish to keep things as they are because this ball of “nothingness” may be humanity’s key to transcending its current state. Although people in this era enjoy the most advanced technology conceivable and don’t need to worry about famine, disease, or death, there are signs that they are beginning to stagnate and feel an oncoming nihilism and pointlessness consume their very souls. Some have resorted to proving exotic mathematical theorems in order to pass time, while others have put their minds on hold until something interesting comes along to justify conscious thought; yet others have decided to terminate their thoughts entirely. This expanding void, however, holds great promises for some; because the laws of this universe, or any other universe conceivable by mankind, occurs within the void, some believe that if they figure out how that universe works, they may be able to cross the border into the void and experience whatever lies inside…

I won’t spoil the ending of the book, but something very substantial and even humane dwells inside the void, and when our adventurers discover this, they embark on a quest to stop the world’s expansion and find a solution to this crisis, which is common to both those on the outside and those on the inside.

Schild’s Ladder and other work by authors such as Greg Egan and Kim Stanley Robinson belong to a realm of science fiction called “hard” sci-fi. Books within this category are made to work within the boundaries of our current body of scientific knowledge, and may be entirely realistic except for the occasional fudging of a scientific rule in order to make a plot device work. Books under this category are the opposite of so-called “space operas,” which are books that completely ignore science in favor of what can best be termed a futuristic fantasy. They ignore obvious facts such as the effect of gamma rays on the human body or the sound of objects floating in space. I enjoy reading hard science fiction more because it gives us a glimpse of what may actually be possible in the future, rather than nostalgic visions of what we would like to be able to do if we could control the laws of the universe.

I also enjoy reading a lot of classic books as well. I have read Moby Dick, the story of a whaling ship whose captain is called Ahab. The protagonist of this story, Ishmael, is a lost soul who goes on the whaling ship to find some sort of adventure and perhaps penance for his life. The story is beautiful, although it is very, very, very long. I really enjoy the cover of the book, which I’ll show you here:

The story is very romantic and full of vivid descriptions of the whaling life and interesting anecdotes on the subject of whales themselves. However, it does become slightly dull at times, and the vocabulary and language in the book is so complex that I often put it down in confusion and frustration. But when I finished the novel, I was very glad I took the trouble to read it. It gave me a better view on the small things in life and gave me a newfound appreciation for the complexity and danger involved in being a whaler.

Anyway, I think I went a little overboard (pardon the pun) in explaining my love for books. I do love them; I could talk for many hours about my interest in the whole Harry Potter series, my dislike of Ralph Ellison, and my interest in cyberthrillers. But all for another day

Hello again. My immediate family consists of myself, my two older sisters and my parents. My parents names are Oscar and Sonia. They are both 100% El Salvadorian. They met when they were living in El Salvador. Then, they moved over here to the United States and got married. Both of my parents’ parents are full-blooded El Salvadorian also. My mother works at a printing press in Foster City, a city neighboring San Mateo, as Project Manager. My father also works at a printing press but in San Carlos, near San Mateo, as bindery operator. My parents got married in their early 20’s and bought their first house about 5 years after.

My eldest sister is 21 years old and her name is Melissa. She is a great older sister. She’s is always there for me. Her and I are 4 years apart. She currently goes to school and a nearby community college called Cañada. she is studying Early Childhood Education. She really enjoys working with kids and wants to one day own her own nursery. Right now she works as a nanny for 3 families however she will soon start a new position at a Preschool. she still lives at home but she plans to move out sometime next year; after I go off to college. Melissa is really into zodiac signs and horoscopes. It’s really fun to talk to her about all that. Even though she is older than I am, we still have a really good relationship. I go to her for all kinds of advice and she comes to me as well.

My second eldest sister is 19 years old and her name is Tanya. Tanya and I are only 13 months apart and many people say we look like twins. Personally, I don’t see it but to many others, we’re identical! It gets pretty annoying when people mix us up or just constantly tell us how much we look alike because we get it all the time! Everytime we go out there people that have to give us a second glance to make sure we aren’t twins. We may look alike but we’re really different. Tanya alos goes to Cañada with my older sister. Tanya plays soccer too. She didn’t play this last year but shes starting again this season. She’s really excited to start playing again. She’s still undecided about what she wants to study but whatever it is i know she’s going to be just fine. Tanya is really dedicated and focused. When she wants something, she doesn’t stop until she gets it. She also just joined a college level dance team. Tanya has always loved to dance. Even when we wer ekids we were both enrolled in a Ballet class and Tap class. I kind of gave up to continue playing soccer but Tanya continued while playing soccer. She’s a really good dancer and she looks good out there.

All three of us are really, very close. We are all totally different but we are still so much alike. Of course we’re close because we’re sisters but on a more deeper level, we’re like eachothers best friends. We know that we will always be there for eachother and throughout the years we have been getting closer and closer and that friendship will just keep getting stronger. I love them!

So what about your family? Are you really close?

Hey there, what’s going on? It seems like I haven’t talked to you in a while. Have you been busy? I have been really busy so I haven’t logge don to this that much. I apologize.

So, how do I explain my job? For starters, I don’t work in a typical teenage job. Most people I know around my age work at the mall or some store that they really like. I on the other hand, work at a biotechnology office. What they do there is they write these newsletters and they sell them online to these big companies. Well, they have all these newsletters stocked and filed in their office and they are starting to run out of room. This is where I come in. What they want to do is get all of these newsletters into the data base int he company computers so that they can throw away all the papers and make more room in the office for future purposes. So, along with a group of others, we take the newsletters and scan them onto the database online and store them into the correct company folder. I know, it’s a little confusing. Can you imagine how many friends look at me like I’m weird after I try an explain all that to them? So, basically, I get paid to sit on a chair and play with a computer. I only work about 3 hours per day, 5 days a week. It’s kind of boring but in my opinion, it’s better then any othe rjob because they are so flexible. I don’t have a set schedule so I can go to work at any time that I want or any day. I’m not requiered to go everyday. Also, they have a coffee shop right down the street so I can get up and go get coffee at any time! That’s what I like the most! So in the end, it’s a pretty cool and easy job to have for an 18 year old.

Do you work? At what age can kids start working in Spain?

Hi Clara. It’s hard for me to find time for hobbies, but I when I do have time, I like to run, draw, sleep, eat, cook, hang out with my friends, and see my boyfriend. I don’t know if I could consider all of these “hobbies,” but it’s what I like to do. hehehe. When I am bored on the weekends, I like to cook. My favorite type of cooking is baking. I love baking different kinds of cookies, and I think I am pretty good at it My friends love it when I surprise them with cookies. I try baking cakes and pies but they are just so hard! They seem to always crumble when I put frosting on them! But I can make a MEAN turtle cheesecake. It’s sooo goood! My mouth is watering just from thinking about it! Besides baking, I also love trying new recipes from my magazines. I guess that’s another hobby of mine: reading magazines. I like health magazines and, I am ashamed to say, I also love celebrity gossip magazines! I’m so ashamed! Lol. But I can’t help it! Hehehe. What are your hobbies? Do you do a lot of hobbies with your husband?
-Linda