Amanda NI2A Descriptive Essay: My best friend

I met my best friend Adriana when I moved house. I was eight years old and she was ten, new neighbors and friends. She was bigger than me which proved useful because her experiences prepared me for the future.

She was much more confident than me, calm and quiet. I used to be impulsive and insecure, so our characters were perfectly complemented. 

We spent every weekend together; we even phoned or talked with walky-talkies everyday after finishing our homework. We sometimes argued and fell out for a few hours or days, like all friends, but finally we always made up again.

She is cheerful, amusing, sociable and the most important for me, reliable. She always stays by my side in difficult problems, helping me. We have a 17-year friendship and she knows me perfectly, even more than I know myself. She is more than a friend; she is my sister, my other half.

Profile of a Good Friend

I met my really good friend Jonay two years ago.  He is a hairdresser and started working near the restaurant where I work. Every day, he came to have breakfast and always ordered the same: an orange juice and a little sandwich. He  was a  hard-working young man who worked very long hours in his own business, always kind and nice,  but generally looked sad and I wanted to know why.

One day, I decided to take him a cup of coffee in the afternoon. He was so surprised  and I could not resist asking him about his strange sadness. Now, I realize I was a bit indiscreet, but he trusted me and said there was no love in his life. I could not believe it! 

You are sorrounded by love, your family and your friends , and you should to be more confident and love yourself every day, I told him. We talked about it for months and I lent him some books. He started going to the gym, enjoying the little things and meeting new people.

Nowdays, Jonay is a successful, cheerful man. When I feel nervous about studies or my job, I talk to him because I know he is a reliable, generous friend, and we feel much better after listening to each other just for a few minutes. And above all, I have learnt that a woman and a man can be friends. (by Jennifer NI 2)

My Ideal Room: my Sacred Place (by Lourdes)

I would like to have a very big room, a room with only a few things inside. I would use it to be alone and quiet, to work when I need to work. So, this room must contain the basics things for that.

It will have a table with a laptop, a printer and a chair, just the necessary equipment. Also, it must have a big carpet. A stool, a few cushions, something for listening to music. It is all I need to meditate.

I also would like it to contain curtains and two big pictures of deserts, one of them of sand desert, and the other of rock desert. And it will be painted a light green colour.

This place will be my sacred place.

by Lourdes of NI 2 

Magüi Visits Madeira

Last summer I went to nearby island Madeira with a true blue friend. We did not speak the language (Portuguese) but it is quite similar to our own so we did not have any problem.

The entire trip were fantastic, I really felt relaxed ( because the island is tranquil) and surprised because although it is a subtropical island like Gran Canaria it lacks beach areas. Madeira only has a few beaches along its winding coastline. There is a lot of water and green forests. The people look after the environment and are very kind to their island.

They have kilometres of canals around the island to take the water from the top of the mountains to the houses, some of which are near the sea. It is an interesting system.

Madeira boasts two different kinds of cows: happy and sad. The first roam the countryside grazing and looking contented. The second ones never go for a walk which I found a little strange.

I like gentle exercise so we walked amid the marvelous gardens with all kinds of flowers and fruit trees, you can hardly imagine. It is like paradise. This trip was the most unforgettable holiday of my life.

Magüi (NI 2)

Almudena's Trip to Lanzarote in 2003

It was 2003 and I was very stressed at work and had to stop and relax. So I went to Playa Blanca, on Lanzarote's south coast. In that amazing holiday adventure I discovered that interesting island. It was a fantastic, magic experience.

One day, I sailed to the nearby isle of La Graciosa on a small ferry. I also visited a lot of villages like San Bartolomé, Tías, Arrieta, Orzola, El Golfo and Mancha Blanca where the popular belief has it that the Virgin Mary stopped volcanic lava. In this place the church of the Volcano´s Virgin was built.

I loved Lanzarote's beaches, especially Papagayo. Timanfaya National Park was amazing, with its volcanic scenery. This place provided me peace, calm and relaxation. The only sound is the wind blowing through the lava.

But the region I adore most is Famara Beach. If you want, you can practice extreme sports like kite surfing. It is a very long beach but sometimes the tide may be a bit dangerous when the sea is too strong.

Every year I try to get back to Lanzarote, but those holidays in 2003 were the most unforgettable days of my life.

--- by Almudena (NI 2) 

Clear Language is Sincere Language! --- Orwell

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns  instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell wrote this in his extended essay entitled "Politics and the English Language" which was published just after WWII (1946)

Sardinero Beach in Santander: Raquel's Unforgettable Holiday

(The students in NI 2 wrote about unforgettable holiday experiences. This essay was written by Raquel. It describes her first trip to see the sea. She comes from the north of Spain so this experience took place in the north. I have included a couple of vocabulary suggestions in bold face.)

The best holiday of my life was when I was fourteen and I saw the sea for the first time in my life at Sardinero beach in Santander, on the Bay of Biscay coast. As the weather was not great, I remember perfectly that were not many swimmers or sunbathers, just a few animal lovers walking their dogs.

I stopped, transfixed, in front of the sea trying to fathom how big and magic it was, watching the waves and listening to the sound of the sea. To my right, only water, to my left, the same; when I got down to the sand I was so excited that I took off my shoes. I ran until I reached the waterside. I tr really cold water. Then my family came to mind and I wished that they could be with me. I looked around me and saw nearby, under a hill, some sailing boats. In the background, on top of the hill sat the Magdalena Palace.

The sky was as blue as the sky and that was the most  unforgettable holiday of my life.

NOTES for Raquel and her classmates:

fathom = (descifrar) understand, comprehend

sound = (ruido) you could also use “roar” although there are many other adjectives available.