Our national drink

An afternoon meeting with friends would not be a proper meeting if the Argentinean national drink was not present. I imagine that you know what I am talking about. That loyal companion that must have been part of many unforgettable moments in your life as well as it is in my life: the mate.
The mate, as I said, is the national drink and one of our most established cultural traditions. When a friend of yours enters your house, the most likely thing to say is: shall I prepare mate? And a high percentage of the answers are positive. The mate is so established and popular that no matter where you are, it is likely to find somebody drinking it.
Mate can be bitter or sweet; there is a tendency to say that bitter mate in much preferred by men, while sweet mate by women. I do not agree with that since, in my opinion, there’s nothing better than drinking bitter mate and relaxing. And, as you know I’m a girl.
There is a Guarani myth that explains the origin of yerba mate. It says that one day the Goddess of the Moon and the Goddess of the cloud decided to visit the Earth but, in their visit they encountered a Yaguareté who tried to attack them. A man protected the two goddesses and, to express their thanks, they gave this man a new plant to prepare a “drink of friendship”.
Preparing mate can be considered a ritual; a careless prepared mate won’t taste as good as one which is prepared with love and devotion. Mate is considered safe by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Studies show that yerba mate exhibits significant cancer-fighting activity.
So, what else can we ask to this companion? Mate has been with us in our worst and best moments in life. It acts as psychology and friend whenever you need to calm down and think about something. It is a good fellow when you have to spend hours sitting and studying. It is part of our lives and culture, we cannot deny it.

Enjoy this video about a peculiar mate drinker.

My tiny baby!

Whenever I arrived at home in my hometown, he is the first to welcome me rejoicing. He is my tiny baby: Pinky. He is my pet, my favourite one, the one that is mine since at home there are 4 more dogs. He is a 3 year old Chihuahua and he is really special.
The Chihuahua is the smallest breed of dog in the world. The first dog of this breed was discovered in 1850 in old ruins in Mexico, in the state of Chihuahua. The breed was named after this state. The height of these animals is between 30 and 38 cm and their weight is between 2 and 3.5 kg. Colours are varied.
My little baby lives in Victoria with my family since such a hyperactive creature is not the best complement for a shared flat in the city. Besides, I’m never at home and he would have felt really sad and lonely taking into account the characteristics of this breed. They do not like being along. Chihuahuas tend to be extremely loyal to only one person. And that is me when I am home. If he is resting on my lap and anyone dares to approach me he would start snarling and barking. He is my loyal protector. He is a chihuahua but he feels a rottweiler. He is beige and he was a birthday present 3 years ago.
This tiny creatures have their advantages, they are little, compact and easy to handle and they do not consume a lot of food due to their size. But the disadvantages are sometimes unbearable, they are so bad tempered and they have so good lungs that they can keep barking at the air for hours, without stopping or getting tired.
My baby is like that, once he kept barking at a fly for 15 minutes. Well, this fly was bothering him, flying around him. I really love him. They may come over as hysterical the first times you met him, but, if you get o know this creatures they are really special.

Perspectives

“Carrefour” is a French word that means “crossroads”. As you may know, Carrefour is also the name of a French international hypermarket chain. Taking into account its size, it is the largest hypermarket chain in the world.
There are several Carrefour supermarkets all around our country. You must have entered one of them at least once, I imagine. So, you must be well acquainted with the company’s sign. The sign is tricoloured: red, white and blue. These are the tree colours of the French flag.
I have to admit that I was sick and tired of seeing this sign. I stepped on it whenever I entered the hall of my building and the floor was covered with leaflets which contained information about the week sale. Every day when I put the household rubbish out I saw it since we tend to use Carrefour’s plastic bags, with its sign on them, as rubbish bags. While going to college or coming back home by bus I saw it thousands and thousands of times a day. I was continuously exposed to this well-known sign. What is the point of all this? You must be wondering. Well, let me tell you:
After seeing the sign millions of times, one day- I think a week ago- , I was talking to one of my students. As you know teenagers and computers are always together, teenagers can spend hours chatting on Facebook, uploading photos, commenting on them and joining different social groups. And, when they are not in front of the screen, they keep on commenting on this. So, this girl told me: “today I joined a great group in Facebook, the name is: I ALSO HADN’T REALIZED THAT THE CARREFOUR’S SIGN WAS A LETTER C”. As soon as I heard this, the sign came to my mind once and again, and now I could see it. It was a white letter “C“on a red and blue background. Have you realized it?
So, what is the moral of this story? That sometimes it does not care how many times you have seen something or how much you think you know it but, it is not until somebody else comes and shows it from another point of view that you realize that you were wrong. It is a question of perspectives!

The platypus

You must have bump into many different strange animals on the bus, walking in the street or even at school but I bet you that none of them was as strange as this one: the platypus.
The platypus is a mammal that lives on the east coast of Australia. It is usually described as a hotchpotch of a variety of familiar animals: duck, otter and beaver. Platypuses have a bill that resembles a duck’s bill and webbed feet such as those of ducks. Male platypuses have poisonous stingers on their feet. The body of the platypus is similar to the beaver’s body; it is 35 to 40 cm long and with a flattened tail that is 10 to 15 cm in length. The body and tail are covered with a thick, soft brownish fur similar to the otter’s fur. This fur consists of three different layers. A platypus can grow to a maximum weight of 1 to 2.4 kg and live for an average of 14 years. The most peculiar characteristic of this animal is that they reproduce by laying eggs but they are mammals. There is only another animal which shares this characteristic with the platypus- the echidna. Platypuses do not have teeth, their diet consists of insects, larvae, shellfish and worms. They are considered one of the most unlikely animals in the world.
Why is that I decided to write about this animal? Well, it is because I am exposed to it every weekend when I watch the Disney cartoon Phineas and Ferb with my little niece. This is a Disney series about a particular family which has adopted a platypus as pet. It is said that the creators of this series chose to introduce this animal due to its striking appearance.
It cannot be denied that every day we learn something new. Even when you feel that you may be wasting your time watching cartoons but at the same time you are making a little person in your family extremely happy.
Enjoy these videos about one of the most peculiar animals on earth in its two versions: real life and cartoon.

New coins!

I don’t usually collect anything but as soon as I saw the first one I knew I wanted to have the five of them. And I do! I am talking about the five new one peso Argentinian coins which started circulating a few months ago. The government announced that these commemorative coins were starting to be in circulation in June. As I previously mentioned they are commemorative coins, they are part of the bicentennial celebration of our country.
What is special about them? If you look at them from a distance you would say that there is no difference between them and the ordinary one peso coins. The new coins are bimetal just as the other ones but the difference is that they depict five different popular Argentinian areas:
Pucara de Tilcara: it is located in Jujuy, outside the city of Tilcara and is a famous historical site. The Pucara de Tilcara is the ruins of Inca’s fortifications that were built about 900 years ago. This place was declared a national monument on 2000.
Aconcagua: it is the highest mountain of the world outside Asia. That is to say, it is the highest peak in the Southern and Western hemispheres. Aconcagua is situated in Mendoza and it is 6962 meters of altitude over the level of the sea.
Glaciar Perito Moreno: it is a glacier located in the “Parque Nacional los Glaciares” in Santa Cruz. It is one of the most important tourist attractions in Argentina.
Mar del Plata: as you must all know, it is a famous seaside beach resort in Argentina. It is located in the city of Buenos Aires on the coats of the Atlantic Ocean.
Parque Nacional el Palmar: it is a national park located in my beloved province of Entre Rios. It was created in 1966 for the preservation of the Yatay which is a type of palm tree.
You must have seen one of them. Maybe for you they are just coins, but I find them really nice because of the reason they were launched and because of their depictions: It is more than money, it is a place in your country you should be proud of.

Wisdom teeth

Four years ago, my four wisdom teeth were removed. We all know that they exist, that most people need to have them removed at a certain point in their lives. But, what are they? Why there is no room in our mouths for them?
Wisdom teeth are the third and final set of molars. They usually appear between the ages of 17 and 21. That is why they are called “wisdom” teeth, since they appear at an age in which we are already young adults. Most of us have the wisdom teeth and, if you are unlucky you may have more than four of them, a case known as supernumerary teeth. In some cases, wisdom teeth may not need to be removed. This is when they are aligned and when there is enough room in the jaw for them to grow in. But, in most cases, there is no room for them and they do not grow properly aligned so they need to be removed.
There are two different theories which attempt to explain this phenomenon of a set of molars for which there is no room in our jaws and that does not grow at a convenient age in our lives. One of these theories claims that in former times, due to the diet, teeth loss was common at an early age. So, wisdom teeth used to grow so as to fill the space left by those teeth that had been lost. They acted as a kind of replacement. The second theory supports the notion that, in the past, human being’s jaws were much larger and as a result they allowed for a larger number of teeth. As our body has developed, nowadays, our jaws are smaller but the number of teeth does not correspond to our actual jaw size. The result is a mouth crammed with teeth that need to be removed as soon as they are visible or tangible.
I do not know about your experience, if you have had your wisdom teeth removed or not, whether you have them or not, or if while reading this you may start thinking that that minor discomfort that you sometimes feel behind your second molars is just your wisdom teeth that are starting to come through. The only thing I know is that lost my wisdom at the dentist’s four years ago!

Idioms

An idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made.
It was not until the other day, while I was watching a film (My name is Khan), that I realized the importance of idioms. The protagonist of the film was an autistic person and he was only able to understand the literal meaning of words. So, whenever a person used an idiom or a figurative meaning of a word, this man kept misinterpreting what the other person said. There are so many things that we take for granted an idioms are one of them. That phrase which means this, may be interpreted as something not only completely different but also sometimes ridiculous by a person who gets the meaning of its constituents separately and not as a whole. Here I will write a list of those idioms which in that case could result in total confusion. Just imagine situations in which someone may interpret their literal meaning:

“Out of the frying pan, into the fire”: If you get out of one problem, but find yourself in a worse situation, you are out of the frying pan, into the fire. (Spanish equivalent: “De Guatemala a Guate-peor”)

“Flogging a dead horse”: If someone is trying to convince people to do or feel something without any hope of succeeding, they're flogging a dead horse.

“To kick the bucket”: to die. (Spanish equivalent: inf. “Parar la “pata””)

“Get up on the wrong side of (the) bed” also “wake up on the wrong side of (the) bed” : to begin the day feeling unhappy and uncomfortable. (Spanish equivalent: “Levantarse con el pie izquierdo”)

“To be like a bull in a china shop”: to often drop or break things because you move awkwardly or roughly. (Spanish equivalent: “Como elefante en un bazar”)

" To put your cards on the table": to speak honestly and openly
about your feelings and intentions. (Spanish equivalent:"Poner las cartas sobre la mesa")

" To add fuel to the flames": to say something that makes a
difficult situation worse. (spanish equivalent: "Echar leña al fuego")