It had been many days since it last rained

It had been many days since it last rained. Actually, it had been several months. Climate change, which had been warned about plenty of times, was now a fact. Many international symposiums have taken place with many experts from around the planet. Nevertheless, nobody knows what is happening. The one thing that they know for sure is if it continues in this way, things will get worse.

Elizabeth Monaghan was a 10-year-old girl, normal and common. She liked playing basketball and hunting Pokemons with her little brother. In spite of that, she was the only person in the world who understood the problem and solved it.

One day, after school, Elizabeth had picked her brother up and, as they used to do every day, went to the park to wait for their mother. Unlike other days, Liz didn’t bring her quadband-and-4G-connexion cell phone (a present from her 8th birthday) because the night before she had forgotten to charge it. So to help pass the time she decided to look at the sky.

She had never realised how beautiful the sky was. A great canvas in blue, with amazing white clouds like a cotton candy, and many birds flying away. She realised too that everybody in the park was looking at their phones, and that she was the only person looking at the sky. Suddenly, she shouted them ‘what a beautiful sky we are fortunate to have! Leave your little displays and look up there, there is a bigger screen!’ A few minutes after that, Liz could feel soft rain on her cheeks.

The solution to the problem was simple: it had not rained for so long because people had stopped watching the sky.

Viva México!

From: albert.marshall@aol.net
To: james.marshall@unam.mx
Subject: Viva México!


Hello li'l' brother! How are you?

I’m writing to tell you than I’ve just landed right now. The flight from Mexico has been really quite and I’ve been sleeping the most of the time.

I had never tasted real Mexican food and I really enjoyed it. Actually I’ve discovered I love spicy food. The special burritos are the best and I loved tacos as well.

Please thank your neighbours for the Mariachi hat that they gave me as a gift. Not everyone has got a genuine sombrero like that... They also were so kind and thoughtful with me.

And finally I’d like to thank you too for inviting me to pass a days in Coyoacán with you. It has been a great pleasure.

Talk to you later.


Jim

Concerning New York

The other day I was reading an interesting article about New York City, which is a city that has always aroused my curiosity. Here is a brief summary of it:

Grand Central Terminal is the biggest train station in the world. It was built in 1913, and even today is the biggest in the whole planet: it has got 44 platforms with 67 railways in two levels. And there is not only usability, its Beaux Arts style is an important feature: the very high main hall with the ceiling vaulted and illuminated over three great 23-metre wide windows. This space, where 500.000 people transit every day through, is a symbol of New York and has been used several times as a set in many films.

New York underground (“NYC Subway”) has amazing numbers too: over 1.300 kilometers of rails, 26 lines (most of them working 24 hours a day), 468 stations and 1,6 billion displacements a year. Most of the platforms exceed 200 meters long in order to host ten or eleven wagons that compose every cowboy.

The Statue of Liberty, whose real name is Liberty Enlightening the World, is a 46 meter-high neoclassical sculpture placed on Liberty Island. It was given as a present by the French government to commemorate the centenary of the American Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776). It was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and was built by Gustave Eiffel in France with 31 tons of copper. It was sent in 350 parts packet in 214 boxes and was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

Central Park is a great green lung placed in the middle of Manhattan. It was built between 1860 and 1870 above a swamp zone. Its 3,5 km2 are taken every day by thousands of New Yorkers and visitors to repose in the grass, take photos or simply walk around. There is the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, a great water reservoir that covers 43 ha and holds over 3,8 million m3 of water. A path surrounds the lake, where lots of people usually go running and biking in; actually, there is too many people, that authorities established to run only in clockwise direction, in order to avoid crashes.

The Empire State was the highest building in the world since its construction in 1931 until 1972, when Twin Towers were built. After 11-S attacks, the Empire State was the highest building in the city again. It is 443-meter high and has 102 floors. But nowadays is not the highest in the world any more; this honor is occupied by Burj Khalifa (“Khalifa tower”) in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) with 830 meters high. However, the issues required to build the Empire State are equally amazing: 60.000 tons of steel, 10 million bricks, 6.500 windows, 113 kilometers of pipes, 9.000 taps, 73 elevators and over 41 million dollars. The Empire State hosts 1.000 offices and has got its own postal code. Last 30 floors can change the light color: there is a LED lighting system that is capable of displaying 16 million colors, which can change instantaneously. From the top of the building you can see the whole city, and that must be an incredible experience.