Shooting in an Oregon University

Yesterday, 10 students were killed at the Umpqua Community College located at the South of Oregon. One more shooting (the 994th in the last 3 years) that has taken the lives of innocent people attending school. President Obama, in his speech after the event, sadly was asking why if way more american have been killed in 'domestic' shootings than on terrorist attacks within the country frontiers, USA spends billions of dollars to fight against terrorism (rightly so, according to him) but the country is not able to create minimum stricter gun laws that could prevent these terrible events. Unfortunately, we all know the answer to that question...

Matanza en una Universidad de Oregon.

Ayer 10 estudiantes fueron asesinados en una Universidad Publica (Umpqua Community College) situada al sur de Oregon. Una matanza más (y llevamos 994 en los últimos 3 años) que se ha llevado por delante la vida de muchos inocentes habitantes de este país. Ayer el Presidente Obama en el discurso que dio poco después de que fueran conocidos los detalles de este terrible suceso, se lamentaba y se preguntaba por que a pesar de que hayan muerto muchos más americanos por este tipo de matanzas 'domésticas' que por ataques terroristas perpetrados en suelo nacional, USA se gasta billones de dólares en equipar al ejercito para combatir el terrorismo, y sin embargo es incapaz de regular, aunque sea mínimamente la tenencia de armas por civiles. Desgraciadamente, todos sabemos la respuesta a esta pregunta....

Vuelta al cole, Addendum

En mi último post, Ann me comentaba que no hay diferencia entre chicos y chicas a la hora de ser parco en palabras cuando vuelven del colegio. Como ya os dije, no puedo comparar ya que en nuestro caso, a la hora de traer nuevos individuos a este mundo, nos 'concentramos' en un solo género. Sin embargo, la semana pasada tuve la fortuna de acudir al Curriculum Night (*) de la escuela primaria de mi hijo Guillem -4o grado, 9 años- en donde se habló del tema... (no creo que la directora del colegio esté leyendo este humilde blog, pero parece ser que la incapacidad comunicativa de los chicos es un asunto de estado). La cuestión es que, con el fin de promover una conversación algo más larga que el típico: ¿Cómo ha ido el cole? Bien, hasta luego... se nos ofrecieron una serie de preguntas alternativas para incitar un mayor diálogo. Estas son algunas de las perlas sugeridas:

-¿Has visto hoy a alguien tocarse la nariz?
-Si los marcianos vinieran al colegio y se llevaran a 3 compañeros, ¿a quien preferirías que se llevaran y por qué?
y ésta última es
antológica...
-¿Cual de tus profesores sobreviviría un Apocalipsis Zombie?.... y ¿por qué? claro...


(*) El curriculum night es una reunión organizada por el colegio donde se informa a los padres de los objetivos lectivos del curso y éstos tienen la oportunidad de conocer personalmente los profesores que enseñarán a sus hijos.

Back to School, Addendum

In my last post, Ann commented that there is no difference between boys and girls when it comes to be pretty much speechless when they come back from the school. As I told you, I just can't compare since we only have boys at home. Nevertheless, last week I had the fortune of attending Curriculum Night at Guillem's Elementary School (he's a 4th grader, 9 y.o.) and something was mentioned about this particular topic... (I don't think that the Principal is reading this blog, but it seems that the kids'  inability to communicate is a matter of state!). The fact of the matter is that we were offered a list of alternative questions to avoid the traditional: "How was the school? Fine, see you later...", and so to extend that parent-kids beloved dialogue.

Here you will find a few of the suggested questions:

-"Did you catch anyone picking their nose?
-If aliens came to school and beamed up 3 kids, who do you wish they would take? Why?"
and this last one is anthological:
-"Which one of your teachers would survive a zombie apocalypse?" and of course, "Why?"

Back to School

Last week (finally), my 3 sons started the School. Honestly, the B2S period in the USA is not that different from what happens in Spain, other than we dedicate a way lower budget to school supplies, since here you don't need to buy a massive amount of new text books every year. In Spain, the kids cannot use the books of his older siblings since they are changed every year (often, the only significant change are the book covers...). For once, something is cheaper here in the States.

My FB entry on the 1st day of School

As ever, we lived some moments of stress in the first days. In every Public School, the kids are picked up by the School bus, next to their homes, yes, that yellow bus that we have seen in many american movies and that, interestingly enough, often they are pretty exhausted and with no seat belts, in a country were safety measures can be sometimes exaggerated. Anyway, the buses should make logistics pretty easy, unless, one of your sons, the one who starts High School, forgot to check the new Bus route (he couldn't find the time in his busy agenda in any of the long 3 Summer months). Or when your youngest, decides to play with his Ipad at 7.30 and misses the bus on the 1st day of school... then, yes, the level of stress considerably increases in the morning.

.


In spite of all the novelties offered by the 1st day of school (new high school, new mates, new teachers...), since they are boys (it seems that if they were girls would be different), the information that we get when they come back home in the afternoon is next to Zero:

-How was the day?
-Good,..I am going to the play room (I missed the Xbox all day...)

I guess, that all this will sound familiar, no matter where you live: the limited communication skills of boys together with his Xbox addiction are pretty UNIVERSAL.

Vuelta al cole

La semana pasada (por fin) mis 3 hijos, volvieron al Cole. Francamente, el fenómeno aquí en USA no es muy diferente a lo que pueda pasar en España, aparte del hecho de que los gastos en material escolar son muy inferiores a los españoles, ya que no te obligan a comprar  una ingente cantidad de libros de texto nuevos cada año a los que a menudo lo único que renuevan son las tapas.... sin que sirva de precedente algo es más barato aquí.

Mi entrada en FB, después de llevar a Andres al cole...

Como siempre en los primeros días se viven situaciones de stress. En todas las escuelas públicas los niños son recogidos al lado de casa por el autobús del cole, sí, ese bus amarillo que sale en todas las películas y que curiosamente, suelen estar bastante destartalados y ni siquiera llevan cinturones de seguridad, en un país en el que las medidas de seguridad, en cualquier ámbito, son exigidas hasta la exageración. En cualquier caso, el autobús escolar debería facilitar mucho las operaciones logísticas, el problema viene cuando, por ejemplo, uno de tus hijos, el que empieza en el instituto, no se ha mirado cual es la ruta del bus ni donde está su parada (no encontró ningún momento para hacerlo en su apretada agenda durante esos largos 3 meses estivales). O cuando el pequeño, se enreda con el Ipad a las 7.30am y pierde el autobús en su primer día de colegio... entonces, sí, aumenta considerablemente el stress matinal.

A pesar de todas las novedades que ofrece el primer día de escuela a nuestros hijos (nuevos colegios, nuevos compañeros, nuevos profesores,...), como son eso, niños (pareces ser que si fueran niñas sería diferente), la información que recibimos cuando vuelven a las tarde es cercana a cero:

-¿Como te ha ido en el cole?
-Bien, voy a jugar a la Xbox (que la he echado de menos todo el día...)

Supongo que quien lea esto, no importa en que país viva, le resultará familiar: la limitada capacidad comunicativa de los chicos junto a su adicción a la Xbox es universal.

Service

When I first started to visit United States, something that stroke me (in a positive way) was the quality of the service you get in any store or restaurant, comparing it with the one I was used to receive in Spain (or in Holland, worldwide known by its fast and kind service...ironically speaking). Initially I was a bit overwhelmed by such a nice treatment...but quite honestly, after 40 plus years of poor service, I didn't need a long transition to get used to it. Now when I go back home and visit one of the thousand bars in the city to have a coffee, I just can't stand it when the waiter serves me as he is doing me a great favor... whoever is reading this in Spain, they know what I mean. And I am wondering, why there is such a service culture in USA or why it doesn't exist in Spain?

When it comes to restaurants or coffee shops, obviously the american 'tipping' model helps to understand it. Here, a good service is tipped with a minimum 15%. In fact, tips make the biggest part of the waiters' salaries which are then directly linked to the customer satisfaction. However, this doesn't explain the good service received in other type of stores where tipping is not that common. I believe that this is related to the dynamism of the economy and the vital american optimism. A top class service can only increase the traffic of customers and boost the revenues of any business, and that's good for the owners but also for the employees as by doing a good job, new professional opportunities to prosper will come up. Of course, life is not a bed of roses, not everybody reach success in the USA and more often than not, the initial optimism runs into frustration or even worse, depression and anxiety (pandemic diseases in the modern societies). But in the meantime, the coffee is served with a smile and I really like it!


On a totally different (and unexpected) note, why are the WEBER barbecues never on SALE? In this country, you can be sure that any product will be on sale at any point of the season, anything, it doesn't matter how premium or luxurious it is (and that includes cars, watches, clothes, jewelry, etc...). With the exception of the WEBER barbecues, never discounted. Somebody should do some research about it....