Au pair in Deutschland

April 22, 2012

Verein für Internationale Jugendarbeit                                                                               http://www.au-pair-vij.org/

Dear Mr. To whom it may concern

I am a student of translation and interpretation from Ricardo Palma University. Actually, the languages that I’m learning are French and German. That’s why I’m interested in the au pair program. Moreover, I hope you will be kind to answer a few questions about the program.

The first thing I would like to know is whether or not the family, which I’m going to live with, is going to afford my German classes. Also, could you tell me if I will have a medical insurance?

I have many friends from the university that are curious to know whether the family accepts the au pair as a member of them or not. In addition, since traveling alone is a little bit dangerous, I will like to ask if your enterprise guarantee my security.

I also have to ask whether I will be able to visit neighbor countries that of course belong to the European Union. Could you please tell me if the visa that I’m going to get permits me to move around?

To know a little bit more about the job. Can you please tell me how many hours do I have to work? Also, I would like to know if I can go wherever I want in my free time, of course with the permission of my new family.

Finally, I’m curious to know whether the family picks me or I pick the family. Also, could you tell me, please if I have to pay the agency after I get the job formally?

Thanks sincerely for your time; I will be waiting your response. You can mail me at gabyroxana4@hotmail.com.

Sincerely yours,

Gaby Fuentes

Abortion =(

This is not a nice topic; many people don’t like to talk about it; especially me. We can’t deny that abortion is a very controversial worldwide topic; although it has been approved in many countries, there still are people who are against this practice. In my opinion, although there are some reason to be against it, there are other good reasons very well explained that make me feel in favor of this practice.

The first card on the table of this group of people to defend their believes is the religious moral part; they say that the holy bible doesn’t support this idea because it means not to let the nature does its job. In addition, it means to fight with God’s volition. If they start talking about religion, nobody will pay attention to it; the majority of people don’t care too much about it. Moreover, it sound hypocrite when they talk about the nature and God’s volition because they do not respect it at all. Everybody notice this. That’s why many people doubt of church; generally speaking. I mean, all the bad things they have done and its bad reputation.

Second of all, abortion means kill a human being, who is not guilty of parents’ mistakes. Parents are responsible for not to take precaution when they had intercourse, so they have to assume the consequences. Good point, parents are responsible. There are alternatives that can be used in this circumstance. For example, a couple that didn’t protect themselves can use a pill before is too late. Although, many people think that this pill is equal to practice an abortion, it’s not true, actually. This pill avoids sperms to get to the egg, that’s all. Furthermore, to rebut this thing about killing a human being, using the logic and the philosophy, we have to ask, what a human being is. Everybody will say that humans are rational beings that think and feel. A 2 or 3 month old baby is none of them because it can’t think or feel. If it’s no rational, it’s not a human.

Finally, practice an abortion can be dangerous for the mother, physically and emotionally. Because the people who practice it are not doctors, mothers put their life at risk. Unfortunately, this is true. But, it could be more dangerous when a woman is force to do it. In contrast, a woman who is for sure that she want to do it and accepts the risks will not suffer a huge damage. If the government legalizes abortion, they also should provide women information and a psychologist in order to make the mother think about it very well before taking the decision. She has to know that there are other options like adoption.

Like I said at the beginning, this is not a nice topic; sometimes, I prefer to avoid it, but that in this time I couldn’t. Well, reasons to be against or in favor are immense. I just can say that if a woman decide to practice an abortion or not; it’s up to her, and nobody can say or do something about it. We are supposed to be free to take our own decisions no matter if it’s a wrong one. That’s how we grow and become better people.

It's all uniforms

When we were teenagers, we thought that school rules were silly. In my opinion, some of them are, but there are few rules that are not. It doesn’t mean that we figured it out in that moment because as everybody knows at that age all rules are just careless. We had to grown up to see the importance of them. For example, wearing uniforms has become a little problem in the society. Although majority of school students think that wearing uniforms is not important, I believe that it helps a lot to improve conscious in our life while growing up.

Students think that wearing uniforms is really uncomfortable in class because it get dirty quickly and they break easily; especially, when you play in the break and also it’s boring to wear the same every day. I don’t remember if I had though the same way, probably I do, but now I realized that follow this rule help me to be organized in every possible way. For example, keep my clothes clean and wear it properly. Moreover, a grown up worker sometimes has to get used to wear as much elegant as the position in the work environment requires. It will be awful if you arrive at your office wearing jeans and sandals. A person always should take care of their aspect because it says too much about the personality.

Another reason of students against uniforms is that it is just a custom and they add that in this time of modernization things from the past have to change to grown. Talk about modernization helps my point of view about wearing uniforms. Organized and responsible people are the ones who have made the society grow. If we permit teenagers do what they want to do, values will be lost because of lack of organization and responsibility. This “custom” has a purpose that is take care of students. In that way, we won’t see students avoiding classes, walking in the street putting their life and future at risk instead of being educated to be the motor of the society.

Finally, they say that nobody cares about the essence of uniforms and it has turned a dirty business that makes educational institutions fill their pockets with cash. I really hate when sometimes they are right; unfortunately, there are people that do that. But, this is a problem that has solution and not an excused to not wear uniforms. It’s true that every school wants develop their own uniform different from others and force students to buy it. In that circumstance, we should be the ones who must force institutions to get used to not to do what they want to. Instead complaining about uniform, we should complain about profit organizations. To avoid this, we should develop one unique uniform to be available to all students.

To sum up, uniforms are not as bad as we thought; it has a purpose and nobody came with the idea to wear uniforms for nothing. It’s not about material; it’s about to find a meaning that help us to be a better person.

Lima vs. Caraveli

There are lots of cities in this world. Everyone is different and similar, at the same time, from the other. In this opportunity, we are going to see what differences and similarities are between the cities of Caravelí, Arequipa and Lima downtown. Although, both cities are placed in the coast of Peru they have many differences, but we’ll mention population, environment, and transportation.

One difference between Lima and Caraveli is the population. Being the capital, Lima is an overcrowded city. It used to have little population, but now, the number increase because of migration. In addition, people, here, don’t know each other and are no friendly. In contrast, Caraveli is a small city; therefore, the number of people is minimum compared to Lima. There, people know each other very well like they were a big family. Furthermore, they work as a team to keep harmony in the city.

The second difference we find between these cities is the environment. Lima is surrounded by many buildings constructed without organization everyone taller or older than other. Because there are lots of cars and fabrics, the city has become noisy and disorganized. Another factor that makes the environment looks bad is us. It is sad to say it, but we see it everyday. People are get use to throw garbage away; they don’t respect anything at all. The worst part is that they transmit their bad habits to their children. On the other hand, Caraveli is an organized city. There are no enormous buildings; houses are placed very well. It’s a quite place where there are no cars or fabrics that produce smoke. This city it’s pretty clean; they don’t throw garbage away. In addition, every morning, elderly people wake up very early to clean their portals.

Finally, the way people transport is pretty different. In Lima, people use cars, buses, etc. The problem, as I said before, is the quantity of these. There are too many cars and very bad constructed ways that make us hate to go downtown. For example, many years ago, from home, it used to take my mom only 20 minutes going downtown by bus, though, we live far away from the city, but now it takes us like 2 hours. On the contrary, in Caraveli, people don’t use that kind of transportation. Because it’s small, they use bikes, their animals like horses and donkeys, or, simply, they walk. Moreover, get to this city is not that easy; actually, it’s amazing and has kind of adventure. Because Caraveli is surrounded by mountains, you have to rent a donkey and go up until the top of the mountain; then, you have to go down. Pretty cool, don’t you think?

To sum up, population, environment, and transportation are factors that are different in these cities, but are important to know. I recommend you to visit Caraveli someday; I haven’t done it yet, but I would like to. Personally speaking, caraveli sounds more interesting than Lima.

stress, stress, and more stress

Every day, men and women are too busy doing many things. This routine can be exhausting and it also can damage our health. Stress is produced by many factors and it has negative effects in our life.

One factor that produces stress is working for too many hours. Sometimes employees have a lot to do at office. Therefore, they don’t eat very well, they don’t sleep, and they spend too much time in front of the computer.

 Having problems at home is another cause. It causes stress in adults, young adults, teenagers, and even kids. It happens when there are members in the family that fight all the time, or have drinking problems.

Finally, procrastination is one of the most common causes of stress.  Since people like to leave their duties to the last minute, they always live in a hurry. Then, they don’t know what to do when time is against them.

We have seen some factors that cause stress. Now we'll see what the effects are.

There are negative effects when stress becomes part of our life. For example, if we talk about our health, stress causes several headaches. In some people causes fiber, fainting and other diseases that can bring death. In our daily life, it causes lack of concentration that’s why people don’t stop thinking about their problems; our job performances decrease for the same reason. Some people can lose their job, their families, and everything else.

In conclusion, stress is a problem that can affect our life style. It happens for so many reason and can ruins our life if we don’t learn how to deal with it.

Last birthday party

I’ve never enjoyed a birthday party in all my life until that day. It doesn’t mean that my parents never organized one; actually, they did it. The tiny problem is that I was too little; I was 3 and 5 years old, so I can’t remember. When I was about 15 my father asked me if I wanted my birthday party; of course, I said, “NO WAY.” To me, those parties were always ridiculous. The horrible long pink dress, the big cake, appears at midnight. Well, I knew that I could have a better party someday, and I was right. It was very fabulous how I celebrate my 20 year old birthday.

Everything start when my friend A… called me on the phone and asked me to go out with him and the people from the CCAM “Centro cultural de Anime y Manga”, which are also my friends, to go to “Parque de la Reserva”. I said, “Yes.”We had a real good time. In the way home, my friend A and I talked about my birthday, so I decided to organize a party. The next day, I called him to invite him and my friends from CCAM, but I figured out that one of them, a friend called X, was organizing a birthday party too. Then, we coordinate to celebrate it together in order to be with our friends. We camped on the beach; it was amazing. We build our tents; then, we played in the water and collected wood to make a fire.  In the evening, we ate chicken, hot dogs, snacks, and candies. After that, we drank some wine, danced, talked, and took a lot of photos. Later, we fell asleep. The next day, we cleaned up all the mess; unfortunately, I had to go home, but I was happy.

To sum up, I had an amazing first birthday party that I will never forget. Camping on the beach as a first birthday celebration, it’s an unforgettable experience in your life. :D

Although computers can safe our lives when it comes with job or studies, it has, in fact, many disadvantages. First, computers crash all the time. For that reason, you have to spend money and time to fix it. Another disadvantage is that computers can cause addiction in some people, and it’s worse when young people waste their life in front of the computer. Another drawback could be that the screen emitted UV radiation, so it’s not good for our health to spend a lot of time in front of it. In addition, it would be great if you wear some cream against UV radiation. In conclusion, computers cause some trouble sometimes, so you have to think about the disadvantages. In that way, you could be aware and take care of your family and yourself.