Living with Feng Shui

These days Oriental culture is in fashion. Occidental people want to prove a new way to live, a new option to make their lives more comfortable and cosy. It is in our cities, around us. The main point is harmony. We must be in harmony with ourselves, among us and with the environment. A practice, that is now taking new followers, is Feng Shui. The origin was in China and it interprets time and space energy flows in the nature for ensuring the harmony of human constructions with the environment. Basis for feng shui recognize several origins.

This practice believes in the existence of a vital breath or chi and it is altered substantially by the shape and position, cardinal points and temporary changes. If we move that to our life, we must study the structure of our house and the position in the street, locations of rooms and the furniture. For instance, when we choose a house, we have to take into account several questions: the floor of the house has to be at the same level to the street, regular shapes are better than irregular. If we have a terraced house, it can't be too high or too low, we must avoid corners and roofs to our house, the front door has to have a favourable measure, the kitchen and the bathroom can't be in the middle of the house or flat…This practice takes care for all details around us to put in order our house, from the structure to where we must place the oven. Every thing has its place and its time, because it thinks we mustn't keep very old things at home and for that reason, sometimes, we have to throw away old things to let new things come in.

It's an interesting way to live but very stressing if we are too strict with rules, because you can feel very well at your home with a mirror, the position of a wall, or a room without feng shui. But when you visit a house or an apartment of a follower of this practice, it’s a very pleasant feeling because every thing seems in its place, it’s very curious. I don’t know, maybe I will have to start to practice, why not?

The Battle for a Mortgage

On 1^st April of 2007, The New York Times published an article about mortgages. The author of the article, Christine Haughney, tells us what it happens in New York when you want to buy a house. I thought that if you had a high salary (with six-figure salary) you would have more facilities to borrow money from banks. But, it seems that in recent weeks, it has begun to be very difficult, because lenders try to stem losses from loans to the weakest borrowers. Of course, lenders always lend money when they don’t loose anything, but it’s curious that they try to make up for money with high level people. You could think that it’s a justice question.

But if you continue reading the article, you realize that it isn’t the question. The problem is new lending requirements and the kind of payer. Basically, banks say: ‘You are going to pay the piper for any little mistake’. I mean, for instance, delays in their mortgage applications. Then, when New Yorkers want to have a mortgage, potential problems are low credit scores, high credit-card balances or listing a suspiciously high salary for a given job. And these things aren’t a problem for rich people, but it’s a problem for people with a high salary. The main point is that they have a not bad salary, their mortgage brokers have problems to negotiate the deal, and if this kind of people have problems, what happens with medium salaries? Is it impossible to buy a flat without a six-figure salary? Now, in New York seems impossible, but I think we could have the same discussion here, maybe without the figure of mortgage broker, only the bank.

LOVE IN 21st CENTURY

I had never asked myself how love is in these days or how it will be in the future. When I was child I listened to my family their opinion about love. My grandparents said that the relationships between people were different when they were young. And when years went by, my parents said a similar thing. Then, does love change with time? I don’t think so. The feeling is the same, because people need love. We need the contact with people, the interaction. But I think the way to achieve these things is different actually than in the past. This is logical because the way of life changes continuously. If we compare our environment with the world twenty or fifty years ago, we find differences, for instance, the kind of technology around us and the use that we give it, besides others situations and things.

The typical family has changed and many different kinds of families have appeared, single mothers or fathers, two fathers or mothers, grandparents with their grandchildren, couples with children of different father or mother, couples, a group of friends… Of course, every person expresses love in his own way and it also depends on the individual or family situation. I don’t know if it’s now easier or more difficult than before because I can’t compare but I think the feeling is the same. The distances and the society force us to look for new ways to communicate and show our feelings and it will be interesting to see how we will be able to solve it.

Anyway, someone told me if when we remember a year, we don’t cry of happiness or sadness, we haven’t lived that year. I think that sentence expresses the meaning of love without time, because when we remembered a year, we use to remember our friendships, couples, children and relationships between people. Feelings of love, passion, hate, sadness, happiness and others are very important for us because we need them to wake up every day in the morning.

The merchants of cool

Being a teenager is difficult. TV and music influence teenagers and send them messages about how they should be cool. But, who decides that? Who decides how to be cool?

In one hand, companies and TV want to sell their products because teenagers are a potential and big market to buy anything. When you watch TV, advertisments tell you that you are not thin enough or not pretty enough. They tell you clothes that you have to wear for being cool or how to smell. In the other hand, a teenager has to combine his own opinion with the opinion of his friends, TV, his favourite music groups.

Nowadays, there is a symbiotic relationship between the media and teenagers. It exists the example of MTV. This channel has TV programs and music videos for young people. The true is that these videos sell them a life style. Moreover, the companies monopolizes the system and that provokes that the same thing is sold by TV, radio, newspapers, magazines…because a big company owns different places where they can advertise their products.

And, where are adults in the media? In TV series, they show adultified kids that make their own decisions. In the documentary "The merchants of cool", they talk about TV series like Dawson's Creek or Buffy, the vampire slayer, where it's true that main characters are teenagers and they make decisions like if they were adults. In that way, they will decide how and why they spend their own money. But the marketing has to be attractive for them. For that reason, companies ask teenagers what they want and what they think it is cool or not.

Then, who decides? I don't know, because it's a vicious circle.

Fairy Tale

This was my favourite tale when I was a child. Do you remember it?

The Little Vain Mouse

There was once a little mouse who was very vain. On day, she found a coin on the ground and she was very happy for that. She started to think how she could spend that money. She thought and thought and finally, she decided to buy a big piece of pink silk to make herself a beautiful bow.
She was really beautiful with her pink bow, and many animals wanted to get married to her. But Little Mouse was demanding and she wanted a perfect animal. First, she met a fat pig. He was in love with Little Mouse, and promised to make her wishes true. However, she didn’t like his appearance and she turned down his offer.
After that, she met a rich dog and he asked her to get married. She thought about his petition, but she didn’t want to get married to the rich dog because he wore glasses.
At last, she met a handsome cat and she believed that he was perfect for her. The perfect cat talked to her about a perfect life in a perfect house and she believed him.
They married soon, And Little Mouse was beautiful and happy with her bride dress. When she saw the groom, she thought that she was really lucky. When the wedding finished and they were together at their home, the cat (her husband) wanted to eat Little Mouse because she was a mouse.
The cat was stronger than little Mouse and he almost killed her but at that moment, two policemen arrived at the house and they arrested the cat and Little Mouse lost an illusion.

The moral of this story is: Sometimes, appearances can deceive.

A diary entry

1 February Yesterday we came back home. We should have stayed there longer. We spent a good time, several months in France. It was cold but sunny. We tried to visited many tourist places and to make a lot of photographs. We lived in an old town, near an incredible lake, in a little house with a little garden where I had planted some roses. This morning when I woke up and I was looking out the window, Martin said, "I would like to come back". It's difficult to return to your previous life when you have lived in a foreign place for a long time.

Mini Saga

After Christmas holidays, we have to return our blogs. This week, I'm going to try writing a short story. I didn't know anything about mini-sagas. But, last Thursday, we read some of them at the English class and the teacher suggested us to write one. I've written a mini-saga, and I would like to know if I'm able to make me understand in English with only fifty words.

Happy Wedding Anniversary
He arrived home soon, with a bunch of roses. A surprise for his wife. They had been married for twenty years. He walked upstairs and opened the door of bedroom. One year later, he was cooking the dinner. The ring bell rang. It was a messenger. Finally, he was divorced.

When I was writing the story I noticed that it's very difficult to write with few words in a foreign language. I wish you like it.