About my last summer

Hi, today I'm going to talk about my summer holidays. First of all, I'm going to talk about my exchange experience in the States. After that, about the week I spent in Cadaqués with my family and my days in Catalunya. And finally, about my trip to Belgium.

This summer I left my country to be able to live probably the best experience of my life: a month away from home. I went to America with the YoungLife USA camp program. On July the 1st we took a plane to London (a 3 hours flight) and after that we took another plane to San Diego. We spent the whole day flying and going from airport to airport. After a really long day, we got there and I met my American family: the Martinez family. They were a lovely Mexican couple and they had a daughter called Emily and an 18 year old son called Eddie. During my experience there I got to meet a really huge and nice family and I had a lot of fun with all of them. I went hiking and I also did some tourism around: we visited Downtown San Diego, la Jolla beach, Oceanside, etc. On the second week everyone that came with me from Catalunya and Andorra and some of the American kids went on a road trip. We went to LA, Hollywood, Universal Studios, Santa Monica,... We had a great time together. After visiting all these places we took a bus with boys and girls from Escondido to go to Woodleaf, which was a typical American summer camp. Woodleaf is incredibly big and I didn't expect it to be as much fun as it was. We did a lot of activities every day like the swing, the tower, the slides, we went to the game room, to the club, etc and I met a lot of new friends. Also, western night was a dream. On the last week of the exchange program I hanged around with my friends and also did a Service Project and went surfing. Although surfing was fun it was really frustrating because I think I am the only one that couldn't stand up on a surfboard. But at least I tried :') During the month in California I didn't feel homesick at all and I'm looking forward to go back.

After a few days at home I went to Cadaqués with my family to spend the week at the beach. It was great to relax and go paddle surfing for the first time. I also stayed at home some days and went canoeing, met my friends again,... I went on a hike with my brother, my aunt and my uncle too. The view up there was stunning. On September I helped at the kindergarten next to my house and also went on a trip to Belgium. I went there with my canoeing friends to take part of the Sobeka Flanders Cup. We did k1, k2 and k4 and even though it rained a lot on the last day I really enjoyed that trip.

In conclusion I had the best summer of my life and I feel blessed and thankful that I got to meet so many great new friends. 

Living on the edge! (La Jolla, San Diego)

My American parents

Craziest ones out there!

Surf day

Blackberries in Cadaqués

Cadaqués

Cap de Creus

Downtown San Diego with this one!

Downtown San Diego

Potato chip hike

LA - the view

Walk of fame

Corn dogs are sooooo good

Surf day

Western night

Baseball game

Me and a cow. Cuz why not.

Vall de Núria

Candy shop in Belgium

Photo booth with Emily

Fun times in Banyoles

Joan R: He went to Lourdes to help sick people and did a service project. He also spent two days in Barcelona.

Joan C: He went to Hawaii. He stayed in Kaneohe. He visited a lot of places in the island.

Nur: She went to Euskadi with her family. August was a new experience's month because she went to an aquatic park for the first time.

Laia: She spent the afternoons watching drama series. In September she went to El Pantà de Sau to row.

Elisabet: She slept a lot during summer. She went to Andorra to celebrate her birthday.

Maria S: She went to Port de la selva with her friend, Ariadna. She took part of the Sobeka Flanders Cup in Belgium.

Núria F: She visited different European countries with her family.

Nico: He went to a rowing camp in Eton with Laura. He also spent a month in Menorca.

OBSERVATION OF MY ORAL PRESENTATION

Body language and eye contact:

- Did you look at your audience most of the time? I look at the paper ocasionally because my oral was "quite" long but not really often.
- Did you read from your notes? As I said before, I did many times.
- Did you do any gesture/movement to hold the attention of your audience? I kind of did.

Structure:

- Did you organize your ideas in order of importance? I organized my ideas chronologically.
- Did you use discourse markers to make your ideas more clear? (First, then, after, ...) Yes

Content:

-Did you introduce interesting NEW information to your audience? I think so.
-Did you look up information/facts/ideas in the internet/books? No, because I didn't have to. I thought I wasn't going to find any information about myself on the internet or books! was your information more superficial or more detailed, and original? I tried to include funny or interesting info.

Language:

-Did you check your grammar? yes I did.
-Did you use rich vocabulary looking up the dictionary? I tried to.
-Did you use sentence linkers? yes
-Did you use fillers? yes, ocasionally.

Pronunciation and intonation:

-Did you know how to pronounce all your words? yes
-Did you check the pronunciation with a dictionary, a classmate or the teacher? no, I didn't.
-Did you change your tone of voice or use a monotone tone all the time? I changed it to say certain things but not much.
-Did you speed in a fluid continuum or with breaks and interruptions? Most of the time, I didn't do breaks while I was talking. I may have stopped once or twice.

Self-evaluation: I think I should get an 8 or a 9. I think I've improved.