Culture Shock !!!

If I had to travel to another country, I would travel to China. Chinese people are very different in terms of culture, and obviously, if I go to that country, I need to know some manners and customs in order to avoid a misunderstanding.

First of all, I imagine that I won the lottery. Therefore, I had enough money to travel to China and visiting my Asian uncle!! J. Finally, after having traveled for one long week, I arrived to China. In the airport, I could see a lot of people with strange eyes and they were walking in the same direction like the music video “Thriller”! After that, I tryed to find my uncle, but I could not see him. So, I walked around the airport and I could see huge buildings and industries without any green place around them, like some trees or a garden to take a rest. On the other hand, I did not want to be near any chinese because they think that is a very rude attitude being near and greet them with a kiss or a handshake. After wasting my time doing anything interesting, my uncle arrived.

When we were near, he did a Bowing as a signal of greet and respect and then I imitated that gesture. I did not want to be gross with my own uncle, because maybe he had kicked my ... you know, and that could have been the shortest travel of my life. During the travel to his home, we were talking in english about important things related to their customs and how much different are them in relation to Chile. He told me that a bowing is very important if I am in front of a Chinese person, that gesture replaces a handshake or a kiss. And then, if a conversation begins, I should not fell uncomfortable if the chinese person asks me about personal information like my sexual preference or if I have a beautiful sister, because for them is usual to ask about topics that in my culture sound weird.

Other important thing that he taught me was related to the gifts. You can not give them a wall clock, because that represents the death, but if a chinese person gives you a different gift, you must receive it with both hands as a signal of courtesy. Other signal of courtesy is to call a Chinese person by his surname and not by his name, because they are called by their names only by their relatives or friends. And finally, he told me that I should not lend money to a Chinese person, because that is another rude gesture for them, althoug they spend a lot of money in games betting all their fortune.

As you can see, is very important to seek information about a different culture, specially if you want to travel to another country. Some customs that we have in our country are totally different for other people, so we must respect their traditions and we could learn more about other ways of living.

FC Barcelona won the SuperCup

Last saturday, FC Barcelona won its ninth Supercup of Spain defeating Sevilla FC, which means that Barça has won this cup more times than the rest of the teams in Spain. . The match between the League champion and the Cup champion is a tradition that wants to prove which team is the best at the begining of the League. There were two matches to decide the champion of champions. The first one was in Sevilla and the second one in Barcelona. In the first match, Sevilla FC played better and won the match 3-1 with goals scored by Luis Fabiano, once, and Frederick Kanoute, twice. The discount for Barça was scored by Zlatan Ibrahimoviç. The "Pep Team" was not feel comfortable with their gameplay because the most important players (Xavi, Iniesta, Villa, Piqué, Puyol, Pedro, Valdés and Busquets) were absent because of the friendly match that they played against Mexico, respresenting Spain. With that inconvenient, Josep Guardiola had to call members of Barcelona "B" to complete the roster, but the result was unexpected. A defeat which left Sevilla closer to win the Cup. Guardiola had one week to train for the rematch, but in that ocasion he could have all the players available, inluding the international ones, and the result was totally different. A huge victory 4-0 in the Nou Camp with an impressive performance of Lionel Messi who scored 3 goals. Although he is not a good player playing for Argentina, his performances with FC Barcelona are always amazing. Whit those goals scored, Messi is the third top scorer in the history of the club. Another player that played an awesome match was Xavi Hernández, a player who is going to become in an authentic leyend for the club becuse of his technique and vision of the matches. Those two players and the rest of the team won the ninth SuperCup for Barça and the tenth title in two years coached by Josep Guardiola.
At present, the begining of the League represents another challenge for FC Barcelona because is a long tournament and its main competitor Real Madrid, which is coached by José Mourinho, has hired new players in order to defeat Barcelona. On the other hand, the Champions League represents another ambision for the players coached by Guardiola beaceuse last year they were eliminated by Inter de Milan in semi-finals. This year, the "Pep Team" is going to play against: Panathinaikos, Copenhague and Rubin Kazan in a new edition of the most prestigious tournament around the world and Lionel Messi will lead the team again.
This weekend begins the League, and FC Barcelona is ready to win all the competitions in which they are going to participate.