Comenius 1-1: School Project

"Freedom and Limits - Conditions and contradictions for young people in Europe"

Projects 2008 - 2009

Time

 

1. Ángel Lirio Martínez 2. Javier Martín Zamora
3. Ángela Bravo Núñez. 4. Elena Martín Gil

 

Sayings referred to time


Not all sayings referred to time in English are literally translated in the same way in Spanish. // No todos los refranes referidos al tiempo en inglés tiene la misma equivalencia de traduccción en castellano.

All good things come to an end; Time flies when you are having fun: When you are enjoying yourself, time seems to finish too early. --> Lo bueno se acaba pronto
 
All's well that ends well: When something finishes all right at the end of the day, even if the day has been wrong, it pays. --> Bien está lo que bien acaba

Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow: It is better to have something for sure today than to have a hundred possibilities tomorrow. --> Más vale pájaro en mano que ciento volando
 
He that fights and runs away may live to fight another day: It is better to do something day by day, than try to do it all the same day; you will be healthier and not stressed. --> Más vale cobarde vivo que héroe muerto

Better late than never: It is better to do something even late than not to do it. --> Más vale tarde que nunca

Busiest men find the most time: The more you work, the more time you find to work more. --> Dale trabajo a uno ocupado que lo hará

Don't count your chicken before they are hatched. // Catch your bear before you sell its skin: Don't cheer or celebrate things before they happen. --> No cantes victoria antes de tiempo. // No vendas la piel del oso antes de cazarlo
 
Christmas comes but once a year: Life is not all fun. --> No todos los días son fiesta
 
A creaking gate hangs long: When an issue lasts long, it seems to last for ever. --> Mujer enferma, mujer eternal.

 Time is money: The more time you have, the more you can work and the more money you can get. --> El tiempo es oro
 
Time and tide wait for no man: You can not stop time, which goes by. --> El tiempo no espera

 Rome was not built in a day: Little by little you can go far, but you can not do a lot of work in a short period of time because you will do it wrong. --> No se ganó Zamora en una hora.

It's the early bird that catches the worm: Who gets up early has more time to do more things. --> A quien madruga Dios le ayuda

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise: If you get up early you have time to work in order to earn money, and you can study or learn something so you will be wise, and if you go to bed early you will sleep more and you will be healthier.

Every dog has his day: Everyone has at least a lucky day in his life.--> Más vale llegar a tiempo que rondar un año

First come, first served: The first to arrive has more chances to choose what is better for him. --> El que primero llega, primero muele

Fortune knocks at least once at every man's gate: Everybody is lucky at least once in his life.

Opportunity seldom knocks twice: Grab the opportunity when it comes to you, otherwise you will lose it. --> A la ocasión la pintan calva

Give a lie twenty four hours' start, and you can never overtake it: If you are not sure about something, don't spread it around or it will stay forever. --> Difama que algo queda
 
It is never too late to mend: If you want to make up your mind, there is always time. --> Nunca es tarde para cambiar
 
Keep something for a rainy day: Keep something for those days in which you may need it.  --> El que guarda halla.
 
Let bygones be bygones: One can't mend things that have been already done. --> A lo hecho, pecho.

Life is short and time is swift: One can't waste his time because it goes by quickly. --> A vivir que son dos días

A mill can not grind with the water that is past; One can not put back the clock: It is useless to complain about things that have already gone. --> Agua pasada no mueve molino.
 
What may be done at any time is done at no time; // One of these days is none of these days: When somebody puts off things, he generally doesn't do them. --> Tarde, mal y nunca

Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you: Don't try to find troubles till them find you. --> No le busques tres pies al gato.

Other times, other manners: As time passes by, manners and costumes change.-->

Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today: If you have time to do something today, it is better to do it, because you don't know what may happen tomorrow. --> No dejes para mañana lo que puedas hacer hoy

Strike when the iron is hot: Take the opportunity as soon as it comes. --> Aprovecha la oportunidad

Queen Ann is dead: Everyone knows it because it was said long time ago. --> Es más viejo que la pana

Rain before seven, fine before eleven: When something goes wrong at the beginning, one has to wait until it improves. Bad things ca not last forever --> Mañana de niebla, tarde de paseo
 
Little strokes fell great oaks: Little by little you can get great things. --> Un grano no hace granero pero ayuda al compañero

There is a time to speak and a time to be silent: Everything has its time to be done, and may not be done at any time. --> Cada cosa a su tiempo
 
A stitch in time saves nine: It is better to do something now than to wait, because the situation may get worse. --> Más vale prevenir que curar
 
Take things as they come; // Don't cross a bridge till you come to it: Do not prepare for the worst if you are not sure if it will happen, do not worry about something before it is really worth worrying. --> Cada cosa a su tiempo

There is no time like the present: There's no need to wait to do what you want or what must be done, because the time is now. --> Carpe diem

Time is the great healer; // Time heals all wounds: As time goes by, one tends to forget everything, including bad experiences or problems. --> El tiempo lo cura todo

A watched pot never boils: When somebody is waiting for something to happen, it never seems to happen soon enough. --> El que espera desespera

We soon believe what we desire: When we want to be flattered we are ready to listen to anyone who wants to flatter us. --> Creeemos lo que queremos creer
 
Slow and steady wins the race: The harder, the quieter and better we try to do things, the more possibilities we have to go far. --> Despacito y con buena letra

Here today, gone tomorrow: All things last too little, so you have to live the moment or it will pass by. --> Hoy aquí, mañana allí

Tomorrow's another day: Things can be bad at a certain time, but hope can not be lost. --> Mañana será otro día

Only time will tell: One has to be patient to see how things are solved in time. --> El tiempo lo dirá // El tiempo pone a cada uno en su sitio

 
Sara Iglesias Gutiérrez (2º B Bach, 2009)

 

 

Babel (Film)

1.- Explain briefly the core-main points- of the three stories told on the film
        
            Morocco – Susan and Richard Jones & the Arab family

A merchant sells a hunting rifle to the Arab family and their kids use it to shoot to a bus full of tourist while looking after the family’s herd. One of the bullets impact on Susan Jones who is later transported to a secluded village of the desert where she remains with her husband until the embassy is able to take them out of the country. Meanwhile, the police have an ongoing investigation that finds the Arab family as guilty for the shooting, while attempting to arrest them there is a fight and the eldest brother, Ahmed, is killed although he was not the one who shot at the tourist’s bus.

            South America – Maya and the children of the couple Jones

Maya is in charge of the children of the couple Jones while they are visiting Morocco but she decides to disobey her employer’s order to remain in America with the children and she decides to take them with her to go to her son’s marriage in Mexico. When they try to come back to America, they have problems crossing the border and end up lost on the North American desert. Finally, a border’s patrol team rescues them but Maya gets deported out of the country for being an illegal worker although she had spent her last’s twenty years living in the States.

            Japan – Chieko and Yasujiro Wataya & Kenji Mamiya

Chieko is a deaf teenager who is having big issues discovering the sexuality and developing her personality, this ends up with a conversation with Kenji Mamiya, the detective in charge of investigating a crime in Morocco that is linked with Chieko’s father old hunting rifle.

The three stories are greatly related at different points.

  • Yasujiro Wataya’s hunting rifle given to the Arab merchant.
  • The phone call after leaving Morocco that Richard Jones makes to his children.
  • The relationship between Maya and the Jones family

2.- What is time?

A physical quantity that measures the duration or separation between events that might suffer changes.

3.- How is time dealt with in the film?

Time is the only immutable quantity. It progresses undaunted without caring about human’s efforts. That is why it controls every other aspect of human life.

This is the reason why the director chooses time in order to interweave the different stories around a happening: a hunting rifle obtained by an Arab merchant after a successful hunting where he helps a Japanese tourist to obtain his precious trophy.

Time is a useful element indeed in order to drive the story, as it is impossible to stop it from moving and so, from changing the rest of the elements. For example, we can see this so-called Butterfly Effect in the fact that something simple as a gift for a great hunting day may turn into a nightmare when touched by the unstoppable pass of time.

4.- Is the time the same on the three stories of the film? Which are the differences between the desert, Asia and South America?

We can see a different meaning of time in each location.

Time, as a cornerstone for the cultural base of each civilization has a predominant position for controlling and ruling over the rest of the aspects that form the cultural identity of each country, and this is clearly used by the author in order to give us that temporal displacement that makes us realize the differences between cultures.

We can perceive the wide diversity between the immutable and slow-paced time in the desert, the frenetic Mexico and the super technological Japanese metropolis. Different models of culture, civilization, and thus diverse ways of measuring and understanding the motion and the careless pass of time.

5.- The film ends as it starts. What has been your perception of time when you have finished watching it?

More than the perception of time what has been noticeable for me has been the meaningless and futile human efforts in order to change the inexorable, ongoing and selfish conclusion ruled by the desires of time.
It is interesting to see how after all the pain that the Jones family has had to endure and after all the sacrifices that has been done by Maya in order to take care of the Jones’ children while they managed to get out of Morocco, chronologically the South-American arc is about to happen again.

After seeing how things turned out it is remarkably questionable if we can consider the positioning that the main characters take worth the effort.

6.- Try to define:

  • Cyclic time:

It is the first conception of time that manhood had. It is based on the continuous and unstoppable events that take place every periodic amount of time such as seasons, the movements of the moon, the observation of the stars.

  • Past time

We consider as past time that which has already happened at the moment we are referring to. In physics, is past time of an event A the one which can have an influence on it.

  • Lineal time

It appears as a philosophical revolution against cyclic time and has a greater impact on the constitution of western culture and mentality. It considers the pass of time as a line, where we design present, past and future respect a chosen point of time.

  • Parallel time

Belief that considers that several events or universes could happen at the same moment. From a physical point of view it has been studied how this might happen at some times at an atomic scale.

  • Final time

It might be considered as a way of measuring time from an absolute point of view. A clear and continuous value, an universal way of controlling the pass of time, an objective form that flees from the influence that the cultural dimension might have on it.

Javier Martín Zamora (March 2009)

 

Statistics: “Time 2009"


Results  taken out from 93 students who belonged to four  Bachillerato (16-19 years old) classes  in Palencia (Spain) and, 100 persons in Hamburg (Germany).

 

Palencia

Törring

Hamburg

1. Daily life

   1.1  Time between getting out of the bed and leaving for school ?

35 min

56 min

44,2 min

   1.2  Time between leaving home and arriving in school? 

15 min

26 min

31 min

   1.3  Time for home work?

2 h.45

2, 62 h

1,43 h

   1. 4 Time for sleeping every day/night?

8 hrs.

7,45 h

6,95 h

2. During the week                                                              

   2.1. Sum of spare time a week                        

18 h.30

17,2 h

6,95 h

   2.2. How many hours of it do you spend on media a week
(TV, video, computer, etc.)                                                              

´  12 h

9,76 h

35,5 h

  2.3. How many hours a week do you spend on a job? 

45 min

7,8 h

5,23 h

3. Time for communication

Average in minutes

    For a phone call with a friend?                                             
    To welcome 6 good friends?                                                
    For an excuse for a forgotten date by phone?                          

30 min.
15 min.
7 min.

11,9  m
32,9  m
6,67  m

54,4  m
9,2 m
3,65  m

    Length of time of a party with friends in your  age?  

6 h

8,4 h

5,6 h

    Beginning normally at   
 
    Ending normally at                    

(time ca.20.00)
(time ca.02.00)

(time ca.19.45)

(time ca.04.00)

(time ca.22.00)

(time ca.04.00)

4. Social time f.ex. shopping      

time average to buy

… a fashion article (f. ex. t-shirt)                                 
… a sports article (f. ex. sports shoes)                                   

30 min
25 min

55,3 min
21 min

55,3 min
36,1 min

f.ex. waiting

 

    4.3 calculated time for visiting a doctor (without having a settled date)            
   4.4 acceptable delay for a meeting with friends

1h.30´

25 min

0,88 h

23,8 min

1,62 h

14,3 min

f.ex. to be in time

acceptable delay for a meeting  with

     a member of the family .
     a teacher   
     a superior/boss  .
     How long before departure of your train should you be at the station? 

15 min
9 min.
13 min.
15 min.

26,6 min
9,8 min.
8,8 min
10,35 m.

19,1 min
11,3 min.
4,3 min
10,3  m.

f.ex. patience

You want to buy tickets for a concert and you are in a hurry. Unfortunately there is a long queue at the counter. Some of the other customers are already sneaking into the line. Where would you place yourself?

    In front                                        £    (3 Pkt.)-28 students =
    In the middle                                 £    (2 Pkt.)-44 students =
    Further back                                 £    (1 Pkt.)-13 students =
    At the end                                    £    (0 Pkt.)-8  students =

Average
1,97 pkt


Average
1,2 pkt

Average
1.775 pkt

5. Historical time

    How old should a car be to be called “old-timer”?
    How old should a building be to be called a historical monument?
   How old is a building allowed to be to be still considered modern?

15 years
100 years
20 years

25 years
128 years
10,9 years

40.8 years
157 years
12 years

6.Biological time

6.1 How old must a person  be to be considered  (called) old?
6.2 How old must a person be to be considered  (called) young?  
6.3 How old must a person be to be considered  (called) middle-aged?

65 years
22 years
40 years

 

 

 

 

The day all the clocks stopped

Caught in time
It was New Year’s Eve; I was having dinner with my family and some friends. While we were having dinner we were talking about the many things which we had well-considered to do next year. When we stopped talking, laughing and eating we realized that it was quarter to twelve. We rapidly started to clean the table and prepare for rings. My mother appeared with a bowl full of grapes and each one of us picked up twelve grapes, one for each ring.
 
When we were prepared it was almost midnight and all of us were paying attention to what the TV journalist was saying about the New Year which was coming. When I wanted to realize, the strokes started, all of us started to eat the grapes following each stroke. When it was the twelve ring, when people are supposed to start being congratulated and celebrating it, I saw that everybody was quiet and, even stranger, everything was still. I started to talk with my family-friends but I didn’t have any answer. At first I thought it was a joke they were playing on, but I touched them and they didn’t move. Other strange thing I saw was that clocks weren’t working.
I’ve never been more scared in my life, I was thinking if I could continue living without someone else to talk, to stay with…and too scared about the people who were still, were they dead? or were they still alive, getting older and feeling  time going by? But I realized…what pass of time? If it seems like the time has gone out forever to all people except me?
 
Then I thought it was time to act, I picked up a coat and went out to street. I thought that outside it was going to be cold (because it was night or I thought it was) but what was my surprise  when I fell it wasn’t cold neither hot. It was nothing. I started to yell to all people who were out or in their houses but I got no answer. I didn’t think how much I could miss all people, all sounds all noises…which I had always heard…I tried to think positively about the situation and the only thing I thought was that by that time the world was frozen, I could make all the things which I couldn’t have done with people, steal what I want without consequences, eat everything I want, not study or work, be naked all day…but all these things were nothing (and worse than it) if I couldn’t see my family and friends normally moving and acting again.

 Without any hope to find out any answer to the problem I decided to come back home. When I got home I went to the seat where I stayed before the accident happened. Then I saw there was a grape in my plate, I took it depressed and ate it, and then suddenly the time started to work again. That’s the reason why since the New Year’s Eve of 2010 I have always been the first to eat all the grapes.

Ángel Lirio Martínez (1 º A Bach. March 2009)

The day all the clocks stopped

Dali relojThe sun rises once again as it has been doing every morning since I have notion of time.
In fact, I think that it has been doing it since the first man ever required a reliable measure for their actions, a way to control accurately every single aspect of life in equality.

However, what would happen if we ever lose our way of shaping time and developing it into our own purposes?
We would be left into a motionless status as a result for being displaced in time. There would be no possible way of reaching a common place, as there would be no common scenario between us.

Well, that is what happened some time ago, or it may be happening right now, it is hard to say, as there is no real sign of balance that makes us realize time as a whole entity that must be recognized in no other way as one of the key elements in our cultural identity.

I
Like every morning, I get up as soon as the sun bathes my face with its shining rays that come through the curtains. There is no time for laziness, at least not today, as I have to be ready in less than an hour. I will be taking the next train available that takes me there. I have been preparing this for almost six months and I have the tickets since last January, so the last thing that could mess up with it cannot be a morning desire of remaining in bed produced by a late night film marathon.

As soon as I finish preparing everything, I take my luggage, consisting in no other thing that a backpack and several gadgets that may prove themselves as useful if correctly used. I cannot distract myself so I start walking towards the stations as soon as I reach the street.

I walk by the side of a park where there’s a group a children playing and laughing, I wish I had their age again so I wouldn’t have to worry about everything in my life, but I have no time to think about futile thoughts, I must move, and quickly.

There are not many streets left; just turn right on the next one and the station will be ahead. When I finally get to the station I have the same feeling as an athlete must have when they hear the “We’re the Champions” after beating every opponent in a competition.

II
At the station, everything is in a chaotic but controlled and measured motion, hundreds of travelers bumping into other travelers but all of them with one common goal.
Now, I just have to find the proper spot for my train and wait for it. It is done, I have arrived on time and nothing is going to stop me from meeting her again.

After ten minutes of nervous waiting for the train to come, I realized that it was not necessary to rush in order to get here immediately thus allowing me to enjoy the walk while possible but that did not matter anymore, there will be plenty of opportunities of walking once I get there.

The day was getting darker with every second it passed and I could do no other thing than praying that it was different in my destination. After a while I realized that everyone waiting was getting more impatient with each minute that passed and after closing my eyes for a couple of seconds I could do no other thing than surprise myself when I realize that everyone, everything in the station was quiet, there was no sound, no noise, nothing.

I get up from my bench and walk towards the nearest traveller who was next to me and after several moments of hesitation, I ask him if he was hearing the same as me, no answer.

Astonished and amazed I find myself filled with a feeling of disbelief as such situation was unbelievable in no other place than the mind of a successful Hollywood scriptwriter. When I saw by myself that it was real, a shiver runs through my back as anxiety fills my heart. I start to run, trying to escape from that station, in order to realize if that was real indeed or just a multitudinous bad joke.

I reach the entrance and I see how everything is motionless, the cars, the birds, even the wind across the leaves. The only thing that remains unaffected is the sun, whose rays go through the heavy blanket of clouds that threatened a few minutes ago with starting to rain.

I try to go back home but every single second that passes increases that feeling of anxiety, which is proper of not knowing what is happening.

III
Finally, I see what could be an explanation. The morning breeze caresses my skin as the blazing sun dries my sweat. I walk through the thin blanket of recently cut grass, which gives a typical odour off to a joyful kid from the park I saw while going to the station. They keep on playing as if the world outside this playground had no interest for them. When I ask them with a nervous voice if they know what is happening they reply to me completely calmed as if nothing was happening that they did not know that something special was going on, and thus request me to tell them what has changed, undoubtedly a disturbing answer.

I thought that those unaffected kids who remained playing after everything changed could give me a proper explanation but after their answer I can’t do anything else than sit with them and try to relax and think clearly, something hard if we take into account the constant attack from the sun that seems to not to let me rest calmly.

Thanks to the hard surface where I was sitting, I could hear how someone was approaching towards me with a fast but calmed pace, it was a small child, whose face seemed familiar to me, decided to sit next to me and for a few seconds there was a tense silence, which she seemed to enjoy. When I looked at her, she was staring at me with that typical innocent and restless sight from kids. Before I could say anything, she told me:-“Hurry up!”

When I blinked my eyes surprised by her words, I was petrified as I was back at the station and soon, it started to rain.

Javier Martín Zamora

The day all clocks stopped

Dali5The car didn’t drive fast, so I had enough time to admire the city of London; it was my first time in that amazing place. The house where we were going finally appeared. My sister and I were going there to celebrate the last night of the year; my aunt. Elisa had invited us and other people from many countries to celebrate with her that important day, and we were going to have dinner all together. We weren’t the last to arrive, so we had some time to get ready. Finally, when all the guest had arrived, we started the dinner. I was amazed about the variety of the different nationalities of the people, there were European, American, Asiatic and African people; all of them friends of my aunt. I talked with almost all of them during the dinner, but I really got on well with an English man called Matthew, and his wife, and Indian called Keertana. In the dinner we ate food from many different countries, it wasn’t the food that I used to eat, but it was pretty good.
When we finished eating, I moved with my two new friends to the living-room, we sat in a sofa near the chimney and we started to talk about our lives. When we looked again al the clock it was almost eleven. I smiled at my friends
-In a hour and a few minutes we will be in 2010- I said
-Don´t be that sure dear friend...-Started to say Matthew, but Keertana looked alarmed al her husband, and for a few seconds they seemed to be having a conversation without talking.
I was kind of confused. What was happening?
-Maria, please, don´t pay attention to my crazy husband´s words. He doesn’t know what he´s saying. Wy don´t we talk more about your family?
-But...-I started to say- but something inside me told my self to be quiet, so I started to talk again about my family, and soon I forgot about the incident.
After a while my aunt asked for our attention
-In only a few minutes we will be in 2010, so I will be pleased if all of you come where I am, to receive all together the new year.- She said
All of us stood up and went where she was. We were all looking at the big clock on the wall. The hands of the clock moved slowly, but finally, n only two seconds we were going to be in a new year.
And then, something unusual happened: The hands of the clock stopped moving. We all looked al our watches, and all of them had also stopped!
-Is this a joke or something?-someone asked
All the guest started to talk with each other trying to find an explanation to the strange event.
-Maybe time has stopped-said and African woman
-Don´t be silly- said and American man.-it´s not logical that time stops...
-Then...What’s the explanation?-asked an Asiatic woman
Silence. No one said anything. Finally, mi friend Matthew started to talk
-I think that I know the explanation, but maybe you won´t believe me; it´s a strange story. Would you like to listen to it?
All of us agree to listen to him, so he started to talk:
“As I said before, you may not believe me, but I can say that this is not the first time that time stops, the last time was in 1809, obviously hardly any one knows about this, all the history books never talk about it; but nine years ago, looking al some old papers of my family, I read about it. At first I didn´t believe it, but while I read, I started to assimilate that time can stop, and finally, I believed it. In the paper, my relative also wrote the way to make the time start moving again. The only thing that we have to do is go to a house near here, whose direction I have in my mind; in that house a small clock is over the chimney, it´s not a usual clock, it doesn´t give the time. Because it doesn´t have numbers, but is the most important clock, because when the hands of this clock stops, the time in all the world stops too. If we want to continue with our normal lives, we must go to the house and make the clock work again”
When Matthew finished, everyone started to talk. We were all surprised about the strange story, some of us believed him, but other people didn’t. When the voices started to come down, Matthew started to talk again.
-I know that some of you don’t believe me, but this is not a joke or something similar, it´s true, and I´m going now to that house to make the clock work again. Who wants to come with me?
Three people, including my sister, agreed to go with him. I didn’t go, I was too scared to do it. When they left, all of us looked patiently al the big clock in the wall, and after a while, it started to work again. We all started to say “Happy new year” to each other. <<They have managed to put the clock again in work>>I thought. Then, I wished that I had gone with them. Hoe did they do it?
An hour later they were back to my aunt’s house
-What happened? How did you do it?- I started to ask, but my sister’s look made me shut my mouth
-You would never know- she said. It’s not possible to explain, you have to live it to understand it
I was kind of upset, but finally I accepted it. Life is a mystery, and we have to live with it.

        Ángela Bravo Núñez. 5A (2009)

The day all clocks stopped

DaliThe story that I am going to tell happened the last Christmas. These weeks of vacations were for everybody a mixture of relaxation, happiness and madness…and something else. This last thing is the reason why nobody would never ever forget the Christmas of 2008-2009.
          Days were passing. The agitation and the hustle that were filling the small city of Palencia those days could be felt. Everything was purchases, visits, parties…
          And New Year’s Eve came.
          In Spain, it’s typical to see off the year eating twelve grapes, coinciding each grape with each ring of midnight of the clock. It is, in addition, a very important date, because we leave a year behind and we begin another one with wishes, resolutions, and especially, a lot of illusion.
          In the house of the Vázquez family everything was almost prepared: the table was set, the food was served, there were twelve grapes on each plate…
          The parents were busy changing the TV channel while the grandfather was eating a piece of nougat. The two small children of the couple were looking for their flares. At the same time they were doing some commentaries and jokes on the clothing of their older sister, who had dressed all up to go out to celebrate it after the rings.
          At ten o’clock, they sat down around the table to have dinner. While they were eating, they chatted about time. The children and the young girl wanted the two following hours to spend very fast -the children wanted it to be able to ignite their flares and the girl wanted to be able to go out until dawn -. However, the grandfather had another opinion: he wanted it to pass very slowly because, as he said, time was playing against him. The mother said that sometimes we perceive the time in a different way, far from the way it is actually. Finally, the father had to finish the chat, which had turned into a discussion to find out the one who had the reason.
          - No matter what you think or wish. Time will take its path, as always.
          Soon it was eleven o’clock and a little later it was half past seven. On the table there were six plates with their grapes. At a quarter to twelve, the whole family had the eyes fixed on TV, where they were explaining which was the exact moment when everyone had to begin to eat the first grape. The Puerta del Sol, the place where the rings had to sound, was crowded. Everyone was expectant and cheerful.
On TV, the smiling presenter was explaining that after the quarter sound in the clock, the first ring would sound.
          And finally the awaited hour came. All were holding a grape near the mouth at the same time as the quarters were sounding. Both in the Puerta del Sol and in the house nervous laughter were heard. The woman on TV, screaming of joy, announced that in a few seconds, the rings would sound. Everyone could feel the euphoria, culminating with the shout of the presenter:
          - And now… the rings!!!
          But nothing was heard. The presenter didn’t say anything more. As all those who where there, she was looking perplex at the clock, which seemed as if it had died and not only stopped.
          234 km away from there, in the house of the Vázquez family their surprise had turned into worry. Some were looking at others and finally they decided to change the channel to be sure that it was not a joke. Soon the realized that it was true. Their worry increased when they observed that all, absolutely all the clocks of the house had stopped at the same hour. The old clock of the dinning room was in silent in the same way as the grandfather’s watch, which had stopped emitting its, until then, irritating tic tac, the tic tac that now would have been very relaxing to listen.
          The children were looking at the parents asking for an explanation.
          - Children, we have no idea what has happened. Apparently, the clocks don’t have any problems, but they don’t work -said the father-. Let’s listen to the TV. They must be talking about this problem.
          They waited, but nobody might say how much, and then, they saw the news on TV: all clocks in the world had stopped.
          In some places, as America, they had already begun the New Year a few hours before, but the problem was affecting them too. They said that there were many scientists investigating.
          In Asia and in other oriental areas they hadn’t begun the New Year yet and this situation was horrible there too. Kings and other governors were terrifying the people saying that this problem would be worst in a near future, so the population should hide to be protected.
          The Vázquez family and all the families of the world had many questions because of the terrible event that had happened.
          -What am I going to do? -the young girl wondered opposite the mirror. Where was she going to go if the rings hadn’t sounded yet?
          Suddenly, the woman on the TV began to speak louder and faster. She said that the European scientists thought that the reason of that event was a really strange phenomenon, a challenge to the physics: time and space were going to separate. They weren’t sure if time had already disappeared so probably we could only have space. According to their fast investigations we were living in a frozen universe, which was stopped. The most religious people believed that the break of all the clocks was God’s work to let us know that the end of the world was near.
In other places of the world some people agreed with these theories, while others were laughing since the very first moment they listened to them. Most of the people were undecided and they didn’t know what to think.
          In the end, when the Puerta del Sol was almost empty and the Vázquez family had lost all hope, the old clock on the wall sounded and this sound was the first ring. They looked at each other surprised and they took rapidly their plate of grapes. They began to eat them almost without keeping the pace that the beatings of the clock were marking.
At the same time, they began to hear the soft tic tack of all the clocks of the house and the presenter, who was in the recording studios now, shouting: “one, two, three, four…!” This way until twelve.
          Emotionally and with great confusion, people began to arrive at The Puerta del Sol and everybody was jumping and shouting of happiness.
          In Palencia, the streets were filled with noise and colour. A window was shining more than the others because of the flares that two happy children were holding. Down the house, a group of teenagers were ringing the bell, and although if you were outside the house you couldn’t see him, you could hear the voice of an elder, who was saying: “If all the New Year’s Eves are going to be like this, I believe I will live much more than what I was thinking!” Just after, two simultaneous laughs were hear***

***
          Several months have passed since that happened and nobody knows how and why it happened and ended.
          People who are really religious think that it was God’s work, like a kind of secret message that our society, blind and deaf, didn’t catch.
          Other persons believe that it was a work of extraterrestrial micro organisms that had approached very much to The Earth producing alterations in our clocks. Because scientists didn’t know what the nature of the micro organisms was, the investigation ended.
          This story guides us to a theme: time.
The course of time has been and will be always something that we can’t handle to our desire, but we never imagine that the absence of time could turn us crazy, more than the life in which we’re tied of.
          Maybe we estimate the time- yes, that, our great enemy -more than we think.
-La Puerta del Sol: a place in Madrid where people usually gather to receive the New Year. New Year´s Eve at La Puerta del Sol is also watched on television

Elena Martín Gil 1º A Bachillerato (2009)