Free topic! One of my favourite TV shows (180 words).

Today, I’m going to talk to you about one of my favourite TV shows. I could talk about The Wire, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, or Avatar (The Last Airbender). But those shows are famous. Even Cowboy Bebop, another anime, is kind of famous. That’s the reason why I’ll try to convince you to watch Samurai Champloo. I know that many of you probably hate anime, and there are good reasons for that. Nevertheless, this anime from 2004 is really good. This show has three main characters: Jin, Mugen, and Fuu. The three of them meet in strange circumstances and they start an adventure together. That’s it. For 26 episodes we go with them on their adventure, we get to know them better, and we understand them better. Why is Samurai Champloo different to most shows? It is because it mixes a musical genre (hip-hop) with the aesthetics of the scenes and with the story. If you are not a regular anime fan, it can have some weird things like Momo (a “character”), but you can ignore it. If you are an anime fan, you should really watch it!

Free topic! Football (200 words.)

Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved football. In fact, since I was 15 years old, I’ve been going to the stadium to watch my team Universidad de Chile. Every home game, I’m there. However, for the past few years my feelings towards men professional football have been changing. There are things I used to accept that, now that I’m older, I cannot accept anymore. I could talk about the treatment of women in the sport, the treatment of women and lgbtq+ people by the fans and their chants, the racism, the ridiculous levels of competition, the outrageous money being moved, the corruption of its head organisation FIFA, and so much more. I am going to focus on one in particular: The World Cup in Qatar in 2022. First of all, it was a product of bribes; they didn’t win clean, they paid to get the World Cup (as many others have done before). Second, the Qatari government is using football to clean its image while, because of the World Cup and Qatari working conditions, 1,200 workers have died already just to be prepared for the event. I love the sport, but everyday it gets more difficult to love it.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/nov/14/fifa-bribery-corruption-trial-qatar-2022-world-cup

https://observatoryihr.org/news_item/labour-conditions-in-qatar-could-result-in-as-many-as-4000-deaths-before-the-start-of-the-2022-world-cup/

Entry 2: Best concert or holiday. (170 words)

The best concert of my life was seeing Los Jaivas in a very trippy night. First, we drove from Santiago to La Serena with 3 other friends. We took a tent, a little stove, some food, some beers, and we went on the trip. After we arrived in La Serena, we bought something to eat and started to drive towards the hill were the concert was going to take place: Mamalluca. When we got to the hill, we parked the car and walked like a kilometre to the place were the concert was going to be. We waited patiently, until they started to play. They played their greatest hits to a very excited crowd. Me and my friends were very happy. After a short break, they played an entire album to close the night. After a magical concert, we went back to the parking lot, set the tent, cooked some noodles, had a few beers, and looked at the stars, enjoying the silence. That was one of my best experiences and I’m glad I shared it with my friends.