A TV series review

The Good Doctor- review by Gemma V- group C

Childhood memories (3)

Students´childhood memories (course 17-18)

A SIMPLE LIFE
I can still feel the vivid memory of the three everlasting summer months we used to spend in Valsain, a little village near Navacerrada. My parents used to rent an old country house there and we lived together with the owners. How come that I feel those days were the happiest of my life….despite living without a bathroom or a TV, or the Internet,or toys? I only had some friends, a bike, the whole fresh green fields for us, the animals, the mountains, the icy Eresma river with its special smell and the pine wood factory´s siren that would ring at lunch time every day and above all….we were free and we didn´t know the meaning of boredom. We were alone and wild from dawn to dusk. We lived thousands of adventures and all in all we grew up making our own decisions, and sometimes tackling dangerous situations.
This kind of life left a deep mark in me. I learnt to respect all the beings and the nature I have around and I have done my best to follow this life lesson until today. From time to time I crave for returning to those days.
Macarena

SUMMER TIMES
I lovingly remember my two-month summer holiday when I was a child. The first month, in July, my brother and I used to spend our holidays in Torrelodones in my uncle´s house- a villa with a pool and gardens. The day-to-day was  extraordinary. We would get up at ten o´clock in the morning to have a special breakfast which consisted of a selection of buns and pastries and jams and orange juice, and then we did some summer activities. We used to do two pages of Santillana´s book- a special work notebook for children- and when we finished it we spent the rest of the morning in the swimming pool playing together and with my uncle´s dog.
After lunch we had to rest- my uncle Mari was really strict with this- but soon after we would go for a walk with our cousin, or ride the Vespa motorcycle with her or ride a bicycle around the
detached house. Some nights we used to go to the cinema or to have an ice cream with our two cousins.
On weekends, our parents came to see us in Torrelodones because during the week they had to work a lot. Then we spent August with our parents at the beach in Alicante or even traveling abroad visiting different European countries.
Those moments are totally unforgettable.
Irene R.

OUR FIRST FAMILY BICYCLE
I have always had a special interest in road vehicles, from small car toys to trucks and buses.
When I was five years old, I had a small tricycle, too small for me. I remember one day, when my father came home from his job, he told us about going to buy a bicycle. It was at the beginning of my siblings´ summer holiday.
We went to an electrical appliance shop called "The Modern Home" where they sold bicycles too. We decided to buy a teenager´s bicycle because my siblings are nine and seven years older than me. I was too young to use it, but I could use it in three or four years. Despite this, I was really interested in the bike.
The shopkeeper took an unmounted bicycle from a box, the same model we had chosen in the showroom.
He started to prepare the bike for us, but I was very excited and he could hardly work on it, because I kept moving around him. My parents asked me to sit still, but I couldn´t.
When the man finished his work he said to me:
´You can ride your bicycle now, it´s ready! ´
And I answered, talking it very seriously, like an adult:
´Only after we pay for it! ´
Pedro

Childhood memories (2)

Students´ childhood memories (course 16-17):

My New Flat

One of my most vivid childhood memories is when I was four years old and my family moved to a bigger flat. We are a big family consisting of eight siblings (seven girls and a boy) and my parents. We used to live in a tiny flat of 50 square meters. It was so small that when my brother put up his bed, the front door was blocked. So nobody was able to go in or leave. He had to go to sleep the last and woke up the first. We used to call him "the guardian". We still laugh about this nickname nowadays.

In these circumstances, you can imagine the enthusiasm that we felt when our parents told us one evening after we came back from school: “We are going to move to a new enormous flat next to your grandparents’ house, where each of you will have their own room. Do you want to see it?”

We were amazed when we saw the long hallway with so many rooms. The high walls had just been painted and the wooden floor had just been polished. I was so excited and happy that I began to jump from paint pot to paint pot thinking that they were all closed. But one of them didn’t have a lid, so when I jumped on it the white paint splashed on the floor. My uniform was full of paint and I left my footprints all over the hallway.

Then I passed quickly from delight to sorrow when I saw my mother coming toward me and shouting. In spite of all this, it was one of the happiest days of my life.

Beatriz 

A "Pregnant" Pigeon

When I think back as far as possible, I see myself being 5 years old and sitting in my classroom around a round table with other children of the same age, and next to us another table with children who were older than us.

I remember drawing a pigeon in class to celebrate the World Peace Day .When I finished my drawing, one of the oldest children came and told me: "Your pigeon is pregnant!" And he started laughing. "Pregnant? What does pregnant mean?" Nobody answered me.

I compared my drawing with the others and I realized that my pigeon was fatter than the others. So, my conclusion was that they used the word "pregnant" for animals and "fat" for people and I decided to use this word too.

At that time, every now and then, my mother used to walk with me on the outskirts and there used to be fat animals around, and I would say:" Look, mommy, this cow is pregnant!" and she laughed. I felt very important and I thought I was very intelligent because I was using adults´ words.

Nowadays, when the World Peace Day comes, it reminds me of how innocent I was and of how time goes by so quickly.

Pauli 

A Different Summer Vacation

In the summer of 1995 I was ten years old going on eleven. I don’t remember exactly what day of August it was, but I clearly remember it was a really hot day and you could feel the sun burning your head. It was my best friend´s birthday at 05:00 p.m. that day so at 04:50 I took my bike as usual because in those days of my childhood I would go cycling everywhere. On the way to my friend´s house I crashed into another guy who was riding a bike too.

After the accident I was taken by a neighbour to the hospital where my father used to work. At the hospital the doctors said I needed stitches on my lips and I also had a broken clavicle so the doctors strapped my shoulder up. The bandage stuffed with cotton wrapped me like a jacket. When I got back home my parents told me that in two days we would go on our summer vacation to Benidorm as they had booked it with 3 months in advance. So you can imagine the rest, a ten-year-old child in Benidorm in summer with a bandage stuffed with cotton boiling on his shoulder without being able to go to the beach or the swimming pool. The only good thing was that I had no school and I was with my family who were taking care of me 24/7. Eventually  my lips and my clavicle were perfectly healed and I will always have an anecdote to tell my children and grandchildren.

Hadu

A Little Fishermen´s Village

Some of my best memories are the long summer days in a little village in the south of Spain, near the border with Portugal, where my parents had a little house near the sea. That place was only a little fishermen´s village, with fishing boats painted in bright colors on the sand. I remember that those summers I liked getting up early in the morning and going to the little harbour to watch how the fishermen were repairing their nets sitting on the sand, while their wives were selling buckets of recently caught fish, home by home.

I remember the beach days, sunbathing in the warm sand and the smell of happiness in the summer with my whole family, over all my siblings and cousins in the same house, enjoying every moment.

Years later I returned there with my children and I tried to explain to them that this place, now full of enormous buildings and hotels, where you can barely see the beach, used to be a very small village one day. I tried to explain to them that, where now there are lots of semi-detached houses, there used to be only little fishermen´s boats and a long lonely beach. Of course, they couldn´t believe me.

Miguel Ángel 

Talcum Powder

I don’t remember how old I was. I may have been about three or four. And sometimes I think that whatever happened I can only remember it because my mother told me about it more than once. Anyway, let me tell you what happened that day. Whenever my mother had to go out to buy something and there wasn’t anyone at home to look after my two brothers and me, she would put us in a small hall with all the doors closed. That way my mother thought that we could be safe and could not get into any trouble. My two brothers are younger than me and my mother trusted me to take care of them for a few minutes while she was shopping. But that day I took a pot of talcum powder without my mother knowing about it. Then, when we were alone, we started to run from side to side without stopping and jumping and stepping on the powder pot. We laughed and the room became foggy from the dust which could be seen from the stairs outside. When my mother arrived she found us completely white and very, very happy. She didn´t feel the same. In fact, she was very, very worried.

Mámel 

My Bald Uncle

There is a childhood memory that I can easily remember, even though it was forty years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. Every year, my father's family used to have a family get-together to celebrate Christmas and, as my father didn't  have car, every year  one of my uncles had to come to my village to pick us up. My uncle was very big and was as bald as an egg. I remember I was sitting behind my uncle's seat. As soon as he started the car, everything started to spin, I was getting dizzy! And although I started to scream that I wanted to throw up nobody paid attention to me, so in the end I vomited on top of my uncle's bald head. Even today, when I see my uncle I remember that day and my face gets red with embarrassment.

However, in spite of that embarrassing situation, I still have a vivid memory of the whole family together in the dining room enjoying the Christmas dinner.

Toñi

The Time of My Life

I lovingly remember my three-month summer holiday when I was a child.

I would spend my holidays in a small village near Sierra de Gredos, where my mother had some relatives. I spent my summer holidays in that village from the age of 6 to 14 . We used to rent a house, every year the same one, and we would go there with my aunt and my cousins. My father and my uncle stayed in Madrid and came to see us at weekends.

The day had a very tight schedule. We used to get up early in the morning and then we went to play different games with local people. After that, we went to swim in the river- the water was very cold but it didn't matter to us.

After lunch the children had to rest, but soon after we would go to the pasture to play, or to ride a bike, or to swim in the river another time.

Some nights we used to go to the outdoor cinema. It was very typical to go to the cinema with a towel or a blanket due to the cold weather, and watch the film while eating sunflower seeds -all the people in the cinema were eating them and the film was impossible to be heard.

I am little bit old, and my childhood happened fifty years ago, in the prehistory of Spain, I know.

Fernando 

Holidays with My Family

In 1982 my parents, my siblings and I moved to Madrid because of my parents´ work. The rest of the family: my four grandparents, my uncles, aunts, cousins, etc stayed in our home town. One of my very best memories are the road trips in order to visit them, at Christmas and Easter, and in summer as well. Those road trips were very special and we were very happy and excited. In the 80s the roads were very different from now so the journey was long but never boring. We used to laugh, play, chat, etc. The arrival was the greatest moment, then we spent the holidays visiting all the family, having great meals, playing, laughing, etc. These moments are totally unforgettable. Our childhood memories make us, fortunately they are an inherent part of us.

Eduardo 

First Memories

The dark nights and the shadows projected on the seats of my parents´ car could be some of my first memories. As a child I couldn´t understand why we had to get up so early and why we were in a hurry. My parents began work at seven thirty in the morning, so they had to leave me at the nursery school first. We got up very early in the morning, and of course we went to bed before the birds went to sleep. Nevertheless, it wasn´t a bad experience for me. On weekends we did the same, so we could do lots of things, like trekking, skiing or visiting new places with plenty of time.

Sometimes I ask myself why it´s so difficult to recall your first memories when you are thinking about them, and why it´s so easy when you smell, hear or see something that you immediately and subconsciously associate with your childhood. Perhaps the fact that our senses work better than our mind means that our childhood is not so far.

Héctor 

Childhood Memories (1)

Project inspired by...:

My earliest memory- The Guardian Family Project

Blog: Childhood nostalgia

Students´ childhood memories (course 15-16):

I remember...

In the 60ies and 70ies there weren't too many cars in the streets, so children would spend long hours playing outside, till the hour of going home and having dinner. Children played football or hide-and-seek. But in my memory there is another game we used to play in those days: Bottle-Cap Championship. 

The first thing you had to do was to collect some bottle caps. If you wanted to play fast you had to choose the thin ones whereas if you wanted to play strongly you had to choose the heaviest.

Then it was time to start being creative. First of all, we cleaned the bottle caps very well. Then, we thought of our favourite football team and what their best players were. After that we would cut circles on a sheet of paper. In each circle we painted the colours of our football team and the name of one player. As a ball, we used a chickpea or a ball made of aluminium foil. Our own team was ready! 

We only needed some friends with their own teams so we could begin the championship. We had to draw a pitch on the floor, put the bottle caps in their places, and begin to enjoy this traditional game, somewhat forgotten nowadays.

I have a vivid memory of those evenings playing with my friends. It didn't matter who the winner was. The only important thing was to spend time together, enjoying each other´s  company, because we didn´t have video games, computers, mobile phones or whatsapp. We were in face to face contact, in a personal relationship, not a virtual one. Well, those were other times, ancient times, I know...

Fernando

I remember….

When I was about 10, I used to play at being a teacher. I had a blackboard in my bedroom and I used to spend the winter afternoons acting as if I had a lot of pupils, explaining, correcting… I even had a teacher’s notebook, a sort of treasure for me, one that my mother, who was a teacher as well, had given to me. I enjoyed myself a lot although I was always alone. One Saturday afternoon my brother, who is 3 years younger than me, and Sonia, a friend of his, were playing at our home and I managed to involve them in my magical world. I felt really happy. I was excited because I finally had real students, so I began to ask them to do maths exercises, and then a dictation, and then to draw, and everything had to be done in absolute silence, obviously. An hour later Sonia told my mother that she wanted to go home. ´Why? ´my mother asked, ´What´s the matter? ´.´Nothing´, said Sonia, ´It’s just that I´m fed up with doing so much homework and anyway, it’s Saturday today! ´ Sonia never came to our home again to play with me but…I am a teacher now and she was probably my first pupil. Thank you Sonia!!

Elena B.  

I remember...

I’m not 100% sure this is actually my very first memory, but it certainly is one of the earliest. I remember riding my first bicycle, which was blue, while my dad was trying to teach me how to ride it, for the first time, without the small rear wheels. My dad was running by my left side as I was pedaling faster and faster, while he was shouting: “Come on, almost there, you got it…” and I was scared as hell, replying things like: “Please don’t let me loose because I´m gonna fall …!”

He kept reassuring me, all the time, that he was still holding the bicycle by the seat, and he certainly kept running by my side, until suddenly he said: “Look, you are on your own now…!!” and he showed me both his hands.

It was then when I realized that indeed I was riding alone, and in the midst of my excitement, I kept speeding… without taking into account that I had just learned how to ride in a straight line, but had no clue about how to make a turn!! Which of course I became aware of as soon as I reached the first curve and carried on straight, obviously stumbling and falling down.

But my father says he can still remember the smile on my face when I stood up rubbing my bruised knees… I didn’t care about them at all.

Julián 

I remember….

One of my first memories is one day at school, when I was five or six and the teacher was talking about the hunger and poverty in Biafra. I told her that my cousins and their parents were living there and they didn’t go hungry and weren’t poor.  When I got home, I told my mother what had happened at school, and she started to laugh and told me: “You got the wrong end of the stick. I’m sure she was talking about Biafra and you understood Riaza (that was the village where my relatives lived)”. At that moment I felt really embarrassed.

Julia  

I remember...

When I was about 3, my mother used to give me yoghurt every afternoon.

I would be sitting in front of the TV and I used to put sugar on top of the yoghurt and wait until it melted. Then I would eat the sugar with the spoon, carefully, without eating the yoghurt, because I didn’t like it. Later, of course, my mother would always make me eat that awful yoghurt without sugar.

Natalia 

I remember…

We used to go to my grandmother´s house every weekend. The whole family: aunts, uncles, cousins…25 people!!! A large extended family. It was so funny! My grandmother had a heart of gold and endless patience. I have a vivid image: when we arrived she was cooking our favourite dishes always with her best smile on…despite the mess! We used to make up stories and to act them out in front of the adults. I even remember football matches along the infinite corridor and a naughty, lively cousin moving like a spider between the two walls …

Marta 

I remember...

My grandparents used to live on a farm in a small village far away and I remember travelling, every summer, with my three little sisters in the backseat of my parents´ car on an eight-hour trip from Madrid to Cáceres in order to visit them, despite the fact that it was only two hundreds kilometers away.

The boot of the car used to be full of suitcases, with presents for all my relatives, with home-made food to eat during the journey, with second hand clothes that my mum would collect from our neighbours and what´s more, every now and then my parents bought the ultimate technological device such as a black and white television for my grandparents.

The journey was very tiring. I would argue with my sisters, and my father stopped occasionally

so we could go to the bathroom, or eat or take a nap.

But now I remember those days fondly.

Paulina