SEMIFINALS LISTEN TO MY HEART BEAT PROJECT by LEA ES ASIN https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l Made with Love en-us 2022-01-19 15:42:14 UTC 2023-02-07 11:52:05 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f60d.png RYAN CALLING, a story by Betty. It was a damp chilly night when I finally left my boring as hell meeting with French clients. Just a one hour train trip and I’m at home, I thought. The only thing I wanted was a relaxing bath and a glass of red wine on the sofa watching my favourite “Blue Valentine” with my cat. In fact, it was the only plan I had for that Friday night… I took the train to Dublin, I sat down in a comfortable seat, and I took a look at the newspaper. “3 women murdered in 3 days in the neighbourhood of Dublin Train Station”, says one of the headlines.. It must be a joke! I thought. I was about to leave the train when I heard a pleasant voice behind me: Hi Sophia! I’m Ryan Gosling… I have no plans for tonight, and I was just wondering if you would like to go out with me tonight… Oh my gosh, I can’t believe It, it is really him!!!, I said in my mind. Yes of course!!!, I said trying to camouflage my euphoria. I went quickly home to put on my best dress and do the make-up and, when I was leaving, I looked in the mirror and thought, wow, I’m looking better than Eva Mendez and Sandra Bullock together!!! He was waiting for me in a cute restaurant where we had a romantic dinner. Then we spent all night dancing and then…. I felt a rough tongue on my cheek. I opened my eyes and I saw my cat looking at me and the empty bottle of red wine lying on the floor… It was Saturday morning… I turned the television on, and I heard …R.G., the famous actor, was arrested that night nearby Dublin Train Station, suspect of the murder of 4 women… Looking back at what had happened I can't help feeling now a sense of wonder and awe. albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000856105 2022-01-19 16:22:02 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000856105 A GOOD READ, a story by Tina. It had been a hard day at work and I had been waiting for this moment all day. I had just bought the new novel by my favorite author and I wanted to start reading it on my train trip back to Dublin.I had read each of the two previous novels of the author several times and I might even have met him the week before, but a last minute problem at work had prevented me from going to the presentation of his new novel.At the moment no one was sitting next to me, so I smiled at myself, opened the book and… an attractive middle-aged man came to sit next to me. I tried to ignore him, but the more I tried to read the more he insisted on asking questions about the train, the route, the people who usually go on the trip and so on. I quickly understood that it was going to be impossible to read. So, I closed the book and began to listen to him unwillingly.Suddenly everything changed. He started talking about the author and his first two novels. He seemed to know them even better than I did.The journey passed quickly and when we were going to say goodbye he asked me what my name was and he told me something that changed my life. I could not believe it, HE was my favorite author. He explained to me he was looking for the setting for his next novel which would take place on a trip to Dublin by train. Unbelievable, isn't it? albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000865180 2022-01-19 16:25:35 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000865180 MUSICAL DREAM, a story by Tiger. Being bored to death on the long train journey, I discovered a friendly face in the background of the carriage. He was listening to music but he couldn't help staring at me. I thought that his face seemed familiar... I forgot him for a while trying to fall asleep. Little by little, I fell asleep and started dreaming that my nosy train partner was a musician in a country band, used to composing music and writing the lyrics for country singers. However, in his band he was usually a musician who played the bangoo. The romantic and inspiring songs sounded in my mind, they were amazing and I was waiting for more. I realized that I am a kind of person who can be a bit absent-minded at times but I was having a good time when the train stopped and I woke up. My books were on the floor and the “musician” picked them up with a big smile. He introduced himself and told me “ if you feel bored for the next two week, we can talk about literature and books. I love them and… I'm interested in getting to know more about you”. I felt ashamed and at the same time I was curious about that person but I am not confident with strangers at all, so I said to him that I was busy when, truth be told, I was just feeling lonely and suffering from insomnia because of the pandemic. Some minutes later I said goodbye and he said ” dolphins are more sociable than you” and I started laughing and my smile lasted for a week. He seemed like a nice guy. albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000868080 2022-01-19 16:26:44 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000868080 A PAIN ON HER SHOULDER - A story by Firefly. She is already sitting in her seat, pretending to read a book, that way, she always avoids contact with other people. Let's face it: she doesn't like talking to strangers. Besides, this trip is not a pleasure trip. She prefers to isolate herself, keep reading Paula, keep reading!. However, this time it will be different. A young man arrives determined to sit opposite her. She shyly tries to tell him that the seat is taken and he says, "Ok, no problem". She smiles feeling relieved but that doesn't last long. He was the type of person who gets away with it against all odds. Suddenly, without a word, the young man walks straight into the seat next to hers, not without difficulty because of the table. "What the hell are you doing? Don't you prefer a more comfortable place?" she asks with anger. "Nah, I really love travelling with someone by my side" answers the man. That's an extremely embarrassing situation for her. And her troubles had only just begun. Her recent traveling companion is really talkative and, even worse, inquisitive: " Where do you work? " "Where do you live? ""Do you have siblings?"" Big city or country side?" She answers pretending to be enthusiastic but the "Nah" one constantly interrupts her with a new question. He speaks compulsively and she's already fed up. She kindly asks him for a minute to be able to send a message to her mother. While writing the longest message in the world, she notices he has fallen asleep…on her shoulder! "Oh, really? this is turning into a nightmare!". Suddenly, she felt a rage that she had not felt since the strong bullied the shy at school. It was not enough to wake up the stranger, she wanted to let him know that he did not have the right to everything, above all others. She woke him up, urging him to get off the train: -Hey, it's your stop! You have arrived. Quick, hurry!He ran out of the train.She had time to smile at him when he realized he was at an unfamiliar station. albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000872508 2022-01-19 16:28:28 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000872508 DIZZY ME, a story by Vinz. I started to feel dizzy when I got on the train. The night before had been wonderful. We drank and danced a lot. When I was on the train, looking for a seat I almost vomited because of the hangover. I finally managed not to do it and whispered a soft "nah" when a girl asked me something that I didn't understand. My travel sickness started to become unbearable. I also started to sweat and I tried to face the music by closing my eyes. However, it was quite difficult to overcome the situation. I only had two options: Running away from the train just before setting up or using the old strategy that my good friend Jacob taught me... As I consider myself a brave man so I decided to follow " the strategy". I took out some beers from my bag, I opened one and I started to drink as much as I could. The first sips were really disgusting. That was the fee that I had to pay if I wanted to feel better. The alcohol started to take effect on me mixed with the rest that I had drunk (and still was) the night before. I felt better. I was overcoming the situation.Later, the boy in front of me started to sing and to play the guitar. Although I don't sing very well, I joined in and enjoyed a wonderful trip accompanied by the beers and the music and the girl I could never talk to no matter how much alcohol there was in my body. albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000873867 2022-01-19 16:29:00 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000873867 WHAT A JOURNEY, a story by Ross Last year I was sitting on the train heading to mum's. I was pretending to be reading a book while wondering if the next passenger who just got on the train would be sitting next to me. My phone rang. It was mum. While I was on the phone a girl stood in front of me. She had booked the seat next to me. She asked me if I could fold the tray that was blocking the corridor, not letting her pass through. As soon as she took a seat, I realized that I knew that girl. She was Greta Thunberg, the environmentalist!!. I introduced myself. We soon went through climate change topics and we both realized that we have lots of interests in common. It turned out we had been to the same school, different grades, and classes before she became so popular though. We even used to go to the same places when we were children. I told her she had to be glad about what she had achieved against all odds. We did not stop talking, jumping from one topic to another without noticing that we were arriving at my destination. The train stopped. It was my station. Before I got off the train we exchanged phone numbers, email, and addresses. I told her that it would be a pleasure to meet her again anytime. She told me: why not, perhaps one day I would come to your place to organize a climate conference. I got off the train. While I was heading to the exit, I heard the train leaving. I looked back looking for the wagon I had been sitting on to see If I could see her off for the last time. She saw me and raised her hands. We both smiled. The train left so I made my way to mum´s. What a journey! albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000875917 2022-01-19 16:29:46 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000875917 ONE BIG, ONE SMALL, a story by Mariamor. I was sitting on the train. This morning, I finished work earlier, and I thought that It was my lucky day. I was going to avoid the peak time! But life is life, and sometimes, life gives you surprises.I like to travel alone on the train. For this reason, when the people were getting on the wagon, I pretended to read my marvelous book. Sometimes this trick works. Not this morning, though. When I raised my head, I saw that an old woman had sat in front of me.An old woman with two cats! She was extravagant, peculiar, and for one moment, I thought she could be a bit on the crazy side. What is a woman with two cats doing on the train on Monday morning? Wait a minute: don't get me wrong: both cats were lovely. One big, one small. One with blue eyes, the other with green eyes. One black, the other white.I didn't know what to do! But the old woman started to speak, in a friendly and lovely way. At first, I thought she was speaking with me, but suddenly I realised that she was speaking with the cats. Remember I told you I like to travel alone? I'm really curious too. So, while I was reading the book, I couldn't help it but sharpen my hearing. I wanted to know what she was saying to the cats.It looks like if she were really sad. The thing is that she was forced to leave the cats at her sister's, because in her new home, the owner does not accept animals. And she promisedthe cats that she was going to find another home, bigger and with a garden. And when this happens, she was going to find the cats, and bring them with her to the new home, and life there together. Don´t ask me how…but now, I'm sharing a home with an old crazy woman, and two lovely cats, one big, one small.... albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000876990 2022-01-19 16:30:11 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000876990 A story by Morty. I was sitting on the train when that man entered. There was something about the context that made me feel very uncomfortable. I wished with all my heart that he did not sit next to me but, unfortunately, he did sit just in front of me. At first, when he talked to me, I answered him in a very mean way. I didn’t feel like talking to a stranger. However, as time passed I had no choice but to enter the conversation. He told me a story of his youth, how he met the love of his life at a volunteer camp in India. He told me she was from Dublin and he was from Manchester. As he said, they spent an incredible month together, the best days of his life. Those were other times and the way to communicate was more difficult, so when he returned to England, he never knew anything more about the girl. He even moved to Dublin, to see if he could find her, but he never did. Although that was more than 20 years ago, he said he had not been able to forget that girl’s eyes.There was something about that story that seemed very familiar to me. Not until he showed me that picture, did I realize what was going on. Then everything fell into place. I had already seen that photo, thousands of times, almost every day of my life. It was the same old photo my mother had in the fridge since I was born.  I was so paralyzed that I could not say a word. I got up hastily, caught all my stuff and got off the train at the following stop. albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000892643 2022-01-19 16:36:23 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000892643 TRAIN TO THE UNKNOW_:A story by Tusky. Who would have thought that beautiful things could come out of a pandemic…It all started on that train journey, when a noisy man sat down in front of me, my first impression? I'm not going to finish the EOI English reading book, but soon I discovered that another book was being written and along with it the song of our lockdown.How to describe him? He was wearing torn jeans, carrying around an old guitar and worn leather suitcases."Can I sit down?” He said in clear, understandable English for my B2.2. I couldn't tell where he was from, with my level I can hopefully understand something. I just nodded at him, I had no excuse to refuse either."My name is John, I'm on tour in Spain, composing songs for other singers and now I'm on my way back home" He continued while I was just hiding a little interest.After an hour, I don't know how or why, we started to share past experiences, after all we were not so different and all in English! My pride was growing as much as my desire to talk to him. And suddenly, he took out his guitar, started playing soft little chords without disturbing the rest and invited me to create a song.3 hours into the journey and with the embarrassment in the first station, together we created one of the most sung songs of the pandemic, a song about strangers, friendship, love and hope. albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000899166 2022-01-19 16:38:56 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000899166 CAT LOVER_ a story by Rosalind Franklin. She is Matilda but in her neighbourhood is known as “The Cat Lover”. Not many people really know her because she arrived to her new house two years ago. She decided to change her life after several disappointments. Someone could think that she’s the typical lonely and strange person, but nothing further from the truth!Two years ago, she was one of the best businesswomen in London. Apparently, she had it all in life. Mrs. Smith, like people knew her in the business world, was a great leader in her job. But one day, the image of Mrs. Smith appeared in all the newspapers. “Matilda Smith leaves her company”-said the headline of the newspapers. She had decided to break down with her stressful life and it involved leaving the company where she had worked for the last years. She wasn’t happy with her life although it was not what it seemed. She didn’t have time for anything but work and she couldn’t enjoy being with her family or her real passion: the animals. She changed the non-true love of the office work for the calm and the real love of animals. She always loved cats and now she takes care of them and she travels around Ireland looking for families to adopt abandoned cats.Tiddles and Cocoa have been lucky! Not only did Paula find love, but there was also an extra dose of love for these cats in that train. Another modern love story… albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000904515 2022-01-19 16:40:59 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2000904515 THE SECRET OF THE SERIAL KILLER, a story by Anags. It was a sunny, pretty and beautiful day. And for that reason, The Serial Killer decided to invite Paula to go out and spend the afternoon together. They were laughing and walking down the street, but, suddenly, Paula stopped walking and said: Come on, Killer, do what you have wanted to do all the afternoon! The Serial Killer didn’t understand nothing, because he couldn’t imagine what Paula was referring. However, Paula continued insisting: come on, Killer, I know you want to ask me to be your girlfriend, it’s the reason for what you have invited me to go out this morning. The Serial Killer was very surprised, and to avoid confusions, he decided to confess Paula his best kept secret: Paula, this morning I invited you to go out because I wanted to explain you something that is happening to me for a few months. We are friends and I think that you can understand me. So here I go: I’m gay and I’ve been meeting a boy since a time ago. Paula was shocked by the news, but as a good friend, she told the Serial Killer that nothing was wrong, that love is love and the most important thing is love well, not who we love. albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2002692519 2022-01-20 12:24:00 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2002692519 A DIFFERENT KIND OF LOVE_ A story by Yue. Paula was reading her book on Medievalism while she was waiting to start her trip to Dublin. Suddenly, a young girl called Greta Thunberg sat down next to her because the train was full. Paula was expecting that no one would sit next to her, so Paula thought that Greta was a peculiar girl.Greta asked Paula what her name was and what she was reading. She replied that the book was about Medievalism because she was studying this topic. Greta enthusiastically asked her if she was interested in the environment issue and Paula shook her head and told her that she was not informed about it.Greta told her that she was an environmental activist. In addition, she explained to her all the projects that she had done and all that she had in her mind for the future. Paula was surprised because she was a very young girl and she had very clear ideas.After spending long hours talking, Paula remembered forever a phrase that Greta said: "We have learned that if we don’t act for our future, no one will take the first step. We are those for whom we have been waiting."From that moment, Paula realized that she loved the topic of the environment. Furthermore, she wanted to act with Greta's help to prevent climate changes, among many other things, and try to have a safe world. Paula joined her projects to achieve great success together! albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2002695077 2022-01-20 12:25:35 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2002695077 INCONTINENCE LOVE,_ A story by me.Paula went towards the public bathroom on the train. When she arrived, the Nah boy was waiting too. After 5 minutes of silence, Paula initiated the conversation asking the Nah boy how many times have been there. He answered he had arrived approximately 5 minutes earlier than her. She said that she urgently wanted to enter, so she decided to take the door to see if someone was there. Nobody responded.The Nah boy insisted on searching for someone to find a solution. Paula found it a good idea and decided to do the same. However, they couldn’t. But, the train reviewer proposed to give them an extra ticket so they could go to a bathroom in a train station and catch the next train.They agreed, so, when the train stopped, Paula and the Nah boy went to the station. After that, they waited together for the next train. Paula opened a medieval book, and the Nah boy told her he would participate as a figurant in Game of Thrones the following week. Afterwards, they started to talk about the Medieval Epoque. The conversation was fluid and they started to show feelings very quickly. Moreover, they recognized having urine incontinence.When the train arrived, instead of catching it, they decided to escape together, as they needed to do their necessities again. And bathroom by bathroom they finally fall in love. albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2002699691 2022-01-20 12:28:31 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2002699691 You can vote for your favourite story here: https://forms.gle/jEFpQjrnsnFq9AuY9 albaltrusa https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2002728141 2022-01-20 12:45:25 UTC https://padlet.com/albaltrusa/hsdkrog9rqv89o9l/wish/2002728141