Blog del Instituto Cervantes de Londres

Yes! We have finally published all the 80 short stories received for our “Don Quixote competition”

To find yours, just type your forename in the searching box of the blog.

Thank you very much again for participating and thank you very much to all the teachers that encouraged their pupils to write about Don Quijote. You all made a very good job.

 We really enjoyed reading the texts received and we are very sorry we just could give four prizes for two winners in the two different categories.

category 7-11 y. o.

 1^st prize   Alex Vicar “The Quijote in my life”

 2^nd prize category 7-11 y. o. Nikki Moxhag-Baker “Lampposts in the city”

category 12-19 y. o.

 1^st prize: Anthony James “Don Quijote”

 2nd prize: Sara Aveni “Giulio, mi quijote”

We hope you enjoyed as much as we did practising your Spanish and maybe discovering something new about our culture and about Don Quijote. In fact, this was the main purpose of our competition.

We hope you will celebrate with us the International Book Day next year again.

El Quijote de mi vida es mi hermano menor porque tiene un buen corazón, gusta libros de aventuras, algunos tiempos se pelea, tiene muchos amigos y tiene yo y mi hermano  mayor para escuderos.

También gusta salir de casa para jugar.

Esta mismo cómo un león feroz y valiente. También tiene muchas aventuras como don quijote tiene.

Tiene un buen corazón porque siempre abraza a mama cuando ella regresa de afuera.   También gusta ir de marcha a cosas misteriosas. Tiene cincuenta amigos: Whitman, Maria, Nicholas,

Señora  Pam, Kian en ec3, Julia en grado 2, señora Olga, y las otras me ha borrado de la memoria.

Gusta pelar  conmigo sobre cosas como quien va primero o que “tú no puedes jugar con eso” y cosas así.  Pero todavía cuando se equívoca con algo yo estoy allí para el siempre.

El también sufre pesadillas como Don Quijote cuando tiene miedo de algo en la día de algo. También puede hacer promesas y es muy confiable. También tiene  muchas aventuras pero muchos fueron algo malo. Para ejemplo cuando se perdió de desayuno solo para ir al centro para niños para jugar dentro los chiquitos carros para divertir se.

También gusta comida de España.

Algunas veces está un poquito loco en casa, así necesita tener algo un poquito más divertido.

Así que mi hermano menor esta el Don quijote de mi vida, esta un chiquito niño de cuatro años con un imaginación muy, muy grande. También esta una persona con mucha energía.

Duncan H-S.
Southbank International School, Hampstead

Don Quixote is crazy and funny. He’s crazy like two tigers in a fight. He’s funny like a clown in a circus. He reminds me of Harry Hill. Let me tell you something in a little more detail.
 
Don Quixote is crazy Harry Hill is crazy in a good way. Don Quixote is crazy in a good way. Harry says crazy things; Don says crazy things and also does see differently. Harry’s comments are crazy. However, Don Quixote is a little insane.
 
Harry Hill is really funny. Don Quixote is funny. He fights windmills. Harry Hill says funny things, based on videos. Don is funny because he sees well funny. Harry puts funny videos on televisions and then says weird things. Don does funny things like fight windmills. Harry says things with a funny voice. Don is funny in a weird way.
 
I hope you have enjoyed my report. Crazy and funny are one of the many reasons why he’s a Don Quixote. I feel sorry for people who don’t have a Don Quixote in their like.

Jessica McG.
Park Road School, Warrington

It all started with two kittens and two children.  A fluffy kitten was chosen by the boy, and one with a smudge over her eye was chosen by the girl.  They were young children so they choose the obvious names.  As they grew older a new T.V. series of wild lions was released.  The brother and the sister watched this program, not noticing that the cats watched as well.  “Oooh, I love this program!” purred Fluffy.  “So do I!” Smudge meowed.  The screen showed a pride of lions being stalked by vultures.  “The food we find is ours….so fly off dragon, or I’ll eat you too!” roared the lion.

“Gosh, our relations are cool!” purred Smudge.

A moth was bashing the window, “Smudge,” Fluffy whispered, “A dragon is outside”.                       

“What?” Smudge looked out the window. “Not just one, hundreds of ‘em.” 

There were moths spread all across the field.  As leaders of their pride, the cats went to fight.  When they reached the field the boy and his sister noticed them.  They laughed at the cat’s impressive acrobatics, but they didn’t notice.  As the cats had finished off the moths, a shriek came from the trees so they went to investigate.  When they reached the tree tops a pigeon startled them. 

Smudge fell out of the tree.  “Smudge!” Fluffy wailed, she swiped her paws at the pigeon but she couldn’t hit it.  As the bird was about to flap its wings Smudge struck at its back shouting “Take that evil dragon!”  The pigeon flew off. “Well done Smudge!” Fluffy yowled.  Feeling triumphant, the pair trotted back to the house.

Later that day, another episode appeared. “The lion pride is starving and must find some food.” said the commentator.  The expressions upon the children’s faces were much like the lion cubs. “Come on,” roared the lion “let’s go hunt!” a few minutes later they came back with some meat. “Tuck in cubs!” purred the lioness. The cubs ripped the meat to pieces. The children looked like they were going to puke. “Fluffy,” said Smudge “I think our pride is hungry, let’s go hunt!”

Fluffy agreed so the pair went back to the field.  It took hours before they came back with something. Unfortunately the cats couldn’t kill it, so they released it in the kitchen.

The next day at breakfast they noticed Smudge staring behind the shelf.  The shelf moved, and a bewildered bunny hopped out.  “Kill it!” hissed smudge.  As she was about to strike the children caught the cats and took them outside.

“How could you hunt a cute and fluffy bunny? How?” yelled the girl. “Cute and fluffy?!  It’s a long eared demon which should be eaten!” meowed Fluffy.  “And  the moths, you’ve killed them off too, haven’t you?”   “What’s a moth?”, “We only kill dragons!” pleaded Smudge.  “Don’t you ever do that again….you hear me? NEVER!” shouted the girl.

“We only did it for the pride…” meowed the cats.                                                      
 
Alex L.
Winsley C. E. Primary School, Bradford on Avon

Don Quixote is a wonderful character , his stories are so thrilling that it’s like a rollercoaster every page you turn .This lovely character reminds me of a kind, helpful, old man who lives near me and is called George.

Despite being an old, jovial, man Gorge is a big adventurer like Don Quixote, he walks along the path with his dog, Mick, whilst making the ordinary into the extraordinary. This is like  Don Quixote riding his hour’s wisest being in his own world.

Also George’s house is huge and contains all the air you could breathe in a life time ,he decorated it in a old-fashioned style like Don Quixote’s library. He also has a small library filled with a decade of dust . At night with the warm summer air coming through the old , cracked window rattles the old, dusty , damaged suit of armour.

George is quite a ‘bamboozler’ like Don Quixote, to highlight this fact; he changes the subject without you knowing and starts to day dream in the middle of the conversation also he uses words that don’t make sense. He also says words that aren’t real.

A ‘bamboozler‘, an adventurer, a crazy thinker and a dreamer, I think you’ll agree that George is my Don Quixote in my life. My hypotheses is that if you don’t have a bit of Don Quixote in you’re own life, life would be very boring!

Hannah P.
Park Road Primary Warrington Cheshire.

Parece que todas las personas tienen una persona en su vida que podría parecerse a Don Quijote – su madre, su abuela, su primo – alguien quien haría todo para cuidarles.

Típicamente, se describiría a esta persona como fiel, reconfornante y comprensiva. Ella da sin esperar recibir algo, escucha bien y da su tiempo en todo caso.

Para mí, mi ‘Don Quijote’ es mi mejor amiga. Conozco a Claire desde hace 4 años, pero actualmente no podría imaginar mi vida sin ella.

Nuestra amistad empezó el verano hace 4 años cuando estábamos ensayando para una obra – y en un decir amen nos hicimos muy amigas. Quizás sea un cliché decir que nunca he tenido una amiga igual, ¡pero es la verdad! Ella es la única persona que me entiende completamente, y siento poder confiarme en ella de todo.

Si es las 4 de la mañana, si estamos en lugares opuestos del mundo, o si la situación es sencillamente que quiero un abrazo cuando estoy sintiendo triste, puedo contar con ella.

Espero tenerla durante muchos años que viene, porque para encontrar a otra como ella sería intentar lo imposible. Claire es la hermana que nunca he tenido, y no creo que pueda encontrar a ningúna persona que le sustituirá.

Aun si la descripción de Claire no parece a Don Quijote, mi amiga es especial para mí de una manera u otra, una manera personal, ¡y estoy tan contenta haberle encontrado!

Kelly H.
Simon Langton Girls’ School

Don Quijote is an adventurous, imaginative, dreamer which is why it might be that my granddad is most like Don Quijote, he is everything like him. For instance my granddad, Frank, is wonderful plus insane in a very weird way, which is exactly like the one and only Don Quijote. Crazy isn’t it! Anyway, it you want it in more detail, you’ll have to read on.

First of all, my granddad is adventurous all round, with an imagination exactly like Don Quijote’s. As well as my granddad always wanting one tiny breath of fresh air, he loves to go travelling anywhere. He is the kind of person that doesn’t care where he’s travelling, so long as it’s going to be an adventure to last in his memory forever, not just one that will fade away in two seconds. He never went fighting windmills or anything. However, I still think that he is an adventurous animal!

Despite being an adventurous animal, my granddad is mad on horse racing! If my granddad is watching T.V it is definitely horses he is watching. Plus he also bets on them every year and even lets us sometimes. If my granddad got to choose one animal it would be a horse, just like Don Quijote. My granddad may not be a knight travelling on a horse but I can tell you now he seriously is mad on horse racing!!!

Now I would like to tell you how my granddad absolutely loves reading any type of books. He especially likes reading the newspaper. When you see my granddad he will always be having a quiet moment on the sofa reading any type of book. My granddad doesn’t read books about knights but he sure does read a lot.

For one thing I would definitely like to tell you what a wacky weirdo my granddad is. I mean, he is the most bizarre person I know! He’s not embarrassing or anything, he’s just naturally bonkers! You could say that my granddad is a bamboozler living in his own world, kind of like Don Quijote because you can certainly tell that Don is out of his mind just like my granddad.

He’s wacky! He’s weird! He’s totally out of his mind! You now probably agree with me that my granddad is the ultimate Don Quijote! Without him in my life, my granddad, I would be an empty pit of despair!

Amy T.
Park Road Primary School

Don Quijote is a character and I think he reminds me of a lemon squirting in my eye. My Grandad is like Don Quijote because my Grandad sits quiet and can’t be disturbed  and Don can’t be ever, my Grandad is an animal lover because Don Quijote has a horse and my Grandad has two dogs and he has had a lot of animals he has had a cat, and a bird, and a fish as well.

My Grandad is crazy because he lets me stay up late just like Don Quijote.He reads any book that he see’s like Don Quijote, he has a chair and my Grandad has a chair to sit in as well. My Grandad still has two of his dogs and Don Quijote still has his horse with him. My Grandad is crazy because he lets me watch my uncle play on his x box 360 when he is on a gun game when it is scary.

I really liked the story of Don Quijote because it was really exciting knowing that he is like my Grandad.

Keatlea W.
Park Road Primary School

Dylan is my sensational, curious, little brother who resembles el Quixote. This turns out to be troublesome, considering he is only eight years old. He would fight his friends (the knights), scare the dogs and the cats from the neighbourhood (the beasts), defeat the teachers (the witches), which often ended up in detention, and finally collect the prize from his twin and other more annoying brother, Bradley (the king).

Those are all the characters but as we know, there is more to a story than that… This tremendous boy would use a metal tube as a lance; a rusty, iron dustbin lid as a shield; a ruler as a sword plus… me as a horse!!

This is what happened once, during Britain’s big freeze. Dylan was sat at the window with his sword starring out into some snow flakes floating from the sky.

“Blizzard”, he muttered.

“Dylan, that is not as strong, by miles, as a blizzard”, I explained.

“Says who?” he answered.

I gave up. I knew it would all end in a massive fight.

Dylan sighed and went back to staring out of the window. Less than a minute later he screamed “Dragon straight ahead. Heading for the attic, that’s where the Princess is. That’s it! It isn’t a blizzard it’s the ash from the dragon’s flames.”

He clutched his sword and was half way out the room when I stopped him.

“First of all we don’t have a attic, secondly what princess?” I yelled.

Then I let go and he ran outside and terrified a poor cat. Unfortunately, the same thing happened at school two days later in the week.

Dylan doesn’t like the idea of being taught by witches but does like being twins with the king. However, this king didn’t see the world as Dylan did and spent much of his days on the wii. This was an issue for Dylan and me. Dylan’s problem was he always thought that Bradley was bewitched. This meant he was normally threatening the teachers so that they let Bradley go. Unfortunately, the teacher didn’t have a clue what he was talking about and just gave him more detention.

My problem was simply that I couldn’t go on the television and watch my favourite show because of Bradley’s addiction to the small screen and Dylan’s insistence on me being his horse. This is what happened…
Once on a bright summer afternoon I was watching television which I had fought for, then Dylan came in.

“Why don’t we go down by the river to capture some water goblins?” he asked. -water goblins are frogs, toads and newts.

“No, I don’t want to”, I replied.

That’s a shame, I’ve already caught one”, he then released a grimy frog onto the sofa.

I was surprised that he was allowed in! –my mum likes things clean and tidy.

It didn’t work and I carried on watching my well deserved show. I hope you have enjoyed Dylan’s glorious stories.

David D.
Holmes Chapel Primary School, Cheshire

Mi amigo, que se llama Clare es similar a Don Quijote. Le gusta leer Lord of the Rings y es obsesionado con elfos. El fin de seman pasada, encontró yo y dijo que vio centenares de elfos. Obviamente no la creí, pero dijo que tenía que ir a pedirle un autógrafo. Quise saber le razón, pero ella no me decía.

Fuimos a Cambridge en un autobus. Ella habló de los elfos.
Los elfos son muy pequeños y bajos. Los hombres tienen los barbes y las mujeres tienen bigotes. Los elfos tienen el pelo verde o azul, y tienen los ojos rosas. A menudo, son aburridos, groseros y tristes, y también a veces son de suicidio. Su orejas son puntiagudo

Hay muchos elfos que son irlandes, pero hay unos elfos que vivir en la luna. La mayoría de ellos viven en las cabinas de conejos. Normalmente desayunen zanahorias con tostados. Les gusta comer las palomas con mantequilla. Siempre cenan los globos oculares de las ovejas con el queso fundido.

Llegamos a un gran edificio. Miré fijamente a la gente que va en el interior.
Tuvieron las orejas puntiagudo, pero no fueron los elfos.
Fue un convención de Star Trek.
Es un relato verdad.

Beth C.
Colegio:Comberton Village College