English Language Challenges

I still remember my first experience with English when I was just a 5 years old child: I had to do an exhibition about an animal, and that animal was the duck…

Now, almost fifteen years later, I realize about how much experiences I had with English and how it has been along my life. Now more than ever, English is important part in my life, allows me to learn a lot of things that you can’t find in Spanish or to access information from direct sources in less time.

Learning English at university has been a great experience, because I had taken distance from English in the last year and I wanted to get as closer as I could, and in the English classes I saw an opportunity, so I took it. I have practiced the four language skills and realized about some weaknesses in my English.

The use of blogs was not something new for me, but writing in English was very helpful to me, because I don’t write in English that often, but I have learnt a lot with the blogs. However, there are a few things I need to improve, as some specific aspects of grammar, to read more about connectors in English (that has been a problem for me since high school until now) and to extend my vocabulary so I can use English with more versatility.

English is very useful to me, from reading scientific papers to speak with people at the other side of Earth. I think speaking English gives you a lot of opportunities in many aspects, from learning and investigation to socializing with people around the world. 

Have you had a good year?

This year was very surprising for me because of many things I have done, things I had learnt and many goals in which I am working right now.

Why? That's what I'm going to tell you in this instance. 

I feel good in my career, but also I have been studying many things from Physics and Calculus, which are very interesting for me, even studying a social science, which is a bit far from mathematics (when this does not implies statistics and probabilities, basis of most of the scientific knowledge in social sciences) or physics.

But this year wasn’t only about good things, because there are also things that did not go as expected. As example, this year I proposed myself a few goals like not missing more classes at university or spend more time studying than playing videogames or doing anything else instead of studying, but I have failed doing that last semester. This way, I spent a lot of time on internet reading anything else and I missed many classes. However, I started doing thing correctly this semester and I am better than ever. Good thing this year were also working on my goals and achieve things like a good attendance at university or get good marks in my tests and research works.

I can say that I had a good year, but the year has not ended yet! There are two months left and I will have to do my best to give a great end to this year: going back to my home in Puerto Montt, being with my family and feel the cold breeze at the shore in Puerto Montt...

I need it!

Childhood series

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    At this moment I am at university, studying a career, trying to plan what I am going to do with my life in a few years, but could be convenient to take a break and look at your past, especially those moments you enjoyed the most or even just things you used to do when you was a child and you, right now, don't do as often as during your childhood. 

This time I was remembering about the series I used to see during those years and a few series came to my mind because of their importance for me. I followed one of these series from the first chapter; the other one was, in my opinion, one of those series that you must have seen at least once during your life:

The first one is, in my opinion, my favourite cartoon when I was entering adolescence: Avatar, the legend of Aang. I saw all its seasons (called books in the cartoon) on Nickelodeon, excepting for the last one, the Book of Fire, whose chapters were in English because they weren’t dubbed to Spanish yet, so I had to watch it in english on internet. I liked this cartoon because of its world, where people could control the four elements: fire, earth, water and air. I used to wish to control fire and air when I was watching the new chapters transmitted every Thursday’s after school.


Dragon Ball Z was an anime about fights and fights and more fights, some stories of people, and then… more fights. The plot of the whole anime was about a group of protagonist fighting enemies that were stronger every time. Even if the plot was about fights and more fights, these fights were amazing and lasted for entire chapters, especially the most important fights that could last for three or five complete episodes. The other series I was talking about at the beginning was an anime I liked a lot when I was even younger, even I still watching some movies about this anime when I remember it and have free time: Dragon Ball Z. 

There are, of course, many other series that I remember and I liked a lot, but this time I wanted to tell you about these because I am even thinking about download these series and watch it again from the first episode to the last one.

The scariest monsters

Even when during my childhood I hadn't many fears about monsters or something else, I can remember a lot of creatures from the chilean mythology that even now I would not be able to refuse their existence completely.

When I was a child many family told me many stories about their own experiences with some mythical creatures, as the Basilisk or the Tue-Tue. The basilisk was a creature with snake body and chicken head that slipped through the houses seeking for its food: the breath of the people living in the house.

Also I have heard stories about the Tue-Tue or Chon-Chon, that is a head with claws and big ears that use to fly. The Tue-Tue was a wizard that used a cream to separate his head from his body and fly to the houses of ill people looking for their blood, finally killing them. My mom told me once that if someday I hear a Tue-Tue, I must take a bunch of salt and throw it at the fire of the woodburning stove, because that makes the Tue-Tue to fall directly to the ground, being unable to stand up again.

Even when I was not afraid of many monsters or creatures during my childhood, maybe because I was quite though, I don't know, I still listening seriously when someone tells me an story about mythical creatures, especially if I am in Chiloé, a very mystic and full of secrets place.

How green are you?

I must say that I am not really an entirely ecologic person, but I have been becoming more and more conscious about taking care of our environment. Not at the point of having four or five different trash cans for each kind of recyclable garbage on my room or in my home in Puerto Montt, but I take more care of our planet than I used to do a few years ago.

In my home there are not many recycling habits, but at least we take care about how we dispose our wastes, as not to dispose used oil in the W.C. or in the sink, or not to dispose used batteries with the rest of the garbage.

I think that all we learn in school is not enough, since there are not many opportunities to learn about ecological habits or even to spend some time in separating garbage or reusing some bottles or packing. In my home we try to take care about a few things, but I think we are far away from being completely green.

But being green is not all about recycling. I also try to not to use electric energy if I do not need it, like using stairs instead of elevators or saving gas or water in shorter showers. However sometimes I feel that even when I am taking care of these things, there are many people that collapses the escalators or drive their cars with nobody else, polluting the already polluted Santiago.

My future job

Personally, I think that is hard to say what one is going to be in the future because there is not absolute control of what is going to happen… but I think all we can decide what we want to do in the future, so I did.

At this moment I am studying Psychology, so you can think that I want to be a psychologist, but I have to say that being a psychologist is not my only pro plan in future. I love Physics since I was starting high school and even now, studying a social science, my attraction to Physics has not decreased at all. After studying Psychology I want to study Physics in the Faculty of Sciences in U de Chile.

Being a psychologist while I study physics is what I want to do. I want to be working at an university doing research on psychophysics, an area of psychology that involves the physic properties of stimuli and their effects on perception. Also I would really wish to be able to have a postgraduate degree on quantum mechanics and do research in this area.

Both of them seem to be very different and even incompatible, what means that maybe I will have to decide for one or another. A difficult decision, but I hope I will be able to work and live in the both areas of knowledge. 

A tiny review of “Inside job”

I am not the kind of person who watches a lot of movies or documentaries, but I had the opportunity to watch a piece of the documentary “Inside job”. Although I only watched a few minutes and the trailer, I would definitively recommend you to watch it.

Why?

Well, I would recommend this documentary because it narrates a very complex episode that occurred just a few years ago: the global financial crisis of 2008. Considering that this film shows us a lot of things that happened mainly in the USA, there is a topic that was very interesting for me and that could be for you too: the rising of the debts in families and the cost of education in the USA.

Concerning the financial crisis of 2008, the average debt of the families in the USA raised in order to afford their financial needs, even at the cost of sacrificing their health budget or their children education. Also the cost of university rose up to 10,000 dollars annually if I do not remember wrong, which are only a part of all the consequences of this global financial crisis.

I recommend this film because it shows some of the effects of a financial crisis that crossed the whole world and tries to tell us about not only the reality beyond our eyes about what happens in the financial world but what happens to people like us in our daily life.

The best concert/holiday I've had

I haven’t been to many concerts, just one or two, but I’ll never forget the holidays I had in 2011 during summer. Thus, I want to tell you about these unforgettable holidays:

In February 2011, when I was 15, I went with my parents to Vicuña in Coquimbo Region. There was living my older brother who had left my house a few years ago. Me and my family took two buses and travelled on them for more than twenty hours:  around twelve from Puerto Montt to Santiago, seven from Santiago to La Serena and an hour from La Serena to Vicuña.

After that long trip I finally arrived to my brother’s home. 

Once there I was invited to his wife’s mother’s house and stayed there a few days, days I’ll never forget.

There I saw the night sky as I had never done in my life: I used to stay in the middle of a backyard, where you can’t see beyond a few meters. 

 

Under the moonlight I saw the stars in the sky and there I realized about the immensity of the universe and all that remains undiscovered.

That sky told me many things every night I remained looking at the stars: many secrets that shouldn’t been told to anyone.

Playlists from my life

You start remember old times when you listen to a song you used to listen on a walkman or played on an instrument? That's because music is there as a companion, as a remember, even as a background soundtrack in certain episodes of our lives.

If I start remember some songs from a few years ago, I can't forget about music I've listened when I was 14 or 15 years old. An example of an important song for me is "Vive", from Nach on it's album called "Un día en suburbia". It tells three stories about people that would like to come back in time and enjoy life as they never really did so.

Now I remember a particular song that many times make me feel identified not only with it's lyrics but the whole song from beginning to the end: Das Alte Leid. A part of the song says: "By the same thing and the old pain; I finally think...". That, for me, refers to a mistake or a vice that you can't leave that easy. That sometimes happens to me.

I use to remember songs automatically when I remember other moments in my life. I wouldn't believe at the first time if someone tells me that music has no place in it's life...

Personally, music is there and I can't ignore them.

I'll post below some of the songs I've mentioned:

Vive - Nach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_er2ZtIECA

Das Alte Leid - Rammstein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAKRLpB1VJY

A country I would like to visit.

I would like to visit Germany. Even if money can be an issue when you want to travel to other continent, I use to say that dreaming is allowed, always. There are many countries in Europe, but I have a particular interest in the germanic history and culture, and I know that I could travel back in time or to unimaginable places if I visit some places in Germany. There are two places that I would like to visit in Germany right now, places that I only can imagine, but I know that imagining these places is never gonna be like being there:

First: Pergamon Museum.

Pergamon Museum is an especial place, because here was rebuilt some monuments as the Pergamon Altar, in the picture above. Also, this museum is divided in three sections: an antiquity collection, the Middle East Museum and the Museum of Islamic art. I would like to visit all three sections of this huge museum.

Second: The castles built during Ludwig II of Bavaria’s reign.

Ludwig II of Bavaria is known actually by the construction, with his own fortune, of fairy-tale castles in Bavaria. The picture above is from the Neuschwanstein castle. I’ve seen many pictures of castles in the world along my life, but these castles are just wonderful. I would really like to visit at least one of these castles. I would like to see it with my own eyes, really.

There are many other places that I would like to visit in Germany, also there are many reasons for me to visit Germany and even to live there: the history, many places, the language and the culture of the people. I would like to learn about this and even more about this country!

Favourite and dream places

This is Puerto Montt, my favourite place. I was born there and I can say that Puerto Montt is definitively a place to visit. This place is known by it's rainy weather, but even if you don't like rainy or cold places, you'll have a lot of things to do, especially if you like to get in contact with nature or local history and culture. Near Puerto Montt, as example, you can visit the archaeological site Monte Verde, known by the Clovis culture that lived there approximately 13500 years ago.Also in Puerto Montt you can take many buses to near places as Maullín, Puerto Varas, Petrohué, without making mention of more places that are near Puerto Montt.

As X Region’s capital, main activities in the region uses to take place there or in near places, as Chiloé archipelago.

After my favourite place, I want to tell you about places I've visited. Actually, I haven't travelled that much, but I went a few years ago to Valle de Elqui.That’s a place that I’m not going to forget easily and I must talk about that place here. There was many things I’ve liked, but what I remember the most is the night sky. The first time I was invited to see the night sky, when I looked up, I kept looking at the sky about two hours. If I went again to Valle de Elqui, I’d prefer to be awake at night and look at the sky all night long. If you eventually go there, you can't miss the vastness of the sky.

Finally, I want to talk about places I'd like to visit. There are many places I'd like to visit, but this time I chose Japan. Why? I want to visit Japan because of it’s culture and history. Japan is a country with a long history, and it’s culture is very rich and interesting. There are many places I’d like to visit as Tokyo and Hokkaido:

Tokyo by being the capital of Japan and a huge city and full of stories, definitively. I'd like to visit Harajuku too, an area spreading from Harajuku Station, a place where you can take a walk all day long and you'll want to go back the next day and the next day and so on.

                                        

Hokkaido because there are many stories that I want to hear right there as the stories about the beginning of it's colonization, and also I want to visit and see with my own eyes the Lavender Fields in Furano, that I show you in the picture below.