My experience here!

Hello everyone, today I’m going to talk about my experience learning English at university. Probably this is my last post in this blog because this is the last level here in the university L but well…

My experience here was really productive I think. A chance to practice everything that I learned in level 3 and in the school. Besides I used this class to keep my mind busy, in another world (in FACSO every day you have to read a lot of things so a little bit of time doping something else it is always a blessing.)

I need to improve a lot of things of my vocabulary and grammar, especially things like Past perfect, past perfect continues and al the verbal times.  I have in mind the idea to enter in another class of English outside the university or something like that.

The experience with the blog in general was really helpful and cool but not new.  The first semester I understand how to create a blog and how to write in it. In this class (English lesson level 4) I tried to improve a little bit more my vocabulary and grammar. Also I felt very important, like a celebrity with a lot of followers when I was writing in my blog. I always thought “Oh, a lot of people will read this; I have to make my best effort!” I hope all of this seems reflected on my posts. Besides I really enjoyed reading my classmates posts, their reflections and critical thinking.  On the other hand, I can say I improve my writing skills (well… I don’t know, but I feel I have developed a lot of abilities that I haven’t before). Furthermore I wrote about a lot of things that I didn’t before, so it was a motivation.

These days I’m using my English to read scientific papers and play video games. The first thing because is for the university and the second … well, for playing.

That is all! Thanks for everything!

Goodbye J

Bittersweet

It’s difficult to evaluate this year, because if you ask me today my 2014 is a year really bittersweet.  First I will talk about situations that did not go so well this year and then, to close this topic with some kind of hope I will talk about the good things.

Most of my time that I expend here in the university is relate to academic responsibilities or things like that so my experience is almost limited to that space. I’m really tired and a little bit upset.  I have a lot of things to do but I don’t have time and motivation.  I think I’m not happy at all with this career and I have problems with my future plans. Also, this year was awful for my health, with a lot of accidents and different illness (at least I didn’t catch the Ebola virus).  My best friend is now in the United States (I really miss her, but I’m happy for her) and I haven’t see her boyfriend in a long time (he is my friend too). My family is not having a good time either; we have a lot of problems, and especially in the part of health… bad news I can say L and the relation between us it is getting worse. I can’t do anything because university demands a lot of time, so every day I arrive home late.

However, if we talk about the good experiences, I can say this year I met wonderful people always trying to cheer my up. I did a lot of things that I never had done before, cool things! My birthday was amazing and I really enjoy my trip to Punta Arenas in summer.

In academic results I can say it has been a productive year with good achievements (besides of my vocational crisis) and I have a wonderful boyfriend and friends who are always with me when I really need them.

Well, I need to do some sport this year, I would like to swimming or skating J I haven’t done that yet…

So that is all

Goodbye

Viking Metal ImI

Greetings! Today I’m going to talk about my favorite type of music.

Well, usually I listen to rock, heavy metal, folk (Celtic, Nordic, Irish), progressive rock-metal-folk, etc. I think I like all the possible combinations of these four elements. However, the sound of my heart is heavy… like heavy metal (bad joke). There is a song of Tenacious D, the band of Jack Black who has a song about Metal and I always sing this part: “You can't kill the metal. The metal will live on… New wave tried to kill the metal. But they failed as they were stricken down to the ground”.

But today I’m going to refer to one of the genres of heavy metal: Viking Metal, a genre of Black Metal and Folk Metal.

First of all, heavy metal is a genre of rock music that emerged between 60’s and 70’s.  It is recognizable because their extended guitar solos, distortion, heavy drums… a lot of noise for the ears to someone with no taste in good music (I’m totally joking). Black Metal is like… more hardcore. Melodies with faster tempos than traditional heavy metal, a lot of distortion and chaotic lyrics and extreme voices: with screams, guttural sounds or pitchy voices. Initially related to Satanism, misanthropy and anti-Christian and a visual imaginary that cause a lot of polemic. As a rejection to Satanism and occultism to a way to oppose to Christianity, in 1980’s Viking metal was developed as a new opposition from the paganism and Nordic tradition. A fusion between Black Metal and the beauty of Folk music with lyrics associate to Nordic mythology and the “Viking Age”. Battles, swords, paganism and other types of northern landscape are represented in this genre. Is the perfect combination between mythical lyrics, Viking drums and instruments and the power of Black Metal.

I like this kind of music because I’m a fan of the Nordic culture and the “Viking Age”, their mythology is awesome and very complete. Also I like the “noise” and the brutality of Black Metal, is weird I know, but for me is music and I love it.

That is all! Thanks for reading!

Goodbye!

Not Green...

Hello everybody, I’m going to talk about the environment. And today’s question is ¿how much green I’m? The answer: I’m not very green. I haven’t included recycle practices to my life yet. But some day, I will recycle my trash, I promise or at least I will try to use different kind of products “eco-friendly” like deodorants who doesn’t harm the ozone cape.

For example, I never use any kind of bike, because I have a special talent for falling down. Nonetheless, I usually walk from mi home to the University I study at, so I don’t contribute with the noise pollution or the pollution itself. That is one of the big problems of Santiago, the big amount of cars and pollution. We need a solution about that, but with this economic system I seem difficult.  

I haven’t joined any kind of ecological organization because I don’t have time. The University takes all my time (I don’t have even time to breathe the pollute air sometimes). Anyway, as you probably can see, I’m not kind of a green girl, but anyway, I’m interested in the topic (ok, maybe I’m not), but I have great ideas, like, more bikes, or plants, or trying to burn all the companies that destroys the environment throwing their radioactive waste (well, not to burn exactly because if the companies are nuclear stations, probably if we burn them they will cause a big radioactive explosion or an acid rain. That could mean probably our extinction). Ok, maybe I haven’t great ideas. But what I have, are good intentions.

 For example I’m very sad about the fact that polar bears are dying in the North Pole because of the pollution, so, I’m trying to learn and understand all the physical and biological processes that cause the climate change. Maybe with all this information I would think or prepare a possible solution. What have done to reduce my carbon footprint? Perhaps avoiding the use of any type of transport that contributes to generate a lot of pollution and energetically waste. Also I’m eating more fruits than meat. But my problem is the electronics artifacts; they consume a lot of energy. I can say that my carbon footprint is high L.

That is all! Thanks for reading!

Goodbye… 

My experience in the field

Hello, today I’m going to talk about my experience in the field. Specifically, about the part of field work. Because the ethnographic method is very important for anthropology, in fact, is the special thing of this discipline. Ethnography means to do a lot of observation of people we don’t know. The objective is to observe other people in their routine and study a process or identify a problem in their cultural context.  

Well, my first experience was in Pomaire with my boyfriend for the course “Anthropology II”. We were there all the day and we made contact with a lot of ceramic workers who told us about their dreams, their fears, etc. The difficulty that we had was the initial part of conversations, I mean talk to someone. We didn’t know how to talk with them, how to gain their trust. So we entered in the stores or in their room work and we act like tourist so it was easier because they wanted to sell their ceramics. It was a great experience but too short.

My first true ethnography I did it two weeks ago, in Pocuro, a rural town in Los Andes. I was there during an entire week so I have to move and do a lot of things. I worked with elder people in an investigation about health. Our team went to the houses of a lot of strangers, we ate with them, and we laugh and cry with them. We helped to organise a benefice bingo, we went to their meetings, we met a lot of places and we took a lot of pictures and we made a lot of participant observation. It was a true ethnography experience.  After that I decided I didn’t want to be a social anthropology because I don’t like to talk with people. I felt much stressed and the anxiety consumed me before to try to talk with someone. But I met a lot of nice people, too kind, with a lot of experiences and beautiful stories. I’m really grateful and I promised to come back one day and visit them. It’s the human part of this job, because in the end of all, we are there for that reason, to recollect experiences and stories of humans who see the world in a different way and live their lives trying to be what they really want to be.

Well, that is all! Thanks! Hope you like it.

Goodbye

Cultural shock!

Greetings! Today I’m going to talk about cultural shock. 

What is cultural shock? Let me brief you. This concept has a history and I don’t want create confusion about it. This was originally proposed by a Canadian anthropologist named Kalvero Oberg in a congress in Rio de Janeiro.

He said it was a psychological adaptation to a new different culture. If we travel to another country or if we move to another social environment, we could experience this sensation of disorientation.  In fact, this shock may cause a lot of physical and psychological symptoms, like excessive sleep, anger, stress and hostility.  Summarizing, it is the confusion produced by a new language, new customs, unknown expectations and feeling that we draw attention to others.  It is the feeling that we are "different" and foreign.

In anthropological terms, cultural shock doesn’t affects in the same ways adults and children, because kids, in a new culture, go through a different process called acculturation.

 In my live I have never experience a cultural shock, at least not a big shock with the terrible consequences that brings with it. But, years ago I had classes in a school from San Juan, Argentina. The uniform was different, the place, the people, everything was different! Even some speak forms was unlike mine. Well, I entered to the room and everyone was staring at me because I was the Chilean girl. The first class was History, Argentinean History. I didn’t know about the dates, the process, and the important character so I felt like out of place.  Like if I didn’t belong there. I feel terrible, but my friends were there to cheer me up, and my classmates were really kind.

An example of cultural shock would it be if we move to Japan forever. First, the impact of a totally different language and writing, second the food, then the people, etc. The impact would cause in us a terrible culture shock with all the symptoms.

Well, that is all, hope you like it! See you next week

Goodbye!

A Perfect Circle at Lollapalooza 2013

Greetings! Today I’m going to talk about the concert of my favorite band nineteen months ago.

First of all, the band I will talk about came to the Lollapalooza in 2012. This is a very important event in the world; usually, the sponsors bring a lot of bands and they play their music in different stages all day long. Here in Chile, they mount the show in Parque O’higgins. It is really cool but too expensive.

A few months before the big concert, in the internet announced that “A perfect circle” the band of Maynard (the vocalist of Tool), was in the setlist of guest artists. A Perfect Circle (I robbed the name for my blog) is basically an alternative rock band disguised in metal and progressive styling. I almost died, because they didn’t want to come to Chile until that moment. I was so excited! But I had big problem... I didn’t have enough money to buy a ticket. My father, trying to buy a toaster on internet, won a ticket. He called to my sister to give her the ticket because he didn’t want it, but I cried around the house so desperately… he saw me, and smiling he gave me the ticket.

I went to the concert with my ex-boyfriend. I met a lot of new bands there and I really had a great time. I ran to the stage and I waited with all the fans. They were more excited than me; in fact they waited for almost ten year listen to this band in a live show. They arrived and played my favorites songs! I sang, I shouted, I cried, it was an amazing experience. They promised to return some day, but with this opportunity I felt paid. I will never forget this.

That is all! Thanks for reading! Hope you like it!

Goodbye!