A pretty good short Xmas

Finally, after a really long time, I went to my house in Curicó. Fortunately we were all, because my dad asked for vacations, so he spent it with us. My mom was really worried about the meal. She went to the market late, so it was almost empty, but there were many last minute offers. She bought a turkey at half of price; we injected it with brandy and stuffed with apples, onions, blueberries, etc. It was at least 5 hours in the oven, it was ready at 11’clock I think. We were hungry so we served it immediately; it was yummy and juicy, not like last year’s turkey. We served it with some salads and duchess potatoes. Everything was perfect. After dinner we opened our gifts: I received a Nutella pot, a pair of socks and a bag. My brother got a monocycle and some other things I can`t remember, my other brother received some circus things like rings, balls, juggling clubs, etc. My mom and dad got many stuffs like a massager, a perfume, an import beer, etc. Then we saw a comedy while we were eaten strawberries with cream. 

This Christmas was exactly what I needed: some good time, good talk and good food with my family.

Language according to Mark Pagel

Pagel says that language is the product of the human`s need to communicate and ask for collaboration from the others members of the group, that is how language is a powerful social tool: “using language you can get what you want”.

He tells us how language evolved (only in our specie):  “animals learn copying to others: that is a social learn”. According to that idea, chimps just copy some act over and over again: “what monkey see, monkey do”. And that is the biggest difference between chimps and humans: we can reason what act we want to imitate, we can use this advantage for individual benefits or for social benefits. Humanity prefers to work in team and that is how we control the nature and the world, but unfortunately many people chose the first option and that explain, for example: the Chilean’s inequalities.

The way we talk defines us as person: we belong to that group when we speak like they do, because we can communicate better with them. People recognize an English man just for the way he talks, I mean, language carries an identity. But somehow with the globalization that diversity is getting lost.

BBC WEBSITE

It is a really complete website that not only informs, but also teaches in an easy way, is because of this characteristic that it can be used by anyone, no matter the mother tongue (English, Spanish, French or even Chinese).  

It has many activities and games for listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation showing in a very dynamic and recreational way, particularly the weird news that are also funny. For example: I read one about the 200 new species found in Asia, I also had the opportunity to listen it or see the glossary with some difficult words.

This activity makes me wonder something: 
¿Why the hell the Government buy 1 computer to each student if the teachers do not use them in classes? And then everyone complains about the terrible English that their children learn at school. I think that English teachers should use technology and this kind of websites, not only the ministry’s book. They need to be smarter! Doing this they help themselves and their students. 

I HATE IT

Here are my reasons why THIS TERM is a really bad idea:

First of all, I just wanna say that I feel awful about it!

In the last 6 months I did NOTHING, that is why I forgot how to study, how to sleep earlier to wake up in the morning and some others activities that now (suddenly) I have to learn again and get used to.

I do not have enough time for fun (at least not when I want it).

I hate Santiago in summer, it’s so hot!

Transantiago is disgusting and people are so sweaty.

Many guys from others  regions (like me) even have to decide between go home in Christmas or New Year’s Eve, because of time and money. This situation is absolutely horrible and sad.

My whole family is enjoying their vacations and I am here suffering.

As you see… I have nothing to be happy about with this semester.

International Media Makes Us Realize Our Situation

Hello Everyone!

As we all know, today was the biggest march ever since democracy is back! And of course, after these masive events, the world puts its attention on Chile.
                                                                                                                             International Media presented these demonstrations and their requirements objectively and unadorned (in opposite to the national media, who are showing the bad things only complaining about damage), because they are not afraid of what the government will say, they just expose reality. The impact of the education reforms implemented since Pinochet to now converge in this characteristics of education, a truly reflection of the neoliberal world economy. This system also carries other serious problems of different kinds as inequality, inequity and the loss of our basic rights.

Unfortunately, Chile is shown like a country where is easy to come here with a little money and leave with a fortune: “A real paradise for investors”. Nobody likes that neighbors know of our blunders, but this vision about our country that foreign media is giving to the international community is good, because it creates the pressure to remedy the situation: “when someone else finds out your problems, it’s time to improve them”.

Because of the custom, our own society considers this a "normal" condition, but international news open our eyes and makes us realize that although is “tradition” it’s completely wrong and it doesn’t have to stay in this way forever. We cannot allow that this country favors profit over the right to a quality public education. Chile deserves something better and as we see today, finally the society became aware of that and supports us.

Today the Chilean people have spoken, now the politicians must take their role as truly agents of change and do something about it!

Looking for Creativity Conservation

For today, I must talk about a Kenneth Robinson's Conference called "School Kill Creativity", made in 2006 in Monterey, California.

First of all, he is an important English expert, professor, speaker, advisor and author involved in topics related to education, creativity, arts, innovation and some others.

Second, there are 3 things that we have to know:

1) There is a lot of variety of creativity.

2) Creativity makes our future, and we don´t know how far it will go and what is going to happened then.

3) Children are expert on it; they use their imagination and innovation all the time. “If you are not prepared to be wrong, you can’t be prepare to be original” Kids are not afraid to be wrong, that is why they are so creative, but when we grow up we lose that talent.

In this meeting, Sir Robinson says that the biggest problems of education are represented by the way of teaching, because the actual system of education wastes those talents:

Creativity is such important in education as literacy teaching, but in every educational system exists the same hierarchy: first mathematics, second language, then humanities and finally arts, and this hierarchy is based only on those topics that are useful for work and now it also contribute to the access to the universities. 

In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, the degrees will be less important because there will be so many professionals, is because of this that competency will increase, and exactly those faculties that the system destroy (especially creative) will be the most relevant.

I’m totally agree with him, we need to realized that intelligent is variety, dynamic, interactive, that is why we must reconsider all those principles of education based on the range of capabilities of the human mind. But the truth is that is very difficult to apply a particular form of education for each student. Now most of the children go to regular schools, the exceptions are those extremely talent and fortunate kids who have the opportunity to go to an especial academy to cultivate their abilities. Anyway, they are only a few. I think that this system will not change (at least in the short time), which is a shame, because maybe we are losing genius.

Solar Impulse

Hello People!

Today we have a free task, so I’m going to talk about a really interesting Swiss project that is trying to make a big change in environmental and transport topics: I’m referring to SOLAR IMPULSE. The idea is to eliminate our petrol’s dependence and is because of this, that a complete multi-disciplinary team of 50 specialists from six different countries created a particular plane powered only with solar energy. Last May 13, they complete the first international flight, from Duebendorf to Bruselas, in an airplane of these characteristics and today (June, 14) they made the second international flight, from Bruselas to Paris. Now, they expect to have the same success with the first circling of the earth and I’m sure they will.

“All that is impossible remains to be achieves” Jules Verne.

About Solar Impulse:

The project is directed by Bertrand Piccard y André Borschberg, both pilots.

About the plane:

At day it flies using the solar panels while is charging the batteries, is because of this that it can flis at night too. So it can continue day after day without stop. It has the record of flying 26 hours and 9 minutes without need any external source of energy.

This project proves that we don’t need that much the traditional energy as we think. We can reduce our dependence of fossil fuels by using others sources of energy, that are alternatives, renewables and definitely more cleaners. The most important thing is that we don’t have to wait the future, because the technology for a change exists now, but we need to demand it, that is the only way to make it more popular and at the same time help our planet.

If you are looking for more information, you must follow these links:

http://www.solarimpulse.com/
http://www.muyinteresante.es/videos-solar-impulse-avion-solar-energia-solar-el-primer-vuelo-solar-internacional

4 SHARED

It will sound weird, but I must say that I dislike internet. Well, it’s true that it is a really useful tool for work or study. But, the idea of to spend hours on it kind of boring me, I prefer to do others things in my free time. Anyway, there are some websites that I have to visit every day which are Facebook and Hotmail, I’m not a big fan, but I need to know what is going on with my friends and family.

Oh! Now I remember a page that I absolutely love! It’s www.4shared.com . First of all it’s completely free, and you can download a lot of song, movies, books, etc... It has no limit, everything you want; only you must wait 20 second for each file. There are also people that pay for them and they don’t have to wait, but definitely not me.

Of course that this page has a serious legal problem, even there is many artists that do not accept their songs there and they just removed them, like Depeche Mode, Seal, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Green day, Snoop Dogg and Prince, so if you want one of their songs you must look for it directly, no by the artist.

I know that do this is a crime against intellectual property, but I don´t care, I’m not gonna buy an original album, because they are so expensive here in Chile, I can´t pay for them, so I honestly thanks for pages like this one.

12 angry men

I love all kinds of movies of all time, except science fiction and violent  films, but definitely my favorite ones are from ’40 to ’60, when cinema was in black and white.

I’m going to talk about one that really surprises me when I watch it almost 3 years ago, it is call: 12 Angry men (1957) and it was directed by Sidney Lumet. This film tells the story of a jury made up of 12 men as they deliberate the guilt or innocence of a defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt.

The problem is that the 12 men must be agree with the verdict, and for 11 of them is clear and easy: he is guilty. But only one believes in his innocence and he tries to convince the others, until he get it, after many hours of angry discussion.

This movie is honestly a master piece, because it has a screenplay so intelligent and provocative that absorbs me completely, I couldn’t take away from my sit until the whole thing was finished. Also the performance was amazing and very dramatic. I’ll recommend it absolutely, specially to someone who wants to study laws, because it shows the professional ethics that a real layer or judge must have when they face a case, they must take their job seriously, because they can define perfectly the life of someone, so they have a big responsibility, and if they are not sure of the case, they can make a big mistake if they sentence someone even when he is innocent.

Us as a Family

I don't have many pictures on facebook, so it is difficult to choose one I like.
Anyway, this is my family, my mom in the back, my two brothers and me in the middle. I cannot remember very well this particular moment, but we were normally stranded on the highway. We didn't have a car so we usually hitch hicked when we wanted to go somewhere for summer.
At least for us (the kids) that were funny and exciting, to be all day long together, waiting for someone who takes us in his truck to our destiny (could be the beach or the south); once there, we had to spend hours looking for a cabin or a room to stay by night, and all those things.
We were all happy except my mom, she hates to be in that situation, that is why you can see her frustrated, tired, upset, angry and maybe hungry too. I guess that was because she is worried about everything the whole time.
My dad took the picture almost 10 years ago, maybe more, I don`t know. In opposite of my mom, he loves adventures and this kind of crazy trips.
I like this picture because it shows us as a real family, always together, no matter what. I’m not saying that we are no more like that, but definitely our vacations don’t, because we have a car now.

Public Education

As you know I study in Universidad de Chile, a "public University" but I’m not so sure if it deserves that quality, because this university is very elitist in the way it choose the students that will be part of it, it doesn’t admit anyone, it demands a very high score in the PSU, which is very difficult to reach for someone that didn’t have the opportunity to study in a good school or maybe go to a precollege.
Another thing that increases the inequality of entry to higher education is the fact that the university fees are very expensive, even in “public universities”.

In my case, I’m studying with 2 benefits: a grant and a credit. Otherwise, maybe I could not be here, because also I have to pay the student hostel, the food and the public transport.

Is because of this, that all the things related to this problem involves me directly.

Education in Chile needs changes now; the government has to respond to the requirements of the students, basically we are asking for a better education, not only for us, but also for the future generations.

All the strikes are for calling the attention of the government, but also to the society.

If Chile wants to be a developed country can´t ignored these demands, because education in developed countries is free, is a right for all of us.

A trip

Last week, I traveled to London, I went all over the city looking for the most beautiful and interesting places and I loved it! It is gorgeous, there are so many different things to see, even when you have a really short time, everything was great (except the weather): for example the Museums are absolutely stunning. 

Well, the truth is I have never been in London; I’m just joking (lol). Now I’m going to explain what I really did:

On English class we did a task: we had to supposed that we were on a trip to London and we had to make an itinerary of it, specifying what we’ll do in which day, the cost of the entrance fee of The British Museum, The Natural History Museum, London Eye, Madame Tussaud’s Wax Musseum, The Tower of London, Camdem Market, The Tate Modern Art Gallery and Kew Gardens (which I like most, because I love Botany), how get there (between what tub station and zone), etc. This work helped us to search and took information from internet.

 While I was completing the route I notice how wonderful is London, maybe someday I’ll go there.

I will be in love only on Fridays

Actually, I’m a very weird person; I don’t have one favorite song, I have three ones! They are Friday I’m In Love by The Cure, Shinny Happy People by REM and Summer Holiday by Oasis, I love them all because of the same reason: they make me happy. And this feeling appears instantaneously, so when I’m sad I listen to them and then I feel better, immediately, like magic.

I will write only about one of this. The first time I heard The Cure was when I was 12 years old, I was in primary school, living the best days of my life, because I was really free and young, doing all the great stuffs that I love to do, without cares. That was a time to discover myself, my likes and dislikes. Because of my friends, I knew many cool bands and singers, of different kinds, like hard rock, metal, indie, alternative, glam, pop, country music, etc.  The truth is that I been hearing the same bands since that age, I never get bored of them.

So, The Cure is an English rock band, their vids are really funny, their look is very strange and dark, but I like their music anyway.

P.S. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DOWNLOAD A VIDEO, SO, HERE ARE THE LINKS OF THE THREE SONGS:
The Cure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa2nLEhUcZ0
REM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCQ0vDAbF7s
Oasis: (This was the only one that I found, it's relly bad) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BI8lg3YvRk

I miss you!

My favorite piece of technology used to be my TV, why do I say "used to be"? It's very simple, because I don't have one here in Santiago. And this situation makes me feel really sad and frustrated.
Anyway, I know this will sound weird, but I love my TV, it teaches me a lot of interesting, funny and useful things, like recipes, some tips about life, friends, men, fashion, etc. We had many good times together. Some days, when I was bored I turned on the TV and I forgot about everything, because I always found a funny show to watch or maybe a movie on my favourite channel: TCM. We were just it and me, sitting one in front to the other, looking each others, the most perfect moments that someone can have with an object.
I guess I have one since I was born, maybe I could say that we grow up together and until the moment when I decided to move to this city, we never separated before.
I used to use it almost 8 hours a day when I was on holiday, and when I was on school only 3 hours.
I know what you are thinking about me right now, and I'm going to say: Yes, I'm a TV maniac!

My career

Ok, I'm going to tell you why I'm studying this lovely career. Well, I decided to study Anthropology after PSU results. I wasn't sure about anything at that time, I guest I always want these career, but at the same time I was interesting in another careers too, like engineering or medicine. Finally I chose this one because it is more attractive and fun for me. Anyway, I'm still looking for my vocation.
I think that Social Anthropologists contribute to society because they have the ability  to understand how the men are and how they think, and with that knowledge, for example: they can help people with public politics or they can control or submit other cultures too, it depend of them.
These professionals need tools like good observation of social events, the faculty of analysis of those behaviours, they are very critical and conscious people about the culture, conduct and problems of society and some other things.
My favourite subject for now is Biology because I learned everything at the school, so it's really easy for me right now, also the teacher is very dynamic.

Hi Dear Readers!

Well, today I want to talk about an amazing place, very popular in winter, (but I went there in summer when you can see only a few groups of old people; I think it is better in that way, because everything is available, like waiting for you!), it's call:  Thermal springs of Chillan and it is definitely one of my favourite place in the world, because it's so relaxing, comfortable, it gives you energy, also you can see a  beatiful view of the sky,  mountains, river, forest, some wild and really weird animals and flowers, etc.
 My parents decided to go there because it is really near to my grandparents's house; so we visited them and slept in their house for night and at the next morning the trip started.
 My dad was driving and he didn't know the road, the thing is that we got there, but how? it's a mystery.
We go first to the baths and then to the mountain to look for some mud, to get there you have to walk almost 3 miles, maybe more, once there you cover your whole body with it, some people say that it has medicinal properties and it's very good for skin. We enjoyed it very much.
At night my mom rent a cabin (the entire place is full of them, so is really easy to find one, also there is a shop and many restaurants).
Finally, I recommend these place for all those people to hate stress and want to live comfortably without cares.

About me

Hi! My name is Paulina, I'm 18 years old, I'm from Curicó, I have 5 cats and I'm studying Anthropology, I like to paint, listen rock and watch TV.