English activities

Hi Classmates,
On the English activities from today I don't had good results. I'm very tired and it turns me a little sleepy.
On the first item about Reading I was good, specially choosing an alternative according to the text. But on the part about Writing I was a little complicated, because I think that there where many options to answer.
The last item, the listening item, was the worst for me. I get a half of the points always :( I hope I get better on the test. We have two weeks to practice.

My birthday :D

I was thinking to write about people or Anthropology or things like that, but was so boring and when I write about that I used to finish angry with society. That's why I prefer to write about my last birthday.

It was on November 24th, the last sunday.

I travelled to the beach Punta de Tralca from Friday to Sunday, because I participate on a Fundation, "Fundación portas" and there was the travel of the semester. I was a little sad because I wouln't be with my family on my birthday lunch and they always like to cook something special to celebrate. 

At 0:00 from Sunday, my friends sang the "Happy Birthday" to me, playing güiro and bongo. After that, they made a little party with things to drink. We danced a long time, I enjoyed it very much. Even I danced bachata, it was my first time and was great, I loved to dance bachata and salsa.

On the breakfast they gave me a cake and they sang again to me, I was red with embarrassment because it was a surprise. We share all the morning on the beach playing different games together.

When we arrived to my house, my mother has a cake made by her and "ave-pimentón" sandwiches (my favourites). Also, she and my dad had different presents for me, and a couple of aunts too. My grandmother hasn't been very well, she has cancer and it's very advanced, that's why her mind isn't good sometimes. She didn't remembered my birthday, but she sang to me highest than anyone and it was the best part of the day.

On Monday, I came to the University and after class my friends made me a surprise celebration. They made me pancakes and a cake and buy different things to eat. I was very surprised and happy, I enjoyed it very much.

I write about this because I didn't wanted to celebrate, I was with a little sadness, but my friends made beautiful things that gives me happines and energy again :) I love them so much

Hey Arnold

Tururururururururu... tururururu (music from the intro)

My favourite animated TV show when I was a child (and now) is Hey Arnold, created by Craig Bartlett and transmitted on Nickelodeon. It was about a child and his adventures with friends from the same neighborhood and school. He was blonde, with "ballon head" and wore chekered shirt (it seems like a skirt).

His best friend was Gerald, a black child with a big curly hear. Also, there's a girl who love's Arnold, her name is Helga, and she follows him secretly every day. 

Arnold lived on a boarding house from his granparents, who takes care of him. On the boarding house lived more curious ad interesting people, who made different entertaining storys. The parents of Arnold dissapear on a travel, and he grows up only with his granpa Phil and his granma Gertrude (or "Cookie", like Phil calls her). 

I started to see this when I was 4 or 5 years old I think, and I still seeing it today everytime I can. I like it so much because it's about a very good boy who tries to overcome every trouble with intelligence and goodness. 

When I was a child, I always dreamed to meet a child like he. Now, my boyfriend is a very good man and his mother has a boarding house (and strage people lives there). Sometimes whe see together this tv show.

P.S: No, my boyfriend hasn't "ballon head".

This is my favourite chapter: "The pigeon man".

http://vimeo.com/53610633

2013

Overall, this has not been a good year. Has been several things both personal and social levels that make me believe this.

Personally, my family has had health problems, so I've been focused on that and a little stressed too. I think the most important thing of the life are the people around you, so if they have not been well this has not been a good year.


Besides that, I have seen many situations where this is reflected individualistic society. Many injustices have continued to happen and, hopefully, there's a social awakening to cope.

This year I read a few about things I like and I think that I need it more, especially this semester. I have also to practiced some sport, I've done yoga but not very often and it's something I really like, so it is in my plans.

There's a good thing that makes me very happy, I bought a new bike and I have to go look tomorrow, so I'm really excited. I love biking and long ago that I din't do it because mine is bad, so I'm very excited to take up this sport or mode of living.

As a final comment, I would explain that I'm not mired in negativity. I think that living in community or in society need to be aware of the problems of others and feel as if they were our problems. I think this is the best way to raise awareness among the world, that not everyone has the same opportunities talking about basic needs as food, health or housing greeting.

This song and video reflects what I think about it.

Environment

I didn't use to recycle or make things related to take care about environment. I have tried many times, but in my house is very hard because I didn't stay there so much and my mom didn't continue with my practices. Years ago I tried to recycle the litter but she didn't continue with the process. Another time I tried to make conscience about water shortage, but my brother taken loooong showers and my mom wash the dishes with many water.

I think people used to learn about environmentally friendly practices on internet. Is the most easier way to learn about many things today. The problem from this is that many people waste their time on internet doing another things, or many people don't have access to internet.

From a couple year I used to visit the website La Bioguía (http://www.labioguia.com/). Is a website with many information about techniques to recycle, stories from people who made big changes with wonderful ideas, photographs from beautiful places we are killing, etc.

I used to visit it once a month approximately, to learn about things that someday I wish I could practice, with more time and freedom. I try to walk to anyplace I can and I only use public transportation to mobilize myself on the city.

I think that government programs has to contemplate the environmentally friendly practices on their entire proposals. Now that's impossible, because political parties are related with big corporations, and they need to destroy the environment to survive.

Pompón

2001. Me (8) and Pompón (5). 

My big friend all my childhood and adolescence was Pompón, my little dog. He was a Fox Terrier, with her body completely white and her tail in a spiral, like a pig. 

I got it when I was three years old. My parents was on the way to home and a little boy was selling many puppies on the street. They looked Pompón and loved him. All his brothers had spots, he standed out from them. Also, he was the littlest dog, what makes him very tender.

He was a quiet dog, very shy. He used to bark to every unknown person, specially to the mailman. He used to walk without a leash, because he was obedient and understand orders very well.

He always was accompanying us, specially on hard moments. When I was crying he used to stay next to me, with his little head rested on my legs.

He died at fifteen years old, on 2011. One day he stopped to eat and stayed laying on his bed. I gave him some medicine but he never got better. The next day, on May 21th he woke up very bad, crying and groaning of pain. It was a public holiday and the closer veterinary was closed. We was searching another veterinary when he dies, probably because he was old. I really miss him, he was a very good dog and friend.

Months after, on my birthday, my friend gave me another little dog. They knew Pompón and how special he was for me, that's why they gave me a little brown dog very similar to him. We called her Perry, but my mom changed her name to Tin-tin. Now she lives with me, she's completely different to Pompón. She is very active and playful and she accompany us too.

Mi dear friend Lala

Our graduation from high school
(With the same shoes).

Hello everyone. I am going to write about one of my best friends . His name is Camila Araya , but everyone tells Lala. I know her from first grade , because we were classmates and we started to being friends in second grade. During the school we were part of several different groups of friends, always both together. Also, on the secundary we participate together in several things such as the Student Council of the College or activities from different fields .

 

She is very cheerful, always it makes laugh to the others. So stand out in any group in which it participates. Also, she is very tolerant and sociable, so she usually sit well with everyone. She does not usually talk about personal issues hurt, so I treasure that is able to do it with me .

 

My friend Lala has never left me alone and I'd never do it to her. I think that's the most valuable thing we have in common. We know our entire families, almost everything about our lives.

 

Currently she's studying Physical Education at the "Pedagógico" (UMCE), which is on the corner opposite to my university. Therefore, we continue meeting so followed as we can. Periodically we get together with our friends of the school or go together to parties of our universities.

I am very happy to be her friend. Besides being very good to me, is a very good person in general and a very intelligent woman. She founds her true calling and exerts very well, so I admire her.

Language

I think that pluralism of cultures is a good thing, because we construct it in a long communitarian process and it has a reason to be. We construct a big system of characteristic items of a specific group of people, and occidental culture had not the authority for ignore it. The globalization process is trying to do this, to create a unique language and unique customs.

Language is a particular item of every culture and as anthropologist we cannot ignore it. We have to enhance it, especially in terms of native languages with not much people who talk it. An example is Rapanui language. Native people are keeping it alive the most is possible, but someday they could be a smaller group of people and language could be in danger. Kaweskar language experienced it. When the people disappeared the language died.

That’s why I don’t agree with the man of the video and I would like to preserve several languages. I feel comfort using my own Chilean language, different in many things with Peruvian or Argentinian speeches. To find the differences it the interest part of this, to recognize the difference and enjoy it. I enjoy associating dissimilar elements like language or music with dissimilar cultures, to know that we are different and that’s why we are so valuable as society.

In conclusion, in the future I hope that English, Chinese or some language won’t be common for the entire world. 

Chilean culture

In my opinion, to talk about Chile we first need to describe the geography, because the surroundings elements of the country are decisive for Chilean people, I think that the material context is determining for the culture  of people in general. An example are the cultural difference we can find in our country determined by the region character, like people from the southern region who are most kind and the warmest, people from Santiago who are most nervous or people from Easter Island who are most cheerful.

I think that the custom most deeply rooted in Chilean culture is the familial coexistence. My parents used to live out of the country and they came back because they missed this habit; also my aunt who actually lives out of the country coincide in that, she said me that the way of life in Latin America in general is unique, specially the quiet way of share with the family, and she misses the Chilean way of share with many food, music and a lot of people.

I think that this is related that with our native cultures, because they practice the community life and the reciprocity, having family between people who share. We can identify the Chilean culture with this and I think this should be remembered every time, specially in the educative institutions, to make conscience of our origin and recognize the worth of it.

Valparaíso

Hi Everyone,

Today I'll talk about my favorite place to travel, and it's from Chile. I didn't have meet many different places, but the best of them for me is Valparaíso. It is localized about 2 hours from Santiago or less, near Viña del Mar, in the 5th region.

I didn't travel so much, but I used to go there when I can, once a year if it's possible, usually with friends or boyfriends haha. It's one of the principal seaports of the country, that's because a half from the beach side is a shore full of ships and only the other side is a real beach with sand and sea.

 I love it, it has several types of houses painted with a million of colors and draws on the walls, placed in disorder in different hills, with confusing streets coming up on there and long stairs to go up between the houses, like shortcuts (shorts but tiring).

When I stay there I used to go for a walk in the hills, the beach, the shore or the squares from the center of town. There's a day (or two or three) when

I eat chorrillana, the typical food from Valparaíso, made from fries with egg, meat and onion. And the big moment of being there is the fabulous nights you can share there, all the drinks are cheap and the food too, with many people enjoying the night like you, and the beautiful view of the lights from the hills reflected on the sea.

My experience blogging

I've been writing in this blog for four months and I've enjoyed it very much. At the beginning, it was very difficult, specially because I forgot many things about speaking English, it isn't like riding a bicycle, we need to practice so we don't forget it. 

I think my writing skills have developed a lot, because now I can write in my blog faster and I can articulate my ideas more easily. Also, I need to check internet less to find words or translate them, therefore my vocabulary has grown.

In the future, I think I'll be ready to write about everything in less time, to understand better what I read in my classmates' blogs and to make better commentaries to them.

I'd like to write about different things about the University, because in this blog I'm so focused in the topic and that's bad. I'd enjoy if in the future we write about things like TV shows I like or books or places, with  more freedom. It only depends on me.

I've enjoyed this time here, specially to read my classmate's blogs, because they only share interesting topics and things about them, and I appreciate very much to learn about the interests of everyone.

Structuralism

This semester I don't have a favourite subject, all subjects are boring to me now because we have too much to read, to theorize, but we don't have moments to take it into practice.

Anyway, sometimes I enjoy the subject called "Estructuralismo" (or "Anthropology III") because the teacher, Rolf Foerster, is a very intelligent and interesting anthropologist, with many answers and knowing.

In this subject, the main content is Levi-Strauss's theory about the mental structure and kinship. From this theory we can extract many ideas and connections with other authors, who talk about the power of speech (Foucault) or feminism (Gayle Rubin). 

I like this subject because it makes me feel too much interested and I can imagine the contents taken into practice. It makes me reflect about the topics and internalize them. I feel I'm learning and specially, I'm growing in terms of my mental capacity.

I've been studying very much for this subject because is the only one that makes me more interested. Also, I have had good results, specially in my professional development as an anthropologist. The most clear sign of this is that I enjoy investigating about Structuralism and then I remember about the topic (I always forget the topics of other subjects).

Monster's University

Today I'll talk about the last movie I saw in the cinema, this is "Monster's University". I was expecting this since I saw the trailer, it was like three months ago. Since I had 9 years old I love the movie "Monster's Inc", I've seen this many times during my life and allways is different for me.

"Monster's Unviersity" is the prequel of "Monster's Inc". It talks about the childhoold and University of Mike Wazowski, a little monsters  who wants to be a "scarer" and study to much for that, but don't have the natural talent. In the University he meets Sullivan, a big monsters who came from an historical scarer family, but don't have the appttitudes to study about it. They together understand the importance of theory and practice, and also discovered that University isn't the only way to be succesful and happy. I think this is the most important thing: we can break the social rules and be satisfied at the same time.

Finally, I accept invitations to see it again.

Sudan v/s Sudan

This picture shows a Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) soldier who died in this pool of oil in the town of Heglig, after a clash with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), who's the army of the Republic of South Sudan, in Africa.

The conflict between Sudan Armed Forces and Sudan People's Liberation Army started because for more than  a half century Sudan's northern regime try to dominate the southern part, fighting in a conflict that seemed over in 2011, when South Sudan started their independence, but without an exact demarcation of the limits of the country, what makes difficult the resolution of the conflict.

This photograph was taken by Dominic Nahr (http://www.dominicnahr.com/), who works as a freelance photographer, appearing in different places like National Geographic, Time and The Wall Street Journal. 

He was in Sudan in April, 2011, while the two sides were disputing oil fields, in the area around the town of Heglig, seeing one of the biggest fighting, where this soldier died, on April 17th.

In September 2012, the presidents of both countries signed an agreement about oil and international relations, but it wasn't enough to calm the unsolved border disputes.

I like this photo because it's art and reality at the same time. The heaven and the oil brings different perspectives to appreciate this according our personalities. Also, I appreciate the work of Dominic Nahr, because he's so brave being in dangerous places and communicating what happens in all the world.

Being sick

Today I'll talk about being sick, because I'm with "influenza". It's sounds terrible but isn't too much, only the first and second day was horrible, specially the night, but now I'm getting better. Howhever, this isn't the central topic, I'll reflect about how difficult is to live sick, I mean, there are many people who lives with chronic illness, making different every aspects of the days.

Now I'm with a little sick and it's difficult to me when I'm alone or when my family is sleeping to make things like take my medicine or eat some food, I imagine some of this things are impossible to do alone for people with biggest diseases.

I think we have to be conscience of the different conditions of the people and try to help when is necessary. In this case is hard because it requires many time, or contacts, like what Patch Adams do, who is a big example.

If whe don't have the time to do big helps we can do things that make a little more easier the life for each others, like help disabled people on the subway or take care our family and pets when they're sick.

Or recommending me movies to see these days hahaha (joke).

Hugs (not kisses because I'm contagious)

My mp3

This topic is difficult, cause usually an anthropologist deny their liking to technology and everything related with modernity, and I'm one of them.

My favourite piece of technology is the mp3, I have to confess that I'm a little addicted to listen music everytime I'm between a place and the other, between the university and the house, specially while I'm walking.

I have recived my current mp3 from my dad on my birthday. I've told him that I was working for buy one and he suprised me giving me that present (and it's red, my favourite color!), that's why I care this like nothing before and enjoy this too much.

I wish someday the scientists will create something like this but without electricity, like the musical boxes but with many songs, cause I don't play an instrument and when we're traveling the music seems necesary.

Someday I'll bought a solar energy mp3.

La bioguía

Today I'll talk about the webpage "La Bioguía". I've chosen this theme because it's something out of the academic things, making it more interesting. Also it gives a different perspective about things that's happening on the planet and that's related with anthropological area.

"La Bioguía" gives information about ideas for making a life more healthing and ecological, making posts about recycling or differents uses for the plants, with a list at the left place of the page with the principal topics. Recent examples of ideas for a sustentably life are the natural brushtheet based in tomillo and mint, or the pencilcase made with bootles (if you want to know more, see the page).

I think is very important to make colective information from things like this, without a personal interest, with conscience about the world and his fragility.

The link is: www.labioguia.com

I frequently visit...

The web I choose today is the Departament Of Etnohistory Of University of Mexico's blog. I choose it because it gives to me so much specific information that I did't have found on other pages, also this is an specific area of Anthropology, making interesting the topic.

The web is administrative too, with sections of Teachers, Rules, etc., but also it have a very complete sección of virtual library and it saved me several times when I needed a specific text.

 I visit the site one or two times at the month, according the level of tests I have.

I like it so much beacuse it's different from the tipical university sites, more flexible and dynamic, more investigation than academicism.

If it sounds interesting for you, the link is: http://etnohistoriaenah.blogspot.com/

Vuelta y vuelta

Today I'll write about Congreso, a chilean band that was born in 1960. I think they're isn't my favorite band, but they're one of the favorite band of my parents, and that makes me write with more inspiration. Since I was a baby I heard that kind of music in my house; for example, few years ago in my father's birthday I was poor and I made a CD with the best songs of this band for him.

They have many songs, so much and so different  They used to play music with instruments from South America, but also they included instruments from Africa and classical percussion.

I remember I went with my fathers at two or three concerts, because my father's job is related to that, and they're old friends with old members of Congreso. It's a magical moment, with not too much people (in a big place), but everybody was people that really loves that music, they felt the same that the musicians, there was no difference between they and us and it's feel so different if I compare that with other concerts.

My favorite song is "Vuelta y vuelta", cause it shows the simplicity of the things and, at the same time, how complex and fascinating they can be. This version is special because they were playing after one of the band's member died, it shows how special they're, they said: "The soul is broken, but the voice have to come up whole".

My autobiography

Hi. Everyone knows me as Peti, but mi full name is Aline Madeleine Bravo Sandoval. I'm a chilean woman, and I'm nineteen years old. I live in Santiago, Chile, but not for long, I wish to live someday at the coast, to stay away from smoke and noise.

I was born in Paris, France, in November 24th, 1993. I lived there untill July of 1994, when we came home again, because my parents missed their family, friends and warm people of South America.  Now I'm living with mi family, they're my parents, my brother Davy, who's 26, two cats ("Pingüinito" and "Blanca") and two dogs ("Tintin" and "Felipa Camiroaga").

I went to the same school 13 years. Actually I'm studing Anthropology, because I like to understand different people and someday I would like to help to generate a social change.

I like so much to read, my favourite book is "La Tregua", by Mario Benedetti, I read it once or twice a year, and everytime is a different sense. Also I like writing, but since I started the university I lost the practice, that gives the talent. I hope this activity helps to return that.

Now I'm sick, drinking tea with lemon and honey, and listening The Beatles, with a cat sleeping by my feets.