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)