2009

This year has been like a rollercoaster. I started at the bottom, and slowly, I’ve been climbing up.

I entered this degree with a lot of fears. Leaving Medicine was a huge decision, and to change it for something so different like Anthropology filled me with fears. What if I didn’t like it? What was I supposed to do with my life? I felt really alone with my decision, because my parents didn’t want me to change my degree, and told me how bad was the decision I was making, the consequences for my future, etc, etc. This was the first time I did something unpredictable, something that wasn’t part of my parents’ plans. All my life, I was the number one student, the good daughter, the girl that had a plan to be successful with a traditional degree, a traditional life.

At the same time, I was really sad to leave a degree where I met some of the best friends I’ve ever had. We were together for 3 years, all day long, and all of the sudden, I was out of their lives. Would this friendships last, now that I was away?
So, that was the mess that entered one day in March to the Archaeology class. A girl filled with fears. But slowly, those fears have gone away.

At the beginning, I’ve had some conflicts with some of the classes, because I compared them with Medicine classes and sometimes I miss the order of them. I know that this degree is different, that the concepts are more relative, but sometimes I feel that people hide the lack of investigation in relativism. If something is relative, doesn’t mean that it can’t have a method, an order. That’s why one of my favorite classes of the first semester, in spite of the complications that we had for the final work, was Methodology of the Investigation, and that’s why I changed my initial plans for my future as an anthropologist.

I entered this degree with the idea of becoming a social anthropologist. I was sure that I never wanted to see anything biological in my life again, no cells, no blood, no bones, nothing. But eventually, I’ve realized that the biological world is a part of the things I love, and a big part. I’m a practical person, and I like to be able to watch things with my own eyes. And I also love the human body, how all their systems connect with each other, the rules of our body, everything. That’s why I want to study the human being from an anthropological and biological way, and to do that I want to become a physical anthropologist.

Another thing I need to mention is the friends I’ve met here. Like I said before, I was sad and unsure that I could find friends like the ones I left in Medicine. Luckily, I was wrong, because my friends here are just the best. We have the exact same humor, we laugh all day, we help each other, it’s just amazing. I have so much fun with my friends that I rather spend time with them than study, and I know that’s not good. But I guess since we just met this year it’s normal, and eventually we will find a way to balance things.

So, now I found myself at the top of my rollercoaster. I’m stressed, yes, because it’s the end of the semester and we have A LOT of things to do. But I’m so happy that I really don’t mind. A lot of beautiful things have happened to me lately, and that gives me strength to go on. The most important thing to me, it’s that I’m happy with the decision I make. It was for the best, I know it.
I guess my plans for the next year are to focus more in my classes, and to study more. I just hope to be as happy as I am today :)

Antropodesafíos

I think that one of the most difficult problems in Anthropology is money. If you want to work in projects of your own you have to find a sponsor willing to pay the costs of your investigations. An excavation, for example, has a lot of costs, because you need the equipment to excavate, but also transportation, food, some place to stay, etc. The government gives certain economical support to archaeologists, but it’s not enough.

I think that, in general, there should be more support from the government, since Anthropologic studies can do a lot to solve social issues, like integration problems. Anthropologists can get closer to people than other professionals, and because of that, they are able to understand people problems in a better way.

One way to solve the financial problems of Anthropology is to educate about our field, what we do, our importance, etc. If people know what we do, there are more chances to find someone willing to invest. I remember when I was a high school student; the information about this degree was zero. And most of the time, when I tell people what I’m studying, they look at me and say “do you study dinosaurs?”…so, as you see, it’s a problem.

Finally, I think that another problem is the contradiction between the goals you established as a social anthropologist, for example, and the reality of our degree. I don’t want to be a social anthropologist, but if I wanted, I would try to help minorities in some way. I see a contradiction in the fact that this degree is a really elitist one. Not everyone can study this type of degree, especially if you are planning to live of it. And I think that the vision of a person that is part of one of those minorities would be really useful, because he would be able to change his own reality.

So, the challenge is to open Anthropology to the world, in order to make it a science closer to people. This would help to get more financial help, and to improve the technological resources, among other things.

Money, money, money, must be funny, in the rich man`s world ♫

When I left Medicine for Anthropology, I knew that the financial situation was going to be very different. But I wasn`t interested in Medicine for the money in the first place. I know my economical situation has been good my whole life, and because of that, I may not be prepared for not having everything I want, but I am not a high maintenance girl. I like simple things, I don`t care if my clothes are not from an expensive brand, and I wear them until they are really old. So, my month expenses are reduced to food and photocopies for the University. So I don`t see why I would change the way I am in the future. Besides, you can make money by being an Anthropologist, you just have to work hard, and I think that you must do that in every degree you choose. You don`t have your life solved by choosing a traditional degree. You have to study, to make an effort to succeed, to stand out from the crowd. And that`s what I want to do.
I want to be a physical anthropologist, because you can work in projects, but also in institutions like the Legal Medical Institution, which can offer you a steady salary. I’m also interested in teaching subjects that involve my degree, and I would love to do it here, in my University. So as you can see, there are a lot of options, you just have to look for them.
So, I may not have a lot of money in the future, but that has never been a goal for me. I just want to have enough to eat and to have a roof under my head. And I’m not planning to have kids if I don`t have the money to support them. Besides, you can always marry a really old and really millionaire guy XDXDXD
The most important thing to me is to be happy and satisfied that the life that you have in your future, is the life you choose. If you don`t like what you study, you will never succeed or be happy, no matter how much money you can make.

FACSO FACSO CAJARITO!

First of all, I love FACSO. I love the good and relaxed vibe I feel as I enter. I relate FACSO with responsibilities, but also with friends, and good times. But I think that in general, FACSO is a poor faculty, in economical terms, the resources are not enough and there are a lot of infrastructural needs. But also, I think the whole student directive is lost in political debates that take them away from the needs of the faculty.
There are conflicts of interests here, people that have the power but are not interested in nothing more than that power. This gives the faculty a bad image to the outside, and makes the dialogue with the authorities more complicated. So I guess the solution is to get rid of those who don`t help to the improvement of FACSO, and the only way of doing that is participating in the process, voting, expressing our opinion. The new generations of students have to take the faculty to a better place.
The benefits will be a lot, first, we can improve the resources of our faculty, and later, we can improve the situations of each degree, which are a lot more complicated. Also, another problem I think needs solution is the situation with some teachers that have a lot of flaws in the way they teach their subjects….I can think of some names…but I don`t know if it`s right to write them here….all I can say is that one of them is blonde and teaches english… (just kidding!!!!!!!!! XDXDXDXD don`t kill me judy please!!!!!)

"But I believe in music... The way that some people believe in fairy tales." (August Rush)

Music is one of the things that made life worth it. If there is a God, I think music bring us closer to him.

Music is so beautiful, and so wide in styles, instruments, interpretation, that I think to close your mind to only one style is really stupid. You can miss so many wonderful songs doing that. So I like to listen all kind of music. I couldn`t name one style in particular, and in no case I could choose a song, but checking my ipod, the most listened songs are always hard rock bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd, Kings of Leon (before they sold out)….I’m calling all this bands “hard rock” because that `s the most general classification I can think of….this bands are not all the same, some of them are more garage rock, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, etc…anyway, I think old classic bands are eternal, their music is so wonderful and touches you so deeply that it’s impossible to forget them, and all good musicians of today have them as their mentors. Rock wouldn`t exist if it weren`t for bands like Led Zeppelin, one of the best bands in the history of music. Or the art of experimenting with new sounds wouldn`t be possible without the existence of Pink Floyd, The Beatles, David Bowie...

Moving to different styles, I also like:

Brit bands like Blur, Oasis, Massive Attack, Tricky, The Stone Roses… or Scottish like Travis….european musicians have a really neat and elegant composition style, that`s what I like about them.

Björk…she has her own style and I love her for that!

Latinamerican music like Los Fabulosos Cadillacs or Bersuit Vergarabat! One of my favorite bands of all times, their songs speak about our roots, the history of our continent, the feelings that made us latinos!

Nano Stern, Manuel García, Los Tres, Los Prisioneros, Violeta Parra, Vìctor Jara, Inti Illimani, Los Jaivas…it`s really unfair to put them in the same categorie, but there are all Chilean and awesome.

If listening to music makes me fly, makes my day better or sometimes worse, I think going to concerts is one of my addictions. I’ve spent so much money on that! But seeing Bersuit Vergarabat in concert for the first time was one of the most magical days of my life. Listening to “Vuelos” or “Un pacto” made me cry. In this point, I would say that loving old bands is not very convenient, because the musicians are retired or dead, and the feeling that you are never going to see them in concert is really sad. And even if they are alive, music has also a context and it wouldn`t be the same to see Janis Joplin today that in Woodstock for example…

I`ve always liked writing, and because of that I`ve wrote poems, and sometimes, songs. It`s really weird because sometimes they are in spanish, and others in english…I guess if I knew more french, they also would be in that language…it`s something I can`t control! I also imagine the music and that`s how I started playing the piano and the guitar. Lately, I decided to continue on the piano, I`ve never took clases, but I was good, I think. I have a natural talent to listen to songs and catch the notes, and also with instruments. Unfortunately, my piano broke and I`ve haven`t fixed it yet. That`s how I lose my practice, and it`s so sad, because now I can`t play like I used to :( But I swear, I would fix it this week. I miss it too much!

Mil hojas de amor

My sweet tooth is my curse. I blame my genes, because my dad is exactly like me. None of us can spend much time without some sweet. Chocolates, cakes, ice creams, any food with something sweet is fine to me. But I have my favorite ingredient, which is...MANJAR. I'm gonna write it in spanish because I don't know the word in english, and frankly, it is a very typical latinamerican ingredient, just like peanut butter for gringos.
MANJAR...music to my ears. I love it soooo much. If I close my eyes, I can feel the tingling sensation in my palate.

When I'm sad, I eat something with manjar, like an alfajor or something like that, and I inmediatly feel better. But I also eat it when I'm happy, when I'm hungry, when I'm not. It's perfect in every ocassion. With bread, like manjar sauce with your ice cream...but my favorite is my mom's mil hojas cake, because it's delicious, and it's also a family tradition. My mom makes it in very special ocassions, because it takes A LOT of time to make each layer and then to put the manjar, the marmalade and the nuts in them. So the cake is also a gift of love, because of the time you have to take in the making process. The mil hojas cake has been present in the birthdays, the family celebrations, etc, so I always associated it with happy times. It's my favorite food, and the main ingredient of my ideal meal. The appetizer and the main course have to be light food, because you have to make room for the cake!
I guess this is my speciality, because it may be a simple recipe, but it has a big meaning to me. So, if I made one for you, you know it's because I really love you!

Paseando por Santiago

I've heard a lot of people say that Santiago is a chaotic and ugly city, and that it doesn't have any touristic places to see. I think that it can be chaotic for people that are used to live in smaller cities, but since I have been living here for more than 10 years, I've learn to love my city, with all its fails.
I think there are a lot of beautiful places in Santiago that are worth seeing, you just have to search for them. I love walking through my city, and that`s how I've discovered a lot of cool places. For example, one time I was walking with a friend through Santiago Centro and we found a lovely neighborhood with european architecture, that had small buildings and a square with a water fountain. It was so beautiful, neither of us knew it was a famous place, so the whole experience of founding it was really awesome, because it appeared out of nowhere, so unexpected. But I know that not all tourists like this way of knowing a city, and they prefered to visit the most iconic places, and not waste their little time walking with no destination. So, my top 5 places you have to visit if you are in Santiago are:

- Museo de Bellas Artes: I chose this place, because I think the musseum is a gorgeous building, and the neighborhood is really nice too. So, I would suggest you to take the subway, get off at Baquedano station, and walk through the Parque Forestal until you reach the musseum. After that, you can stay in the park, sit on a bench, or go to...

-Barrio Lastarria: is right next to the musseum, and it has a really cool vibe, with a lot of bars and cafés, where you can relax, and also there are a lot of bookstores with chilean autors. I recommend you the bar that is right in front of the musseum, and the Alexander drink, is really good XD

-Barrio Bellavista: a great place to party, and to eat chilean food. I recommend you Venezia, delicious and cheap! Eat everything you can, and then, make some exercise walking through La Chascona, one of the three beautiful houses of Pablo Neruda.

-Cerro San Cristóbal: you have to go up in the teleférico and go down walking. The view from the virgin, the trees, everything is perfect.

-Cajón del Maipo: I don´t know if you can consider it as a part of the city, but since it is in the Metropolitan Region, I would recommend it anyway. It´s the perfect place to escape from the noise of the city, breath fresh air, and see a clean river XD Besides, there`s a fantastic restorant there, El Calipso, which has delicious italian food, and it`s located in a meadow with animals, flowers, trees, so lovely!!!!

xoxo

INTERNERCSSSS

INTERNET...one of the loves of my life. I can say I'm addicted to it. I can`t imagine my world without it; my addiction is so strong that when I travel with my notebook and I don't have connection, I freak out. It's like the notebook is useless. Sometimes I don't even turn it on, but just the feeling of being able to use it, to open Mozilla and watch the Google page ready, makes me feel connected to the rest of the world. Facebook, Msn, and most recently Twitter, are vital to me.

I love to know the latest news about music, movies, books, gossip, etc, etc, so I'm suscribed to a LOT of pages, which fill my email everyday. I find new music bands, and that's the beggining of another adicction: DOWNLOADING MUSIC, an addiction that has caused me a lot of problems with my notebook, because the hard drive cappacity it's never ennough (my dad gave a 180gb extern hard drive disk that helps a lot), and the virus are also a trouble when you download too many things. I've tried to solve this problem with another wonder of the Internet, which are the free online movie sites. There are so many ways to find your favorite movie or series and watch it over and over again without downloading a thing! And sometimes in HD!
Now that I think about it, that's kind of illegal........mmmmm....

My addiction grows everyday, as I find more and more usses to Internet. A recipe, a book, directions to go to some place, EVERYTHING IS THERE. I can`t really remember how did I find things before having Internet, but I do remember when wi-fi didn`t exist and the connection was really slow, it was horrible.
I don't really think I can beat my addiction, because this world encourages you to use the Internet. The communication between teachers and students in University it's mostly made by emails. Almost every store has a webpage. Artists publish their works through their pages, etc. But I do think that sometimes the Internet makes me aislate myself from the world, and it's impressive how much time you can loose searching stuff. That's why sometimes I just shut the notebook off and go outside. I listen to the new music while I walk...things like that.

I don`t think I can give an advice to avoid my addiction, because I have done the exact opposite thing. For example, I taught my mother how to use Facebook, and my grandmother to use Msn and Skype, and we talked almost everyday. She lives in Concepción, so it's really useful and cheaper. The bad part is that now she is an addict..well...whatever xD

Transantiago, cura/enfermedad

Transantiago was a big change for Santiago, and a very expected one. I can say that the old system was bad, technically speaking. The buses were really old, and made really scary sounds. The drivers used to gained more money if they carried more passengers, so they raced each other for them, which was very dangerous. Since the students had always paid cheaper tickets, they weren`t lucrative passengers for them. The bus stops were not respected, and the buses stopped everywhere, causing accidents and traffic jams.

Back in the “Yellow Era” I used to live really far away from my University, and I only had 1 bus that could take me there, the “391”, a bus with which I had a love and hate relationship…
The 391 route was so long that sometimes I had to wait more than an hour until it finally arrived to my bus stop. There were very few buses that made this route, so after a while I knew them all; I recognized them for their stickers and the color of the seats and walls. I had a favorite one, because it had some really soft leather seats that made me fall asleep immediately. I developed the ability to wake up a few bus stops before mine, but one time I didn`t, and I woke up in the middle of nowhere and with no money to return. Luckily, the driver took me back for free. xD

Another thing I remember is the drivers. They were always the same ones, so I started talking with them, and after a while, they let me sit in a front seat that the old buses had, it was right next to the driver seat, and it had its own little window, it was really cute and comfortable. Those were the best trips because the drivers were really funny and had lots of stories, and they also let me choose my favorite radio (I didn`t have an ipod back then).
So, as you can see, not everything was that bad about those buses, but when I knew that they were going to change them, I thought: “it can`t get worse than now”… I wasn`t THAT wrong.

The new system had some remarkable improvements, such as the fact that you pay once and you can travel by bus and subway. The combinations, which make traveling a lot faster than before, and finally the BIP card.
But like most of the public services, Transantiago is made by a few group of people that probably haven´t travel by bus in their whole lifes. (I still remember the day that OUR President got in a bus and couldn`t use the Bip card in the right way... WTF.) Because of this, there are a lot of places where Transantiago has only made traveling more difficult than before. Places where you have to make more than 8 combinations to get to one place, places where bus stops DO not exist, routes with excess of passengers, etc, etc...

So, the service must be improved, and to do that, I think it`s imperative for politicians to put themselves in our shoes, and asked themselves: "Would I use this service?"

Stop messing with us, we don`t believe you, we are the ones with half of our bodies hanging out the door and sweating like pigs!

Zamorano: Get up earlier my ass.

Africa

My dad’s work has made me travel a lot. I was born in Concepción, and I lived there 8 years. Then, we moved to Santiago, but only for a year, because a new job offer made us move to Tocopilla, a small city in the north of Chile. After a year, we returned to the capital. All this city changes came with house changes. I think I have lived in 11 different houses, actually, my actual home is the first house we own as a family, because we always rented them. I believe that this aspect of my childhood has really influenced me. I’m really used to pack my things and go, the first couple of years in Santiago were weird because I was always expecting to move again. My father loves to travel, in fact, everytime we moved, he took us to all the cities near the one we were living at, and I really liked that, because now I can say that I have been in almost every region of my country, which is great. I still have to visit the Patagonia (arenita ;D), and I really want to go, I think is important to know your country, before the rest.

One of the reasons I chose Medicine was because it give me the opportunity to work wherever I wanted, and now in Anthropology, I think I can do the same. My dream is to visit all the continents, so it`s very difficult for me to choose one, but if I’ve had to, I would say Africa, and there, South Africa. Africa is the beginning of men, and I would love to visit that ancient culture. I have a friend that went there and talked to a woman of a tribe, and told me that her language was really unique, she made sounds with her tongue, and that sound was a word. If she made a slightly different move with her tongue, it meant a completely different word. If you didn`t do it right, you could say “I want to kill you”, instead of “I love you”.

I also love animals, and one of my favorite is the elephant. I think there are gorgeous, their skin, their size, everything. One of my dreams is to watch them in their habitats with the rest of the salvage animals.

I don`t want to live in Africa forever, but I`d love to stay there for a while and help people, especially the kids with nutritional problems and deceases. I would also like to visit Darfur, a region of Sudan which has a lot of political and ecological problems.

La segunda parte no siempre es mala.

I was very scared and also very excited to start my first semester in Antrophology.
Leaving Medicine was a huge decision to make, and my parents were not very pleased about the new degree I decided to study. I felt the voice of my dad in my head telling me "THIS IS THE LAST DEGREE I'M PAYING FOR YOU, SO YOU BETTER LIKE IT!" But I also felt the freedom of choosing for myself, of doing what I really wanted to do, and not what my parents wanted me to do. So, with those mixed feelings inside of me I entered the classroom.
Luckily, I think I made the right decision. I know I'm just starting but I really feel this is the right place for me. I love Anthropology, the things I'm learning about the human being, about me, how it completes me. I've always been a person with a lot of interests, and I never felt "filled" in Med school. That feeling of leaving parts of myself aside, to focus on what I must, was awful. I don't have that feeling now. I had time to dance salsa again, something I really like, and to theatre, wich I love.
I also have to mentioned the great new friends I have made. They have helped me so much, I don't think they really know it. The first couple of months were not easy for me, I had a constant fight with my parents, trying to make them interested in my new life. I was kind of depressed about that, and my friends helped me to relaxe and smile more. I have the best time when I'm around them.
Everything is better today. I can't say that my parents LOVE my degree, but they are learning to accept it, and trying to be more involved in my study. And that makes me really happy. :D