English on the University

I have always like English language pretty much because it's the tool to understand a big part of the world these days: music, movies, TV series, knowledge, everything is transferred and shared in English. It is like the universal language.
The english class that I'm studiyng now have helped to restart the systematic way that I had on school to learn English. I appreciate the activity of making blogs because writing and giving a verbal form to my thoughts help me to express myself better. Many people say that they are not good to learn English, but I think they really help you.
The aspect I need to improve in my English is the vocabulary, the number of words I know, or rather said, remember the words that I need in the right circumstance because I feel like I know several words but I forget them in the moment I need them. I think is just practice and not becoming nervous in the moment I talk with someone.
Outside the class I use a lot of English to read cientific papers for some classes, to understand the series that I see (now I'm watching "Stranger Things"), understand the music I love, and talk stupid things with my brothers. Also it have gave me great instances. I remember when I went to the Ollantaytambo valley on Perú, I took a train to the town below Macchu Picchu and I could talk with a Swedish guy the entire trip while my father and brother were focusing on understand a little bit of what we were talking.
Now a random image of a lion 100% real no fake.

So that's it, cya next time :V.

Changes to my study programme

Our condition as students doesn't exlude us from being critics of our career. Some could argue that we are not as experienced as them, or that we are too young to make proposals, but every stage in a process could (and should) be improved for the people who is inmersed in it.

Although I'm just in my 2nd year of career, I have seen some things that could be better.

First, the teachers usually are people who knows a lot of the things they teach, but they don't know how to teach. Having a doctorate doesn't make you a good pedagogue, so I would make them all take at least a year of pedagogy classes, and I would benefit the ones who take 2 or more years of it.

Second, the teaching methods should occupy better the very campus, like explain the southern Chile`s flora with the little "forests" that we have here.

Third, we need more and our own faculty facilities. Right now, my faculty rent a big part of the facilities that it uses to Agronomy faculty. Cute right? So we are paying to our very university to do and have classes. It's not a joke. And the things that we have, like the computer where I'm writing this blog, are few.

I don't like beeing ungrateful, so I will mention some of the things that I wouldn't change for anything. The field practices are the best. Is one of the things that differentiate our career in the University of Chile from the same career (Forest Engineering) of other universities, and other careers of the same University of Chile. They could improve, like the feeding, but I think they are OK.

And last but not least, the best thing of all: the diversity of people that you can find in this faculty and the external facilities.

Making the herbarium

The making of the hermarium was an unexpected good experience for me. In the beginning I was unwilling to the idea of "wasting" my time collecting and drying up samples of branches and leaves, but with the pass of the time I realized that I could learn a lot from that.
I met several places like the Quebrada de Macul, some coastal hills and valleys on the V region "de Valparaíso", and woodlands on various parts of the V and VI region "del Libertador Bernardo O'higgins".
Also I knew some other areas deeper, like the Parque Forestal, Parque Quinta Normal, Cerro Santa Lucia, Cerro San Cristóbal, and a large etc.
I usually went on my own to these places to be focus on the work, have time to see and enjoy the landscape and the loneliness. Nevertheless, I went accompanied with my brothers Omar and Simon once, twice with my cousin Sebastian, and twice with a friend.
Honestly I spent a lot of time collecting and drying up the samples, but once I got them on the press, I forgot of them at all. That took me like 3 or 4 months. The make of label and stitch phase was the harder part and was the phase that I dedicated less time, nice logic. I had to make that on like 1 week or less, and was a really fun and traumatic challenge, although I got a red mark :(
I enjoyed it a lot, because I learnt many things about the Region Metropolitana in general, and of Santiago, Maipú, and the 68 route in particular. Sincerely I did not learn much about plant names but I was able to acquire other kind of knowledge as I spoke a lot with the people that I was meeting on the course of my night and day walks and travels.

Poooossstgraduate studies

As I was telling last blog post, I would like to continue studying after finish my career. There is so many cool things to study: Climate, Ecology, Genetics, etc. Nevertheless, I will focus my mind and energies on the subject I consider to be the most important for us right now. Hence, maybe I will study a Master in Climate Change or Urban Ecology, those are the areas I think will be important to understand on the future, considering the needs of the millions of people that live together right now, and the unsustainable conditions that underlies all this. In the future, I will consider to make a doctorate, but that is "flour from another sack" paraphrasing an expression that we have here on Chile.
I would like to study abroad, know other lands, other countries and cultures, and hence other realities that seem distant from me, but are as important to understand as mine, and thereby have a more complex formation on my area. The exactly country I don´t know, and I don´t really mind. It should be where the university that I need is. And the study system I don´t really mind either, it just has to give me the sufficient time to know the place.
I think is relevant to say that, even if I study abroad or not, I will come back to my country to give something back, considering that I have make all my studies in the educational public system. Maybe it isn´t the best there is, but it has give me the conditions and tools to be who I am now.

My future (and present) concerns

Since I was 16 years old I have been dreaming about my job. It usually impress the persons that I tell because it isn't conventional. To be simpler on my explanation, I would like to study untill it tires me, and have a simple job. With a simple job I mean the jobs that are usually underestimate for every one of us because there is no need to study a career to work on them, like part of the cleaning staff, truck driver, porter, etc. Those jobs gives you a lot of experience on how is the world for the majority of the human beens on this planet, and thus open parts of your mind that have been on stand-by due to the comfort. Altough I have experienced that on a little magnitude, maybe I'll have a sabbatical year to experience deeply those kinds of things. Also, those jobs gives you some unapreciated things, like time, that you can use to think and listen music in the case of truck driver, that is why that job attracts me.

Nevertheless I wanna study a variery of things. Enter on Forestal Engineering have really opened my mind to understand how the nature works and hence how WE work as humans, individuals, and social beings. I won't give a precise answer on what I'm gonna study on the future, like doctorate, mayors, minors, etc, but I really know that I'm gonna keep studying untill I find how I can be helpful to the society, therefore I can't neither give a particular answer for my future job.
One thing I do know, is that I'm gonna work on the public system because I have done all of my studies on the public system, so I have to give something back.

Sorry if I let more unanswered questions than those that I replied, but thats how I think and feel :(

Fiestassss patriass

My Fiestas Patrias are usually very simple ones. Generally my family met with two other families, the Reyes Duran and the Núñez. We do a little family "fonda" in my house the 18 of september, anyone able to invite whoever they want. There is a lot of food since everybody buy or prepare something to bring, not only empanadas but salads, all kind of meats, cakes, icecream, and obviously "chicha" and "terremoto".
The "Cueca" is danced only when the radio plays it and there is avalaible drunk or high people who wanna make the fool of themselves. Is not that we are bad dancers or don't wanna dance, is just that it isn't a tradition for us and we prefer to dance cumbia or whatever is playing the radio.
The other days we go fonda to fonda searching for good music to hear. Every year we listen to Los Jaivas, Manuel García, Los Tres, Congreso, Inti Illimani, and a long etc.
Another thing we love to do is play or "raise" the volantin, a paper made comet. Regrettably we don't usually do it because we don't have a lot of time to go to a place where we can buy them for a cheap price.
Nevertheless I personally spent these Fiestas Patrias half on the beach half on Santiago, but I could done all I wanted to do. I went to Loncura to see my grandparents the weekend before the 18, we ate untill our belly button went out and walk along the beach for hours and hours.

My favourite food

Speaking of food in general, I couldn't say that I preffer salty or sweet, but I find wonderful the fruits and vegetables wheter if eaten fresh and without a recipe, or in fancy restaurant-like dishes. Throughout my life I hadn't made my "food decisions" based on the fact that they are healthy or junk, but in the past 3 years I had enhance that facet because food is one of the principal factors that determine our performance physically and psychologically.

Lately my dish have been changing from one to another since I have made some changes in my life like becoming a vegan. Now that place is occupied for the "porotos granados". 

The "porotos" are from my very country Chile, so if I wanna eat some porotos I just have to go to a traditional restaurant or like we say here, a "picada". No matter of what I wrote, I eat porotos granados very often because my mother and grandfather cook them a lot and really nicely, in fact I bet there is no better porotos than those made by them. Been honest, I don't know how to cook them but I'd really like to learn.

This is how my mother cook them.

And this is like my grandfather's technique, except for that dark-brown fluzzy thing on the surface.

That's all, good bye and see you on my next random post :P