AMÉLIE

I’ve been thinking for an hour about which film I want to write. I’ve seen a lot of movies that I like very much so I have to decide one into the world of the cinema. There are many directors I appreciate like Woody Allen, David Lynch, Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, Scorsese, etc. and many kinds of films like the independent cinema, Latin American cinema, foreign films, and more. For this opportunity I choose the movie called AMÉLIE (in French, “Le Fabuleux Destin D’ Amélie Poulain”). As you can see, this is a French movie directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, which premiered in 2001 starring Audrey Tautou, a good and adorable actress. The movie is classified as a comedy. Actually, is about a simple story of a young girl that works in a restaurant and lives alone. One day she decides to changes her life. In her department, Amélie discovered a hidden box of a child in the bathroom that contains toys and photos that have 40 years. Then, she decides to search the person who owns that little box by a special way. If he is happy, she’ll dedicate her life to helping others. And so it is. She invented originals ways to caused happiness to others. For example, when she took the arm of a blind person walk through a market as he whispers what she will see.
This is a special movie because it shows simples acts and ways to enjoy the life. I love the character; Amélie is an innocent, humble, sweet and special person. She enjoys simple things like reaching into a bags of beans, breaking the caramel cover of Crème Brule, to see the faces of the people in the cinema, etc.
I cannot forget to say that I enjoyed so much the music of the film performed by Yann Tiersen, the photography, the script and all the performance.

The Vote

I have living in Chile for about eleven years so I never vote. The old law not allow me to vote because I must to have 21 years old and five years of residence in Chile. I fulfil the last requirement but for the last elections of president I wasn’t 21 years old. One of my duties as Argentina is that I can vote at the Embassy of Argentina to the presidential elections, when Cristina Kirchner won. In this opportunity I didn’t vote because I’m out from politics of my country, I don’t know well about the reality day by day.
For this election I was offended with my father because I could vote but he never told me. We discussed and he was convinced he told me about the change of the law. This new law register us automatically in the base of dates. So I didn’t participate even I never checked if I was table vowel. Miserably, I’m part of this 60% of people who didn’t participate. Actually, I think is very important that everyone vote to be part of democracy of the country. Anyway, I can understand some of people who don’t participated. From what I’ve heard, for example my brother, he didn’t vote because he doesn’t believe in the system. He said that all the politics are part of the same. The political parties don’t matter because all are corrupt. Many people say that the changes must be in different ways and “not provide voting”. 

A greatest Chilean

Chile has a lot of important people that is recognized in countries around the world instead in Chile.
One time, I studied a great Chilean author during the career. I was studying the way that we approach the reality and how we know it. I recently know about Humberto Maturana. He is a Chilean biologist and philosopher. Maturana studied in this university (of Chile), he won the national science natural in 1994 and creates a theory of biology cognition. This discipline explains that the organisms have close systems with a predetermined structure (biology). Maturana is known for developing a theory of autopoiesis about the nature of reflexive feedback control in living systems. I find attractive the development of Maturana given that he makes a combination between culture and biology of existence of humans beings. In the middle of a culture dominated by the rationalization, he recovers the emotions that determinate the culture: the love. The living of humans beings are created in the relationships based of love. This dynamic holds the acceptation of others that results of life together and the constitution of language, an essential element of our lives.
One of the books I read is called “The tree of knowledge”. I love that because is the only book I read (for university) that have draws (painted by him) of animals, many schemes and charts that makes the book more interactive.

First Day at University

I’m going to talk about the first day in this University. Why? Before studying at University of Chile, I was in a private university that I don’t like so much. When I graduated from high school I wanted to study psychologist at UBA (University of Buenos Aires), but for different reasons I couldn’t go. So I didn’t prepare PSU. I studied two years and then I changed at University of Chile by special admission. I have to say that it the most change I ever do, even if took a lot of effort. This is the reason why now I’m having subjects of second and thirst year of psychologist. Consequently, in my first day, I was with the students of the first year. I didn’t make social relations immediately because I’m just adapting at a new establishment that are very different. At the first moment I feel strange and I remembered I had a distance attitude. Little by little I started to made friends and just felt more relax. However, I didn’t feel the same in class with the second years of students. In different situations I was uncomfortable, alone and lost because most of them were friends before I met them. Now, the situations change at all. I have a great sensation connected with all things of this University and people here. I think maybe the time ability to me to overcome troubles with the organized of the career also to build relationships that make me feel a complete satisfaction at the university life.

National celebration

I’m not chilean but I celebrate Fiestas Patrias. I think is great because the celebration is in spring so available you to do outdoors activities. The first years I have been living in Chile, I’m surprised for the two free days to celebrate the independence of the country! Well, this year, I’ve the most traditional 18. I really appreciate customs so I’m open-mind to learn a lot! The last Sunday, we traveled with my family to Olmué about two hours. Olmué is a valley near Santiago surrounded of mountains very green with tall trees and pure air. Is amazing, I’ve never went before. Really, I love this place and I would like visit again with friends and my boyfriend. One of the many beautiful things is has, is a huge hill called “Bell’s hill”. One morning we went with my father and brother trekking around national park “The bell”. We walked two hours enjoying the nature of the rainforest. This is the place I want to come back because it has a great camping. If you stay there, you can go trekking to the summit of the Bell’s Hill. The first two days my father cooked barbecue while I was learning to dance Cueca. My father’s girlfriend is Chilean so she taught us because we don’t know how to dance! It was funny; an Argentinean family dancing Cueca. Then, my father danced with his girlfriend in a Fonda! During the day, we visited the town and we went through the handcraft market. Also we enjoyed swimming pool of the residential complex. I spend my free time reading and sharing with my family. I recommend you to visit Olmué!

Anto!

I meet Antonia when we are adolescent. She was a year older than me and then she repeated in school so we started to know us in the class. In this time, she had blonde and large hair and me too. Nowadays, her hair is short and always she was changing their look. I remember she talked as a Mexican person because she had been living there, at the same time Antonia bothered me because I spoke as an Argentinean. One of the things that surprise me of her personality is the way to be scatterbrain and crazy. So, with her extrovert attitude, we started to be friends. We shared great moments when we were in the school. Later, we met in another places and made panoramas. I remember when I always went to her house to watched goods movies. Antonia loves the cinema, she started studying the carrier in Santiago but then she left. Now, she’s living with her girlfriend in Paris, France since two years. I envy her! Antonia always travel to many parts of the world because she likes to experience another culture and met interesting people. Really, I love travel so I wish to make a trip with her. (And I think Antonia too). I have to say that we have different personalities, but with share listening music, talking about books, travelling, and most of all, laughing. We have the same sense of humor! The last thing I could say, is that we are close friend and we know each other. In this moment, I’m so happy because she arrives to Chile the next week. I miss my friend so much!

FIRST TERM Before the vacations, I have to back to the reality, so the first months of the semester is an adaptation on my life. Every new year, I write 12 wishes that I want to realized, and the most of this wishes is a positive proposition that had relation to the energy I’ll gave to me and to others to the rest of the year. So, I started motivating myself to enjoy every little thing that I’ll experience in my life. I started doing Yoga, twice a week, for the health of my body and at the same time to have moments of meditations necessary for my mind and emotions. The university started differently this year because I have subjects more connected to the career, a mean, the first two years, I studied general topics like Philosophy, Anthropology, Sociology, etc. Therefore, I have learned about the five perspectives of Psychologist; clinical, educational, community, legal and organizational. This time is important to started deciding in which field I’ll going to choose for my specialization. However, month by month I became stressed, tired, some strange. I had an excess of subjects, so I had to organize my time in a perfect way if I want to do anything else. However, I found great moments to recharge energy and never stop learning. One of the activities that gave me a sunrise was too shared with my friends and my family.

Santiago I lived in Buenos Aires until my elevens.Then I come to Santiago and the first glance it looks really quiet compared to Buenos Aires. With the years Santiago has changed, grew up and today is a big cosmopolitan city. Nevertheless has many fields to improve yet. For example on fall winter there's a lot of pollution, both air and acoustic. I'm surprisedon the size of the population in Santiago today, and how plenty of people spend there weekend on mall. These are issues well compesated by the enormous advantaje that the city offers. People is very polite and respectfull, a wide range os services work well, and finally, as I said before, every day there is more places for the culture and people. If I know a visitor I'll give him the following tips:san cristobal's hill to enjoy the nature,bellavista to go clubing and try taste local food. Also, he or she must know thesantiago downtown like bellas artes, lastarria, barrio yungay.

This is an interesting and polemic case. The creator of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, is a person who wants to show the truth about events that are very important in political context, specifically in violation of human rights that happens in governments of different countries. An example of that is the government of USA. In fact, Wikileaks published an official video that showed the U.S military killing eleven Iraqis. Everyone knows leaking secret documents is illegal, but the contents of these documents were illegal too, and I think this is terrible. I consider Julian Assange is guilty because he leaks tops secrets; however, I believe he has the tools to make justice in our world fighting against the power of politicians.    

To be honest, I’m not sure if it’s ok about the political asylum in Ecuador. Definitely, the government of Ecuador wants to help and praises the immoral facts of politicians. What if I know is that the political asylum is an essential human right and its parts of the international human rights. Therefore, Ecuador can do that. I think this case is something that comes to us all and I don’t know will end up. If I have the opportunity to make a question to Assange, I’ll ask him: Why do you are interested to publish secret documents and how do you found it?
I think the last time, different government have been investigating the case to accuses Assange guilty and pronounce sentence.   

POST 8: HOLIDAYS

All people who work need holidays in their life. I think is necessary for health because is a special time to feel better and to renovate energies. At this moment, I want winter holydays now!

Whatever I can, I travel to many different places on my holydays. I confess I loved long holydays. The summer is a very good excuse to go travelling with friends and family. I usually went with my family to the beach and we stay in a cabin or houses that my parents rent. We enjoy Chilean’s beaches like Maitencillo and Cachagua; places who have a long beach with a beautiful sea.

I like long journeys. Every holydays I program a trip choosing one country of Latin America to meet. In fact, one of my dreams is to visit all countries of our continent.

I think everyone have the own form to make a trip, in my case, I’m simple because I don’t need to stay in a luxurious hotel, I really prefer to camp in natural places or sleep in hostels.

The last vacation I went with a friend to “Valle del Elqui” and we camped in “Magic River”. We wake up and sleep with the sound of the river. The mountain is a beautiful place to stay and to look up and see the stars. Next holydays, I want to go to the south of Chile with a friend I miss so much. She comes back from Paris and she has a beautiful house in “Cochamó” without electricity near a lake. 

POST 7

Ignacio Martin Baró was an especial expert in social psychologist who studied philosophy, psychologist, literature and theology. He was a Jesuit priest born in Spain.  He was a cultivate person who used their knowledge to make social projects for the people. Although this person was born in Europe, he went to Salvador to fight for the justice of the difficult reality who people were living in this time.

I like him because he was a humble person who believed that society can make many things to change the power of the government owing to circumstances beyond our control.  Martin Baró fought for the human’s rights, equality and social justice in the country of Latin America, El Salvador. He criticized the negative impact of U.S.A in political facts and ideas.

In Salvador he worked as a teacher and academic coordinator at the “Universidad Centroamericana” (UCA) and then, he realized many kinds of jobs; member of different magazines and editorials and professor of many universities. Also, he published books and a long list of cultural and scientific articles. 

POST 6: LITERATURE AND BOOKS
I have read books since I was a child. When I didn't know how to read I usually played different games during the day and when I went to sleep at night my mom read me short stories of fantasy and I loved it. I started to read the books that my mom gave to me. In fact, she loved reading and always motivated me to do it. I think this time of my chilhood was very important because I took the pleasure of reading. For this reason I consider myself as a book worm.
Now, I enjoy reading many types of books. The books I read depend on what I want to read at the moment. Sometimes, I like reading novels and fiction but other times I want to read short stories (for example when I have to read many texts for the university), journalistic books, biographies, etc. Some of my favorites books are "The perfum", "The catcher in the rye", "Shangay baby", "Thousands splendid suns" and many more. So, I like writers of different parts of the world, such as Patrick Süskind, J.D Salinger, George Orwell, Khaled Hosseini but I appreciate Latin american authors, for example, Eduardo Galeano, Mario Benedetti, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, Osvaldo Soriano.
The last book I read were short stories of fantasy. The book is called "Woman who runs whit wolves" and the writer is Clarissa Pinkola Estés. She is an american poet, post-trauma specialist and Jungian psychoanalyst.This books is very interesting beacuse the author makes an analysis on the stories and characters related to the unconscious, archetypes and symbols of aour existence. I really enjoyed this book.

POST 5 A PHOTOGRAPH THAT I LIKE




Definitly one of my hobbies is taking photographies. In fact I said in the third post that my favourite piece of tecnologhy is my digital camera Nikon. I have many albumns of differents trips and nice situations with friends and family. I choose an album and today I'm today I'm going to tell you a photo that I like.
This photo was taken by my boyfriend when we was on a trip in Brasil, in January, 2011. We were camping on an island that had about ten differents beaches. Everyday, we always walked at many beaches and almost the days were sunny. In the morning of day that my boyfriend took the photo, it was hot and sunny. The beach looked clear, the sand was yellow and the sea was transparent and blue. We walked one hour, and suddendly the sun disappeared. This photo shows the black sky full of clouds and a bleak landscape, an unusual sight that we don't usually see from a beach in Brazil. At that moment, I had the feeling I was walking towards the storm like a horror movie. I felt the wind, I heared thunders and I saw beams and peals of thunder in the sky.
I think this photo is special beacuse we usually imagine and island with paradise beaches, but in Brasil there is a tropical climate that sometimes change.  

POST 4: Animals and Pets

My parents hate animals! When I was a child, I wanted a pet but they always said no when I begged them to have a little dog or a cat. When we were living in Argentina, my uncle gave to my brother a guinea pig (called Jaime) wich in spanish is called "cobayo". Guinea pig is an animal like a hamster. But Jaime didn't bit like them, instead he was calm. He lived in my garden's house without cage and he ate vegetables, I remember he prefered carrots and lettuce. Guinea pigs usually live for four years however Jaime lived seven years! It was incredible. Jaime was in particular lovely, he was different. He was the last pet that I have in my life. 

Now, I tell my father if we could have a little cat , but he can't stand cats. He always say me "when you'll  live alone, you'll have a pet". Many friends have nice dogs and sometimes I share and play with them. In fact, I think dogs are a very good company for humans and also for children. 

So, finally, I disagree with people to have any animals as a pet, for example, to have birds or a snake inside a cage. In the same way, the zoo keep away animals from their natural environment and their free way of living. 

POST 3: MY FAVOURITE PIECE OF TECNOLOGHY

Digital cameras caused a revolution in people's life.  I think the invention of digital cameras gave an oportunity to many people to take photos in their common lives and also as a tool to work. So, can we think a society without cameras? In the past time, only few people could have a camara, but now, technology has changed that condition.
I got my first digital camera when I was around eighteen years old. It was a gift from my dad, I could not believe it! I like it very much because it's a proffesional camera: Nikon D40. At the first time, I didn't know how to use it because it was not easy, it has a lot of manual options. I learned alone by reading the manual for technical options and trying to take pictures.

Why Nikon is my favourite piece of tecnologhy? Well, I think the camera gives me the possibility to capture moments that I want to remember. Before I'm going to take a picture, I love playing with the lights, tonalities, focus modes, and anothers options.  The pictures I take depends on  the situation. When I'm on a journey, I prefer to take panoramic photos and to observe the landscape, while if  i'm in a social situation I usually take portrait photos.

According to what I said, I guess my life without digital camera, would not be as terrible as we think.  However, it's a nice tool to learn the art of composition and obtain good pictures that represent something important and striking.  But...I confess I can not imagine a trip without a camera.

POST 1:  My autobiography

What it my life story?
I will tell a part of it. I born on August 14, 1990, in Argentina, Buenos Aires. My father was from Buenos Aires but my Mom was born in Mendoza, so they married in Mendoza and then they went to live at the big city of Argentina. I have one brother who is 24 years old. We went together at the same garden near my house called "Colegio Bernal". During the elementary and the high school we went to "Midlans college". I always lived with my family in Buenos Aires until I was 11 years old. However, in 2000, my country was experiencing an economic crisis so my parents decided to move to Chile. I had 11 years old when I arrived at the William Kilpatrick´s school, in Santiago. At the begining it was difficult to me and my family because we missed our relatives and friends, but little by little we started to adapt to this new culture.
Now, I have been living in Chile for 10 years and I like it. One thing I like from here is that the beach is so close, I can't believe that Viña is just an hour from Santiago. Unlike Bs.As that you have to travel for at least 4 hours by car to touch the sand. Well, talking about the beach, I love travel and meet different places like rivers and hills, mountains and snow, towns and cities. One of my dreams is to travel around Latin America and to know other countries and their cultures. What else do I like? I have a lot of hobbies, I do many sports; trekking, biking, running but my favorite is circus. I practice aerial silk, aerial ring and trapeze for around 3 or 4 years. I really enjoy to going to concerts, shows and parties with my friends. I love to cook different foods, usually sweets, and share this passion with my family or friends.

POST 2: MAYUMANA SHOW

I’m not going to write about a concert, singer or a band because I have the opportunity to see an original and spectacular show called Mayumana. I went last Wednesday with two friends at the theater “Nescafé de las Artes” located in Manuel Montt, Providencia.   Maybe someone had heard about this show because I think is the second time they came to Chile. Mayumana is a dance troupe from Israel that uses a combination of rhythm and percussion, music and  visual effects  through body movements, acting, singing, jumping, and of course, dancing. 

I love their show because they express creativity through an innovative and contemporary dancing style accompanied with stenography and modern costumes.  One of the things that surprised me was the music that they do music with recycled instruments (like wooden crates or buckets of paint) and create sounds by using glasses and buckets with water.  Finally I can say that was great enjoy this show with my friends and learn something about culture. 

Link of video about Mayumana show: http://vimeo.com/9779740