Post ten

English Language Challenges

So for me English is a very important tool that you can need in whatever aspect of your life, so it's very important for me to improve every day, learning new words, trying to read and listen as much as I can in this language. But I have to say that it wasn't that easy for me, because around 3-4 years ago I could not manage this language as I do now, but that change when I became an exchange student and I went to Canada for 9 months. 

So in the beginning it wasn't easy, a lot of new words every day, slangs, and the different pronunciations were a real challenge, but the necessity of communication with other people, made me improve very fast, you can't imagine the difference between one month to the next one, so I'm so happy and grateful for that experience. But I consider that I'm not a bilingual person yet, because although I had improve a lot in the last years, I still thinking that I have a lack of vocabulary and some problems with the sentence composition, that I think only the practice can give you. For that reason I'm glad to have English at the university, because it's a time where I change my switch and I start to think in English, also conscious as never before of my learning, I think because at school I didn't learn much because I didn’t understand either, so now this is great for my development.

To finish I think that practice is the most important thing and depends on you to keep doing it, even if you don’t have an English class anymore. Also I think that blogs are a very useful tool to learn this language, specially grammar and vocabulary as I’m not used to do it. 

Post nine

Changing our university program

I thinks we all know the problems and the needs of our university and how University of Chile have huge economic and social differences between faculties, is a general education problem, but going to the FAU I think is one of the "poor" faculties and you just need to walk thought the FAU to FEN to see the HUGE difference, so it is sad see this differences, also being in the same campus, is like your brother living in a mansion meanwhile you are sleeping in the yard.  So I believe that our faculty and university needs very big changes.

In our infrastructure, we see that the laboratories, the printers, the lasers machine, the lunch counter, etc., are not enough to our needs, even if you go to the bathroom, you are lucky if you find a toilet paper!. And it is almost sarcastic when I heard the history of the titanic (the green building) that says that stills not ended , those who are study here can see that has that name because it has filtrations, and all this in a architecture faculty, is almost part of the
essence of FAU.  

But not everything is bad I think our education still really good and our teachers too, but can be better, especially in the curriculum that is very stressful in some weeks when workshop combine with the
theoretical tests, and forget about doing some sport because it is not free time and even we cannot use the FEN’s gym.

So I know that maybe some problems are being seeing under my career perspective but I think design and geography has others problems too, so I don’t expect to see the solutions while I’m studying my career but I hope in the future the students can enjoy better things and better possibilities than today. 

Post eight

Your favorite artist/ a person you admire.

Today I will talk about someone who I admire in my field, and that person is Jane Jacobs. She was an American-Canadian journalist, author, and activist best known for her influence on urban studies.  Her most influential book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" (1961) argued that urban renewal did not respect the needs of most city-dwellers. The book also introduced sociological concepts such as "eyes on the street" and "social capital". On her book she explains the richness of a multifunctional city, a compact and dense city, where the street, the neighborhoods and the community are vital in the urban culture.

Jane Jacobs was born on 4 May 1916 in a small town in Pennsylvania in the US and in his youth she migrated to New York, attracted by the vibrant and noisy city life of this mega city.

There she became interested in urban issues, without having any degree or specific studies she became editor of the magazine Architectural Forum. From her articles she criticized the urban tendencies in the 1950s, that promoted the growth of suburbs extended with individual houses, the cult of private cars and highways, along with the devaluation of the traditional urban centers, the preference for the towers and the systematic demolition of old buildings and neighborhoods in the name of progress and modernization.

This year on her hundredth anniversary, Jane Jacobs remains an unavoidable reference to think but mainly to make better cities and also the personality (being a woman too) and the courage to dare against something that was pre-established on her society and still on ours. I think she was a very important pioneer in every way and for that reason I admire her. 

"If the street ends privileging the car above the people, the street dies and then starts the end of the city"

Post Seven

Summer Holidays

So, since I’m stu-dying architecture my summer vacations were very affected, because I was use to work, relax, share with friends and enjoy the good things from the summer, but now everything changed. Now I have to make plans to spend my time for the things that I want to do, because we have just one month that looks just a few days. 

The last summer, I made plans and I went to the north of Chile doing auto stop for moving, from San Pedro de Atacama to Santiago and It was awesome! I met a lot of very nice people, I did discover a lot of new places, food, etc. 

In consequence, this year I already made the plans that I will do for this summer, and I will go to the very south of Chile. I think this country has some many things to offer and the most of the people doesn’t have the knowledge of the lucky that they have to live in this country with this diversity of everything, and for this reason I want know the most as I can from Chile before  travelling in this way to other countries. 

Now, Puerto Tranquilo is my future destiny. This place is a very very little town at the edge of Gnral Carrera's Lake a couple of hours from Coyhaique. I have the lucky that I have a friend who is working at there doing ecologic tourism so I'm sure that he will show me the best places to visit and to do at there. and the best thing, I will stay around 15 days at there! 

Here a leave you a few picture of what I'm specting to see <3 

 

Post six

Special Talent

So i don't feel a person with a special talent, but I have some skills that I feel very good at it.
The firt of this habilities is that i'm very good at rugby, I don't know why (I reaaly suck at football) but when I start to playing this sport was very easy  to get very good at it, even I won a award for the best rugby player at a quadrangular tournament with other teams from San Vicente and other places.
so I played until I become 18th and then I stop it because I didn't have time to train and play at the matches. (but I still thinking that one day I will play again, I like a lot that sport)


That was a try!

The others skills can be part of my life since I was a kid, because one is computer and technology facility, because my dad have a computer shop, so I always have been using this staff and for that reason I can work with a lot of programs and know what to do if the computer is not working. So for me becomes very important, speacially at the university.

The other one can be cooking ), I always love food so I did learn from my grandmother and other relatives a lot of different dishes, also  I love eating so when I try something that is very tasty for me I take my time to learn it and include some of my own taste.

Post five

Postgraduate studies

Until now I'm not sure about what will be my specialization or my studies post-graduation, but I’m interested in do more practical things instead of the theoretical, so I find very interesting things like material studying, sustainable architecture and energy or urban projects.

So for that maybe I will try to study out of Chile. This because I want to improve my English, and I thing is a challenge for me to “develop” in a place where I know nobody, I know that can be risky if you fail but is part of the experience, no? Also I think we can learn a lot of other cultures and in my profession specially make me feel like it is a lot to do, to learn and to improve and maybe bring some good things to Chile.

And the way to study will depends of the situations, but hopefully if the money is not a problem, I will try to do a full time studying, or a part-time to earn some money and know more people at the same time. The only thing that I’m sure is that I want to study and specialize first and the start as an architecture, because If I start working maybe I will not continue studying after that.

Post three

My best holidays

The recently year I had one of my best holidays, On february we took a plane to the north of Chile with my girlfriend, and we decide to do autostop for move all the way to Santiago. So there we were, just us, our bags and full motivation for know and learn much as we can.

we visited a lot of places, San Pedro, Pan de Azucar, Copiapo, La Serena,  Elqui Valley, etc. But I'm going to write about our first stop, and one of my favorites, San Pedro de Atacama, such a amazing place, the beautiful salt mountains, the void of the salty flats and a little green oasis that was the city around the driest desert of the world, so many places to go arround it in a short time, but we made it, we visited the Valley of the Moon, Tatio geysers, the Atacama salty flats and their lagoons and more, was incredible, every one of these places.

 Also we met a lot of people, Chileans, Argentinians, Bolivians, French, etc, people from Chile and all over the world who were very nice with us.

I think was one of the best holidays that I did because every people who I met and every place where I was gave me a lot of experiences that were very enriching for me.