Self evaluation of my academic year 2009

In the next essay I’m going to expose what has been till now my academic year 2009, the most complicated subjects, the most difficult tests, the pros and cons. This year is separated in two semester and i'm going to explain each semester.

My academic year began in March, 2009, it’s separated in two semesters like always, my first semester was satisfactory, it was good for me, much better than previous years, though the effort was very big, we had many readings and also several works that to do, the most difficult note was that of qualitative methodology, corresponding to a production and accomplishment of a discussion group in La Granja, it was a complicated work, but we manage to carry out the discussion group, then we had to transcribe the discussion, codify it and finally to do an analysis. On the other hand we had an exam of Estructuralismo, of the whole subject, the whole study was complicated, because it were a great quantity of texts.

My second semester is not ended yet, I still have several final works that to do and to expose. In general this semester has been busy, I had two fieldworks, one of a weekend, and other one of two weeks distributed in September and October. This semester has been totally approach to the applied work, to realizing interviews, to being with the people, I have a premise of life, live through it to understand it, and these fieldworks that they need from exits to fields are propitious to do it, probably not so much to live through it, but at least to live through it closely. Up to the moment this semester also has been satisfactory, with the exception of a subject that didn’t expire with my expectations.

In conclusion this academic year has been very satisfactory, but simultaneously also very strongly, the level every year increases and the good notes aren’t a gift, there are consequence of the effort. On the other hand I began with the fieldworks, which made me very happy, because I could be with the people and put into practice the theory. Nevertheless so many fieldwork and so much effort passed to me a bit the account. Therefore, in general this year has been a very good academic year, in any sense and it has made me very happy to give good results well.

important challenges on social anthropology

I think that the anthropology in general has a lot of challenges, basicly the most important challenge is to show to everybody what does it means the career, because a little bit of people knows what do an anthropologist and less knows what do a social anthropologist, some people thinks that we work doing excavations, or founding bones, and they are wrong, Why?, I think that the anthropologist, the oldest don't want that the career would be popular, because they could lose their jobs. So I think that the principal is that everybody knows what means to be a social anthropologist, and then to announce the investigations.
I think that we as an anthropologist, and social investigators, have a implicit commitment with the society, so the social matters will always be a challenge for us. In my opinion the anthropologists are more dedicated to creating theories on cultural or social phenomena, more than in giving solution to the real problems that we are living, as the poverty, the delinquency, drug addiction, through juvenile alcoholism, between(among) others.
About education I think that we have good teachers, but it could be better.
And about technology, well there are tools to improve the investigation, like programs as SPSS, but we are far away of technology, because our object of study is so big and different and subjective that we can't do so much programs or technology to facility the studies of cultures, because itself isn't objective, like biology or other sciences.

The armed boy in the subway

The last monday I was in my house, studying for a text, and my phone rang, it was my bestfriend Cony, she was very agitated and disconcerted, I asked her why she was so agitated, and she told me that she was on the subway when suddenly it stoped, so she had to get out, and walked from the Sótero del río to Protectora de la infancia station. When she was near from her house she saw a lot of policemen around the protectora de la infancia station. Then we started to talk about other things. A few hours later I saw the news in Chilevisión, and they talked about what happened in Puente Alto, it was a boy, and he was armed, and suddenly he started to frighten all the passenger and the subway guards, so they called to the police, and the boy started to runaway in the subway, finally the police arrested him. About a 200 of subway users were affected. Two days later I saw in the news that the boy suffered of bipolar disorders, but he was a very good student, he had great marks.
I think that I would like to hear that everybody is healthy and that everybody has the education that they want,because the health and the education, and the family are the most important things for a socialwelfare.

improving your faculty facilities

The current situation in my faculty is that the facilities are the worst, first of all, the faculty doesn't have the rooms necessary for all the studients, and that is basic, we have to pay almost 2 millions of pesos, and sometimes we don't have rooms for recover classes or for assistantship, and that is awful. Also the library is too small, has few books, magazines, articles, is ancient, it's no at the level of the library of philosophy, it doesn't have computers for search in the catalogue and less to do the homeworks. The other problem is that we don't have a laboratory of english, for the classes, and if the University of Chile wants to do a reform, it's basic the infraestructure, and we don't have it. The computers room when I was in my first year of university was awful, because it was only a small room, with ancient computers, and sometimes were classes, and we have to wait for the ten or less computers that were avalaible, but this year we have a new computers room, with more computers. At last, the dinner room it's too small, in summer it's too hot, and we have to move the tables outside, when is the lunch time, it's full of students, so we sometimes have lunch outside on the grass, and the food is every year more expensive and it's no so good, because before we have more menus to choice, more desserts, for less money. Finally I think that the faculty needs urgently to improve the facilities, for the students, teachers and the people who works for the faculty.

Election day

I’m registered to vote this year for a new president, because I think that it’s important to be registered to express if you’re satisfied with the government in this case with the “concertación”, or if you want to change the current government for another. If nobody is registered, it would be bad for the country, because it won’t be representative the vote, so for that reason I think that everybody has to vote for who they think that can do it better.
I hate the electoral campaings because everybody insults to the opponents, and they must to be worried about their own campaings.
I think that to be a president it’s a big responsability so you must to be preparated for that. So, if somebody wants to be a president, he or she has to have a good education and has to know about everything, from economy to psychology.
I think that the biggest problem in our country is the inequality, in opportunities, in gender, in human rights, in salaries, and all this things, are expressed in the bad results in education, I think that it’s a big problem in our country, the one who needs more solutions. But education it’s not the only problem, the government has problems with the health, with the highest rates of delinquency, the environment, poverty and other things.
If I had the chance to work in a ministry, I would like to work in the ministry of environment, to protect our country from the pollution of the biggest companies, and to make conscience about our nature, and the important that it’s for everybody. And I would like to work in the ministry of culture, to approach culture to every chilean.

Finally I think that the next president has to change the neoliberal system, and has to be worried about change the inequality.

A criminal lows

I don’t think that capital punishment will be a good solution to reduce criminality, because the problem is bigger than that solution, i think that the government and the chilean people have to work together for a better education, specially in the first childhood. The government has to protect the family, because it’s the most important core of the society. In the familiy we can teach values, rights, and dutys, and in the school that things must be reinforced. Also we have to change the present system, beacuse it’s system of discrimination, inequality, differences between who has money and who hasn’t.
I think that the judicial system is the worst, because the delinquents do whatever they want and they are abusing of that. We have to live behind bars, and they are free in the streets. In my family there are so many cases of crimes, first of all, I was victim with my mother of burglary, the delinquents go inside the house, but we weren't there, we were on vacations, then my mother was victim of pickpocketing, my father was victim of an armed robbery, it was a very scarely situation, and once I was victim of mugging, a delinquent stold my gold earrings.
I think that the pros of the capital punishment is that the delinquents will be afraid of that and maybe they will think twice about it. But the cons is that could happened that we killed somebody who is innocent. So if someday the capital punishment started It has to be very stricted.

What to do and where to go in Santiago.

A foreigner tourist should visit in Santiago The Presidential Palace La Moneda, the main square of Santiago, the San Cristobal hill, the Santa Lucía hill, Central Market and La vega, Patronato, Forestal Park, the O'Higgins Park, Fantasilandia, the Forestal Park.

What to do in Santiago?, first, you should prove the typical food, the casseroles, "empanadas", the seafood, between others and to drink a good Chilean wine. Then you should walk and to cross Santiago city, and to take pictures of monuments, ancients and moderns buildings, streets, and churchs.

top 4 places
San Cristobal hill, it's an important place, you should go there and visit the Zoo, and then to visit on the top of the hill, the virgen, that takes care of the santiaguinos, there you will have aprivileged sight
The Chascona is one of Pablo Neruda's three houses in Chile, it is located in the bohemian arts district of Santiago called Barrio Bellavista, it's a musseum, and it's an important oportunity to know where lived on of the most important poets of the world.
The Forestal Park on Sunday is filled with street performers such as jugglers and actors, making it a fun environment for families as well. You will also come across a lot of second hand stuff such as books, clothes or food.
The Vega it's a typical place with typical people, you should eat there, because the food is good and cheap, cheaper than the Central Market. You can eat fish with rice, salad and juice only for 2 dollars.

education

Mi experience during my high school was good an bad in some ways. I studied in the Altazor school, it was near from my house in Puente Alto, so it takes me 15 minutes by car to be at the school just in time, I always remember that they were very stricted with the time, because if one of the students were late to the Altazor, they were punishing us, even when we were late only for one minute. The Altazor was a new school, and I was part of the first generation, so we were the oldest course. That was bad and good, because we were consented, but they were generating high expetatives around us and they always were saying that we have to be the example for the youngest course. I think that the level of the school was very bad, because we came from differents schools and some of us weren't in an aproppiate level, so I was affected because I knew more than my classmates so I have to wait that they were nivelated according to the high school, then they separated us in two in maths classes, so the teacher teached to the more applied and the rector teached to the less applied and the classmates that had problems to learn, specially with maths. I think that everybody is important in the education the students have to be interested to learn, and we must to be responsible, but also the teachers have to be interested in all the students, and they must to be compromised in the educative proyect.

transantiago: Before and after

I think that the idea was good, to improve the public transport, and all the old systems is always a good idea, but to make a huge change means that the work will be hard, it means years of dedication, studies, an interdisciplinary work, differents points of view, reviews, and obviously an appropriate implementation and infrastructure.

When I knew about the idea of revolutionize the public transport system in a few months I thought that it will be a crazy idea, because it’s necessary to have all right. First I think that they failled with the propagation of the information, they must to inform with beforehand the new route of the buses, they have to explained how it’s going to be the work of the new system of pay (the BIP card), the differences between the “troncal” and “alimentador”, and other things that were informated when the Transantiago was nearly to start and actually was the cause of the chaos in the beginning. Another failled point it’s related to the appropriate infrastructure, the streets weren’t ready for the exclusives routes, the “paraderos” neither.

I think that transantiago has good and bad things, the best is that we have to pay only one travel, and the worst is that we have to travel all squashed together on the bus.

A country that I would like to visit

I would like to visit Mexico, because I think that it's a wonderful land, with beautiful beaches of white sand and water of color turquoise. Also what I like of this country besides it's beautiful landscapes is the pre-Columbian history of this land.

What I Know about Mexico is that is a country in North America and the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, it's divided in 32 federative entities, the most known is Mexico DF. About he history of this country I think that it's very interesting, because 2 of the most important civilizations of the world history inhabited in Mexican land. The Maya and the Aztecs were civilizations very advanced to continental level, in my opinion the Maya were really incredible, a great geniuses, they studied mathematics, physics, astronomy, agriculture, they had a vast knowledge of the universe, the stars, the cycles, the Sun, they knew when there would happen eclipses, the movements of adjournment and rotation of the Earth, they also made sculptures, they had a cosmovision of the natural and supernatural world that to the present day is studied and respected, specially now that there is so many expectation on the predictions about what would happen in 2012.

I would like to visit there the Kukulcan temple, in Yucatan, and also I would like to cross the Mayan riviera. Also If I had the possibility I would like to study and to work there in something related to my career.

I country that I would like to visit

past term

The past term wasn’t very satisfactory for me, in general I think that it’s not a problem of the teacher, because it is a topic of organization of the pregrado or of whom that is at the expense of the project to do the obligatory courses of English. Definitively there is a lacking infrastructure, for example an english laboratory to practise the speaking, because it’s basic for a project of this importance in a university as prestigious as the university of Chile, when I was studying in primary I went to a school that they charged a quarter of the monthly salary of my career and it had more implements that in the faculty, a room of computation and an english laboratory, whereas in the faculty the teachers have to fight for a quota to use the rooms of computation.
By the other hand, I have doubts with the final evaluation, I feel that it wasn’t to the appropriate level, in fact it was easier than the final test of the second level and neither were evaluated all the contents that we saw in the semester. For the student’s maybe can be good because we can get better scores but I think that the effort of all the semester it wasn´t evaluated. Finally I hope that this semester I could learn more because I think that to learn english is very important for my future.

second term

English 4

My ideal job

If I finish studying anthropology, I would like to work doing ethnography, this kind of work was the first thing that the anthropologist did, for example Malinowski traveled to the Trobiand Island in Papua Nueva Guinea to observe the natives, and their culture. My dream is to travel around the world and to know everything about the different cultures, I would like to travel to the Amazon, to some tribes of Africa, and first of all to know my own country. I need to learn about the cultures that I want to study, so I need to read the respective bibliography. To do ethnography we have to be very brave because it's difficult to live with other people that we don't know, and we must be prepared to face up any problems, and circumstances like to be cold at night, don't have a shower to take a shower, and to sleep on the floor. I think that I would be good at this job because as I say My dream is to know other cultures and if I have the opportunity to do it I will do it very well, because I love it and I'm brave. This job is very difficult to find because it's very expensive, and nobody has a Company that offers this kind of job, I think that I must be lucky.

ken robinson

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of the all school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence. He says that we don't know about the future so we must to be prepared for any circumstances and he considers that the education is very important in our lifes. Also he thinks that we aren´t prepared to be wrong and the childrens don´t want to be wrong, because we stigmatized them when they are wrong.

He argues that we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. the education prepared childs for university and traditional careers like engineer and medicine, but if somebody want to be a dancer nobady supports it. The more ipmortant subjects are mathematics and language but arts, and others subjects that foments the creativity aren´t important, but Robinson thinks that to dance is as important as mathematics. The educational system is based in the abilities and we must to foment the creativity and the multiple typer of intelligence.

my favourite subject

I don't have a favourite subject, but i like most of the subjects that I have, but I dislike quantitative methodologies, because it's sociology, and I don't like how Cristino made cultures polinesicas. I like rural anthropology, because I love the history of the country in Chile because my father is from the country, and my family to. Also I love gender anthropology because it's interested in the women, and all the subjects aren't interesting in this problem of inequity between gender. Also I like structuralism, because Roelf knows about everything and the topics that we see in his classes are very interesting. I'm so happy studying anthropology and I like the subjects because they are from the mention and I don't have to study biology and evolution or archaeological theory, because it's part of the common cycle and we had to study that, to know the other mentions and to decide what to follow and what to dedicate.

My future

In 5 more years I would like to be happy, to be a professional, to be employed at what I like, to be with all my family close, to travel to many countries and to know many cultures. I think that I will be living in another region, I would like to live in the first region, because the weather is great, and I think that I be living alone, because I want to be free and independent, I don't have problems with my family, I live with my mother and her husband, they aren't noisy, I can study calmly, but I can't live under his roof so many years, so I have to go and make my own life.

I imagine my ideal future and I think that I would like to live in a paradisiac island, with my family and a boyfriend, I imagine me in the sand drinking a tropical juice, and bathing in the sea.
Also, I imagine all the people in the world happy, more worried by the nature, the environment, the animals, and their neighbors. I hope that all my dreams come true, and to be a better person.

The best in my area

I think that the best in my area, and in my country is Sonia Montecino Aguirre, she is a social anthropologist from the University of Chile, she was born in november in 1954. She is married with another important social anthropologist called Rolf Foerster, he is a structuralism teacher in the Universtity of Chile. Nowadays I'm studying gender anthropology, and I had to read a book by Montecino, "Madres y Huachos: alegorías del mestizaje", I think that the book is really great, because I could understand all the concepts about women and why chileans are so chauvinists.
She has published essays, books and a lot of articles. She has been dedicated to the study of gender and ethnic identities and the relations between Antrhopology and literature. She is editor of the Chilean Magazzine. What I like about her is the kind of things that she studies, like miths, gender, cooking, indigenous. I admire her because she has made a big contribution to the anthropology and she also has been prizewinner with important prizes like Altazor.

my career

I study anthropology in the University of Chile, I knew the anthropology when I was 17 years old, I was studying in the school, and one day we had a lecture about the careers of the university of Chile, I knew about sociology, I wanted to study that but I wasn't sure until I knew the anthropology and I liked it because the anthropology works directly with the persons, whereas the sociology studies numbers and statistics, and that it wasn´t my interest. The anthropology in the university is divide in two cycles, the common one and the basic one. First the students studies social anthropology, physical anthropology and archaeology for 2 years, then we must to decide which mention to choose, so at the third year we are in our mention, for two years more he have classes but in the last year we will have to do our professional practice, and we must to be entitled. Im very happy studying anthropology, its very difficult, but its what I chose and I like it.

my favorite photograph

This is my favorite photograph, because I'm with my family. I don't remember who took the photograph, but I remember that we were celebrating that my aunt called Blanca finished her university education. We were in my house, my mother and I made a cocktail, we bought something to drink and to eat. In the picture it's my uncle Ronald, he is 31 years old and he is studying at university, by his side is my mother called Ximena, she is one of the most important person in my life. Now I'm going to describe the people who were standing up from right to left, the first is my cousin Camila, she is 14 years old, she is studying in high school and she is the youngest of the family, by her side it's her mother and my aunt Blanca, she is married with my uncle Juan Carlos, he wasn't in the photograph, because he was working, he works in the third region, in a strip mine, he drives a big truck. By her side is her mother, and my grandmother called Jeanette, she is really great, she is the oldest of the family and we all love her, and finally by her side it's me. I think that we had a great time together, and we are a beautiful family, with some problems, like all the families, but a good family anyway.

My last vacation

In my last vacation I went to the south of Chile, more specific I went to the ninth region, i visited Pucón, Caburgua, Villarrica and also I went to Valdivia to visited another region. I went in february, I don´t remeber the specific date, but I went for to weeks. I went with my mother, my Aunt and my cousin, and with the husband of my mother and his 3 sons, we were a lot of people in only one house, but we were happy to be in that beatiful place. What I will never forget about my vacation is when we were to the thermal baths called Trancura, its a wonderful place, very relaxing, and I enjoyed it. I didn't meet anybody, but Beto Cuevas gave a concert, so I met him, it was a great show, with the lake in the back. I did a lot of things, I went to a handy craft work free market, I went to the lake for swimming, I visited museums, I went to a Ruca, I took a lot of photographs, I went to eat pancakes, I went to the disco, and other things.

My favorite piece of technology

My favorite piece of technology is my cellular. My dad gave me my first cellular when I was 12 years old, I was studying in the primary, but it lasted very little, because I gave it to my mother and it was stolen from her. Then, they gave me other one that I still have, it is my favorite, ancient well, but it never trumped me. Nowadays I have one more technological, with included camera and other functions; I preserved my ancient number, because to contact my friends and to say to them that I changed the number is complicated. I like the cellular one, because you can communicate with the persons that you love, because you can call and warn that you are in a party, because I use it as clock and alarm clock, because if I have a problem I can occupy the cellular one and call for help.

Nevertheless, the cellular one also has its negative side, since they control you more, sometimes I receive calls of companies offering me services and they are well imprudent. Nonetheless I can’t live without my cellular, I feel sure having it to my side, for any contingency, and thanks to the cellular one I have saved myself from some problematic situations.

My best friend

My best friend is Gaeil Olsen, she is nineteen years old. I met her when I was five years old and she was three years old, also I met her sister Tiare, she is my friend too. We met in Puente Alto, we were playing in front of my house, in a square. My dearest memory about her is when we went to the beach with my family, it was really great, because we played everyday. Presently she is studying dance at the university, what I like about her is that she dance very well and she is very nice, but I don't like the kind of music that she listen, because is so sad. The greatest adventure that we have had is when we went to a party without permission, we had a great time at the party. If I could give her a gift, i would buy her a big apartment, because she could live alone without her noisy family, and she could study and practice dance in peace. I love my friend, she is very understanding, and she is always worried about me. I hope that our friendship never ends.