Blog post Nº10

Hello Classmates, this is the last blog! Congratulations! Today I'll tell you about my experience learning English at University.

I can say that this English 4 course has been very enriching to me in comparison with the English 3 course. I have improved a lot my ability of improvisation to talk with the others, and I have felt much more relaxed in this context. Before, these English interactions were very stressful to me. In this way I am grateful with the teacher for the different funny dynamics in the classes.  

About the blogging experience, generally, although it has been very difficult and it takes me always a lot time to write, I feel that I have enjoyed this experience, because it gave me the opportunity to write about a wide variety of interesting things and consequently to improve my reading comprehension.

In the other hand, I think that I need to improve many things yet!  Especially the listening, it is very difficult for me. Also I feel that I speak English very slowly! Too slowly. In this way I have the plan of continuing to practice my English, mainly through reading interesting things, listening to music and watching English movies without subtitles. My goal is to be able to understand the different parts of the movies perfectly!

Related to my English outside the English class, I admit that I haven`t used this language very much, only sometimes I use it to practice the pronunciation and the listening comprehension. I try to practice these activities at least two or three times in the week.

I hope that the experience with this English course, has been enriching for you too. 

Blog Post Nº 9: Have you had a good year 2014?

Hello classmates, today in this post I will tell you about how has been my year 2014.

In general I can say that this year has been very good. At the university, I have loved very much the subjects that I have chosen. I have been able to organize my time better than other past semesters. Before, most of the time I finished the essays and the preparations for the tests at the last minute, but now I begin with much anticipation, approximately between two or three weeks before according to the kind of job, I consider this thing as a personal achievement.

As another good thing in this year, I have improved my technique of dance, I have achieved to integrate myself in many choreographic groups, learning much more quickly than the last years in the process, so I have been selected to participate in the ballet of my academy a couple months ago, and I'm really happy about this. I think that my better organization helps very much to have more time for my hobbies like the dance.
Also I feel that I have known very interesting and enriching people in different contexts that have helped me to continue growing up in my life, without mentioning the valuable company of the persons that have held beside me since years and years ago. I hope that in what remains of the year, I'll be able to choose the best academy decision for the next year, as the professional practice and course, and also the famous thesis.

Post Nº 8: Hobbies

Hello classmates, in this post I will tell you about my Hobbies. I can say that in my weekly routine I have one main hobby, and others secondary. Firstly, as main hobby I’m taking belly dance classes  in an academy (Egyptian style), near the subway station Manuel Montt. Officially I go to the academy’s classes four times a week. And also I practice this dance in my house almost the seven days of the week. I have spent about four years with this hobby. Secondly as other hobbies, sometimes I like to play piano, go out to the park to jog, listen to music and watch many movies.

I miss very much the hobbies that I had before I entered university (when I was at school). I lived in Quintero, and because in this place there were many beaches, I had different hobbies related to the sea.  In those years I enjoyed practicing surfing in the weekened, and practicing diving and swimming in the other days of the same week. And also I used to play piano almost everyday.

In the future I hope to include in my hobbies to go out on roller skates every day, like a means of transport (Environmentally friendly). Since a long time I have liked this sport but I didn't have enough money, but now there are only a couple of weeks left until I can buy some rollers!

I think that hobbies are very important in a person's life. These provide diverse positive effects for the health, like means of relaxation and rest, against all the different daily stressful situations.    

Post 7: HOW GREEN ARE YOU?

Hello classmates today in this post I will tell you about how green I am. To begin with this topic, I'll tell you that I've known different practices and activities of this kind since my childhood. My mum and dad, most of the time, were worried about the energy and water consumption, and also they recollected different recycling materials, like soft drinks cans, plastic and bottles. So, I can say that I had the first learning about the environmentally friendly practices in my family. In other way, I think that in general people learn about this only in some classes at school or at university, because it's difficult that this knowledge can emerge from the family when in this country there isn’t an environment culture well developed.

Personally, I have incorporated recycling into my habits since I was a kid, but with active and passive periods in between the process. For example, in some periods, like in highschool, I participated actively in underwater cleaning projects; using only bike or my own legs as means of transport , and being worried about the energy and water consumption in my house. At the university period, I was responsible for the recycling commission of the “Toma” (the occupation of the Central House of our university) in the context of the student mobilizations. But today, it is a passive period for me regarding this topic… I only take care of the different energy consumptions in my house, I use the bus and subway instead of bike and I don't participate in other related activities . But I would really like to do more things related to the environmental caring, I hope in the future to join in some eco-organisations, if I find one that represents me. It is an important topic that is missing in our reality and society.

Free post 3

Hello classmates in this post I'm going to talk about how my Friday would be like without the English class in the afternoon. Different possibilities come to my mind.

As a first priority for example, I would take advantage of the extra time to travel to Puchuncaví to see my mum and friends, like a long weekend. Without the English class I would come out this day at 12 o'clock, so I would arrive relatively early there, but since usually we come out around six, I can’t get to take the last bus in destination to Puchuncaví.

As another option, my Friday would be a day of dance practice. Precisely this day in the evening I have the possibility of going to my bellydance academy to take free professional classes, so these hours would serve as technical preparation for it.

And as other possibilities, if I was too tired due to the academic load of all the week, Fridays would be days of rest and relaxation, either taking long naps, watching movies and documentaries, listening to music or playing music with my piano, or going out for a walk in the park too. In the other hand if I would feel with energy yet, I would take advantage of the extra time to advance with the assignments and studying for the next week.  

Post 3

Hello classmates, today in this post I will tell you about what I plan to do in the future related to my job.

In the first place I plan to work as a psychologist, because I like the major that I’m studying in this university (psychology obviously), actually I like it since the classes of this subject at school. Specifically in this area I would like to work as a clinical psychology therapist either attending children or teenagers, because I find this field very interesting and motivating for me, the fact of working with development stages since the first moment of life and with the complex processes of construction of the identity.

Secondly I would like to complement my job as psychologist working as a teacher of yoga and dance, specifically of belly dance or giving classes of contemporary dance too. These jobs as therapieutic practices through the body, but for people of all ages (not only to underages as in my work as psychologist). For these jobs, in this moment I'm currently studying belly dance in an academy at the same time of psychology major (I hope to finish both in the same year), and I have taken classes of yoga and contemporary dance in some semesters, but I’m thinking to continue studying this specialties in the future.    

I imagine my job of different forms, in a way as a typical clinical consulting room (indoors) but in other way I also imagine myself once in a while travelling to diverse places of the country (outdoors) in which I will develop workshops or classes either related to psychology or with dancing and yoga. 

What I think about the bomb (and the news)

Hello classmates, in this post I will tell you my opinion about the bomb that exploded last Monday inside of a subway station from the red line (L1), Escuela Militar. In the news it was mentioned that this incident happened around 2 o’clock in the afternoon, when many people were having lunch in a local fast-food restaurant just outside the subway's entrance, a 'Juan Maestro' in a place called Subcentro, which is some sort of shopping gallery. The Ministry of Interior has remarked that 14 people were injured as a result of the attack, although not all of them directly, because most of them were affected by acoustic trauma due to the noisy blast. According to the political opinion expressed in the media this event meets with all the characteristics of a terrorist act, linked to a previous attack made inside a train from the same subway system (L1) but in the station of Los Dominicos. The alleged similarities to this and other actions taken by anarchist groups in the past (for example, the bomb that Luciano Pitronello attempted to plant in a Santander Bank, and the very well known fraud that was the 'Caso Bombas' during the previous government) have resulted in a feast for the media, in which many of the TV channels of our country haven't hesitated to blame the anarchist movement (as a whole, without any question) for the bombing. Personally, I don't believe these mis-informations, not only because there is a whole history of news manipulation in this country (that always tend to favor the more conservative points of view, discriminating and criminalizing certain groups that go against the status quo defended by the economical powers), but more importantly, because there is not a single piece of evidence that supports the theories informed by the media, therefore the TV channels and newspapers are starting a witch-hunt through a self-fulfilled prophecy.
I hope that you could understand my point of view, and I would be happy to know what is your opinion on this issue. 

Post N°3 The best Holidays

Hello classmates I’ll tell you about one of my best holidays. 

I lived this experience in the first week of my last winter’s holidays in which I traveled to “Pichilemu” with my boyfriend. At first we had thought to stay only a couple days, but the weather was very complicated with a rain and wind that looked like a real storm, therefore we decided to stay one week in this place. 

The first days were very entertained: we watched a marathon of movies and cooked giant vegetarian pizzas. When the weather was improving, we spent most of the time walking on the beach, seeing the sunsets at the sea, contemplating the flora and fauna of the forests and the main lagoon (There were a lot of pretty black swans and ducks!) and visiting nearby places like “Punta de Lobos”. 
Finally the last days we practiced my favorite sport! Surf! It was a wonderful experience.

I really enjoyed this trip, because I loved to be in this place since the first time I visited it. Pichilemu is a very quiet city with beautiful places,  the sunsets are awesome, the nocturnal sky is very shiny with the stars, and the most important thing, this place has  the best waves to practice surf :)!

I hope that you visit this place someday. I recommend you practice surf! It is great!

Free Post 1

Hello classmates! Today I chose to talk about the last movie that I saw: “The hunger games”. It is one of my favorite movies.  

This is a science fiction adventure film directed by Gary Rossis and it is based in a trilogy of books wrote by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay)

The history be about of a post-apocalyptic future in a nation called Panem composted by twelve districts, where boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18 must take part in an obligatory annual event called Hunger Games in which they must to fight with one each others. The plot of this is demarcated in a process of revolution to change the tyrant system, where the protagonists are Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. I like this movie because the horrible conditions imposed in the monopoly system of districts look like a metaphor of the conditions of our reality, in which is necessary a process of confrontation and of changing so that all the people (in a real democracy) have a good equality of life in equal conditions.

http://moviesonlinewithoutdownloadfree.blogspot.com/2013/03/watch-hunger-games-2012-movie-online.html 

Place that I'd like to visit

Hello classmates! I'll tell you about the place I would like to visit.

I would like to visit the country of Egypt, firstly because I love the belly dance and the music of this place, I think that these are beautiful and relaxing. Today I’m taking class of belly dance here in Santiago (Egyptian style), and I hope to travel someday to Egypt to continue with my professional formation in this kind of dance, specially related to the learning of the different elements as complement to bellydance, like the Isis Wings, Saggats, and Veil. Secondly I would like to visit this country because I think that the culture is very mystical and interesting, I want to know more about the different traditions, the History, the Egyptian art like paintings and sculptures, and also the pyramids! Of course!. I know Egypt's culture in general, but specifically there is very much knowledge about it that I need to learn yet. This culture has beautiful and complex metaphors and symbols too. 
I hope that you've liked this post, and I'm eager to know about the places you'd like to visit.

Holidays plans

Hello classmates! Today I will tell you about my Holidays plans.

For my winter’s vacations I would like to travel to three different cities. First, to the cities of Puchuncaví and Quintero, because in these places live my mum and my school’s friends too. I really  miss them so much, it has been six months since I saw them, and  we have only talked a few times.

The third place that I would like to visit is Pichilemu! I only have gone a few times, but since the first time that I know it, I love it, because it is a very quiet city  with beautiful places, the sunsets are awesome, the nocturnal sky is very shiny with the stars, and also because I can practice my favorite sport, surf. The waves are perfect in this place.

As my ideal holidays, I hope to see all my friends and to share beautiful moments with them like before. I would like to go out with my mum to our favorite natural places, and to cook together delicious recipes like always. And in the trip to Pichilemu I hope to visit a lot of new places with my boyfriend, I love to travel with him, and I know that we will be surfing the best waves of the season.  
I hope that you enjoy your holidays too!

Brazil and the world cup

Hello classmates

I’ll tell you about general characteristics of Brazil and my opinion about the world cup of football in this country. Brazil is located in the South American continent and it is the fifth biggest country of the world with approximately eight point five millions of square kilometers. According to the census of the year 2013, Brazil’s population is composed by 201.032.714 inhabitants, with the most populated city being Sao Paulo. The Brazilian government is a presidential federative republic currently under the leadership of Dilma Rousseff.

About the relevant social and political problems of Brazil, currently we find the management of the public education that is under the average of Latin America in respect to the preschool attention, and also we find a deficient management of public hospitals and in the distribution of the resources in the midle-low class population.

Now, about the world cup of football, personally I don’t have anything against this sport, but I think that socially it is a harmful event for the cultural process to an improvement in the life quality of all the people of limited resources. Indeed, the stadium that was constructed has been the most expensive of the history of the world cup, resources that could have been used to the enhancement of the education and to decrease poverty too. Not to mention all the evictions carried out in the favelas by the police to clear the construction zone of this world cup’s stadium.

For the reasons that I explained, I have no interest in predicting what country will win the world cup. Thanks for your attention, I hope you understand my opinion and will reflect upon this topic.

My favorite career related website

Hello classmates! I am going to tell you about one of my favorite websites related with my career. It is called psicología Online: http://www.psicologia-online.com

The objectives of this website are: To serve as mean of approach to psychology for the general population. To establish a platform that can be used for distant learning in psychology. And to allow the communication between persons interested in psychology around the world. For the above, its website is composed by various sections such as: Psychology courses, virtual library of psychology, monographs, articles, chats, forums, tests and questionnaires.

I like this website because it has a lot of information for the professional training of psychologists, it has very interesting articles and publications on the same field, all of these recent and updated. I visit it whenever I need to search information about some psychologist's approach, or to deepen in some topic of investigation, and also simply for my own professional training. It is a good website for psychologists if you want to visit it someday. 

Beautiful close encounter

This picture shows a close encounter between an experienced diver and a female humpback whale, and they seem to be dancing together, about to hold hands. The humpback whale is colossal: it is around fifty feet long (about fifteen meters). In comparison, the human diver looks tiny.

This photo was taken by the cameraman Marco Queral in the depths of the South Pacific Ocean off Hawaii in the year 2009. When the photographer was questioned about his achievement taking this awesome photo, he attributed the success to the whale.

I like this picture because, I love to practice diving and one of my dreams is someday, to be able to swim beside a whale and take photos like this one. Just seeing the photograph is an amazing, astonishing and magic experience of connection between the human and one of the most wonderful creatures in the world. What about you? How does this photo make you feel?

My favourite piece tegnology

Hello classemates :) 

My favourite piece tegnology is my MP3. It is an audio portable device, it serves for listening to music and the FM radio, and for to do voice recorder.  I have got it since that I was at the school, it was a gift of my grandmother for my graduation. I use it all days of the week, especially in the mornings when I travel at the university and when I back to my home.

I like the MP3 because I love listening to music wherever I go and where I am. It is something motivating and relaxing for me. When I have to study for example, to listen music with my MP3 helps me a lot to concentrate. I like it also because It is very economic piece tegnology, and allows you to play, store and delete audio files quickly, easily and securely.

I think that i could live without my MP3, but it would be difficult for me, because i need the music in my life, and in this moment i don’t have other audio device for that.  

Expectations for a New Semester

Hello classmates

In this semester, I am working with different kinds of psychology; labor, social and forensic psychology. My favorite subjects are specially in these last two kinds; politic violence and gender violence. These are very interesting subjects, but difficult when we analyze and understand the implications for our cultural reality.

I am doing only one extracurricular activity, I'm studying in a bellydance academy. I hope to use dancing as a psychological therapy in the future.

In regard to other activities  that I’m taking part at my university, I am participating of diverse seminars and conferences about psychology in the clinical and social fields.  

I expect this semester to be enriching for my  professional career as psychologist, and I expect to learn English very very well. 

My Autobiography

Hello! ^^ My name is Mariela Bustamante, I was born in Valdivia, Chile in 1992, it is a beautiful city. I studied at the No.6 and No.1  schools of Valdivia until third grade in elementary. Then at the Simon Bolivar School from Santiago until freshman in high school, and I graduated from the Alonso de Quintero school from Quintero in 2009. After that I started studying psychology at the Universidad de Chile in 2011. Currently, I am a student of fourth year of my career.

I'm single daughter and my parents’ names are Andrea and Jorge. Both are very nice but very different. My mother studied anthropology, she likes the meadow, the field, to practice yoga and cyclism, and my father is an enginner, he prefers the city and works all day in his office's computer.

My hobbies are studying in an bellydance academy, surfing when I travel to the beach, running at the mornings, cooking vegetarian foods and all kinds of pastry, playing piano, drawing and painting, writing, reading books of psychology, and watching the tv shows on National Geographic channel, History Channel and Animal Planet.

I love natural places like forests, mountains and seas. I like rock, post-rock and piano music. I have love and respect for animals, I'm vegetarian, and I'm very interested in the social and clinical fields of psychology. English is a very difficult language for me, but I like it. Especially, I love to listen to music in english an watch the movies in english too.