MY LAST FIELD TRIP

Lamentably, my last field trip was long time ago. This was the last year in November, and I went to Pica, in the middle of Atacama Desert, in the north of Chile.

That field trip consisted in an environmental impact research for an Archaeology subject called "Methods and techniques of fieldwork". Was a very hard field trip, we worked a lot under the burning sun of the desert in eternal workdays from the early morning to the sunset during ten days. Now we, me and my classmates, understand why everyone says that the Atacama desert is the most arid desert in the world... in hundreds of kilometers we don't see a little bit of life, and of course, neither a smallest shadow in that we could get cool us!!

We did a material recovey from an old saltpeter campment of late nineteen century. Our work consisted in recognize the campment limits and recover all the possible material in the shortest time, because those terrains was a property of the enterprise SOQUIMICH, that after of we left literally it would do explode those lands for extract various minerals. We did a lot of grids and excavations, and we put the material in a lot of plastic bags.

The result of our work was a lot of containers full of broken glass bottles, a lot of rusty metal, pieces of centenary newspapers, a lot of diferent seeds, a lot of clothes, tissues and shoes, and many of other objects that speak us of the hard life in that campments. I'm not agree with the metodology of the environmental impact researches, because the material founded is not estudied in depth, and all consist in dig an put the material in plastic bags. The discipline needs to revise this methodology because are hundreds the archaeologycal sites that today are in containers waiting to be studied!

IMPROVING MY FACULTY FACILITIES

In my opinion my Faculty, the Social Sciences Faculty of the University of Chile, is not so bad. In general, the building is ok, I like his facade and its interior. It is not the most beautiful Faculty, but is a simple structure that provides us big spaces in that live our daily life quietly.

The building have a big central hall that recieve much light from the sun because it roof is made of a transparent material that like glass. That is so important, because the interior places looks more big and wide.

From the outside the building looks not so beautyful, but I think that the Faculty is a reflect of the nineties architecture, it's not a pretentious building, and this is fine for my.

The facilities are ok too, we have new computer rooms with a lot of PCs, a casino where the cooks serve good food, a lot of class rooms that maybe of them can be small, but this is not a very big problem. In my opinion, the faculty don't need much things to be better, anyway it need fix a couple of things related with our library that be very important for we the students.

Is imperative improve the library. It has very little space, so that not seems a library, seems rather a study room where severals groups of students do they works talking so much, even laughing or discussing. A library need first of all silent, ant that is impossible if not built more space for the library.

Finally, and maybe more important than this, we need more books. We lack a lot of titles, above all those related whit the last investigations and theoric developments, and we need more books for when we ask for a title this, it should be available always.

The solution is only a good proyect with enought money for enlarge the library facility and buy the necessary books.

Chile classifies to the soccer worldcup !

The triumph in Colombia the last weekend sealed the qualification of Chile to the next Soccer World cup. This is so relevant for the people of the country because it causes a lot of happiness for almost all. The opportunity to see our team in a world cup is a privilege that we had not enjoyed for a long time ago. Soccer is the most popular sport in our country, and after the world cup of France in 1998 we only lived a lot of soccer frustrations... Until now. The actual soccer team gave us a brilliant participation in the playoffs of South Africa 2010, and now many people in Chile admire their soccer players, and specially the coach Marcelo Bielsa, because he changed the mentallity of Chilean Soccer players, and the quelification is a big achievement of his work.

Many of the soccer players do a great performance in an individual level, but the most important aspect of this team is their almost perfect collective game. However, all the players won the affection of the people beacause they all show sacrifice, hard work and love for the national shirt. Players like Alexis Sánchez ("the wonder child"), Jorge Valdivia ("the wizard"), Matías Fernández ("matigol") or Claudio "the falcon" Bravo are at this moment real celebrities for the people. But in my case, I admire Humberto "the lollipop" Suazo, the big goal scorer of the southamerican playoffs to South Africa, because he gave us incredible joys whit his ten goals, and beacuse he is an humble man that leaves everything in the field.

In June 2010 all the Chileans will do the impossible to see all the matches of our soccer team. These matches will be broadcasted in the morning, so I hope that I do not have any class (or worse, a test!!) in these moments, beacuse I will be obligated to be absent. The next year, all the Chileans will be dreaming with winning the most desired cup: the eternal glory of the Soccer world cup!.

the presidential election

In December 13th of 2009, the chilean people must elect they president for the period 2010-2014. All the chilean citizens, all who are registered in the electoral system, will must go to the enabled zones to vote. The electoral system it is very simple: if you are registered, you are bound to vote for the rest of your life.

In this race, run four candidates, but only three run with advantage (as tell the surveys). The fourth candidate, the leftwing Jorge Arrate, have the same minority destiny of the chilean left since the democracys back after the long years of Pinochet dictatorship.

The three most strong candidates are the rightwing Sebastian Piñera, the christian democrat Eduardo Frei, and the independent Marco Enriquez-Ominami.

Sebastian Piñera is one of the most millionaire people in Chile, and he represent to the "Coalición por el Cambio", a politic conglomerate that meets the rightwings parties. Basically, he defends the neoliberal sistem and represents the conservatism tradition of the upper class, and his measures aim to perfect the free market system, increase the number of police mens, and other populist measures, like pay a bond of $40.000 if he wins the elections.

Eduardo Frei represent the continuity of the present goverment, because he is an important member of the "Concertación" pact, a party coalition of central and leftwing currents that govern the country since the definitive democracy's back in 1990. He was presindent between 1994 and 2000, and he wants come back to Moneda house to continue the Michelle Bachelet work, the current president. Frei talk more about Bachelet work than his own goberment in the nineties, because he use the greatest popularity of Bachelet to wins the elections.

Marco Enriquez-Ominami it is an ex memeber of Socialist Party. It is the most young candidate, and his policies strategy are the criticism to the other candidates, aiming to they older and traditional way to do policy. Hence, this candidate define him like the nesesary change that needs the policy in the present. His ideas are next to the leftwing, however he is a liberal, not a socialist.
In my opinion, this election has an interesting debate between all the candidates, but this is not so important because the candidates whit more win possibilities are the representatives of the two political forces that dominate the power in Chile because of the bynominal system: The Concertación and the rightwing. That is means that the elección it's reduced to a fight of who offer more and more, Piñera or Frei, taking advantage of the people needs. I don't believe that december elections means a good future for Chile, and for all this, I don't vote , because I don't believe in both Piñera and Frei, they are the worse of the present politcy.

WHAT TO DO / WHERE TO GO IN SANTIAGO

Well, this is a cuestion a litle complicated for me, because I think Santiago its not a very beautyfull city. Anyway, this city is the capital of the country and the first city founded in this lands, and an important part of the history of Chile took here, and the people that are living here today are from all the corners of the country. Even though this is the most big, crowded and poluted city in Chile, Santiago it is my city, and hide in his neighborhoods and corners an interesting image of the chilean society.

The first place that a foreigner should visit it's the San Cristobal hill to apreciate all the extension of the city in the valley. From the top of the hill (in a windy and clean day), where is the virgin statue, the view is very wide and beautyful, specially in the afternoon or in the night.


Other places that I recomend are the neighborhoods of the center of city, in Santiago district. The Moneda house and his arrounds (Plaza de la Constitución and paseo Bulnes), and Plaza de Armas could be interesting for somebody that want to know the civic center and some of our recent history . Not far from here, many streets to the west, Brasil and Yungay neighborhoods (both are very next) shows an image of the old architecture. The people that is living there reflect of the the traditional neighborhood life thats are tipical in some places, but in the present it has been changing.


A very interesting place for whoever knows more about our society and our tipical products and food are the Vega Central, in Recoleta district, and Mercado Central, in Santiago district. Both are near of Mapocho river, to the north and to the south respectively. In Vega Central anybody can find by excelents prices a wide range of our products, especially fruits and vegetables. In this places inhabit a lot of characters that show the typical chilean mischief. In the other side fo the river, in Mercado Central the tourists can sample the taste of our typical marine food for cheapest prices.


Finally, a foreigner can't leave Santiago without visit Bellavista neighborhood an it's nightlife. A few streets next to Plaza Italia to the north, "el Bella" it is the most popular place of night entertainment in this city. In a few squares, can be found bars, clubs, restorants for all the tastes. From a beer for only $1000, to a very expensives wines and dishes, cheapest and dangerous clubs, exclusives bars and discotheques... Bellavista it is an excellent place make for all, perfect to finalice any adventure in this gray and crazy city.

TRANSANTIAGO: BEFORE AND AFTER

I think that the new transport system is better than the previous one, known as "micros amarillas" ("yellow buses"), mainly because it's cheaper, cleaner and friendlier than the old system.
Transantiago can be considerated as a real system, where all the buses and the Metro (Santiago's subway) are interconnected, not like the "yellow buses" which were only a conglomerate of privates enterprises that competed between each others, converting the streets of the city in a big chaos.
But, this changes cost a lot of problems for the people and for me, becauseat the beginning (one year and some months) of the implementation of the system the situation was terrible. I live very far from my University, and the Transantiago each day caused troubles to me and millions of people. The worst was the long waiting times for the bus to arrive, the slow trips and extremly crowded buses, and the long time required to get home.
Fortunately the system changed, maybe very slowly, but the important is that it changed. Some things continue failing, principally the crowded subway in the peak hours, and the lack of buses in regular hours.
I hope that with the new lines of subway, and more feeder buses, the system will work perfectely well.

My first term...

The last semester was a mixture of much work in the university, what meant a little of free time, but with great trips to the beach and to the south of Chile. In general, I did many funny things, but I also had to do a lot of boring work.
Also I have worked as waiter in a bar in Bellavista neighborhood since February. This bar is called Altazor, it is a little bar where Blues are played. It is a good job, it has allowed me to fianace my personal expenses, including a surfboard, a wetsuit, and three trips to the beach, two to Pichilemu, and one to La Serena.
So, this year I tried to learn surfing. It is a very hard sport. It is so dificult to stand up on the board, before you learn a lot of things, like row, find the appropriate waves and specially, lose the fear to the sea.
This first semester was definitely fun. I like soo much traveling away from Santiago, and in my job I enjoy very good moments with my coworkers after the job in the dawn. Maybe some subjects in the university were boring, but that did not ruin my term.