2010, Bicentenary year?

Hi everyone!

The Bicentenary was announced as the big celebration of the country, something that we, like Chileans, should never forget, because our nation now is two hundred years since it is independent. New monuments, public works, historic and epic movies, antique series, the music and even the people showed us how this year should be for us. However, more than remind this bicentenary about these two hundred years that we are, we’re going to remember 2010 because of other events that happened during the year: the earthquake, FIFA world cup and the trapped miners.

The earthquake was an experience that nobody will forget; the noise, the deaths, the tsunami and everything was one of the most traumatic experiences of our life. This February 27°, Chileans were sleeping on a summer night, when suddenly we felt that the floor was moving; nobody really knew what was happening but the day after, all of us realized that it was not a simple earth tremor, it was earthquake with epicenter in the south of our country, where a lot of people was affected.

FIFA World Cup was on June and so much Chileans was excited because since 1998, our Football Team didn’t qualify to a football cup. This year, it was on South Africa and some Chileans travel to there to cheer “La Roja”. The people were animated; in all places we can see Chilean flag, people with Chilean hats and “bubuzelas”, singing our National Anthem or praising our coach: Marcelo Bielsa, who become, with the team players, in new national heroes.

Trapped miners of San José Mine were one of the more commented events in national media. They were thirty three persons who were working there but a pull down trapped them and they could not communicate with nobody. Everybody was worried for them because nobody knew if they were alive. However when the rescue begun the people discover that all of them were alive. All the people were very happy and after two months they could meet again with his familiars.

Earthquake, World Cup, Miners: words that make us remember a singular year, which was not a normal bicentenary year, with celebrations and parties; it was a special year that will be remembered by the emotions, the exceptional situations and the way that the media tell us about it every day. People will not remember our 200^th independence; will remember those three situations which made us cry, cheer and move.

See you!

Rancagua, sweet home

Hi everyone!

In my life, I have lived in three different places; two in Rancagua and one in Santiago. The first place where I lived I don’t it remember so well because my family moved there when I was like 2 years and I was only a child. I remember that this house was little and the garden was ugly. I remember called it “The Ugly House” because the next place where we lived was beautiful and is the home where I have lived since then.

The new house was beautiful, it is not a mansion but is my home and I love it. We moved there a bit time before my sister born (she is actually sixteen). Now, in this house lives she, my mum, my dad, my dog :) and me.
When we moved to that house it looked different that now. The walls were different color, the curtains weren’t really beautiful and the bedrooms were bored. With the time we could redecorate it and use each bedroom for everything what we wanted. For example, like me and my sister slept in the same room, we can use another to play and had all our toys there. It was fun because we played there and even we draw and paint in the walls and my parents didn’t say anything because they liked it. However, with the time my sister and I slept in different rooms because we grow up and we must to use the “play room”. Now, my bedroom is beautiful and I love it, because it has all that I like (books, photos, my makeup, decorations, etc) and it’s very warm.

This house is really good because is near of everything; to a mall, to a two hospitals, schools and it have public transport to everywhere. The better of it is that the place where my home is, in spite of be near of all those, is a really quite place with very good neighbors.

Now, like I’m studying here, in Santiago, I’m living in an apartment with my cousin. It’s beautiful, comfortable and it has a very good location but it’s not my home and my bedroom is not MY bedroom.

In the future, if I lived alone I’d like to live in an apartment in the center of the city, because we can found a lot of interesting things there. But if I were a family I’d like to live in the country, in a very quiet place with a beautiful landscape and a lot of trees.

I think that the houses in the future will be little and bored because all the people will live in apartment where each person live his “square meter”, without neighborhood life.

See you!

Enviroment =)

Hi everyone!
The world in which we live each day is more and more polluted. We can see how the cars, factories and the people in general damage the environment. I don’t like the people who don’t care the environment, I think that they doesn’t care it, however it is a topic very important in our society because each day our planet is worst and the global warming look threatening to destroy our lives; the temperature is higher everyday and a lot of animals are in danger of extinction.
Personally, I’m not a person who worries so much about the environment, but if I can to do little things, I do it. For example, I try to use the car less as possible and I try to use my legs and walk when the distances are not so much long, if the place where I want to go is far away I try to use the bus.

Personally I consider me "Green -in-between", because I help the environment with little things.

I think that the people learn about his environmentally practices in his home; the parents are the first persons who must to teach to his children how to take care about the nature, however, sometimes the school or friends can make that you adopt environmentally practices, because they can be more educated in that topic. For example, I never recycled in my house, with my family, but when I was in the school it created a “Recycling program”, where the students ordered the rubbish by paper, organic, can and glass. It was fun.

To help the environment I would like to use the bicycle however I don’t have it. I would use it to go the university because it is not so much far from my house, it doesn’t pollute and I would do exercise. Also, we can reduce (or avoid that it continue increase) the carbon footprint.
We must to take care the environment; by little steps we can help the planet.

See you!

Literature =)

Hi everyone!

Literature is very important in our lives because it allows to show how the culture and habits are, also to fun is and make a good moment to persons who is reading. You can read a lot of books, of different items and you will never find the same writing style, to the contrary, each book has a different world that you can discover.

Generally, I read so much, most of all in summer, when I have a lot of time to read what I want and what I like. Now, I have short time to do it, but it doesn’t worry me because I read other thing interesting too. When I was a child I read short books, which was like a summary of forty five pages of big classics like “Journey to the center of the Earth”, “Moby Dick” or “The mysterious island”. I read it in summer but in the year I read my school books. Today, I don’t know how many books I read to the year, but I think that it could be like six or seven, because my time is short.
I enjoy reading every kind of books; I like all the books, (maybe, except Twilight saga), but I think that I prefer fiction books, because it are more exciting and you can imagine so much things that it not happen in your real life. If you ask me, I don’t really have a favorite writer, but my favorite book ever is “One Hundred Years of Solitude”…I love Buendia family and the magical realist which García Márquez write Macondo’s story. If you ask me for my favorite character of the literature in general, I’ll say the Little Prince, from the book of the same name…I love his innocence and his way to see the world and the life with the eyes of a child.

The last book that I read was “Martín Rivas”, because I want to compare with the soap opera that I was watching the last term. The book was good, but the series was very bad and different from the book. It take to read like two weeks, or even more and the book is about a young man called Martín that travel to Santiago to study because his dad have been die, however while he study he felt in loved with a girl called Leonor. It’s a good book that portray very well the century XIX’s culture.
I love read, it’s very fun and now I want to read a book called “Never let me go”. It look interesting.

See you!

Testing the limits of care for older people

Hi everyone!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/28/japan-elderly-care-mutual-support
One of the items that I take interest is in the elderly people, because I think that they had a lot of things which we can learn about them. So, in Guardian.co.uk I found a really interesting article about ancient people in Japan. It begins talking about “Elderly Day” that is celebrated in this country each September. In this day, the people give presents to their parents and grandparents and the society appreciate their contribution through this years. This event tells to the world about the positive image about the most long-lived persons of the society.

However, the ancient people often receive abuses or sentiment of hatred and the adult people sometimes can’t to take care of his parents or grandparents. For that, in 2000 the Japanese’s politicians created a “long-term care insurance system” where nurses look after them and worry about them. Even sometimes, some neighbors association help to that and visit older people that live alone.

This model is been taking by United Kingdom to take care British ancients and the politicians has created nursing houses, where people can help voluntary to look after this people. It’s a very good initiative, but even the voluntaries must to cost and pay the costs of the houses.

See you!

Finding Neverland

Hi everyone!

I love go to cinema, however I don’t go frequently, the most of the time I watch movies in my house with my family or friends. The last time, I went with my friends and my sister to a cinema in Rancagua and we watched Toy Story 3, it’s was funny and we laugh a lot. When I watched movies in my house I usually rent or download movies from internet, because I don’t like to buy movie unless I like it really much.

My favorite movie is called “Finding Neverland” and it’s about Jamie Barrie, a famous play’s writer who since a time hasn’t written any good play, however, one day he met a little family constituted by the mum, called Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and her sons Peter, Jack, George and Michael. In the beauty of the innocence of those children the playwright found an attractive topic to write in his play. In spite of, nobody believes in that, but he achieved to open one of the most remembered plays ever: “Peter Pan”, which with symbolism and metaphors tell the story of the life since a different perspective. When I watch the movie, I was very moved because you can realize the beauty of the childhood and the importance of live each moment from your life. I have seen the film like only three times because I think that if you watch it more, it lost the emotion.

The weak points of that movie are that if you don’t like the moved film, you don’t like “Finding Neverland”. The good points are the actors, because works Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet (who are one of the best actors, in my opinion) and the music, in fact, it won an Oscar on 2004 because it.

I love “Finding Neverland”. Totally recommended.

Santiago

Hi everyone!

I’m not from Santiago. I from Rancagua and I came here when I graduated from high school. Although Rancagua isn’t the most beautiful city of Chile (in fact, it’s really ugly), I like it because is a quiet place. I don’t like the fact that Santiago was the center of Chile, because, for example, in the news only speaks about the things that happen in the capital and the rest of the cities of the country don’t exist. Is really unfair because the people who live in another region, must to know the news from a place that is very far from their home. Well…I think that I forget the real topic of that post.

In the spite of that I wrote, I like Santiago because it has EVERYTHING! You can find all that you need and you can go wherever you want because there are a lot of places to visit. For example, if a tourist asks me for natural places, I would recommend him to visit the “Parque Forestal”, because it’s very beautiful, I would say San Cristobal and Santa Lucía’s hill. But if they ask me by historic places I would suggest “London’s street”, which is a wonderful place where they can see and appreciate the architecture of the 30’s. I would tell about “La Chascona” which was Pablo Neruda’s house in Santiago; “La Moneda”, our government house. I would tell them about the museums which are here, for example “Museo de Arte Contemporáneo”, which take place on “Parque Forestal”, “Museo de Bellas Artes”, “Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos” and, if you like experiment and touch when you are learning I would recommend “MIM” (Museo Interactivo Mirador).

To finish, I can say that if you like historic and important places, you must visit Santiago, with all their museums and interesting monuments, but if a person ask me about a place beautiful with fantastic and amazing natural world I would say “DO NOT visit Santiago, visit the rest of Chile, is more beautiful”.

See you!!