Self Evaluation of my academic year (2009)

Hello all
Today I’m going to write about my self evaluation of the year, trying to tell you about most of all the things I did this year. First I’m going to tell you all i did on the first semester, on every subject: introduction to sociology, contemporary world’s history, social science’s methodology I, Anthropology and Psychology. Then I’m going to tell you all I did on the second semester: Latin American Social History, Social Science Methodology II, Social Psychology, Statistics I , Social Science’s Philosophy, English 4 and a CFG (Curso de Formación General, that in English means General Formation Course) called Globalization, Copper and New Economy.
The first semester was really great for me, because I was living a new experience, the university. It was hard at the first time to learn the study rhythm so I tried to give my best at the first semester to get good marks. The introduction to sociology was with a teacher called Manuel Canales –I call him “tesito” because he drinks tea all the time. It was really good, I learned a lot from Marx, Weber and Durkheim, all the classics of the sociology. Contemporary world’s history was with a French teacher called Emanuelle Barozet. It was the hardest subject of the semester, but I got a good mark (like a 5.2). Methodology was the worst subject of the semester, and it was really easy. Anthropology was a cool subject and not too hard, I’ve got something like a 6. And Psychology was the more useless subject, because we won’t study it anymore. This semester was great: I had a mark average of 5.8.
The second semester was a lot different, because I had lot of free time. I was one week on Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the Latin American Sociology Congress, then I got one week without classes because of the eleven of September, and then another week because of 18 of September, so I couldn’t take the rhythm of study again. And this semester I was working lots on politic so, I had less time than before. I haven’t finished all the subjects this semester, so I’m going to tell you all I know about them. Latin American Social History was the greatest subject of this semester, I learned lots on it, and I did a monograph about something that I like: the working class in South America. Methodology II was the most boring subject, no one went to all the classes. Social Psychology was a funny subject, and It was really easy and relaxed. Statistics was great too, the teacher I got is really good at teaching, I learned really good all about this subject. The Philosophy subject had a great program, but the teacher was a little bit boring, we learned the things from the subject from our assistant classes. On English 4 I shared with some people of my degree and I learned a few things that I hope will come handy in lots of situations. The CFG was the worst thing ever I’ll learn in my life, the teacher was like a Christian Democrat, that tried to tell you about their political program, and it was really stupid. I don’t know how I’m going to finish this semester, but I guess it will be good, but not as good as the first one.
In conclusion, this year has been a year of lots of learning, with good and bad teachers, with great and borings subjects, activities and stuffs. The first semester I had to learn the study rhythm of the university, and studied lots, and I finished with good marks. On the second semester I had less classes, more activities, more subjects, and it made me work less than the first semester, but it has been a really great one too. I hope the university will be better in future, and that I’ll learn a lot. I guess this the last post of the semester, so see you all!

Sociology

This next post it’s been really difficult for me, because I’m on the first year of the degree, so I don’t know all the challenges it is facing right now, so I’ll try to tell you the things I know. If I’m wrong, correct me please.
I don’t know anything about if the sociology in my university its studying technology. I only know that we work with SPSS (statistical program for social science) that is a computer program to make a statistical analysis for quantitative investigations. Maybe it is investigated in the work sociology, but I really don’t know.
The social matters are one of the most important things on our degree, because in our society, the capitalist society, the inequalities are really big in this time, so sociology tries to help to solution this problem, by studying the social structure and the social stratification. When I went to the ALAS Congress, I heard lot of people talking against capitalism and its inherent poverty, and about the exploitation and workers, industries occupation and revolution. I don’t know more of this thing; I only know that some teachers are working on it very hard (?) in my faculty.
About education I don’t know much, I only know that this is investigated on the education degree, because they also work on social research. In the faculty I’m in, they study the Chilean education system, they critic it and things like that. I don’t know much about this, I do not know about education sociology around the world.
I think that all the problems that sociology is facing can’t be solved by a social science discipline, even if they want to. I think that the only way to change these problems is to change the whole capitalist society. The sociology can help for it, only if it doesn’t helps the enterprises interests by doing all the things they want. It can help for the society change only by giving the acknowledgement about it to the social movements, so they can use it to get a more equal, fair and democratic society. This means, destroy the capitalism (I wish)
That’s all for today, see you all.

The Lord of the Rings: The fellowship of the Ring

The Lord of the Rings has been one of the famous movies on the last few years. This movie it’s about a journey that’s started by a fellowship that wants to destroy Sauron’s Ring, because, if this ring arrives on Sauron’s hands, means that he can rule the Middle Earth. It starts on Hobbiton, on the Frodo’s house, because he is the one who carries the ring on whole journey, with four hobbits. They go with Strider (he’s real name it’s Aragorn, but on the first step of this movie he is called like that, he uses it as a nickname) after being on the Inn of the Prancing Pony. He helps the hobbits escape of the Nazgûls, because they were looking for the ring. Then, they reach to Rivendel, an elven town. There they got together with a few people: Gandalf, Legolas the elf, Gimli the Dwarf, Boromir the human of Gondor. They decide to go with Frodo to destroy the ring. After this they go way to Moria, going through the mountains to get there. In Moria Gandalf loses a fight against a Balrog (this is something like a Dragon) and the fellowship decides to go forward without him. Then they went to Lothlorien, and after this they go by canoe on the river Anduin, and arrive on the Falls of Rauros. There they get attacked by the Uruk-hai, who kills Boromir, and separates the fellowship on three: Frodo and Sam, Pippin and Merry, and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, and there this movie ends.
I like this movie a lot; when I was younger I was a fan of it, because of his music (it is very sweet, with lots of European medieval details, and big orchestras music), his fantastic medieval characterization, and their characters, for example the elves, with their typical majesty. They really did a good job.
The director of this movie was Peter Jackson; he also did the other Lord of the rings movies, and he won lots of Oscars and movie Prizes.

Free time interests/activities/hobbies

Hello people!

Today I’m going to tell you about what things I like to do in my free time and stuff like that. I hope that you enjoy this post. If you get bored, don’t worry, this is not the more interesting thing in the world, so you can keep on doing your things.

I like to do lots of things in my free time, I don’t know why. First I like to rest from the university studies, taking naps or just sitting on a couch. Then I like to party with my friends, have a good time, drink some beers, and dance a little bit. Then I try to spent the other time with my family in Los Andes, because I don’t see them often, and try to read the books I like, for example now I’m reading a book from Carlos Pérez, and I want to finish another book from Guy Debord.

I like to do all these things because they make me feel relaxed, especially the books, and because I like to spent time with my friends and family.

I would like to have lots of time to read books, because I have some books at my home and I haven’t read them all, and they are very interesting (or at least they seem to be). And I would like to have more time to spend with my brother, to visit him to Viña del Mar or to go to party with my friends too.

The main thing that eats my time is the University: first, I dedicate a lot of time to the studies, to read the classes books, to do home works, to organize with the group I’m working with on a few signatures. Second, the political activities on the university take lots of time from me too, because I have to go to the assemblies, to meetings with my “political friends” and things like that. Then, I’m participating on a studies group, and we have meetings too, and we have to read books to then discuss them, so it takes time from me too. And the last thing, is the fact that sometimes when I’m out of classes we go to the grasses to talk about the life with my friends and drink some beers. I enjoy them all a lot.

I guess that’s all, hope you’re fine, see you!

Bye

My Beloved Faculty

The current situation in my faculty (Social Science Faculty) is really weird. We’re in elections right now, and all the people are sticking posters of their respective political groups, and the entire place is full of papers and stuff. The canteen it’s used as a study room, so you can lunch and study at the same time. The sociology degree- as the others of the faculty, I mean psychology, anthropology and education- have lots of problems with its program, because it is very flexible, and it changes all the years. And etcetera, I would continue lot of lines more writing about it.
The library needs lots of improvements, the internet system too, the teacher’s evaluation system, and so and so.
The first steps to dealing with this situation is that all the community of the faculty discusses what he wants to change, then change the university, then the Chilean education, then the world (I wish).
These improvements would help to change the society, because, if the people have better education, they can get better social and economic conditions of life. In the faculty it would mean, degrees that are functional to the society, and not to the market as today. If we want to get this, we need to fix the degree’s program, the teacher’s evaluation system, the study room, get more books, and the only way we get that is getting state financing, so we can get what we want, and what we need, and no what enterprises want and need.
So, I guess that’s all, see you next week

Bye.

The Coup D'état in Honduras

Hello, today I’m going to talk about the Coup d’état in Honduras, I will describe the situation first, and then I’ll tell you my opinion about Micheletti and then Zelaya. Then I’ll tell you what I think it’s going to happen in Honduras.
In Honduras, on June 29th, in the 2009, the military forces of Honduras arrested the president of this country, whose name is Manuel Zelaya. He was militant of the Liberal Party of Honduras. He was arrested, because he was adopting politics from Chavist regime, this mean, Zelaya called for a vote for constitutional reform, which was declared illegal by bodies such as Parliament and the Supreme Court. Before doing this constitutional reform he was arrested, and Micheletti took the presidency of the country.
Now I’m going to tell you my opinions about Micheletti and then Zelaya. First, I think that Micheletti is a marionette of the interests of the money power, and the right wing of the Honduran politics. I mean, they don’t want to lose power by this new constitution (understanding that Zelaya wanted to turn the constitution to a “more popular” way). And about Zelaya … I think it’s only a common liberal opportunist, that wanted to stay more time with the power, I don’t think he had good intentions by being president.
I think, that Honduras will stay with Micheletti for a while, and then he will leave the power, and he’ll be punished by his own political mates because of the coup d’état when their interests will be satisfied. I don’t know, I’m not optimistic about it, and I don’t care about Zelaya, I think the only thing that’s important right now, is the people who is fighting against this fact government on Honduras.

What to do and where to go in Santiago.

First of all, hello. I have to do a warning before i start writing: i’m not from Santiago, so it’s possible that i said really non tourist places.
I think that a good place for a foreigner to visit here in Santiago first is all the downtown of it, because it has lots of national culture, the colony architecture, the typical Chilean people. In the downtown are places like the Santa Lucia’s hill (i like it because it has lots of trees and grass); San Cristobal’s hill with the Maria Virgin on its top, and the “teleférico” (i don’t know how to say it in English), because it’s really fun; San Diego Street with all his books, because it is one of the cheapest place to buy books; la Vega, because it’s a popular place that has lots of histories; the Chile university (obviously the Juan Gomez Milla Campus to drink beers, smoke all the things that you can imagine and fight against the police) because it’s better that the Catholic University of Chile and etcetera.
I think that would be good that a tourist go to La Piojera, to drink lots of “terremotos” (in English means earthquake) and get really drunk. Another thing to do in Santiago its travelling on the transantiago transport system, it is really fun to go on the microbus like a sardine on a tin. Other place to visit is the Pablo Neruda’s (he is a really famous poet of Chile, he got the Nobel prize) house in Santiago.
I don’t know anything else about Santiago, so i guess i won’t write more. See you next week. Bye

Alas Congress

About two weeks ago, the degree of sociology of our university, went to Buenos Aires, to a Sociology congress called ALAS (Latinamerican sociology asociation) on the Buenos Aires University. It lasted all the week long.
The conference i enjoyed the most (and the thing that a liked more of the congress) was one called "Trabajo, crisis y autogestión", because the topic that treated this conference was really good: It was about the experiences of some groups of workers of Argentina that ocuppied some companies, and started cooperatives, thing that was very curious. There was workers from a famous ceramic factory called Zanon, called too FASINPAT that means "Fábrica sin patrón" (without boss factory in spanish).
The bad points of the congress was the bad organization of it. There were lots of room change, that made me really confused about where to go. Another thing was the tend that they build in front of the medicine faculty of the UBA, because they put it in a place that, when it was raining (almost all the week rained in B.A), the wáter filled all the place, and we had to go there to certifícate that we were studying on our university, so we’ve got wet.
The highlights of the trip was that i traveled on plane, and i’ve never traveled on one before. I always was looking trough the window to see the mountains and the clouds.
I had a really great time on B.A, i hope i can go again

Transantiago: Before and after

Hi all. Today I’m going to tell you about mi experience on the transantiago system, and what I think about it. First, I have to make you know that I’m not from Santiago (I’m from Los Andes), so it’s probably that I had wrong opinions about it.
Comparing both of the public transporting system, I can tell you that they have lots of differences. The system that was before of the actual transantiago system produced lot more pollution, and now it pollutes less (or at least a little bit less). But, it had less people on the buses, and you didn’t have to wait lots of time to take one of them. Now, the system it’s really weird compared with the old one, because now you have to pay with a card called “Bip!”, and not with money, just how it used to be.
I would like to change a lot of things to the public transport system: first, I would make that the coin-pay-way came back, so the people who forgot the bip card use coins instead of the card. Second, I would like that the state controlled the public transport system, so it’s easier to handle all the difficulties of it.

Countries i would like to visit

I would like to visit France and Germany, because i like their culture. They both have great artists and great philosophers, and I like some of them, like Guy Debord, a situacionist sociologist, and Paul Eluard, a surrealist poet, both French, and Karl Marx and Otto Rühle from Germany.
I only know some things about these countries. For example, in France there’s a really famous museum called Louvrè or something like that, and there is the Da Vinci’s Monalisa. Other important French place is the Eiffel tower. Something important from there is a historical event: The French revolution, which affected all the places around the world. And, from Germany, I only know about their history, for example the spartaquist league, Rose Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht (I don’t really know how to write it), the Frankfurt school, and etc.
I would really like to study in France or Germany, because sociology there is really good, they have very smart sociologists, and their universities are among the best in the world.
If I was there, I would like to go to meet all the important places, go to party, meet s lot of people, and learn to speak their idiom, specially French – because I like it a lot- and things like that.

First Term: Good and Bad points

The first term of this year, the 2009, had a lot of new experiences for me, beginning with the fact that it’s my first term in the university.
First, it was a great change in my life because i wasn't (and still not) living in my city, Los Andes, because i had to move to Santiago. I was used to its calm way of living, and the absence of excesive pollution, so i had to readapt myself to this grey polluted big city.
I had five subjects: Introduction to Sociology, Antropology, Method I, Psycology and Contemporary World History. It was a big change in the way of studying, because i didn't studied as much as now at school, so i had to make a big effort to get into the rhythm of university. I had to read a lot of books, but i had the luck that i read some of them before, like Marx's books for example. So i learned a lot about my degree, and that made me really happy.
In this first term, in my free time i did some activities. First i wanted to work at university politics, so i contacted a friend from another university and started working together in a collective (that's what we call our organic structure). Then i met some people here in the university and they invited me to a study group, and i accepted, because they do a lot of interesant stuff. Besides this, i didn't do anything else, because i hadn't got more time to spent.
So that was my first term of the 2009, full of great changes in my life, meaning this all the aspects of life.