Welcome 2014! a year of changes!

The 2013 has been, in spite of the “bad” things, a good year .When the summer (that was a very good one) was over, I finally began to take classes from the career I wanted: Anthropology. I was at the bachelor program from the University during the 2012, so even  when I didn’t have such a bad time there (as so many think), I wanted really badly to star with anthropology!... now I just have to wait till the degree begins to really have cools courses.

This year also had a few highlight, as the day I went with a friend to do paragliding. It was really awesome!! I was just flying! If you ever have the opportunity to do it, just do it! I also went to pretty cools concerts this year; Regina Spektor, Buena Vista Social Club and The Bets (a Beatles’ tribute)

Other highlight was that I went with my family to Argentina. We started in Copiapó and we crossed trough the San Francisco’s crossing to La Rioja. There we stayed a day and we went south, to Mendoza. There were a lot hours lock up inside the car. From Mendoza the idea was go to Los Andes, but we got stuck in Uspallata, the last Argentinean city before the crossing, because it was close. We stayed there four days, waiting and, for me, was the best part, because we weren’t lock up in the car and we could know more of the place (even we visited a an archeology site).

I finally handed my monograph over! That is like a ghost that follows you all bachillerato. And the last highlight, I would say that was the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who! It was such a big event! I mean, it was worldwide! They even got a Guinness record, the largest broadcasting of a TV show or something like that.

Now as the end of this year is coming, a new beginning it’s not far away

Cheers

[Comida] [Food] [Essen]

If you know me, you will be aware of how much I like to eat, especially sweet things, like kuchen, apfelstrudel, chocolate, etc. I mean, my actually need to eat something sweet every day.  It became a habit, because, before I came to Santiago, I used to drink coffee after lunch with my dad. We drank black coffee, with no sugar, so we needed something sweet to balance the after lunch coffee.

I don’t only like to eat sweet things, I would say that I like most of the food, with the exception of seafood, that actually I have never like it and I think that makes me sick. In the other hand, I have been a vegetarian for two years now. I must add, that I’m not a strict one, I mean, I eat fish, so I normally call it being a “bad vegetarian”. Anyway, I was never a big meat fan, so I never ate so much of it and always preferred food with a lot of vegetables.

I’m also very daring when we talk about food; I like very much to taste new and exotic food. I have had mostly good experiences trying new stuff, except maybe once in Germany. I was in a restaurant with my host family in Bavaria and I ordered something very traditional, some kind of “wurst”. When it came, it was awful! It was like a piece of gelatin (just fat) with pieces of meat and other things in it. I couldn’t eat it. I gave it to my host dad.

To finish, I would just add that life is too short to be worrying about diet and deprive yourself of so many things, among them, eat good stuff.

Cheers!

♬ Dream a little dream of me ♬

Dreams. Such a wonderful topic, likewise if we talk about of the ones that we live in our sleep or the ones that we live while we are awake.

On one hand, I find very interesting the dreams that we have while we sleep. Even when they said that they are a performance of our subconscious, I have had dreams on the night that at the next day happens. Kind of a foresight. I have explained that to myself thinking that our mind is much more powerful of what we imagined and I think that perfectly can perceive, even if it’s in a unperceived way, what it’s going to happen or call other people. Haven’t happened to you that you have been the whole day thinking of somebody; an old friend or family, and this person call you when you have your cell on your hand? Or something similar?

In the other hand, there are the day dreams, the ones that we have while we are awake. One big difference between this two kinds of dreams, it’s that while you can’t control the first one; day dreaming is conscience, thereby you can control it.

Along this blog I have said again and again what my biggest dream is, or at least the oldest and more lasting; travel around the world. True. I have done a little of it. Not that little either, but compared with all that the world have to offer t us, what I have travel it’s just negligible.

Hope that I can fulfill this dream someday

Cheers

Go green!

While living in Germany one of the things that most impacted me was how much they recycle. In every house, don’t minding if it was a big or a small one, they have different trash containers; for organics stuff, plastic, aluminum, paper and the rest. And almost every day came a trash trunk to pick different kind of garbage. Also, most of the containers that they use (for the yoghurt, for example) is made of glass, is a little more expensive, but if they  give it back, the yoghurt become cheaper. And don’t make star with the number of solar panels that they have. Germany it’s not that sunny, I mean, I from the north of Chile where we have sun almost every day of the year and we don’t have even a third part of solar panels that my little town in Germany has.

Well, the big different, among others, is how the government impulse green initiatives. Maybe here in Santiago you can find “green points”, where you can take you garbage and recycle it, but it’s just here in Santiago. It’s not a state policy; just the communes with more money or green thinking have it, like La Reina, Las Condes, etc.

I have always tried to be “green”. I mean, ‘cause I lived in a desert I have always have awareness about how much water we spend and misuse, so I’m often going after people telling them to shut the water off (specially with my flat mate, who brush her tooth with the water running…don’t know what is wrong with her). Currently I also come to the University on bike and recycle paper and glass J

Hope someday the Chilean government it’s going to realize all the green potential that our country has.

Cheers!

Keep calm and read a book!

Since I was a little kid, I have considered myself as a “book worm”. As the year passed, I have deduced that me being a book lover was a direct result from one of the first “big” books that I read: Matilda, from Roald Dahl. If you are not familiar with this tittle (or haven’t watch the movie either), it’s about a little girl who was a book worm and because of that, she was very advanced for his age in the school. But the cool part –maybe what inspired me to read so much- was that she developed sort of a mental power that allowed her to move things at will.

A long the years I have developed a taste for a wide range of literature, reading mostly novels. I would say that my favorite topics are: detective/police/thriller/a-killer-in-on-the-loose-run-for-your-life (like Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Jeffrey Archer and Jonathan Santlofer); historical novels (Pearl S. Buck); travels and adventures (George R.R. Martin); and well, as a girl, romances -but the Jane Austen’s, not the one of Corin Tellado- and girlie comedy (Meg Cabot). Aside of the authors I named above, I should add Alexander Dumas, as one of my favorites with his master piece “The Count of Monte-Cristo”.

With the University and all I have to read for it, I haven’t had too much time to read new novels (even when I keep buying and piling new ones). So now I’m just rereading “Pride and Prejudice”, but this time I’m doing it in English (the first time was in spanish). If you are not familiar with the plot, you are in great danger of get very embarrass in public, ‘cause this novel is a classic (not just in romances, but in English literature). In a few word the story line goes like this: There is the Bennet family, with five daughters and a mother who is desperate to marry all of them. Then, one day comes to the village a rich man, Mr. Bingley, with his even richer friend, the proud Mr. Darcy. While the first one fell for the elder Bennet sister, Darcy meets the second daughter; Elizabeth (Keira Knightley in the 2005 film). Here they begin a game of hate, pride and prejudice, which ends (spoiler alert!) in these two character falling in love. This is a very good book, especially if you are longing for a very well written, but at the same time, sweet love story.

Just as a final word, I must add that books are not just to learn about something, but is a way to lead you imagination fly and travel to places that you just can dream of. For the same reason I support (and invite you to do the same) the campaign “libro sin IVA” (http://www.librossiniva.cl/).

Cheers! :)

"Skull of Homo erectus throws story of human evolution into disarray"

Today I wanted to talk about a very interesting article that I found on the internet; "Skull of Homo erectus throws story of human evolution into disarray", written by Ian Sample.

The present article tells us how the founding of an ancient Homo Erectus skull forced the scientific community to rethink the theory of the human evolution.

In Georgia -specifically in  Dmanisi- on 2005 was found the oldest remains of a human ancestor; an 2,4 million years old skull. This skull was older than any other Homo Erectus found in Africa (to where presumably the H. Erectus comes from) and did not differ much from it. After different studies and investigation, anthropologist, as David Lordkipanidze -who leads the Dmanisi excavations-, stared to theorize that maybe all the assortment “homo” species could be just one with a wide diversity.
 

What it’s mean? In a few words, that if this latest theory is accepted, all the different “homos” –rudolfensis, ergaster, habilis, etc-  will disappear, and become all part from the same evolutionary  taxonomic line. But this new idea also has detractors, like Chris Stringer, who defends the thought that due to the huge size of Africa, it’s impossible that all of the African species are just the variety of the Homo Erectus. However, he does not deny that  different species could be part of the same lineage.
 

Being this one of the latest anthropology discussion, you can go and read the article through this link: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/17/skull-homo-erectus-human-evolution

 

Anime! 日本製アニメ !

So, today’s topic is ANIME! In my mum’s words “monos chinos”. Actually anime is the Japanese cartoon, which most of the time –if it’s not always- is based in a manga (Japanese comic book that you read backwards).

I have seen a lot of anime, mostly in my teen’s year. First stated as something that my brother did, watching “Saint Seiya”, then I used to watch “The sailor moon” with a childhood friend and as the years passed, with my brother and sister begin to watch anime together, being our favorites “Dragon Ball”, “Case Closed” (known as “Detective Conan” in Spanish), “Yu-Gi-Oh”, “HunterxHunter”, “Naruto”,  “Hellsing”, “Host Club” and “Death Note”.

Looking backwards, I think that the anime “Case Closed” could be the one that most influenced me, because even if now I don’t watch as much anime as I used to, I still love a good detective story, especially if it is one written by Agatha Christie. It’s funny that the main character, Conan, was not a Christie’s fan, but a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’ fan, while his opponent/friend Heiji was devoted to Christie’s work.

As a final word, I think that there is a huge differences between the Anime and the USA’s cartoon, not just in the drawing itself, but also in the topics that they address, being the anime much deeper that the North American cartoon. 

Cheers! :)