Friday, November 27, 2009

Essay

A new year is a chance of starting again in every aspects of your life, you learn about your old mistakes and you grow as a person in every sense. With your academic life it happens the same, although you keep studying the same career, every year is completely different. Each year has it challenges and easy things, you meet new people and you make new decisions. During this year, there were good things and bad things, things that could be done differently or things that should not have happened.
Reflecting about the good things, first of all, the courses were more interesting. First year was a year were the teachers try to level the knowledge of the students so the courses were not so interesting, but still they were hard. Second year, on the other hand, the mayority of the courses were more linked to the career itself. During the first year, people have to get use to a completely different system, is not like the school that teachers try to help you in every aspect, now you are "alone". The good thing about second year is that you gain the practice of how to do the things, how you can get the things so it does not make the year too hard (without counting the courses and the evaluation itself).
Like there are good things, there are also bad things. Maybe bad is not the right word, because from everything people can take a lesson so at the end is not as bad at it looks like. Things that were not so thrilling are related to the difficulty of the year. As in every career, the next year has newer and bigger challenges (many people say that the first years are the hardest and then it is not so bad). This year the courses were harder and the teachers expect more from a student because now they have the "tools" to overcome more difficult situations.
Rewinding in the year, good things were that the grades got better as now the habit of studying got better and it feels like what teachers taught is more useful for life as a veterinarian. On the other hand, new and bigger responsabilities appeared, the academic exigency is higher and sometimes students feels like if they can not lead with everything, but as everything in life a new year is a new obstacle from which they can learn.
Concluding, second year at veterinary school was not as bad as people can imagine at the end of the year. Sometimes it feels like if it is too much and that the fatigue is so big that the only thing people want to do is just throw everything and do nothing. This year was hard in many aspects, but the only thing that helped was to be perseverance because nothing in life will be easy and next year will be a new year with new challenges and things for remember.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Challenges in your discipline

I think, first of all, a big challenge is that it is a discipline in which you can't stop studying. Like human medicine, everyday appears new diseases that a pacient that arrives to the consulting room can have and we have to be prepared. Also everyday new technology appears, new vaccines appear, so in general it is a discipline in which we have to be updated everyday.
In my point of view, although it is a discipline that requires love towards the animals, I think that sometimes that could play against us. I mean, that if someone loves a lot the animals, at a level that you can't see an animal suffering, maybe these career is not the right choice. Sometimes people could confuse and think that veterinary is what it whole life have wanted because they care for the animals, but if you can't see an animal suffering, there are other ways of helping them beside becoming a veterinarian.
Being a veterinarian means that you will deal everyday with pacients and their owners, so you have to learn how to deal with the owner. Sometimes the owner will refuse in a treatment you have to do, and you will need to be able to make him reconsider it. Also, maybe, the owner wants a treatment for it pet that is not the right one and you have to convince him not to do it. As we will have to deal with pacients and owners, we'll also going to deal with coworkers.
Veterinary, beside being a discipline in which we have to heal the animals, it's a discipline that implies the necessity of ensure that the animal it's in a safe place, to teach the people how they have to treat animals because taking care of an animal goes beyond what you could do at the consulting room.
Finally, veterinary it's a career where you learn about a lot of things, they teach you about many areas, different animals, but when becoming a professional the best thing is to specialize in something in particular and try to be the best you can in what you do. It isn't useful to learn about everything if at the end you won't be able to give your best.

Improving your faculty

First of all I like my faculty because, in a way, you feel that your are studying veterinary as it has a lot of landscape with "Mundo Granja" where you can relate with many different animals. Is not like a convecional faculty with just buildings and where everything it's indoors. Although is nice being in a more "natural" enviorment, when it is winter it's not very nice.
First of all I would improve the computers and the internet conexion. There's not enough computers and when you find a computer available, the internet doesn't work or it is too slow. At the end, as we have some free time between classes, we can't use it wisely because we can't advance in other things.
The other place is the cafeteria. It is a little bit small and the problem is not when it is summer (because the people prefer sitting on the grass, enjoy the nice weather), it's during winter. In winter everybody is looking a place to be warm, or maybe not being too cold, so they decide to go to the cafeteria. As the cafeteria is too small, and considering that the line for buying food starts at the entrance, it's kind of difficult to mobilize and at the end many people have to stay at their feet because there isn't enough chairs either.
From everything, the computers and cafeteria is what I would improve. Obviously there could be other things but I think that many things (that someones could like, but others don't) is what makes unique our faculty. I think that if we try to improve everything, the enviroment and the feeling, of studying veterinary, that generates will be lost.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

My favorite animal

Since little I loved sea animals and I thought on working at Sea World with the dolphins or study zoology marine because I think that the ocean is a completely different world full of magnificient creatures. Although it was my passion, my favorite animal wasn't from the sea. I remember when little I had to do the "Great Brain Project", at my school, about an animal I like the most and, although I don't remember why, I decided to present about the polar bear.
Even though many people see the polar bear as a threat because they use to go to the camps and people are afraid of it, I like to see the other "face" of this animal. First of all I think that this creature doesn't invade the camps because he wants to kill, it's just that he smells food and we can't forget that it's the human who invade, in the first place, the home of the polar bear.
Troughout the whole time I was doing my project, I liked more and more this animal. I think that it's a majestous animal, with it white fur, black nose and thick feet. It has a great sense of smell because he can detect seals swimming under the ice, that can't be thin because if not it won't resist the weight of the bear. It's an animal who has a very lonely life, who only has the company of its baby, he doesn't live in group with other bears. He can give birth to one or two babies who are born during the time the mother hibernates.
It may be difficult to imagine a big and scary animal, as the polar bear and other bears, as a nice one. But sometimes I wonder, if this animals were so danger as some people said, how come that it is so common to buy teddy bear to someone we care, to love the gummy bears of ambrosoli and even more to have the gominola bear. I think that as any animal, the polar bear will be danger only if he feels threat or scare.
Now a days, although I still love the polar bear, I don't think I would work in something related with him. I prefer to stay with the image of a nice creature, but also knowing how he can react in presence of threatness I think I better don't relate with him.

Friday, October 9, 2009

What to do, Where to go in Santiago

Santiago has many places for visiting, but it depends on what type of things the person wants to do, what place to visit.
If someone likes history, art or something related to culture, Santiago has interesting museums, lots of art museums and beautiful chapels with great paintings. On the other hand for the ones that like best outside activities, they have the opportunity of visiting a zoo, go to the Cerro San Cristobal and ride the "teleferico".
If I had to suggest places to visit I would say:
1) Bellavista: I think it has very good restaurants if someone wants to try a good Chilean food, and at nights there are a variety of pubs and clubs for people to choose. The couple of times I had been at a club in Bellavista I saw lots of tourists, so I imagine that in general tourists like go.
2) Patronato: For the ones that like to buy a lot is cheap and you can find everything that people sell at the mall (without counting spensive and exclusive cloth). I just suggest not to go during a hot and sunny day because the only way of shopping is walking; it's impossible to go by car when there's a lot of people.
3) La Moneda: I think that when someone visit a country, he/she has to go and learn about the history or the culture. Santiago has beautiful museums about the time when it was colonize, about the independant day and also interesting museums about art and the chapels also have nice paintings.
4) Cerro San Cristobal: I like this place because you have a variety things to do; walk, seat and relax, ride bycicle or the "teleferico". Its the perfect place to go a Sunday afternoon around 16:00 hrs with the family and then at night see a beautiful scenery of Santiago with all the lights of the cars, street and houses.
5) Finally I have to consider that in every trip there should be a day full of fun so I would say to go to Fantasilandia or Mampato. It's perfect for people of all ages (well, not considering people too young or too old), there are games for all the ages and tastes. I think Mampato is a little bit more for small children and Fantasilandia has more games for grown ups.
Well, actually Santiago has a lot more places where to go, people just need to take their time and decide what they like the best.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

September

September is an important month for every chilean because the 18th it's the independance day of Chile. It's a month of celebration and joy and also to remember our traditions and culture that makes chile an unique and great country.
At the beggining of September people start flying comets of differents colors because it's also the month when spring comes and you can see trees and flowers blooming, and there's the perfect wind for the comets. This month has the nicer weather to enjoy of the special day that the 18th represents.
The 18th of september is a day in which all the people unite for a common cause and all of them celebrate in a big party known as the "Fonda". The "Fonda" is so common that we can find them in any city we are. This party starts during the day and people can enjoy of some empanadas, anticuchos, roast and also dance "La Cueca" and it continues during some hours of the night for the people to keep dancing and celebrating.
Other people take the chance of leaving Santiago for the holiday because they see it as an opportunity to get away of the big city, the pollution, and just relax beside of celebrating the 18th. This is what I like the most of the holiday because I usually stay in Santiago and it's so quiet (comparing with a normal day) and the restaurants aren't full and the streets are much more nice when taking a walk.
September the 18th is a chance of relaxing and having a great time, but we never have to forget the reason why we are celebrating this day; it's not as any other holiday.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Transantiago

About transantiago there's not much that I can tell because I don't use it frequentely. During my whole life at school my dad took me in the mornings and my mom pick me up afternoon. Only a couple of times I traveled back home by micro and, when I did, I only use the 405 so I didn't experienced what was like to change or wait to more than one micro.
From the few things that I can opinion is that the drivers drive a little bit slower than before. With the old micros the chauffeurs compete to pick up more passengers. That was a reason why I didn't like to use the micros and reason why my mom prefered to pick me up and also take me wherever I needed to go.
The fact that transantiago is now slower it's positive because that makes it safer, but for the people who drive cars is a little bit annoying because the traffic gets slower and as the buses are so big it's kind of scare to pass them from the side.
Also, transantiago has more space inside for people to walk. In the old micros the corridor was too narrow so when someone had to get off it was difficult to stand from the seat. A very important positive point is that the new buses pollute less than the old ones helping the enviornment.
Finally, transantiago helps to the peoples' pocket because before it was obligation to pay every time someone had to use a different bus, but with transantiago the passengers can pay ones when they use one bus after the other consecutively.

Monday, September 21, 2009

A country I would like to visit

There are a million of countries that I haven't visit and I would never will in my whole life. It is difficult to decide one country to visit because I think every country has it beauty and things that makes it unique. From all the countries I would choose Peru. Although I think that many countries in Europe, Asia, have a lot of history and, because of that, have a lot to visit and learn from them, I feel that first I need to know a lot from my own country. I was born in Peru and since little that I go all the summers to visit my family, but still I only know Lima, a couple of beaches and Ica. Lima is very similar to Santiago, but I admit that I prefer Santiago rather than Lima. Still, Peru, the same as Chile, have very beautiful places in the north and south and that are worthy to visit.
I have friends that aren't Peruvian and have visit more places than me. I have 20 years old and still I haven't visit Machu Picchu, Cuzco, the jungle and many others important places that I need to visit not only because it's my country but also because of cultural knowledge.
All the people I know, and that visited all these places, have amazed when I tell them that I don't know any of the places. All of them have told me that the places are amazing, very interesting and especially Cuzco is beautiful because of the vegetation and the ruins and the history the city has.
I think that first I need to learn about my own home before getting to know other countries. Maybe it sounds more interesting travel to some part of Europe or Asia, but I think that everybody has to learn about its own country, reason why schools teach about "Historia de Chile", and because I left Peru when I was a baby I didn't have the opportunity to learn about Peru.
I will continue travelling all the summers to Peru to visit my family and I hope someday I visit other places and not only the beaches and Lima. But sometimes it's difficult when I'm with my family that I only have the chance to see one time during the whole year.

Friday, August 28, 2009

"Welcome"

At the end of the first semester, of this year, I felt good about myself because I reached my goal of not taking any second exam ("recuperative" exam) because the couple of times that I had to take it, the first year, it was very stressfull. Although we took harder courses, it wasn't too hard and stressfull to study because, in a way, now I have the training and learned how to study.
Beside the obligatory courses, I had to choose an elective because it is required to have 3 electives courses taken for the end of the second year. My elective wasn't hard because the two tests we had, the teacher sent us to our mails so we could do it by ourselves at home and we could use any help we wanted; such as notebook and also internet. It wasn't a very entertaining course but it wasn't too hard to understand either becuase it treated themes that we saw in biology during the first year.
The first semester was full of emotions, I had good times and bad times. I met new people (my actual boyfriend with whom I'm very happy. I met him during the welcome reunion we did for the new "mechones" because he is a friend's cousin and he came with my friend who study with me the first year of university and then decided to leave) and lost others; but with my friends always next to me to support me. July was a very hard month and it felt like it would never end and still hasn't. Although it feels like life is back to normal, because I'm busy and distract with duties, there are some days in which I realize that there is still a long way to go and we (me and my family) will need to face new obstacles.