English Language Challenges

English started at beginning of year, with the test. I failed some questions and I knew I had to take English in University.

Since there I waited, I had to take English 4, so the first semester I was relaxed in that way, but starting the second semester I knew the end will begin.

I imagined that the experience of taking the course will be the same that in the secondary school, a teacher just doing a class, with a lot of guides helping him/her, teaching some terms, grammatical times and a better grammar in general; and sometimes it was like that, but not ever, there is a difference between the two kind of English-teaching, and was the blogs, or the simple fact of a laboratory of English, were you had to write A LOT!

Blogs were not bad, and sometimes I have to admit that I entertained, but in general, I think that there is to improve the category of blogs, with maybe a free-election blog or something like that. All the other things I see that are well thought, but I have to recognize that a lot of times I was exhausted in the classes, and I fell asleep, and maybe a more interactive class will mend this for good.

But all this, all the semester, a little bit of the content of classes and exercise with pronunciation helped me a lot.

The other day someone called me home, and his voice sounded like an English-speaker. Summarizing he was wrong with the number but was nice to know that I can communicate with another person that knows the language.

But I think that the best help of learning English is the search results. The best results or at least the majority of them are in English, and not dominate that language means that you have to minimize your search at Spanish search results, that in many cases can be a little bit.

Changes to my Study Programme

When someone tries to postulate to a university, usually the curriculum of the career is one of the first things to see.  A comparative analysis is the best way to decide which career you want to study and in which university.

Nevertheless, there are always bad things with the good things that you choose of the career/university. And in terms of that, I can tell a little about some changes that I think that are fundamental for the best education and a study programme (at least of the Chemistry career).

The curriculum, with the new changes that were implanted, has improved so much. Maybe there are some mistakes in the order of the subjects, with General Chemistry Lab and General Chemistry II in the same semester, or Inorganic Chemistry Lab with Inorganic Chemistry II, that is a counter-productive measure, keeping in mind that in Laboratories the theoretical learning is evaluated in practice.

All this was done to improve the length of the career, but I think that this has to be more, for 2 simple reasons: 1) the workload is too big in the advanced years (4^th and 5^th) which raise the failure probabilities and becomes a delay in the subjects and more years studying, and 2) Maybe there’s a lack of social-abilities or introduction subjects, that, with more years (and maybe just another semester), can be simply solved.

In terms of infrastructure and buildings of the faculty, there is a disaster. At lunchtime, there is not enough space to do it, and some of the students have to lunch in the floor or stand up, and this problem is bigger in autumn/winter when the rains don’t let to sit on the floor or the grass. There are not enough classrooms and sometimes 200 or 250 students have to be enclosed in a classroom where there is not enough space.

So, that’s the big problem of the faculty and that’s need to be solved now!!

And well, talking about teaching methods, I think that it is not bad, but can improve a little more. Maybe the teachers don't have to do their classes all with digital presentations, maybe a little of board marker is good for a better-understanding class, but obviously never leaving out the digital possibilities and the use of technology, that has been growing up in the last time and can be used for the good in the classes, showing examples or making the life easy for the teachers of more complicated subjects, or that need more specific draws or explanations (life, for my career, can be Inorganic Chemistry II or Electrochemistry).

Summer Holidays

Maybe just a relaxing week, or an entire adventure among unreachable places, summer holidays are the best time to do things that you like, with people that you want to be there.

In my case, I’ve not planned my holidays yet, but there is a thing that I will like to do and is going out the country. I’ve never been in other countries, and an opportunity of doing that, for me, will be amazing at all.

I’ll like to visit Latin America at all, going from the north of Chile and reaching the south of Mexico. But the first place that I want to visit, and I’ll love to do it, is Cuba.

The idyllic landscapes and beautiful ocean typical of the Caribbean are an incredible combination to visit. And adding that I like the history of the country and that I want to learn about it (especially about the Cold-War-Cuba) makes me an entire scenario to be.

The friend’s parents were there, and they delight me with all the stories about the country, about Habana and Santiago, about the people and all. Since that moment I decided that I want to visit Cuba.

And I will be done that, but there are two few troubles to do it. First and most obviously is money, because a travel there is all instead of cheap. But that can be easily solved; the big trouble is finding people ready to travel. I have found some people, but I think that is not enough.

Nevertheless, in a point, it will be trouble no more, and we will be on the plane thinking about what we will do first.

Personally, the first day I will find a place to stay, not a hotel or an expensive place, with luxury and all, just a little, humble and warm house. After resting start the real entertainment.

Visits all over the country, a few museums, and some beaches will be the main base for the holidays.A drink in the evening and some parties will be too a good idea.

Carnival times are too a beautiful time to travel, and in my plans are to travel this country in January of 2019, because La Habana reaches the 500 years!!! And will be a celebration all the year, so that’s a great time to be there.

An extra of the visit and I think that is important to tell about, is the recent disaster that has lashed the country and that I will like to help the island, reconstruction or maybe encourage the resident people.

Post Graduate Titles

A professional grade may be enough to make some tasks, but in this actual system, and considering necessities of the people, specialties, and postgraduate studies are almost an exigency.

In my personal case, I want to have one (maybe more) of these grades.

In the future, I want to work with graphene (an allotrope of carbon), so I’ll take the organic chemistry Ph.D. course. For me, graphene is an important material that’s not totally used, in all its power, and it’s so hard to extract, so I’ll like to help or invent a way to extract or produce it, so it can be used in great scale.

My motivation to this is that will make life easier to live, production of energy, protection, and warm-clothing will be trouble no more. And because of its properties, can be used in almost all the things that you can see, and with no idea that it’s there, is so amazing!!!

Maybe, after this first Ph.D., I’ll want to have the pharmacist grade and get a Ph.D. in that too. I like that career and unify chemistry and pharmacy, for me, is an excellent idea, all the knowledge of that subject may be applied in many fields.

All this is in the R&D because I want to have any others courses. In literature, for example, I’ll like to have a diploma or maybe a master degree, I don’t know why, but I love to write and read, so it will help to develop that areas.

In Chile, I think that the Ph.D. or masters are not completely hard. I’ll like to take these courses in other countries, with special knowledge about the subject, like Germany, UK or Ireland. The USA may be a good choice too, but I think that not all knowledge is gathered in that country, also these others are the best qualified to teach chemistry and its derivatives.

An amazing extra date: A square meter of graphene weights 0.77 mg.

Future Job

Once I thought that jobs might be the one that you want, the subject that you love and that is easy to you. But the reality is that most of the times, you only have to conform with what the world offers to you.

But, thinking about you will have a job that you love, I can talk about the jobs I’ll like to have.

First of all, I’ll like to work in what I’m studying: chemistry. The research labs of medicinal chemistry, working in a lab, with other chemists, biochemist, and pharmacists, creating medicine, researching proteins, its functions, and how to make better the lives of the people using the medicine. 

And I’ll like too to research about new kinds of energy, based mainly in graphene research, and how to make and use it, because of its properties, subject that I’ve already read of but that I, honestly don’t understand.

These jobs, obviously, are developed in a laboratory, and with minimum contact with the outdoor world.

Another job that I’ll like to have is a writer. Is so different with the before named, but is one that I’ve been developing with the years because I wrote in the close past and I’ll like to keep doing it. Maybe I can continue writing but as a hobby.

The problem is that the research jobs are difficult to find in Chile, and I’ve heard that are not well paid. The salary that I’ll like is about $700.000 CLP, one that will help me to maintain a simple house and for me alone. In a future, and with family, this salary might not be enough, but that is getting ahead a lot.

I will love to travel, and in all the countries that I can help with my knowledge, I’ll love to be.

But I think that the chemist major could not be enough to this, I’ll like to obtain the pharmacist major too, to teach people about medicines, how to administrate it and how to make with plants if they live in the rural zone and/or with no access to a hospital.

Hobbies?

In my personal appreciation, hobbies are an important part of our lives. We can be distracted because of hobbies, and relax us, keep the mind occupied and in work.

I don’t have impressive hobbies, I’ve to say, are the typical hobbies of a teenager, playing games, or how people call now: gaming, and watch series or movies. But the fact is, that are my hobbies, and I really love it.

Platform of movies and series

Well, they don’t need so much explain. Playing games consist in that, just take a control and play like the game itself says to do. And watch series or movies consist, for me, in lie down on the bed, or the sofa, it depends, take my phone, my notebook, or the television, and put Netflix to see movies or some series.

My hobbies are so important for me because they keep my mind occupied and working, and I enjoy living other realities, and watching other points of view of life, like in a movie or a documental.

I love doing this kind of things. Gaming free me and, according to a study that I read, can be good for the eye-hand coordination. And some games teach you, like Assassins Creed, where you can learn a little history and geographic, thing that is funny.

Game that I played when I had 7 years old

I had it since I had 13, maybe a little sooner, but it was impressive because my cousin showed me how to search series online, and well, I didn’t stop. And gaming, well, I really don’t remember, because I play games since I was like 5 years old, so it exceeds even my memories.

When I was a kid I don’t really had hobbies, I just played, and I think that that is what I can consider my hobby in my childhood.

One of my favorite series

I love hobbies, that’s a fact and I think I let it so expressed in my words, but I really think that there are hobbies that is impossible to me to maintain. Collect things, for example, is what will be so difficult for me, so I really cannot do it, because sometimes I don’t have enough passion doing things, and searching things to collect, for me, is a boring thing to do.

And in the future, keep my actual hobbies may be seen as a waste of time and people may think that I’m immature. So maybe I should have to change my hobbies, I may dedicate to photograph (I will do it, but I don’t have a camera), or doing sport or something like that.

Haha, lie. I will never change my actual hobbies because I love them with all my heart, but that doesn’t mean that I will let pass the opportunity of taking photographs of doing sport. Hobbies will multiply.

Amazing system

I have a friend that is cursing a career related with health, and the last semester she took a curse that’s a pain in the ass for all the students: Anatomy. She told me about her curse and I understand that the human body is more complex than we all think. An interesting part of this is the fact that I thought the muscular system is a simple one, but I can’t be more wrong.

You can walk and talk with your friend while you are eating something, think about all the movements and all the muscles you’re moving, all these actions are regulated by the muscular system, just think about it, the exact moment that you’re reading this, this system is working hard to keep you, even, alive.

But not many people know all the functions that this system can have, and there are really amazing ones. Physiologic-state information, for example, when you have renal colic, the contraction of the smooth muscle is a sign that you’re having one. Or the known functions, like the motion, mimic, posture, shape, stability, among others.

And is because of all its functions and its presence in all body that can suffer a lot of illnesses, since the simplest, like the cramps, sprains and tears, to the complex ones: muscular dystrophy, compartmental syndrome, the myasthenia gravis, or even (a hard-spelling one) the fibrodysplasia ossificans progressive.

If you don’t want to have these illnesses you’ve to take care of this system by health-eating, exercise, rest and stretching.

So, love your muscular system, love your body, because it’s a very complex one.

Traveler's dream

I usually think about traveling, I love the idea, but regrettably I don't have the cash to do it.

However that doesn't make me lose faith about reaching Greece. I really love that country, their culture, their history, even their writing! It's simply amazing. Since I had, in secondary, world history I was excited about it, the way it raises, the way it conforms into a great influence in all the cultures that came after, their sculptures, and great structures.

 

Greece, or rather, Ancient Greece, rises up initially in the Crete Island, with the Minoan civilization. And the world known history starts at the first Olympian Games in 776 BC, and since there it grows up into a giant civilization.

I’d like to, obviously, visit the monuments built in ancient times. The Temples, like the Parthenon, or the temple of Apollo, museums, and enjoy the soft and beautiful Mediterranean Sea.

Maybe I’ll stay there for a month, at most, because that’s not my place, and, at some point, the language and the very different culture will saturate me.

Know Greek and Europe in general, is a good thing to add at the to do list, I really recommend it.