Santiago for foreigners

Santiago is a really big city. I have lived here all my life and at the time and I don’t know all the places and all the neighborhoods that constitute my city. Personally, I think that there aren’t many places to visit as a tourist and probably Santiago isn’t so attractive to visit as other places in Chile, but if you should visit this city I believe I could advice you some places that is worth to go.
In down town you can find some ancient neighborhoods that have an interesting architecture and history. One of them is the Lastarria Neighborhood that is a very beautiful area in the center of Santiago, you could get there by the subway or by bus and you could spend some hours in the Forestal Park or in the Bellas Artes museum visiting different exhibitions of Chilean art (most of the time). If you are by this neighborhood I recommend you to have an ice-cream in the Emporio de la Rosa where you can find very different flavors like Rosa or strawberry with pepper ice-creams.
Other place you could visit is the Mercado central where you can eat typical food and very tasty seafood. You can go as well to the Plaza de Armas, the main square of Santiago, I don’t enjoy it so much but I think that if you are a tourist probably you should go for general culture. In the main square you can visit the cathedral of Santiago that is a beautiful building and you could go to mass if you are catholic. In plaza the Armas you could visit de Pre-Columbian Museum that has a very complete collection of pieces of the ancient cultures of Chile and Lantinoamérica.
Finally you can go to the Cerro Santa Lucia in down town too where you can get a good view of Santiago (only if there are not smog and that is so difficult!) and you can relax by walking around.
That’s all for now!
Regards

Loving dance!

I really don’t know how’s to be addicted to something, ‘cause in my vision I don’t have any addictions at all. But there are things that I love to do and sometimes I feel that I can’t stop doing them. For example dancing, I have been taking dance lessons since I was fifteen (now I’m twenty one) and I have gone for almost everyday to dance practice at my Academy for six whole years. I think that dancing has affected my life in many ways and in almost all cases in a very good way. It’s very good for my health and humor, It keeps me up and active and because of this I feel I need to do it every day, especially when I’m stress for the college or I’m moody for something. However sometimes I have problems with my priorities, because I leave the university work ‘cause I want to go to dance lessons and that gives me problems in my studies or I’m too tired to study or even more, to go to classes.

Before I started dancing I was very sedentary and I had so much free time. I was always watching TV o surfing the internet and I didn’t know how to take out my feelings or how to deal with humor problems.

Although I don’t Know If I have or want to beat this “addiction”, because I think that dancing It’s very good to me, I believe that I do have to control it and maybe to reconsider my priorities. I don’t feel that I have to choose between dancing and the University but I think that I have to balance my times if I want to keep doing it well.

I don’t think that others have to avoid this addictions but I can advice them that If they have a hobby that they really love, they should consider their time and their other obligations.

Regards

C.

big city, big change

For me, people made a big deal about Transantiago and didn’t think that every change has consequences. It’s true that the change was big and the system has so many problems in the first period, but criticize it all the time wasn’t helpful.

In my case the change brought good things and bad things. For example before Transantiago I only had to take one bus to my college, and now I had to take a bus, then use the subway and then take another bus, although I spend time changing from bus to the subway and from the subway to the bus, the difference in time that I spend in all the way to the university is minimum, in fact I think that I spend less time now than before.

Other thing that I think that is positive of the new system is that people has the possibility to access to more information about the different routs of the buses, you can surf the internet or asking to the people that works for the Transantiago. In that way I can plain my routs and don’t get lost like I used to in the past.

Maybe the biggest problem of the system was that in a beginning the routs wasn’t accord with the requirements of the citizens, so there was many areas that were isolated or there wasn’t enough buses for all the people who needed them. But I think that that has been improving since the start of the system because the government has listened the requirements of citizens.

Personally, I think that Transantiago was a good change...althought I miss "las micros amarillas"

Regards, cotu

A COUNTRY I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT.

There are many countries that I would like to go. I love travelling and It's a priority for me. I'm constantly saving money for doing it and I'm always thinking in which place I could go with my friends.

I think that Brazil is a very interesting country to visit, because although It' s in the same continent that my own country, I think that its culture is very different from the others countries in Latino America. I' ve been two times en Brazil before for vacations, but I believe that is different knowing a country as a tourist from staying there for a long time and really knowing It .

When I went there I got the chance to know a lot of beaches and I really loved them. The water is very warm and the weather is great. I visited Rio de Janeiro too, that it’s one of the most important cities in Brazil, It’s very big and it has a very nice beach too. One of the things that were more attractive for me was the people, they are very relax and happy, they go to the beach after the work and they are always doing sports. Other thing that I love form that country is the dancing and the language I would love to learn them.

Probably If I go to Brazil again I would like to live there for a few years and in that way I could really know its culture.

Regards, Cotu

FIRST TERM: GOOD AND BAD POINTS

For me, the last term was very important in many ways. First of all, I had a really good experience at the University because, althought I had very hard subjets and I had to read so much I learned a lot of things related with the field that I would like to develop when I finish my career. I think that it was so important to me because I could picture my self in the future like an antropologist, and I liked that picture.


Other experience that was very relevant for me was the dancing. Since the last year I've been working with a dance company that works with a centre that take children with Down's syndrome into care calls "Pequeño Cottolengo". That work was a very teaching experience, 'cause when I work with different people and in this case with people who has special needs I realise how lucky I am and maybe how silly I am when I complain about things that doesn't really matters. In other way with this experience we could show to the society that with a little of effort and will you can change many things. I expect that this activity continue and that more people join us to help this center, and to learn and help us to spread our cause.

I really think that the last semester was the beggining of many things that I hope to do all my life.


regards,
Cotu