Your experience learning English at the university

To know English when you go to university it`s very important. In an anthropological studies area, books usually are written in English, and if you don`t have the enough knowledge, you will lose a lot of time translating them with a dictionary or something like that. I can do it, of course, but you would never spend the same time. In Universidad de Chile there are a lot of people that studied in good high schools, so teachers used to think like everybody knows English, and when you are not, it`s a big problem.
It`s a problem because the program to study English in the university isn`t for people that don`t know English, and it sound stupid, but it`s the truth. After all, although you take the four levels, you will never be so good to be like your classmates just following the program, and sometimes it`s necessary to pay a lot in an English institute. Evidently, when you are taking an English course you can practice what you know, but sometimes you really didn`t get a good education in high school. So, can you practice a language that you don`t know? I believe that this is the main problem of the English in Universidad de Chile. You can try to participate in classes and try to speak in English, even though you do it like Tarzan; in fact, that is the idea, but is normal to be embarrassed too, when you know that you look ridiculous in front your classmates.
On the other hand, I think that the English teachers are relaxed than the other, and after a lot of daily serious classes, it`s feel really good a break.
In short, I believe that English courses are good, but it`s necessary to think in especial classes for people that really need it, where you can learn about grammar, texts structure, and that kind of things. Maybe it would be great to have courses not by this kind of levels, because if you check the people in a same class, they have a very different knowledge. It would be important to have classes about our real English problems, such as to write, to speak, to read, etc.

About Money

If I were wealthy, I`d be really happy. I don`t believe that money is the one thing that gives us happiness, however, if you don`t need to work, if you never have economic problems, you would have enough time to practise nice activities for you, such us sports, games, dance, or social gatherings.
If I inherit a lot of money, I would buy a house near my university, because I am tired of renting an apartment; neighbours are too close to me, and I can listen everything that they do. Sometimes I know details about their personal problems, and when I meet them, in the park or in a building`s corridor, it makes me feel really uncomfortable.
If I were a millionaire, I would invest my money buying houses, and then I would rent them, so I`d be sure that I wouldn`t need to work again. But I`d continue studying, because I love the archaeology.
I`d like to finance an eco-organization too, especially focused on saving forests and animals.
Money is really important for me, because every time I have problems related to that; I have to work in my free time, so many times I am tired when I come to university, or I can`t wake up in the morning.
I would like to have just the necessary money to live a relaxing life, because usually I feel sick when the month is ending and I have to pay the rent again. It`s really sad :(

HOW GREEN ARE YOU?

I was born in a little village, out of the city, in a forest area, with rivers, a lot of animals and farmers. Today that place has lost some of those characteristics, such us some parts of forest, and rivers, which were used to produce energy. Even that was a beautiful and natural place, people that live there are not worried about the environment. I believe that we should learn about good habits in our home and in the school; sometimes TV programs show interesting things to do too.
When I go to my village, I go everywhere walking or biking, but in Santiago I would be really scared to do it, because I don´t want to have an accident, and a lot of people usually drive like real stupids.
I would like to belong in an eco-organisations (Green Peace <3), but I really don´t have enough time in this moment of my life, because when I get free time I must make some money. However, instead of being in an eco-organisation, I do other kind of thing to help the environment; I recycle glass, paper, and plant trees (in my village, not in Santiago, because here I don´t know where a poor tree had enough space to grow).
I believe that in Santiago it is absolutely important to teach about environmentally friendly practices, specially to children, because many times we forget that this is one of the main topics today, that world is in environmental danger, and they are the future of the humanity.
Thinking about ourselves other than other things is missing in our society, it is not just thinking about me and my desires. If we could do that, I am sure that this would be a wonderful world, for everything that lives over him :)

My high school experience

When I was in the high school, my favorite subject was history, but my teacher wasn´t the best. He lost a lot of time checking his books, and we could listen to him just around thirty minutes. I tried to search all that was interesting for me on my own, but the high school’s library was really poor :( Then, I noticed that what I wanted to know I would have to get it at university :)
I didn´t have enough technology in my high school, such as good computers, internet, radios... I hadn`t thought about that, but it was absolutely poor. I remember that I had a music class in my last course, and we had to play some music instrument; all my classmates got guitars, but I had to play a piano that never made a sound. I was a real looser.
I was in a Public High school; it is the reason that explains some of my experiences, but I had good moments there, with my friends or when I had a chocolate´s business in my classroom, for example, it was wonderful, because every day I made a lot of money, so I could buy books, clothes, and help my mother with some things that she needed.
I believe that when we are in a bad situation, everyone has to try to be their own teachers, and if we want to go to university, organize our life thinking in that, not just sit down and wait for heaven´s solutions.

Tutankhamun – the secrets of the tomb go online.

Tutankhamun is the only intact pharaoh's tomb ever discovered (by Howard Carter, in 1922), but many questions about the tomb remain unanswered, because most of material was in grey stacks for a long time. In 1993, than a third of the artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb had been properly studied and published, maybe because Carter had no collaborators left to continue his work when he died.
The article continues describing discovery´s moment, the first investigation time, and the objects that were inside the tomb, such as weapons, chariots, musical instruments, clothes and cosmetics. Egyptologists are really excited about what this objects can tell us about the technology of the ancient Egyptians.
Archaeologists believe that the best way to ensure that Carter's discoveries saw the light of day was to post the entire archive online; the idea was to built a database that could hold images of the original material as well as transcripts, so the text could be easily searched. The project tries to bring the forgotten details of the tomb to as many people as possible. By making these notes available the public would have access to the full extent of the discovery, and that would help to put "moral pressure" on Egyptologists, to encourage them to study this important collection. "I often say that the real curse of Tutankhamun is that Egyptologists have tended to shy away from working on the material," says an expert. A principal aim of the project is to bring the forgotten details of the tomb to as many people as possible.
Today, around 98% of the material is available, and a model like this could transform the field of archaeology.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jul/18/tutankhamun-website-howard-carter-tomb

What your favorite movie is

I am not sure if I could say that this is my favorite movie, because I never spend time watching T.V, and I usually don`t have enough money to go to cinema =( but I remember that I loved The Mummy the first time that I watched it. Although I am a looser and I love everything in relation with archaeology, such as movies, books, documentary, normally I dislike that kind of movies, such as Indiana Jones, or Tomb raider; they destroy all the ruins! xD
In the movie, my favorite it´s the Brendan Fraser character, who is an adventurer called Rick O´Connell, not because he was handsome (he really is not), but a brave guy. The story takes place in Middle East, and is about a Mommy that returns to life. My favorite part is at the beginning, when O`Connell was sentenced to die by hanging, and finally he is saved. And I like all the scenes that take place inside the pyramids, or when the characters speak Egyptian language, because I would like to learn someday a ancient language; however, If I try to do it, I will have to study “Language” (I don´t know how to say “lingüística”) again, I hated that course.
If I could change something in the movie, I would prefer that the Hamunaptra temple would not fall at the end of the movie, because it was beautiful xD.
I believe that the others parts of The Mummy`s story are amazing too =)

Top Five

I recommend these five places and activities:
First, Bellavista, because everytime there is time for party, and if we would have an open mind, we can say that is a cultural place too; a very important center of the alcoholic culture.
Second, the National Library, but really the last time that I went there many sections of the library were closed, because the earthquake disorganized everything.
Third, Rock&Guitarras or the Oxido Bar; I go there when I want to listen bands that play tributes of famous and international rock bands, such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, or singers such as Janis Joplin. I went to Oxido last week, and I enjoyed with a fantastic grunge show, and I want to go next week too.
Fourth, I suggest to visit the ancient buildings in Plaza de Armas, although the smells there is absolutely nasty, and when I walk for that street I believe that the smell is impregnated in the walls (not by the wonderful peruvian restaurants; its because maybe nobody there can get a bathroom).
Fifth, I suggest the Social Science Faculty of the Universidad de Chile, a magic place that nobody can understand why didn´t fall during the eartquake.

Farkas (L)

I will speak about Tomás González, a gymnast that won gold and a silver medal in Mexico. When he won, he thanked Leonardo Farkas, because this guy was the only one in Chile that try that the sportsman had good conditions to practise before the competition. The Farkas`s gift was a complete equipment. The businessman paid around eighty millions for the equipment, and if we think that the government is not worry about sports and culture, this is a wonderful action.
I love Farkas; first, because he is not like Piñera, (Farkas has a fortune around eighty millions dollars, in front of Piñera that has two thousand, and never give nothing to nobody)and second, cause I believe that he must be a funny guy) but the only bad thing is that I never have met him =(.
I believe that Farkas had been a fairy godmother for some people. If I can ask him something, I will ask a department, because every time I have problems with the rental, and I feel nervous that someday I lose my home I will be living under a bridge xD.
That kind of things, like the gift of Farkas, shows that in Chile to get the necessary things to develop a talent is about luck, and we don`t have the security that we should be in the authorities and institutions. Just when we do something special that all the world is looking and saying “what a wonderful thing”, Chile (in general) says “Yes, and he is Chilean”.

Native love

If I would have the money, I`ll go to Belize. Belize is a small country near Mexico, and even they speak in English, a lot of languages are used there, like Spanish. I would like to visit Belize because when I was in the high school I had to do a presentation of an American country, and I choose that country, and learn some curious things about it, like typical food, manners, and traditions.
Belize has wonderful landscapes, and the best for me it`s the Mayan archaeological sites, like Lamanai (Lam'an'ain, in Mayan <3), Cerros and El Caracol, which are beautiful and mysterious places. I love to live and work there, not all my life, but it would be great to learn about the Mayan doing archaeological works in a country like this.
Belize has a lot of touristic places for diving, and that is my other professional interest, not for to be a diver, but I like the underwater archaeology too. I am not really good swimming, but I believe that all is in practice =).
I believe that I would do good archaeological studies, but I would take care not do social anthropology studies, because I know that I would finish get married with a native 1313.

II, 2010

My blogging experience.

At first time, I didn`t write in the blog, because I didn`t know how to use it, and I lost a lot of English classes. Someday, when I really started with the subject, I wrote every blog, and I tried to do the commentaries. The truth is that this was a little bored for me, but I tried to do it the funniest that I can, for to have a good experience and not to have a bad face when I am writing it. That is the reason that sometimes (or every time, if you want it) I write nonsense in my commentaries or in my blog, I can smile when I am writing, and that is nice.
Even some days I don`t want to do it, I believe that it was good for me to learn about the blog, and I believe that with this we can practise english in other way, and to see our most common wrongs. Because if we make a mistake one time, does not matter, but if this is usually, we can check it.
What I never enjoy it`s to have to be a lot of time in the classroom, for example, I prefer to do the commentaries at home, because in that case I can choose the blog that I post, not only the blog of the classmates that always finish first.
For to finish my last blog, I think that this a good way for to know more about our classmates, what it`s important for them in their life, not only what it`s their favorite subject or what professor they believe that it is the worst. We can see us with common persons, with different interest, and that it is very good in a discipline like the anthropology(for to know with who does the works xD)
Good bye! (for this semester ) t.t

Once upon a time...

One time I went to the supermarket to buy alcohol, but in that time I was seventeen years old, and that day some friends were to go to my house. So I said to them “don’t worry about bring things to drink, I’ll care about it, you only have to bring enough money to pay me later”.
I don’t remember what I was doing before going to the supermarket, but I was late, and I have to do the shops in the supermarket very quickly.
The supermarket wasn`t very far from my house, that was an advance. I went and searched for the things that I need, and then I was going to the place to pay in the supermarket. But suddenly I started to think like this: “ Oh, I’m going to be late, I won’t make it, my friends are going to be in my house before than me; Oh, I’m going to be stuck here because I’m seventeen years old and is illegal buy alcohol with my age, I’m going to waste the time in here and when I arrive to my house, I’ll do it without the drink”
Looking around with a little desperation I did not find better idea that to ask a person who was behind of me in the queue to buy my alcohol with my money, and better I offer to pay his bread, really, I don’t know what I was thinking, but if you don’t even try, you “lose” after lose in the reality.
So, the person looked at me with a strange looking and showed me a credential that says, “PDI”!
Whit my red face of shame I stood there and bought the drink for my own.
Now, may be, I realize that if you try something, think it twice.

Photo xD

Today I will speak about a picture, that even is not important for the world, I like it so much, because it shows what I want to do when I have to work. The picture is about underwater archaeology , and shows a diver making a photography of some skulls with a special camera, in the deep of the sea. In a country like Chile, underwater archaeology can get an good develop.

From the time of the conquest of America to the present days, our coast have been navigated by many ships, however, all of them have experienced the dangerous waters of the Pacific, like the “Gollfo de Penas”, “Cabo de Hornos” or the “Estrecho de Magallanes”, for only name some of them. All those areas, with strong wind, waves and currents, have caused hundreds of shipwrecks, especially when the people used little ships, that were constructed just with wood. In addition, boats of the most diverse characteristics and historical moments, have been destroyed or forced to leave their loads, equipment and baggage, which are material evidence of different times, a true treasure of archaeological remains of our past.
Underwater Archaeology is a science that studies this remains and is defined by the physical environment in where the archaeologist work and for to have a scientific method of investigation. the person who work in this discipline is a professional diver who dominates, among others, technical indoor diving techniques, and underwater video and photography. He investigate the past looking for evidence to prove historical theories, or realize discoveries by themselves , that modify all established theories.

Social Science`s Life

Today I will speak about the social science’s life. In our first days in this faculty, we understood that a lot of our life inside the anthropology will be related with to share our opinions and experiences with other people, usually with a beer in the hand and sometimes with more than this in our pockets or bags (like cigarettes, don`t think so, so bad, even though I was thinking it).
The social scientist has not a lot of money, but a very nice life, if you want it. The difficult it`s for the people that think to have a family, because it`s normal that in every works of social sciences the anthropologist have to travel many times; however, the majority of the people that study this kind of discipline don`t have those aspirations.
The most bad thing in our life it`s that we have to read a lot all the time, and usually the anthropologist have problems in their eyes. Many people in my class have to use glasses, and me to, but I couldn`t visit the doctor yet.

I would prefer to be sleeping now

Today, I can only think about sleeping. Even though I try to search a topic in my mind, I inevitably return to sheeps jumping fences, so I will speak about the times when people don`t sleep.
Sometimes we need to do a lot of things, usually when we aren`t organized. And there are things that can`t wait. So, we have to sacrifice our sleeping hours. It is supposed that we have to sleep around eight hours at day, although I believe that it`s a lot of time, a third of the day.
When we don`t sleep the necessary hours, we lose part of the capacity to react to the stimuli of the environment, and it`s more difficult to put attention.
I usually sleep around five hours, although I do it in two times. Even though I can live with those hours, sometimes I feel that I am losing the sense of the days and nights, and it seems like it was a very, very long day. I have time for to do all that I have to do, but I never feel that I really took a rest.
When we have to do a task or a work, I believe that it`s relatively good to sleep a lot of hours, although when we have a test the next day, it`s a very bad idea. The brain isn`t working well, and the thoughts are a very strange mass of nothing, and we can`t get a conclusion fastly.
So, Don`t do it!

Technology u.u

Today I will talk about the happiness that I get with my Mp3. I had a MP4 some years ago, but it was very delicate, and I destroy it in few months. That is one of the reasons that make me love my Mp3. It is nice to listen music in anywhere, it is feels as If we were inside a movie (and the music would be the soundtrack xD).
I like to listen music when I go to the supermarket, because the music there is so, so bad, it is… music to buy, nothing more, we don´t feel nothing with it. But sometimes, when I am walking in the street, I forget that I am not hearing the sound of the cars and the traffic, and that it`s very dangerous if ever I don´t wake up at time. I can have an accident for walking carelessly.
But when I travel to the house of my parents… then I really love my Mp3. If I didn´t have it I will have to travel five hours listening the snores of the people, or strange conversations of strange people.
And the main reason that I love my Mp3: I bought it by 5000. =)

About science

We can try to defend our future job saying: “this is science and this is not”. I believe that those arguments are very stupid. A lot of disciplines that in some time had that name, today are nothing. Science is a social institution, so, it can change, and the categories too. For a long time, activities that are not known like science have been doing important and interesting things. For some disciplines is not necessary to be catalogued like "science" for to do works that have relevancy in social level. For example: anthropology is called science, and archaeology is not. We can go to do questions to the people and we will find that the society have a idea about what it is archaeology more nearby than they imagine that it is anthropology. For some people, that “science” do not exist, or is a science of second category. So the anthropologist will have to do a work about what is the impact of archaeology in the people, because, though the archaeological hypotheses are not eternal (as in any science) usually the people have a notion about it.
We can find the importance, for example, in the nationalism. The archaeology discoveries and the interpretations of the investigators help in the task of promoting that, and though is an irrational feeling, it has an important effect in the society.

The Rapanui´s secret

Today I´ll speak about something that I found in the news, an archaeological discovery in Easter Island, and we can call it “The Rapanui Secret”. Rather, the site was found under it. I´m talking about some enormous underground tunnels that were formed by volcanic action, and were hidden for the western man for a lot of years. These secret caverns are practically intact, and constitute an extensive network of labyrinths where human lived in some epoch, but first, long time ago, there was lava running for them, but now the volvanes that were producing it are slept.
These caves are one of the most longest in the world, and inside them the investigators found microorganisms and human remains, like bones and skulls.
In the expedition they found petroglyphs and pictographies of the former inhabitants of the island. There was a tribal war in the island that apparently was very violent. There was a great food crisis and people went to live to the caverns searching for refuge. In fact, there are precedents about there was cannibalism in the caves too.
This one is the type of place where I would like to work some day <3

Earthquake!!

Those days I was in vacations in my little town, in the field of the seventh region, near Linares. That night in specific I was sleeping in the house of one of my friends, because we´d go to a disco, but she had a discussion with one of our friends, and so we didn´t go.
We were sleeping when the earth started to move. When we went out of the house I didn´t feel nothing, because I were still a bit slept. Her family go out too, and I made fun of her brothers because they were without clothes. xD
After the earthquake all the town were without water and electricity for around a week, and like there all the people have relatives in the places more affected, everybody started to desesperate without news about them. However, though everything were bad, people tried everytime to help to the others, and that were beautiful <3
Nobody died for the earthquake, but now many houses have been demolished, and my little town never will be the same =(

What I had to do a lot of time ago xD

Welcome! My name is Anita and I´m 20 years old. I´m studying anthropology in the Universidad de Chile, but I hope to be in archaeology speciality next year. This blog is for my english class, because is a very good way to learn to use the english knowledge daily, and, if we have technology at hand, we must use it, that is what I believe. My old high school didn´t give a good education, and platforms like this might have helped us to learn fastly, so I expect to do a better work now.
That is all for today, but I will return to write soon

Youtube! But about archaeology u.u

Youtube is a video site where we can find anything to see. However, the majority of the times, I search for videos related university, because later is easy to remember the matter; It`s different to see the content instead of heard anyone in class, or read about it.
I visit this site around three or four times at week, to watch videos and documentaries about archaeology, where people talk about the secret discoveries that are inconvenient for the paradigm that dominates the discipline, so usually the investigators try to don`t speak about it.
Other of my favorites it`s the documentary about the discover of the most ancient fossil of the Of the human evolution up to the moment, called “ardi” for the scientist. It`s interesting because we are learning this in prehistory subject, and that documentary is like a visual support.
Usually I watch these documentaries before to sleep, when I have something of time. Youtube it`s good too because many people can accede to this knowledge without pay the price of a DVD or a magazine.