Why I'm studing (and now leaving) geography

Well, to say the truth I didn’t choose Geography as a career because I’ve always wanted to be a geographer or something like that. When I was in high school I was in the physics-mathematic class, I’ve always been good with numbers and really enjoyed physics and maths so that was my option at that time (And maybe study Engineering D: ) . When the time to decide “what to do with my life” arrived I wasn’t really sure about what to do. My first option was Geophysics because I thought it would be fun, but I was also honest with myself I realized that I didn’t want to give my life in trying to get to the Engineering School at Universidad de Chile and to stay there four years of my life- It’s well known that engineers don’t have a good life while studying and that doesn’t suit me.

So I took geography as my alternative to do something similar, and maybe after that I’d do something to be closer to geophysics… And here I am, studying geography… At the beginning I really enjoyed what geography is, I like it because it covers many areas that other subjects doesn’t, and it gives you a different way to see the thing happening in the world.

At the beginning my intention was to be the best so I could try a career in the investigation field, but when the time passed I realized that I didn’t wanted to do that, so I tried to convince myself to continue with geography and see what happens until I ended the career. There aren’t many things in studying geography that I dislike- except of the stress during the end of each semester, but what I didn’t like much was the part after graduating: being a real geographer. I think it’s not as fun as I would like it to be, and I think that I could do something more entertaining with my life  -I’m not saying that you geographer life is going to be boring, but for myself it is.

So I’m not going to graduate as a geographer ever, ever, in my life, and I decided to try something funnier: I want to be a fashion designer! It sounds too distant from what I’m doing now, and it is xD but it’s something that I’ve always enjoyed, and that I’ve been trying to let just as a hobby,  but… what’s better than doing your best hobby as your future job for the rest of your life? Well, at least, I think there’s nothing better than that c:  

I'm going to be a Barbie Fashionista, and Mattel will have to make a bald and "fat" Barbie for me c: -  we're all fat next to a Barbie

Something I’m proud of: my “Bebé”

When I was in high school there were used to be many dogs living in the school. One day there were two puppies, they were cute, and also really hungry, so my friends and I fed them and played with them during our lunch break. The problem with those puppies was that the people from school was going to call “animal rescue”, and we really doubt that it was going to be a real rescue for them, so I decided to take one of them with me so I could find it a new home, and a fríen took the other with her to do the same. 

I took the smallest puppy and went home with her, she was so small that I could carry her in my arms with no problem all the way home. Once we arrived I spent the entire day with her and I gave her some milk and food. After that we took some pictures of her to try to find someone who could take care of her and give her all the love she deserves, but we couldn’t find anyone :c We've always had bad luck trying to give animals in adoption,  and all of them end up living in my house.

This is the only picture of her that I could find.
She is "papiche" and I love her <3 <3

 

 

 

So finally she stayed at my home, and we called her Bebé. (We had to convince our father to let her stay, because we already had another dog and 3 cats) She became friends really fast with Pequeño, who assumed the role of being the leader of the pack. They grew old together, and now my Bebé is fat and loves me, and she also loves food (she is really fat xD ). I’m really proud of her because she could grow healthy and with a family that takes care of her, instead of the difficult life that she could have had.

A concert.

I haven’t gone to many concerts. Last year I went to see Chuck Berry, and it was “fun” (as much fun as it could be to watch an 80 years old Chuck trying to play the guitar like when he was 20 :c but at least I saw him in real life, which is better than youtube) and a few years before that I went to see Gustavo Cerati (It was good because I had the chance to see him before his death), and after that I went to  two Silvio Rodriguez’s concerts, which were my favourite concerts from all of them.

I really like Silvio’s music; I started listening to him when I was a little girl because my father liked him, so he played his guitar and sang his songs. So when I was old enough to go to a concert my father brought me to see him. We went to times, one in 2005 in the Victor Jara stadium (we went with my mom and brother, and it was the first time I went to a concert), and the second time was in 2006 in Arena Santiago when he was presenting his album "Erase que se era" , and I only went with my dad.

I remember that when my dad brought the tickets to the last concert we went he wanted to make it a surprise for me, so when I was “sleeping” he went to my room and tried to hang an envelope from the ceiling, but his plan didn’t worked because I was just pretending to sleep when he came to my room, so I caught him while he was trying to make his big surprise :c he was sad, but happy to see that I was happy to go to see Silvio.  

It was really fun, I sang all his songs and enjoyed the music and Silvio’s voice, which still sounds the same as when he was younger. I really like him because of his lyrics and the way he plays the guitar, and also because of the memories of my childhood that listening to his music brings to my head.

 

My recent readings: Kuragehime

Well, this year I’ve read many things, including manga, novels, short stories, etc. I started this summer reading “The hound od the Baskervilles” by Arthur Conan Doyle, I also read Herman Hesse’s “Siddharta”, and some short stories written by Carlos Fuentes. The last month I started reading “El Quijote”, but I haven’t finished it yet. I’ve also read many mangas during the last months, including almost all of the mangas written by Inio Asano, like “Oyasumi Punpun” (Goodnight Punpun), “Subarashii Sekai” (What a wonderful world), Hikari no Machi (City of Lights), among others.

 

But one of the readings that I’ve enjoyed the most has been “Kuragehime” (Jellyfish Princess) a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Akiko Higashimura. I first saw the anime based on the manga and the story caught me. Kuragehime tells the story of an 18 years old girl called Tsukimi, who has arrived to live in Tokyo from a small town. One day, when Tsukimi was a little girl her mother brought her to the aquarium to see the jellyfishes, and while they were looking at a really beautiful jellyfish that looked like a bride in her white dress, Tsukimi was told by her mother that when she grows up she was going to become a beautiful princess, and she was going to wear a beautiful white dress like the jellyfish.

 

The problem from the story that Tsukimi’s mother told her is that after her death Tsukimi didn’t became a real princes like her mother told her, but instead she became a jellyfish “otaku” (fan) and moved to Tokyo to become an Illustrator. In Tokio she lives with a group of otakus in a house where men are not allowed, and they call themselves “The amars” (nuns).
Theirs life was peaceful until Tsukimi meets Kuranosuke, a cross-dressed boy who bring a twist to the amars life, especially for Tsukimi.

It’s a really funny story, and completely different from other mangas that I’ve read, the characters are singular. I like it because it shows the story of “not normal” girls that has to face the world, and they do it in their own particular way.

 

A Group (?) Activity

Well, in my life I haven’t done too much group activities voluntarily (school activities and sports at the gym class weren’t something I could choose). Maybe the only thing I did on group was playing football when I was 9, but my mother didn’t allow me to do that because I was “pata’e lana” (and she was right, I broke my ankle  two times :c ) and I never tried it  again.

Since then I’ve only been doing single activities, like painting, cooking, sewing, reading, etc. But now I do much of these activities with my boyfriend, so I can call them 2-people-group activity. One of the activities we regularly do is reading (like a book club), and we do it every time when we see each other. We started reading together last summer, when we went on vacations to Bolivia for one month. The first book we read was The Little Prince (we read it in English, and we’ve been reading it since then, over and over again) and what we do is to take turns and read aloud to practice our comprehension and pronunciation, we also read it in Spanish and we did the same: take turns and read aloud to the other.

It doesn’t seem like a fun activity, but I really enjoy doing it especially because of the story that “The Little Prince” tells, I never get tired of that. And I also like the way my boyfriend tells the story, he talks like if he were a BBC news reporter, so we laugh a lot.  

 

 

Sweet Little Sixteen, Chuck Berry

 

Sweet Little sixteen

Chuck Berry, the real king of rock and roll, is one of my favourite artists. I enjoy listening to his music because of the rhythm that makes me to want to dance (I don’t dance really well, but at least I fell like if I would). It’s really nice and the way he plays the guitar can´t be compared to the white rock and roll, the freedom of his movements, the way he moves and dances while he plays the guitar is amazing.

--Last year I went to see him in concert, he was really old and apologizes about that, but I forgive all his mistakes, because he is the king <3

Sweet little sixteen is one of my favourite songs, because of its simple rhythm and it’s really catchy. It doesn’t have a great and deep lyric and I like that because it’s good to just listen to it, and pretend that I’m dancing. In this song he talks about a 16 years old girl and, to resume, he talks about the sweetness and innocence of a young girl.

 

 

A Teacher

When I was at school I had many teachers and they were all different in their own way (and they were all crazy in their own way!) One of them that I still remember because of the way that she acted was one of my history teachers, called Jessica Mardones (well, I actually had three different teachers for history when I was in high school, they were all crazy, I think it’s common to history teachers to be out of their mind)

She was really, really crazy! She hardly remembered our names, even when she was our teacher for two years. She was also used to make monologues to teach us, and pretended to be a student (she invented the weirdest names) and asked herself the things she expected us (or not) to ask.

It was fun to be in her class because of the way she taught, it made time to spend faster, and we didn’t realized when it was time to leave. But she was also evil and she always tortured us in the tests by making them really difficult, especially when you made the test after the rest of the class. It happened to me one year that I got sick for one test and had to make it a week after my classmates did, it was the worst test I’ve ever done in my life, she ate me alive! and I also had a really bad mark on that test :c it was sad, and I learned to never miss a test in the rest of my life (it was like to condemn myself to death), and I also taught that to my little sister (who’s not that little, but it makes me feel big to say it) who is in the same school I was and she also has the same teacher I had!

Family Meal

A Family Meal: Christmas dinner

When I was a little girl and since a few years ago my family and I  were used to celebrate Christmas and New Year together, and I used to prepare almost the whole meal by myself, including the main dish (which was normally stuffed turkey breast, yumi yumi) and the dessert, and my grandma used to prepare salads and  appetizers .

One year  (maybe four or five years ago) my brother Felipe and I decided to make something different for that dinner so we made ricotta and mozzarella raviolones (big ravioli), with tomato and béchamel sauce, salads and raspberry panna cotta for the dessert. We prepared the ravioli the day before and went to sleep, but the next morning we discovered that our ravioli were all ruined!! So we had to call our mom and ask her for help, we were desperate :c

Well, at the end we had to remade all the ravioli, and hope for the best.

That night we went to my Lela’s house (my grandma) to prepare dinner, there was my aunt Paola and her husband Roland , their son Totito, my mom and dad (Claudia y Claudio) and my brother Felipe and my little sister Almendra. When we were there I cooked the ravioli, made the salsa, and we prepared everything to enjoy our meal.

The dinner tasted really good! And I don’t say that just because I made it, everyone was happy eating, and my brother and I were happier because of our good work, despite of all the inconvenient we had the day before.

One thing I learned that day was not to make ravioli again in my life, instead of that I decided to prepare only spaghetti and fettuccini because they’re easier to make.

Cartagena Beach

Cartagena Beach

As a geography student I have to go to a few fields visits during the semester, depending of the subject I have taken. On the last semester I went to Cartagena Beach with all my classmates of the course of Sea Geography, we went to see and measure several features of the beach and the sea, and we made an analysis of them after that.
 

When we arrived to Cartagena there was a nice weather, the sun was shining and there were a really cute puppy on the street (that was one of the best things of the day). The problem I had that day was the wind, which made me feel really cold and wanting to be in my bed.



That's me, feeling cold because of the wind : (

When we were on the beach we had to measure the height of different point of the beach, so one of my classmates had to stand in the water as a reference point so the others could make them work. It was fun, at least for us who were dry and warm watching him getting cold in the water, it was on June, so I imagine that he must suffer a little bit on that moment. After that we did exactly the same in other points of the bay, and two more classmates has to do the same sacrifice of getting in the water for us.

It wasn’t the best field visit I have had in my life, but at least I had some fun watching the sea and clouds, which were really beautiful that day. And at the end there started to rain a little, so it made my day better, and we had to leave because of that.
 

My friend Cristóbal and I.