Chile's bicentennial year

The 18th, September of this year, 2010, was birthday of Chile. But this year, this celebration was very special, because our country celebrated 200 years as republic.

To celebrate this important date, Chileans planned to do big celebrations, because 200 years is an important age; people around the country were prepared to do it the best way. Obviously, Chilean government had planned many samples of celebration throughout the country, to leave in memory of the chilean people an unforgettable memory of the celebration of Chilean Bicentennial.

First, the year begun with massive celebration and fantastic fireworks in a lot of places of the country, but the most spectacular was in Valparaíso, Viña del Mar and in Santiago, but in many other places of Chile we saw fireworks. For example  in But the  La Serena, Puerto Montt or Iquique.
But the fireworks were not the only way to celebrate Chile's bicentennial year. In many towns of our country, the  Founding of Chilean Orchestras prepared a lot of concerts in September, the month of the country. These concerts were conducted by the best orchestras in the country, such as Simphonic Chilean Orchestra or the Filarmonic Chilean Orchestra.

Another very important and known celebration is traditional “pampilla”, a celebration that takes place in Coquimbo, in fourth region of Chile, where you see Chilean games, and where you eat a lot of Chilean foods, such as barbecues, empanadas or anticuchos.

Obviously, were a lot of celebrations in the country, many important and interesting.

But in this year also happen terrible situations, such as the earthquake and tsunami that happen in February in south of the country, were many people die, and were other persons lost her home. We also remember 33 miners were trapped in the mine. They were trapped over one month but happily they were saved of the mine.
And lastly, a traffic accident in Sun Expressway, the way that join Santiago and San Antonio.

Chile's bicentennial year, was very special, because we were witness of a lot of important events as the appointed before, and other such as that the Chilean Football Team was to World Cup Soccer in South Africa; or the change in politic tendency of the government, changing from leftist government to right government. But Chileans are happy to celebrate the birthday of their country, because all of people are patriots because they love their country despite any adversity. 

...a travel experience

Hello everyone!

This week, we must talk about a very interesting subject. Travel experiences!

To be honest, this is a very complicated topic; because I've done several travels that have been very special to me, and you need know that I love travel, and is very difficult to me decide about experience that I will tell you.

Well, I think I'll tell you about one of my trips to the north of Chile.

During high school, I participated in a chamber orchestra in my town. A chamber orchestra is an orchestra that only have string instruments, such as violin, viola, cello, and bass. And in 2008, we had scheduled a tour of the Atacama’s region.

This tour was scheduled for December of that year, and my classmates, who were also my fellow musicians, and me, were worried because at that time we had to pay PSU test. But finally, tour was after this test, and we were very happy because we would not have a study tour but if we would have a tour with our band.

So after PSU test, we started our tour to Atacama’s region. First day, we stayed in Huasco, where we played our orchestra’s repertoire. And then we went to see the rest of the city and at the end o the day we travel to Copiapó, where we went to sleep. The next day we got up early, because we had a concert in Music school of Copiapó. This was a wonderful concert. The same day at night we took the main concert of the tour in the chair of Copiapó. This concert was spectacular, there were many people and the sound was wonderful.

The next day we got up early again, because we must travel to Caldera, where we had a concert at “Cultural Center Station Caldera”. This was a wonderful experience because the cultural center resembles a train station, and inside there is a marine museum.

After this concert, we had rest, and we went for the rest of the day the beautiful resort of Bahía Inglesa.

At the end of the day, we had to go back to Copiapó, because the nest day we had to return to our city, where our tour would conclude with a great concert in the theater district.

This tour was an unforgettable experience as we share with our friends; we met beautiful places and show our work as a team to show our music.

Classmates, I hope you enjoyed my post, is a bit long but I could summarize this experience so beautiful to me. See you in class.

about movies...

Hello everyone!

Today, we must talk about our favourite’s movies.  I’m not really sure about what movies talk you, because I have a lot of favorite movies. But I decide that today I talk you about two of my favourite films. First, I talk you about of “Les Choristes”. This is a French drama film, and tells the story of a boarding school for “difficult boys”, which comes a new supervisor to the boys, Mr. Matthieu, a musician professor, that work like supervisor because his work as a musician has not been recognized. But in this school, Fond de l’Etang, he will find a lot of talent in these naughty children, with which to carry out his project of forming a choir. This is a beautiful movie that I recommend watching because has an interesting history and a wonderful soundtrack.

Now, I talk you about another of my favorite films. This film is called “Pirates of the Caribbean”, this is a series released from 2003, and tells the story of Captain Jack Sparrow, the hammer man Will Turner and the aristocratic Elizabeth Swan. First part of the series is called “The curse of the black pearl” and this shows the search of hidden treasure on the island of death. Second part of the history is called “Dead man’s chest”. In this part of the film Captain Jack Sparrow is pursued by Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman to settle her debt. In the third part of the series, “Pirates of the Caribbean at world ends”, Elizabeth and William  are joined this time the captain Barbosa to go to the end of the world to rescue Jack that had to pay his debt to Davy Johns face the Kraken, the fearsome beast from the sea dominated by Davy Johns. Well, a good new to fans of  Pirates of the Caribbean is scheduled to be released in 2011 the fourth part of this saga, “On stranger tides”.

I hope that you enjoy my post; I like both movies many of which I speak to them and I recommend you see them if you have not.

See you in next post.

Myths of the human brain...

Hello everyone!

As you remember, last Tuesday, we had a class with Dr. Pedro Maldonado, an ICBM’s teacher, in which he talked about the myths in relation to the human brain.

These myths to which Dr. Maldonado’s referred, was about all people think about the human brain. Dr. Maldonado’s exposition was very interesting, because he talks about subjects that we, as health students, we must study, as is the structure and functioning of the human brain.  

I think it would be nice to relate to several myths which Dr. Maldonado’s referred, because all of these myths have a component of our thoughts, that is, some things we can still believe myths.

  The human brain is the responsible for the human senses, memory, thoughts and the control of our body. In an adult human, brain weight about 1.4 kilograms, but is very strong because use about 25% of the Oxygen that the body have.

But, what are the myths about the brain?

Well, one of these myths says that the human brain is special, unique; different of the brain of the other animals, but if we look and compare the brains, both have the same parts.

Another interesting myth say that every brain function is localized in an specific place of the brain, but when we do an action active many sectors of the brain to do only this action. There is a sector with more activity like others but is not a single place to do this action. At the same time activate a lot of place of the brain.

One last myth about which I would like to discuss is the comparison of the human brain with computer.  This is a false belief, because while the computer has a localized memory, human brain has a distributed memory. While computer has a lineal operation, human brain has a parallel operation; while computer has a binary system, human brain has an analogy system, and while computer hasn’t history, human brain if you have.

Well classmates, these are the points that I consider most important of the Dr. Maldonado’s exhibition.

See you in class

Are you stressed?

 

Hello dear classmates

Today’s topic is not the most pleasant. But it is important to take into account because we suffer because of our lifestyle, work, and the requirement of the university. Stress in our subject today.

Stress is the way of human answers when faces to extreme are emotional, psychological, or environmental situations.

Manifestation of stress are commonly state of alarm and adrenalin production, short-term resistance as a coping mechanism, and exhaustion, as well as irritability, muscular tension, inability to concentrate and a variety of physiological reactions such as headache and elevated heart rate.

Stress can significantly affect many of the body's systems, as can an individual's perceptions, and reactions to stress.

Stress can affect anyone. But most affect people is who can work all time, students, or people doesn’t have time to do activities different from their normal, such as sports, travels during the day, or simply stay in home and watch television.

Responses to stress include adaptation, psychological coping such as stress management, anxiety, and depression. Over the long term, stress can lead to diminished health or increased propensity to illness, to avoid this, stress must be managed.

Stress condition can affect all areas of our lives, because when we are stressed, we can’t put all our attention on what we are doing because we feel tired, overwhelmed or even desperate by the very fact of having many things to do. Therefore, in order to avoid affecting our work or academic performance, we need to prevent, control or prevent reaching a stress condition

Responses to stress include adaptation, psychological coping such as stress management, anxiety, and depression. Over the long term, stress can lead to diminished health or increased propensity to illness, to avoid this, stress must be managed.

So, dear friends, to prevent an stress condition we need realized activities different to our normal activity because we need distraction to relax and enjoy the life. Not all is work or study. We can family and friends with whom to share and enjoy life.

See you in next post.

A healthy lifestyle...

We must remember despite the time is short, we can do a moment to care our bodies, although this moment be short, because we need to release the tensions of the day, to stay healthy, without forgetting that we do some physical activity to keep our bodies in top condition, complementing this with a balanced diet.

As an example to follow, we can take people who live the sports as a lifestyle. For these people, do sports is a way to maintaining a healthy body, because with a healthy body we can have a healthy mind.

To maintain a healthy body we can do a lot of things, such as go to the gym, run in the park or simply go to walk after work. Other good idea is cycling in the park or does a run into the city.

Another issue to consider to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is complement sports and healthy and diet eating, to give to our body the tools to have a good functioning, and obviously all activities will be beneficial to cope with the stress of modern life.  

This balanced diet should have variety in types of foods, nutrients, colors and flavors. We must not forget that eating healthy is to eat tasty too. 

Well dear friends, I hope you enjoy my post and I invite you to have a healthy lifestyle, with sports and tasty and healthy food.

See you in next post.

My favourite get-away ...

Hello dear classmates

This time we talk about our favourite get away. This is a very interesting topic because is an opportunity to learn more about our classmates.

In my opinion, travels are an opportunity to live new experiences, to know new places and people.

In childhood I used to travel to Puerto Montt every summer, because my grandmother lived there. And obviously I loved travel there because I used to visit her and my uncles and cousins.

I love this city because I love Chilean South because is a place in we can find beauty places, nature, clean air, and a very important thing, the food. In this city we can know a place call Angelmó. Here, we can eat a lot of traditional Chilean foods, or traditional foods of the Chilean foods, such as Milcao, Chapalele, or the best traditional Chilean south food, Curanto. I love Curanto. Is my favourite food. 

To continue with the topic of this subject, I want to tell you that other place that is my favourite get- away is my hometown, Vicuña, in Fourth Region of Coquimbo. I love travel to Vicuña every time I have an opportunity, because here stay my family and a lot of friends. Vicuña is a touristic town. And I like this town in winter, because it has a temperate climate, that is to say, is cloudy, but the cold is not as drastic as in Santiago, the rain is low and sometimes it snows in the mountains. Moreover, near Vicuña we can find a lot of interesting places to visit, such as water reservoirs, museums, astronomical observatories, and a lot of places to find traditional foods or crafts.

Well, I could continue writing about my favourites get-away, because are many, but I think that the post would be too long.

See you in class classmates!!

pd: the pictures were taken for me!