English Language Challenges

The English laboratories here at university I think that was useful at least for me. It helped me to improve my orthography and get used to write a lot in English. 

Making all these blogs was sometimes fun, sometimes bored actually, because the topic wasn't always something interesting for me. 

Despite that, I liked to share a bit of my life, my family, the things I like to do and the things I've done. Though, I don't think I will keep making more posts, because I'm not that kind of person who likes to write his/her day everyday. And I'm not so creative so probably I won't write more than three lines of my day :(

I definitely have to expand my English vocabulary, and improve the fluency because sometimes I get lost in my ideas and stop talking, I don't want this to happen in a future, talking with foreign people.

So if I want to really leave these problems behind, I will have to probably watch TV series in English, read English texts frequently, hear people talking in English in different accents to develop my hearing, etc.

In my house I speak a lot in English with my brother, probably every single day ! He went to New Zealand few years ago, and I wanted to take advantage from that. So when we want to say something, ask something or anything, we usually do it in English. It maybe sounds weird but we got used to it and it helps us a lot. I can say that thanks to him, my English has improved considerably and I can speak a decently English.

Changes to my study programme

It's just my first year, so it's difficult to me to think of changes already. Anyways, Pharmacy is definitely a complex career. Sometimes I feel like I have no time to do other stuff but study, probably because of my schedule.

Maybe a change that can be made is to be more specific, from the teachers, which days we have evaluations. Sometimes they just say like "we're probably going to have an evaluation this week" and we can't be sure when until the day before or a few days before. This is not frequent, but it has happened.

Something that I found really useful is the U-cursos platform. Teachers send information through it and maintain us informed, we can send homework and contact every teacher.
I think that the length of most of the classes it is appropriate. Sometimes teachers end their classes earlier so we can have more time to study or even relax.

The use of technology is something important in this career, and I think that we are going to take advantage of it the next years. So far we are working with excel. A very efficient tool, but I feel like we have to learn how to use it by our own. The laboratories where we use excel, demand a lot if you consider yourself bad at computer stuff (like me) and sadly every laboratory class has an evaluation so it detrimental me sometimes...

Another change is the A1 and A2 schedule. People who live far away from the faculty can be affected. Also can be dangerous because in winter it is dark already at 6:30p.m. So it would be great if teachers can consider making the A1 and A2 earlier.

My personal opinion

If we talk about buying a pet, specifically dogs or cats, instead of adopting, I instantly feel uncomfortable or even mad. There are so many abandoned cats and dogs on streets, that suffer because of cold or hot whether, famine, illnesses and more, that we can help somehow. If someone really wants a pet, to have a friend to play with, that will love you unconditionally and will stay with you no matter what, adopt a dog or a cat, save it and give it the life that deserves, I promise that you will receive an eternal love and gratitude from your new pet.

On the other hand, buying an exotic pet it's something interesting, I always wanted a big parrot. I only had parakeets and taught them to stay in my hand, fly inside the house as they wish and to not be afraid of humans, etc... It was really an special relationship I had with them. I recommend it, but only if you can handle it. It means if you can take care of that exotic animal correctly: give it the food it needs, the correct weather conditions, a proper area and space, and those kind of stuff. If so, I think that having an exotic animal can be something really beautiful.

About climate change, I feel so bad, sad and scare about it. It has changed dramatically and it's affecting the flora and fauna from around the world. For example polar bears... they are being affected directly because of climate change. They are losing their habitat, their own home. Polar bears extremely depend on sea ice environment, and it is melting. They need it for hunt, travel, rest and maternal dens. It is so sad to see how important and dangerous this climate change is, to see how it sentences several species badly...

Out of the topic, I think cloning is something incredible, because we can see how amazing human knowledge is. Personally I wouldn't like to be cloned in a future, but the Dolly case was fascinating. Dolly couldn't live that much, just 6 years and her species are meant to live around 11 to 12 years. The scientists couldn't tell if her death was related with the cloning, because other sheep died the same way (pulmonary cancer). Cloning kind of scares me at the same time but I would love to read more about it and know how far scientists have progressed on it.

The heart

The heart is one of the most important organs, it provides blood to every single part of our body.


It's basically a cone-shaped muscular organ that contracts and relaxes with every heartbeat (systole and diastole), making possible the flow of blood reaching every body cell to provide them with oxygen and nutrients. I like this organ because of its role, it's the first functional organ to develop and it never stops beating, since the very first beat when we are just a 3 weeks old embryo, until the last day of our lives, unfortunately.

It's located in the thoracic cavity medial to the lungs and posterior to the sternum at the level of thoracic vertebrae T5-T8. The left side of the heart is larger and stronger, because pumps oxygenated blood to all body parts, and it's usually located in the left side of our thorax. It's about the size of a closed fist, commonly 12 cm in length, 8 cm wide, and 6 cm in thickness.

A lot of illnesses and affect its normal functioning such as coronary artery disease, heart arrhythmia, heart failure, heart valve disease, even congenital diseases.
Coronary artery disease is the most common heart problem. It happens when the vessels that supplies blood to the heart have a blockage caused by atherosclerosis (plaque that grows inside of an artery), which decreases the flow of blood to the heart muscles, inhibiting oxygen.
Heart arrhythmia is when the heart has an irregular beating pattern and can be developed from other heart diseases.
Heart failure is when the heart stops pumping blood to the body.
A heart valve disease is when the heart valves, that open and close to regulate the blood flow, stop working as they should and blocked the right flow.
When people born with an abnormal heart, it is called a congenital heart disease, when the embryo's heart doesn't develop right.

So to prevent most of these diseases, it's recommended to eat healthy, make exercise regularly, checking your blood pressure and cholesterol and triglyceride levels, don't smoke, etc

Looking forward to my future

I´m not quite sure what I'm going to do after I finish my career, but surely I would like to complement my knowledge as much as I can. After finishing Pharmacy, I'll be doing a professional degree in biochemist most likely, because as I said in a previous post, I'd love to investigate and participate in a teamwork, trying to extend and improve on what we know about something in particular, like a disease, viruses and how to fight them somehow, easier than today and hopefully if it doesn't have a cure yet, work hard to make it possible one day.

I think I would like to accomplish this in Chile so far. But doing this kind of professional degree in another country, sometimes can offer more opportunities, so I'll be considering this chances.

If blended system means to study physically in a class and also with computer activities, that sounds interesting to me, because I'll be reinforcing different digital/computer skills that can be really useful  in a future job for example. 

Actually, once I finish a professional degree, doing a PhD degree in something related with medicine could be also a possibility, I would like to improve as much as I can, and do my best in my future as a scientist. This means that I will have to spend many years studying, but it also means that opportunities will appear and to take them is what I want.

My future job

When I start thinking about my future job, finding a cure to some disease always comes to my mind.

To be part of an investigation team is something that excites me. So if I have the chance to work in an investigation, I would probably say yes. Maybe It could be outdoors and indoors, because if I need special materials, like materials from a laboratory, I obviously have to work in there. The days I will have to work at home (if it happens) it would be less stressful, with my stuff, take a rest from time to time, etc.

I'm not sure if traveling a lot will be a good idea for me, it's probably something my job will require, but sooner or later, to travel a lot won't be a good idea for me personally, because in my opinion, to stay in your own place, your own house it's more comfortable than anything. But I'm talking about maybe 6 years or more for this to happen, so I could change my mind about that idea.

I'm not sure how much I could earn in an investigation job, as long as it means a progress. I think it's not that much, but if my team and I end up finding something important, the salary can change, I have to inform myself more about it.

I'm studying pharmacy, because it contains a lot of subjects I like, such as biology, chemistry, laboratory stuff, and others that delve into the others I already mentioned. Thanks to my brother I decided to study it, he's studying pharmacy as well and talked to me a lot of the career.

We both have the idea that maybe we could work together in a future, who knows, it's an interesting idea and we can complement ourselves. 

Music in my life

I remember that when I was a little kid, my parents never put some classical music, not even when my brothers and I where still on our mother's belly.

But I do remember that when we made trips to the north or south, my father always used to put music in the car, sadly I can't remember the groups or their names but only one: "sugar, sugar"... I was in love with that song back then. Actually I didn't know its name until a couple of years ago.

So the years passed and when my oldest brother where still living with us in the same house, he used to put music in his room really loud, such as Metallica, System of a Down, electronic music and others, so thanks to him I kind of grew up listening to that type of music and I liked it (I was probably like 10-13 years old!)

Then when I started to search for music to listen, I found out that groups such as 30 Seconds to Mars, Linkin Park, a few of System and other rock and pop music, where the kind of music I liked and I used to listen to frequently.

But one day, one of my closest cousins showed me and my brother an artist, she brought a CD and I read on it "Tiziano Ferro". I found it kind of funny, because I didn't know that he was Italian. Since then I can tell that I'm a huge fan of Tiziano, I know almost all his songs from his 6 albums and I love each one of them. He puts so much love, feelings and wisdom on his songs and his voice is so relaxing!

Well if I have to say what kind of music I like the most, I'm not able answer that... I can listen to almost every genre: classical, orchestra, metal, pop, rock, country/western (I love country music) and I can name more but that was the point, I have no preference on music. But what I really can't listen to is reggaeton...

Now, what I think it's really really really important, is a good soundtrack in films. I love when the music surrounds you, makes you feel every single emotion that the film is trying to express. Hans Zimmer is definitely a music genius. I love his work on soundtracks. He worked on Pirates of  the Caribbean, the trilogy of Batman (Christopher Nolan), Inception, many Disney films, and my favorite: Interstellar. What a masterpiece those OST's, I could feel goosebumps every time the music started to play. A great film has to have great music in my opinion, otherwise it won't catch you completely.

And an instrument I really love, is the Piano and I play it when I have time and when I want to relax for an hour or more. Also I really like the violin, the guitar, the harp, etc... That's maybe why I like orchestras !

One of my favorite movies: Interstellar

I consider myself as a universe fanatic since I have memory. I love to spend some minutes looking at the stars in the night sky, or when someone tells me a story about space and stuff. 

The thing is that everything that has to do with space/universe, is something that takes my attention immediately. 

This, of course, happened when I heard for the first time of Interstellar. My brother has the same "addiction" as me with space and universe stuff, so he told me to go and watch that movie together in 2014, in its first release. 

So the movie is based in an apocalyptic Earth, when humankind is not allowed to live any longer in our planet, so a group of scientists had the mission to find another habitable planet and save the humanity from an imminent death.


That's in a few words but if you have the chance to watch Interstellar (and if you like that genre) you will face and feel all kind of emotions and probably love the movie.

It has so emotional scenes when you can feel those tears almost falling from your eyes, stressful parts, and of course a lot of action. The special effects make the movie really interesting to watch, besides what the story is about.


When the movie ended, a few days later my brother and I had to go to the cinema and watch it again with our parents!
In my opinion, I really recommend this movie to all who love anything related with the universe and like science-fiction movies with massive effects, because if I talk about the story itself, it will definitely gain your heart.

"We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down, and worry about our place in the dirt."

The first time I went to Easter Island

My father used to tell us a lot of stories about his childhood, living in Easter Island. He had the opportunity to grow up with his family in that beautiful place. 

I have 2 big brothers, the oldest has 36 years, and the other one is just 3 years older than me. My older brother could go to Easter Island way before than us (my other brother and I) so my dad told us that no matter what, we will have the same exciting opportunity.

 So it happens... One ordinary day, my dad and mom sat us down in the living room and told us that they had bought tickets to Easter Island for us (mother, father and my 2 brothers) and also to my brother's girlfriend and their son ! We were really excited because my other brother (the middle one) and I have never been there, we just imagined how wonderful could it be. So time passed by and the final day came. 

This happened 7 years ago. We took the flight and arrived at 9a.m. My father's family were waiting for us in their house, with a really good breakfast.

We couldn't wait to start our visit, so my father took us to Anakena, the most popular beach in Easter Island. We bought Poe in Anakena, which is a typical food. It's a cake made with banana , it's delicious !

 

We visited the iconic place where Moai's where made: Rano Raraku volcano. I think this was my favorite place of all, the gigantic statues everywhere got me really speechless. Also the Rano Kau volcano where we could reach the top of it, which had a mystical and extremely beautiful view.

I can say we almost visited the island completely: The ahu's, places where moai's are aligned in different parts of the Island, the beaches, a lot of caves and 2 of the 3 volcanoes. 

We stayed there 2 months so we could witness the Tapati Rapa-nui which is the most popular celebration there, where you can participate in all kind of competitions like dancing, climbing the volcanoes, swimming, etc. 

All these experiences made this holiday probably one of the best ever. Because we could stay all gathered and do everything together, visiting a place that has an especial meaning to me, because my father could live his childhood there.

A country I would like to visit:

Since I was a kid, Australia has been always a place I'd really like to visit. It has exotic animals, big and small ones.

The places look beautiful to me, the urban area and the green area. I have an uncle who lives in Australia, and he always says he wants us (my family) to go and visit his place.

The only thing that kind of frightens me, is that one of the most dangerous animals live in Australia, like snakes, big scary spiders, jellyfishes and more insects that I wouldn't be happy to see around me.






If I had the chance to go, I would definitely go to meet the kangaroos and koalas. Also go to the beach and visit one of the places that appeared in the movie "Finding Nemo", like Sydney !

Even though I wouldn't live in Australia for many years, I probably would for a while, just to know the area, the culture and stuff.