Blog 9: Changes to my study programme

I’ve never thought about changing anything from the career, not because it’s perfect, but because I’ve never looked that much into it. There’s always something that we don’t like about what we’re studying, but I usually just complain a little and then I forget about it.

When it comes to the curriculum, I don’t think I would change anything. There were subjects that I didn’t like, but I think that somehow they were all necessary in order to give us an integral education. I think that in terms of the length, the career is fine like it is now. Most of careers last five years, so it’s okay by me (not going to lie tho, I would love if the career lasted 4 years). I feel like the amount of work is also okay, sometimes we feel a little bit overwhelmed and that’s okay too, but I don’t think we have as much workload as other careers and, in my personal case, I sometimes get stressed because I’m not organized, and I should get things done sooner, but I procrastinate too much.

I really like the faculty facilities. I’m used to joke about this with my best friends from another universities because one of them is from FEN and the other from UC (San Joaquín) and even when the first goes to my same university, anyone that has been to FEN, knows the difference when it comes to structure. Despite that, I like FACSO better. Something that I would change would be that some classrooms are really cold in the winter, but that’s it.

Blog 8: Personal opinions

I’ll give my opinion about tattoos, legalizing marihuana and other drugs, “mechoneo” and abortion. I chose this four topics because I feel that those are the ones that I know most about or that I can write most about without doing a previous research.

I’ll start with tattoos. I love them. Ever since I was a child I have wanted to get one, and early this year I finally got it. I think that people should be able to have as many tattoos as they want and still be able to work in whatever they want. I mention this because there’s kind of a stereotype about people with a lot of them and I think that’s stupid.

The second topic is legalizing marihuana and other drugs. I think it would be okay to legalize them. I honestly never got why alcohol and cigarettes are legal, but marihuana isn’t. I honestly don’t know much about this, but I read the teachers blog and it made a lot of sense, I never thought about what it could be done with taxes obtained from drugs, but it’s a good idea to use them in education and rehab programs (although I think it’s kind of utopic).

The next one is “mechoneo”. When I was little, I was scared of the moment in which I would have to go to university, because they always showed in the news or other places the experience of the “mechones”, covered in eggs, flour and other things. I never liked that, but last year (my first year in university), we had a welcome “Mechona” (???) and it was quite good. Everyone was nice and we did activities with our godparents from second year. I think that was a good welcoming to a new (and sometimes scary) experience.

Finally, I would legalize abortion in every case, not just some cases (Three Causal law). I think that not everyone is made to be a parent and if you don’t want to have kids, you shouldn’t. I could give a larger explanation here, but I don’t feel that’s necessary.

Blog 7: Animated Disney character

Today I’m going to write about my favorite Disney princess, Tiana from “The Princess and The Frog”. Tiana is a hard-working woman that wants to fulfill her long term dream of owning a restaurant. When she was a little girl, she used to cook with her father, until he passed away, ever since that time she has been working a lot to achieve this.

This story takes place in New Orleans, specifically in the time of the year where Mardi Gras is celebrated. Her best friend is Charlotte La Bouff, she is the princess of this parade and very rich, but what she wants the most is to become a real princess, that’s why she’s so excited that Prince Naveen is coming to town, and that is the reason why she is throwing a party.

Prince Naveen is an arrogant, selfish, ambitious person. To give him a lesson, his parents aren’t giving him money anymore and when he arrives to New Orleans he is intercepted by Dr. Facilier also known as The Shadow Man. He tricks the prince and he ends up transforming into a frog. 

Naveen arrives at the previously mentioned party (as a frog) and after some things happen, Tiana kisses him, because he thought that she was a princess and that she could break the spell, just like in books. But Tiana wasn’t a princess and she ends up becoming a frog too.

I really love this movie and the characters in it. I think that I like Tiana because even when at the end she stays with Naveen and becomes a princess, that was never her goal in life and she actually had something that she was really passionate about. She didn’t wait for someone to get it for her, she worked hard for it and at the end of the story she got it (despite the difficulties that she had). Also, she has actual development as a character, unlike other princess, such as Aurora from Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. I think I chose her because I really wanted to write about the movie itself. I like the atmosphere of it and it’s developed in New Orleans, a place that I would love to visit and I hope doing it one day. 

Tiana also has an historical importance, since she is the first African-American Disney princess to ever exist. I wrote a little about the movie plot because I thought it was important to put her character in context.  

Blog 6: Postgraduate Studies

I have no idea if I’m going to keep studying after I finish this, I’ve never been the kind of person that loves to study, but I like to learn (I don’t know if that makes sense). If I were to study something after finishing Social Work, I would probably study something related to psycho-pedagogy. I’ve always thought that that is a really interesting field and when I was in school I was really invested in this. It could be that or a master in gender studies. I also like literature, but it’s not that related to what I’m currently studying and with what I want to do with my life, but I really enjoy it. So, as I mentioned, it’s not in my plans but I don’t rule out to continuing to study either.  

I would love to study abroad, I think it would be great, but honestly it’s not a must for me, because even when I would like to travel to other countries and know other cultures, It’s not necessary in my plans to do it because of something related with studies. However, if someday I actually study abroad, I think I would like to go to Finland or Norway.

I think that the best way for me to learn, it would be in a traditional way, similar to the way we studied when there wasn’t a pandemic virus. I feel that studying any field “in person” is easier and better. If it isn’t that, a blended system would be okay too. 

Blog 5: My future job

To be honest, I’m not really sure of what path I want to take just yet, I have some ideas but nothing concrete, since there’s a lot of different things that I’m interested in. At the moment I have my eye in two general fields, they are diversity and gender, and social reintegration. I’ve always felt drawn to the last one. However, there’s other things that I also enjoy, such as doing research (I find out about that last year) and honestly I’ve always wanted to work in something related to health care, but I was too bad at biology, that’s why I couldn’t pick a career that was more related to that, but I still feel that with Social Work I can, somehow, archive it.

I don’t really care if the job is outdoors or indoors, I enjoy working in teams and with people, but I wouldn’t like to be a social worker in a university and do that kind of job (no offence tho, I just think I would get bored).

In terms of traveling, I haven’t go to that many places and I would like to visit different countries, but I think I would rather leave that to be just for the pleasure of knowing other cultures and landscapes. Nonetheless, if I ever get to travel because of a job, I wouldn’t mind.

When it comes to salary, I would love to say that I really don’t care how much they pay me, but I do. Sadly, we live in a society where money is really important. I don’t want to have a lot of it, but just enough to have a good life, and even when money definitely isn’t why I am studying Social Work (that would be stupid), I still would like to make a decent amount of it.    

The reason why I’m studying Social Work is because I want to make a change in the society and try to understand it. I feel that my perspective in the world has changed so much ever since I joined the career, and I’m glad that happened. I’ve learned more than ever before and honestly, I can’t wait to be a social worker. Currently I’m very interested in diversity and gender topics, more than anything else. Even when sometimes the career itself gets difficult and challenging, I truly feel it’s worth it.

Blog 4: Books

At the beginning I thought about writing about a fantasy book, because they are usually my favorites, but at the end, I decided to go for another one. The first time that I read this book was in school, when I was in 3th senior, and I’ve loved it ever since. I´m talking about “Tengo miedo torero” by Pedro Lemebel.

This is a really special love story between the main characters, “Loca Del Frente” and Carlos. It is set in the 80’s in the middle of the dictatorship. This book has so many elements that are great, but I really wouldn’t like to spoil anything. 

As I mentioned before, I loved this book ever since I read it for the first time on 2017. I liked that Lemebel was able of mixing real milestones that occurred in history, with fiction. And the great thing is that he managed to do it in a crude but comical way (no really a spoiler, but the part where he describes Pinochet’s birthday party and what happened after the attack to him in 1986, was great).

I honestly think that this book isn’t for everybody, but if you like history and the satires of it, I highly recommend it.

But I wouldn’t stop there, this author has a great books, even when this one is his only novel. I also recommend “Adiós mariquita linda”, “Háblame de amores” and “La esquina es mi corazón”. Also, if you ever get the opportunity, you should see the play “La ciudad sin ti” where four actors represent some of Lemebel’s stories, they worked along with him and it was released on August 21, 2015. Sadly, Pedro didn’t have the opportunity to watch the staging, as he died earlier that same year.

I really enjoy reading his book, and if you haven’t, you should give it a try, I promise it’s worth it.

Blog 3: Movies and series

When I read that we had to write about a series that we think it’s worth watching, I gave it a long thought, I considered to write about “Sex Education”, “The assassination of Gianni Versace”, “Sherlock”, “Hollywood”, among others. But at the end, and after started writing at least three times without feeling right about it, I decided to go for “Big Mouth”.

This Netflix series, produced by Nate Funaro and Joe Wengert, and created by Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett, aired on September 29^th, 2017, with the first episode, “Ejaculation”. Even when the plot of the series is simple, it has a lot of content. It’s about two thirteen year old best friends and the rest of their class, going through the changes of puberty and other issues and discoveries that can come with adulthood (since the parents of the kids are involved in this series too). The main characters are Nick Birch, Andrew Glouberman, Jay Bilzerian, Jessi Glaser, Missy Foreman-Greenwald, Matthew MacDell, and Maury and Connie, the hormone monsters (which are hilarious).

If I’m being honest, at first I was a little reluctant to watch it, because I’m not a big fan of animated series and even less if they look like this particular one, but once I started I realized how good it was. I especially liked this show because it has a lot of elements that others don’t. For instance, it actually addresses complex topics, like puberty, relationships, sexuality, divorce, menopause, birth control and a whole bunch of interesting issues, without losing its comedy. It also has good bisexual representation (in comparison to other series).

Another reason of why I liked it, it’s because of the cast. It has amazing and talented people. For example, Nick Kroll (on the right), one of the creators of the series, does the voice to more than three characters, including Nick and Maury. And also John Mulaney (on the left) who plays Andrew. A fun fact about this show is that it’s based on the experiences of Andrew Goldberg and Nick Kroll, from when they were younger.

I feel like I can’t really express how good this series is, but I highly recommend it. 

Blog 2: Best concert ever

In my life I’ve been to a fair amount of concerts (Bruno Mars, One Direction, among others). The one that this blog is about is the most recent one. It was at Movistar Arena, on May 25, 2018. I’m talking about Harry Styles. First I’m going to write some important facts about him and his life and then narrate the experience of the concert.

Harry was born on February 1, 1994. When he was 7 years old, he moved to Holmes Chapel, Cheshire and he lived there until he was 16. In 2010 he auditioned for the show The X Factor with the song “Isn’t she lovely” by Stevie Wonder. He was able to be there for a while, but in the end he didn’t make it through and that’s when the judges put him and other 4 guys together and created One Direction to compete as a band. They landed in third place.

As you may notice, I’m a fan of the band (since 2012) so of course, when they went on a “hiatus” (more like a break up, if you ask me), I was devastated. But seeing as the things turned out, I think it was for the best. All of them seem to be way more comfortable than when they ever were in the band. And the music that they are releasing is more of their personal style, which is great (I still love One Direction tho).

When Harry went as a solo artist, I knew I was going to like his music, then he released his first single “Sign of the times” and I was right. I loved it. So when I heard that he was coming here, I started raising money to buy a ticket. In the end I went with my mom, that is super supportive in this kind of stuff and it was a great concert. The songs were on point, especially my favorite one “From the dining table”, where the atmosphere was peaceful and quiet (which is rare in an event like this one). In general, all the people that was there was having a great time and the concert was full of acceptance and love, the rainbow created by lights (and thanks to the coordination and organization of the fan club) was breathtaking. Without doubts, one of the best days of my life.

  

I remember that after the concert, when we arrived home, my mom and I shared a pizza and watched a movie (Juno), it was great. 

Blog 1: A country I’d like to visit

If I could visit any place in the world it would be Finland. This country it’s also known as “The land of a thousand lakes”, this is because it has around 188.000 lakes. It’s also known because they have one of the best education systems in the world. I’ve wanted to go to Finland since 2016, when a friend of mine had the opportunity to visit it, when she came back to Chile, she showed me a lot of pictures from beautiful places. I would love to go there not just because of the culture, but also because of the landscapes that you can appreciate, such as the northern lights in Lapland. Adding to this, it’s that I really like cold weather and Finland it’s always coldish. Actually, in summer, the highest temperature its 21°C, which is perfect.  

If I’m being honest, I would like to do anything there, from just visiting, to studying and eventually working. However, I’m not sure if I would live there, because I think I’d miss my family too much.

Anyway, if I ever have the chance to go there the first thing that I’d do it would definitely be visiting the place that I mentioned early, Lapland. There you can also find the Arctic Circle, where Santa Claus Village is located.