I remember two of my Independence holidays as the best, but one of them was in Peru (who were like any other vacations) so I’m going to talk about the other one.

Last year I stayed on Santiago and I organized with my friends a popular fonda, especially dedicated for kids, but with a lot of families invited. We played games with the little ones, like sack race, miracle fishing, and bowling. We also had food stands, and we made kites.  At the end a professional group came and danced cueca. I really enjoy that afternoon, because we saw people having fun and it was a warm and beautiful day. It was great the fact that we had organized all that and it came out so good.

Later that day, a friend of mine invited all of us who had been in the fonda, to her house to celebrate the holidays. We brought the meat left (which was fine, but really I don’t eat much meat) and we make pebre and piscolas. She had at that time a lovely house in Lo Cañas, in La Florida, with a really large backyard, so we soon start dancing. At the late night more and more people came, so we end up being 60 people or more. It was such a fun day; we danced until 6 or 7 in the morning!

I went home at that hour, ate with my family, and moved quickly to another popular fonda we had organized. This one didn’t come so good, because we were all so tired haha. Later that day, after a few Terremotos (or Earthquakes?) we went back to my friend’s house so we could keep dancing. The entire week passed a little like that, but it’s too much to tell…

I’ m going to talk about my sister, Catalina, because she is one of my favorites persons. She isn’t just my sister, she is a good friend. She’s sixteen, so that’s how long we’ve met.

She is younger, and of course we don’t do everything together. She has her friends and I have mine. But we talk about a lot of stuffs, we share our personal lives. It’s nice to have someone to talk to at the end of the day; when I’m tired, angry or disappointed from my own friends, I always can talk to her and we end up laughing. We also share good news, our joys and fine days. She is a great company.

The truth is that I don’t see her as much as I want to, because we are both very busy. She likes history, so she does research at school. She is very smart. She is also very pretty, so she is always suffering from love, but because she has too many options! Ha-ha –ha.

Anyway, when we finally get together (at weekends usually) we have a lot of fun. This Saturday we saw a movie called “Libertarias”.  Other times we have a drink, go to walk, or just chat.

The best part of our relationship is that we’ve lived so many things together. For all this years she’s been my partner on family meetings, trips, and weekends. I really love my sister! J

I started this year with a lot of expectation, because people’ve been talking a lot about it. But nothing special’s happened to me, of course. Anyway, it’s been a good year. I started learning new things at college, like Psychoanalysis. I also took Afro dance lessons, which I’ve been doing since last year.  On my winter vacations I went backpacking whit friends to a quiet and beautiful place, called “Budi Lake”, in the south. I met a lot of people, and almost everybody were Mapuche. Also, since 2011 I’m on a political and social movement, which brings together a lot of homeless people (people who live whit relatives because they don’t have a chance to buy their own), who’ve been organizing since 2006 to fight for better living conditions. They have a lot of work in Peñalolén, where the real estate business grows up but nothing gets better for most of the people who work and live there. I work with them and I amaze every day to see how organization, cooperation and fight are the best way to stop the abuse and unfairness in this country.

Santiago

I’ve lived almost my whole life here, but my impression about Santiago has changed over time. Lately I’ve been thinking this city is wonderful, because people who live here are… special. Some places keep a “neighborhood life”; families sharing, talking or watching each other’s kids. This city has a lot of history. What I don’t like about Santiago is that is a very unequal city, the resources are bad distributed, and people are really apart from each other.  I think that has a reason, is not a “natural distribution”, but we are so far from where the decisions are taken, that we feel is natural. I would like Santiago to become a city where we all fit, and where there were no unfair situations, as we see today. For that a change needs to be done, and that depends on us.

I would recommend foreign people to see Santiago as it is: a strong city, whose people work very hard (despite what some says) full of life and hopes. But is also a hard place to live in, with a lot of contradictions. 

Julian Assange

This case has had an international impact and it has made us all questioning some stuff. It's known that the greatest powers of Occident are afraid of people discovering their secrets and activities: those secrets have kept them where they are. So, now we have had the chance to witness how this “empire bosses” respond when someone threats that privileged position.

I don’t have much information about the truth of the accusations, but I have no doubt that those who have looked themselves in danger, are capable of doing anything to protect their benefits. 

I think that Ecuador has characterized for been one of the most open and democratic place of America Latina; the laws and the politics are directed to include the citizens on the decisions, especially in subjects related to communication. Ecuador has a very good politic in terms of mass media, so it’s not weird that their President support and defend someone who is hunt, precisely, for opening filed information to the world.

Buthan

The first graph shows that the highest percentage of the people who were asked, feels their level of happiness is about five, of ten. This could tell us that people in Butan are not extremely happy about their lives, but they aren’t unhappy either. This is very important, because policy makers could work on improving these levels.
The second graph talks about life quality.
We can see that the majority of those polled thinks they’re neither poor nor good, meaning their life quality could be better but is not bad. We can make the relation with the other graph, because people answered about their level of happiness in a very similar way: in the middle.
I think that is very important to consider that although these answers are very important, we can’t know if the results are extremely trustworthy, because people moods changes and they may respond according to what they’re feeling in a certain moment of their lives. To know the accuracy of this survey we would have to find about the details about the questions, and how the levels were measure. Anyway, the graphs tell us that they’re some changes that could be made to improve people happiness level and life quality, and this could be a good idea for later studies

Elisabeth and William

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/29/twin-towers-raising-child


Elisabeth Turner is a woman whose husband was dead at the horrible accident of 9/11. The worst part of it, is at that time, she was seven months' pregnant, so her husband never got to meet his son.
This news tell how Elisabeth and William (her son) have found some peace and joy after this terrible event, and how Elisabeth has been able to raise him alone, with the figure of a father who dies so sudden, and couldn’t even meet his own son.
I chose this news because I think that a lost like that is related to my area, Psychology, and because it has some really important elements.
For example, Elisabeth tells how in their family they cry, so they don’t hide the sadness, but there is also joy and happiness. I think that is very important, to assume the accidents that make our lives harder, but still being able to enjoy good times. That is a very good perspective to work with as a psychologist.
Another great thing is that both mother and son talk and share their feelings and thoughts, and that is the best healing, to find a way to release the pain.
Also, Elisabeth doesn’t look back regretting what she didn’t get; she looks ah the future and enjoys the moments whit her son. I think that that is a good way of dealing with hard stuffs; not acting like they didn’t happen, instead, assuming them as a part of a new life.