I remember a good gift, and actually it wasn’t on my birthday. A long time ago (I was about fourteen) I went on vacation to Viña del Mar.  I went with a friend, my family, and friends of my brothers.

Well, it turns out that my saint’s day (Valentine’s day) happens to be very difficult to forget, so my mom has always had the tradition of giving me big presents or great days, as if it was my birthday. That year I went to bed the night before, and when I woke up the whole house was decorated. But this time my mom had nothing to do with it, my sister (who I talked about a few posts ago) had the idea of setting up the house as it was my birthday. She was very young then (8 or 9 years) and she made big sheets and put streamers, balloons, she made draws. My friend helped her because she found it so cute. My sister, Cata, also bought me presents at the fair: earrings, a bracelet, a hat, and a little purse. (Of course none of that exists now) They weren’t much expensive things, but for her it must cost a fortune. Later that day my mom invited all of us for lunch. It was a great day, and it showed me how much my sister cared about me J

FIRST DAY

My first day at psychology wasn’t much fun. I remember feeling really nervous and uncomfortable. In my mind it also was a hot and sticky day, but maybe I made that up.

That day all of us who had chosen this career were together. It felt like we were thousands. I sat with a girl I’ve met before - I think taking the english test, but I’m not sure – and that made me feel less worried. Her name is Natalie and until today I feel thankful for that day we share.  

During the whole day teachers came and introduced their working lines. They told us general stuff related to Psychology, and some of them told weird stories. One teacher made us walk all over the room playing games; others had us sitting in a round. I remember it as a boring and lazy day.

Later we all went to the grass and sat there to drink and chat. When I just got into the University I was shy and I didn’t felt Ok in groups I didn’t know. I look back and I almost can’t believe because I really enjoy being in groups know, but at the beginning it was hard. So there are not really happy or fun memories.

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.