Transantiago: before and after

So, about Transantiago... I think that first I should clear up that I'm not from Santiago so I don't really have an opinion about the old system; I used to come a lot in vacations to visit my sister, but whenever we moved in the city we did it by subway, there were very few occations when we had to take buses and I don't remember any special at all about them except that they were a lot bigger than the ones in Antofagasta...

I came to live in Santiago in 2007; the same year that Transantiago started to function full time, and it was a chaos: no one knew what bus to take to go to work, to school or to the university, the frequency of the buses was totaly random and they were always full. The only good thing was that everybody was so lost that no one could know that I was from another city... I blended in just fine. I should probably say as well that I haven't suffered the worst of it, all the long lines of people waiting, and the "tuna can" trips that we could see on the news; I live in the center of the town so I'm always going against the traffic: when people are trying to get in the center I'm leaving it, and at the end of the day when everyone alse is tying to get out I'm going in the contrare direcction.

Any way, the system has improved a lot since 2007, the frequencies have become more regular and fast and a some of the routes that where missng in some places of the city now have being added. I think people in charge should worry about adding more routs and changing the busses for others, stronger ones that can go through the town with out literally falling apart.

How about Mexico?

When I was about nine years old my grandparents took me and my mom on a trip to Mexico. We where in Mexico City, Puebla, Tasco and Acapulco (that was my last favourite part: there was a lot of old people, it was unbelievable hot and wet and I got sick, so I didn't even went to the beach).

But the other towns where so beautiful that I've always wanted to go again, specialy the last two, they are small, quiet, very old cities with hundreds of years of history; their white houses whith red roofs and their brik streets would enyone fall in love with them, and as far as I remember people where absolutely nice and friendly. Besides going back to those places I would love to know the rest of the country, to visit the Azteka and Maya ruins and to learn about the actual culture.

I've also thought about going to study to the UNAM, mabe get a post degree in anthropology (I've heard that the school there is grat) ore something alse. UNAM is the biggest public university in Mexico, and given the size of that country that's a lot to say. Mabe it would be hard to live in such a big and crazy city, but I think that for a cuple of years it would be fine, and that experience would be amazing.

First Term

First term of 2009 was a very dynamic time, it was the first semester of my "real career" (the last two years had been a common cycle), so all of my classes where interesting and challenging for the first time (well, not actually all of them, but most, and that's a lot to say). We went on field work to Arica, for our Culturas Andinas course, to a little town named Codpa in the highlands. That was a great experience, 'cause we where alone there and we had to be able to get to know the people, get them to trust us and to help us with the information we needed to write our papers. An other course that I really liked was Economic Anthropology I, where I lernt some of the practical aplications of my discipline, and how it could be usefull for the lifes of the people I would be working with and not just for my self or the "scientific comunity".

On the other hand, I was elected academic delegate for my career. That was something that I didn't expect and also that I hadn't planed in terms of schedule, so everything got really tight and fast. Most of the weeks I arrived to the University at 8:30 AM and leave it at 8:00 or 9:00 PM, between classes and meetings.

Last semester was very demanding in terms of the number of courses I took and also of the activities I had to do. I finished it very very tired, but happy because I learned a lot of things, I worked in topics I liked a lot, and also participated in processes that are important for the future of my career.

SECOND SEMESTER: ENGLISH 4