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

My ideal job

Ok, so... I've said other times that I would like work directly with people, maybe in comunity development proyects, if its urban, rural or in an other country I don't care. I would like to understand first how is that they live and see the world, how they organize them selfs, and how is that organization can give them new posibilities of improving their way and the conditions of their life. I would like very much to see that I'm making a direct contribution to people's life with the tools and abilities that where given to me, but by passig them to others to be used, not by canching things and expecting that they follow what I say just because I went to college. I also know that this kinds of jobs are hard to get, I mean... who would really pay for that? Actually, there are some ONG's that provide this kind of opportunities, and I would love to be concidered. For this, I would have to specilize in social networks and associative anthropology, and also in economic and polithic anthropolgy, and to do a lot of research in this matter before I can think to sart interfering in real ways in people's life.

But if we are dreaming away, I would love to have a job thar allows me to travel a lot around Southamerica and the rest of the world, just for a cupple of years, before I start trying to make this world a little better. Maybe take some pictures for a magazine, or write some sories, or record some films of what I see ... yes, the classical dream job for an anthropologist, but hey... I've always been a fan of the classics.

My favorite subject

Well, is kind of hard to think about this we are at the end of the term and all we want to do is just finish with every thing the best that we can and run far far away. But I think that the best subject I had this term, and I have to say that unlike others I had a lot of good curses, is Economic Anthropology. This is a social-cultural curse taught by Andres Aedo, and it has a lot of great readings like Marz, Polangy, Godelier and others that study how different cultures and societies deal with how to produce and reproduct them selfs whith the resources that they have and the economic relationships that they can mantein with others. This is great because you can understanda lot of our actual society and the way thar it's organized, just by studying how others do it, in a process that is called "un-naturalization" of the economic laws that we have being told are universal and necessary.
This is the first part of the curse, and the second is about exactly the contrary: we study all of the economic theories that ruled the occidental world from the beggining of XXth century until now, and thar really makes you understand how our country has being built and also how many of the laws and dessitions that people say are only economical are trully polithical and the other way around.

The Future...

Ah, the future... I wonder if the teacher knows how annoying this kind of questions are, or maybe he's been talking to my mom and she told him to freak me out.
Let's see.... For the millionth time, I-DON'T-KNOW-WHERE-AM-I-GOING-TO-BE-IN-FIVE-YEARS!!!... And I like it that way.
But again, just so I don't mess up this post, I'm going to fall, only this time i'm actually making all of this stuff up, I warn you...
In five years I'm going to be out of college, maybe doing some kind of master degree in social anthropology. I have a good job, not a fancy one, but it pays decent and it's not absolutely horrible: I haven't sold out yet. It allows me to work directly with people, I'm doing some reseach and a lot of proyects of comunity development, so there I can keep some polithical work.
I live alone, I'm finaly totally independent. I rent a little apartment somewehere down town, but still hung out a lot in my sister's house, and when I'm not there I like to keep my apartment full with friends. I also travel a lot, I can save some money and dont' spend a lot, so every time I have in my hands I take off with one of my friends, and I'm doing some alone short trips too.
Well, thats all, I hope you enjoy.