Blog 4: What to Do/Where to Go in Santiago

Hey folks.... so I know we've been away from each other a few weeks so here is the update on the blogs:

The first two blogs (Last Semester and A Country You Would Visit) should be finished no later than the end of the week.  Blog 3 (the first themed post) will be done at a future date to be announced.  Blog 4 will take place this week and the theme can be found below.

I also moved the first Listening Quiz to this week.  It is quite easy, but the key is to show up! 

ok, so here is this week's theme:

How well do you know Santiago? Were you Santiago-born and bred? Or did you move here after you were born or after you graduated from high school?

The topic of this week's post is: WHAT TO DO / WHERE TO GO IN SANTIAGO .

When writing your post be sure to answer these questions:

- What places should a foreigner tourist visit in Stgo?

- What things should a foreigner tourist do?

- Make a list of top 5 places/activities, describing them, giving suggestions and explaining the reasons for your choice.

- Don't forget to leave a comment on 2 of your classmates' posts.

Visiting Brazil

Visiting Brazil

I’ve been to quite a few countries in my life but I’ve never been to Brazil.  I would love to go there some day.  I have many friends who always go on and on about how great Brazil is: the music, the beaches, the dances, the women, etc…and I’ve also read and heard about the more negative things that don’t always get mentioned: the drug cartels and the police violence, for example.  Both of these aspects (the “good” and the “bad”) are interesting to me and I would love to explore them more closely.  I’m also interested in Brazilian politics, especially president Lula and the worker’s party.  When he was elected president, it was a big deal for progressives around the world.  I often wonder if he has changed the country for the better.   Visiting Brazil would be a good way to find out. 

My only real contact with Brazil so far has been through films.  I remember when I saw City of God, a film about growing up in Rio de Janeiro’s dangerous favelas.  The level of police and gang violence struck me but I was also intrigued by the way people struggled to make it despite living in such precarious conditions.  Another film about Brazil that I enjoyed was Estacion Central.  In this film, a woman works as a letter-writer.  I didn’t realize that there were so many illiterate people in Brazil!

I have several friends who seem to love Brazil; sometimes I think they even love Brazil more than they love their own country.  My friend Belen, for example, is obsessed with Brazil.  She listens to Brazilian reggae, dances Samba, watches Brazilian films and does Capoeira whenever she has free time.  I sometimes think that the Brazilian embassy should hire her to promote Brazilian culture in Chile.  She could be some sort of cultural ambassador.  I’m sure she’d do it for free.

Personally, I would like to meet Edison Arantes do Nascimento (aka Pele).  He is probably the best soccer player in history, perhaps only Maradona comes close to his level of skill.  Maradona has suggested that Pele belongs in a museum, but I think he belongs outside in the open air promoting the sport like he’s been doing for a long time now.  Of course, if he were in a museum, I’d go visit him.

I would love to visit all the places that you always see on postcards but I would also love to explore the more hidden aspects of the country.  Maybe I should go there for the next World Cup or for the Olympics in Rio.  Of course, during those events, it would be hard to see the true face of Brazil.  Governments often try to hide the social inequality and poverty in their countries in order to give a false impression to the outside world.  In any case, I should start saving money now.

Here are some guidelines:

Identify country and reasoning:

Which country would you like to go to? Why? What is it about the country that makes you want to visit it?

What do you know about it and how did you come to know about it:

What do you know about it? 

Have you seen films that were shot in the country? Have you heard from other people who have visited the country?

Details about what you would do:

What would you like to do there? Do you want to live there for a while or just visit for a few weeks and travel around?  Where exactly would you like to visit inside the country? What is it known for?

(how about looking up some information on the internet?)

What would your life there be like?:

Would you like to study/work/live there? Explain.

What would you do during the week, the weekends?

Would you go alone and meet people? Would you go to language school there?

What would be some of the difficulties in studying/working/living there (language, visas, getting a job, where would you stay?, would you have to save money to get there?)?

- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts

- Word Count: 200 words   

Visiting Brazil

Visiting Brazil

I’ve been to quite a few countries in my life but I’ve never been to Brazil.  I would love to go there some day.  I have many friends who always go on and on about how great Brazil is: the music, the beaches, the dances, the women, etc…and I’ve also read and heard about the more negative things that don’t always get mentioned: the drug cartels and the police violence, for example.  Both of these aspects (the “good” and the “bad”) are interesting to me and I would love to explore them more closely.  I’m also interested in Brazilian politics, especially president Lula and the worker’s party.  When he was elected president, it was a big deal for progressives around the world.  I often wonder if he has changed the country for the better.   Visiting Brazil would be a good way to find out. 

My only real contact with Brazil so far has been through films.  I remember when I saw City of God, a film about growing up in Rio de Janeiro’s dangerous favelas.  The level of police and gang violence struck me but I was also intrigued by the way people struggled to make it despite living in such precarious conditions.  Another film about Brazil that I enjoyed was Estacion Central.  In this film, a woman works as a letter-writer.  I didn’t realize that there were so many illiterate people in Brazil!

I have several friends who seem to love Brazil; sometimes I think they even love Brazil more than they love their own country.  My friend Belen, for example, is obsessed with Brazil.  She listens to Brazilian reggae, dances Samba, watches Brazilian films and does Capoeira whenever she has free time.  I sometimes think that the Brazilian embassy should hire her to promote Brazilian culture in Chile.  She could be some sort of cultural ambassador.  I’m sure she’d do it for free.

Personally, I would like to meet Edison Arantes do Nascimento (aka Pele).  He is probably the best soccer player in history, perhaps only Maradona comes close to his level of skill.  Unlike Maradona though, I don’t think Pele belongs in a museum, I think he belongs outside promoting the sport like he’s been doing for a long time.  Of course, if he were in a museum, I’d go visit him.

I would love to visit all the places that you always see on postcards but I would also love to explore the more hidden aspects of the country.  Maybe I should go there for the next World Cup or for the Olympics in Rio.  Of course, during those events, it would be hard to see the true face of Brazil.  In any case, I should start saving money now.

Here are some guidelines:

Identify country and reasoning:

Which country would you like to go to? Why? What is it about the country that makes you want to visit it?

What do you know about it and how did you come to know about it:

What do you know about it? 

Have you seen films that were shot in the country? Have you heard from other people who have visited the country?

Details about what you would do:

What would you like to do there? Do you want to live there for a while or just visit for a few weeks and travel around?  Where exactly would you like to visit inside the country? What is it known for?

(how about looking up some information on the internet?)

What would your life there be like?:

Would you like to study/work/live there? Explain.

What would you do during the week, the weekends?

Would you go alone and meet people? Would you go to language school there?

What would be some of the difficulties in studying/working/living there (language, visas, getting a job, where would you stay?, would you have to save money to get there?)?

- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts

- Word Count: 200 words   

Visiting Brazil

Visiting Brazil

I’ve been to quite a few countries in my life but I’ve never been to Brazil.  I would love to go there some day.  I have many friends who always go on and on about how great Brazil is: the music, the beaches, the dances, the women, etc…and I’ve also read and heard about the more negative things that don’t always get mentioned: the drug cartels and the police violence, for example.  Both of these aspects (the “good” and the “bad”) are interesting to me and I would love to explore them more closely.  I’m also interested in Brazilian politics, especially president Lula and the worker’s party.  When he was elected president, it was a big deal for progressives around the world.  I often wonder if he has changed the country for the better.   Visiting Brazil would be a good way to find out. 

My only real contact with Brazil so far has been through films.  I remember when I saw City of God, a film about growing up in Rio de Janeiro’s dangerous favelas.  The level of police and gang violence struck me but I was also intrigued by the way people struggled to make it despite living in such precarious conditions.  Another film about Brazil that I enjoyed was Estacion Central.  In this film, a woman works as a letter-writer.  I didn’t realize that there were so many illiterate people in Brazil!

I have several friends who seem to love Brazil; sometimes I think they even love Brazil more than they love their own country.  My friend Belen, for example, is obsessed with Brazil.  She listens to Brazilian reggae, dances Samba, watches Brazilian films and does Capoeira whenever she has free time.  I sometimes think that the Brazilian embassy should hire her to promote Brazilian culture in Chile.  She could be some sort of cultural ambassador.  I’m sure she’d do it for free.

Personally, I would like to meet Edison Arantes do Nascimento (aka Pele).  He is probably the best soccer player in history, perhaps only Maradona comes close to his level of skill.  Unlike Maradona though, I don’t think Pele belongs in a museum, I think he belongs outside promoting the sport like he’s been doing for a long time.  Of course, if he were in a museum, I’d go visit him.

I would love to visit all the places that you always see on postcards but I would also love to explore the more hidden aspects of the country.  Maybe I should go there for the next World Cup or for the Olympics in Rio.  Of course, during those events, it would be hard to see the true face of Brazil.  In any case, I should start saving money now.

Here are some guidelines:

Identify country and reasoning:

Which country would you like to go to? Why? What is it about the country that makes you want to visit it?

What do you know about it and how did you come to know about it:

What do you know about it? 

Have you seen films that were shot in the country? Have you heard from other people who have visited the country?

Details about what you would do:

What would you like to do there? Do you want to live there for a while or just visit for a few weeks and travel around?  Where exactly would you like to visit inside the country? What is it known for?

(how about looking up some information on the internet?)

What would your life there be like?:

Would you like to study/work/live there? Explain.

What would you do during the week, the weekends?

Would you go alone and meet people? Would you go to language school there?

What would be some of the difficulties in studying/working/living there (language, visas, getting a job, where would you stay?, would you have to save money to get there?)?

- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts

- Word Count: 200 words   

And Yes, The Blog Post is On!

For those of you wondering what will happen if you don't get to post blogs in class on Thursday, well, here it is: Whether you come to class or not, I think it would be a good idea for you to post the blog before the end of the week.  All the information is here (see below) and I even shared a little story from my own life (very intriguing).  So, try it.  And please do not use a translator, whether it be human or of the software kind!  And please don't forget to leave comments on your classmates' posts as well.  I will be taking a look at them before next week and I'll have comments of my own for you....

BTW (by the way), I will be in class tomorrow and so I will be physically available for any questions or concerns you might have....

Chao Pescao

Yes Folks....It's Posting Time Again

Yes folks, it's time to post....again.  This first post will be about the previous semester.  Sometimes it's good to look back and reflect on the past.  Not many people do this, I must admit that I include myself in this group, but it's really not such a bad idea as we can learn a lot about ourselves.


Last term, I was still in San Francisco, finishing up my program (in Anthropology) and thinking that the last semester at San Francisco State University would be easier than the others.  Boy was I wrong.  During the last year or so, I had been working on my thesis film, a documentary about a community in northern Chile (La Negra), traveling back and forth from California to Chile taking advantage of the summer and winter vacation months in order to complete the project.  By the way, I spent a lot of my own money to do this; I hope one day someone will give me money for at least part of my film projects!  So anyways, everything was going relatively smoothly until I showed my advisor what I thought was my "almost finished" film.  


Although he had watched part of my material before, this was the first time he had seen a complete version....and he wasn't too pleased with the result.  In other words, he hated it.  He thought that the film lacked focus since I had merely mixed together the different stories (the stories of the different community members) without finding some sort of device to link them in an intelligible way.  This was not good.  There were only three weeks left in the semester and I had to finish everything and get my advisor's approval in order to graduate.  Thinking that we wouldn't be able to finish the film in time to graduate, my advisor "suggested" I stay for another semester.  I almost had a heart attack.  Luckily, I convinced him that we could work on the film for two weeks straight and hope for the best.  He reluctantly agreed and for the next two weeks I edited and edited and edited and edited..... I ignored everything else in my life in order to finish the film.  


I went to my advisor's office every other day, dragging myself over to the campus with my hard drive in my backpack, weak from malnutrition and considerably over-caffeinated.  We managed to make considerable progress at each meeting, and luckily he ended up loving the film (and couldn't stop talking about it to the other members of the faculty).  I don't know where I got the creative energy to finish (maybe it was the coffee?) but I was very happy when my advisor finally signed my certificate of completion papers.  And when I finally graduated, I was all the more proud of myself for finishing what I had set out to do just two years earlier.  It was a good feeling.... I recommend it.


So, that's just one thing I remember from last semester....there were other things but this story is a good one for me since it had a happy ending.  I have another story but that one didn't end so good and I don't want to bore you with the details.


But I do want to hear a story from you....so get to work!
These are the official instructions...


Write about your experiences during the first term of 2010.
Describe:
- the relevant things you learned/studied
- the sports and free time activities you did
- the challenges you had to face
- Others (family, friends, etc..)
- Word Count: 200 


Also, remember to leave comments in at least 3 of your classmates` posts.

Hey, and why not add a photo or video to spice it up a little!!!!!

(I would have added a photo of myself but they are all crap)

Classes Today are Cancelled

For those of you who are still waiting to hear whether classes are on today, well here it is: they're cancelled.  Classes resume tomorrow.  Make sure you check the syllabus for the pages you need to try for next week and, in the meantime, go to plataforma and try the exercises for Unit 13 (Time Matters).  I'll see you next week!!!  Oh, I almost forgot.... stay tuned for information about the Lay-Out (preparation for the oral presentation), which will happen on September 7th..... this info will be posted here.  If you have any questions email me at trauld@yahoo.com (or post a comment).