The 33 miners

When I Knew that the miners were trapped I thought immediately that they were died. Many days went by and I had less hope that the men would be still alive. I was disappointed of the rescuers, saint and religious beliefs. I think in the current time it is difficult to believe in God and in that moment I lost the faith. I was angry with mine’s owner. My opinion changed when I knew the news about they are alive. For me it was a miracle. I hope that the miners will be rescued as soon as possible. I think the miners are men very valiant and they have much strength. When they can be outside the mine, the miners deserve to be happiness with their family and to have a good holiday.
The family of the miners has had an important role from the beginning, because of if the family had not been present, maybe the rescuing would be slower.
I hope that the miners have patience and emotional strength to bear the time underground. Now, they are under medical control, anti-depression and anxiety drugs may be able to help them but hope will be the most important survival tool for the rest. At the US air force survival school in Washington, they teach the so-called Rule of Three. You can live three minutes without oxygen; three days without water; three weeks without food. But you will only last three seconds without hope. This is a good life lesson.

200 years of Independence!!

September is a nice month of the year. Trees bloom, days are longer, temperatures increased, nature wakes up and all that create a happy atmosphere. If we add to that the bicentennial celebrating so we are many reason for feel us well. I like very much to celebrate the Independence Day and this year it is special because of our country will be 200 years old. I like our festivities called Fiestas Patrias, the folklore; music and dance and the food like empanadas and anticuchos. I think the bicentennial celebrating will be great but it is important that we does not forget to be responsible, for example we must not drive under the influence of alcohol.
In 200 years our country has had a important development, however Chile exist still poverty and too much injustice. The new generations and we have many things to do to create a better country.
I hope that the patriot spirit does not finish with Fiestas Patrias and it always remain. We prefer or value many times, products from other countries like clothes, music or culture, etc. and we have to learn to value our culture, traditions, people and respect us.
For this Fiestas Patrias I will be with my family, my parents, my nephews, my brother and sister and my boyfriend. I will try not to eat and drink in excess, but I don't promise anything. Maybe I am a superficial person but those days will be my holidays and I only want to fly a kite and to rest all day.

An Ideal Country

Maybe an ideal country not exist, for example there are countries with tropical climate that could be ideal for living but there are many unpleasant insect and animals. Other countries can be excellent in economy and lifestyle but their climate is awful. So I think the better country for living is our country, CHILE!!. We have beautiful landscapes such mountains, lakes, glaciers, icebergs and many others. However I would like to know other places or countries like Cuba or Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. I would like to visit Cuba because I think the cuban people are very friendly and nice and I would know Havana and Varadero beach. Galapagos islands is very interesting for me because of their rich flora and fauna, which is a mystery; how a large diversity of species could develop in a remote place.
I always have wanted to know New York. In general EEUU I don’t like but New York is different for me, it`s a old city with much history and it has a important influence over culture, entertainment, art, education and fashion. If I will travel to New York I would have to go with a lot of money, because of I am a little bit consumer.

My work

My area of research is Nematology, it is a scientific discipline concerned with the study of plant parasitic nematodes; they are microscopic worms that live in the soil. They are an important crop pest in the world and in our country. The nematodes also can be vectors of other plant pathogens, like viruses.
In my PhD thesis I am studying the interaction between plant parasitic nematodes, plant viruses and plant. Specifically, I want to study the epidemiology of Xiphinema americanum and Tomato ringspot virus on stone fruit crops. These nematodes are difficult for their identification, so I will work with different methods for the nematodes identification, morphology and morphometric characterization and molecular analysis. For the identification of virus strains, I will work with molecular analysis. Later, I will do virus transmission test on indicator plants and I will determinate the transmission efficiency for each virus strains and its vector nematode, on stone fruit crops.
I like much my current research but it represents too much work and the next years it will take me a lot of time. I would like to have more time to enjoy the life, I need days with 34 hours or a little bit more jajaja. That is life of the students!!! :)

Level 4

I think there are many topics to write, they could be for example violence and delinquency in our society, traditions, family conflicts, lifestyle and food.
Violence and delinquency is a real problem in Chile and other countries, I believe it is a theme very important to discuss.
Traditions is an current topic, you could discuss about the real importance of traditions like bullfight in Spain.
Family conflict is a common theme when you live with many people.
Lifestyle, you can write about your activities and you could analyze if it is healthy for you. Another topic that I would like to write is food, I like to cook and taste diferent food, also I like to prepare diferent drinks and enjoy them.

Blogging experience

The blog was something new for me. I think it is a good tool to stablish dialogs between the author and readers to leave comments. My blogging experience was nice, I could combine text, images and I shared information with my classmates. The blogs helped me too much to improve my writting. I learned new vocabulary. I enjoyed to write the blogs but when I had much work, I did not think the same and I did the blogs but it was complicated for me.
I think blogs in general have adventages or benefits, but also some disadvantages. Adventages are that you can have a place in Internet where to say what you think and you have freedom to exploit the creative vein and you can know new people, with whom you can have an excellent feedback. I think disadvantages are that there is not confidentiality of the information, it is a public forum. Another disadvantage for me is that blog takes up a lot of my time, but I know that it is necesary in a english course. Therefore in the English class the blogs were only adventages. I think blogs have benefits relating educational programs and online courses of study. However, I would not like to create a personal blog because I don’t like to write of my life. It is too much tecnology for me and I prefer to visit to my friends or family and to talk with them. I believe our generations are less tecnologicals than currents ones. I think the young people today spend a lot time in the computers and they tend to eat almost constantly while they are playing or chatting. They leave to do others things, for example sports or outdoors activities and it entails to problem like obesity, sendentary people and illness.

Friends

When I look these pictures I feel nostalgia for the happy moment that I lived in Europ with my friends. They were my family and they are always in my mind. Three picture are of my goodbye party, it was in a bar “El Negocito” this is a chilean bar, it is very famous bar in Belgium. In this bar you can find people of different countries and you can eat chilean food like pastel de choclo or empanadas and you can drink pisco sour. It is great. Everyday I went to have dinner to “El Negocito” and later I came back to my home. I sometimes stayed at the bar to listen to concert band. In the first picture I am with a good friend Gerald, he is from Kenia and he is very affectionate and modest person. He was my classmate in the Master. In the second picture I am with my Belgian friends , Koen and Roge, they are propietors of the bar. Koen, bald guy, is a close friend of mine and He helped me too much, for example he gave me his house for two month while he was in another country. The last picture we are in koen’s house. In the third picture I am with my better friend, Yirina and her boyfriend Gio. She is from Cuba, she is a clever, funny and happy person,,,she is dancing all day. I miss too much my friends!!!. Gio is from Brasil, he is a clever guy, he was studying a doctorate. Finally, in the last picture I am with other friends; Douglas, Mariuxi and Valeria, they are from Ecuador. Douglas was like my brother and Mariuxi and Valeria were like my sisters. We lived many good and bad things together. That day, I cooked for them, snails and hot chicken and of course I prepared pisco sour.

Bring on the learning

I think Sir Ken Robinson is a very nice person and happy with his life. Sir Ken Robinson talks about a crisis of human resources and He believes that we make very poor use of our talents. There are people who love they do but it is a minority of people. There are many people who don’t enjoy that they do. He thinks there are many possible explanations for it and one of them is education, because education, in a way, move very many people from their natural talents. He thinks we need a revolution in education and a tranformation with real challenges. I agree with Sir Ken. For example, in our country many people want to have degree, perhaps because they want to earn better salary but perhaps it is not like them, I think it is a problem in Chile, because of, It caused a excessive increase of the number of private Universities and many people unemployed. When I was in Belgium understood this situation, because of I saw that everybody earn a good salary independent of their occupations. They understood that in the society, everybody have different aptitudes and talents and everybody are very important . I think we must teach our children to choose the correct way and It is they enjoy that they do in their lives and they do something with passion, what excites their spirits and energy. I would like to see a real change in education in our country and not only words.

Trips

My best trip, in the last time, was when I went to Puerto Varas two month ago. The trip was very short only three days but I recovered energy and I breathed fresh air. I went with my boyfriend and we stayed in a nice hotel Lan Antu, it is a very old construction since 1925, but it is recently restored, it is very beautiful hotel. We went to Puerto Mont because it is near Puerto Varas and we visited Angelmo where had lunch and I ate curanto and many shellfish and I drank much white wine. We also bought typical things such sheep wool. In Puerto Varas we went to casino and lost money, we never won nothing. The climate was perfect, it was cloudy but nice. In that trip I ate a lot delicious food, but the better was a roast lamb. This food was prepared in the hotel’s restaurant. Another good trip was when we (my family and me) went to Arica and Chungara lake. It was many years ago, but it is in my memory, because of it was great, we swam in the Chinchorro beach and we took many tours for example to Chungara lake, this place is wonderful, the lake is sorrounded by land and mountain where there are alpacas, vizcachas, guanacos, vicuñas, pumas, llamas and foxes.
I would like to travel to Egypt to know the pyramids and their secret passageway. I also would like to know Greece. For me the ancient civilizations are very interesting.

Hobbies

I have many hobbies when I have time, but my problem is that the most of time I must work. I have a few close friends and I try to see them regularly. If I am too busy then I phone them. In the winter I have more free time because of the agricultural job stop and then I can do others things. I like too much to paint and to draw, I think I am good with one’s hands. I like to weave and when I can do it I do clothes like pullovers, ponchos and scarves for me or for my family. I took a course in weaving with a aunt’s friend and she learns me the technique in little time. In the summer I like to ride a bicycle. My friends and I ride a bicycle toward Cajón del Maipo, we do enough exercise, and it is very nice because I lose weight and to share with my friends. This activity is not very often, about once or twice a month. In winter I would go to a gym if I had more time. I spend too much time sitting in my laboratory and in the doctorate program.

Web site

My area of research is Nematology. It is the scientific discipline concerned with the study of nematodes. I am working with plant parasitic nematodes, these are of considerable importance worldwide because of their devastating effects on crops have major economic impact, for this reason I always visit many web sites with information about plant parasitic nematodes. My favourite web site is http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/NEMABASE/, this site belong to University of California, and in this site you can find new scientific publications and Nematology news and events. Also you can find the Nemabase, it is a database to include interactive tools and models, and it gives easy access to information about the host status of plant to the plant parasitic nematodes in worldwide and therefore the information is available for researcher, as a basis for management decisions. In our country there is not many web site about nematology, for this reason I did a web site of my laboratory, www.nemachile.cl , in this site I put information about the most important genus and species of plant parasitic nematodes in Chile, for example life cycle and behaviour of plant parasitic nematodes and many pictures of symptoms that develop in the plant root system.

Animals

I like some animals for example the dog, because of it keep me company and it give me unconditional love. I have a little female dog called “Tammy” and every day it wait for me in the evening when I arrive to my home. Also in my home there are four rabbits but it are not mine it are of my nephew. He is responsible for feeding and cleaning of the rabbits, but he doesn’t always do it. I like others animals as horses, fishes, sheep and African animals which I can visit in the zoo. I hate others animals, for example mice, snake and lizard, they cause in me too much fear, I think I have a phobia to mice, I can’t see a mouse even on television. For me these animals are disgusting and repulsive. Last summer I was working in monitoring of plagues, it was very difficult activity for me because in many places I met with many mice and lizards. Every day when I was waking up I was wondering, what animal I will meet today? For this reason I believe that I am happier working at a laboratory looking worm in the microscope.

Is Catholic Church in crisis?

I think Catholic Church is in crisis due to the repeated denunciations presented in several countries for crimes of pederasty and sexual abuses committed by the priests. These events are not new but I think that it could not continue silently. There are many people disappointed with Catholic Church and I am one of them. Catholic Church has not listened to the society and therefore the church must accept the consequences.
Catholic Church has transformed in an extremely closed and moralistic organisation that has discriminated against many people without never putting in the place of other one. Many aberrations has happened. On the contrary we would hope that the church had a conciliator and cozy role. Anyhow there are some irreproachable priests who have devoted to the service of others and have given important examples of love and charity. I would like to see a Catholic Church less rigid in its positions and whose principle was to love one’s neighbor. Besides I would like that the Vatican admit its responsability for fomenting a culture of secrecy that allowed abuse to children for many years. I hope to happen a change in Catholic Church because of I think this organisation is necessary.

Music

I like to listen to music when I am alone, for example when I drive my car I listen to and sing many songs. I prefer Latin music, although I also like other music for example jazz and folk music. When I am with my friends or my boyfriend in some bars I like soft music because It is perfect for conversation. When I don’t want to think anything I listen to loud music and I forget all. My life without music would be very boring. I would like to learn to play a string instrument and to improve my singing. When I was in the school I was in a choir but now I sing very badly, I need too much practice. I think famous singers are lucky people because yours feelings and thought can come to many corners of the world and it crosses differents generations. Apparently if you are a famous singer you could remain alone without friends or family. It has happened with many famous singers as Michael Jackson, Kurt cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, etc.

Earthquake

February 27th, I was in my house, I was sleeping when I heard a loud noise and immediately began to move my bed with the earth movement. My mother started to shout and we come out to garden. We wait in this place the end of the earthquake. We were so scared!. That night I did not sleep a wink. The next day, I was in my house, very tired because electricity was cut off and I was discommoding due to drinking water was cut off also. The most important for me in this moment were my family and my friends, I forget thing like my computer, my telephone. I learnt that the most important for me are not the material goods.

My first blog

The blog is something new for me, my relationship with technology is not very good but I think it is always nice to learn new things. I have high expectations with this course, because I want to improve my english.

The first weeks of the doctoral program have been heavy, because in addition to attending classes, I am finishing work at a chemical company and I have my own business, a laboratory. Well I hope that when I finish working, everything changes. My classmates are very nice and we have different professions and activities, which is very interesting. I think it is rewarding to participate in this program.