My worst and best holidays

My worst holidays were when I was only 11 years.  I went with my uncles and cousins to my cousin’s home in Valparaiso. It was an old and big house, very far of Valparaiso’s center but near of the beach. It was the first time I went in holidays without my mother, and I can to say that it was a terrible experience. Everyday there was awkward because my cousin bothered me for all things that I did. But I tried to be of the better cheer up to make happy to my uncles. But there were good days, where we walked around the city, and in the afternoon went to the beach. On the night, we had a lunch and played dominoes late. We were one week in Valparaiso and thinking well, it wasn´t a terrible holiday but definitely it wasn’t the best.

On the other hand, in Valdivia was my favorite holiday. I love that city because it´s really green, and full of places to know the nature, like Saval Park, Calle Calle riverside, Teja Island or Niebla. Also, Valdivia is very near of other southern cities as Osorno, Puerto Montt and others. However, every time that I go, we travel in car to Panguipulli, the most beautiful town in Chile. It has a great and wonderful lake, called Panguipulli, and it’s surrounded for a lot of trees. In summer is fantastic visit it because the beach is full of people meeting in family. The lake has quiet and non-cold water, therefore is relaxing to swim and see the sky while the white clouds pass.

In Valdivia there are a lot of things to do. In my favorite holiday, with my family went to Valdivia’s casino. But there were some problems because in these times I was already under age, so I didn´t enter. However, I look a little bigger to my age, so enter and I played in the machines with 100 pesos.  But, I won 8000 pesos, that with my family spent in a bar, drinking some “water”. The next day we go to Macera Island, an ancient Spanish fort, and with my uncle walk around the island. I never was happiest. 

Seasons

While the time advances, the seasons change. A short time ago people in Chile lived a cold winter, with little rains but gray days. Everyone were full of clothes, as jackets, hats, scarfs, etc.

The spring has passed very faster. But it´s impossible talk about the spring without to mention the National holidays, known in Chile like “18”. Finally finish the ugly and cold winter days, and begin the sunshine, beautiful flowers and fresh breeze. It isn´t only in Chile where it’s celebrated that season. Around the world, especially in long winters countries, spring is considered as happy period because people in winter must stay in their homes for the cruel climate conditions. Also, spring can coincide with harvest times. People work in community to help in the harvest, since the children to old man and animals.

And now, at least in Chile, we are entering in Summer, specific in 21st December, though the hot days already have arrived. It can be a happy season because people go out to take a walk in fresh afternoon or have a dinner in a restaurant. Also, for the general a lot of people have summer´s holidays. For that reason, you can go out with your friends or family, travel and knowing new places or enjoy known cities or towns. In my opinion summer is the best season to me because when there are really hot days I prefer go out to a park with my girlfriend a take a rest below a tree. Also, I meet with my school friends and buy some beers to later play a soccer match, climb a hill and the night drink until the sunrise.

For the last, the fall is a signal that responsibilities are come back. Specially to us, as university students and the other people with their jobs or studies. Too, the weather becomes less nice. Begin the shorter and colder days. But, not all is so bad, because when there are cold time, the better that you can do is stay in home, with a warm coffee, lying in your bed

Different cultures

It’s really interesting to admire the different manifestations of culture that can be. Since the languages until the way in that they move inside their territory, culture is the cleanest expression of the individual, and the community.

Languages can be one of the cultural phenomena most studied in the world. So, English is the language most expanded among the different countries actually, changing and adding a lot of concepts to the other languages. In China and USA, is clearly understandable the concept of “email”. On the other hand, since Tokyo until Temuco, “Sushi” is the word that represents the same idea of a compact meal.

 The previous phenomenon is caused for the Globalization Process. This has introduced a lot of changes in the international relationships and even in the internal structures politics, socials, economics, etc. of the countries. Thus, national cultures too have suffered changes. Paris is known for be a lush city, but didn´t scape to McDonald’s restaurants, the same case to Tokyo and every big city. However, globalization has given great benefits. The culture has become in something more accessible that in the past. Every people can visit the greatest Da Vinci’s pictures in Louvre, or travel on camel toward the Giza’s pyramids.  Globalization has reduced the distances among the countries, being enough 24 hours to be since Santiago to China. Also, the prices are cheaper, so that to a middle class person can travel if he/she propose it.

Christmas, a north European holiday has become in a global event, maybe the biggest happening every year. But, this contrasts with local holidays or events of each nation or country. Globalization also has stressed the differences among countries, regions or people. That causes people want to know other places and persons. Maybe to that is necessary leave the tourism circuits and to admire the places less visited.

To know the glamour of Mediterranean Sea, is better don’t go to Nice, Cannes or Marseille, and to prefer countries like Croatia, Albania or Montenegro.  Their culture is rich because mixed Latin and Slavs influences, giving to their cities an elegant aspect. On the other hand, to admire the most pure Chinese culture, is recommendable go out of the crowded cities and visit less explored zones like the interior riversides, especially on the most important rivers like the Blue and Yellow River.

Second semeter thoughts

This semester has been really strong. Finish in the middle of January isn´t funny to everyone. But all isn´t so hard in the last year. I had good moments with my school friends, including football, play and alcohol. Too I had great days with my girlfriend. We went to fondas, parties and romantic dates along the semester. Those moments gave me so much encouragement to be good in the university. We started just in October and the classes are very fast and hard, with a lot of homework, investigations and tests. Macroeconomic and accounting are the hardest subjects to me until today.

Too for that I haven´t could go out so enough with my friends, that feel me a bit of sad, but I hope that I can to be more with them and with my girlfriend. It´s really sad when there are beautiful days outside and you can´t because the next day there is a test or an investigation. But the best gratification is a good mark won with sacrifice and effort. That is the only form to In the future have better chances to develop myself.

Just finish this semester I promise that I´m going to sleep three full days, play a lot of soccer play station games, drink beer with my friends and above all go out with my girlfriend and to have so much romantic dates.

2016 resolutions and predictions

I have too many expectations about this New Year. And that it´s because I´m studying in my third year in University; It will be the middle of the career. But that is personal. In the world I think that It´ll be a year with important decisions of many countries about something themes as Terrorism, ecology and economy.  I hope that cooperation will be more important that selfish decisions.

The last year was too much exhausting because with the University´s strikes we still don´t finish the class. But I still feel so happy in this career because it´s what I love. Too I feel so animated for to be in third year, that means there is less. In the last tests I have good marks and pass all my subjects. To 2016 I propose give it all to have success in my career, without passing anxieties like the last year.

Too I hope to have more relaxed moments and can take rest. I think that I deserve really good vacations somewhere, without anything to study or concerns. This way I come back with all of energy to study and do my activities. I really need get it back my good energies. I want too to share more with my classmates because the last year I don´t have so much time to share a time with them, thing that I´m sorry.

Finally I want discovered new under European music, go out and walk through Santiago while listen it and come back to play football, this time in the University. That depends with the time.

My dream job

Well, obviously I want work as public administrator to collaborate to the people´s welfare. But I would like work in three areas: Energy, Transport and Construction.  I think that is very necessary young blood in those ministries and public services because the world is changing and for that it needs the new ideas and volition. My idea is to see a Chile clean, with a healthy environment. For this reason is a necessary take good decision and remove the corruption in the plans and bids.

But too a dream very desired it is become me in ambassador in some country on Europe. I love travel and know different lifestyles. I never have left Chile but always there is a one time.  I would be the happiest man in the world working in a little state as San Marino or Liechtenstein. For that too I chose this career.

I always have wanted to be football player but I never enter to a football academy because I prefer study. It´s the best mode to be someone in the life and too I think the knowledge is the best food to the soul. If I was a football player I wouldn´t concerned in the fame or money if not in to do what makes me happy. 

How green are you?

Well, I am not familiar with recycling, but I try living cleaner possible. I hate when people throw trash in the streets or parks.  That it´s proper of poor cultures. I admired to some countries in Europe like Scandinavian countries or Germany because they know so much about take care the Earth, its resources and the ecology in general. It´s common sense to take care of our resources and ecosystem because there is only one Earth and human´s selfish could finish with everything. For example the ice in poles, together with the different animals that live there.  

I try caring my environment through a healthy life. I take short showers, walk as much I can, and in the future I want avoid buy a car, preferring the public system transport. If I buy one, will be an total electric car. Too I  would love that Chile left to use gasoline buses and It adopts electric or gas vehicles like transvias or efficient  buses. In a lot of places on the world they are used like Europa, China, Japan or USA.

I think that it’s so much important the personal actions against pollution but the most transcendental is the government support and the collaboration among them.

A video that I like

My favorite video currently is a musical video of a song called “Dance, Dance” by Fall Out Boy. When I´m sad or bored I like watch this video because It´s very funny and happy. It´s a song tell about a party where the players are the band´s members. Everyone in the party goes crazy and dances like if there were no tomorrow. In the middle there is a love story and other problems that exist in the high school life. There a lot of notable scenes as of a typical film part where the group of loser friends try become in popular, catching the attention through ridiculous dances or trying conquering popular girls and then to be rejected. I love this video for that, it shows the classic American parties that people hates in film like American Pie. But it´s the meaninglessness making that the video clip be so funny. I think that only few people don´t laugh with stupid that the actors does in this film, but there are some scenes out of places.

The music is very animated and It´s impossible doesn´t want to go and dance, jump and song like a freak. I recommend this video because this music is perfect to hang out or become a metro travel in something so much happy. And better if you are alone in your home and begin to dance.

The films that I love and hate

I always have loved historical and comedy movies. But favorite film in the world is Midnight in Paris. I like it because mix History, art, culture, love and Paris. This film is about a American writer, Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) travelling with his fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams) to Paris. She is an empty and superficial woman, while Gil is a sensible and deep man.  In their visit they were sightseeing for Paris´s monuments and museums. A night Gil walks alone and loses.  Suddenly an ancient car met him. Gil knew Picasso, Stein, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and other important artists in a time travel. Finally Gil moved to Paris and Inez was unfaithful with an ex. In this movie Paris is shown in its entire splendor, mixed with an story simple and catchy.

The film that I hate forever is Karadima. I went with my girlfriend to the cinema. But I must admit that I watched only half movie. It was grotesque, with a strong story, not able to sensible people like me. Sometimes I think in the poor Benjamin Vicuña. It hasn´t been easy record sexual scenes. It´s true, this movie wanted show real cases to sensitize to our society, objective maybe complete. But in my personal opinion I didn´t enjoy and I would wish never have watched. 

I always have loved historical and comedy movies. But favorite film in the world is Midnight in Paris. I like it because mix History, art, culture, love and Paris. This film is about a American writer, Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) travelling with his fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams) to Paris. She is an empty and superficial woman, while Gil is a sensible and deep man.  In their visit they were sightseeing for Paris´s monuments and museums. A night Gil walks alone and loses.  Suddenly an ancient car met him. Gil knew Picasso, Stein, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and other important artists in a time travel. Finally Gil moved to Paris and Inez was unfaithful with an ex. In this movie Paris is shown in its entire splendor, mixed with an story simple and catchy.

The film that I hate forever is Karadima. I went with my girlfriend to the cinema. But I must admit that I watched only half movie. It was grotesque, with a strong story, not able to sensible people like me. Sometimes I think in the poor Benjamin Vicuña. It hasn´t been easy record sexual scenes. It´s true, this movie wanted show real cases to sensitize to our society, objective maybe complete. But in my personal opinion I didn´t enjoy and I would wish never have watched. 

A day that I will always remember

I will never forget the day that I knew to my actual girlfriend…well, when she knew me. In the last year of secondary I traveled every morning in Metro. I read books while listen music. I didn´t know that a girl always traveled with me and she usually looked at me. Through a facebook page she found me. This happened a Friday and the next Monday we met us. Monday, August 19, 2013 is a date that I will always remember because I fell in love of that girl that always looked silently at me. Just one hour was enough to know that we would be together for a long time. Sometimes people say that the fast things end faster. She said that day “I love you” and then she hidden her face of shame. I don´t remember a moment more tender that this. But how I´m very bad I said to that girl that I traveled to study in Argentina. She felt too much sad. I told that it was a joke and I kept with her. She was very angry with me but we realized that needed us. After that we kissed us. 

The Perfect Song

Music must be one way preferred to express our senses. Since immemorial times people has played and listened music to tell stories or to say different things. The perfect song to me is “I Still Remember” by Bloc Party. It isn´t the most popular song of this band but It´s the most I feel. The idea in the song is tell about a story in a routine relationship day, highlighting normal events express and sentimentally. The lyrics are very deep and sensitive, but It isn´t slow and boring. It has harmony in the voice, it resulting an impact at the moment of listen it. The phrases in the lyrics that most represent the senses in the song are:

You said "it's just like a full moon". 
Blood beats faster in our veins 
We left our trousers by the canal 
And our fingers, they almost touched

But maybe the most interesting thing in the song is the musical video that is the perfect complement to the lyrics and music. Since the first time I watched that I loved it and discovered that It will be my favorite song. The truth is nobody feels that I feel but I always will consider like a masterpiece.

The best holidays I've ever had

I have two favorite holidays. The first was with my mother. We went to Valdivia when I was 16 years old. I love Valdivia for it calm ambient, numerous natural activities and the perfect occasion to be in family. We spent two weeks there and I remember that it happened very faster. Also in Valdivia was my first time…in a Casino. I must agree that I have good luck in the love and the game because with $1000 I won $8000.

In the last place the holiday I never will forget was with my girlfriend. We went to Viña del Mar for the day but it was an amazing experience together. We love food, so we went to Valparaiso to eat the famous chorrillanas in JCruz. The truth is I have stomach ache and I didn´t eat so much. But I didn´t resisted to the chorrillana, so we ate and magically I feel much better. Then we moved on to the beach in Viña and I could admired to my girlfriend in bikini. With a little of sand in my shoes we had to come back to the reality and the Santiago´s summer.

A Country I Woluld Like to Visit

I always dream I´m in the middle of a forest, on the banks of a river. One time I watched a tv show where a man visted many places around the world. Since then I´ve gone to the Alps, especially Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic and Austria.  I want travel through of different of their cities and town, and then walk for forest and navigate in blue rivers. Also I want to see the panoramas that que those countries can offer like museums, cafes, pubs, parks, etc. Obviously that was very boring of live alone. For that I will plan go with my girlfriend. She also want travel and know a lot of different places and to have good memories about that.

Autobiography

Hi, I´m Valentin Rodriguez. I am 19 years old and was born in January, in midsummer.  I´m studying Public Administration in University of Chile. My dream is travel around the world and to know a lot of different countries as Chilean official. But I don´t want to go alone. My girlfriend will come with me.  

I like read realistic novels of authors as Lev Tolstoi, Stendhal, Dostoievski, etc. But I love read History books to know different cultures and to imagine other times and places that I don´t know. So I like football and specially the leagues in Europe like English or Italian.

I hope to learn so much in my career, doing friends and living multiples experiences. So I want grow skills that help me in my professional career.

Plataforma 2

The hardest task for me was the listening because the actors talked very faster and sometimes it was hard learn that they said. The easiest part was the quizs, especially those about interesting topics like education, stereotypes or The Simpsons. But the tasks about complete the sentences were very hard because the answer to the sentences were very similar.

Activities Experience

The activities in the web platform are good tools to grow our skills. But in my opinion there were activities that weren’t useless like online shops to buy desks. Quiz was a greatly method to exercise interactively, too the activities about complete the sentences with words or concepts. Writing and Reading are the skills that we have practiced more with text and presentation, without forget the listening activities. 

Blogs Experience

Blogs are an important tool to express our thinking and senses. In my experience I think that post in the blogs is a very good complement to our learning. We’ve acquired new knowledge as words, concepts and skills to writer. Too the blog´s themes were so funny, in special the last, where we wrote about our favorite books. Now it´s easier and quicker big texts and they will have more contents.

Exercising in blogs I feel more prepared to communicate on this globalized world. It´s very necessary to know English if we want participate with other people of different countries. In the future I like tell to the classes about the blogs in the session to practice the oral and not only what is written.   

I think that we could have written about different themes in the first blogs. I like themes as our dreams, places that  We want to visit, ideas to change the world, beautiful family moments, etc.

But I hope that this tool keep in the time  because it´s very useful and more if complement with oral tools as dissertations, expositions, etc about the same blog´s themes for that I have more energy talking about my favorite things.

My favorite books

Hi, I will tell you about a theme that I admired: books.  The first book that I read was Ancient History. It was an illustrated book about different cultures in the past. I like History books; in my house I have an encyclopedia that it has 800 pages!!! But my favorite books are the realist old novels. I have three favorites novels: Ana Karenina was written by Leon Tolstoy. It tell stories of the Russian aristocracy. War and Peace is of the same author, and too tell stories about Russian aristocracy but the special in these works is that They show so much themes of the humanity like the love, war, betrayal , passion, friendship, etc. And finally 100 Years of Loneliness, written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, tell about a family that lives in Macondo. During 100 years the Buendias and his descendent live too much experienced like love, death, passion and forgotten.

I am always reading a book. It´s my best company in my Metro´s travels. I´m reading a book that It´s called Sense and Sensibility. It tells ths storie of love of sisters for a pair of men.  Greed and ambition represent the core of this book. It was written by Jane Austen.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Fast food

Hello friends, Do you like fast food? Well, in my opinion fast food is the tastiest in the world.  I love it because it´s cheaper and more delicious that home food.  Also I like it because it´s perfect to share with friends in parties or meetings.

I prefer eat fast foods in Malls because I feel more comfortable in those places. The worst places to eat that food are in itinerant business because I have sickened there.  McDondalds, Fritz, KFC, Tarragona or Telepizza are my favorite places to eat fast food, always with good company like my girlfriend or my best friends.  To these places I go one time for week aprox.  However in vacation I can to go until three or four times in a week. I know that´s not healthy but I tried don’t eat very often. So I do physical exercises to offset it. I wait that wiil be effective.

My favorite fast foods are cheese hamburgers, pizzas, cheese patty, hot dogs, etc. I love cheese food.  So I like it Italian hamburgers and BBQ.

Good bye classmates.