Stress and workshop

Well, how do I even start? Workshop it’s like everything, I think it is the most important class in the career because that is where we learn how to make models and projects. I have workshop 4 times a week, and usually I have something with a mark like three days a week. I have this ¨obligatory assignments¨ usually on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays so I have to be working everyday to keep things going well, and sometimes you put all your effort into a project and the workshop teachers tell you that it’s all wrong. In that cases there is nothing to do about but stress out and start again, hoping that what you brings next is going to be better. I dont really manage stress so easily, in fact, I think that I dont manage it at all, stress manage me and gets me anxiety all the time☹ So, for all new architecture students, I think that get organized and constant is the best thing you could do, but you need both, organization AND constancy or things will start to get very complicated and you wont have time to sleep, eat or live. And since we dont want that, keep organized and constant and hope for the best! 

Movies now and then.

I don´t really remember what I used to like when I was a child, maybe fantasy movies, sci-fi movies or even disney ones, but I remember that maybe at twelve or thirteen I discovered this channel called ¨I-Sat¨, it was number 53 on my tv, and they had all this ¨alternative independent movies and series¨ that were half like low price movies with cheap scenery and the other half was like ¨Oscar´s nominee for best underground movie¨ and you could expect anything, from cartoons like Adult Swim, that I still like, to classic French or Russian movies. Since then I really like that kind of movies because I always think like ¨oh that could be me¨ or ¨I would like to do that¨. Another type of movies that are in this channel are the bizarre ones, where you see people becoming something else, or flying heads with giants legs and even movies that kind of ¨break¨ the stereotype of movie.

I really think that this channel was what made the difference between childhood movies and the movies that I like nowadays, so thanks I-sat!

Best concert ever!

In april, I had the most amazing day of my life and it was because a concert. There is a band called Basement, they are from the UK and they are one of my favorite bands ever. I’ve been listenging to them for about 5 years and a few years ago they got separated so I thought that I would never be able to see them live. But when I saw they were coming to Chile I was the happiest person in the world. So, when the day of the concert came I was already feeling super exited, I remember that I walked like an hour to get to the place and when finally in, there were like 50 people in there, since they are not a very known band. During the concert, and because there were so few people, I was able to actually seat on the stage, I was like 40 centimeters away from them and I kept making visual contact just in case. When the concert ended, the guitarist gave me his pick and the drummer gave me one of his drumsticks. Then I walked outside to buy some merch and suddenly the band walks out and start offering cake, because it was the singer’s birthday. The best thing is that it was vegan cake, but we also took many pictures and they signed all my stuff. It was the greatest day of my life.

Course and self evaluation

I think that English at university it´s not as different as it was in school, well, maybe in my school, since we made similar things like blogs and played a lot with like interactive games. I believe that blogs are such an easy and fun way to learn because you already have a topic and you could write whatever you want about it, tell your own experience, write about someone else, give your opinion on something or even make your own story.

Actually, I don’t think that I´m that bad at English, but I think I really need to practice speaking since I don’t tend to do it really often as I write or read or even listen to it, but maybe this summer I´ll do it because my aunt lives in united states with my cousins and they are coming to Chile and staying in my house for a couple weeks, so I think I´ll have to do it or maybe try to teach them Spanish, but I think I´ll learn anyway because there will be a lot more English at my house since they are three boys and will for sure talk a lot. Outside English class I actually use a lot of English, I really like to write and learn new ways to express what I want to say without sounding like I don’t know anything about it. Also I think that all the music that I listen to is in English, so I believe I kinda learn while enjoying my music or reading a big book in that language.

Summer break

I think I´ve never wanted a summer break more than I do now, I think I actually need it more than anything, I just want to walk around the almost empty Santiago.

I really don´t like the beach or travelling far from a city, I am a very city person so I prefer staying in Santiago or maybe going to Valparaíso or a place where I know there will be traffic lights. I think I´ll spend some weeks of the summer with my family, maybe going to the beach or maybe an international travel, but I will probably spend the rest of my vacations with my friends, maybe going somewhere near because we don´t have much money but I don´t really care as long as we have a good time and we will surely have a very good time at any place.

I don’t have anything planned yet, but since we are finishing academic year about the first or second week of December I think I´ll be here in Santiago until Christmas, and then going to Viña del Mar for my mom´s birthday, December 30, and spend new year’s there to see the fireworks and all that stuff. I hope that we don’t stay for so long because I don’t like the beach due to I´m allergic to the sun so it´s hard for me to stay outside.

I think my best plan is to walk around Santiago and get to know places that I don’t know yet with a bottle of water and fruit, what could be better?

Santiago Stories

Well, I’m the type of person that prefers public transport instead of a car, and one of the main reasons is the stories that you can tell about when you get off the bus or metro. As a frequent public transport user, I´ve had many random experiences from people asking for photos to seeing someone almost die in front of me. I think that was the most shocking situation I´ve ever been in my whole life.

The last day of the first week of class we had this ¨Concierto Mechón¨ that I wasn´t really going to go because I don’t exactly like that kind of stuff with loud –cumbia- bands and lots of beer and drunk people, but my friends convince me to go, so I went. I remember it was near Recoleta, I had to take the line 2 of metro, the yellow one, and I live at the almost beginning of the line 1, so it was a long way home. At the concert it was a lot of people, and a lot of drunk people too, and I think I left about 10:30 pm, just before the metro closes. In the metro, there were lots of –drunk- people that came from the concert, I was just hoping that none of them did a scene.

Once I got to Los Heroes station, where I had to make combination, I got to the stairs and I was on the first step when someone suddenly falls just in front of me, less than a meter, and on top of the railing the goes in the middle of the stairs. There was blood everywhere, his things went flying and as I was the closest person, I took his head to see if he was reacting, his eyes were completely white and he couldn’t stand by his own. I told people to get the guard to come over but they just passed and did nothing, my hands were covered in blood and there was another guard saying that he felt because he didn’t want to pay. I just tried to make him talk and keep his eyes open, I collected his stuff and put them in his bag until the guard told me that they were going to take care of him. I left shaking and there was blood on all my clothes and hands and even my face. It was awful, definitely my stranger experience in the public transport :(

My future job

When I finish my studies I think that I would like to work on my own, because I would like to have flexible schedule and make the things that I want to do. I know that when you just finish university it's hard to work all by yourself, but maybe with some external finance or any other help could work as well. I would like to put hotels or maybe hostels around the world, starting in Chile, maybe Valparaíso would be a good place to start with, then move around Chile, maybe at the very south and finally travel around the world making my own company.

I know that it's kind of a fantasy plan because I will probably have to work in an office job for some years when I finish university, maybe it won't even be related to what I would like to do, and I really don't think that I would work as well with an office job, I like to be in charge and get my own ideas made real.

Maybe if that doesn't work I think I will always have the option of making music, maybe it's not  -fully- related to architecture, maybe I won't even get paid, but I'm sure that if I want to make things how I want that's surely an option.

A country I'd like to visit

If I had a chance to visit a country that I like I'd really like to visit New Zealand because I think it's one of the most beautiful countries in the world with lots of wonderful nature.

I don't know much about New Zealand, I know that many of the ¨Middle Earth¨ themed movies were filmed there, like the Lord of the rings, Bridge to Terabithia and The Chronicles of Narnia, obviously because of the beautiful landscapes that make you believe you're still in that time. I also know that there are many geothermal and geographic phenomena like geysers, glaciers and valleys and I’d like to visit them all as I already know many in my country like Geyser del Tatio near San Pedro de Atacama and Glacier Grey at Torres del Paine. If I had the opportunity to study or work while staying there and get to know all of this wonderful places it would be really amazing. So which places would you like to visit?