Changes to my study programme

9th Entry - Changes to my study programme

As far as I know, a lot of changes were made with the new study programme, and as I am just a freshman, I can't say much.

Something I noticed is that the faculty facilities have trouble covering the huge amount of students we are. For example, the laboratories don’t have enough microscopies, the Aula Magna capacity sometimes is just  too small to all the students, etc.

However, not everything is bad; the workload isn’t excessive (my cousin lives in France, and she has to do homework until 12.00 pm almost everyday), the teachers are fine and so are the classes.

The use of technology is, at least for me, a point of pros and cons: I think is amazing (I‘ve seen my partners using programming tools) but sometimes it’s a bit tedious (by the way, I find great the writing of blogs. Making reports sounded like a hell for my older friends).

All the changes I would do are minor things, as increasing the delivery of study material by the teachers, or the improvement of the use of the faculty spaces, like the back yard of the library, or the space next to the classroom bathroom. And maybe, replace some teachers (I know it sounds very ugly) who all I heard of them is that they are a bit prepotent and burlesque.

Certainly I still need to know more of the faculty to tell what we need to change, but this is my final diagnosis.

Summer Holidays

8th Entry - Summer Holidays

This summer all I want to do is rest. I’m getting very tired, mentally and physically.

I want to take a break from everything, and relax.

Also, I’m taking part of an activity called “Trabajos Voluntarios FECH”. We’re going to Curepto, to work in a several places around. Some of my friends enrolled themselves too, and we’re all excited.

If the money wasn’t an issue, I would like to go to Canada, or England, ore ven Spain, but being realistic, the furthest place I’ll go probably it will be the supermarket.

As everyone knows, the end of the year is very stressful (at least for me it is), and that why I want to pass the –short– holidays we have with my friends and my family. I missed this year so much my father because he lives in Valparaíso and I can see him every two or three weeks. Also, spend some time with my mother, because she works very hard and I can see her only at night, when she arrives from work and I arrive from the university.

I’m thinking to start going to the gym, maybe learn to drive… The only certain thing I can recall is that I’ve got a very short time and a lots of plans.

I couldn’t see very much my friends while I went to the university this year. Definitely, this holidays I’ll go to see, catch up and just hang out with them.

I think I'll travel to the north, or the south, I haven't decided yet.

Addiction: From coffee and tea to drugs of abuse

7th entry - Addiction: From coffee and tea to drugs of abuse

 I’m not very familiar with drugs more serious than alcohol or cigarettes, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know people who have tried them.

I’m not a supporter of the idea that people who has tried drugs is the typical stereotyped young people, with a rastafari look, because it’s not true. A few of my school friends have tried a widely range of drugs, because they think there’s nothing wrong in experimenting, if they are responsible about that.

I tried once LSD to know how it was, because the experience was appealing to me and LSD isn’t addictive, and it’s not like everyone thinks. It’s not about seeing crazy stuff, like flying dragons, pink elephants or whatever. It’s more like your senses are more developed. You see everything like “high-definition” (more colorful, with more contrast, like the camera options) and you find mandala-like patterns in everything. The touch and the hearing are deeper too. But for the other people, you look exactly the same as always, but your pupils are dilated and you become a little bit philosopher.

This is how people usually think it is...

...and this is how it REALLY is (or at least, the closer I could think of).

Aside from the medicament drugs benefits, I can’t recall another benefit to the other kind of drugs, like ecstasy, methamphetamine, cocaine… To my appreciation, drugs are a way to “escape” from reality, and often the people who consume them are unable to be responsible about it (not always, as I said before). Then, they develop long-term symptoms like forgetfulness, fatigue…

The people who usually consumed the higher-addiction drugs get withdrawal symptoms because their “emotional” bond with them and the dependence created because of the alteration of the normal behavior of the nervous system. The symptoms vary about the drug consumed, usually being the counter-part of their effects.

I know a few friends who are “addicted” to cigarettes, and they all say the same: it’s an expensive, unhealthy addiction and they want to quit it.

This is how smoking affect our lungs.

Post Graduate Studies

6th Entry - Post Graduate Studies

I'm surely going to after I get my professional degree, because it's kind of a tool to perform better my future job (research). I mean, the more I know, the easier it would be to me to develop new knowledge in the area.

I would like to study a PhD or Master degree in Neuroscience or Clinical Biochemistry (or maybe both) because, aside from being really interesting, they would give me the necessary abilities to success.

I’ve thought of studying here in Chile the Master degree and my PhD abroad… If not in Spain, I would study maybe in London or Canada, where the biochemistry field is more advanced. But as far as I can think of, first I’ve to finish my undergraduate degree, and that’s my principal concern.

Surrey University Campus. It's located in the South East of England, UK. It's one of the best colleges to study biochemistry around the globe.

I would like to study an intense, full-time course, to end as soon as possible (my dreams can’t wait!). However, if I study abroad, I would take some time to tour wherever I take my post-graduate degree, after I finish the course. It would be silly if I don’t do it.

Once one of my school teachers told me that if I don’t take a gap year before or after university, and I start working right after ending my studies, then I would never be able to stop working and take it… So I think after I get my PhD, I will travel around the world, and accomplish all of my personal goals (write a book, travel at least to twenty different countries, learn to program and learn a few songs in my ukulele, etcétera).

Your Future Job...

5th Entry - Your Future Job...

My dream was always being a neurosurgeon or forensic medical examiner, but as I am studying Biochemistry, it's not possible (I can't become a surgeon) so my choice would be a clinical neurologist researcher. But it's not a definitive choice, because I'm most likely becoming a teacher in some point of my life. I picture myself teaching, as I said, or trying to find some way to cure neurodegenerative diseases, working in labs with neurons and brains (but I ain't another doctor Frankestein, no way), and attending patients in a hospital.

My future laboratory? I hope not.

I would like to travel a lot, but it's not likely to happen, because it's kind of a static job -but I'm not hopeless- and if I could choose (because working in laboratories doesn't let much to choose), I prefer indoors, but in a quiet and greenish place (with a lot of gardens/plants, like the old Juan José hospital). The salary doesn't bother me, if it's enough to pay my taxes and some personal and familiar expenses.

My kind of a dream lab.

I'm thinking of studying a neuroscience major, and then another of clinical biochemistry too, but I didn't decide if here (in this faculty) or in another country (it could be in Spain, United States, England or Canada), because they cover all the field that I want to investigate. And then, do some little workshops or similar activities...

My plan was to explore If I could cure neurodegenerative diseases by implanting tissues cultivated in laboratories and promoting the union of them with our bodies, by the action of gold nano-particles and lasers, or at least discover the basis of future investigation in the field.

Some explanation of why I thought of using gold nano-particles. These nano-particles can change by triggering them with lasers once they're already into the cell.

Our Amazing Human Body: ... Our Smart Brain et al.

3rd Entry - Our Amazing Human Body: ... Our Smart Brain et al.

The nervous system is my favorite part of the body, because it's the most complex system and it's like the electronic circuit of the technology, and definitely, the part of our body where we can find our soul, if it finally exists.

A cyborg made with rat brain cells

The nervous system coordinates all the body and transmits signals and responses, to almost everything which happens in our bodies. If you’re hungry or sad, if you want to move your legs, if you’re reading this, thinking “inside” your head, etcetera, you’re using your brain and your nervous system. Even the simplest action, like smiling, involves a lot of muscles which have to be coordinated by our brain.

The nervous system is located among all our bodies, and it has very large cells (for example, the ones which start at the head finish at our toes) and others who are smaller. If one of them gets damaged, the damage gets reflected from intense pain to paralysis or dementia. But you can develop another illnesses, by genetic factors or by random, like Alzheimer, Multiple Sclerosis or maybe Parkinson.

To keep our nervous system healthy, we should (obviously) eat healthier, exercise our brain with some work like writing, doing math problems or similar, and avoid (and abandon if possible) unhealthy habits like smoking, alcohol intake or another drugs consumption.

Digressing about music: songs, dances, melodies, groups, films...

4th Entry - Digressing about music: songs, dances, melodies, groups, films...

As far as I can tell, I like almost every kind of music, so it's easier to me to tell which ones I don't: rancheras and reggaeton... But as I said, I listen to latin music, blues, gipsy jazz, from classical to metal, indie rock, hip hop, electronic, etc. I even like vaporwave, which is a music genre born in 2010. Vaporwave uses 60's, 70's and 80's music as base, slows it, and adds some tipical effects of electronic music (it's a really strange music).

I started to play the guitar this summer, but now, I don't have time because I'm always doing stuff for the university. I started playing some songs from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, like Scar Tissue, or Hey There Delilah, by Plain White T's. Anyway, now I use my brother's ukulele sometimes, and play classic songs like La Vie En Rose by Louis Armstrong, Those songs are quiet, and make me feel really relaxed.

The bands that I like most are Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Beatles, Coldplay and Daft Punk. The singers are Luis Armstrong, Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole (a famous ukulele player), Jason Mraz and Eddie Vedder. I couldn't choose one or two between all those bands and singers... because my musical taste changes with my mood.

When I was younger, I really liked Daft Punk music. All started because of my father music taste, because he always listened this band (among others) and when he gifted me my first MP3, he loaded it with his music.

There is an album of Daft Punk called Discovery, which all of its music videos, put together, make a film called Interstella 5555. Also, I really like a movie called Into the Wild, where a young man gets lost in Alaska and tries to survive his fate. The original soundtrack of the movie was made by Eddie Vedder, and it truly transmits protagonist's feelings and mood.

The Best Holidays!

2nd Entry - The Best Holidays Ever

My best memories about holidays come from the summer two years ago. I didn't went to a spectacular or fancy place, I just went to the south of Chile.

I travelled with my brother, mom and dad to an office that my aunt had there. Next to the offices, there were some rooms, bathrooms with showers and a lot of space. I can't remember how much time we spend there, but it was fantastic; since a long time ago we don't spend time as a family and those holidays made me feel like I was a child again.

Futrono, where we came, was next to Lago Ranco, one of all the lakes there. It fullfilled my expectations, because the place was quiet, relaxing, small, away from tourists and very beautiful too.

We went to the lake, travelled to places near there, and tasted a few coffeeshops around the unique and central plaza of Futrono. One of the days, we tried to travel near Argentina, but unexpectedly the road became broken half the way and we had to come back.

Those days, I played my guitar, wrote and painted a lot of things on a little notebook (that I've always with me), and I took a lot of photos. Before those holidays I was very stressed, but Futrono was very relaxing and I truly took a rest.

The sign has written "Bienvenido a la comuna de Futrono"

and it's at the entrance road of the village.

This photography was taken by me from the garden of outside the office.

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Here's a timelapse of the place, Futrono is magical.

The Country I would Like To Visit

1st Entry - The Country I would Like To Visit

The country I would like to visit has been always a senseless question to me. I mean, if I could visit any place, why not the whole planet itself? The Amazonas, the streets of Paris in France, the deserts of Egypt or the traditional places of China... My reasons to travel are not the destinations; it's all about the journey. I think Paris is the most romantic place ever known, and my dream since I visited that country has been to get lost there, share a coffee with someone and maybe a kiss. But The Amazonas, El Cairo and China seem exciting too.

Anyway, my favorite choice is Vermont, in USA. It's a very lonely place (it was the second least populated place in United States the last time I checked). It's a movie-like place, especially in autumn, because all the trees change their colors to red, orange and yellow. It's amazing. Even in winter looks nice, because it's covered by a white snow layer, just like a fairy tale.

Another of my many dreams is to live there; I may be expecting too much, but seems a very happy, quiet and relaxing place, and that's what I'm looking for. I would like to taste all of its typical food and know more about its culture and citizens too.

A quiet place, even the buildings look pure.

The landscape of Vermont is very astonishing.

Just like a movie, as I said.