BULLING.

Bulling is a very important theme of discussion in the present. In the last five years it has turned into a very big problem for children that suffer it, for their families and for society. I really don't know when it turned into a problem. I remember when I was a child about eight years old, bulling existed in the school but not with this name, it was called "matonaje" and the bully was called "matón". The "matón" generally was a child bigger, taller or stronger than the others and he demonstrated him power intimidating and kicking. I remember that the problem finished when someone told it to a teacher or adult. I think that this situations never passed to a higher level (for the victim) because it was limited mainly to physic aggressions only if you didn´t agree for bully requirements. I remember an example, in fifth grade I had a classmate who was bullied every time  by others classmates and him mother passed a lot of time at the school trying to put solution to this problem.

In the present this problem has reached levels never thought before. The attacks don´t restrict only to physic damage, the range has grown up to verbal abuse, psychological aggression even sexual aggression in extreme cases. Today is not used the intimidation to get benefits.Today is discriminated the different people, for example strangers, black people, homosexuals, etc. One factor that has increased this situation is internet by the use of social networks. Practically teenagers show their whole life in internet so it is an easy way to cause damage to someone. Simply by publish a picture, a group can make massive humiliation to other with a lot of negative comments. Currently bulling is a terrible social problem that must be confronted  to be resolved.

Talking about Santiago.

Santiago is Chilean´s capital city and the main urban core of the country, the city contains the main administrative, comercial, cultural, financial and government organizations of the country. The principal government building is called "Palacio de la Moneda" and is here where the president of the republic stays the most part of his time. Opossite this palace it is placed a big terrace called "Plaza de la Constitución", the civic centre of the city. In this place, some time ago it was built a giant flag of Chile in commemoration of bicentennial of the first "junta" of gobernment of the country. Near this place it is located the historic centre, here is situated the "Plaza de Armas" a meeting centre for many tourists and the most visited place of the city. Here are some historic buildings like "Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago", some ancient governmental buildings like the "Correo Central", "Museo Histórico Nacional" and the "Ilustre Municipalidad de Santiago".
Santiago also has many cultural attractions, like "Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda", located under the palace with the same name, "Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral" an ancient administrative building restored after a great fire and opened as a cultural center. Some museums like "Museo de la Memoria", that relates the history happened between 1973 and 1990 putting emphasis in the human rigths and "Museo de arte Precolombino" that shows the interesting art of different american people.
There are many sports and leisure facilities near the city centre like "Cerro San Cristobal", " Cerro Santa Lucia", green places like "Parque Forestal", "Parque Bustamante", beautiful places where you can enjoy walking, jogging, cycling or simply enjoy the natural environment.
Santiago has two transport sistems, the first is the subway called "Metro" that has four lines through the city and the second one is called "Transantiago" a bus sistem established short time ago in comparison with Metro.

A Building I Like.

Today I´m going to tell you about a building I really like. It is called Museum of Contemporary Art Niteroi in Brazil from the deceased architect Oscar niemeyer who died last year at 104 years old. He was one of the last exponents of modern movement. I admire him because he established an own architecture using modern concepts applies to his personal shapes. I like so much this bulding because it mixes architecture with art achieves so much beauty. I also like it because it looks like an U.F.O landed in the cliff. Well how the name says it is a museum used for diferent art exhibitions mixed with beautiful views of the landscape.
The first time I saw this building was last year in a documentary of Oscar Niemeyer, in the course History 2 of university. We was studying the modern movement in architecture.
Local people really like this building and the other constructions of Niemeyer, because He achieved them an own identity and world fame with his architecture.
The way how the building blends in with the surrounding architecture is only visually, through the interior views, because the near building are placed in opposite coasts.
See you in the next post!

Inside view from museum.

A Piece of Art.

Since some years ago I like the sculpture, then the piece of art I´m going to tell you is part of this area.

It is called "Earth Orbit"(1996) by the chilean sculptor Sergio Castillo. The first time I saw it was in 2010, in the course called "Forma y Espacio" with teacher Hugo Rivera. We visited a place called "Parque de las Esculturas" and the sculpture was in exhibition. All the sculptures of Castillo are maden in steel and I like his work beacause it is a difficult material to work and he get exellent and beautiful results. Specifically I like this work beacuse the fact how Castillo achieves so much expressivity and plasticity to the steel. I like the way how the sheets of steel surround the earth, it looks like they were moving. I also like the relieves over the earth, it looks awesome.
What makes it better than other works is the way how the material was worked and the results achieved like shine and purity of the steel.

"Earth Orbit" by Sergio Castillo.

Another work I like of the same sculptor is "Third World"(1972), it is ubicated in the cultural center GAM and the first time I saw it was in 2010 too when the center opened. In this work Castillo achieves expressivity with other material treatment. It looks really fantastic too. I also like this work beacuase you can interact with the piece making it spin arround.

"Third World" by Sergio Castillo.

 

A Place to Eat.
One of my favorites food is "Chorrillana", the first time I ate this was many years ago, since  I really love it and it is the first food I think to order when I go out to eat. When I known what is the best place to serve this dish, I have wished to visit it. It is called "J-Cruz" a popular restaurant ubicated in Valparaiso, in Condell street near the "Plaza Victoria". It is a beatiful restaurant and museum, it shows a lot of historical objects collected through many years. It also relates the history of generations through the walls full with messages written by people that have visited this place.
This restaurant serves tipical and popular chilean food, but the star dish is "Chorrillana", the reason why it restaurant is so famous and everyone visit it. I never have visited this restaurant but I really would like to eat there, because here "Chorrillana" was created and also because I have seen pics of the dishes and they are the biggest I have ever seen, it looks really tasty, just thinking about it I get hungry. I will visit this place one day and I will leave my own message in the walls.

Someone I really would like to meet.

Today I´m going to tell you about a woman that I really would like to meet. She is part of the film world, I´m talking about Natalie Portman. I would like to meet her because since I saw her as Padme Amidala in Star Wars I fell in love with her. She´s my platonic love of actress because she´s so beutiful.
For who don´t know her she´s an Israeli actress named Natalie Hershlag but her artistic name is Natalie Portman. She was born in June 9 of 1981. She have starred some films like "V for vendetta"(2005), "Black Swan"(2010), "Thor" (2011), but my favorite films are: Star Wars: Epidode I - The phantom menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Atack of the clones and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the sith, in this three movies she looks really beauty.
If I would meet her I would talk about her job in the movies and how she prepares to afront a new character. I also would talk about what signified for her career the rol of Padme in Star Wars. And what I would do whit her, simply I think I would watch her for a long time hypnotised by her beauty, I would enjoy the simply fact of meet her.

Natalie Portman as Padme Amidala in "Star Wars".

BBC Learning English Website Review.

In one of first weeks without classes, the teacher Simon didn´t have anything prepared to do in the class. Then he suggested us to visit the BBC learinng english website to practice and learning the languaje.

I really liked it because it has a lot of different things to show us. For example it has articles to read, news, themes like sports, weather, culture and TV, grammar games between others. It is a website very easy to navigate cause it is very organized and clear. The part of the website I most liked was "Gramar, vocabulary and pronunciation", specifically "Today's phrases", these are quotidian expressions or sayings in english.

In the class I read some phrases like: "The big cheese", "In the palm of my hand", "Money doesn´t grow on trees". What I didn´t like a little bit of website was the crosswords of the tab called "Quizzes" because they are repetitive and with time it becomes boring.
I really think that website is a useful learning tool to learn new words and get to know the languaje beacuase it is a website very entertaining. I also think when I want to read notices and articles in english I will visit again the website, in fact to write this post I visited again the website and I read another expressions: "Break the ice" and "Checkmate".

Cartoonist-Architect-Sculptor.
All my life I have liked to draw, when I was a child I dreamed to be cartoonist when I grew up. These wish remains in me all my childhood, but when I get in secondary this thinking began to change. I started to note that a job linked with cartoons wouldn´t give a good future in Chile. Then I decided to study something simply linked with drawing: Architecture. That is what I´m studying now. When I entered to the university I didn´t know what was the career, then the beginning was very difficult. But with the pass of the time I have taken the beat of the career and I really like it.
At present one of my favorite hobbies is making paper figures. In the future I really hope to work as an architect in chile or in the foreign with secondary occupation as sculptor. Always I have liked to create things and I think that both jobs would make me very happy.

Visiting London.

Making the London Web Quest I discovered an awesome place called  Madame Tussaud´s Wax Museum. I really liked this place because it shows a lot of wax figures of different artists, movie characters, cultural figures, world leaders and sports stars. What caught my atention was the video showed in the web page of the museum, it shows how the figures are made. It is located in the travel zone one of London, near the Baker Street station. The cost of one normal ticket for the day is £30.00. Once inside you can tour all the rooms decorated specifically for the different figures, these looks really real. I would like to visit this incredible place because I love to make figures and this wax figures looks awesome, it is an example to follow, I hope one day I can make figures of these quality.

Albert Einstein

Ema Watson

Jack Sparrow

Bodies the Exhibition.
I never have gone to a concert then I´m going to tell you about an exhibition I went to. It is called Bodies the exhibition, as many of you know it shows a lot of real bodies in perfect condition to be exposed to the people. It was on 2008 when I was in the secondary and I visited the exposition with my classmates.
We traveled from Rancagua to Santiago to see the presentation which was made in "Espacio Kennedy" of "Parque Arauco". We stayed there all day long walking around the mall.
The exhibition consists in a lot of pieces of the human body, the different systems (separated and mixed), the most impresive was the circulatory system, that looked like a big red web. All the organs were exposed, some of them showed serious diseases, that was very shocking. Other mountages shows bodies dissected in different places appreciating interestings views.
The sample was made by the amerian company "Premier Exhibition" and was made possible to expose by the sponsorship of Medicine School of University of Chile, providing trained students as monitors of the show.
I still remember that because it was very interesting, amazing and specially educational for the biology course of the school. I remember the teacher making a lot of questions to everyone even many days after the trip. Also at this time I have never seen an exhibition of such magniude and global importance.
See you in the next class!

A Beach.

Today I´m goint to tell you about a beach I really like. It is Quintero, it is ubicated in the central litoral of Chile specifically in fifth region. I visit Quintero every summer as I can . I go to this beach to meet my cousins, because I love them so much. We have a lot of fun, visiting the different locations and the little beaches of the zone, some of them are " El Papagayo", "Las Conchitas", "Las Cañitas", "El Damasco", "El Manzano".

An interesting place to visit is called "La cueva del pirata", this place is amazing, it is a natural fissure carved in stone by the erosion of wind and the ocean. This cave have a myth very interesting, it talks about the corsair Francis Drake also called "Red Beard" by the color of his facial hair. The histoy tell behind the pass of the pirat for the central litoral, who pillaged and stole a lot of wealths, he hidden away a part of his treasures in the cave. With the pass of the years too many people have searching the treasure,finding nothing.

I really like Quintero for the beauty beaches with white sands, the forests, the histories and  mainly beacuase I meet with mi cousins, there is no better thing than enjoy a nice place with the family.

 

Me, my sister and my cousins playing " La ronda de San Miguel" in the beach "Los Enamorados".

My cousin and her daughter in "La cueva del pirata".

 

A Photograph.
Hi bloggers, in the post of today I´m going to write of a photograph very important for me.
This photo was taken in the final trip of the year of last course of secondary at 2009. In this trip we visit the central litoral of Chile, some of the places we visited were El Quisco, Viña del Mar, Concón, Valparaíso and Lo Vasquez. We stayed  here fot three days in cabins that we rented. This photo was taken specifically at the first night in the cabin I stayed. It shows my group of best friends of the course and me. It was taken after we were playing card, drinking beers, and after a girl broke Rodrigo´s heart (the last guy at the right of the pic). We were cheering up him for a lot of time and when we achieved it and we were laughing we taken the photograph.
I really like this photo because it froze an important moment of friendship and every time I see it again I smile. In the present I continue in touch we all of them, using facebook to talk and sometimes we meet when it is posible. Here is the Photo, see you in the coments of your posts.

Hi classmates I want to tell you an important notice for the readers.
From april 22 to may 5 in the "Plaza de Armas" of Santiago will be a  book fair, in celebrating of international book day. I have visited the fair in 2 times and it is awesome because there are a lot of diferents books of diverse types, for expample texts of fiction, fantasy, romance, drama and tales for kids. There are books for every likes and very attractive deals and discounts. If you love the reading you must to visit this fair, you will get a great time and you will have so much fun.
These are some titles that I liked:

"Los Cuentos de Beedle el Bardo"- J.K. Rowling

"Arthur y la venganza de Maltazard" - Luc Besson

"Arthur y la guerra de los dos mundos" - Luc Besson

"Seres fantásticos y mitológicos"

"Grandes batallas de la segunda guerra mundial"

Besides books the fair provides to the public live music of diferents bands of jazz, so there is no reason to not attend the exhibition. If you want to give a gift to someone, buy a book for yourself or simply you want to stop the routine of Santiago, you must to have a look in the fair of the book.

 I hope to have enough money to buy all the book that I want, I just mentioned tou you a few of them.

See you in the next class!

Hi bloggers! today I´m going to tell you about an ambition that I have.
All my life I have wanted to visit Rome, since I met Roman civilization in school  I wanted to travel to this country. I would like to achieve this ambition because I love the amazing roman culture as base of our current western civilization, specifically the monumental architecture, cause it have remained since empire´s times to present. It shows the great knowledge in construction, engineering, also the studies of proportions and beauty. I think what inspired my ambition was the movie "Gladiator", I always watch this movie whit my father, we really like it. The most importants battles of the film are performed in the Coliseum, show it in all its glory. It will be the first place I will visit when I traver to Rome and I would like to take my dad with me. If I fulfil this ambition would mean too much for me, because it has been the dream of all my life. Also travel to this place with my dad would be very important for me cause it would be a way to thank and reward all the effort and all the things that he has done for me.

Hi readers,
Today I´m going to tell you about a book I recommend, it is called "Harry Potter y el cáliz de fuego" by the british writer J.K. Rowling. I read it in the end of 2011 and I discovered it by curiosity reading the other three first parts of the story, because everyone said " the books are better than movies". Definitely it was true, the books are completely better than movies, beacause it describes the story, the characters and the situations in detail. This book continues the story of Harry Potter, a young wizard who asist to him fourth year in Hogwarts School of Wichcraft and Wizardry. This year he must afront the Triwizard Tournamnet, a magical competition that meets the three most important schools of Europe. Harry carry out dangerous tests to prove him courage taking a risk him life.
I like this book because it describes a lot of magical and mythical creatures and it is really fun to read.
I recommend this book and the others parts at 100%. Currently I´m reading the part five called "Harry Potter y la oden del fénix", I also recommned it because it is very interesting and addictive.
This books have bring to me the love for the reading.
I hope you like this post and I want to read what you have written.

Hi everyone!!!
According to the order of the teacher I´m going to tell you about my favorite website.
As you can imagine my favorite website is Facebook. I´ve been used it since 2009 and since then I have not stopped. I use facebook principally to talk with my friends and classmates to coordinate the university works, to share my pictures and videos and to play the games the site offers.
I like just facebook beacuse it meets a lot of activities of other sites in one single, making it a versatile and addictive platform. Ok, I admit I´m addicted to facebook.
From last year I´ve used facebook to promote my hobbie. I make paper figures different kind of, most are cartoons, and I sell it.
You can see more on the figure´s facebook, here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/benjamin.alfarotorres
I hope you liked my first post, see you in the next class!!
And here are some pics of my figures and if you liked it don´t lose time and take charge.
P.S: Sorry for the delay.

"Skinner and Edna"

"Popeye"

"Marvin the martian"

"Finn"