Self evaluation of my academic year (2009)

It’s hard to make an evaluation of my year, because I have the impression that it’s been very long. I actually can’t believe that my last semester was part of this year, maybe because we had a lot of things to do, besides this semester have been very different from the first, especially in terms of subjects. But, to begin with, I can say that one thing that the two semesters have in common is that they have been very stressful, I’ve been very tired; the only thing I want are some vacations.
From the beginning, this year has been tiring. The first semester we had a lot tests, pieces of work or essays (in group or individual), and this semester I haven’t had many tests, only two, but a lot of pieces of work. The complicity in this is that the most of them were in group, so it’s harder than when you work alone, because you have to organize yourself and fulfill with your group partners.
But besides this, I really enjoyed my first semester, especially for the subjects…well, actually for one subject in particular: anthropology III, materialistic theories. I really liked it, maybe for the content of the subject, the teacher was very good (compared with other professors) and because I think I really like materialism. I had psychology, physical anthropology elements, Latin American History, Statistic II, and Linguistic. In materialism I really enjoyed the classes, and besides I probably have forgot the most of the things (my memory is kind of bad), I really learned. The other subjects weren’t bad, but they could’ve been better. But the worst subject of all was Latin American history, it really sucked: the teacher was bad (very bad, actually), the classes were a joke, the tests were too long and though we read come interesting books, I didn’t learn. The saddest thing of all is that I really had expectations about the subject, so the impact was stronger.
This semester has been awful, not only because of the stress and all the things I had to do, but of the subjects I had. The most of them are not as good as I thought at the beginning, I really expected more, especially from the contents. But I can rescue three: Social History of Chile is the best subject of the semester, the teacher is very good, and the contents are very interesting, the classes are good; Methodology Workshop, it’s kind of boring, but the idea is good, it’s a very useful subject; and Anthropology of gender, because I’ve learned a lot of new things that probably I will not going to take up again.
Well, I really haven’t had much time to do other things besides the University, but I can’t deny that I really enjoy the degree and, though this semester in particular had been boring I have learned a lot; not only in classes, but in the investigations I had to do for the subjects. But this doesn’t mean that things can’t be better next year, I really have expectations that the next year it’s going to be better that this.
Penny

Anthropology Challenges

Anthropology faces a lot of problems, one of them in terms of technology. In contrast to other careers, we don’t use a lot of technology, except for computer programs to analyze data. One of them, for example, is the SPSS. The thing is that, related to education; in University doesn’t teach us how to use these programs properly. We have statistical courses, but there are very basic and beside SPSS, we haven’t met other programs so far. This is related, once again, to educational and methodological problems, because it is believed that anthropology only uses qualitative techniques, but we use quantitative techniques too, like surveys. I think there are computer programs to analyze qualitative data, but we haven’t met them either.
In terms of education, the anthropology challenges are related to the curricular program, the courses, and their relation with the application of this science in the work field. Our courses are very theoretical and not practical (especially in archaeology and physical anthropology), but is more than that, because we have only a few subjects about investigations techniques. This is very important, because when you work in something related to social sciences you have to know how to design a properly investigation problem (this is not only for the people who want to work in public policies). The other problems are mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
I think that the problems I mentioned before can be resolved easily, because they depend of the University (in this case I only speak about my experience in this University), but I think that the methodological problem is general. But one of the biggest problems is that the social sciences are not valued in Chile. The State doesn’t give money to these degrees in the “public” Universities, and in the work field there are only a few spaces to develop these careers. They are not very good paid, and there are a lot of people who doesn’t know what anthropology and archaeology are and what they do. The State and other careers doesn’t value or appreciate what the social sciences can do, or how they can contribute.
These problems can be resolved, at least the first ones, easily; because these kinds of subjects, related to methodologies, for example, can be introduced in the curricular programs, but all this depend of the University. But the last problem is difficult to resolve, a lot of things would have to change before the State and the people appreciate social sciences.
Regards,
Penny

Anthropology and/or money

Money, its a crime.Share it fairly but dont take a slice of my pie.Money, so they say is the root of all evil today.But if you ask for a raise its no surprise that theyre giving none away(8).

When I got into this degree I always thought about the possibility of having no money, but I didn’t care. The first thing my father told me when I informed him that I wanted to study anthropology was: “But you’re not going to find any work, why don’t you study sociology?” The thing is that I never thought about money when I got into this degree, maybe because my mother always told me that I had to study something that made me happy and something that I liked, and that when you need money you always can find a way (not steeling) to get it. Besides, all the people think that if you study anthropology you’re going to be unemployed, but you can work in many things if you know how to search and how to apply the anthropology. This science has a work field, if you know how to use the knowledge that it gives you.
I think that when I got into this degree I was thinking more in social sciences than in money, in using anthropology in social aspects. Actually I never thought that I will be unemployed or something like that, I don’t know why, but I’m very hopeful about my future even when I don’t know well what I’m going to do when I graduate. If you want to earn money you can work for the government in public policies, or in a ONG, or in the University as a professor, or in projects of different institutions, etc. For me Anthropology is more important, as a science you can use with social and political purposes, than money, as long as I have enough money to support me and my family (if I have). I always knew that I wouldn’t be a millionaire if I study this, but I didn’t care, and I still don’t care. The only thing I want is work in something related with anthropology, or in something where I can use it, and earn enough money to pay my bills, the rent, my food and any other basic necessity.
It would be stupid say that I don’t care about money, but is like I said before. You always care about money, because in this capitalist world if you don’t have money you can’t survive and, in our case (Chile) if you don’t have money you can’t pay your education or your health. But as long as I can pay my basic things and as long as I enjoy what I’m doing I’m going to be happy.
At the moment I’m not working, because I don’t have time to work in anything, buy I intend to in holydays. I’m lucky, because my parents can pay my education and my life in Santiago. But I want to earn my own money so I want to work this summer vacations.

Regards,
Penny

My beloved faculty

I'm in the faculty of Social Sciences of the Universidad de Chile, and it's located in the Juan Gómez Millas Campus. I'm in the Ahthropology degree, and we share the faculty with sociology, psicology and education. In infraestructure we are a little bit disadventaged, specially because it's cold in the winter, and because our bathrooms are too smalls and there're not enough for all the people. The rooms are too small for all of us, and the biggest problem is that the library have just a few books, so there are not enough books for all the students. On the other hand, it is too small and everybody talks, so you can't study in peace. But after all I like it.

In other aspects I think there are more important troubles to resolve, like the order and continuity of the courses or curricular program. There are many subjects that aren't enough, there are very poor in content and sometimes they are not useful; for example, there are subjects that there're not necessary, or some of them are really important but we don't have them, or we have them but there are not good enough. The other thing is that there are participation problems (in some ocasions), because nobody votes to choose the people of the FECH or the CECSo, or nobody comes to the assemblies or meetings; but I think that this is the result of politycal positions. This last think is something that depends more of the persons, and sometimes I share their position, or I understand it. So it doesn't depend of the faculty or the other students.

Actually the curricular program problems are been resolved by the students and some professors of every career. But there are many things to do in this way.

The only way to resolve both problems, like infrastructural and academic,is to get more financing from the University, because nobody cares about our faculty, because we are social sciences; we are devalue. And this take us to a bigger problem that lies in the fact that the State doesn't finance the public Universities. The other solutions are related with the us, with the students, because we are the ones that have classes in here, so we have the right and the duty to demand improvements in this place.
The first steps are in our hands.

regards,
Penny

M u s i c

Music is one of the most important things in my life, it's like "the doors" song: "music is you special friend...until the end". I can't be without listening to music for a long time, every day I have to listen something, maybe because I feel good and calm when I listen to it, and sometimes is useful to vent myself.

I listen different kinds of music, from rock to folk . For example, I like to listen music of the 60's and 70's, and even earlier music, like jazz and blues, swing and soul. Well, I like classical music too, because my father listen that kind of music, so he instill it to me. In the other hand, I like Latin American music, of different ages and of different styles. I like grunge too, indie rock,and other "isolated" bands (like Emir Kusturica and the no smoking band, and Goran Bregovic, for example). But maybe my favourite band is "The Doors", though I like "Pink Floyd" a lot too, and "the beatles" and "Led Zeppelin". Other singer I think I like a lot is Silvio Rodríguez and Manuel García, so maybe I don't have one favourite band or singer. I hear a lot of rock music, maybe because I hear that kind of music since I was a little girl, and the same thing happen with folk music (of Chile).

I think I have a lot of favourite songs, for example "revolver" and "the white album" are some of The Beatles albums that contain many of my favourite songs. There are a lot of songs of Silvio Rodríguez, Angel Parra, and Vìctor Jara that I like a lot. But my favourite songs are, in this moment: "Happiness is a warm gun" (The Beatles), "Mr. Tambourine man" (Bob Dylan), "The lemon song" (Led Zeppelin), "Since I've been loving you" (Led Zeppelin), "I am the walrus" (The Beatles), "When the music's over" (The Doors), "Love her madly" (The Doors), "Unza Unza time" (Emir Kusturika), "Hyacinth House" (The Doors), "hello, I love you" (The doors), "canción de elegido" (Silvio Rodríguez), "sonrisas de papel" (Silvio Rodríguez), "yo te invito a caminar conmigo" (Silvio Rodríguez", "La era está pariendo un corazón" (Silvio Rodríguez), "hoy no quiero estar lejos de la casa y el árbol", and "free bird" (Lynyrd Skynyrd).

I've been to many concerts, actually, of different bands of different ages, but my last concert was last semester, of Kiss. I went with a friend and with my father, my sister and my brothers; there were a lot of people, of different ages, actually, there was a couple of old people. I also went, a couple of years before, to a Franz Ferdinand concert, to a Deep Purple concert; I've seen Emir Kusturika, Inti Illimani, Quilpayún, Congreso, Los tres, Angel Parra Trío, James Brown, and many more. I've been to the opera too, many times with my father and sister, and I really enjoy it.

I used to play the piano, but I haven't played it in a long time, I also can play some songs in the guitar, but I'm not so good, maybe because I'm just a beginner.

Regards,

Penny

GooD FooD

I have a lot of favourite food, because I'm a food lover.I don't know what are my favourite food, because I like to eat different kind of things, from sweeties and desserts to "normal" and healthy food. I love eating pasta, salad, fruits, desserts, cakes, soups, stew, pizza, empanadas and "exotic food", like arabian, chinese, and indian food; maybe I'm a little bit fussy with meat and animal derivatives, because I don't eat a lot of them, and I only eat certain kind of meat. But if I have to choose, I prefer always the desserts, ice cream, salad and sometimes "junk food". Desserts or cakes and ice cream are my vices, and I like/try to eat them everytime I can,specially when I'm with my family or my friends. It's nice when you go out with your friends and you buy some pizza, or hot dogs to eat; or when you are in a friend's house and you prepared something to eat, or when you're sharing with your family. I like to share desserts and junk food with my friends.

I like to cook, and I can prepare many tipes of food, because I live alone and if I don't cook to myself nobody will, so I have to cook sometimes. But when I have time, I like to cook cakes an desserts, like lemon pies, cakes, brownies, cookies, etc, I think that "sweet" food is my speciality, and they taste really good, actually.

I think that brownies trigger some memories, because I learned to cook them when I was in school, so I cooked to one of my best friends and I taught him how to make them.

If I had to take a meal course, definitely I would take the desserts course, I love desserts and I love to cook them, and it's always good to learn more about the things you like; specially when it comes to food.

A full stomach means a happy heart

Penny

A d d i C t i O n S

Addictions????...mmm....well, I don't know if I have any, maybe I'm a little bit obssesive with some things, but they are not addictions. I think that something that can be considered as an addiction is my gluttony...the food: I always have to eat something. Maybe some people would think that it's a need, or the result of my anxiety but the fact is that I eat even when I'm not hungry. But it's more serious that that, because I have a special weekness to sweets and candies, and cakes...to sugaaar!!!. I eat all kind of things, but I always need to eat something sweet in the day. When I drink tea, for example, it have to be sweet...
Actually, while I'm writing this I'm eating a candy...it's so embarrasing. I don't know if it affects my life in a bad way, but I know that it's not healthy, although I always (and I try to) eat healthy food. But it makes me feel bad, because I create a kind of dependence. I think my life wasn't so different before this, because I have always been a "sweet person" (in a figurative sense; like a person who likes sweets). Actually, my first word, the first thing I said, the first time I talk I said: "cookie" (galleta); maybe in my adolescence it became stronger specially when I got into college. I think all this have a relation with my anxiety, when I have a lot to study I have to eat something. But I think it's not difficult to beat, maybe I just have to foster my willpower, and every time that I had the "need" to eat something, I could try to not do it. And I'm going to start to make sport, so it's nots that bad.
Almost all the people have addictions to something, even when they don't noticed it, but I think that mine is not that bad...it's preferable to be an addict to sweets than to be an addict to alcohol, drinks, cigar or any kind of drugs; though I think that any addiction is bad, because you depend on something(someone), and maybe sweets can be considered as drugs, because your body changes and you feel good an different when you eat them. Maybe a lot of things can be potentially addictive. Sweets are nutrients, but obviously everything in excess is bad, specially when it's accompanied by a sedentary life. Regards,
Penny