Current Reading

Hello bloggers!

I would like to tell you I'm reading a very interesting book or novel at the moment, but I actually don't. I have just finished some manga and I'm in process of looking for something new to read.

Is not that I don't like to read, but I have to read a lot of scientific documents and papers, so I prefer to "view" things insted of "read" them when I have some free time. I usually  watch an anime and then read the corresponding manga, in order to compare the difference between the versions of the story.

Well, in fact there're some mangas that "I'm reading". I don't mention them before because I started to read them years ago and I still don't finish. I have re-started Reading 2 of them this year, but then I left them again about two month ago because I didn't have much time.

One of them is called "Chihayafuru", and as always, I begin reading it after I watched the anime. It is about a group of 3 friends that play "karuta", a traditional japanese card game. They met at the primary school and joined a "karuta society" where they can practice with other people and participate in competitions. Then they grew up and took different ways. Chihaya, the protagonist girl, decided to create a school group of karuta and started to recruit people. Finally she met their old friends again when they were teenagers and re-started playing.

I like this manga because it have an interesting and different story. I could learnt a lot of the japanese culture with it. I didn't know about the karuta game and I think it's fun. It requires a lot of concentration and good physical state. It isn't a simple card game. You have to memorize all 100 poems, which are written in part in the cards, in order to play!!. It's very competitive.

Special Talents

Hi, bloggers!

Today I'm going to talk about what I think is a special talent I've got. By my understanding, it is called "good hearing" or "musical ear". I don't have any musical studies, and I wish someday I could do, but despite that, I'm very good recognizing specific tones and then playing them. It was easy for me -since I was a child - to listen to a song for the first time and then inmediately reproduce it in my piano or flute. Unfortunately, this is like a waste of talent because I didn't developed it right and I never use it :/

Another ability I have is my "visual memory". It works like a photograph book in which I save detailed information. I can remember something I read or saw in a book's page just like if I had a photo of it in my mind, and I can tell you if this page were in my right or left side, if the thing I saw was in the upper position or lower, and what color it was.

I think this is a useful ability, specially in the university, where I have learnt how to take advantage of it. When I study for a test, I rather do it from an only one source and use lots of colors, otherwise I can get confused.

Scouting

Good morning everyone!

Today I'm going to talk about a group activity I enjoyed a lot when I was a school girl. I joined the scouts when I was 10 years old. It was an activity that my mum used to do, so she took me there and she joined too, as a leader. First we participated of a group for about 1 year, but then it dissolved and we joined a group called "Genesis" and we stayed there 6 years until we moved out to Punta Arenas.
Genesis means begginning or origin, and this was literally a "Brand new scout group". So we came just in time for the foundation. I remember helping in the insignia design and creating the group's hymn.
We met every saturday's afternoon, since 3 pm to 6 pm. In this time we did different activities, such as learning about scout movement and history, playing team's games and dancing too. I joined the "compañía" directly, because I was too tall for my age, and soon I became the girl's leader, a tittle called "Guía de Guías". The "Compañía's name" was Millaray, and the patrol I first lead was called "Squirrel". We modify the Compañia's call and designed our patrol's insignia and banner.

The most important event was the summer camp, and we worked all year collecting money and supplies for that. Once in the camp, we had to work together as a team, in patrols. We assigned rols each other in order to divide the labors, such as cleaning, cooking, and picking up some firewood. These camps last about 15 days and we usually went in January, somewhere in the south of Chile.

Scouting was an important part of my life that I really enjoyed because I met beautiful people and I learnt very important things, in addition to trained my personality and leadership. I remember this time with love.

Fiestas Patrias?

Hello everyone!
I know that I'm a little late but still I'm going to talk about Fiestas Patrias. In these last years I have not celebrate this date because I'm not such a patriotic person. I don't like fondas nor the alcoholic atmosphere prevailing. Besides, I think that if you want to have some fun with family and friends, you can do a barbacue and staff in any other day, when prices of beef and food are not so high.

I don't remember what I did last year for Fiestas Patrias, but I remember I went  to the beach with my family and my boyfriend about two years ago. We bought a lot of meat and food because we like cooking, and we made "empanadas", "choripanes" and roast beef. We also spend some relaxing time together. It was very nice.

I like traditional games like "rayuela". I think this is the kind of things that people should do in this celebration, because it's fun and you can play with family and friends.

In contrast, rodeo is not my favourite traditional practice, but I don't think that It should be forbidden or anything like that. Fortunately, rodeo is not that common. I prefer "corridas a la Chilena".

A song

I like music in general, but it's been a while since I enjoyed a song with lyrics because I prefer to listen to classical or instrumental music instead. Therefore, writing about a song can be a little too much difficult for me. So, I have to go back in time.

When I was a teenager I really liked Shakira, but since she started to sing in english she and her music aren't the same. She has lost her creativity and even her voice. This really bothers me!

Anyway, lets continue. Shakira is a colombian singer, known al over the world for her dancing style. She released her first album "Magia" in 1991, but her major debut was reached with "Pies descalzos" in 1996 and "Donde están los ladrones" in 1998.

I still like her song "dónde están los ladrones" because of its rythm and lyrics. I think they're great!. Just listen!

A Family meal

My family used to have great long meals every year in my grandparents house, almost every month, but lately I can't remember the last time we have one. I don't know if it is because I don't have the time to actually go since I'm in college or just because having these meetings is not so frequent as it used to be.

So, I'm going to tell you about a lunch we have on summer vacations. I can't remember the date, but it had to be in January-February of 2007 or 2008. Me and my family went to Loncura, Quintero and we stayed in a vacation turist resort of my mother's job. There was me, my little brother Benjamin, my sister Monserrat, my mum and her husband at the time, my mother's parents and her little brother Carlos.

Some day, when we went to the casino to have lunch, my uncle Carlos wanted to play a joke on my mum, so he stealed her dessert and started to eating it. When she found out, she wanted to do the same, and then they started a fight for the desserts and spreaded them all over the table. They even went to the kitchen and asked for more. That made me and the rest of the people in the casino laugh out loud, because it was so funny. But my grandparents, specially my grandmother was so embarrasing that she changed her sit and made like she didn't know them. Memorable.

Another family meal I remember was in the night before the earthquake of February of 2010. I had been in Punta Arenas for my summer vacations and I just arrived to Santiago that night, so I came to my grandparents house about 10 pm. It was a big family reunion and we had a celebration dinner because we had not been all toghether a long time ago. My aunt Mime who lives in Antofagasta was there with my cousins and her husband. My mum was just moved out from Punta Arenas to Quintero, so she came with my brother and sister, and my aunt Lorena with her husband and her 3 daughters were there too. The meeting last until just a couple of hours before the earthquake started, and we were all comunicated, so it was much more calming to live that moment in family.

YouTube Channels

Hi everyone!
Today I'm going to tell you about some interesting channels I follow in YouTube.
First in the list is Epic Rap Battles of History (ERB). This channel upload very funny rap videos made by Nice Peter and EpicLLOYD. These videos shows two or more characters in a vs rap battle, so you'll see all rappers as cosplayers. You can notice a lot of work and research in order to create a good video . My favourite videos are "Bill Gates vs Steve Jobs", "Nikola Tesla vs Thomas Edison", and "Rasputin vs Stalin". They used to play a lot with lyrics.

Another YouTube channel I like is "CrazyRussianHacker". This is a guy that likes making videos about practical home made experiments. Everything he does looks so easy and makes you want to try it too. I know that internet is full of this kind of videos but what I really like about Crazy Russian Hacker is his russian accent and personal style. I think it's so funny!

Finnaly, I'm going to talk about "Vsauce". This is a very interesting channel that combines several topics in their videos like science, technology, video games and more. My favourite section is GAME LÜT. I totally recommend it.