7. About Birthdays.

In classes, we always talk about traditions, rituals, and mythologies in another far locations and exotic cultures, but we never talk about our cultural simbols and manners.

Since a long time ago, I got this special curiosity about the origin of the birthday parties, cause for me, is a very interesting ritual, and we all had participate in this activities once.

Yesterday, I went to google and I look for an explication for the songs, globes, and food that everybody use to have in the birthdays parties. There I found some strange explanations aobut the origin of all the usual elements in this ritual. For example, I read that turning off the lights and blow out the candle meant starting a new cycle with positive energies, and leave behind past problems.

I also discovered that there exist many differents songs to celebrate birthdays. For me, the song that we usually sing in moments like that is horrible. I don’t like it, and even sometimes it bothers me.

Well. Now I will tell you why I chose to write about birthday in this blog: it was because january 25 was my birthday! That day was good at the end, cause some friends take me away from the University and we were eating and talking for a while. The rest of the day was be studying and at classes! This never happened to me before, so I felt that I really need freetime and be quite for a moment. So on Friday I was with friends too, and there we share a really with moment. And at the weekend, I went to the beach and it helped me relax and enjoy been out of Santiago.

6. About places to go to eat

I have to start this post talking about ice cream!

Buy a big ice cream and share it with friends is just what I need to have a perfect moment. I think the better place to go is “emporio de la Rosa”, in Bellas Artes, because is near to a beautiful park and also the ice creams are very nice flavor and there are many original options to choose.

Another option is the popular “bravissimo”. I’ve worked there last year, and it was very stressful... but I got the opportunity to try much kind of ice creams and I really loved many of them!

In second place, and at winter mostly, I prefer eat something like pizza! I like pizza, but only with traditional ingredients like cheese, tomato, and different kind of meats. Many restaurants to eat tasty pizza are in Santa Isabel street, between Salvador and Bustamante Park.

And to show that I like healthy food too, I will recommend the “Waya’s & Gyros restaurant”, where they offer a big portion of salads with meat or chicken. Of course, this includes a glass of natural juice. This restaurant is located in Providencia avenues, near to Manuel Montt. Is not expensive, but is a lot of food and is really delicious! Is the better place to enjoy eating at lunch.

Well… I don’t remember if I know more tips for go to eat, but I’m always trying different places and kinds of food so give me your advices (or invite me, ja!)*

*(That is a joke, obviously).

Two different cultures in Chrismas day

This article is about a woman who has only held christmas once time in all his life.

Her name is Katie Burnetts, and this particular situation is because she is Jewish. She belongs to this cultural group that don't celebrate that day like us, cause they believe in other things.

In the publication, she is preparing all the necessary things to celebrate her second christmas in his life.

Before of living Chrismas like is normal, she lived with her parents in the North of London. That day, as usual, the Jewish family just concentrates about Jewish manners and movies. The only exception where something related to Chrismas appears in that house, was listen the Queen's speech. There were no trees, no presents, no letters, and no 'Santa Claus'.

She said that the first time she stayed in a house where the family celebrates Christmas, was with her boyfriend, who invites her to his house that day. In that situation she had a very good moment, so in the future she wants to celebrate christmas, and expects to do everything the peo do on that day.

What is the relation between the anthropology and this article? The important of this is the differents ways of seeing and living the England traditions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/dec/07/family-christmas-traditions

4. Be in the city, when your friends are in the beach.

There are some people who hates Santiago. And now in some way I understand that and I would like to be miles away from here too, but just because of the heat and the academic responsabilities.

But here, in Santiago, we can find many places to "escape" from the noise, the traffic, and the stress. The main thing is want to visit different interesting spaces and have time to do it.

You have many alternativities if you want to learn about city, to get fun, or maybe just walk, you can do it.

Now, I would like to get lost somewhere with a swimming pool, and just have a big icecream.

I would like to visit "quebrada de macul" since a very long time, but I can’t go there because of the time or because I don’t have a partner to go with… and I can’t go alone! I don’t even know how to get there.

But fortunately, this semester is very short and in four or five weeks I’ll be free to go anywhere with my old friends, and family.

I’m waiting for that moment! L

3.

2. Be aware of what you produce.

I use to do and note little things that anyone else care. The most patently of this things in the last time is my obsession with the ecologyst activities, like to recycle. Because of that, I will write about that.

We always produce a lot of trash; when we eat, or when we buy any product with a wrapper (almost all of the products that the supermarket sells have a wrapper, or they give you a plastic bag). I think that this is the real problem about contamination. It doesn’t matter very much if you throw your rubbish on the grown (although, it really annoys me); the most damage to our environment is the high level that we produce useless material and we don’t re-use them.

Now, I’m doing a minor level of damage, by making “ecologist-bricks” whit plastic and disposable bottles, recycling paper, and collecting caps of the cans to recycle it too.

I hope I keep the enough patience to continue doing this for a long time :)

1.

Well, here we are again. I was writing blogs before because of the class of english level three, in my first semester of the career, so I know how this subject is in some aspects.

I'm very scared about this term, because the conditions of this are completely different. I'm not adapted to study yet, before six months of stop the classes and all the academics activities...Is hard to start again, and also in summer! But I just expect that I can learn all the things that we have to learn in this short term.

Fortunately, this semester seems to be not so difficult (I hope so). I have seven signatures, most of them are related to the social mention, like etnography, structuralism, ethnology of Chile, psychology, design and evaluation of projects (for social investigations), and prehistory (of Andean cultures).

Well, I don’t really care about be studying in christmas, when everyone is on vacations, because we all know that this will happen and I accepted. Also, I think this can be good for me and I would see my anthropologist friends in my birthday, because they can’t go to travel far away! [Are you reading this, classmates?!! ]

:D