English language challenges

Learning English at the university has been funny and relax, the thing that I appreciate is that it hasn’t represent a stress to me, I think is enough with the pressure that all of the other subjects represent. I like to write blogs, I really enjoy it, some themes have been more complicated to write, like my dream job or postgrads studies because it is not something that I think frequently.

The most difficult part of learning English to me is to speak in front of the people, I don’t know, I feel like I’m going to say a wrong word or it is going to sound bad. This is the reason why it is important to lose fear and to dare to speak even if our pronunciation doesn’t sound like we want.  

 I didn’t talk in English in a very long time, because the last year I didn’t have a subject related with it, and this year I really felt like I was out of training. I think it is so important to practice this language because it is so easy that we forget something that we don’t practice regularly. A good idea, almost for me, it is to watch movies and series in English, it’s an Entertaining way of learning because we can hear how the words should be pronounce and our ear can hear some different accents from different countries.

I really really enjoy watching series in English, I watched all the season of game of thrones, and I loved the accents of the characters, all of them were different. Another serie that I watched in vacations was outlander, the Irish and British accents were incredible amazing.  

Changes to my study programme

Talking about the subjects that we have to study in the next years, I really don’t know exactly what subjects are coming; I just know that the chemistry is going to be really more difficult, almost for me.

One thing that I didn’t know when I apply to this career is that anatomy it was going to be out of the study programme. I was so happy when I knew it, I hate this subject. In my older career, I had anatomy in the first semester and I didn’t approve it, it was so stressed try to learn every part of the body and which part is connect with another one, I used to hate my teacher, well, not my teacher exactly, it was the guy who showed what we ‘learned’ in classes in a real human body, he was so handsome and young and so intelligent because he had 25 years and he knew everything about the body, he was a medical Technologist in  imaging mention and with all of this characteristics, he was so arrogant, irritant. Well, how I said before, I hate this subject, so, I’m really happy that is not part of the study programme anymore.

anatomy auditorium

Moving on, the buildings and the infrastructure are not enough for all the students, sometimes it is really difficult to find a place to eat or to study. I like the faculty, it is really cozy, I like the trees and the ricoffee, even if it is a small place, I like my faculty but I can say that I prefer the medicine faculty, its library is amazing, it is bigger than ours and all the places seem to have its own life.

Summer holidays

Looking back in my last holiday, I spent almost all the summer in a small town near to Pelluhue, it calls Chanco, yep, like the cheese. I’m in love with that small town, it is so peaceful there and it is a good place to scape after an overwhelmed year. My grandmother has a house there and my father’s family lives in the country side, so, we go to their houses, and it’s so funny for me because I love those long walks across the forest or the rides bike with my cousin. I love the food too, it’s like I gain 2 kilos when I return to Santiago. Another thing that I enjoy when I go to my aunt’s house is that is full of dogs and I really, really love to play with them, they’re so cute.  So, I hope to go this summer again, I need it; I need my quote of fresh air to start a new year.

Of course, there’s so many other places that I would like to go with my friends, we have so many dreams about it, but the summer vacations, I like to spend them with my parents, it is the only time in the year the we can be really together because we run from one place to another during all the year.

I would like to visit the south of Chile and I would like to go to Europe, but the second it is impossible to realize right now. Someday I will go every place that I’ve always wanted to go.

Addiction: from coffee and tea to drugs of abuse

The most common drug of abuse is marihuana; it’s out everywhere, in every social meeting, but I’m not going to talk about it, because I don’t have much to say.

By the way, it is not a drug of abuse but I’m addicted to tea, I love it and my day is no complete without three or four cups of tea.

About a year ago the doctor banned me the tea because I had anemia but I didn’t listen to him, the addiction was louder.  The doctor explained to me that the tannins in the tea block the absorption of iron, so, as he said, the tea is harmful for the anemia, it’s like every treatment is no working if I’m drinking 3 cups of tea every day. By the way, it was a long time ago, I took iron in pills and I ate every piece of meat that my grandmother put in front of me, it was a part of the treatment and I used to hate it because in that time I’d really wanted to stop to eat meat but, again, the doctor said that I couldn’t.

Another substance that I drink a lot it is the energy drinks, I used to consume it three or four times a week, I don’t know how many it is recommended but I really like how they taste. The most of the time, the reason why I drink energy drink it is not because I feel sleepy or something like that, it is because I need to drink something really cold in a hot day. I think, every substance is not recommended in a high dose, but that’s what addiction are, not be able to stop consuming.  

Post Graduate studies

It’s difficult to think about the future, almost for me, because I’m barely sure that I’m in the right place here, studying pharmacy. By the way, I like this career; I’m not passionate about it but I feel comfortable.

Looking in the courses that this university offers to us, pharmacology could be one related with my interests but I hope to discover new areas in the next years of the career. Another area that I discover the last semester that I want it, is internal medicine, so I would like to do a course related with this area, I don’t know if what I want right now it is going to be what I going to want in the next five years because there’s so many subjects that I going to discover in the last years of the career.

I would like to study abroad, it would be a great opportunity, besides to improve my knowledge, I would know about another culture and another point of view about the career. Besides, I could improve my English too, if I could have the opportunity to do a post grade in an English country.  

I think it is better to make a classroom course than a distance course through internet, because it let us to know new people or colleagues and it is important to live the whole experience.

Your Future Job...

I have never been imagining how my life is going to be. I don’t know, I think that every choice that I make is in the moment. That’s new in me, when I was younger I used to have everything under my control, everything planned and it was a little overwhelmed. I used to get stressed when something didn’t happen like I wanted.

 By the way, if I start to dream about my future, I used to see myself working in a lab but now, that I’m discovering new parts of this career I have started imagine myself working in a hospital. The last semester we had the opportunity to visit the hospital and I really like it, it was an intense experience because we visit patients with cancer and there was a special one who impact me so much, he was hopeless and in state of coma, the instructions for the nurses and pharmacists, as the pharmacist said, it was if he suffered a heart attack or a multisystem failure, they had to let him to past away.

Talking about salary, I just hope to earn enough money to save because I want to travel around the world, that’s my dream. I want to visit every mystic place that it exists in every country. There’s so many cultures and different ways of living and that’s amaze me.

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

Talking about music, there’s so many memories that came to my mind. Sometimes, when I heard a song that I haven’t listened in a while and an old memory comes to my mind about the time when I used to listen that song. I can remember listening Phoenix by fall out boy or hurricane by 30 seconds to mars, after preu, when me and my friend used to walk from Universidad Catolica to Cal y canto. It is a little nostalgic remember those days, that’s why a song is more than a song, it’s the feeling that come with it.

When I was younger I used to love a lot the boy bands and Disney and all that kind of girly things. Of course, I grow up but I still remember that part of my life and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Today… I don’t have a favorite group, I have in my phone songs of fall out boy, 30stm, Ed Sheeran (I think I love every single song that he had wrote), Adele, DNCE, the killers and many others. I used to listen a lot of song, the old and the new ones and if I like them, I add to my playlist in spotify. I have two Ella Henderson’ songs, I used to listen them in sad days because the lyric is about love, sad. She was a participant of x factor UK like a lot of others singers that I heard sometimes. About old songs, I love some of The Beatles like yesterday or let it be, I also have in my playlist Billie Jean by Michael Jackson.

Moving on into films, the music of titanic has the power to make cry a lot. I think the music is perfect for the movie because awake all the feeling that we supposed to feel. That’s what music is, feelings. 

the song that I listened while I was writing the blog :)

Our amazing human body

Years ago, in my schools days, when the philosophy teacher gave us the name of a book we had to read for the test, the first thing that calls my attention is was the author, because one of my favorite books it was wrote by him, the book was ‘la Resistencia’ by Ernesto Sabato. I can say that this book changes my life a little bit, that’s what a good book it supposed to do in our life and that the reason why before I finish the book, I start to realize about everything around me. I started to look at the places that I have never care before. It made me think in how many times I have been walking for those streets, and how this was the first time that I really see it, the trees, the buildings, the restaurant, the music academy, the people. It’s crazy how we live so fast, just running from one place to another. Now, I try hard, really hard to look around and enjoy the simple things, like the leaves in autumn and how it changes the color when the spring is coming, sometimes is so difficult to enjoy the ride to home because I’m usually tired and the only thing that I want is to get home, take a tea and watch something that I really don’t care in the TV.

I can imagine myself at not having this sense, the vision. I can’t imagine me at not watching my grandmother’s house in the south and the forest at the end of the street. But is a fact that our eyes are not giving us an hd vision forever. There are so many diseases that can affect our vision, like a thrombosis or cataracts.

A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eyes leading to a decrease in vision. It can affect one or both eyes.  Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry vision, halos around light, trouble with bright lights, and trouble seeing at night. This may result in trouble driving, reading, or recognizing faces.

I can’t imagine myself at not watching everything around me, the beauty that is out everywhere, in every person. 

Your best concert ever

When I was younger, in the summer of 2013, when I was about to start my last year at school I went to the Jonas Brothers concert with a friend, in the Movistar arena. This summer was their first time in the Viña del Mar festival, so, it was a summer full of photographs of them, everywhere. I remember that we went to the hotel, here, in Santiago but we couldn't see them. We just saw a member of the band with her wife, it was a little crazy because every girl ran behind them, so, they had to hide in a pharmacy for a while.
This boy band was an important part in my growing up process.
I knew this band many years ago, I can’t even remember when, but I used to watch every movie and serie of them in Disney channel. This group was formed by 3 brothers, Joe, Nick and Kevin. The first time that I saw them in tv was in the Camp Rock movie, I’m not sure if that was their first appearance in tv but I had never seen them in another program. Before the success of the movie, Disney gave them their own serie.
I remember that concert like one of my favorites days ever. It was in a sunny day, full of crazy girls screaming out. It was so excited, the kind of adrenalin that I like. We sing along every song, from the start to the end.
I'm sure if they come back someday, like a band or everyone like a soloist I'm going to be there.

A country you would like to visit.

Where to go? When I think about it or when we imagine, with my friends, that someday we will have enough money to go away, we picture us walking around The Thames or visiting The Arch of Triumph and The Eiffel Tower.

I don’t have a particular country that I would like to visit; I think every country has its own history… maybe I could talk about a continent… Europe. This continent has many years of history, centuries and centuries of history. The World War II happened in this continent and maybe, it could sound a little bit weird but is my favorite part of universal history, the way that the people fight for power and territory amaze me. So, I would like to visit the countries that were part of the alliances in the war, like Germany, Italy and England. Probably, every corner of every city hides many stories that have never been told.

Germany has its own mystery like the Berlin Wall that divided the country in two just because they had different politics perceptions. I would like to see how they rise up before all this tragically events in 1939.

I think… there so many magical places all around the world and I would like to visit all of them before I die. 

From the invisible to the visible world and back...

Investigating about this theme I found interesting information that is connected with my career, pharmacy. The nanotechnology applied to the drugs administration. Thanks to the science, a new possibility in the way we administrated drugs using the nanotechnology had emerged like a system of the liberation of the active principle.

The nanoparticles are solid particles; they are used like drugs administrated agents, with this accomplished an increased the dissolution rate and the saturation limit of solubility.

Another application that call my attention was the nanotechnology in the therapy against cancer because some of the little transports (liposomes, micelles) are used for the preparation of new formulas that make the bioavailability gets better for all this cancer treatments’ and make the drugs’ distribution against cancer where the tumor is get better too.

The liposomes are spherical structures that have one or more layers. The liposomes are used to improve the therapeutic effect of very potent drugs. This distribution system reduces the toxicity.

Talking about an important instrument in this little world, scanning tunneling microscope. This instrument give us atomic surfaces images. The STM can be used not only in vacuum but also in air, water and a lot of other liquid or gas ambientes.

All the discoveries made in the microscopy world help us to understand a lot of impacts in the macro 
world. In this case, liposomes are part of us, the nature give us this incredible piece of life. 

My blogging experience

Thinking back, at the beginning of this semester I couldn't write more than a few sentences but today I feel like I can express my ideas and feelings more clearly. 

I've been writing about many topics that had brought a lot of memories from the past, like old photos and experiences. I found this really interesting because it wasn't about scientist topics all the time, this blog let us to talk about ourselves and to get to know a little about each other.

I think the blog that I enjoy the most was when we had to talk about our pets, I love my puppies, it's like I can put all my emotions in this, they're so pure from the soul. Perhaps that blog was the easier blog that I’ve been wrote. 

Rewind to the beginning of this entrance I mentioned old photos; I remember this topic because I had to look in my cell album photos, old ones. It was a little nostalgic going back in time, remembering the moment when the photo was taken, because that what pictures are... a piece of a moment that happened a long time ago. 

I think, talking about common things in life helped me to put in words my life and that is a great advanced because when we talk with other people our topic conversation is usually about ordinary things.

This idea of writing blogs, in my opinion, is so funny because we can show a little piece of us and it’s so helpful because we discover a new expressions and words.

The most enjoyable subject thus far...

Salt bridge, (Quemistry, Medical Technology)

My favourite subject in this career is laboratory, maybe this is the reason why I choose this career. In my last career I had not a favourite subject, I used to enjoy maths classes and of course I like this subject in this career too.

I enjoy laboratory so much, I like to experiment new reactions that give us incredible things as a result. Last year (in my last career) the only part of the week that I used to enjoy is when in quemistry subject we went to the lab once a month, maybe it sounds like a cliché but those lab days I used to go to the university smiling.

This subject helps us to understand what we learn in classes because we can experiment the reactions in the real world.

Another subject that I like is maths or calculus, it's hard to understand, almost for me but when I learn how to do an exercise or resolve a problem I experiment a personal realization and it feels great.

I think subjects were really important at the time when we made the decision to study this career, it is going to be 5 years studying and understanding them, so we need to like them or learn how to like them because the motivation is one of the most important things when we are studying something.

Expert you admire

It's hard for me to choose someone to admire, I don't used to think about that frecuently, buy if I start to remember my old school days, the name that come to my mind is... Marie Curie. My quemistry teacher told about her and how she helps to make great scientific advances.
Marie Curie (1867-1934), she was a polish scientist that made incredible discoveries in the radioactivity field, besides,  she was the first person that adquire two nobel prizes in two different specialities, physics and quemistry. She was born in Varsovia, place that it was administred by the Russian Empire. She studied in the 'universidad flotante' and then she started her scientific formation. she shared the nobel prize with her husband, Perrie Curie.
I choose to talk about her because she was an important woman that helps us and the future generations to adquire knowledge. The reason why admire her is because when she was born the world was a world of men,so she fight to be recognist and show what she had to say, that's so admirable.

Moving on into a website that I enjoy to visit, it is a youtube channel. Unicoos helps me a lot to understand maths. The reason why I aprobe the subject is because of this channel (I approve this subject last year, in the carrer that I left :c). I love so much this kind of video because everything that I couldn't undestand in classes it seems so easy after watching a video from this channel.
https://www.youtube.com/user/davidcpv

About pets, love and friendship

I think pets means a lot to everyone who has one, it's everyone choice to take care of them and give them all their -our- love. I can remember the first pet that I had, well, she was my grandmother's puppy but I loved her like she was mine and I grow up with her by my side because I live in my grandmother's house. It's so sad to say that I can't remember her very well, but I remember how much I used to love her.
The second pet that came into my life was before the puppy mentioned, her name was the same... 'Pelusa', still today is hard to talk about her, she dead in march and I miss her so much, she used to be there for me when no one else was, I miss those days when I arrived to my home so overwhelming and tired  about something and she lay by my side in the sofa, that's meant everything to me.
She had four babies (by accident) 2 of them was given to another family and we kept the other 2, but the relationship is different, they're at the background... but of course, I love them so much too



There's another beautiful dog that came into my life from the street, one day my grandmother was feeding dogs that stand at our house's door and this little one crossed the street and a car almost crashed her, so, my grandmother decided to take her under her protection... and this is how she lives with us until today.




This little one was a gift from my dad. I must admitid that I don't have a lot of patient and time to make her feel  comfortable so, my dad used to asume this role at the evening and that's the reason why she loves him more than me. Her name is Arya, I choose this name when I was crazy about the first season of Game of Thrones.

A photograph you like

It's hard to find just one special photo to me, because every photo that I've been taken remind me a special moment of my life, but this one is full of feelings to me. It was taken by a friend but I don't remember exactly who. This photograph was taken the latest days of my last year at school, before classes after to go into a 'farewell' that the 3rd grade had prepared to us. I still remember the happiness about that day, and it's so crazy to say that the girl next to me was one of my best friends at high school and she's one of the best until today.

I found this photograph in one of the many folders that I have in my computer. I took it years ago, in the summer holidays in the south of Chile, where my grandmother has a house, with my family. Near to my grandmother's house there's a National Park, so, every afternoon we used to go and the happiest was my pet, She used to run to my dad and back and I was so happy to see how happy she was, running all around the park. Her name was Pelusa, she died the first day at the university, yep, it was a really bad day, I still miss her so much and I think I'm going to miss her forever.

About books and films

I try to think wich film could be my favorite, and a lots come to my mind. One of my favorite films is 'Titanic', I think is a masterpiece because can make you feel many differents emotions, this film can take you to a romantic trip between two young people from different social status and how they try to be together even when everyone want to keep they apart. The dead of the principal character gave us the most emotional and sad part of the film and that's the reason why everytime that I watch this film I cry a lot. In my opinion, a good movie is, of course, one that have a good plot  but the most important thing is what make you feel and make you want to watch the film over and over again even when you already know the end.
Another more recently film is 'Spotlight'. It's about a group of reporters who start to investigate about the sexual abuses in the Catholic church. After watch this film I couldn't sleep in a while thinking about how many people in the world suffered this kind of attacks from priests, the represents of God in the earth, what? The most incredible thing is how the Catholic church hides this situations and defend something has not defend at all. I like this film for that, because it shows me a reality that everyone try to hide. This film won an Oscar for the Best Film and it was a surprise to me (I watch every nominated film before the Oscars), because in my opinion there was a really good movies last year, like The Revenant and The Danish girl and I never imagined that this movie could win, but it happened, maybe because of the theme that talks about.

The book that remainds in my head all over this years is 'El Túnel' by Ernesto Sábato, It talks about a men who 'falls in love' with a woman who watch his paint in a galery. He start to look for her, follow her to home because he believe that she understand him. It's like a psychological book because show every thought and feeling of the main character, I like this book for that reason, because it takes you to an amazing trip trough the someone's mind.

My favourite pieces of technology

I think my favourite piece of technology is my cellphone, I can't imagine my life without it. I got it 4 years ago and I try to remember my life before it, how we used to keep in touch with our friends and the moment that came to my mind is me talking about an hour with my best friend through the phone, but today, we only text each other, we have a social life trough the cellphone. From my point of view that's not to bad because it let me to talk with my school friends every day, to know what is happening in their lifes or if they have a problem.
In the other hand, my cellphone has my entire life in it through my photos and let create new ones. This photos that I almost never post in social medias because I'm not a big fan of them, remind in my phones' galery to remember me every memorie that I had lived.

Computers and television are another pieces of technology important to me because it let me watch my favourites series and films. It let me watch Game of Thrones every sunday (in the TV) and let me watch old chapters (in the computer).




The most of the people spent a lot of time watching programs, films or whatever in the TV, so, in my opinion, this apparatus is really important in the homelife. In my home, the TV is on almost the entire day, if it's not my grandmother, it's my dad watching something in it. So addictive.

Why did you choose your career?

When I was a child I wanted to be a vet, I used to have a lots of pets like birds, dogs, cats and hamsters, I loved them and I remembered that the most exciting thing to me was spend time playing with them, but, when I went into high school, I discovered that I can't see blood or animal's suffer so, I decided to look for another career. That part of my life was full of changes, I went into girls high school, wich was a totally different and new experience to me. I learned a lot there. I'm so thankful of every moment that I lived and every person that I met.
I think, my favourite subject at school was history, I've always been passionate about the past, because I'm convinced that everything we are now is the reason of something that happened years ago. History will always be my dreamcareer but I didn't choose it, and maybe I will always be regretful about that. The reason why I didnt' choose this career is because I wasn't sure about finding a job after university.
When I finished high school I didn't know what to study, so, I took a free year to decide. In this year I didn't find out what I want to study so, when I knew my PSU score I looked for some career that requires the score that I got. This is how I went into Tecnologia Medica, in Universidad de Chile and as easy as I went into, I went out. I left the career before the first semester because I didn't feel comfortable.
After all, I decided to study Pharmacy because the one and only subject that I enjoy in tecnologia medica was lab. I discovered that I really liked work in the lab so I looked for a career that give me this. 
This is how I'm here... after a many parents' headaches.

Getting to know each other

Hello, I'm Valeria Moreno and I'm the only daughter of my parents
My parents met at the work about 22 years ago, they were friends first and then they decided to give a chance as a couple. My father is an accountant and my mother is a digitiser. I grew up in my grandmother's house, that's the reason why she's like my mother, she took care of my while my mom was working.
As a single daughter, I share my childhood with my cousins but the mostly of time I spent that part of my life between adults.
I studied in Liceo Carmela Carvajal and then I went to the University to study Tecnología Médica as my first option but I decided until the end of the semester to leave the career because i wasn't feel comfortable at all.
And now, I'm a pharmacy student and I'm still trying to figure it out who I wanna be.