what we need

If I’m honest, the curriculum of Pharmacy in this university is really well structured, i took a look to the old curriculum and the new one to compare them, for example some of the signatures like anatomy were deleted and replaced with more physiology, pretty accurate in that case -we're not doctors-, we work with the physiological effects of medicaments in organisms. Although, I think we are a health career, we took the responsibility of health people, we treat with people in some jobs, so, why not implement a signature like Etic? All others health careers have it, actually we're one of the few universities that doesn't treat that side of the profession, and actually there was some pharmaceutics of this university that some years ago they were involved in some non-ethical activities, ah, what are they waiting?

This is a faculty very small in comparison to the others, we NEED more classrooms, and sometimes the schedules are just terrible because we don't have enough space to do more classes. Our library could have a little more space, sometimes if you don't run, you can't even reach a chair, and it's one of the most quiet places to study. And no, I’m not forgetting the lack of laboratory material, sometimes we have to work with a partner just because it's not enough for each one -I don't have problems with share or with teamwork- but the point is the lack of material :(

And of course we could improve all the material necessities with money -a lot of money- but, the most important thing it's the methods of teachers, the quality of them, and I have to say that most of them are GREAT -personal opinion duh-, I notice them trying to make us understand and they're always available to solve our questions -you can see that they love what they do, and I’m happy for that-, although not everybody thinks the same, and I believe that each one of us -the students- have to find the teacher that works best with them. After all everybody learns in a different way.

I want vacations noooow!

I can't wait for the summer, this has been a really hard year, i just want to take some leisure time, finally sleep more than 5 hours at night, visit to my dear friends because right now i have no time to do anything -university is really stressfull- but certainly i want to leave Santiago for a while.

My friends and I have been planned to go to the beach this time, summer vacations laying in the sand taking the sun with a wine-cantaloupe in a hand and then swim like if nothing else exist. But i don't know, i'm not agree a hundred percent with them because i really miss camping, i remembered some  vacations when i was a kid in "Parque Inglés", it was really fun, i love the nature -there you are surrounded among the trees and the silence is so peacefull- and of course there you are far away from technology, i have the feeling that i want to be dissconected from the world.

Recently i talked with a girl in English class, she told me about her vacations in Bolivia and Peru, she said that she take this trip with her cousins, and it was cheaper than i thought, actually i've never travel to anywhere from Chile, and maybe this vacations could be the first time, but first i have to work all January to get some money so i could go wherever i want to go... climb the Machu Pichu for example or the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.

Vacations HURRY UP, pleaseee!

The addictive world of nowadays

When i was a kid i was really exposed to drugs substances, my family still have some vicious, my mom for example, she used to -and still- smokes a lot of cigarettes, so my aunts and my grandfather, in a kind of way i think that it's more common to be a smoker if your family it is as well, and i'm not a exception. I wake up with a cigarette in my mouth, i smoke other waiting for the bus, other walking to the subway, the next one when i'm walking for the university and well, it's a sick compulsive adicction that reduce my anxiety, before any test i NEED a cigarette, especially because i'm really nervous person.

I usually drink some beers with my friends or my family, i like the vodka and red wine, but it's not an adicction, i don't like what it feels to be drunk to be truth -and throw up, iug-, i remembered my mother getting drunk a lot and she was really really really annoying, so i have some repulsion for that.

Sometimes I smoke pot, this drug it's a plant after all, my first joint i smoked with my mother and cousin, at first it was a bad-trip, i feel so paranoic and anxious, but after that -when i left the control- it feels really pacefull and weird, and it's pretty usefull when i want to get creative, for example to play the saxophone or after reading a good book. But i'm responsable, some people blame to the drugs for their failures, and everything in abuse is bad, it's all about the balance and self-respect.

My cousin lately has been some trouble with the drugs-abuse of cocaine, his parents used to be drugs-addicts and i have to admit that his life has been really complicated, but it's not an excuse... he have no goals, no motivation and when you talk with him, it's like talk with a 12years old boy, pretty inmature. Although i feel sorry for him, he almost died for a overdose and i advice him everytime i see him, after all he is the only man i ever loved.

My grandmother doesn't have that kind of viscous but she consume medicaments that are drugs after all, she has a lot of health-problems and actually, she use a topical substance of marihuana to calm the pain -she said it was better than anything she has been tried- so drugs have that brightside.

I know people who lost in drugs, they use them like an escape from reality, from the real world, it's sad, you know. But if you are responsable with your body and your mind, you can use for reacreational activities, well, there are a lot of controversity on it, it's such an interesting and debatable topic, but the most important thing is to be informed and be responsable, if you can't be succesfull because of drugs, maybe you are the problem, not them.

Post graduate studies

The study is a long long way, it feels everlasting sometimes: your parents sent you to the the kids-garden, then to elementary school, after that the high school, in my case i take a pre-univeristy study, then if you want to be a professional you go to the univeristy, and all of that to finally start to work, woo-hoo, trying to find some money then you die.

Well, you could take post-graduate studies if you want, in my case i think i want to get a PhD in pharmacy maybe in USA, England or right here in my actual university, so i could get better in the investigation field, it's exhausting to think in finish other career, but i really like Enthomology, and i think i could mix this two passions to get a great result, the study the chemistry of insects, arachnids and other species related to bugs, in Latinoamerica you can find a lot of them, and some endemic species all over the world, so i could get an association with parnerts in the same field, or maybe work with a investigation institution, sound pretty exciting to me, and it's because when i search for bugs i feel like a 10 years old kid.

Althoug, i'm not so sure, it's hard to me think right now what i want to do in the future, and it's a little bit complicated to me to take desitions, i question a lot to myself, but anyways, i just want to do some that worth it, even if it doesn't mean money, fame or the great success, i just want to do what make me happy, i think that make me that question is the correct in first place.

A job, the research for a cure

Did you know that the blue scorpion venom has properties that can fight against cancer? This is one of the millions of chemical substances that we can extract from animals to help people using them in the treatment of a lot of different diseases.

I always feel quite interested in animals, especially in all kinds of insects, arachnids, and arthropods so I would like to investigate about the thousands of unknown substances at the present that we can get from them and see the characteristics of the active principles involved to study their effects in response to different diseases.

To expand my opportunities in the investigation I would like to get a PhD in Pharmacy in this same university or in another country like USA or England and then study Entomology to be pretty qualified in the field. This job, by the way, forces me to travel to a lot of different countries to study endemic species from all the continents, so in part, I could work outside traveling and taking samples of this animal substances and then in laboratories analyze them, i don't know but sounds pretty interesting and exciting to me.

I always feel that work with animals has a deep ethical discussion, but assuming that my work is centered on a special kind of animals like insects... maybe it's not a big problem. That's because there are 10'000 millions of bugs by square kilometer, imagine that they are a plague! lucky me haha.

And to be truth, if I could work in something so cool for me, I don't know if the payment would be a problem because I don't mind about it, actually, the research for the cure of a disease is a really huge work so maybe I could work for a scientific institution collaborating with them, I'm not so sure... but certainly I'm not made to be a businessman but a scientist;)

Hobbies: Bugs, sax and carnivorous plants

Tell me to what you pay attention and i will tell you who you are.

-José Ortega y Gasset.

For some people are totally disgusting, but when i was a kid I used to play a lot with all kind of insects like woodlice, dragon-flies, caterpillars and my favourite ones: the ants. I spent the whole day just watching them, learning how they worked in a "society", i always admire their altruism, helping each other when they were injured, amazing creatures are the ants.

Well, i started listening to Jazz when i was like 10 or 11 years old, i had this neighbour who had a band, and he used to play the bass, one of my favourites instruments together with saxophone and piano. When i heard the music, he put on the radio: i was listening Coltrane for the first time, and i just travelled to a peaceful place, it left me speechless, and it was indescribable. So, then, when i was 15, my family bought me an alto saxophone, it was hard to learn, but it truly worth it.

If you want to play the sax, you must learn how to control your breathing with your mouth in a correct position with the tongue bellow the entrance and play the keys at the same time with your two hands, it was totally different from flute, but it really helps to know how to play it, after all they are wind instruments.

And recently i start to gardening, a friend gave me some carnivorous plant seeds and i planned to have a lot of them, then buy an artificial anthill to have an ant civilization and make them live with the plants, so they can establish a symbiotic relationship, pretty cool to me! i will feel like the kid i was once... just admiring their altruism.

The fascinating human brain

"Cogito ergo sum: i think, therefore i exist"-Descartes.

 
It's philosophical, but this is what makes our brain different than the other species, we know that we're existing, most of them, can't even recognize themselves in front of a mirror. It's the most complex organ in our body, the result of thousands of years of evolution and is all what you are as a person, everything that you feel through you senses, it's you: your human brain. The brain is the central organ of the nervous system, receptor, processor and response generator of all the information that we perceive. The human brain is divided in two hemispheres communicated through the corpus callosum, the left one is related to reasoning, communication and mathematical and scientific abilities, while the right one is related to creativity, imagination and artistic and music sense, and each hemisphere has the control of the hand in the other side, so when you write with you left hand you are using your right hemisphere.

Each hemisphere is divided in four lobes: in the frontal we can find the Broca's area, is where all the words you say come from, also, in this area is where your personality is contained. The parietal lobe is where all your moves come from, yes, the motor-response area. The temporal lobe is where is located your sense of audition and balance. Finally, in the occipital lobe is where your brain capture images from your eyes to process them so you can see them. It's amazing the things that an organ of 1300g can do, with millions of nerves cells doing the synapsis constantly, but, I’ve always think about the dark part of it: psychiatric diseases, the power of our brain over us is infinite, schizophrenia, depression, psychosis or psychopathy... it makes me wonder how do you know you're mad? Maybe it's nothing real, maybe it's your brain making all the work for you, I don't know, and just in case I don't want to know.