The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

This year is almost finished, I have two weeks left in class and then I’ll be free!

My closest plan for vacation is to go watch The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. I bought tickets for the premiere that will be on December 10^th this 2014. It is the third movie based on J.R.R Tolkien’s novel: The Hobbit.

Book cover

Movie Poster

At first I didn’t understand why Peter Jackson (the director) made three films instead of one, he added more characters and stories that were not in the original one, but I kind of thank him now. 

When I saw the first one An Unexpected Journey I was like “What?” when I saw things that weren’t even mentioned in the book, but then I spoke to some other people about it and they told me that Jackson was working with Tolkien’s son, so everything he added was either based on another short story about Middle Earth or just an arraignment between the director and Tolkien’s son. So I accepted these little changes. The second one The Desolation of Smaug, was even more astonishing, but also had more stuff included: a love story that doesn’t exist in the original story and characters that were just named in the book had a lot to do in this film… it was weird too. And now, I don’t know what I’m going to find. I just hope it works and that it doesn’t ruin the original idea.

Jackson has done a great job actually, first with The Lord of the Rings, and now with The Hobbit, that I’ve been feeling really sad now that this trilogy is ending.  It hasn’t been so long since I first saw the trailer, and I felt so bad because the music made me feel like it’s the end… and I’m a fan, so you cannot tell the fans their favorite thing in life is ending :( 

Here's the movie trailer, if you're interested in it: 

Anyway, I'm sure it's gonna be an awesome movie <3

And I'm also sure I'm going to cry a lot! But it doesn't matter because I love it :)

"Last blog"

This English course has been my first here at the university and it has been very fun, I’ve met new people and I’ve also learned more English, of course. 
The blog idea is excellent. I find it very helpful and comfortable because many people  get nervous when they speak, so, with the blogs they can put what they know in their writings and practice spelling and grammar too. 

I’ve noticed that I have some problems with the words “in”, “on” and “at”. I mean, I usually get confused when I have to use them and maybe that’s when I make more mistakes. Also, when I speak I get so nervous that I don’t think clearly and I start making stupid mistakes like last class when I said “And that’s where he met her best friend”… I should probably practice more. But the biggest difficulty is that no one else speaks English in Chile! It isn’t normal, it isn’t common to find someone to share or to practice your English… I should get a foreign friend, maybe a gringo :P But it’s not that easy :(

The most English I use out of class is when I sing. I love singing and I only do that in English, which helps me a lot to work on my pronunciation and grammar. I select a song on youtube and then I search for the lyrics. Some of the videos already have the lyrics attached, but some other only have the audio. Then I sing along, first with the singer and then, when I’ve memorized it, I start doing karaoke! It’s weird because my favorite bands are all foreign and they all sing in English or in their own language. I can’t recall any Spanish or Chilean band that I like right now. 

Another thing I do is to watch movies in English with their English subtitles or without any. I first started watching my favorites ones so I could know what they were talking about and now I can watch almost any movie in English and I can understand most of the ideas :)

That would be it! <3 Kiitos

How green am I?

I’ve seen a lot of new initiatives on TV lately, not always though, it’s like whenever they remember about these problems that the news start promoting green fairs or events that contribute to change people’s mentality about pollution issues.

Personally, I’m not very aware of this, I mean, I do walk a lot instead of using public transport whenever I can, and I do recycle my clothes, but it’s not something that makes me so proud to share, maybe I consider it too normal and not too “green”. Anyway, my mom is very aware of it, I’ve seen her using her bike to go to work instead of using the car, and she constantly recycles milk cartons and glass bottles, so she’s the green one. I’m more like a brown or gray person yet.

Even my father works on that area in his job. He’s in charge of the enterprise’s environmental regulations, making sure that it’s not breaking any law, and he always tells us about how difficult it is to keep the carbon footprint and toxic emissions at lower levels, but they are working on it as a factory (it’s a glass container manufacturer) to contribute to the environment.

Everything my parents are doing, I’m doing it or trying to, because it’s part of my learning process as long as I live with them. So I too recycle bottles and stuff, because of my mom and dad. But, I haven’t ridden a bike since I was 9, and I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten how to do it (despite of that saying: “you never forget how to ride a bike”), and I’m also scared of cars. I mean in Santiago, everything goes so fast, that lots of bikers die or get hurt because of that… which is not very encouraging. But as I said at first, I love to walk

I haven’t joined any eco-organizations because of what I’ve been saying all along, this pollution issue hasn’t become an important matter in my life yet, maybe I will start paying more attention to it… I understand it is a major problem for everyone and all that, it’s simply not my first priority right now.

Also, I believe our society needs more incentives, like more fairs and outdoor activities to value what we are losing to pollution. Santiago in particular needs more “green spots” (where to recycle) and to keep adding bikeways so there won’t be so many car-bike accidents.-

2014

My life has usually been very boring… I never go out much, I’m not a fan of partying like it’s the end of the world, I prefer staying at home and watching movies all night long. BUT, this year I’ve started a new friendship with a couple of classmates that I hope it’s going to last for a long time. We usually get together when there’s not much to do for class so we won’t have to regret anything later. They like to go dancing, so I join them just for fun (because I’m not good with that) and sometimes we just hang out at someone's house <3 The only bad thing is that two of them are probably leaving this career to study somewhere else, because they didn't do very well in psychology, maybe it wasn't what they really wanted… but it doesn't mean we’re going to have to see each other less because of that (I hope).

A good thing and personal achievement in 2014: I’m taking flamenco classes! I had never taken dancing classes before, and I have to admit that I suck at this right now, but it’s fun and relaxing :P We’re having a presentation on December at the university so I'm going to need a lot of practice!

Furthermore, my parents’ new house is already finished so they’ll be moving out soon. We are going to need to plan a housewarming party anytime soon, just for family though. Since my parents are going to live in their new house near Peñaflor, it means I have to leave too (I used to live with them) so I can’t keep living where I am right now because a) it’s too big for me (I don’t like cleaning so much) and b) it’s very far from university, so I’ll have to start looking for a smaller place near Ñuñoa, which means I'm going to start living by myself and it really excites me :D 

Project Noah

I’m a fan of this website: 

“It's a tool that nature lovers can use to explore and document local wildlife and a common technology platform that research groups can use to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.”

Giant Panda

I don’t remember how I first got to it, the only thing I know it’s that it was through facebook. They usually publish “the spotting of the day” where you can check the best photo that has been taken during the day, and on their website you can check on everyone else’s posts of their own sightings. Most of them are truly great and surprising. You can find any kind of animals, plants and insects, even the ones you didn't even know existed, it’s all in there.

Green weaver spider with web

Unnamed spotting

I love this website because of the incredible work they have done and have kept doing every day. They usually tell us a little story about the animal they’re showing to us, so they contribute to our knowledge, and also (personally) it helps me to chill when I am too stressed out. Watching their sightings keeps me calm most of the time.

 

Satanic leaf-tailed gecko

Today’s spotting was about Halloween, so they chose the Satanic leaf-tailed gecko that looks creepy but awesome at the same time! (Looks like a dragon to me). 

The user posted the next description for it: "Nocturnal gecko hunting in the rainforests of Madagascar, it can be up to 6 inches in length although this one was around 3 inches. This gecko is a mottled brown colour unless you use a flash to really bring out the red and they get their name from the spiky protrusions above their eyes".

 

27/08/14 Blog post. Return of the King.

I can say that I’ve watched a large number of movies so it becomes very difficult to me to choose just one. I often fall in love with them, even if they’re not considered good movies at all… I believe I can always find something to value in a movie, a small detail like a song that makes it precious. But, considering the number of times that I’ve watched this movie in particular and the strong memories it holds, I would say: The lord of the rings: Return of the king. It is the third and final movie in The lord of the rings film trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson, and it was based on the third novel (under the same title) that J.R.R. Tolkien published on 1955.

Movie Poster

Book Cover

My sister showed it to me when I was like 10 years old, but It was love on first sight. It enchanted me, and took me to places that I’d never imagined before… the music was so exciting and the story so intense, that I think it’s by far the most amazing movie that I’ve ever seen. I used to watch it almost every month, perhaps I did it more than once in a month! Even my family used to mock me whenever they heard the main theme: “Wow, is that a new movie?”

One of my favorite scenes

Finally, I totally recommend it to every human being, because it’s truly stunning, but based on my experience, I’ve noticed that either you’ll love it or hate it, there’s no middle point.

My dream job

It looked just like this one...

I’ve never been so sure about what I want, I’m very insecure and I often change my mind about everything :P. When I was a little girl, I used to love adventure movies such as Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider, and wanted to become an archeologist so I could be like the ones in the movies, discovering ancient objects and secrets. Then, my love for ancient stuff transformed into love for dinosaurs. I wanted to become a paleontologist! I actually took a class when I was 11, where I had to make a dinosaur’s skull with clay once… it was truly awesome (I wish I had a picture of it :c). 

Lately, when I entered high school, I started developing an interest in writers, not poets but novelists, so I started writing a lot; I even finished writing a hundred pages novel at 14, which is one of my greatest achievements. I wanted to study literature so I could become a writer, but I realized I didn’t had to do that to actually BE a writer, so I made a last-minute change and chose psychology. In the end, I think my dreamed job is to be a famous writer, and be free to travel so I can meet new places and people, but I also like the idea of having my own office and treat patients, I'd enjoy working indoors, so I believe that I’ll do both things… I can be a famous psycho-writer, oops.  

So, those have been my dream jobs: from archeology to literature/psychology. Besides, sounds interesting to me to write thrillers about serial killers so I believe that my current career is going to help me a lot with that :)