Santiago

For me is a little bit difficult write about places to visit and things to do in my city, because honestly, I think Santiago is pretty boring. Here in Santiago, we don´t have beautiful places to visit like the south of Chile or interesting things to do for a foreigner, because all the things to do are common, there are no originals things to do.

I think the places a foreign should visit are probably Cerro San Cristobal, Cerro Santa Lucía, The National Library, Patronato and Quinta Normal Park.

Cerro San Cristobal is the biggest hill in Santiago, There are a lot of things to do in the east side of the hill (in the west side is the Metropolitan Zoo, but is a pretty ugly and depressing Zoo, so I don´t recommend you to visit it). In the weekends people go to Cerro San Cristobal for many reasons, some sporty people go up the hill running or riding a bike, and other people just walk. There are Tai Chi groups and a Medieval Wrestling school. There is a Virgin Mary statue in the top of the hill and there is a big mass every Sunday. Cerro San Cristobal is a beautiful place to visit and I recommend you to visit it on Saturday or Sunday, wear comfortable clothes and be prepared to walk.

Cerro Santa Lucía is another hill to visit in Santiago, is smallest than San Cristobal but is very beautiful. There are no many things to do there, just walk around and spend a quiet afternoon. In front of the Cerro Santa Lucía is the National Library, it is a beautiful place to visit too, because is a really old building, of colonial times and you can find a lot of books and news papers.
Patronato is a very different place, is a commercial neighborhood with a lot of different stores, mostly clothes stores. The neighborhood is very old and some time ago it was full of Arabian people, but now there are a lot of Chinese and Korean people too. I recommend you to visit Patronato with some money, because you will find a lot of beautiful (and chips) things to buy, but be prepared to walk all day long.

Finally, the last place I recommend you to visit is Quinta Normal Park. It is a very big park and there is the Museum of Natural History, founded by Claude Gay in 1830, so is very old. The museum is not so interesting, but you can spend a nice afternoon visiting the museum and then walking through the Park, enjoying nature and native trees.

Coke

I consider myself as a very healthy person, I don´t drink, I don´t smoke, I do a lot of exercise and I try to keep a healthy way of life, I don´t even like chocolate. My only addiction is…COKE.
You may think that coke doesn´t affect my life in the way other addictions could, but the truth is that Coke is a really bad addiction. It has a lot of phosphoric acid and that affects the entire body, my teeth and my bones will eventually suffer the effects of acid. The other main problem of coke is that it has a lot of gas and that produces cellulite. Finally, coke has a lot of sugar and that is not helpful in keeping my weight.

But the real problem is that I really need coke, I can´t lunch if I don´t have a coke and I spend a lot of money buying coke.

I can´t tell you what was my life before my addiction, because I been drinking Coke since I was very little, in fact, my mom drank a lot of coke when she was pregnant, so I can´t even remember the first time I drank coke.

I don´t know if I can beat my addiction, I think I will never stop drinking coke, but I am trying to drink less every time, because in the future I´m going to need strong bones and teeth in order to keep a healthy way of life.

Finally, my advice to you is that you try to keep a healthy way of life, do some exercise, eat healthy and don´t drink coke or any other soda drink, drink water or juice, is better.


Chuck

Transantiago

Today I must write about Transantiago, the public transport system of my city. I must tell you about its problems, its changes and my experience with it, but there is just one problem… I don´t use it, I have a car and I go everywhere in it, my parents gave it to me in my graduation ceremony of school and since then I`d been using it almost every day. But I`m going to try writing about Transantiago based on what people and the news say.

I think Transantiago is better than the previous public transport system in many ways, is modern and more organized than the previous system. I think the problem is people was used to the yellow buses and their routes, and I think is hard for them adapting to a new system.

When Transantiago started the things were very messy and there were a lot of problems, but I think is normal, the same things happened in Bogota, Colombia when Transmilenio started (I know because I have friends in Colombia and I was there 4 years ago). Today Transantiago is better than 3 years ago, although it needs a lot of changes.

Finally, I must tell you about the changes I would apply in order to make it better in the future. I think what Transantiago needs is a city adapted to this system, because most of the street are very narrow and they are in bad conditions to be used. I would invest money improving the streets and the subway. And the other main problem is most people haven´t the education to use the buses and the subway, the buses stops, some buses and the subway are all painted and broken because of some people, so what I would do is apply fines to people who do that.

Meanwhile I´m going to keep using my car.. jajaja

Dk

Travel to China

Today I must write about a Country that I would like to visit.

To me, it is hard to think about just one country to visit, because I really like to travel a lot. I have been in … mm… five countries so far, Argentina, Brazil (twice), Uruguay, Colombia and United States (three times). But the exercise requires to think in a country so… I think the country I would like to visit the most is… China.

First, China has a very different and ancient culture that they have preserved almost intact, despite time. I think their culture has a lot of mysticism, their religion is very wise and their temples are really beautiful.

The thing I like the most of Chinese culture is that much things that we consider daily things like writing or taking the tea, in China are forms of arte that requires years of practice to do them well.

Finally, is important to say that I love my country and my family, and I wouldn´t like to live somewhere else, so I would like to visit China but just for a few weeks, maybe a few months, but no for longer time. And the other important thing is that now is difficult to travel for me, because I have a boyfriend and I don´t like to be without him for a long time, I prefer to stay in home and spend time with family and friends. We hope someday travel to China, maybe in a few years from now, meanwhile I´m learning Chinese and working to save money.

Kang Jia Mi (my chinese name)

FIRST TERM: GOOD .... JUST GOOD POINTS

This year has been very interesting, starting on vacations. I spent almost two weeks in the south of my country; I went to camp with some friends and my boyfriend in Caburga, a town near Pucon.

Then, in February I spent two weeks in USA, in Disney World (Orland, Florida) with my family. It was my third time in Disney, but every time is a new experience, because the technology is every time more advanced and amazing.

After that, vacation was over and it was time to go back to university. :/

In April, my boyfriend and I open a Kenpo school in the municipal Gym of La Florida. You should now that I practice Kenpo since I was a kid, so now I’m black belt and my boyfriend has been practicing for much more time than I have. We are doing fine since then, we have a lot of students and we also make a little money with the school.

In holly week we (my boyfriend and I) went to Viña del Mar for the weekend, the hotels were full and it was very hard to us to find someplace to stay. But we spent beautiful moments together.

Then, in July, I started learning Chinese, I love Chinese but it´s a very difficult language, so I need to study very hard, but I´m progressing.

Finally, I spent the last week in Reñaca (near to Viña) with a my best friend, a friend of his and my boyfriend, I was very funny and relaxing, but it is time to study now, so I leave you because that part of my life isn´t very interesting.

Cyah!