Post 2:From Barcelona to Madrid

The best holidays I’ve had so far took place when I was a child. I went to Barcelona with my parents when I was 4 years old, and we stayed there for 5 years. I don’t count those 5 years like holidays because I went to school there, but in one of those years (I don’t remember exactly) we went from Barcelona to Madrid in a rented car with my parents and grandparents. We took 2 days to get to Madrid, because we stopped at every town and tourist area we found.

In Spain there are no earthquakes, so almost every monument and castle that was built in Spain still stands, so we visited a lot of castles and ruins like Segóbriga, a ruin of an ancient roman city, or Morella, a city with huge walls around it.

I loved this holidays because of two things: I love castles and ruins from the middle Ages, and Spain has a lot of them, like Tossa de Mar or Morella. And also because I was travelling with my family by car, so those two days we spend them travelling from town to town visiting a lot of new and interesting places.

Post 1:Where would I like to travel?

The question about where I would like to travel it’s always a difficult one, because I love the act of travelling. But that doesn’t mean I would travel anywhere, there are some places I would never travel to, for example the Arab countries, because of the violent culture they have and the constant war they are into.

The place I would like to go for surely is Europe, to visit countries like France, England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Italy and Spain. I have already visited the last two but for that I have even more reasons to travel there again, because I loved them.

I want to go to Europe because I think everything is better there. I had the opportunity to live in Barcelona for 5 years and there I understood that the culture, for example, it’s a lot better there, everything works as it should, the people live happier and relaxed, and even they work less hours so they have more time to spend with their friends or family.

We could be all day writing about the things that are better in Europe than in South America, but in conclusion I think that there are little differences between us (the Europeans and the South Americans) that make this great disadvantages that our continent has, for example, the effort we put in our work, and the objective of that effort. Should we focus on our own benefits, or those of the whole country?

blog session 5

I chose this picture because it is one of my favorite sports, climbing mountains. I must say it doesn’t mean like wall climbing, it is more like trekking.

I started this hobby when I was a child (like 5 or 6 years old) and even when I went to Spain for 5 years I kept doing this with my father. In every excursion I have gone with my father, and we have lived a lot of adventures, from single trekking in one day to sleeping in the snow and the ice with 5 degrees below zero in higher mountains.

Despite all the cold, the exhaust and sometimes the pain when something happens, I love to climb mountains because I feel that I disconnect from the rest of the world by being in the pure nature, and living the different type of life and habits that we have in those conditions, like go far to find water, sleep in a tent, sleeping with the same clothes that you used in the day (even the shoes when it is too cold), the discomfort of the ground, etc. it is a nice type of adventure.

my thoughts about being a blogger

I have never made or read a blog before, I barely knew what it is, but with this subject I learned how to do one and I liked it, it is interesting to have a space in the internet where you can talk about anything and give an opinion and comment different things, it gives you a lot of possibilities, and it specially this class forces you to have an opinion about the things in your life, and I think that is an improvement to the society. In Chile at least, I found a lot of people who doesn’t want to give their opinion and they say that they don’t care when you ask them, and things like this blog helps them express their opinions and thoughts.

What I dislike a little bit about this blog, or this class is that it could be a little bit more separated of the career that we are studying, because we have in the rest of the week architecture (of any other career) in our minds, that doesn’t mean this class must talk also about it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love architecture, but that doesn’t mean that my life is 100% devoted to the career.

And the most difficult thing about writing blogs each week is organize my ideas and thoughts, because when I read the request of the week I already know what I want to write, but I am a bit dispersed and I tend to get away of the theme. And other difficult thing is reading Natalia’s blog, because with that type of letter I can´t read easily jajaja.

the subject I enjoyed (most of the time)

I don’t think that I enjoyed one subject above all, because sometimes in this semester I liked ones and sometimes not, but I will talk anyway about workshop. The type of classes that we have in workshop are different than the normal classes, because we have no tests, but we have projects that we make and improve in the classes where the teachers correct us but without a mark, and it helps you a lot because with that you can learn in what you are lack and what you can improve in your project.

I can´t say I love this subject because I also suffered with it, because the teachers give you too much work, and even that’s why this career is known for his exhausting work. but despite all of that, I can say I like this subject because I like the way we work in classes, with almost none normal classes where the teacher talks all the time with no participation of the students, and I also like the things we do in workshop, the projects are very interesting and they help me develop new skills that will be useful in the future, it helps me develop a new way of watching the environment needed in architecture

Antoni Gaudí

Antoni Gaudi was a Catalan architect who was born in 1852 and died in 1926. He was one of the best exponents of the modernism. He made a lot of projects and buildings that are very different than the common architecture (square shapes and regular and symmetrical structures based on the efficiency and with a very low interest on the design) because he made buildings with rounded shapes and multiple colors trying to be like the nature. One of the most famous buildings he made is the Sagrada Familia, a catholic temple that is so enormous that it is still being built, even after Gaudi’s death.

I admire him because I visited Barcelona, where he has all his projects, and I loved the way he builds, having so much care about the design, but always with a strong structure. If you ever travel there, you will be amazed because is a very different type of architecture that we are not used to see in our "normal" lives. Even, I also think that especially in Santiago the architects (or the building companies) care too much about make buildings that will make them earn more money, but they never care about for example how that building affects the environment, just like it happened in Castro with that huge mall.

the most important thing in my life

The most important thing to me is my family, with who i have always had a nice relationship and we are very united. I am talking about my family circle, not my familiars because with them the relation is a little bit different. My parents are still married and very in love with each other. And I also have two little brothers, Benito who is 5 years old and Rocio who is 4 years old.

One of the things I like of my family is that I have different kind of relations with each member of the family.with my father we used to play video games together (even if my mother didn’t like it), with my mother we think very similar and we have the same musical taste, and with my brother and sister we play imagining fantastic stories and playing with our pets, who I also count as members of this family our many pets, we have three dogs (one for each son) named Fiona, Farkas and Bolita, and two cats named Homero and Elsa.