Your experience learning English at University – A reflection.

Learning English at University has been a great experience! I have learnt lots of words and terms I will use for the rest of my life!

Since I was a little girl, I knew that English was very important. So I decided to study the language by my own. I grabbed a dictionary, and I started to memorize some easy words.

Then, with Satellite Television I started to listen how these words sounded. I also figured out that the expressions on people´s faces had to do with the context, with the translation (subtitles) and so on.

All this knowledge was in “stand-by” until a teacher arrived at school.  Her name was Heather. She was from Oklahoma. She was amazing! She helped me to talk in English! She used to stay after class everyday with me, just to talk and teach me slangs, vocabulary and correct my mistakes. We are friends now, actually, every time she comes to Chile we meet for a cup of coffee.

At university, I feel the English we learn is very useful for our future careers; however what I like the most is the atmosphere. It is a great space to learn, with people on the same level and such. But I believe that for some classmates it has been a bit harder, I really would like to help them, too bad there is just no time :( they need to talk even more and stop being ashamed!

I believe the blogs are a great idea. 

On the other hand, I have always hated the “listening test”, I never get right what they mean! or I sneeze, or someone is having a cough attack!! and they always are British! And at least to me, it is hard to understand it!

I am looking forward to be part of the “students-program” next year. I hope you still want me! I promise I will do my best!  ;)

About food.

Food is great. Food is the best!!!

I remember I learnt how to cock when I was a little girl. But… it was not such a good experience (for my mom!)

When I was 7, there was a sort of activity at school. It consisted on a “Market”. Its purpose was to teach us the price of food, how to offer a product, to learn maths, and such. We had to sell our food. I remember I sold potatoes, carrots and bananas. The money was made of paper and clay.

I couldn’t sell everything. So, when I arrived home I realized I had potatoes, carrots and a bunch of eggs on the fridge. Somehow, I figured out to cook something… I knew my mom used eggs to prepare mayonnaise. I knew also that my mom prepared a salad that contained potatoes, carrots and WOW! mayonnaise.

So, I cut the ingredients. I put some eggs on a bowl. I added salt and oregano…

The part I missed?  To boil the vegetables!

The idea was to prepare a salad for my mom. She used to arrive at 9 p.m. everyday. She was always very tired and I thought my salad would be great for her!

So, she arrived home… I told her I had prepared something for her. I wrote her a letter to tell her I loved her so much.

She bit the potatoes… (Raw!) I was in front of her. She said nothing at all! After a huge silence, she said: This is great! How did you cook it?

That was my first preparation… after that, my mom taught me how to cook, how to boil food, how to mix the ingredients and I fell in love with cooking! Now, it has become one of my hobbies.  

I like to prepare fish, sea food, salads, Italian food and meet! So, people… you are all invited!

I run out of ideas.

It is november! Wow!

I can not believe this is almost my first year at the University. It has been a great year. Full of exams, tears, sad moments, great people, new friends, wonderful teachers…

I think I have changed a lot. I feel I can face new challenges with a better attitude. I fell in love with Midwifery! On March I remember I was really sad and frustrated because I did not qualified for the Med School. That was my dream since I was a little girl. And when I knew I was not good enough I felt terrible. 

As time passed I had to deal with the idea and get over it. But that was really, really hard. I had an awful attitude towards everything! I became a bit “aggressive”. I was just scared. I was very disappointed.

And it was even worse. Some subjects had nothing to do with a "clinical area". These subjects were about anthropology, mathematics (a nightmare!) and organic chemistry (another nightmare). Fortunately then I had: biochemistry, biophysics, genetics and such. I believe these are more clinical subjects. And just by then I could feel I was in the right place. It was great to study the origin of diseases, to learn about how what we eat can hurt us, how an injury can affect the blood circulation…  Then with O-HIFA this feeling was re-confirmed, with anatomy and physiology I really fell in love with Obstetrics. I love what I am doing now and I am looking forward to work in a hospital.

The title of this post is “I run out of ideas”. I was sooooooo wrong… I believe I have more ideas now than ever. Sometimes stress can blur our mind. A blog to write and a computer in front, can help us to realize where we are and how different we feel.