Blog Experience

I think that writing in our blogs was an activity that helped us to develop our writing skills in a very entertaining way. I had written in English before at school since primary, so it was not so difficult doing it here at college. But at school was a little boring because we didn’t use digital platforms to experiment with. I really liked to read the comments my classmates and my teacher left me and also the other blogs, because it is a way to know their opinions and the things that they like.

This experience helped me to know more about the use of some words and phrases in English and to pay more attention to the verb tenses. I don’t know if this activity need something to improve, but I think that if somebody didn’t learn well it was because he didn’t make an effort enough to develop his abilities, because all the learning tools was given to us.  In my opinion, writing it is a very useful tool to learn English, because sometimes we don’t know how to put into words our thoughts so writing is the first step to know how to communicate in other language.

 

Ciper Chile

One of the journalism-related websites that I like to visit is Ciper (Centro de Investigación Periodística), also known as Ciper Chile. It is a Chilean digital and alternative media that operates like a nonprofit organization. It was created on November 2007 and in 2009 it became a foundation. It is an independent media, without any politic, religious or party affiliation, but many right parties consider that Ciper is a left media. Although it has received financing from several companies, like Copesa or Fundación Ford, they say that the commitment with these institutions does not condition its editorial policy.

The website has four sections which are Investigations Reports; Hot News and Interviews; Opinion Articles; and Access Information that is a section based on the Ley de Acceso a la Información to request information to the authorities. Ciper journalists have published many documents and articles with a high impact for the Chilean society and political effects. They have also disseminated some leaks from Wikileaks and they have published very important books about issues like the Karadima Case.

Ciper Chile is a very perfect information source of many important issues from the Chilean politics and society; and it is a good model for who is learning how to do investigate journalism and write investigation articles.

http://ciperchile.cl/

Working as a waitress

Last week I worked as a waitress at a marriage party in Linares. One of my older brothers is a chef, so he was organizing a banquet for the couple that was going to get married. So, my younger brother, my best friend, some other girls and I went and worked for my brother. We started at 8:00 p.m. and we finished around 4:00 a.m. although the people continued with the celebration. The party was at the couple’s house in the countryside, so it was very homey. They danced rancheras all night long and the music was extremely loud so we hated the Dj. There were a lot of little kids playing around and many times we had to dodge them to not fall down with the food. There was a lot of drunk people also, they looked very happy and used to go to ask for some drinks over and over. Almost at the end of our work day, the groom announced that he got a surprise for the bride; we waited anxiously to see that. Then the very drunk man put on a white and big hat and started to sing a “romantic” ranchera… it was a peculiar experience.