Academic Changes in Biochemistry

Academic Changes in Biochemistry

Hello thugs, whats going on? 

Today I will talk to you about some changes that I would make to my career program. So, Pablo Richter take notes. I will limit myself to mentioning only the negative aspects of the career as well as my experience as a student, this does not mean that my opinion does not also consider notable aspects or virtues, but you know Anton Ego, right? Uneducated yokels should know about it. "We critics thrive on negative reviews that are fun to write and read", well, this is one of those reviews.

In this blog I will approach three main topics: the curriculum, teaching and academic burden.

Teaching 

My experience with professors and assistants at the University has been generally good. IN GENERAL, they are good teachers who make sure you understand the subject and who you can turn to in case of doubts. But in at least 90% of the courses I have taken at university, the teaching material is horribly bad. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, it's bad.

The seminary guides in almost all the fields that I have had do not include a solution or at least the answers to the exercise, which in my opinion is absurd, since it does not allow the student to find out if what they are doing is right or wronG. I think that if the faculty departments cared more about improving the teaching material, keeping it updated and with solutions, the understanding regarding the topics that are evaluated would be much greater and that would also focus the doubts on more advanced issues.

Censored for the
police of thinking

It seems incredible to me that the exercises in the seminaries have been the same for years and no one has ever bothered to improve the material. On the other hand, I believe that this material should be available in some information cloud, because it has happened that while one is teaching the course, the material is made available to the student late or too quickly. If the guides are never updated, at least if they are available from the beginning of the course it would be the minimum.

I have had some bad experiences with assistants, really too small to criticize them as a whole, many times the assistants have taught me more than some teachers so I believe that they are a fundamental pillar of teaching.

Even so, I believe that no matter how much students complain about a teacher or an assistant, in most cases nothing changes. It is disappointing in that sense and frustrating at times, but things have always been that way and they are unlikely to change because we are here to criticize them. I suppose they will have to die one day (which won't be long away) and those like me who currently study and who perhaps one day will teach, will improve teaching based on what we have experienced.

Academic Burden

Well, this topic is interesting. The faculty of chemical sciences is privileged compared to other faculties because we have two weeks of recess, two weeks that if they did not exist, I really don't know what would happen to me. They are very necessary, I don't know who the genius was who came up with it, applause.

Even so, and as I said at the beginning of this blog, today we will be haters and we will tell great truths that deserve to be pronounced. The mental health of FaCiQyf students is going like a plane swooping. Most of the people I have met at the university have had at least one moment of academic collapse, at least one.

Beyond my faculty, the Universidad de Chile is very negligent with the mental health of its students, the majority suffer from anxiety or some type of deterioration in their mental health as a result of academic demands. The psychological units do not do enough, I must say, not to disparage them, but it is not enough to have a paper at the end of a test that says that a test does not define me, because at the end of the day if it does, one can fall behind years to leave the degree and have to pay for several semesters with money that in many cases does not exist.

I appreciate that at least there is a psychological unit but the discourse that a test does not define us falls short when when we leave we feel that we are of no use. It has happened to me and I think it has happened to others. Evaluations often represent truly horrible moments and it shouldn't be like that, my chest tightens when I write this because I have felt that anguish of having studied a lot, really a lot, of having stayed up late and standing in front of a test and not knowing what to do, staying blank with the pencil in my hand while time runs out and an assistant or teacher sees from afar how really bad I am having it, how that can somehow reflect what I know. It should not be like that.

Average student in testing week

I think that some people not ironically say, well if you went to university, things are demanding. And it is true that things are demanding and it is good that it is like that, I think that the problem does not lie in that direction.

The problem is not the demand, but the frustration that one can experience when not meeting the standards. We all have our own abilities and facilities for one thing or another, but evaluations in many cases have major deficiencies when it comes to being instruments that demonstrate the knowledge acquired. I have often heard teachers talk about how the test is not even planned, two or three days before the evaluation date and it seems disrespectful to me. What interest does that show in generating an instrument that really allows us to show what the student knows? And sometimes the seminary exercises are not related at all to the test exercises, so returning to the issue of teaching material, it is PENCAAAAA!

Another negative aspect is the time limits and in general the planning of subject schedules. The space between two classes can be 4-5 hours, obviously it is a complicated issue, matching the schedules, but it should not happen that two courses that must be taken in the same semester collide, IT MAKES NO SENSE. Furthermore, it is assumed that the faculty is committed to sports and students who attend the selection of some sport within the

And the dean
Callampín Bombín

 university have priority to take subjects to avoid clashes with their training, but it turns out that in practice, the schedules of training clash with subjects and there is no alternative schedule. On the other hand, evaluations after lunch are stupid, it is literally the moment when one is most idiot after lunch. After this disclaimer I will propose some things so as not to feel so critical.

-No academic evaluation can exceed 30% of the course weighting and this weighting must be distributed over at least four evaluations.

-You cannot set more than one A test per week.

-The teaching material must contain solutions and must be available to the student from the beginning of the course.

-Tests cannot be set for the week immediately after the academic discharge week.

-Perhaps if the schedules were fixed, that would allow teachers to organize their research activities based on a fixed schedule, but I do not know the feasibility of this proposal. If this were possible, every year the subjects would be taught in a more or less fixed order for several generations and if it is a functional schedule, the same classrooms would also be designated. Perhaps a program could be designed that would automatically organize this and look for the best way, but I think that if the teachers do not change too much over the years, a fixed schedule over time is much better.I love all that about organizing systems that work over time, if they pay me for my university degree I will solve their problem.

-This idea is not very feasible due to the infrastructure of our faculty, but perhaps a protected schedule for sports practices or extracurricular activities would motivate participation and encourage the development of students in other areas. Now, it is not feasible for them to be taking place at the same time all extracurricular activities due to a matter of space, perhaps if the sports infrastructure and spaces to hold workshops were improved, the university experience could be greatly improved.

Your name is not MOOOON!

I said, case closed, problem fixed!

Perhaps with more time, I would carry out an analysis of the university credit system to see if it is really efficient and if it meets its objective, because perhaps part of the problem lies in the assignment of credits and that the arrangement of schedules does not have a connection with this system. Interesting to analyze.

Curriculum

Well, let's go to the most general thing, which is what a biochemist should know. I am still too young to contemplate the curriculum and detect its deficiencies at the training level, but of course I have opinions about it.

This is a diagram that he made of the curriculum, because the one on the internet is ugly. On the other hand, this one contains arrows so it's cuter. I hope you understand my handwriting.

Here is my curriculum proposal, I really did not modify it too much, I maintained the initial requirements with the exception of the Organic Chemistry I requirement for Physicochemistry I and the requirements for laboratories, since I believe that they should be taught in the same semester that the corresponding theoretical asignature is taught. Except de requirement of Chemistry Laboratory Techniques for Laboratory of General Chemistry.

Apart from that, I reduced the number of specific asignatures to the degree because I consider that it could be synthesized into two parts, one that provides the context of the degree and what to do as a biochemist and the other that teaches general aspects of the degree such as divulgation, teaching, the presentation of projects and management to do research. 

I moved the field of bioethics, because I consider it to be important long before, since in the following semesters research units begin to be carried out. Add a specialized elective in the fifth semester and a third professional internship, because you never know, just in case, the more practice you have the better.

With respect to the content, I would adapt the English courses to the biochemistry degree, teaching a more technical English and I would have all the subjects of the first two years, which correspond to the basic cycle, be taught semiannually.

Universidad de Chile reading my post

Well, those are my macaque modifications to improve the career. I think that was an 8.8 earthquake on the Richter scale, poor, he was tousled.

Klau

1.21 Gigawatts !

Holly Science!

Rick and Morty, the movie

Can I start this blog by talking about back to the future? I love that movie, the first one is my favorite although most people like the second one more. Although I feel that all three must be seen to understand the message of the film. I will proceed to spoil the movie for you because it is a classic and if you haven't seen it, I don't really understand what you are doing reading this blog instead of watching the damn movie and finally getting out of ignorance. In the final part of the third movie, Doc tells Marty that our future is not written and that we can change it as much as we want with the actions we take in the present, after literally the entire saga he was modifying the future by changing the past, Doc says something like the present is our opportunity to change the future, that is our greatest gift. 

When Marty decides not to race in a car after being called a chicken, he unintentionally and without knowing that he would get into an accident later and would not be able to play guitar again, changes his future. It's a nice message because we really can't know what will happen in the future and we don't have a time machine, so in the end it seems to be about acting as we think is best in the present moment. It is a great movie, I recommend it (I after having told the end of the saga) .

The future from the perspective of that film is one possibility in a million possibilities, but every individual action modifies and multiplies the possibilities. In that sense, if I had a time machine and I traveled to the future, the machine would show me, among all those million possibilities, the one that is most probable. But, probability is not the same as certainty. So the question between whether to choose to travel to the past or the future is, knowing the certainty of the past or the most probable future.

Traveling to the past would be a trip purely out of curiosity, of course there are still great mysteries that have been lost in history and that with a time machine we could solve them but if we take care not to influence any event and be completely invincible it could be very entertaining. On the other hand, traveling to the future would bring with it responsibilities for the present, or at least the constant search to change the future, perfect it and warn others and ourselves of fatalities.

Therefore, I would definitely choose the past, I would like to know the following eras:

 I would like to see the era in which life began to form.

I would like to see the first plants and mammals, in addition to meeting the dinosaurs. I would like to go to that time and observe the formation of the first cells.

  I would like to know primitive humans, I am interested in knowing what the first languages ​​were like, how they began to communicate, in a documentary about mushrooms that I saw, they said that the development of language in humans could be due to the consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms that increased the level of neuronal connections.

Me in the 80s being goth.

I am convinced that my life would be
radically better if I had
gone to a The Doors concert.

I would meet all the interesting people from other times: Cleopatra, Leonardo Da Vinci (I would ask him if he is LGBT+ because I am 99% sure he is), Jesus Christ (if he existed), Oscar Wilde, A. Rimbaud, I would like knowing Roberspierre and then attend his execution. I would like to meet Victor Jara and sav him. I would go to at least one concert of all the bands that I like from another era. I would take piano lessons with Beethoven and Chopin, etc.

Let the times come back when
they cut off the heads of the rich,
no one respects the old traditions anymore. 

If I went to the past I would kill Pinochet, yes, if I had a time machine I would go to the past and kill Pinochet.

I have always wondered what Chile would be like if that event had never happened. Today it is difficult for me to understand how we have arrived at this ideosyncrasy without memory and in complete silence after such horrible events that have stained the history of our country. Today, 50 years later, there are people who continue to deny the facts. That during the dictatorship people were tortured, murdered and made to disappear. That during the dictatorship it was the same national military forces that committed these crimes. That there are documents that evidence the political and financial participation of the United States in the Coup. It has been shown that during the democratic government of the UP there was a boycott, which sought to generate financial destabilization and still, and with everything. The people were with the government of Salvador Allende and those who opposed it were rather a small and privileged group. 

This is not a political opinion, it is a concrete fact widely demonstrated, it bothers me when political groups transform facts into "political opinions", it is true that history is according to those who tell it, but I think this is a stupid generalization, because, the truth is that when we have evidence it is impossible to deny or, as they claim, "interpret or relativize the facts".

Well, when I start to think about what would have happened if the coup had never happened, I wonder if things would have happened anyway. The truth is that I think Chile would be a very different place. Unfortunately, going back in time is impossible, we cannot change the events that have already occurred, much less avoid their consequences.

I return to my initial reflection on this question of time, and with respect to the terrible events of our history, I believe that we can only overcome them, and when I refer to overcome them, I do not mean to pretend that they did not happen, but to build a better present and future from them. I believe that you can learn from everything, even from what is painful. I do not believe that you must necessarily experience something to obtain great lessons and understand things. Therefore, in the future, I would not like that moment in our history to be forgotten.

I do not want history to repeat itself, I do not believe that history repeats itself, I am more concerned that we can never become owners of our future and direct it towards more beautiful and better places, human beings live by predicting future events, for more than 30 years we know that the planet cannot sustain this system and what has been done? What is being done to avoid the obvious consequences of climate unconsciousness? nothing, nothing significant, the efforts have been to appear some ecology, to clean our hands of the issue, tomorrow history will condemn us for not having done enough, and not doing enough is the same as doing nothing .

It is useless to know the future, it is not even useful to alter the past if in the present we do not act accordingly to a life that is pleasant to us, for ourselves and for others. So even if I altered the entire past of humanity to thus change our present, it would be of no use if our path goes awry again. 

Sometimes I think about it, I think that if there were a higher entity that could observe everything, it does not really have influence on our actions, I do not believe that there really are higher forces that can order us to do or not do something, and I think that is better. You no longer have anyone to hold responsible for the misfortunes that happen to you. You create your own luck and your luck is sometimes also due to the set of characteristics of your environment, which form and transform you, I think this is like that, the world seems very logical to me in this way. I agree with Doc when he says that our future is not written, that what is called destiny is rather the confluence of all the effects of our individual actions. Therefore, let us be aware, we move in time, we are astute enough to suspect our future and reasonable enough not to forget our past.

Klau

My dream Job

Hello friends, I don't feel particularly inspired, fortunately for you, this is probably a small blog (I always end up going on longer than I would like, I would like to be the mysterious girl who doesn't speak but I can't shut up).

During my life I think I had many dream jobs, but I really believe that what I am studying now is the only dream job that I could not do if I did not study it professionally. I would really like to work as a researcher, it is my dream. I think that my personality, in general, requires constantly learning new things and I usually suffer from obsessions with some topics that I feel like I need to know everything about, otherwise I will explode.

I think I'm doing exactly what I should be doing or at least I have that feeling that things in my life are going the right way. 

I feel quite satisfied with my life, I am working on my dreams. There are a series of reasons why I believe that being a researcher is my dream job. The first of them is knowledge, I believe that a job that always allows me to generate new knowledge and share it with other people is ideal for me, I am a person who live in amazement, in general, I feel amazement at almost any phenomenon and life is an incredible mystery to be revealed, I want to understand how living beings function, understand in depth the scientific foundations of life.

Secondly, a job that allows me to travel, I love to travel, if I were a millionaire I would know all the places on this planet, I would go to the depths of the ocean and even the stars. Being a researcher is completely compatible with travel, attending conferences and living in other countries while I carry out research is my dream.

Finally, teaching, the truth is that the relationship that is formed between a teacher and an apprentice seems special to me. I would like to be a teacher at some point in my life in which I have acquired a high degree of knowledge in which I can teach others. Furthermore, I think that science is quite similar to a craft, like a kind of art that must be learned from generation to generation. I believe that the great teachers are books, but there are people that I hope to meet during my professional career who represent true encyclopedias of knowledge from which I can absorb techniques and tips. It turns out that many times a procedure is explained in books, but then in the laboratory one learns that in reality nothing is exactly as described and that is why I believe that science is so special, because science is done by people and when seeks to know something completely unknown; oneself is the one who creates its procedures.

Science is beautiful, I have discovered it by studying it now at university. Every day I am more captivated by how much we know and at the same time how much we ignore, I am eager to one day be able to contribute to this crusade that is to understand the world around us. I want to do something important, I would be lying if I said that I would settle for having my dream job. I am a person of great ambitions, I would like to understand the kingdom of fungi, contribute significantly to the understanding of the chemical

degradation processes of matter. I would like to contribute to the restoration of ecosystems using bacteria and degrading organisms that could digest contaminating materials. I am interested in all the ways in which we can use organisms to transform substances. I want to study their reactions and discover the components that produce them to find useful applications that can help us combat climate change. 

Well friends, that's all for today's blog, follow me for more madness.

Klau

My best holidays ever

 Hi insufferable souls! 

Bzzz Bzzz Bzzz, today I told you about my best Holidays ever, and remember the events of this adventure will not be difficult, because it was in the summer of this year. This history is starring for: 

With my friends of university (the people presented before) jokingly talked about going on a backpacking trip. And one day we said: Sakin, lend us your house, let's go south of Chile to explore it! And to one moment to another the joke became real (typical of my life). We going on February because we had classes on January in the Summer semester. This semester, it's the most insane and masochistic thing I've do in my whole life ever. With nothing to lose, we set off into the unknown with our backpacks and tents, and a cooler with food. The adventure awaits us!

The first days, after a five hours of trip in bus with my friend Kim, we arrived to Temuco. In the bus station of Temuco we met. My friend Fefi came from Talcahuano and Sakin picked us up and took us to her house. We met her cousins Mañke and Kallfü, her mom, her grandma and saw her lands. We ate Sopaipillas and homemade bread, the food it was delicious.

First spot: Playa Blanca

Playa Blanca

At 5 am to the next day, we woke up, had breakfast and took a bus that left us in Pucón, and from there we took a bus to Caburgüa. We didn't know where to get off exactly, but we discovered that the bus terminal was the closest place to the campsite where we were going to stay. When we arrived to the camping "Vergara".We set up the tents and organize our things. The campsite had a direct exit to Playa Blanca and we and once settled, we went along the shore of Lake Caburgüa to the town to buy melon and wine to make "Melvin" and an extra gas for the gas stove. 

Bandurria, the bird I saw.

Something special happened to me this day, I was on my way to the campsite bathroom to do my things and walking through the trees in the light of midday I chose to take an alternative path to the one I already knew, only because it is the kind of thing I do when I am alone, the path took me to the bathrooms up a small hill between the roots of the trees and a very fine earth that raised dust that horribly stained my sneakers and pants. Suddenly, something majestic made its appearance, a strange bird of a bluish-gray color with a thin beak curved towards its orange chest, its eyes were red. It's hard for me to explain how much his presence impacted me. He appeared before me in the middle of the road and looked at me with his eyes that did not flash the slightest fear. It surprised me, it really surprised me, immobile, it seemed like a magical encounter. Like one of those moments where two beings who should never have crossed paths, due to random circumstances, cross paths and find themselves amazed by the other's strangeness. For me, that small exchange of glances was eternal and in my mind his appearance was disfigured and his gaze immortalized. After that eternity, that look that still hasn't ended, he disappeared on the other side of the road in a moment when my vision was distracted and I didn't see him again.

After that, we had lunch and then we went to the beach and spent the entire afternoon there, we got some temporary tattoos, drank Melvin and played cards, in addition to swimming in the lake. 

On the first night, we went to visit the town and several craft fairs in the area, we walked the entire beach at night and through the forest in the dark. That day we were supposed to see a comet, but apparently we were very far from the visibility zone. Anyway it was a beautiful night walk.I love walking in the dark, stepping on the sand and being able to see clearly only what our flashlights could reach, listening to the gentle current of the lake embrace the coast and imagining figures among the rocks and trunks of old trees that had fallen.

In that deep darkness with the light of the lanterns and the stars reflecting in the stillness of the waters, one is no longer afraid of the unknown. One can no longer conceive darkness as something negative and terrifying, that enveloping magic becomes something divine.

The next day, we were ready to leave the campsite and leave for our second destination. We had planned to go to a fairly remote area that was in the heights near the Huerquehue National Park. We never managed to achieve what was planned since when we arrived at the bus terminal where we had been the day before, the driver told us that there was not much attraction and that it was very far away. While we were on the way up the bus, the driver recommended that we go better to the Ojos del Caburgüa, we listened to him and In a matter of minutes, we completely changed our plans and found a nearby campsite called "La Puntilla".

Second spot: Ojos del Caburgüa (Carburgüa eyes for the english people)

Changing our plans ended up being the best decision, we had, I think, the best location in the entire campsite, we were next to the river, but when I tell you that we were next to the river, we were literally next to the river. We had a view of the Villarrica volcano. That day we went to the Mirador de Peces. It was a nice area next to the river with viewpoints and of course, ponds with fish. 

For a moment, while watching the river flow, I imagined that I was a monkey, one of those howler monkeys that it would be impossible to see in Chile, and I was jumping on a tree and crossing over the river through a branch, I continued towards the trees and then I jumped into the river, the river dragged me and the people at the viewpoint watched as I dived completely confident in my swimming skills, then I climbed a tree holding on to a branch and so on. I was lost in the thick forest never to be seen by a human on earth again. I could never experience nature like that monkey. That made me feel a little sad, I couldn't have the same luck as that monkey if I jumped. And I wouldn't turn into a monkey either when I fell into the water. Fuck Darwin and The Evolution of Species.

Bellavista waterfall

Then, we went to the Bellavista waterfall, where with Sakin we climbed some rocks that took us upstream from the waterfall. The rocks had interesting shapes and then we crossed a part of the river before reaching the waterfall along some rocks, jumping like frogs. Then we went to the eyes of Carbugua, and saw the waterfalls of turquoise blue waters and a small white moth lying dead on a rock. Perched there on a tree root I could see the light resting on the branches of the trees full of moss and the imposing sound of the water flowing due to the effect of gravity, all that was deeply alive and I felt for a moment like there was a secret communication among all things, mental delusions, while I was eating a toddy cookie in a plastic container with my friends.

Back at the campsite we went down to the river to bathe with Sakin and Fefi, we jumped 4 times, I know it doesn't sound like much, but I have forgotten to mention that the temperature of the water, freezing temperatures, (she is exaggerating) makes anyone who jumps harder be declared insane at once. When you jumped down you completely stopped feeling your limbs and your body instinctively headed towards the shore. We jumped 4 times, and then shivering we returned to the campsite to finish off an extremely intrepid day.

Before hitchhiking  

After hitchhiking

The next morning we left our destination was Pucon, we wanted to try our luck hitchhiking, but we noticed that despite looking like the ant meme it was not giving results, we thought we would have to walk to the exit to the highway and then pay the fare in a bus, but luckily for us, we felt sorry enough and a couple stopped and took us. They were going to take us to the highway, but that morning an accident occurred and they had to take a different route, so they left us in Pucon. It was a pretty big coincidence, so we saved a whole trip to Pucon and when we arrived everything happened due to synchronicity, the bus that left us in Pucon, then from Pucon to Villarrica, then from Villarrica to Lican Ray. It was a long journey but it was worth it.

Third Spot: Lican Ray - Kalafkén Lake

Kalafkén Lake

Our last day of the trip we decided to end at Lake Kalafkén located in Lican Ray. There we visited the Lican Ray main square, saw numerous craft stalls and ate delicious cheese Empanadas. Then we went to the lake and settled in an area and took out our electric stove to prepare lunch, noodles with sauce and soy meat (we ate noodles 3 days in a row in more than one meal, I don't regret anything). We had one gas left, we were talking, enjoying and playing Uno when calamities! We ran out of gas, we were very hungry and we no longer had gas, so Kim put on her cape and walked kilometers and kilometers in search of a hardware store. There was no gas for a stove in all of Lican Ray, what a shame! It's the end! the end!

Kim, national hero, bought empanadas and we had that for lunch. Then we sunbathed in the beach (well, I didn't sunbathe, I hate the sun), we bathed in the lake and ate fruit skewers, it was extremely fun. We watched the sunset on the beach and then waited for the bus that would take us to Temuco to conclude this beautiful adventure.

Los ojos del Caburgüa

I think this trip changed my way of facing life a lot. I have always considered myself an adventurous person. When you travel that way, without many certainties and letting your feet take you where you need to go, you discover that you are capable of so many things. After a day of backpacking, my perception of what was really necessary changed irrevocably. I didn't sleep in great comfort, and at night there was no light other than that of the stars, our roof was a waterproof fabric tent and we had each other and that was it, everything I really needed was so clearly seen. 

I questioned my daily comfort a lot. Having so little to hold on to had been very liberating in some ways. I realized that humans are beings that fill us with things that anchor us to places. I suddenly saw the natural consequence of settling down, and this consequence is that of the gradual loss of experiencing the world around us. And it really scares me to dedicate just one week of my life to exploring the world because I'm too worried about preserving the unnecessary. Traveling is the most obvious way to explore the world, of course there are other paths. Travel is not really travel if it does not involve a renewal of the spirit. In that sense, it doesn't matter if you travel constantly if it doesn't represent a true departure from comfort.

I am very grateful for the experience I had and for having shared it with beings as interesting and pleasant as my friends. Nothing would have been the same without them. 

Klau

The country I would like to visit

 

Bonjour mojojojos, 

Klau returns with more hate and stronge than ever, I hope you are well and you have the enough battery in your phone to finish reading this blog. As you can see in the title of this blog, today I talk about the country I would like to visit. And, the country is France. VIVE LE FRANCE! WE ARE IN PARIS!

I had some inconvenience to choose the country that I would like to visit because the truth is that I would like to know the whole world, among those countries were Egypt, Japan, (in fact Japan almost beat it), Italy, Mexico, anyway, the world is a very interesting place and it is difficult to choose a single place in which to feel interest. 

I love you so much Rimbaud,
 "the hand that holds the pen
 is worth as much as
 the one that plows".

The reason why I chose France is because I think it's a country that has my vibes, and I apologize for how disgustingly prescient that might have sounded, but it's true. Unlike the rest of the candidates who represent perhaps more curious or different destination, I feel that there is something beyond the cliché that France. I need to experience the atmosphere of France that lives in my imagination. 

My principal motivations to travel to France is because my favorite writers wrote while living in France. Poets like Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Verlaine and Ducasse. I need to know what is in France, what is so dark in France that such beautiful creations happened, referring especially to poetry.

In addition, I think France have interesting place that I have always wanted to visit and now a list:

Notredame Cathedral

I´m a really big fan of the architecture of the temples and specially the gothic architecture in general, I love stained glass windows and gargoyles. It is definitely a place that I need to visit before I die and go up to the top, I don't know if the reconstruction of Notredame will be finished, nor is it that I plan to go to France next week so it doesn't matter much. When things happen and I go to France Notredame will be my first stop. I'm going to parachute out of the plane and I'm going to land right on one of those gargoyles.

Louvre Museum 

It is an obvious destination for anyone who visits France, for me too. I would like to see the sculptures and paintings of some of the most influential artists, I don't know what else to add. I would like to know all the museums and visit all historical places. I´m a nerd but I´m free.

The Cliffs of Etrétat

I would like to visit this place, looks so nice and is represented in paintings by Monet so many times. And that he had captivated Maupassant (marzipan for friends).

I love the natural places, if I go to France one day, I want to see the beaches, the french Alps, the forests, etc. I would also like to know the smaller or not so touristic cities.

 

The Catacombs of Paris

I wasn't in Paris if I didn't go to the catacombs that simple, what the Eiffel Tower and what does it matter to me? I want to enter the catacombs in the dark and feel like I'm going down to the underworld when in reality I'm going up again towards the exit. I don't know if it's true, but it is said that they are designed in a certain way that you feel that you are going down more and more when in fact it reaches a certain point of depth and then you start going up again.

There are more places that I would like to visit, as you can see, I have studied the destinations that I would like to visit a lot, you never know when you may have a stroke of luck and have the opportunity to see so many places that are out there in the distance and that would be delicious . 

I believe that to really get to know a place one must live there, if I have the opportunity to do so, I would like to live for a while in France as well as in any other country that I visit. A culture is not really understood through the museums and tourist sites declared world heritage sites, the culture of a place is known in it's streets, in it's habitants, in it's daily life. That is the most important thing about traveling, letting yourself go for the life that is breathed in that place to be one more, to find the belonging everywhere.

If I visit France one day,  I would like to visit it alone or with people who plan to visit the same places as me. Travel experiences are often subject to the people who accompany you, and you can talk about travel not only in the literal sense of the word. 

The garage, the garage
 u la la sir french 

As much as it costs me to admit my personal culture is very Eurocentric. I do not want to be misunderstood, I definitely do not believe that European culture is superior to any other culture, but it is a fact that my education has always been linked to European culture, an issue that I consider to have been a consequence of my Occidental condition in which I still, as Latinos we continue to admire the cultures of dominant countries as the goal instead of pursuing our own identity.

 It may seem that my speech is contradictory, but, I have very personal reasons for wanting to know France, but it is true that I question myself if I place the same value on the most local culture that has much more to do with me on a historical level, it is interesting to analyze how culture becomes hegemonic in the modern world . The tradition of Occidental Culture has always been Eurocentric and mainly absorbed by cultures belonging to economically dominant countries.

(Rat-Mandrill)

On the other hand, I believe that rejecting the influence of international culture on a personal level in our culture is absurd, we cannot avoid cultural invasion, identity is built from influence, nothing is created out of nothing or is 100% pure. Cultures better than others is a subjective concept. 

In this sense, admiring other cultures and drinking from diverse influences is important to build one's own identity, but more important is that culture itself is a human manifestation and independent of our historical context, we can immerse ourselves in it and perhaps over time become part of it in a respectful way without appropriating it but drinking from it, building and contributing to its enrichment.

 Creating one's own, being one's own is finding that difference, that particular characteristic, that which makes us unique, but more beautiful than finding oneself in individuality, traveling and really making the trip an immersive experience on a cultural level makes us find ourselves in the community.

Even so, I wonder, why not Mexico or Peru?, which have such interesting cultures, and why in France I find more references?

I am in effect, since we are all slaves to the education we receive, we do not deny that education, I appreciate it, but there is also a challenge, our task of seeking roots and most importantly build culture, build identity. Perhaps a trip to a closer country could take me further.

Klau