A COUNTRY I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT

I would like to visit many places in the world, however if I have to chose one I think I would like to visit Egypt. I would like to go there because this country has an amazing culture and history that begins nearly the 10th millennium BC. This long history is reflect on the millions of archaeological remains that are spread in the whole country. Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Today Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East, although the great majority of the population live near the Nile river (the truly heart of this nation), the only place where you can find agricultural land. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most of them spread across the cities of Cairo and Alexandria

As I said, the Nile Valley was home of one of the oldest countries of the world. So Egypt is widely known and famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza. Other famous places are the city of Luxor (that contains numerous ancient artifacts), the Valley of the Kings and the Karnak temple. Other things that are famous in this country are the wall paintings done in the service of the Pharaoçhs (for example Tutankhamen or Ramses II) and their monumental tombs. Egypt is widely regarded as an important nation of Northern Africa and the Middle East.

I would like to do many things in Egypt, but the principal one would be logically visiting all the museums that contain the ancient remains of this country. In the same way, I’d like to visit the great ancient architecture that was developed thousands of years in the past. I also would like to try the Egyptian food that has also a history that goes thousand of years back into the past. Some archaeological excavations have found that the workers that made the pyramid used to eat bread, beer and onions. Nowadays, Egyptian cuisine has as its mainly ingredients legumes and vegetables that came from the crops of the Nile valley (though the cities that are near the coast cook their dishes with fishes and sea food).

I would like to go to Egypt just to know more about the incredible culture and ancient remains that are there, and because I truly think that this country influenced in several ways the western culture. Although, if somebody invites me to work in Egypt in something related to physical Anthropology, it would be a dream became true.

My First Term

On the whole I think that the last term was a pretty good one. I said this because in general the classes were interesting, I learned a lot of new knowledges and subjects, and I also had some time to hang out with friends and to spend time on my own. At the beggining it was a little bit difficult to start the term, but once I got into the swing of things it wasn't too hard.

The last term I learned a lot of interesting new subjects because it was the first term of the specialization in Physical Anthropology. Anyway, if I have to choose, there's one subject that I prefered more than the others: Physical Anthropology I. This subject was taught by Rodrigo Retamal who is a Physical Anthropologist with a master degree in Biostatistics. I liked that subject because it was interesting and fun, and because I felt I learn a lot about the basis of osteology and the basic of skeletal identification. Although I don't wanna be a forensic anthropologist or a osteologist, I really liked this subject because it's one of the fundamentals knowledges that every physical anthropologist should know (I learned how to estimate sex, age, stature, etc. through the skeletal examination.

The last term I didn't have many free time, but when I had some of it I enjoy it much as I can. As I said before, I had fun with friends going to bars, parties, pubs, etc. and I also spent some time on my own reading books, sleeping or just resting. In other hand, I had to face some challenges the last term, most of them related with the finals exams of my career. However, at the end everything was fine and I succeeded in my exams.

Well that's all; the last term was fun and interesting and I really hope to continue learning interesting subjects the next term of my career.

My blogging experience

This is my first time writting a blog, and honestly at the begining I thought that this experience was really a waste of time and another "ridiculous english homework". Although, throughout the experience of writting the blog, I started to like it . Sometimes it was little bit boring, but the most of those situations occured when I was tired and stressed because the University duties. But when I had enough time to write what I wanted, I truly enjoyed it (I really think that what I'm saying is easily seen through the increasing extension of my posts; sometimes I wrote more than the necessary ; ) ). The only thing that I' didn't like, was to wrote about myself every time, it's very selfish and self-centered. That's hard for me and I can't stand that!, because I've never used to write about myself every week before.

I believe that this experience helps me to improve my english, and specially my writting skills. I've never written in english so much as now, so I really think that writting a blog is very good way to practice your english habilities, mostly the ones related to writting as I said before. In other hand I think that blogging in the English class (I mean specifically at english classes) is one of disadvantages of this method, because I really believe that we could work in our blogs at home (and the corrections could be send by e-mail), so we could have more hours to practice another english habilities such as talking or listening at the classes. However, I still think that writting a blog is an excelent way to practice your english-writting skills.

My ideal Job

My ideal job would be working at a University or research center related to bioanthropological investigation. I would like to investigate about our origins as a natural species, and about our biological current diversity, actually I aspired to investigate the genetic bases and history of human present diversity. Although, it's a too big goal, so I'd to focus my job in America. More especifically, I'd like to answer a difficult question -: When, how, and who came to America before the european arrived (more exactly conquest)?. I'd also like to compare the answer with results from other countries, regions, continents, etc.

I'm very interested in studying people (and past inhabitans of our continent) using anthropological genetic methods, because the genetic information of these persons may provide us new insights in order to understand the migrations patterns that occured thousand years ago, and to increase our understanding about the H. sapiens history. More specific questions that I'd like to answer are-: who were the first humans that arrived to america?, how was South America colonized?, was there a different population group with distinct physical traits that didn't give rise to present day amerindian populations?, etc.

To get a job as the one I wish, I'll study a lot and I obviouslyneed to get first a Phd in biological anthropology or human genetics . So I have to get many technical skills related to genetic investigation (specially in populations genetics and ancient dna methods). I'm not worry about that, because I believe that my career would give me the basic skills, knowledges and habilities to apply with good qualifications to a post-graduate program.

I think I'd be good at a job with the characteristics that I said, because I really love the things that I want to investigate, I have some kind of obsesion to know the origins of people and animals. I also love cultural and natural history and biology, so I think I won't have any difficulties to learn that subjects. Finally, I think I'd would good at this job because I'm a very perseverant person (specially in the things that I like), and because I love the main subject of my research: America.

The speech of Ken Robinson

After the I heard the speech of Ken Robinson, I thought for some minutes about some things he said. I really agree with him in some ways and I also found interestings (and sometimes funny) his ideas and thoughts. As he said, I also believe that the current educational system is wrong, because the main objective of this system is to produce people trained principally in the areas or subjects that are usefull for the economic system, who is one of the responsibles of the present educational systems ; it's a vicious circle because the economic system affects the educational one, who is the responsible for educate people and because this systems is heavily influence by the economics forces and interests, it trains people to produce and consume more and more, in order to keep the hegemonic political and economic system; to preserve the status quo. So, this tends to generate marked inequality between the careers, works, etc. that aren't useful directly to the system (arts, literature, phylosophy, social sciences, etc.), and the careers more related to it, such as economics, businnes, managment, etc who're best paid and looking by the public opinion.
I also agree with him, when he talked about the current situation of the education. It's very different than some decades before. Nowdays, it's very difficult to get a job, and a degree isn't a job insurance anymore. Because if that, today you have to study more years. Moreover, because a lot of people don't have the money to study, they have to ask for some loans. So they can't study what they want because the same rules that are working in the economic system are leading the educational one, so it's almost esential to study a well-paid career, to get a good job, in order to pay the loan that you have because you wanted to study, to have a better life, to buy a big car, etc etc. It's a terrible no-end story... and I' dont wanna participate of it...

Future

It's hard to think about future when you're taking the finals exams of the term (the only the thing that you want, is to survive and then to rest). Anyway, if I have to write about my future just playing, there are some things that I would like to be doing...

In the future, i would like to be studing in a graduate school a master or a Phd. I really like my career, so for me it would be a truly pleasure to study more about the issues that I found interesting and to do the research that I want. I would like to do this post-graduate study in Europe (preferably in the UK or Germany) rather than other places, because I think that the education is great there, and because there a lot of countries in a very small continent and the travel services are very good, so you can travel a lot and meet different persons and cultures. Personally talking, I imagine myself living alone, but having fun with friends. I don't wanna be married soon... or ever so if i have a romantic relationship, it would be something relaxed and to spend great times.

In conclusion, I just want to be studing abroad a post-graduate study in biological anthropology (I hope get a scholarship), and living alone and traveling a lot. I don't want to many things; I don't want a big car (Actually I prefer bikes), or a big house. I had never imagine myself being a rich business guy, worried just for money... I prefer to be just a more a quiet guy, doing what he likes and living in an simple way of life. My ambitions are more academic: I want to be good in my job, and to do excellent and interesting researchs.

The best in my area

In my opinion there are several biological anthropologists that could be the best in their specific research areas. In the investigation of Ancient DNA, i'm sure that the best one is Svante Pääbo. He didn't study anthropology, but his research and investigation focus are bioanthropological issues or are related to this field.

He was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1955. He studied many things at the Uppsala University such as History of Science, Egyptology and Russian. But at the the end, he decided to study medicine at the same University. He earned his PhD from 1986, and then he did post-doctoral studies in the Zürich University (Switzerland) and in Berkeley (USA). Since 1997, he has been director of the Department of Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany). This institute is one of the top ones in the bioanthropological research in the whole world. He had received several Prizes in his career, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (the highest honour awarded for a researcher in Germany). In 2007, Pääbo was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of the year.

I think he's the best in his area, because he was one of the pioneers in using and creating Ancient DNA methods ( He began his run of discoveries in 1985 when he isolated DNA from a 2,400 years old egyptian mummy). He developed methods for the retrieval of DNA sequences from archaeological and paleontological remains. More specifically, he has been continuously improving the criteria necessary to support the authenticity of DNA sequences retrieved from ancient specimens.

He used the same techniques that he developed, to elucidate the evolutionary history of humans, hominids and pleistocene mammmals. For example, he and his team are studying DNA sequences from Neanderthals, ground sloths and cave bears . In a collaborative project with other laboratories, he used techniques to the reconstruction of the Neanderthal genome (one of the greatest works in bionathropology ever!)

He had also compare DNA from human, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans in order to understand our similarities and differences, and to gain a better understanding of the origin of H. sapiens and our closest relatives. In August 2002, Pääbo's department published findings about the "language gene" (FOXP2), that has been found damaged in persons with language disabilities.

I really admire Pääbo because many reasons; he's the best in his area, he developed several new methods, he found amazing new discoveries, and every year he published a lot of papers, works and investigations that helps us to understand the origins of our species, and to get insight what means to be human.