North Korea ☆

Today's assignment is very difficult for me because there are so many interesting countries: the UK, Norway, Iceland, Australia, Austria, Germany, India, France, the Netherlands, etc. If we were living 40 years ago, I would have chose the USSR, but, as it doesn't exist anymore, I'm going to choose North Korea.

I'm not choosing this country because I like it's political system, in fact I don't agree with it at all, but I think it makes the country a very interesting place to visit. It is the most secretive country in the world, with every aspect of life controlled by the government. Not much is known about human rights inside the country, but many people who fled from there told horrible stories about prison camps and stuff like that. People there believe anything the State tells them, they're told to hate the North Americans since they're children. Its system's style is a deformed soviet socialism, everything is State owned and personal liberties are nonexistent. I don't think State owned property is bad (in fact I think it's a good idea if it's well managed), my problem with the system is its lack of liberty, because I don't think socialism can be built by oppressing the people.

I can't really say that there are "nice" things about North Korea, because everything that can be seen as good according to our standards has some really bad characteristics. For example, housing is free, but quality varies a lot. Education is also free, but people do not control what they are teached, the State chooses what to teach and what to not. It has the world's biggest stadium, Rungrado May Day Stadium, where they organize massive yearly competitions, and people from every part of the world can go to see them. It is a very nice and artistic presentation, and apart from seeing everyday life and investigate about the society I would like to go to see those games. 

I would not like to stay and live there, because of obvious reasons (also I don't think they'd let me). I think it's a very interesting place to explore, and I would like to learn the truth about it, because the government says something and the capitalist countries say other things and I can't really believe any of them.

Cheers!

(Korean Peninsula at night)

Some stuff about my first term

Last class we had to write about ourselves, and I told you that I'm currently studying Sociology at Universidad de Chile. Today I'm supposed to write about my first semester, so...

Sociology... It's very difficult to describe what this is all about, I can't even explain it clearly to my friends so I'm not going to write and essay about it, I'll only talk about my experience. I usually say that I didn't learn a lot about the different subjects we had (Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, History and Methodology), but last Saturday, at I party with my friends I realized that in fact I did learn a little bit about some stuff. We were talking about politics and the social consequences of the dictatorship that ruled our country with an iron fist -Pinochet was friends with Margaret Thatcher... just saying-, so later I remembered some of the things I said and I was really happy with some of the things I said, because it meant I truly learned something. 

Apart from the compulsory classes I took an artistic subject, Creative Writing, where we had to write (obviously) some stuff according to the contents we were studying (poetry, figures of speech, etc.). I really liked that class, but I failed it because I didn't have enough attendance (it wasn't mainly because I was irresponsible, it was because I miscalculated the amount of classes I was allowed to not attend). I also was in the Sociology Student Center (I'm still there), and I had a lot to do, so at the end of the semester I was very tired.

I didn't have a lot of problems with university, I had more personal issues and I'm still not over them, but I try not to pay attention to them. About my life outside the university, I'd like to tell you about my cats, because my mother took home a very pretty estranged female kitty, Princesa. She was very shy at first but now she is a lot more happy and extroverted. Well, she came with a little surprise. At my house, she had 4 kittens, and one of them stayed with us, her name is Julieta. Watching them grow up was a very beautiful and fun experience, and they brought happiness and troubles to my home. 

I think all of this is a little bit too long, so now I'm going to close this window and hope you read the thing I wrote, cheers!

PS: Here, have a happy picture! :D