Learning a new language

About the subject, I have never liked to write blogs, my personal experience with them is not very good but mostly is because I don’t find any utility doing it.

I find the English taught at the university at the same level as the one that I saw in high school sometimes, in our case, at least, it is unnecesary to have different English subjects, especially because after the first years comes other harder, most time demanding subjects. I think that it would be a lot better to have a more thecnical English level,  for a scientist career like ours. Speaking about my english level , I think I must the imporve the use of verbal time, but I think I didn't make it in this semester.

Outside the English class, generally I don't practice it very much, sometimes I watch series or movies in this language, some with subtitles and others without thme, just to have a little practice time, but I don't use English in average day. However, in some subjects, I have to read papers in English and sincerely speaking, the level taugh in the university has not been useful shorcomings, wich I will have to solve by myself, learning new words that were not includednor used in all the semesters in wich I had an English class.

I understand that this subjects is a product of the curricular innovation carried at the university level,but it should consider the requirements of each faculty to cover them and avoiding problems, like in the lecture of scientific papers, wich are very important for us in our career and even after in postgraduate studies. 

Changes to my study programme 

Since I entered the university, I always been a critical person about the Chilean educational system. In chemistry and pharmacy, I hoped to find with something completely different, in particular about the curriculum (as I just entered when the new curricular program started)
Regarding my estudy programme, i would change the number of subject per semester, eliminating some seminars; sadly, over the week we have so many things to do that we need to sacrifice some subjects, witch i don't agree. The academic workload is too high, especially in the test's weeks, in which the teachers still do controls and graded seminars as usual, so at the end it’s worse for us.
About the study length, I don't complain, I find it appropiate and normal compared to similar careers. I like my faculty a lot, but the available space is smaller every time and it can't hold so much people; for example, in the test's weeks everyone wants a quiet place to study or table for lunch so you need to arrive early in the morning to secure some place or you will end eating on the floor. 
The use of technology in m,y faculty is common for advanced subjects, however buying the equipmentfor certain techniques is usually expensive, so we almost have no opportunity to operate them properly and learning how to use them.
The teaching methods are variable for each subject and teacher, there are more pedagogic teachers than others, for example the ones of microbiology. They teach the subject in a manner everyone can understand.
all this reasons don't let me see a technological advance in the science area in a long time.

My opinion

What is your opinion about buying instead of adopting pet? what is your opinion about having an exotic pet at home?
In my opinion, I completely disagree selling and buying pets. Here in Chile is too common that the houses with pets doesn’t follow the legal or even minimum requirements so adults and baby animals can live in optimal conditions. Besides, there’s a lot of abandoned animals in the streets, which can be adopted without much trouble.

Even if I strongly agree for a responsible animal adoption (and not the sale of them), I don’t agree about having exotic or non-domestic animals as pets, such as mice, exotic birds, snakes, etc. Those animals belong to their habitats, and living in a house, they will not be taken care properly and even die. But, sometimes, those animals cannot live in their original habitats, and in those rare cases I agree that some people adopt them.

What is your opinion about recycling?
And speaking about habitats, I think recycling is a good idea but here in Chile there is still a lot to do, in recycling policies, monetary penalties for wrong use of ecologic containers and recycled products. For example, when we recycle in those garbage cans placed in public parks and squares, we know that the waste is dumped according to their type (plastic, paper, glass or aluminum cans), but we don’t know when are collected and how are they managed after.

What is your opinion about the legalization of abortion in the 3 cases?

In an unrelated topic, some time ago I oppose abortion in any cases, but growing up I realized that there are different social realities, girls getting pregnant at age 12 or 13, girls that didn’t received any sexual education (unlike my school, in which it was taught since basic levels). After that, I now agree with abortion beyond the three causes, and anyone who wanted to do one should be legally allowed.

CARTOONS, ANIMES TO TV SERIES 

Currently I’m not watching any cartoon or anime, but when I was a little kid, I loved Detective School Q (in Japanese Tantei Gakuen Q) an anime about a group of students from Dan Detective School and their adventures and mysteries they had to solve in each episode. I remember that after school I turned on the TV and waited to be aired in Cartoon Network. I was a big fan, and I even learned the different openings it had.

Besides that, cartoons or anime never played a big role in my life, I watched a few and then I start doing something else. Also, I never read any comic nor manga, those never interested me and did not play any part of my childhood. I preferred to go outside and play with my friends. My university friends don’t like neither comics nor manga, we have other interests (and a lot to study) so we don’t speak about it.

We never watch TV with my family. I don’t live with them so when I go to their apartment, we do anything but watch TV, like eat dinner or even drink some beers and pisco sour. But with my boyfriend is different, we love the Netflix Marvel series (Daredevil, Punisher, Iron Fist – we love you Danny Rand!) and we spend entire days watching them. I’m waiting the holidays, so we can watch the new Daredevil season.

Post graduate studies

Regarding a postgraduate course, the truth is that I don't want to take one, I just to earn my degree in chemistry  and pharmacy and go work to the south, far away from Santiago. In the remote possibility that I wanted to take a postgraduate course, it would be hard for me to choose because, since I'm not interested, I don't have much knowledge about that or the area I could work with.

I know about the most common of the programs imparted by our faculty, which is the PhD in pharmacology. I know that is hard to get in and obtaining the degree, and that it takes a lot of time and dedication, but sincerely I have spent so much time studying (between bachelor program and my current undergraduate career) that I’m not interested in taking more time in my process as student. Also, I know several PhD students in different programs (chemistry, pharmacology and pharmaceutic sciences in the University of Chile), and most of them took too much time to finish their thesis.

If in any moment of my life I would be interested in taking a postgraduate program, it would be in southern Chile, and I would try to choose a program that allows me to work and study, something like a part-time MBA or even an online degree.

My new job

Since I was a kid I always wanted to join the Chilean investigation police, or PDI. But I don’t want to be a street detective, I want to work there as a scientific officer. That’s why I am studying chemistry and pharmacy; having this degree will allow me to enter more easily.

I think the work there as a scientist is almost exclusively at indoors, as the field work is done by other detectives and other experts. I don’t think it will allow me to travel neither, and I’m fine with this. I fear travel in airplanes! I also think the work there is hard and tired, as there are not many pharmacists in the police. For what I hear the pay is good, not very high but with the benefits of being a public employee.

Another field that I like is clinical work. It’s pretty much like the previous work: it’s indoors, not many travels, and a lot of work as there aren’t many pharmacists there. But the salary is better.

For both jobs I need the professional’s degree in pharmacy. I don’t want to take a major because I got it when I finish all my subjects up to fourth year, but I will probably need a specialization. 

Giving pills directly to the cell: nanocapsules and nanoencasulaption

As a future pharmacist, one topic that I always wondered was how can be the pharmacological activity more efficient. A typical drug would be first ingested by the patient and then it would be absorbed by the body; the drug then would travel across the entire system until arriving to where is needed. Because of this, a lot of the drug is lost in the trip, which will require a higher concentration that can lead to adverse effects.

One thing I learned in first year (in Introduction to Chemistry and Pharmacy) was about nanocapsules, which are literally a small pill, so small (down to 10^-9 meters) they are invisible to the eye. Those capsules, formed by the active principle surrounded by encapsulating agents (proteins, polymers, lipids or inorganic materials), can be designed to work with specific tissues, which implies a lot of improvements over traditional drug delivery: it needs lower concentration (as it not lost over the rest of the system), better stabilization, longer release times and even making possible cell membrane penetration, a critical step in the development of genetic medicine.

The technique to produce these capsules is known as nanoencapsulation, and it can also be useful for drugs that are effective but taste and smells awfully. I choose this topic because I think this would be the next big step in pharmacy, as the possibilities are limitless: they can be used against cancer (delivering powerful drugs without the side effects of chemotherapy), but they need more research and development to be more used in the real world.