Argentinian Educational System

Ok, this blog is doing amazing. Clearly nerdfighters are made of awesome. I'm going to try to explain briefly how the argentinian educational system works.

At the age of 3, you enter to the jardin de infantes, which is the equivalent of your kindergarten. After that, at the age of 6, you start the primaria, which takes 7 years and gives you the more basic tools for life. Then you have to decide in which kind of secundaria you want to study. There 3 types: Bachiller (general education), Perito Mercantil (specialized in economy and accounting) and Industrial (engineering). The secundaria is 5 years long.

At the age of 18, you’re able to apply for University. First you have a year of a introductory course called CBC (Ciclo Básico Común) in which you have to approve 6 signatures related to your branch of studies. Then is when you enter to the proper career.

The Universidad is divided in Facultades, each one of this specialized in a field. Each career has a different duration and system. On each career you can get three degrees, in an order of progressive importance: Licenciatura, Master and Doctorado.

Now I’m going to start speaking about the Facultad de Medicina (Medicine) in particular, the career is 7 years, after the 4^th year you start your practice at the hospitals. After that you are consider a General Doctor, then you can do a residence, in which you choose your specialization, each one has a different length. Most are between 4 and 6 years.

Education in Argentina is public, as in Austria, but with the difference that the foreigner who want to study in this country have to pay a quota. I’m in favor of free education, because I consider that being able to study is a right (as health), not a privilege. I think that everybody must be capable of studying, it doesn’t matter what is his economical or social position, which makes a more equitable society and allows social mobility.

That was my short explanation of the argentinian educational system and a little bit of my opinion on certain issues.  I’m looking forward for your articles.

Best Wishes!

Lucas

Bare Necessities (Lucas' Introduction)

"Hola, muchachos". I answer to the name Lucas, I'm 20 years old and I'm from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
 You know that large country close to Chile, the one with the miners trapped. I'm currently studying
Medicine at the University of Buenos Aires but I'm thinking of changing to Biology (to specialize myself
in Biotechnoly). I love science in general (biology and chemistry in particular). So i knew that
i needed to study something related with living creatures and i always found human anatomy amazing, i remember going to the morgue of the hospital with my uncle (who is a physician) and watching each organ, It was awesome. My problem is that i'm a person who is always interested in EVERYTHING, I think that every career is amazing; luckily, some more than others.
Taking up the issue, I've been reading a lot about bio-tech advances lately and I'm too excited about it.
Also I checked the Biology's program and It's moresuitable for my plans, not because it's easier, because
it's better organized... medicine has a lot of burocratic issue (annual courses, correlativities between
them) and I really want to start working this year, I need to finance some travel plans. On the other hand,
I'm going to miss the anatomy class and touching corpses (Yeah, Creepy guy FTW!)

Things that i like... I truly deeply love traveling. Last summer(Your winter, yeah! I'm talking to you, north hemisphere people),
 I was in the USA (East coast: NYC, Miami,Orlando, Philadelphia and Boston) and the summer before I did a student exchange
in France, after that i backpack through a part of Europe (England, Italy, Holland, Spain, Germany). Well, I don't know why I'm
telling you this, but the point is that i love the freedom and the excitation of knowing new places. My plan for next year is
traveling to either Australia or Canada. And also, i love learning languages.

Hobbies... well, I like to read a lot. I haven't read a John Green's book yet (I know I'm a failure as a nerdfighter, they aren't
published in my country but I ordered Papertowns and TFiOS on Amazon, so I'm going to read those soon). My favourite authors are
Douglas Adams, Jane Austen, Herman Melville, José Saramago, John Steinbeck, Osvaldo Soriano... It's so difficult to choose favourite things...
I'm also a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes stories and Arthurian Mitology (The Vulgate Cycle is an incredible way to see the medieval way of thinking)
And also I have a great affection for Harry Potter because I grew up reading those books, but i'm not into the fan circuit (on the other hand, one
of the "few" things i buy at USA was an replica of Sirius Black's Wound, F-YEAH!).
I love watching movies too, favourite directors... It's probably a tie between Wong Kar-wai, John Ford and Takeshi Kitano. I'm also particulary interested in animation films and classic horror movies.
Favourites Bands: If I have too choose a few... Belle and Sebastian, Jamie T, Streetlight Manifesto, The Rural Alberta Advantage, 65daysofstatic and Rancid.
Shows i like/d: Grey's Anatomy, Misfits, Sherlock, Doctor Who, Star Trek (every series, Benjamin Sisko fan), American Horror Story, Gilmore Girls, Everwood,
The Office and probably a few more i can't remember in this particular moment.
Also I enjoy reading graphic novels (and sometimes comic books but when they have a recopilatory volume), Football (yeah, FOOTBALL, not soccer:P)and time
to time playing some magic the gathering with my highschool friends.


Things i dislike: I can't remember anything i truly dislike in this moment... I don't know what's happening to me right now... I'm in carebear mode?!


And probably that's all i can write for now.

Best Wishes!

Lucas

PS: It's my first post in any blog and my english vocabulary is pretty lame. So let me know if you notice any mistake.
PS2: I noticed that I didn't speak a lot about my academic situation but it's because I'm going through a confusing situation, I promise more information in the future.

PS3: I'm too lazy to take a photo of myself in this moment, next time it will be one. So I put a picture of my favourite animated character, yes i'm that childish... so what.

Sarah 101

Hello guys, nice to meet everybody!

My name is Sarah, I am 21 years old and was born, live and study in Innsbruck, Austria. No, we don't have kangaroos here and you would be surprised how often people ask me this. Mozart, Freud, mountains, people who lock their children in basements? That's us.
I'm studying medicine in my 5th semester, but actually the semester ends on Tuesday, so let's already say 6th. Vacation, yay!
I have a sister who just started studying medicine too, but in Vienna. My parents are both judges and hope that at least one of us would study law, so they were very disappointed that we are both becoming doctors. I also have a cat called Mischa (I know it's a guy's name, but she's female. She is named after Hannibal Lecter's sister Mischa in Hannibal Rising), who is a big hunter and managed to bring home animals of ten different species. She's also very aggressive and very cute (deadly combination).

So why am I studying medicine? That's a difficult question with an easy answer: I did not have a plan B. When I was 16, we went with school to some "Day of the Brain" event in university and we listed to some lectures and could hold brains and I thought: that's cool, that's what I want to do later. I never really found any other field that would interest me as much as medicine does. In order to study medicine here you have to pass an entrance exam (2500 applicants for 400 places), I passed on the first try and so the situation was quite clear. Now, if I could not study medicine anymore, I would probably study shipbuilding. I can't really explain why, but I love ships.

I want to become a neurosurgeon - I knew that already before I started university and I knew it before Grey's Anatomy. My parents want me to look into other fields too, but the more I see of other specialties, the more I'm sure that neurosurgery is the way to go. I definitely want to become a surgeon of any kind, I loved the dissection course we had, I like anatomy and the brain just fascinated me. A lot. I did a four week long internship at the Neurosurgical Department of the hospital in Vienna and I had such a great time there. I loved finally learning something practical, not all the boring stuff like biochemistry that we learn in university. I was also able to attend a microsurgery course and I love suturing, especially with teeny tiny threads and instruments (the thread is thinner than a hair and the needle is only a few millimeters long).

I am traveling a lot, unfortunately so far only inside Europe. My boyfriend lives in Poland, so I'm spending a lot of time there and he is a journalist for ski jumping, so if I have time I accompany him to competitions. I like the north of Europe a lot, I love Finland (contrary to common prejudice, I find Finnish people very kind and helpful. Hi, Mia!) and Norway, in fact, I'm applying for an Erasmus spot for a semester abroad in Oslo at the moment.
My dream is to go to New York City soon and I'm hoping to fly there in April for a short vacation.

I like to read, of course, but I'm having troubles finding time and attention to read because I spend most time in front of my computer. The last book I read was The Fault In Our Stars, which is one of the most beautiful and heart-breaking books I have ever read and I always find it difficult to read any other book after reading something so great. By the way, I have an unsigned copy of TFiOS because Amazon DE had a big screw up and apparently employ people who can't read and calculate how many preorders they will need.
And TV shows. If you already think you watch too many shows, what should I say then? I am watching (in no order whatsoever): How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy (or as I like to call it: How Not To Be A Doctor), Sherlock BBC, Bones, Dexter, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Community, New Girl, 2 Broke Girls. I watch Doctor Who from time to time, but I got stuck in season 4 and I can't really bring myself to watch it on a regular level. It's a great show, but for me it's hard to watch it one episode after another like I do with other shows.

Things I dislike: fangirling over Youtube persons (especially Charlie - I know he is cute and funny, but he is also just a person and in my opinion a tiny bit overrated. I find Alex Day funnier and Eddplant the better singer. That's it.), people who always have to say something even if they don't know anything, fishing for pity, vegetables.

And some random facts about me: I'm messy, but everything needs to have a system. I'm very meticulous, for example everything that I write that is related to each other has to be written with the same pen and I sort my socks by color. And I love nail polish, the more colorful, the better.

That's it for now, I'm really looking forward to read more of your blog post, you all seem like such interesting people and I can't wait to get to know you more!

DFTBA,
Sarah