Beasts of No Nation: Child Soldiers in Africa

This Here on Earth program deals with the topic of child soldiers. Ann Strainchamp’s guests are Uzodinma Iweala, a 24-year-old Harvard graduate who wrote a novel about child soldiers, and Joe Bakker, children’s right advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, an independent organization that conducts investigations concerning human right’s abuses.

In the beginning of the radio show Uzodinma Iweala explains why he decided to write his book. Aged 16 he came home from school one day and read an article about child soldiers in Sierra Leone in Newsweek magazine. He was really disturbed after reading it because he realised that these children were about his age and that all this happened in an area he knew very well since his parents came from there. The young boy cared about the topic too much to just dismiss it, so he did some research, talked to many former child soldiers and the result of all this is a book that got a lot of praise by the media. Writing the book was very important for him because he felt that a novel telling a specific, personal story will open more eyes and touch more people than all the statistics.

Nobody knows how many child soldiers are really out there fighting in armed conflicts all over the world but it is estimated that there are about 300 000, between the ages eight and sixteen. These children are coerced into being soldiers either because they are forced by the people who abduct them or by situations like hunger, lack of education or lack of work. Once they are with the troop they will be fighting with they are made addicted, for two reasons. Firstly when they are addicted to drugs or alcohol they can’t run away any longer because they need the substance they are addicted to and can only get it if they stay with their troop. And secondly they kill more readily when they are under the influence of a specific substance. One very cruel method is treating the children with gun powder, either they force them to eat it or press it into open wounds to make it enter their bloodstream more quickly. With this method, they make their soldiers more aggressive and less fearful.
Unfortunately it is very easy for the commanders to make their future soldiers amenable. Another fact they take advantage of is that children aged eight or nine can easily be influenced. This is the age at which children form their values and if they’re told often enough that killing is right, they will believe it and never think of the consequences of their actions.
Not all of the little soldiers really have to fight, some of them die before they get the “chance” to do so. Very often they are used as shields, human mine detectors or suicide bombers because children attract less attention.

Fortunately some of those kids who got deprived of their innocence and childhood manage to flee or are rescued. But even then, they are confronted with a lot of problems. Many former child soldiers who are rescued don’t get any help because people think that they are lost and that humanity left them. Of course, this is true with some of them, but this is a very small percentage. The mental state they are in depends on how strong they are and on how much evil they have seen and committed. Still, those children need to get help and need to get a lot of support. They have to be given the chance to participate in rehabilitation programs in order to make it possible for them to be reintegrated into society. Many communities in Africa offer reconciliation ceremonies, others expect their returned children to do community service, help the families of their victims etc. Many children feel a lot of guilt and have nightmares, and if they feel like that, it is especially important for them to feel acceptance. Of course they killed people and caused a lot of harm, but they were victims themselves: They didn’t have any choice, either they killed or they were killed.

Most people in the industrialized world seem to feel a subtle indifference to what is happening in Africa. From time to time, we read about child soldiers in the newspapers. But this heartbreaking method of fighting wars only seldom appears on the news because journalists look for the news of the day. The sad truth is that sending children into wars happens every day, and not only in Africa.

Ne paruski?

Yesterday, I read an interesting article in the Kleine Zeitung, written by Alexander Widner for his column "Letters from New York". In the article, he talks about his experiences with American Russians.

First of all, Widner describes the residential neighbourhood Sheepshead Bay in southern Brooklyn where the common language is Russian instead of English and the cyrillic alphabet is as common as the latin one. If somebody asks you a question in Russian and you don't understand it people will be astonished. Ne paruski? That's what you're asked if you don't know Russian there.

Sheepshead Bay is a Russian settlement area. The last spate of immigrants arrived in the 90's, predominantly Russian Jews and many many old people. They are no longer dreaming of starting a new life, they don't think about the American Dream. Welfare check, free housing, food from the Kosher Food Network of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. No life in luxury but still they emmigrated? Why?

"It's no life in affluence but it's secure. And it hasn't always been. I wanted, at least once in my life, live unmolested, without all this anti-Semitic crap that is still alive in Russia."

That's what a 70 year old woman said, in very broken English. She lives in the ghetto and can't leave it. Not because she's forced to stay but because she couldn't communicate and cope with the life outside Little Odessa.

A young man joins the conversation of Alexander Widner and the old lady. He says that he had actually planned to stay in Vienna but got abused because of his skullcap after three days. That's when he realised that he had to continue his journey. He says that there's no big distance between being abused and being beaten up and so he went to the USA. His family stayed in Vienna. They now have a big house, a lot of money and an enterprise that works out really well. But that's not what he wanted. He only wanted to live as a Jew, in peace.
He now can live his life in peace with a wife, two children and a job. It is very important to him that English is the first language for his children and Russian only the second one because he wants to make a life outside Little Odessa possible for them.

By the way: Just arround the corner there are two adjacent buildings: A mosque and a Jewish school. "No, there have never been incidents due to the coexistence. Why should there be?" says Esther, a teacher at the Jewish school.

Yes... Why should there be?

High School at Home - A different path

Today, I read an interesting Newsweek article that I will briefly summarize. After that, I will write what I think about homeschooling.

In the United States, more and more parents prefer to educate their teenagers at home. In 2001, more than a million students in the USA were being home schooled, which means that there has been an increase of 29% in two years. But it is not only the parents who are increasingly attracted by it, there are also many teenagers who don’t like going to school but don’t want to drop out either and who therefore suggest home schooling to their parents.

Opinions on the topic vary since just like with everything there are advantages and disadvantages.

Critics argue that an important part of teenager’s social life takes place in the school they attend and that they learn for life there. In school, they have to learn how to cope with many different people and they learn a lot concerning social interaction. In their opinion, homeschooled children can easily bet isolated and have a hard time making friends.
Another point of critique for opponents is that teenagers, when being homeschooled, miss out on formative events like the prom or graduation.

Supporters argue that being homeschooled makes the life of teenagers a lot easier. At home, they are save from the violence in schools that is constantly increasing, and peer pressure can be avoided more easily as well. They also have a clear refutation to the isolation argument: Isolation is not a question of homeschooling but a question of parenting. Advocates argue that the majority of parents do get out with their kids and do a lot with them.
Prom and graduation is also no valuable argument in their eyes. They don’t miss out on that because homeschooling groups organise such events as well by inviting the whole community, awarding diplomas and holding speeches.

In my opinion, homeschooling really is not a good thing to do. I strongly think that the teenagers miss out on a lot of experiences that they would have if they were in a normal high school. Of course, school is annoying for every student, but the social component definitely has to be considered. In high school, I met many of my present-day best friends and I often think back to the time there. All those school trips are really something I wouldn’t like to miss, and although I complained a lot about school, I loved going there. On graduation day, I was really sad that school was over!
Another point I am a bit worried about is the standard of education. Of course, the different states have regulations concerning homeschooling, but who is able to control what the children are actually being taught? Evolutionist parents will never tell their children about Darwin, and so the children won’t have the chance to make their own opinion on the topic. And that’s what I consider very problematic. Parents only teach what they want their children to know, and thereby they could be deprived of a lot of knowledge.

On the other hand, I think that homeschooling is a good opportunity for children or teenagers that are bullied in school and just can’t stand that any longer.

Still I think that homeschooling shouldn’t be chosen as an easy way out because homeschooled children will lack a lot of experience and beautiful memories later on.

Washington D.C. to Belgrad

It was really hard to find a useful blog from somebody who left for Bosnia, Serbia or Croatia. The few that I could find were not really informative, but after all I found one. It is a closed blog because the writer went back to the US again, but still I liked it.

Well, the blog was written by Brooke, a woman who accompanied her husband (who is not Serbian but American too) to Belgrad, Serbia because he was offered a job there. When she moved there, she had no idea about what to expect. She and her friends didn't even know that there was a place called Serbia, all they knew was that there was the Bosnian War, because that was all she read and heard in the news.

She experienced two great years in Serbia and there's a lot she loves about the country.

Reading the blog gives you a very good understanding of the Serbian culture, and you can also learn a lot about the US because she does a lot of comparisons. Still she never says America is better, or Serbia is better, she loves both countries and in each country there are things that she's worried about.

There are many anti-Bush posts which shows that she is very worried about her homecountry. She encourages people to vote and puts bumper stickers saying "Blind faith in bad leadership is not patriotism" or "Pro America, Anti Bush" online.

Aditionally, she very well describes what life in Serbia is like. She talks about food and the Serbian obsession for fish soup, the attitude towards women (nobody could understand why the couple left Serbia because the woman got a job in the US, the problem with the streets (many bumpholes), the many smokers, how cheap everything (except gas), no drinkable tap water etc. I
n her eyes, people in Serbia are generally friendly but she says that basically people are the same everywhere. There are assholes and there are kind and helpful people, and you'll meet members of each breed everywhere.

What especially liked are her descriptions of the problems she had with the language since I have to struggle with the strange grammar of BKS every day. And there are many posts describing her problems with the cyrillic alphabet. She was not able to read a street sign nor could she read what groceries she actually bought.


What I liked about the blog is that her posts really vary a lot. Some of them are really funny while others are very philosophic. Sometimes she praises Serbia, sometimes she is really annoyed.

Actually, there is so much information in the blog that I can't tell you about it all. But if you're interested in the culture of Serbia or in the language, I can only recommend the blog.

My poor brain...

I just realized that my poor brain has to be overwrought (good joke, isn't it) or something like that...
I finished reading Under the Tuscan Sun two or three weeks ago (I can't even remember when, aaaaaaaaaaaaah) and was sure that I wrote an entry about it... But I didn't! Hallucinations? Probably...

Well, my short conclusion is: I liked the book. I mean after reading JWI, I guess I would have loved ANY book, but I think I would have liked it even if I hadn't had such a traumatic book experience before...
I've never been a person dreaming of leaving her homecountry and moving to a new place and more or less building up a new existence. But the book made me dream of that...
In my eyes, what makes a book a goog book is that it makes you feel as if you were there. And this really was the case. When Frances Mayes described how she walked through the house and loved every room and just enjoyed it I could imagine what this must be like. And when she wrote about Italian piazzas and restaurants, I felt the strong desire to have a coffee and to eat something (very very bad, maybe I should blame Francis Mayles for what the mean little boy did to me).

On the other hand, I have to admit that sometimes she exaggerated her descpritions. The way she describes Italian life and Italian mentality is great, but there are so many descriptions of ways she likes to walk along with exact details about the churches and trees and stones and dust particles are too much... Or at least, that's too much for ME.

And if I liked cooking I would also try some of her receipes... But I'll try to find someone to cook for me since all that really sounded like I HAVE to eat it.

Well, that's it I guess... My brain needs some rest, who knows what will happen next if it doesn't get the ease it needs?

Expat Interview with Thomas

Finally, here it is: My interview with Thomas who left the UK for Germany.

When did you go to Germany, and why?

I came to Germany in September 2000, having been offered work by a company after graduating university.

What do you like about living in Germany, and what was easier or better in your home country?

The central location in Europe makes travelling easy, for work (e.g. Turin = 1 hr flight) and private (London = 1 hr flight, Alicante = 2 hr flight, snowboarding in France = 7 hours drive), weather – in this region – is relatively mild, the city where I live is clean and respectable, I don’t feel insecure when I am out or travelling, and some of the autobahns have no speed limit!!!

If you had to compare Germany and Great Britain: What would you say is similar in both countries and what is different?

Both countries have strong markets, but in the UK I feel I have more shopping choice and better customer service – especially face to face… People in both countries are generally respectful and responsible, but I find in Germany some people take this too the extreme of almost believing they are police officers… Both countries have a fairly welcoming approach to foreigners, though making friends seems to take a long time here in German. I find the UK has a quicker updating and more extensive choice of entertainment – food, music, film, festival etc.
Germany has maybe a greater number of local and traditional festivals which provide a look into local culture and history……….both countries have product culture and strong brand awareness, but only in Germany can you can buy a fast car and drive it (legally) fast too !! ……. Bank branches open on Saturdays and most shops on Sundays in the UK.
There is also a big difference between single life (like mine) and say becoming part of the bigger system by having a family here which means even more to learn and do – single life is generally easier anywhere.

Also don’t forget the UK has always been an island, and Germany always a mainland state so this also has a large influence on historic and cultural and behavioural patterns


What about learning the local language? Do you think it is important to learn it, and do you need it in your workplace? HOW did you learn German?

I already speak English and Spanish and have an interest in languages so for me it’s important to make an effort to learn a local language. Personally I do not need so much at the workplace as I work for a Japanese company…but I have some German work colleagues…….My first German words I learnt from my first girlfriend here (she was a little lazy in using her English to help me understand, so I had to try and make the effort to understand more of her), the rest has built up over almost 7 years from reading and listening and copying and trying and pestering colleagues!! But being bilingual from the start makes a big difference to the ease of learning another language, if anything because you realise quicker the links that exist between European languages.


Were there any difficulties you had to face when you moved to Germany? (insurance, bank account, work permit etc.)
ns
There was no need for a work permit – already an EU citizen, residence was easy to apply for as was a bank account, but sorting out private healthcare, insurance for car etc and finding a place to live all required help because I spoke no German at all when I arrived here


If you had to choose again: Would you go to Germany again?

I am reasonably happy living here In Germany, so probably I would choose again –though it must be said my main reason for coming here was due the job being here, and not going specifically to Germany to look for work

Are you homesick sometimes? Do you miss anything particular?

Yes I can get a little homesick– I get frustrated not understanding the people or the language here at times, I have some good friends I miss, I miss the wider choice of events, and the shopping in general (especially opening hours), and many things are simply easier to understand because I know it from my own background or I have family or contacts I can ask or who can help me directly.


And finally: What advice would you give other expats that are planning to move to Germany?

Advice? Learn the language, try to fit into part of the local life at least, make friends outside your natural habitat (i.e. make sure that your friends are not just your work colleagues), and try to understand the people and country a little to see why they are not a carbon copy of your last life

Another weekend at home :)

Yes... I spent another weekend at home... It's not because I miss my mum or dad or brother or anybody else... What I missed was soccer... Yes, I'm ashamed... But at least I'm honest ;)

Again, the weekend wasn't too relaxing... I had to prepare my presentation, translate a text for my second language and did a lot of research for my superinteresting, thrilling essay about George B. Shaw.
I also did a little research on why so many people like jogging. Eleven o'clock, I'm walking around sleepily, whom do I meet? My uncle, jogging. Two o'clock, I'm awake, whom do I meet? My cousin, jogging. So I started wondering whether I'm a bit strange, went home, got my beautiful, new, pink running shoes and got started. Everything was ok and I started to think about liking jogging. But then it started to rain. I was in the middle of the wood, no chance to escape, so I more or less sprinted home. This had the effect that my knee hurt, I was completely wet and my new shoes were no longer pink... Will I go jogging again? Probably not. Or maybe I will if I have another traumatic experience like the one I had last friday. I'm sitting on a bench, thinking of nothing bad, watching a soccer game with my brother. A little boy, maximum 6 years old, comes over and asks my brother whether the girl next to him was his sister. My brother said yes, and the little pest replied "Well, my sister is more beautiful than yours is because my sister isn't FAT."
A very very cute boy, isn't he? I guess that's what happens if you let a six year old run arround on the soccer pitch without looking after him...
But a friend of mine reassured me by saying that REAL men don't like skinny women ;)

Well, I guess that was it for my reporting on the last weekend... I just wanted to write a bit (since I know I'm quite weak at that) and wanted to tell you what mean, little boys are out there waiting...

See how informal and casual Americans really are!

We've all heard a lot about American casuality and informaltiy, haven't we? We've heard that they love to use first names soon after having met a person, that they feel uncomfortable with the titles Mr. and Ms., and we've heard that American casuality can also be seen in the way US citizens dress. In Mr. Kohls' text about the 13 values it says that in America you're very likely to meet people dressed in blue jeans if you go to a symphony performance. But some Americans seem to feel that this is not casual enough ;)

See what happened in Nürnberg, Germany. A 41 year old American wandered through the pedestrian area of the city. You wonder what's strange about that? Well, he was naked. Of course, people felt annoyed by that and called the police who told the man to put his clothes on (he had them with him in a bag) and then took him to a police station for an interrogation. The permissive man claimed he didn't know that this was illegal in Germany and that he just wanted to know what it feels like to walk through a town naked.

Police tested him for drugs and alcohol, both tests were negative.

The tourist had to pay a fine and will now be sued because of indecent behavior.

The End of Chinglish

Have you any idea what a disabled elevator is? Or a racist park? A door that may not be used in peace time? A deformed man toilet?

No? Great. This means that your English is much better than those of many Chinese. The expressions I mentioned above are not made up, they are used in China. Or, were used, because all of them will be changed due to the Olympic games.

So, let us solve the mistery: a disabled elevator, of course, is an elevator for disabled people.

A deformed man toilet is a toilet for disabled people.

A door that may not be used in peace time is................................. an emergency exit. Great, isn't it?

And the racist park will be renamed into Park of Ethnic Minorities, which will erase a lot of misconceptions...

Culture Shock

Today, I had another look at the first progress test, in order to get some kind of idea what today's questions will be like, or maybe Charmed-like, a vision of the future...

But nothing happend, bad luck Birgit!

But at least I thought about the Culture Shock topic again, remembered an article I once read and here you are, the five stages of Culture Shock!

The first stage is called Honeymoon. You arrive in a new country, everything is new and you are very excited about everything.

Soon after that stage of enthusiasm follows stage two: Rejection. You get used to things and realize that you will have to live and work in this place from now on. You recognize many differences to your home country and they really start annoying you. Troubles add up and you develop hostility towards your host country.

This leads to the third step called Regression: You start to withdraw, start to avoid the local people, and as a consequence, they’ll start avoiding you as well.

After that, things start to get easier again, in a stage called Acceptance: You realise that no way of living is better or worse, but that they are just different, and you start to develop affection for your new home.

Subsequently, you enter the stage of Re-entry. You realise that you have to go home again. And returning isn’t easy either because things change, there is also some kind of re-entry shock.

In the end, the author concludes that you can’t prevent culture-shock from happening, but that you can shorten the process by realizing that you neither have to reject your own, nor the new culture.

The hassle of learning new words...

At the moment (just like all my fellow students) I am having a hard time sitting down and memorizing the JWI glossary.
My main problem when it comes to new words is my weaker self, this mean inner voice that keeps asking me: Will you ever hear these words again? Will you ever use them?
And the answer simply is yes. Whenever I read Under the Tuscan Sun (which I'll soon be finished with), I come across a word from the glossary. This really helps me memorizing them, the more sentences with the word I read, the easier I make the word mine. The thing is: I have to see the word in context, and I have to hear it. Finding sentences is as easy as pie thanks to the many monolingual dictionaries that offer an explanation plus a sentence in which it is used.
But hearing it... My way of learning new words is repeating the explanation and the sample sentence again and again. This has the effect that my flatmates are sometimes very concerned about my mental health when I'm alone in my room, repeating the same thing again and again. But it works, and they think I'm crazy anyway, so there's really nothing to lose for me....

JWI Chapter 8 Summary

Since there is no summary of chapter 8 available in our Yahoo group, I decided to write one.

In Chapter 8, it's the first day of school for the Monagan kids. At first, DM is very relieved because he realises that because of school uniforms, there won't be any battles in the morning over what to wear.
But of course, he starts to worry. Will the kids be able to cope with Ireland's academic strictness, religiosity and the fierce attention to basics? He had looked at nine different schools before he chose to send his boys to the Christian Brothers College, a very prestigious private school.
DM describes the first day of school in Ireland as a "bizarre testament to the creativity of the Celtic spirit". Parents hand-deliver their children to school and cause a complete chaos on the streets by parking their cars everywhere because they want to embrace their offspring a last time. But unlike America, the people here don't get nervous or agressive because of the traffic jam that blocks the entire city, and for DM, this is a sign that Ireland has not tossed aside its implacable patience and forbearance.

When Jamie and David enter the school, they are in a way shocked. They expect one of those welcoming first-day-of-school-speeches (which is very common in America), but all they hear is a whistle which more or less tells the parents to leave now. Harris looks like he doesn't want to stay, and Jamie is a bit angry with DM because he chose that school.

Laura's first day at school is a lot less worrying. Laura immediately makes friends with a girl from England and doesn't even look back at her parents. This time, it doesn't need a whistle to make the two of them go away, they realise that their little girl is no longer their little girl.

There is also a lot of culture in this chapter. DM points out some differences between the Irish and the American School system.
Furthermore, one can learn a bit about the conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants in Ireland.

The Globalization of English

On the weekend, I read a long but interesting article about the adavance of English and the effects it has on the language itself. I summed it up to hand it in, and I thought to myself: Why not put it in the blog? Why do the work twice? ;)
So here you are :)

At the moment, a global revolution is taking place in which more people than ever are learning English. This is because it has become the planet’s language for commerce, technology and also empowerment.

According to a recent report from the British Council, two billion people will be studying English and three billion people will speak it in ten years. Linguistically speaking, it is a totally new world. At the moment, there are more non-native speakers of English than there are native speakers; the ratio is 3:1. For the first time, there is a language that is being spoken by more people as a second language than as a first. In Asia, there are 350 million English-users, and this number equals the added-up populations of the USA, Great Britain and Canada. There are more Chinese children studying English than there are Britons. All these new English-speakers are not only using the language, they are also shaping it. The terms Japlish (mixture of Japanese and English) and Hinglish (mixture of Hindi and English) refer to new varieties of English that came into being all over the world. In South-Africa, many blacks have adopted their own version of English including many indigenous words.
Of course, all languages are work in progress but the globalization of English is a process the world has never seen before, a change whose effects we can only imagine. Experts talk about a future tri-English world in which speakers of English will speak a local dialect at home, a national variety at work, school or university and some kind of international Standard English to talk to foreigners. Since among the millions of English-speakers around the world there are relatively few native speakers, it is likely that students won’t learn Standard English but will be encouraged to embrace their own local versions. This can already be seen now: International pilots pronounce the number three as tree in radio dispatches, since tree is more widely comprehensible. It is very likely that in future, teachers will not only not correct pronunciation mistakes, but also mistakes like she look and a book who.

As a consequence of English’s advance, governments all over the world are pushing the language. Although many countries are not very fond of the it (i.e. France), they have realised that English, along with computers and mass migration, is the turbine engine of globalization. It is the language of business. If you want to have a good, well-paid job, you have to have a good command of the English language. That’s why English language schools are packed with men and women in their mid-twenties eager to learn English. Additionally, learners of English are getting younger and younger. Last year, schools in big Chinese cities began offering English in the third grade rather than middle school, and many parents send their preschoolers to English courses. Because of the English boom, schools are becoming more and more creative. Last year, South Korea built an English village on a small island with a fake bank and airport. There, students must conduct all transactions in English. The aim of this camp is to train capable global citizens who can promote South Korea all over the world.

Since English has become so important, it is no longer only a language. English is a business, and the traditional custodians earn a lot of money with “their” language. There is an amazing demand for English native speakers, and because demand exceeds offer, China and the Middle East turn to India for English teachers. English is being advertised like a product. Just like with every other product, there are more and less serious suppliers, and price and quality can vary.

But no matter where you learn it, and how much you pay for it: You have to learn it if you want to keep up.

And we do, since we knew all that before ;)

Two approaches to illegal immigration

Saturday, rain, nothing on the TV, so why not use the time and do some reading? I started with Under the Tuscan Sun, and I like it better with every page. What I like most is the fact that I don't have to have a dictionary next to me all the time, which happened to be the case when reading JWI. BUT: I fell asleep... Frances Mayes' talking about the Italian siesta led to my personal siesta...

So when I woke up, face on the book, book and face crinkled, I decided to try something else. Next stop: Here on Earth. I listened to a radio show about language and class which was really interesting, and at first, I wanted to write about it in my blog. But since there are a lot of dialects to listen to, it wouldn't have made sense, so just listen to it yourself. But I have to warn you, you might get jealous. One of Jean Feraca's guest is able to speak 26 ( in words: twenty-six) languages fluently!!!!!!

The second program I listened to was called "Why the world loves soccer and we don't". But to my disappointment, Jean Feraca wasn't able to solve this mistery...

So I decided to turn to reading again, I read a few articles, and I want to tell you about one I found quite interesting. A Newsweek article titled

Two approaches to illegal immigration

In the article, 2 communties and two ways of facing the influx of illegal immigrants.

In suburban New York, everything is done to get rid of them. Suffolk County Police have orders to bear down on illegal workers by targeting their employers with traffic fines (no, this is NOT a joke). A Suffolk County Executive is of the opinion that all labor laws have to be enforced, but since this is not enough (in his eyes), new laws will be introduced as well. One of these new laws will require employers with county business to prove all workers are legal. Workers who are there illegaly will be arrested immediately, and federal officers will be stationed there to deport arrested illegal aliens.

New Haven, Connecticut, does just the opposite. The City Hall sponsors tax filing centers where no questions are asked concerning who is there legally. Many say that New Haven is becoming a so called sanctuary city because it wants to help undocumented residents get city services or bank accounts by introducing a municipal ID card. The mayor of the city says that it is important to engage everyone who lives in the community positively, that "New Haven's goal is to be a safe, civil place where people are able to fulfill their ambitions".

I don't want to comment on this since this is a very diverse topic and this issue is definitely a hard one for politics all over the world.

A long weekend at home :)

What actually sounds relaxing, unwinding and restorative was just the opposite.

On Thursday, it was my brother's birthday meaning that the whole family was united and got on my nerves. Luckily, I arrived from Graz at four o'clock so I didn't have to be with them too long. On Friday, he had a birthday party with all his pubescent friends, which, for me, wasn't very enjoyable either since I had to wash the dishes, make sure that they have enough to drink and try to prevent them from doing something stupid (believe me, these boys know how to be a pain in the neck... The boy on the picture is my brother, and although he looks cute, he really IS NOT).
But I got the chance to eat lots and lots of my favourite cake which happens to be my brother's favourite cake as well, so there was a positive thing as well...

On Saturday, of course, I went to see the KAC's game. Another bad day for my nerves since we lost... There I also met my former football coach who is from Scotland and had a little chat with him. I also had the chance to talk to a friend of my fathers who is from Great Britain and now lives in Austria.
So you see, football is no waste of time: I can practice my English there :)
And considering the nationality of most of our players, I could also practice my Croatian, but somehow I prefer speaking to them in German and let them struggle with the language ;) Lazy, lazy Birgit...

On Monday I met the coaches of the team from Bolton who will arrive on Pentecost. Together we planned what to do with the boys when they won't be on the soccerpitch. Along with them, there was a guy from Liverpool, and believe me: I couldn't understand a word of what he was saying. This accent is terrible! So instead of me translating, it was me who needed a translator. But after some translating I realised that it was better for me not to understand the Liverpudlian, since his ideas were really strange and his expectations couldn't have been met anyway.

So you see, speaking didn't get a raw deal.

Of course, I also continued reading Under the Tusan Sun, and I'm not sure whether I like it or not. I hate her pagelong descriptions of how she cleans walls and frees them from ivy... But still, I catch myself drifting apart into daydreams of a beautiful house in the heart of Italy... Somehow this book catches me...
And one thing is definitely true: I like it much, much, much, much, much, much better than JWI. But I guess I would like any book better...

Should schools conduct random drug tests?

Last week the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy announced that it will be holding four meetings to decide whether there will be random student drug testing in public middle and high-schools. This program has already been introduced in nearly 1000 schools and requires students to do a drug-test if they wish to participate in competitive extracurricular activities like athletics.
Schools have been doing it voluntarily since the 1990’s, but when the Supreme Court stepped in it became more formalized. Once grants from the Department of Education were available, guidelines were developed.

How then does the whole procedure work?
First, a child is chosen at random and asked to go to the nurse’s office where it has to deposit a urine sample. This sample is then tested for cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy and steroids. If students test positive, the school will remove them from their extracurricular activities for the rest of the year, and sometimes even for the rest of their school career. Some schools provide counselling, but this always depends on the school’s financial situation.

Of course, opinions on this topic differ.
Proponents like to talk about one statistic in particular. The U.S. military has been doing such tests for 20 years, and the results are phenomenal. In the beginning, 27% of the tested were positive, and in the course of less than a decade there has been a steep decline. Now, only 1.5 % of the tested are positive, and this number has been steady for years.
Opponents are not sure about the moral correctness of applying a military program to school children. Soldiers are very different from high-school students and therefore should also be treated differently. Critics back up their argument with a statistic as well. Researchers compared 94 000 students in 900 schools with and without drug-testing programs. The result? There was no difference in drug-abuse among students from the two sets of schools.
Another argument against such programs is the message that is being delivered to the young people. Shouldn’t we believe them when they tell us that they don’t do drugs rather than test them? Many have concerns that testing can weaken the relationships, widen the generation-gap, hinder open communication and stop students from participating in extracurricular activities. This last point is especially problematic, since these activities help students to feel integrated and connected.
Finally, there is the question of privacy. Does random drug-testing violate the student’s rights to privacy? In this case, the proponents are the ones with the stronger argument. Of course, privacy is very important for adolescents. But if children are doing something illegal that can harm them, the more important value has be to protect them.
And that’s what opponents and proponents agree on.

Eurofuturecup 2007

Today, my last years boss called me and asked me whether I wanted to work at the Eurofuturecup again. This is a soccer-tournament in which teams from whole Europe take part. Last year, there were teams from Germany(Bayer Leverkusen), France(Lille), Croatia(Dynamo Zagreb), Italy(AS Roma), England(Liverpool and Bolton), the Netherlands... Of course I agreed, for various reasons. First of all because of the lovely boys. Last year, I was with a team from Bolton, and the boys were great. They were so well-mannered, I couldn't believe it! I've never seen 8 or 9 year old boys with such good manners... And furthermore, they were just sooooooo cute!

My job basically was to help them whenever there were problems, especially when there were language-barriers. Although there were a lot of other problems as well, i.e. when the bus left without the boys, or when there was no food prepared for them...

So I accompanied them to the soccer-pitch, I stayed with them at their hotel, I went on excursions with them... Excursions with the boys were always great. When we drove to Italy, we drove through the Kanaltal, and the boys were so astonished by all those mountains that they asked me if one of them was Mount Everest. Cute, isn't it?

Of course, spending the whole day with kids can be quite exhausting, especially at their age. It was their first time away from home, so you had to keep them active the entire day if you wanted to prevent them from getting homesick.

The first day was really hard, the boys didn't know me, and everything was very new to them, they had had a long, long day (their flight had been delayed and there was a traffic-jam on their way from Italy to Carinthia), and many of them cried because of their first night without parents.

But on the second day, things got a lot better and I loved being with them. They asked lots and lots of questions, and the coaches of the team were great as well. I had the feeling that they really appreciated my work.

When the boys went back home, they gave me presents, picked flowers for me... I'm really looking forward to seeing them again :)

But I have to say that I was really lucky because I worked with this team... Other teams weren't as enjoyably to work with...

Another reason for working there again is, of course, the possibilty to practice my English.

And last but not least: I love soccer, and I love being on the soccer-pitch, so a job on this location is perfect for me ;)

And I love children... I love the way they take things so easy... They couldn't speak another language but their mothertongue, and still managed to communicate with boys from the other teams...

I'm really looking forward to it :)

Creationism: A Museum for Middle America

Believe it or not, but in late May, a Creation Museum will open its gates in Petersburg, Kentucky. The project was brought into being by Ken Ham, a former high-school biology and zoology teacher who felt he wouldn't be consistent if he taught evolution while believing in the literal truth of the Bible. So one he and his students visited a natural-history museum in which evolution was presented as a fact, he came up with the plan of opening a Creation Museum.

Creationists believe in the Garden of Eden, they think that the world is 6000 years old, that God created man and animals simultaneously and that the flood wiped out every living creature that wasn't inside Noah's ark.
The museum focuses on Genesis, the first book of the Bible and actually offers a lot to see. There is a special effects theater ( when the flood comes, seats start to shake and water squirts around), the story of the Bible is told through videos, voice-overs, models and mural paintings, there is a gargantuan replica of Noah's Ark and even a planetarium. The costs? $26 million...

Jason Lisle, who is in charge of the planetarium, has a very interesting point of view: "Science comes out of a Biblical worldview. We don't try to prove the Bible from outside evidence. We accept the Bible as presupposition."

Ham often asks evolutionists how they can gain knowledge from the past if they hadn't been there, and if people ask him the same question, he answers: "Man by himself couldn't have written such a consistent, non-contradictory book."

The museum expects 250 000 visitors in the first year, and if we consider that last year a poll found out that 58% of the interviewed support the idea of teaching creationism along with evolution in schools, this is likely to happen.

Guess Who!

Inspired by yesterdays article about interracial marriage, I decided to watch a movie about this topic as well.

The movie was called "Guess Who" and it was hilarious. My flatmates will probably consider me crazy since I was laughing all the time although I was alone in my room, but do I care? Not really...

The storyline can easily be summarized: Theresa (Zoe Saldana) and Simon (Ashton Kutcher) want to announce their engagement and therefor visit Theresa's parents. The only problem: Theresa is black and didn't tell her family that her boyfriend is white, and this little detail really upsets her father. Of course, he is against this relationship, and tries to manipulate it. When Percy, Theresa's father, finds out that Simon quit his job and didn't tell Theresa, Percy tells Theresa who is very upset and wants to break the engagement.

In short: A lot of turbulences and a happy end after all.

It's a nice movie, in no way demanding, but it offers many good laughs, and of course: Ashton Kutcher is always worth watching a movie ;)

Interracial Marriage in the USA

Today, I read a quite interesting Newsweek article about interracial marriages in the USA.

June 12th: Loving vs. Virginia. Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred, his black wife, got married in 1958, in Washington D.C. BUT: In Virginia there was a statute barring whites from marrying non-whites ( maybe this finally is a politically correct word ;)). So on June 12th, the Supreme Court ruled that Virginia couldn't criminalize this marriage, the statute was knocked down, and with it many similar statutes in other US States.

And what once seemed so radical is commonplace now. Nice to hear, isn't it?

According to the census bureau, there were 65 000 interracial marriages in 1970, and the number amounted to 422 000 in 2005. In 2005 there were 59 million married couples, 7% of them interracial.

The result of this tendency, and the fact that immigrants from all over the world are coming to America, is a 21st century America that is more diverse than ever.

“The racial divide in the U.S. is a fundamental divide. ... but when you have the ’other’ in your own family, it’s hard to think of them as ’other’ anymore. We see a blurring of the old lines, and that has to be a good thing, because the lines were artificial in the first place.”

Sounds great, doesn't it? But of course, there will always be people who are against such relationships...

What I considered rather shocking was the fact that a university in South Carolina didn't drop it's ban on interracial dating until the year 2000. Can you imagine that? How can anybody expect today's young people to be open-minded and tolerant if things like that happen in universities???

Not shocked enough? Well, I've got something else for you! When Alabama wanted to remove it's ban on interracial marriage in 2001, 40% of the people were against it.

Considering all this, it's no wonder that multiracial families are often confronted with problems, if not to say hate. Taunts, crossburnings and threats happen from time to time, not too often. The problems biracial families are having are more nuanced. Kids that are being asked what they are doing here, black adults that can hardly find any white friends. And sadly enough, not even the families accept the decision of their, lets say kids, to marry somebody from another race. And it's not only the whites that don't accept a black person in their families, it also happend vice versa.

Lets face the facts: Racism is, and always will be, a big issue in a meltingpot like the USA, and also everywhere else.

But it's good to know that there are people who face the challenge and just do what their hearts tell them :)

Oh I'm such a romantic soul... :)

"It was almost impossible to believe, and too much to bear."

January 1979:
Brenda Spencer, 17, is given a rifle as a present for christmas, goes to school and starts shooting around. 15 injured, 2 dead.
Why? She said she didn't like Mondays...

March 1987:
Nathan Ferris, 12, kills a boy who was making fun of him and kills himself after that. He told a friend of his not to go to school that day, which shows that he planned to shoot somebody, but nobody tried to prevent it from happening.
Why? He was getting sick of being teased all the time...

November 1995:
Jamie Rouse, 17, goes to school and shoots two teachers in the head. He tries to kill his football coach as well, but a female student crossed his path and was shot instead. Really shocking: He smiled when he was aiming at the coach. Even more shocking: He told his friends about each detail of his cruel plan, but again, nobody acted.

February 1996:
Barry Loukaitis, 14, dresses up like a gunslinger from the Wild West, goes to school, and shoots three people. He even took hostages, and he was one of the few who didn't kill himself, he didn't have the chance to because a teacher rushed in and put an end to the whole, terrible scenario.
Why? Mood swings... And a classmates of his claimed that Barry Loukaitis thought it would be FUN...

February 1997:
Evan Ramsey, 16, kills a student and the headmaster. He also talked to his friends about the plans, but did they care? No.
Why? He couldn't stand being teased any longer...

October 1997:
Luke Woodham, who admired Adolf Hitler, first stabbed his mother, then went to school where he shot his former girlfriend and another girl, wounded seven other stundents. When he wanted to get his second gun, he could be disarmed.
Why? "I killed because people like me are mistreated every day. I did this to show society: Push us and we will push back."

March 1998:
Two boys, aged 11 and 13, gun down 15 people; five die. One of the boys set off the firealarm, and when the people left the school and were outside, the boys began to shoot.

These are just a few examples of violence in American schools, because people tend to only talk about the Columbine shooting, but this proves that this by far wasn't the only shooting and for sure won't be the last when things don't start to change immediately.
Today I had a look at various American newspapers, looked at the headlines, read a few articles about Mondays shooting at the Virginia tech. The sad outcome: 33 dead, 15 injured. The most terrible shooting in the history of the USA.
One can't even imagine what it must have been like to hear the shots, not to know whether he will get you as well, not to know what he will do next, not to know why the shooter does such a terrible thing.

I did a little research on shootings in American schools, and I realised that many, many of these murders happened because kids or teenagers were teased and bullied in school and couldn't stand it any longer.
A year ago, I also read a book on this topic, "Give a boy a gun" by Todd Strasser. It was shocking to read, because you realise that things like this just happen. They could actually happen any time.

A question comes to my mind: Why doesn't this happen in Austria? What is so different here? In my opinion it's the gun policies, but as we all know, Americans love their guns, even when things like this happen. But would could you expect? Even president Bush defends the gun policies. Guns don't kill people, people do. True, definitely true. But if all those kids had no guns, there wouldn't be so many dead, and that's a fact.

I would like to finish with two quotes from people who were at the Virginia Tech when the shooting took place, or who had friends there.

"It's one of those senseless things that yoz can't explain, why someone would do that."

"It was clear when we were leaving that there were a lot of people hurt or killed."

And I think to myself: What a wonderful world...

First and most important: The KAC won on Saturday, so my world is alright again :)

Furthermore, I finally finished reading Jaywalking with the Irish. What is really interesting about this book is that it bored me from the very beginning on, but got interesting on the last hundred pages...

I also finished my speech for the proseminar (French Tradition, it can't get more boring).

Considering all those achievements and the wonderful sunshine I've been waiting for such a long time, I have to say that I'm living in a beautiful world :)

Sports can be so cruel...

No... I didn't do any sports myself. I can't, I ate too much of Easters ham and can hardly move. But I went to see a soccer game of my fathers team, the FC KAC. I played there myself, my brother still plays there, my father is the coach of one of the many teams there, I've got a lovely ex-boyfriend there, my uncle used to play for the KAC a long time... So you can see, this is MY team ;) My entire family is somehow involved... My mother tried to distance herself from soccer, but what should I say? Soccer got her like it got the rest of the family.

Well, I went to see this game. It was the first (us), against the penultimate (a small team not worth mentioning ;) ). And guess what? WE LOST. And I mean, we really lost. 0:1. It's not the result that hurts, it's the way we played... Terrible. And what is even more terrible than todays defeat : One of our best players got the red card for a reeeeeeeeally cool foul, so we'll miss him in the next match...That's why I have to say that soccer is a really cruel sport. But still I love it ;)
And I always will ;)
I'm like the woman singing the amazing song "Er steht im Tor, im Tor, im Tor und ich dahinter"
No matter the season, the weather, come hell or high water: I'll be there ;)

My personal Easter resumee

I survived all of Easters family-gatherings, some were really nice, some were ok, and some... I'll try to forget them ;) Don't misunderstand me, I love each of my family members (or at least most of them) but it's hardly possible to bear all of them in one room and not go completely crazy among them. Especially if you're Birgit, the only girl in our family not married or in a relationship... They probably think that I'm the crazy one, but believe me, it's them who are off their rocker...

I also survived the Easter Fire, and I really would love to tell you about it, but I don't remember too much... All I know is that we had so much fun, I met so many people whom I haven't seen for a year or more, it was really great, and that's all I need to know ;) But i needed entire Sunday plus part of today to recover, but it was really worth it ;)

Today, my cousin and I decided to watch a movie, but: What movie? He's really into action movies, and since I was still really tired, I wanted to see a movie full of beautiful people, romance, fun etc.
No good basis, is it?
So we realised we need a new approach:
I love, no, I adore Brad Pitt.
My cousin loves, no, adores Angelina Jolie.
So what other movie could we choose but Mr. and Mrs. Smith???
Granted, the storyline wasn't too good, but Brad and Angelina really compensated this, and when Adam Brody turned up as well, I definitely fell for the movie. It tells the story of John and Jane who meet, fall in love and get married. In the beginning they seem to lead a rather normal life, but the truth is that they both are professional killers, but they both don't know about the second lives of their partner. At least they don't know about it until John's task is to kill Jane, and Jane's task is to kill John.
From there on, it's a lot of shooting around and lots of black humour, but still: I like the movie, although I'm really not into action movies (unless Vin Diesel is in them). But I liked the role Angelina Jolie plays, this strong, down-and-dirty woman who lives two lives at the same time and furthermore is more than attractive.
Altogether: It's good entertainment, and offers a lot to see for both sexes ;)

I know why the caged bird sings

As I already mentioned, I started reading the book "I know why the caged bird sings" about two weeks ago. Well, I finished it yesterday and I have to tell you that this book is really amazing.

I know, I wrote about it already, but I'll have to repeat some things now ;)
The book is about a small black girl called Marguerite, or Maya, who lives with her brother Bailey and her grandmother whom they call Momma because their parents sent them away at the age of 3(Maya) and 4(Bailey). The children like living with Momma, a very religious old lady owning a store, which allows them to live a better life. One day, Mayas father turns up unexpectedly and takes her and Bailey to St. Louis where they live with their mother and her new boyfriend. He rapes Maya, and this "event" is just one of many who turns the young girl into a totally different person. Maya, who used to be a talkative, inquiring girl starts to withdraw from other people, even from Bailey who seems to be her only friend. She doesn't dare talk about what happened, but her mother still finds out, and shortly after that, her rapist is murdered, probably by her mothers familiy.
After that coincidence, Maya and Bailey return to live with Momma again. Back in Stamps, Maya is no longer the young, innocent girl she used to be. She doesn't take things for granted anylonger, she starts to srutinize, and what she realises is that racism is and always will be part of her life. On graduation day, a white speaker who says that black people can be good at sports, but not at academics takes Mayas pride. A dentist for white people refuses to treat her, says that he would rather look into a dogs mouth than into hers.
After a while, Momma sends them away again, to live with their mother once more. For some time, things are pretty great, Maya does well at school, meets a lot of interesting people, and decides to spend the summer with her father. BUt she doesn't get along with his girlfriend, and after a terrible quarrel ending up in a fight, Maya decides to leave and lives in a junkyard for a month, but decides to return home. But problems are waiting there as well. Bailey and her mother don't get along, and he decides to leave home.
Maya tries to find a job, wants to be a streetcar conductor, but black people don't get these kinds of jobs. But Maya keeps trying and finally is hired, decides to return to school after a while.
Wordloving Maya reads some lesbian literature and starts to wonder whether she is lesbian herself. That's why she decides to find a boyfriend, and what she does is walk up to a boy, ask him to have sex with her and, of course, he agrees.
Maya is pregnant, and very afraid. She's afraid of hurting her baby, afraid of not being able to look after it.
But she succeeds:
"Mother whispered: See, you dont have to think about doing the right thing. If you're for the right thing, then you do it without thinking."

The story would be shocking enough in itself, BUT: It's Maya Angelous true story, that's what her childhood was like.

A long way down

Today, I want to tell you about another great book I read three months ago: A long way down by Nick Hornby.

The book tells the story of four different persons that have got nothing in common but the wish to put their lifes to an end. They meet incidentally on New Year's Eve on the top of a builing they all wanted to jump down. The four individuals start talking to each other, mainly because none of them is willing to jump in front of three strangers, make a pact not to commit suicide and meet again on Valentines Day.
So they leave the roof, want to solve the smallest problem, and from there on, you get to know the four characters.
Martin, a talkshow master, is a man whose life has been pretty perfect until he slept with a 15-year old which didn't do his career and his private life any good.
Maureen is a catholic woman in her fourtees who dedicated her entire life to her son who has a severe mental handicap and doesn't notice anything that happens around him and can't respond to anything.
Then there's Jess, a young girl who just thinks that commiting suicide would be quite a rebellion, especially commiting suicide because of a guy when you're a politicians daughter.
And finally there's JJ whose band broke up and who feels that his life has no sense any longer.

So you can see, people couldn't be more different. Still they spend a lot of time together, go on a holiday, try to solve each others problems.

What I really liked about the book is that the story is always told from another perspective. Every situation is described in four different points of view, which makes the book great to read. It's quite confusing in the beginning, but you get used to it.

I really want to recommend this book although there's been a lot of critique. Many people feel that Hornby is playing down the topic of suicide and that he is making fun of people's problems, but form your own opinion :)

Easter Holidays!!!!!! Yippie :)

Since Easter-holidays just started and I’m thinking about the crapulence, that goes along with Easter, all the time, I decided to do a little research on how Americans celebrate Easter and compare the results with what Austrians do on Easter-Saturday and Easter-Sunday.

Austria	USA
Traditionally, Austrians eat lots of ham during Eastertime. Along with it, eggs, horseradish and special Easter-bread are served. Family gatherings are very characteristic for Easter-Saturday and Easter-Sunday as well.	Of course, there is a special meal for Easter, containing ham, unlike Austria. Baked ham, potatoes and vegetables is what American families traditionally eat on Easter-Sunday. Hot cross buns (sweetened cinnamon yeast buns with a cross on them) are a speciality. The meals are eaten on Easter-Sunday when families meet to celebrate together.
Kids love Easter because of the presents and the egg hunt game I’ll talk about lateron.	Apart from getting presents, there’s another feature that makes children like Easter: the egg roll game on the lawn of the White House. TheEgg Roll itself is a race, where children run in parallel lanes, pushing an eggthrough the grass with a long-handled spoon.
Many, many Austrians go to church early in the morning to attend the sunrise services.	Sunrise services are held in the US as well.
Austrian kids love the egg hunting game, they look for painted eggs that the Easter Bunny hid for them in the garden.	Painted Easter-eggs seem to belong to Easter in many places around the world, and so does the Easter egg hunt game. Children believe that the Easter Bunny hid the eggs for them during night.
The Easter Fire is a tradition in Austria. It used to be a religious thing, a fire was lit in front of the church, and people lit their Easter Candles in it, carried it into the dark church. Austrians still do it, but young people use the opportunity to get drunk ;) Often there are large Easter Fires with music and alcohol, commonly on Easter-Saturday.	It is an American tradition to conduct special Easter parades. Men and women dress up in colourful costumes, carryEaster candles, etc.

One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.

Agatha Christie (1890-1976)

This quote summarises everything I read in a shocking Newsweek-article today.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17773294/site/newsweek/

The article is called "The war in the words of the dead" and is part of a series called "Voices of the Fallen" published by Newsweek.
The shocking thing about this article is that it's not about the Iraq-war in general, but about individuals.
The families of those who died in the war work together with Newsweek, allow them to publish letters, e-mails etc.
I only started reading the whole thing, I've only read the introduction, but I found it very touching and moving.
This sad topic also has a language-learning side: Newsweek offers recordings one can listen to and videos one can watch, soldiers talking about life in Iraq.
The series isn't yet finished, more letters and videos will be added, and I think it's really worth a look because it just makes you think. We all have a image in our head, we all think we know what war is like, but the truth is: We don't even have an idea of what it's like, and we really should be glad about that.

I would like to finish with what a soldier said:

"It's a fight of 10 man squads in the dark, of ambushes and snipers and IEDs. When I go out to fight, it's usually with less than 20 men ... And I go out to fight almost every day."

Funny Blog

What a rainy day... Now, that's what I call bad weather...

Therefore I spent most of my day in front of my computer, looking for an interesting blog to read. I finally found a really funny one, it's not an expat-blog, but I love it. It's written by Zach Braff (the funny guy from Scrubs), and his posts really made me laugh. He writes about not winnig a Golden Globe, meeting P. Diddy, all his projects...

So, if you like Scrubs, you will certainly like this blog :)

It's quite easy to read and incredibly funny (can't say it too often ;))

http://www.zachbraff.com/

Enjoy it ;)

Any books to recommend?

Talking about books, I want to ask you something...

If you have any books you can recommend, just leave a comment... There are so many books I want to read and so little time ;) So please, help me make a decision :)

My favourite book

Today I would like to tell you about my favourite book. I don't know the English title and couldn't find it anywhere on the internet, but it's called " Hector et les secrets de l'amour" in French and "Hector und das Geheimnis der Liebe" in German. The author of the book is Francois Lelord, and he wrote many other amazing books as well, i.e. "Hectors Reise oder die Suche nach dem Glück" or "Hector und die Entdeckung der Zeit", but I loved the one about love most (typical for a girl, isn't it ;)).



It's about a psychiatrist whose patients are, in most cases, unhappy because of love. To little love, unrequited love etc. That's why Hector starts to believe that there are no happy relationships, he wonders why we love who we love, and why love leaves after a while.

One day, a big concern asks Hector to produce a medication that heals people from the sickness of being in love with the help of a professor. But this professor, who already managed to produce such a medication fled because he didn't want anybody to make use of it.



What follows is a long, long journey on which Hector tries to find the professor and realises numerous things. Although the medication could make many people happy, it would also cause a lot of harm. Love would lose it's appeal, it would be totally calculabe, would lose it's fascination.



I don't want to tell you the end, maybe one of you will now want to read the book as well- i can only recommend it. It's such a touching, moving and at the same time real story and conquered my heart in a matter of seconds...

Well, one more thing I need to complain about...

WINTER

I really don't know what happened to yesterdays twenty degree... Waking up today made me feel like someone who turned crazy over night, because I really couldn't believe that there's snow on 19th of March... I tried to not leave my flat throughout the day, which turned out to be a mistake... My flatmates as well as I were extremely upset about the weather, so there were quite some tensions. I guess everyone knows what I'm talking about :)

And then there's this question in my head: Where the hell was all the snow when I wanted it?

Too many parties...

To be honest... I was a bit lazy in the past two weeks... Well, lazy... Too many parties to celebrate, BUT: Things will change from now on. I know that there will be more work to do from now on, so I assume I should rather use my time to study and reduce the amount of parties ;))

That's it for today :))

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
Eleanor Roosevelt

I came across this quote today and didn't want to deprive it of you :)

Furthermore, I started reading a book today. It's called "I know why the caged bird sings" and is written by Maya Angelou. I've only read twenty pages so far, but I quite like her writing style. The book is an autobiographical novel telling the story of a small black girl living in the racist south. Maya and her brother live with their grandmother "Momma" and are often faced with prejudices.






The title of the book derives from a beautiful poem:

"I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,
When he beats his bars and would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings -
I know why the caged bird sings.

Shocking...

I just had a quick glance at Pam Mandels blog, and since I didn't know where to start, I just entered Nazi into the search-box (just like FN suggested it ;)) and chose an article... And guess what it was all about? Carinthia, my beloved province :)) And I was shocked. But was it unexpected? Not really... Entire Austria is making fun of us if we're perfectly honest...



http://www.nerdseyeview.com/blog/?p=245



No need to discuss the road-sign thing, I just wanted to mention it ;)

The Maiden Trip...

Just like Emily, I wasn't lazy today... I was just happy doing nothing ;)

Well, nothing is not the right term, I finally started the blog and had a look around, trying to figure out how the whole thing works.

Ok... What will this blog be about, what will be in it? In short: Everything I do concerning English. I will tell you about books I'm reading, movies I saw, articles that could be of interest to you...

What more can I say? I hope this blog will help you, help me...