Favourite Food Blog

When I was searching  through the Internet for a good food blog, I came across one which is called "bitedelite". It was created by Joanna Siemek who lives in Poland. The blog is in English but there is also an option to switch to the Polish language if you want to. Here is the link in case you want to have a brief glimpse of the blog: http://bitedelite.com 

I really like this particular blog for different reasons:

1.) The whole arrangement of the blog is very eye-catching. The use of bright colours makes reading every recipe very refreshing for the eyes. And apparently, with the colours the creator wanted to indicate that her recipes aren't just ordinary and boring, but lively and fresh. This leads me to the second point.

2.) The recipes in general are all very unique. Joanna tries to abandon doing her recipes the old-fashioned and boring way, in other words, my grandmother’s way of cooking and baking J
J. garnishes every single creation of hers with lovely and innovative decoration. I’m amazed by the fact that she pays so much attention to all the details. Here’s an example: bunny-cupcakes

3.) I'm kind of thankful that she attaches a lot of pictures to her recipes. For a seldom baker like I am it is useful to actually see how every step is being made and how it should look like. When there are no pictures I often do wrong things and the result is far away from "delicious". In the end she always takes pictures from different perspectives so that the reader can admire her creations and probably be motivated to take the cooking spoon and get to work :-)

4.) Joanna does not only post about recipes, but she also gives "Kitchen tips". These are tips which are very useful to improve cooking processes or to preserve food. 

All in all, it is without doubt a very lovely and creative food blog. It seems that she really makes an effort and gives thought to her recipes. I totally recommend trying out some of her recipes :-)

I've recently tried this one out: panna-cotta

I've always wanted to taste a self-made panna cotta and I thought it was a good occasion to do it in connection with the food blog :-)

The only thing I changed was the fruit. I had no pomegranate at home and so I took some strawberries as an alternative. 

I'm a Tubian

You wonder what Tubian actually means? This term was created by Yousef Erakat, who is an Arab living in America. His hobby is to make videos of basically everything in his life :-) So a fouseyTubian is a dedicated fan of his, as I am :-)

1.) FouseyTube
- Here he uploads funny videos dealing mostly with Arab culture.
He runs a video series which is called "Middle Eastern family". He slips into the role of every family member and shows the funny Arab culture. There is baba, mama, his sister, her lover, his grandmother, his uncle - they are all played by him and he does an incredibly good job! He creates so many funny scenes where for example, his parents force him to find a good girl to marry. Additionally he shows how exaggerated his mother is concerning proper clothes or behaviour. It really is worth seeing :-) And I guess everybody can realte to his problems at home :-) And he also covers some cultural prejudices and makes fun of them :-)
2.) FouseyVille
- that's the channel where he uploads videos of his daily life. They are also very humorous. A lot of his friends appear and you really gain an insight into his exciting life!
3.) FouseyFitness
- As he  is on a trip to gain muscles he records himself during his sport activities. I guess that's only interesting for sportive people :-)
He took a brake from filming because he wanted to concentrate more on collage. Only a few weeks ago he made his comeback with a very touching message where he describes how he felt in the time where he had to do life-changing decisions.

Fascinating family

In one of my paragraphs about fascinating people I've written about my host family in Ireland. I'd like you to also know something about this lovely family :-)

It was on my school trip to Ireland a few years ago. The family lived in a residential area named Dún Laoghaire, which was not too far from Dublin. The very first minutes with the lovely mother were really promising as she drove me around and showed me the picturesque parts of the district. We arrived at their house and I was friendly welcomed by the rest of the family members. We got to know each other a little more and I gradually got an insight in their lives and interesting personalities. We mainly talked about the Irish and Bosnian history, which was one of the greatest conversations I have ever had. It was really fascinating to hear each other perspective to the dark history of our countries. We all recognized the connections between our homelands as both of them suffered decades of terror. Despite the fact that the family memebers were very set in their ways, they had very open-minded views to life. And this characteristic impressed me most!

I will definitely go back to Ireland and visit these fascinating people again :-) 

The luck of the Irish (part 3)

In the last part (assumed that I will not come up with another idea) of "The luck of the Irish" I will write about the Murals in Northern Ireland. My goal is one day visiting this place in order to see them in reality. It is such an interesting topic and the historic background makes it even more exciting. As we know already, the Murals are big paintings on buildings which were made by Catholics or Protestants. Both of them tried to express their point of view about different incidents which took place. They often show violence and therfore the government tries step by step to paint them over, which in my opinion is the wrongest thing they could do! Why not just face the bitter truth of the country's history? As a matter of fact, people are really able to learn something about these Murals as they also illustrates real incidents that took place. But generally, Catholics illustrate how they were surpressed and on the other hand, the Protestants glorify Oliver Cromwell and the British invasion in Ireland. 

I've found some youtube videos which show some of these Murals (the first one is a song from "In the name of the father")

Easter Egg in Lord of the Rings

Good morning :-)

As I'm a huge fan of the movie series Lord of the Rings I've done a lot of research about them. I've came across an interview between two cast members, Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Dominic Monaghan (Merry). The last one actually played a trick on Elijah Wood and pretended to be a German journalist. He succeeded to make a fool out of Elijah because they could't see each other, the interview was held via satellit. Elijah, sitting in New York, couldn't imagine being tricked by his friend and this makes the interview so hilarious. Dominic used this oppurtunity and asked him the most stupid questions ever!!!! :D With his German accent and his incorrect English Elijah couldn't believe it was him in the end. Simply great :D Have a look at it!

 

One funny question:
Dominic pointed out that Elijah's hair changed in big photoshoots he did for several magazines (He obviously changed wigs many times)

Dominic: In the photoshoots you do (!!!) with Vogue magazine and Cosmopolitan and Entertainment Weeky Timemagazine your hair changes dramatically from short to long. Do you wear wigs?

Elijah: No I do not.

Dominic: Have you worn wigs?

Elijah: No I have not.

Dominic: Will you were wigs?

Elijah: Maybe.

Dominic: When will you wear wigs?

Elijah: Laughs :D 

 

Hilarious! :D
The name "easter egg" was a project by the Lord of the Rings producers. Only few people were able to "find" this interview or other things which they prepared. But this super funny interview spread and now we are all able to see it :-) 

I can't help but show you more funny videos of the LOTR cast and crew, they really had fun on set and everytime I see these videos I laugh as they make fun of each other :D

 

B.A.N.K.S.Y

Those of you who have visited London have surely seen the murals of the streetartist Bansky!?
As far as I'm concerned, I've never been there and seen them in reality, but when I first saw the pictures in google I was overwhelmed!! Every single mural of him has a deep significance and wants us to think! They often reveal his personal opinions about politics and wants us to be aware how the society "rules" affect our lives. One theme often appears in his art work: Murals which illustrate that we're constantly observed by the government. 

Nobody really knows how Banksy looks like because he obviously wants to be anonymous. In his movie "Exit through the gift shop" (I will not write about it...now! :D) he also doesn't show his face. 

Have a look at some of his murals, they are really meaningful and great! Even so, I often question myself if the things he's illustrating are too exaggerated? Or is it really that way in our society and we simply are not aware of it as it seems normal for us? I can't answer it, but I see what he's trying to tell us and the more I think about it, the more I believe it!
 

See the full gallery on Posterous

He is one of the artists who has done a lot of work on the Israeli West Bank Barrier, you know the wall which seperates Palistianian and Israeli territory (I've already mentioned this in a blog). That's his way to express his feelings about this issue!

See the full gallery on Posterous

There are so many other great murals but I think these above have given you an idea of his art work. :-)

 

13th Amendment - Aaaaaj!

I'm sure you've noticed all these posters of Steven Spielberg's new movie "Lincoln". As the title indicates, the movie is about the 16th president of America Abraham Lincoln, more precisely it is only about his last years of presidency during the American Civil War and it also shows the struggle Lincoln had to go through to pass the 13th Amendment, which meant the abolishment of slavery in the 19th cenutry.                

I will not write about the plot now because I've covered the topic above. It is more important to talk about his major role in establishing a law, which changed the entire America at that time. We have to consider that people at these days couldn't imagine a society where coloured people could vote or do other things except being slaves. If we keep this in mind, it is very beneficial for us to understand the whole situation. So, there was a president with a great vision, to preserve the Union and to give every citizen of America the right to live freely, so he basically wanted to bring out the best in the people of his country. But there were some difficult problems he had to face while being determined to reach his goal. All the Republicans didn't fully agreed with him and the Democrats as well wanted slavery to be kept as it was an economic and crucial help for them. However, the very human Lincoln managed to persuade the people of his idea and finally he reached the vote majority and the 13th Amendment was passed - Aaaaaj!
You wonder why I write Aaaaj? At the elections for the Amendment, the members of the House of Represantatives could either vote  "No" (Naaaaaaaaaj) or "Yes" (Aaaaaaaaaj). 

But the most interesting part of the whole story is the fact that Lincoln had to do some life-changing decisions and sometimes he was caught between what is good for the nation (make peace with the South) and what should be done (abolish slavery). So he basically suffered from moral doubt. And this dilemma is perfectly conveyed in the movie. 

One thing I found out is that Daniel Day-Lewis (plays Lincoln and is the protagonist of my previous blog "In the name of the Father") refused to play this role for 8 years!! Can you imagine that? He didn't want to put himslef under pressure and portray the most beloved president of America, but luckily, in the end he agreed. Day-Lewis adopted the American accent and obviously proved again his excellent ability to play the part of another person so well! 

I guess if you are not well informed about Lincoln and the whole slavery issue of that time, I wouldn't recomment to watch the movie. I myself watched the great movie but sometimes it was really hard to catch up, although I felt pretty confident in American history. 
Anyway, there are also some funny scenes in the movie because Abraham Lincoln used to tell crazy stories which didn't have any relation to the issue of a situation :-)

Go and watch the movie, it is absolutely worth seeing! :-)
Here's an interview of Dany Day-Lewis where he speaks of his experience acting Lincoln:

 

Ps: I'll try hard not to write too many blogs  about movies anymorein the future ;-)

 

 

Plans for holiday

Hey you out there! :-)

Now that the holiday has finally arrived you're surely out and about to celebrate. As for my part I have my last exam on monday so I guess I'll stay home tonight :-)
But have you given thought to your plans for holiday yet? I have:

Basically, I'll remain in Graz and I'll study for all the exams I've put back or do other things for university. I'll meet some friends of mine and go out for a drink with them. I really have neglected this as we've had too many things to do recently. I have to make a good use of the free time I'll have :-)

As far as English is concerned, I'll go again through all the vocabulary we've learned so far. I'll watch one of my favourite series "Gilmore Girls" in English, even though I've watched every episode about 10 times ^^ (I obviously need a hobby :D). And every evening I plan to watch a great movie all by myself with some good food :-) Moreover, I'll read the last 300 pages of "Game of Thrones" and begin to read the third book. That's basically what I'll do for English :-) And I hope I'm going to stick to the strict plans ^^ Maybe I'll just end up watching movies, that would be me :D

As we have a group on Facebook, what do you say about meeting each other more often during holiday? This would be great, I'd love to :-) Just leave a comment :-)

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday at the Office Pub! 

xoxo 

The luck of the Irish (part 2)

The second part of my “The luck of the Irish” blogs will be about the movie „In the name of the father“, which is truly one of my favourite films. Not only has the director managed to create such an emotional, touching and heartbreaking movie, but he also managed to show us how the British police forces unreasonably tended to accuse a lot of Catholics of being members of the IRA, especially in the time of Internment. Through the very great storyline you really get to “feel” the pain the protagonist has to go through while fighting to prove his innocence. What’s shocking is the fact that the movie is based on a true story, the story of the Guildford Four. I didn’t know that before watching it for the first time and when I got to know this fact, I actually started to cry! Admittedly, I was full of loathing and I hated the British the same way the Irish do, but who wouldn’t? I was so fascinated about the movie that afterwards I spent quite some time to collect additional information about the movie.  

The plot is set in Northern Ireland and young Gerry Conlon, who is a Catholic, causes some trouble and to prevent being getting too involved, he is sent to England. There, he finds some Hippie friends and lives his life freely. One night a bomb explodes at a pub in Guilford, which is a town in England, and five people get killed. Gerry Conlon, not being informed about this incident, makes his way back to Northern Ireland in order to share the money he found with his family. All of a sudden, he and three of his friends get arrested by the British police and by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, which, we know already, is the British police force in Northern Ireland. They are immediately sent to the UK and are blamed for having fired the bomb. After being physically tortured and mentally exhausted, they do not have the power to be resistant anymore and finally they admit to have committed the crime. After that his father as well gets arrested and they are all sentenced to life imprisonment. In custody, they all have to face some problems. Gerry’s father dies and his son wants to fight for justice in the name of his father (hence the title of the movie!). Gerry gets help from a lawyer who investigates the matter and finds a whole paper record which is not meant to be shown to the Defence as it proves the innocence of all these people. In the end, they are all freed.

Interesting information:

1.) Daniel Day-Lewis, who played Gerry Conlon, did a lot of things in preparation for his role: He lost 30 pounds, spent nights in jail and the cast threw water at him and insulted him. All these things were necessary for him to adjust to the time and to the troubles. He also kept his Irish accent through the whole filming process. In my opinion, he did a remarkable performance!

2.) All these jail scenes in the movie were not shot in a jail in the UK, but in the Kilmainham Goal in Dublin. I myself have visited this jail on my school trip to Ireland and it was all the more shocking. I really could feel this strange atmosphere there. The leaders of the Irish war of Independence were also executed there.

3.) During the movie you will notice the wonderful music. Most of the songs were produced by Bono (from U2) and Gavin Friday. Other artists from the 70’s and Sinead o’Connor can also be heard.
Here is a song by Bono and Gavin Friday, they have put in some Irish elements

4.) The movie was nominated for Seven Academy Awards, but it didn’t win any of them. How dared they didn’t give the movie at least one award??? Obviously, the Academy does not have a good taste.
 

My favourite quote of the movie:
It is a scene between Gerry Conlon and the lawyer

Gerry: You are very good at the English, aren’t you? You see, I don’t understand your language. Justice, mercy, clemency – I literally don’t understand what those words mean. You see, I’d like to put an application to get all my teeth extracted and that way I can put my fist in my mouth and never speak another word of fucking English so long as I live.

I hope I have awakened your interest for this movie because I highly recommend it to you! Maybe we could persuade Fiona to watch it together in the next semester :-) 

See the full gallery on Posterous

 

 

 

 

Another great piece of art

Yesterday afternoon I watched the new movie of Quentin Tarantino "Django unchained" in English. I am generally a great fan of the director and I've watched all of his films over and over again, but his new movie just blew my mind. I was again incredibly impressed by his talent and I am hardly able to put my excitement into words. 

Here is a short summary of the topic: The plot is set in the Deep South, during the time of slavery in America. Django (played by Jamie Foxx) is bought by Dr. Schultz (played by the great actor Christoph Waltz) who turns out to be a bounty hunter. They both make their way ahead to save Django's wife Broomhilde. They finally arrive to one of the biggest plantations "Candyland" and the owner of it, Calvin Candy (played by famous Leonardo DiCaprio), is a barbaric man who has a lot of slaves working for him, including Broomhilde. Basically, what follows are a lot of bloody scenes, but it is important to say that Django and Broomhilde are united in the end :-)

As I gained an insight into the time of the American Civil War for the third PC, this movie was all the more exciting. The director had the courage to deal with the tough "slavery" issue which Americans try to avoid talking about because it is the darkest part of their history. But the interesting part of it is that Tarantino's goal was actually to put the audience in the time of slavery and to show them all the circumstances and troubles of that time. I have to say I was a bit shocked as there are some scenes which illustrate how slaves where treated. For example, they had to wear kind of a headgear of chains and when they were punished, they were hanged head first for hours or were put nacked in a bunker. Another brutal thing is that all these owners let slaves fight until one of them was dead, the only purpose of this was entertainment. You see, it is a very complicated topic to deal with but it's a way to get over the past and to learn from the mistakes people made. 

What fascinated me a lot was the incredible good acting. Christoph Waltz made a brilliant performance and Leonardo DiCaprio was so overwhelmingly into his role that after he had injured himself in one scene and had began to bleed, he kept on acting. 

It doesn't actually matter which one of Tarantino's movies you pick, they all have like a common theme which runs though them and this is what makes his movies so unique. He's such an intelligent and talented director. Have you ever seen one of his interviews? I have the feeling that his behaviour is very special and ... weird?  
 

 

I am again speechless of his new great piece of art! 

Btw, the soundtrack's as well great! Here are two songs which I like best. I love Johnny Cash anyway :-)

 

Winter in Bosnia

I did not want to write too many blogs about Bosnia, but I can't resist. As you've probably read from my previous post, I spent one week in Bosnia during the Christmas holiday. One thing I noticed the moment I came back to Graz was the absence of snow and cold. In Bosnia, this was not the case. As Travnik is surrounded by a mountain called Vlasic you can obviously conclude that there was a lot of snow and cold as well. Just the mention of it makes me think of the beautiful landscape :-)

I'd like to tell you something about the very famous mountain "Vlasic", which I already mentioned above:

It's located (as Travnik) in the heart of Bosnia :-) 1,969m is it's maximum height.
Vlasic is a very  famous tourist attraction and winter destination for people of the Balkancountries. Every free gab or place was used by Bosnians, Serbs as well as Croatians to build cottages. In the winter months they use to stay there over the weekend and go skiing or do other winter activities. My family is currently building such a cottage house as well. Even if it's not a long way for us to the top of the mountain, we think it's pretty valuable to have one :-)
When you go more off the beaten track, into the wood, it's like a magical place. Everything seems so quiet and peaceful. You do only hear the scrunch of snow. There are loads of restaurants and hotels there as well. The main slope for skiing is long enough.
I do find it a very lovely place to go not only in the winter, but also in the summer months. There are unspoiled areas only few people have been to where you can go hiking.
 
Vlasic is almost more famous for it's cheese. Farmers use to rear sheeps and make white cheese of their milk. A common Bosnian proverb has it's origin from that:
"Bijel si k'o Vlasicki/Travnicki sir." --> This is said to someone who has a very pale complexion :-)

I wanted to show you some pictures I've made. The frost on leaves fascinated me a lot

On the following picture the frost has left a beautiful pattern on a window

Bosnian wedding

One week has passed since my cousin celebrated her wedding. My whole family assembled and we really had a great time :-) 

In this blog I'll try to bring the many traditions of a bosnian wedding closer to you.
Even though Bosnia is not a big country, the traditions vary a lot from one province to the other.
The wedding took place in a beautiful Bosnian city named "Tuzla". It's located in the northeastern part of Bosnia. Maybe you already know that my family comes from Travnik, but this doesn't matter. The wedding happens in the hometown of the bridegroom, which, in this case, was Tuzla.
Well, this was already the frist point of my long list of traditions :-)

As you see on the picture my cousin wears a veil due to the fact that all the members of my family are Muslims. So I guess the traditions vary a lot between the religions as well.

The Bosnian and Islamic way of a wedding happens as follows:

1.) While the bride is getting ready for her big day, the bridegroom makes his way ahead to "pick her up". The number of cars depends on the number of the invited people. If it's a long way to drive, about 7 cars follow the bridegroom.

2.) When they arrive to the place of the bride, the bridesmaid and a few other girls begin to decorate the cars with beautiful roses and cloths. After that, they begin to put small, white roses of synthetic material on the jacket of every invited guest. While doing that, one girl carries a box in order to collect money. This was my job, by the way :p

3.) In the meantime they're having coffee and a snack.

4.) The moment the bride walks out of the house, all the men begin to sing an islamic type of a holy song/hym. It is called "ilahija" in Bosnian. Then candies are thrown in the air. I don't quite get the purpose of this tradition. It's done on every wedding! 

5.) The bride says goodbye to her parents and gets in the car. Funny people set off fireworks and all the cars (including the cars of the bride) drive away hooting the car horns. It's really loud. They keep on doing that through the whole drive. The parents of the bride usually stay home and do not participate in the celebration. Instead, they grieve for their daughter :-) 

6.) What comes next is an important part. They go to the register office and become husband and wife. But for an islamic couple this is not a big deal. The real marriage ceremony takes place either in a mosque or in the house of the bridegroom. 

7.) Before the couple is allowed to enter the bridegroom's house, they have to do different things. Firstly, the bride has to hold the holy islamic book "Qur'an" with self-made bread in her hands. This tradition is very common. Secondly, the couple has to either drink something out of the same glass or eat honey with the same spoon. This tradition varies a lot. It basically is a sign of "togetherness". After that the bridegroom throws the spoon from one site of the house across the other. If the spoon doesn't end up on the other site, they will not be happily married.
In some parts of Bosnia the bridegroom has to rise his arm and the bride has to make the first step into the house under his outstretched arm.

8.) The islamic ceremony begins in the house as the "Imam" or "Hodza" (islamic type of a priest) acknowledges their wedding. Both the bridegroom and the bride sign the paper and then all the guests start to congratulate them. Some guests even sing an islamic verse to seal their wedding in front of witnesses.

 
9.) Hand in hand the couple leaves the house to celebrate their wedding. Usually a big hall is rented where the celebration starts. 

The music begins and the guests start dancing. This takes quite a long time :p I, of course, was unstoppable :D 

10.) As usual, the bride throws her bridal bouquet to the following bride ;-) 

11.) The bride goes around and serves coffee. Again money is being taken by the bridesmaid. 

12,) The final tradition is the cutting of the wedding cake. They usually daub themselves with the cream of the cake, which is pretty funny :-) 

The cake was delicious!!! :-) 

That's it! I hope you like the way Bosnians celebrate their weddings. It was both a touching and a wonderful wedding. 

Some more pictures of the couple. I do find them cute together. They are now in Istanbul on their honeymoon trip :-) 

See the full gallery on Posterous

 

 

 

 

The luck of the Irish (part 1)

Since we have to know the most important issues of the Irish history for the second PC, I was again (!) very eager to find some movies, songs or paintings which deal with the Irish problem. 
They really help you understand the enmity between the British and the Irish. I've always been very interested in this topic as it is one of the biggest injustice that ever happened. I will write more than one blog, so follow them ;-) 

1.) The luck of the Irish

 

It is a song performed by John Lennon and (annoying :P) Yoko Ono . The title is obviously sarcastic, because throughout the history the Irish had no luck, had to struggle to keep their country and their freedom. 

"Why the hell are the English there anyway as they kill with God on their site? Blame it all to the kids and the IRA as the bastards commit genocide"

John Lennon is stating his opinion in a very emotional way. He put in some rhetoric questions or sarcastic statements to emphasize the ridiculousness of the English invasion in Ireland. 
He mentions "genocide" deliberately, which indicates that millions of people were killed while fighting for justice. 

"...you wish you was English instead."

This part of the song in the end is quite daring. I think he wanted us to understand that the Irish would have chosen to be of another citizenship due to the brutality in their country.  

LOTR marathon

Hey guys!

I am quite a nerd regarding fantasy books and movies and obviously a devoted fan of the film trilogy Lord of the Rings. When I heard that the cinema is going to make an event and show all of the three films I immediately bought two tickets and went to see them on the 9th December with a friend of mine. 

It began at 12:15 and lastet until 01:00. Unfortunately I had to study for the second PC and therefore made a compromise with myself. I didn't watch the last one, though I could! (I regreted it afterwards) 

Believe it or not, it was kind of a dream come true for me. I've always wanted to see the movies on a big screen since I was too young to see them when they were released. 

It was absolutely worth it! The cinema showed the extended version of all the three movies and some scenes I've never seen. In paranthesis, I've watched all of them around ten times :-)

At the moment I am still excited about the experience. My arse hurt afterwards but I didn't care at all. I saw the beautiful world Peter Jackson created on a big screen.

I am very thankful such movies do exist. They allow you to enter in a dream world and forget the ugly one around you :-)

I have a lot of favourite scenes but one of them gave me the goosebumps in the cinema: It is the moment when the Nazguls ride out of Mordor for the first time and try to find the ring. It was sooo amazing! 

Who is as brave as Frodo? I would be as greedy as Boromir, who can resist such a powerful ring? :P

With this in mind, do not forget: 

One ring to rule them all,
One ring to find them.
One ring to bring them all
and in the Darkness bind them
in the land of Mordor
where the Shadows lie. 

The scent of winter

The year 2012 is just about to end in a couple of weeks and I have to say that December is one of my favourite months of the whole year. There are a lot of reasons:

Firstly: The atmosphere

Cities are being adorned with Christmas decoration in the most beautiful ways. Lights shine everywhere and that gives you a quite magical feeling.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Secondly: Coming together

As a result of this feeling people tend to go out more often in order to spend a nice time with some friends. Just yesterday one of my close friends invited us over to her house. She prepared cookies and bread with self-made spread. It was lovely. The whole dining table was full of sweets.

See the full gallery on Posterous

And btw: We ended up in the Office Pub after a half-hour debate in the cold (We couldn't decide where to go, everybody wanted to go somewhere else. The pub was a reasonable compromise :-D) Anyway, it was pretty amusing. We drank tea and listend to the English-speaking folks. What a nice turning-point of a Christmas evening :-D 

Thirdly: The weather

I personally love snow. It's pretty nice when you're at home and look out of the window while the snow is falling. In a way, it calms a person. However, I'm not very into skiing or any other winter sport...or sport generally :-P

 

and lastly: The food

Cinnamon, cookies, oranges, gingerbread, and so on. Especially at Christmas markets I can't resist temptation and not eat a waffle :-) 

Occidentalism

I'm sure these "elective subjects", which you have to choose on your own, are part of your curriculum as well. I've chosen to attend a lecture under the name "Foundations of cultural theory". It turned out to be very affecting. The major focus of this lecture is to show us how people construct reality. The topics covered are totally interesting. But today's lecture was very special and it really motivated me to write a blog about the subject matter - "Occidentalism"

"Occidentalism is the belief that the Western (or "Occidental") way of life is inherently, irreparably base and depraved and that anyone living a Western lifestyle has become less than human. The first and foundational belief of Occidentalists is that the West has been destroyed by its materialism. We've all heard of this critique. Westerners have replaced Spiritual authenticity with the empty worship of money and property. As a result, the Western lifestyle is soulless. The cosmopolitan city - the 21st-century Babel - is the setting for our desolation." (Edward Said)

 

Reading this for the first time made me mad, but I guess that's just the natural reaction of a "Westerner". I tried to find some arguments to disprove this harsh critique. I failed.
The West has created it's own way of living, far off from real significant values.
It seems to me that the half of the world in which we are living circles around one aim: To gain money and to become wealthy. And the people, we, are forced to follow these rules. To avoid being a dropout you have to be educated, go to university in order to gain money one day and pay taxes, get yourself a nice car and flat, give birth to at least 3 children, etc.
And if you miss one of these checkpoints of the "perfect" life, you'll get kicked out of the elite society. The distance between poverty and the prosperous society is getting bigger. The West system means a two class system! We aren't actually conscious of the fact that everyone of us is just a poor victim ;-)
The West makes us feel competitors to each other. At least I have experienced some weird situations and I don't know how this is going to turn out in 20 years. But I miss the warmth already.

"The Masses, they are us, the sheep, the people divided in classes."

Development

Does that happen to you as well? :-)
Since we had our first progress check I gained wide knowledge of vocabulary and everytime I read a text in English I recognize plenty of these new words.
It makes me really happy not only to know what a word could mean out of the context, but also it's exact meaning and some synonyms as well :-)
I wouldn't be that motivated for English if I didn't sense a development!

Learning vocabulary is definitely worth the effort! :-) 

 

Monumental Injustice

The picture above shows the Israeli West Bank barrier sperating the Palastinian territory from the Israeli side. A lot of artists like "Banksy" came and expressed their emotions about the Middle Eastern situation by drawing meaningful graffities. They mostly illustrated freedom-seeking people. 

Hey all!
I guess you all have heard what's going on in Israel right now.

Another conflict reoccured between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It makes me really upset how things develop in this conflict area. The Palestinians tried to come up with an enormously reasonable thing, a peaceful solution! The president of the Palestine Liberation Organization (acronym: PLO) Mahmud Abbas wants to achieve statehood for Palestine. That's just the way Israel was formed - The United Nations took a vote and Israel became a new state.
However, the Israelis began to threaten the Palestinians by saying that there will be no money sent and the foreign ministry of Jerusalem proclaimed the subversion of Palestine.
But the real issue that caused all the killing now was the assasination of the Hamas military chief Ahmed al-Jabari. Believe it or not, the Israelis showed a video of his murder on youtube.Obviously they wanted to intimidate the other side. It's really grotesque. Serious bombing followed on both sides. 50 Palestinians (including 4 children and a pregnant woman) and 3 Israelis got killed!!!!
That's really shocking! We aren't actually conscious enough to realize the brutal terror. 
One thing that makes me furious is the fact that people always blame the Palastinians for the killing.
It has always been the same thing: When Arabs or Muslims kill civilians they are terrorists, immediately, when Israelis do such a thing it's acceptable. 
I hate all these prejudices about the Islam! People don't even know the purposes of the "EXACT" Islam. I don't want to deny it, there are radicals who take the Islam (wrongly!) as their "ideology", but why doesn't anyone mention the Jewish or Christian radicalists? It's very sad how our society take prejudices. People do not think about them carefully. They grab these prejudices which say that all Muslims are terrorists and do not think about the consequences and the struggle veiled women have to cope with. We should stop racism and be open-minded to other exotic cultures. 

To mention the Middle Eastern conflict again:

The Israel defense force has a twitter account and how absurd is this! Just to give you an idea of what they are posting about: 
„We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead”
......think about it, it's awfully embarassing! 

You might not want to hear this, but Israel has an enormous military backing of the Unites States. All these efforts of the Palestinians get knocked down by the force of their equipment. 
"Your property is mine now, do not dare to step on it, otherwise you will be killed!" If you say that to someone in Europe or America or other continents, you would be arrested. And if you think about it, Israel as a state says that all the time. 

Why would the Palestinians have to bow their heads and accept the opression of Israel?

Free Palestine!

 

 

One of my favourite singer M.I.A. has a line in one of her songs called "Sunshowers" which was censored and deleted:
"You wanna win a war? Like PLO I don't surrender"
This following video was never showed on MTV....what a coincidence ;-)

Coincidence

Look what I just have found on the Internet!!

Isn't that hilarious? :-) It's pretty funny how language sometimes gets in it's own way and creates such contradictory phrases! Languages will always remain a little fascination to me.
Can you think of another coincidence like all these above in the picture? Maybe in German as well?

xoxo 

PS: The mother of all should be "Governmental Intelligence" or "Intelligent men" .... Get it? ;-)

There's no way not to learn

Hey guys. I just invented a new method for learning Arbic words easier. Some words really don't get in my brain and therefore I wrote them down on a sticky sheet of paper. I put them on every object that fits the meaning of the word. I utterly recommend this way of learning vocabulary! There's no way of just passing by, you automatically read the word and repeat it until it becomes normal for you. I am of the opinion that one have to introduce the foreign language into the daily life in order to progress faster. Why not invent such a casual way of learning? Instead of sitting unwillingly by the desk, the vocabulary-sheets follow every step of you, they're somehow chasing and entrapping you to learn ;-)

Scarry moments

Do you like horror films??
I DO! :-)
People often tell me that they avoid those creepy films because they don't let people dream peacefully afterwards. I as well tend to become paranoid after watching a horror film and when I switch off the light I run as fast as I can into my bed...we all do, I guess :-)
Imagination has always been part of society. If something weird happens we begin to get paranoid and blame it all to the ghosts or other "monsters of an invisible second world". That's just the way superstition works ;-)
Having those moments where the heart stops beating for a second feels like an adrenalin rush to me.
It makes you breathless when all of a sudden a ugly face appears out of nowhere in a horror film.
Those films often create so much tension that you would rather run out of the cinema and start screeming :-) The thing I hate most about horror is when they show massacres or whatever. I prefer the ones which exhaust one mentally --> Like exorcism, shapes of dead people,...

Tonight I watched the latest part of the horror series "Paranormal Activity". It's my favourite one, and I was inspired to write a blog about it :-)

 

 

I get so mad when I see how these actors react on creepy things that happen to them!! A normal person would run out of the house and try to find help, but no, they keep on searching for the ghosts and then they die :-).

Austrian Tv goes America

http://www.kabeleins.at/film/this-is-america

If any of you is a little "couchpotatoe" like I often tend to be especially on weekends, there is something very interesting going on in Austrian-Tv  - A special week where great American films and documentations are going to be broadcasted by the Austrian TV- sender "Kabel 1".

What will be exactly showed?
Films about different American events which somehow had great political and social effects on history and few documentations about conspiracy and American lifestyle.

The special week will start on October, 28th.

"The Color Purple" starring Whoopi Goldberg will be the first one of the whole film-pallet. It deals with Blacks in the 20th century. 
"Philadelphia" comes next. Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington both made a briliant performance trying to fight against Aids and dismissal. 
"Die Luftbrücke" is a film produced in Germany. The "Cold War" lastet pretty long and America was involved as well. 
Who assacinated John F. Kennedy? - Collect some interesting information on Monday evening!
"Men of honor" - I really recommend this film if you don't have any particular plans for Halloween. It's actually based on a true story --> The first Afro-American to become a member of the US-Navy. 
You have never seen Chary Sheen not being an oncle? Try "Platoon", it shows you the brutal Vietnam war of a soldier's perspective.
Old costumes and locations in "Gods and Generals" - a story of the American Civil War.
"And the Oscar goes to....Titanic!" - I guess everybody is annoyed of this film by now, well, I AM! 

"God bless America" ... not only for being the country where burgers come from, but also for being the center of producing great films! :-)

 

 PS: The link above will give you more details concerning time and date!

 

Becoming an independent student

Being a student now is a totally different feeling for me. I knew that moving from middle school to university would be a great turning point in my life. But I didn't expect THAT much changes. The most unusual thing for me is actually the way I progress mentally. It feels like as if parts of my brain get “enlightened” to a greater extend each day. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy about the things I experienced in the past and I wouldn't change anything. Oscar Wilde once said some wise words:

“To reject one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.”
-The Profundis (By the way, if you're interested in Oscar Wilde's exciting life, this book is definitely a must as it shows you his feelings through life)

It seems as if everything in the past was leading me to this moment of enlightenment, of joy! I came to a point now where I roughly know what I was searching and seeking for the whole time through - my belonging and the knowledge of my happiness.
I get to understand the real meanings of life. Not a thing in this world can replace the true love of family-members and friends :-). I have to say, materialism does make a person fortunate, but only for a short period of time. One gradually get to know that things don't fulfill desires, they only numb the person and prevent him from realizing the real worth. The following quote describes perfectly that constant buying makes you blind, it pushes you even more in an “unnatural prison” of yourself.

“You think you have to want more than you need. Until you have it all, you won't be free”
- Eddie Vedder (song: “Society”)

The second most important thing I've learned during the experience of change is that going to university does mean you get independent. Teachers do not really bother if you pass an exam or not, you have to be responsible for yourself! Being independent means to try to create your own life. Do not expect your parents to finance your life during the time at university. We have to realize that we should start to get money for our own and therefore become a little more independent-It's just a good way for learning it for the future.

“Do it yourself”
this should be our motivation in order to achieve our personal goals we set up :-)