Happy Easter to everyone!

Today is the day many of us have been waiting for; I know for sure that my younger siblings did. Today we are celebrating Easter, a christian festival and holiday with the purpose to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Easter may be a Christian thing, but it is not solely about religion or Jesus. It is about spending some time with your family, get or give small gifts and Easter food such as Easter ham, eggs, horseradish, a "Reindling", which is made out of yeast dough and filled with cinnamon and raisins and of course many sweets. My dad is really looking forward to the Easter food because he had gone without sweets and sugar and eaten less than he wanted to for 45 days due to the period of fasting.

 Now I am going to tell you what my Easter Saturday looks like. I got up early, not because I wanted to, but because my siblings stormed into my room and asked me noisily and thrilled with joy if I could help them find their presents the Easter bunny had hidden for them. After we were seeking for the presents and eventually found all of them, we went back into the house to have breakfast. My siblings and I did not eat much because we (my two younger siblings, my twin brother, my dad's girlfriend named Helga and my dad) are all invited at Helga's mother-in-law in the afternoon. There we will have a delicious "Osterjause", play games, chat, and maybe drink some wine. It is always great fun and I really enjoy the time I spend there. In the evening I'll meet up with some friends to go out and have fun or I’ll just go home and watch a movie. We’ll see. :)

Would be great to know what your Easter Saturday looks like but for now, I wish all of you a Happy Easter and a great time!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter

How to improve my blogging! :)

My topic for today is "how to improve my blogging".

When you go through my older posts you will notice that these are everything but passionate, thoughtful or funny. I was always wondering how I am supposed to write a post about something I am not really interested in, while there were so many other more interesting, funnier things and thoughts swirling through my head. I never thought about writing about one of these very things. Until now. This leads me to my first suggestion for improvement:

What to write about?

-> How should I write a passionate post about a topic I am not passionate about? Right, there is no way.

So I am not wasting time anymore by writing posts about topics I find completely dull, and instead start choosing ones I am eager to learn more about. Just the thought about writing about my last trip (which will be one of my next posts - btw) lightens my mood.

I am sure everyone of you has these special things that keep you motivated, happy and from bittering over life’s disappointments. For example: one of my best friend has a passion for movies with Channing Tatum in it. Another friend of mine really wants to be a doctor one day and gains a lot of strength from it. Why not write about your goals, dreams, fears or everyday motivation? About a friend you have, things you have already experienced or things you are planning to do.

I am probably not in the place to talk all wise and experienced considering me having done really bad during my first semester a few months ago. But this does not mean that I cannot improve and owing to my last semester I am more determined now and know what to expect.

What to write in a post?

->Now we have covered the problem what to write about, but the next problem is waiting just around the corner. A post should not be too long (otherwise no one's going to read it) or too short.

What it should contain depends on what you are writing about. For example: a post about "how to get the most beautiful hair possible" should provide tips and perhaps pictures of wonderful, glossy hair. A more historic topic should contain many information about what happened, what it is about, who played the main role, where it took place and that kind of stuff. 

How to design a blog?

-> The background is important but not more important than the posts themselves. If you write highly accurate, motivated and funny posts, but your font color has the same color as your background, or your pictures and backgrounds shine in colors that hurt your eyes, your work and improvement will be pointless.

With this in mind and following all of these suggestions mentioned I am hoping to improve.

I would be thankful for any other tips or feedback on how to improve my blogging! :) 

 

6 tips to expand your vocabulary

Everyone knows this situation: you are watching a movie or reading a book in english and you cross a word, which is unfamiliar with you. You underline it, maybe write it on an extra sheet of paper or in your vocabulary book and then look it up. The only problem is that you will not know it the next time you'll read it or hear it because you just can not remember. Of course you have heard the word before, but the meaning?
To avoid such a situation from happening I am giving you 6 tips for a better way to expand your vocabulary.

1. Use the words you do not know and try to make it relevant to you by writing example sentences that are true for you. For example: I used to love playing "I spy" when I was a child.

2. You can choose a word and try to draw it. Playing the game with someone from your english class could be great fun because both of you have to study the same vocabulary. I think it is also an App available for Apple devices and android phones,, which provides this game.

3. Choose some of your yet-unknown words and write an own invented story in which you include them all. You can make it a sad story or a really funny one; it does not matter. The important thing is to find a context for the words.

4. Try to learn it with the "Diddly-doo" game I found on the internet. This game is similar to the game"20 Questions" but instead of looking for a word in the categories person, place or thing, you have noun, verb and adjective as categories. Diddly-doo is the word you use instead of the word, which you are searching.
For example: Can you diddly-doo outside?
                     Yes, you can.
                     Do you need other people to diddly-doo?

5. You can use a version of "Bingo", where you write down words you expect to read in the newspaper headlines or hear in a movie. Next, go to an English-language news website or watch the movie and cross out the words on your bingo card that you guessed correctly.

6. I am sure nearly all of you will know the game: "I packed my suitcase, and in it I put...". This game is not just fun it also helps you to study your vocabulary. But an even better game can be "Word Tennis", where you and the friend you are playing it with choose a category and say alternately different but relevant words to the topic chosen.

What strategies could be useful for you depends on your learning style. Good luck and have fun! :)

Youpost 3

I have always promised a friend of mine, who lives in California to visit him. His name is Kellan and I got to know him when he was as an exchange student in my class; one and a half year ago. So I have decided to take a two-week trip to California.
My journey will start on the 2nd February when I am going to fly from Vienna to Los Angeles. There, Kellan will pick me up with his car and we will drive to his flat, which will be a 25 minutes car ride. I will be very worn out and tired, a little jetlagged from the 18 hour flight that we will pass the rest of the day in his flat catching up with each other and just relaxing.

The next day we will get up, eat some breakfast and then drive back to Los Angeles to do some sightseeing. At first we will go to the Disneyland which is one hour ride away in Anaheim. Around the Disneyland are some other attractionparks but I am not sure yet if we should visit all of them.

The following days we will get up early in the morning and pass them on the beach which is a ten minute footwalk away, because Kellan will teach me how to surf. In the noon we will go shopping in L.A, maybe walk the Hall of Fame or just hang out with Kellans' friends. Many of them are able to speak Spanish or even has a spanish origin, what really make me wondering at the beginning. Then I think about the Manifest Destiny and the westward expansion where a great deal of native inhabitants from the east had to move to the west because settlers wanted to claim their land and chased away the native inhabitants.
On the fifth day we are planning on going to Santa Barbara which is a nearly two hours away. We will rent a camper van for the next days and sleep at cheap campsides, where you have to pay $15 per night. There I will do a whale-whatchin trip to the channel Islands where you can see the world's largest living mammal. I might also encounter beautiful humpback whales and playful dolphins, as well as fascinating sea birds. For me, it will be totally worth it.

The next stop will be San Francisco, which has also some historical background. For example, for the 49ers, treasure finder who rushed to California to look for gold,  San Francisco was very important. Our drive to it will take more than 5 hours but that will not be a problem. We will be talking, taking pictures and just enjoy the driving through California, during this time. We will also drive through San Louis Obispo where we will possible stay for one night because I want to see the Bubblegum Alley. The Bubblegum Alley is a street where the walls right and left beside you are full with bubblegum.

 When we will arrive at our destination San Francisco, we will take a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge and just stroll through the city. Kellan promised to show me some restaurants and nice places so I am really excited. In San Francisco we will give back our rented car and take a one our flight back to L.A where I will spend the last days of my trip with surfing, shopping and enjoying L.A. On the 16th February I am going back home.

I am really looking forward to this trip :)

Youpost 4

I am going to write about Zurich in Switzerland because I went there last year.
To start, Zurich is a real expensive city but it depends on what you want to do there. I needed bus tickets and train tickets and they are very expensive. So before going there you have to think about all the things you will need for your stay in Zurich. I had the great opportunity to stay with friends of mine because otherwise I would have had to spend a great amount of money on a hotel, although I am sure that you can also find cheap youth hostels.


Apart from the fact that Zurich is an expensive city it is also very beautiful. The streets are bustling, esoecially in the "Bahnhofstraße". There, you have many restaurants you can go to and many other entertainment facilities for example the cinema or shopping centres. Unfortunately all this will cost you much money.
I stayed for 4 days in Zurich and my friends gave me two guided tours through the city. On the first day they showed me the newer part of Zurich, for example the  Lindenplatz, which is really amazing. Sitting in Bellevue near the lake, swans beneath your feet and the sun shining in your face, is an indescribable feeling. Sadly, I can not remember all the places they showed me, but just walking through Zurich was really special.


   
     Lindenplatz                                                                     Bellevue



On the next day they showed me the old town of Zurich which was completely beautiful. For example the Grossmünster, which is a church from where you have a nice view over Zurich. In addition to that I ate the best and also the first frozen yoghurt of all time in the old town of Zurich, so it is totally worth to take a look at it. What is also good to eat is the Vapiano - a restaurant to specialize on pasta. Later on, we even drove to the Uetliberg where you can go hiking. On top of the Uetliberg you have an astonishing view but standing on top of this grey Tower, you can see in the picture, really took my breath away.

              
                 Uetliberg                                                                  Grossmünster

To sum up: All I can say is that visiting Zurich is really worth it, although I am not sure if I would have done it if I would not have had my friends to stay with them and showing me around. You have to keep in mind that this trip will not be a cheap one but you will not regret it because you will see many great, astonishing and breath-taking thinks. Feel free to ask me for further information :)

What about the Aborigines?

For most people, Australia is "the lucky Country". The majority of its million inhabitants enjoy a strong economy, political stability and a high-Standard of living. This was not always the case, especially not for the original inhabitants of Australia; the Aborigines and Torres Strait Isländers since British colonization in 1788.
Thousand native Australians got killed by European diseases, withdrawn of any civil rights and removed from their lands.
In 1967 the Australian constitution was changed to recognize Aboriginal People as equal citizens. Before this change was made, there were laws that did not count Aborigines as part of the Population. It was also said that the land belonged to the Australian native inhabitants but the court changed the concept and said that Australia is a land no one owns, when the British first arrived.
In 2008, Kevin Rudd, prime minister at that time apologized for the grief, suffering and loss the natives had to go through but also for the fact that Aboriginal children were removed from their families by federal- and government agencies and given to White Australian families. Despite the improvements in recognition of Aboriginal Australians that have already been made, there is still a Long way to go to remove the inequality between native Australian inhabitants and "non-native" Australian inhabitants.

Australia is famous for ist believe in giving everyone a fair chance, an equal opportunity, no matter what a person's race, gender or sexual orientation is. Then why not start with the native inhabitants?

 

Gay marriage

If we look back 17 years, we will see that many things about gay marriage have changed. For example, 17 years ago the Congress introduced a bill saying the federal government would recognize only marriages between a man and a woman, no matter what laws might be passed by the states. The bill went through and was signed into law by a liberal president named Bill Clinton. At this time gay marriage was a radical, politically untouchable idea that no one thought would ever change. After some time, Vermont created "civil unions" for gay couples. But the gay community pushed for more: they wanted marriage. Some of you may now question yourself how a civil union could not be enough for gay couples, but it is not really hard to understand them. The question gay couples have in their head would be: why offer all the same rights and not call it marriage? Why can we not just been seen as equal?
In 2004, Massachusetts approved gay marriage. Now 13 states allow it and another 7 allow marriages in form of unions. There are still many states that ban same-sex unions.
As we can see, some things have changed but there are still problems in society. Many people do not want to accept that gay couples "exist" and further do not accept gay marriage.
Macklemore,  a famous American rapper, fights active for legalizing gay marriage. For example with his song "Same love" he tries to make people aware of what they are saying and what is going on. I think people do not understand that "to be gay" is not a decision you can make. Either you are gay or you are not. So why treat gay people differently or be unfair for things they did not choose. They just want to be theirselves and I am going to support that.
What do you think of gay marriage? Would be nice to discuss it with you :)

Boontling in Boonville :)

Most Americans would not understand words such as bahl, harpin', and shoveltooth. These words belong to an unusual dialect called Boontling. The name itself is a mixture of "Boonville" and "lingo" and only a handful of people in the small town of Boonville in northern California can speak it.

The dialect started more than 150 years ago, but nobody knows why. One theory is that men wanted to tell dirty jokes but without their wives understanding any of it. There are further reasons given for creating this dialect in the video that you will find at the end of my post.

Boontling is also known for including influences of Irish, Spanish, Scottish-Gäelic and a barely known Californian language called Pomoan. Although there are many differences of how to speak English across the US, the dialect spoken near San Francisco is very unusual. 

Today there are only about 1,000 Boontling speaking people left in the town and only 12 of them can speak it fluently. In former times, 3,000 people were thought to be able to speak Boontling. It was even used to be taught in local schools. But now, there are only a few left, who have a good command with the language and when these citizens will die, so will the dialect.

Mighty Shakers - Stay mighty :)

This post is about the dance group of which I had become a member 2 months ago.

Background:
Jasmine, a  friend of mine, always used to dance in a dance group or a dancing school in Wolfsberg but had to quit when she moved to Graz to study psychology. She was looking for dancing schools everywhere but did not find one she fully approved of. In exchange, she went to a fitness center for a year but quickly realized that it did not please or fullfill her the way dancing did. When she heard that her friends with whom she had been dancing before, decided to come to Graz, Jasmine was determined to found an own dance group called the "Mighty Shakers".
At first the group had only a few members and the price they had to pay for the room they were renting was very high. After spreading the news around, more and more people came and joined the Mighty Shakers.

Now, the Mighty Shakers are a group of all in all 19 members and it really is a great thing to be a part of it. Even if I am not good at dancing, what maybe could be the reason why I am not dancing at the dance championship. :)

This is the logo:
 

New law in Canada!

There is a new law in Canada, which allows normal citizens to arrest people, who they believe have commited a crime. At first there was a law where citizens could arrest people if they caught them red-handed. Now, arrests can be made within a short amount of time after a crime has been committed, but the law is in force only when police are not able to make the arrest. The change in the law was made after an occurrence in Toronto's Chinatown in 2009. In May of that year, the owner of the Lucky Moose store, David Chen, recognized a man who he had previously seen stealing from his shop. He followed him down the street, with two emplyees on his side, caught the man and tied him up. As Chen and his employees pushed the man into the van and waited for the police to arrive, people on the street also called the police, because they thought that the tied man was being kidnapped. When the police came, they arrested David Chen for assault. 18 months later, he was acquitted.
Many Canadians think it is a good thing to be able to defend the own proberty but others criticize that the new law could put citizens in a dangerous position and is not clear enough in its limits.
The case of another Toronto businessman supports the Critics. A restaurant owner threw masala spice powder in the face of a customer and then attacked him with a stick, which led to the victim needing hospital treatment. The restaurant owner thought that this customer had stolen goods from his van, but the CCTV footage later showed that it was a case of mistaken identity and that another person was responsible for this crime. The law, however, received royal assent, but an important condition is that you have to call the police as soon as the arrest has been made. If not, such an arrest could be illegal.

American Dream without America :)

You do not think that it is possible to move from a childhood in one of South Africa's poorest and most violent townships to the ownership of two high-end restaurants? Then it is time that you become acquainted with the story of Desmond Mabuza.

Desmond Mabuza grew up in Soweto. Soweto is an abbreviation for South Western Townships, which was a union of townships for "black people", but today this union belongs to Johannesburg in South Africa. After his childhood, he was trained as a civil engineer in the US. When he came back to South Africa he had an opportunity to help set up a restaurant, called Back o' the Moon. He handled to do his engineering work in the daytime and managing the restaurant in the night. After a while there came his all changing opportunity: someone was needed to run the restaurant full time and Desmond requested for this job. 14 years later you can still find him in the restaurant business. He stayed with Back o' the Moon for nine years but then he started planning his own restaurant. His first own restaurant, called Signature opened in 2009 and because of its great and overwhelming success, Wall Street, Desmond's second restaurant opened one year later. Some interested parties contacted him and asked him about doing something in Namibia, Zambia, Kenya and Ghana. Desmond also works together with a hotel school based in Tanzania and he is eager to help whoever wants to enter the restaurant business.
To sum up: Desmond Mabuza started as a normal person with maybe even less opportunities and chances for a good life than others, but he did it. He never gave up or stopped believing and now he is the only black restaurant owner on the top of the footchain on the level of fine dining in South Africa. Nothing is impossible! :)

"We live in an era when people expect everything to be immediate -especially the youngsters. The real world doesn't work that way, unless you win the lottery." Desmond Mabuza

"Success is the perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty and persistence." Colin Powell (US general)

    

Born to be haunted!

    

Lions, we all know them. Some of us fear them, see them as the "mighty kings", others want to cuddle them and want to have them as pets at home, but there are also some, who do not care. These who do not care are responsible for a trend called "Canned hunting", which is booming in South Africa. Maybe some of you do not know this trend and for those I will explain it. "Canned hunting" makes it possible for hunters or people in general, who enjoys to shoot animals in an enclosed area, such as a game park, to do so.
More than 160 farms breed lions, which are just destined to get killed by tourists out of fun. In addition to that there is another outrageous fact: there are 5,000 lions in captivity in the countries today compared with just 2,000 in the wild and hunters do not care.
Although "canned hunting" is an obvious cruel and brutal thing, it is legal and a great deal of tourists still pay between 5,000 and 25,000 pounds to kill a lion, an innocent living being.
Not to lose hope, there are also some people who fight against this awful, unnecessary and cruel trend, such as animal-rights groups. For example, Fiona Miles, who runs a lion reserve, makes it clear that people need to know more about what is going on. She said that there would be a public outcry, if people would be aware of what the life of a captive-bred lion is actually like. Even some hunting organizations critise "Canned hunting", because it removes the sporting aspect of a hunt. One thing is for certain, canned hunting is still Happening and with everyone looking away it will not change.

Let me hear your opinions about this trend. What do you think about it? What are the pros and cons?How do you think such tragedy could be prevented?

Best teacher - paragraph

Hey,
I am going to add the first version and then the revised version of the paragraph about my favourite teacher to my blog. It would be great if you could compare both of the paragraphs and give me a feedback later on.

first version:
Of all the teacher I have had, Mrs Angermann was by far the best. She is slim with straight-looking Brown hair and has always a smile on her thin face. On the first Impression she seemed to be very strict, but she always wanted the best for her students. Nonetheless she had a lot on demand, for example homework and a good partcipation in class, which were the conditions for a good grade. She also was a really fair-minded teacher and not one of the "moody ones", where grades depend on how well their private lifes are going. Her best feature though was not her ability of teaching or her appearance but her light-hearted and kind personality. There was nothing too difficult or too unrealistic to accomplish. Mrs Angermann always encouraged her students to follow their dreams, fight their fears and to never give up. All the points mentioned make her the best teacher I have ever had.

and now the revised version:
Of all the teachers I have had, Mrs Angermann was by far the best. She was slim with straight brown hair and always had a smile on her face. Our first impression was that she seemed to be very strict, but she always wanted the best for her students. She was also a really fair-minded teacher and not one the "moody ones", where grades depended on how well their private lives were going. She demanded a great deal of work, for example homework and good participation in class, which were the conditions for a good grade. Her best qualitiy, though, was not her ability to teach or her appearance, but her light-hearted and kind personality. There was nothing too difficult or too unrealistic to accomplish for her students or human beings in general. Mrs Angermann always encouraged her students to follow their dreams, fight their fears and to never give up. All these qualities made her the best teacher I have ever had.

would be nice to get some advice :)

Green tea :)

Hey, my next post is about green tea. Some may say that green tea is not tasty and they might be right, but green tea has many health benefits to offer.

Let's start with a study in Japan called the Ohsaki-study. This study focused on adults between the age of 40 and 79, who drink at least five cups of tea during a week for 11 years. The result was that the mortality rate increased for about 12 % for men and 23 % for women. The study also showed that the death rate due to cardiovascular disease slowed down because of green tea.
Another studies showed that drinking green tea regularly can reduce the risk of getting cancer because in other countries, where the people consume a great amount of tea is the chance of getting specific types of cancer or even dying because of them. The secret of green tea lies in the fact that it is rich in cathechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Neuro-degenerative diseases like Chorea-Hunting, Parkinson and Alzheimer could be prevent with the EGCG. An Egypt scientist named Dr. Mervat Kassern found out that antibiotica have a better effect in combination with green tea. He tested it on 28 causative organisms of contagious diseases and the effect of antibiotica improved in all cases.
Green tea also helps in diets because a combination of coffeine and green tea burn much more fat and calories than only coffeine or placebo. In addition to that green tea could also prevent tooth decay, because it can kill the bacteria that can cause dental plaque.
Two negative things about green tea is that it could lead to insomnia due to the caffeine green tea contains, but still less than coffee has. The second disadvantage is that too much green tea for example more than ten cups of it, could be harmful and damage your kidney and liver due to substances green tea contains.
All in all green tea is really healthy and  recommandable to drink once in a while.