Culture Day 2013

For our SuK 2 I visited 11 presentations, eight Irish and three American, if I remember correctly. My Irish presentations were "Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly - Irish bands from America", "Ireland's contribution to the world of video games", "Gaelic and its use in Northern Ireland", "Bloody Sunday for the GAA", "Abortion Law in Ireland - A Pro-Choice View", "The Irish Film Industry", "Titanic - The fate of the Irish aboard" and "Irish Gaelic - A dying language?". My American Presentations were "Mickey Mouse", "Oprah Winfrey" and "Comics in America".

I really liked most of them, especially the "Mickey Mouse"-, the "Comics"-, the "Irish Gaelic"- and "Titanic"-presentations as they were not only well presented but also very informative. I especially enjoyed Nora introducing herself in Irish Gaelic at the beginning of the presentation.

For my KGP I've decided to choose the following five presentations:

• Irish Gaelic - A dying language?
• Titanic - The fate of the Irish aboard
• Abortion Law in Ireland - A Pro-Choice View
• Bloody Sunday for the GAA
• The Irish Film Industry

The reason why I've chosen those five presentations is because the presenters managed to interest me in their topic and made me long to know more about their topic. I am really looking forward to getting to know the matters more - for myself and, of course, in order to pass my KGP. :)

From Mortimer to Mickey Mouse

On our Culture Day we had to watch seven Irish and three American presentations. One of my favorite presentations was the American presentation about the Mickey Mouse. I really liked this presentation as it was not only well presented but also very well organized and it gave a great overview of everything Mickey Mouse related.

It really covered everything important, beginning with the basics about Mickey Mouse, his name, job and so on and so forth; about his friends, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and the others; about Mickey's look and its development; as well as Disney World.

I learned a lot of interesting things such as Mickey used to be called Mortimer but as Walt Disney's wife didn't like the name, he changed it. Or that Mickey used to be more of the evil kind as he thought it was funny if others get hurt. However, when Mickey Mouse got more and more popular, mothers started to complain their kids would take Mickey's behavior as a role model and started hurting other kids just like Mickey. Another really interesting fact is that Disney World, with all its four theme parks, is even larger than Graz. Also I didn't know before that Disney produced propaganda and war movies.

All in all I have to say, I really liked the presentation and am glad I watched it as it was not only fun but also very informative. Well done. :)

Austrian Snow for a Kiwi

I have mentioned in one of my earlier post, one of my best friends lives in New Zealand. She spent half a year as an exchange student at my old school and she loved it here. Especially snow had taken a toll on her (it was winter time during her exchange). What to us seemed normal growing up in Austria was strange and fascinating to her.

While Christmas is linked with snow for us, for her it meant sitting together with friends at the beach. While we, when we were younger, spent our Christmas breaks building snowmen or sleigh riding, she went hiking, swimming or sunbathing. This is why, during her stay in Austria, we, meaning my friends and I, used ever spare time and snow to relive our childhood memories with snow for her, our Kiwi friend to whom this all was new and so wonderful. I will never forget how proud she was of her first snowman and how she laughed while trying to catch snowflakes with her tongue.

She went back to New Zealand and she's been missing snow and winter in Austria ever since. Therefor, last winter, I decided to send her snow. Okay, I have to confess not real snow but instant snow. I got it from the internet and hoped she would like it aaaaaaand she did. She tried it out as soon as she had it and built a tiny snowman. Although it isn't quite like the snow we have, it's something. The really good thing about the instant snow is that it's not too cold, you can let it snow even during the hottest summer and it's reusable. So let it snow, let it snow, let it snow - whenever you want. ;)

Hobbit

One of the last books I read was "The Hobbit" by J.R.R.Tolkien. Mr. Tolkien originally wrote made up the story for his children and because they liked it so much, he decided to publish it. It was released in 1937 and tells the story of the hobbit Bilbo Beggins and an unexpected journey.

Bilbo is a typical hobbit meaning he is set in his own ways. He hates unexpected things or leaving his nice hobbit hole - his home. However, one day the wizard Gandalf the Grey shows up at his place and is very soon been followed by 13 dwarfs. Their plan is to go on an adventure, a journey with the old dwarf kingdom as their final stop. A long time ago, their ancestors had to leave their kingdom as a dragon took it over and robbed them not only from their home but also from their treasures. The plan of the group of dwarves with the help of Bilbo is to win back the kingdom as well as all their ancestors' gold. At first Bilbo is not very fond of the idea of having to leave his comfortable home and of going on an adventure. However, after a night of eating and drinking with Gandalf and the dwarves he decides, against all his hobbit nature and instincts, to join them - and so, his biggest journey begins.

I loved the book. From the first page on you start falling in love not only with Bilbo but with the whole fantasy world made up by Tolkien. It's written in a very charming way and you can clearly see it has been originally made up for kids. The language is simple and very pictorial as you can easily see the characters and the lands in your mind's eye.

Although the book has been adapted to a movie but to me the book is way better. I generally prefer the book to the film and in this case it was no different. So should you be into fantasy novels and into "Lord of the Rings" ("The Hobbit" is actually the prequel to "LotR") I can only highly recommend "The Hobbit". :)

Oobleck

Have you ever heard of "Oobleck" or "Ooze"? No? I didn't know about it for a long time either. However, a couple  of summers ago I worked in a science camp for kids in Canada and there I first heard of it. It is one of the non-newtonian fluids, meaning it can be both solid and liquid. You can most easily make it at home as all needed is water and starch. When you mix it in the right ration (1 cup of water with 1.5 to 2 cups of starch) you get a gooey fluid also called "Oobleck" or "Ooze".

At first it looks liquid but as soon as you punch it or ably force or strength to it it becomes solid. This is due to the fact that, with the impulse, the starch molecules close around the water and it becomes solid. However, as soon as the impulse vanishes again the fluid turns back into liquid.

It is a very simple experiment but it is a lot of fun as you can do some nice tricks with it. One of these tricks is putting it on a subwoofer and making it dance this way. You can even run over it as long as you just kick the fluid hard enough. Below you will find some videos that demonstrating this effect.

I hope you enjoyed the videos and try it out yourselves. If you do, let me know how it worked out. :)

Greek Salad

Many might know the problem: It is hot like hell, you are hungry but don't know what to eat as is has to be refreshing and light to fit the weather. Today was one of these days and I've decided to make my favourite summer food. A Greek Salad.

It really is as simple as it is delicious. All you need is feta cheese, olives, tomatoes, a cucumber, peppers, olive oil, vinegar and oregano. Those are the main ingredients but feel free to add or use whatever you long for. In general, I'd say the more colorful the better. :)
Chop all of them in small pieces and put them in a large salad bowl. Season it with a mixture of olive oil, vinegar (my favourite is balsamic vinegar) and oregano. Serve it with fresh bread and viola your fast, summer food or snack is done. Enjoy your meal or how they say in Greece, "καλή όρεξη!"

The true story of our trip to Croatia!

Many of you might already have read Shirin’s or Alex’ blog post about our trip to Croatia and our unexpected encounter with Fiona at a car stop. However, it grieves me to say that both of these posts have been nothing but lies. Both were too shy to face the ugly truth. Today, I want to tell you the real story of our trip.

Although my friends claim that it was all a coincidence, the true story begins last semester. Back then, Shirin, Lisa, Alex and I were faced with a major problem – passing our English classes. That’s why we came up with a plan, both desperate and genius. We invited Fiona to a trip to Croatia. We met up really early last Saturday and started our adventure with great music (Lady Gaga, Pink, etc.) and Fiona on board. The car ride itself was hilarious and we soon realized that our plan to improve our English grade was working. During the following days we enjoyed the beach, good food and the sun. All was nice and we had a fun time but when we returned to Graz, Alex and Shirin were embarrassed by our teacher’s-pet-trip and quickly came up with a different, very unlikely story which they shamelessly spread via Blogger.

Now you all know the truth and I am pretty sure our plan worked out and we will get through our English classes without any kind of trouble. And for all those of you who doubt my side of the story, the true one, here are some pictures to prove how much fun we had.

Sky Night - Game of Thrones

Many of you have probably heard of "Game of Thrones" before. It is one of the most successful TV series nowadays and is based of the books of the series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin. The book series consists of so far five books (two more are supposed to follow - God knows when) and each book equals one season of the TV series. Only a short while ago the 3rd season has been aired in the States and next week it will also start in Austria, on Sky. To promote this Sky launched a "Game of Thrones - Sky Night". The "Sky Night" took place in the KIZ Royal Cinema and Sky in cooperation with HBO showed the first two Episodes of the new season. In English of course. So Emina and I decided to go there, as we are both really into "Game of Throne". Not only was the movie absolutely free, they had also decorated the cinema, there was a promotion guy dressed as a monk and they had quizzes and prizes to win. Some people even came in costumes. Believe it or not, one guy wore an armour. All in all, I have to say I had a blast and the preview made me really curious about the 3rd season. :)

Cookie Monster

My brother is currently in his final year of school. Last week he had his written final exams and he was nervous especially about his maths exam. So as a lucky charm I decided to make him some cupcakes. But I wanted to make him some special ones and as he likes the Cookie Monster, I choose to try out a Cookie Monster cupcake recipe. The result was great and my brother loved them, so here is the recipe should you want to try them out yourself. :)
First make some basic muffins. After letting them cool down make the butter cream. Butter cream is basically nothing but butter and loads of sugar. Then add blue food coloring to get the nice fur color of the Cookie Monster. With a piping bag pipe on the blue butter cream on the muffins.

For the eyes you normally use white marshmallows but as I was not able to get some I used "Haribo Frösche". I cut of their heads to get them into a nice eye shape. With molten chocolate fix chocolate drops on them. Put the finished eyes on the cupcakes.

The last step is to break regular chocolate chip cookies into half and stick them on the cupcakes to make the cupcakes look like the Cookie Monster is about to eat a cookie. Aaaaaand voila, the Cookie Monster cupcakes are ready to be eaten. Enjoy. :D

Gingerbread Man

Last winter I wanted to make cute little gingerbread men as christmas presents for my best friends. I had found a good recipe and nice cutters shaped exactly the way a gingerbread man ought to look like and I was really excited. I had thought of everything to make unique and tasty presents.

Unfortunately I had not taken my family in account. They have a sweet tooth, probably the sweetest of all, and eat anything sweet that is not safely locked away. Needless to say my poor men didn't live to become presents. And although I was a little upset, it reminded me of a scene from Shrek where poor Gingerbread Man is being tortured. So, enjoy the scene and have a moment of silence for the gingerbread men. ;)

Food blog

While looking through different food blogs I happened to come across the blog of The Pioneer Woman.The blogger is called Ree Drummond, an American housewife. Her blog, although being a nice food blog, is more than that. It also has a homeschooling, home & garden and an entertainment section. I have decided to tell you about her blog because I love her writing stile. Not only leave her recipes and the pictures belonging to it you drooling, her post are also fun to read. More than once I caught myself smiling or laughing at something she had written down. First there is an introduction to the recipe explaining either why she loves it or why she chose to write about it now. Then she guides you through it pretty much like a mum taking her kid by the hand and showing her how to cook for the very first time. It is nice especially when you are not that used to cooking or baking. She also provides pictures for each and every step making sure nothing goes a miss. In the end you can find a short summary giving the bullet points. This is ideal if you don't want to read through the whole post or simply don't have the time. I especially liked her post about Cherry Sherbet as I am crazy about cherries. After reading thorough the entry I got an enormous craving for cherries. So now, I can't wait for summer to finally arrive that I can try the recipe out. Hurry up, sun. Make it hot again, because I want Cherry Sherbet! ;)

Kayaking

Today I found myself thinking about my last summer vacation in Canada. While doing a trip through Québec with my aunt, we came to a small village next to a Fjord. There we decided to do a guided kayaking tour and it turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences I had so far in my life. At first, I was a bit skeptic about going kayaking as I am not exactly a sporty person. However, soon I was overwhelmed. It was a beautiful and warm summer day and the water was really calm. The fjord was embedded in deep green because to either sides were hills covered with trees. And although you were in a group, you were able to enjoy the nature all by yourself in your little kayak. Like I said before, I absolutely loved it and I can only recomend you doing it as well should you ever get a chance to. :)

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Skype World Records

While skyping with my friend the other night we suddenly came to think about what the longest skype call might be and whether or not we could and should beat it. So we started doing some research and discovered that a girl from Sydney and her friend currently held the record as they managed to skype for 240 hours, 10 minutes and 23 seconds, which is about 10 days. The main rule is that there must be a continuous conversation the whole time. So we've decided that it's not that hard to do especially with freinds to help us by taking shifts.

The only problem is that there is a different record for that. Riley Wood and her friends managed to skype for 12.008 hours, four minutes and 31 seconds, which is about 500 days long.
So guess what, we've decided not to break the record, because after all we do have a (social) life. ;)
http://recordsetter.com/Skype-world-records

Being a birthday present

There is one day that for most people, especially young ones, can't come soon enough. Many kids or teens count the days and get more and more excited the closer it gets. Everyone has one. Everyone shares it with someone. Few know the ones they share the lucky day with and even fewer are related to them. It's birthdays I'm talking about and as you might have guessed it by now, I am one of the latter.
I was born on a very rainy and bitterly cold day at the beginning of september. Very soon after my arrival on earth the happy news spread fast. And as it happens, that same day my aunt and uncle in Canada heard about it. So when they told their youngest daughter, who was 9, about her new baby cousin, her eyes started to sparkel and she said happily: "This is the best birthday present. When will she get her?" For her it was clear, that someone born on HER birthday can only be a present for her and nothing else. As you can imagine it took quite some time to make her understand that I was not really her present.
Now, however, we love to joke about this story whenever our birthday comes up and she still calls me her birthday present. ;)

Flashmob

Hey guys, while skimming through YouTube to find some good videos for our SuK class I happened to come across this video of a flashmob at the University of Toronto. For those of you who don't know what a flashmob is I'll try to explain it briefly. A flashmob is a sudden action of a few to surprise and most of the time entertain others. Although it might seem improvised, it is well thought through and planned. Personally, I'd say that this particular flashmob is one of the best I've seen so far and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did. :)

Safety first

I love going abroad. Visiting other countries, listening to other languages, getting to know other cultures are all things I'm looking forward to whenever I'm in Austria. And the easiest way to get there is by flying. And although I really like getting on board a plane and just relax for the duration of the flight there's one thing I am really tired seeing. The safety instructions. Of course it's really important knowing how to behave in an emergency situation, but lets face it. I have seen it way too often and most of the time it's just a really bad and boring video and the board crew is equally bored while acting out nothing more than the absolutely necessary. As a result most of the passengers don't pay that much attention which can turn out to be a grave mistake. To go against this dangerous trend more and more airlines have come up with fun ideas to get the passangers' attention. Air New Zealand produced a video which I think is one of the best. Have fun watching it. :D

Yes, he can.

Four years ago, Barack Obama managed to talk himself into the heart of his fellow countrymen and became the 44th president of the United States. His saying: "Yes, we can." became famous and known all over the world. Everyone put his hope into this young and very charismatic man and thought he would fix all the problems the States had. However, one person alone and four years were not enough to do so. Their expectations were way too high and so this year, when it was time to elect the president many Americans ogled with the thought of voting Mitt Romney. And for quite some time it wasn't clear whether Romney or Obama would win.

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Now, finally it is over, the Americans have voted and the whole world has been anticipating their decision. And Barack Obama can call himself for four more years "The honorable" or "Mr. President".

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/06/us/politics/06-obama-election-n...