Amsterdam- A picturesque capital city

The most picturesque place I have ever been to is Amsterdam. With a population of 800,000 inhabitants it is the most densely populated city located in the Netherlands. Swift-flowing streams, which run through the city, present a charming flait, comparable with Venice. Additionally, numerous bridges and canals give expression to the place. At all events it is worthwhile to going on a cruise and to tour through the numerous canals because it is exhilarating to feel the wind blowing at one's back. By cruising around, there is the best opportunity for breathtaking views towards impressive structures, too. For instance, the capital city is surrounded by unique buildings with artistic ornementations as well as famous for its exceptional house constructions. Dutch houses consist of redbrick, are narrow and high with multible stories and sometimes even lopsided because in the Middle Ages houses near the stream, were built on stakes. Simply amazing! For allowing as much sunlight as possible, many houses features big windows with shutters all over the facade which seems very unique. In my opinion, Amsterdam is a stunning place, full of ancient grand architecture-simply picturesque.

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Recommendation for a trip to Berlin

Today I write with the desire to give you tips for a memorable vacation in Germany. The most important advice is that you should check the weather conditions before you start the trip. With reference to my experience, it was a completely rainy and cool one-week trip, only because of organization problems. The trip was too quickly arranged without looking at another possible period. 

But now we come to the real useful things. You should know that Berlin is famous for its numerous memorials of the second world war. So, it's essential to buy a Berlin City Tour Card because it could be beneficial and cheap if you plan to visit many museum, buildings with impressive architectural features and other historical places, where you normally have to pay high prices for gaining access. These cards take advantage of allowing to pay only half of the price for entries or offer the opportunity to combine two cultural places for interest for a lower price.  Even travel costs are free in and around the city with such a card. 

Thereby, there are a lot of places which are worthwhile to see. On all accounts you should visit the famous Berliner Zoo, former a meeting point of prostitution and nowadays a zoological garden with impressive facilities and adequate animal housing which you have never seen before. Also you should take time for an underground bunker tour. That means, a fascinating guided tour below the metro station. It is owed to this place to give shelter to people during the Second World War.  Besides the "Berliner Brandenburger Tor" or the "Kurfürstendamm" is a must-have to visit.

According to my mind, the only attraction you can skip is the "Dungeon", a journey through Berlins history it's said, but it's only juvenile and not worth the money. If you are interested in enjoying exotic meals, you should travel to "Charlottenburg", a place where various restaurants and bars stay side by side. I hope I could give you a general overview about the advantages of a city trip to Berlin and if you have further questions feel free to contact me.

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My planned summer trip to New York

This summer I am going to take a trip to New York  which is an astonishing city in the east coast of America and a central point for numerous tourists. The most densely populated city in the US is also known as the land of the American Dream. Many immigrants travel to the US to fulfill their dreams, unfortunately often for nothing.  Also I chose to travel to the US to fulfill my personal dream:

•  to get to know the American culture
• the American lifestyle
• and to make friends with inhabitants there.

For this reason, I am going to take a city trip to New York at the beginning of August for two weeks.  I'm going to stay in a youth hostel in the middle of the centre which costs are approximately 50 € per night, including breakfast. That's a very good deal because normally the prices are much higher for staying overnight in the middle of New York. My flight is booked too, it's a direct flight from Vienna to the Central Airport at 10:00 am on the third of August. All in all, I have to pay 1000 € for it. 

I will drive to Vienna by car. For saving money I want to place the car by my relatives, who surely are willed to drive me to the airport.  By arriving in the city, at all events I want to visit the Statue of Liberty ,which was the first glance immigrants took from far away, and afterwards I want to relax because of the jetlag and take the opportunity to eat anything. The following days I would like to see the Empire State Building and visit the musical "Cat" on the Broadway. I have also heard that the sight from the Rockefeller Center should be amazing. Another day I would like to use my leisure time to visit different museums, for instance the "American Museum of Natural History", the worlds' largest museum of this issue. Of course the IMAX cinema is a requisite, and because of my strong interest in animals I also have to visit the Bronx Zoo. There are a lot of exceptional animal species which are threatened of extinction. I think, most of these sightseeing I will manage by tram or by train.

Once a vacation I am going to borrow a bike to drive along the centre because that's the best opportunity to see the marvelous city. At least one time, I also want to venture to go out at night. I have heard the nightlife in America should be amazing. I want to search for a disco to make party and to chum up with Americans. A problem is that I have to pay attention to my money I am going to spend. I have planned for my trip to spend 2.500 € and not more. Because of the expenditure in the hotel and the flight there is not much left, except for 800 €. So, I have to use it economical. Probably it's not possible to visit a restaurant every evening. Mercifully, there are enough fast food chains between which I can choose by shortage of money. However, I think that the city trip will be worthwhile and I'm really looking forward to it.

Suicide Forums

Suicide Forums are a significant topic to talk about in our today’s society. More and more foolish teenagers and young adults are looking for suicide instructions by navigating through the Internet. Young women and men, particularly between the age of 13 and 25, subscribe to such Web pages, post their mood in there and ask question about suicide, whereupon all visitors of the Web page are free to answer.

In Germany there are about 30 of such Forums, worldwide the number is much higher. It’s an intimidating development, which should be stopped before it’s too late. On the one hand, young boys and girls can make an appointment for dying side-by-side and on the other hand ,it’s possible to talk about worries and problems with each other, to get information about different suicide methods as well as an easy procurement of medicines when someone is willing to die alone and without much effort. These Forums are a hype because immature people think it’s a solution for all their problems.

It’s very dangerous to deal too much with Suicide Forums because everyone can become addicted easily. By surfing unsuspectingly and without any dangerous thoughts through the Web, people discover such Forums and are fascinated at once. Some people even belief that they can help suicidal persons and deal at some point with their own suicide thoughts, due to being encouraged through chatting with suicidal persons. Drifting away from the real world and being totally focused on the Forums are the first and dangerous step into becoming a victim. It’s like a vicious circle. If you start to enter this world, it’s not easy to get out. So, we should be aware of the unknown and keep distance.

 

 

 

Differences of stuying two languages

Today, I want to concern myself with the differences of the Transcultural Communication studies. Studying English and studying Spanish, my second language, are different in a number of significant ways. Studying two languages means that there are opportunities to get various insights into the behavior and into the culture of Spanish-speaking as well as English-, or American-speaking people. In Spain or Latin America, for example, people are more open-minded and relaxed in contrast to England or America. Additionally, Spanish-speaking people tend to celebrate due to any issue, such as the “Dia al lupo“, in which death family members or relatives are honored once a year.  Apart from that, the body language and the writing type of the Spanish and English language differ very much. In the former, the use of the body language is more common, next to the use of many apostrophes and wavy lines in opposite to the English language. Lastly, the challenge of both languages studies vary greatly. In the English course, much more basic knowledge is expected and the number of tasks is enormous, as opposed to the Spanish course. So, you have to keep in mind that studying two languages haven’t much in common and differ in several ways.

 

 

 

My opinion about obesity in America

America is a country with unlimited opportunities, the land of the American Way Of Life where a huge number of obese people live, that's a fact. According to the film "Super Size Me", about 100 million Americans are obese and 400.000 of American people a year fall ill because of eating the wrong food. But what is the reason behind consuming piles of food? It's the media which shows regular advertising spots on TV about food products consisting of sugar and other unhealthy ingredients? Or it's after all, the attitude of Americans towards their life-style? Or is there even an ideal of beauty behind the American eating culture? 

In my opinion, the rise of Mc Donald's is the reason for gaining weight rapidly. With the foundation of the fast food chain, America experienced a boom in eating high-calorie food. One in four Americans visits every day Mc Donald's in order to eat burgers and chips. But at the beginning many Americans weren't aware of the drawbacks such products could have for their health. They had never cared about the future and consequences that could arise. So, Diabetes, Asthma, high blood-pressure and mobility restrictions are only some of the illnesses an overweight person could get. It is also proven that obesity is a well-known cause of heart attacks. In 2006 425,425 people died because of such attacks, as Morgan Spurlock’s film, as mentioned above, displayed. Mainly children suffer in later life because they tend to gain weight very fast. 

Lastly, it's to realize that America is not only the country with many opportunities, but also the land with the most unhealthy people worldwide.

Jon Brower Minnoch from U.S. (1941-1983) 
heaviest human being ever recorded, around 635 kilogram

Reasons fot the War between Southern and Northern states

One of many things, that really surprised me about my CLI, War of Northern Aggression, was that slavery was an important factor for the beginning of the war. The North refused slavery whereas the South deployed slaves for farming and the houshold. Though not only in the war between the states, but also throughout American history slavery was an important issue. For this reason, it's important to know some background information for getting an understanding of the suffering slaves faced in former times. It's unbelievable that slaves were treated like animals, only with the aim to illustrate that they are the second-class after the white population. They had no right to vote, no civil rights, were discriminated, and even sometimes persecuted and murdered.

As regards all the efforts that were made to gain freedom, for instance losing land and family in order to rescue themselves, or fighting battles, it's needless to say that this success didn't come easy way. Considering that not until the Emancipation Proclamation, that was signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, abolished slavery, slaves had an day-to-day battle to survive. Additionally, it's often forgotten that disagreements about the constant taxation increase of imported goods in the South, the aim of expand slavery westwards and the fight for an independent South, played an important role in the outbreak of war.

All in all, the War of Northern Aggression was the central point in Americans history and started because of many different reasons.

The live in Favelas

Do you know what it's like living a Favela? No? Perhaps you should be more open-minded to other cultures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela,
 http://livewire.amnesty.org/2013/08/06/living-without-security-in-rios-largest-favela/, http://org.elon.edu/brazilmagazine/2005/article1.htm).

Favela means a residential area and is another word for ashanty town. The term Favela derives from the Portuguese language and is coined by a climbing plant. Those areas are important to think about because they should remind us of the poor living conditions and prospects of their inhabitants, even nowadays, and therefore shouldn't sink into oblivion.

The first Favela were founded in the late 19th century and were built by soldiers who had nowhere to live. People, who settled there, at the suburb of a town, were mainly slaves with no work. By the same token, Favelas will be associated with extremely poverty and unemployment. Only criminal circumstances rein the population. Illegal activities, such as drug dealing, especially cocaine, or weapon treat, lead to enormous mortality rates, and these affect mainly brazil, the central point of Favelas. 

In Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, is one of the numerous so-called slums. There, boys especially, have to participate in dealing with drugs or handling with weapons very early to survive. A big problem is, that the police is such a minority that they can't do something against crime and prevent children from harm. They have to accept the circumstances in Favelas and some of the officers even dealing with people there.

Besides a high criminal rate, bad living conditions make the survival hard. The population is very poor, without education possibilities and future chances. Owing to the fact that it's a very dangerous area, you should realize that the population there won't reach a high age. Most of the inhabitants reach a middle-age of only 34 years and being in a criminal band, reduces a live even more!

Concluding, we should keep in mind that there are existing suburbs behind our imagine and that we should be aware of cultures surrounding our petty innocent lives.

Here is a link for better understanding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGXjNCGiEVw

The living and suffering in a multioptional society

Today we are living in a society which is full of new opportunities and changes in all aspects of life. No matter if religious, technical or educational possibilities, nowadays we are capable of choosing our own way. An individualization and a development of our personality occurs which gives the life a common sense and possibilities to unfold one's abilities. We are free and can search our own way of happiness. 

But there are also a lot of side-effects. The large number of opportunities is too much for our population, we are stressed and tense because we are indecisive which way we should choose and worried about it if it could be the wrong way or not. 

For instance, the topic religion should be discussed shortly. Former, there was only one religion, but today there are so much influences of different cultures, that we don't know which religion, belief or spiritual experience we should accept. As consequence, people tend to secularize or they adopt various religions, but in the end there is no satisfied solution. There are so much decisions to take that we are utterly overtaxed and in danger of losing our identity. 

Next to religion, we should also take a glance on technical issues. We are a consuming and very materialistic society and therefore, a huge amount of money on videogames, mobile phones and other is spent, but the question is how long do we have these electronic things. One week later, a better game or phone is put on the market and we are dissatisfied because we have the old version. The development and improvement is becoming faster and faster, nothing is good enough and works well enough . 

Likewise, we have the problem with our education. As young people we have so much opportunities to study and to work that we don't know where we should begin. Former, with an A-levels degree there was no problem to get a well-paid job. But the present is more complicated. Without a final qualification there is not even a chance to pursue a career or to set up an own firm. Even with a university degree it's very hard to get a job, especially a job you want to have. There is less offer than demand on the market, due to so many students, and also the world crisis bears the blame. However, what should the future look like? Will there be a grade after grade to have to reach? Should we study till the fiftyish until it's possible to get the profession we want to reach and to have a secure future? 

In my opinion, that's the suffering of a multioptional society, it's an endless process in improving because we will be never satisfied with our achievements and we have to work harder and harder to survive. It's a pity, or?

Does hair colour has an effect on personality?

The hair colour could possibly play an specific role on the character of women, researchers found out. In the ancient world already, people has dyed their hair. Owing to the fact that red-haired women were often accused of being a witch, there was no other opportunity as changing their hair colour if they didn't want to be persuaded and burned afterwards. 

Nowadays though, the attraction is center of attention of dyeing. But the question is if there is a truth behind the opinion that the character of people depends on their hair colour? 

Blonde women, for instance, should be more colder and more carless about other people feelings, whereas dark-haired ones should be very temperamental, bad-tempered and self-conscious, especially women with a latin touch. Women with auburn hair in turn, should be very modest and even-tempered and relaxed. Red-haired women, on the other hand, normally should be very moody, and tend to unconventional actions. Apart from that, it's said that they should have a very open sexual temper. 

These results vary although because also certain circumstances like the social environment influences the behavior and character of women. Babies with fair hair colours especially, strikes people as being very innocent, cute and beautiful. As consequence, parents try to fight against many compliments their baby get and treat his or her in a very unfriendly way, which could be a reason for a colder character in later life. 

By and large, it's to say that these prejudices about characteristics depending on hair colours are no reliable origin, they can be correct, but they don't have to. 

Extremely body modification-ordeal or tradition?

In Thailand lives a folk, the Padaung folk, which has other feminine beauty ideals compared to the rest of the world. It's unbelievable, but in a small little province in Northern Thailand women tend to wear a specific jewelry around their neck because it's a symbol for prettiness and social reputation. Instead of rings, a world-wide misbelief, a spiral is wounded around their necks. The longer the spiral is, the better is their regard and their change for getting married. With the age of five, youngsters get their first jewelry already and after two or three years they get a longer one. Until the age of 30 or 40, the spiral is extended. Women are very proud of the decoration around their neck because it has a highly meaning for them.

The pain although, is neglected. During the procedure of wounding volutes around their necks, the spirals will be adopted to their bodies by the hands of strong women and this causes ache because the volutes rub against their flesh. Former consisted of brass, the golden spirals can even weigh to 10 kilograms and get a lenght of about 40 centimeters. The bones of the cervical spines of the so-called "Long Neck Karen" are deformed thereby and the collarbones are pushed down. As a result, their necks seem stretched. The drawbacks are that the skeletal muscles of the necks weaken and that women aren't able to bear their head any longer by themselves.Next to absorption pain, the risk of neck fraction is also increased and hygiene is disregarded. Also the vocal cord could be stimulated, which produces a dull sound in the throat. The liberty of action is limited too, but not only because of the volutes around the neck, even arms and the part under their knees can be covered by spirals.

Nevertheless, the extremely body modification is a tradition which has been adopted since years, and women aren't aware of the health effects. Nowadays this method is even practised in public because the province has opened their doors for tourists and other custom-interested persons. It's amazing that this fashion-appearance exists till today and that it's being accepted from the public.

Here you can watch a video about the custom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL8ARB5FmsA

What's your opinion about that? Simple tradition and beauty or crualty to deform bones?

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The health care system of America- a prejudice?

Hello everybody. Today I will write about the health care system in America because I'm interested why some people get the opportunity of a very good medical treatment, whereas others don't even have access to a health insurance. Due to this reputation of a bad health care system in America I was curious to find out more about it and to checking their validity. It's all just a rumor or is there more behind it? And what is actually the origin of prejudices about the American health care system? Where are they come from?

It wasn't easy to find out more about this prejudices, but finally I discovered that thanks to the documentation Sicko, which Michael More published in 2006, a discussion about the bad health care system provoked. An important point of this film is the dependence of the health care insurance to the work place, which means that only employees who work, have access to an insurance. Independent firms with the name Blue Cross or Blue Shield insure the staff by regular monthly payments and grant therefore a comprehensive insurance, including many free preventive services, physician visits, hospital stays and prescriptions.

But apart from that, even poorer, chronically ill, disabled and older people have since 1965 the opportunity of health care, due to public insurances like Medicaid and Medicare. Whereas Medicare is an insurance for seniors, disabled and chronically ill people, Medicaid is for people who can't afford a normal insurance. A minority even is private insured, but only the higher-middle class and some of the middle class can allow themselves this luxury of a comprehensive insurance.

Nevertheless there are over 50 millions of people which don't have enough money for a private health care insurance, but don't earn so less that they get a public insurance. Besides of this fact, also not all of the employees are insured by their employees or lose the insurance because of a change of employment and a fifth of them are illegal immigrants. So a lot of people aren't in the pleasure of getting an adequate and high-qualified insurance, and also the so-called "Obama Care" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKMwJ0ScK5g), which should covers over 97 percentage of people, wasn't successful yet and is heated discussed . A further point to mention is the high infant mortality, which is not even in cuba as high as in America which confirms a bad health care system also.

Another problem is that America is the country with the most expensive health care spending. There are between two and three billions of money a year that America invests on health care. Even the spending per capita amounts for the double quantity of what Germany spends. Since 1980 the health care costs are even increased about the tenfold what America normally was used to invest and altogether the amount of money is accounting for over 18 billion of the gross domestic product. Medicare especially has a lot of costs because plenty of people are getting older and older and therefore people tend to use health care longer as before.

When costs don't stop, soon it could be that you can read everywhere:

It's ridiculous.

To sum up, it's to say that nothing has changed with the new reform Obama Care. The health care system remains as usual a cost-expensive system and only people who are insured by their employers, those who can afford a private insurance, or fall into the category of Medicare or Medicaid are guaranteed comprehensive services. So, prejudices can still be truth, and who is interested can watch this link at the end which confirms the bad health care system: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoZDAS832lA

Links used:
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/amerikanisches-gesundheitssystem-teuer-und-gut-aber-nicht-fuer-alle-11803148.html
http://www.welt.de/kultur/article991330/Die-heilenden-Haende-des-Michael-Moore.html

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Halloween

In speedy anticipation on Halloween I just have thought to write a little bit about this interesting and funny custom of which nobody seems to know something accurately in every detail, but everyone is looking forward to this old tradition.

So here I start: Halloween's origins date back to the Celtic festival of Samhain, which is an area somewhere in Ireland. They celebrated it on the end of October, which markes the end of summer and the beginning of a dark and cold winter, which often was linked with death in early times. Already then, Druids believed that the ghosts of loved family members, friends, relatives and others come back to earth, because only at this time the boundaries between the living and the death world is open. To commemorate the ghosts the Celtic folk sacrificed different things and dressed themselves in costumes, which had the look of animal heads or skin.

After a while, the Celtic country was conquered by the Roman Empire and the Roman population was fascinated by the habit and adopted it. In the sixth century finally the former pope of Rome decided to flag this important day as a religious fest and called it "All Souls Day", which meant that also saints and martyrs were included. This naming was the meaningful step to spread this custom all over the world. After phrases like "All-hallows" or "All-hallowmas" or "All-hallows Eve" the popular vocable "Halloween" arised finally, which was accepted by different cultures.

Besides in the nineteenth century Irish immigrants came to America and distributed their rites (where it had found the biggest appeal ever and started the "trick or treat" tradition), while in the meantime through different believes and customs from diverse Europeans British people developed a similar American version of Halloween.

In addition to his nice story I have to say that before some time I had never reflected on Halloween and I never had the idea to celebrate it too. Neither I had thought about the whole history of the origin and that it's an Irish rite, nor I was interested in celebrating it. I only had the pumpkins, the sweets and the "trick or treat" custom in mind, when I thought about the rite. I had also never known, that there are different kinds of games in several countries like "snapping the apple", treasure hunts with candies or sweets as treasure, the card game where you can discover things underneath the cards and I never realized, that the typical trick "knock-a-dolly" occured due to Halloween.

Americans particularly love the custom. It's especially unbelievable, that the American folk is willing to spent so much money on Halloween, partly due to sweets and games. According to this link http://sethssources.wordpress.com/category/economics/ they spent in general more than seven billion dollars for this saint festival once a year.  And the minority even dresses their pets. They are crazy I would say.

It's also very interesting when you know, that Halloween is celebrated in Spain and Latin countries too, because it's incredible that so many different cultures revel it. They honour by sacrificial offerings like flowers, sweets or lights, lying on tombs, the dead bodies, in hope to support them by finding their way back to the earth.  However, no other countries celebrate Halloween with such a firm conviction as the Americans.

I think with this historical knowledge about the origin of Halloween, the spreading and the different customs, I will now follow this rite in a more friendly way. Nevertheless it's still the problem that in Austria Halloween isn't a big number yet. Too less people really celebrate it, which means that we have to work on our culture knowledge more intensely to really identify ourselves with the custom.