The right to bear arms

In our last English lesson we talked about the American Gun Culture.
Every American has the right to bear arms - this means they are allowed to carry weapons. This right is fixed in the 2nd Amendment.
But why they are allowed to carry weapons?
The reason of this is the American history. When the Americans became independent, they had to struggle against the British government. So they need the weapons to fight against the British army, the redcoats.
Nowadays the Americans are still afraid that the bad government may come back, so they keep on carryng weapons.
The first settlers arrived on the East side of America and moved to the West. The people living at the frontiers needed the weapons to fight against animals and Native Americans. The Americans in the cities still have a stereotype of the so called "rednecks". They are uneducated, poor, fat, ... , and have guns.

Some weeks ago there was a congresswoman shoot in Arizona. The possible reason for this shooting is the health care bill.
I think it's better when not everyone is allowed to carry weapons, like in Austria. There would be less crime and less death people.

Thanksgiving - Black Friday

Thanksgiving was first celebrated in 1621 when the pilgrims invited the Native Americans to celebrate the harvest.
It is celebrated every year on the 4th Thursday of November. The familys stay together, give thanks for everything and have a typical thanksgiving meal. They eat for example turkeys, match potatoes, green beans, corn pudding.

The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday. It's the start of the Christmas shopping season. The shops open at 5 o'clock in the morning and grant discounts up to 50 %. People queue up the whole night to be the first to go into the shop.
I don't understand why they are doing this. I'm glad Black Friday isn't common in Austria.

Halloween

Halloween October 31st

Halloween is a shortened form of All Hallows' Eve.
Halloween means holy.
Eve is the day before a holy day.
Halloween was an ancient British Celtic festival.
At Halloween the souls of the dead returned.
People lit bonfires to frighten evil spirits.
Now bonfires are only burnt on November the 5th. Bonfire night.
Masks costumes ghosts
Witches on broomsticks with black cats...
skeletons, bats an spiders...
and Halloween lanterns
have all become part of Halloween.
Children play trick-or-treat.
They ask for a treat
hoping to get sweets.

Of course I searched my own halloween video. I chose this because I think the teacher had a funny idea to make an interesing halloween lesson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKviYiZhtZY

Farrah

Last lesson a student from the USA was with us. Her name is Farrah, she is 22 years old and comes from Maryland, near Washington DC. She studied German at university for about 3 years and now she wanted to see something new, that's why she came to Austria. She will stay until the end of May.
We asked Farrah which are the biggest differences between the USA and Austria. Her answer was that everything in the USA is much bigger! For example our 3rd biggest city Linz would be only the 122nd in the USA. But she says she really loves Austria. She loves the cities with the old buildings, the mountains, the snow and much more.
She also told us something about other places she had visited, for example the big and busy city New York or the smaller Washington DC. She also likes Germany and Greece, where she had been when she was young.
Of course we mentioned many other things, like the age of driving or drinking alcohol, and that the Americans love football and not soccer or skiing.
I think this was a very interesting lesson and I'm looking forward to have the chance to see Farrah again.

The development of advertising

At school we read an article which deals with the development of advertising. Advertising began in the 19th century, the early stages of Industrial Revolution, and was manly used to promote new and exotic products. But after some time there were more and more producer for the same products so brand-naming became necessary.
As a cause of the economic depression from 1873 to 1894 there were more products at the market than could be sold. So many of the small industrial firms realised that it would be better to combine with others and widen the range of products. This was when the phase of the monopoly capitalism and mass advertising started.
At the turn of the century, there was a big change in the soap trade. Instead of the anonymous bars of soap, distributed by wholesalers and door-to-door seller, the companies started more aggressive selling methods, for example Lord Leverhulme who "branded" his soap.
Lord Leverhulme realised that advertising should contain logical arguments as well as eye-catching slogans. Advertising had now reached the stage of persuasion and, as the writer E. S. Turner points out, many smaller firms were displaced by the bigger ones, because they couldn't afford the money for advertising.

My favorite spot is the Milchschnitte-spot, because I really like Milchschnitten. :)
In the spot to girls just arrive at home and want to have a snack. So one of them goes into the kitchen and puts a bottle of milk, some wheat and honey into the fridge. After some minutes time it makes a "pling" and the Milchschnitten are ready.

Trip To ITALY

Last week our class went on Sport- and Culture-Week to Italy, Bibione. It was a nice week with a lot of sunshine. I really enjoyed it and I wish I would be there now.

We started on Monday 8:00 p.m. and visited the town Udine in the afternoon. At 6 o'clock we arrived at our homes disposed by Villaggio Tourisico Internazionale. Of course we visited the beach and jumped into the sea.



On Tuesday we spent the whole day in Venice. I really love Venice, with all the bridges and small streets. To keep us busy our teachers gave us a "little" quiz about Venice. Those who found out the most things got a little price. So we were walking through the city for more than 3 hours and tried to answer the questions. In the end we asked some gondoliers and policemen. :)
After this torture we spent a comfortable evening on our veranda.



Wednesday morning we went to nearby forest to try to kill birds - just joking...we tried to hit a target with bow and arrow. This wasn't easy, I just hit it one time. In the afternoon we had some free time, which we spent on the beach. At 2 o'clock we all got a bike and rode to a beautiful old lighthouse in a bay. Wednesday was our sports day so we went to the disco in the evening. Unfortunately we were a little bit to loud (said the security) so they took away our Camping Cards.



On Tuesday we visited Marano Lagunare. There was nothing to do, so we took a lot of photos. In the afternoon we could decide if we wanted to play beach soccer, boccia or beach volleyball. I played beach volleyball and it was great fun. In the evening we were allowed to stay in Bibione until 1 o'clock. So we did.




Unfortunately we left on Friday 10 o'clock. But before Yvonne, Angelika, Werner and I watched the sunset. We arrived at Perg at 5 o'clock and I was happy when I met my bed.

This week was a great experience and I would regret if I hadn't been there.

Save the Planet

Last English lesson we had the subject "Let's go green". We talked about why there is the climate change and what we can do to save life on earth. Some of us made a presentation about these subjects. I really liked the presentation. It made clear that we have to do something for our planet, if we want to live on it for a longer time. They also mentioned two organizations which protect the planet: WWF and Greenpeace.

WWF stands for World Wildlife Fund and its mission is to save the environment and make a future where humans live in harmony with nature. I have already had a look at the website of WWF. It has a very clear structure and I think it explains very well what WWF is doing. So people, who want to join this organization, are able to find out what they are going to support.

Greenpeace, the other organization, stands for peace and protecting the environment as well. On the website they say, that they exist because our earth deserves a voice. The Greenpeace people often demonstrate and so show the public what is going wrong. If you join this organization, you really have to be satisfied on what you are doing, because the demonstrators often get arrested.

I think it's good that there are organizations which want to protect the world. But I don't think that they can change people. The can just show us what is going wrong and what we can do.
After this lesson I'm thinking about using my bicycle more often. This would be good for the environment and good for me too.