Excited!

This summer I am finally going to Scotland! For some years now my parents went to England for a few weeks in summer but this time they decided to visit the Hebrides and I am going to stay with them for a week. I am very excited and a bit nervous because even though we watched some documentaries together I can’t really imagine how it is going to be like. We also have to go there by plane, which I hate, and change plains two times. Taking off and landing is awful one time but three times? I am sure though that it is going to be worth it because I have never been somewhere like that. There is not much to see in the sense of cities and museums and all that but simply nature, a lot of it at that. I think we are all going to enjoy a lot of walking and hopefully we are going to see some amazing landscape and wild animals. Most of all I hope that the weather won’t be too bad because if there is a storm coming from the Atlantic Ocean we are going to be the first ones to feel it. I would love to write more about it but as I still can’t imagine how it’s going to be like besides amazing (I hope) and that we are going to see a ton of beautiful nature and some stone circles. What I can tell you though is that I am going to fly from Vienna to Heathrow, from Heathrow to Glasgow and from there to Stornoway which lies on the Outer Hebrides. I am really excited and I hope to be able to tell you more about it after I have been there in summer.

The orange-y yellow part are the Outer Hebrides and in the North right under Port Nis lies Stornoway, that's where my plain is going to land.

Look at that, is't it beautiful?

Some seals

The Standing Stones of Callanish

From A to B

There is one thing I still wanted to talk about when it comes to travelling and that are the ways you can travel. There are so many different ways you can get from A to B but not all have the same value. What I mean is that every single way of traveling has its own special features for example if you go by car from Austria to England you will most likely have to take a longer break somewhere along the way, the upside is that you can visit places and make the journey part of the adventure. The reason why I want to write about this is because I think the journey is an important part of your travels. It can consume quite much time so in my opinions it is very important to look at all the options and then decide what suits you best.


Let’s begin with going somewhere by car. It may be a fast and even cheap option if it comes to shorter distances but the problem is that at least one of the people going with you has to drive so the journey will probably be much more exhausting, even take turns driving. Beside that though there are quite some advantages. For one if you go by car you can take as much language with you as you want, unless it doesn’t fit into the car anymore, than that 

might me a bit too much, unlike if you go by plane where you have to pay for every kilo your language weights more than it should. Furthermore, if you have planned out the rout you are going to take you can just plan in short or longer stops, visiting places that lay on the way. The lovely little town somewhere in Belgium you heard your friends talk about, why not take a detour and see for yourself? Last but not least, when you finally reached your goal you have your car with you and don’t have to rent one or use public transport to go places. So going by car has in fact many positive sites and few negative sites to it and even though you can’t go really far away, like from Europe to America, it’s still worth considering.

The second option is going by train or bus and again you can’t really go that far unless you want to spend day after day doing nothing else but watch the landscape go by. Using public transport like trains is for many people not only one way to travel but also their only way to get to work. But let’s leave work aside for now. Going by either train or bus can come very cheap which might be good for young people who don’t yet earn their own money. You don’t even have to drive yourself because someone else already does that. The problem is though that you should probably not take too much language with you

because you somehow have to get it to the bus/train and away from it again. Neither can you just say you have heard about a place worth visiting and ask if you could go there for a bit, not on a bus and even less on a train. What you can do thought, at least if you go by train is that you could just get off at one stop, lock your language somewhere and get on the next train again after having visited the village where you went off the train. Especially for train rides there are several different discounts which can make your traveling experience even cheaper. This option, going my train or bus can be quite enjoyable, watching the landscape go by, not having to do anything and it can be really cheap (but if you don’t look long or close enough it can be awfully expensive). The downside is though that it takes a long time and you can’t take too much language with you.

The third and last one I want to talk about is flying. I personally hate it but this entry shouldn’t really be about what I like or dislike. Flying, a very quick way to get to places very far away. You could go practically anywhere on earth by plane, from Europe to Australia, from Australia do America, to Africa, China, Russia and Canada. Flying can be really expensive thought, at least for young people unless they find an offer somewhere for example going to Greece for one week, staying at a hotel plus flight, for so and so much money. But even despite the fact that you can go places you wouldn’t be able to go to any

other way and that it, in comparison to other options, doesn’t take too long to get there, many people don’t like flying. There are enough who enjoy it, the feeling when the plane takes off, seeing the ground underneath and the

sensation while landing. Going by plane can be very tiring though, the check in, security, finding your gate, hoping to not miss your plane and little space on the plane itself. If you add now that your language can only have a certain weight and that you are afraid of flying, it can be quite horrifying. Nevertheless is it a very save way to travel and go somewhere far, far away so in fact flying is quite a miracle.

Reading all that what’s your favourite way of traveling?

Personally I am afraid of flying but really like the fact that I can go places I couldn’t go to any other way. I also greatly enjoy going by train, especially if there are friends with me.  

Green, Green, Green

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen!

Today on this beautiful cold and foggy day I would really like to talk to you about something Irish. Living in a little town where the only place you can go to on a weekend, and not go deaf because of the booming music, is the local Irish Pub I prefer to go drink my beer there instead of anywhere else. Liking the atmosphere in the Pub and that you can still have a conversation without shouting at each other my sister and of our friends go there as well. It's no wonder now that we all have heard about St. Patrick’s Day, where the Pub is stuffed and everybody is dressed in green. Thinking back it's a bit funny how all these people celebrate something they probably know nothing about except that it is just really awesome to wear green and have a shamrock painted on your cheek. There is green coloured Cider and silly hats to be won too, so who wouldn't want to join in? I really have no problem with people having fun ,and all and I have to admit I didn't know much about St. Patrick until a little while ago, but wouldn't it be wise and respectful to actually know what you are celebrating?

For the upcoming St. Patrick's Day on the 17^th of March, the anniversary of Saint Patrick's death, let's just have a little crash course. For example did you know that he was from Scotland, got captured by Irish fishermen who took him to Ireland and kept him as a slave? In this time, working outside, being lonely and afraid he turned to God and became a faithful Christian. He managed to escape after around six years and went home but returned later as a missionary. Knowing the language of the Irish and their traditions he tried to bring God into their lives. Using is knowledge of the people and their lives to his advantage Patrick did not only use traditionally Christian symbols but combined them with those the people he tried to convert already knew. For example he added a sun to the cross creating the Celtic cross, making the importance of his religion easier to grasp for the Irish people. He also used the three-leafed shamrock to explain to them the trinity. Additionally Patrick was said to have banished all snakes from Ireland but it's thought to be a symbol of him bringing Christianity to the people, triumphing over Paganism. Today he is a patriotic symbol and there are many traditions with either a strong connection with religion or national identity. As I said before Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17^th and is both a holy day and a national holiday in Ireland.

 

I don't know about you but in my opinion people should at least know whom they are celebrating, not only because it's interesting but because it shows a certain kind of respect for the traditions of other people. I personally would feel bad if Irish owner of our local pub would ask me what St. Patrick's Day is about and not have a clue.

But enough of that, I would really appreciate your opinion on this matter. Is it important for you to know things like that? Is it disrespectful to not know at least a bit about the celebration you are joining?

Wait, that's supposed to be armour?

character from World of Warcraft

Yes, yes indeed, that revealing piece of cloth that looks like a bikini is meant to be full body protection. Oh and don't fret! No one would ever think about stabbing you in the stomach or shooting an arrow trough your heart.

In many online games it seems as though women have some kind of magical power to protect their most vulnerable parts. Parts like the chest and stomach that should be covered unless you wish to die in the first seconds of a fight. In MMOs though that doesn't matter. For some reason, either the enemies are too stupid to actually hit the large target that presents itself or female characters have indeed powers I wasn't aware of. In any case, this is the first reason I personally and probably many other women do not like to play online games.

The way female characters are dressed in MMOs always bothered me. Not only is there no logic behind their attire but also does it feel like they are only there to please the male gamers eye. I don't mean to say that all men like how women look in those games but they are clearly designed to do so. It is just really strange to walk into a fight, wearing nothing but a metal bra and a short skirt while the male characters wear heavy armour with broad shoulders, sticking their iron clad chest out in a proud manner. But sadly the sexism doesn't end here. As a woman playing a video game, especially online, you will most likely become victim to harassment and before that, you are told that you will never be as good as a man. I do want to stress that not all men are like this but there are still far too many out there that really think that way.

characters from League of Legends

So let me just summarize everything until that point. Before a woman even starts to play a game she will probably have heard in one or another way that games are for men and that she won't ever be as good as one of them no matter how much she tries. After that she is confronted with does absolutely unrealistic looks and armour, luckily you don't have to choose to play your own gender. Maybe she chooses a female or a male but the fun begins when men find out they are playing with a woman. Suddenly she is called names, being told that she is a bad gamer, that she doesn't belong, she should go back into the kitchen or just have sex with them. They are not all like this but those things happen.

There is something really sad I want to talk about at this point because online games are not only a battleground where men stand against women but men against men as well. I have read several comments to articles regarding the way females are treated in-game and some men said that if women want to be seen as equals they should stop whining because men don't treat each other any differently. In my opinion this is awful and I don't understand how this can be fun at all. Online games look like a battleground to me, a war zone and not because the game developers intended to throw the player into a war like environment but because everyone is fighting each other and not because the game demands it.

Knowing all this it's no surprise to me than many women stop playing online games or try to hind their identity. As a consequence of constant harassment there aren't that many all female groups entering tournaments, neither are there many females joining other groups. Which doesn't mean that women aren't capable of being professional gamer for example Kat "Mystik" Gunn .

Despite the fact that female gamers aren't any worse than male gamers there are still many men out there thinking that, only because they are male, they have an advantage over women. To some extend that's true but not because men are better than women but because female gamer have to endure much more negativity and have to fight much harder to be accepted. We don't start from even grounds.

I now have come to the end of my entry but before I go and leave you to your thoughts I want to thank every man, every male gamer that treated me and my sister with respect, seeing us as equals and thank you to all the women who did not think I am crazy for playing video games.

Short video about female gamers:
Just A Game

Formal vs. Informal

I am sure that you all have asked yourself the question “Am I too formal/informal?” one time or the other. It's not always easy to figure out what is right for the moment and it becomes especially difficult if you aren't writing or talking in your native language. I am going to write this from the point of view of a German speaker and for me the lack of “Sie”, “Ihnen”, “Ihr” and so on and so on, is the first difficulty I encounter when I try to be formal in English. In English you only use “you” and “yours” and that in both formal and informal situations. The first hurdle is now to figure out how to make a difference between those two ways of talking without constantly stepping on someone’s toes?

First of all you should definitely know whom you are talking to, I don't mean that you have to know if they are married, have children and where they live, simply try to be aware of the situation you are in. You should probably figure out if you are talking to a friend or not, if you are talking to a person who is at work and needs to be professional, someone who has a higher status, is quite a bit older than you or just does not like you enough to let you become informal with them. Now that you know what you are dealing with the rest shouldn't be as hard, should it? But what do you do if you would normally say “Verzeihen Sie mir, aber könnten Sie mir bitte helfen?” or “Entschuldigen Sie, könnten Sie mir vielleicht sagen, wer hierfür zuständig ist?”? One possibility would be “Sorry but could you help me?” and “Sorry but who is in charge of this?”. I seriously hope you won't talk to anyone like that if you have to be formal though but rather like this, “Excuse me but could you please help me?” and “Excuse me but do you, by any chance, know who is in charge of this?”. Sounds better, doesn't it? I am certainly not an expert on this topic (yet) but I would still go with the second pair of questions.

Talking and writing formally isn't the only thing you should know about though. While I have been roaming around the internet and have been chatting with some people from America and Canada something caught my eye. I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact that some people are just more open when writing or if it has something to do with their heritage but they seemed to be much more friendly and open than I would be. For example, when I write someone for the first time I am rather reserved and try to not offend and to not make any mistakes which makes my language a hint more formal even though I am in an informal environment. It is like I am still trying to keep my distance while trying to be polite in an informal way. The people that answered me would call me “friend” or “sweetheart” much earlier than I would. So to not offend someone with your way of talking you have to be aware of where they come from because their attitude towards what you say can differ from yours, just like the way you greet someone. Some people bow, some shake their hands, some just smile and it all has to do with where they where brought up, where they live and what their traditions are.

So besides knowing some grammar and vocabulary in a language, especially in an other one than your first, it's also crucial to know whom you are talking to and in what situation you are in right now. Even if you know all the grammar and know a massive amount of words, you probably will step on someone's toes and offend them if you are not aware that there is more to communication and more to formal and informal language than simple rules.
Observe, ask, make mistakes and learn from them, all that will help you to have a conversation without having to constantly ask yourself if you are doing well or not. I have to admit though, figuring out when to use what kind of language is trick and I suspect that it will get easier with the years and some practice.

North or South?

That's an important question if you are planing your next holiday or intend to travel somewhere with someone. It's also a topic some couples are quarrelling over every year when the time comes to decide where they want to go in their precious time away from school, university or work. Most people I talked about this preferred the South over the North and why not? It's hot, the sun is shining (mostly) and most of all, the sea is warm enough to swim in it without having to squeeze yourself into a wetsuit so you won't freeze into a solid block of ice.

But what is it that draws other people into the North? Is it the cold, the never ending rain, the grey clouds in the sky? Maybe. As one of those people I would like to try and answer that question, or at least why I would rather go travel somewhere into the North.

The first reason is indeed the weather because even though I enjoy the hot weather of summer to some extend I simply can't stand the heat that it can have in the South. I also like rain and clouds and the way the wind blows them over the sky. Another reason would be the landscape and plants that grow in different places. I don't like it when everything looks brown because the sun burned it down. There might be seasons where it is green in Italy, Croatia and Greece and so on but I mostly get to see the vegetation in a dried out state, except of maybe olive trees and some shrubs. I do admit that I might like warmer countries better if I would visit them in winter, spring or autumn. There might be fewer people there too. I just like the colour green which probably automatically draws me to regions were trees grow tall with majestic crowns of leaves or needles and where the grass is soft and green. Something else that is really important for me is my imagination. That might sound a bit strange to some but for me a place as to inspire me to think, write or draw and for a long time I mostly got my inspiration from places with similar climate than where I live or colder. Only in my final year of school did I start to see the beauty in stories that take place in warm regions. All in all I would say that I generally like green places with castles on hills and deep forests. Places where the houses have thick walls to keep out the cold but I could also learn to love different things as well and I think I am right in the middle of doing so.