Gay in the NBA

Jason Collins, a 34-year-old very successful basketball player in the NBA, came out. He stated: “I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay.“

He wrote a very emphatic and detailed article for  "Sports Illustrated" talking about how he grew up, realized he was different and about the triggers that finally led to his decision to tell the world.
In the article, he explains his feelings and the whole situation vividly. One image that stays in mind is the following one:

“I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, "I'm different." If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand.“

The stir Collins’ coming out caused and the intense response from the media (Austrian newspapers usually don’t report about the NBA at all) made me realize that our society still has a far way to go. I mean shouldn’t we accept people for who they are, for their personality, and not judge them by their skin color or sexual orientation? Seriously, it doesn’t hurt anybody that Collins is gay (except maybe some infatuated female fans) and it definitely doesn’t diminish his success and skills as an athlete.

And still, his coming out is seen as a brave thing to do all over the world, which means there must be lurking dangers like intolerance or hostility everywhere. From my point of view this really shouldn’t be the case in the 21^st century anymore!

Sounds like a good motto, doesn't it?

English ≠ English ?!

Since the contents of some units that will be tested on our first PC deal with different "Englishes", I have recently been busy memorizing different English terms for one and the same thing. Of course, “different Englishes” refers to the varieties of English spoken in different parts of the world such as the US, Great Britain, the Caribbean Islands or India. 

Just out of curiosity I did some research and found out that English is the official language (or at least one of them) in over 50 countries. If anybody is interested in the detailed list, you can find it here:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/map_of_countries_where_english_is_an_official_language.pdf

Anyhow, considering the fact that English is spoken in so many countries, it’s not surprising that there are a lot of different English dialects and slangs. However, when I was younger, I always considered English as the “world language” which is uniform everywhere. Well, when I grew older, I realized that this is far from reality.

The first difference between “Englishes” I personally encountered was the one between British English and American English. In high school we were told that in these countries different words are sometimes used for the same thing. I have to admit that this didn’t really bother me then. If we were given two terms I usually tried to remember the simpler one, no matter if it was BE or AE. Now, since our university teacher told us to stick to one style of English, I’m paying a lot more attention to this matter.

By chance, I found this illustration on the Internet and noticed that there actually are a lot of words on it that we need to know for the PC. So I thought I’d share it with you. It might also be helpful for more visual learners. 

IHOP

Every good day starts out with a good breakfast – wouldn’t you agree? I’m not a morning person, but usually a decent breakfast lifts my spirits and provides me with some power for the day. Okay, now that probably sounded like a statement from a cereal advertisement, but it’s true. If I don’t get anything to eat in the morning, you can be sure I’ll be grumpy until I get something.

When I was in America, friends recommended me to visit IHOP, a US based restaurant chain specialized in breakfast foods. IHOP is an abbreviation for “International House Of Pancakes”. In 2012 there were over 1500 IHOPs in 50 states as well as in Canada, Mexico, Guatemala and Puerto Rico.

What really overwhelmed me when I went there for breakfast was the abundance of dishes to choose from. As I already mentioned, I’m not much good at anything before breakfast. So, sitting in front of the menu which contained all different kinds of pancakes, waffles, omelets, French toasts, crepes, burgers, sandwiches and every imaginable combination of those dishes, internally I was just like “I’d be happy with a roll and some jam please…”.  

However, after coping with this sensory overload, I decided on a “Split Decision Breakfast” consisting of two French toast triangles and two pancakes. It was delicious, needless to say that I completely stuffed myself. In the end, the meal turned out to rather be a brunch than a breakfast.

If somebody is curious for the menu of IHOP, here’s the link:

http://www.ihop.com/menus/main-menu

Mouthwatering, isn’t it?

Finally, I briefly have to tell you about my absolute favorite breakfast, which I also got to know overseas: Canadian pancakes with bacon and salted butter or – obviously – with maple syrup. There's no better way to start your day :D

Summer Hit 2013

"Here’s To Never Growing Up" – that’s the name of Avril Lavigne’s brand new single which has been released today! 

I’m not a hard core Avril Lavigne fan, but I like most of her songs and her music has kind of accompanied me while growing up…

I also associate her songs with starting to learn and love the English language. This might be because the first time I’ve heard about Avril Lavigne was in the first grade of high school. I had a young and ambitious English teacher and she tried to spark our excitement for English by giving us fill-in-the-blank lyrics of songs and having us complete them while listening. The first song was “My Happy Ending” by Avril Lavigne.  I really liked the song and bought her album “Under my skin” (I think that was one of the first CDs I bought). Later that year we were asked to do a presentation about our favorite artist and I did it about the Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne. I think what appealed to me was her natural style and the catchy tune of her songs.

I came across Avril’s songs in many situations of my life:

- I loved to sing “Complicated” and “My Happy Ending” at the PlayStation game “SingStars”.
- At a kid’s holiday camp I befriended a girl who was absolutely crazy about Avril Lavigne and even tried to look and dress like her.
- In 2007 I finally received a new “fashionable” mobile phone which was able to play downloaded mp3 files and could receive them via Bluetooth (oh, I remember all of this was so exciting back then!!) The first song a friend sent me was “Girlfriend”.
- The first concert I went to was Avril Lavigne playing in Leoben in 2008. (Among thousands of fans I even accidently met the girl I mentioned before!)
- I like to watch movies and Avril wrote two songs for movie soundtracks: “Keep Holding On” for the movie adaption of “Eragon” and “Alice” for the remake of “Alice in Wonderland”, directed by Tim Burton.

I have bought all of her albums so far (“Let Go”, “Under My Skin”, “The Best Damn Thing” and “Goodbye Lullaby”) and the funny thing is I never liked all of the songs instantly, but as time went by my taste changed and so there always were some songs I liked at a certain stage of my life.

A few days ago I got to know that her new single “Here’s To Never Growing Up” would be released on the 9^th of April, so today I thought I’d check it out. I’ve just listened to it for the first time and it seems to be a catchy, infectious, feel good song and I don’t know if it’s due to the first rays of sun that have brightened my mood immensely in the last few days but anyhow, I think this could become a summer hit song for 2013. 

If you're curious now - check it out: :)

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1556659/avril-lavignes-heres-to-never-growing-up-lands-early-listen

One time a year... Happy Easter!

One of the things I like most about Easter is the traditional Austrian Easter meal. It’s unique and I only get it this time a year, therefore it’s really special to me. Another reason why I am so attached to this custom is that it has stayed the same since I was a kid. For as long as I can remember I’ve joined my grandmother to the “Fleischweihe” (i.e. the blessing of traditional Easter food) in our local catholic church on Holy Saturday (the Saturday before Easter). Even though I’m protestant, this is the one time a year I attend a catholic service.
Back to the food: This year the pastor told us how the food we eat at Easter is actually connected to the spiritual reason behind Easter. Our traditional Easter meal consists of:

- Easter bread (which is sweet and has sugar on it but somehow still tastes like bread and can be combined with meat as well as with sweet stuff like jam). The pastor pointed out that it should remind us of Jesus as “Bread of Life”.

- Easter ham
Interestingly enough I learned that in the past lamb was eaten instead of pork. That is why it also served as a symbol for Jesus, the “Lamb of God”.

- Easter eggs
Probably the most famous food product eaten at Easter. Customarily, the eggs are colored. They stand for the resurrection, because like the chick leaves the darkness of the egg by pecking its way through the shell, Jesus left his tomb.

Apart from these three essential products, there can be added a lot more to make a perfect Easter meal. Some suggestions would be: vegetables like tomatoes, radish or carrots and something spicy like salt, pepper or horseradish. The Easter bread also tastes delicious combined with nothing but plain butter. I think there is a wide range of options for each kind of taste.
Finally, I’d like to show you a picture of my Easter meal 2013:

What the fudge?!

When I went to Michigan to visit some acquaintances last summer, they took me to a place called Mackinac Island. It is located in the northwestern part of lake Huron, almost on the edge to lake Michigan.

What really impressed me about this place were its peculiarities, starting with the pronunciation of “Mackinac”.  Most people are tempted to pronounce it with a hard “k” at the end making it sound like this: Mack-i-knack. However, I learned that the correct way to pronounce it is “Mackinaw“. All this confusion was caused by the French conquerors, who tried to pick up on words spoken by the local people and write them down in their own language.

Another remarkable fact about this island is that there are no motorized vehicles allowed on it. Therefore, all the traffic consists of bikes and horses. When a tree is cut, for example, the remains will be carried away by horse-drawn vehicles.

You can also take a tour around the Island on horse-drawn caravans. They will take you to magic places like Arch Rock where I took this wonderful picture.

Apart from all those experiences, my absolute favorite place on the island was (as I like to call it) “chocolate paradise”. It was actually a fudge store called “Murdick’s” on the main street of Mackinac Island. Up to that point I haven’t known fudge and therefore was barely impressed when I was told that Mackinac Island is famous for it. My opinion changed, when I entered Murdick’s. Oh, and by the way I'm not trying to promote Murdick's, there are many fudge stores lined up on the main street, but this was the one I happened to enter.

The air was filled with the sweet, mouth-watering smell of chocolate and on my left at the counter several different types of delicious, chocolaty fudge bars were displayed. On the right, even more impressive, the chocolatiers were working on their new creations and all the customers in the shop could watch them. I haven’t seen anything similar before. They poured the batter on a table and started to… well I can’t really explain this so I’d like to show you a video to get a better imagination of the process:

After working on the chocolate mixture for some minutes, creamy fudge bars slowly started to form. They were sliced into hand-sized pieces. Finally, all the spectators were given small squares of fudge to try. It was simply delicate. For me, being a chocolate addict, it was one of the best experiences ever.

I wish you sweet Easter holidays !!