Friday 30 March 2007

Americans, Americans...

I just watched "Voices from the Mother Country" and "Americans are NOT stupid" In case you haven't seen it yet, go watch it!! It's really funny, especially the second one.
In the first video clip poeple are asked to describe what Americans are like. The people interviewed, mainly Britons, all had similar opinions of Americans. More than one said that they were loud, pushy, over-powering, brash and (over-) confident but also friendly, pleasant, generous and hospital. They all came to the conclusion that Americans aren't very inhibited but say what's on their mind.
The second vidio clip is much more entertaining. An Aussie wants to prove how stupid Americans are and that they don't know anything about the world. So he goes around and asks questions like "what's the religion of Israel?", "Kofi Anan is a coffee, true or false?" or "how many sides has a triangle?" It's obvious that he only interviewed the most stupid people and then only showed those who didn't have a clue of anything at all. But still, let me tell you something you surely didn't know before:
- The religion of Israel is Israeli
- Fidel Castro is a singer
- A triangle has no sides
- The currency of the UK is American money
- Italy and Canada should be invaded in terms of the war on terror
- Tony Blair is a skater
- Florida, NY and a couple of other US states are in the axis of evil
- a mosque is an animal
- Star Wars is based on a true story
- and Al Quada is a suicide group whose president is Yasser Arafat
there are always new things to learn, aren't there...
But let's face it, you could make a fool of any people in the world and make a video clip like that. No matter where you go, you'll always find some stupid people who don't know anything about the world, which is rather shocking but the truth.

Tuesday 27 March 2007

flat mates - a certain kind...

Having left "Pension-Mama" and moved in with three friends of mine was probably one of the best dicisions I've ever made. Apart from the fact that now I have to do my own washing and cook my own meals (more or less...since very often I can't be bothered spending too much time in the kitchen), I can't come up with any drawbacks living on my own. Well...I'm not particularly living on my own since I have three wonderful people sharing a flat with me. We get along almost perfectly well. Almost ...
But let me introduce you to my flat-mates: There's Anna, an old friend of mine, who I've become very close to since we've been living together. Any interesting news are instantly shared as soon as one of us gets home. If one of us feels like talking it's like: turn off the TV, close your book, stop writing your essay and forget about all the homework! Sometimes that's kind of a problem...especially if I have to get something done. But never mind, friendship should be a priority. Anna and I do a lot of crazy things together and there's not one day we don't make each other laugh about some stupid thing.
Then there's Oli. He studys law, and actually I didn't really know him before we moved in together. At first I actually thought he was kind of weird...it's hard to explain what exactly I mean with 'weird', but now that I know him much better we get along very well. He's the kind of guy who has an answer for every question, and if not..well, "hang on a second, I'm gonna check it out on the internet! Google provides an answer for everything". He always wants to find out about stuff right on the spot. Even if it's the most unimportant thing. Lately, for example, we were somehow talking about Latin (I can't remember in which context) and then he was like "what is actually 'walking' in Latin, I can't remember?". None of us did, even though we had been studying Latin for about four years at school. The days were gone in which we were able to conjugate hundrets of verbs, in all 7 tenses, all 6 cases plus conjunctive one and two. So maybe now you can understand why we were a little frustrated about the fact that we've forgotten almost everything we've learned at school and actually started wondering whether the subjects taught at school were useful or not (but that's another long story). So within seconds he came up with the answer (eo, is, ire, ii, itum) and we kept discussing whatever we were just discussing. Oli is always open to any discussion, but sometimes he gives you a hard time since he only rarely changes his point of view, which to my mind, is not always the right one. If he claims to know something, which I know isn't true, well then I have to somehow prove it or he would never believe me.
Quite often we also argue about how certain things are called. No I'm not kidding. The thing is, Oli and Martin (my other flat mate) come from St. Lorenzen, some tiny village in the Mürztal. So coming from the countryside, they kind of speak a different language. The other day, for example, we were arguing whether the lovely "thing" Oli's Mum had made for us was called 'Nussstrudel' or 'Nusspotize'. Oli claimed that the word 'Potize' didn't even exist as he had never heard it before. Well, I could prove him wrong on this one, since I simply had to call one of my work mates, who as cooks should be familiar with this topic. A 'Nusspotize' is not the same as a 'Nussstrudel' though, so what Oli's Mum had baked was actually called a 'Nussstudel'...
Oli is interested in all sorts of things and he loves to read the newspaper. So at least once a day he comes into my room and goes "Astrid, did you know that....Astrid, guess what...Astrid, listen to this...!" He just always wants to share his newly gained knowledge with us and tell us about all the amusing things that he's just read. I've already mentioned before that he studies law. And for him, believe it or not, it's so damn interesting!! Not for me though...but never mind, I still give him the attention he needs, listen to him and pretend to be just as amused, astonished or interested as he is by whatevr he has to tell me.
Now I've drifted off a little with all my anectodes, so let's get back to introducing my flat mates. The last one ist Martin, as already mentioned. He´s the only one who doesn't always stick to the rules that we've set up and he constantly has to be reminded to do his chores. Not that I don't like him, no, that's certainly not true. He actually used to be one of my best friends, but to be honest, moving together hasn't done our friendship any good. You know...he takes everything real easy, tries not to overdo himself and likes to hang out with his friends all night. The problem is, his room is right next to mine and his friends don't understand the meaning of "would you please be quiet, I'd like to sleep..". So that can be annoying at times. Martin is the kind of guy who's fun to hang out with, but not necessarily to live with...
Ok, so I guess that's enough for today, but there are many more episodes of 'WG'-life to come :)

Friday 23 March 2007

Life in the Middle East

A couple of weeks ago I started reading an interesting blog about a twenty year old American girl living and studying in the Middle East. First she stayed in Jordan for four months and now, since January 07, she's been living in Aleppo, Syria. Ruth, that's her name, keeps writing regularly about her experiences living in a Syrian hostfamily and studying Arabic at university. I can only recommend her blog, as she gives you a very good insight into Syrian culture and what it's like being a foreigner (especially an American) in the Middle East.

Thursday 22 March 2007

Music and Lyrics

I went to the movies the other day and watched Music and Lyrics, Hugh Grants latest movie. First I actually thought it was going to be just another love story, but in fact, the movie turned out to be soooo hilarious. Watching Hugh Grant pretending to be a pop star in the 1980's really cracked me up.

So what's the story?
Alex Fetcher (Hugh Grant) is a washed-up 80's pop star who once belonged to the famest and most successful boygroup in the 80's, called "POP" (there couldn't be a better name, right?). But after their break-up he kind of vanished into thin air, making a living by giving small performances at county fairs and amusement parks. One the day, though, he gets the chance for a comeback when Cora Corman, the biggest star ever (even bigger than Britney - now that's got to mean something...) asks him to write a chart-topping hit for her in only a matter of days. Alex jumps at his chance, but soon realizes that he hasn't produced a song in years and that he has never been able to write good lyrics. That's when Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), Alex's "plant girl", comes in, who turns out to have a natural gift for writing lyrics. The two of them start working together and....guess what?? .....fall in love with each other...
For those who like to have a good laugh and who are a little into sob-stuff, Music and Lyrics is a great movie for 90 minutes of entertainment.

Friday 16 March 2007

Welcome to my blog!!

In the first place, this blog will help me to improve my writing skills. I'm going to blog about either some movies I've seen or interesting articles I've read. Or just talk about some funny or interesting things I've experienced...life's full of surprises and the weirdest things can happen to you...so why not sharing it with you... :-)