Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Traditionally, it has been a time to give thanks for a good harvest.

Nowadays it’s celebrated on the 4^th Thursday in November. Families come together and eat lots of traditionally food.

The day after Thanksgiving is called “Black Friday” and it’s the start of the Christmas shopping season. Shopping Centers grant big discounts and stores open very early in the morning.

In my opinion there are advantages and disadvantages about the “Black Friday” as a shopping day. On the one hand it’s good for the economy because the stores make big turnovers and this urges the economy on but on the other hand it’s bad for the environment because more sales mean also more wastes. I think that it’s also bad for the consumers because of the fact that the stores grant high discounts people buy more and spend much money which they may need for something else.

Halloween, Octobeer 31st

Halloween is a shortened form of All Hallows' Eve.
Hallowed 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 evils spirits. Now bonfires are only burnt on November 5th.

Bonfire night!

• Masks
• Costumes
• Ghosts

Witches on broomsticks with black cats,...
skeletons, bats and spiders...
and Haloween lanterns have all become part of Halloween.
Children play trick-or-treat. They ask for a treat, hoping to get sweet.

Here is a short video of Halloween:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D-z1U5zcrQ

I chose this video, because it tells lots of informations about Halloween's traditions and where they have come from.

Farrah

Farrah, an American woman, visited us on Wednesday in our English lesson. She told us some personal things, general things about America and we compared Austria with America.

Farrah is 22 years old and she moved to America when she was 14. She lives in Maryland, which is 30 minutes north-west of DC, and has no brothers and sisters. She has been studying German for 3 years and now she will stay in Austria till the end of May to learn the language better and to get some impressions of our culture.

Farrah also told us, that in the states, the students often have a snow day in the winter. When kids want to have a snow day, they wear their pyjamas inside out, because they think that this brings luck.

The development of advertising

I've just read an article about "The development of advertising" and it talks about the history of advertising.

Advertising started in the Industrial Revolution (19th century) and it was mainly used to promote novelties and fringe products. Later, brand-naming of products became necessary because more and more companies started to promote.

On account of the economic depression were crises of over-production and under-consumption. At the end many firms realised that they would be in a better position if they combined with other businesses and widened the range of goods. This was the beginning of "monopoly capitalism".

At the end of the 19th century there had been many changes, for example in the soap trade. The leading companies embarked on more aggressive selling methods to take custom away from their rivals.

Lord Leverhulme realised that advertisements should contain "logical and considered" arguments as well as "eye-catching" and funny slogans. The period had reached the "state of persuasion" and smaller firms were bought out by the large companies.

My favourite spot

My favourite spot is the "Stiegl-Spot".

The spot is about a man, who flirts at a party with a girl and wants to get a Stiegl beer for her. As it is very loud, he draws the Stiegl sign, which are stairs, into the air. The girl thinks, that he wants to go upstairs with her and says no. Then an other girl shows the Stiegl sign to the man and when he wants to give her a beer, she pulls him upstairs.

I like this spot because i like the music in the background and the story is very funny.

Here you can watch the "Stiegl-Spot":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLRp0rqH2O0

Trip to Italy

We spent our Sport- and Cultureweek from 17th to 21st May in Bibione, Italy. It was a great and funny week and i will always remember it. In the following, I give you a little review of our time in Italy.

Monday:

We start our trip at 8 o'clock and arrived in Italy at about 2 o'clock. There we stopped for about 2 hours in Udine, so that we could make our first impression on the foreign culture. After we arrived our accomodation and had the first look at our mobile homes, we all went down to the beach. It was a great feeling to walk on the sand without shoes. Some of us also went into the sea although it was very cold.

Tuesday:

My personal cultural highlight this week was our trip to Venice. I really enjoyed the sightseeing because this city is worth seeing. The teachers gave us a little quiz and in the end, our group won because we reached the most points.

Wednesday:

Wednesday was our sport day. In the morning we had an archery lesson and in the afternoon we made a bicycle tour to the lighthouse of Bibione, where we made a little pick nick.

Thursday:

In the morning we visited a small fishing village and in the afternoon we had a beach volleyball- and beach soccer tournament. Those wo didn't want to do any sport had the possibility to make a Boccia tournament. I joined the Boccia tournament and I had lots of fun although we didn't win any match.

Between the sport activities and the sightseeing tours, we also spent much time at the beach and lied in the sun. Almost every evening, we were able to go shopping into the city and when we came back, we sat together on our porch.

Friday:

Unfortunately, we left Bibione at 10 o'clock. We all were very exhausted by this week and so we slept very much on the way back.

All in all it was a great, exciting and unforgettable week and I am glad that I haven't missed it.

Let's go green

I had an presentation about environment and my colleagues and I talked about:

• Climate Change (natural and human causes)
  
• Environmental pollutin and Health
• Saving life on Earth (Recycling and Composting, What we can do?, Organisations)

The two organisations which we described in detail, are WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and Greenpeace. In the following, I will give you a little overview about the websites.

I like the website of WWF more than the website of Greenpeace, because there are more pictures on it and it's easy to understand. The page consists of the following parts:

• Home
• Who we are
• What we do
• About our earth
• How you can help
• News
• and a special register about tigers

The website of Greenpeace consists of 12 parts. All in all, they are almost the same as on WWF's site. I like that Greenpeace put some pictures and videos of their work on their homepage.


We also told them some things, which every person may do to help to save our planet, for example, recycling is very important! Another important thing is to turn off lights, even when leaving a room for a short time.

I will try to recycle more exactly and use recycled paper. I think it's also very important that people make more car sharing, and I will try to walke to near destinations.



WWF:
http://wwf.panda.org/wf.panda.org/




Greenpeace:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/

Lonely Planet

I think the presentation of the travel agency KMME was very good, because they haven't only given us basic information about travelling, they also made a "journey to London" with us. I also liked the podcast at the end of it and that they include the audience to the presentation.

The last point of the presentation was "Lonely Planet" and they showed us the website of this travel guide.
In my opinion, the website is quite good because it's put up very easy and there are lots of pictures. The page consists of 6 main parts which are:

• Home
• Destinations
• Community
• Shop
• Hotels & Hostels
• Travel services

What I liked most is the map of the world, which is in the index "Destination".


Website:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/uk

Fucking inhabitants fear new fuss over "Fucking Hell" beer

I read an article the other day in today's online edition of "austriantimes.at" and it talks about the town Fucking and a German company which produce a beer called "Fucking Hell".

I thought you might be interested because Fucking is a small community in Upper Austria.

Basially what it says is that the inhabitants of Fucking fear a media hype around their town's name after a German company produce a beer called "Fucking Hell". It is also said that lots of tourists visit the town to have their picture taken next to the place name sign. The mayor Franz Meindl said that they just wanted to be left alone and he would not consider changing the community's name.

What surprised me most was the fact that the community has had 15 place name signs stolen by visitors.

I understand that the inhabitants of Fucking are at the end of their tether because everybody laughs about their town's name.

But I can also understand the tourists, because if I drove through this town, I would also take a pricture of me next to the place name sign.

Original text:

http://austriantimes.at/news/Panorama/2010-03-29/22021/F%2Acking_residents_fear_new_fuss_over_%27F%2Acking_Hell%27_beer

Vocabulary:

fuss (Aufregung): People make a fuss about the town's name Fucking.

place name sign (Ortstafel): The place name sign shows, where the town begins and ends.

be at the end of one's tether: (genervt sein): I am at the end of my tether because everybody laughs at me.

Austrian hotels make European Top 10

I've just read an article in today's online edition of "austraintimes.at" and it talks about the Top 10 ranking of hotels.
I thought you might be interested because three Austrain hotels have been named in this ranking.

Basically what it says is that three Austrian hotels have been named in a Top 10 ranking of winter sport hotels in Europe. These are:

• The Interalpen-Hotel Tyrol (Tyrol/5th)
• Theresia Gartenhotel (Salzburg/6th)
• Landhaus zu Appesbach (Upper Austria/7th)

It is also said taht more than 6000 hotel ratings were considered for the listing.

What surprised me most was the fact that a German hotel topped the ranking.

In my opinion it's great that tree Austrian hotels have been named in this ranking, because this may boom lots of tourists.

Original text:

http://austriantimes.at/news/Travel/2010-01-14/19664/Austrian_hotels_make_European_Top_10

rank (Rangliste)

rating (Beurteilung)