Reflection on my blogging

Looking back at my first blog post of this semester titled What good bloggers do I must say that I’m not overly satisfied with my blogging throughout the last couple of months. The main two points about my blog that I thought needed improvement most were the regularity of my posts and the creativity of my topics. While I don’t think my blogging experience during the summer semester was a complete failure, there are still many negative things I have to criticize about my own work. So let’s start with the bad, so we can eventually end it on higher note

As I mentioned above my main criticism about my blogging during winter semester was the irregularity of my posts – turns out it’s still my biggest problem. Looking at my timeline you’ll see: nothing has changed. I still procrastinated too long and then at the beginning of June I panicked and had to write nearly all my blog posts in a short span of time. Which I obviously could’ve avoided if I just had overcome my laziness early enough and had written a few more posts throughout March, April and May. I don’t even know why I always postpone writing my posts, since it doesn’t take me too much time. Of course, I have to do some quick research, but my posts don’t have to be as elaborate as the culture essay that I had to write this semester. In the end the reason for my irregularity-problem is really only laziness. Maybe I should set myself stricter deadlines in the future, but I’m not sure if I followed these up. Anyway, to sum it up, unfortunately there wasn’t any improvement in that area. 

My next criticism was the creativity of the topics I blog about. I often have the problem that I sit down and think about something to write about and not one idea seems to appear in my head. Maybe I’m just not a creative person, or I just think too complicated, but a lot of times I just find it difficult to find topics I’m interested in enough to do research and write a whole text about. Most of the times I write about things I heard on the news, that just occurred and sometimes I throw in the obligatory (and not very exciting) post about a TV-series. It works okay, but it could work better. Still, even though I just complained about my lack of creativity for a whole paragraph, I think some improvement has happened during this semester compared to my last (though that wasn’t very hard as the bar wasn’t set too high). I do like to think my topics were a bit more interesting this time around than during winter semester, but maybe I’m just imagining stuff to make myself feel better.

So these two points still aren’t working out, but there’s one thing I’m fairly satisfied with and that’s my writing. I believe my writing improved again during this semester and part of it has to do with my blog posts. For me writing isn’t something you can learn by studying phrases and concepts – you need practice to get better. Even if I don’t put much thought into a blog post, I think in the end every crappy sentence I write somehow helps me to improve. Of course I don’t see an immediate effect, but I do believe that it helps me in the long haul. Also, the more I write the more comfortable I get with using the English language. 

To conclude, there is still much room for improvement, but at least I worked on a few areas and some things have gotten better. I definitely need to become better at time management and set myself stricter deadlines, so I can avoid the stress of having to write nearly all posts during the last few weeks.

The Formula One returns to Austria

Growing up my father has always been a big motor racing fan. A few of my earliest memories with him are sitting on the couch together and watching Formula One races, even though back then I didn’t have a clue what was going on. When I was eight he even took me to one race, the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, which became infamous amongst sport fans for its staged finish where race leader Rubens Barrichello was ordered to let Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher overtake him. This race I watched in 2002 would actually be the penultimate Formula One race in Austria for a long time – eleven years to be a bit more specific. Spielberg hosted Formula One events in 1964, from 1970 to 1987 and from 1997 to 2003. And tomorrow the big event will take place once again.

The first Formula One championship race in Austria took place in 1964 at a track called Zeltweg Airfield and was won by Lorenzo Bandini in Ferrari. It was the first and only race to take place at this track, because even though the race was a success, the track was deemed to be too dangerous as it was narrow and bumpy. Austria was removed from the Formula One calendar until a more suitable track was built.

Six years late the Formula One came back to Austria, this time to a track called Österreichring (in English “Austria circuit”). It was built in midst of the Styrian mountains and the beautiful scenery made the Austrian Grand Prix unique. However, due to the fact that the track was located in this rural area it sometimes happened that cows or deer crossed the circuit during the race. Although drivers generally liked the new, fast track, it was still very dangerous: it was known for its many crashes at the start and in 1975 American driver Mark Donohue died after crashing at the Vost-Hugel Kurve. That’s the reason why the track was slowed down a bit afterwards, but the speed stayed a continuing problem until in 1987 the FIA once again removed the circuit from the Formula One calendar. During the next ten years the track was modernized and eventually renamed A1-Ring after its sponsor and from 1997 to 2003 the Formula One took place in Spielberg again.

The new layout of the circuit

After 2003 it wasn’t sure what Red Bull and Dietrich Mateschitz, the owner of the circuit, would do with the site and even though much speculation appeared now and then, nothing came out of it until five years later. In 2008, Red Bull started to reconstruct the track and three years later, in 2011, DTM (another motor racing event) returned to the circuit which was now called Red Bull Ring. The Grand Prix of America, which was originally planned to be included in the 2014 Formula One season, was postponed and following that it was announced that the Red Bull Ring would get the open slot and the Formula One would once again return to Austria.

The general public seems to be excited or at least positive about the return of the race to Austria. Most see it as an opportunity to show off the most beautiful side of our country to the world as the track is still surrounded by idyllic Styrian mountainsides and retained its unique charm. However, some people who are living in the region aren’t so happy about it and complain about the whole turmoil that the race weekend will bring. I for my part think the return of the race is a good thing. Of course, I don’t live in Spielberg or a surrounding village, but I think the event will bring a lot of positive attention to Austria. Plus, it’s only four or five days where the area is flooded by people, after that it will be as deserted and quiet as usual, so all local residents will certainly survive it.

Culture Days

A big part of our grade for the SUK2 English course this semester was a culture project about a topic either related to Irish or US-American culture. The project included writing an 800 word essay about our topic and presenting it in front of other students on our Culture Days. These Culture Days took place last Monday and Tuesday when all first-year English students presented the wide range of different topics in front of other students. In addition to presenting our own topic, we obviously had to listen to a number of our classmates presentations. Out of these we now have to choose five topics which will be tested at our final exam at the end of this semester. 

Seeing as I presented my topic, which was related to Ireland, on Monday, I decided to watch a few other Irish presentations that same day. The first one I watched was Irish Intelligence at its Peak by Julia Kölbl which was a topic that wasn’t completely unfamiliar to me, but at the same time a lot of the information was new to me. I remember learning about the War of Independence, the IRA, Bloody Sunday and Michael Collins last semester, but I didn’t know much about the Irish secret service which is why I found it interesting listening to this presentation.

Another presentation I listened to was Belfast – A City Still Split by the Troubles by Stefanie Schauer. Again, I was already fairly familiar with the topic, because we had learned about the Troubles last semester, but I enjoyed getting more detailed information about the situation between the two colliding groups in Northern Ireland shown on the example of Belfast. I also found it interesting to get to know more about how things are now and what the government is planning for the future, because I mostly learned about the past of this conflict and not the present.

The presentation I enjoyed most this day was Irish Influences on C. S. Lewis’ work by Marlene Fischer. The reason for that lies partly in the fact that I love C. S. Lewis’ fantasy books about Narnia and I looked forward to this presentation the whole day. My expectations were high and Marlene completely fulfilled them. It was interesting to hear about C. S. Lewis’ life and how him living in Ireland influenced his books. Plus the pictures Marlene showed us of the Irish landscape were beautiful.

The next topic Oliver Cromwell – Irish vs. British Perspective by Verena Eisenköck was another topic related to history and politics. Again, I already had some knowledge about Oliver Cromwell from last semester. What I find compelling about this topic is how different the views and opinions from two countries about the same man can be and what the reason for this contradiction is.

The last presentation I listened to on Monday was Monica Loughman – Ballet in Ireland by Anja Tremmel which I enjoyed because it was completely different from all the other topics that day. I didn’t know anything about ballet or dance, so much of what Anja told us was new to me. I was impressed by Loughmans achievements and appreciated the little insight I got into how demanding the job of a prima ballerina is.

While I only listened to Irish topics on Monday, I decided to go to some US-American ones on the next day. Interesting topics included a presentation about the book The Great Gatsby, its author F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Roaring Twenties in the US, the legalization of marihuana in several US-American states, Charlie Wilson’s War, the Black Power Salute at the Olympic Games in 1968 and a comparison between the American and French college life.

Even though the culture project was a lot of work and stress for me and I was a little anxious before my own presentation, in the end the whole thing wasn’t so bad. In fact, I really liked listening to some presentations. I already knew some basic facts about many topics, but I still found myself being interested in listening, because many presenters focused on a side or aspect of these topics which I hadn’t considered before. That’s what made the days quite enjoyable for me. 

The Bechdel Test

The comic strip in which the rules of the Bechdel test were first mentioned (1985)

Even though we are living in the 21^st century and many things have changed over the last few centuries, it is still clear that gender equality is not reality yet. Women experience disadvantages in many areas in life amongst other things in books, movies and TV-series. The Bechdel test is a way to prove if a fictional work portrays women fairly or not. To pass the test the fictional work has to satisfy three requirements:

• It has to feature at least two women
• who talk to each other
• about something other than a man

Often a fourth requirement is added namely that the women have to have a name.
Sounds easy? Apparently it isn’t…

The idea for the test comes from a female character in Alison Bechdel’s comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For in 1985 who voiced the rules of the test to another female character. Originally the rules were only applied to movies, but they have since been expanded to other media.  Bechdel credited the idea for the test to her friend Liz Wallace who allegedly was inspired by Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own (1929). In this essay Woolf claims that there are plenty of women in fiction, but they are mostly shown in their relation to men and not on their own. The test doesn’t necessarily criticize the number of women shown in fiction, but the depth of their storylines and personalities. More often than not women are only featured in movies to bring in sexual content or to pose as love interest for the male protagonist (love triangles including two men and one women are especially popular!). A study has shown that since the 1950s in the most financially successful films of the US there were on average two male for one female character and women  were twice as often involved in scenes with explicit sexual content than man.

Also a fact is that about half of the successful movies including Oscar nominated and awarded films fail the Bechdel test And many movies that do pass the test only pass it because the women in it talk about babies or marriage. Interesting is that many works that are specifically aimed at women like TV-series such as Sex and the City or many romance novels fail the test as well, because even though they often feature more women than men, the whole storylines still  revolve around men.

The website bechdeltest.com is a user-edited website that classifies films by whether they pass or fail the test. Currently 5259 films are listed of which 2978 (56.6%) pass all three requirements of the Bechdel test, 543 (10.3%) pass two requirements, 1187 (22.6%) pass only one requirement and 551 (10.5%) fail all requirements. 

However, it is clear that even if a movie passes all criteria of the Bechdel test, it does not mean that women are presented in the right way. And the other way round it can also happen that films that don’t pass all criteria feature a strong and prominent woman. It’s also possible that works fail the test because they are set in an environment where the inclusion of women wouldn’t make any sense (for example Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose which is set in a medieval monastery). That’s why the test is criticized by many who argue that the Bechdel test doesn’t say anything about good writing or significance and depth of female roles.

The Bechdel test has also inspired a number of other tests for gender-related issues in fictional works. One example is the Russo test, which was created by the American LGBT media organization GLAAD in 2013 and has the following requirements: 

• The film contains a character that identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender.
• The character must not be solely or predominately defined by their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. 
• The character must be tied into the plot in such a way that their removal would have a significant effect.

In my opinion tests like these can’t be trusted completely because as stated above, passing the Bechdel test doesn’t assure good writing of a fictional female character. Still, I think it is interesting and also sad to see how many movies have so little female representation and how rare portrayals of strong female characters seem to be compared to portrayals of male characters.

 

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Entrance

I’m one of the biggest Harry Potter fans in the world. I’ve read the books multiple times in multiple languages and even seven years after the publication of the last one I’m still not bored of the series at all. And it seems that I’m not the only one that feels that way: Although there aren’t any books or movies to follow anymore the phenomenon Harry Potter doesn’t die down. It even seems as if the opposite was the case:  Since the book and film series ended, numerous fan specials such as websites with extra information about the world of Harry Potter, computer games and much more have been launched. Among these is also The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, an amusement park that opened on the Islands of Adventure in the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida. And for the most part this amusement park is the reason why visiting Florida is very high on my bucket list right now.

Dragon Challenge

Shortly before the release of the last Harry Potter book in 2007, Universal in partnership with Warner Bros announced their plans for the theme park. Construction began in early 2008 and in June 2010 the first phase of the park was opened. This part of the amusement park features three rides. The first roller coaster is called Dragon Challenge named after the first challenge Harry faces in the Triwizard Tournament in the fourth book of the series. The two sides of the coaster are called Hungarian Horntail and Chinese Fireball after two dragons that appear during that challenge. The second attraction is called Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and it leads visitors into a replica of the Hogwarts castle where they interact with book characters like Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione and Harry. After that guests enter a ride which leads them to the outskirts of the castle where they encounter dementors, giant spiders, the Whomping Willow and see a simulated Quidditch match. The last ride located directly next to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a roller coaster named Flight of the Hippogriff which is based on the Care of Magical Creatures lesson in the third part where Harry and his friends learn about hippogriffs. 

Honeydukes

Besides the rides the park also features recreations of the Forbidden Forest and the village of Hogsmeade from the books. Hogsmeade is the area where souvenir shops and restaurants are located. The pub The Three Broomsticks offers a range of foods and drinks known from the Harry Potter series, such as butterbeer, pumpkin juice and chocolate cauldron cakes as well as traditional British dishes. Honeydukes sells typical sweets of the Harry Potter universe including Chocolate Frogs, Acid Pops, Bertie Bott’s Every-Flavour Beans, Pepper Imps, Exploding Bonbons and many more. Dervish and Bangles is a souvenir shops selling merchandise like magical items, Quidditch supplies and Hogwarts clothing. Zonko’s sells toys and Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods is a gift shop. Ollivander’s wand shop is located in Hogsmeade as well, although in the books it’s actually in the Diagon Alley. 

Inside Ollivander's

But that’s only the first part of the magical greatness. In 2011, Universal studios announced an expansion of the theme park with two additional rides planned: Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, a steel roller coaster imitating Harry’s ride in the Wizard bank Gringotts, and a recreation of the Hogwarts Express that will connect the two areas of the park. It is also planned to recreate the Diagon Alley with shops and restaurants like The Leaky Cauldron, Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, Borgin and Burkes, Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions and Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour. Ollivander’s might get relocated to the alley as well. 

The Three Broomsticks

For the Universal studios the theme park was a complete hit. Attendance at the Islands of Adventure rose by over 30% and the reviews were mostly favorable stating that the recreation of the Harry Potter universe was very successful. However, even though the park is heaven for fans, it’s probably not that enjoyable for people who don’t know anything about the book series. The only real criticism besides that is the location of the park in the US even though Harry Potter is British. I personally would also prefer it if The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was located in London rather than Florida, because traveling to Great Britain would obviously be a lot easier and cheaper, but for me it’s still worth a visit and one day I’ll definitely go there. 

Official website of the theme park.

Protests in Brazil

Football fans all around the world are awaiting the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup that is set to take place from June 12 to July 13, 2014 in Brazil. However, the super event hasn’t only made the headlines with sport related topics, but also with many controversies surrounding the preparations for it. People always argue that countries that host big sports events such as the World Cup or the Olympics get a big economic boost and that thousands of new jobs are created, but the reality often looks different. To host the World Cup, the Brazilian government had to build a number of new, modern football stadiums and create infrastructure around these. The cost of all this is obviously incredible high and people in Brazil aren’t happy with the government’s ways to finance all these projects. The main issue is that they feel that the government spends too much money they don’t have on the World Cup and ignores problems of the country that have been existing for years.

That people weren’t happy with the World Cup was clear since the preparations for it had begun, but the first big demonstrations that caught global attention happened during the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2013 (a kind of “rehearsal tournament” for the actual World Cup). The demonstrations were initially organized to protest against increased prices of bus, train and metro tickets in many Brazilian cities, but they eventually grew into a much bigger affair. In the end people also protested against matters such as government corruption, high taxes, social issues like LGBTQ and women’s rights and the brutality the police used against protesters. Demonstrators destroyed buses, set cars on fire and threw homemade bombs. They police answered using tear gas and pepper spray to fight them back. The protests eventually died down in the beginning of July 2013 when President Dilma Rousseff promised to spend 50 billion Brazilian reais to improve the Brazilian public transportation system and lower taxes. 

But one year later the situation is still not much better. Even though public transport and some other matters the protesters raised in 2013 were improved, people are still unhappy. Only a few days before the World Cup the FIFA worries again about demonstrators on the streets of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In São Paulo metro workers were on strike for days which led to a 293 km traffic jam – a new record high. Even though the strike has ended for now, nobody can be sure that no other strikes will take place during the next few days. Additionally to demonstrations São Paulo has another problem: Their stadium, where the opening game of the World Cup is set to be played, isn’t completely finished yet. In Rio de Janeiro teachers have been protesting in the last few days. They request higher salaries and better schools because they feel that the government is spending way too little money on education in Brazil. 

The World Cup in Brazil has two sides. On the one hand all these negative occurrences don’t sound inviting and don’t promise the great party the Brazilian government tries to sell the rest of the world. On the other hand Brazil loves football and the people are especially enthusiastic towards their national team. I personally love watching the World Cup or the Olympics, but in recent years I had the impression that every host country had to be better, more impressive and luxurious than the one before. I understand that stadiums and infrastructure have to be built, but countries like Brazil that have so many other problems have to look past the sports event and to the needs of their own people. In the end I’m sure that the World Cup will still be a great party and most of it will probably run smoothly enough. However, I’m also sure that the problems in Brazil won't disappear into thin air after the World Cup is over. 


Sources: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_protests_in_Brazil

http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/brasilien-100.html

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/wm-2014-in-brasilien-so-paulo-vor-eroeffnungsspiel-im-verkehrschaos/10009902.html

My Mad Fat Diary

My Mad Fat Diary is a British television show that premiered in 2013 on the channel E4. I stumbled upon it last year, watched the first series (only six episodes) in a few days and was really surprised by it. The reason for that is that after reading what the show was about I expected something completely different. Set in Stamford, Lincolnshire (UK) in the 1990s, it tells the story of 16-year-old Rae Earl that has just left a psychiatric hospital, because she has a mental illness. I know countless other TV-series that feature similar plotlines to give their characters a tragic background and make them seem more interesting. So I didn’t know what I should expect when I started watching. 

What I got was a surprisingly honest and charming story. Turns out the main character, Rae (played by Sharon Rooney) has not only a mental health problem, but is also overweight. I thought that was a welcoming change to all the usual TV-dramas that are aimed at teenage girls. What you normally get in teenage dramas are perfectly thin girls that often whine about their non-existent weight problems. And while Rae acknowledges that she has these problems, it doesn’t define her character and story. What often happens with characters that have certain issues is that their storylines tend to focus solely around these issues. A character that has a mental illness won’t get an episode where this illness isn’t mentioned or influences every single thing they do. And while I definitely believe that mental illnesses do influence big parts of the daily life of the people that suffer from them, I don’t think it defines them and controls everything they do or feel. 

The episodes are narrated from Rae’s point of view through her diary entries. And like I said, even though she does talk about mental health and body image, most of her entries are about the one topic the majority of 16-year-old girls care about most: boys. Her dry wit and sarcastic tone made me like her character immediately. She tells the events that happen in her daily life honestly and seems very credible. She has a great group of friends that she calls “the gang” and that include a boy named Finn who is apparently the “boy of her dreams”. Other members of the gang are Chloe, the popular, beautiful girl who has been friends with Rae for years and can be somewhat bitchy and fake, but is loyal in the end, Archie who Rae has a crush on initially, but eventually becomes her best friend and Chop and Izzy, who are bickering constantly. Besides this group of friends Rae also keeps in contact with two friends she met at the psychiatric hospital, Tix and Danny Two Hats. And then there is Rae’s mum, Linda, who can be a bit irritating and irrational from time to time and doesn’t listen enough and focuses more on her own problems, though she loves her daughter very much.

All in all the storylines aren’t that special, but the characters are very charming and I like how Rae is portrayed in contrast to other characters with similar issues. I also love that the series takes place in the 90s, because the soundtrack is awesome and I’m constantly reminded of how much different life for teenagers was during that time. No cellphones and no internet meant completely different communication habits and free time activities. Also fashion and style obviously differs from now as well. In the end I think it’s the mix of all these things – humor, honesty, real people and the music – that won me over.