Culture presentations...

Last week was scheduled for the culture presentations me and my colleagues at the ITAT were working on.  We had to choose a topic from the Irish or American culture and write an 800 word essay on it, make a presentation and a handout. Someone also made a Facebook event for our presentations. The introduction to the event was a short story written by one of my colleagues (I am sorry I don’t know your name otherwise I would have given you credits). The intro is really awesome and it is definitely worth reading!

"Once upon a time the American Eagle accidently bumped into the Irish Leprechaun. The Irish Leprechaun was furious and shouted “You’re so full of yourself! Just because you’re huge, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to pay attention to the small things!” The American Eagle raised his eyebrows in surprise and responded “For a small fairy, you have a big mouth. Don’t you know how important I am, Tinkerbell?”.

Enraged, the Leprechaun shouted “You're going to regret saying that! Ireland is at least as important as America. I will call Fiona and she will teach you that Ireland has more to offer than the US!” “Oh yeah?”, asked the American Eagle. “I know Frank and he will impress you with facts about our awesome country!”

From this day on, Fiona and Frank summoned their SUK-superheroes and superheroines to inform the world the cultural aspects of both countries. Every year, their armies of superheroes gather to tell the world the most interesting stories about Ireland and the US.

Meet these heroes on Wednesday, 19th June and Thursday, 20th June on neutral territory in the ITAT headquarters.“

 I have been to twelve presentations, even though we were only asked to go to ten.  I listened to 9 American and 3 Irish presentations. Here is a short info about every presentation:

1)      Ireland vs. Austria - Whiskey Distilleries - Challenge accepted!

This was the first presentation I listened to. Two distilleries, Jameson Whiskey from Ireland and Waldviertler J.H. from Austria, were compared. Verena told us something more about their history and about the process of making whiskey.

2) American High school & its reputation in Austria

The second presentation I took a look at was from Katie. She was talking about the American and Austrian school system. I decided to listen to this presentation because I myself was going to an American high school for 6 months. Katie was talking about the general reputation of American high schools in Europe, extracurricular activities and peer class. She also compared the teacher-student relationship in Austria and the US. 

3) Walt Disney (Mickey Mouse: how a mouse conquered the world)

Max from my group was talking about Mickey Mouse. I loved his presentation. The idea to play "When you wish upon a star" as the intro to his presentation was simply brilliant. The song has like Mickey Mouse become an icon of The Walt Disney Company, used in the opening sequences of Disney anthology television series and in multiple versions of Walt Disney Pictures' opening logos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqvF85T4vCg) . You could really see on Max that he liked his topic and that he knew what he was 

talking about. 

4) Reality TV - Jersey shore and beyond

Manueala presented two reality shows to us. She brought the concept of a reality show, especially Jersey shore and Big Brother, closer to us. Manuela also played a short clip from Jersey shore. This gave us the possibility to once again see what kind of idiots these people are.

5) Fort Knox

Patricija talked about Fort Knox. Fort Know is used to refer to the United States Bullion Depository, a building near the military base, which is a vault housing a large percentage of the United States’ gold reserves. It was very interesting to listen how it is protected and how often guards and codes change. What I especially liked was when she talked about the conspiracy theories. Even though we heard a lot about fort know the majority of it still remains a secret.

6) Witchcraft in Ireland

Another Irish presentation that I chose to listen to was about witchcraft. I really find it interesting how people could believe that someone has magical powers or is worshiping the devil or whatever just because someone else told them so. The period of witch hunting can easily be labeled as one of the darkest periods of our history. Hundreds of thousands of innocent women were burned at the stake or hanged. Even more were tortured till admitting they are “witches”. I don’t want to get into the details here but witch hunting and the witch trials are really fascinating, at least for me. I learned more about it in school  while in the US by reading The crucible from Arthur Miller. A movie was made based on the book. I highly recommend watching the movie (the 1996 film). It really shows how a community was dealing with witchcraft back then.

7) Delta Blues

Lejla introduced us to Delta Blues. The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. She mentioned famous musicians and played us their songs. I really liked the last song she played with which she let us go home called „I am going home“.

8) The Integration of Islam in Ireland

Islam was the third choice of mine that was connected to the Irish culture. Alexander was talking about the growth of the Muslim communities in Ireland. He explained us how Catholic and Muslim children go together to school and how that works and told us something about the ICCI (Islamic cultural center of Ireland).

9) Oprah Winfrey: perhaps the most influential woman in America

One of our Spanish Erasmus students admires Oprah; therefore she decided to make a presentation about her. Oprah being one of the most influential women of today inspires hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. She is to be admired for everything she achieved in life considering where she comes from and what her childhood and teenage years were like.

10) Scientology: A Religion Made in America

Harald from Hungary tried to explain scientology to us. Most of us know it only as something Tom Cruise is fanatic about. But Harald told us more about the history of scientology and what they believe in. 

11)  Racial Segregation as depicted in 2 movies

Racial segregation is a big part of American history. Tiana wanted to show us what it was like by talking about two movies, The Help and the secret life of bees. These movies clearly show how hard it was for African American back in those days. Tiana made a great connection to the audience by asking us questions which I think is great.

12) TV shows depicting social issues

Christine informed us about social issues depicting from TV shows. She took 5 very well-known shows and explained on their example what she means. In the end we even got to see a short clip from one of her favorite shows - Breaking bad.

The five presentations I chose for my KGP are:

1) American High school & its reputation in Austria

2) Walt Disney (Mickey Mouse: how a mouse conquered the world)

3) Reality TV - Jersey shore and beyond

4) TV shows depicting social issues

5) Oprah Winfrey: perhaps the most influential woman in America

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
Nelson Mandela

XOXO A.

:)

Why don’t they read?

I love modern technology. I really enjoy being able to walk around listening to music or have internet connection in almost every place in the world. I think it’s great that my family and friends in Zagreb are only a phone call or Skype video chat away from me. Modern technology has brought us so many good things but it has also made us dumber. And that’s a fact. When I was a kid I remember spending my time by reading books, drawing, riding a bike or playing with other kids on the street. I and my neighbors would play with Barbie dolls and plush toys the whole day and we would never get bored. No matter what we did we always had fun. But when I look at the kids of today I don’t see that. I don’t see girls playing with Barbie dolls or boys chasing the ball on a soccer field. All I really see them doing is playing on their gadgets. Every single one of them owns an iPod, iPhone or iPad. At home there is a Wii, Xbox or PlayStation waiting for them. I see girls dressing up a Barbie doll on the screen of their iPad or boys chasing a ball in a PlayStation video game. What the heck? Can this really be more fun than actually going outside to play with your friends? I don’t know. I really can’t understand the kids of today. Their whole world revolves around their phones and Facebook and how many likes they will get on a picture they post. It’s just sad. They call and text each other constantly even though they are sitting only meters away from each other. I remember us always knowing where our friends are even though we didn’t have cell phones. You could always find your friend either at home or at the playground. What worries me a lot is the fact that I don’t see books. I don’t see books in the hands of the kids. Why? Reading opens up a whole new world to us. It encourages creativity and imagination and takes us to places we have never been before.  Reading from an early age is also important for developing better social and language skills. So why in the name of God are these kids not reading? Probably because their parents don’t have time to read to them and think that buying them a gadget will do it. Little do they know how wrong they are. I really consider myself lucky to have been born and raised in the ‘90s and for my parents to have showed me the importance of reading and socializing. I know that if there is a power outage one day I will now how to entertain and help myself. Can these kids say the same for themselves?

This is what I am talking about! This guy is brilliant!

XOXO A.

Smile - because you can

I am a “follower” on Obama's Facebook page. I like the pictures people that work for him are posting on there. As you can read in my earlier posts I really think that Obama is a good president. He is doing his best. Anyways, I am not here to talk about him but to share this photo with you. My heart melted when I saw this photo. Look at the face of this precious little kid. You know that feeling when you see something cute and just have to scream a little bit? Yeah, that was my reaction too after seeing this photo.   :D

Every day you spend without a smile, is a lost day.

XOXO A.

Saving a life...

I love National Geographic! I am not only talking about the TV channel but also about the magazine. When I am at home I love to switch to NatGeo and watch a good documentary. One of my favorite things to do in my spare time is to buy the NatGeo magazine, make myself a cup of coffee and sit in my garden in the sun to read it. Every issue is unique in its own way. The magazine is full of interesting stories and colorful pictures. Sometimes I catch myself staring at a page with a photo for quite a long time just thinking “How in the name of God did they manage to take such an incredible and powerful photo?” NatGeo chooses a photo of the year every year. I honestly don’t know how they do it because all the photos that come in are so breathtaking. Let’s take this one for example.

In 1987 James Stanfield’s photo of Zbigniew Religa was proclaimed a photo of the year in National Geographic. The photo was taken in Poland. Heart surgeon Dr. Zbigniew Religa keeps watch on a monitor tracking the vital signs of a heart-transplant patient. One of Religa’s colleagues who helped him perform two transplants in an all-night session rests in the corner. The surgery lasted for 23 hours! The patient survived and still lives in Poland. Unfortunately Dr. Religa passed away 2009.

 

Since I was always into medicine this picture kind of made me think. I am really sad that I suck in science so much that I actually can’t be a doctor. Doctors, nurses and other medical stuff are true heroes of today and not top models, soccer players or pop stars. Every kid dreams to be a doctor when they grow up but they lose that wish over time as they see pop stars making a lot of money in no time. Instead of being true heroes they chose to be people that fill covers of magazines by doing nothing. I personally think that being a doctor is one of the most honoring and fulfilling jobs there is. What can be more beautiful than to save a life? This photo is so strong because it shows us all the studying, knowledge and work behind becoming a doctor as well as the beauty of saving a life. I don’t know what else to tell you about this photo because I can’t really put it into words. I am just amazed by it and think that we should all be thankful for people like Dr. Religa. And I also feel very sad because I will never be able to know the feeling you have after you have saved someone’s life. I think I am going to call my cousin and her husband now who are both surgeons to see how they feel after saving a life. :D

“And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”

XOXO A.