oral exam

The day before yesterday the rest of the SUK IV group had the oral mid-term exam, so had Kristel, Alexandra and I. We met two hours before and discussed the questions, which are in the script, together. All of us were quite nervous but we tried to calm us down. Our exam began at 15.55 and ended at quarter past 4. After the first question we got more relaxed and, thanks to Lisa, it was like a 'normal' conversation.

All of us got a 2 and we were really satisfied with it.

I hope that our final oral exam will be similar to this but I think in june our nerves will be more strained than this time.

The cutest film ever...

FIND NEMO is the loveliest film I have ever seen and I have watched most often. It is about a little clownfish which has lost his mother and has an arguement with his father on the first school day. So he decides to swim into the wide ocean and gets caught by a diver who puts him into an aquarium in a dental practice (is this the word for "Zahnarztpraxis"?) Marlin, his father, desperately swims after the diver´s boat into the open ocean but he quickly falls behind. Afraid that he is about to lose his son forever, Marlin asks for help from a number of fish before finally finding one who knows where the boat went. It is Dory, a palette surgeonfish who is suffering from short-term memory loss. Together they swim across the ocean and have to overcome many difficulties....

I have to admit that I really love this film because it is cute and very funny at the same time. So if you have not seen it until today you have to make it up as soon as possible!!!!!

A Year in the Merde

I have completely forgotten to tell you something about my second book which is called "A Year in the Merde". It is written by Stephen Clarke. I have read about 70 pages of the book now and I am really impressed by it. In this chapters Paul West describes his first impressions of France and his fellow workers. He decided to spent a year in France and is job is it to establish Tea Rooms in France for his company. At the beginning everything is quite difficult for him as most of his co-workers speak only their mother tongue, and if they speak English he could hardly understand them, becauese it sounds more like Chinese or Hungarian.

Paul West tries to learn French on his own by a CD Rom. After some difficulties with waiters, secretaries, and so on, he gets used to his new life in France and tries to make the best out of it.

It is a very interesting and entertaining novel and I really like to read it. It is fascinating, in a bad way, to see how he has to struggle when it comes to a conversation. I think it is strange that most of the French people are not able to converse in English, although it is a world language. In my view the author gives us a good inside into the French world and describes everything in a very entertaining and funny style. I just like this book

oral exam

As Alexandra, Kristel and I have to sit our oral exam tomorrow I had a look through the questions in our script. I tried to prepare myself a little bit so that I am not too nervous. But as Julia and Hermi said it is "easy peasy", so I try to trust them and I will tell you as soon as possible how the exam had been.

Irish teenager won abortion fight

A 17-year-old girl, known as Miss D in court, is four month pregnant with a baby who has anencephaly, which means that a major part of its brain, skull and sculp will not form. She was told two weeks ago that the baby was not excepted to survive for more than three days after the birth, the girl told a social worker that she couldn´t cope with carrying it, which is from my point of view really comprehensible.
As abortion is illegal in the Republic of Ireland unless the mother’s life is in danger, the girl wanted to travel to Great Britain to abort the baby.
The Irish Health Service Executive stepped in and put the 17-year-old in its care and prevented her from making the journey.
In court last week, the executive made a U-turn and dropped its opposition to her travelling to the UK, and said it would let her go on the grounds she has consent from her mother and a judge. But the process was further protracted on Saturday when a district judge refused to give consent.
But the lawyer said the cours were barred from helping someone to seek an abortion abroad. However, he agreed there were no laws restraining the teenager from going to the UK.
Anti-abortion protesters demonstrated outside the court.

I think it must be very hard if you know that your unborn child won´t survive for more than a few days and in this case there should be no debate if the girl is allowed to abort the child or not.
Of course, the baby has a right to live and I am also absolutely against abortion but in such a case it should be allowed everywhere.
As we discussed this topic in class I think it is an appropriate article for my blog.

Place for Transgendered Youth

Yesterday I read an article on the New York Times websites which dealt with the problem of the transgendered youth in New York.

The worshipers - Princess, Kelly, Michelle, Skye, Gianni and Terry are all teenagers or in their early 20s. They are slender, stylish and soft of voice and will smack anyone who questions their femininity or asserts that, biologically, they are still males.

The only place which they call home and where the term transgender is tolerated is the homeless shelter in New York specifically for transgender youth. This shelter is called Carmens´s Place and is named after the missionary Carmen Solis who started a youth outreach program at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church Astoria. Father Braxton wast the pastor of this church and after its closing he rented a two-bedroom apartment and opened this for transgender people. He and a small staff of volunteers prepare the meals and try to turn the residents away from prostitution and persuade them to go to school or to find jobs. Father Braxton says that this shelter is the last hope for the transgenders because they had been kicked out of the other gay youth shelters by breaking rules and curfews. Father Braxton does have rules. No sex with customers within five blocks of the shelter. Sex with shelter workers is forbidden, and sex with other residents is strongly discouraged.

In my opinion this is a very interesting article and on the website there is also an interview with one of the people who live there and a video.

If you are interested in it, have a look on the New York Times website.

Almost French

Today I read the passage from the book "Almost French" we have to prepare for Thursday. It is about a cocktail party where Sarah and Frederic were invited to. Sarah was really shocked about the atmosphere at this so-called party. The guests were totally quiet and everyone seems strangely inhibited.
As Sarah decided to break the ice she introduced herself and tried to start a conversation but her attempt failed. Then she offered champagne to everyone but the guests seemed to be torn between a desire to accept and some sense of duty not to.
As soon as they were out the door she exclaimed that it wasn´t a party, it was another planet.
Later on Frederic told her that her action had appeared shockingly forward. Especially for a woman, because in France, apparently, serving alcohol is very much a male domain, so her champagne gaffe had been far too assertive.


Finally, Sarah talked about her difficulties to click with anyone and that she needs some friends who are around her age.

In my opinion this passage was quite easy to read although there were some new and difficult words which I want to share with you:

• 
  inhibit --> to take an action that makes (something) less likely to happen, or that discourages (someone) from doing something --> hemmen


• incredulous --> not wanting or not able to believe, and usually showing this --> unglaubhaft


• ease --> freedom from difficulty, effort, or pain --> Leichtigkeit


• scud --> move quickly and without stopping in a straight line --> eilen


• inane --> extremely silly or lacking real meaning or importance --> albern


• surreptitiously --> done secretly, without anyone seeing or knowing --> heimlich


• incongruous --> unusual or different from the surroundings or from what is generally happening --> unangebracht


• disincentive --> something that discourages people from doing something or working hard --> Abschreckmittel


• gaffe --> a remark or action that is a social mistake and not considered polite --> Ausrutscher


• intrusion --> unwanted involvement --> Einmischung


• to defy --> to refuse to obey, or to act or be against, a person, decision, law, situation --> sich einer Sache widersetzen


• to mingle --> to mix or combine, or be mixed or combined --> sich unter Leute mischen


• bumpy --> not smooth --> uneben