Kiss shocked India

Maybe many of you have heard about Richard Gere´s exaggerated gentleness. But in my opinion not only is this action exaggerated also the reaction of some groups of men is really excessive.

His kisses on the cheeks of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in an event to promote Aids awareness caused shock and sparked protests in India. Many saw the act as an outrage against Shetty's modesty and Indian culture, though Shetty dismissed the protests as an "over-reaction" that made India look silly.

Groups of men kicked and burned even effigies of Richard Geere in protests agains India. From my view this reaction is really exaggerated because the action of him was not that terrible or harassing.

fun...

Yesterday in the evening Julia, Hermine, Kristel, Alex, Maria and I met in the Propeller for a drink and had decided before to speak English. Before we met I had thought that it would be a bit strange and embarrassing because it is not a typical place for speaking this language, but it was really funny and the situation was very relaxed. We were there for about two hours and spoke about different themes. Some very serious the others entertaining and of course there was the typical girl talk. All in all it was a very nice evening and we all together decided to repeat this as soon as possible. I think all of us had a blast.

vocabulary

Yesterday Alexandra and I elaborated some vocab which will be HOPEFULLY useful for our test tomorrow. We chose some from the first chapter from the book which might be important and also some from the script. I hope we caught the most necessary ones and they will help us to pass our exam!

learning...

Today I spent some time on working on the vocabulary which we need for our test on Thursday. I worked out some from Jaywalking and from our script. Moreover I read about twenty pages of David Monagans book, but to be honest I still can´t cotton on to this book (we are not friends yet). :-) As the first day after the holidays was quite exhausting I think I go to bed now, tomorrow is another busy day.

Good night!

Perfect day

Although winter is my favourite season I like spring as well, particularly this one. Today was the most beautiful day in these holidays. I got up at half past seven and I went snowboarding at half past eight.
With the cablecar it takes me only ten minutes from my house and I am in a quite big ski region (called Naßfeld). Today it was great there because there were nearly no skier, the sky was azure and cloudless.

In the early afternoon I was sunbathing while I was reading Jaywalking. Try to combine these two things and you will see that the book is a lot easier to read outdoors. :-)
I got sunburnt, my first one this year. Yippee, now I am a bit red instead of white, but tomorrow I will be as pallid as yesterday. :-)
Although the hotness is unseasonable, I loved this awesome day!

Enjoy the rest of your holiday and the warm spring days!

Jaywalking with the Irish

I don´t want to summarize the plot of the pages I´ve read so far, because I think it is quite boring for SUK IV students, as everyone has to read this book on their own. But I have to mention that I have some difficulties with David Monagan´s book. The vocabulary he uses is hard to understand and if I would try to understand every single word I would need at least half an hour for one page. Sometimes it is also a bit boring and I have to admit that it is easy to lose concentration.
But I will keep on reading as I have to do and I also want to do it! ;-)

something about cork...

As I tell you a lot about Jaywalking with Irish today, I can´t leave out the location where it takes place.


So I am going to tell you something about it. It is called Cork (Irish: Corcaigh) and it is Ireland's third most populous city after Dublin and Belfast and has a population of 119,143. County Cork is situated in the South West of Ireland, it is the largest of all the Irish counties and in many ways the most varied. Rich farmlands and river valleys contrast with the wild sandstone hills of the west, and above all there is the magnificent coastline. The city´s name derived from an Irish word corcach meaning "marshy place", referring to its situation on the River Lee.

Cork City Council


The most important place of interest in Cork is the church tower of Shandon, which dominates the North side of the city. The cork tower on the church is known by locals as The Four-faced Liar, as from the base of the building, each clock face appears to show a different time. Shandon is accessible to the public, and the bells myay be rung by the visitors.
The picture on the right side shows the Shandon bells.



Another important sigth is the Cork City Hall which is illuminated at night and reflected in the River Lee. In 1920, during the War of Independence, it was destroyed by British forces. This event was and is known as the "Burning of Cork". The rebuilding in 1930s was provided by the British Government as a gesture of reconciliation.


For further information about Cork you can explore the following websites:

http://www.wikipedia.org/

http://www.cork-guide.ie/

And here is the URL of the University of Cork, maybe you want to do your semester abroad there.
http://www.ucc.ie/en/