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

Ice Age

Yesterday evening I decided to have a relaxed evening and therefore I watched the film Ice Age.
It is an absolutely cute and awesome film and I really enjoyed this time. As I had seen the film before it was no problem to follow. I didn´t come across notable words which could be useful so I will give you a short review of that adorably film (for those who don´t know it yet).

First of all, there is Sid the Sloth which has been left behind by his family when they migrated. He decided to restart alone but then he met a problem, he gets attacked by two Rhinos. But thanks to Manny the mammuth Sid survives and so he decides to follow the mammuth as he doesn´t want to be alone. In the meantime a pride of sabre-toothed tigers attack the humans. Diego, one of the tigers, chases a mother and her baby to a waterfall. As the mother wants to saver her babys and also her life, she jumps of the waterfall and dies. The baby survives as the mother pushes her onto the shore. Manny and Sid find the baby and decide to return it to the humans. Diego accompanies them to lure them into an ambush. But as Manny saves Diego´s life he feels guilty and decides to tell them the truth. They made a plan and finally Manny and Sid find the humans and return the baby. Diego gets injured and tells them to leave him but in the end he appears safe and sound and they migrate all together.





Isn´t it nice? I really like this film because it is funny, sad, thirlling, a bit of everything!

My favourite one is Sid, he is the clumsy fellow of the film, but by far the funniest one
Manny is more or less the grim mammuth, but the good soul at the same time. Diego seems to be the bad one, but in fact he has a heart of corn.


If you have not already seen it you have to watch this lovely film! :-)

Oh, there is some vocab:

• sloth: an animal that moves slowly and lives in trees --> Faultier
• pride of lions: a group of lions --> Rudel Löwen
• sabre-toothed tiger: a large wild cat which lived in the past, with two long curved front teeth --> Säbelzahntiger
• shore: the land along the edge of a sea, lake or wide river --> Ufer
• to lure: to persuade someone to do something or go somewhere by offering them something exciting --> locken
• an ambush: an occasion when a person or group of people are ambushed --> Versteck

CNN

Yesterday I watched the CNN news in the evening where one news item was about the gender gap which consits all over the world.

The gender gap is usually expressed as the ratio of female to male earnings among full-time, year-round workers. The pay differentials between men and women in employment have been noted since the 1960s.

The reason for this gap is disputed. Some economists have argued that the tendency of women to get together in women's fobs has led to 'occupational crowding', in which the high supply of applicants for 'women's jobs' drives wages for those jobs downwards.

In 2004, women's wages in the USA were 76.5% of men's wages.

Here is a statistic, taken out of the wikipedia website, which shows the differences of earnings between men and women among all races.

Gilmore Girls

hi,

I know I have not written for a long time, but I had a lot to do for my Italian courses as I have had a presentation today and also some pieces of homework to do.

I think you have seen on the title what my entry is going to be about, yes you are right - Gilmore Girls.
I am really fascinated by this serial although it is not very intelligent but it is funny and relaxing. So I want to introduce my favourite actress to you, it is Lorelai senior. :-)

Her real name is Lauren Graham and she was born on March 16, 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
She grew up in Northern Virginia, and she studied in Barnard College in New York, where she majored in English. Then, she earned an M.F.A. in acting from Southern Methodist University.
(As far as I am informed the M.F.A. is the Mallorca Film Academy)

For further information about her biography explore the following website:
http://www.gilmoregirls.org/lauren.html

About her character in Gilmore Girls:

In my opinion she is the funniest person in the serial. I love her humor and I like her relationship to her daughter. Sometimes Lorelai has a quite rude conversation with her parents but only when it´s necessary.

Then there is Lorelai junior, called Rory Gilmore:

Her name is Alexis Bledel and in reality she is 25 years old. She was born in Houston, Texas and has already spent years in front of the camera as a model. Her parents encouraged her to try the community theatre when she was 8 years old, hoping it would help her to overcome her shyness.
While she was in highschooll she started her modeling career traveling all over to locations like Tokyo, Milan, New York and Los Angeles.
In her freetime Alexis Bledel enjoys writing, reading, shooting photography, going to the movies and spending time with her family.

About her character in Gilmore Girls:

Rory is the shy and sweet girl and she embodies the life of a teenager. She has a very good relationship to her mother and is deemed to be very clever and a hard-working student. She has different relationships and demonstrates the hard life of growing up.
So these are the two main characters of the Gilmore Girls and I promise that I will give you soon more information about this serial. :-)

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.