Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was at first celebrated in 1621 from the Pilgrims, who wanted to celebrate their first harvest. The Pilgrims invited the Native Americans to eat with them, because they have shown them how to plant and fish.

It is celebrated on the 4^th Thursday in November. This day the families come together to have a Thanksgiving dinner. Typical dishes are: turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, pecan pie, pumkin pie and so on...

The most important thing on this day is that most of the people thank for everything in their life. They thank to be healthy, to have enough food, to have a good job and to have a family.

The day after Thanksgiving, which is always a Friday, is called "Black Friday". This day is the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and nearly every shop grants a lot of discounts and they open very early in the morning to get all people in.

In my opinion Thanksgiving is a nice feast, but I would hate the "Black Friday", because of all the people who queue up to buy something.

For economy the "Black Friday" is a good idea, because there are enough silly people, who take the stress on them and want to buy something on this day, but for people who have to work it's a pity.

Halloween

Halloween is a shortened form of All Hallow's Eve.

Halloween means holy - Eve is the day before a holy day.

Halloween was an ancient British Celtic

festival.At Halloween the souls of the dead returned. People lit bonfires to frighten evil spirits.

Now bonfires are only burnt on November 5th - Bonfire Night.

• masks
• costumes
• ghosts
• witches on broomsticks with black cats
• skeletons
• bats and spiders
• and Halloween lanterns

...have all become part of Halloween

Children play trick-or-treat. They ask for a treat hoping to geht sweets.

I found a funny halloween video on "youtube.com", which you can see if you click on this link.

My favourite advertisement

It's the Nike football advertising with Robinho.

link

Press review - Running on empty

I read an article the other day in the online version of “economist.com” and it talks about strikes in France, because of a pension reform. I thought you might be interested, because our class is going to France at the end of this school year.

Basically what it says is that the French president Mr. Sarkozy wants to raise the legal minimum retirement age from 60 to 62 years. The outcome was that the French were striking to prevent this law.

There are infrequent trains, absent teachers, undelivered post and unprinted newspapers, like it is on every other strike. Unfortunately this strike is already takin longer than usual strikes and the workers of all refineries, lorry drivers and school pupils joined in too. Now the government is having a big problem, because the country is running out of petrol, because of the striking oil workers.

In my opinion the strikes in France are silly and unnecessary, because the country has high debts as a result of their pension system. So they have to save money to pay the pension in the future and I don’t understand this long strikes. In Austria we can draw a pension at the age of 65, so the French should be happy with the minimum retirement age of 62.

Vocabulary:

minimum retirement age (Pensionsantrittsalter) – The minimum retirement age is 60 years.

to prevent (verhindern) – The people try to prevent a law.

draw a pension (Pension beanspruchen) – In Austria we can draw a pension at the age of 65.

Farrah

Farrah is a student from the USA and she comes from Maryland, which is close to Washinton D.C.

Now she lives in Linz, because she is in Austria to learn German.

The things she loves most of Austria are the mountains and the pretty, old cities.

Farrah has already visited Vienna, Linz, Perg, Saubach and Innsbruck.

Her hobbies are reading, meeting friends, travelling and watching movies.

She stays in Austria until may, but if she wants she can stay another year.

Farrah has already been in a lot of european countries. There are Germany, France, UK, Belgium, Greece and Switzerland.

The said that the biggest different between Austria and the United States is that in Austria everything is much smaller.

At her home in Maryland she has got some pats like a dog, a cat, a turtle and a parrot.

The development of advertising

I have just read an article, which tasks about the history of advertising.

Advertising began in the Industrial Revolution, which was in the 19th century and it was mainly used to promote novelties and fringe products. Later national advertising campaigns and brand-naming became necessary.

The economic depression between 1873 and 1894 brought on a crisis of over-production and under-consumption, so a lot of goods were unsold and the prices and profits fell. Small industrial firms combined with other small businesses and widened the range of goods, so they were in a better postition.

From about the 1850s there were a lot of anonymous bars of soap on the market, so the leading companies decided to use more aggressive selling methods. For example Lord Leverhulme, who had the idea to 'brand' his soap by selling it in distinctive packages.

Many companies followed Lord Leverhulme and started advertising their products. Shortly after bigger and more campaigns were mounted and smaller firm, who didn't or couldn't, were squeezed or bought out by the larger companies.

My favourite spot - Stiegl beer advertising

My favourite advertising is the spot from Stiegl beer, because it's very funny.
The spot takes place at a party. A man shows a stairs-sign to a woman, because he wants to drink a Stiegl beer with her, but the woman thinks he wants to go upstairs with her and goes away. A few moments later another woman shows a stairs-sign to the man, who thinks she wants to drink a Stiegl beer, but the woman has got a Stiegl beer and wanted to go upstairs. So the man is lucky and they go upstairs together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZoGw9TOwXM

My grade

In the winter term I got an C. On our presentation about the world of work I got a C+. My test in the summer term was also a C. I think my work in class is ok. So I think I deserve a C.

FIFA World Cup

Country	Germany	Australia	Serbia	Ghana
language	German	English	Serbian	English
people	German	Australian	Serbian	Ghanaian
clichés	They always eat sausages and kraut.	They have a lot of kangaroos.	They are very nationalistic and quick-tempered.	There is only a desert with no trees and no food.
inhabitants	82 Mio	22 Mio	7,5 Mio	24 Mio
chances	quarterfinal	they have the same chances to come under the last 16

Bibione 2010

From Monday the 17th until Friday the 21st May 2010 i spent some days in Bibione with the people of my class and the people of the 3AK. In this time we made some cultural as well as sports activities.

On the thirst day we made a stop in Udine, where we looked at some sights there. At 5 o'clock p.m. we arrived in Bibione and then we could move in our "mobile homes". In the evening we went in the city, where we ate a pizza in a restaurant.

On Tuesday we went to Venice, but before we arrived to Venice we had to wait a long time for our boat. When we arrived at Marcus square, Mr. Huber told us some important facts about Venice and we got a riddle. After some hours we went back to Bibione and arrived there at 7 o'clock p.m.

On Wednesday we did some archiving at 11.30 a.m. and at 2 o'clock p.m. we made a bike tour, which was quite funny. In the afternoon we had some free time, in which we played beach soccer and swam in the sea. In the evening we were allowed to go to the disco, but this was very boring, so we went back to our mobile homes.

On Thursday we visited a little fishing village, which was quite nice. There we also ate some spaghetti with sea fruits. When we came home, we had some free time and then we made a beach soccer tournament. The rest of the day was used by packing.

On Friday we left Bibione at 9.30 a.m. and arrived in Perg at 5 o'clock p.m.

Let's got green - personal comment

Today we heard a very nice presentation about environment and how to protect our planet. Now I tell you my opinion to the websites from WWF and Greenpeace and my personal contribute to save our environment.

In my opinion the WWF website http://www.panda.com/ is very interesting. What I like most of this website is the modern design and the full information in it.


The Greenpeace website www.greenpeace.org/international doesn't look as nice as the WWF website, but there is also a lot of interesting information about Greenpeace himself and what they are doing.


Personally I try to save our planet with avoiding waste. As well I always pay attention to turn off the light and to re-use plastic sacks. If it's possible I also can walk or go by bike instead of taking the car.

presentation: tourism - KMME

In my opinion the presentation of KMME was very nice and informative. The power-point was also very good and all the important information was mentioned.

I think the website http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ is very useful for people who want to plan their own individuel holiday trip. As well it is easy to use and clearly arranged.

Almost two thirds say 2010 economy will not be worse

I read an article the other day in www.austriantimes.at and it talks about a new poll by Linz firm "market", which says that 60% of Austrians expect 2010 to be no worse than 2009.

I thougt you might be interested, because our economy is important for everyone of us.

The new poll says that 27% expect the economy to improve this year. Only 10%, mostly farmers and self-employed, think that it gets worse. "Market" also found out that two thirds said the recession had not affected them personally.

"Market" polled about 600 people older than 15 for ORF programme "Eco".

The Institute for Economic Research (Wifo) thinks Austria will recover from recession more slowly than many other European countries, because of tank.

It has predicted that Austrian growth would be 0,75% lower than the average during the decade before the 2008/2009 recession – and that inflation would remain at 1,5% or lower annually until the end of 2014.

In my opinion it is very good that the people think that our economy is getting better, because it is important to think positiv. But I hope our growth will be bigger than expected.

Vocabulary:
remain (bleiben) - Inflation would remain at 1,5%.
predict (voraussagen) - It has predicted that Austrian growth would be 0,75%.
recession (wirtschaftlicher Rückgang) - The recession had not affected them personally.

link