Blind...and Happy

Can you imagine being blind – totally blind? I can’t and therefore I also can’t imagine how difficult it must be to live in this visual world. It is amazing for me how these special people live their life. In class we talked about “disability” and “difficulty” and I was not sure which term I should use to describe the following person. Then I found the “Courtesy Rules of Blindness” on the internet, where someone wrote: “I'm an ordinary person, just blind. You don't need to remember some ’politically correct’ term, ‘visually impaired’, ‘sight challenged’ etc. Keep it simple and honest, just say blind.”
Okay, I will try to stick to that.

Two days ago there was a concert in a church (in the “Münzgrabenkirche”) in Graz. As you may have guessed from my introduction it was not an “ordinary” one. The duo was called “Blind and Happy”, which refers to one of the two members - Sandra Seiwald. She was born with failing eyesight and became totally blind eleven years ago. Nevertheless, Sandra graduated from high school and studied jurisprudence. Together with Gudrun Topf she founded “Blind and Happy”. Topf studied music and educational theory and had the honor of performing together with Stevie Wonder.
Seiwald and Topf became well-known in Austria when they took part in the ORF talent show “Die große Chance”. Seiwald said in an interview that they applied just for fun and were really surprised that the audience liked them so much. “Blind and Happy” reached the semi-final where they performed one of Seiwalds favorite songs from the musical “Mozart”. The concert last Friday also ended with this beautiful song.

Now I realize that I haven’t written anything about the rest of the concert. Sandra Seiwald and Gudrun Topf sang not only songs from musicals but also spirituals as well as new and old pop songs. My favorite one on that evening was “Run” from Leona Lewis. Seiwald mentioned something that I haven’t realized before. “Run” is a song about a mother and her dead child. The atmosphere afterwards was really special.

Their two voices are amazing together and if there is another concert in Graz, I will definitely be there.

Click here to view their website

Ö3...Let's Rock

Today I am going to tell you about a very interesting job interview, which happened last week.

When I was looking for a summer job in the internet, I suddenly clicked on a blog where a boy wrote about his work experience at Ö3 (a radio station). I am very interested in music and radio and so I decided to try my luck and sent them my application documents. This might sound easy - but it was not. At first I had to fill out about five pages. There were very many different tasks to do. I had, for example, to name my favorite film and to explain why. Moreover I had to tell a foreign friend about the political system in Austria (in five sentences) or shorten news in order to use them on the radio. Some exercises were really tricky and I spent much time on them. The most difficult thing for me was the last task. I had to write about whatever I wanted to. The only two requirements were: it should be about one page long and it has to make them curious. I rewrote my text about 15 or 20 times until I was satisfied with it. I sent my application at the end of March and from then on I had to wait.

As time went past I got more and more excited. When I finally got an E-Mail I was so nervous I could hardly breathe – it was like getting a test back. I opened the E-Mail and was gobsmacked. The vice manager wrote me that she really liked my application and invited me to an assessment center – which was last week. It took place in Vienna and that day was pretty cool. When I arrived at the company buildings, I was overwhelmed. There are many people bustling around, the whole building is equipped with their own products (they even have beanbag chairs with their label on it) and you can hear Ö3 everywhere (even in the bathroom!).
There were about 25 other job applicants – all very interesting people. Some of them study music, journalism or communication science. They were all very friendly and we had a lot of fun together. The assessment center was separated in three parts. At first we had to fill out a general knowledge test. Then someone handed out some pictures and we had to write humorous texts. The third part was a “normal” job interview – this is what the vice manager told us at least. Luckily the interview was not in front of the other applicants but in a separate room. It was a relaxed situation – there were also some other important people – and we talked about why I applied here and so on. Suddenly one guy asked me if I could tell him a joke. I told him that there is one joke I can remember from my Spanish class at school. The English translation would be: “What time is it when an elephant destroys your watch? …..Time to buy a new one.” No one laughed, they only looked at me and I said something like: “Hahaha, that’s it.” Another guy answered: “At least you tried”.This was so embarrassing!
The vice manager told me that she would either write me an E-Mail or call me to inform me whether I got the job or not.

I will keep you posted!

EDIT: Unfortunately I was not selected but it was woth a try!

Only the truth

Last Saturday was pretty exciting for me. Together with my two brothers we went to the latest Dieter Nuhr show in Vienna. As this was my birthday present from them I was really looking forward to seeing him.
I am a huge fan of Mr. Nuhr, read some of his books, watched many videos online and his audio book is, because of the length (four hours) and his voice ideal for relaxing and also sleeping J. His new tour is called “Nuhr die Wahrheit” (Only the truth) where he states his opinion very clearly. All of his previous shows contain his last name “Nuhr”, for example “Nuhr unter uns” (between ourselves) or “Nuhr am Leben” (only alive).

If you don’t know Dieter Nuhr, here some facts:

• · Nuhr is a German comedian and lives in Rathingen.
• · He studied art and history in order to become a teacher.
• · Nuhr won the German Comedy-Price twice (2003&2010)
• · He is one of the most successful comedians in Germany    (more than 200.000 people visit his live shows every year).
• · Dieter Nuhr is married and has got a daughter
• · His famous saying is: "Wenn man keine Ahnung hat: Einfach mal Fresse halten," which means, "If you have no idea: just keep your mouth shut."

Last weekend was the first time I saw him live on stage and I was really surprised. He did not have any stage design except for a chair and a microphone stand. At the beginning he explained why he does not use and like videowalls. The audience would fully concentrate on the screens and won’t look at him any more (I think he is absolutely right). The show lasted two hours and was so funny that I almost died laughing. After the encore (where he read the first chapter of his new book “The perfect day”) I got the chance to ask him for an autograph and even took a picture with him.

This was one of the best birthday presents ever!