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!

Where everyone is quiet...

This post is about my passion for scuba diving.
I wanted to learn diving since I was 5 or 6 years old. My mother always told me: “You can learn diving when you are old enough and have enough money for the course”.
Luckily it didn’t take that long because when my aunt asked me about my confirmation wish I quickly answered “a diving course, what else?”
I wasn’t really sure if she would accept my wish, but it was worth a try. On my confirmation day I was very excited and nervous. I couldn’t wait to open my aunt’s present.
When we came back from the church she told me that she had bought something really nice for me. She turned to her car and gave me….. a big, white balloon! “Oh wow a balloon, thank you”, I replied and thought ‘Oh my god, a balloon! That’s it?’
“Open it”, she said.
“But you cannot open a balloon without destroying it”, I answered.
“Then destroy it, here’s a needle for you”.
I was confused and not totally sure whether to destroy it or not. So I just stood there and watched my family.
“I can help you”, my brother shouted.
He took the needle and burst the balloon. Suddenly about ten or fifteen plastic “sea creatures” fell out. My aunt had filled the balloon with them (I don’t know how she did that).
I was totally surprised and all of a sudden realized that this must be a symbol for the diving course. I looked at her and asked “Really?”
“I hope it’s okay”, she said with a smile.
“It’s more than okay, it’s absolutely awesome”, I replied.

A few weeks later I had my first diving lesson and I loved it from the very first moment. Since then I use every possibility for going diving.
The most amazing place I have dived so far was the red sea. There I saw some of my favorite animals such as “Masked Butterfly Fish”, “Anemone Fish” and turtles. I will never forget the last dive in Egypt when I saw two dolphins.

This was the best present I ever received and I will always love my aunt for it!

These are not my pictures but it really is that beautiful.

Cakes ♥

I love to be creative, theoretically. I’m neither able to draw nor to knit. I can’t do handicrafts and am not very patient when it comes to gluing small pieces together.
However, there is one creative activity I could spend hours with, without being bored or impatient – baking and decorating cakes.
I was always fascinated when I saw these eye-catching and colorful masterpieces in a shop or the internet. That’s why I decided to buy myself a cake-decorating book (50 Easy Party cakes, Debbie Brown) and watched many online tutorials.
The first fancy cake I have ever baked was for a friend’s birthday party. She was so excited about her birthday present that she “booked” me for the next party :).
Decorating cakes and buying handy stuff can be really addictive. I discovered some interesting online shops and ordered among others different kinds of food coloring, chocolate-flavored marzipan and edible, sparkling food glitter.
I know that I am not as good as a professional confectioner but I love to do it and it’s also the perfect way for expressing my creativity.

If you are interested, here are some of my cakes :).

Two Worlds – One family

At first, here is a little quiz for you. What do these four pictures have in common?

As you may have guessed correctly, they are all characters in the movie “Tarzan”. I am sure that nearly ever one of you knows the Disney version but for those who have never seen it, here is a short summary.

A long time ago, an English couple together with its baby son manages to escape from a burning ship and find themselves on a coast somewhere in Africa. The region is surrounded by rainforest and so the couple has to build a tree house in order to survive.
A few days later, the female gorilla Kala hears the cries of an infant and finds the baby in the tree house. Moreover, she notices that the baby’s parents were killed by Sabor, a brutal leopard. Kala, who lost her own child, takes the baby back to her husband Kerchak. Kerchak, however, disapproves her decision and the new situation with the baby.
Kala calls the boy Tarzan, which means “white skin”, and raises him like a gorilla. He makes friends with the female(!) gorilla Terk and the elephant Tantor.
A few years later, Tarzan falls in love with the human girl Jane. She teaches him how to talk and how to behave as a human being.

You may wonder now why this post is about a movie made in 1999 but I have a very simple reason for doing it.
Last week I noticed a cheap offer to Hamburg on the internet and spontaneously booked it. Now I am really excited to go there because Hamburg is the only German city where you have the chance to watch the musical … TARZAN.
Since I saw a documentary about this particular musical it was my dream to go there and to watch it live on stage.

The musical version was written by Phil Collins and the main character is played by Alexander Klaws, who you may know. Alexander won the first season of the casting show “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” and performs as Tarzan since 2008.

I am really, really looking forward to going to Hamburg (and to Tarzan of course!) and will post some photos of the musical afterwards.

EDIT: Unfortunately it was not allowed to take pictures in the theatre but the musical AWESOME! We had fantastic seats in the first row and got really close to Tarzan :)

I can't stop humming these two songs, so if you are interested simply click on the links.

Two Worlds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0sZ8xZ_dWY
Everything that I am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-MtowPPugI

There is nothing like...NEW ZEALAND Part 2

This is the second part of my New Zealand trilogy and I am going to write about two very different but also really awesome cities.
The first one is called Kaikoura and situated midway between Christchurch and Picton on the east coast of the South Island. In this sense:

Kaikoura offers everything you can imagine: snow-capped mountains in the background and the marvelous Pacific Ocean which is home to very special marine life. It is not only home to 2200 inhabitants but also to gorgeous fur seals, orcas and the main attraction – the dusky dolphins.
The activities for tourists are almost infinite. They can go snorkeling, horse riding or fishing. Moreover it is possible to go kayaking with seals, do a whale watching trip or go swimming with dolphins. As long as I can think I have been fascinated by dolphins and it is my dream to swim or dive with them. When I was in Kaikoura I booked the dolphin snorkeling tour. I was so excited and could hardly wait for day X. When the day arrived we had very bad weather and unfortunately it was not possible to go out with the boat because the waves were too strong.
At first I was so upset and desperate. I thought that my dream will come true but it didn’t. So I had to look for another activity and found the company “Wings over whales”. They offer whale watching in a helicopter, which sounded amazing to me. So I called them, they picked me up and half an hour later in was in the helicopter and saw five awesome sperm whales. Although it was not possible to swim with dolphins I had a great time there, met a lot of nice people and saw incredible things.

The next city on my trip was Christchurch and is very different to Kaikoura. It is also located on the east coast of the South Island and is well-known as garden city. Before I visited Christchurch I read about the famous Hagley Park, the Botanic Garden and Mona Vale on the banks of the river Avon. There are two big and popular floral festivals each year, the Festival of Flowers in February and the Ellerslie International Flower Show in March.
I saw beautiful pictures on the tourist website and was very curious when I arrived in Christchurch in the evening. Because of this I had no chance to see a lot but could hardly wait for the next morning.
When I explored the city on the next day I was shocked. In 2011 Christchurch was hit by a very powerful natural event – an earthquake. In total 185 people were killed, making it the second deadliest disaster in New Zealand. The Canterbury Television Building and the Christchurch Cathedral collapsed.
Although I had read about it in the newspaper and had learned about it at school, I was not prepared for what I saw there.
Luckily I have never experienced it but this is how I imagine war. The Central Business District is still declared as red zone. This means that the streets are still closed and the buildings are destroyed. It is possible to discover the zone by bus or walking.
Although it was shocking and a bit scary I do not want to miss these experiences.