VIRGINS

I would like to tell you something about one of the principal characters in the book „Virgins “, namely Nick. Nick is about 40 years old and he wants the Family members to see him as the leader of the family. I think he has a round face with designer stubble and he has grey hair. His eyes are brown. I think that he is still slender and tall. I would say that he wears rather customary and comfortable clothes. - Not tightly trousers but rather loose trousers often Jeans and a sweater or sometimes shirts but I think he don’t like to wear a suit or ties. I think that he has a weak character. He isn't a responsible father I think. As a husband he is unaccountable and uncomprehending against his wife Suzy.

When we discussed how he acts, then we found out that he is a negative role for his children. He tries to the family, nevertheless if he hardly succeeds. In the play he very often talked to Zoe, his daughter. He is sorry on his wife because she didn't want to have sex with him on Sunday morning. During the week Suzy works all the time and only on Sunday they have time to be together but Suzy only wants to rest. He is angry about his son Jack, because he has started to make the same mistakes which Nick did in his youth. But I must say that Nick was much worse than Jack.

As I said, Nick is Suzy’s husband. His relationship to her is not really negative. He loves her, but he is frustrated that she won’t have sex with him anymore. He cares about Suzy.
The relationship to Jack is negative, because he thinks that his son will make the same mistakes which he did. He doesn’t talk really sensible with him.
And Zoe wants him to talk more sensible to the others in the family. He talks very often about his feelings for Jack and about Suzy with Zoe. I think that he mostly gets on with his daughter.

Globalization

Ø How is employment in Austria affected by globalisation? Are other areas affected too?
The globalization affects an economic boom in Eastern Europe and this helps Austria.
A problem is that some Austrian companies displace their places of production to other countries for saving money.
Some people say that the globalization reduces the Inflation, but for Austria the textile industry is nearly dead.


Ø Are there any Austrian multinationals? Find some information on the three biggest!
Vienna, April 2003 – More than 1,000 international companies have set up their Central and Eastern European headquarters or business hubs in Austria, underlining the country’s leadership in business outreach to the CEE region. These include prominent multinationals such as Alcatel, Beiersdorf, Bosch, Coca-Cola, Flextronics, Generali, Henkel, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Master Foods, McDonalds, Miele, SIG Combibloc and Siemens.

The most popular multinationals in Austria are, Omicron, Doppelmayr.
* Rauch:
It’s famous for fruit juices also the famous brand “red bull” belongs to them;
They have more than 1000 staff members and export into more than 50 counties.

* Doppelmayr:
It is a world wide company. They produce cable cars and elevators, which products are even copied in Asia.

* Omicron:
It is a big technical company, which produces computer stuff and other technical things for example “Laserdiodensysteme” and “Laserapplikationen”


Ø Are there groups that are against globalisation? Why?
A few groups which are against globalisation exist.
The biggest one is “Anti-Globalisation”.
It’s an organisation, which is not really against globalisation, but they want the diversity of company to survive. Because they want to prevent that some companies grow up to global powers.


Ø How can you as a consumer support Fair Trade?
You could buy products which are produced in Development Countries by people who get fair money for their work. These products are a bit more expensive than local products.


Ø Your opinion on globalization
I think globalization is on the one hand a very important thing and on the other hand it has a bad side.
On my opinion globalization keeps the world together. The whole world gets more mobile with planes and stuff.
The bad side is that the big companies exaggerate it with the transport of their products and so they contribute the greenhouse effect.

Speak

1. Book review:

“Speak” is written by Laurie Halse Anderson. It’s one of the four award-winning novels and was published in 1999 by the penguin group, USA.
Laurie Anderson lives with her family in central New York. She says that the character of Melinda, the main character, came to her in a nightmare and so she decided to write the book Speak.

The novel is about a 14 year old girl, who got raped at a school party.
Now she is an outcast at her high-school because she called the police, who busted everyone on the party. Her friends hate her even pupils who don’t know her hate her too. But nobody knows what really happened at the party and nobody wants to speak with her except Heather, a new girl at the school but it isn’t a real friendship. All pupils of the high school belong to groups only Melinda didn’t.
She really needs a help, but nobody can see that because she doesn’t speak. So she starts to skip school and gets into a lot of trouble.
In the first time when she speaks to Rachel, her ex-best friend, about what really happened at the party, and why she called the police, she doesn’t believe her, because she is in love with the guy, who raped Melinda. Telling it, she is afraid because she thinks that Rachel will probably tell the boy about the rape and so he might try to rape her again.
Melinda had a difficult time to go through. She felt bulled from live as well.
Mr. Freeman, her art teacher is the only one who believes in her and who notices that something is wrong with her.
But quite at the end of the book she tells Mr. Freeman all things, which she experiences.

I very liked the book although I hate reading. But this book attracted me very. This novel is written in a modern way and the topic, which she chooses is topical.
I also liked that Melinda finally overcame her fears and started to speak again. Until the end of the book she was alive but also dead, after all she was back in live again.


2. Description of the main character:

Not only the others see Melinda as an outcast, she sees herself as one too. She hasn’t got any friends to talk to and she doesn’t really know how to express herself.
In contrast to the other girls in her school she doesn’t dress herself as well.
Somehow she wants to bring out everything what happens, but she thinks that it’s easier to say nothing, to keep her shut. Nobody wants to her what she has to say. She also thinks that nobody likes her, but she thinks wrong, because over the story it puts out that one of her ex-best friends namely Ivy still likes her and her art teacher likes her too. And her biology partner David likes her a lot

Melinda hasn’t really a relationship to anyone. She is lonely and she is suffering. She has got just 3 or 4 people to talk with.
She doesn’t wants really to support with her parents because they are very busy with their selves. Heather and Melinda are very different so a real friendship doesn’t work. Mr. Freeman tries to help her by doing not let her to give up drawing trees and so he reach his aim and at the end of the story she talks about what happens although without speaking to him before.

The others are mean to her; they are bullying her because she called the police at the party. But if they would know why she called the police then nobody would bully her; they would feel sorry for her and would try to help her.
David P. is nice to her; he doesn’t really know what happened at the party. So he tries to get close to her, but Melinda is too afraid because she thinks that it could happen again and doesn’t get close to her though she likes him too.
The teachers except Freeman don’t note her problems. And her family, though they want her to speak again, don’t help her really.

I think Melinda hasn’t really changed until Andy Evens tries to hurt her again. This fore she could defend. So she felt stronger and she has confidence of herself. Finally she was able to speak about the rape.
This was the point where she changed her really I think.
In my opinion it is very difficult to come over if something awful happens.
But where she changed her really is in art.
If you really want changing something you aren’t allowed to give up. You must try it again and again until you have reached your aim.

Correction

A virtual tour through Cambridge

Today we make a virtual through Cambridge.
We set out at Drummer Street, where the bus station is. But we don’t go by the bus, but we just walk. Walking down south through Emmanuel Street and Nowing Street we arrive at the Whipple Museum. This building houses the history of science museum and you can visit it from Mo to Fr between 12:30 – 4:30.
After passing Pembroke Street, we stop over at our next stop – the Corpus Christy College. This majestic college is very famous and was founded in 1315. In the middle of this impressive college there is a nice court. Behind it there is the free school LA.
When we walk furthering a northerly direction, we arrived at the market, not far from Senate house. In the middle of the market there are many shops, enchanting art and craft shops and stalls.
After we walked up north, we reach at Trinity College. This fascinating building was founded in 1546 and it’s very famous.
Turning right and crossing Bridge Street, we stop over in front of the Methodist University, the university of Technology. Following Manor Street until Maids, we turn right and stop at our last stop the Grafton shopping centre. We enter the mall so that you can go to the toilet and get something to eat.
So now we walk back to our starting point the bus station.
This was the end of our virtual tour.
I hope you have enjoyed the tour.

A virtual tour Through Götzis

Let me take you on a virtual tour through Götzis, where I live. Götzis is a village but it’s nearly a town I think.
We start at my school BORG-Götzis. In this school are about 260 pupils and it’s just 30-31years old. In front of the building is the “Mösle” stadium, where the hyper meeting takes place every once a year.
Now we move further until we are at the main street. There are on the left side and on the right side many little shops and some gas stations. Along the main street to the north, we can see the pizzeria “Novella”. Call in there if you want something to eat, but if you aren’t hungry, then I invite you to have a drink in the “Dorf Café”.
After the drinks we continue our virtual tour at the church in front of the old one and near by are the town library and the video library.
We now move north until we reach the “Junkerjonasplatz”, where a little stream flows through. This place is called Junkerjonasplatz, because when you look at the top of the mountains, so that you see a castle, called “Junkerjonasschlössle”, but pleace don’t ask me about the history about the caslte because I don’t know so much about it.
Let’s continue our virtual tour at “Ambach”, where the culture stage is.Former the culture stage was a cinema, today you can sometimes see performances and stage plays there.
Next to it is a fascinating stream, which is called Ambach too.
So we finish our tour at the swimming pool of Götzis. Behind it there is a small passage way, which takes us to a place, where you can make a little hike through the mountains. You can believe at me it’s gorgeous and enchanting there and you can recover you and relax the fresh air…