Class system in Great Britain

Hey there,

I came across a topic sentence we were once given and thought it would be A a good beginning for a short summery of the class system in Great Britain and B a good practice for PC3.

Britain has long been a country of haves and have nots. One of the haves is undoubtedly the class system. It has been lasting for decades and in the terms of office of certain politicians like Margaret Thatcher it has even worsen. Until today British society is divided into classes. According to a new survey there are seven classes to distinguish: the elite, the established middle class, the technical middle class, the new affluent workers, the emergent service workers, the traditional working class and the Precariat. The differences between these are the distribution of income and wealth as well as education and occupation. While the upper classes can afford the expensive and good private schools, the lower classes have to struggle with the insufficient public schools. This leads to the unemployment or low positions of the lower classes and furthermore to the high positions for people of the upper classes. As the social mobility in Great Britain is the worst among Europe, it is almost not possible to leave one class and enter another. To summarize there has been a big wealth gap in Great Britain for decades.

first snow

Hey guys…

It is amazing… I woke up to snow today!

It is two days late though. We did not have white Christmas and to be honest I was a little disappointed.  I did not expect to witness snow this winter. However, I am really amazed and happy now.

There is nothing more beautiful than watching the little snowflakes floating down from the grey sky and blanket the whole surrounding. The mountains and houses seem to have a subtle white layer of powdered sugar. The bare trees do not seem bare anymore as the snow covering the branches is sparkling in the sunlight. To complete the perceived idyll the frozen lakes radiate a sense of calm but just until it is discovered as a suitable ice rink. Then you will see little boys and girls with colorful caps shouting and laughing while ice skating on the lake. To tell you the truth, I am a little afraid to go ice skating on a frozen lake because sometimes there are instable parts of the icesheet. I have heard about a lot of accidents happened. Once you break through the icesheet you may get under it as a result of the drift or so. If this happens, you are in big trouble. To put in another way you will die. So be careful!!! Anyway, I like admiring the snowy view from inside and sometimes I think that hibernation would be a great thing. Unfortunately the human species is not made for that. However, sometimes we just have to go out but as soon as we have overcome our weaker self it will be great. Trust me! Once you wrapped yourself well and walked outside you will feel the crunch of snow beneath your feet. I love this magical feeling especially when you waddle through deep snow and admire the white glistening landscape. Moreover there are several things you can do outside.

My favorite activity outdoors used to be catching snowflakes on my tongue. Actually it is great fun to feel the cold for a split second before the snowflake melts. I stopped doing it in public as soon as I realized that I look silly. :/ Another very amusing outdoor activity is to go sledding down a hill. When I was a child I used to spend hours and hours crawling up the hill and then sledding down again. The results were cherry red cheeks, a runny nose and frozen toes. After a long time in the cold it is a big relief to finally get home and toast your toes by the fire or the heater. There is nothing more enjoyable than relaxing in the warmth of the house, sip a big mug of hot chocolate and watching the little snowflakes floating down from the grey sky.

The Pyramids of Giza

Hey there,

I have been organizing old photographs and came across some nice pictures of me with the Pyramids in the background. I thought it would be a nice blog entry with a couple of interesting information.

Egypt is popular for its interesting ancient culture and magnificent old buildings. The probably most common association with Egypt are pyramids.  In fact, there are more than 93 pyramids located at various places all over Egypt. Among these the Three Pyramids of Giza are the mostly well-known ones.  They were built in the 4^th Dynasty (aprox. 2550 B.C) and were used as tombs for Pharaohs. The biggest and tallest Pyramid is the Cheops Pyramid (also Great Pyramid or Pyramid of Khufu) and was initially constructed for Khufu a Pharaoh at this time. It became one of the Seven World Wonders of the Ancient World and is the only one that is still existing today. The other six World Wonders were destructed by wars or natural disasters. With its initially approx. 146 metres (481 feet) height the Cheops Pyramid used to be the tallest building in the world until 1889 when the Eiffel Tower in France was built. Due to erosion its current height comes to approx. 138 metres (455 feet). The second biggest pyramid is The Pyramid of Chephren, (also Pyramid of Khafre). It is named after the pharaoh Khafre who ruled in the  Fourth Dynasty and after entombed in this pyramid. It rises to a height of approx. 136 metres (448 feet) and is lower than the Great Pyramid. However, The Pyramid of Chephren may look taller as it sits on bedrock 10 m (33 feet) higher. The Pyramid of Mycerinus (also Pyramid of Menkaure) is the third and smallest one of the three pyramids of Giza. It was built by Khafre's son, Menkaure who ruled Egypt during the  4th dynasty and is only  62metres (203ft) high. All three pyramids have been plundered a lot of times in the past but also in the modern time. Besides the bodies and funeral goods, the exterior white limestone coverings were removed as well. Nonetheless, the Three Pyramids of Giza still attract flocks of tourists every year. It is worth to visit them!

That's me

Hey guys,

I have been blogging for a while but did not introduce myself. I completely forgot about that as I was focused on composing serious high quality blogs :D. Maybe now is the perfect point to tell you who I am because I think it should be a bit more personal.

Now, my name is Nora and I am in my twentieth. Actually my dad is Egyptian and my mum Austrian. One day I met a funny guy and he said: “Ohhhh… so you are an Austgyptian girl then.” :D

I have been a billion times to Egypt as my paternal family live there. Our home is located in the heart of Cairo, the capital city (for those who are no geography geniuses). You may have heard about the Arabic spring and all the demonstrations and people who were shot during the last two or three years. Yes, it is just a 10 minutes-walk from where am living during my stays in Cairo but it is ok.

 Currently I am studying transcultural communication in the first semester at the University of Graz. My two foreign languages are English and Arabic and my mother tongue is German. For one thing I chose this field of study because I like being able to communicate with people from other countries and who don’t speak German. It is very interesting to gain insight into other cultures and this works best if you speak their language. For another thing languages have been becoming more and more important as a result of globalization. My aim is to work as an interpreter although I think it is tough to translate perfectly. Particularly Arabic translations may cause problems as sentences are composed and structured differently. Another difficulty I face are the subtle differences between words. There might not be an equivalence in another language and this makes it difficult to translate correctly and to catch the meaning of what’s being said.

So right now I am on the train from Graz to Innsbruck, where I used to live before coming to Graz, to spend the Christmas holidays there. I wish you merry chistmas!!!!!!!!!!

Nora

Moroccan wedding

Hey there…

It’s me again… I just returned from an amazing trip to Amsterdam. Actually I have relatives there and they invited my entire family to the most beautiful day in their live or the beginning of a never-ending nightmare. Anyway, it was the marriage between my Egyptian relative and his long standing girlfriend. The interesting thing is that she is Moroccan decent. I have never been to a Moroccan traditional wedding and I learned much about their country and wedding traditions!!

Let’s begin with some basic information about Morocco

Geography

The Kingdom of Morocco is located in North Africa and it is characterized by its mountainous areas as well as by its large portions of desert. The probably mostly well-known city is Casablanca as it is the biggest one. However, Rabat is the political capital city.

Official languages

Arabic is besides Berber the official language but French is also a recognized national language. In the Arab world Moroccans are difficultly understood due to their variety of barber dialects and French words.

The wedding traditions

Within the week before the real wedding day, Moroccans celebrate a “henna celebration”, where only girls and women participate. Usually it is held in the private home of a relative or close friend where the "hannaya", a professional tattoo artist, tattoos the bride’s hands and feet with beautiful designs. It should protect the bride against disease and ensure the success and prosperity. As men are not allowed the girls and women wear revealing beautiful dresses and dance wildly.

In the morning of the wedding day the bride goes to the beauty salon to be prepared for the celebration. The bride will apply copious amounts of makeup and will be dressed extravagantly. After finishing from the beauty salon the groom will pick her up and drive directly to the venue where the celebration will take place. The celebration usually occurs at night in a beautifully decorated ceremonial hall with a special constructed superior sofa for the bride and the groom. A characteristic of a Moroccan wedding are the special songs the women and only the women sing on their way to the venue. They are dressed in a Moroccan caftan which has long sleeves and a broad belt around the waist.

 During the wedding the bride might change her outfit a couple of times and dance in each outfit some time surrounded by the guests. At the end each guest will congratulate once again and the bride and her husband will leave for their wedding night.

Moroccan caftan

sofa for bride and groom

How to motivate yourself

Hey there,

Today‘s one of these grey, dreary and dull days where you‘re just fucked off with everything especially with stuff you have to do for university. It seems a never ending list of things you still haven’t finished. Everything seems to have greater importance than to cram vocabulary for the next PC.  And that’s no good.
Suddenly you realize you’re hungry although you’ve just eaten some dry cornflakes but you still go into the kitchen and realize for the fifth time this day that there is nothing yummy in the fridge.
The weather isn’t a great help too. On the contrary!!!
It has been pouring down for hours now and no sun in sight. To top it all someone in the dormitory listens to music at a deafening volume, I am not sure but it might be Helene Fischer. : /
Don’t get me wrong. She has some nice songs too.
As I am sitting at my desk thinking of what eating next a thought comes in mind.
Why do we let ourselves down in such situations although we can do something against it?
So I have come up with some ideas how to motivate ourselves in an acute depressed situation.
I would like to share it with you guys.

Here we go:

1. Work out!!  

Even if you don’t feel like at all. I’ll tell you why:
Exercise is not only good to keep your nice figure but it affects our brain on different areas.
On the one hand working out increases heart rate which means that more oxygen is pumped to the brain. This means you feel more powerful and stressless. On the other hand pleasure hormones such as serotonin and dopamine which cause a euphoric feeling are released throughout your exercises
Even if you do not have a membership in a gym, you can do some exercise at home.
Use the following link.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ailbhemalone/workouts-that-you-can-easily-do-at-home

                                                                     but do it right

If you do not have the opportunity to work out because your room is too small or you are one of those “no-sport-ever”-attitude people or whatever read the following.

2. Go for some fresh air

Just do it. I know it sometimes will be a huge overcoming but the result is worth it.
The brain function is based on the CO₂ levels in the blood. When take deep breaths the CO₂ level will rise and our brain function as well. Besides that, you will feel refreshed and your circulatory will be animated.

3. Step by step

We all are snowed under with work. The main point not to lose control is to do one step at a time.
Choose one piece of work you start with and finish it. Only then begin with another piece of work.

4. Reward yourself

In our heart we are all still kids who want to be praised when we achieve something.
Although we are adults now we do not have to abandon that. We should reward ourselves when having finished one point on our to-do-list.
In my case it’s Milka chocolate Santa Clauses for some reason.
Find out what your reward should be.

5. Phone somebody who encourages you

If you can’t bring yourself to go outside and meet people, why don’t you call somebody who is close to you? Someone who makes you happy and encourages you.

6. Music

 Music is a powerful force and you should use it. Do not listen to sad music or songs you associate with bad experience it will bring you down even more. Play kinds of music cheers you up.