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