Youpost 4

Key West

 

Probably the most picturesque place I visited is Key West. When I walked along the beach, feeling the fine sand between my toes and enjoying the panoramic view of the crystal-clear turquiose ocean, I thought I was in paradise. I never ever wanted to leave this place but here I am again in stodgy Austria telling you about it. Hopefully, I can spark your interest in this place by telling you more about it. First of all, before going there, you want to make sure you pack at least one swimsuit, an essential item. I can say this because I forgot mine and experienced the sweatiest holiday ever. Besides the swimsuit, you will want to bring sun glasses and a camera.

Things to do in Key West:

Most certainly you will travel to Key West via Miami as there are only a few flights destined for Key West. Don't rent a car to drive down from Miami as you won't need one in Key West. Instead, take one of the many tourist bus, which are not very expensive. When on the bus, make sure you sit in the front row so that you can enjoy the endless view.

This is the map of the Old Town Trolley route that tours around Key West. It stops at the most important places such as museums, bars, lookout towers and the beach. Using the bus to explore Key West is convenient and easy; you can get in and out wherever you want.

One of the stops of the Old Town Trolley is the southernmost point in the US. When visiting Key West, you have to take a picture standing next to the giant concrete monument, fashioned after a buoy. This monument is only 90 miles away from Cuba - want to hop over?

Don't forget to stop at Sloppy Joe's Bar. This bar serves the award-winning key lime pie, which is a special cocktial, Key West is famous for. Stroll along in Oldtown, where Sloppy Joe's Bar is located, and stop in at the Blonde Giraffe Key Lime Pie factory. If you prefer wine, try the one at the Key West Winery, where it is made of fruits like oranges, mangos and tangerines - but no graps. A truly unique taste bud experience!

With this post I hope to have given you a few pieces of information about Key West. It is most definitely a place to visit if you want to experience being in paradise. Knowing the beauty of this place, it is common among retired New Yorkers to move down to it to flee all city-related problems. I probably won't be able to do that but I know where to send people for a perfect beach wedding; by the way, what about your wedding?

Reflecting on writing (2)

paragraph CLI                                     SUK1/ Group5/ Kercher/ November 22nd, 2013

The one thing that really surprised me about my CLI, Ivy League, was the origin of the name. While researching I found out that there are, mainly, tow possible derivations for this word. Firstly, Ivy as a plant is supposed to protect walls and give them a longer lifetime. Because it secretes nanoparticles to help it grip walls, it can grow similarly to the structure of a net. Ivy acts like a blanket, warming up and protecting  the walls against extreme temperatures, to prevent them from cracking. Britain have used this advantage of the plant for decades by planting Ivy on the walls of their houses. Hence Ivy is planted on the walls of the English universities in the U.S. Secondly, Ivy was also an important sports term.  The Roman numeral four (IV) has used to refer to the emerged American football league of the four prestigious universities Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Princeton. On November 23, 1876 sports representatives of these four universities met to decide upon uniform rules for their games. The term IV (pronounced the same as the plant) spread rapidly afterwards. Today, educational institutes promote themselves by using the term Ivy to compare themselves to the Ivy League. Little ivies ( liberal arts colleges), public ivies (public colleges) and southern ivies are just a few examples. To conclude, researching the two origin of the name of my CLI, Ivy League, helped me to get a better understanding of this term and its history.

[250 words]

Improved Version 1:

The one thing that really surprised me about my CLI, Ivy League, was the origin of its name. While researching I found out that there are two possible derivations for this word. Firstly, ivy as a plant is used to protect walls and help them last longer. Because it secretes nanoparticles to help it grip walls, it grows similarly to the structure of a net. Ivy acts like a blanket, warming up and protecting  the walls against extreme temperatures, which prevents them from cracking. Because of this purpose, ivy was planted next to the walls of universities. Secondly, ivy was also an important sports term.  A sports magazine used the Roman numeral four (IV) first to refer to the emerging football league of the four most prestigious universities: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Princeton. Today, educational and sports  institutions promote themselves by using the term “ivy” to compare themselves to the Ivy League. Researching the two possible origins of the name of my CLI, Ivy League, helped me to gain a better understanding of this term and its history.

[180 words]

Improved Version 2:

The one thing that really surprised me about my CLI, Ivy League, was the origin of its name. While researching I found out that there are two possible derivations for this name. Ivy as a plant is used to protect walls and help them last longer. As a result of secreting nanoparticles to help it grip walls, it is considered a versatile and invasive species. Ivy acts like a blanket, warming up and protecting  the walls against extreme temperatures, which prevents them from cracking. Due to these numerous benefits, growing Ivy is a great choice for a hassle-free and healthy landscaping particularly for the walls of the four most prestigious universities: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Princeton. Ivy was also an important sports term. The Roman numeral four (IV) was first used to refer to the emerging football league of the these four universities. Until today, a number of these leagues are still holding this name. In short, researching the two possible origins of the name of my CLI, Ivy League, helped me to gain a better understanding of this name and its history.

[182 words]

 

 The original version of my paragraph about my CLI was way too long. When studying, I discovered so many things that surprised me about my CLI that I was eager to put them all in my paragraph. Additionally, I added unnecessary extra information to these facts. Secondly, I  made the mistake of writing a sentence, which I found quite good, and then adjusting the preceding and following sentences to it. As a result, there is no cohesion in the paragraph. The second version is shorter and more cohesive. I took out the unnecessary information but still made the mistake of leaving in a sentence starting with " Today, educational sports..." - which is still irrelevant information. Furthermore, I could not figure out how to rewrite the phrase " it grows similar to the structure of a net". This phrase was not a mistake but somehow sounded strangely. I think the last version of the paragraph is the most cohesive and understandable, although I did not receive any feedback on it.

 

Youpost 3

Studying the US history has made me really miss it; as I lived there for a year. So, my boyfriend and I decided to take a two-week trip to the US. When I told my friend in Washington, D.C. about the trip, she offered me her Volkswagen van to drive down to Miami,FL to enjoy a few days on the beach. After discussing further details with her, my boyfriend and I booked our trip: we will fly on Monday,  August 4th from Vienna to Washington, D.C., drive down to Miami, FL (we will leave the van at my friends' uncle in Miami) and return to Vienna on Monday, August 18th, 2014.

The plan: 

After the long flight from Vienna to Washington, D.C. we will probably be exhausted and jet-lagged, so we will stay at the hotel the first day to relax and adjust to time. The next day we will visit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to please my boyfriend's obsession with airplanes. Afterwards, will walk down 7th Street to Chinatown and the big Verizon Center. The food served in these little restaurants will hopefully be as exceptional as the holiday brochure says, and I am also excited to see the great Chinese gate next to them. From this gate we will take a walk to Vernon Square park and the nearby Business Center (further up the 7th Street) until we will meet friends of mine for dinner at night. On Wednesday, we will take the little tourist bus, which tours around Washington D.C, for sightseeing. Stops of this bus will be Washington Union Station (with an impressive train set inside and circle-arranged monuments outside) as well as the Washington Monument, the Korean War Veterans Memorial with the final stop at the Lincoln Memorial. This memorial not only honors Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest presidents of the US who ended slavery and preserved the union, but also represents the idea of freedom and equality. Freedom and equality of black people were also a major concerns of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, held in front of this memorial on August 28th, 1963. This historic and spacious place will be breathtaking to see; I cannot wait to visit it. Also worth a visit is supposed to be the Capitol, to which we will stroll to the next day. This Capitol holds two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. These lawmakers (100 Senators and 435 Representatives), together with the

president and the supreme court,  build the three branches of the US government. Having visited the Capitol and the most important memorials and museums in Washington D.C., we will start our long drive to Miami, Fl. We assume that it will take us about two exhausting days from Washington, D.C. to Miami, Fl. Since the van is very spacious and comfortable we will also spend the night in it. Sleeping in the van will be an absolute dream come-to-true for me; I already bought sleeping bags and battery operated lights for these adventurous nights. During the day, however, my boyfriend and I will take turns driving until we finally arrive in Miami. The capital city of Florida offers inexpensive youth hostels and guesthouses but because we can sleep in the van, we will stay at a campground. When in Miami, I will walk the glamorous streets filled with exclusive clubs and shops until my feet hurt. Having seen these streets in many movies, I hope to get a glimpse of the luxurious lifestyle of the people living there; maybe even try an expensive dress in one of the shops.These unique streets are supposed to be bustling and packed with people and I will absorb all energy of this lively atmosphere. I can picture myself standing there, breathing and just taking it all in. Unfortunately, the holiday brochure says that the campground will be the contrary: small and deserted. Nonetheless, this will not stop me from making the most of our stay there. Despite the fact that the we will be staying in a more remote and filthy area of the city, I hope to be able to go to the fashionable residential districts on the outskirts and to the ones near the sea. Other than that, we do not plan to do a lot of sightseeing. Admittedly, we will just spend the time lazing at the beach until we have to fly back to boring Austria. All in all, I hope this will be an eventful and memorable trip to the US; and I cannot wait to sleep in the van.

cost:
flight (€1,100)
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (€8)
museum (€12)
tourist bus (€13)
food (€400)
gas (€600)
campground fee (€200)
souvenirs (€50)
miscellaneous (€100)
---------------------------------------------------------------
€ 2483

Reflect on writing (1)

Writing Task PC1+ Version 01/02              SUK1/Group5/Kercher/November 27,2013   

Studying at the Department of Translation can be very challenging. It starts off with the first day where you already realize how bumpy your road through your program is going to be. Finding rooms, colleagues and internet-links is challenging itself. However, after some time you familiarize yourself with UGO-system, teacher expectations and the building. Studying languages offers a variety of fields to dive into, such as the culture and history, as well as grammar and pronunciation of them. Time management will be the essential tool for you to master your studies. Spend enough time with your languages and take the opportunity to go abroad. Being creative but structured in learning your languages will help you to be a successful student at the ITAT.

[123 words]

Improved version 1:

Studying at the Department of Translation can be very challenging. Already on the first day you experience how bumpy your road though the program will be. You are lost in the building and are not able to find the right classroom and at home you struggle with the online system of the university to register for classes. After some time, however, you will overcome all this obstacles of the beginning and can focus on your languages. Studying languages is not just about grammar and vocabulary, you also have to put a great amount of time into studying the culture and history of the countries where your languages are spoken. The essential tool to spend equally enough time with each of these aspects of your languages is time management. It is helpful to make weekly-schedules to manage your time and additionally have an overview of the work that has to be done in order to master the course. Being structured and organized helps you to master all the challenges when studying at the Department of Translation.

[177 words]

Improved version 2:

Studying at the Department of Translation can be very challenging. On the first day already you experience how bumpy your road though the program will be. You are lost in the building and are not able to find the right classroom and at home you struggle with the online system of the university to register for classes. After some time, however, you will overcome all these obstacles and can focus on your languages. Studying languages is not just about grammar and vocabulary, you also have to put a great amount of time into studying the culture and history of the countries where your languages are spoken. The essential tool to put equally enough effort with on your  languages is time management. It is helpful to make weekly-schedules to manage your time and have an overview of the work that has to be done in order to master the program. In short, managing your time efficiently and being organized help you to master all the challenges when studying at the Department of Translation.

[174 words]

The original paragraph was written during the first progress check. This one of the first paragraphs I have ever written in English. Not surprisingly it has a terrible structure, vocabulary mistakes and no coherence; above all it is way too short. To practice how it would have been an acceptable paragraph to pass the prograss check, I rewrote and improved it. The second version, in my opinion, is much more cohesive. However,  a continuos line from the beginning to the ending is still missing. In the third version, I improved the mistakes I made in the second version due to thinking in German. All in all: although the first paragraph cannot be considered to be successfully written, the third (and improved) version is quite acceptable to me.

My biggest problem with writting is that I take to long to finish it. I am never satisfied with what I have written and spend too much time on editing as well as on the preparation. I practiced this particularly for the exam as I tend to be very nervous while taking it and hardly finish on time.
I will continuosly work on this as I enjoy writting and aiming to pass the course.

Dronten

 Dronten

Dronten is a small town north of Amsterdam, located in the province of Flevoland. It has a population of about 40,440 people. The main three attractions that make Dronten a special city are: the university CAH Dronten, the amusement park Walibi Holland and the city center De Meerpaal. The first one is the university I used to go to. It is located a little bit outside the city center and perfectly reachable with a bike. In fact, every place in the Netherlands is reachable with a bike; which is why I like the Netherlands - but more on that later. Secondly, the Walibi Holland is a great park to spend a fun day for the whole family. I have not been there yet but it is supposed to be one of the biggest and best amusement parks of the Netherlands. 

A few bike ride minutes away from the park is the city center of Dronten called De Meerpaal. I absolutely adore this little center because it provides everything people want and even has these little shops which sell such cute dishes, pictures and crafts nobody needs, but to which I am addicted to. Flowers, wooden shoes, happy Dutch people and blue windmills are the most popular motives for food, decoration or laundry sold in these little shops - I just love these motives. Thanks to my bike at that time, I could only buy stuff to a certain extend; if I had a car I probably would have emptied these little shops. Bigger shops can also be found in this center such as Hema, Albert Heijn or C&A. The latter is also known in Austria; the others are a drugstore and a grocery store respectively. Additionally to that, a library, a post office, a phone store and a cinema are located in that center. When I biked home from the center I often made

a detour to enjoy the nice routes around the residential area. Despite this nice routes, biking rarely was a pleasurable experience due to harsh weather conditions, particularly in the winter months. Nevertheless, bikes and the Netherlands are inseparable.

Besides bikes, agriculture also characterizes the Netherlands. Enormously large crop fields with strictly positioned windmills surround Dronten.  I felt so free when biking next to these fields, it was as if I was driving endlessly - no mountains and a monotone outlook for hours. Most of the people living in Dronten are farmers. As a result, the farmers market every Wednesday offers a variety of hand-made and home-made Dutch specialities. The food and the smell of these were mouth-watering, though admittedly I took more pleasure in looking at the crafts offered.

Above all, there is a gym, a dance center and a little church. My friends and I regularly went to the gym to work out and take classes. The classes were not only a challenge because of the hard training but also due to the fact that I could not speak Dutch. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the experience of going to a Dutch gym.

As I talked to the major of Dronten once, I was told that there have not been many Austrians to Dronten yet. In fact, I was the only one registered living there at that time. Maybe this little post about Dronten motivates some Austrians to visit and explore Dronten. It is absolutely worth the trip.


The second house from the left was the one I lived with five other students. The houses build in the northern provinces of the Netherlands look almost like little doll houses. In Austria, I got the impression of: the more money one has, the bigger the house and car. In the Netherlands, people don't care. The houses look alike no matter how wealth one is and some citizens don't own a car their entire life- a bike is all one needs.

A day without plastic

As I am not a fan of plastic I decided to write about the incredibly important role it plays in my everyday life. Plastic is everywhere imaginable, even inside people. It is inconceivable to me how people could live without plastic in the past. Every thing I ever touched, ate or drank was or is somehow in contact with plastic. What a shocking thought! To point out how depended I am on this material, I want to try to imagine a day without it.

When it is not a holiday I always set an alarm to wake me. This alarm is either a radio alarm or an alarm clock on my phone. Both are made of plastic, so if they did not exist I would sleep at least until noon. After I get up (from my wood-made bed) I brush my teeth with my toothbrush and toothpaste. Wait, both are made of plastic. I would have a terrible breath without them. Next, I am going to shower -no plastic means no shower curtain. How do I use shampoo when not being plastic-bottle packed? At least I can use a soap without needing plastic. Usually, while I am getting reading for the day, I am also becoming hungry. In my refrigerator (made of plastic) are lots of delicious things. However, everything is packed in plastic. No plastic would mean I would have to buy the milk from a farmer in a glass-bottle as well as buying butter, cheese and eggs there. Well, maybe not the eggs since they are mostly offered in paper cartons in the supermarket. Having not been to a farmer, I eat a slice of bread with marmalade (stored in a jar) while reading the newspaper. Okay, now I have a problem: Bicycle, car, tram or bus? Neither of them would be available without plastic. So I have to walk. As I finally reached the university I cannot use the computers there as they are made of plastic. Thankfully for the books I have brought with me, I am trying to study. After some time I am getting hungry and so I decide to buy lunch. Finding food, that is not packed in plastic in the supermarket, is a real challenge. Eventually, I decide to buy orange juice in glass-bottle, an apple and a freshly-made sandwich specifically asked to be packed in a paper bag from the counter. At the register, I have to pay in cash because there is no credit card without plastic. Now, I am exhausted and want go home. So, I literally go  home. If I walked every day I would be in such good shape - maybe I should do that more often then. At home I want to check my mails, which is not possible without plastic. Fortunately, I can drink tea (no plastic needed) and read a book in my favorite leather chair instead.
Later at night, I would not able to brush my teeth again without plastic. I cannot watch TV or a movie on my computer. Instead, I am revising what a studied today. In bed, I am thinking about my day without plastic:

Plastic is around me and inside me. As I noticed during this day that I mostly drink out of plastic bottles and eat plastic-packed food, I am deciding to take a blood test to be able to find out how much plastic is in fact inside me. Once, I read an article in the newspaper about women facing infertility due to plastic particles in their system. As much as I thank plastic for making my life possible the way it is, I will not let it ruin my dream of a family.