This is the best bad idea we have, Sir!

Hey guys!

I hope you are enjoying your Easter break? I definitely am, although I'm pretty annoyed that it's snowing again.. Anyway, what to do on such cold, snowy and nasty days? Of course, watch a good movie! At least that's what I always do.

Have you heard of the movie "Argo"? It's definitely worth watching!

The thriller is based on a true story and is about the Iran hostage crisis, during which 52 Americans were kidnapped and held hostage for 444 days because an Islamist student group took over the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran. The movie tells the story of Tony Mendez (played by Ben Affleck) and how he and some other CIA Agents rescued 6 U.S. diplomats, who previously escaped from the American Embassy and now have to hide in the home of Ken Taylor, the Canadian ambassador.
Since I'm bad in explaining here's the official trailer:

The movie was nominated seven times at the Academy Awards and won three of them. It also won 2 out of 5 nominations at the Golden Globes, another one at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and also won Best Film, Best Editing and Best Director at the 66th British Academy Film Awards.

After watching the movie you'll agree that it definitely deserves all of those awards. It is thrilling and dramatic, but at the same time quite funny. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"John Chambers: So you want to come to Hollywood and act like a big shot without actually doing anything?
Tony Mendez: Yeah.
John Chambers: You'll fit right in."

"Joe Stafford: You really believe your little story's gonna make a difference when there's a gun to our heads?
Tony Mendez: I think my story's the only thing between you and a gun to your head."

"John Chambers: Target audience will hate it.
Tony Mendez: Who's the target audience?
John Chambers: People with eyes."

"John Chambers: How about 'The Horses of Achilles'?
Lester Siegel: No good. Nobody does Westerns anymore.
John Chambers: It's ancient Troy.
Lester Siegel: If it's got horses in it, it's a Western."

"Adam Engell: So, what we like for this are bicycles. We've identified back roads from the Chemaran District. Cars are off the table because of the road blocks.
Jon Bates: We wait until the weather clears up, then deliver the six bikes and provide them with maps to the Turkish border.
Adam Engell: We have intelligence they can ride bicycles or we're prepared to send in somebody to teach them.
Tony Mendez: Or you could just send in training wheels and meet them at the border with Gatorade."

If you have already seen it let me know what you think about it, if not: You know what to do! ;)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024648/

Curtains up - it's movie time!

I have to admit it – I am addicted to (good!) movies, and I just LOVE going to the movie theater. While being in NC some friends (who are as crazy about movies as I am) and I often went to the movies more than once a week – watching a good movie was just so relaxing after taking care of our host kids. There was a movie theater about 20 minutes away from where I lived – where each show only costs 2$ - my host mom used to say that the theater was my 3rd home ;)

Anyway, since I came back I haven’t been to the movies very often – mainly because of the (in my opinion way too) high ticket prices, and because there is no movie theater in Graz which shows English movies - or at least so I thought!

There actually is a little movie theater close to the tram station “Finanzamt” (Conrad von Hötzendorfstraße), which is called “Kiz Royal Kino”. It shows movies in their original language – with and without subtitles, depending on the movie. I’ve been there only once so far, but am definitely gonna go there more often as soon as all the exams are over. It’s rather small, but the seats are really comfy, the popcorn is yummy and best of all – it’s much cheaper than Cineplexx or UCI! My sister and I were there on a Saturday evening and paid 5,90€ each – if you want to watch a movie on a Saturday night at Cineplexx you pay almost double the price!

Although they don't show as many movies as Cineplexx or UCI do, they still offer some movies to choose from and always show at least two or three popular ones. Right now they show "The Hobbit", "Rise of the Guardians", "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and many more. Here is the link to their homepage: http://www.uncut.at/graz/kizroyal/



If anyone wants to see an English movie just let me know, maybe we could go together :)

Heinz Marecek - "Das kleine Fest des Lachens"

Hey guys!

First of all: Yayyyy, Christmas holidays! Have fun & enjoy it - I definitely will ;)

Second: No plans for tonight? I’d like to present to you: “Heinz Marecek: Das kleine Fest des Lachens”.

For those of you who have no idea who Heinz Marecek is: He was born in 1945 in Vienna and is an Austrian actor, director and cabaret artist. He started to perfom in 1966 at the "Vienna Ateliertheater". Afterwards he performed at the "Vienna Volksoper" and between 1971 and 1998 at the "Theater in der Josefstadt" (which is the oldest theater of Vienna), where he also directed some of the plays. These days you can see him in a couple of TV shows/movies. I’m pretty sure all of you have heard of the Austrian TV show “Soko Kitzbühel” – he is the one who plays “Hannes Kofler”. Apart from “Soko Kitzbühel” you can see him in “Lindenstraße” (playing Bruno Skabowski), “Der Bockerer” and other TV shows/movies.

But why am I telling you about him? Well, he is coming to Werndorf (if you want to know where/what that is à take a look at my post “Music is what feelings sound like”) tonight at 7.30pm, to read Christmas stories from his book “Das kleine Fest des Lachens”. Doors will be opened at 7pm and tickets are 25€.





Give it a try, I promise it’s definitely worth the money!

Looking forward to seeing you there :)

IT’S FUN TO BE A NERD!

“Oh no, I hate studying” – I bet all of you have used this (or a similar phrase) at least once in your life. Today I want to show you that learning a new language is not only about doing grammar exercises and studying vocabulary from your textbook.

My English teacher showed us three links this week – and I’d like to introduce them to you and show you that it can be “fun to be a nerd” ;)

Link #1: http://breakingnewsenglish.com/

Every week an English teacher writes one (or two) short articles about current events. You can choose between the categories Business English, Environment, Health, Issues, Lifestyle, Famous People & Gossip, Technology and World News – so I’m sure you'll find something that you are interested in. You can read the article the teacher wrote and afterwards do some exercises – like “Fill-in-the-blank”, play “Hangman”, “Missing words” or “Crosswords” and much more – all fun ways to improve your vocabulary and reading comprehension.

Link #2: http://eslnotes.com/synopses.html

Who doesn’t love movies? Another English teacher provides information about a bunch of classic movies (like Apollo 13, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Cast Away, Dumb and Dumber, Psycho, …). The document for the movie you choose will give you a lot of information about the main characters, a pretty good plot summary and some words and expressions that you may not know. It also has a list of possible questions you may have after watching the movie, which you can discuss with your friends and family.

Link #3: http://www.lyricstraining.com

This site gives you the opportunity to listen to (and watch) your favorite music (-videos) – while learning new vocabulary. How? While listening to your song the lyrics will be displayed underneath the video. But the lyrics will have blanks in it, which you have to fill. There are three different game modes – Beginner (10% of the words are missing), Intermediate (25% of the words are missing) and Expert (all of the words are missing) – it’s actually trickier than it sounds, especially when you choose songs like “Love the way you lie”, where Eminem raps pretty fast ;)

So who says studying and learning a new language is boring? Give it a try – you will be surprised how much fun it can be to improve your language skills!