Larsson's masterpiece

Heyho everyone!
Autumn weather makes you stay inside where it is warm and cosy (wonderful example is today). Best time to make yourself comfortable in your bed and read a good book. I love the thrilling ones that keep you reading page after page, having a thrill of anticipation for what happens next.
If you are still searching for some good stuff, I can absolutely recommend the "Millenium"- Trilogy from the Swedish (unfortunately already dead) author Stieg Larsson. Every book has around 800 pages, so you will be busy reading for quite a while ;)
Trilogy speaks for itself, three books which make the story complete:

• -"The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo"
• -"The Girl Who Played with Fire"
• -"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest"
• actually he started writing a fourth book but due to his unexpected death he could never finish it

I'm not going to tell you the whole story, otherwise it would be boring to read, just an idea of what everything is about so you may get interested in reading at least the first part (but I promise you, if you read the first one you will definately want to read the second one too, same goes with the third ;D)
The story of the first book is about the prestigous journalist Mikael Blomkvist, working as publisher of the Swedish magazine "Millenium" and the mysterious private investigator and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander who are hired to investigate the disapperance of Henrik Vangers great-niece Harriet Vanger. Henrik suspects that she could have been killed by one of the members of the Vanger familiy. The deeper Mikael and Lisbeth dig for the truth, the greater the risk of being killed by the family members who will do everthing to keep their secrets tightly sealed.
I really liked the story, altough its very difficult in the beginning to memorize who is who. The two other books are mainly about Lisbeth Salanders past which is not less interesting, quite the opposite.
For those who already know the books I can recommend the movies, produced by the Swedish production company "Yellow Bird". If you want to see Mr. James Bond Daniel Craig starring you have to watch the American version which played in cinemas last winter.
Can you recommend some good books for cold and rainy days?
Kathi

Dictionary tips!

Hey Guys!
Last week in class we tried to find the best and most helpful dictionaries. But when I openend the document again I noticed that most of them expept 1 or 2 are monolingual. Well, I know that we should rather look up words in a monolingual dictionary than in a bilingual but sometimes there is vocab/are phrases you really don't know how to translate. But which dictionary I can rely on?
I used to use pons.eu for a long time but I was told not do so because it is not always trustworthy. Therefore I rather look up words at http://www.dict.cc/ which I can really recommend to you because of several reasons: while writing the word in the search bar you already get suggestions you can click on. You will also find at least one example sentence, several phrases and a pronounciation guide. There are some tips to find the word/sentence/phrase easy and without complications and a vocabulary trainer as well.
What is also worth trying is http://www.visualthesaurus.com where you can find kind of bubble networks to the word you're typing in which can be very useful!
And I know, learning is not always funny and the weather outside doesn't contribute to a happy mood but never forget: positive thinking is the best way to success! I have something for you: http://www.emergencycompliment.com - an internet site which makes you compliments to cheer you up, isn't that nice? Maybe it helps :)
Have a nice Sunday,
Kathi

Recommendation: Stammtisch!

Hey Guys,
After one week of isolation (my laptop boke down and my new-fashioned Nokia 2700 was no help at all) I'm back now!
Now I finally have the opportunity to tell you about the "Stammtisch" I went last Thursday. I'm not shure how much you know about it, basically it's the Stammtisch of the Anglo- Austrian Circle which takes place at "die Herzl" every Thursday evening where Austrian students as well as foreigners gather for several reasons: first of all, the interest in the English language and of course, to meet new people and/or elder students who can give you some advice.
I really had a lot of fun there, it is the best thing you can do to practise your English AND get to know so many nice people from many different places at the same time. It was a really multicultural evening, people from Africa, Italy, Slovenia, Germany, Spain...I didn't have enough time to talk to all of them. When I was on my way home, I was scared that my head wouldn't absorb all the names, backround stories, all the helpful information concerning my studies but also happy to have made such an experience. I really recommend you to visit the "Stammtisch" at least once!
This Thursday I'm going as well, my some of you want to join me? :)
Have a nice evening,
Kathi

Autumn Weather

Hey Guys, how are you doing?
Wow, it's almost midnight and actually I don't feel like going to bed. I'm just sitting in my room, wrapped in my favourite pink blanket and listening to the rain outside. It's raining buckets, I even heard a roll of thunder. I wonder how much rain the ground can absorb and I'm trying to get the picture of our house halfway flowed out of my head. I love autumn weather because it makes you stay inside, longing for the warmth of chestnuts, hot chocolate and cosy beds on the one hand, but also encourages you to take a walk through a forest or an alley of beautiful colored trees, enjoying their bright color in the sunlight. I really have to get used to share my life with everyone, I'm not the typical type of facebook user who sees in this or any other social network a synonym for diary. I know that this post might be a little boring for you but right now I really felt like sharing something with the world, even if it's just my weather preferences. But I think I'm heading in the right direction, I feel my inner blogger awaking (somehow)...now I just have to find some interesting things to share with you :)
Good night everybody, rain sometimes works like a lullaby, my tired body feels the urge of resting^^
Love, Kathi

Weekend: One of my favourite places

Everyone knows that kind of situation: It's Friday night and so many opportunities to have fun, get drunk and meet your friends. One place I can really recommend is the Office pub. I'm the kind of person who avoids the Unitviertel and rather goes to a pub having some pints of beer with my friends. Yesterday we decided, as so many times before, to spend our Saturday night at the Office.
Not only the wide range of beer and other alcoholic drinks, comfortably atmosphere within old books, wooden furniture and good music but also the friendly and almost exclusively english-speaking waiters keeps us going there. I love the feeling when I enter the Office, seeing Matthew smiling at me and realizing that there are at least 10 people I know. It doesn't matter if we are five or ten people in the beginning, we always end up in a large group!
The only thing I haven't experienced yet is the Quiz night every Thursday evening because there are always so many people attending that we can't even find a place to sit.
The Office Pub is a place absolutely worth visiting, maybe we see each other sometime :)

Do you believe in the Spaghetti Monster?

Some of you may have heard about Pastafarism, a satirical religion which has become an internet phenomenon and is gaining more and more worshippers.
What was only popular among College students in Amerika is now also known in Austria. Best example is Niko Alm who was allowed to wear a noodlestrainer on the photo of his driving license as  religious headgear.
But what is it all about?
Can you believe in a Spaghetti Monster which just consists of Spaghetti and two meatballs that created the world in seven days hungover? But on the other hand, who doesn't want a beer vulcano and a stripper factory in heaven and drinking beer to every occasion?
Another funny "rules": you dont have to  believe in the "Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster literally or pray, but if you do, you have to put a "R'amen" after every prayer; they believe in pirates as original pastafarians and the decreasing number causes global warming, every friday is a holiday.
The idea behind this religion is most of all fighting against and making fun of Intelligent Design taught in American schools instead of the Evolution Theory. When Bobby Henderson created the Spaghetti Monster (not even thinking about becoming that popular) his attempt was to show that if believers of Intelligent Design believe in a godlike creature which created the world, it could be anything, even a Flying Spaghetti Monster.
In my opinion, its worth to give Pastafarism a chance, I mean, there is a "God back guarantee", so you don't have anything to lose?