Interview with Eva, Germany

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By Klara Keysendal, Sweden

1.What’s your name?
My name is Eva Wipplinger

2. Where are you from?
I’m from a city called Passau which is located in the south part of Germany, close to Austria

3. How long have you been in Santa Barbara? And how long will you stay?
I have been here for five weeks and will stay here for seven more weeks

4. Do you live in a host family or a home share? Do you like it?
I live in a host family and I really like it

5. Do you live with other students?
Yes, I do. I live with two other students, one from Japan and one from Switzerland

6. How would your friends describe you in three words?
Crazy, helpful, I don’t know the third one

7. Have you been in America before?
No, this is my first time

8. What did you do this weekend?
Me and my host family went to Cloud 10, which is a small park, and we had a BBQ with the family

9. Do you have any plans for this summer?
Yes, I have to study before school start, and me and my friend will travel to Italy

10. What do you think you will do in five years?
In five years I’m 21 years old, I hope to have a good job, have my own apartment and maybe have a dog

11. Describe your dream vacation with five words?
My dream vacation is to Florida or Africa. Five words to describe would be beach, friends, sun, having fun and food

12. What’s your dream job?
I don’t have a specific job but I would like to work with people and not work on the weekends

13. How do you spend your free time?
I’m with friends and having dance lessons

14. What is your best childhood memory?
It was seven years ago, me and my best friend travel to London for three days with our parents

15. If you won the lottery, what would you do?
Have a big swimming pool, travel a lot, of course save money for the future, and buy a big house

Interview with a Funny Swedish Girl

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Jeni Kuruthukulangara, Switzerland

Interview with Josefin Groth, Sweden:

What are you most proud about?
I am most proud of my family.

Do you believe in love at first sight?
Yes I do. This actually happened to me.

Which is the one job in the world that you would love to do?
I would like to work for a NGO to help starving and poor children.

How do you spend your spare time?
I like to watch TV shows.

Where do you see yourself in five years time?
I would like to have a family with children.

If you have got six months to live, what will you do first?
I will be travelling around the world and force my family and friends to come with me (hehe).

What makes you laugh?
Probably everything. Yeah almost everything.

Are you a morning person or a night person?
Oh definitively a night person.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
That would be in California.

If you could travel back through time, what one mistake would you correct in life?
I will give myself a good speech.

Do you believe a cup is half empty or half full?
I believe a cup is half full.

Into which personality’s shoes would you like to step for a day?
I would love to be Jennifer Aniston and the US president for one day.

Would you like to climb a mountain or trek across a desert?
I have already climbed a mountain so I will trek desert.

What was your best weekend this year?
The weekend before I left for California.

Do you snore?
Yes, I do like a man.

What is the most adventurous thing you have ever done?
Travelling around the world by myself.

What is your favorite takeaway meal?
Mc donalds

If you have three wishes, what would they be?
To have a lot of money to pay off my debts, stay healthy to have always a good body, have a happy life

Are you repair your stuff yourself or call an expert?
I will call someone.

Which animal would you like to be?
A dog or a panda, I want to be cuddled.

Interview of an EF student, Daan Klein Schiphrost

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Lysiane Sublet – Switzerland

What’s your name and where do you come from?
I’m Daan and I come from Holland.

What’s your favorite series?
Game of Thrones

If you could be one of the characters of these series which one would you be?
Jon Snow, because he is the best and he is alive.

Where did you party last weekend?
IV and the beach

Do you prefer to party in Santa Barbara or in your country?
Here in Santa Barbara, because of all the strange people, that’s so crazy.

If aliens come tonight to visit you, what would you do?
Get fucked up with them, drink beer.

What’s your biggest fear?
To be alone.

If you could do anything you want to for one day, without consequences, what would you do?
To rob a bank and keep the money.

If you could spend one day with one known person, who would it be?
Melanie Iglesias.

Where would you take this known person for the day?
On an island where no one lives.

Do you often lie? If yes what’s your more common lie?
No.

What is the last book you read?
Harry Potter, like 6 years ago.

What’s your dream job?
Work on Wall Street.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?
In Wall Street, I hope. In New York in a penthouse.

Do you want to get married and have children or do you prefer a lifestyle less traditional?
Get married and have children.

Do you prefer chill nights or party nights?
Party!

Social Anxiety

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Lysiane Sublet – Switzerland

What is social anxiety?

Social anxiety is an anxiety disorder in which the person has an extremely fear or nervousness in social situations as speaking in front of others, being the center of attention or having a date, for example. The person is scared of being judged, criticized or looking bad. Anticipatory anxiety is also present in social anxiety. An event that is simple for most of people can be very stressing for people who suffer from this disorder. They can get nervous just because they have a phone call to make and stress about what they are going to say to their interlocutor. Another example can be when the person has to
make a presentation in public. They get nervous weeks before, sometimes months before and are like paralyzed just by thinking at this event.

Video – social anxiety disorder

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What can explain social anxiety?

There is a model, which is called skills deficit model that assumes that the anxiety in social situations is caused by a lack of social skills. The result of that is the establishment of a vicious circle. Because of their inappropriate social skills, people with social anxiety are getting in aversive social situations and the experience of bad social situations will convince them a little bit more every time that they do not fit in society norms and that they are not made for social situations.

Another approach, the cognitive self-evaluation model, states that this anxiety results from the representation of the person’s inadequacies. A research proved that socially anxious people estimate their social skills as more negative that they are in reality, have also a more negative perception of themselves and evaluate the regard of others as less positive that he really are.

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A third model, the classical conditioning model, assumes that social anxiety is conditioned when some neutral stimuli are matched with aversive social consequences.

For example, someone makes a class presentation and a classmate laugh during his presentation. Maybe his classmate laughed because he wasn’t listening and was talking about something funny with his neighbor, but the person who does the presentation might think that he makes fun of him because his presentation is bad or because he is bad. This person will associate presentation in public with a consequence of humiliation.

Finally, there is a fourth approach, the personality trait approach, that suggests that social anxiety is just a personality trait. Some person might have a disposition to shyness and anxiety.

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 Are there any treatments to social anxiety?

Treatments involve especially psychological counseling, to find some ways to reduce the anxiety in social situations. Just taking medicine, like antidepressants, is not enough because it won’t help to reduce anxiety, it will just stabilize it and that is not the purpose of the treatment. Psychological counseling and medicines can be used together for a long-term efficiency, but at one point it is better to stop medicines, in order to be able to live without taking any pills and just be well in our skin by working on how accepting ourselves and do not be afraid by the regard of other anymore. The more important thing is to be ourselves and to enjoy it.

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“Acceptance”

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Cenet Durak, Switzerland

Let’ say, you are a teenager who is searching for something in his or her life, something that would make you happy once in your life. A lot of teenagers are searching for kindness in people, others are searching for love and comfort, and others are traveling all around the world to find true friends.

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Holden Caulfield (pg.17) is one example out of 348 million (33,6%) teenagers . I read the book with an unbiased mind. I think, what the author of “The catcher in rye” (J.D.Salinger) tries to explain is that sometimes you can go through trouble, but at the end you end up being in the place you should be. Call me naive, but I think everything we go through in our lives prepares us somehow for something bigger in the future.
Holden Caulfield was in the beginning at a school called Pencey and felt like he did not belong over there. While he was in Pencey, he often talked about his little brother Allie who died at a young age. Holden also described himself as corny, old, and strange, because of his grey hair at early age and his solitary. When Holden left Pencey, he did not go home until Wednesday. Therefore, he went to a payphone and called some of his crushes, friends and frenemies. He did not like to be solitary. It was compulsory for him to have someone to care about.1*UMEB_E073nhNH7e1bXg-jw

The whole story is about the people, he cares about and the ones, he likes to care about, but he does not know how because there is a missing link in knowing them and being friends with them. Generally, his siblings are the most important people for him. His friends. Allie who is dead and Phoebe who relies on him.Catcher-in-the-Rye
Already at a young age Holden saw a lot of bad things. One of his classmates, who lived next door committed suicide in Pencey. His interactions with his teachers and bad grades caused him to drop out of school, which led to the story of the book : ”The catcher in the rye”. Shortly after, he dropped out of Pencey, he took a taxi undecided where he wanted to go. Inside he was thinking to go to New York and he did. In his hurry he changed his mind and told the taxi driver to take him to Central Park, New York. While the taxi driver was trying to figure out, where he could possibly turn. Holden asked him : ”Do you know where the ducks are in the winter, when the lake freezes? I mean, I see them in the summer in the central park, all the time”. The taxi driver is baffled and answered : ”I don’t know where the goddam ducks are.” The rest of the time, while being in the taxi, the driver kept talking and kind of getting sore. All of sudden, he claimed :”They have to be somewhere, God would not let them die“. Holden stayed silent in that moment. I think in moments like these Holden was thinking that, what the taxi driver responded could be true. Subsequently, he arrived at the central park because he wanted to check on the ducks.

Afterwards, he went to a motel or hotel, where he met some hookers (prostitutes) and decided to stay with one of them, at her room, who was possibly his age or younger. Throughout the time in the room with the young girl, he only wanted to talk and someone who would like to listen to him, but in his bad luck, she did not listen at all. Again Holden felt misunderstood and behaved badly after he left the motel or hotel wounded because of the money battle about the five dollars, he should have given to the hooker.002e8026956178ece11c192eab2c9832

Throughout the story, he kept calling some girls out of a payphone like old Sally. He also toyed with the idea of running away with her somewhere into the woods. He slept in a subway in New York for a night, which he had to leave because of the people. Then he saw his old teacher who offered him his couch to sleep on, and at the end he ended up being with his sister who was his true friend. After experiencing all of these in around three days. Holden found comfort in his unusual life situation and decided to stay, where he was.
Finally, I can say Holden Caulfield you are a great guy. I do not know why J.D. Salinger wrote “The catcher in the rye”, but I am glad he did. “The catcher in the rye” is an incredible masterpiece. The book does not describe a life of a teenager, it describes what happens at the end of every story. The people and the things that belong together come together. We end up where we should have been the entire time, but we needed a bit longer to arrive and that is the only bad luck.

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Influence of Social Media on Teenagers

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Kirsten Forkink, The Netherlands

Social media, it is a term everybody knows. You cannot ignore it. With the advent of the smartphone you can use social media all the time where ever you want. Teenagers are the heaviest users of social networking. 75% of the teenagers in America have profiles on social media networks. Facebook is the most popular one.

Social media networks are not always good for teenagers. They sometimes create network-induced obesity, Internet addiction and sleep de
privation. Another problem is sexting and cyber bullying on the internkirsten 2et. Cyber bullying can be directly threatening and unpleasant emails or anonymous activities suc
h as rolling. It’s also not good for the school results. The school grades are lower than before. In the long te
rm social media can take care of health problems.

kirsten 3The reason that social media is popular is due to the contact people wants with other people. The quality of this contact doesn’t matter. On the other side friendships become closer. A positive thing from social media is that people can discover. We are living in the time of globalization. The world is getting smaller and you can talk easy with everybody in the world.

Another pokirsten 4sitive thing about social media and teenagers is to create self-confidence. People respond to pictures on profile pages. Most of the time the reaction is positive. This gives the teenager a good feeling and more self-confidence.

In short, social media have two sides of impact on teenagers. Most of the time it is positive, but sometimes it can result in internet addiction and other negative things.

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I found also a YouTube video about this subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TWHsiMYSxw

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Border Control on Consumables

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Jip Damen, Netherlands

What surprised me the most from travelling to the United States was the border control on consumables. Apparently one has to declare all the food, however few, he wishes to bring with him to the USA, not declaring can have penalties up to $10.000 as a consequence. Does it really matter if a single traveler brings some food with him? Why is the U.S. customs so strict on food specifically?

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The main reason the US is so rigorous with food control is in order to prevent spreading of pesticides and animal diseases. This is why especially plant-based products like fruits and vegetables and animal-based products, like meat are most often not allowed to bring into the US. On the other hand, products that are prepared and packaged, and even cheese (with commercial label) are generally allowed when declared. The US CPB (Customs and Border Protection) thinks meat, fruit and vegetables can be a thread to the economy and livestock industry, as they say:

“Agricultural pests and diseases are a threat to U.S. crop production and to the livestock industry. Some animal diseases can be highly contagious and could cause severe economic damage to livestock and result in losses in production, which could lead to increased costs for meat and dairy products. Plant pests and disease, as well as invasive plant material can cause crop loss and also damage lawns, ornamental plants, and trees.  Plant pest infestations can result in increased costs to consumers due to pest eradication efforts as well as lower crop yields.  High risk plant pest and animal disease outbreaks within the U.S. could also adversely affect the economy as a result of reduced trade of U.S. origin goods to countries around the world.”

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racism

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~Johannes Enz von Leitner, Hannover/Germany

ˈrāˌsizəm/

noun

  1. the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
    • prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.

“a program to combat racism”

synonyms: racial discrimination, racialism, racial prejudice, xenophobia,chauvinism, bigotry, casteism

“Aborigines are the main victims of racism in Australia

 

Racism is commonly known by everybody as insulting minorities with prejudice in dumb and silly ways often executed by people with lower education levels and from a more isolated social background. But why do we have to think about racism daily and why do we have to read about racism and racial crimes so often in the newspapers?

Nowadays racism should be outdated and should not exist anymore, because the world today is globalized and modern and should know better. Of course, there are differences in different ethnicities by culture, religion, or certain habits in educating or raising of children and the youth, which we cannot be erased, but do we have to judge people over these simple criterions, like origin and religion? Racism is often against black people, or Muslims, Jews, Turkish people, or even people from other larger countries.People in Europe are prejudiced against people from the USA or from Asia as they have different views and expectations of us European nations and people originating there.

Maybe we can’t change racism because it is deeply rooted in the world’s history,racism2but we have to work harder to make a difference, at least for our children. We shouldn’t have to have racism in a modern and connected world. The internet has a big impact fighting racism by providing everybody with the same rights and possibilities, the ‘judge’ in the internet is the computer, and it doesn’t care if you are black or white, if you are Mexican or American, or about your language. That is the bright side.The opposite of this is that you can simply be very racist and hide yourself through anonymity and not recieve any punishment. It is like many parts in the modern world, on the one side we try to improve our political correctness, but on the other side, I had a lesson yesterday making jokes about political correctness and how people possibly can only screw it up, being “pc”. You cannot say one sentence without hurting someone if you are talking to overly sensitive people or there can be groups who are amused by racist jokes, whilst of course not meaning any harm by laughing about, “the Negro thief”, or “the banker Jew”…

There is a difference between racism and discrimination, in the way that discrimination is gong even further. Racism is a mindset and often can’t be changed easily. Discrimination occurs if a person with that mindset is in control/in charge and has the opportunity to lead or influence the group. Discriminating people is the act of excluding people because of their origin or because of certain customs or appearance.

In sports, they guard against racism, in the German Bundesliga (soccer league) they do advertisements against racism and stand together with the whole European soccer bound to fight racism, because in soccer or in sports in total there is no racism. You get rated by your skills and talent so you can get anywhere with hardworking! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ-63TwoL1g racism3

There are two sides to the whole racism debate and there are many people being overly sensitive and easily offended by any slightest overtone, but they have a point in talking about it and you have to tell people if their insulting comments are too much, otherwise they will never learn. So at every opportunity avoid sticky situations by not making jokes or hints in this direction, but don’t forget about bias by not talking about it! In any circumstance do not forget to talk about racism with your friends or your family; people won’t know if you never tell them! And ignorance is not the right cure, talk openly and tell them when you feel offended, otherwise nothing will change.

We all have to work together to eliminate racism in our future and world!racism4

 

Kumamoto Earthquake

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Karen Nakano,Japan

The two big earthquakes hit Kumamoto city of Kumamoto prefecture in Japan. First was April 14, magnitude 6.2 at 21:26 Japan standard time and next was April 16, it was main one and magnitude 7.0 at 01:25. It was midnight so everyone was sleeping when this big earthquake hit, as a result a lot of people were buried alive. There are residences for university student in Kumamoto and over 10 students were buried alive. A lot of students rescued each other but some people are still in destroyed residence. Least 49 people were died and injured about 3000 because of these earthquakes. Also more than 44000 people have been evacuated from their houses in Kumamoto.

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Now big problem in areas affected by these earthquakes is that support materials are very shortage. Absolutely foods and water people the most need, almost houses were destroyed so they don’t have everything need for live such as blankets, paper, towels and diapers for child even houses. Now a lot of companies, volunteer organization and even individual people around Japan send many support materials on the other hand it is not enough. Some people waited 2 hours to get small rice ball. Everyone is on the line to get something with afraid for many earthquakes.

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I was impressed by this picture. A woman is protecting her child into destroyed house of rubble. First when rescue team found this mother, they could not realize child into her arm because she wrapped her child in blanket and lied curled up for protect but after they helped mother and her child, mother was died but child was alive yet. One of rescue teammates found phone in this blanket with child. There is one message from mother “If you are still alive, please remember that how I loved you.” This message was read by everyone around there and impressed them.

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Disaster such as earthquake destroys houses, buildings, families and everything and a lot of people are dead. It is really sad and we cannot expect before this but after serious disaster, a lot of people around Japan help for them although it is not enough. I hope many people will be rescued and helped and there will be good condition as soon as possible.

 

Kobe Bryant

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Daphne Lee, Taiwan

The legendary player after Michael Jordan,  Kobe Bryant, retired after his final game against Utah jazz on April 13th, 2016. Even in his last game, he scored 60 points and drew a perfect ending of his basketball career.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a son of former NBA player Joe Bryant, Kobe Bryant started to play basketball at the age of 3.  When he was six, his father left the NBA and moved to Rieti in Italy to continue playing professional basketball, which is when Kobe learned to speak fluent Italian. During the summer, Kobe would go back to America to play in basketball summer league. Kobe’s favorite team when he grew up was the Lakers, which he served in when he played in NBA. In 1991 when his father retired from playing basketball, the family moved back to America.

Kobe started his success at his young age. During his junior year, he averaged 31.1 points, 10.4 rebounds which made he named as the ’Pennsylvania Player of the Year’. In his senior year in high school, he led his team to their first state championship in 53 years. In 1996, his talent has been seen and was selected to play for the L.A. Lakers. At that time, he was 18 years and 72 days old, the youngest player ever to play in a NBA game. As his performance improved, he get to play longer and longer in the game. In 1999, he became a part of the All-NBA, All defensive and All-Star teams.

Kobe had set tons of records and won lots of awards. With no doubt, his success came from his hard work and his crazy passion for basketball. When he injured his right shoulder in the game, he started to shoot with his left arm. In the break when his coach asked him why instead of asking a break he shot with his left hand, he answered: “God gave us two arms.” Another interesting story is that when he torn his Achilles tendon and was forced to rest from games, the only thing he wanted to know is how fast would he be able to return to the basketball court.

Now that Kobe had retired, he planned to go to Italy and establish a center to teach young players basketball skills. He will keep on working out, stay in good shape and stay active. “It’s important from a healthy perspective and also to maintain a schedule.” He said.

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