The magic of Quidam

In September I was at a great show of the “Cirque du Soleil”, an entertainment company from Canada, called “Quidam”. I was overwhelmed and totally astonished by the performance and I want to share my amazement with you.

Each show of the Cirque du Soleil is filled with breath-taking circus styles and live music while at the same time a story is told. The name Quidam refers to one of the main characters: a man without a head, carrying an umbrella. He takes a girl who feels neglected by her parents in a fantasy world.

Quidam is said to be “the embodiment of both everyone and no one at the same time.”

As I don’t speak French, I was wondering what the name “Cirque du Soleil” means. It’s “Circus of the sun” in English. The founder of the entertainment company was sitting at a beach in Hawaii and was watching the sunset. When he was researching the meanings of “sun” he found out that it represents youth, energy and dynamics – characteristics that perfectly match his troop.

The reason why I liked Quidam so much – apart from the fantastic feats – is the fact that I somehow was jealous of the female protagonist. It’s not that I feel neglected by my mum and dad, but I often wish to hold on reality for a moment and escape into a dream world.

“The other hand” by Chris Cleave

In our last English class with Hendrik on Monday we were watching episodes of “Surprising Europe” on YouTube. The episode I had to watch was called “Taking the Leap” and it showed immigrants on their life-threatening journey to the EU and their first steps in the destination country.

The most shocking part of this short clip was the scene where the detention centres were shown. I looked up the definition and to put it in a nutshell, it’s an institution where people are detained when they are suspected to be an illegal immigrant. The conditions in most of these centres are inhuman. There are lots of demonstrations of immigrants who claim that they have been tortured during their time in the detention centres.

The video reminded me of a book I had read which is called “The other hand” by Chris Cleave. It was written in 2011 and concentrates on current social problems. The book was the number one New York Times bestseller. The author tells an ambitious and fearless story from the jungles of Africa via a shocking incident on a Nigerian beach to a magazine office of London. I can’t really decide on the genre of the book, so I would say it is partly thriller partly multicultural narration. It deals with issues of immigration, globalisation, political violence and personal accountability.

The book begins in an immigration detention centre in London where Little Bee, a 16-year-old girl from Nigeria, has spent (was detained) the last two years. In-between Little Bee tries to perfect her British-English accent and to adopt British-serious behaviour. She fled from Nigeria, because her village had been destroyed by men who had searched for oil. When Little Bee manages to escape from the centre with three women, she phones the only British person she knows: the columnist and journalist Andrew O’Rourke. Little Bee encountered Andrew and his wife Sarah two years ago on a fateful day on the beach of Nigeria. Now Little Bee is travelling from the detention centre to the O’Rourke family in Kingston-upon-Thames and shakes the family to its foundations.

The story ends where it has begun: at the Beach in Nigeria - with a powerful and emotive finale. I was shocked after founding out that the action takes place in reality. This is definitely one of the most touching stories I have ever read and I can highly recommend you the book.

“If your face is swollen from the severe beatings of life, smile and pretend to be a fat man.” Nigerian proverb

Esperanto - a possible "European" language?

In English class we have learnt that there are 24 official languages in the European Union. Could you imagine that all European citizens speak the same language? Have you ever heard about “Esperanto”? No? Then keep on reading…

The special thing about Esperanto is the fact that it’s a constructed language, which means that has been consciously devised for communication, instead of having developed naturally. Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed language. It was developed in the 1870s and 80s by L. L. Zamenhof, a Polish doctor and linguist. When Zamenhof started studying English, he decided that the international language must have a simpler grammar. This was the birth of Esperanto: It derives mainly from Romanic languages, but also contains elements from German and English. Its alphabet consists of 28 letters. Zamenhof published a number of books under the pseudonym "Doktoro Esperanto" in order to spread Esperanto.

• mi estas – I am
• vi estas – you are
• li estas – he is
• ŝi estas – she is

As I mentioned earlier, Esperanto has been developed to simplify communications between people from different countries, which is called an “international auxiliary language”. For this reason, it is obvious that some people want Esperanto to become the official language of the EU. There is even a political party that was founded to reach this goal: the “Europe – Democracy – Esperanto”. A report found that the use of Esperanto as the lingua franca (= a language used to make communication possible between people who are not sharing a mother tongue) within the EU would have many advantages, particularly economically speaking, as well as ideologically. There is even an Austrian Esperanto association which decided to give the place between Annenstraße and Aberiterkammer in Graz the name “Esperantoplatz”.

Language has always been an intensely political issue. Zamenhof has already known this when he created “Esperanto“, a language which should be politically neutral for the world. Although, this sounds like a fantastic idea to me, in my opinion the execution of this plan is not going to work as it will cause uncertainty: People often identify their culture with their language so will there be a loss of cultural identity? How will you persuade someone to learn a new language and to only use this one in the everyday life? …

The American dream I never had

As is it getting colder and colder, I know have to face the truth: summer is over. However, I try to somehow put myself off until the next warm period will arrive. There is one memory that very often comes to my mind: my travel to the United States in July. My best friend is working in Pennsylvania for one year as an au-pair and I have been allowed to stay with her host family for three weeks. This was my first time to ever travel to America and even the first time to travel all on my own. I had found a very attractive offer: I started in Klagenfurt, changed the plane in Vienna to Frankfurt where I finally had a direct flight to Philadelphia. On my very first day in the USA I went to a Taylor Swift concert with Ed Sheeran as opening act. There were 50.000 people in one huge stadium!!!

My friend’s host family lives in a mansion in a very rich area. I kind of felt like I was in the Wisteria Lane: Mexicans as gardeners, skinny mothers who dress like their daughters and hardworking businessman. One thing I really struggled with was the Americans madness with air conditioners. It is FREEZING COLD in all houses and public buildings like shopping malls and restaurants.

During my time in the USA I visited all the important tourist attractions in Philadelphia and its environs (Liberty Bell, Rocky stairs, I ate the famous Philadelphia cheese stake, Love park …). My highlight during that time was definitely the weekend in New York. My friend and I slept in a hotel near Wall Street with a fantastic sight at the Brooklyn Bridge. Over the course of the two days in “the city that never sleeps” we scurried from one sight to another. Madame Tussauds, Top of the Rock, Statue of Liberty, Hard Rock Café, China Town, Little Italy, MoMA, Guggenheim – just to name a few!

Pennsylvania has the second largest population of Amish people and therefore, I visited Lancaster County where we booked a tour. This was undoubtedly the most interesting afternoon of my time abroad.

 If you ask people in which country they would like to travel to most of them name the United States. I have never dreamt do visit this country one day. It never has really radiated a magic attraction to me. However, if I have the chance to travel, I don’t refuse it – no matter where the journey is heading! I must confess, that a lot of the clichés I had of America have been confirmed. Nevertheless, I don’t regret flying to America, as I now know what’s all the fuss about.