eMAG 33 What if?

eMAG 33 | WS2018/2019 www.emag-augsburg.de

WHAT IF?

Author: Max Mustermann | Pictures: Max Mustermann | Layout: Max Mustermann

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Dear Reader, As you can see, our humble magazine consists of 44 pages, with my introduction to you being at the very beginning. Yet, it has traditionally been one of the last pages to be written. So what does the editor-inchief do up until publication?

You know, one of the first big decisions as editor is to choose your topic for the upcoming term, so I asked myself what I personally would be interested in if I had to write an article for the magazine. Well, the actual first real decision is probably to accept the position of editor-in-chief. It certainly helped that my best friend got me drunk before asking me to take over the job. Come to think of it, a lot of crazy decisions are made in a state of intoxication, which makes for some really weird, cool and interesting stories you may find in here. Getting tattoos seems like a popular choice in this regard, as you will find out in just a moment.

At this point, I also want to thank the brave authors who contributed to our Mental Health section with their stories. I know from experience that it’s not the easiest to write about these rather serious topics, but I’m glad they decided to do so, anyway.

Now as I sat down and started writing this introduction, I realized that I’m not working on an article anymore but I want to hear people’s stories. The stories they were willing to share first with the course and now to you readers. Some of them entertaining, while others aim to raise awareness with a far more serious tone. So I picked a topic, we have all found ourselves wondering at some point “But what if…“. Have a look at what our authors have to say in response to this question and see that every decision can lead to some amazing stories!

Yours sincerely, Tobias Lorenz Author: Tobias Lorenz| Pictures: Filiz Özer| Layout: Liz & Ale

table of contents KEEP IT LOCAL What happens at Summer Breeze...

The chains I forged Slow and steady wins the race

MENTAL HEALTH 7 9 10

Work-Life-Balance Depression and Love When life gives you lemons Why I left Who am I?

27 28 29 30 32

WHAT IF

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@diction Piece by piece Living, breathing souvenirs If only we were apples Microplastics Highway to Hell What if the universe had come into existence in a ďŹ ve-dimensional black hole?

Revelation Night

13 14 16 19 20 21 22 25

WHOLE WIDE WORLD Como jugar Carnaval Decisions Why am I here?

O-boe-y Watch Read Listen

34 35 36 38 40

Siebenbrunn Steppach Oberhausen Wellenburg Spickel-Herrenbach Lechhausen Neusäß Göggingen St.Ulrich-Dom Hochzoll Pfersee Spickel Diedorf Gessertshausen Bergheim Haunstetten Westheim

KEEP

IT

LOCAL

Inningen Gersthofen Friedberg Antonsviertel Pfersee Stadtbergen Westheim Hochzoll Königsbrunn Leitershofen Georgs-Kreuzviertel Hochfeld Bärenkeller Firnhaberau Bobingen Neusäß Hammerschmiede5

What happens at Summerbreeze... stays tattooed on your butt!

Our Journey begins in the year 2015 with my first Summerbreeze which was my very first festival. I mainly went there because my At brother wanted to go there but needed a responsible person to look after him and his friends, so for some reason they choose one me. Four guys, about 70 litres of really cheap beer no pavilion no chairs a tiny car and no idea what we were in for. A lot of point fun, some throwing up and not much else. (sounds good right?) we tried to pick up Don’t think twice it’s alright people by calling them sons-ofDuring the festival when I wasn’t busy drinking or watching a band perform I walked around and painted bitches and one of the people with body paint. At one point a guy came up to me; he was wearing nothing but a kilt (a common guys (it was amazing he garment among Metalheads) and he was pretty tipsy already. “Hey man can you paint a cupcake on my was still able to walk) went up butt?” And drunken as I was I said “Sure thing, man, let’s do this!” So it happened and the cupcake to a chick and said “Hey Girl are although stylized looked pretty good. The guy was ecstatic. The first thing he did was run up to you an Angel? Because I’m allergic the first person he saw and screamed “WANNA SEE MY CUPCAKE!?” He lifted his kilt to show to feath-“ and then he threw up all over it around and ran off to the next person. Festival-people are just the best aren’t they? her shows (yes, this is a ASDF-reference).

It didn’t really work as he intended, as you might guess.

Carry on my Wayward Son Dancing in the Ruins You know, it could have stayed like that but all things come to an end Speaking of pickup-lines, I picked up a lot of girls and guys. eventually. I was sure I would come back next year.So I did. But my Literally. Just running around with a Free Hugs Sign wasn’t brother didn’t and his friends didn’t and my friends also didn’t. So funny enough, I had to actually pick up people and swing them there I was, all by myself, with a ticket in hand and I said, f*ck around. The sound a grown man makes when he suddenly loses the it, let’s do this! And I went there alone. When I arrived at the ground is hilarious. Everybody is out of their mind and there’s a ton of festival area I started to invade my neighbour’s campsites f*cked up people and things to see. An all-girls camp that was blocking the and never really stopped. And by the second day, our way with a sign that said Show-us-your-dick. People of all sexes just walking civility had suffered to the point that we ended each around in boots and underwear. A guy who built a complete set of armor out of and every sentence with “Du Huensoon” which beer-cans.

A ton of people in Pikachu- and Krümelmonster-onesies. A group that was followed by “Is aba nich” (something I do carried a guy, taped to a camping-chair and called him their sacrifice to the gods of to this day sometimes). alcohol. When I opened a porta-potty there was a perfect Logo of the Band Slayer on the backwall – drawn with shit! (THEY DIDN’T EVEN PLAY THAT YEAR, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEIR FANS?!?).

Roundabout I met more people and saw more things in that one week than probably in my entire life so far and although it was one giant party I learned some things about myself. I urge everyone who’s reading this: If you ever have the chance to visit a Festival completely on your own, do it! Its great. I already have my Breeze-Ticket for next year and I look forward to seeing you. Huh I almost forgot. Remember the dude with the cupcake? Yeah, i met him in 2016. He came up to me and asked the thing. “Wanna see my cupcake?” And fuck me, he had the Cupcake I drew the year before, tattooed on his butt.

Author: Sebastian Kramer| Pictures: Ester de la Guia, Jose Seira & Zuñete | Layout: Priscilla Zapata

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Author: | Pictures: | Layout: Author & Pictures: | Layout:

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The chains I forged Augsburg‘s CHAINging business world

I guess some of us have ordered a gift from Amazon last-minute, avoiding full department stores before Christmas – or closed shops at 2 pm. Most of us have bought our folders and stationery at Müller. And pretty much all of us have seen the inside of an EDEKA or Penny store. All these are chains, which doesn‘t seem to disturb anyone. They are vital and absolutely convenient when you need to find what you‘re looking for, quickly, in familiar packaging, and at a low price.

All of Germany has been infiltrated by chains. All of Germany? Nu-uh.

There is one small town called Augsburg, where people seem to care an awful lot about the one industry that is still dominated by local, family-owned businesses: gastronomy. When you hear of Vapiano‘s financial problems one day and see the Unikum burst with visitors the next, you might start to believe that all‘s going well for local business owners. But then, there‘s the almighty Starbucks, Coffee Fellows, Subway and – lest we forget – McDonald‘s. Like most people, I know both worlds. Unlike most people, I had this article in mind during my visits and tried to find out the differences. So, instead of a business report or a lesson in economic sustainability, get ready for two totally personal stories that are only a little entertaining and won‘t be applicable to anything you‘ll ever do.

My local kebap store - a tale of love and disappointment When I complain about my long daily way home, I like to add in a funny element to show listeners I‘m not (just) a crybaby. The conversation tends to go like this: „Yeah, it‘s tough. But there‘s an upside to it.“ – „There is?“ – „Yeah. The guys in the local kebap store, right next to the bus stop where I get to wait between 10 and 30 minutes each day, have started calling me ‚habibi‘. I guess that means something, right?“ What it means, in fact, is „sparrow“ or „darling“, an Arab term used for close friends throughout Middle Eastern countries. This story proves one thing - apart from my obvious talent for storytelling and the owner‘s taste in choosing his friends – and that is a very special, close retail culture. One that Augsburg might lose, as some argue, through the arrival of chains.

Author: Niklas Schmidt | Pictures: Aleksandra Goralska

This includes friendly greetings, bigger servings, more napkins and the vital right of toilet usage – with or without any previous exchange of money and goods.

Starbucks - a tale of live and let live A local kebap store experience also includes sad looks when I demand my kebap be vegetarian. The kind of looks you‘d expect from a grandmother, a 17th-century gourmet or the animal itself, knowing its death was in vain. I always get my kebap the way I order it. However, Habibi‘s tears make it salty. Go to Starbucks, McDonald‘s, literally any chain - people won‘t care what you order. Starbucks and Subway base their whole ordering system on selection and elimination. McDonald‘s has automised orders anyway. There‘s freedom in this anonymity, and millennials love freedom. Freedom and avocado, which you can get on any Sub you choose, for a few more cents.

The choice between chains and local stores is subjective; it‘s a matter of financial means, taste and world view. Being able to change your order four times and not caring what the computer thinks of you is joy in its purest form. However, it‘s also a bad habit that will scare off any human company.

In a way, local businesses are like families. When they say they want your best, they are following very tight definitions that have worked well for them but might be worthless for you. Whether you want to deal with this, just to get a snack, is your decision. But sometimes, a little social control can be good. Or your gluten-free, non-dairy, organic decaf zero-calory drink might turn out to be a €5 cup of water.

Layout: Andreas Böhm

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Slow and steady wins the race Fair fashion made in Europe

Have you ever wondered why clothes in some conventional stores are so cheap? Or under which conditions your t-shirt was being produced or how long it traveled until it found its way into your hands? Do you know what’s the difference between fast and slow fashion? If not, you are welcome to read this interview with Fabian Schüssler who is responsible for sales and business development of Degree Clothing. This fair and organic fashion brand was founded by Fabian Frei and Wolfgang Schimpfle who later also founded Suslet, a fair and sustainable fashion outlet with lots of different brands.

L: What’s the difference between fast and slow fashion?

F: When we talk about slow fashion or fair fashion there’s one phrase which in my opinion describes it pretty well: it’s “Consume less, but better”. If you have a fair production line, and also an organic production line, (…) it’s of course more expensive, because salaries are fair. When we look at China or other countries (…) you can’t call that fair production.

This is also why the capitalism behind that fast fashion is on the cost of others. Now if you have a better product, not only because it’s fairly produced

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but also because it’s organically and well produced, it lasts much longer. So, in my opinion those are the two most important things which are well described in the phrase “Consume less, but better”.

L: Who creates the garments for Degree?

F: It’s a company in Baden-Württemberg, and they have all the certificates. They buy the raw cotton in Turkey, that’s GOTS-certified raw cotton, and then they make the yarn we use. (…) We don’t use raw sources that aren’t certified basically. The design and the prototyping and everything is made here. And then

we have one manufacturer in Portugal - he makes all of the jerseys and he also has his own yarn. For example, if we produce our beanies and our fair hairs, we get the yarn from the manufacturer in Baden-Württemberg. (…) If we produce our other jerseys in Portugal, they of course directly import the GOTS certified yarn from Turkey.

L: What are your target groups?

F: It’s our biggest mission to bring fair fashion to young people, that’s also the price difference between other labels and us, how we try to create pieces which are affordable for everyone. I mean, if it’s not affordable here it might be affordable in the Suslet later. So that’s one of the most important things about the target group, that we want to show young people: buy good, but less, just to show them that there’s equal fashion that looks good.

L: What’s the impact you wish to make?

F: So, the impact is to kick out every company which doesn’t produce as well as we do. So basically, we want to shrink the conventional market. In the meantime, there are a lot of good brands out there, that are also getting started or are already absolutely in the business of producing fairly etc. But there are too many brands that don’t produce fairly and organically. The next point is that there are so many out there which only focus on one aspect. I mean, there are brands that are in the Fair Wear Foundation for example, but they don’t use organic materials or there’s also the opposite thing, and I think it’s really important that you do both.

L: Do you also wear fair fashion?

F: Yes, but not exclusively. I also wear second hand.

I think second hand is as good as buying new, but fair and organical. Basically, buying second hand is the best thing you can do, because you don’t need to use any new resources. That’s why I also love the concept of Suslet. The idea is great because everyone involved benefits hugely. It’s not only the brand that has tons of material in their cellar (…) and then has new output without any effort of using new resources, but also the customer who buys the peace is very happy because he or she only has to pay 30-70% of it. And then also mother earth is happy because you don’t pull the strings on her and you need to grow organic cotton, etc. So that’s what I really like about the concept. It’s beneficial for everyone involved.

Interested? Look in on the stores here in Augsburg or check out the following websites: • https://degreeclothing.de/ • https://suslet.com/

Author: Laura Mack| Pictures & Layout: Stephanie Tradt

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WHAT IF 12

@diction

Breathing social media like oxygen What if we didn’t have to post pictures of all the amazing things we do, the beautiful places we visit or the healthy food we enjoy after a hard workout at the gym?

7AM *alarm clock rings* I go online and scroll through my Instagram feed. Lisa and her best friend went to an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. Daniel bought a 5 kg pack of whey protein at the #bestgymever. Kim Kardashian just started a live video explaining how to become a self-made millionaire.

10Am *on the bus* I go online. Again. I mean, I’ve received like a thousand push notifications. You have four new friend requests on Facebook.. Do I know them? Nope. Do I accept their request anyway? Hell yes, I’ve almost reached 800 friends.

2PM *sitting at lunch with friends* I go online. Trump just tweeted about his great deal with Saudi Arabia. I laugh at some meme of a cat. I retweet the QOTD “In the end we only regret the chances we didn’t take”.

6PM *at home* I go online and open the Snapchat app. I open selfies of friends I barely recognize because of a dog filter on their face. After that I look at videos of people playing beer pong. Lastly; I send out pictures of my wine glass on the table #metime to all 40 close friends I have.

Author: Alicia Flaiß | Pictures & Layout: Lucia Zink

Meanwhile, in a parallel universe…

7AM *alarm clock rings* I get up early enough to go for a short run. After that I devour a huge breakfast and get ready to leave the house.

10AM *on the bus* I sit on the bus listening to music and see an elderly woman carrying her grocery bags. She’s desperately looking for a free seat, so I offer her mine. She smiles at me gratefully. A little boy, whose backpack is as big as himself, stands next to me. When the bus hits the break, I’m able to reach for his bag and keep him from falling over.

2PM *sitting at lunch with friends* My friends and I plan some fun activities for the weekend.

On Friday we go out for some cocktails at Peaches. On Saturday we make pizza ourselves and watch movies, since the weather isn’t the best, and on Sunday we go for a hike in the mountains.

6PM *at home* Finally back home, I pour myself a glass of wine and read a few pages of my favorite book before I head out for dinner with family.

Now doesn’t that seem more worthwhile?

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Piece by piece

When your identity doesn‘t fit the norm I looked up identity in several dictionaries. I like looking up English words. It’s part of who I am. My girlfriend let me know I’m crazy when she caught me reading an Australian dictionary, rejoicing at cool Aussie words. Which brings us right to another character trait of mine. You can read it on my Instagram profile. It says “Aussie at heart” with a little globe emoticon showing Australia. We love to do that. Picking out emoticons to describe who we are. And that’s what identity is – “who you are” – at least according to the dictionaries. Simple as that.

The puzzle Well, you know how this goes. I wouldn’t be writing an article if it was simple. So, here’s how it all went down, my realisation that identity, especially the one I should know about best, my own identity, is not that simple. It’s a fragile thing; it’s a puzzle that we piece together as we go about life and yet most of the time we pretend it’s already completed. I thought I was done with my puzzle when I came out as gay and all the pieces that I had been working on for a long time seemed to magically fall into place. I don’t particularly like puzzles, so I was happy about that. Now it made sense that I wear my hair short, that I prefer androgynous clothes and hate pink. I think it’s safe to say that I’m a prototypical lesbian. I don’t have to explain myself anymore. I just casually

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Author: Anonymous | Pictures & Layout: Daniel Plotetzki

mention my girlfriend, just like I did at the beginning of this article, and there it is: My identity, bright and clear for everyone to see. Couldn’t be done better with a rainbow emoticon.

The wrong shape Just about now, you probably expect me to start ranting about how I’m being put into a box. How people only see who I love instead of who I am. But that’s not my point. In fact, I love the lesbian box.

It feels like home. It’s my magic puzzle finisher. So, what’s the problem then? It’s one piece of me that just doesn’t seem to fit the puzzle. It’s got the wrong shape or the wrong colour, or both. I don’t know. All I know is that ever since I came out I’ve been trying to force it into the puzzle, but it just won’t fit.

The dilemma To illustrate the dilemma let me tell you a little anecdote: Some friends and I recently decided to start our own salsa dancing school, so we planned it all and then began advertising. As soon as my first salsa related posts went online, a friend of mine came up to me and asked me completely astonished and very confused if I dance salsa. And she wasn’t the only one. There were quite a few confused

friends. So, I told them, yes, I dance salsa. Now, salsa is probably the most heteronormative hobby you could have. And I’m not hetero. I don’t fit the image of the sexy latin girl with big hips and equally big boobs, long hair and a tight dress. Obviously, a lot of people who dance salsa don’t look like that.

But the difference between them and me is that they don’t have a problem trying to look like that.

Somewhere in between A lot about salsa extremely highlights the differences between the sexes. Girls should look hot when they dance, men cool. There is no in-between for people like me. I’ve only ever seen another homosexual salsa dancer once. She was a Mexican who I had one dance with at a salsa festival in Tunisia. She was an amazing dancer and she looked great in the suit she was wearing that night. The whole week that we spent there I never saw her dance as a girl.

I could do that, I thought for a brief moment, stop dancing the girl’s part altogether. I know how to dance the men’s part and I enjoy doing it. I could wear one of my numerous button up shirts to the parties and not worry about whether I look sexy or lady-like or not. But, and I’m sure you saw the “but” coming, I didn’t wear a button up shirt and pants at that party. I wore a dress that night.

Feeling the music Now the dress itself is not the problem. The problem is that I actually enjoy wearing that dress, at least from time to time. My girlfriend says I look really nice in it. When people ask me what I prefer, dancing the girl’s or the boy’s part, I always have to shrug my shoulders. I love both. By the way, the politically correct terminology is leader for the men’s part and follower for the girl’s part. As the leader you have to plan your moves, you have to look after your girl, make sure she doesn’t bump into somebody on the dance floor. I love plans, I’m a very organised person. I also like looking after people, it makes me feel strong. As the follower you get to fully enjoy the song, you just feel the music – you don’t think it.

I’m sure you can understand why I don’t want to give that up, even though it’s a balancing act for me to find a middle ground between what I’m taught is the “right” way to dance as a girl and what I’m comfortable with. It’s hard, if not to say, impossible.

The piece just doesn’t fit. But I don’t want to throw it away either; it would leave a big whole and what would I fill that with? It’s a true dilemma.

I hope your puzzle isn’t such a pain.

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Living, breathing souvenirs What if you fall in love with an animal in a foreign country?

Taking in an abandoned dog somewhere in the middle of nowhere on a lonely stretch of Mexican highway is just my kind of holiday. However, many don’t realize how easy it is to take a dog to Germany, while all you’ve got to do is buy yourself an oversized coat and stuff your furry friend under it! I’ve never had such a tranquil flight as the 12-hour trip from Cancun to Munich, feeling like a drug-smuggling overlord.

Be realistic and plan ahead All jokes aside, it really isn’t as difficult to take a pet to Germany as you may think. The key factor in taking your baby home is good timing and diligent planning. Depending on the country of origin and whether it’s listed as a rabies country, the time needed to get all necessary permits varies between 4 weeks and 4 months for healthy pets. Go ahead and bookmark Germany’s official customs website; it’ll be your bible for the coming month. As my smuggling skills are very much below average, I decided to go the legal way when I brought back my dog Mota from Mexico. This included finding an EU-certified vet to obtain the health certificate from and getting my dog’s vaccinations up to date.

After her rabies shot, we had a mandatory three-week waiting period before taking our flight home.

Not a flight of fancy after all My dog had her own seat, was pampered by the stewardess and given VIP status… Who

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am I fooling here? As a six-month-old puppy, she was already too big to fly in-cabin and had to go into cargo. I bought my best friend a luxurious villa of a flight-approved crate within the airline’s size specifications. It was big enough for her to stand in and spin in circles as much as her little puppy heart desired. A snuggly blanket, a used T-shirt of mine and her favorite chew toy kept her company.

Mota had many weeks to get to know her little apartment. She experienced earthquakes in it (basically just me shaking the box) got fed all the best treats in there and

slowly but surely fell in love with her cozy cave - loud noises and darkness be damned! To avoid the extra stress of tropical heat and hot tarmac layovers, I settled on a direct flight in the very late evening (though early mornings work just as well). Twelve hours before take-off, your pet should not be fed unless you want them to fly in a toilet. The day of the trip, we canceled our usual daily siesta and spent our last hours in Mexico in an absolute frenzy: running, jumping, playing – anything to tire her out for the flight.

With the coyote there’s no customs, but there is with a dog The airline was aware that I would arrive with a furry friend. By the way, it’s crucial to book your pet’s ticket along with yours (hers was half price)! Staff will send you through the customs office in the country of origin, where the employees will double-check all your documents, compliment your pet’s

gorgeous appearance and hopefully clear you for leaving the country. The airport personnel will search every inch of the crate to make sure you’re not smuggling precious dog treats after all: “What is this?” says the customs worker, suspiciously eyeing a plastic bone toy. And then you’ll look on as the crate disappears on a luggage belt. Hours later, you’ll be reunited with your pet in the over-size baggage unit. And just before leaving the airport, you’ll pass through yet another customs office, where your pet must leave its crate for inspection. Thinking ahead, I brought along a roll of toilet paper, yet the flood my dog unleashed on the airport floor can in no way be contained. Luckily for me, the young police man just smiled and said: “Welcome home.”

Not ready for your own pet?

Rescue organizations in the European Union are always looking for flight buddies. Next time you’re taking a flight home to Germany from within the EU, talk to local organizations to see if you could accompany a pet to their forever home. No costs involved for you; just a warm, fuzzy heart for a great act of kindness.

Author: Anna Biberacher | Pictures: Nina BIberacher | Layout: Filiz Özer

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If only we were apples…

Don‘t comPEAR us!

I don‘t really remember when or where I read about it. But I know that since I did, I won‘t be able to forget this metaphor. This is up until now my favorite one and I want to use these lines to share it with you, at least the part I remember, so when you feel something is wrong with you, just try to think about these apples.

Just imagine a giant apple tree. With hundreds of apples on it. Apples everywhere, some of them at the top of the tree, others in the middle, others at the bottom and the rest just scattered everywhere. There are even apples on the ground, but these ones are too ripe and not that good anymore.

Now imagine that the apples at the top are the most beautiful ones you‘ve ever seen. Perfectly red, big and bright. The higher the apples, the tastier, bigger, and more red they are. Each and every one of the apples wants to be eaten. But somehow only the apples that are lower down are the ones which are picked up and eaten.

The other apples talk to each other and wonder what‘s happening. What‘s wrong with me? Why am I not being chosen, but the others are? Maybe I‘m not that great...

The apples in the middle tell the ones at the top: maybe because we‘re too high and difficult to reach we‘re not chosen. So, they try to fall down. Waiting for the wind to dance with them and change their original position.

They were trying to fall down, so that they can be found more easily - so that they also can be eaten…

But maybe because those at the top can‘t really see what exactly was going on at the bottom of the tree. They couldn‘t see that the people who pick up the apples on the ground or take the ones on the bottom of the tree are just people in a hurry, people who do not have nor take the time to make a good choice, to take a break and take a look at the tree in order to look for the apple they like the most. They are just hungry, pass the tree and merely take what they found in their way.

But one day somebody comes a couple of times, each time looking carefully at the apples. The apples are excited! He tries to climb the tree but falls the first time. So he tries again and reaches the top of the tree where he picks the apple he wants the most. He‘s so happy and enjoying it!

It took time for the other apples to realize that they don‘t need to change to be found. They don’t need to fall down to be reached or to be sad because of having to wait so long. It took time to understand, but when they did, they wanted to stay where they were.

Author & Layout: Priscilla Zapata | Pictures: Maria Prudnikova

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Microplastics An illness no one saw coming

I’m the kind of person who isn’t afraid of things as long as they have nothing to do with me or my family, but a few years ago something frightening happened. My dad suddenly became ill - big cysts were growing all over his body! No doctor was able to tell us why they were growing and what we could do.

The answer All the doctors did was remove the cysts again and again. And another cyst grew as soon as one was removed. It was horrible and my dad was terrified.

He had so many questions and didn’t get a single answer until he asked an alternative therapist. “It’s microplastics,” he was told. “Just stop drinking out of plastic bottles.” A few weeks later he threw out all the plastic bottles in our house. And there were no more cysts!

Microplastics: what are they?

Microplastics are small, barely visible pieces of plastic that enter and pollute the environment. They are not one single kind of plastic, but rather any type of plastic fragment that is less than five millimetres in length. Not only do they pollute the environment, but also the human body. In 2018, an Austrian team of doctors first proved that microplastics had already found their way into our organisms. They’re a foreign substance in our body so our organism can’t get rid of it that easily, as in my dad’s case.

Microplastics – where to find them and how to avoid them

expect. For example, make up and nail polish. Of course, you can avoid buying things packed in plastic. But the most dangerous plastics are hidden, so for everyone who wants to check if there might be any microplastics in their favourite shampoo, I can tell you how I do it. A while ago, I discovered the CodeCheck App, a very easy way to find out everything about the ingredients in a certain product. Just scan the barcode of the product and you’ll see what you want to know. In this way, you can see what products are harmless and which you should avoid.

Be aware!

I bet many of you aren’t interested in all this, and I’m aware that I can’t change the way you think about certain things, but at least I can try. Thinking of my dad and the pain he had to go through, I just want everyone to know about the risks of consuming microplastics.

Inform yourself and know what to do!

They are often used in shower gels and face scrubs but are also in a lot more products than you would

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Author & Pictures: Jessica Wolf | Layout: Theresa Müller

Highway to hell Dying for beginners

Have you ever wondered what happens after you’ve kicked the bucket? As I have some un-dertaking experience (!), let me tell you about an adventurous journey not many know about, but everybody goes on. There are three roads you’ll have to go down before being on the right track (no pun intended).

The first will be organisation. There are many things to be taken care of before you can even start your real journey. Ever waited for a DB train?

Then you know exactly how you’ll feel right after you’ve bitten the dust, except for not feeling anything any more, of course. Why? Because there are two doctors who confirm that you really have met your maker and between these two visits around six to eight hours have to pass. After a hell of a lot bureaucracy involving the police, the registry office, the health insurance company and so on you’re finally ready for transportation.

have to cut your clothes apart to put the new ones on, because if they move you around too much, they might see what you had for your last lunch. Nobody wants that. After all that, you’ll be pushed into a giant fridge, waiting for the preparations, such as deciding whether you want the last farewell, or planning the date and the kind of memorial ceremony.

Finally getting down to business…

Depending on what your preferences are, you’ll get incinerated or put under ground! But you can even get a burial at sea if you only consist of ashes, neatly-dressed, charming which is – at least in my humble men come to get you.

But opinion – pretty neat.

The second road be-fore they drive you to your If your family has already last destination, you might well Some last honest word: don’t talked to the undertaker, need some new clothes, because buy the most expensive you might get your people seem to be so scared of the coffin. It’ll be burned or last wooden bed blackness of death that they literally crushed by the weight delivered to your shit their pants.

But being dressed by of the soil. home when professionals has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? the You can imagine that dressing someone who has lost their flexibility completely is quite hard, right?

Well, that’s exactly why you shouldn’t pick your best suit for your last celebration. Most of the time the undertakers Author; Pictures & Layout: Daniel Plotetzki

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what if... the universe had come into existence in a five-dimensional black hole?

The prevalent contemporary theory to explain the creation of the known universe is the Big Bang theory. In essence, it tells us: there was an impossible event at the beginning of time, a singularity. Everything there is, all matter and energy, was in a primordial, highly energetic state and it was all together in very close proximity.

Considering current and past rates of expansion, the Big Bang theory concludes that there must have been a massive explosion shortly after the singularity, sending matter in all directions of (four-dimensional1) space-time. Conclusions from observations considering Hubble‘s law2 and the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation3 in the 60s have vastly strengthened the authority of the theory, as it has enabled scientists to pinpoint the observable universe‘s current age with relative certainty and accuracy. ~13.799 billion years. hat is a black hole?

As a result, the question is no longer if there was an event, but what kind of event there was. Currently it is not possible to directly observe a singularity; however, it is possible to indirectly observe its effects. Roughly broken down: as soon as an object of stellar mass (that is usually the remnant of a star in the current state of the universe) exceeds a mass of 2.17 Solar masses4 and the TolmanOppenheimer-Volkoff limit5, it will collapse under its own weight, hence becoming a singularity and ultimately forming a black hole6. Unlike most

stars, very mass-heavy stars do not end their life cycle in a supernova. Once its core temperature is no longer high enough to balance out the extreme gravitational forces in play, it will be crushed under its own weight, instead of exploding, ‘falling‘ in itself until all its matter is confined to the smallest possible space in time. A theoretical object in which there is no space between matter at all. A singularity is infinitely small and infinitely hot.

It remains theoretical because, even if the observation of the formation of a black hole was possible, its formation is always preceded by an event horizon. The gravitational forces inside a black hole are so strong that nothing but gravity itself can escape its pull. Even light, weightless photons cannot get past a certain threshold around the black hole, the event horizon. From an observer‘s point of view, any object traveling toward and inside the black hole would never quite enter it. Instead, it would appear to halt right at the edge of the horizon, its visible image changing in wavelength, fading away, turning red over time.

Limits of the current theory.

Despite its simple elegance, the Big Bang theory remains riddled with inconsistency. The tried and tested standard model of physics predicts a spherically-shaped universe after such an event; however, observational data shows that we live in a flat universe shaped like a thin slice of bread. Furthermore, CMBR data analysis as well as the examination of the oldest recorded light surrounding us suggest there was a constant

or: the universe in a nutshell temperature in the early universe just after the Big Bang. Objects which had once been very close together are now further away from each other than they should be, if they had moved with the speed of light. The theory of inflation postulates a rapid expansion of space itself to explain this phenomenon.

There are thousands of black holes in the Milky Way‘s galactic center. Amongst them is Sagittarius A7, a supermassive black hole, in the center of our galaxy. Almost every spiral and elliptically-shaped galaxy revolves around a supermassive black hole.

Black holes are exotic, but nonetheless natural.

They play a pivotal role in the balance of birth, death and rebirth of all stellar objects. [The bright, blue, spirally object you can see below this text is the center of the Milky Way; the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A.] here the serpent eats its own tail.

What if...this universe had come into existence in a five-dimensional black hole? While it remains a fringe theory in astrophysics, it could provide answers to several questions in astronomy. The origin of gammaray bursts, the exotic matter needed to explain the early rapid expansion of the universe, could have originated from a white hole, the other „end“ of a black hole, and for a short moment it could give an answer to the beginning of everything. An enormous amount of matter in a five-dimensional

universe „fell“ into a singularity, giving birth to our universe. What would such a universe even look like? Where does our parent universe come from?

How and why did it come to be? What about the black holes in our universe? Where do they lead?

Is there a way „out“ of „here“? For all the answers offered by this theory, the big questions remain mostly untouched; only their focus has shifted to other places, dimensions, whole other universes. hy should any of this concern me?

If nothing else, it allows all of us to think and dream and ask about things of such intricate complexity and beauty that we could never have imagined ourselves.

Footnotes:

1| This universe has four distinct dimensions that we know of: three dimensions of space, one dimension of time and relativity suggests that these are indeed one and the same. Space-time.

2| Hubble‘s Law is, to oversimplify, the application of the Doppler-Effect on light. Light sources traveling toward or away from us do not change in speed (light speed is a constant); however the frequency of the lightwave changes. Images of objects traveling toward an observer shorten in wavelength and experience a blueshift, while objects moving away from an observer experience redshift from our point of view.

3| The main evidence in support of the Big Bang Theory. CMBR is like an echo from the earliest stages of the universe.

4| 1 Solar mass is the weight of the Sun, or 1988470000000000000000000 000000kg.

5| The TOV limit describes the prerequisite for the formation of a black hole. Mass needs to exceed a certain threshold, pressure and temperature need to be below a certain threshold.

6| *There are exceptions to this, under certain conditions, White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars or other exotic compact stars may be formed.

7| Sagittarius A was indirectly discovered, matching the otherwise inexplicable rotation of the nearby star S2 to an enormous gravitational field.

Sagittarius A is a moderately „sized“ supermassive black hole, roughly containing ~4-4,7 million solar masses.

Author: Felix Boeger | Layout: Felix Boeger & Filiz Özer | Pictures: NASA, ESA, CXC, SSC and STScI

free

starter

library former eMAG member

FREE at www.mira-kanehl.com/starter-library/

Author: | Pictures: | Layout: Author & Pictures: | Layout:

Cover art by (C) Nathascha Friis, artbynath.com. images (C) shutterstock.com; Pixabay.com, PlumLord.

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The success story of a school drop-out “Early school leaving creates high individual, social and economic costs. [Early school leavers] are more often affected by unemployment, are more likely to depend on social benefits and have a higher risk of social exclu-

sion. […] Early school leaving has long-term negative effects on social development and economic growth. Innovation and growth rely on a skilled labour force.”

Prejudices This is how an EU Commission report describes the negative effects of early-school leaving. I assumed most people affected by these negative effects must be rebellious teenagers, with no interest in doing something with their lives. As a child I used to enjoy school, except for maths lessons maybe, and Latin vocab tests on Friday and, OK, not always, but usually. Why would you want to risk your own future out of laziness? Admittedly, socio-economic factors also play a role when it comes to school, so I´m not judging people who didn´t grow up in the ideal world I was raised in.

Revelation night But a conversation at my parents´ dinner table forced me to change my view. When we were talking about my younger sister´s future professional career, we started talking about how my parents decided what they wanted to become.

“Dad, why did you choose your profession?”– “Actually, it was a stopgap solution.” – “And why?”

It took some time before he finally took a deep breath and answered: “I left school early. I don´t have any high-school qualifications. I didn’t have much of a choice.”

Author, Layout & Pictures: Stephanie Tradt

I was shocked. My father, a successful self-employed businessman – a school drop-out? I’ve always admired how clever and thoughtful my father was, and am convinced that he is the smart parent in our family. So after I’d digested this information, there was something that struck me as even more shocking: the fact that my father had never told anybody about it. Not even his wife of 25 years.

Give them a second chance!

Is it right to put so much pressure on children and teenagers so they’re affected by failures in school severely enough to drop out and feel so ashamed that they keep their mouth shut for thirty years? Is the school system qualified to measure intelligence and decide upon children´s futures?

As an aspiring teacher, I don´t want to give you the idea that qualifications are not important at all, but maybe sometimes we shouldn´t overestimate their predictive power and question their value. After all, everyone deserves a second chance. For my part, I feel grateful to the company that wasn’t affected by common prejudices and accepted my father as an apprentice, because I know that great potential would have been lost if the company had decided to reject an early school leaver.

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MENTAL HEALTH

Work-Life-Balance

Interview mit Florian Reß

Vor circa zwei Jahren habe ich angefangen zu studieren. Ich war glücklich mit meiner Entscheidung und zuversichtlich, dass alles klappen würde. Ganz richtig lag ich damit nicht. Ich studiere Englisch und Mathe. Englisch macht mir sehr viel Spaß, aber Mathe ist sehr anstrengend. Dabei ist es schon interessant, nur eben auch extrem zeitaufwändig, sodass ich manchmal nicht mehr weiß, wann ich Zeit für Freunde oder meine Haustiere finden soll. Und es geht nicht nur mir so, auch andere Fächer sind zeitaufwändig und manchmal sehr frustrierend. Ich musste dabei zusehen, wie viele meiner Freunde Mathe aufgegeben haben oder sogar ihre ganze Fachrichtung gewechselt haben, weil es zu anstrengend für sie war.

Sturheit und Hilfe.

Vielleicht bin ich zu stur um zu wechseln, aber manchmal brauche ich auch eine Auszeit, dann lerne ich aber weniger für Mathe, was meine Noten nicht so lustig finden. Manchen Kommilitonen geht es aber noch sehr viel schlechter und wenn das der Fall ist, sollte man sich Hilfe suchen, also habe ich den Study-Work-Life Balance Coach unserer Universität besucht, um eine andere Sicht auf die Dinge zu bekommen und um zu fragen, wann man definitiv zu ihm kommen sollte.

Wie viele Studenten waren circa bei Ihnen?

Die letzten Jahre waren das ungefähr 120 Studenten, die in der 1:1 Beratung bei mir waren, dann gab es noch zwischen 50 und 60 Leute, die die Workshops besuchten, pro Jahr. Im Durchschnitt kommen die Studenten für circa fünf Sitzungen zu mir, es gibt immer mal ein paar, die nach ein oder zwei Sitzungen einen guten Ansatz haben und sich dann nach Kräften weiterbemühen und es gibt auch manche, die sich länger begleiten lassen.

Wie kam es zu der Beratung an der Universität Augsburg?

Work-Life Beratung hat diesen wunderschönen Namen, weil damals zur Einführung der Studienbeiträge in Augsburg jemand eine Bachelor Arbeit zu dem Thema „Studieren und Arbeiten und die Herausforderungen“ geschrieben hat, was dann dazu geführt hat, dass eine Stelle ausgeschrieben Author: Martina Sonn| Layout: Aleksandra Goralska

wurde, alles ohne Erwartungen. Man hat quasi jemanden gesucht, der da etwas auf die Beine stellt.

Mit welchen Anliegen kommen die Leute?

Also als Hintergrunderklärung: für manche Leute ist Beratung an sich eine große Schwelle. Das sind junge Menschen, die versuchen Dinge selbst zu regeln und schaffen das ja auch und manche denken vielleicht auch noch ‚Ich geh doch jetzt nicht zur psychologischen Beratung‘. Die Work-LifeBalance ist also so ein Zwischenglied: Ich muss nicht zum Psychologen, aber da gibt es eine Anlaufstelle. Von den Anliegen her ist es wirklich breit gemischt: ganz wenige, die genau mit dem Fokus Study-Work-Life-Balance kommen, aber vor allem Existenzängste, fordernder Job und Freizeit, auch Entscheidungsprobleme wie Studienabbruch, viel Angst/Prüfungsangst, psychische Beeinträchtigungen, Beziehungsprobleme, Familienprobleme.

Wann sollte man zur Studienberatung gehen?

Ich erschrecke immer, wenn es Leuten wirklich schlecht geht, die einen hohen Leistungsdruck haben und sich ein Jahr lang quälen bis sie endlich kommen. Das ist schon schade, mehr Leute müssen drüber Bescheid wissen. Dass man sich Gedanken macht, ist schon ein Zeichen dafür, dass ich sage: „komm gönnen Sie es sich einfach, lieber früher kommen als später“.

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When depression meets love: A toxic cocktail

Boy meets Girl, they both fall in love, happy ever after - right? Wrong.

Nowadays, mental health is an issue which gets a lot of coverage. However you rarely hear about the people suffering with the sufferers. I was one of those people, for two years, and have finally decided to write about it. I met this girl at school, a couple years ago now - and honestly, I was hooked. We got friendly very quickly before the summer, but the contact dried up till the start of September 2016. She got in contact again, and from then on we grew gradually closer. Then, one night, 12th January 2017, she finally told me. She was clinically depressed, and had been for three years, but I stayed with her.

The Beginning

The hardest thing in all of this was actually properly dealing with a clinically depressed person. Every day was a challenge with her. It got worse when she described how she was feeling. All the while I was dealing with this new information, I kept her secret, it was only fair seeing as she had told me something so intimate about herself. This made everything harder for me, as I had this constant worry about her now. We did have a simple coping mechanism though. Get drunk. That was when we shared the most with each other, and grew closer. She would tell me stuff, really dark thoughts, which made me sad beyond belief that however hard I tried, I couldn‘t save her, all I could do was be there.

Hope

Summer 2017 was a time for hope. We were both moving on to new things, new lives. Away from the old, bad memories. We spent a lot of time with each other toward the end of the summer, just having fun and dreaming of the future. Soon enough came our last time together before we both left, she for Frankfurt, me for Augsburg. We made promises to keep in contact, to always be there for one another. As I stood at her door, as she shut the door, I looked at the rising sun, and started to cry.

Was this the beginning of the end?

Pain

At first, everything was good. I was happy she was happy. Then came the MDMA (Ecstasy). I knew, as soon as she told me, that she wouldn‘t be able to control herself taking it - euphoria for a depressive person is like a drug itself, right? Here, I could do nothing to stop her, and it seemed to be the end of us. But a few months later, after getting back into contact with each other, I visited her in Frankfurt, and that day in itself felt too good to be true, like it was before the drugs - and it was. As time went on, it seemed that all we had discussed in Frankfurt, all the things we wanted to change: there would be better communication, healthier ways to deal with her bad days, etc. seemed to have been forgotten. Then another depressive phase came along, and by June 2018, everything crumbled.

Fin

She started taking Ecstasy excessively. I wanted her to get help - she wouldn‘t. After a period of silence, I wanted to know what was going on, how she was, and I got told that she was ‚‘happy‘‘ now and didn‘t need me. That was how it ended. In September 2018. Now as I‘m writing this, I‘m slowly getting better, but the feelings of anger, sadness, loneliness still strike. The only unanswered question I have, is ‚‘Why?‘‘

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Author: Conor Schiffer | Layout: Felix Boeger

When you think life gives you lemons it usually summons a demon instead

Mental health is something we all deal with in our lives at some point, whether it concerns ourselves or the people surrounding us. The difficult thing about it is that it’s not visible on the outside. You can’t just show someone how damaged you are on the inside. It takes a lot of insight and understanding to get what actually is wrong with you and some people just don’t seem to have any of that. And they don’t take it seriously or just can’t deal with it because they simply can’t relate. If you show someone a broken bone, everyone immediately knows that it has to hurt like hell, but when you’re absent from a couple of seminars or are faking all of your laughter, trying not to burst out in tears, no one sees, nobody knows how much pain you’re in and how difficult it was to actually get out of bed that day. So here we go, a short article about how important it is to keep going, no matter what.

The drums of war are my alarm in the morning Like many others, I’m an average student. I have average grades and am kinda struggling to finish my bachelor’s degree because of a load of crap that has happened to me during the last two years (talking about mental health here). There’s nothing really special about me on the outside, just your average student in her twenties, figuring out life. But on the inside, I’m so much more. On the inside, I’m the scarred and incredibly strong individual that has dealt with A LOT of crap in a very short time. I had to deal with stuff that some people don’t even dream about in their nightmares and I am still standing here, breathing, living. Every day I wake up and have to face the messy war zone I call my life. And at this point I stopped thinking “why is this happening to me?” but turned it into “what is this trying to teach me?” and even though it sounds a lot easier than it is, this actually helped a little bit. It let’s me reflect on what I’ve been through and that even though life turned on hardcore difficulty, I’m still standing. I once saw a quote “Video games taught me that when you encounter enemies, it means you’re going in the right direction” and it kinda makes sense when you apply it to life.

When the dust settles it will all be worth it I’m not saying that I’m the only one fighting battles. I know that everyone has their own little package of crap they have to deal with. And that’s where I actually get to a point in this hot mess I call an article. Never judge people before you get to know them.

You have no idea what people go through every single day. Whether it’s crippling depression that tries to keep them in bed all day, anxiety that ties their hands in ways you couldn’t even imagine, panic attacks jumping on them in various situations or other difficulties. They are still standing in front of you, living, breathing, trying to move on. And I gotta say that I have deep respect and admiration for each and every single person out there who fights their battles every freaking day and continues to live on. I’m very far away from any closure or anything like that but I believe that it gets better, for everyone. Some day it will be better, some day you’re going to look back at those days and realize that they were a part of your journey, part of what brought you where you are and, most importantly, made you who you are. In the end, it’s not what happens to you. It’s how you handle it that defines you. Keep going, always keep going!

Author: Anonymous | Layout: Aleksandra Goralska

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Why I left & why it was right

Hi! How are you? I hope you’re doing well. Are you ready for a long one? Yes? Well, I suggest you have a cuppa coffee ready because I’m about to tell you about my past relationship with the guy I once thought I’d marry.

The start of the downfall We’d been in a long-distance relationship for two years.

Now that I’m looking back, it was pretty weird. Year one, everything was mostly fine. We always talked about getting married and having a future together. He had a job, a niceish car and enough money to make a living. The following year, however, was when things went downhill. He lost his job, his car broke down and he didn’t have any money.

He was living off the people around him, mostly me, a student living on her own with no financial support from her parents, and his sister, who already had three kids to feed. At first, it was fine. I’m not someone who leaves their partner hanging. However, instead of fighting and trying to apply for other jobs, he did nothing but play video games all night and sleep all day for three months straight. It was hard to keep in touch with him, as we were barely awake at the same time. As things got worse, his racist-Nazi side started to show. He’d put his nationality above anything else. He called the entirety of the population “stupid dogs” and other worse things. He wanted me to be as proud of my ethnicity as he was. He was constantly nagging about politics while being a non-voter himself.

Oh, the irony.

Although he was 3 years older than me, it didn‘t feel that way. I felt like I was the older, more mature person. But he was the exact opposite: someone who couldn’t be relied on, who was never on time and wasn’t even able to apologize for anything. Who couldn’t make his own

30

doctor’s appointments, let alone get his derrière up and apply for jobs. Who was so aggressive that he would hit me or degrade me verbally. His aggression eventually started to rub off on me. I got louder, more heated and even more vulgar every time we fought. Arguments got worse, insults became more hurtful. Overall, I was becoming someone I never thought I could be. At this point, I didn’t even have any feelings left for him. For months, I tried holding on, telling myself that all these things are temporary, that everything can get better again. But even if that happened, it could also get as bad as it was, or even worse.

A kiss with a fist One day, we were accompanying his sister to the dentist with her kids. We spent hours in the waiting room. He was playing some games on his phone, and I, being the attention whore I am, started to tap on his screen, saying “I’m bored, pay attention to me!” I hadn’t seen him for weeks. Any normal boyfriend would’ve given his girl a kiss, and said “OK honey, I’m sorry!” while putting away his phone. Not him. He hauled off and smacked me in the face. I was outraged. He was too stubborn to apologise, as per usual. For one short moment, he left the room. And that’s when it got over me. I took his phone and went straight to the chats. I was always open about my phone; he was allowed to be on mine and read through my chats, I didn’t have anything to hide. He, on the other hand, was always a little reluctant in this matter. One chat caught my eye. The messages hadn’t been read yet, but they were a couple days old. I clicked, and couldn’t believe it. Lovey-dovey messages with some random girl, written in a manner only lovers would text. Good mornings, heart emojis. Judging from what they’d texted, he had cheated on me. I was sure. If his sister hadn’t been there, I would have swung my fists. Funny thing is, he got mad at me, although he was the one who messed up. Can you imagine? So after

being smacked for wanting his attention and finding out he’d cheated, he was the one mad at me. He even got me so far that I was the one to apologise. I was stupid, I know. I was just being…

…Patient.

Patient because I’d seen it with my own parents. Abusive relationship, cheating, hitting. It all happened in the household I grew up in. Years later, things eventually got better, and now they’re happier than ever in their 30 years of marriage. But it didn’t have to be that way. I had been patient. Patient because a small part of me kept hoping that one day, we’d be happily married, just like we had dreamt.

Maybe, if I held on to it just a tad longer, it would’ve all turned out alright. Maybe, he would’ve found a job, got back into a normal routine, but it only got worse as days went by. In those three months of proud unemployment, the only application he sent was to some agency in his home country, without telling me. He didn’t want a factory job, but instead wanted to get rich and have fun. I snapped. Again. He gave up our future together and wanted to run away, while I was not even considering taking a term abroad, just for the sake of not making the long distance thing any harder. I couldn’t believe the audacity.

The moment I realised… …That I had to end it was when I spent three days with a friend who was having relationship issues at that time. We talked a lot and she asked me for help, so I gave her as much advice as I could and later realized that I was a hypocrite.

Why couldn’t I act like that in my own relationship? I knew I had to leave him, and this time for real. So I did, finally.

I was plotting how to do it for days. I wanted to separate peacefully and with no bad intentions, but he made that

impossible. After hitting him with that “Can we please talk this weekend?” message, and texting back and forth a little, he suddenly got irritated and burst out with “why do you want to break up? Did your friends put you up to it? If you want to end it, end it now.” No matter how hard I tried to convince him to talk in person, he refused and forced me to break up with him via text. As soon as the conversation stopped, it was the first time in two years that I was able to breathe. I was relieved. I’d finally done it.

Three days later… …Just before meeting up to exchange our stuff, he started texting me the worst things. Although he had said that he didn’t want to hear any recriminations, which I didn’t intend to make anyway, he suddenly started to be the one to do that. He basically insulted me in any way possible.

“I don’t take any orders from women!”, “You don’t have any dignity!”, “Even my ex from five years ago texted me,” and so on. He pushed it so far that I snapped for one last time. Via text and face to face. I let it all out as soon as he reluctantly gave in to one last hug. I yelled in his ear while hugging him all the things I never wanted to say. And to my surprise, it worked. As I got louder, he started to hug me back. And that’s how he finally calmed down from his tantrum. A short while later, still appalled that I dared to break up with him, he was acting uncontrollably childish.

He started stalking me online, texted my closest friends trying to break our bond by telling them lies. He was unhappy with me not publicly suffering from the break up the way he was. But that was never my way. It’s weird, isn’t it? One day, you swear to yourself that you’d never let anyone treat you like this and the next moment it happens just like that. So I just gave up, and for the first time ever, giving up was a good thing for me.

Author: Anonymous | Layout: Filiz Özer

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Who am I?

How I lost my grandpa to Alzheimer‘s Dear Opa, it’s four weeks before Christmas and you just passed away. Without a word or a last call. E. texted me to say it was peaceful, quiet and painless but you were alone.

I’m relieved and sorry at the same time. You don’t have to suffer anymore. The doctors said you basically starved yourself to death. You lost your will to live. Alzheimer’s took it.

The first time we sensed it was Alzheimer’s (A.) was in August 2015: we were in the car on our way to the mall.

You were driving. You were so proud that you were still able to drive at the age of ninety. You took the usual route to the mall. We entered the highway, chatting about this and that when you suddenly hit the break and gave Oma a confused look: “Where are we going?” you asked. “To the mall. The usual way.” Oma answered. You picked up speed again. Everything was ok, we thought. Then you hit the brake again and tried to make a U-turn in the middle of the highway, convinced the mall was in the opposite direction.

That day Alzheimers had already invaded your brain like a parasite.

Alzheimer’s. You hear it everywhere. It’s a brain disease, a type of dementia. It mostly affects elderly people and the older they are, the higher the risk of getting it. It dissolves the brain cells, Synapses, your short memory. It dissolves the brain’s center for the language and its movement apparatus. Step by step it takes control of the brain and spreads like a fungus, killing other forms of life.

April 2017: you were angry because your driving license had been confiscated, because you forgot where you had

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Author: Lucia Zink| Layout: Filiz Özer

put the golden pocket watch and the housekey. In Spring 2017 A. made you forget that your younger brother was already dead, that your three children were adults already and had children themselves. A. made you cry when you couldn’t remember where you were. A. made you sleepier, it made you loose your appetite. A. made you remember your worst fears during war and let you forget the last decade of your life. When I hugged you goodbye you said: “I won’t be there the next time you visit.” We both cried.

I returned in December. Only six months later but A. had now become your best friend. It had taken your hand and was leading you down the last few meters of your path. It locked you in your memories of your 40s and 50s. Wherever we went, you insisted that you had to go back home to the ranch to mind the cattle and sheep.

You forgot who we were. You simply couldn’t remember us. This time when hugging goodbye I told you I loved you. You cried. On my flight home I was listening to Ed Sheeran’s “Afire Love”: “Things were all good yesterday, and then the devil took your memory. And if you fell to your death today, I hope that heaven is your resting place.” In September 2018 they took you to the hospital.

You refused to eat. A. had put you on a diet. You slept a lot, you stopped talking. They showed you photos of all of us, repeated our names. They said you smiled when you heard them. That you knew we were family. There had always been 5410 miles between us. The Atlantic Ocean and the whole North American continent. You lived at the West Coast. Then there was A. between us. Now I don’t know how far away you are but at least A. is gone.

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Como jugar carnaval A carnival experience in Ecuador

Carnival week is going to arrive soon! Once again many of us are going to tumble around as drunk policemen, nurses or cookie monsters. But have you ever wondered how carnival is celebrated in other countries? Well, maybe you haven’t, but I’m going to tell you anyway.

Different countries, different customs

Something special

During my gap year in Ecuador I was able to take part in the carnival celebrations and I can tell you: it really is loco. loco. As in Germany, they take place in February or March and go on for one week. However, people don’t dress up as we do here, but have other funny carnival traditions. In Ecuador, carnival is not only celebrated but also “played”. This means that people arm themselves with water, flour, eggs, mud, paint or anything they can get hold of, then go out onto the streets and start a battle. Or in plain words: they throw everything at each other and don’t even stop when everyone’s clothes are dripping. The so-called carnival foam is another product that is widely used in this game. It is a white, special kind of foam in aerosol cans that makes your hair sticky and burns your eyes like hell if sprayed directly into your face – which is obviously what the players are aiming at. The foam dissolves after some minutes but most of the time everyone is completely covered in white.

The city of Ambato is the only place where carnival is not celebrated in this traditional way. Instead, they have the Festival of the Fruit and the Flowers (FFF), a very popular, unique celebration in the country. Since 1951, it has taken place every year in remembrance of the city’s resurrection after the devastating earthquake that shook it in 1949. The festival’s name has been chosen because Ambato is a great producer and exporter of flowers, especially roses, and a wide range of fruits.

No limits?

The most famous and wildest carnival battles in the whole of Ecuador are fought in the small city of Guaranda, where there are hardly any restrictions on how to play. The motto is everyone against everyone.

However, most other cities limit the intensity of the game so that tourists and passers-by who don’t want to participate are spared and not all the products I mentioned can be used.

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Queen of the flowers The FFF starts off with the election of the Queen of Ambato, a girl from the city who is chosen to be the representative of the festival and the city for one year. The following four days are filled with concerts, exhibitions and three big parades, which take place during the day and after dark. The parades make their way through the whole city with gigantic wagons accompanied by dancing groups in artistic costumes and loud Latin music. The wagons are lavishly decorated all over with flowers, fruits and also bread, representing elaborate motifs like people or animals such as rabbits or ladybirds.

Carnival in Ecuador is colourful, passionate and an experience for all the senses!

Author, Pictures & Layout: Theresa Müller

Decisions

Do you ever know what’s best for you?

Think about that moment in your life when you have to make a decision which will have a huge impact on your future.

Hmm. Future; life -- pretty scary words, right? To be honest, I’m completely lost when I have to make decisions. I always think about every situation and aspect of my life too much and I’m scared of doing something wrong. I’m scared of disappointing the people who care about me. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. I would like to tell you a bit about my story.

Why? Everything started when my dad came to Germany in 2012 (while I was still in high school ), and after a while, he offered me two opportunities: either go to college in my country (Romania), but that would’ve meant having my family far away from me (1200 km, to be precise) or to come to Germany and start a new life with them. In the beginning, coming to Germany sounded really cool. You would think: “New life, new friends and new experiences” - neat, huh? The only thing here was that I couldn’t even say hello in German properly. And there it is: your first problem. The other problem was that I had no idea what I wanted to study. What were my chances of getting into a good university with my grades from Romania? I didn’t know if they would accept and recognise my studies until then. A lot of questions popped into my head. And it took me one year to decide what I wanted to do -- all that thanks to my friends. It’s not easy to say: “OK, I’ll leave everything behind and go.“, especially when you have a lot of people near you, who care about you, telling you not to go and that it would be the worst decision of your life.

Struggle Of course, I took their opinions into consideration, but all in all I did what was best for me. After coming here, I started to learn German – whoever said that “life is too short to learn German“ wasn’t lying. It really is! Because I didn’t have any friends to hang out with, I started to feel lonely - of course, regretting your decision is a part of the process. But thank God I had my brother. Even though

he’s five years younger than me, we started to get along really well, and that’s how we improved our relationship.

But having your brother with you is not enough. Starting to go out and making friends wasn’t enough either. After one and a half years, I wanted to give up and go back – pretty stupid, right? I didn’t really have a reason to stay here. Finding motivation to go on is the most difficult part of the whole integration process. Even though people would never say anything to offend you in your face, you’ll always be the foreigner. They’ll always look at you in a different manner. But thanks to my parents, who always encouraged me to stay strong and go on, I never gave up.

Best decision The second most important decision: “What the hell do you want to do with your life?” It took me 3 months to decide what I wanted to study. Not good in making big decisions about my life, I know, so don’t worry, you are not the only one. Some of you will think: “What is wrong with this girl? I knew what I wanted to study since I was 15.“ Well, that’s great. But not everybody is like you, unfortunately. All in all, after four years of struggle, I‘m in my second semester at the university of Augsburg, I have many friends and I’m very happy with my life. I’m also working and all my colleagues love me (at least so I’ve been told) and it started to feel like home here. If you are in the same situation and sometimes feel down, never give up! Keep your head up and always think that after a rainy day the sun will always rise.

Author: Carla Balint | Pictures & Layout: Theresa Müller

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Why am I here?

A tour around one of the most infamous districts of Naples When my Italian university’s Erasmus organization offered a free tour called Discovering Scampia, I remembered the one advice my Italian friend had given me before I started studying in Naples. “Don’t go to Scampia!” So what did I do? I signed up for it, of course.

Camorra, crime, drugs Looking back, my friend, who is from northern Italy, knew little more about Naples than I did at the time.

She had never been there. However, she decided to prepare me for my stay by showing me a popular Italian TV series that is set in Naples, featuring the typical Neapolitan accent. And so I started watching Gomorra (it was only much later that I learned that a lot of Neapolitans despise the series, because it increases stereotypes about the city being unsafe, while it does not really depict its beauty). I watched Camorra clans (the local mafia) fighting for power, selling drugs, shooting each other and torturing a young girl to death - often against the backdrop of the huge apartment buildings in the district of Scampia, called le vele (the sails) because of their characteristic triangular shape. Of course, I was aware that the plot of the series was fictional, but the suggestion was there. And, indeed, when our guide asked the group what we associated with the name ‘Scampia’, all our answers were similar: “Camorra”- “Crime” - “Drugs”. Then he told us that he wanted to offer a different perspective on the area.

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Broken windows, piles of trash and a fair bit of posing However, as we were standing in front of the vele, I started wondering. The guide had just told us about the unemployment rate of over 50%, about the problems with violence and drug abuse and difficult living conditions, and I was staring at piles of trash, broken windows and water randomly trickling down from some part of the building. Then I watched the other members of the group posing in front of the vele. Some pretended to hold a gun. Some wanted to walk into the homes to take pictures and could barely be held back by our guide. I also saw an elderly German couple – equipped with backpacks, big cameras and huge sunhats – stomping around the run-down apartment block. I wondered what had drawn them to Scampia. What had motivated them to leave the historical centre of Naples with its museums and architectural gems or the quaint towns located on the nearby Amalfi coast to come here? And I wondered: “Why am I here?”

Palm trees, pizza and a changed perception Yes, the vele are quite interesting from an architectural point of view. However, I strongly doubt that many of us (mostly business or language students in their early twenties) were there to analyze the implementation of Le Corbusier’s

modernist residential housing design principles – and if you have no idea what I’m talking about, I would say that proves my point. But then, of course, the vele were not the only thing to see in Scampia.

Our guide showed us places that prove how hard some people are working to improve the area. For example there is a little garden dedicated to the victims of organized crime. He also told us about a project that introduces teenagers to street art to keep them busy and out of trouble. Their colorful works made the districts main square a lot more appealing. And Scampia’s huge, oddly deserted parks with their big concrete monuments seemed a bit spooky at first, but this impression faded quickly when we were sitting under palm trees, enjoying the afternoon sun and eating pizza. So maybe the tour did change our perception of the district and its population.

their holiday with a vague sense of danger? Or does it help decrease the stigmatization of certain places and the people who live there? To this day, I haven’t really made up my mind about it.

The real reason On the other hand I could tell that a lot of the group members were slowly growing impatient while we were wandering around the quiet streets of Scampia listening to our guide’s explanations. At first, they had seemed pretty satisfied with their selfies taken in front of the vele, but later on I started sensing a certain air of disappointment among some of us: “Are there really people being murdered here?

Actually it doesn’t seem that dangerous.” So were we really there to get informed? Or were we giving in to some morbid fascination with crime and misery?

Is visiting a place like Scampia – infamous for its high crime rates - just a way for tourists to spice up Author & Pictures: Anja Wahler | Layout: Sophie-Luisa Werder

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O-boe-y!

Bavarian marching band in Richmond, Virginia Polka, the dreamy sound of alphorns, “Schunkeln” and … cheeseburgers? That sounds like a strange combination, but it’s what happens if you take a Bavarian brass band to a small town in the United States, more precisely, the annual Oktoberfest in Richmond, VA. I play the flute in this band and together with the other members I had the best journey there can be.

After an invitation from the organizers of the local community, twenty musicians and over twenty instruments made their way to America. This sounds easier than it turned out, because even if all the smaller instruments like the flutes, trumpets and clarinets were small enough to pass as hand luggage, there still was the trombone, tuba and, of course, three alphorns to get on the plane somehow. To cut a long story short, everything fit and arrived safely back on the ground. We had our pictures taken all the time with small children gathered around us, which made us all feel like Disney princesses. Wearing the traditional clothing –Dirndl and Lederhos’n - made us stand out and we got to talk with so many nice people, it was amazing! We had two days in Richmond, playing music from dawn to dusk and everyone treated us so nicely and almost made us feel like celebrities.

Chicken dance The most popular activity by far was the so-called chicken dance. Once an hour all the kids from the age of one upwards and so many adults gathered in front

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of the stage, waiting impatiently for the music to play.

And every time it was about to start, the announcer, wearing a big yellow beer hat, made sure that everyone knew how to dance. First step: Make a chicken beak with your hands and open and close them four times.

Second step: Pretend to have wings and flap your arms four times. Third step: Shake your ‘tail feathers’.

Forth step: Clap your hands four times. Fifth Step: Find a partner, interlock your elbows and spin around.

After the instructions were given and practiced a few times, everybody danced and danced. When I talked to some Oktoberfest visitors about how we (Bavarians) had to learn the chicken dance especially for the US, they didn’t

believe us. They thought the dance was “typically German”. Oh boy, they were quite disappointed!

Stein holding contest Another event which took place every hour was the Stein holding contest, similar to our ‘Maßkrugstemmen’, but instead of holding up a one litre jug, the contestants had to hold two half litre jugs in each hand. Of course, it would have been unacceptable if they had been filled with beer, as many of the contestants were well under twenty-one, so each jug was filled with water. Imagine about twenty people standing all over the place looking like scarecrows holding up mugs of water.

Everybody just had a good time.

Beer And, of course, it wouldn’t have been a proper Oktoberfest without food and beer! First things first… the food was … let’s just say, interesting. You could get Sauerkraut - basically cabbage and vinegar - or pretzels, big pretzels, smothered in butter and oil.

The beer, on the other hand, was amazing. There were forty-seven different types from local breweries, including carrot cake ale (I didn’t dare to try this one), peanut butter beer (tastes exactly what you’d expect), pumpkin beer (it had the highest alcohol content with 10%) or my favourite: hibiscus cucumber ‘gose’ “that blends into a deliciously refreshing taste reminiscent of watermelon candy” Maybe I won’t go to the normal Oktoberfest in Munich anymore. It kinda seems boring now compared to all the interesting food, the weird types of beer and funny dances in Richmond. Well, at least I can tick off peanut butter beer from my bucket list!

Author, Pictures & Layout: Sophie-Luisa Werder

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Watch, Read, Listen Watch Do you like music? Yes? Then surely there’s no way around Queen. The iconic band from Britain is famous for their experimental songs, the six-minute-long song “Bohemian Rapsody” being the best example. “And then the operatic section comes in”, Rami Malek, who plays Freddie Mercury, says to the astounded faces of his band mates and probably sums up what defined Queen: they didn’t care about conventions – they were true artists! If you’re into excellent music, a bit of heartbreak and a great show, don’t miss out on “Bohemian Rapsody”. Queen will sing themselves back into your heart! I’ve been playing their songs up and down since I saw the movie at the cinema.

Read Elizabeth Kolbert’s book, “The Sixth Extinction”, is about death! Millions and billions of deaths to be precise, because she writes about mass extinction. It sounds like a morbid and depressing topic; I mean, who wants to read about dying animals? But her book was actually one of the most fascinating and inspiring books I’ve read in a long time. Kolbert takes her readers on a journey through time, from the first life on the planet to the future of biodiversity, which scientists are trying to save by freezing dead animals. Soon you’ll feel like a natural history expert! Kolbert not only travels through time, but she also criss-crosses the world from one fascinating corner to the next and at each stop the reader gets to know a new incredible species and meets scientists fighting for the survival of life. You want to be part of the trip? Go ahead – you won’t regret it!

Listen Gooie Dag. Praat jy Afrikaans? Chances are you don’t: Afrikaans only has about seven million native speakers in South Africa and Namibia and no more than twenty million second language learners. So you could say it’s a minor language. However, Afrikaans speakers are very proud of their cultural heritage (which spans a lot more than Apartheid and barbecues, thanks a lot) and produce tons of music and literature in their language.

You don’t speak Afrikaans (yet)? No problem – how many K-Pop fans do you think are fluent in Korean? Just try Jack Parow, a rapper from the Cape Town area who became famous through his collaborations with bands like Die Antwoord or Die Heuwels Fantasties. About a third of his lyrics are in English and getting access to Afrikaans (which is basically simplified Dutch) is no toughie for German speakers, either. He has released several albums that are available on your usual platforms. In his music, he proudly reflects his own cultural upbringing, his working-class background and the image of modern-day South Africa as a rainbow nation.

My favourite songs are “My Koningryk” (My Kingdom), “Cooler As Ekke” (Cooler Than You) and “Ode To You”, which features a chorus in isiZulu sung by his colleague Nonku. If you like the language but hate hip-hop, why not check out Die Heuwels Fantasties for soft Indie and Electro-Pop instead? Kom ons praat Afrikaans.

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Authors: Noemi Hehl & Niklas Schmidt | Layout: Lucia Zink

IMPRESSUM Herausgeber Sprachenzentrum der Universität Augsburg Abteilung English I Universität Augsburg D-86135 Augsburg Tel.: +49 / 821/598-5189 Email: emag@sz.uni-augsburg.de Redaktion(verantwortlich) Tobias Lorenz, Peter James Druck: Druckerei HAAG GmbH

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THE BIG BOSSES

meet the

LEGENDS

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Team Winter Term 2018/2019 Web Wizards

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Leftover Credits LMAO

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Cover Table of Contents Last Page Ads Section Dividers Proofreader Press and Support Finances

Ale & LIz Liz & Tobi Filiz Özer Ads Filiz Özer Peter James Klaus Prem Silvia Schweiger

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Author: Max Mustermann | Pictures: Max Mustermann | Layout: Max Mustermann

: t l h e fi p m e t a C s pu

Die Cam

Infobox Here you can give extra information, • use • bullet • points, or basically write anything that doesn‘t quite fit to the rest of the text. You‘re very free with the design as well. Just try to avoid a black frame (looks like eulogy).

„Mein Mini-Me gibt‘s im Uni-Shop!“ Den Uni-Shop findet ihr im Erdgeschoss des A-Gebäudes (Infopoint) oder unter www.uni-augsburg.de/shop

Author: | Pictures: | Layout: Author & Pictures: | Layout:

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