eMAG Web Edition, 2010/11 by eMAG magazine

eMAG Web Edition - Online Article Collection Academic Year 2010/11 Table of Contents New Kids on the Block: Interview with the New Staff Members of the Language Centre

Interview with Michael Symmons Roberts

The Child in a Grown Man’s Body: Mr Bean

Exploring Norwich: Cultural Studies Blog

Norwich Picture Gallery

Congratulations: Interview with FC Augsburg defender Gibril Sankoh

Much more than Football: Interview with the Deadly Knitshade

defined by___ Art Project: International Artists Turn Augsburg-Impressions into Artwork

“Never forget your inner child”: Interview with Prof. Dr. Engelbert Thaler

You Can’t Take it with You, Can You?: Augsburg University’s American Drama Group Performance of You Can’t Take it with You

The Spanish Way of Life - Tapas All Night Long

Tapas Recipes as Prepared at eMAG’s Tapas Night

Exploring Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin

Monica: First Runner-Up for the 2011 eMAG Fiction Contest

Letter from... Mexico

New Kids on the Block Interview with the New Members of the Language Centre Staff Christine Haunz, Matthew Basey, Kerstin Gackle and David Wright. These are the newbies in the University’s Language Center. Since little is known about these recent arrivals, eMAG met with each of them to get to ask about their work, university life and their careers. 1. What did you do before you came to Augsburg University?

2. Why do you teach? Mr. Basey: I went into it rather by accident. I was interested in Japan and I wanted to go there, and teaching English was the best way to do it. So in the beginning, I didn’t necessarily plan to become a teacher, I thought maybe I ́ll do it a bit later after I’ve done something else but it just ended up happening. I enjoy being in an international environment and it’s always nice to be in a room where you can feel that communication and learning is happening instead of just sitting somewhere, typing in a computer or being on the phone, when you don’t really feel like anything is happening.

Mr. Basey: I spent the first three years of my working life teaching in Japan, in a city in the North-East with about one million people. I was working as an English language assistant, so I did teaching and speaking lessons, and the school also wanted us to get involved in the school life and extra- curricular activities. Then I decided to leave Japan and I went back to England, where I did several random office jobs. I spent six months on an army base, working with soldiers who had been to Afghanistan and Iraq. They had set up a scheme to help them when they came back from their military duty. Afterwards I spent a bit of time working in an office with international students. I did a Masters in English teaching and then I spent two years in Turkey working at a university there.

Ms. Gackle: I myself really enjoy learning German and I remember just sitting in the classroom and the class would go by - just so quickly - and it would be over already as opposed to my biology classes, which seemed to drag on forever. I really enjoy learning languages and I have a lot of enthusiasm for languages. I teach because I want to give that enthusiasm to my students and bring what I have to the subject.

Ms. Gackle: I worked at a translation agency called “German Language Services” in Seattle, Washington. That was for two years and before that I taught English at the University of Washington. Previously, I had taught English in Lithuania at a language institute and in Kiel at Max-Planck Gymnasium.

Ms. Haunz: Basically, I love thinking about language and how people use it, how it works and what patterns might be found. What I would like to do through teaching is to pass that enthusiasm on to others. So I am hoping that when I go into classrooms and talk about subject complements, I would find it interesting enough to make other people interested as well and see how it all works.

Ms. Haunz: If I go back quite a bit, I went to Edinburgh University and I did my Masters there, and I did my PhD, and I worked there for an academic year at the English Language department. After that I worked for the BBC in London for a year, in the Pronunciation Unit. Anyone in the BBC who doesn't know how to pronounce a word or name asked for the Pronunciation Unit. For the last year and a half I was in Eichstätt at the Uni, working in the Language Center but I was also teaching English Linguistics.

Mr. Wright: Because I enjoy it. I'm a language person myself. I like learning other languages, and I enjoy helping other people to do the same. It's not for the money - otherwise I'd be a technical writer. The reward I get from working with motivated students in the classroom is more fulfilling than doing something purely for financial gain.

Mr. Wright: Since 1993 I've taught English at universities, secondary schools, language schools for adults, and in company language training providers. I've taught in ten countries. I've also worked as a language editor, terminologist and technical writer for a software company. Directly before coming here I was teaching freelance to one-to-one customers in Copenhagen. Previously I'd worked in Germany as the Lektor für Englisch at the Pädagogische Hochschule in Schwäbisch Gmünd.

3. Was there someone you looked up to when you were a student? Mr. Basey: I guess I looked up to some of my teachers, the ones who

encouraged me to take an interest in something and the teachers who had a passion and enthusiasm and were very knowledgeable about their subject. They always made a big impression on me.

from Japan that says: Fall down seven times, get up eight times. I would also recommend that to my students. Ms. Gackle: “Ahimsa” That’s the idea of non-harming. It means not harming other people as much as you can and not causing suffering wherever it’s possible. For students I like the quote: “Find something that you love and find a way to get paid for doing it.”

Ms. Gackle: Yes, my German professor; her name was Dr. Frey. It was a small program, as there were only five students and we also had a round table and she had us prepare discussion questions for each book we read. She was very well prepared, and even though she had already read the books in the past you could tell that she had read them again. She just did a very good job, handling the discussion questions and filling in the blanks, where the students were not able to and she was also very friendly and she invited us to her house once a semester for some Glühwein. We really got to know her and she was very well prepared and knowledgeable.

Ms. Haunz: For myself, I don't really know. Sometimes I think I have one but it is changing all the time. One would be: “Don't be scared or don't be worried about change - take it as it comes, and deal with it the best way you can because it is always going to work out in the end”. For my students specifically I would say: “Be curious - because if you are, then if you are sitting in a lecture or any given course you are not going to think "What else do you want to tell me, what else do I have to learn?" but it is more a question of: "What else can I found out?", and I think that makes it a lot easier.

Ms. Haunz: There are several people. I am very grateful to my first linguistics teacher because he got me into that field. Another person I really admired was my supervisor from my PhD in Edinburgh because he has been a professor for thirty/ thirty-five years and he is very knowledgeable. Sitting there and talking about any topic that has to do with linguistics, he will always know the background, he will always have interesting comments, he will always be able to connect his ideas with different theories that are about, and I found that is something to aspire to.

Mr. Wright: No. I think I come from an anti-philosophy-to-live-by generation. A cutesy soundbite is no way to express the breadth of one's thoughts. Or is that a soundbite in itself?

6. What does your perfect weekend look like?

Mr. Wright: No. I think I come from an anti role-model generation. We were brought up during the Thatcher years, and that made us very cynical.

Mr. Basey: It’s too lazy to describe it. Ms. Gackle: I don’t have any work to do. Friday night I would watch a movie, drink red wine and maybe exploring something new or going to a new part of the city or going to a new restaurant.

4. What did you enjoy most when you were a student? Ms. Haunz: I think it was the time I spent in Edinburgh. It was the longest stretch of being at the same university, and what I really liked there was that so many people from all around the world came together, and in any given course there were people from Taiwan, from Japan and from Hong Kong, Australia etc., and that was something I found wonderful.

Ms. Haunz: In an ideal world, where inventions of Star Trek have actually been implemented, and I could beam myself from one place to another, I would sleep in Saturday morning and then I would beam myself to Liverpool, and go to the football match in the afternoon. Then I would go to the pub, and come back on a Sunday night and have a quiet Sunday with friends and family, going for a walk. That would be a nice idea.

Mr. Wright: The inspiration to push my mind ever forwards. Oh, and beer.

Mr. Wright: It contains sleep, beer, Premier League football on TV, and a day trip by train to an old and pretty town.

5. Do you have philosophy you live by? Is there one you would recommend to your students? Mr. Basey: I like the saying that even a fool knows you can’t reach the stars, but that doesn’t stop a wise person from trying. And there is another one

pr& es January 13, 2011

Interview with Michael Symmons Roberts

them by hand first. I have notebooks in which I write the first drafts. Like most writers, I’m very particular about the notebooks I use. They are actually art books. Do you still have these old children drafts? Yes, I do, somewhere. My mother kept them and she gave them back to me a few years ago.

How do you like Augsburg and Germany? Well, I like Germany very much; I’ve been here twice before, once to Lübeck and Hamburg in the north and once to Berlin. I had a very strong desire to come back, so when I was invited to come to Augsburg, I loved to have the chance to come back. I have been in Augsburg for 24 hours and have been so well looked after and was shown some wonderful sights and had fantastic meals, so yes, I feel very privileged to be here.

Where do you get the ideas for your poems from? Especially the “Last words“? I think the recent books and poems I tend to work around a theme. My fourth book, Corpus, was a book about the body as the title suggests. Once I knew that I was writing poems about the body all sorts of ideas came up. You think about the balance of the book, you think there are many poems about the body but not enough love poems, for example. So, aspects that suggest themselves from a theme. And the Halfhealed, which was the most recent book, was about civil conflicts and betrayal and the attempt to heal after conflicts or betrayal. So, after I knew it was about that, ideas came from conversations or things I read in the newspapers - all sorts of places. “Last words“ was commissioned by BBC Radio 4; they wanted a poem or a series of poems to commemerate the first anniversary of 9/11, and so they asked me to do this. I really struggled whether I should accept it. I really like to do things for radio but I didn’t have any personal connection. I wasn’t there, I didn’t know anyone who was there, and also a year after it, I didn’t want to describe again what had happened because everyone knew. It didn’t need me to say it again. But what people haven’t had written many things about, were the voice mail messages people left who knew they weren’t to come back. Those voice mail messages were almost all messages of love, not anger or bitterness, and that said me something quite profane about human spirit, so I thought I’d make a sequence of poems out of it and then the BBC gave me a researcher who gave the messages to me. So, I listened to the messages again and again and weaved them into the poems.

Do you have a favourite book or poem or writer that inspired you to write? Lots of writers inspired me, certainly in my teens. There was a year when I was about 16; I think there were three great poets: Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Dylan Thomas. They had a very significant impact on me. But when you ask me now, my favourite English poet is John Donne. I think he’s the master. You write mainly poems, now you wrote two novels. What was the difference? Do you see yourself more like a poet or more like a novelwriter? I suppose I see myself primarily as a poet because I’ve been writing poetry for longer than anything else but I do enjoy writing novels and I’m about to start on a third novel. It’s very different. For writing a novel, I have to do much more planning, mapping out where it’ll go, so it feels a bit more like you ought to have a strategy for a novel. But poems have a life of their own; it’s more an exploration to write a poem. Were there times when you thought it was very difficult to write something? Yes, I think most writers have it. A lot have suffered from writers’ block, which means a long period when you can’t write at all. Six months, a year, two years. It’s terrible; people would suffer! I never had writers’ block in that sense but I have struggled to get things where I want them and abandon things half way through. That’s in the nature of writing, I suppose.

What’s your favourite poem out of your own? Do you have one? Oh, gosh. It’s usually the last one I wrote (laughing). The most recent poem that I have written was about a week ago. It was a commission for The Guardian newspaper, and the commission was to write a poem about sport. So I wrote a poem about Manchester United and how they were knocked out of the Champions League. That was my most recent one.

Do you write your first drafts on computer or by hand? Depends on what it is. With novel I start straight in the computer; I type them. With poetry I can’t; I have to write

What was your best or worst experience as a writer? Best or worst experience . . . gosh . . . I think the best expericence is just the moment after you finished a poem or finished a section of the novel and feel you got something right. You feel you captured something or the language has worked in a way that you perhaps didn’t dare hope it might. And that doesn’t happen often but when it does, that’s the best experience and that’s what keeps you going. The worst . . . Certainly, when you’re in your early career and you’re setting out as a writer, you have to cope with a lot of rejection. You send a work off and you get it rejected, and that’s tough, I think. I had a lot of friends at university who wanted to write and were very talented, and it wasn’t necessarily the best writers who ended up being published writers. It was sometimes the ones who had the stubborness to keep going. Because some of the writers – very talented writers I was at university with – just gave up after some rejections early on.

Do you often work together with other writers? Not usually with other writers. That’s the first time I collaborated with another poet. I often work with people from other art forms: composers, I worked with visual artists . . . so, yeah, I enjoy collaborating. And on the radio, you collaborate with radio producers and so on. But rarely with another writer. I know this poet very well so we haven’t fallen out yet. Do you think your work for radio has influenced your writing? Yes, it has. If you work for radio you have to write quite directly because people who listen only have one chance to understand a line that you’ve written, and then it’s gone. They don’t have the text in front of them, so I think it forces you to be a bit more direct. I think that has an influence on the rest of my work. What do you think is your strongest support as a writer? Do have anything or anyone? Yes. Of course, my family and friends . . . other writers. Writers tend to support each other as well, encourage each other. But in the end, writing is a solitary activity. The moment when you’re doing the work, there’s no one else there. You’re just up to you, on your own. So, in order to sustain a career as a writer, you have to be okay with being on your own because you spend quite a lot of time on your own.

Do you think that someone can learn writing poems or is it more like a gift or a talent? What is it? I think it’s exactly the same as it is for song writers, composers, musicians and artists. There is a craft to learn and that can be taught. I could teach you the principles of writing a sonnet. I had to make the rhyme scheme work and had to shape the stanzas in a sonnet. But what you can’t teach is what makes the difference between a well-made sonnet and a great piece of literature. That, I think, comes from within. So, talent certainly plays a part. But yeah, there’s a lot to teach and lot of craft. It’s the same with novel writing. There’s a lot of craft you can teach.

Thank you! bw&ng January 24, 2011

You were once described as a religious poet in a secular age. How do you stand to that or how do you consider yourself? Yes, that was interesting. I suppose there is some truth in it in the sense that I’m interested in exploring religious ideas, spectural ideas in the poetry. I’m not the only one doing that but it’s part of what I’m interested in. But I also use a lot of scientific language, especially genetics and biology, in the poetry as well – and in the fiction. So, yes, I’m not a secular writer in the sense that I am very interested in spiritual dimension to humanity, and it’s part of my work. In the end, you can’t choose the ideas directing your work; the ideas almost choose you. So, whether I like it or not, these religious ideas keep coming up in my work. And I’m happy to explore them.

THE CHILD IN A GROWN MAN’S BODY Innocent character + old-fashioned tweed jacket + button-eyed teddy = 20 years of humour and laughter with Mr Bean Who doesn’t know this old-fashioned nice man who always speaks with his inanimate best friend (his teddy bear) and drives that lime-green Mini? Yes, these are only some of the various characteristics of a real legend in humour: Mr Bean. But how has he managed to entertain people all over the world, regardless of whether they’re young or old, male or female, childish or grown-up for exactly twenty years? So let’s celebrate this anniversary with Mr Bean: A homage to the funniest and most popular British comedian.

What’s also very amusing is the appearance of the blue three-wheeler car, which always has to give way to Mr Bean’s famous green Mini. This battle between Mr Bean and the mysterious unknown occurs in nearly each episode and also in the cartoon series, so everyone knows the theme and can’t help laughing when the blue car appears on the screen. And did you ever wonder why Mr. Bean rarely speaks? And why when he does he only mumbles a few words? Well, that’s apparently another part of his role. It makes him even more hilarious and has helped him become popular all over the world, because the episodes don’t need to be translated into other languages.

The character Mr Bean first appeared in the 1980's in Rowan Atkinson’s stage shows, which was the beginning of a long and successful career. He just makes everyone laugh – in his 14 episodes on TV, his two films and his latest cartoon series. And in each of them, you can track Mr Bean`s adventures in daily life. For example, he has to solve everyday problems (like organising a picnic at the park while a bee is buzzing around his head) by dealing with them in very unique, often complicated, but really funny ways. And although he’s involved in various dilemmas, he’s so loveable that no one can be angry with him for long.

So let’s sum up the Mr Bean X-Factor using Rowan Atkinson’s words: He’s a child in a grown man’s body. And this description really fits: The middle-aged and very old-fashioned man behaves like an innocent child by speaking with his tiny little teddy bear. And maybe that’s what fascinates all of us: That we can still keep our childish fantasy while we’re all living in this world full of serious grown-ups.

We also love him because of his cute behaviour towards his teddy bear, simply called “Teddy”: He treats him like a human being, behaves as if the bear was real and has a strong emotional relationship with him. But this still doesn’t save Teddy from being used in emergencies as a paint brush or as a pet (just to win a prize at a pet show of course, what else?).

February 26, 2011

Exploring Norwich: Cultural Studies Blog by Friederike Beins

For the first time Augsburg University Language Centre students are took part in a one- week British Cultural Studies Course at the Norwich Institute for Language Education, in Norwich, England, from March 14-18 2011. In small groups the participants were involved in investigative projects on aspects of contemporary life in Britain, such as education, the press or food and drink. Fieldwork included visits to local institutions and places of interest, as well as interviews with local contacts. eMAG will was on site to keep you updated! eMAG staff member, Friederike Beins, who took part in the course, wrote a blog about her stay in Norwich. 13.03.11

of Norwich has been the inside of my host family’s house, The Golden Star and a lot of wonderfully lit churches by night, I am quite impressed and really enthusiastic to learn more about the city, its people and its culture. Hope you’re eager to read about what I’ll experience in the next few days!

Dear Readers, This is your Norwich correspondent Friederike writing. Today’s been the day I travelled to England with some other course participants and – oh boy, what a day it’s been! I left friends and family at an unearthly time to catch a plane to London Stansted (didn’t get a warm welcome from the weather, but what else would you expect from the country which has songs written about their summer rains), then rode two trains from there to here and then the real fun began. Out of the station, into the bus, out of the bus, into the host family’s house. What a rush. But in the end it was a warm welcome in an authentic red brick house. Not much time to catch my breath though because in the evening I was to meet NILE’s teachers at a pub, The Golden Star. As a team of students and teachers named „The Augsburg Allstars“ we easily won this Sunday’s pub quiz...well we didn’t, but we got to know each other fairly well and had a lot of fun. Wait for footage of the answer sheet. Even though by now all I’ve seen

14.03.11 Day two of the Norwich log. Late evening, College Road, Norwich, England. If you thought yesterday sounded exciting and tiring, this time there’s more to come. For starters, when I went outside today the sun was smiling at me. The city looked even better than last night and I was very motivated to see some more of it. First on the schedule was a meeting at NILE. The Augsburg Allstars united again, at last. We were given a brief overview of the timetable set up for the week, then finally started with the Cultural Studies. As a first step into the topic we had a look at various newspapers. I got the “Daily Express”, which boasts on its front page that it’s “The world’s greatest newspaper”. I do disagree 7

though. In case you didn’t know: There’s a lot of newspapers in the UK that have a rather questionable quality – sensations, celebs and sports are their main topics. So much for the Cultural Studies.

working in the field yesterday and how it continued today. By yesterday, we had devised a questionnaire about the relationship between age, gender, political attitude and the usage and reception of several media. The weather being bad and the people busy, the best option was to ask shopkeepers in the Norwich Market to answer the questions. The Market is a stunning labyrinth of independentlyrun stalls – you can get everything from freshly fried chips to car parts. This provided us with some very interesting opinions on the British class system: It seems to exist still, but no one wants to belong to a particular class.

After lunch I went onto a “Norwich Discovery Trail”. Sounds quite dull, and I at first thought it was going to be, but I was proven wrong. Norwich really is a city where there’s a huge amount of things to discover. It has a great arts and music scene (great musicians out on the streets), great architecture (not only churches, but mainly) and a lot of independent shops. Yep, I’m a girl, and apart from learning and doing Cultural Studies far away from home, I love to shop. Just now I’m listening to a CD I bought at a second-hand record shop for a few bucks. And, apart from buildings, of course there are many many people! The city centre is buzzing. So, tomorrow the real fieldwork is going to start. I will walk around and try to make people tell me about their media usage habits and their reception, maybe even find out something about their political preference and the possibly still present class system. Wait for more.

Today started with some more fieldwork. Still cold and grey outside, what could be better for interviewing people on the streets. But the real attraction today wasn’t the interviews because I was invited to visit the local newspaper, the Eastern Daily Press. I know what you think when I say local newspaper: 3 journalists sitting in separate offices writing about the latest successes of the bunny breeders. It’s completely different here. There are about 140 reporters, designers and layouters working for the EDP. Everyone has their own computer to work on, but they don’t have offices but huge newsrooms. More than 40 people work in one room, exchanging material and discussing the content. This is really impressive if you’ve actually ever seen how German newspaper editorial departments function.

16.03.11 Just in case you thought you missed anything yesterday, you haven’t. I suggested it would be more interesting to have an entry about my fieldwork days altogether than reading a description of details about my lunch menu. So, this time I’m going to tell you about how I started

The evening provided the fun part for us Augsburg students. We were to learn “Ceilidh” (pronounced “Keilih”), a traditional dance. Haven’t found out yet

where the tradition comes from. I was seriously embarrassed before I even saw how it’s done – I’d rather watch 5 episodes of the “Dschungelcamp” in a row than dance. Wasn’t that bad after all. It is a bit like a square dance, only more confused and confusing. Too many people jumping in every direction while several arms are trying to grasp yours to do a star or a bridge. I have to admit I’m kind of glad I tried it and it wasn’t that embarrassing after all, only very exhausting. Our visit is more than halfway through now, so the fieldwork

very entertaining. The actors did very well, considering it was an amateur theatre. As it was St. Patrick’s Day, of course I went to a pub afterwards. A few people were even wearing big green hats or shamrock shirts. Maybe there will be a chance for another cultural studies course in Ireland next year at this time? Yesterday was the day to present the results of our various studies. It was amazing just how much data and material we had gathered in these few days. To celebrate our farewell we went to a pub in the evening (where else would we go to in England?). If you still believe in the prejudice of the English serving nothing but bland, boring food, I have to let you down now. The “grub” was very nice, even though (maybe to keep up the cliché?) chips were served with everything. Even with lasagne. For dessert I had the chance to try bread and butter pudding, treacle pudding and a mysterious dish named “Spotted Dick”. It was not as gross as it sounded (imagine soft Stollen with creamy custard).

should be finished tomorrow and then every group will present their data. I’ll keep you informed!

19.03.11 At this very moment, I’m back in good old Germany, sitting in the train that’s going to take me home from the airport. What happened during the last days in Norwich? We completed our cultural studies, saw a (possibly) Shakespearean love comedy and had some decent pub grub.

The week went by really quickly and I’m a bit sad that I didn’t see all the interesting parts of the city, for example the cathedral. If you get the chance to visit Norwich, take it. You won’t get more out of one week in so many other places. And, saying goodbye, I hope you enjoyed my blog!

Thursday was mostly fieldwork again. As on the day before, the most exciting part was the evening programme. A visit to the “Madder Market” theatre had been arranged for the group. The play to be acted was “Double Falsehood”, an 18th-century play recently discovered to be possibly based on a lost play by the great Shakespeare himself. Methinks thee should try to behold such a play too, if thee has an opportunity. It took me some time to get adjusted to the language, but the story and the very happy ending were easy to understand and 9

Norwich Picture Gallery From March 13th-18th 2011, Augsburg students were able to take part in a Cultural Studies course at the Norwich Institute for Language Education, Norwich, England, for the first time. It was a project-based course focussing on aspects such as food and drink, education and the media. A similar course is planned for 2012. Anyone interested should contact Peter James in the Language Centre - peter.james@sz.uni-augsburg.de See also: - course blog written by Friederike Beins (in this issue) - http://www.visitnorwich.co.uk/

St. Peter Mancroft's: Right opposite the Institute. One of Norwich's innumerable churches.

Norwich market. Right in the city centre. Sells everything from fish&chips to vacuum bags.

The English Whiskey Company. East Harling. Norfolk's distillery. Fancy a dram?

The Workshop. One of Norwich's umpteen cafĂŠs and one of our group's favourite places.

Farewell evening at "The Garden House", a gastropub. Thomas, Leonie, Dilara and Anja are obviously very happy about being there!

Norwich Station. Last morning in England. Just when we were heading back to Stansted,the sun came out.

Norwich Castle. Impressive Norman block of stone. Had a museum and (what else) a mall inside and next to it.

Chilling out at The Schoolhouse. Our favourite pub in the "Golden Triangle", a residential area where living and going out are one and the same.

Ceilidh, a traditional English dance. Thomas is having fun dancing with Leonie even though he wouldn't admit it.

Ceilidh again. See your teacher's back.

Norwich's local celebrity. The puppet man, standing in the High Street.

Red Nose Day celebration at The Garden House. People of all ages coming together and having fun for charity!

The whole group. From the left: Thomas, Friederike, Leonie, Anja, Matthias, Dilara, Sandro, Alan, Sarah, Peter. Everyone's really happy, as you can see.

Spotted Dick. Tastes better than it sounds.

Congratulations: Interview with FC Augsburg Defender Gibril Sankoh Not even the rain could dampen the euphoric mood when eMAG met FCA defender Gibril Sankoh after the team’s promotion to the 1. Bundesliga. Born in West-African Sierra Leone, Augsburg’s English-speaking central defender has now become a first-team regular and a highly acclaimed footballer. Congratulations, Gibril! FC Augsburg will be the 51st team to play in the 1. Bundesliga. And you have contributed to this success. How do you feel about being promoted?

When you’re famous, everyone knows you no matter where you go. You have to be quite mature to get on with it. But in the end, this is how it is and you have to accept it. There is also a lot of pressure involved with football. You have to play well and you have to win. When I play, I always want to win no matter whether it is a league game or just training. This is very important for me. If I don’t win I go mad in the dressing room after the game. I always want to give a 100%, and I want to improve and get better every day. That’s the only way to be successful in your career.

Before I came to Augsburg, I used to play in the first league in Holland. That’s why I hadn’t played to be promoted before. This was my first time and it was a great experience! It is fantastic for the entire team, the trainers, the people who are involved and, not least, for everyone in Augsburg. I came here to do my job, which was going to the first league. And then it happened. This is fantastic! We always wanted to achieve this as a team and the game against Frankfurt was our chance. Despite the penalty in the first minutes, we still had confidence in ourselves and in the entire team. And it paid off. The best moment of the game was when Stephan scored the winning goal. Everybody was running and all of a sudden everybody was lying on top of me. I felt pain, but the pain was good!

You have become very successful since you moved to the Netherlands to play football in the first league there. Now you are a citizen both of the Netherlands and of Sierra Leone. If you had the chance to play for either of the national teams which one would you choose to play for? In 2006 I had to make a difficult decision. The Netherlands wanted to take me to the European tournament in Portugal. I had to decide between Sierra Leone and Holland as you cannot play for another national team once you have chosen one. This was a very difficult decision, but I couldn’t choose between the countries and so it was best not to play for either of the teams at all. It was disappointing for the people involved, but with my family still being in Africa I couldn’t have made a choice. For now, I will concentrate on playing for Augsburg!

The game against FSV Frankfurt was important und you must have been nervous before you went onto the field. Do you have a ritual, something you always do before you step onto the grass? I always pray to protect injuries. This is very important for me. I have prayed before each and every game since I started my football career at the age of 15 in Sierra Leone. When you step onto the field you never know what is going to happen and injuries can kill your career. Luckily, I haven’t been injured this season.

Thanks for your time, Gibril. eMAG wishes you and the whole FC Augsburg team all the best for your future career in the 1. Bundesliga! Find out more about Gibril Sankoh and the FC Augsburg in eMAG 18.

You have been a famous footballer since you played for Sierra Leone’s first league at the age of 17. Is there a lot of pressure involved with being a famous footballer?

Kerstin Bachmeier May 18, 2011

Much more than Football: Interview with the Deadly Knitshade The six artists participating in the defined by__ project put their impressions of Augsburg on White Papers, which are published online (www.definedby.com) and on the wall of the big Kulturstadion in the centre of the city. We were invited to have a real Bavarian breakfast in the White Room (of course including Weißwürste and German beer) with some of the artists and the project staff. The amazing English knitting artist Lauren O’Farrell (at night she turns into Deadly Knitshade) especially caught our attention. She and her co-knitters have already brightened up cities like London and Berlin with their colourful knitting projects: Plarchie, for example, an eight-metre long plastic knitted squid who(!) is made out of 160 carrier bags, brought confusion into the Natural History Museum in London. And probably the telephone box on Parliament Square in London was also a bit confused when it got its cosy (knitted cover normally used for teapots). This time in Augsburg, she has surprised us with a knitted form of the Augsburgblume and five knitted wild boar at the Königsplatz, whose presence caused panic at the Kö: children screamed and pedestrians ran away as fast as they could ;). We had a really nice interview with Lauren. She was very communicative and humorous, so we don’t want to keep it from you: eMAG (looking at the giant orange squid in front of the window): The giant squid has got a name, right? Lauren: Yes, Plarchie. eMAG: Why do you call him Plarchie? Lauren: The squid at the Natural History Museum is called Archie, which is a shortened version of the Latin name. And he is made out of plastic yarn, which we called “plarn”, so Plarchie. We use carrier bags. We cut them into strips and join them together into yarn so that you can knit with it. It is kind of recycling. Because Plarchie is so big, you could imagine how much wool I would have to buy, while I could get bags for free. So I just asked the group (of knitters) to bring all kinds of carrier bags (and I didn’t tell them that it was for a squid). eMAG: How many orange shopping bags did you need for Plarchie the Squid? Lauren: I think it was around 160. eMAG: Have you thought about using any other special material to stitch? Lauren: I’ve knitted with strawberry liquorice before. That was quite good, just a bit sticky. eMAG: And afterwards you could eat it. Lauren: Yes, exactly. Once you leave the things you usually use, you will start to see all kinds of things. When I got here, I

thought if I could cut the white paper into strips and knit with them. But I’ve never got round to that. I’ll maybe do that tomorrow. You’ll never know. eMAG: How long did it take to knit Plarchie? Lauren: I don’t usually measure the time I use. I was watching the DVD box sets. So I watched one series of 24 and one series of Dexter and ... If I watch something with a lot of action in it, I’ll knit really fast. If I watch something scary, I’ll be like huuuu, ahhhhh, Ooooops! eMAG: You said that your mom offered you the idea of knitting around the telephone box. Does she knit with you? Lauren: Yes, she made some of the telephone box. My mom is brilliant, because I will be knitting until a ridiculous hour, and she will come in and say: “Well, what can I do?” And she will knit anything. She has helped me every time. And for this book (raising her book Knit the City), there’s a scarf in it, and all the colors of the London undergrounds. She knitted that. I could have done it myself actually. A lot of times, 16

I probably would if I squeeze it, but it was really nice to have a help to you. And she comes to my knitting group. I run a knitting group every week, my mom comes every week as well. It’s not like she is my mom. When she is there, she is just like one other girl. She called herself my Midnight- Sweatshop. She is sometimes up at night until five when I’m working until four, because she just wants to get it right. You know, so she is brilliant.

of weird things. The only thing that bothers me is if you see something in the dustbin, but I don’t think it’s likely to happen. Last night I was making the pigs. I was up until a ridiculous hour and Keiko was here when I was finishing them and said that they were so cute. I said they were all going, all going. She asked if I named them, and I said I didn’t. And she said it was tragic. eMAG: So are they already gone? Lauren: Well, apparently they are still there. Although I don’t really go back and look. It was funny though, I started to use balloons. For example, there is a banana (balloon) inside the squid’s head. You can see the black lines. To stuff something will cost a lot of money. I did that giant solar system for the science museum, and that was balloons as well. I used balloons for the pigs in front of the fountain too. So they were kind of bobbing in the water. If they burst, the pigs will shrink. Someone else will have to put another balloon in. Another worry I have is that the works are never child-safe. They are quite cute and the kids love them. Once I put up a little skeleton somewhere in London and a little boy came up after hanging around there for a little while. He said: “People keep taking away your pirates!” “Yes they do.” I said. And he said that he also wanted a pirate. The skeleton was the last thing that left. I said to his mom that it was not safe for small kids and she said: “Don’t worry. We’ll hang it up high in his room.” So I cut it down for him and that was the first time that I’ve helped anyone to steal my own work. He loved it.

eMAG: I read that if you put your works in the city, some people will come and steal them. Lauren: Yes. To begin with, the idea was to make something and see how long it will stay up for, you know, with the weather. We’ve never thought about people stealing things. We made a couple of covers (like the Parliament Square Phone Box Cosy), and you won’t want to steal that because when you take it off, it’s just a bit of knitting. But I got bored of that quick because they are just squares and squares put together. So we decided to do a giant spider web. I came up with the idea because we walked through a place where it is legal to do graffiti. They had all the walls covered with graffiti. We didn’t need the walls because we could put our stuff anywhere. There was a big area with railing and two columns. So I thought, well, perfect for a spider web, because it’s dark and dynamic. So I went to the girls and said, well, we are going to do something properly thriftily. We will have a spider in the middle and have all kinds of creatures trapped in the web kind of screaming. I told the knitters to make what ever they like to put in the web. I gave them a vague direction, so we have fairies, mice, we have a bug coming in trying to rescue his girlfriend. After about two hours, we went to the pub. We always go to the pub afterwards to celebrate. We came back after that, which we don’t usually tend to do now because we know that people take. There were two guys just taking thing things down from the web. And we went up to them and said: “Hey! They are ours! ” So after that we started to put on a label on everything that says: “Confess your theft at knitthecity.com.” We don’t mind if you take it, but just tell us where it lives now. Not many people tell us, really. We made Alice in Wonderland outside of the cinema when the film by Tim Burton was out. We thought when the children have watched the film and come out of the cinema, then, all of a sudden, all the characters will be in front of them. A man came up where we were putting everything up. I made the Cheshire Cat. It’s a big cat up in the tree. We managed to get it three meters above the ground, so you couldn’t just pick him. He said: “Oh I love it. I collect street art.” And I said: “You can have the cat since your friends are calling you the Cheshire Cat (he had a big grin) but you have to leave it out for a while, so that people can see it.” So he left it out for two or three weeks and he watched the weather forecast every day. The night before they said it was going to rain, he went down at two o’clock with a ladder and took the cat down. He sent me a message on twitter and said: “I have your cat!” And there was a picture of the cat in his house. And I love that the things will have their own home. If I kept all the things I made, I will have a house

eMAG: Perhaps it would be safer to put the knitted little creatures (or also giant ones) in the museum. Lauren: Yes, maybe. eMAG: Which way do you actually prefer- to put them in the museums or to decorate the city with them? Lauren (almost without thinking): I think it’s nicer that they are in the city because people get surprised, you know, like “Oh! What is that!?” It totally makes people stay. And pictures are really important. A picture will show the surroundings. And the knitted items look really different in different surroundings. That’s even more amazing because of where they end up. They’ve got stories to them. If they are in the museum, they are just in the museum. eMAG: Are there any other graffiti artists that you really like or from whom you are inspired? Lauren: Not really graffiti artist. There are a lot of people who do knitting that I really like. There’s a guy in Canada who makes crocheted creatures, and he has stories and videos that go with them. I’m more inspired by storytellers and illustrators, because you know, a lot of street artist who do graffiti are quite harsh and they don’t really match up with what we are doing. It took a long time for people to recognize us as the same as the people with the spray cans. Actually we are putting more time in. We are planning and knitting 17

for a long time. We try to do something constructive and, I want to say, educational, but also tell people a little story like where they are from. But there’s one special person. I started doing graffiti because of the space invaders. He’s my favorite. He’s my hero. I used to go around London to collect pictures of the space invaders. They are like disappearing now because people are stealing them and selling them on eBay, which annoys me. What I love is that he takes something really simple. They were everywhere, but they were so different. And just to prove my Space Invader love, let me see if I can find it in my book ... (She shows us a knitted notebook sock with Space Invader pattern.) He is my total hero. I have a map on Google to note down where I came across the Space Invaders. I really like that he did stuff wherever he went. So I’m trying to do that now. I made a butterfly in Ireland last month. eMAG: Are you going to do something beside the defined by __ project, like a pigeon on the tree? Lauren: I’d really love to if I have time. I did this in Berlin when we had the book launch. I sent out a pattern of squid secretly and people came up with the squids they made. We got a lot of people involved and that was really nice. eMAG: Thanks very much for the interview. Interested? Then come and see us and the White Papers when we sell eMAG outside the Alte Cafete on Monday, 18.07., or surf the web: Lauren O’Farrell and Stitch London: https:// stitchandbitchlondon.wordpress.com/ http:// www.fleecestation.co.uk/ http://www.stitchldn.com/index.html defined by __ project: www.definedby.com Jia Li and Andrea Reichart July 10, 2011

defined by___ Art Project International Artists turn Augsburg-Impressions into Artworks

The intriguing art project defined by___ was wound up with an exhibition of the artworks and a closing party today. The artists from all over the world will leave their works in Augsburg and take the memories about the inspiring city home.

sun disc, the lunch box is also called “the sun-disc lunch box”. Lauren, the Deadly Knitshade, knitted a collage of Augsburg. The collage is only half-finished with patterns that are partly covered with cross knitting and a needle hanging down from an unfinished knot. That is Lauren’s first impression about Augsburg - lovely but incomplete (The Brezel and the beer are finished, though. I assume that's because they're very impressive for foreigners...)

It’s very interesting to see how the artists understand Augsburg and how their perception keeps changing during their stay. The Norwegian writer Kaja Marie has filled up her White Papers with a complex interaction between images and words. Crossing out words in a German newspaper, she made an English and a Norwegian blackout translation of German texts (see http://www.definedby.com/ 2011/07/06/white-paper-kaja-006de/). She has even started to write a fairy tale with Augsburg as its background.

The other three artists who were not at the closing party today have also created beautiful pieces inspired by Augsburg – a city in which we live and study and see from the windows of the trams almost every day. All the artworks are going to stay in H2 Centre of Contemporary Art in the Glaspalast to remind us of how special Augsburg actually is.

Keiko, the Japanese sound artist currently living in New York, has created the German flag and the Japanese flag with unconventional materials: She made the image of the German flag with fresh blackberries, tomatoes and yellow bell peppers; The Japanese flag consists of a white cutting board and a pickled red plum in the middle. Both images are connected with lunch box, which is part of the Japanese culture: the fruits and vegetable are put in a lunch box in the order of the colors on the German flag; the image of the plum on a white board resembles a typical kind of lunch box with only rice and a pickled plum in the middle to give some taste. Because the plum is like a

Jia Li July 10, 2011

“Never forget your inner child“ Interview with Prof. Dr. Engelbert Thaler, new Chair of the Department of English Didactics Q: How do you like Augsburg and its university? A: A lot, both of them. I’ve settled in very well. All my colleagues received me very kindly and the students as well, and the campus is amazing. Actually, I consider it the most beautiful one in Germany. I try to make use of that every day by going for little walks outside and by enjoying this campus atmosphere in summer.

Q: And where else, apart from Scotland, have you been to? A: Only rarely to the US. As far as English-speaking countries are concerned, I’ve been to Great Britain most of the time, been on some study trips to London, also to Oxford, etc. But I have to say that I’ve been to Scotland most often and also liked it there the best. Q: I was completely taken aback when I read about the all the essays and books you’ve published; I believe it was 375 in total. When did you publish the first one? A: Rather late, of course, since I worked full time as a teacher for a really long time, up to 1999, so I only published the first one in that year. That means I’ve been writing for twelve years now. But you have to keep in mind that many of these 375 publications are rather short, often only two or three pages, or a one-page editorial. And, I didn’t write all of these publications myself, since I’m also editor of several series, which means I conceived and supervised them but didn’t write them myself. All the others I wrote by myself, though, so when you see my name written under an article or essay, it’s really my work.

Q: And the same applies to the city itself? A: The city is quite pretty, smaller and more compact than Munich. It’s cosy and the inner city is particularly nice. The beer gardens, for example, have this kind of retro charm; you get the feeling that nothing about them has changed in the last 60 years, but in a very positive way. You really feel you ́re transported back to another time, and it always has a cosy and calm atmosphere about it. Q: And what are the basic differences regarding other cities and universities you’ve been to? A: Munich is, of course, a lot bigger, a bit more anonymous and confusing – and it doesn’t have a campus. Freiburg is a great city, a real student city with a wonderful city centre. But I don’t think I could have done any better than with Augsburg and I’m happy to be here. So, I think I’m going to stay here for the next twelve years or something (laughs). Q: In your curriculum vitae it says you’ve already been to a lot of English-speaking countries and universities. What was, in this respect, the most special or most fascinating place? A: I like Scotland best. I visited it on some student exchanges when I was still a teacher at Gymnasium. I always went there with one of my classes for two weeks and, of course, the Scottish students would visit us in Traunstein later on. We had a partnership with the Kinross High School, near Edinburgh. Today, I see a lot of parallels between the Scots and the Bavarians. A Scottish colleague even told me that you can consider the Scottish people the Bavarians of Great Britain.

Q: On average how many books or articles do you publish a year? Is it sometimes difficult to keep track of all of them? A: I keep track quite meticulously, since I really enjoy this. It kind of pushes my ego, I guess. Since I’m really into sports, I also set myself sporting goals and try each year to break my own record. That might be a childish attitude but, well . . . (laughs) and then I once had my record with 63 publications one year. But, as I said, this includes short essays, editorials, etc. 20

Q: And how many complete books have you published in total? A: Twelve monographs in total.

A: That depends a lot on the addressee, and the publisher also has a say in that. If a publisher, for example, Schöning, tries to address only German-speaking teachers, then the book is written in German. But it’s often a combination of German notes and English references, so it involves code switching, and if a publisher like UTB wants a book suitable for an international audience, then I don’t mind writing in English, like in Teaching English Literature.

Q: How much time do you need for one of these, including research and so on? A: My post-doctoral thesis alone took me five years. Of course, I was constantly writing essays, articles, etc. at the same time, but as it ́s about 600 pages, it was a huge amount of work. Since it had to be really accurate, it involved a lot of research, too. You have to read a tremendous amount, and my topic was quite open, so, almost all publications related to it were of some relevance to me. So, just for this thesis, I had to read more than 1000 publications, not always completely, of course, but I had to check whether they are of importance for my work or not. Some essays, however, e.g. in Praxis Fremdsprachenunterricht, only comprise four pages, so you can write these in six or seven hours as long as the right idea springs your mind. The amount of work then is really OK.

Q: The topic of our current issue is “(Not) Growing Up”; is there something that immediately comes to mind? A: Well, I can sympathise with everyone who doesn’t want to grow up. You should, even as a teacher, never forget your inner child. Of course, you have to develop, and at some point student teachers need to shift from the point of view of a student to that of a teacher, but they should keep a part of the child they used to be - maybe also remaining a bit naive, and not taking everything too seriously, especially themselves. The Germans would benefit from the rather British attitude of self-deprecation.

Q: Can you also fall back on some of the works you have already published when you write something new – like some basic ideas – or do you always try to start from scratch? A: There are some ideas I sometimes take up again in order to develop them further, but most of the time I try to come up with new ones. When you look back on twenty years of teaching in front of a class, and when you took a closer look at cultural studies, literary studies and linguistics before putting them into practice, new ideas will come to you. Then you read a new book, and you think, oh wait, I could somehow bring these two ideas together.

Thank you for the interview!

Read more of the interview with Prof. Thaler in eMAG18! Nicole Gifi July 13, 2011

Q: Was the transition from teaching in school to teaching at university difficult? A: Not at all. My first teaching assignments at university were rather practically orientated and I was able to include a lot of my own experiences in order to tell my students the dos and don’ts of teaching. Q: Do you have a special focus in your research work or is it rather that you try to cover on many different topics? A: Well, I’m interested in a wide range of topics and, therefore, try to work on many of them. Of course, the training of new teachers is one of the essential parts, but there’s also literature didactics, the didactics of modern media, intercultural communicative competence and, primarily, methods to improve the quality of teaching. This is really a central topic. Q: How do you decide whether to publish your essays and books in English or in German?

You Can’t Take it with You, Can You? Sycamore family captured well and enacted by each of the students around Kristen Jung. The worries and concerns of the only “normal” family member Alice Sycamore also came across well when her fiancé Tony Kirby and his stiff parents arrive too early for dinner one night. The diametrically opposite attitudes of both families convincingly clash in Act Two when Penny Sycamore tries to remedy the situation with a word association game.

Augsburg University’s American Drama Group Performance of You Can’t Take it with You

Most of the students participating in this semester’s course Integrated Language Skills had never been on a stage before, let alone acted in a foreign language. Nevertheless, they did so brilliantly in the Tuesday night performance of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s 1936 Pulitzer-Prize-winning comedy You can’t take it with you. Alexander Schäferling managed to add extra charm to the already charming character Martin Vanderhof, mostly referred to as Grandpa. The happy old man is never at a loss for words even if the Government of the United States pays him a visit claiming 25 years of income tax that he refuses to pay (he just doesn’t believe in it). But the ballet instructor Kalenkova played by Anastasia Meier is in no way inferior to the audience’s darling Martin Vanderhof. She energetically sweeps across stage despite incredibly high heels and plays the role of the independent and resolute but good-natured Russian ballet instructor perfectly. Meier’s well-imitated Russian accent tops her performance off and successfully contributes to the comic effect of her often-repeated phrase “It stinks!”. Kalenkova even uses this phrase to describe Essie Carmichael’s dreadful dancing skills. But this doesn’t keep Nicole Gifi, who perfectly fits the role of one of the two Sycamore daughters Essie, from joyfully pirouetting around the stage.

Nevertheless, the students’ commitment and passion for acting can’t make up for the play’s deficiencies. The Sycamore family features eccentric stereotypes comprising of unworldly dancers and playwrights as well as absent-minded scientists and anti-capitalists. The course of the play is as predictable as the solution to Grandpa’s income tax problem, because of a deceased milkman who had also adopted the name Martin Vanderhof. And, what is more, Mr. Kurby’s transformation in Act Three and his acceptance of his true nature embracing his creative vein and free spirit are rendered unreliable due to their abruptness and his final remark concerning Mr. Vanderhof ́s income tax. By slightly altering the 1936 script the American Drama Group has at least tried to adapt the play to recent times including, for instance, a couple which is “something like Siegfried and Roy,” instead of Porgy and Bess. But still, the play seems like an old record playing over and over again without having anything new to offer. With You can’t take it with you the Augsburg University’s American Drama Group has staged a play which guarantees an entertaining theatre night, but doesn’t leave the audience Kerstin Bachmeier with provocative food for thought. July 25, 2011

Essie’s “it-doesn’t-matter-as-long-as-I’m-happy” attitude can be found in almost every member of the eccentric Sycamore family. The mother Penny loves writing plays, even though she’s not good at it and her husband Paul has a passion for creating fireworks. He shares this pleasure with Mr. De Pinna who came to the family ́s home 8 years ago and has stayed ever since. But not only is the light-heartedness of the artistic 22

The Spanish Way of Life - Tapas All Night Long Spain - a country full of spirit, vitality and passion! So much so that millions of Germans are fascinated by the country and spend their holidays there year after year – and I’m not only talking about Mallorca – but also the mainland. I was also fascinated and spent two months working in Bilbao. Hot summer nights, traditional music and fiestas are also very much part of the Spanish mainland, as well as cultural events like Pamplona and traditions like shops closing at midday. for me to meet locals because of their openness. Everybody is invited to join in and enjoy life.

Enjoy life! One characteristic of the Spanish I noticed is that they are so sociable. For example, they love to meet friends in bars and celebrate with the family. But not like the stiff family gatherings we know in Germany. Instead, the Spanish are used to celebrating in a really big way with all the generations: distant uncles and aunts, grandparents, mums, dads, kids and cousins! The summer months are one big fiesta; the kids’ school vacations from the end of June till mid- September turn into one big party. Every village has its own festival, which I would compare with our “Kirmes”, but they´re much bigger. Their origins might be religious, but the Spanish also take the opportunity to celebrate with parades and fireworks! As a foreigner, it was really easy

Tapas! But each party would not be half as good without one thing: tapas! Tapas are little, delicious morsels which are served in every Spanish bar; they´re sometimes but not always free, and are usually enjoyed with a beer or glass of wine. While we Germans only have “salt-sticks” and peanuts, the Spanish attach much more importance to food, because eating is always associated with being in company. At the weekend a lot of Spanish people replace dinner with several small tapas, which they eat by from bar to bar. In fact, I was so impressed by all this that some eMAG members and I decided to tried to follow Spanish people´s example by having a tapas evening. We met at half past eight, starving (in Spain you never eat before ten o´clock). At the beginning of the evening we had no idea how we should start, because none of us had ever

prepared tapas before. We couldn’t imagine how a table full of ingredients, like dates, ham, mince and potatoes would turn into delicious tapas So each of us took at least one recipe and just started to potter around in the kitchen - I guess you can imagine what it looked like afterwards. But never mind, luckily we had a dishwasher. While cooking, one question came again and again: “Does the recipe really say this?”, and Isa’s answer was always: “Whatever, let’s improvise.” I really have to confess that in the meantime I really doubted if our tapas would work, but little by little our tapas took shape and we couldn’t resist tasting them: delicious!

and fruity taste they were a perfect contrast to the other tapas and finished our dinner off.

Garlic, of course! In general, the Spanish use a lot of garlic for cooking. In fact, almost every dish contains it. Don’t ask me how they manage not to smell the next day! They even have a garlic-mayonnaise, called alioli, which consists of nearly only garlic. Six to eight garlic cloves are mixed with one yolk, mustard, lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper. But out of consideration for our fellow students the next day, we abandoned the idea of trying alioli. But for the other tapas we used plenty of garlic – otherwise they wouldn’t be real tapas.

For example… I would like to share some of the tapas we prepared, though it has to be said that they are just a fraction of the hundreds of different tapas the Spanish offer (and they don´t get tired of inventing more and more). First, we decided to prepare meatballs, which basically contain mince, breadcrumbs and garlic, and are served with a spicy, tangy sauce. Next, we made some very easy ones. You just need to wrap dates in bacon and grill them gently. Ready! The combination of salty, sweet and hot is just indescribably toothsome. Then, we prepared Catalan avocados, prepared with raisins, pine nuts, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and black pepper. Because of their fresh

Quite impressed by our work, we couldn’t wait to eat. Yummy! ¡Qué rico! We all agreed that this was definitely the best meal we had eaten for a long time. So don’t miss out on the adventure and get cooking! Judith Barnscheidt August 22, 2011

Tapas Recipes as Prepared at eMAG’s Tapas Night written by Isa Rackow/ September 8, 2011

Aguacate Catalano Catalonian Style Avocado

Paté Sicalíptico de Tomate Spicy Tomato Spread

Gambas al Ajillo Garlic Shrimps

Aguacate Catalano Catalonian Style Avocado

Starter for 2 1 ripe avocado 2 spoons pine nuts pulp of one orange lime juice parsley oil balsamic-vinegar salt & pepper

1. To slice the avocado, cut around the fruit lengthwise. Since there is quite a big stone in the middle, you have to turn both halves to separate them. To separate the rest of the fruit from the stone, cut again through the middle, turn and pull the stone from the remaining quarter. Now, peel the parts. If the avocado is already a bit riper, just pull a little at the edges and the skin comes off easily. 2. Cut the avocado into little strips as in the picture and arrange them nicely on a plate. 3. For the dressing, mix the pulp of an orange with some lime juice, salt and pepper. Blend the ingredients a little before adding oil and balsamic vinegar as it suits your taste. If you have fresh limes, use only half of one at first. Should the dressing still not be sour enough, use the left-over half, too. In case youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re using lime essence, start out with one teaspoon. Essence is quite strong in its taste, so add a little bit at a time to avoid making the dressing too sour. 4. When you like the taste of the dressing, slowly drizzle it over the avocado slices, so that every piece is covered a little. 5. To finish the dish, garnish it with pine nuts and some chopped parsley.

Paté Sicalíptico de Tomate Spicy Tomato Spread

Starter for 10 people: 10 pieces of dried tomatoes in oil 5 dates ½ onion 5 spoons of (goat) cream cheese bits of a chili pepper 1 spoon of vinegar 1 clove of garlic chicory parsley thyme salt & pepper 8 fresh cocktail tomatoes

1. Cut the dried tomatoes, dates, onion, cocktail tomatoes, thyme, and garlic into small pieces. Also, the chili pepper has to be cut quite small, but watch the amount. Take just a little bit at first and add more if it’s not hot enough after blending. 2. Put the chopped ingredients into a blender together with the cream cheese, salt, pepper and vinegar. Blend until the mix turns into a homogeneous paste. 3. Put some chicory leaves on a plate and top them with a spoonful of the paste. 4. You can garnish the morsels with some chopped parsley and fresh cocktail tomatoes. Tastes good on toasted white bread but also by itself without anything to go with it.

Gambas al Ajillo Garlic Shrimps Starter for 4 people: 16 – 20 shrimps (ca 400g) 3 cloves of garlic 200g cocktail tomatoes bits of a chili pepper oil white wine salt & pepper parsley

1. Put about 4 to 5 shrimps on a skewer. Put the skewers into a container and soak them in oil. 2. Cut the garlic cloves into small pieces (better than using a press!) and toss them into the shrimps and oil mixture. Leave the shrimps in the marinade for a couple of hours. While waiting, you can already cut the tomatoes and chili peppers into little pieces. 3. Heat some oil in a frying pan. When it’s hot enough put the skewers into the pan. Be careful: The oil might splash back at you, so wear an apron and watch your hands. 4. While you wait for the shrimps to turn pink, add the chopped chili pepper. Chili peppers may differ in intensity, so start out with a tiny bit and add more later on. Don’t forget that while cooking the spiciness increases even more! 5. After 3 to 5 minutes of full heat, turn the burner down a little and add the tomatoes. 6. When the tomatoes, shrimps or garlic start to turn rather brown- or blackish, it’s time to add 100ml of wine and some salt and pepper. After adding the wine, you can turn up the heat again and wait for the liquid to evaporate. 7. Once the liquid thickens, the shrimps are done. However, if this isn’t the case after 10min, take out the shrimps, let the sauce evaporate by itself and pour it over the shrimps when it’s ready. Garnish with some parsley. Note: The tomatoes or/and wine aren’t necessary. So, if you prefer just the plain shrimps with garlic, you can skip the last few steps.

Exploring Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin Devil’s Lake State Park is only a two and half hour drive away from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The trip is well worth it if you enjoy hiking, climbing, kayaking or just want to have a good time on the beach. And it’s a wonderful place to go camping, too. Join me on this journey let’s explore! Devils Lake State Park Centennial

tents to hotels and a golf course, Devil’s Lake has seen it all. The park even used to have its own post office, jail and train station. The only reminder of this time are the train tracks that still run along the bottom of the East bluffs and the freight train that blows its horn on its way through the park every day around noon.

What is known today as Devil’s Lake State Park has in the past hosted many curious events and interesting people. There are many stories about what all has happened in the park; some are true, others not so much. According to the Official 2011 Centennial Visitor Guide the 18th president of the United States of America, Ulysses S. Grant, as well as Abraham Lincoln’s wife visited Devil’s Lake. A man managed to win a greased pole climbing contest by covering his arms and legs in sand and got $5 out of it, and a rattlesnake bit a dog. Also, some crazy adventurers cut holes in the lake ice in the midst of winter just to go swimming, and at some point, one could observe elephants taking a bath in the lake. From Native Americans to well-to-do travelers, from

Natural Beauty Now, let’s move on to the things that have been making the area around Devil’s Lake such an attractive destination for all kinds of people for hundreds of years. With only the beaches and the campgrounds being accessible to motor vehicles, the trails and paths in Devil’s Lake State Park, most of which were made in the 1930s and 40s, are reserved for hikers to this day. So, if you want to enjoy the beautiful view from the top of the bluffs and find natural sites like Balanced Rock or Devil’s Doorway, you will have to work for it. But don’t worry, the miles and miles of trails have something to offer for everyone. Whether you prefer hiking up steep rocky paths or are looking for something more moderate, Devil’s Lake has a trail for you. And if you really just want to relax and take in the great scenery, the two beaches on the North and South end of the lake always give you the opportunity to do that, too.

Devil’s Doorway

The American Way of Camping

shower houses with bathrooms that use running water. However, if you’re more into the back to basics and all natural kind of camping, this is the place to do it. Especially the sites in the more wooded areas of the campgrounds are perfect for this.

If you decide to extend your stay and enjoy this wonderful State Park for more than just a day, you have a few different options. You can either rent a room in one of the lodging accommodations in the nearby town of Baraboo, or you can stay on the State Park’s campgrounds.

In these areas, for example the Eastern loop of Ice Age Campground, everyone gets their own little (semi-)private clearing in the woods. RVs don’t usually fit into these spaces, so it’s pretty much tents only. The campsites come with a picnic table and a campfire/ cooking site. To me, that is the most fun part: making your own fire two or three times a day and cooking over it. You can buy the firewood right along with your groceries at the local grocery store in Baraboo or along the road on the way into the park. Oh, and if you have to use the bathroom, you’ll have to find the nearest outhouse. By the way, don’t be surprised about a huge audience of flies and other critters and mosquito bites in the most unthinkable places.

On the campgrounds, you can decide to set up camp in a more European kind of way (some of the sites even have their own power outlet) with an RV or tent and stay closer to the

Wildlife

Looking for a vacation destination?

Besides the natural beauty at Devil’s Lake, there is plenty of wildlife that is worth looking for. You can find squirrels (though they’re nothing special in the Midwest), spot woodpeckers in the trees and even see raccoons and deer if you’re sneaky enough. When you walk along the shore, you see fish all over the place, and if you just watch closely enough, you may even come across water snakes or turtles.

I hope all this information makes you want to see Devil’s Lake and everything it has to offer. So, if you’re feeling adventurous now, then get to it! For more information go to http:// www.devilslakewisconsin.com/ Susi Steinacher September 14, 2011

Monica

First Runner-Up for the 2011 eMAG Fiction Contest For as long as I can remember, Monica has been there. Apart from her, I hardly know anyone in the world. Only a few travellers and traders pass through the forest. When I was little, I often asked her what was beyond the forest, or whether it had an end at all. She used to sigh when I did this, and she said she didn’t know either. Finally, I realized it made her feel sad, so I stopped asking.

look more like her. She´s staring at our field, which is lying fallow, and at the forest path we never followed very far. It leads to other farmsteads, the travellers told us.

here before, who are buried at the edge of the forest now. I don’t know where Monica found her stories. She says stories are just there – just like the air, the rain and the forest. There are stories that come to stay, like our faithful foxhound. Others we have to catch and tame like our shaggy cattle. And there are still others which will only sing for us for a while before we have to let them go again like the finch we had one summer.

"Monica!” I call, "Monica!"

"Aren’t we going to sow this year?" I ask her. "Not yet."

Suddenly she seems to be on the alert. At that moment I hear voices behind the house. In winter, when we’re sitting at the spinning-wheel for days and days, while snowstorms are raging outside, we tell "There’s someone coming!" each other stories. All the stories I come across in summer I jump to my feet, and run to meet them under the trees. I keep for this time, and meanwhile they grow and bud, and Suddenly, a flash. in the depth of winter they’re in full bloom. When I’m telling my stories, Monica often looks up, as if she was listening to When I come to my senses, it’s cool and windy. I wonder a very faint sound, and smiles silently. why Monica left me lying here. Everything is She always understands me. Each time spinning when I try to get up, so it’s quite a an incredible thought occurs to me, while before I can go and look for her. At the About the Author and I try to explain it to her, I finish edge of the pasture, I stop dead; the cattle are The author’s name is Johanna my sentence "... do you understand gone, but a huge beech tree is lying across the Wurm; she’s 21 years old, and me?" She then repeats what she has studying for a BA in History and grass. On approaching, I notice there’s someone English. She writes because she understood, and it’s always the very pinned under the tree. For one horrible moment thinks it would be a pity not to thing I wanted to tell her, only I could I think it’s Monica. But no, it´s two strangers, a share her stories with others. She never have put it that way. man and a woman. The woman looked like loves inventing stories, and hopes Monica from a distance. I realise they’re both other people derive pleasure from Monica's stories are different from reading them. dead. Was it their voices I heard? And where is mine. They’re about everything. About Monica? I walk around the fallen tree in a wide things I cannot even imagine, because circle. I remember the people already buried on they’re greater than our small life in this our farm, right over there by the thicket. But the graves clearing. Some, she says, are true, though she doesn’t tell have disappeared. Suddenly I panic. As fast as I can, I run me which. But she does tell me of the trees’ spirits, the into the house. forest witches, the stag-queen and of the people who lived But nobody answers. The first thing I see on entering the house is a basket close to the door. There’s a baby in it, smiling at me. And I understand. I am Monica.

This is the way we’ve been living for fifteen winters now. Monica counts them. Now spring is coming, and we’re sitting in front of our house, watching the cattle graze. I tilt my head to look at Monica without her knowing. I want to look like her when I’m grown up. And I will. Every year I

Text by Johanna Wurm Background photo by Antonia Wurm October 5, 2011

Mexico

Letter from...

culture developed and what the differences are when compared with our European

October 6, 2011 Dear eMAG readers, I'm writing from Puebla, the third biggest city in Mexico. Maybe you’re wondering what I'm doing in a country so far away from home? Well, I'm visiting my dad, who lives and works here.

lifestyle. Mexico-City itself is a curiosity, too: The city is so big that the State of Mexico is not able to determine the exact number of inhabitants. They estimate that

I could never understand why the hell he worked in such an extremely dangerous and completely isolated country (I had to fly more than 13 hours to get there). Before taking the trip, I had all kinds of prejudices that most Europeans have towards Mexicans: Short guys in sombreros, big mustaches and sitting on top of old donkeys. So when I got off the airplane, I was quite surprised – no stereotypical Mexicans here!

Mayan pyramid

there are more than 25 million people living in the city, and I wouldn’t doubt that: It took us almost three hours to get from one side of the capital to the other side. And then, we saw another several hundred or more houses on top of the mountains around the city. If you go there at night, you get the greatest view you could ever imagine: Lights as far as the eye can see, from north to south, from east to west and from the valley to the top of the mountains.

This didn't change at all over the first couple of days. No sombrero, no mustache, nothing. Just normal people like you and me. And they're so friendly! It's even a bit embarrassing... They smile all the time, and seem to practically bow when you pass by. I also found out that, unlike what I had been told, many Mexicans don’t really know much English. So, you'd better make sure you brush up on those Spanish skills before you come over here!

I've really had a great time in this extraordinary country. However, I should also mention that you have to be careful as a European tourist in Mexico for several different reasons: First, don't try to drive on your own on these big, crowded streets in the middle of Mexico-City – you won't find German conditions. Instead, you´ll encounter a lot of trouble and chaos! Second, if a Mexican says something isn’t spicy, believe you me, it definitely WILL be hot and spicy! So make sure you have a glass of water handy. Finally (and I'm sure there’s a lot more truth to

What else can I say? I'm really stunned and fascinated by the mentality of the Mexicans and this beautiful country. We visited the National Museum of Mexico-City, where we admired

this than we may think), Mexico is a very dangerous place, especially if you think about the drug wars and Mafia gangs that control large parts of the country. So, be careful if you're traveling in Mexico and make sure you're always aware of what's going on around you. In this way, you’ll have a more enjoyable trip :)

remnants of the Mayan culture. Ancient soccer stadium These guys were so smart and clever. And they were actually the first people to play a kind of soccer. Though, it was quite different compared to today’s soccer: the winner would be sacrificed to God – a bloody and dangerous sport in former times. They also built big pyramids to celebrate religious rituals. It's really interesting to see how this great

Best wishes, Steffi Dintner

imprint

eMAG – by students for students Sprachenzentrum Universität Augsburg Universitätsstr. 2 86135 Augsburg +49 821 598 5189 peter.james@sz.uni-augsburg.de The content of individual articles does not necessarily reflect the team‘s views and opinions.

Please visit us on our website for current articles and information: http://emag.imb-uni-augsburg.de

and connect with us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eMAGUniAugsburg