Seattle

Seattle, eine Stadt in der es sich lohnt schlaflos zu sein, nicht aber weil es so schlimm wäre, nein sondern um eine der sicher schönsten Städte Nordamerikas zu sehen. Pittoresk gelegen zwischen Bergen und dem Meer, tief im Grünen. Gut damit es so grün ist regnet es auch viel und ist auch oft bedeckt aber sonst. Natürlich haben wir die ganzen Touristensachen gemacht, waren auf der Space Needle und haben Muscheln gegessen:

Natürlich hat auch ein Besuch im Museum of Flight, Boeings Hausmusem nicht gefehlt. Ist auch ordentlich militaristisch, aber es gibt auch eine alte Präsidentenmaschiene und eine alte Concorde zu sehen.

Das ganze krönte dann auch noch ein Sonenuntergang über dem Puget Sound.

Leider sind wir dann auch schon viel zu früh durch Regenwetter, weitergefahren hier nach Seal Rock, über eine ganz pitoreske Landstrasse. Und die Natur hier ist so eine Mischung aus Scharzwald aber mit Küste, also so wenn Frankreich nicht wär und Freiburg läg am Meer.

From Boston to Seattle via Chicago (by train)

The grand voyage from coast to coast started on Monday, three nights ago in Boston. I had arrived by a crappy US Airways flight from Frankfurt via Philadelphia the night before. Before I left with the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago I deceided to visit the JFK Memorial. The picture was taken from the inside of the amazing building (Thanks I.M. Pei).

Then with the said Lake Shore Limited it took me about 22 hours to arrive in Chicago. For one night the reclinng seat was OK and you have plenty of space and all the Americans I met on the way were really niece.

A short break for lunch and a elevator ride up the Sears Tower was just the right thing to do in the 4 hours in between changing trains. I entered the Empire Builder and off we went for the two nights to Seattle, across an long an empty stretch of America. „From Boston to Seattle via Chicago (by train)“ weiterlesen

50km Diät: Frühstück mit dem SWR

Edgar Müller, Gerti Müller und ein sehr interessierter SWR Redakteur, der hier checkt was man alles so zum Frühstück essen kann, wenn man sich mit Essen aus 50km Umkreis ernähren will. Und da gibt es so einiges: Butter & Milch von der Schwarzwaldmilch, Pfefferminztee aus dem Garten, Marmelade, Wurst von der Metgerei Winterhalter und Käse gegen vom Bauernmarkt.

Den SWR Beitrag gibt es hier:

Thinking global, eating local

For one week now, my parents and I have been trying to eat only stuff that is made within 50 km of Freiburg, where we live. The pictures shows both of them getting interviewed by our local radio station SWR. The project has generated some media attention already. Note the rabbit collection in the background.

That sounds funny but has a very serious background: We produce a lot of CO2 not only by driving around in our cars or by travelling, but also by the stuff we eat. Lots of our foodstuff is grown or processed in distant places. And that does not only extend to the obvious stuff like coffee or chocolate, bananas or Kiwis, but by a lot of other food like pasta or bread.

You get into talking with other people a lot, nothing is such a good topic then food. When you go into shopping places and ask around for stuff that is grown here in the region. Farmers markets, such as the one in Stühlinger or at Freiburgs Cathedral square work very well, but supermarkets are awful for getting local stuff. Despite getting to talk with lots of people, you are  thinking more about what you eat and where you get it from. „Thinking global, eating local“ weiterlesen

Bücher zum Lesen

Jetzt zum Sommer hat man ja viel Zeit zu lesen und sich in Ruhe so einiges durch den Kopf gehen zu lassen. Ich möchte hier zwei Bücher vorstellen die ich gelesen habe und nun auch jedem Empfehlen kann:

Anette Pehnt ist eine Deutsch Dozentin an der PH. Dieses Buch hat sie geschrieben um uns allen das Studium an dieser Eliteuniversität einfacher zu machen. Wer ein wenig Hyptertextualität genissen will, dem verlinke ich hier auf die Lesung im KuCa, noch eine PH Institution. „Bücher zum Lesen“ weiterlesen

From Tampere for Europe

The international youth council seminar in Tampere is over for more then an week now and for me it is time to write down a little bit what I experienced. There are some things I mentioned on previous blog posts as well, but this should be the last one.

From here a big thanks to the organisers at nuva ry. It is always difficult to organise such an europe spanning event, involving participants from Germany, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Finnland, Lithuania and bring them all togehter to do something. a total of about 40 young people. The participants were between 15-30 years old and work in the local youth local councils or similar democratically elected bodies. Already youth councils have a very strong foothold in several countries or regions in Europe exist umbrella organisations and other bodies.

Of course we didn’t only work, we had a lot of fun as well, the following video, which the finns all love is a testament to that:

Funding

We had a very interesting presentation by a lady from CIMO, which is the Finish organisation with distributes the funding for European Youth in Action Programmes. „From Tampere for Europe“ weiterlesen

Panel discussion on european youth participation

Amongst  many other interesting stuff happening at the Tampere Seminar on European youth participation there was a panel on youth in politics. On the panel we had:

Sirpa Pietikäinen, Member of European Parliament (European People’s Party)
Till Burckhardt, Treasurer, Executive Bureau, JEF
Sissi Penttilä, Schengen Youth Assembly representative of Finland
Alina Böling, Youth delegate of Finland, United Nations
and the moderator was Fatim Diarra, Chair of International Affairs
Committee, Allianssi

STE-012_Panel_Discussion_mp3 (90 min, ca 90 mb)

Sometimes the language was difficult to understand, but Fatimas way of leading the discussion was really good. Lots of people had the chance to participate and it also a little bit controversial at times. Especially when Tim Burckhard of Jeff said he was disappointed by youth. Unfortunately we didn’t get a straight answer about continuing the youth in action program after 2013.

Of course the location was really hip: the council chamber of Tampere city council is the most beautiful part of the city hall.