Find the electronic and the download-version at: www.mariengymnasium.eu ; à Projekte à 2) E-Mail-Projekte à Learning Circle Klasse 10e 2007/2008

The participating groups

Minoo Shamsnia Antra Berke
3/21 Araghi, Doolat st. Shariati Ave. Valdemara str.6
Tehran, Tehran  1941753413, Iran Madona, LR  LV- 4801, Latvia
Email: shamsnia@schoolnet.ir Email: antraberke@inbox.lv

Mioara Gheorghe Martin Lichte
Aleea Stanila 4 Bl. H11 Sc.1 Ap. 6 Sector 3, Mariengymnasium Jever
Bucuresti, Romania Terrasse 3, 26441 Jever, Germany
Email: mioara_gh@yahoo.com Email: lichte@mgjever.de

fatemeh nikui nezhad
amirkabir avenue-farzanegan highschool
kashan, Iran
Email: fnikui@yahoo.com

Contents

1. The idea of the learning circle 3

2. Our lives when we have finished school – our future 3

3. Are our teachers at school too old? 9

4. Music was my FIRST LOVE! 10

5. Politics and Culture of our countries 14

6. Burning Questions that came up during the Circle 17

- Nutrition 17

- British soldiers caught in Irak (or was it Iran?) 20
- The little ice bear Knut 21

- Slave trade in Europe 21

7. Fantasy and Games 22

8. Sports 25

9. Special Communication– some exchanges of letters 36

- Inken – Arita & Gunta 30

- Sina – Arita 31

- Esther – Ada 32
- Elisabeth, Hanna, Jessica and Rica – Renars 32

10. Global warming 34

11. Fear of Death – Life after Death 39

12. Story to Continue 46

13. WE – the class 10e from Jever 48

1. The idea of the learning circle
I read almost every article I found so far. Of course I have to admit, I didn't read every of them as intensely as I read those of my personal favourite articles. But I think my perspective is already good enough to draw some conclusions.
It's amazing that even though the articles are written sometimes thousands of kilometres away from each over the idea behind most of the opinions is basically the same. Also some topics itself care about different cultures, but it seems like culture doesn't affect opinions of young people too heavy. The topic of our subconscious is a good example for an issue that every teenager is in a way familiar with. Also music is one of those topics. No matter where you live music influences you. Also it doesn't make a difference what kind of music you prefer.
So this learning circle isn't only good to discuss these certain things. If you have the overview of the whole everything you can have many good guesses about the attitudes of other people in other countries.
I hope my opinion can match with others, too. Lars S. Jever

2. OUR LIVES WHEN WE HAVE FINISHED SCHOOL – OUR FUTURE

The main topic we want to talk about is what you want to do after you have finished school. We are going to finish school (hopefully) with the "Abitur" which is the highest German school qualification. Most of us will certainly study at University but in fact there'll be great difficulties because of the high request... well here we have some questions to you
- What will you be able to do?
- What do you plan to do after you have finished school?
- Describe a day in your life 10 years from now in the future (use your fantasy and your desires!)..
greetings from Germany by Christian, Manuel, Marc, Thore and Lars

a. Plans

- What do you plan to do after you have finished school?
After finishing school, in order to study my favorite subject (physics), I will participate in University Entrance Exam.
- What will you be able to do?
Since I am really interested in music, I want to learn playing an instrument.
- Describe a day in your life 10 years from now in the future (use your fantasy and your desires!).
In that day, I get up soon in the morning, read a nice book, do some exercise and then I go to the lab which I work in and do some projects. At 3p.m I go to the institute which I teach in .at 8p.m I call a friend to go out for dinner. Then I return home at 10, turn on my P.C and listen to my favorite music, check my mails. And maybe chat with my friends. Then after having a kind of good day I go to bed and get rid of everything for some hours.
Bye, Sajedeh, Farzanegan Zeynab Educational Center, Tehran

Our life when we have finished school- our future
"Daddy, when I am old, I will be an astronaut!" In the childhood sentences like that are totally normal. It’s very likely that children don’t think about their future. In fact children see the earth as a big playground and the tremendous things which happen around their micro cosmos are so exciting that they want to be like that. The confused dad who wants his son to be a police officer will stay cool and waits for the next idea of his son. Maybe superstar?! ;)
But when childhood is passing it’s time to think seriously about the future.
In Germany many humans do their graduation. After passing they leave their home to go to university. Many students prefer bigger cities like Hamburg or Berlin.
In my eyes it’s important to see different places and get to know what it is like to life there. Jever is a pretty small town , but doesn’t offer enough opportunities for young adults , who want to make experiences. I am really looking forward to my years as a university student. With my graduation I will be able to study medicine or anything else. Today in our time it is important to have a "abitur" (the German highest level of school graduation) because of our economic situation in Germany. It is more difficult to get a well paid job than back in time when for example my parents had their graduation. You have to be motivated and should have a target what you want to reach in your life.
I am very interested in seeing other places and getting to know other cultures, and that’s why I will go to the USA as an exchange student this summer. I hope this exchange year will give me many impressions and experiences. In addition I will have an understanding and knowledge in English after my return and this will give me a lot for my future.
10 years later. . .
I am sitting in my little flat and writing an entry into my diary:
Dear diary! This morning was so strenous. Hamburg’s streets were full of cars, so consequently I was five minutes late at university. But that wasn’t the problem: I had left my papers in car so I had to go to look for them. Fortunately I parket directly in front of the entrance. "my luck" I thought, but at that moment when I stood below my car with the important papers for my lecture , the wind changed and the papers flew into that stupid lake. . . without any papers I returned to the lecture hall and I couldn’t wait to see the grinning faces of the other students.
Again 10 years later another diary entry:
Puh. . -, Anna is sleeping now. In five minutes the babysitter will arrive. So now I am allowed to go to work, but at first I want to do this entry to write about my family life. :
My daughter Anna , who is sleeping has her birthday tomorrow. In general we will give a birthday party for her and she will get presents . Everything is pretty expensive . Probably for that reason I have to work as much I do. When my daughter is grown up and wants to study , my husband and me will have to finance her studies as my parents did. It will be very expensive. . . Fortunately I did my graduation.
Julia, Jever

Hello! I love to write about your topic because it makes me very hopeful and active to reaching to my goals. I want to go to university and study medicine because I love it but my goals don’t finish here. I want to study Persian literature after it. I love to be a good doctor and writer. I think and decide about all of my life that if GOD wants and I try, I will reach them.
A day in 10 years later: (I'm 25)
Oh!!!! It is 6 a.m. I have to wake up because I have to go to university. Today I'm staying at university until 5 p.m.
It is 6:45 a.m. I'm driving to university. When I passed the university exam, my dad bought this car for me. He also said that when I finish medical school, he will change my car to a better model.
It is 8 a.m. now I'm at class and I'm writing note of master's. it is a very interesting lesson.
It is 12:30 a.m. it is lunch and praying time. I'm going to pray with others. After that I will eat lunch. Today we have chicken.
It is 5 p.m. I'm driving home. Today I have a lot of work to do.
It is 6 p.m. I'm writhing my project. It will be finished in one or two month later.
It is 8 a.m. I'm checking my site. I wrote a fantasy book to have a lot of fans and this site is for my book and it is fans.
It is 10 p.m. I eat my dinner and now I'm writing my new book. I'm sleeping in 30 minute.
Saba, Farzanegan Zeynab Educational Center, Tehran

I am able to do computer works. I want it study at university and then become an engineer.
I am 25 years old I am an engineer and work in my office. I continue my study .I enjoy my life and earn a lot of money by doing my job so I like my job.
Farzaneh Emami Farzanegan Zeynab Educational Center, Tehran

In the following text I will describe to you my "ideal" future.
My first aim is finishing school. After that I want to study sports-journalism in Cologne or Munich. I have chose those universities because they are probably the best ones in this fields and most of the German Tv channels have their seat in these cities, for example "Premiere" the German Pay TV organisation which is very famous for its sports channel, has its basis in Munich. The Kirch Media AG which is the owner of important channels like Pro7 has its seat basis in Cologne. In the meanwhile of my study-time I would be able to do my first practical time at one of those companies. I´m able to do my first practical time next year from now, because my mother has "connections" to SAT1 and so I can go to Munich to try out this job for the first time. I´m just talking about TV stations, as you have already seen. The reason for this is that I find it more interesting to talk witch people about msx "dream" topic that writing only some facts down as I would do it if I was a writer of a newspaper but if I got a job at a real sport newspaper like the "Sport-Bild", it would be find, too. I´m not sure which channel I would choose if I had the choice between all those channels which show sports in their program. This is very difficult because I´m interested in very many sports and nearly no channel shows all sports but probably I would go to ARD,ZDF or Premiere, because those channels show very often soccer or winter sports. One other important advantage of the ARD would be that they often show handball, my favourite sport, in their program. This is the job dream of my future but this is not everything. One important aspect of the future is my family. Of course I want to have a nice family with children. My opinion of the ideal number of children is two children. Now I have one older sister, too, and our relationship is perfect. Hopefully my children will have the same relationship to each other as we have now. The ideal place to live would be a big city like Hamburg, Berlin or Munich in which there are many possibilities to have fun. Now I live in a small village called "Friedeburg" where it is pretty boring. As I have already mentioned I want to live in a German metropolis because of my job but later when I don´t have to work any more and my children are old enough, me and my wife, of course when she agrees, will move to Canada, the most fantastic country on this planet. I want to have a house made of wood in the Rocky Mountains near a lake. After the trouble in the big cities I want to relax in the quiet territories in between grizzlies and elks and if I want to have again the traffic jam at the rush Hour of a big city I just have to go to Vancouver the probably most wonderful city in the world.
Hans-Christian Mehrens, Jever

My future home Munich
My big dream is to live in Munich after school. I hope I will get a nice school-graduation that I can find a job in Munich more easily.
I like Munich so much because this city is so versatile. I'm a great FC Bayern Munich fan so a big reason is the football club. In the North of Munich, in Fröttmaning, there is the Allianz Arena. The arena is a very modern stadium and it can light in red, blue and white. When the FCB play it always lights red, of course. The arena has got 69.000 seats, but in international competitions like in the Champions League just 66.000 because there standing places are not allowed. I was one time there in the arena and it's just unbelievable if you stand in front of this very big building. And I think it's a very funny place where the arena stands because there is the big stadium and round about there is nothing.
But I like Munich not only because of the football! I think the capital of Bavaria has wonderful parks. For example the English-Garden: It's bigger than the Central-Park in New York! And through the English garden flows the Isar, a very nice river, of course.
And for example there is the Olympic-Park. It was built for the Olympic-Summer-Games in 1972. In this park there is the Olympic-Stadium, too. It's famous for it special roof. That was the home of the FC Bayern until 2005. I was one time in the Olympic-Stadium in the last season. So I'm very happy about that because now you can never see a match of Bayern Munich there again.
But one very important thing in Munich is the beer. Just in the city there are more than 80 beer gardens! They are very nice and there are many trees and so on. You must buy our beer there but you can eat your own food.
The landscape around Munich is very nice, too. There are some lakes and rivers and, of course, mountains like the Alps. When the weather is good enough you can see the Alps even from Munich. The biggest mountain in there is the »Zugspitze«. But unfortunately I haven't been there yet. The first week of my Eastern-Holidays I will visit my aunt in Munich for a week. She will show me Munich and at the end of the week I will go to the Allianz Arena again. Bayern will play against Schalke. This match is very important for the FCB because Schalke is the leader at the moment and they have six points more than Bayern. So if Bayern want to win the Championship they must win. I hope it will be a very nice week and I'll see a lot of Munich, my future home.
by Thomas from Jever

I for myself have not thought so much about what my future life will look like. But now I have come to a point where I think it might be important to start to think about what I want to do later. I mean, who knows how far we will make it in school or how easy or hard it is to find a job or place of education.
My fears for the future are not getting an appropriate education. I mean, if you always hear about all the jobless people and the very few places of education, what else should you think.
So I have slowly come to the conclusion that, I find it very important to start getting information, and that now. Or maybe doing a practical training in the holidays to see what kind of job matches best to you.
 And even though you might think "I don’t care, there are enough vacancies", they remain mostly not for long.
I did my first practical training in the summer 2006 at an equestrian centre. It was an exciting, but also hard experience. I picked this, because I appreciate training and working with horses. And I always wanted to do an education as a horse-economist (-master), but after my practical training there, I really started getting doubts if that would really be the right decision for me. There I first realized what hard and especially physical work it is. So now I am confronted with the question: Do you want to pull this through or try out something completely different?
I have already applied at some other institutes to see if these jobs might suite me better, because you also have to think about the fact that this will be you job for a long time. And it shouldn’t be a depression going to work everyday, with only the thought "Well I need the money!"
By: Isabelle, Jever

Hello Renars from Latvia!
How are you? We are fine. We like your introduction, so we want to talk with you about our lives when we have finished school. We want to speak with you about our future.
Our future will be very different. And we won’t be in the same area, because we all want to do different things.
Hanna is very interested in study in(e.g.) Nepal after her last school-years in England. Yes, Hanna will go to a boarding school and after her school time, she wants to study medicine in Nepal. At this moment, she wants to be an eye specialist.
But Hanna isn’t the only person , who will go to England, Elisabeth will go ,too. Do you want to go to another country, too?
We hope, Elisabeth won’t go forever (Hanna wants to finish her school time there). So or so, Elisabeth wants to study journalism, law or maybe literature.... At this moment, she thinks of studying in England, but she hasn’t decided, yet.
Law or journalism, this question stands for Rica, too. So she has the same favourites like Elisabeth, but without a very important detail! Rica won’t go to England, USA or so. She is going to finish her school time here, at the MG (that is our school).
Jessica also wants to finish her school time here. But she hasn’t decided yet, what she wants to do in the future. She goes to school happy, because she likes school and likes to meet her friends. Maybe she will study education or medicine in Hamburg.
What do you want to do in the future? Have you got the same ideas like us?
Bye, we are glad if you write. Jessica, Elisabeth, Hanna and Rica :)

Hi girls.
All weak i thinked what to answer. I will start about my future.I can tell that I like wepons and all kind off military thing. So my future will be interesting and outstanding.I will be a military person. why? I like all this from child days! But first I must to finish midlle school. I hope i will travel to all over the wolrd in all kind of missions. Talking about journalism,medicine and others its all nice, because world need that kind of specialistics.Thoes are only my thoughts. I wonder do you girls can tell me something about love and feelings inside you!??And what about school now ?How its going? Renars from Latvia! :*

b. Project school and future: coeducation or single-gender school

Next school year I will go to a British boarding school so the question of a co-educative or single-gender school was asked. I think this might be an interesting topic in our learning circle because we're connected now to those single-sex classes in Tehran and Kashan.
Would you like yourself to go to a single-gender or co-educational school?
Do you see any advantages or disadvantages?
Have you ever been in a different school type?
What do you think about the respective school type?
Do you like your actual school type?
Finally I chose a co-educative school but not evaluating the gender aspect. I made my choice because I wanted to complete just another school type than the normal British one. Except for the A-Level courses I wanted to complete with IB, so I chose my next school.
If I had to decide between IB offering boarding schools which is co-educational or single- gender I don't really know which one I would choose, because both sides have advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of a girls’ school would be that there wouldn't always be this competition between boys and girls especially in sciences. I wouldn't have to care about my looks, either.
Disadvantages would surely be the typical girl terror which I was told by female students of such a school would be extreme. Except for that it can become very boring just hanging around the whole day long with girls.
Advantages of a co-educational school is the loose atmosphere and the chance to develop skills for dealing with any kind of person of any gender.
Disadvantages would be the competition with boys again and also the competitions with girls because of boys.
At least the possibly most important aspect should count most: You can concentrate on education what works best on single- gender schools. Enjoy answering my questions and thank you for reading! Hanna

Co-educational school or girl’s school

Next school year I will go to a British boarding school like Hanna and so I also had to decide for a single-gender school or co-educational school. But I didn’t really make up my decision because of this, it was only a small part of it. The most important aspect, when you search for a school, is or was for me that the school is very good and that you feel easy and well there.

But I have to say that I prefer co-educational schools to single-gender schools. In addition, I wanted the best school I could get no matter, which school type it was. A reason for this was that I didn’t want the typical girl terror on every day, which will always happen if girls live, learn and do nearly everything together. I also got to know this girl terror enough on school trips: girls screaming, crying and teasing around about nothing, not all girls and not always and I have to say that I also sometimes react like this if I have to spend the whole time with girls and have no real time for myself, so all this can get on your nerves after some time. Maybe I only think so, because I have no brothers and sisters and so I didn’t have these little sister fights, which would maybe prepare me for something like this.

As well I had the experience that some girls have the feature to accept no other opinion than their own one, so you can say what you want, it is always wrong and you are always not right and I am a person who can’t really stand anything like this. I don’t scream at these girls, which could happen if they do this too often and too long, but this really gets on my nerves.

In addition, you have to study with boys, so I think competitions between girls and boys you will get at least then, so why should you not have them before. Competitions you will find between girls, too, so you will have them if you want to or not. But I see the fact that for some girls it would be easier and better to learn without boys, because they are not so shy to say something like before and they feel easier in a class, where there are only girls, and this helps them to learn better and get better grades.
As well you have to make a difference between girls’ schools and girls’ boarding schools, because I think you will never have such a girl terror in a normal school like in a boarding school, where you are together the whole day long only with girls.
But this all is only my opinion and so it would be interesting to read something from someone, who is at a single-gender school or boarding school. Yours sincerely, Elisabeth, Jever

Competition in schools - response to Elisabeth:
I think you misunderstood what I meant by competition in schools. I think a lot of girls are afraid to raise their fingers and add something to the lessons because a lot of boys give stupid comments on that, laugh or so.
I guess that might be the reason why boys usually get better oral grades than girls do.
Of course there is some kind of competition about grades. But that doesn't depend on gender.
Apart from that girl terror can happen everywhere. In a single-gender school as well as in a mixed school. Besides, those struggles can happen between boys, too.
I think the reason for avoiding the typical girl-boy competitions is that the Abitur average is very important. Some girls might ruin it with their restraint.
Maybe we have a different denominator because you're an only child and I'm part of an extended family. I know how to act and deal with a couple of more people than just my parents. I know how to act in any possible situation. For a long time we were just girls at home, so I can say that thing with the girl terror is one big lie and/or a prejudice.
Girls being bitchy and so would mean girls are more anti-social than boys. Do you really think so? Do you think girls are more unable to act and react in a group than boys? Honestly I'm more convinced by the opposite.
At least I made my choice of course looking for the best school, not including the gender. Now no single-gender IB school was offered. Then it doesn't depend on gender or so. The most important aspects are feeling comfortable and the school's abilities. Yours sincerely, Hanna

c. Whole-day school vs. Half-day school
We thought about the positive and negative aspects of half-day(from 7:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) and whole-day school systems. A positive aspect of whole-day school is that if parents have to work in the afternoon, they don't have to worry about their children. There is also a better and more specific learning. The school helps the students with their homework, so they don't have to do them at home
But you don't have enough time for hobbies and friends, which is better with the half-day school. And there is also more psychic stress(whole-day school), because although you have to learn till 3 o'clock p.m. at school, you have to learn for tests and so on at home, too. If you've got so much stress you aren't motivated to do anything else. So if you attend a half-day school there is so much time left for your own activities. The bad point is that you've to do much more for school at home. So if we have a look at studies and current news, our german school system is criticized very hard. There is also pointed out that the students of other countries are more intelligent and disciplined, and most of them attend whole-day schools. But are they as happy as most of us are?!? We weren't able to find more positive aspects, but in a way we think whole-day school might be something good. There is just the problem that so many things have to be changed first before it could be something really good. It would be important to have more financial support of the state (for better learning conditions). Perhaps in some subjects the classes have to be split up again; for example students who are more quiet should be taught separately, because they aren't able to say anything with the loud students next to them. Activities which are normally out of school could be integrated and also being furthered then. And there is a problem about the teachers and lessons in general: Most of them are really boring! There could be a new concept to make everything more interesting. Although there are teachers in front of the class, you don't have the feeling you are learning anything. That has to be changed, too. We could tell more and more and you will see that we have to criticize so much. What do you think about your school(system)? What is good or bad? What could be improved?
Tell us something about your school! Greetings from Germany, Julia, Michelle, Mareike & Marlen

Full-time school in Germany
Well, some European countries do have full-time school, but Germany hasn't yet. But this is going to be changed. You might have heard about the Pisa report and that the results, which were not that good, caused a debate about the school system and how to improve this current situation, but by the way, this discussion had been there even before anyway. So the politicians looked at other countries and said, well, why shouldn't we either introduce whole day school?! I think the idea isn't bad. All the children sitting alone at home in front of TV, probably all day long and getting overweight, because their parents have to work. Or children are bored and start to fool around. In this situation children would be better off in school and doing sports or whatever. Especially immigrant children often have problems with the German language. More time gives the possibility of individual help, so you could bring forward these children.
So far so good. But in my point of view there are still many critical aspects. Let's have a look at the Mariengymnasium, which I attend actually. Jever is located in Lower Saxony. This federal state decided to establish voluntary full-time school. But what means voluntary? That you have to take at least two courses in the afternoon? If the school has a good program, great. But if there are even not enough teachers so they have to ask for students, I have my doubts, indeed. And this is the current situation at my school. For children, who have nothing else to do, it's even better. But in general leisure time is very important.
So what I want to say is that the program, the offer has to be really really good. Then I would even agree with a full-time school as a duty. Otherwise the people of tomorrow can better go to a private music school or sport club or have time with their family. And that's what I actually criticize, because our school can't give this necessary offer at the moment (from my point of view).
Another question is: When does it make educational sense to send children to full-time school? Too young wouldn't be good, but what's too young? You can't say this in general, because every child does develop at individual pace.
I prefer one year more school than cutting the school time of a year and so having more stress. What is the sense behind it?! I'm not convinced if this works and improves. But one advantage it has: The school got money to construct another school building with a cafeteria to be up to standard of full-time school. About this I think: As soon as the schools makes the grade, the politicians will turn full-time school into duty as it is already now, in a way. So finally, I think: If this idea will be put into practice and it will be done well, it's definitively a good thing. But at the moment I'm not that very convinced.
What do you think about full-time school?? Jessica, Elisabeth, Hanna and Rica from Jever

Whole day schools - response to: Julia, Michelle, Mareike, Marlen
Hi Julia, Michelle, Mareike and Marlen!
I agree with your negative opinion on whole day schools even if my experience is limited.
The positive aspect of a whole day school is the intensive teaching for sure. The negative is that you really don't have any time for anything.
The positive aspect of half day schools might be that we have a lot of leisure time to spend so the negative is that we aren't focused on school that much.
I guess if we practiced whole day schools from an early point we would get used to it and we wouldn't complain or fear if we do.
My younger sister spent 3 months in France where they practice whole day schools. She says it was horrible as she had to get up earlier than here and sat in school all the day till 6 o' clock in the evening. After that she still had to do her homework which was much more than what we call homework over here. Apart from that she had to learn for class tests and so on. Imagine coming home at 7 o' clock in the evening and not having finished your usual work.
Another and in Germany most important aspect are the offers. We don't have many motivated, involved teachers yet, except for Mr Lichte who nearly sacrifices himself for his students and his interests, even if his lessons bore you to sleep sometimes ;) Imagine all the un-motivated, bored teachers, standing in front of you in the late afternoon. We wouldn't get any advantage. And who would work on offers like sports or so? Who would support our hobbies in school? What about my horse who (no, certainly not which) wants to be ridden? You see... It's the lack of structure and offers. Otherwise I would support whole day school as it could prevent children from the "street".
If we had the same offers as in America, where they can practice all their hobbies at school just as football, cheer leading or so it might be the best for everyone. See you tomorrow in school ;), Yours sincerely, Hanna

3. ARE OUR teachers at school Too old?

For a good graduation you need good teachers. In our school, there are mostly older teacher and some of them teach as they have done it for 30 years. Sometimes it isn’t easy because the teachers are only talking and talking and nobody is interested in it. The younger teachers have more ideas how they could organize the lessons.

- What is school like for you?

- Do you think that your lessons could be more interesting, or do you have teachers who are able to tell you the most boring things in an interesting way, so that everyone listens to what they say?

- Give us descriptions of your normal school lessons or school life

- Talk about your “ideal school”!
Sina, Lena, Fabian, Philip, Gert and Esther

Are teachers too old at over 50 years??

Everybody knows the problem: You have a teacher, who is older than 55 years and he always tells something about his experiences in his life and every second sentence is: in former times everything was better and now?? I’m happy that my grandparents aren’t teachers!! In my point of view teachers can be older than 50 years but they have to respect our lifestyle! Once hey were also the teenagers so they shouldn’t evaluate our lives! Younger teachers understand us pupils more easily!! There are only maybe 10 years between younger teachers and us, so they know still what teenagers wanted!! But I think one teacher, who looks as if he was born in the Middle Ages is okay, because it’s usually a funny experience...and you can learn a lot from them....

written by Lena, Jever

Are our teachers at school too old?

The question should rather be changed into: are our teachers committed enough? No teacher is bad because of his age, he is maybe bad, because he is not committed. A good teacher tries to make the lessons as interesting as he can, but more he can’t do. To learn something from this lessons is where the responsibility of the students lies. A student, who doesn’t want to learn anything, will never learn something. But is this the fault of the teacher? Sometimes it’s not the boring teacher, who in the opinion of the students is often old, but the noisy class, which is the problem. How do you want to learn something if everybody around you is talking? In our school the classes are often simply too big, so it is difficult to make everybody listen and stop talking.

How many students are in your class and how does your class behave in some situations? Our class often gets noisy if there is a boring teacher, who has no control over the class and this is another point: a teacher must have control over his class. If the teacher can’t assert himself against the students why should they listen? But don’t the pupils in a way ignore then the opportunity to learn? Can in your country every girl and every boy learn or study what he or she wants to if he or she is good enough? We all have this opportunity, but some simply doesn’t use it and here we are at the point with the good graduation. For a good graduation you need good teachers, but you must also want it and do something for it, but not everyone does it. So has this student the right to say that he or she needs better teachers for a good graduation? We think in our country it got so far that is so normal for everyone to get an education that he or she doesn’t appreciate it any longer.

What is it like in you country? We think that behind the question stands the wish to get better and in this way younger teachers, but is this right? Should not everyone first start with himself or herself? After all, for a good graduation it’s not the good teacher that is important but rather the good learning student.

Do you think that your teachers are too old? Tell us something about your school and how you think about it. We hope you’ll write back.
Elisabeth, Rica, Jessica and Hanna

Hi. 
Rolands from Latvia is writing to you. 
 There are few old teachers in my school, even realy old. The younger teachers maybe is cheerful, interesting, they understands the students better because they remembers how it is lerning. But they dont have so big ekspirience like older teachers. Of course all students like intresting lesons, but maybe if the students askes for example, and show some exsamples. The students self need be activ, ofcours they dont need to make a trobels. In my classe are 24 students. We all are individuality.  
I hope it will help to you. Rolands

The ideal school
"Stop eating and shut up!" I think you all know this sentence from your teachers. The don't want to see you eating, talking and whispering! These teachers are mostly 50 years or older. What I want to say is that our school needs younger teachers. They take things easier. But there are not enough young teachers to 'fill' every school.
So what would the ideal school be like?
My ideal school would be a school without or only a few teachers! Every student will get a notebook with the right educational software. The software is developed by professors and other intelligent people.  The biggest advantage is that you can read things over and over again.
A second point is that the software has the ability to explain complex experiments witht the help of videos and real time simulation. So everyone will be able to understand it. In my own opinion a few teachers should be replaced by computers. There should be a few teachers around but the main part of the lesson will be done by the notebook.
Philip from Germany

4. Music was my first love...
If you are interested in the topic music (and I really mean music, no Hip-Hop or Techno which you can hardly call "music"), then tell me:

- What music do you listen to
- Do you play an instrument (which?)
- Why do you like the music you like?
- Do you write your own songs?
- Perhaps we could also talk a bit about music theory- but that could become difficult for me to translate all the expressions into English... With this topic we'll never be bored!
Julian B

Dream job milkman
Interview with musician from the rock band Marillion

Because my father works at the newspaper I had the Chance to go to an interview with the singer and guitarist from the English rock-band Marillion..  Marillion does not make rock or pop music. That’s why they are not usually played on the radio. They don’t belong to a record company and have their own studio in Oxford. But to pay the costs of a studio they invented a special system to record a CD. On their homepage they asked the fans, “Do you want a new LP we haven’t yet recorded?” Two weeks later 250,000 pounds were on the account. The result was the album “Anoraknophobia” which was bought 13,500 times. The same system was used for the next LP, “Marbles”. 15,000 sold CDs.
Steve Hogarth sits in his hotel room and talks to the other band member, the guitarist Steve Rothery. Steve and Steve are the only two musicians from Marillion who are here in Cologne to present their new album “Somewhere else”. He looks very relaxed although he will have interviews the whole day long.

“I’ve already heard a few parts of the LP. I think, it’s typical Marillion but something is different.”
“Yes, we have tried a few new sounds. Mark Kelly [keyboards] wanted an orchestral part in one song. And all in all there are a bit more things that make the album different from the others.”
“What is this LP about? Any concept?”
“No, there’s no connection between the songs. But most songs are about political topics. But there are also a few love songs. Two years ago my wife left me after we were married 25 years. The first song [the other half] is about that. The Iraq war is the topic of another song. More and more Americans coming back in body bags and so on. Stupid!”
“How big is your part when the band writes a new song?”
“Well, I write the words and the melody. I don’t come in the rehearsal room and tell the others, ‘look I’ve got a new song’. We jam and I try to bring my words in the music.”
Before he joined Marillion Steve Hogarth was the singer of the “Europeans”. But he and Colin Woore left the band to produce their own LP. But it didn’t become very successful so he wanted to get away from music. He thought about becoming a milkman.
“I don’t know if you still have them in Germany, but in London we have milkmen, who bring the milk to the door. And I think they are happy. They whistle always and seem to have enough. I seriously have thought about becoming a milkman!”
But during one week he got two calls: the first from Matt Johnson, the best musician in London. The other from Marillion, the probably uncoolest band on earth. His drunk mate told him Marillion were good people and Steve should check them out.
“If he hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have gone to them. I would have joined Matt.”
“Is there any connection with Fish [Derek William Dick, first singer of Marillion]? Does any band member have a connection with him?”
“No, why? Why should there be any connection. Let me try to explain. As I joined I married the band. I’m the wife of this band. And why should the wife have contact with the ex-wife? 18 years after the separation?”
“Will there be a tour with the new album?”
“In summer we are going to tour through Europe. I think in Germany we will be in Hamburg, Cologne and Munich.”
Time was gone, so photos were made and albums were signed. Then the next people wanted to have a talk with Steve and Steve.
Julian B, Jever

Music is a wonderful thing. Well, in general music is a wonderful thing. There are some "music"-genres I won't even call music, like Hip Hop or the new R&B-style. It's just mixing up electronic noises to a beat with some rhythm and playing it again and again, while somebody "raps" about all the violence or other disgusting things in his life. The other topics are that he tells us something about how cool he is or about his lively sexual life. Then after 3 minutes or something the whole thing ends and the new chartbreaker is just waiting to be published.
"Real" music is different. There are two different styles of it composed music and "written" music. The written music is often simple: You have a nice part of music i.e. a drum beat or a text or a sequence of guitar-chords etc.. You try to make a song out of it...you add a bass-walk, a second guitar and so on. Those songs are often finished in a few hours of relaxed work. The maybe only difference to Hip Hop is that those songs are played by real instruments, but this is from my point of view very important.
Now something about composing a song. It does not automatically mean that a song is made for the opera or something like that, only because it is composed. Even Rock-songs are often composed (of course not when it is Punk-, Trash-Rock or Metal). To compose something does just mean that everything is nearly perfect. You try to bring more than just good sounding noises (just like in Hip Hop or "written" songs) but you plan everything and try to make it sound better again and again. This two kinds of music are those I like to practice for myself (and in my band)
What I also don't like are those bands or vocalists, who receive already written songs from other people and record them in a studio session. You cannot have the right emotion feeling according to a song, if you haven't written it for yourself (or at least seen and heard how somebody did it). I often made this experience for myself. You have to listen to a song maybe hundred times to really feel it and to be able to play it then as it should be played. And when you get the music of a song, which you cannot listen to you aren't able to feel it. Only sometimes there are really good songs made this way. Another thing is when  you arrange a song in a different way. This is just like writing (composing) it new, so you can feel it piece for piece. Manuel Fendler, Jever

Hi everybody
I want to tell you something about music and how it influenced my life. To start with, I was 14 years old when I bought my very first drum-kit. I play drums now for 2 and a half year and I really think that this decision of starting to play an instrument and having part in several bands was more than great. I am actually self-taught from the beginning which means that I listened very often to music to understand how drummers come up with their ideas and usual patterns. My brother plays guitar and therefore we played often together which was a very helpful support for my development of creativity and band-playing. On 4th of October 2006 I had my first drum-lesson. Now I play in 2 bands: in the school band and in my own one. In this long period of time I learned a whole lot about anything which concerns drumming. One thing which I'll never forget was actually mentioned on a workshop with a great famous drummer. He asked me and the other students what seems to be the most important thing of drumming. The answer was easy and he merely expressed it in one word: Enthusiasm.
If somebody asks me today I'll give the same answer. It's the rudimental thing which has to exist all the time whether you play drums or guitar or any other kind of instrument. Honestly, what would music look like if this could not be achieved and "having fun while grooving" could not be established? From my personal point of view this is the very constant foundation to build up your musical skill. And if you sometimes think that nothing works and you have problems with e.g. exercises it's the enthusiasm that rebuilds your will to improve...
have nice easter vacation greetings from Jever Christian

Hey there,

My name is Philip and I really like music. That’s why I’m answering your questions.

Our traditional music is the so called ‘Volksmusik’. I think the main difference between traditional and modern music is the point that traditional music is played because it’s tradition. There is a wide range of modern music because not everybody likes the old traditional music. There are lots of genres like Electronic, Dance, Rock and many more. So I think the modern music is better because you have a wider range of music to choose from. Surely there are people who like the old traditional music but in my opinion the modern music is better. I don’t listen to the old traditional songs. It’s not the kind of music I like.

Music is a big part of my everyday life. I’m in a way addicted to music. Either in front of my computer or while I’m doing my homework I listen to music. My favorite genres are Dance, Trance and Electronic. I spend all my free time in front of my computer. Sometimes I’m mixing my own songs till late at night.

I hope you got an idea of what music means to me.

Anyway, I’ve got three questions.

1. What kind of music do you like and why?

2. Does anyone of you play an instrument?

3.  Is there any Interpret who gives you a special ‘wow-effect’?

I'm waiting for your answer. Have a nice day, Philip, Jever

Music was my first love

I want to write something about my personal experiences with music.
A few days ago the drummer of my band said to me that I was really talented, but I had to negate that. I advanced myself on playing the guitar. I started playing it when I was 11, I had two teachers for the concert guitar, but both times I had no enthusiasm left after a short time. Then two an a half years ago I started to play the e-guitar. The lessons with this teacher were nicer and the instrument itself was more interesting so I wasn't bored fast. I was getting better and better and I recognized that. So I was motivated again and again. Then not yet two years ago I joined our school band, which I can say now was an important step. I advanced my playing even faster and started to learn things I wasn't told to learn. I had a new model now: Julian. He is 15 years old and has played the guitar since he was 7 and the teacher, who coordinates our school band uses to say that Julian plays better than he himself (Mr. Wagner studied music, of course, and the guitar is his main instrument!!). Sooner or later I started to learn things like the Arabic harmony doctrine and everything about different modes. (I'm still learning now^^) That was the moment when I started to think of quitting my guitar lessons, but I liked the teacher and so I went there until two months ago. When I started learning about the modes I also started to compose songs for myself. Today I play in my own band and composed now up to 4 songs. It makes me proud^^.
In a few months we will have our first gigs, if everything works out. We have two dates now, when we will be able to present ourselves!!
The long text’s short message: To play a music instrument is only good, if it is fun. You have to like the things you do otherwise you'll never advance your playing. And you don't have to think that everything you start will work out at once. It's always a part of practicing maybe boring things. Manuel from Jever

Hey!
Like some of us did already, I wanted to write a little text about music was my first love, too:
So,... I think the expression "music was my first love" is in a way nice but not that pertinent to the point. Because in a way you start to love even before you know what music is. To me music is something special, yeah, you can say I love it, but it's more, more than this, it's just incredible. Every feeling you've got can perfectly be connected with music: love, hate, happiness, sadness, the feeling of winter, summer, fall and spring. Nothing can better point out this feelings than music does. I have to say I'm not that talented in making music by myself, but I can feel it, I can feel every piece of the music I like to listen to. Not only the text or only the music is important, it's that everything. Everything fits perfectly, every piece makes you more interested. That's just a little impression, so,... what other things make music really perfect? I think that's a kind of personal attitude.
No matter where I'm listening to music it makes me really happy... when the sun is shining on my face and I can start to dream of something nice. Some songs can remind you of good or bad moments you have had in your life and it gives you that feeling of a moment no one can give you if he just tells you about. Some songs can let you forget about anything else around. Some of them make dance, some of them make you jumping around, some make you singing, some laughing and smiling, some shouting and crying... It's crazy, I can't imagine any better feeling than music.
Greetings Marlen, Jever

Dear Julian …
Music is my first love too.
I like classical music and my traditional music ( Iranian music)
Do you know Mohammadreza Shajarian? He is one of the greatest singers in our country he is around 70!! I love him and his songs.
I hate jazz!! I really hate it . what about you?
I like classical music because it makes me relax and it has a peaceful melody.
I have been playing guitar since 2 years ago. And I try to play classic but I play pop too. What about you do you play any instruments?
Do you know tambourine? It is a kind of musical instruments and is one the traditional ones in our country.
Tambourine is a big circle and has some things like earrings hanging it and has a loud sound.
I am thinking about taking some tambourine courses.
I like single music too without any words and I like Clayderman in piano and Ferdinando Carulli in guitar .
I will be glad to talk more about music with you.
Niloufar from Farzanegan Zeynab High School, Iran

Hey Niloufar.
Yes... classical music. It's not that kind of music I hear every day, but there are classical pieces of music I like. The singer you mentioned I don't know. My favourite singers are Fish and Steve Hogarth. Perhaps you know them. By the way, peaceful melodies aren't just in the classic. There are many songs of the Dire straits with very relaxed and beautiful melodies.
My instrument is the guitar, too! I have played it half of my life, which means since I was about 7 and a half years old. I have never tried to play classical music on the guitar. In general I can say that I like the very complicated music á la Mike Oldfield (for example "Amarok" or "Ommadawn") and the very simple music ("Cornershop" or "Eric Clapton") most. Jazz is okay. It sounds really funny.
But my question: Why do you have to learn to play the tambourine? I mean, you just have to shake the thing. The rhythm comes automatically. Where is the problem?
The keyboarder in my band thinks that a song without words is impossible. But as you already said: Songs without any words, just with instruments are often better than with words. I mean, if I want a text I can read a book. Do you like any music which is known in more countries than in Iran? I'm sorry but I don't know any person you mentioned.
I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Julian, Jever
PS: Good luck with your guitar abilities!

The end of the CD?

First a friend said it to me, then I read it in a music-magazine: The age of the compact disc will probably end in the next years. But can that be right? Will Internet-downloads remove the CD from the shops? Can a mp3-file replace a beautiful round CD?

I don’t think so. I asked many persons and have thought about it. The result of this I’ll tell you now.

First of all: the functional aspect.

Of course it’s much easier to load a song or a whole album from the net than to go to a shop and buy it there. And it’s much faster, too. But if you are someone who really likes music and have invested 4000 or 5000€ for music-players you won’t be satisfied with the very low quality of an electronic signal. Mp3-data don’t have by far the same good quality as CDs or even LPs. And you can hear that difference on good music-players.

The next point is the “emotional” aspect.

Is it the same to buy a CD with an original cover and a little booklet with pictures and the song-texts as to load a song from the Internet? I don’t think so. If I load music it wouldn’t be really my music. I mean, it’s just a digital impulse. It’s not unique. Okay, the music on my special CD isn’t unique, either, but in a special way yes. Perhaps you understand me, I can’t really explain that. Another important aspect is of course that the artist can’t sign your mp3-file...

All in all you can say that the Internet can be used to load all the musical shit that nobody would ever put on a CD or a cassette. But there will always be people who know these big differences between a mp3-file and a CD. Twenty years ago there were people who said the same about the LP. But today there is a growing crowd of people who want these big plates again! By Julian B., Jever

5. POLITICS and CULTURE of your and our country

So we want to know

- how your voting system works,

- who reigns and
- which political problems your country has, and of course we want to know
- what you think about your country in politics.
- In this case what do you think about Germany especially in politics?
- What do you know about German traditions?

- We also want to know what is typical of your country and
- how young people live in your country,
àso it will be nice if you describe a typical week of yours to us.
- So would you like to live in a different country?
Elisabeth, Hanna, Rica und Jessica

Hello Rolands! From Latvia,
In two weeks we have Easter holidays. You too? Do you have some traditions in Latvia , which are connected with Easter? e.g. the Easter bunny? And do you already know about the kidnapping of the two Germans in Iraq, who were kidnapped by the terror organisation al-Qaeda?
The demand of the kidnappers is that the German army troops should pull out of Afghanistan. If the Federal parliament won’t agree, al-Qaeda would kill the two Germans and start terror attacks in Germany...What do you think about it?
Please send us an answer.
Yours sincerely, Jessica,Elisabeth,Hanna und Rica from Jever

Celebrations

In nearly two weeks there will be a big and important holiday: Easter. It is not only important, because it is a religious holiday. It is important, because the whole family gets together, search for Easter eggs and eats Easter bunnies and Easter eggs made of chocolate.

Maybe it is for you too much information in one sentence, so we will tell you now, why Easter is so important for Germans and what’s going on?

The Easter Sunday, Monday and the Friday before, Good Friday, are religious holidays for Protestants and Catholics. Good Friday is the day, where Jesus, the son of God in these religions, was crucified and on Easter Sunday he rose from the dead and got to heaven, so these days are celebrated. Maybe you want to know now why Monday is a holiday? Not because it would be nicer to have one more holiday, as it is. Easter Monday is a holiday, because the people found out only on this day that Jesus had risen from the dead.

So now you know why we celebrate Easter, but you don’t know how and this is maybe the more interesting thing. In the beginning I told you that we have Easter eggs and Easter bunnies, but this doesn’t come from these religious holidays, it is an old tradition, but there are more of these traditions: On Easter Sunday you search for Easter eggs, which can be real eggs or eggs, made of chocolate, and this is done by a lot of families. But not all families do this, some families only meet together, eat a lot of chocolate, which looks like eggs ( like you already know)or bunnies. So these are the kind of things, which you get as a present on Easter, but it could be also other things. As well the normal eggs are coloured on Easter in every colour you like and how you like. So we think it is enough about these days and also there is nothing more to say than “Cheerful Easter“!

written by Elisabeth, Hanna, Jessica and Rica, Jever

Politics and Culture of our country

I want to write a text about the politics and culture of my country.
First you have to know that I live in Germany and we live in a democracy. Our chancellor is the first woman , who has ever been in the position in Germany. Her name is Angela Merkel but everyone calls her Angie. She wants to do something against the Global warming. Our Parliament is elected by the Inhabitants of Germany and everyone who is more than 18 years old has to vote for a Party and politicians. Our president loves sport. This and last year we had two world cups (handball and football). I think our president saw every game and he loved it.
Every of these world cups was a great attraction. I like sport too, but unfortunately I’ve seen no match live. I do not like the politics in our country, because here are many unemployed people without work and everything is very expensive. The families often do not have as much money as a few years ago, the economy is so bad. If you compare the income of our country and the income of Poland, you see that our workers take much more money than the workers in Poland. That was everything I can tell you about the politics in my country, so I want to begin to tell you about the culture in Germany. If people who do not live in Germany speak about our country, they talk about a fat man with leather trousers and a white sausage in one hand and the other hand holds his beer. I just can tell you, the people in Germany are different. The people I described are just people in a part of Germany called “Bayern” . The people who go to Germany often go to Bayern ,because it is the nicest part of Germany. I spent my holidays in Bayern too and I can tell you there are so many countries, for example England ,which is much better than Germany.
There are many reasons why I should go to an other country, but I think the only reason why I should go away is to work in an other country. I mean if I cannot find work here, then I should go to another country but that is the only reason. I would like to know your opinions about the Politics and culture in your country . Please mail back.
Fabian, Jever

Culture and Tradition – Games: Boßeln
Hi guys,
today we want to talk about a traditional game in the north of Germany. There are many different kinds of traditional games and all of them have their own story. But we will tell you something about “Boßeln”.
Every time we Germans connect Grünkohl with a sport, Boßeln.
It's a sport with two teams, which play against each other on the road. They throw the "Boßel-Ball" along the street- Each team tries to throw the ball as far as they can. If the "Boßel-Ball" falls into the ditch, someone comes and gets it out with the "Graber". A team wins if they have the fewest throws when they reach the finish-. It sounds easy, but it is hard work and they are tired. So they need healthy food and they eat "Grünkohl". They sit together, eat and drink beer.
Do you have any traditional games in your area?
Please tell us about your special games and its history.
Have a nice day ^^ Fabian, Lena and Sina from Jever

My Question:
Do you have any especial day in your country that you celebrate it as the mother's day or father's day? If you have, do u know its origin? How do u celebrate it? what do you usually do on this day? Zahra Hejazi., Kashan

Answer to to Zahra Hejazi, Kashan
Yes, we do have those two days called mother's day and father's day.
The UK celebrates it on the fourth Chamfering Sunday. This year it was on the 18th of March.
Poland's mother's day is celebrated on the 26th of May.
Lithuania, Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Rumania have it on the first Sunday in May.
Sweden and France celebrate it on the last Sunday in May except if it coincides with Whitsuntide. Then France shifts it on the first Sunday in June.
Mother's day in Germany is on the second Sunday in May. This year it will be the 13th of May.
In history this day is for thanking "mother church" for its maternity.
It really establish when Anna Jarvis from Philadelphia honoured her mother on the 9th of May in 1907 which was the second day of death of her mother.
It began to spread through Europe and reached Germany in 1922. Maybe it would have never been the way, it is today if the flower shop owner didn't fight for it that much as they did. So some people call it flower day, capitalism day or so.
Another interesting fact of its history in Germany is, that it wasn't celebrated in the DDR (the former (German Democratic Republic or East Germany). They had a different day for honouring mothers (women giving birth to children were very important) but they refused anything which had to do with church.
Today we celebrate it with our family. We are very nice to our mother, help in the household and give some presents. Not every family celebrates it or give presents. Some even don't notice it, it really depends on the family.
There is a wide range of poetries and stuff. But once I bought a calendar for my mother with the, as I think, most beautiful texts and poetries. I'll copy the first of it:
For Someone I Admire and Love with All My Heart...

My Mother
I'm not sure I will ever find the right words
to let you know how lucky I feel to be your
child. I'm not even sure those words exist but
if they did they would thank you for being a
role model, a teacher, a caregiver, and a friend.

You have always been such a great source of
advice, kindness, and understanding. You have
loved me unconditionally, and I'm sure there
were times when I wasn't the easiest person to love.

As I get older, I realize more and more how
much you mean to my life, and I want you
to know there isn't a day that goes by that
you aren't appreciated for all you do and for all you are.

One of my greatest hopes is that someday I will
have a child who looks at me the way I look
at you ~ with the greatest admiration and love

The text was written by Elle Mastro.

I like the text, because it feels some kind of honest to give it to my mother. I love my mother with all my heart, even if I often can't show it. My mother is a good and warm person, even if we had some serious troubles in the past, she goes on my nerves more or less often and if she prefers my younger sisters.
I think I don't earn that much love as she gives to my sisters, because I had a difficult youth and caused a lot of troubles. Some days I hated her, but when I reflect my life with my mother I see all her greatness, love, intelligence and so.
I can't talk that open to my mother to tell her these things. To tell her I regret what I've done wrong in the past and so on. Does your relationship to your mother suffer from your behaviour? How is it at all?
As the mother's day, the father's day was invented in the USA. Louisa Dodd's father had fought in the war of secession between 1861 and 1865.
President Calvin Coolidge suggested it and Richard Nixon established it in 1974.
The father's day is celebrated on Christi Himmelfahrt (Ascension Day), which is the second Thursday before Whitsuntide. Since 1936 the father's day is a legal holiday in Germany.
On Christi Himmelfahrt Jesus went home coming to his father.
My family celebrates the father's day just as the mother's day. Some families don't celebrate it, too.
Different to the mother's day  it is called the day of tavern culture but also the day of capitalism.
So what is it like in your country and in your family? Do you have these days and how do you celebrate them? What do you think are the right presents for your parents on these days? What do you think about their meaning in the modern world? Yours sincerely, Hanna from Jever

Politics and Culture of your and our country

Germany is a democracy, so at least every citizen can vote for any party or Member of Parliament he or she wants every four years, but he must be older than 18 and he must have lived in his or her constituency longer than three months. Our Members of Parliament or shorter MPs are elected by the personalised proportional representation. This mean that you have two votes in Germany.

First Vote:

Germany is divided into 299 constituencies and every constituency elects one representative for it for the Federal Diet. The representative is elected by a relative majority vote. This means that the candidate with the most votes wins. As the first vote is a direct vote, so the representative gets a seat in the Federal Diet. In this way 299 MPs are elected.

Second Vote:

With the second vote you vote for a party list of candidates by proportional representation. It means, that a party list of candidates gets the percentage of seats for the Federal Diet, which it has got by the second vote. In this way 299 more MPs are elected.

So you see that we have normally 598 MPs in the Federal Diet, but there can be some more MPs because of the excess mandates. This means, if a party has more votes in the first vote than in the second vote, which decides how many seats it gets, it gets extra mandates (seats), which are the difference between the votes in the first and second vote.

Also there is a 5-percent-hurdle, this mean, if a party gets a percentage under 5% in the second vote, it doesn’t get into Parliament, only the people, who were elected by the first vote. But if a party gets three or more seats in the first vote, it also gets into Parliament without having five percent in the second vote.

After the elections to the Federal Diet are negotiations between the potential government parties in a coalition. The parties nominate a candidate for the post of the Federal Chancellor. At this point the Federal President proposes a candidate. After this the Federal Diet vote for or against the candidate. If the candidate has the absolute majority, he is appointed by the Federal President and sworn in.

At least there is nothing more to say as we hope you get a small idea of our vote system and will write us back, although the project is ending.
Yours sincerely, Elisabeth, Hanna, Rica and Jessica, Jever

6. Burning Questions that came up during the time of the Learning Circle

1. Nutrition
Vegetarian Nutrition for everyone in this circle

You all might know either more or less about the different types of nutrition. Maybe you practice a specific type yourself. If so I'd like to know with which kind of nutrition you live and why you do so.
Most people I know eat "normal" (or from my point of view ab-normal) food. They eat the hole pallet: fish, meat, eggs and drink milk.
I expect vegetarianism to be the second most famous nutrition. There are three different types of vegetarianism:
-ovo lacto vegetarians eat eggs and milk. It's the most popular type in Europe
-lacto vegetarians don't eat eggs but milk products such as cheese, yoghurt and so on. They are very popular in India
-ovo vegetarians don't get any milk supplies but they eat eggs
You differentiate between veganism. Vegans don't use or eat any animal products generally e.g. fur, leather or  feathers, silk (because of the silkworms which are killed in the harvest. On the latest demand peace-silk is produced, where no silkworms are killed) or duvets filled bed linen. Some even don't wear wool. They neither use cosmetics or medicines which were tested on animals. They even don't eat honey.
Frutarianism means  eating just vegetables which are from their point of view voluntarily given by nature such as drop fruits, nuts, seeds...
Pescetarier don't eat meat from mammals, amphibians, birds or reptiles but they eat fish, shells, snails, crabs and so on.
Freeganism means avoiding everything that had to do with environmental pollution, violence or ecological destruction. Some freegans are vegetarians or vegans but some eat meat on the behalf that it would be wasted otherwise.
Pollotarianism means not eating any meat but fowls.
Some cheeses and juices aren't vegetarian because some cheeses include lab and some factories use gel, destroyed shells or fish blister to clear juices but filter it out later again. So even juices and so aren't always vegetarian but it's difficult to differentiate.
Some famous and very intelligent persons were vegetarians for example Pythagoras or Albert Einstein.
There are different reasons for being a vegetarian. Some name ethical reasons, some attempt health care, some name global economical or global-ecological, religious or philosophical reasons. Again other people say it's caused because they don't like the taste of meat.
Ethical reasons are that people want to protect animals from pain, from mass animal husbandry and that they want fair treatment. Except from that animals have feelings just as we do have.
Some religions support vegetarianism so do hinduism, judaism, jainism, buddhism, islam, sikhism and neopaganism. I think my text would just become too long to read it and stay interested. Otherwise I would mention all aspects and reasons of those religions. If you want to get some more information from me, just send a mail and I would love to answer and tell what I know :)
Those who focus on the health advantage do so because of less power density in vegetarian food, the lower fat portion and because of more ballast materials. Vegetarians have barely intestine cancer. Additionally vegetarians eat less heavy metals, biocide as ddt. Symptoms lower by changing from a mixed to a vegetarian nutrition by following diseases: heart cycle disturbances, blood high pressure, acidosis, diabetis, rheumatism, acne, neurodermitis and psoriasis.
Okay, I think I need to stop here. Otherwise I'm afraid you won't read and respond. I'll send a second (lucky you) and maybe even a third (oh, I start getting jealous) text on this topic which will include basic information on religious background of vegetarian nutrition, deficiency syndromes, life expectancy, proteins, vegetarian nutrition of pets (yes, it's easily possible), controversy of vegetarian nutrition, diseases caused by a mixed nutrition, organical aspects and usage, ethical aspects, development of vegetarian nutrition, vegetarian associations (my focus will be on the German vegetarian federation). Except for that I will prepare two eating reports. Both will be from real human beings. I will count calories, proteins, vitamins and so on. I also will show you the human being aspects at animals. Like their social life, their feelings and so on.
You might wonder about my unstoppable write rage but it's easily to explain: I'm a vegetarian myself for more then eight years now and I'm more than convinced.
I really, really, REALLY, REALLY HATE people eating meat. I just hate it! I think it's by far the most unfair thing in the world.
I love animals, by far not any animal but I think neither loving nor hating should be a reason for eating animals.
Animals feel like we do! They also have families! They can also love and hate! They care and the most important thing: They are absolutely innocent. I can't explain why people eat meat when there are so, so, so many alternative products which exactly do taste like meat.
I'd love your opinion on that topic. At least my next text will deal with which I call fake-arguments on being non-vegetarian.

Yours sincerely, Hanna from Germany

Health
In the middle of the twenties, vegetarian nutrition was seen as unhealthy, but when some studies were made, researchers found out vegetarian nutrition supports the health status and the life expectancy. Because vegetarians pay attention to health, they seldom smoke or drink, which is likewise a reason for their better status of health.
Those who criticise vegetarianism say deficiency syndromes are the more possible the less animal products the person eats. A lack of mineral materials, vitamins and proteins are the reasons for that.
Animal proteins are allegedly easier digestible. Achievement sportsmen are therefore recommended to eat meat.
Another problem is the vitamin B 12, which is seldom found digestible in vegetarian food. A deficiency of this vitamin causes disturbances in cell growth and anaemia. Vitamin B 12 is found in meat, milk products, eggs and nuts. It's stored in the liver where it's available for many years so people don't need a regular supply. If necessary, it can be supplied by tablets, otherwise it's part of multi-vitamin juices.
Vegetarians comment on those statements that there can also be deficiency syndromes with people who eat meat, if their nutrition isn't balanced. So it's not different to vegetarians. Everybody has to eat balanced, to stay healthy.
The protein myth says, vegetarians need their proteins from different sources because they need different amino acids, but researchers found out different results.
A study in 1999 found out that the mortality ratio was the lowest in fish eaters (0.82) followed by vegetarians (0.84) and occasional meat eaters (0.84) and which was then followed by regular meat eaters (1.0). In "Mortality in British vegetarians", it was concluded that "British vegetarians have a low mortality compared to the general population. Their death rates are similar to those of comparable non-vegetarians, suggesting that much of this benefit may be attributed to non-dietary lifestyle factors such as a low prevalence of smoking and a generally high socio-economic status, or to aspects of the diet other than the avoidance of meat and fish."
Among the lifestyle choices investigated, a vegetarian diet was estimated to confer an extra 1-1/2 to 2 years of life.
However, no group is protected from pollution of products which everyone eats. E.g. a nutrition with a lot of soy causes a feminising effect, as it contains a lot of isoflavone, which is similar to estragon hormone. So it causes an earlier onset of female puberty but a delay of male puberty.
Various animal food safety scares over recent years have led to increased numbers of people choosing a semi-vegetarian or vegetarian diet. Reasons were for example the avian flu in poultry, foot-and-mouth in sheep, PCBs in farmed salmon, BSE in cows and generally high concentrations of dioxan, growth hormones and antibiotics.
Foreseen of these pollution, meat causes ateries greasing, intestine cancer and so on.

Vegetarian nutrition of pets
Some vegetarians and vegans feed their pets without meat, too. However, a good planning and expert knowledge is needed for this. Dogs eat at least everything, but cats are meat-eaters. So a vegetarian or vegan nutrition of cats is possible but they need artificial food additives. Apart from finished fodder, mixtures are available as well. These mixtures contain nearly the same ingredients as normal cat fodder, e.g. taurine.

Controversy of vegetarian nutrition
”Naturalness” of a vegetarian nutrition. Some people say a vegetarian nutrition is against the assessment from the biological point of view. Our body is prepared for mixed food, even if it’s focused on vegetables and so.
Those people prove their statements with the cattle finn tapeworm and the pig finn band-worm. Both took part in the evolution allegedly. So both worms focused on the human being and chose them as their habitat. That shows humans ate meat for millions of years. Otherwise neither the cattle finn tapeworm nor the pig finn band-worm wouldn’t have survived the evolution.
In the discussion of the “naturalness” of a vegetarian nutrition, the point with the conditions and body functions is mentioned.

Hanna, Jever

And now something completely different ….

Cannibalism (one kind of nutrition?!)
Hello everyone in this Circle,
I’m very interested in cannibalism in our world. I know that it is a topic no one talks about and because of that I find this topic so interesting.
Nobody can say that he or she knows a lot about cannibalism and often the people have some prejudices about that. But they don’t know why these people practise cannibalism.
Cannibalism is practice in New Guinea, New Zealand, Africa or Fiji. But cannibalism is never practised just because of hunger.( a lot of people think so )
The tribes that practise cannibalism live in regions where animal meat is hard to get and so they don’t get enough proteins. Animal meat contains protein, but human meat contains it, too, so it is the only solution for those people to get enough protein.
There are also two forms of cannibalism:
Exo-cannibalism: After a war, the winning tribes eat the prisoners to show strength and superiority. But cannibalism isn’t practised after every war; often prisoners are only eaten after big, master wars.
There is another form called Endo-cannibalism: That means that the members of one tribe eat other members of the same tribe after they have died. This is not an act to show hate or disliking; quite the contrary, it is rather intended that the power and the spirit of the dead is passed on to the living.
Most of us are disgusted by cannibalism, but why it is so ?
Why are we so afraid of eating humans although we eat animals ?
Why do we breed animals to eat and not humans ?

Greetings from Germany Mareike

2. British soldiers captured in Irak (or was it really Iran?)
Questions to the girls in Iran
Hello.... I have got some questions about the kidnapping from the Britons in Iran to you.
Here in Germany, the media report a lot about this topic and all of the media have one opinion: The Britons were innocent!
They haven’t entered the waters of Iran and nevertheless they were arrested .(This is also proved)
I think that it is very unfair and not right from the Iranians and I know that it sounds hard but what do you think? Is it okay that somebody gets arrest although he does nothing wrong ? I think that it is very unfair and I hope that the Iranians will let these people go free. 
What do you think about it ?
Was it right to arrest the Britons although it was proved that they were innocent?
One other question is:
What do you think about the accusation that the Iranians had forced the woman to lie ?
I think that this is a lie....I can’t believe that they do so scary things...
That was so terrible and not fair, because everyone has the right to say his or her own opinion.
Bye Mareike from Germany

A question to our partners in Iran

Because of the 15 imprisoned British soldiers, London raised the pressure on Teheran. Wednesday they cut the relations to Teheran. Prime minister Tony Blair published they would even raise the international pressure. The government of the Iran would have to accept that they are in "absolute isolation". As a sign of easing tensions, Teheran announced to release the soldiers. Media from Iran said that the British had agreed the were in some secret areas when they were imprisoned.
What do you think about this newspaper article?
Do you think about a right punishment of the British soldiers? Should they be punished at all?
What do you think about Tony Blair's reaction? Sincerely, Jessica, Elisabeth, Rica, Hanna, Jever

Hi girls in Iran!

What do you think about the latest development in the hostage affair with Great Britain?
Newspapers in Germany reported it would be an "egg on his face", which means that the whole story is an embarrassment for Britain and its government.
At first the British secretary of defence Des Browne made a special permission which allowed the former imprisoned soldiers to sell their stories to the maximum-offering newspapers. Usually soldiers have to keep secret what happens in their war service.
After especially the only female soldier published her experiences people were really shocked. Faye Turney had told soldiers had taken away everything from her except her slip. She  had been some kind of tortured and the government extorted her. They said she would be released within 2 weeks if she'd agree they had been illegally in high safety waters. So she says she wrote a letter and was released after 13 days but she had written the letter in a way her family would realise it wasn't really Faye Turney herself who used those words.
On Monday the first interviews had been published for several hundred thousands of euro.
As a defence the Iran published some videos which showed navy soldiers obviously in a very good mood. Another reaction came from the British inhabitants as the day passed by. Politicians, militaries and relatives of soldiers protested against the "will less trade". On Monday evening Des Browne had withdrawn his decision his former permission. He agreed his decision "hadn't caused any satisfying result. We have to learn from this experience."
In the end the hostage affair has turned out as an embarrassment for Great Britain and a propaganda victory for the Iran.
So what do you think about the hostage affair?
Was it reported in your daily media?
What do you think about the British government allowing to publish those horrible stories without obviously proving it?
Do you think other soldiers should be allowed to publish their experiences, too?
I think it's very embarrassing for the British government. It seems as if they forbid to publish bad experiences which would have a negative influence on the British army's image. But they allow to publish stories which have a negative influence on other country's images. They want to represent others negatively even if they are the real evil authors.
I'd be glad about a response. Yours sincerely, Hanna; Germany

Unfortunately no replies were sent …

3. Knut – the little ice bear

What will be when Knut the Ice bear is grownup?
Every day in the news we hear about Knut the ice bear. He is very cute and small and was born in a zoo and was abandoned by his mother and is now the star of all news. But what will be when he is no longer the sweet little ice bear and when he is big and strong?
Well, we have got some conclusions. Probably at that time there will be another baby animal and he is out because he is too big. And we find that very very sad, that just small things are interesting and loveable. On the other hand he might be disliked, because he just gets too gigantic and frightening. I mean what should small kids think if at first he is just a small harmless teddy bear and at once he is a zoo-cleaner eating monster.
Have you heard about Knut?
Or have you got other zoo animal that is always in the news? By: Isabelle and Thomas, Jever

4. Slave Trade
Our world - Slave trade (text for everyone in the circle – please send your opinions!)
Hey friends,
a few days ago in our newspaper there was a scary article about slave trade. In a small village near Jever, called Asel, is a brothel called "Blue Velvet", but that's not the problem, the brothel has been there for such a long time and when you say Asel, everyone thinks about the brothel because in Asel there is only the brothel and nothing else, only a few houses. But now I come to the article, the boss (34 years old) of "Blue Velvet" has traded with young women, most of whom were under 21 years old. They found in Asel a 17 year old girl who had worked for him. The girl is now in a girls’ house, where she lives with other girls, but she will as soon as possible go back to her mother. He brought this girls from Hungary ( a neighbouring country of Germany) to Germany and sold them to different brothels all over Germany. The boss went to Hungary and told the girls that they could work for him, they could clean everything and do such easy work. But they never got money and so they couldn’t go back.
He had a license to have the "Blue Velvet", but now the license ran out and he won't get a new one.
He is the "organiser" of the internationally acting slave trade and yearly he brought 150 girls to Germany. Most of this girls had to give the money, which they earned from the men, who had sex with them, to their pimp.
I think all these facts are so scary and unthinkable.
What do you think about slave trade ? Do you know, if in your city or near you are such men? How do you feel about it? Have a nice day, Sina from Jever

Our world - Slave trade
I'd rather not talk about this topic.. I can't understand why some people do these things...sure I've of girl trading in our country.. it's a terrible act, but unfortunately it happens.I think these guys should be severely punished for their bad deeds. If not life in prison, at least 25 years jail.
by  N Cristian, Bucharest

Hello Christian,
You're right with the punishment. I think those guys can sit 25 years in prison and they don't change their opinion and most would do it again. If they did it once they will do it again and again. In the USA some guys, who raped kids or did other things like this and live at home again, have a sign in their front gardens on which is written e.g. I raped a child. This method is very useful I think, because all people are warned and know that these guys have done something bad. Sure, these guys have a difficult life, if they have such a sign in his garden, but do they deserve a good and easy life ? People should know their neighbours and they should decide on their own, if they want to talk and drink coffee with their neighbours or not. Have a nice day, Sina from Jever

Hi Sina,
Hmm, not that I know of such things happening in my neighborhood but, if I had such a person nearby, I'd probably be more careful when I go outside, maybe even fear for my life. There have been many cases of children being raped and killed afterwards(it gives me the creeps even when I think about it xD )...all we can do is hope that such a threat won't ever come to our little hood.
As for the second question...err, there aren't many things to do. You could try to calm him/her and then help them get home, or you can be nasty and tell him/her to stop bothering you, and last but not least...run away from him/her hoping they won't find you too.
Personally, I think I'd only stop and help him/her if they are either acquaintances or classmates.. and as for other people, I'd run in fear.. who knows, maybe that's just come sort of plan to get you too.. Not many people can be trusted nowadays and that's sad.. Hope I answered well to your questions. See ya! by Cristian, Romania

Hey Cristian,
the last thing you mentioned, that you can't trust so many people, is very sad.
Yesterday there was said in the news that a 3 year old girl named Madeleine was kidnapped in a hotel in Portugal out of her bed. Her parents were in a in a restaurant, but they looked after the little Madeline every 30 minutes. The family only wanted to pass relaxing holidays. And I think it is crazy that nobody noticed that there was a man or a woman who kidnapped a child. How did he or she get into the hotel ? How did he get into the room, where Madeleine was sleeping, why did he choose Madeleine ? When I was the last times on holiday in a hotel you could only come in with a card from the hotel. You know that no one who really didn’t make holidays in this hotel would get in and you can't get out of the hotel without this card. I really felt safe. And I think this is very good, the hotels have to be safer, because things like this must not happen again! We can only hope that Madeleine will be found, alive and healthy. Sina from Jever

Slave trade – answer to Sina

I am familiar with the story of the 'Blue Velvet', too, because I've read about it in the newspaper, and I agree with Sina that something like this happening practically next door is quite scary. It is also quite scary that slave trade can happen not only in Germany, but all over the world - and it is weird too that everyone is eager to make progress in technologies, but not in stopping the slave trade (and improving the enforcement of human rights in general). To me, this story is something like a wake up call, because it happened almost nearby - most people who live in a rather small town tend to forget that slave trade and other major crimes do not necessarily only happen in big cities. Esther, Jever

Slave trade - to Sina and Esther
I think you're quite right being shocked because of the latest news from Asel but I think compared with other events it is not that "important" that it could develop as a wake-up call.
People discover the most shocking and horrible stories and nothing happens. Reports in the magazines about rape and slave trade are read and forgotten. Those stories which are even bigger don't cause anything. Once I read about a poor village with poor inhabitants. The families sold their children to get the money for a roof. Some parents didn't even know what would happen to their children.
So the report continued with a biography of a girl who fled from her buyers after years of agony.
She was bought by three men who raped her every day. ( I can't really remember, I think the girl was between 8 and 11 years at that point ).
They abused her in many other physical ways which I don't want to mention all. You might imagine, others were: They pressed burning cigarettes on her nipples, in her belly navel and on her vagina. She had to serve them. Her whole live consisted of rape and abuse. I can't remember how she managed to flee.
You've to imagine that's happening all over the world every day.
What is that compared to a 17 year old girl who sleeps with men?
Okay, it still might have been a horrible experience for the girl and the women from Hungary but they were to a certain degree safer in the brothel. You understand what I mean?
I don't want to belittle the Asel story but it's not "crazy" enough to effect anything.
And about the thing that Asel is just nearby, I want to tell you another story.
My mother is a teacher at the vocational school in Wittmund. She's in a section where all the anti-social students are (sorry for that expression, but it's just true).
She teaches children without a family or with catastrophic families. Apart from all the child abuse, safe-keeping draw and so I want to tell you this story:
My mother has a student who is very small and very thin. She looks so fragile, you could never ever harm a hair of hers. One day my mother got a call from the police and they told her about the girl, who wasn't allowed to go back to her family, neither her baby was (Even if she was only 17, her baby was 2 years old).
They told her about an auction where a laptop was sold. The buyer searched through the files and found some pornos. So far so good but when he watched them he became irritated and went to the police.
They found out the girl in the video was my mother's student and the man was her boyfriend. Now guess who recorded the porn...
It was the girl's father together with the mother. It was usual that they filmed the girl and as far as  I know the father took even part himself.
The girl cried and cried when she wasn't allowed to go back because she thought it would be just normal to do those things. Stories like that one are quite more shocking. Seeing sexual self-keeping draw happening next door and so...
Yours sincerely, Hanna

7. FANTASY and GAMES
I want to write about computer games and fantasy-stories. I'm a big fan of fantasy-stories and I read a lot of books. ''Lord of the rings'', ''Dragonfire'' and ''The Hobbit'' for example. But I also like computer games. I play role playing games, racing games, fantasy games and strategy games. Well , I play ''Warcraft III'', ''FlatOut 2'', ''Diablo II'' and Spell Force 2''. If you are interested, I can write you MANY more things about these games. If you are not interested, we can talk about fantasy.
I have some questions to you.
- Which sort of books/games do you read/play?
- Which are your favourite books/games?
- Why do you read/play them?
- Why are your favourite books/games your favourite books/games?
- And when you read/play some books/games I don't know yet and could be interested in them, describe them. ;; I hope you answer, whenever. By the way, it is not important if you are a boy or a girl. Have a nice day, Sören.

Moin Cosmin,
my name is Sören. You are a big fan of ''Harry Potter'' and ''Lord of the Rings''? GREAT! Have you read the background of ''Lord of the Rings''? ''The Hobbit'' describes, how Bilbo found the ''One Ring''. It also tells, how Bilbo met Gandalf the first time. And have you read the most complicated book I have ever read? ''The Silmarillion'' is the genesis of middle earth. The master of Sauron, Melkor, stole the Silmarill from the elves and create the orcs. ''The Silmarillion'' is a very, very complicated book. ''Harry Potter'' is also a great series. I read all of the ''Harry Potter''-books. The book ''The chamber of the secrets'' was the best book, I think. I like snakes, you know.

You also play computer? Wow, you and me, we are of the same caliber. Which games do you play? WoW? Warcraft III? I love to play this sort of games. Fantasy, muhahahaha! Racing games are also very great. FlatOut 2 is the best racing game, I think. It is the ''Best action racing-game of the year 2006''. Yeah, we can talk about many, many things. ''Lord of the Rings'', ''Harry Potter'' and computer. Write, write! Write which computer-games you play and I maybe could say many to this games. By Sören, Jever.

Salut, Sören!
Yes, I read "The Hobbit" when I was younger and liked it very much. However, I haven't read "''The Silmarillion''...I hope I'll be able to read it in the near future. I think we can talk a lot about "Harry Potter"...what do you think about the final book? Do you think Harry will die(I really, really hope he doesn't), or who else? And what about Snape? Is he really bad? I've read on the Internet a couple of theories according to which he is actually good, and made a deal with Dumbledore, who was already dying because of the injury caused by Slytherin's ring(remember he had a blackend hand?). I believe Dumbledore gave his own life to save two other: Draco's (who would have been killed by Voldemort if he would not have killed Dumbledore) and Snape's (who made the Unbreakable Vow to help Draco in his quest and if Draco failed, he would have died). I also think Snape is still trying to help Harry overcome hi s weakness...remember when he left at the end of "Half-Blood Prince" he did not torture Harry at all but told him to try to close his mind, or he would be an easy pray for Voldemort? Anyway, if you would like to talk more about this, it would be my pleasure. I do like the computer a great deal. I think my all-time favourite game is Medieval II - Total War...it's a strategy game set in medieval times, full of strategy. I also like WoW, Lineage II, Counter-Strike( it's very very popular here), Civilization IV ,NFS:Carbon and Diablo II (I played this game a couple of years ago and I had become kind of addicted to it...I liked the Paladin-Smiter and Necromancer for playing multi-player.) I'd like to know more about you and your class and continue to correspond on these subjects. Yours truly, Cosmin,Bucharest.

Dear Sören!
I praise your morale about fantasy stories. I like them, too. I read a lot of books and t some of them are fantasy books. Like “his dark materials” etc. I read Paulo Coelho’s books. They were so interesting and I enjoy them a lot.
But I rarely play computer games because I always have a lot of homework and projects to do. So I must wage my lessons. In fact I love computer games a lot but I don’t play every day.
I sometimes read ideological books and adoring them. But I like fantasy books a lot. And I read them when I’m free.
I think the human without books are very destitute. So I try reading a lot of books (in my spare times).
I like “the Celestine Prophecy” book because it is an ideological book.
Do you read some ideological books?
Do you like them?
Which one do you read?
I hope I can interest you in these books! Have nice times! MAEDEH. Farzanegan Zeynab Educational Center, Tehran

Fantasy and Games, taken from Kashan blogs
Which sort of books/games do you read/play?
We always use different books ,of course with several subject of the schools education plane is so busy because of that we have little time for free study out of school but the subject of schools book is always new and useful .
In irans school research is so important and because of these we have to search a lot.we study psycholory & imaginery books in our free time.
About games we play computer & perhaps you now them seeds of ewil ,city life ,call of duty & …
We have some tradicional games in different parts of our country .so in islam doing sport is so important by Hadith (saying)of our prophet.
There are lots of good books in the world that lead people to good ways and by them you can feel quietness. they help you to think lagical.
In the humans life they are masterpieces.
Why do you favourite books /games your favourite book/games?
because the Paulo coelho books is very nice and they have lots of miningful concepts & Darren shan is so interesting too. mozhgan & hannaneh, Kashan

I'm a big fan of fantasy stories too and I love to talk about them. Sometimes they are all of my life and I think about them in all the day long. I like Harry potter more than any fantasy books but I read all of the books of this kind like the Lord of the Ring, Darren Shan, His Dark Materials, Demons and some more. I love all of them but I don’t read only fantasy. All kinds of book are interesting for me. For example I love Gone with the Wind, Desirie or Paolo Coelho's books. It is better that I say that I love to read books. I think that book is the most permanent thing in the world. And I love to be a writer in future.
Saba, Farzanegan Zeynab High School, Tehran

Games and Fantasy
Hello,
We want to talk about our favourite game, called Age of Empires II. It's a really great game because if you play it it doesn't need your full attention and so can relax in front of your PC. It's really easy...your in the Middle Ages. You can decide between many cultures: Teutones, Celts, Britons and so on. Every culture has its own special technologies or abilities. You begin the game with a village central and 8 villagers. The most important thing is now to save resources to build up your town and make more villagers for work on fields to get something to eat or in the forest to produce wood. When you have enough resources you have to build up an army, because your enemies will try to conquer you soon. You have many different ways to build your army: marines, horse-troops or archers. But an army isn't the only thing you can do to save you town. You also have to build a fortification around your town. After some time your army will be big enough to conquer you enemy's one. There are some possibilities to do that. You can kill the king of your enemies, destroy his whole town, or build a wonder of the world. So you see it's really easy to play this game.
Thore and Marc, Jever

Gadgets in Movies: from dream to reality

We all have seen James Bond movies. And we all loved the amazing gadgets he got from Q.
In the years the movies launched in the cinemas it was all futuristic and people sometimes said “impossible”. But scientists made some progress and by today we start do reach the technological level of science-fiction authors (at least in some points).

Star trek is a good base to start with:
It was first broadcast in the 50's, one decade before the first man on the moon. They had communicators, then futuristic, now used everyday by everyone: the mobile phone. The most fantastic thing on Startrek was and is the ability to “beam” people over long distances. But scientists worked on that. They beamed just one single particle from one side of the Danube to the other, but they did it.

Another movie franchise with amazing machines is Star Wars. The imperium has “tanks”(AT-AT or AT-ST) which walk on legs instead on chains or wheels. This is reality. If there are trees in forests with difficult terrain they have to be logged, Woodworkers do that with vehicles, which look like gigantic spiders. These vehicles maneuver in between trees and they do less harm to the ground.
Light sabers, which made the films popular, use focused light beams (or ionized gases/plasma) to cut through any material imaginable. The industry uses lasers and plasma cutters for cutting thick metal plates, e.g for ships.
In many science-fiction stories and movies alike robots play a more or less important role. In Star-Wars the serve their masters, in Terminator they (try to) destroy the human race and in “The Matrix” they even use us as an energy source. Robot-scientists realized several functions of a humanoid body, like walking, showing emotion, welding(and other industrial operations), doing single jobs in the household (mowing the lawn, cooking, answering the phone, etc) and much more, but yet, no robot has ever been able to do everything a real human can. The reason for this may be the huge amount of energy to supply the A.I (artificial intelligence), that means the “brain”, of the robot with power. Also, the scientists would have to write an incredible complex software.
This is a very incomplete list of science-fiction technology, there is so much more for example time-machines, invisibility devices, traveling at velocities faster than light, etc., but it would make the text 10^10^100 (googolplex) times longer and no one would read it through from top to bottom. Maybe you can think of solutions for things not yet made possible for yourself and make the world a place worth living (but please do not struggle for world domination).
Gert, Philip, Lena, Esther, Sina, Fabian, Jever

8. Sports

1. FCB
- Right time for the new coach?
- Who will win the top match  FCB - Real Madrid
2. Handball World Cup
- Referees: Do you think they were paid?
- Allstar-Team
- Ivano Balic: Is he really the best Player?
3. NBA Allstar Weekend
- Who will win the Slam-Punk-Contest?
- MVP
- Who will win? East or West?
4.- Which sports are you into?
- Which sports do you play?
- Write stories of your experiences.

Thomas, Hans-Christian, Julian D., Isabelle

- Which sports are you into?
Football , Volleyball , Teniss , Sky.
- Which sports do you play?
Volleyball and football. In volley ball most of the time I pass to other player but I do others activity in play too. In football I am gate keeper.
- Write stories of your experience
I remember one day about 2 years ago we had a volleyball game with another school and it was my first game. It was my turn to start to shoot ball. When I kick the ball, it went up and up then suddenly 2 or 3 lamps of stadium broke and fell down to our faces and every body shouted and for 20 minutes the play stopped and after that play whenever I want to start the game my friends remind me of that day.
I have an other story in football that I was standing in gate and one of my friend who is thin and small wanted to shoot a penalty and I was relaxed in gate then suddenly she shoot and the ball come to my face and mouth and I could not speak well for 4 days. Then I thought of this sentence : Don’t judge a book by the cover. DELARAM.M, Tehran, Iran

Hey Mina
we are glad that you have the same interest as the majority of our group. We hope that we can have many interesting conversations about football with you. First we will talk about our personal experiences with football and we hope that you will tell us yours. Are there any other sports which you like apart from Teakwondo and football? At the moment it doesn’t matter but probably we can talk about those later. First let’s talk about Football:
The boys in our group all play football in a club.
First there is Thomas. He is a great supporter of the football club FC Bavaria Munich. By the way, which is your personal favourite team and are there any big clubs in Teheran? Ok, let’s continue with Thomas... like we have already said: he plays in the football club FSV Jever. One of his hobbies is groundhopping. This is like a "sport". Nearly every weekend he drives to a stadium of an team in the third or forth league. For most of the students of our class it’s nonsense but he likes it;).
The second boy in our group is Julian. He had played football for some years but then he decided to play his only "love" basketball. He is the best player of our class and one of the best in our school. He plays at Tus Esens and at Mtv Aurich. He also plays in the talent team of our region Ostfriesland. Oldenburg, the biggest team in our region(they play in the first German league) asked him to take part at the tryout but sadly he has injured his knee but he hopes that he will join the team in 2 years.
The only girl in our group is Isabelle. She likes horseback riding but sometimes she is interested in football too. Sometimes she goes to the stadiums with Thomas too.
Last but not least there is Hans-Christian. He is the allrounder of our group. He has played football for his 3 year but he also likes to play handball. In handball he plays in the highest league of his age which there is in Germany. He also likes to play table-tennis where he hasn’t lost a match in league for 2 and a half years. He is a supporter of Munich too but not as fanatic as Thomas.
So you see our interests. We hope to have a god time in the learning circle and we gladly wait for your answer. There is only one more thing which we want to ask you: What is you opinion of the football world cup 2006 in Germany? For us it was nearly the best time in our lives because it was so exciting and cool how our country reacted after every game. Are the people in Iran interested in football too? We hope that you will write back soon.
Sincerely, Isabelle, Thomas, Julian and Hans-Christian from Jever

Sports
I have played Basketball half my life long. I think it is a great sport because it is fast and all the time there is action on the court. The players must play defence and attack all the time. A team can only win if the players are a unit and if they are working together. But the win and the lose aren’t far away: “In 2001 the Indiana Pacers tied the score in only 16 seconds after the other team was leading with 7 points”
But Basketball is also a good sport to play because you can practise it alone and at home. You only need a basket.
I play in two teams (junior and senior team) and in a special selection team of our region. If I play Basketball, I feel something like freedom, pride, cheerfulness. But it isn’t always good for me to play Basketball because I am often injured (broken fingers, tear in the curcial ligament) Then I am really stressed. But I will always love the game and so I can cope with a few setbacks. Julian D., Jever

Judo
I think Judo is one of the best but also most difficult sports. One of the most important advantages is that you are alone. If you are a good soccer player and the other guys in your team can’t play very well it’s over. In Judo you aren’t dependent on the abilities of someone else. But Judo is also the most exhausting sport. Again I will make a comparison with soccer. If you are exhausted you stop and let the others make the match. Or you leave the game and let someone else play for you. In fighting sports you have to carry on alone. I have already said Judo is very difficult. You mustn’t only use your leg and your foot to kick a ball away. You have to use your whole body to get your partner (or the enemy) on the ground. But Judo isn’t just a thing of strength and stamina. You must use your brain to win! And sometimes you have to be very quick. There are more than 40 ways of throwing a person on the ground. But usually a Judoka just has two or three techniques which are really good.
Now something about the rules. It sounds like a paradox but in Judo you never get hurt. In every second football match you break your leg or lie in a hospital. Not so in Judo. You aren’t allowed to beat and kick. You just have to throw the opponent down or make him quit. If your action was a good one you get an “Ippon” and are the winner. If the opponent lands on his bottom it’s just a “Koka” or a “Yuko”. If he lands on the side you will get a “Waza-Ari”.
I think now it’s time to explain the two fighters. When you talk about a movement you call the two persons special names. The man who makes the action is called “Tori”, the partner “Uke”. But these expressions are only used when you practise. But now let’s continue with the fight. If Tori doesn’t make any mistake Uke has no chance to get out of the grip. But if he makes a mistake Uke can leave. But there are more possibilities than just holding someone on the ground. When you are old enough you are allowed to strangle your enemy or to use his arm as a lever. The pain is very big but if you give up Tori has to spot and the pain is gone after a second. Judo was created by the Japanese “Jigoro Kano” who created it from other kinds of fighting. Translated Judo means something like “the long way”.
Another part of Judo is something called “Kata”. A “Kata” is a kind of ritual. Both Judoka have to do a very strictly ruled form of techniques. This you will need for higher grades, far over the famous black belt. Well, these shall be the most important facts about the fascinating sport Judo. Julian B., Jever

Sometimes you're really forced to think that you are one of only a few people left, who do sports. There are more and more with a too high weight in Germany. Germany is Europe’s country with the most overweight people. This seems really strange, if you know that the German football Association (DFB) as well as the German tennis association (DTB) are the biggest communities worldwide in their sport. The DFB is even the association with the most members worldwide.
We all like to and do practice sports. Marc is an excellent football midfielder, but he quit playing football, because of a knee-injury. Today he plays tennis at a good standard. Thore was going to be goalkeeper in our town's football club's A-youth, while being in the B-youth normally, but he also quit playing football. His trainer left the club and so he hadn't any enthusiasm left. The same happened to Manuel, who was defender in the same team. Before that he used to play handball and badminton for a long time together with Christian. Christian still plays badminton, but left the handball team, too. Lars goes to the fitness studio.
Apart from all these former activities all of us like to jog. And if you leave Lars out you can say that we are all great free time football players.
But except for doing sports all of us like to watch sports whether on TV or sometimes in the stadium. Of course we all supported the German team at last year's world cup. Unfortunately we lost against Italy. Marc uses to say that the Italian were cheating ;). An also great event at the moment is the handball champions league, in whose finals two German clubs (THW Kiel, SG Flensburg-Handewitt) compete. Another cult sport is snooker, but only on TV. Billiard is better (because it's easier^^) to play it for yourself. Also interesting is the upcoming tennis Fed-cup half-final.
That's about us as sportsmen^^ Marc, Thore, Christian, Lars and Manuel

Soccer... Football...footie ...footy ...footer ... what is the right name???

I will tell you something about my favorite sport art :Soccer!!! It is also called Football.

Soccer is a ball game, which is played by two teams. The ball is to be kicked with the feet. That’s the reason why soccer is also called Football. But be careful !!! Do not confuse soccer (FOOTBALL) with other variants of Football like : American football, rugby, or Gaelic football.

So it’s better if you called this sport Association Football because this is the official name. Other English native speakers call it : soccer, football, footie, footy or footer. So as you all know… all of these variants are right to say. So the rules.
Each team has 11 players. One team is build by: A goalkeeper :he tries to block the shots. The defense :they try to defend their own goal area. The midfielders :They try to play both office and defense. And… The forwards who try to score goals for their team (maybe the most important part of the team). The game is played in two halves of 45 minutes each. It’s also important to know, that the players must not touch the ball with their hands or arms. A goal is scored when the ball lies behind the goal line. And the team with the most goals wins !!! By Florian Hemsen, Jever

Sport is an important topic in our class. Soccer is like a religion, but my career as a soccer player is already completed before it started. When I played soccer, a girl jumped and landed on my foot! Result of the little accident: The foot is not to be used at the moment and the boys are laughing about that all the time but otherwise that topic soccer built a new community in our class. Sport is just fun and that's the most important thing about it. You can play along with other people in a group and you either win or lose together. The only negative aspect are the injuries, and our teacher says all the time: Sport is murder, so you can better play chess! But every sports fan knows, life without sports is murder. Lena from Germany

The HSV

Moin Moin Friends, My Talk is about the HSV. HSV means Hamburger Sport Verein, it is the best soccer team in Germany. Sometimes this team do not play very well but in the past, HSV was a really good team. It is the only team , that has always been in the premier league of Germany.

This year they was in the champions league, but unfortunately they did not reach the second round.

Do you play or like soccer ? Which team do you like ? Or do you like an other Sport ?
One more Information for the people of Iran.

Hamburg has one of the best soccer players of Iran, called Mehdi Madavikia.

Please mail back, Bye, Fabian, Sina, Lena, Gert, Esther and Philip

Text about football
Hi! Next Wednesday Bayern Munich plays against Real Madrid.  After the nice away-match of Munich (they played 2:3, so they lost but with the late goal of Van Bommel the defeat feels like a victory). In the Allianz Arena they need for example just a 1:0 and they are in the next round. So we think they will win, because they are the better team and they have more team spirit. Last Saturday FCB played against Wolfsburg, and they won 2:1. After more than two years Andi Görlitz played again in the start formation (he had been badly injured) and his comeback was very good. And Lukas Podolski, one of our world cup heroes, scored again after a long time. It was a penalty and Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld gave “Poldi” his trust to shoot. So we hope that he will play against Real, too. But first they play in Berlin, and if they want to get into the top three they must win. But it will be a hard match in Berlin. So do you know something about the German Bundesliga or the UEFA Champions League? Which team is your favourite for the cup? We hope Bayern will get very far in the tournament but they are not the favourites for the cup. Maybe Chelsea London will win because they are so rich with all the oil millions. We will see or we say in Germany (especially in Bavaria) “Schaun ma mal”. By Isabelle and Thomas

My trip to Hanover
Hello, At first I was torn out of sleep by my lovely alarm-clock, it was about 8:45 (on a Sunday I have do add). And there were only 38 minutes left till the train in Jever left. There I met two friends of mine, who came with me for the first time. Well you might ask, what do 3 teenagers want on a Sunday in Hanover…watch soccer, match what else. When we met we were all looking forward to the journey, but at first we had to travel 3 ½ hours to Hanover by train. Planned was just to watch a match from the 4th League, which would cost about 4€. But on the way to our … we had the brilliant idea to watch a second soccer-match, which was coincidentally on the same day. It was a “Bundesliga” match between Hanover and Mönchengladbach (but this cost us 17€).
As we arrived we had about 1 ½ time left till kick-off. So we first went to Burger King and then pretty fast to the Underground. And then there were about 5 minutes till kick-off at the stadium of the 4th League game. Even though it’s not a so big setting it was very exciting and fun. The game ended with a 3:0 for Wolfsburg II. The stadium was pretty old and I had only seen it on photos, but it seemed pretty simpatico to me, because I also prefer old grounds very much.
After leaving this game we had to head very quickly to the AWD-Arena, because we only had about one hour left to get there. 10minutes before kick-off we were in the stadium. And even though the atmosphere at the match before was great, this was even better. 42000 Viewers, amazing! It was just an average match, but it had its exciting highlights. It ended 1:0 for Hanover. And as I realized later, there was a punch-up where about 40 people were arrested. We didn’t really notice this, because our time schedule was pretty tight. Our train was leaving 30 minutes after the match. We ran from the stadium to the underground, arrived just in time and had about a quarter of an hour to relax till we had to switch to the train that would take us back home.
And about 3 ½ hours later we were back at our starting point at about half past ten.
All in all it was a great day, we had lots of fun, seen a lot, and we were always on time.
Have you made any of these experiences?
Do you do some kinds of spontaneous weekend trips?
Do you think we are crazy (of course just because we are doing this)?
By: Isabelle and Thomas from Jever

Answer to Isabelle and Thomas – Riding Tournament
Hi Isabelle and Thomas!
Reading your story I could reconstruct every detail. Even if I'm absolutely not into soccer, I experienced a similar event.
Three years ago I went to a big, important riding competition called "Kampmann Turnier" in Bremen.
I was released from school for this day and I drove there with my older sister and with my coach and her husband. We slept in a flat owned by them that we could start our journey as early as possible. Originally my coach had planned to join the competition and take part in it but she didn't want to risk the horse's life because of the bad weather. We had to drive from Hohenkirchen to Bremen indeed and it had rained all the night and didn't stop.

When we arrived there I couldn't believe everything was true. Really famous, popular and important riders took part there. I saw all these expensive and exclusive horses and was really excited.
Because we knew some "important, big" people, we got very good seats and had a fantastic view. My other coach who was the vice European champion that year rode there, too. At least I really knew many people. That day, the desire spread in me to join this tournament one day.
The atmosphere was fantastic, just amazing. Everyone was friendly and everyone had this one big love: horses.
It was a fantastic and entertaining day and one of my best child memories, I guess.

To answer your question: No, I don't think you're crazy. I made a trip myself which I would maybe call crazy ;)
My former boyfriend and I had crazy illusions. Suddenly he suggested to make a trip to Switzerland. So we hurried to the pharmacy, bought some chemical water cleaners and alcohol to disinfect possible wounds. The next morning we took the first train and drove actually to Switzerland. I had just the wrong clothes and no money but it was a great experience. We stayed there for two weeks, till I had to return because my parents had booked holidays for the whole family.
I guess my Switzerland trip might have been the most spontaneous thing I've ever done. But I loved it, I would do it any day again to stay in a tent in the nature on a mountain and all these lovely things.
Yours sincerely, Hanna

Hello from Latvia.
We have just read your theme and we think it is a good theme, but the problem is that we are not so big footbaall fans as you. Maybe we could deal about another theme, maybe music, music, music :) ??? Why music, because our group like music and some of us play in band. We think that music is wide theme and verry interesting. How do you think????
We are waiting for the answer!!
Rolands, Jānis, Aigars

Answer to Rolands, Jānis, Aigars

Hey you all!
It is ok that you want to write about something than different from soccer but is there really no sports which you are interested in??? because we aren’t interested in music either. Well, we listen to it in the radio and sometimes we also buy some CDs but firstly we all listen to different music so it’s difficult to write in a group and we don’t play in a band either. We can not even read notes =).So do you have any suggestions for another topic?
Isabelle,Thomas,Julian D.,Hans-Christian from Jever

Hello from Latvia! 
No it's ok, sport too is a good topic. 
In our group we like sport, for example: football, basketball, floor-ball and weight lifting. In ours group Rolands is playing floor-ball, and he goes to the training and  weight lifting. Jānis likes playing basketball and floor-ball. Aigars  likes like weight lifting and he goes to the floor-ball trainings. 
What kinds of sports activities do you like?
Write soon, we are waiting for your answer. Jānis,Rolands and Aigars.

Addictions

Hi to you all!!! I want to show everyone my point of view on the topic addictions.
From my point of view it is a very interesting topic but it is also very big so there will be much to discuss and that’s the thing the learning circle is meant for. There are serious addictions like those from which you really suffer psychically or physically like the addiction to drugs like heroin, cocaine or alcohol or those which are pushing you into financial ruin like gambling or betting, but there are also not so serious addictions like the ones you have mentioned (chocoholic).Of course it can get serious but it is only a very very very... small minority which has these addictions, so e.g. the government can’t forbid eating chocolate. In the point with gambling or drug addictions the politicians could help those addicted people with an organisation which looks after the addicted people who know that they are “ill”, but not only after those, but also after those who don’t know that they are "ill" because if you see it early enough it will be easier to react.

Now I’ll come to "positive" addictions which everyone should have because my interpretation of addiction is that you love something and you want to do it all day long. Those can be your job, sports or whatever. In this area I have my addictions, too. I’m a sportaholic and I’m in the gym 2-3 hours a day and at the weekend sometimes the whole day long and in the time when I’m not in the gym I’m watching sports on TV. The fact that I’m a sportaholic makes me dream of being a sports-journalist that I can "live" my addiction.
This isn’t the own addiction I have .Well, I don’t know if it was a real addiction but in the past I did many sport bets but in the end I stopped it because it wasn’t funny enough any more.
Do you have any addictions too?
I hope that you will write back soon! Maybe we will get a new addiction: The learning circle addiction =)
Hans-Christian Mehrens

Hi Hans - Christian Mehrens!
Thanks for your answers. We hope your dream  wiil come true and you gona be  the sport journalist. .Of course  I think everyone have some addictions. Most of us in our school have addiction from ithe nternet, from chating with our friends in spree time. Some studens go even on internet in lessons from  their mobile phones. Many of studens are smoking ,too in our schoool. I think it is very bad because it influences our health. .What about your school? 
I like waching  sport games on TV ,like basketball, skating. So have a nice day!:), Arita, Santa from Latvia

Hey Arita!!!
Thank you very much for your wishes. The problem with smoking at school is a topic in Germany although it is forbidden to smoke in official buildings like schools or parliaments because the tobacco addicted just have to walk 20 meters to smoke legally. If they smoke on the public pavement next to the school they can’t do anything against it but we don’t really care about this because we don’t smoke. The reason for this is our "love" sport which we have already mentioned. You have told us that you like basketball. Is basketball very popular in Latvia and do you have a chance to watch it on free-tv? Are you also interested in the NBA and who should be chosen as the MVP?
Here in Germany basketball is not as popular as soccer or handball but there are many students in our school who play it. We hope that you will write back soon and hopefully we will stay in contact. Hans-Christian and Julian D.

9. Special communication

Inken – Arita and Gunta
Latvian topic: Addictions

Addictions are something terrible. I think the people who become addicted have a lot of problems. Perhaps they were dismissed and so they don’t find a new job. Or the partner has left the person. So there are a lot of reasons why a person becomes addicted. Perhaps you have a problem and you want to forget this. So you drink a beer or smoke or something like that. Then you have a problem again and you drink a beer again. Soon you can’t stop any more and you become addicted. It’s a lot of time till you see that you are addicted. And then you have to go to hospital to make a therapy.
I think games console can be dangerous because some children have nothing else to do. For example, I think of a big family. The mother is an alcoholic and the father is in prison. So the mother is addicted and doesn’t look after her child. So she neglects her daughter and the daughter is sad because the mother doesn’t look after her. Perhaps she has a lot of problems at school or other problems. So she has depressions and she plays games. Perhaps she can’t stop any more and she becomes addicted. I know that is a very hard version of addiction but so it could happen.
I think everyone is addicted to something. For example I love jelly babies. When I eat them I can’t stop any more. But of course it isn’t as bad as drugs or alcohol. When you have a weakness for something it isn’t bad. But the addictions can destroy your life. When you smoke or drink alcohol every day you can die very young. I think people don’t need that to be happy. And when you have problems you can talk with your best friend or do something else. But alcohol or drugs are no solution. Inken, Jever

Hi!
I agree to your opinion. I think addictions is very big problem in all the  world. But mostly people have addictions of the stress. Nowadays in Latvia studens have to learn a lot of, so they have a stress and they want to relax.  
They think that their problems will

be solved with alcohol and smoking but it isn`t so.  I think that in families where parents are smoking or  drinking show to thier child bad ilustration. A child think that it is good and after some years he does the same as his parents - smoke, drink ,and after a while he has  addiction and he doesn`t know that it isn`t good.For example some kids start to smoke or use drugs when they are just 11 years old . I think it is awfull. Society has to talk about addictions with people, because they have to inform all people how to fence from addictions. Arita, Santa from Latvia.

Hey Arita!

It´s nice that you have answered me so fast.

I think too that the kids become addicted when they see that their mothers or fathers drink or smoke very often. Perhaps some parents are so drunk that they offer their kids a bear or something like that. But I can imagine that some people become addicted because they have so big problems that they feel sorry for themselves. So they are so egoistic that they aren’t interested in their kids. I think the people need in this time a person who helps them. They need someone to talk about the problems. Here in Germany there are the " anonymous alcoholics". The alcoholics can go to this meeting to talk with other people who have the same problem. I think that’s a good possibility to overcome the addiction.  Inken

Hi Inken
 I agree to you that alcholic must talk about their problem, but I know some persone who all time drink. He knows that it`s bad but at the same time he does`t know how to stop drink. I think  these persons who have addictions need a big power of volition.
 There are so many addictions in world. So what do you think about gambling? Does any of your friends have gambling? Arita from Latvia

Hey Arita

I was really shocked when I read that you know a person who is addicted, too. I agree with you that these people can overcome this problem when they want it. To your question about gambling I think that’s a terrible addiction, too. The reason for this addiction could be a lot of problems with money. When you sit in front of an enormous debt panic breaks out and you try to earn money in a casino. Perhaps these people lose a lot of money because they will be tempted to play more and more. So the people who are addicted have to sit in the gutter to think about their big problems. In this time they need strong persons who are ready to help them. Perhaps it’s a big help to know other people who had the same problem. These people can tell you how they overcame their problem. I’m really relieved that the people in my environment have no problems with addictions. But I think in Germany there are a lot of people who drink or smoke all the time. Is this addiction in Latvia a big problem, too? Inken from Jever

Latvian topic: Stress

I think stress is a normal thing in life. Today some people are so stressed that they will get ill. That´s very abnormal but some people must blame themselves for it because they work and work all day long. Perhaps it´s a bit hard to say that the people must blame themselves but I think it´s right. Today the people are more stressed than in the past. For example, my father is independent. My parents have their own shop. It´s very hard to be independent because you have a lot of work. Today the economy is very bad and the people have to work hard to earn enough money to live. So I think in the past it was better than today. The economy wasn´t so bad and the people weren`t put under pressure. You should enjoy life. So forget work or school and sit down and relax. Sometimes people need that. You shouldn`t neglect school or work but everyone needs a break. Perhaps you can go on holiday. But I don`t think you should be at home because you always find work. So you should go on holiday because that takes one`s mind off things. It`s very important that the mobile phone stays at home. On holiday you should see a lot of things and you shouldn`t have to do something for school. So relax and expect, see that the people spoil you.
Inken, Jever 

Hi, Inken
Your letter was very interesting, becose you have a real life experience. I agree about your opinion that the stress is a normal thing in life, but sometimes the stress takes on peoples mind and they do awful things, exsample, self-murder. It is a worst thing witch can do. I was writing report about emotional violence beetween teenagers, and I get know that in my country young peoples make self - murders very often. The primary motive was stress, unrequited love and problems in family. Tthese information astonished me. Definitely peoples need a help! But how...?? Maby, you have an ideas..!!??
I hope after my letter you have not a bad mood!!! 
OK, I wait your letter soon! Goodby!! :) Gunta, Latvia

Hey Gunta!

It’s nice that you have answered me so fast. I find it very terrible that so many young people in Latvia are self-murderers. I think here in Germany we haven’t heard something like that very often. I myself haven’t heard something like that. I’m really relieved that there are no people who are so desperate that they don’t want to live anymore. I think in the big cities like Berlin or Munich there are definitely self-murderers. I think the people shouldn’t be influenced by stress, they should enjoy their life. Job or school shouldn’t be the most important thing in life.. Every person needs a break to relax. The last hours in religion we talked about death. But the topic applies to the death after an illness or the death after an accident. We talked about the family who have lost this person. For example there was a small boy who lost his mum through an accident by car. The father couldn’t tell his son that the mother won’t come again because perhaps the son wouldn’t understand that. So that was our topic. I think there is one solution against stress. People need time for themselves to relax!
Inken

Sina – Arita

Latvian topic: Addictions

I think addictions are mostly dangerous. When I heard addictions the first time I thought about cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. But there are a lot of other addictions, for example some people love to do sport and they do it every day, other people must eat all day long, other people have to clean their house 7 hours a day. All addictions have one thing in common, it isn’t easy to forget them.

I think nearly all addictions are bad. Workaholic, it is good if you work a lot and very hard. But you need a private life, when you have a family and you are always working, your family does not get enough attention and love.

If you do only sport all day long, it isn’t good for your body. You’re muscles don’t like it. Your body needs breaks and relaxed moments.

To overcome an addiction is very difficult. I think it is easier if you have a great family and good friends. They can help you. You need a lot of support and you have to think about your addictions. You must say to yourself that you want to overcome the addiction and you must think about the bad sides. If you fight against your addictions and you win you can be very proud of it. Sina, Jever

Hi Sina!
Yes I think too that addictions are dangerous. Sometimes people have no time and they even forget their friends when they have some addiction. 
Nowadays many girls have bulimia. Bulimia nervosa is a condition in which the person has problems in accepting normal weight, but also where the problem is one of binge eating followed by vomiting and laxative or other medication abuse. Unlike patients with anorexia nervosa, they may manage to keep a normal body weight but at the cost of a great deal of emotional and physical suffering. So what do you think about bulimia? And have any of your friends ever had it?
P.S. Have a nice weekand and happy Easter! Our school is going to holidays for 10 days.I`m looking forward to see you!:) Arita, Santa from Latvia.

Hey Arita :)

I think bulimia is a dangerous disease and more and more girls get bulimia. The girl models are so slim, too slim I think, but all the girls think, that it looks good if they are so slim and they don’t think about their health. It is a very important topic and the designers and the responsible organisers of the models shows and the catwalks had react. Now they aren’t allowed to be to slim and if they haven’t a fixed weight they aren’t allowed to walk on the catwalk. I think this is a great idea.

No one of my friends have bulimia and I am very happy about it, have any of your friends bulimia, what would you do, if you hear that your best friend has bulimia ? Have a nice day, Sina

Esther – Ada

Intro from Bucharest:

I’m Ada. I like painting and I adore music.

Hi Ada,
my name is Esther, and I'm 15 years old. You already know that I am from Germany, but more exactly, I live in a small town called Jever, which is located in Northern Germany. Whereabouts in Romania do you live?
You wrote that you like painting and music, which I think is funny, because I do a lot of drawing and love music, too! :) My favourite band is an Icelandic band called 'Sigur Rós' - they're not very popular, but their music is great. It's not so much what they sing, they create their very own words and sounds to deliver a certain message; I guess that's one of the reasons why I like their music so much. Do you have a favourite band or musician?
Hope to hear from you soon, Esther from Germany

Hi Esther,
I'm Ada and I'm also 15 years old. I live in Bucharest which is the capital city of Romania. As I already said I like very much to draw and paint and I consider they are relaxing activities. In my leisure time I especilly like to paint flowers and animals (which I also like very much), but I also paint many diferent things. What do you like most to draw or paint? And about music... I like different bands and musiciens, but I can't say I have got a favourite one.
Hope to hear from you soon, Ada from Romania

Hi Ada,
well, my paintings kind of depend on my mood - when I'm bored during school lessons, I more or less scribble about on some piece of paper - I guess most students do... ;o) But when I'm at home and really have the time to draw something (which happens not too often, sadly), I like to draw humans, portraits of friends.. whatever comes to my mind.
You've mentioned that you like animals - which animals are your favourites, and do you have any pets? I have a cat called Louis, and he's been living with me and my family for eleven years now. Take care, Esther

Hi Esther,
You asked about animals - well, my favourite animals are cats (and I think you also like them if you have one)  and I also have two as pets. Their names are Omar and Goldy; Omar has been leaving with me and my family for seven years now and Goldy for one year. Which are your favorite animals?
About painting - all of my paintings and drawings depend on how I fell in that moment (and some very different).
Hope to here from you soon, Ada

Hi Ada,
really nice to hear from you again!
Yes, you're right, I like cats, as well as most of the other animals. Exceptions are creepy crawlies like spiders, but I guess that's something I share with lots of other girls...;) Do you have other favourite animals apart from cats?
Do you have holidays right now, too? I'm staying at home this time while the rest of my family went to Turkey for ten days. Do you travel a lot in your holidays, or do you prefer to stay at home?
Greetings from Germany, Esther

Hi Esther,
We also have holidays now... our holiday starts on 7th April and ends on 15th April. Usually I like to travel, but now I'll be at a national contest in informatics (from this reason I didn't had time to write about human subconscious and other things).Do you also have just one week of holiday?
About animals... as I all ready said I like cats, but I also like dogs very much and as you most of the other animals (and I can't understand why some people just hate them). Hope to hear from you soon, Ada

Hi Ada,
We had two weeks of holiday; sadly, they're over now and we have to go back to school again... :(
You are in an informatics competition? What do you have to do, and how come you got into it? It definitely sounds like an exciting alternative to travelling!
Just an idea, but would you like to continue E-mailing with me even after the learning circle is over? I'd really love to! Well, just let me know... Greetings from Jever, Esther

Elisabeth, Hanna, Jessica and Rica – Renars
Hello Renars from Latvia!
How are you? We are fine. We like your introduction, so we want to talk with you about our lives when we have finished school. We want to speak with you about our future.
Our future will be very different. And we won’t be in the same area, because we all want to do different things.
Hanna is very interested in study in(e.g.) Nepal after her last school-years in England. Yes, Hanna will go to a boarding school and after her school time, she wants to study medicine in Nepal. At this moment, she wants to be an eye specialist.
But Hanna isn’t the only person, who will go to England, Elisabeth will go, too. Do you want to go to another country, too?
We hope, Elisabeth won’t go forever (Hanna wants to finish her school time there). So or so, Elisabeth wants to study journalism, law or maybe literature.... At this moment, she thinks of studying in England, but she hasn’t decided, yet.
Law or journalism, this question stands for Rica, too. So she has the same favourites like Elisabeth, but without a very important detail! Rica won’t go to England, USA or so. She is going to finish her school time here, at the MG (that is our school).
Jessica also wants to finish her school time here. But she hasn’t decided yet, what she wants to do in the future. She goes to school happy, because she likes school and likes to meet her friends. Maybe she will study education or medicine in Hamburg.
What do you want to do in the future? Have you got the same ideas like us?
Bye, we are glad if you write, Jessica, Elisabeth, Hanna and Rica :)

Hi girls.
All weak i thinked what to answer. I will start about my future.I can tell that I like wepons and all kind off military thing. So my future will be interesting and outstanding.I will be a military person. why? I like all this from child days! But first I must to finish midlle school. I hope i will travel to all over the wolrd in all kind of missions. Talking about journalism,medicine and others its all nice, because world need that kind of specialistics.Thoes are only my thoughts. I wonder do you girls can tell me something about love and feelings inside you!??And what about school now ?How its going? Renars from Latvia! :*

Hi Renars!
What’s up? In 3 weeks or so is Easter. And Easter-holidays.^^ Do you get something at Easter? In Germany its a tradition that (young) children search for Easter eggs... but we won’t...:)
It is very interesting, all these things about weapons, but, aren’t you afraid ?It isn’t very safe, is it? We think we were in our children’s time all extremely " girly". Don’t understand us wrongly, but when we were young girls, we sat in our room or the living room in pink pyjamas and played with Barbie, so we really like the reason, why you chose "your" job. There we can see the first difference, and that’s why we made the learning circle, isn’t it?
Ok....back to your questions.....
Love is a feeling, which is super, great, powerful, strong, gentle but at the same time depressive, sad, sharp, and horrible.
Love lets us see how others think and how they feel. First times in luck, next times in depressions. But we won’t fall in depressions. In our group are two, who have at the moment a boyfriend. They are super happy and love their life. We hope their boys, too. And what about the love inside you?
All in all love is an important feeling in our lives, the main feeling, but there are more ( not soooooo important):
In school we are under stress, we have stress with our families( normal stress), sometimes we could run around the world, the next step we want to sleep.....there are so many feelings inside us and we think you have the same e.g. stress with your family...don’t you?
We like to go to school, because we like the breaks and the instruction, but only the topics because we think not all are committed enough or haven’t the right educational positions. What is about your teachers? Are they educational enough?
You said you want to travel around the world...even e.g. Iraq or Afghanistan? At this moment there are 2 Germans kidnapped and the terror organisation al-Qaeda blackmailed Germany that our troops should go out of Afghanistan ( they are there to help to get a peaceful Afghanistan and to save them) or they will make terror attacks in Germany an d will kill the two Germans. What do you think about it? Do you know that? or is it something new??
OK....
We will be happy ,if you answer fast as possible^^ Elisabeth, Hanna, Jessica and Rica :-* from Jever

Eastern Eastern !!! Yes soon the Eastern come...now my mind is far away from Eastern,I`m in sky thinking about spring. I think its love ..no time for school and computer, but more time with friends playing football and do more fun things.
OO..i almost forgot ..about the Afganistan and other war staff.. I can tell that I`m a bit afraid of death but I like to do things like that..maybe I`m crazy..I don`t know, but for me its fun!! :* Renars from Latvia :)

Hi girls!! I have to make you sad, because i will have  10 days holidays and I wont have time for ansvering. I hope you will understand me. I wish you girls nice Easter holydays and sunny days!!! Be back on 11 April!! Renars from Latvia!!

Hey Renars
We immediately checked out "Life is wonderful" from Jason Mraz and it's really melodious! It reminds us of Jack Johnson. Do you know/like him?
A typical German spring/summer song is from Wise Guys "Es ist sommer, egal ob du schwitzt oder frierst" what means "It's summer, all the same if you sweat or freeze".
We will send you a link to it in YouTube.com if you'd like to listen to it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEm8Dtw6EGM
Do you also prefer slow music in summer like reggae or fun-music like ska?
Yes, we have the same feelings like you in spring and summer. The first sunbeams remind us of the good time we spent last year's summer. Open-air swimming pools, camp-fires, tanned skin and all these beautiful things.
What do you think about if you think of summer?
Which is your favourite season? What do you like about it?
Enjoy the spring time! Yours sincerely, Jessica, Rica, Elisabeth and Hanna

10. GLOBAL WARMING
Here in the German media we see it now very often.
Our politicians are occupied with it, too. For example they will start an attempt that should increase the portion of electricity made of wind up to 20%. But many of the Germans guess that even this is far too little. So the topic becomes forgotten very often.
- What’s this aspect like in your country?
- Do you also have ideas about that, and is it the same in your country that people think cars are the biggest problem?
- Sometimes also the Germans themselves point out our cars like Porsche or Mercedes are some of the most polluting cars, because they’ve got the big motors etc....
- What do you think of countries that obviously try to block and ignore the plans which are e.g. discussed at Kyoto?
Please write back :).
cya. ;) Johanna, Florian, Inken and Lars S

As Johanna, Florian, Inken and Lars have already pointed out, global warming is literally a ‚hot topic‘ in Germany. There is a lot of discussion on what to do about it, and our federal chancellor Angela Merkel (who is EU president this year) has stated that the greenhouse gas emissions could be strongly reduced, if only every country did its part. Well, we won’t conceal that the German government have failed to do their part until now – but we think it is a step in the right direction.
We also think that blocking the Kyoto protcol – like the USA and China do, for example -  is very counterproductive, since other countries really try to ‚cool things down‘ – they simply can’t succeed if a big industrial nation like the USA refuses to do something about their greenhouse gas emissions! And their „We’ll save the polar bear instead“ seems to be a bit lame on that background.

by Philip, Gert and Esther

Hi! My name is Farnam. This is my reply to your questions about Global Warming
Air pollution is a big common disaster in every country nowadays. This causes lots of things such as global warming, respiratory illnesses and so on. Global warming happens when a special kind of gas doesn't let the hot radials go out.
In our country most politicians think that Using Private Cars causes air pollution. The more people use public transferors, The less pollution will be injected in the air.Because when people use public transferors less oil and gas will be used. So less pollution will be injected into the air.
In order to use oil less in the cars as an energy source,our country's politic is trying to use nuclear energy. It can make a large amount of energy by just being smashed once.
Also you asked about the plans which are discussed at Kyoto.
The United States, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is not going to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, but the participation of the United States is vital. Without the US participation, the Protocol will not enter into force. The Protocol has been designed in such a way that the US alone has no veto over its entry into force, but the US plus Russia can block it. Beyond the procedural formalities, this legal point reflects the widely held conviction that, since the US produces a quarter of global CO2 emissions, it must be a Party for the Protocol to have any meaning.
Farnam, Farzanegan Zeynab Educational Center Iran

*<<Indirectly, we are hurting ourselves.>>*
I know it sounds paradoxal (I was astonished when I read about it in a cheap magazine), but it appears to be true: it's very possible that the global warming will help on starting of an ice age in the next 100-150 years. * *
*>>Will the global warming bring a permanent winter?*
Well, that's what a big part of the international scientific community thinks. They say that if the weather will continue to get warmer, Europe will enter into a new ice age. * *
*>How can this be possible?*
The problem is the perturbation of the Gulf Stream's action mechanism; 'course… if the Gulf Stream doesn't exist, then warm weather doesn't exist either in the North Europe. * *
*>What is the **Gulf Stream**? *
The Gulf Stream is a strong ocean current, a warm one.* *It originates in the Gulf of Mexico, goes through the Strait of Florida and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf Stream influences the climate of the east coast of North America from Florida to Newfoundland, and the west coast of Europe.
The Gulf Stream transports about 1.4 petawatts of heat, equivalent to the output of 1 million power stations and 100 times the world energy demand. It transports water at a rate of 30 million cubic meters per second (30 sverdrups) through the Florida Straits. After it passes Cape Hatteras, this rate increases to 80 million cubic meters per second. The volume of the Gulf Stream dwarfs all rivers that empty into the Atlantic combined, which barely total 0.6 million cubic meters per second. It is weaker, however, than the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
Typically, the Gulf Stream is 80–150 km wide and 800–1200 m deep. The current velocity is fastest near the surface, with the maximum speed typically about 2 m/s. As it travels north, the warm water transported by the Gulf Stream undergoes evaporative cooling and brine exclusion. The cooling is wind driven: wind moving over the water cools it and also causes evaporation, leaving a saltier brine. In this process, the water increases in salinity and density, and decreases in temperature. The second process involves the formation of sea ice, which likewise increases the salinity of the brine solution and, thereby, decreases its freezing point.
** So, how can the global warming affect the **Gulf Stream**?
*There is some speculation that global warming could decrease or shutdown thermohaline circulation and therefore reduce the North Atlantic Drift. This could trigger localised cooling in the North Atlantic and lead to cooling, or lesser warming, in that region, affecting in particular areas like Scandinavia and Great Britain that are warmed by the North Atlantic Drift. The chances of this occurring are unclear. If the ice from the Polls would melt down, then the ocean's salinity will decrease and this could disturb the delicate equilibrium of the phenomenon. And if the Gulf Stream's circle would stop, then the climate of the European continent's north coasts will dramatically modify. Iceland, Norway, England will be covered with ethernal ice.
** *>**Conclusions…* I don't know what a warm weather could bring, but it's sure that an ice age would bring the end of many species, maybe, including humanity. Either will happen this century, or two million years from now, the ice age will come and there's nothing we can do about it. Though, with the global warming is another story. We *can* stop polluting our planet, we *can * stop cutting our forests, so we *can* stop the global warming. This means that we *can* convince the ice age to linger for a while… I think we should do it.
by Maria, Bucharest**

I think the fact that the gulf stream has influence on the west of Europe, shows on the one hand how complicated the system of climate is on our planet and on the other hand if you think a little further it shows how strong the consequences can be if it would stop to flow. The seas on this planet play the biggest role in the system of weather and climate but we know less about it than about the moon. That should be different but again it seems as if we have ignored this in a way. To me this is the most terrible thing of the climate change, that we should have seen this but we didn't. And now we know this was the mistake we made but we don't even start now with anything really useful. I am not satisfied when I hear things are discussed but nothing really happens. How about you?
It was said a permanent winter will be set off in about 100 years. I don't know if it makes anything different only because this was written in a kind of cheap magazine. Personally I don't think so, either. But of course this makes me sad, too.
Finally I just remembered that my parents are planning to install some solar cells on the roof of the business we've got. I think this is a good start to take care of the environment but it's only a drop falling onto the hot stone. What do you think about this? Please give me reasons for your opinion, too.
greetings, Lars.

*Hi friends,*
In my country the global warming has many effects. Some of the effects are
1. *absence of snow;*
2. *the presence of 2 seasons, one is hot and the other one is cold; *
3. *winter isn't as cold as it was before ;*
*In Romania, the Global Warming causes each year a lot of damages. For example, last year, in 2006 , there were a lot of floods. There were thousands of people , who lost their houses, their fortune.*
*Also, the Global Warming puts its "finger print" on the seasons in my country.*
*It were 4 seasons in Romania: spring, summer, autumn and winter. Nowadays, there are just 2 seasons: the hot season and the cold season.*
*I think the pollution and has a very strong impact on the Global Warming. *
*These is one of my point of views about the Global Warming. *
*I have some questions for you:*
*1. Does Global Warming have effects in your country?*
*2. Tell me about the climate in your country.*
*3. Do you think there are solutions or we can find some? "*
*We expect questions and answers from you.*
with interest**, Oana and Matei, Romania

Hi Oana, Hi Matei,
Okay, one after another. To start with me - my name is Lars Schrage, I live in Friedeburg (a village which is even smaller but nicer than Jever :P), I do snowboarding (yes I am currently in a region where this is possible as I said somewhere else but more to that later...) and also skateboarding and at least I can say about my person that I'm 15 years old.
The climate in our country is quite mixed but I think in general it's not extreme and soft. So it's mixed because we have the mountains in the south and the seas (north- and south-) in the north. Sometimes the north is a bit colder than the south. But I like our region.
More about the climate I can tell the best by describing the more or less obvious effects of global warming here. To start with the most horrible one for me: We don't have enough snow in the mountains. Okay, I have to admit it has never been very usual that in the south of Germany is enough snow left to do snowboarding in the ester vacations. But the last years we always drove only 20 kilometers more to the south and it was possible to have your fun. This isn't possible this year. The region where I am here, called Stubaital is usually called secure for snow until July!
Also the winters in my region, at the north are not as long and cold as 20 years ago. These days you could always  walk on the deeply frozen Ems-Jade-Kanal for example but since 10 years that doesn't take place anymore. Nobody can say this is not caused by the global warming.
After my opinion there is no solution to stop the global warming any more. Nothing is going to be able to prevent our planet from extreme changes, maybe we can save time but...wherefore?
Honestly, wasn't it usual for this planet to fall into ice-ages sometimes?
So far we have just accelerated the process. Okay, I developed this opinion only 2 days ago, but I'm confident with it.
I think what we have to do is finding solutions to get energy without pollution, with an higher efficiency. For example solar cells. The ones we know today are only to 3 or 4 percent efficient as far as I know. If they would be more efficient they could become really comfortable.
What do you think about power plants which work with wind?
Here in Germany it's planned (or maybe even started) to build them also off-shore, because in the open seas there is a lot more wind. Does that make sense?
We already know them in our region. You see them very often. You too?
So I hope I satisfied your concerns so far ;)
greetings, Lars S

I think global warming is an important topic today. Every member of the Federal Parliament or some other political assemblies think about the consequences. They want to lower the pollution of the air and want to change the cars to be less harmful to the environment. Of course it's a dangerous problem for the whole world and the experts said that the global warming will change the earth dramatically in the next 30 years.
Lena from Germany

It is a big problem in our country, too and we also have many plans for it. For example we are changing our cars too using gas instead benzene. Because we also think that cars are the biggest problem. Nowadays we often read about the effects of global warming in commercials and in school we read about it in chemistry and have a big seminar about global warming. I hope that our seminar will give good information about this point.
Saba, Tehran

Dear Saba,
please give us the information you got out of this seminar, too. :)
What do you mean exactly when you say you are changing the ''old'' benzene cars into gas powered ones? Is that going to happen with every car?
We have this opportunity, too. But here in Germany it's only done because it's cheaper...and besides I think that gas is no solution, either.
I've heard many things about hydrogen. This would be a completely neutral fuel concerning the environment. Several buses in cities are already using this technology. But for me, this development goes much too slowly.
Apparently it's like I said even before: there is being much discussed but nothing happens.
I would like to know if you know about windmills in Teheran! I mean those ones which produce electricity - you also have them in Iran?
greetings from Germany, Lars

"Would you please turn off the light? We have to live environmental-friendly!" That's what you hear daily. Everywhere. Especially the media fire warnings at the people who begin to worry and think of apocalypse every day and make their will.
But what's behind? The catastrophe will be there, nobody can avoid this, it's decided. Even diverse religions do tell something like this. But is humanity able to delay the end of the world? How?
So what kind of information do all the reports and discussions give us?
The temperature climbs. It's getting warmer - global warming. This causes that the ice melts and the water level is rising. Results are floods, storms, etc.. The whole climate gets unbalanced. To recover, the weather will be even more extreme.
The vegetation also will change. If the temperature rises a little, this will cause immense consequences on the nature and its animals.
So to slow down the process, which has already begun, the people have to live environmental-friendly! Finally the human being is the main factor of the actual situation. It developed all the cars and polluting things. So we have to make up for it.
The politicians tell us to save current, heat and energy in general. But they are not that very convincing, when they drive their saloon car. But this is the point:
We have to change our values about this. Some politicians already represent this view. You don't show power with expensive cars, only financial power. But even more important and really cool is to practise what you tell other people. Take the bike instead of a monster. And here is another point: If we all work together we can achieve something. So every one of you is responsible for how it goes on. You decide whether you want to support the catastrophe or not.
Rica, Jever

Our World in 50 years
I woke up at five a clock in the morning. I opened my eyes and tried to look out of the window. But as usually we had a desert-storm and I couldn't see anything. I got up and moved slowly to  the bathroom. After nearly 30  minutes I had finished and went upstairs to the kitchen. I looked into the freezer, but it was empty again. So I decided to drive to the next supermarket. I put on my shoes, took my keys and went to my car. I thought it would be very difficult to go to the next market as the storm didn’t move away from here. A few years ago I couldn’t imagine having desert-storms here in Germany, but today it's usual for this country. In nearly 50 years Germany became a big desert with a lot of mountains. Many people didn't survive the global warming in the last 50 years. It became very hot and most of the vegetation has no chance to survive in this country until now. It got very difficult to have farms, because we didn’t have much water any more. The oceans became hot, too, and many fish died forever. We had to build our houses high up in the mountains because in the valleys the storms are to strong. Only a few people live there, because they didn't have enough money to live in the mountains. I had a lot luck in my live. As the climate began to change my parents went to the North-Sea, because in this area then climate change so much as in the other areas. Here up the North-Sea people are able to live a normal live. We are able to breed cows and sheep and so on, but this isn't very easy, because the food for the animals is very scarce ,so we're only able to breed little flocks. Another problem is to get enough water for the animals. The resources are very scarce, too and not only the cows need to drink. At the North-Sea there live nearly 50000 people. If someone had read this 50 years ago, he would have said that isn't very much but nowadays, it's more than enough. It's very difficult to provide all these people with enough to eat and drink. A few of us try to fish in the sea, but that isn't only difficult, that's very dangerous, too. The water has a temperature of nearly 25 degrees, so many fish aren't able to survive. Only a few fish live in the sea, and there are some methods to catch them. There is only one big and dangerous problem. . . the great white shark. It has good living conditions here in the North-Sea. In the other oceans the temperature is to high for it. We had no chances to go swimming to feel better because of it's a warm day in summer. It's too dangerous. We're not able to do something. they are to many and they don't have enough food, either, they eat everything they find and I mean really everything. . . .
To live in this world is a big challenge. . . Thore Kickler, Jever

In 30 years our country will be very bad, because the world will be hot and the first of succession will become the country. There will be no arable land for fruits and vegetables, no grass for the animals, no food and water for animals and us. It will be a bad time. There will be hunger in the world.
Besides the glaciers in the world are melting that the second of succession will become the melted snow so big that the sea level of the whole world will rise over 20 metres. The whole arctis will be flooded over 7 metres, Greenland will be over 6 metres and so on. The rich countries will contruct higher dikes, food and water for the people, but what will the poor countries do? will the population of the poor countries die? the third succession will become the big animal plant death. The fourth succession will become the very big thunderstorm, the big floods and the very big disastrous drought.
(I heard this information on TV). Lars B., Jever

The world's end!

The world is ending, I can see.
The people, who can are just trying flee
But there is nothing, nothing I see,
Why are these people just trying to flee?
No way out here, no solution
 but what can we do?
Stopping the mass-production?
People are laughing, they can't believe
politicians are discussing: there can't help a chief!
"Who has done this to us?" a woman is crying
can't imagine it's our fault that we are dying.
Is it a problem starting in our past
or one of the future coming so fast?
If our grand-parents hadn't developed them
we won't drive cars now
Why are they complaining then?
The world is ending, yes I can see,
but why aren't we just starting to flee?
Should be something like a poem;)
Think about it... Greetings Marlen, Jever

11. Fear of death/Life after death.
Although we don’t like to admit it, one day our life will end.
- How do you feel about it?
- Are you afraid of death?
- and if you are, where does it come from?
- So,... we think it’s because death is something uncertain. As if you fall into a big, deep hole and you don’t know what will be there at the end. That’s exactly the right question, it’s sure that
- There will be something after life. But What?!?
- Rebirth?
- A kind of paradise?
- Our just nothing, like an endless sleep without any dream?
- Yes, you get afraid of it ,but it’s important to think about death, because: what is life without it?
Michelle, Julia, Marlen and Mareike

Hi dear friends,
I'm Saba Mokhtary. My religion is Islam and I love it. I believe it's most complete religion. I live in Tehran (The capital of Iran) and it's my honor that I live in Iran. Now I'm 14 years old and study in 9th grade.

I'm glad to talk with you. I will win even in death. SABA

Hey Saba!
We are interested in your religion, because there are many prejudices in Germany about Islam.
Also to us it’s not normal that the religion is as important as it is to you. We are interested in how the religion influences your life. Do you have any family-rituals like praying before dinner or anything else?
We had a problem to understand your sentence "I will win even in death". Is it just a motto or does it have any deeper sense? Does it mean there will be something after our life on earth? What do you think will it be like? And also there is a problem with this little word "even". You mean you win now and will also win in death? What is it you win In or With? and who is the loser, because there can’t be just winners! It’s like the thing with good and bad: without good - no bad; without bad - no good. So see without losers - no winners! Is there something like a battle in life which will continue in death? If that’s right: what is this battle about?! But in a way we think your statement has also a good point of view. It shows that you aren’t afraid of death and what will happen then. Perhaps you are a strong girl with a strong personality. Do you know what will happen to you after death? We don’t know what will happen then, that’s probably a reason which makes it hard to understand what you said.
Perhaps all this sounds a bit critical, but it shouldn’t, it’s just a way to get some information =)
We really hope you will write back soon and if you like to get some information about us, look at our intros!!!
greetings from Germany, Julia, Mareike, Michelle & Marlen from Jever

Hi Julia, Mareike, Michelle and Marlen:
I'm so glad to talk with you and it's interesting to answer to your questions.
I have many friends and I love to spend my time with them but I haven't got boy friend. In fact, having boy friend in my age is not usual in my country at all.
So now you more important questions:
Islam is the religion of peace and mercy. Islam is based on monotheism and says that the entire universe is created by the one God that has all of the good closes. God helps all of his creatures in everywhere and every time. God loves all of us and hasn't created us vainly. After this short life in earth, there is a never ending life in paradise or hell. All of works in earth make our paradise or our hell. So Islam tells us all of the good and bad works and says that which ones can help us reach paradise and which ones can't. Islam is the best way for us to get to the best never ending life and also having a good and happy life in this world but we are very hopefull about our sins, too. Because we know that God is too kind and if we don't do them again, God will forgive us.
I say about Islam as a woman and know that Islam gives women the most value and lets them to have all of the places that they want. Islam also understands women's sensitive feelings and respect to them.
I love Islam and suggest you to read more about it. Maybe you like it, too.
I think that I also answered you about death, Life after it and my standard. So now I will be glad to read your opinions.
I hope to win even in death. Saba

We know we will die at last.
At first I want to write about our religion then I will explain about death, fear of death and life after death. We are Muslim and believe in God and we believe that there is another life after death. Muslims believe that if there wasn’t another life after death life and everything in this world were in vain and meaningless.
We think this word is a place that is transient and another life after death is perpetuity.
We never fear of death because we know if we are an ideal and good person we will be happy and satisfy in both world and will be in a beautiful paradise after death. Written by Elham Shams Tehran, Iran

Dear Michelle , Julia , Marlen and Mareike …
I am glad to talk about death with you .
I am afraid of death like the others but actually I am afraid of myself.
I believe that there is the second life after this we do, an endless world. And I believe that there must be something that is expecting us! our goodness or our badness !!
I know that every one will be punished or will be thankful.
Every body chooses his way to live, good or bad, so we can make our life beautiful or terrible, why don’t we make it right? And if we make our life good there will be a paradise expecting us in the other world but if we make our lift wrong there will be a hot fire expecting us!!
Fear of death is about our deeds, so good or so bad? And we make our paradise or our hell.
Paradise or hell are not a real place which we can see them, they are inside us.
The fire is kindled from inside us and we don’t understand.
Every day we are planting a flower or lighting a fire.
You see, every thing is being done by us!
In death there is no chance, no accident and no escape. It comes with a minute design to kill us, we make the design.
If you are a good man the design will be beautiful and enjoyment but if you are not, the design will be more horrible than you think !!
Death is rebirthing and you will start a new life, you can not imagine it because you ask where the life is and the answer is just: inside you.
I will be glad to talk more about death with you.
Niloufar from Farzanegan Zeynab High School,Iran

My personal opinion of the "life after death" topic is that there is nothing waiting for us after we die. First of all if it's "after death" it's not possible to be life at all. If we believe that there is a place where we go to after we die, a paradise or heaven, then we are doing our best to be better with the others because we would like to go to that place. If he is right than we are the winners, but if we are wrong then it's possible that we have wasted our entire lives. I just want to say that it's up to us to decide what we are going to do, but we must have in mind that one of the options is the wrong one.
By Paul, Bucharest

Hi Paul in Bucharest

To your opinion about life after death: tricky tricky :).
You wrote your text in a good rational way. I would like to add one of my personal attitudes which is also that kind of rational.
Also you said we've got to keep in mind one of the options is wrong (either live as if there's no life after death or live in a good, maybe Christian way, to not come to hell but to heaven). So, even if it's complete non-sense that there is a paradise or so why shouldn't we live in this good way? Okay, if there's no heaven then it doesn't make any difference at all but if there's this kind of youngest court and you made 'a good job' down on earth be happy!
Paul, which did you choose so far?
greetings, Lars S.

Hello Lars S. from Jever
I really liked your personal attitude on this topic and I totally agree.
What I really wanted to say was that we could do more with our lives if we would know for sure if there is something waiting for us after we die.
At this moment I didn't decide what I am going to believe, but I think it is obvious that I have chosen to do good things in my life. Even if there isn't anything after this life I believe that nobody wants to be bad.
It is possible that a third option could exist. For example if a person thinks that there is no "life after death", but he lives his life properly, if there is something like haven than it is possible that he will go to that place.
I hope that answers your question.
Looking forward to hearing from you. Paul, Bucharest

You proposed an interesting theme "the life after death". What I think about the life after death ?, I think many things and I have many theories about it . I'm not scared of death on the contrary , I'm curious and I want to find out where are our souls going, but I must wait for that many years...I hope...
I think that after death our souls are going in a place with happiness, somewhere in nature and the predominant color is green. There you don' t feel the need for food, the music is soothing, people are dressed with white clothes and they live in harmony with the animals.*
What do you think about my opinion* *and where do you think our souls go after death?*
Do you think that the lady with scythe exists?*
By Oana, Romania*

Hi Oana!
Your view on death gives me the impression of absolute paradise. It seems as if you see death as heaven. But do you think hell exists, too?
You wrote you weren't afraid of being dead but don't you fear the process of dying? Aren't you afraid of suffering for a long time from a very hurting disease?
I wish you joyful Easter holidays, Hanna, Germany

To Oana in Bucharest - Life after death

In a way I have to agree with Hanna. To say the least her questions really fit. Especially the point of a long lasting painful disease is quite capable of development ;). I actually read a book called 'But not for the Fuherer' by Helmut Jung, and where I am currently reading in this book is about his experiences at the eastern front. In my class test you can also find my idea of soldiers concerning their attitudes about. Now I would like to tell what Helmut Jung writes in his book.
What sticks in my mind is the sentence: 'Death is the only thing that liberates you from the front'. He and his comrades knew exactly what they had to expect in case of taken prisoners by the Russians. So, to avoid this they were always on the lookout for at least one grenade which should be the last one you use in your life then...This must have been horrible on one hand but on the other this kind of simple thinking was necessary to survive. As a soldier this kind of fear of death takes you there. To survive you fight harder then your opponents and surviving means the others die.
I have only 5 minutes left of my hour. I had to pay 5 Euros for that so f*** off T-Online!
I would be happy to read answers or anything else. I guess this situation of war and everything around that is a good topic itself, so... keep on keeping on.
greetings from Mittenwald, Lars S

Hello. My name is Adrian and I want to tell you my theory about life after death. Personally I don't believe in life after death. From "life after death" I understand that there is a spirit in each of us that will live after we die. I don't think that that spirit exists. It is an affirmation that can't be demonstrated. People have cloned animals, right? It is said that people are some special animals, right( they are rational entities.)?From here it results that it is very possible to clone, to create human entities. But when such a clone will be created it won't have a spirit. It will be a copy of a real-born human. This may be the cause for not creating human clones yet, or at least.. we don't know about it :).Proving that there isn't any spirit inside of us, that there isn't any life after death will annoy a lot of people; for example the church.
Ok..this is only my opinion...you don't have to agree with it.. but I want to know your opinions too.
So.. do you think that life after death exists or it is a church's belief?
Adrian, Romania

My personal opinion is that there is no life after death. I think that this concept was invented by humans long ago, because they were too afraid of dying. The life after death concept was also used as an instrument by many religions to persuade the people to do good deeds in the exchange of obtaining a peaceful life after death.
I also think that people don't really believe in life after death, even if they say they do, because they are too afraid of dying. If life after death really exists how come everybody is afraid of dying and no one found a way of coming back to life after passing out?
The fact is that nobody knows for sure. It depends on what each of us wants to believe.
Nitu Razvan, Bucharest

Everyone of us might have made experiences with death either through friends and families, through strangers or through pets.
Everyone has his or her own strategy to deal with losing someone you might have loved.
The decisive event that might have influenced my opinion about death was both my brothers death. Even before there had always been these questions in my mind: When will you die? How will it feel like? What will happen after I die? Will I meet my beloved? And so on and so on...
When my brother Bernd died first it was a slap right into my face. I couldn't believe it and I cried like mad. My other brother being still alive gave me hope so it hit me even harder when he left, too.
In all this mess of hurt feelings, anger and desperation I needed help. I didn't know anyone to talk to, because my parents burst into tears again as soon as the stopped crying.
On the internet I found a forum called "Living without you". There I got to know sisters and brothers who had lost their siblings, too. 
It's a special forum for family members who have lost their children or siblings so I could open myself and talk openly.
Everyone there had a different concept of death, but I could identify myself best with those who think there's something after life.
I don't believe in any religion nor have any ideas of God but after I have read many books I'm sure there is something where I will meet everyone I loved again. We won't live in a world as our present world nor will be wandering around in our bodies but I think everyone will be a warm light feeling warm and satisfied.
It will be like paradise but not like the idea of heaven or hell which some people have.
At least I can't be sure 100% so there's a little bit of fear left. Especially because dying itself can be a very nasty and dirty thing.
My biggest fear is leaving behind those who love me. My parents couldn't bear losing another child an my soulmates would be hurt like hell, too.
At least I hope I won't wake up one day wondering who the red man is who calls himself "the devil"...
Hanna, Jever

Fear of death/Life after death
This is a very interesting theme. What happens after death? But there is another question. What happens at the moment of death? Do we have a soul which leaves our body and travels into a different dimension? Well, I think to die is not bad. Sometimes the minutes before you die are worse than death.
When you feel pain, death takes you away. So there is no reason to be scared of death. Wherever you go, wherever you are, death will find you (would find you?). But WHAT happens after death? Rebirth? Maybe. Some kind of paradise? Maybe. But when there is a paradise, what is it like? All humans have different concepts or ideas of a paradise. Is the paradise a green island in the crystal clear blue of an endless ocean? Is it a mountainous land with peaceful forests? Or the (in the Christian world) normal imagination of heaven? With angels, light and clouds? But why a paradise? There are many bad humans. Do all humans get into a paradise, or just the ''good'' humans? Do the bad guys go into something like hell? But what is good and what is bad? The Christians? Those humans who go with fire and steel into the middle east (crusades, Iraq-war)? George W. Bush in heaven? Definitely not.

I think the imagination of rebirth is good. Like in India, where they say, a good human goes out of the endless circle of rebirth and goes into the endless sleep. The other humans are reborn. But there is one question again. WHAT IS GOOD? Questions over questions and no one can answer them.
By Sören, Jever

Everyone thinks at least once in his life about his death or death in general and what will happen after it. But no one knows what will happen after it? All religions give us their answer to this question, but which one is right? Is there anything like a rebirth or any kind of paradise? Who knows? Maybe this is the reason why so manypeople are afraid of their death. Not to konw what will happen makes everybody of us feel uneasy. It is like the fear of darkness. People are only afraid of it, because they don’t know what is around them and because they can’t see what can or will happen to them in the darkness. So they would not be afraid if they saw what is around them and what could happen to them. So people would not be afraid of their death if they knew what would happen. But if we knew what would happen with us after would not everyone be more afraid than before? And would it not also make us to be afraid to know when we have to die? Without knowing all this you will always have the hope that you will live as long as you want to and that death will be as you want it to be.

No one can say what the future will bring to us and no one knows what will happen after death. These are two things, which maybe will never change. But isn’t this the good thing in it? To know that you will never know something, gives you the chance to decide it on your own at least for a while.
Elisabeth, Jever

When I think about my future this always ends with the thought when I am probably going to die. The plans of what kind of job I want to achieve or where I'd like to build a house or whatever - aren't they a bit relative in a way? What about my money, for example? Was it a good decision to save it and leave it at my bank account? I mean what sense did that have if I'm going to die next weak anyway.
But in the next moment it's always good to let the optimism have a victory in your mind. The story with my money I think stands for one kind of things we can do in our life. Those ones which we should do if we think so. And even if I'd have died the week after, I couldn't have changed it anyway. Therefore, if I just survived I will be able to buy a car or anything else with my saved money.
So you see, the question of when we are going to die is at least for me connected with a lot of situations which are part of nearly every day. I don't think that I am afraid of my personal death. Not if I think about it when I sit here in my classroom writing this text. Fascinating about this question is that if you think about a situation in which your life is in trouble everybody with a healthy consciousness would do everything to avoid dying, sometimes even if it's neccesary to let somebody else die therefore. So generally this will to survive is part of every human, and it surfaces especially in dangerous situations as this kind of being afraid and in a way hysteric or desperate. Imagine a soldier in case of war, it must be horrible.
If a soldier dies at the frontlines it is always something very painful for the parents, or maybe wives and children. They'll only receive a letter made up very heroic that he died for something good but after that only the fact that this was in vain and not useful remains.
The effects and consequences after someone has died also occupy in a very intense way. For both cases, either if maybe I don't die maybe my parents for example die. If they did I would be very sad (and probably they will even before I'm going to) and this affects me more than the thought of my own death. But also, even if this may sound very self-considered, I don't like anybody to feel bad when I have died. I don't know why but for me this is something superfluous.
Probably it's because I guess or at least hope there is some kind of paradise waiting for me. The Quoran describes that well, I think. In your life after death, of course, if you were a 'good' personality, you don't even have to say your wishes. Just the moment that you think it it's already there. Doesn't that sound good? To me it does, and it's also reason enough to believe in God(, or Allah). Call him as you want to. I have not yet decided which religion I prefer, but I'll think about it and discuss it quite often especially with my sister. She converted Islam a few years ago. Anyway I think and believe there's a paradise and therefore I believe in God and try to be a nice boy. As I said, I try. And to point this theory out in a very rationalized way - if there's this paradise after death and I was good enough to get in there I can be happy. If that was all rubish and there's perhaps nothing, I couldn't have changed it anymore anyway. Remember the story with my money on the bank account. These two are in a way equal.

I think I have already started writing about Religion and so I finish with the topic death and start with Religion.
As I said I believe in God but I still look for the right religion. As I also said a big influence comes from my sister she's a Muslim. I don't go to church. I am just a member on the paper, a paper tiger. I think the Christian ideas in the church haven't got much to do with the Religion itself. The priest just thinks about certain topics at home and then he tells his ideas considering this and that what's written in the bible that Sunday in church. And why shall I listen to somebody's personal interpretation of things?
That's not helpful in my eyes. In fact I tried but it failed tragically.
In addition, my grandfather always said for believing in God there's no need to go to church and leave your money there every Sunday. I think God recognizes us always at every place. Not only in church.
God knows what your real intentions are about and he's the one who knows what you are really like. At least this is something that every member of my family thinks. But for my father for example the most fascinating thing is our planet, our nature. he indeed connects that most with religion as a part of our everyday life. And sometimes we have discussions about the creation of the earth, the humans and also the universe.
So I rather write about the universe now.

When you think about it I guess the big still unknown fact is how it came into existence. Some theories say it came out of only one atom. But where did this atom come from? Maybe God.
And then you'll probably also ask yourself how things like our planet could develop, and if that all really happened by chance. We will probably never know the answer to that.
Lars, Jever

Fear of death may be because of lack of inadequate knowledge about it. All prophets are messenger of God and their mission is to warn you of God’s severe punishment and give you the tiding of God’s reward for the faithful .Our soul must answer the question about all our tasks and works after death.
About me :
Our religion is Islam . And our prophet is the last prophet Mohammad (peas be upon him and his descendant) he is prophet of mercy .According to our beliefs our religion has five fundamental principles that any Moslems should research about them with certainty. Without these five principles anyone is not considered as Moslem. One of them is belief of hereafter that there are several philosophical & rational reasons for documentation of it. If you want to alert about these informations you should refer to Islamic references in related books & webs.
Zahra Nobakht Farzanegan Zeynab Educational Center, Tehran

I am afraid of death. We think that in that life we will see all of the reactions of our works in this life and no one is with no mistake so I scare of it. After this short life in this world we have a never-ending life in paradise or hell that our works in this world make that. By the way we know that God is too kind so we are hopeful about forgiving our sins too. So we can say nothing. Expect we hope to win even in death.
Saba, Farzanegan Zeynab Educational Center, Tehran

Death is something of the most exciting things, because it happens every day and in addition to that - we don't know what will be after death!
This causes that many people are afraid of dying.
In former times diverse people already thought about it and developed the death cult.
It's so special, people try to explain this. Imagine, we are some kind of special. The animals are living in the natural environment and we were able to develop a language, to build cars, houses, etc. I can't really believe that we should descend from monkeys, whatever.
We have got many theories, what might happen after we have passed away.
To give you an interesting scientific aspect:
There exist studies about people, who were clinically dead. These men and women were questioned about what happened.
Amazing how many people made the same experience! Very popular is the tunnel with the light at the end or the life passing very fast in pictures or as a kind of film. Some also had the feeling of hovering in the room where they actually lay. They saw the people from a different perspective and heard them talking. Some people also came back to life, because they felt, they still had to settle a matter on earth, hadn't finished with life yet.
I can't imagine that we just die and everything is over. Even when it sounds silly, there has to be something left. We can't explain everything through science. I think there is something more. I have got concepts of life after death concerning Christianity and I am not afraid of it. However, people have their own opinion about it and as you can see, religions caused lots of conflicts, e.g. in the Middle East. But still, this will be one of the most important things in our life, because it affects everyone of you, because everybody will die some day.
Rica, Jever

Life in a different world

His name is Brian. He is a young boy who lives in Alabama. But there is a little problem, he lives in his own world, not quite a perfect world.

Sometimes he wakes up in an area of big light streams. And then he feels as if he is new born, isn’t unbelievable???

Usually he meets all his friends in an pub near Alabama. There he tells his friends about his problems and that’s why they think Brian is really a psycho.

But one of his friends wants to help Brian, and so Brian goes with Lara to a physician. Brian knows that he feels in trouble if he tells that he must go to a physician, because everyone would laugh about this situation and so it’s quite a bad situation.

One day later at 10 am.

Brian isn’t at school but he is also not at home. His girlfriend Lara thinks that he is at a physician’s one more time, maybe because he had to fight again with his problems, but that isn’t the case.

After school Lara searches for Brian. So Lara go to his house in Alabama. She rings… no one goes to the door. Then she goes around the house, looks to the garden pond…
Her eyes show a bit of panic and she doesn’t know what she feels. A bit of rage, despair and shock. He lies on the ground behind the pond without any reactions as if he is dead. Immediately she tells the police everything about this day. And Brian went to a hospital near Alabama. One hour later Brian wakes up and Lara sits directly next to him. Brian says that he knows what is up with him. He says that he is sometimes in a different world.

No one knows about this world. A world without problems with persons who really help me in each situation. Or instance, they want to give me a new heart which is beating louder and louder… Then a wonderful person comes in and tells me that I must wake up.
And now I am here in an hospital and I am so happy…

Lara thinks a moment and then she knows…

…that is the life after death.

After death you are in a perfect world and after you wake up, you are again in your world maybe as a new person…

The End !!! Florian, Jever

Ian and his mother
This story deals with a young boy called Ian. Ian was 19 years old and lived in Oklahoma. He went to High School five kilometres away from home and there he usually met all his friends because they all lived in other regions which were bit directly located in the neighbourhood. Ian hated school and would have already refused it if his mother hadn’t been there. She was 54 years old and divorced. She had had some trouble a couple of months before in her relationship. Ian missed his father and therefore he was perpetually in a bad mood. As his brother who was 23 years old had left home in order to find a job in Green Apple Ian lived alone with his mother. He didn’t really like her at all and therefore he felt as if he was placed in solitude. His friends were far away so that it was not possible to visit them for a day. His life became more and more depressing and his mother often felt guilty because she didn’t earn a lot of money. It was difficult for her so she often tried to find work but her education seemed to be a thorn in the eyes of the employer. It was hardly achievable and when she got an offer she needed to move to a bigger city where the costs for any house were very high. One day his mother Rachel talked to Ian, “Well, Ian, you know my income is quite small and it bothers me…” “Yeah, I know… that bothers me too, you smoke too much…” “Yes, and I tried it several times to leave it and to save the money but I don’t get it…” “You’re weak, said Ian in a nasty voice and in a bad tempered way. “I have to tell you that I’m getting in trouble with my employer… you know that I’ve been ill quite often in the last weeks and Mr Timbers started a conversation with me yesterday. He said that I had to admit that I was getting old… he would rather see me working harder because I am too slow…” Ian’s face was staring at the ground. Then he looked up again to his mother, “Mom, why can’t I give up school and start working? You know I hate attending it. Then we would have e
asier circumstances and we wouldn’t have financial problems anymore.” Rachel looked at her son. She was thinking about it but still she was determined, “No, Ian. You will continue your education.” “But mom!”. Ian shouted but at that moment she turned her back to him and left the room. Ian’s rage grew as well as his hatred for his mother. He wanted to go working and earn some money. The next day Ian woke up in the morning as usual. He first went to the bathroom and afterwards he entered the kitchen where his mum was already sitting with a cup of coffee in her right hand. The memory of the day was engraved in her face’s expression. She looked sad and mirthless and didn’t take a look at her son. Ian went to school by bus. When he arrived some friends of his waited to see him, “Hey Ian, how are you?”, said peter. “Well, basically not that good, you know, my father and my mother are divorced and circumstances become more and more fierce” “Sounds bad. I’m sorry for that. But I have a great idea. Have you heard of the street race tonight?” “What? Tonight? Where?” “It ‘s a drag race and it surely blows your mind. It’s located at south bay, near the center of the city. Maybe we can go there with Ann and Susan. “ “Why not,” Ian said and grinned a bit. “But isn’t tgat illegal?” “Of course it is,” Peter laughed. “But therefore you can win a lot of money” Ian was deep in thoughts. He imagined sitting in a racing car and winning the tournament and earning 10000 dollars. The same day in the evening Ian went with Peter, Ann and Susan to the place where the drag race was to be. A big crowd of people was standing behind six cars which were almost completely destroyed and gave a bad impression. Ian and Susan laughed and started to talk, “How stupid do you need to be to risk your life with these unsafe cars. “But the award is a high sum of money, I mean 10000 dollars…” Suddenly Ian asked Peter, “What? …10000 dollars?” Ian thought about his mother and her fi
nancial problems. “Can I still join the race?” “Of course you can… do you want to?! Remember, it’s a drag race… that’s really dangerous… to be honest with you, I would not recommend you to do it, it’s also called the race of death.” “I am not afraid to die… I rather want to do this instead of continue my life like this” Ian went to the man who seemed to be the organizer. After a while Ian was sitting in another car. For him it was not scaring to do this race but he was wrong. When the green light appeared the seven cars disappeared immediately so that Peter, Ann and Susan couldn’t see Ian in his car anymore, they just saw some cars moving towards the horizon. Suddenly Susan got a shock, “Oh my god, look!” One car turned itself over several times and landed off the racing track. The mood of the crowded people changed into a tranquil one. Silence appeared and soon Peter, Ann and Susan got to know that the driver of the car was Ian. He then was sent to hospital but unfortunately he did not survive this tragic accident. He died. After a week Peter, Ann and Susan visited Rachel. When she opened the door she was looking as if she hadn’t slept the night before. The three friends consoled her. But it was hard, she could not speak a sentence without bursting into tears. She said that she never expected Ian to do something like this, “I thought he valued life as something precious”. But she had been wrong about him…
by Christian Lindemann, Jever

Newspaper-article
"I was there 300 years ago"
Susan Witherspoon was an Inuit.
Summer 2006:Susan Witherspoon booked a flight to Greenland. Why? She was interested and she had a " mysterious connection" with the land. And now, she knows it. The first days there were so strange, because every place their toured, she knew.
Suddenly Susan saw a little girl, who drank blood. On Susan’s tongue came the feeling of drinking the blood on her own." at that moment I knew I had been here before, but not in this life!"
Susan tried to find old books with names of people, but nobody had anything like that. So she went to a tribe. first , all of the people were afraid, but one old woman came and said something. Susan didn’t know, but the woman took her hand and went away. In a small room, a picture attracted her attention. There was a girl, who looked like her, when she was a child. The old woman grinned.
So, after she had read the notice that she (the Inuit girl) had disappeared in the year 1707, nobody found her, she flew home.
But now she discussed with her family, if she would go to Greenland  or would it be better, to live here, in England.

Do you think that could be a real story?
Did something like that happen in your country? Or do you think it’s unrealistic to have a life before life? The death after life, could it be a new life?
by Jessica, Jever

Poem
What shall I do?
What will happen?
After the days of summer-meadows,
after the golden gloss of happiness?
Will it be glamourous
or will it be a glance at my old life?
Nothing is sure,
nobody knows
but everybody thinks,
it will be big,
a big event with
maybe thousands of candles
flying in the air
that’s my poinion,
and yours?
by Jessica, Jever

Although we don't like to admit it, one day our life will end.
*How do you feel about it?
Many people think death is the end of life but we have again life in future.
A one day must end the life because we obtain remuneration a good work or obtain penalty a bad work.
*are you afraid of death?
I don't test death but write in quran about this subject and I think death is afraid for sinner because these people do a bad work then go to hell and will TORTURE.
*and if you are, where does it come from?
My idea is death is horror for sinner.
*there will be something after life. But what?
Yes all of people have forever life in future
And every body alive in future.
*a kind of paradise?
Everybody do a good work will go to heaven and will obtain REMUNERATION of all good work but if everybody do a bad work will go to hill and will obtain penalty of all bad work.
Posted by maryam, Kashan

In koran , God refers to the world of the death . We relive man after death , because we want to examin his or her acts , God says .
All of acts that we do in this world , God knows all of them. The good man enters into the paradise and the bad man enters in to the hell .We are moslems and be live in two world . This world is the field for that world.
In our opinion there is after death one new life. Heaven and hell. Many good people that they do good work, so they after death will go to heaven. And bad people go to hell. In our opinion if people do good work they never don’t afraid of death, because they go to heaven.
Posted by mahya, Kashan


13. STORY TO CONTINUE

Hello everyone in this Circle,

We have started a Story to continue, and we would like YOU to continue the story, and we’ll do the next part again …

Enjoy writing parts of this story!

Jessica, Jever

Many many years ago, there was a little girl whose name was Sarah. Sarah loved to dance around the living room - with her arms wide up-and dressed up. But she didn’t go to an academy of dance or so, because her parents had only wanted her to save their marriage. But this went wrong. Little Sarah cried every day, and every day she danced. She went on her knees and wanted to go to a dancing school, but her parents said, with no love, ‘No’.
Sarah grew up to a teenager, was a normal student of a normal school, but the dream she had was always with her. She wanted it for ever and always. Most pupils laughed about her stupid thoughts, but Sarah wanted it so much and so, one day, she didn’t go home after school. ‘Run, run, run,’ were the only thoughts she had. ‘Away, away from here, to London’.
The finish was there, only 20 km away, then she would be in London...she had to look for a job... and a scholarship... what dangers she had on her trip?
You will write about it and read it in the next very very short story out of Sarah’s life!
...by Jessica from Jever

Hi Jessica, You have started an interesting story! I have added a few sentences to your story:

.......... Just by running 20 kilometers, she could see her dream had come true. So she didn’t waste the time and she ran. At first she was eager to reach London, so she ran as fast as possible. After a while she became tired, but how she could find anyone to help her?! As she had to continue her running, she did.
When she reached London with exhausted feet, she had nowhere to rest, nothing to eat and no one to talk with. She was thinking "If only my parents had let me dance...",when suddenly a voice got her attention, "Do you want a ........
I am looking forward to reading the next part. Regards, Farnam Tehran, Iran

"Do you want a drink?"
At first she was surprised, but when she looked up she saw two blue eyes. It was a boy whit a bottle of water in his hand. He was smiling. " You look thirsty and tired. It looks like you've been running all day," he said." My name is Peter.".....

Jana, Latvia

”Hi," Sarah said, very bashfully, "My name is Sarah. Yes....and now I a...a...am looking for a.....a.. place w....where I c....c...can sleep...do you know something?" she went red and stuttered." You are at the right address...," he said and took his skateboard. "Come," he said and took her hand. After half an hour Peter said, "Close your eyes , please." Sarah was afraid, but she did it. They went 20 steps and then Peter said that she could open her eyes. "Wow," she said, after she saw .... Jessica, Jever

"Wow" she said, after she saw  Peters apartment. Sarah was so surprised that she couldn’t say a word. "I’m living here whit my big brother. He’s now at work." said Peter. Sarah was looking at Peter and thought in her mind "He’s so nice!". " Don’t worry....
Hi, from Jana in Latvia!!!

" Don’t worry, you will have your own room. We won’t tell the police, if they are looking for you," Peter said and went away. "Wow," Sarah thought, 24h ago she had been at home.... and now she is here... She fell into a bad dream, where she met her parents, laughing, and they were happy... she was crying till she woke up and saw Peter , who was sitting on her bed. He … Jessica, Jever

Peter was sitting on her bed. He looked at Sarah, after few seconds of silence he said "I heard that you were crying so I came in to look what’s wrong with you. So now I see that you were having a bad dream. Is everything ok???"
" Don’t worry," Sarah said " I’ll be fine after a few moments."
When  Sarah were dressed up she went to a kitchen, she was surprised.....
Jana and Sintija from Latvija.

She was surprised when she saw the newspaper on the table. On the front page a woman cried. And this woman was Sarah’s mum. Sarah wasn’t able to think. "They love me?" But after she had read the next few lines, she was furious about these stupid words. "Do they say the right thing? Have you got a psychological illness?" "NO!! I haven’t. It’s all stupid and silly what they said. Boah....I won’t go home, never!" She ran into "her" room, jumped on the bed and thought about the situation. Not about her parents, no, about Peter and the life here, because she had never had such feelings in her head, body etc.." But what’s the right way?" were her thoughts and she went to Peter." Er...I...wanted to say...er... Jessica, Jever

"Er...I...wanted to say...er...thanks for your help...it was nice of you and your brother to let me stay here but now I need to go away. I just can’t stay here." Peter was surprised he didn’t understand what had happened with Sarah." What happened ? What’s wrong? Can I help you somehow?" Peter started to worry. "Peter..."
Zane and Jana from Latvia.

"Peter...I don’t know how to tell you something like that. It was so ... so...bad...so ugly....my father..." She began to cry...."What has he done???" "He raped me....6 years ago..,." she ran out...
Jessica, Jever

She ran out...All this had been too much. She had a flashback, she saw her mother, who looked into her eyes, her father, who had been lying on her.
And now, 6 years later, she was here. Here was a nice guy, Peter, and she felt something for him, but such a boy would never take a girl like Sarah. Now, she was near the Tower- bridge. She felt the cold wind and saw boats with colourful lights. She climbed on the parapet, stretched her arms and legs and wanted to jump, but.....behind her stood Peter, who put his arms around her body. "Please, come down! You are a nice, beautiful girl." She climbed down, after his words.

She cried. Peter kissed her tears away. "Psss... everything will be ok..." And so it happened. Half a year after it Peter and Sarah married and later they had 3 children. A little contact between Sarah’s parents and Sarah was built up.

Jessica, Jever

WE – CLASS 10e FROM JEVER