i enjoy the whole thing of “uni brennt” and i’m gonna have a further look and post on it, but i think it’s time to return to more personal things and thoughts of my life.

well, my ego’s speaking and crying and crawling and wants more and more attention. does somebody know what i mean?

today is one of those grey in grey days and it’s not my day. we had a little bit less sleep this night then the last nights. and i’m totally not feeling well. my head aches a little bit. i’m tired like hell, not able to think about all those great things, only about this problem, and that stupid exam and blablabla… really unnerving.

but yesterday evening was sooooo amazing. it was so much fun. we went into a greek restaurant (i love greek food, though the only thing i know is that gyros is small cut meat and tsatsiki is yoghurt with cucumber and garlic and salt. ) yesterday i enjoyed a makadonia plate, which was with hardly everything you can dream of. especially the lamb chops were tasty. everything was perfect, but the waiter, he wasn’t that friendly and it’s just my opinion, but if i would be the waitress and a group of 8 people are visiting my restaurant for the first time, i would be veeeery nice and veeeery friendly because, if they would like me and my food, they will come back some day or visit the restaurant more often.

afterwards we went in a bar, i’ve been some years ago and it was like a living room. there are two rooms. the bigger one for smoker and the smaller for non-smoker. and we had the whole non-smoking area for us. we talked about this and that, even a bit about sex and this was the first time we did it. mr. womanizer ( i call him like this, couse this fits soooo very much) told us his fantasies and surprisingly they were simple fantasies and now i can tell it is the point of becoming a group of adults. and relationships with love, understanding and sex are more important to the most of us than heavy partying.

http://just4ikarus.wordpress.com and http://polilog.wordpress.com are his most famous blogs. they are in german and he has always an incredible opinion about things.

ladies and gentlemen, lahja proudly presents an interview with mr. just4ikarus: dominik!

lahja: so, dominik, you were a university student last year and now you changed to a university of applied science. what is the main difference about the two ways of studying?

 dominik: Yeah, I started last year at the University of Vienna, studying Media and Communication. It was a dream for me since I was 13 (really!), but after the first two weeks, it was much more like a nightmare. The Audimax was stuffed, and I just noticed, that they don’t want that much students in here.
The first semestre was so fucking boring, talking about the science itself.
After that, it became a little bit more interesting, but I started to look after an alternative very soon. And so I started at the college in St. Poelten. We’re 80 people in our year, divided into two groups. The professors try to teach every one of us, we often work in groups, and fortunately we have a little bit more pressure. Not only 3 exams at the end of the semestre, but nearly every week. I myself love my new life here at the college. Although we are paying tuition fees, I’m still fine with it.

lahja: oh that sounds very interesting. since you had been a university student for yourself, what do you thing about the whole protest in the viennese audimax and all over austria?

 dominik: If I still were living in Vienna, I just would be part of it. The protests are one of the greatest things, I can remember in my whole life. When I first read about it, (via Twitter, by the way), I wasn’t quite sure how to feel. But now, since the anarchism ended and the basis democracy has started, I love this protest.
The time has come. The minister of science, Mr. Hahn, don’t do enough for the students and the universities at all. And after all, nothing has changed for more than one decade! So, I really hope that there would be a little bit of a change in the system of the universites.
And on of the most important things is the importance of the internet. More than 2000 people are watching the livestreams every day. I have the information, that the “unibrennt”-streams are the biggest daily-streams in the world by now at ustream.com. Via Twitter and Facebook, they reach so many people, it’s fantastic; and it definitely shows the power of the world wide web.

lahja: i totally agree with you. this whole thing is brand new. the connection with internet helps this protest enormous. and that’s a big deal. sooo, have you visited the audimax yet? what were your emotions there. how would you describe the people there?

dominik: I was at the Audimax in Vienna at day 2 or 3. Of course, there was still anarchism “in da house”. But I just listened to the discussions in the plenum. I’m convinced, that it’s far more important to talk about such things. And it’s  definitely more interesting than the first semestre at the Univeristy.
Of course, there were many people drinking beer and smoking in the Audimax. Why not. Although I must admit, that I just don’t wanted to smoke in there. It’s not okay for all those non-smokers. But it has changed since this date. It has become better.

lahja: so, what do you think about the parties? in my view they give the public a complete wrong sign.

dominik: People, who don’t believe in the “audimaxism” always say, that the protests just are dumb party events. But between all these parties and fantastic cultural moments the students are working, discussing about everything.
It’s a nice, funny mix, I think. And the audimax in Vienna is probably one of the most interesting places for culture right now.

lahja: do you think that public gets enough information to have the chance to know, what we are protesting for, what our demands are.
or are you thinking, that it would be great to have a little bit more support of the public radio and tv.

dominik: The austrian broadcoaster “ORF” ignored the protests the first few days. But after the enormous demonstration, they also informed the people about what’s going on in the Audimax and all over Austria in their news.
The newspapers (e.g. Der Standard, Heute (!)) informed their readers since the beginning. And no, I don’t believe, that the people know much about the demands of the protesters. And, hell yeah! It would be great if their would be much more information in radio and tv. But today, ATV, a private broadcoaster discusses in the show “AmPunkt” about the protests. Just watch it!

lahja: how would you change the lack of information of public? what would you do against it?

dominik: The protesters just publish their own news, the “Morgen”. Maybe, they really reach their 5.000 people. That would be great. And … to get more information, it’s absolutely necessary to inform via internet. If you were able to change it, I would do it. But i can’t, unfortunately.

lahja: do you agree with me that lots of people are just too lazy to google their information about this protest and are talking against it? i know, this is a very provocative question.

dominik: Yeah. I agree with you. But there are also much people, who know the details, and still are totally against any kind of change. That’s much more awful.

lahja: like the austrian politicians?

dominik: No, they are just politicians.

lahja: yes, but they have to handle all situations in the best interest of their folk.

dominik: but they don’t. the people’s party is against any change. or they just want to regulate much more than now. the social-democrats (it’s not the right name for them) don’t really know what to do, the Freedom Party is against the protests and against the Germans. And the Greens, who has ideas, are too small to change anything.

lahja: isn’t it ironic that the freedom party is against the germans?

dominik: On the one hand, it definitely is. Always talking about being “groß-deutsche” (that means Germany and Austria united), but on the other hand still working for the normal people in Austria. Being nationalists can be still very complicated. Maybe too complicated for the Freedom Party.

lahja: so, i’m comin to the end with my questions. what do you think about german students in heidelberg and münster are accupying their universities?

dominik: Yeah, it’s not an Austrian phenomenon. It’s an European problem. So it’s the best time to start protesting all over Europe. Go on, guys! (I myself will meet more people from colleges today. We’re discussing about our demands.)

lahja: are you going to do something, declaring your solidarity or support directly?
i mean the whole group of collegues?

dominik: I don’t know. I’m quite fine with my collegue. But I myself definitely want more money for education and science. And therefore I could declare solidarity.
But there are also some people, who want to change the whole collegue-thiing. That’s wrong, in my point of view. It will be interesting, I think. And if not, I’ll run to the train to drive home.

lahja: thank you very much for this interview. it was really nice to talk with you.

a few days ago, i spoke with tina and now i got it ready finally. (it’s not bad to do an interview, it’s not bad to translate or type it. the worst thing about it, is listening to the interview about 20 times to understand it fully and write it down per hand.)

so, let’s get started:

lahja: now i’m talking with a very ,very old friend and former school collegue, tina.
tina, you are sick what do you think about the university protests? you can’t be there live at the moment, but what do you think about it in general? what would you do, if you could (go outside, etc.)?

tina: yeah, i notice this via live-streams and with help of videos in internet, which are online and on the one hand i think it is very infantile, like p.e. someone shouted at gabi burgstaller (governor of salzburg) and the rector with a megaphone during a speech at audimax.
students were booing and running to the podium with a megaphone and then shouted and making a tumult and the one girl in front of the rector and burgstaller, who shouted at the two – or i think they were even three – this is in my view not necessary. perhaps this was a bit overreacted, but it seems there is sadly no other way.
because i read our demands, and they exist since ages, but if you don’t demonstrate or doing marches, there seems to be no changes. so, it is infantile, it is maybe overreacted but sadly it’s necessary.

lahja: so, would you say, that the austrian politicians are like a kindergarden? because they are only reacting on infantile actions, really tough instruments and signs of public?

tina: yes, sadly. but you can see, there is no other way. but about the demands themselves: some of them are utopic – i think – and the thing with tution fee.
when i started studying, the tution fee was etablished and now it’s gone and i think until i’m finished this changes about another three times, but i’m sure there will come a new tution fee. at least with next change of regime.

lahja: and when we are talking about government, state and politics, how did you think about the handling of the whole situation by minister of science hahn?

tina: i have to confess, i didn’t go after this.

lahja: okay. in my view he somehow helped us with our protests, because he said the occupation of audimax vienna is only a local problem. of course the people were annoyed about this, because principally these tiny words worked like dropping a stone into water.

tina: well, probably with this statement the whole thing expanded and now it’s a national problem. (laughing)

lahja: and what are you doing at weekend, when you’re feeling better? are you having a look at university or are you going to cure yourself better. because you’ve been quite affected by your disease?

tina: so, i have to work beside university and i’m going to save my energy for this.

lahja: so we have a perfect exemple, that students are not only studying, do nothing or hanging around in front of the tv, but also that students are going to work, although they are studying. why do you have a job?

tina: well, because you simply have more money for living and i don’t want to be dependent on my parent. not even during my studies for 100%.

lahja: thank you, dear tina, for this nice interview.

tina: you are welcome.

so, as you can see, students are working. korbi, my former interview partner, as well. and me too.
we need the money, we want money and we don’t want to be dependent on our parents.
yesterday i had to decide university or working. i decided to do the job. because in this world there is not so much space for idalism, only for money. and that’s a bitter fact.
i’m not fully against capitalism, because it would work great, if there wouldn’t be sooo many people, who are unbelieveable greedy.

at university are some students or non-students, who want to use this protest to stop the whole capitalism-system. i’m not at their side. i only want the governament to spend more money for the universities, i’m against the whole bologna-system and i want it to be possible that everyone, who wants can study what he/she likes. without having the problem of not understanding the prof or having no place inside the audition room.
that’s what i’m for. and this is my reason to support “uni brennt”

so, today i finally managed it to spend some time at the university in the audition room 381. i met with tina, a friend, with whom i made an interview, too. i have to write it down in english, maybe it’s possible to do it tomorrow in the morning.

so the atmosphere were amazing. the people are so friendly and talkative, a little bit tired by now, but totally in favour of their work. the students are really eager with doing the cleaning, they have a kind of buffet. some people are sponsoring food. today some ladies from gmunden (my birthtown) came and brought them fresh food, vegetables and fruits (the crowd was so pleased and thankful). there are different workshops and working groups. the group for publicity work is quite busy, they are doing everything for others to have the chance to get news about their actions.

there is another group, which creates banners. they are hardworking. another group is discussing about capitalism and how to make it easier for the government to finance the universities. the mood is tolerant and great. people are everywhere in the university and are looking that they have everything done to motivate all the other students or to inform the public about our actions and claims.

so, tomorrow more interviews and i’m heading back to the university in the morning, so i can get further information for you all. (today i did an interesting interview with a student of science of communication) i want to help at university as long as it is possible, but tomorrow afternoon i have the chance to work for some hours and this is important for me. you know… no mon – no fun.

today i visited the audition 381of the salzburg university. the people are amazing and motivated, though they seemed tired, but now they are fully back at strength and looking forward to tomorrow.

just remember: focus on the main points, don’t take to wide topics and lighten up your creativity. you are great!

i did three interviews with some students. every single one has a different view on the situation but they are really interesting.

so first, i wanted to start with my old history-collegue korbinian, in short: korbi.

he was my first interview victim. since i’m not that great with technical things, i’m not able to post this interview now, but maybe with some help someone could tell me, how it works to put a wav audio thing online. thanks for your help. for all the guys, who like my english blog and who loves to read everything in english… here we go. the translation of the interview with korbi. i did it on thursday, 29th of october

 this is korbi.

lahja: sooo, we are at korbi’s, korbinian is one of the first guys, who joined “uni-brennt salzburg” and now we want to know just a little bit, p.e. what was the demonstration like? because yesterday wednesday, october 28th, 2009 we had a demonstration and announcement in salzburg at 15 o’clock. and now we get some further insider-details:

korbi: soo, first we had a big announcement about the nuisances (=Missstände) at especially the university of salzburg, but also at every austrian university. and after this there was a march through the inner city of salzburg… with traffic jam and it made a lot of fun and after about an hour of marching and showing our displeasure, there was a final announcement and afterwards the audition room 381 has been occupied.
we got a hand on the plate (wir bekamen eine steilvorlage) of the other universities and so the audition room 381 is occupied now and there are workshops, p.e. about university-capitalism or others to find some suggestions of solution, so noone can say that all the students are only sitting and hanging around and don’t do anything but wait for someone, who does anything.
we work out some suggestions and get them ready, if someone of the public representatives comes to us.

lahja: okay, thank you very much. korbi, you are a german – not that we want to be discriminatory – but why are you – as a German – so supporting for the austrian universities? why are so many germans so supporting for the austrian universities.

korbi: well, it’s like this, i study in austria, so i see it as my responsibility, that me too tell all about the nuisances and i admit that we germans have something to do with it, maybe you are more than twice eager and try out more things, because you know it’s a little bit your own fault… but you have to see it in this view: a lot of people, who study in austria, i study to become a teacher – and all the lectures are meant for austria – i will most likely be a teacher in austria, and with my taxes i’m going to finance more students, so i don’t see me as a parasite, but as an investment into the future, so i quasi can make another student’s life easier.

lahja: thank you very much, that is a surprising and great view, i think – really, nothing against the germans, we are neutral here.
yesterday there was a discussion between uni-minded people (but noone of the university! this has to be mentioned) and representatives of the retired. what do you say about the retired in austria want an increase of over 1,9% of their pension? do you think it’s good or fair or are you thinking, that the retired remove all the budget for the students and pupils?

korbi: well, i’m not so informed about the pensions, but there has to be always a relation about the past years. ordinary it is fair that the pensions increase in the same way as inflation does, so the money remains the same. if it was the past years above-average low, then i really understand this, but this year, there isn’t an inflation, but a light deflation and so it’s 100%.
and if you have the money, you can do it, but it is basically better to invest in future, because this will run into a big deficit. and better you invest in future, because i want a pension, too and just – i don’t know – taking some money of the banks, because they have p.e. in germany invested 150 billions in the banks, the so called bad banks and well austria is – i guess – discussing about this too.
and there you can surely balance it and – i think – the 100 millions the universities demand, to fix everything… this money should be there.

lahja: thank you. and you had been in the audition room 381, too and what was the atmosphere like?

korbi: so, i was there directly after the announcement. after the demonstration i was in the audition room 381 and it was quite stuffed. the atmosphere is very comfortable. the people are working a lot, the spirit is easy.
there isn’t any hierarchy. so the people can say something, if they want and it’s students among themselves. it’s easy going, not like “help, uni!”, but really comfortable, it’s like meeting somewhere in ordinary life.

lahja: so, there are new connections and friendshios at university, everyone has something of it through this initiative.

korbi: i re-met two old friends at the demo, and also you can find new and old friends. that’s for sure. you are talking more easily, because of the own interests and especially in the workshops you learn to know more people. that’s in every single way favorable.

lahja: so, the (social/political) project “uni brennt” wide spreaded trhough austria is a great success until now. in vienna yesterday (october, 28th) demonstrated about 50 000 people, although the police say something different about 10 000 or 15 000, but there were of course more people, everyone could see this on videos. thanks, for this lovely interview

korbi: no problem. gladly again.

lahja: very nice. thanks!
thank you, korbi, for your openness.

please remember, i’m no native speaker, so there are surely tons of mistakes in this post.

the government’s decisions are getting worse! the science minister, who said a few days ago that the students demonstrations and the occupation of the viennese audimax is only a local problem, who failed terribly in his job has been upgraded to the next austrian EU commissionar.

it’s a typical way for austria’s government to get around a problem. now they can find a new person for the science minister’s position and have a new and neutral start with us students. instead of downgrading someone, who wasn’t able to do his job, they promote him. that’s soooo sad.

well, but minister hahn helped us a lot, because of his saying, the whole protest against the bologna system is just “a local problem”.

a lot of people declares their solidarity: students from helsinki university over the university of santa cruz and different trade unions like the union of metal worker, the union of nutrion and, etc.

these are only a small hand full.

austria’s students are fighting for their rights and future. please support us!

have a look on these pages to get new information:

http://www.facebook.com/unsereuni

http://freiebildung.at/wordpress/audimax-besetzung-grenzenlos-in-unterschiedlichen-sprachen/

some video of the audimax:

yesterday we visited the prom ball of a friend. it was quite nice, we made some crazy pictures. i wore a black and white dress, since i have blonde hair and a light skin i needed some colourful spot, so i decided for smokey eyes and a bright red on my lips. that was it.

it looked great, if i had more time to do anything with my hair, it would have been perfect. but i still looked awesome.

today we celebrated the birthday party of my youngest sister and i didn’t like the situation. it was the first meeting of the whole family since i had been sick and everyone could sense that there had been problems between my mother and her sister.

her sister was quite helpful at this time, but instead being just a support, she had to tell the grandparents that it was my parents fault, that i had this disease. these are words no mother wants to hear, when people are thinking that the child could have cancer in the pancreas (which was the first thought of the doctors).

i don’t like those family events. it’s nothing that is soooo often soooo important. last year we had about 30 family meetings. the whole pack. grandparents, uncle with his wife and kids, aunt without/with her new boyfriend and kids and my family. that’s too much.

i like my family. but i don’t want to see all those people so often. especially when there are some people, who thinks that they really have to say things, which can’t be true. i came home from a journey and directly after this i started to be sick. and in the time before, i haven’t been at my parent’s either. so, dear auntie, first thinking, afterwards saying something.

the last years i had times over times “the pleasure” to enjoy your intrigues and i’m full of this shit. really, i can’t stand it. just leave my mum be, try walking in her shoes AND bother about your own things. 

this woman had nothing and she worked hard to have her life again. she left things behind her, noone would wish for his enemy. okay?

our nice co-students plan to occupy the university until tomorrow.

university of graz and turin (italy) declare their solidarity. our ignorant generation is burning. brighter and higher than ever before. some new demos by/at the other austrian universities are planned for tuesday. (on monday we have our austrian national day)

people in vienna, graz and turin! you are awesome! keep going! you are great!

here we are: generation zero-interested. it’s the second term we don’t have  university fees and there are people over people, who started to study this year, which is really thrilling and great for a country.

but if the circumstances – that everyone can manage to visit the courses, cause they are overcrowded, so you can’t even find a place in the auditorium or you have no chance to register in a lecture – is not given, then our dear government and science minister have to do something.

people always say, that the students in our country are lazy and not interested in things, but now especially our dear students of vienna have reached a point of not being silent, of telling their opinions and occupied the largest auditorium of vienna. it’s the second day of demonstration.

the press, the government and a hell of a lot of people think that this is only a momentary enthusiasm, which is going down. some of the law students are annoyed couse they don’t have any lectures today.

it seems that in austria not the right of education for everyone is given, especially in the last years it looks like in austria the elite is important. the best, the fastest and the brightest students are accepted. especially science is important. not science of education or social works studies. it’s only the science stuff and law, which counts. that’s important for the economy.

and if you have a closer look at this for the later situation, you can see that the focus lies not longer on the people of austria, but on the economy and money.

hopefully we’re starting some demo-actions in the rest of austrians university too. that people of this country see, that this is about the students future. and not about being lazy, crazy or what the hell they are thinking.

some nice links:

these are the claims in diffenrent languages: http://freiebildung.at/wordpress/audimax-besetzung-grenzenlos-in-unterschiedlichen-sprachen/

here a nice link in english: http://emancipating-education-for-all.org/content/academy-arts-vienna-occupied

hottest updates via twitter from the audimax: http://twitter.com/unibrennt

this post written by my dear friend just4ikarus is in german but great to read: http://polilog.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/die-unibrennt-noch-immer/ and http://polilog.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/unibrennt-dieser-horsaal-ist-besetzt/

(i read something about university of graz declares their solidarity and occupies the vorklinik. hej, guys. its great!)

i’ve never thought that the lyrics of “walking in the air” could come true. my lovely bf and i have a friend, who starts to be a pilote. since yesterday he has the permission of driving a fourseater aircraft. today we made a flight over our nice salzkammergut. we have a lot of lakes and mountains. the weather was brilliant until we reached the traunsee.

we flew over the traunstein, the last big mountain of the höllengebirge. the view was astonishing, i’m really in mood for going mountain climbing or hiking, but the snow lies everywhere, so it would be utter nonsense to climb this one under these conditions.

we were shortly disappointed due to the simple fact that over our home area where clouds over clouds, but they were impressive. we couldn’t do the geographical know-it-all-talking, but we managed to organize having a double-date with the pilots gf and us two, in our second living room. (i guess they would have gone bankrupt without us)

the aircraft didn’t shake that much, it seemed to sail over the mountains and clouds. i really enjoyed the trip.

afterwards we had some healthy and great lunch at indigo. it healthy fast food. i took some ramen pasta with tomato sauce, i was afraid that the curry would be too hot for my stomach. the boys were brave enough to try the chicken curry. and it was really hot (my love and me thought about the hot pepper trial in gothenburg ).

then the boys took their way back at home and i went to university by bus. i liked it, though i wrote an exam, but it was quite okay. today it was the first day since ages i really liked salzburg again. it was beautiful at night. when i took the bus to the railway station. i didn’t believe i could manage to get the train, because i was sooo confused. they reconstruct the main building. but the train was late and even if it wouldn’t have been late, i would have caught it. i was running to the platform, though i shouldn’t do this for another couple of weeks.

my love picked me up and we drove to our second living room, in this nice bar. where we met our friends. lot of talkings, a hot chocolate for everyone of us and some dinner later, we are back at home. tired, but satisfied. really fucking tired.

it was a nice and crazy day. with overcoming fears, a start for the university term and a hell of a lot of nice talks. i enjoyed myself. but now… i’m just tired. sleep well, have a nice day and visit the salzkammergut. i know a perfect pilote for a sightseeing flight.