Weird World

Yes, definitely a weird world. I experience German-English-blindness more often this evening than ever before. Reading an article, I wasn't sure whether it was German or English - it was German, as I realized - and that's happened not the first time. I mean, I have it periodically, but I was reading a few newspapers online, and it got really confusing. Online is worse than kindle, because I haven't read anything German on my kindle. Ever.

So, today was pretty okay, except for how I almost missed my bus.
I mean, I had put my alarm clock on for 7.35 a.m. instead of 7.10 a.m. (I don't know how exactly I spend 1.5 hours every morning, but I definitely don't need that much time), only to have Tanya wake me up at 7.15 or so - I had kind of expected that, because she wouldn't let me oversleep, so I woke up slightly, called out "Alarm clock goes off at 7:30" and went back to sleep for another few precious minutes.
But then I was ready to go to early, and I just sat on the stairs, reading, and lost track of time. So by the time I left the house, the bus was right in front of our house.
I sprinted down the street and across the red light before it had fully turned white (the 'you can walk' is white and the 'stop' is read for pedestrians) and caught it just so. I'm just glad you don't have to wait long for red lights to turn white for crossing the street ;)
But I did catch it, even though I think it wasn't the best thing for my knee. :/

I finally held my Spanish presentation - and usually when I have to hold a presentation, I black out, especially if it's in English. In German it's alright, but in English I remember starting and then the end, but not what I said in between those periods. My sources have told me that I usually speak waaay too fast, but well, as I mentioned, I don't really remember much.
It was different today, though, and I am really happy about that. I believe this shows me that yes, I am growing in my year here. Not that I'm doubting it exactly, but whatever.

In English we continued writing our mock provincials, and I hit a writing gold mine. And then I had to stop because the lesson was over :/ *unimpressed*

Okay, and please read this, even though it is (slightly) about hockey.
The media today is abuzz with the news that Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke was fired. The thing is, the Leafs are really bad. I mean, even their fans don't really believe in their success anymore.
But firing Burke 10 days before the season starts might not have been the best choice - the media will focus on that, and a few players know that they played a role in this turn of events. Which is decidedly not good for a team that's anyway not good.

Anyway, what I actually wanted to write about is this tweet and the picture, because I think, and there I agree with Patrick, Brian's son, this is one of the most important things Brian has done.

  Source: (x)

 What this picture is about:

Brian lost his son Brendan in 2010 in a car accident. Brendan was a strong advocate to end locker room homophobia after he came out in 2009. He was the person most closely related to the NHL through his father GM for the Maple Leafs and his brother Patrick, a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers to come out as gay. (As of today, no athlete, neither former not active, has come out, although there have been anonymous interviews about how hard it is)

Patrick and Brian founded the 'You Can Play' campaign in his memory, which has the central slogan of If you can play, you can play, and various high-profile players, mostly hockey but also other sports, tell them to the camera, along with something like "I will always stand up for a teammate, no matter their sexuality" or "If a guy can help us win, then I want him on my team".

The thing that YCP wants to do is take away the edge of being the "first guy", first by showing support from straight athletes, and then bu having a group of players come out together. In 2005, one moderator (I don't know who, though) said he knew of enough players, coaches and commentators who were gay to fill two full all-star teams (and I'm guessing he was not talking about the All-Star game, although I can't be too sure...), which makes it at least 10 players and two coaches. Might not sound like much, but for a league so homophobic and without a single guy out of the closet, this is a lot - if you remember that this is a moderator we're talking about, and there sure are more guys, since I doubt that everybody would share such a thing with a moderator.

But You Can Play is keeping the videos up, and I anticipate in the long run, it will do a good job.

And yes, I think if this is what Brian Burke will be remembered for, he can be definitely be proud.

So, and talking about equality and stuff like that, look what I found on tumblr:

And I know a few people who should read this very carefully. And everybody should keep it in mind, for sure. Because it's just so true.





























And that was my "Wort zum Sonntag" (word of the day) even though it's still Wednesday...
And one last bit of trivia:
Why this ♥ is called a heart.
Well, I'm off writing a Journalism article about the end of the lockout - I totally forgot about that, I'm just really lucky that I know so much about the lockout that I don't have to research anything. (And want to read about how messy Tyler Seguin was in Switzerland? German article here and English article - with a healthy dose of sarcasm like "I hear that. I didn't learn to put rotten bananas in the garbage until apartment three. (I originally thought they went in the dryer.)" by the author here. But it seems as though not everything is true... Seguin denies the dryer incident but leaves everything else uncommented :D)

Love y'all!
Julia