Chernobyl - the most serious accident in the European history

Hello everybody!

In our latest English lesson we were talking about the Chernobyl Disaster. After watching a documentary about the blast in the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl 30 years ago I want to tell you some important facts about it. It is also known as the most-serious nuclear accident in the European history. Two people died during the night of the blast and 80 people died in the following days.

The people living in Pripyat, four kilometres near the power plant, weren't informed immediatly about the radioactive toxic air but the radioactivity was 50 000 times higher as normal. 38 hours after the accident the government evacuated the whole city. 

Michael Gorbatschow didn't inform the rest of the world until Sweden measured an unusual amount of radioactivity in the air. They informed the bureau of radioacitvity in Vienna. Finally, the Sowjetunion confirmed that there has been a serious accident in the power plant in Chernobyl. As a next step, they decided to send over 600 pilots with helicopters over the reactor, which was still burning, to erase the fire. All of them were contaminated and died because of the radioactivity. 

But there was still the cloud full of toxic radioactivity, the invisible enemy, which drifted over Europe. People were told to stay at home. Everybody was afraid of a second explosion in the power plant and 10 days after the disaster they decided to send the first expert to Chernobyl but the situation was still critical. They wanted to put the water away and this is why they built a tunnel under the power plant. All the animals there died because of the radioactivity. 

2500 dead heroes weren't mentioned in all the statistics. Even 30 years after the accident, the 43000 people who once lived in the city weren't able to return to their homes. Everything is still contaminated and you can only visit the area with special equipment. The accidents repercussions still have effects on the people living near Chernobyl. The rate of cancer increased.

I'm glad living in a country without any power plants.

Regards,

Katja :)

More or less essential public health care in Austria

Hello everybody!

I was reading an article the other day about health services. This encouraged me to write about the following two important topics. I thought you might be interested because these topics might concern you sooner or later in your life.

Not everybody agrees with some health care being called "essential" but one goes literally under the skin. Getting a tattoo is pretty common in today's modern world but many of them will be regretted after getting it. If this happens to you, there is still help left. possibleIf the tattoo gives you mental distress, there is the opportunity to get the tattoo removed. If you can prove how strong your mind is affected, in my view, you should not have to pay for the removal. On the other hand, you were (hopefully) not forced to get the tattoo, so it is your own fault and you should pay for the removal by yourself.

Another important topic is cosmetic surgery. In show-business, everything is pretty superficial. Is it justified that some actors or singers want to have a smaller nose to improve their career for free? I don't think that the public health service should pay for that. If they don't like their own skin, there are a lot of different ways to feel better about their body.

Regards,

Katja

Business-Week

Welcome everybody!

In our latest english lesson we talked about the Business-Week which every pupil of the 4th school form had to pass in many different local companies. We used the opportunity of working in a company to collect some professional experience.

I worked at the ENGEL AUSTRIA GmbH, which is a leading manufactuerer of  injection molding machines. I worked at the operativ purchasing department and did a lot of desk work.

From Monday to Friday I arrived at 7:30 a.m. and finished working at 15:30 p.m. There were two breaks, the first one lasted from 9:00 until 9:10 a.m. and the second one started at 12:00 and ended at 12:30. During the lunchbreak my collegues and I went to the canteen to get a tasty meal and to reload our energy.

On the first day I was introduced to all of the purchasing staff and I also got to know my contact person who showed me her daily workflows. Her name is Kerstin R. and she is a very friendly, helpful, young woman. Kerstin has been working for the company for three years now and she enabled me a comprehensive view of the whole department.

She got a lot of different tasks for me, which made my experience pretty exciting. I ordered material from suppliers as well as I registered acknowledgements of orders in SAP. I also did traveling applications for the different team leaders. But excepting the desk work, Kerstin also managed for me to attend a supplier visit and a team meeting, which was something I've never been to before and it enabled me a deeper view in the working life.

I am glad I had the chance to work there for my Business-Week. The whole staff was candid and incorporated me in their team, which facilitated me to enjoy the week as well as having a lot of fun.

Regards,

Katja :)