Feeding Feathered Friends in February – National Bird-Feeding Month

By Veronika M. Heinrich

Christmas and New Year’s Eve are over. Now it’s already February, but Valentine’s Day is not really your thing? Worry not! National Bird-Feeding Month has arrived.

It’s just the right time of the year to provide our feathered friends with food and water in our backyards, then sit in front of the window to watch them. It’s a great delight to see them feast on seeds. You can get in touch with nature, take a moment to relax, and help the environment. It’s also cheap, and kids will have a lot of fun learning the different birds’ names.

You’re not familiar with the A and O of bird-feeding yet? Don’t worry about this either – I’ve been feeding birds in my yard for years. Let me feed you the most important titbits you need to know to participate!

25 January 2023Access Americaadvertisments, fast food, Food, Leuphana, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Leuphana University Lüneburg, obesity, obesity epidemic, obesogenic environments, overweightJanina Malena Sähn

Sit, Drink, Eat, Repeat

By Nina Preußler

Did you know that there are now more dangerously overweight than malnourished people in the world? With over one third of their population classified as obese, the United States is one of the countries most affected. It’s easy to jump to conclusions and dismiss the ‘obesity epidemic’ as a symptom of ever-growing laziness in the Western world. Instead, the tripling of the obesity rate in the U.S. over the last 50 years can mostly be attributed to obesogenic environments. You’re asking yourself what that is?

18 January 2023Best Books & Fabulous Filmsbiker gang, blockbuster, Chicano, drama series, Elgin James, Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes, FX, guns and drugs, Leuphana, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Mexican American, Movie, Representation, Sons of AnarchyJanina Malena Sähn

We Own the Majority: Mayans M.C. Brings Drama, Representation, and Larger-Than-Life Grit

By Hannah Quinque

Photo by Steqvc at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MayansMC.png#/media/File:MayansMC.png.

FX’s Mayans M.C. is a drama series showcasing a world of guns and drugs around a biker gang in SoCal, right at the US-Mexican border. Can a setting riddled with stereotypes present a backdrop for desirable representation with its principally Mexican American (Chicano) characters? Let’s look beyond the basic premise and find out how Mayans M.C., for all its machismo, tells tales full of life seldom featured, off- as well as on-screen.

11 January 2023Creativity CornerCreative Writing, Leuphana, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Leuphana University Lüneburg, short stories, Travel, TraveloguesJanina Malena Sähn

Travelogues

By Maria Moss

What exactly is a travelogue? Or, asked differently, what is it not? A travelogue is not an advertisement that tries to sell specific destinations to its readers. A travelogue is not a guidebook with a list of the top 10 best restaurants or massage places. Rather, a travelogue is a creative narrative of someone’s experiences while traveling.

Travelogues focus on and celebrate the differences in traditions and customs around the world; very often, they’re conversational in tone and filled with funny details (see, for instance, Bill Bryson’s Stories from a Small Island). Good travelogues contain vivid descriptions and sensory details; unexpected, maybe even transformative experiences; and accounts of interactions with local people. Travelogues can also combine fictional and factual elements, as one of the greatest travel writers, Bruce Chatwin (1940–1989), beautifully demonstrated (e.g. the stories dealing with his trip to Australia, The Songlines). Fictional or non-fictional, funny or not – above all, a travelogue must tell a story.

The following two travelogues, written by creative writing students in the fall semester 2022/23, each tell a story. One takes place in the Ecuadorean rainforest, the other in Venice.

28 December 2022Creativity CornerAlone Time, Book, Comfort, Go Offline, Imagination, Leuphana, Leuphana University Lüneburg, New Year, New Year's Eve, New Year's Resolution, Resolutions, Solitude, Walks, WineJanina Malena Sähn

A Nude Dance

By Rizwan Wazir

New Year’s Eve is practically upon us once again. Do you always feel guilty for being lazy and not ‘having fun’ on all the ‘important’ occasions? If so, then instead of cursing yourself or the universe for your loneliness, you can choose to be at peace. Instead of scrolling through the Instagram feeds of your friends, you can scroll through your own life history. Here is a recipe that will make the night one to remember, even if you’re all alone:

18 December 2022Access AmericaCelebration, Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, Holidays, Jewish traditions, Jews, Leuphana, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Leuphana University Lüneburg, ReligionJanina Malena Sähn

Happy Hanukkah 2022!

By Sabrina Völz

If you live in the United States or in many other places in the world, it’s impossible not to know anything about Christmas. However, the same cannot necessarily be said about the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which begins tonight, on December 18, and runs until Monday, December 26. In honor of the Feast of Dedication, sometimes referred to as the Festival of Lights, I’d like to invite you to watch this short, informative video:

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