Miss Euro Blogger - Bursting the Bubble

Photo by John Fornander on Unsplash Naomi Osaka was robbed of which was probably one of the greatest moments in her career to date. She beat her idol in the U.S. Open but she didn't appear happy about. I got the feeling she didn't even dare to be happy when she claimed her prize and her trophy. While everyone is shifting blame for the anticlimactic victory of this young, talented tennis player to the supposedly overcritical umpire, I believe there are more people to blame: Carlos Ramos certainly played a role in contributing to the game turning sour by ticking off Serena Williams and consequently the crowd with is judgement calls. I don't know enough about tennis to know whether his ruling were wrong. Serena's coach Patrick Mouratoglou is another person we can point a finger at as he definitely, and later also admitted, coached her during the game. Serena also shares part of the blame in my opinion by making the event about her being treated unfairly. O...

Made in Styria - Improved in California I participated in a Writing for the Web-workshop recently and one of the exercises was to write an exaggerated 'About Me' for my product/services website. The class was in German and therefore, so is the result. Let me know what you think!  Mein Name ist Cornelia, aber seit der dritten Klasse Volksschule nennt mich jeder Connie, weil wir damals 'coole' englische Namen von unserer Englischlehrerin bekamen. Ich bin zu 100% aus steirischem Fleisch mit ungarischer Gewürzmischung hergestellt, jedoch wurde meine Fleischqualität unter der teilwiesen Aufsicht von Governeur Arnold Schwarzenegger über 10 Jahre lang in Kalifornien aufgebessert. Made in Styria - improved in California. Dort bekam ich auch das Qualitätssiegel der University of California-Los Angeles verliehen. Dieses Qualitätssiegel ist auch der Grund warum ich trotz meiner Kompaktheit im Hochpreissegment verkauft werde. Neben meiner Expertise im zweisprachigen Texte...

After spending the last weekend sick in bed and alternatively on the couch, I maxed out on Netflix documentaries, shows and movies. It made me realize how much I miss American trashy television. Yes, it's shallow. Yes, it's dumb. Yes, I like that kind of stuff sometimes. Binge watching endless reruns of The Real Housewives of Orange County, Beverly Hills, New York and sometimes Atlanta was an amazing guilty pleasure on the weekends. When I was on a business trip in St. Louis, Missouri, which included a weekend and I was done with sightseeing after 3.5 hours, I got myself a serving of quesadillas (the only vegetarian food I could find) and ate it in bed while watching Bravo. Reality show after reality show! I loved it! I spent the next day and a half on my bed-island with cheese stains in my jammies. It was an incredible weekend of wasting time and expanding waistbands. The other realization I had while being cooped up and watching Hollywood movies and shows was how much I mi...

Morocco has been on my list of places to visit for quite some time. This May, the time had finally come! I thought Moroco was all about camels, couscous and desert but I couldn't have been more wrong! Marrakech has countless parks and the buildings show intricate designs and powerful colors. I especially loved the beautiful doors and gates of the various buildings. People are very friendly and everyone speaks English! Did you know that designer Yves Saint Laurent used to live in Marrakech? You can visit his incredible blue house surrounded by a lovely and colorful garden. The souk was bustling but no one was pushy. The food was INCREDIBLE and very vegetarian friendly. We took a trip to the ocean to visit the city of Essaouira, which apparently used to be hippie-town where Jimmy Hendrix briefly lived. We went on a sunrise hot air balloon ride (my first) and it was an incredible experience! Floating across the tree tops of olive trees and seeing the sun rise in the distance...

Austria feels a sense of pride when it comes to being what they call nostalgic about the past and going against the mainstream. The rest of the world calls it being backward. In 2015, the Austrian government at the time passed a law that would finally take Austria to the same progressive level as the majority of Western countries: banning smoking in bars, restaurants and clubs. However, it wouldn't be Austria if things were that simple. The government gave establishments over 2 years to prepare for the law to come into effect - May 2018 - which would fall under the legislative period of the next government. I was very happy about the law as I am one of those 'annoying' people who get a headache and burning eyes as well as the urge to cough as soon as I am exposed to smoke. At the same time, I thought the long time before the law actually will be enacted may be problematic as the new government may have other ideas. It turned out that I was right... and in this case, I wis...

Sietar Austria invited me to hold a reading of my book LAlien-From the Austrian Alps to the Hollywood Hills at the Vienna Expat center on January 21. And so I did. Check out the Press Release by MyMorawa summarizing the fantatic evening: https://www.mymorawa.com/neuigkeiten/pressemitteilung-nachlese-zur-buchpraesentation-lalien-von-cornelia-e-miedler/

My last blog post in 2017 was about my intention of holding back on unnecessary purchases in 2018 - and I am still quite serious about it. During our trip to London over New Year's, I realized two of my biggest weaknesses are: - vacation shopping, and - boredom shopping In the past, I have often dedicated a whole day to shopping when on vacation. I'm not really sure when this 'tradition' came about but it has been my thing. We only had 4 days in London and the city was crazy crowded. For some reason, I had absolutely no desire to go shopping. I only bought some supplements at Whole Foods, which is a store I loved in the US and doesn't exist in Austria. I was waiting for that 'feeling of missing out' to set in for not roaming through the shops, when walking past the shopping area, however, I got so distracted by all the sights I wanted to see that experiences became more important than things .  Sure, it would have been much easier to spend the day at t...

2017 was a mixed bag in many ways, therefore I am not really sad that the year is coming to a close. And although I have a lot of plans for 2018, I don't want to make a lot of resolutions except for losing weight - but that's always on the list. ;) Instead, I have joined an online group that focuses on cutting spending to the necessities. I really enjoy online shopping for clothes - I can browse for hours in my sweatpants and don't have to deal with people. So when an email lands in my inbox promising x% off, I get very excited. I am not much of a luxury shopper. Most luxury items I own (a purse, a coat and a wallet) were gifts or I got them (jewelry) for a lot less because I worked for the company. Most of my funds go towards vacations. I just love traveling and exploring different countries! Now that we've adopted a kitty cat, traveling will require some additional planning and consideration. We have a few trips on the radar for 2018, however, way less than pre...

  via GIPHY I know I'm late to the game of watching the movie Wonder Woman . I had heard good things about it but I was reluctant because I feared it would end like all female-centered heroine movies end: with a wedding or with a baby - or both. (I'm looking at you Hunger Games). No matter how often a woman saves the day in the end, she is always reduced to the role of the love interest or the mother, as if to say "yeah, we know you can kick ass and have brains but don't forget your place in society: by a man's side and in the nursery". Gag. At about the midway point of the movie, Wonder Woman seemed to go the same direction. Gal Gadot looks - of course - amazing in every shot. A flawless body and perfect hair at all times - just how we would have looked on the battle fields of World War I. I really envied her for her amazing outfit - who wouldn't want bullet proof bracelets. She is trained and raised by a lot of strong women in order to save the world...

So far, 2017 has been a mixed bag in many ways. There has been the good: a wonderful marriage, a beautiful home, opening my own language service business, fulfilling friendships and the ability to continue following my passion of writing. Since I mentioned a mixed bag, here's the bad: three different allergies, a thyroid lump and significant food intolerances that severely impact my quality of life - and the pocketbook. All of this has led to a rollercoaster of emotions that I have a hard time controlling and masking around others. On a particularly sad day, my health issues make me lethargic and make me feel like I'm missing out on 'life', my husband asked me what would make me happy. I know that professional fulfillment is one of the things that make me happy but it's nothing that can be forced and I can only continue to pursue it as much as possible. I tried to remember if there was one thing, one event, one life stage that made me particularly happy. And the...

My husband and I went to Greece in early October. It was my first trip to the cradle of democracy! Check out some impressions from Athens and Santorini Athens Santorini