Austriaalumni Newsletter
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WINTER 2014 AYA ALUMNI NEWSLETTER ACADEMICAUSTRIA YEAR ABROAD Greetings from Salzburg! from Fall 2013 Director Christina Guenther “Die Krampusse sind los!” You may remember (partial) hike up the Gaisberg, and a weekend trip that at this time in Salzburg—the first week to Vienna via the Westbahn. This year, the tour of of December—the Krampusse are haunting— Großgmain’s open-air museum in early October actually terrorizing—downtown Salzburg. Our took place in the snow while we had splendid students in this year’s AYA Salzburg have been sunny weather for our walking tour around pretty cool about their first Krampus-encounters, Vienna at the end of the month, on the Austrian though. See photo at left! National Holiday no less. Here is a picture of the Mengdi and Sara from Sara’s Facebook group looking intently at the Austrian parliament entry (permission to include granted): “I got to building, the Nationalrat. On page 2, a more experience my first Krampuslauf today! I ended relaxed group photo in front of the palace at up getting whipped, and also a few of the Schönbrunn! Krampus’s rubbed my head/face. Not sure why. Vienna was as beautiful as ever in the It was insane, I loved it!!” autumn sunshine, and we all vowed to return This is just one of the many (and very soon. occasionally weird) intercultural Students experience Krampus-encounters. encounters that our students have had in Salzburg this semester. I am very pleased to announce a new opportunity for intercultural exchange Inside This Issue in Salzburg this year. With Meet Spring 2014 Director Geoffrey Hawes 2 the help of our Geography- Return to Salzburg 3 Team—Professors Fritz Baier and Ute Januschka—the new Alumni Notes - Send Us Your News! 3 Patenfamilienprogramm, a Snowshoeing in Salzburg 4 friendship family program in Thanks to Alumni and Friends for Support Salzburg, has gotten off to a of Scholarship Funds 5 good start. Through this pilot program a few of our students Austria Alumni Board 5 have already been able to experience Austrian family life more directly. I should say that the group this year has Several local families associated with area high proved to have quite a bit of staying power. The DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN, RUSSIAN, schools responded to our friendship program students have been unwavering in their interest AND EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES invitation and hosted one or more of our students in the Austrian theater scene; in two months, we 103 Shatzel Hall this fall. We hope that this program will serve managed to see Brecht’s Die heilige Johanna der Bowling Green State University as a fun and rewarding complement to the Schlachthöfe at the Salzburger Schauspielhaus, Bowling Green, OH 43403 academic component of our program. Ödön von Horvath’s Geschichten aus dem Wiener Phone 419-372-2268 The semester got off to a fast start once Wald at the Akademietheater in Vienna and a Fax 419-372-2571 again. October was full of excursions and special modern production of both Faust I and Faust II [email protected] events, including a geographer’s tour of Salzburg, a visit to the open-air museum in Großgmain, a Continued on page 2 AYA AUSTRIA ALUMNI NEWSLETTER Greetings from Salzburg – continued from page 1 From Spring 2014 Director Geoffrey Howes Dear Alumni and Friends of the Academic Year Abroad in Austria, It has been over ten years since the last of my four previous stints as director of the program ended in 2003—although I have been back to Salzburg with the summer program, the spring “breakaway,” and privately—and I am looking forward to spending the first six months of 2014 in the place where my family and I made so many memories in the eighties, nineties, and oughts. How much Europe and Austria have changed since we came to Salzburg in August of 1989! The Berlin Wall fell (1989), Germany reunited (1990), Austria joined the European Union (1995), the passport and customs control at the German and Italian borders were eliminated when Austria joined the Schengen agreement (1997), the euro was introduced (2002), and the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and at the Salzburger Landestheater and Felsenreitschule respectively. Slovenia joined Schengen as well (2007). Geopolitics have moved Talk about amassing a lot of cultural capital quickly! Austria from the edge of Western Europe to the center of a new Europe For a change of pace over the Thanksgiving holiday, the students that is still struggling for its identity. Each year, BGSU students have had showed off their culinary talents by cooking up a storm in the kitchens the opportunity to be in Europe to witness these momentous transitions. of Haus Merian, Institut St. Sebastian and Haus Humboldt! Three Much has changed in Salzburg itself since 2003 as well: the turkeys, a ham, green bean casserole, a special Chinese curried familiar buildings in the Akademiestrasse have been demolished, chicken and lots of variations on the stuffing theme as well as at replaced by the new Unipark Nonntal, and the director’s apartment has least six pies were only some of the dishes that we were able to offer moved back to Nonntal from Schallmoos. There is a new modern art in thanks to our new community of friends here in Salzburg. What museum up on the Mönchsberg (2004), the Salzburg Museum (formerly a fantastic meal with very few leftovers, sadly enough! Below is a Carolino Augusteum) moved into the Neue Residenz (2004), and the picture of some very happy people at our Thanksgiving fest, which we Haus der Natur expanded into the space on the Franz-Josef-Kai vacated hosted at Haus Humboldt again this year. by the Salzburg Museum. Now we are looking forward to many visits to the Salzburger This year, the AYA Austria celebrated 45 years of its mission of Christkindlmarkt—after we wrap up pre-holiday assignments during giving BGSU students unforgettable international experiences. I have the next several weeks. been fortunate to participate in twenty-five of those years, watching We wish all of you a very happy holiday season wherever you are as our students return to the USA with new sophistication and self- and we promise to raise a mug of Glühwein to those of you who are awareness. The generosity of our alumni helps to assure that these spending the holiday season back in the USA. opportunities continue. Herzliche Grüße aus Salzburg! Christina Guenther and the AYA Austria Group 2013 www.bgsu.edu/departments/biology 2 AYA AUSTRIA ALUMNI NEWSLETTER June 2013 Alumni Gathering in Salzburg 45 Years Program Celebration – June 16-20, 2013 Alumni and friends met to celebrate the program’s forty-fifth anniversary. Highlights were our unplanned (because the Almbachklamm was closed) trip to the Königssee and our city walk with BGSU President Mary Ellen Mazey. The reception at the old university library “Aula” was a wonderful and emotional event where the presenters (including current and past students, Margy Gerber, Gene Aufderhaar, and Stefen Fritsch) made a powerful case about the impact a program like ours has had and continues to have on the lives of our students, its alumni, and all those involved both in Austria and the States. We were reminded once again of the long history of our program, but also of the dedication and idealism of the directors, students, and alumni that has kept us and our program going. — Edgar Landgraf Feeling royal on the Königssee View from Nonnberg Abbey BGSU President Mary Ellen Mazey meeting BGSU students at the new Unipark Nonntal building, University of Salzburg Alumni News Send us your updates at austria.bgsu.edu Tim Cable (2008–2009) has taken thanks in part to generous financial National and Cultural Identity of fiance. “I’m not really using my a position as program associate at support from his former employer Turkish-German Return Migrants.” language skills on a daily basis, but the ACLU of Ohio in Cleveland. He (Swarovski, whose internal maga- She plans to be associated with the I’m still certain that my experience in was formerly a part-time lecturer in zine, 1895, he co-edited for a few European Institute at Istanbul Bilgi Austria and at BGSU was worth it!” German at Case Western Reserve years). The market for multilingual University. Antonia lived in Turkey writes Elisabeth. and John Carroll University, and voice artists is thriving, and Brad for four years earlier in her life, and April Reiter (2009–10) moved back also youth-services associate at helps make ends meet by doing has further improved her Turkish to the U.S. this last summer after Cleveland Heights-University Heights voice work in German and English. language skills in preparation for the two years as a teaching assistant Public Library. Brad is “thrilled to be living in this project. in Austria. She is the program Bradford Goodwin (2004–2005) very vibrant city and intends to stick Elisabeth Nims (2004–2005) is coordinator for the American and his wife Margarethe Karl- around a while.” working at a hedge fund in Boston Association of Teachers of German Goodwin—they met at BGSU—is in Antonia Davis (2011–12) has called Three Bays Capital LP doing in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. In early Berlin learning how to code websites submitted a Fulbright research ap- investor relations. She moved from September, April married George and is freelancing as a copywriter plication for a project entitled “The NYC to Boston in July with her Hemphill. They met while in the 3 AYA AUSTRIA ALUMNI NEWSLETTER Snowshoeing in Salzburg During my year in Salzburg (2012–13), I had some incredible experiences, but one in particular sticks out in my memory: snowshoeing in the Alps.