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Alumni Profile: Aneka Flamm |
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DAAD grant(s): Short Research Stay, 2005
Current occupation: PhD Student
Current city of residence: New York, NY
Contact: aneka.flamm@uni-konstanz.de
How has your time in the US affected your academic/professional career path?
I planned, prepared, and conducted empirical studies that I conducted at my host university and which will definitely help me in pursuing my academic career in that I might be able to publish them sometime in the future. It has helped me a lot to get to know experts in my field of study in person during my stay in the US, and to broaden my horizon by working on other projects besides my dissertation project.
What's the most important piece of advice you could give a new DAAD grantee?
I would recommend trying to go to the events offered and organized by the DAAD or other associated organizations. The office for international student affairs also offers a great variety of courses and excursions that are really interesting and fun.
What was your most dramatic experience of culture shock in the US?
I had to get used to all the noise and rushed life in New York City. At first, I would always look around to identify the sources of the multiple different active alarm systems, that one can hear at one time in the city, but since one can hardly find a few seconds without an alarm or a car honking in the streets etc., I quickly got used to that. Also, the food seemed very different at first, but I’ve found my favorite places by now so that I can find the food I like.
Other than family/friends, what did you miss most while abroad? What do you miss from Germany now that you're back?
I missed the surroundings, like for example sitting by the lake or having a nice long barbecue by the lake in the summer by night. Since I participated actively in a lot of student groups back home, I obviously missed those (like rehearsal with my bigband or training with my sports groups). Since I started doing sports and joining student groups here in New York, too, I kind of miss the same basic things about New York, now that I’m back home.
If you could go back and live your overseas adventure again, what would you do differently?
I would probably choose to go to a different location (countrywise), because I would like to get to know yet another culture besides the one I’ve already experienced. Other than that, it all went pretty well this time, so I’d probably keep most of the preparation the same.
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