Thursday evening (Oct. 15th) was a celebratory night in Linz.
The Austro-American Society for Upper Austria (Österreich-Amerikanische Gesellschaft Oberösterreich) held a gala event to celebrate the group´s 60th anniversary. Nearly 300 guests attended the party, which included several speeches by key players in Austrian and Transatlantic politics: the US Ambassador to Austria, multiple diplomats from various Austrian agencys, the newly re-elected Governor of Upper Austria, and several members from the city´s administration. A visit by the St. Florian Boys Choir (St. Florian Knabbenchor), who performed works from Mozart´s Die Zauberflöte and old American folk songs, also highlighted this cultural summit. Guests were even treated to a full-dinner, with traditional, Austrian cuisine (Knödel, Sauerkraut, Spätzle, Hünchenpaprikasch, etc.) and American desserts (apple pie, Banana Foster´s, and chocolate chip cookies), as well as an open bar.
One special service the group offers are weekly chat sessions, in which Americans and others wanting to speak English can meet and talk over coffee for a couple hours. There might even be room for me to volunteer during these meetings, as they are always looking for Americans to act as host. Personally, I am trying to organize a weekly "Kaffeestunde," or coffee hour, for English teachers in Rohrbach to meet and speak English. Since they are usually the ones most eager to improve their language, it would be a great opportunity for me to get to know them better. Besides that, I am hoping to tutor students at the HAK who need additional help in English. I´ve suggested they visit the weekly English-speaking sessions in Linz, but we´ll see how many go.
Thursday night was something to remember, and I hope to branch out from that to even volunteer occassionally in Linz - might be a good way to make contacts!
Here is the organization´s website: http://members.liwest.at/aas/
More to come later,
-Stephen
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