1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where were you born, which school did you visit, what have you done at university? Your hobbies?)
I’m Carmen and I was born in Lawrenceville, Georgia a suburb about 30 minutes away from Atlanta, the capital of Georgia. Lawrenceville has a population about twice the size of Braunau´s, so they’re pretty similar in size and in general attitude. I have one brother, Westley, who is two years older than me and works at Amazon in Seattle. My mother works as a nurse and my father just recently retired from working for HLN, one of CNN’s channels. We also have a dog named Luna and I have an orange cat named Hamilton who basically thinks he’s a dog.
I lived in Lawrenceville until I graduated high school when I moved an hour away to Athens, Georgia to attend the University of Georgia. After four years at university, I got Bachelor’s degrees in Spanish, German, and Linguistics and then spent another two years completing a Master’s degree in German literature. I graduated this past May and now I’m here.
My hobbies include weightlifting, singing karaoke, and thinking about how much I miss my cat, who unfortunately could not come with me to Austria!

2. What about your life in Austria? Is it a lot different to America? In which respect?
My everyday life in Austria is usually wake up, get ready, drink coffee, walk or ride my bike to school, drink more coffee, teach, drink even more coffee, teach, grocery shop and go home to repeat it all again the next day. 

On the weekends, I like to travel around Austria on day-trips with the other teaching assistants or visiting them in Linz. The biggest difference between my life here and back home in the States is definitely not being able to come home to see Hamilton everyday.

3. What about your first HAK Braunau impressions?
The HAK and the general idea of a business high school is a really new one for me. Subject-specific high schools aren’t very common in the US, so the wide variety of options here in Austria is pretty surprising. As far as the school itself, I think it’s actually a really nice modern building, since I’m used to most schools in the US looking like prisons. But in general I find the teachers here to be really kind and supportive and the students to be really funny.

4. How do you like it in Austria on a scale from 1 to 10?
If I had to rate how I like it in Austria on a scale from 1 to 10 I would probably say 8. I definitely really like being here, but it’s hard not to miss my cat, my friends, family, and just the general convenience of my car.

5. Compare your dream job as a kid and today.
As a child I think I was really torn between wanting to work with animals (I think a lot of kids want to be veterinarians, right?) and wanting to learn literally every language I could. I still love animals -- I think about Hamilton constantly if you haven’t already noticed -- but I know now that I don’t necessarily want to work with them. Before I came to Austria I was teaching beginner level German classes at my university and that’s probably teach German at a high school after I leave Austria. So whether it’s working as a German or Spanish teacher or translator, I know my career will always be connected with my love of languages.

We thank you and wish you all the best!
JOPR Team Tamara Misic, Danijela Popovic, Elma Kovacevic, Patrizia Holub