CURRENT MISSION

Missions are stupid!

PHILOSOPHY

don't be a drama queen/king!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

coming soon

Interests

English, history, cultural anthropology, geography --> those are our university subjects

furthermore: making music, languages, buying books (not necessarily reading them), hiking, being lazy, watching TV-series, ...

• books
• reading
• tv
• music
• cycling
• hiking
• anthropology
• geography
• history
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

MUSIC:
Claude Debussy, Sofa Surfers, Tori Amos, Kaizers Orchestra, Das Trojanische Pferd, The Notwist, Kings of Convenience, The Who, B. Fleischmann, Bauchklang, Radiohead, The Be Good Tanyas, Maurice Ravel, Led Zeppelin, Cake, Damien Rice, Konstantin Wecker, Bruce Springsteen, Blur, Smashing Pumpkins, Adam Green, Air, Alanis Morissette, Attwenger, Blumentopf, Fanta4, Pearl Jam, Regina Spektor, ....

BOOKS:
Briefe in die chinesische Vergangenheit (Herbert Rosendorfer), Mein Name sei Gantenbein (Max Frisch), Faust (Goethe), Die kalte Schulter (Markus Werner), The Physician (Noah Gordon), Über Gott und die Welt (Umberto Eco), Ein Tag mit Herrn Jules (D. Broekhoven), À la recherche du temps perdu (Marcel Proust), Great Expectations (Charles Dickens), The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco), Baudolino (Umberto Eco), El perseguidor (Julio Cortàzar), The Tortilla Curtain (T.C. Boyle), Bartleby (Herman Melville), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Tom Stoppart), ...

TV-SERIES:
Dexter (he's the best), Monty Python's Flying Circus, Californication, House M.D. (can't help it), Black Books, Entourage ...

MOVIES:
Night on Earth, 1900, Se7en, Fight Club, The Shawshank Redemption, Life of Brian, Annie Hall, Finding Nemo, ..

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Klaus: I once refrained from spitting from the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was tempting, though.

Claudia: I survived the "death-road" (by bike) in Bolivia. It was not that dangerous, though.

Teach, Learn, Share

Linguistics: During the 15th century (mainly), the long vowels of the English language (in particular its southern varieties) underwent a chain shift, known as the Great Vowel Shift. The vowels became 'higher', which means that for each vowel, respectively, the space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth (=palate) became smaller. The phenomenon is called a chain shift, because the raising of the first vowel triggered the raising of the next one, etc., just like a chain reaction. The highest vowels in the old vowel system could not go any higher and became diphthongs. The Great Vowel Shift is the main feature distinguishing Middle English from Early Modern English, i.e. the language of Chaucer from the language of Shakespeare. It is also one of the major reasons why English pronunciation differs so much from its spelling. E.g.: in Chaucer's day 'greene' was pronounced like it was spelt => the 'ee' similar to the vowel in the German word 'See' (transl: lake). Due to the Great Vowel Shift the 'ee' of 'greene' was raised and became similar to the long vowel in the German word 'Liebe' (transl: love). Also, the 'e' at the end was dropped, leaving the Modern English word 'green'.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria