Funnel 40/2, Inhalt - Fulbright-Kommission

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26 ALUMNI PROFILES Lucian Kim The Fulbright Program, springboard to a dream career When I first heard about it, I thought the Fulbright grant for young journalists had been designed just for me. Although I was only halfway into my second semester of a two-year master’s program in journalism, I was itching to return to the world beyond the arcane province of Berkeley, California. I had already squandered several years after college on bohemian pursuits in east central Europe. Now I was ready to turn my wanderlust into a profession. It was spring 1996—the Bosnian war had just ended but Slobodan Milosevic was still firmly in power. The eastward expansion of NATO and the EU was not yet a foregone conclusion. The project of German reunification was sputtering along. And then a classmate told me that the Fulbright Commission was seeking applicants for a brand new scholarship that would take five young American journalists to Germany for a year. Fulfilling the basic qualifications—but not yet feeling like a bona fide journalist—I sent in my application and crossed my fingers. Half a year later I was attending the Fulbright orientation at the Atlantic Hotel in Bremen. It happened to be my birthday, and I was sure that I had not received this kind of present before: a monthly allowance I could only have dreamed of as a student; complete license to travel where I wanted; and no pressure whatsoever to publish. A couple of days later I took the train to Berlin and soon was ensconced in a oneroom apartment overlooking a dim courtyard in the heart of Kreuzberg. The shower was in the kitchen, the toilet was in a THE FUNNEL • VOLUME 40 • NUMBER 2 • SUMMER 2004 Kim interviewing Ahmed Shah Massoud, the late leader of the Northern Alliance, in northern Afghanistan in summer 2000. Massoud was assassinated 2 days before September 11, 2001, in what many people say was a connected hit. closet, and the heating came from a huge tiled oven fired by coal briquettes I kept stacked in one corner. With my first stipend I bought a fax machine and subscribed to an internet service provider. What more did an aspiring reporter need? A bar and someone to drink with. By another stroke of luck, a fellow young journalist, Melissa Eddy, lived just down the street above an all-night watering hole called the Haifischbar. Melissa would become one of several dear friends I made during my Fulbright year. Getting started in the rough-and-tumble world of freelance journalism is a risky undertaking. But thanks to my grant I had the freedom to fail. During the boisterous student demonstrations against Milosevic that winter, I flew down to Belgrade. I reported, I wrote, I filed—but I didn’t get a single story published. It didn’t matter. I learned a great deal and made several friends among Belgrade’s student activists. The experience would serve me well in later reporting trips to the Balkans. The only requirement of my Fulbright grant was to complete an internship at a German media outlet. So during the second half of the year I moved to Hamburg for a couple of months to intern at Die Zeit. The paper was my choice, but it was the Fulbright Commission that had landed me a spot on the business desk. Surprisingly I managed to get a couple of articles into the paper—one story was on how the German vending machine industry was dreading the switch from deutsche marks to euros. I found Hamburg’s legendary coolness too chilly, however, and was happy to return to the relative chaos of Berlin. The city was beginning to feel like home. The Fulbright Commission extended my grant by several months, just as my stories were starting to get into print with increasing regularity. By the time my grant expired, I was supporting myself in my dream job of foreign correspondent. I would end up keeping Berlin as my base for the following five years, covering events in Germany and Central Europe, the Balkans, the Baltics, Central Asia, Afghanistan, and North Korea. I contributed to a number of papers, including US News & World Report, the Boston Globe and the Christian Science Monitor. Today I work as an editor at the Moscow Times, Russia’s English-language daily. There has been nothing logical or predictable about my career path so far. But I am convinced that my Fulbright grant was the starting point that made it possible.
A Pickle in Paradise Unterwegs durch den Spreewald von Sarah E. Allen Zur Zeit ist es Winter in Lübben/ Spreewald, oder Lubin (Błota), wie es auf Sorbisch, der lokalen slawischen Sprache, heißt. Die einzigen Dinge, die auf den Spreearmen gleiten, sind die üblichen Enten, gelegentlich ein Schwan, und wenn es lang genug gefroren hat, abenteuerliche Schlittschuhläufer. Als ich im September hierher kam, war diese Gegend noch voller Spätsommertouristen. Sie waren gespannt auf eine Fahrt mit einem Kahn. Diese Boote bedecken bei wärmerem Wetter die Spree und ihre Zuflüsse. Seit 1904 werden Kahnfahrten für Touristen angeboten, um den Besuchern die Schönheit dieser einzigartigen Region, die nur eine Stunde südöstlich von Berlin liegt, zu zeigen. Außer Spreekahnfahrten sind auch Radfahren und Wandern beliebte Aktivitäten der Touristen. Der „Gurken-Radweg“ ist einer der meistgefahrenen Wege, die sich durch die Städte und Dörfer des Spreewaldes schlängeln. Diese Gegend ist und bleibt ein sehr beliebtes Urlaubsziel für viele Deutsche, aber für viele außerhalb Deutschlands ist dieses Gebiet ein eher streng gehütetes Geheimnis. Entsprechend der Worte des Sängers Arlo Guthrie, könnte man sich über „the significance of the pickle“ (die Bedeutung der CITYSCAPES 27 Am Ufer warten Kähne auf die Sommertouristen. Gurke) wundern. Wie Mount Olive in US-Bundesstaat North Carolina, ist der Spreewald für die Herstellung von Gurken sehr bekannt. Spreewälder Gurken werden als Köstlichkeiten geschätzt, von denen es viele Arten gibt, unter anderem: Gewürzgurken, Senfgurken, und Dillgurken. Aber es gibt mehr als nur Gurken! Andere Spreewälder Spezialitäten umfassen unter anderem: Leinöl—traditionell gepresst in den alten Windmühlen, die in der Region zu sehen sind, Heidelbeeren, verschiedene Schnapssorten, und Sauerkraut, dessen traditionelle Herstellung auf Stadtfesten aufgeführt wird, wobei es in einem Fass barfuß gestampft wird—könnte das der eigentliche Grund sein, warum es sauer ist? Für Naturliebhaber bietet der Spreewald eine Vielfalt der Pflanzen- und Tierwelt an. Im Frühling kommen die Störche in Scharen nach Lübben und in andere Orte im Spreewald, um hier zu nisten. Eine Tatsache, die bei der Gründung eines Naturreservats berücksichtigt wurde, um die gefährdete Weißstorchpopulation zu schützen. In günstigen Monaten (bes. Frühling und Herbst), nach einem Regenschauer, werden die Wälder außerhalb der Stadt zu einem Paradies für Pilzsucher, mit vielen essbaren Sorten, ver- THE FUNNEL • VOLUME 40 • NUMBER 2 • SUMMER 2004
Page 1: NEWSMAGAZINE OF THE GERMAN-AMERICAN
Page 4 and 5: 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS On
Page 6 and 7: 6 DEPARTMENTS Commission News DR. R
Page 8 and 9: 8 DEPARTMENTS Prizes & Awards Profe
Page 10 and 11: 10 DEPARTMENTS Catching Up With Our
Page 12 and 13: 12 DEPARTMENTS “Now,” a photogr
Page 14 and 15: 14 TITLE TOPIC Where Continents Mee
Page 16 and 17: 16 TITLE TOPIC Fulbrighters Daniell
Page 18 and 19: 18 TITLE TOPIC Alumni Oliver and Pe
Page 20 and 21: 20 TITLE TOPIC Dr. Heidi Wedel of t
Page 22 and 23: 22 NEWS & EVENTS „Das Berliner Tr
Page 24 and 25: 24 NEWS & EVENTS Health as Foreign
Page 28 and 29: 28 CITYSCAPES steckt unter dem feuc
Page 30 and 31: 30 FROM OUR FULBRIGHTERS “Si, se
Page 32 and 33: 32 FROM OUR FULBRIGHTERS On strike,
Page 34 and 35: 34 FROM OUR FULBRIGHTERS er: 0.89
Page 36 and 37: 36 FROM OUR FULBRIGHTERS Devora (ce
Page 38 and 39: 38 FROM OUR FULBRIGHTERS The Multic
Page 40 and 41: 40 CONTRIBUTORS CLAIRE ADAMSICK, wh
Page 42: 42 IMPRINT The Funnel is published

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