Hello From Austria Going Back To My Roots (Part I)
The story of the immigrant the recurring tale of people with two identities, their lingering attachment to their birth country and their love for their new homes… For many people immigrating to a new country can be an almost schizophrenic experience.
My experience is a little unique: I left my home country of Austria at the tender age of 20 and will soon be celebrating my 21st anniversary of living in Canada. Any gifted mathematician will tell you that I have spent more than half my life, and virtually my entire adulthood in Canada, my new home country, a country for which I have great respect and love. On the other hand, many people are surprised when they hear me speak in my original Austrian dialect. They cant believe I have been away from home for more than two decades and I still speak my East Styrian dialect exactly the way I spoke it 20 years ago. You could call me a truly bi-cultural individual.
During my first 10 years in Canada I travelled back to Austria once a year to visit my family my father, grandmother and brother. Unfortunately my mother had passed away a couple of months after I...