Disclaimer: As noted above, I do not have any Frankfurt pictures because my camera batteries died the moment that I arrived and I did not have time to procure replacements. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to return to Frankfurt and then I can share some photos.
This weekend I traveled by slow train (because I am not lacking for time and it is much cheaper than the fast trains) to Frankfurt in order to attend the German Fulbright Alumni Association's Welcome Meeting. This meeting was a good opportunity to meet Germans who had received a Fulbright to study in the U.S. and an opportunity to meet up with some of the people I had met during my first week in Goettingen. Surprisingly there were not many of us from the American delegation to Germany at this meeting, primarily those individuals who I have kept in contact with.
The weekend kicked off with a "meet and greet" which ended up not being the sort of mingling that you would expect from an American meet and greet but rather our group of Americans sitting together at a table and then the Germans all sitting at their own tables. Despite the lack of mixing it was quite fun. Those of us from the American delegation were able to reunite, share stories, and bond over shared experiences.
Saturday began with some welcome speeches. We heard a speech from a U.S. Consulate officer, the Frankfurt mayor's office, and a famous German journalist. The journalist (unfortunately I did not have his name written down anywhere) was the keynote speaker and he gave a talk on the transformation of Europe and specifically the changes within the EU. This particular journalist was a prominent German figurehead as he had been on the Tagesschau (I would compare it to the national nightly news) and had been a foreign correspondent in France. I would probably liken him to Tom Brokaw or Dan Rather. His talk was interesting and information and he was able to give first hand accounts for many things as he had met and interviewed important figureheads like Charles De Gaulle.
After the keynote address we had some lunch and mingled a little (more so than at the "meet and greet") before heading to workshops. We were allowed to choose which workshop we wanted to attend. I had originally chosen to go to the "How to Survive Germany" workshop - thinking that there would be some amazing new information from a German perspective. Sadly the workshop was run by an American Fulbright Teaching Assistant. In a way it was nice to commiserate and share stories, however, in retrospect I wish that I had attended the "Global Challenges" workshop.
On Saturday evening we attended a dinner party at the zoo - well the building was at the zoo but we did not actually get to see any animals from where we were. This was where the true mingling began. There was a delicious buffet and flowing beer, wine, and champagne. For the first part of the evening everybody sat at tables enjoying their dinner and then later the dancing began. The evening celebration can probably be equated with a wedding reception. Of course there was no bride and groom and all of the traditions that come with the pair but the dinner and dancing was much like what you would find at a wedding reception. We ended up dancing the night away and were out until the subway resumed operation at 4:15 a.m.
Sunday commenced with a lazy brunch. After the delicious brunch we had the option of attending a city-tour, which I was looking forward to as I had not had the opportunity to explore much of Frankfurt. The tour turned out to be a disappointment, however. Our tour guide was a little old man who walked extremely slow and so we were not able to see a lot of the city and it was surprisingly exhausting to have to walk that slowly.
Overall the weekend was excellent and I am looking forward to the next opportunity to gather with people from the organization.
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