Karaoke Nights (and a Mid-Year Seminar)

As foretold by the great program manual, all of us PPPler were required to schlep ourselves to Frankfurt for a week-long seminar celebrating the fact that we had made it through the first half of our year.

I went straight from Dresden to Frankfurt, and arrived in time to meet up with the same PPPler from my language class in Cologne before the seminar began. It was so good to see them all together again, but it wasn't long until we had to report to our hostel for check-in.

Since I spent a week in Frankfurt for the seminar and so much happened in that time, I've taken the liberty of dividing up this post into little sections regarding the city itself, the mid-year seminar, and how we spent our free time outside of the seminar.

Frankfurt

Frankfurt is located in the the German state of Hessen, which is fairly centrally located. Fun fact, Though home to what is the economic powerhouse that is Frankfurt, Hessen is the greenest state in Germany; 42% of its surface is forested.

That's Hessen, alright.

Our hostel was directly on the Main river, pretty much smack-dab in the middle of the city. Walking over a bridge nearby, I was able to get a beautiful view of the Frankfurter skyline. It's unlike any other skyline in the country--the city is home to massive skyscrapers, which are very uncommon in Germany. It is far more reminiscent of American cities.

Mainhatten itself.

Within Germany, Frankfurt is often referred to as Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt on the Main) and this, in combination with its distinct skyline, has earned it its nickname: Mainhatten. It was a weird feeling to, once again, walk among skyscrapers. Sometimes it felt like I was back in the States, especially because so much within Frankfurt was in English. Only adding to this American feeling was the fact that Frankfurt is one of the THREE cities on the entirety of the European continent (and the only one in Germany) where Chipotle exists. Of course we went.

Way too expensive; totally worth it.

The Mid-Year Seminar

The seminar began on the very first day with a short welcome at the hostel. It was really strange to see everyone together again--it seemed like no time at all had passed since I had seen them last. We were all seated at banquet tables as we were welcomed by GIZ and Cultural Vistas staff members, and then we listened to some people talk about their volunteer work or internships if they were particularly interesting... but I'm pretty sure we were all very much focused on the free dinner we were to get after the meeting. The rest of the evening was spent catching up and getting to know the other participants that we still hadn't had the chance to meet. 

We were all up early the next morning for breakfast, and then we divided into three groups to review the program from the start up to the current point. For some, this ended up being a place where they could talk freely about what they had accomplished or what they had really struggled with, but there were also definitely things mentioned that could help the program improve. We also got free coffee, so I was satisfied with whatever happened. That was pretty much the only thing on the agenda for the day unless you had to speak with the staff alone to address any issues you may have. I didn't, so I spent the rest of the day hanging out with my friends and eating food. #typical. 

The second day of the seminar was spent catering to our own personal interests. We were able to choose a theme: energy and the environment, education and politics, or media. The education and politics group went to the American Consulate in Germany, and the media group went to a television production place-thingy, and my group, the energy and environment group, went to a power plant. I should've known--any time anyone says "energy and environment," what they really mean is "ENERGY and environment." This has proven itself to be a very frustrating pattern and I think I've seen at least three power plants at this point due to this fun little turn of phrase. Spoiler alert--pretty much all power plants are the same, and none of them really do all that much regarding the environment. Cool.

The third day, we went on what was really a fascinating trip to Point Alpha, an American military base that exists at the most western point of what was once the border between east and west Germany. The landscape was strikingly beautiful, and contrasted sharply with the ugly history of the Cold War. We were able to see a a piece of the border wall that they reconstructed--I, personally, found this very moving as we discussed further all the different parts of the wall: the motion-activated turrets, the silent alarms, the anti-automobile measures, the barbed wire, the dogs that were chained along a wire to run and catch those attempting to cross the border... this was not the first time I had learned of the border wall, but it never fails to shock and horrify me. (Look for another post on this later). 

The Hessen/Thüringen landscape. In case you're wondering (much like I did): These hills were formed by ancient, silica-rich lava flows. Supposedly you can also find basalt columns poking out of the ground in some places.

Our first stop at the border. That sculpture on the right turns with the wind, calling for peace in English, Russian, and German with every rotation.

A piece of the wall feat. a guard tower. You can't see it as clearly here, but the wall is a hideous thing. This picture was taken from the American base in what was west Germany. You can only see the true evilness of the wall's construction from the eastern side because it was built to keep people in the communist state, not out of it.

Old Glory.

"To the US 11th and 14th Armored Calvary Regiments as thanks for your service in the cause of peace and freedom."

Blue skies, tall trees, stars, stripes.

On our last full day, we were treated to multiple speeches by what were really very accomplished people. We talked a lot about the German and American perspectives on government, politics, volunteerism, media, etc. It was pretty much 8 hours of sitting, however, which meant I was destined to drink lots of coffee and doodle at least a couple of songbirds. It was, however, very interesting. We heard from Jacob Schrot, founder of the Young Transatlantic Initiative, about free speech and debate; from Dr. Sarah Makeschin, professor of American Media and Culture at the University of Passau, about the role of the media; Sarah Wagner of the Center for Political Education about volunteerism; and a few of the other PPPler stood up and talked about their own volunteer experiences. 

The morning of our last day (which, I will reluctantly admit, I was a wee bit too hungover to enjoy), we heard from past German and American PPPler. They talked about their experiences in foreign workplaces, which I'm sure would've been a very nice thing to pay attention to as I was set to begin my internship in two weeks. We then said our goodbyes, made our promises to visit each other, and slowly made our way to the Hauptbahnhof and then back to the second half of our time in Germany.

Freizeitaktivitäten 

As you could probably tell from the overview of the seminar, our days were not fully booked. We had pretty much every evening to do with what we so chose. This was really nice--it meant that a lot of the seminar was spent actually sharing personal experiences with and getting closer to the other PPPler. We also played lots of pool. And foosball. 

Behind our hostel was what was actually a really adorable part of town filled with old-fashioned buildings, restaurants, and bars. Our first night, we went to a bar in search of Apfelwein, a Hessen specialty and favourite. It's pretty much cider, but they mix it with carbonated water (sauer) or with orange fanta (süß). It was okay. More fun is the fact that there is a building in Frankfurt constructed to look like a giant Apfelwein glass.

Behind the hostel. The road here is peppered with little golden stones with apples on them--you can see one at the bottom of this photo.

The strange, green-gray skyscraper to the right is the one constructed to look like an Apfelwein glass.

One night, we decided to go to an Irish pub located in the same area behind the hostel to celebrate another PPPler's birthday. It was really neat--the bartender actually came from Ireland, and the ceiling was decorated with different currencies from around the world. It was the perfect place to chat, drink, and laugh a little too loudly without feeling like a complete twat. 

My first whiskey sour. I'm a fan.

The most fun we had, however, was probably when we all got *ahem* a wee bit intoxicated and did 

K A R A O K E.

Now, in the states, I'm not one to go out for karaoke (or for anything at all, really), but I figured that spending time with my friends while I could was more important than, say, staying in my comfort zone or getting a good night's sleep. We had heard that a bunch of other PPPler had found a karaoke bar, and a group of us decided to join them. However... we found the wrong bar. 

It was very wrong. I recall walking through an iron gate and being directed by a very suspicious sign to walk down what was an alarmingly precarious set of stairs, luckily followed closely by two of my friends. The basement door, helpfully marked KARAOKE, was closed. I swung it open, thus revealing a tiny bar and 

a man, 

of what was, to my best estimation, southeast-Asian descent, 

in full cowboy gear, 

singing Elvis Presley, 

to nobody. 

I said, rather audibly, nope and immediately turned around only to be grabbed by the shoulders by my (now very amused) friend and pushed back into the bar. I walked past our lonesome cow-wrangling companion and sat on one of the empty benches. My friends, one wary, the other grinning from ear to ear, sat down nearby. I whispered a prayer into the ether and listened as we were regaled with a song by Johnny Cash. Something clicked, and in that moment, I decided that I was now this guy's single biggest fan. 

In fact, all three of us were now his fans. Eventually, more PPPler filtered in as we made our location known. We started to sing songs, and our new rootin' tootin' friend would occasionally pitch in with something from the 50s, always garnering much applause. We started to fill up the place and had a really excellent time doing it. Eventually, around probably 1, I went back to the hostel. I had only had 2.5 glasses of wine around 10 pm, so by the time the next day rolled around, I was bright-eyed and bushy tailed, ready to make fun of those who weren't.

The next time was a different story. We began the night drinking by the river, bumping some music, and taking group pictures. This time, my idiot self was equipped with 2 mini bottles of wine, chosen in no small part for their alcohol-content-to-price ratio. I drank them both, became sufficiently tipsy, and we began our exodus to the same bar from two days previous. 

The worst part is that were pretty much explicitly advised against doing this--we had an early morning the next day, we had to pay attention, we had to be packed before breakfast... but it was our last night together, and I don't think we were going to let anything get in the way of our good time. We had a great time, actually; we crammed almost all of us into this tiny karaoke bar (once again accompanied by our favourite belting buckaroo), sang as loud as we could, and cheered each other on. It was an experience that was absolutely worth the headache and desire to do absolutely nothing the following day. 

I left Frankfurt feeling like I had made nothing but positive memories and stronger relationships, and I'm already excited to spend a week in Berlin with my favorite group of junior ambassadors. 

Tschüss.