So on to the good stuff.
I'm in Frankfurt at a little Internet cafe. We left Brussels on Wednesday morning and I would have to qualify Tuesday night\early Wednesday morning as one of the great nights of my life.
Three of us were invited to the home of Lorenza, who was a fellow from Europe last year. She works in Brussels for a group from Italy. I would explain more, but to really understand what she does I would need to type up two days of meetings on the EU and I'm not up for that.
She was a great host and lives in a perfect little apartment that is the picture of a European home. It is on the third floor, so we had to buzz in and have her come to the door to let us in. Zeke and Lorna from the program joined me as well as Lorenza's three friends from Italy, a Belgian, and a Welsh gentleman named Desmond.
We started the evening with a little champagne and moved into the living room and the discussions for the evening. It was great to be able to have such an intimate discussion on a wide variety of topics. It is so interesting to talk to Europeans, because they see the world so differently than we do. It all has to do with history and ours is very different than theirs. We also had to talk about that 2008 elections in the States. They are all very interested in who will win and even have their favorites. Desmond made some incredible insights into the election that I was amazed he would know that much detail and nuance of the election.
Dinner was tortellini because it is famous in the region that Lorenza is from. We also had a salad and some meat. It was quite, quite good.
Desmond was able to answer a cultural question that I had since arriving in Europe. Sometimes they greet each other with handshakes and some times it is a kiss on each cheek. Or at least the act of touching cheeks. I wanted to know what level of friendship that is needed for the kiss on the cheek greeting. He said that if you have met someone once in an intimate setting, like... oh I don't know...a dinner... you can feel free to do the kissy, kissy. So I was very happy to use the kissy, kissy, (my term, not theirs) as we left.
It was a spectacular evening. We didn't leave until 11:30 PM and only then because we were meeting the rest of the group. It was an amazing way to get in touch with transatlantic issues. It just a terrible lot of fun.
We did meet the rest of the group at a bar afterwords. It was our last evening together as a group of 18, so we wanted to say goodbye before we meet up in Munich at the end of the program. We drank and were merry. Certainly the picture of the loud Americans in the bar. When that was closing we went for some dancing at the Salsa bar.
We got home about 3 AM and there was no way I was going to sleep. I needed to pack, I was glowing from the dinner, and I knew if I went to sleep, I would have a real hard time getting up.
Instead of going to sleep, Zeke and I roamed the City of
We had an outstanding tour of Frankfurt with the best local tourist guide, then a great traditional Frankfurt meal. We had to try the apple wine, and it was good. I had the sausage sampler platter and it was good. Everyone said their meal was good. Dessert was a flame cake with strawberries. Very Goot.
We are hosted in Frankfurt by the Hertie Foundation. http://www.ghst.de/en/index.php
I must say it was nice to get to sleep that night and thus, no Internet. Our program today was very good with the highlight being meeting with the US consulate general for the embassy in Frankfurt.
We also visited a business recruitment organization for the area. http://www.frm-united.com/
We have another good day planned for tomorrow with a home dinner in the evening.
That's all the news that's fit to print at the moment.
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