Click here to view my video which captures more highlights of our fabulous tour.

5.  Getting to share this meal which cost 1.5 Euro (above)…with these people (below)…

on the lawn in front of this castle:

while listening to this music:

Street Corner Performance in Schwerin

Again, a quick recap…

I’m compiling a list of memorable/favorite events or situations from this trip that I didn’t have time to write about while I was gone.  Is this an excuse to keep talking about Germany?  Maybe!  Nevertheless, I continue with #4:

Perhaps one of the most exciting things for all of us was getting to watch Germany play in three World Cup soccer matches and be there to celebrate along with them!  This video describes it better than I can.

Celebrating in Frankfurt

Anyway, the day after we watched Germany vs. England from the streets of Frankfurt, we were scheduled to meet with the organizing committee for the Women’s World Cup 2011.  Mr. David Noemi led our discussion, and it we all agreed that it was really cool to be there the day after a fussball victory for Germany!  We learned about the goals of this organization (just to name a few):

• to build anticipation for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011
• to present themselves as cheerful, cosmopolitan and hospitable in the first Women’s World Cup to be held in Germany
• to write their own history of 2011
• to clearly express the integrative power of football for society
• to organize an environmentally friendly event
• to fill the stadiums, AND
• to strengthen the importance of girls’ and women’s football in Germany and around the world.

Here are some more pics from our FIFA visit.  It was from here that we got on a bus and headed to Schwerin.

I decided to divide my top 5 into different posts, since some of these might be longer than others.  So, in case you lost track…Here’s my list so far:

1.  Potsdam Bike Tour

2.  Goethe House

(Remember these are not in any particular order, although the next couple things happened to take place in Frankfurt)…..

3.  Deutsche Bank

I wanted to share more information about our visit to the Deutsche Bank offices, which I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, but didn’t go into great depth.  This was our very first official meeting of which we were required to wear our formal business attire.  After two days of no sleep and fussball watching, we cleaned up nicely!

The Deutsche Bank, is one of the main sponsors of the Transatlantic Outreach Program, so we were looking forward to hearing all about it. Aside from it being one of the most global banks, made up of employees from 140 nations, The Deutsche Bank also plays an important role as a corporate citizen.  In other words, its goal is

• to create opportunities for people through social investments,
• to encourage creativity by getting involved in art and music,
• to inspire talent through its educational program,
• to be a role model of sustainability by protecting our environment and conserving resources,
• to provide opportunities for its employees to volunteer in their local community.

Since I don’t understand a lot about investments and financial industry, I was pleased that this meeting was about more than money.  We learned about the history of the Deutsche Bank (founded in Berlin in 1870) as well as their standards for creating a “Green Building” for their new headquarters.  Their new building will have windows that can be opened or closed, to provide a more efficient air-conditioning system.  In addition, the building’s technology will prevent heat from escaping when it’s cold outside.  Their new building will also warm 50% of the water with solar energy.  Purely by using rainwater collected on the roofs, 15% of freshwater will be saved.  The building will also use daylight to light certain spaces of the offices and use energy saving lighting technology in order to reduce overall power consumption!   For example, a glass ceiling will flood the foyer with daylight.  I’m excited for the TOP participants that will get to see this new “Green Building” in future study tours.  This was definitely one of my favorite presentations.  It was truly inspiring to hear about such a huge corporation that is setting the standard not only for an environmentally-friendly headquarters, but also making social investments that might help people overcome unemployment and poverty.

Okay, so, when I was traveling in Germany from place to place, sometimes it was difficult to a) find the time, and b) find affordable internet service in order to continue posting on this blog!  So, needless to say, there are some events/situations that are worth mentioning about our fabulous study tour with the Transatlantic Outreach Program.  I have narrowed this list down to 10 of my favorite things that I left out!  Here they are in no particular order:

1.  Potsdam:  bike tour

Who would have thought that I could go on a bike tour in Potsdam, Germany, which would include visiting the residence that hosted Potsdam conference of 1945, seeing palaces & eating ice cream, and even a little “swimming”?  This day was truly one of the most memorable and unexpected, to say the least.  Some events on this tour were more unexpected than others!  I digress.  Potsdam is famous for the post-WWII talks between U.S. President Harry Truman, the USSR’s Joseph Stalin, and Great Britain’s Clement Attlee.  At this conference, tension increased between the United States and the USSR.  It also served as a possible forewarning to the Cold War era.

2.  Goethe House

Our tour of the birthplace and home of Goethe was overshadowed by the other events of our first day in Germany (attending a high Catholic mass at the biggest church in Frankfurt, eating my first *real* frankfurter, and watching Germany beat England in the World Cup and the celebrating that followed). Not to mention, I felt this mixture of “I’m so excited we’re here, let’s push through and fully experience every minute….to, hmmm, I think I need to lie down here for *just a minute* and take a power nap.:)  The Goethe House was not forgotten, though…no, no it wasn’t!  As you can see from the photo, the Goethe House has 5 levels, 4 of which we toured every room.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a German writer and is considered by many to be the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in Western culture.  Goethe’s literary works include numerous poems and novels, but he is most famous for Faust. Here are some more photos from this famous author’s home.