seekingmygreaterperhaps

This is my first year as an international college counselor (apparently the 5 years in Virginia don’t count for anything), and to be honest, fly-ins are pretty incredible. I was blessed to be invited to visit the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management in Germany. While it was a tiring journey, I mean, I got to go to Germany for *mostly* free.

I’ve never been to Frankfurt before, and I was excited to see a new city! I had some time to explore on my own the first half day I was there, although, I must admit, I cannot expect it of myself to get up and go do something after an overnight flight. I simply don’t ever sleep and with the time change, it hits me right in the face. So this is good information to know now.

I was also able to wear a sweater, y’all! I actually don’t think I packed a warm enough coat. It’s like I move to Brazil for two years and suddenly I forget the 29 when I lived in cold seasonal weather and all memory of what people wear in cold weather escapes me. I had creamy asparagus soup with a hard cider for my first dinner, and it was magical. I haven’t eaten any asparagus in Brazil, and they don’t really “do” hard cider… or many apple products really.

Frankfurt doesn’t feel like a very big city, and it has a neat mix of historic and modern. As far as touristy things, you can probably see it all in a day, but I get the sense that it would be great place to live. I ate really well while I was there, and they have cuisines that span the globe. My last lunch I accidentally ordered a hot pot that was so spicy it nearly burned my face off. (Accidentally you say? Yes. The language options were Mandarin or German, and my Latin based languages did not serve me well here.)

Once the university visit program started, it was a couple jam packed days full of learning about Frankfurt School and networking. I actually met this guy who graduated from UNCG’s masters in counseling program two years behind me. His mentor was my mentee! It is a small world.

The Frankfurt School provided us with a couple fun city things during our stay. The first was a walking tour that ended at a traditional German restaurant for dinner. The second day we went on a boat cruise and had a delicious fancy lunch. I feel confident in sending students there, which is most definitely the entire point.

Because of the flight pattern, I had a half free day to myself on Saturday after the university visit ended. I jumped at the chance to visit Heidelburg, which is about 1 hour outside of Frankfurt on a train. I bought a ticket and wandered around the streets of the historic town, climbed up to the top of the castle and enjoyed the view, and ate some pretzels on the train ride back to catch my plane.

Featured is one of my new counselor friends, Mita, from the university visit. It was perfect weather, and even a little hot by the time we made it to the viewpoint at the castle.

While this isn’t a particularly exciting post, it was really cool to get to jetset to Germany! I ate pretzels, bought fancy German gummy bears to bring back, ate marzipan, wore a sweater, and networked. Time well spent I’d say!

Thanks for coming along, and here is to hoping I get the chance to visit many other cool places on a universities budget!