Frankfurt Summer School

It all started on a Sunday. I arrived at Frankfurt airport- a place I had been to many times, but this time I was going to actually see the city, spend 4 weeks there with a whole lot of people from all over the world as part of the Frankfurt Summer School program. From the very first day I met a bunch of awesome people, even turned out to have mutual friends with some, yet again confirming the minuscule size of the planet we live on.

The theme of my program was Biodiversity in the context of global change and included lectures on subjects like invasive species (will never run away from this one again it seems), mycology, water contamination etc. and included some awesome practicals which involved looking at all sorts of fungi under a microscope, walking down a river collecting invertebrates in gum boots that were 5 sizes too big (yes, I managed to stay alive) and walking around the beautiful palm gardens looking at a variety of plants.

A German language course was also included in the program so now I have a very basic understanding of German which might one day help me out :P Hopefully, I don't forget all I've learned, it was definitely a time well spent either way. Our last lesson before the test was spent running around Frankfurt asking strangers questions as part of a scavenger hunt race, had a blast :) The winners could choose a prize which added that level of competitiveness to the whole experience.

Apart from all the studying we had an extensive cultural program planned, where basically every evening, or day off we had activities or trips organized. This gave us a better understanding of what life in Germany was like and let us try out area-specific things such as tasting apple wine (I wasn't really a fan, but I was told it was an acquired taste so maybe next time I will like it, who knows) and other traditional food, activities such as having a picnic by the river. We also took trips to nearby towns- Wiesbaden, Heidelberg (a pretty little city that reminded me of Vilnius with its river running through and castle on a hill), Strasbourg, took a river boat down the Rhine, visited Cologne, while others went to Berlin.

Any day we didn't have anything planned we organized our own fun, hung out in the hotel, shared experiences, made dinner together, went out. I made lazy cake twice! Gotta spread that LT spirit everywhere I go.

We had really good luck with bands performing live or rather one of my newly made friends did. At one concert, nobody was dancing so a friend and I decided to change that by braving the area in front of the stage occupied by only kids at the time. Gradually more friends joined in and then other people followed. The lucky friend got even invited on stage to dance and even sing with the band due to his dance moves and excitement for the song they had started playing. We got quite a few shout outs from the band and took a photo with them after the show. One of the best nights at FSS I'd say :) Similar things happened a couple more times, including another singer coming to perform at our closing ceremony. I somehow got the courage to perform a Lithuanian song for everyone (that's more than 70 people, the largest audience I had ever had, Yikes!) but everyone seemed to enjoy it, so I was really glad I did :) Was a nice way to end FSS 2014

Had such an amazing time, new friendships were made, new places were seen. Thank you to everyone who was part of it and hope to see so many of you again! :)