August 6

Today started off slowly but ended with a bang. Our first meeting of the day was with Deutsche Bank, one of the major underwriters of this study tour. I suppose it was more of a courtesy visit that anything else, because I honestly didn't get that much out of it. In fact, I became very angry during the meeting. The woman who was talking to us seemed (and I want to make very clear that I am using "seemed" here instead of was, because there is no way that I can prove this) to have a very big chip on her shoulder concerning the United States. It is a very well-known fact that the economy of the United States dictates market operation throughout the world, and the recent financial crisis here has had a major impact abroad. This is something I was very much made aware of when I went to Japan last year, and that program was suspended because of the lack of necessary funds needed to finance such an undertaking. However, as one person in our group put it, the United States may have brought the keg to the party, but we didn't force anyone to drink from it. I guess one could consider that to be a very narrow-minded view concerning the global economy, and very narrow-minded considering the role of the United States in the world today. However, I know that I did not travel all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to hear someone base her judgement of the United States on one trip that she took to Los Angeles. It is very hard to get a representative cross-section of the U.S. from one trip to one part of the country, and she just got under my skin. What made matters worse is that I had left my notebook in the hotel room, so I had nothing to distract me. It made for a long start to the morning. The next speaker talked about corporate social responsibility, and what Deutsche Bank is doing in this area. She was much more interesting (in my opinion). We then had a small tour of the Deutsche Bank's art collection. I think this would have taken a lot longer if we were in Deutsche Bank's main buildings, but as those were undergoing renovations to make them more green, we were just in a smaller temporary office space.

After this we had an opportunity to either go back to the hotel or to spend time in the main shopping district of Frankfurt. It was a nice shopping area (big ticket stores like Bulgari and Dolce & Gabana), but I was pretty sure that they wouldn't have anything tacky like velvet wall art, so I opted to go back to the hotel and grab lunch in the train station. I had Turkish food, the wonderful and enticing döner kebap. I had just enough time to grab an apfelshörle from a convenience store, change clothes, and hop on a bus headed to Ostheim. This may have been one of the scariest bus rides I have ever undertaken. Our driver was not a happy man, to say the least. Our driver in Berlin was very cool and laidback, but this guy was immediately on our cases. By the time he got on the Autobahn, it was over. As you may or may not know, the autobahn has no set speed limit. I believe that busses may, but this guy didn't seem to be adhering to any traffic laws. I decided a nap might be in my best interests. When I woke up, it seemed that we were stranded out in the country somewhere. Ostheim itself is pretty remote, but there seemed to be some major road construction going on that made things seem that much wronger.

What was I doing in Ostheim? We were visiting a company called Bionade. Bionade is an organic drink. It goes through a fermentation process, but is not alcoholic. When we first arrived, we were welcomed into the gasthaus across the street from the company, and there was a large spread of Bionade there for us to sample. Flavors included lychee, herbs, elderberry, and orange ginger. We were taken on a tour of the plant, and given a taste of the glycolic acid that is used in the process. It was pretty much like taking a shot of REALLY strong vinegar. It was beyond nasty. We then got a look at the bottling facility. Afterwards we were given a gift of four bottles of Bionade to take home (yay for freebies! no for suitcase planning!). Since Bionade is made with organic ingredients, it made sense for us to go out to one of the farms that produces ingredients for Bionade.

We went to an elderberry farm that is owned by Martin Ritter. Herr Ritter walked us through the main crop of his farm, which is elderberries. They grow on trees, and we saw a regular variety and a Swedish variety. Of course, we got to sample the berries as well! The farm was fantastic - the weather was beautiful, the sky was blue, there were animals to play with - it was without a doubt the most relaxing day of the trip. I was able to feed some apples to some of the horses, including one that was quite the licker and who also nibbled my finger to the point that it still feels sore two days later as I write this (she didn't clamp down, but she did hold my finger firmly between her teeth - and I do mean firmly). Herr Ritter also served us dinner, fried organic turkey and chicken that he grows on the farm (the bird droppings are used to fertilize the crops), with organic vegetables and salads. It was such a nice pleasant time! Our bus ride back with Scary Driver took about two hours, and most of us on the bus stayed awake and told stories and generally had a good time spending time with each other as this trip winds down to a close. By far, I think that day was my favorite of the trip to that point.