This week the July issue of the A-Journal, the student magazine I write for, was published. This issue is all about Summer in the City – where are the best chillout zones in Frankfurt, which books simply have to be on your summer reading list and much more.

My article this issue is all about the most refreshing summer drink: cocktails. But not just any cocktails. Cocktails, which have recieved their fame through movies.

Summer, Sunshine, Cocktails – The drinks from your all-time favorite movies

Besides good weather with lots of sunshine and warmth, there is another way to get into a summer feeling: cocktails! No other type of drink has so many different possibilities and receives so much attention. Even in movies, they seem to play not only a side role. Read through the probably most famous cocktails from all-time favorite flicks and go get your cocktail mixing items!

Planter’s Punch – Gone With the Wind (1939): When Scarlett O’Hara’s father relaxed and laid back watching the sun set, this southern cocktail was always by his side. No surprise, since this juicy beverage was very popular in the “Dirty South”. Feel like a Southerner with 6 cl dark rum, 5 cl orange juice, 5 cl pineapple juice, 1 cl lemon juice and ice cubes. Shake all ingredients and pour into a glass. Add a cocktail cherry for decoration.

Zombie – Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961): Probably the movie of the 1960s. Who does not remember lovely Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly and her excessive life full of extremes. Whenever she rocked a party, this legendary cocktail was there with her. Catch a glimpse of Holly’s lifestyle with 4 cl light rum, 4 cl Jamacian Rum, 2 cl dark rum, 4 cl orange juice, 2 cl grenadine, 4 cl pineapple juice, sugar syrup. Mix all ingredients together, shake and pour into a cooled glass.

Singapore Sling – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998): Two men on the search for the American Dream out in the new West – in a bright red convertible. And as red as the convertible in the movie is, is also the cocktail that lead role actor Johnny Depp drinks in the beginning of the movie. Taste freedom with 4 cl Gin, 3 cl lemon juice, 2 cl sugar syrup and soda water. Shake ingredients (except soda water) with ice cubes, fill into a glass without the ice. Fill up with soad water, decorate with a cocktail cherry and a lemon peel.

Cosmopolitan – Sex and the City (2008): Okay, technically its fame came from the series, but ever since the four New York girls appeared on the big screen with their high heels, the fresh and fruity cocktail achieved even more attention. Perfect for a girls night out or at a garden party. For this glamourous cocktail you need: 1 cl Cointreau or Triple Sec, 1 cl lime juice, 2 cl cranberry juice, crushed ice. Shake all ingredients and pour into a cool martini glass.

(picture via)

Since I myself am one of those people (German-American heritage), I wrote an exclusive report on my experiences. If you want to know what goes on in my head and heart, continue reading.

A life in-between
Delights and dilemmas in a German-American world

When asked for my heritage, I respond “German-American”. Being born to an American mother and a German father, gave me both citizenships from day one. Having two citizenships has many advantages: I have civil rights in two countries and always get into the shorter line at customs in the airport, because of being able to choose which passport I show at the counter. I was raised bilingually, which means I speak, read and write both languages fluently. A yearly visit to my family and friends in the US is mandatory and whenever I want to I can travel there, knowing that I have some place to stay. Growing up with two cultures has always made my life interesting. I get to know two sides of the world, taking bites and pieces of each that interests and attracts me. This combination of the two worlds formed my character and continues to guide me through my whole life.

“What’s the big deal?”, you might ask now. It all sounds pretty great, right? It is, but there is another side of my story, too. By being raised with American and German traits, traditions and experiencing both countries regularly, I am neither completely German, nor completely American. I am in a dilemma, or as some of you know it, a third space. I am something in between. While I am in Germany, I miss the US and vice versa. When I am in one country, part of me seems to be lost. I cannot even imagine how I would decide, if I had to choose between both citizenships – because I know that it would be impossible for me. Excluding one of them would mean that half of me would be missing. My identity would be incomplete.

People who have only one citizenship do not experience this dilemma. They belong into one ‘drawer’; I cannot be put into one specifically. Leaving out the one side or subordinating one to the other simply sounds wrong to me. That is not who I am. I am a German-American. Period. Even though it is sometimes difficult to define, I personally always liked being part of two worlds. Not many people have this privilege and I cherish every moment. So what if I cannot be put into one specific drawer. I am happy that I was given the opportunity to be part of two countries and them being a part of me. The feeling of not belonging to one country alone does not really bother me too much, since I never felt differently.

Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to just have one citizenship, but I withdraw that thought as fast as it comes to me. Parts of both countries, their habits, cultures, education and traditions belong to me equally. The saying “Home is, where the heart is”, for me, is very true. My heart is in the United States and Germany, making both countries my home. And nothing will ever change that.

Most of us go there every day and it is the place to be when it comes to networking. You can find nearly everyone and everything there. Mark Zuckerberg turned his idea of connecting his fellow students from Harvard into a worldwide phenomenon – Facebook. Because of him, it is now easy to stay connected to acquaintances, friends and family all over the globe with only a few clicks.
And there are also many many gimmicks and fun stuff you can find there to get your mind off things. Or simply waste time instead of doing stuff you should actually be doing ;)

New York, New York!
It’s a wonderful town!

Welcome to New York City!
The plane ride to New York City itself is an adventure. Many have not flown that long to any country before and the sight of New York City from the sky shortly before landing amazes most people. When standing on the street, there is nothing to do but to look up in awe how far a regular office building rises up. Tourists want to see all the typical sightseeing spots: the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Ground Zero, Tiffany’s, Fifth Avenue, the MoMa, and Central Park. And all this in less than a week. Which is actually possible, since the city never sleeps.

But beyond the high skyscrapers, a tourist experiences a totally different definition of “masses of people” and noise. The amount of people seems unreal and overwhelming and the honking and cusing of cab drivers or whistles of cops disturbing. Not to mention the various dent in each vehicle, which make it look ready for the junkyard. Especially the huge ditches in the streets catch one’s eye, questioning if someone could possibly drive on a street like that. People tumbling through the blocks appearing to talk to themselves, but actually are only communicating via headset over their Blackberry. People jumping red lights, jaywalking as never seen before. A ride on the subway at first occurs as a confusion accidentally taking an Express train, which only stops at every other station not knowing they actually exist.

Despite of this seemingly uncontrolled chaos, by looking at all the sights, there is one thing that is remarkable: the various corners which New york city has to offer. A tourist makes one turn around the block and finds himself in a totally different world: Downtown, Little italy, Chinatown, SoHo, Brooklyn, Meatpacking District. Every part is unique. Not only through buildings and stores, but also through the kind of people who live there. There is hardly any other city in the world where a tourist sees Native Americans, Hispanics, Italians, Chinese, Jews and African Americans all in one place. It seems unusual in the beginning, but is amazing at the same time. The fascination of the city grows with every step, while looking at the sights and people of different heritage, wondering how one possibly could meet somebody in a big city like New york. Being a New York tourist means exploring one of the cities of the world. And wanting to return.

What’s up, New York?
New York, “the city of all cities”, is the hometown of millions of people. Taking a subway to work is the normal deal even if it takes 40 minutes. Running late? Taking a cab is always an option. On the way to work, a native New Yorker meets the same people as every other day – the Russian doorman; the Italian building super who constantly wants an 8′ x 10′ plot of patchy grass he calls a garden taken care of; the Indian newsstand guy, and not to forget the Senegalese guy at the corner, who sells “real” Rolex watches. Tourists, who suddenly stop in the middle of the sidewalk, right when one wants to walk past, are very upsetting. More so, if they are simply staring at a regular office building.

In general, natives hardly visit the sightseeing spots anyway – unless they have an out of town-er visiting. The flashing “Do Not Walk” signal means to hurry and cross the street, avoiding every small crack in the roas by heart; knowing that it has been there for the past 20 years. And probably will be for at least the next ten years. A native does not even think of using a car inside the city, if it is not desperately needed. That is why they spend a good amount of money on a car garage, where people from New Jersey would use the money to pay off their monthly rent. Secretly, they actually envy cab drivers for their driving skills. So when New yorkers drive, they act just like them. Meaning that when the traffic light jumps to red, they speed up, because they know that there is a one second pause until the other light turnes green.
Other than that, they have all diverse cuisines in a range of a mile from their apartement, which, of course, all offer take-out. Bagles and Pizza are their basic foods, and they miss them as soon as they try them in another city. They expect every supermarket to be open 24/7 and can easily pay 60 Dollars for groceries that all fit into one brown paper bag.

New Yorkers know their city by heart, leading them to a play they once ate that good burger at a half a year ago. In the evenings meeting up with co-workers or people who have become friends over the years because of taking the same subway every morning together. Mostly talking about things that happened to them in the city last week or whom they met when one was just buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks – like every other morning.
Being a New Yorker means being part of the city. And the city being part of oneself, too.

I ♥ NY
New York City is not just a regular metropolis. There is much more to it than the sights like the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty. It contains many small worlds in one big whole, making it possible for everyone to feel at home. There is one thing that the tourist and the native have in common: The “spark” of this wonderful town never disappears – it keeps reappearing in each individual in everyday moments.
The city always has a new surprise to offer. And that is the magical thing about it.

Not a single summer without Jack
“And as my mind begins to spread its wings, there’s no stopping curiosity.”

Sunshine, beach, palm trees, one or two drinks, the soft sound of an ocean and maybe a hammock – the ultimate relaxation place. Unfortunately, only a few people have the chance to experience Times Like These. And the others? Well, they try everything to get as close as possible to the scenery: Laying on the grass, a few sunbeams touching your skin, warming you hardly noticeable. A tickling light summer breeze and simply Wasting Time. And what better music can there be to emphasize this than the music of Jack Johnson.

Born on the island of Hawaii, Johnson did not start out with music immediately. From being a professional surfer and a film student, playing the guitar was at first only a regular hobby. But due to the fact that he needed music to add to his movies, he started to write music himself in order to save money. It was then that a friend of his, a member of an R&B band, discovered his talent and made him record a song (Rodeo Clowns) for their new album. Afterwards, Johnson drew attention to his works and soon his debut album “Brushfire Fairytales” was finished. Since then, Johnson has released four albums and various songs on soundtracks. This October, he is coming out with his first live Album “En Concert” – and everyone who had the pleasure of experiencing him live knows that it is definitely worth the money.

Johnson himself says that his music is influenced by artists like Bob Dylan, Neil yound, and The Beatles and this is striking. Not only the soft guitar sounds and melody attract many people, but also the carefully chosen words in his lyrics make Johnson’s music special. Describing every day Situations in a wonderful, creative way makes people all over the globe identify with various songs of his. Put together with the general mellow mood that can be found in all his pieces, each album creates an imaginary Bubble (toes), where everything seems possible and All Is Understood.

All in all, there are three reasons to simply adore Jack Johnson: Firstly – He’s from Hawaii. He’s a sunnyboy. Do I have to say anything else? Secondly – He plays guitar AND composes lyrics! Thirdly – He’s authentic; without a big hype around him.

For my first article I visited the “Alumni Series” at my university. About every six weeks a former student comes to the university for a few hours and reports what he has done ever since graduation. This time it was Gesine Dammel, an editor from a big publishing house in Germany. But read for yourself.

The editor: A spider’s web
Gesine Dammel – From a curious student to a successful career

“What’s next?”, is what many students probably think after finishing University. After studying English, Slavic and German Studies at Goethe University, Gesine Dammel applied on the off chance to many different publishing houses. She was given a job at Suhrkamp; not as an editor, but as – attention cliché – a secretary. After three instructive years, she was finally able to live her dream – she became an editor herself. And she has been for 23 years now, as she told students in the fifth Alumni berichten lecture.

But what exactly is her job as an editor? She looks for an author, translator, sets up contracts, juggles ideas for topics, keeps track of deadlines, and as if that was not enough, parallel to that she sits in sales representative meetings thinking about advertisements for the new book. Sounds like an awful lot, right? And at this point, the book is not even finished, although half a year has passed. All she has at this point is a manuscript. Manufacturing problems are next – which paper, glue and font should be used; and corrections are to be made on the manuscript. Finally, after more than a year – tadaa! – the book is finished and can be sold. Gesine Dammel compares her job as an editor to the work of a spider working on its web. Beginning in the middle, the spider webs a huge masterpiece. The center is the editor – holding the various strands together.

Of course she also gets many manuscripts from different authors, which she reads to see if they have potential to be published. They are rarely read until the end – so to all you writers out there: make sure your first ten pages are extraordinary!
This bustling around and communicating with a mass of different people plays a huge part in the job of an editor and long night hours are not seldom. Nevertheless, Dammel loves her job, despite – or maybe because – of the piecework. Throughout her life as an editor, she has learned a lot. Reading manuscripts from many different languages made her develop a feeling for language in general. Hence, she realizes when a translation into German seems awkward, even if she does not speak the original language.

There is one essential lesson she has learned: you need to look beyond one’s nose in order to be successful. Even at university she visited all different kinds of seminars and lectures, which did not have anything to do with her own studies. In the end, accepting the secretary job out of curiosity enabled her to work her way up into a position many people envy.