Guten Tag

Yesterday was a short day. I woke up at noon, had breakfast/dinner then went to school to practice and get online. While there, a couple of us went to walk around town for little while. Our main goal was to get coffee. We ended up at Café Pamina (which is the leading female role in Mozart’s Magic Flute).

The college closes at six on the weekends, so I left shortly before. My next bus wasn’t coming for another 20 minutes. As it was such a beautiful day, I decided to walk until I the bus caught up with me. I walked for a little over half an hour, and the bus finally caught up with me 3 stops from home. I debated whether it was even worth taking it, but at that point I was tired, and hot from the sun. I arrived just in time to have dinner with the family. We then watched a bit of the news, had some dessert and coffee. Then I went up to my room to relax, clean, and get ready for bed.

This morning I caught an earlier bus to school so I could stop at Billa. We were having breakfast in class today to start discussing food. I picked up some milk (Milch) and cheese (Käse).

After class/breakfast I had a coaching in over at the Muffin Hostel which is the “dorm” some of the singers are staying at. We have a few music rooms in the basement for practicing and Professor Moteki teaches in a room there. It’s about a 15 min walk up the mountain and down as well… nothing like having to walk uphill both ways.

My allergies have started to bother me a little. It was a wonderful coaching, but my throat is a little scratchy. I’ve already had two cups of tea and three large bottles of water and its only just 12:30.

Lunch will be pretty soon… I wonder what we’re having today. The last couple of days I’ve been walking a lot. I can only hope I continue this trend for the rest of the time here with the amount of food they serve us. Austrians DO NOT like to waste food. I try to do my best to eat what ever is put in front of me. However, the portions they give us are quite large and I don’t eat much. I tend to eat smaller meals and snack.

Munich!

I got an early start to my day waking up at 5:30. I got ready and headed out the door to catch the 6:57 bus into town (never again am I going to miss a bus). I had planned to meet Jackie and Megan at Billa (the grocery store near the college) to pick up some snacks for the trip. I got there at 7:13 and Jackie wasn’t there. The store opened at 7:15 and Megan and I went in, grabbed a few items (including the German gummy bears!!) and went to catch the bus to the train station. We were wondering what happened to Jackie, but just figured she would get to the train station on her own.

Once at the station, we ran into a couple of the girls, but were missing quite a few. We ran into everyone outside the McDonalds, which was a quick breakfast for many of them. Along with them was Jackie. She had apparently been at Billa a little before 7, but got tired of waiting so she took an earlier bus.

We were waiting for the train and then there was an announcement that our train had been canceled. We were told by one of the conductors to run over 3 tracks and catch the S-Bann, take it to another station, then take the connecting train to Munich. What they didn’t tell us was that we’d also have to run to catch the connecting train. Once all 14 of us were on that train and settled into our seats it was a pretty relaxing 2 hr ride to Munich.

We knew once we were in Munich it would be too complicated for all of us to stick together, so Jackie, Brendan, Mike, and I went off on our own instead of poring over the map to figure out where things were.

The four of us just set off to wander around town. First we headed towards the center of town to the Cathedral Frauenkirche. We climbed up the tower to see the view of the city. To get to the top, there are about 76 steps in a small circular staircase. There is only the one staircase, so you have to share it with the people going in the opposite direction. It made things quite interesting, having to plaster yourself against the wall to let people pass. Then the second part was cramming into an elevator to get to the top. There were some gorgeous views from there.

Close to the cathedral is The New Town Hall and the Marienplatz. The New Town Hall is famous for the Rathaus-Glockenspiel. We timed it perfectly to catch the Glockenspiel playing and the figurines moving. I had remembered this from 10 years ago when I visited Munich. The others had no idea that figurines did anything.

We continued to wander around town, walking in and out of shops. We found the Grand Opera house and walked around it looking to see what was playing (a lot of Wagner).

By not following a map, we managed to find some cute little areas away from the touristy stuff. We walked along the River Isar and saw St. Lukas Church. Then we came across a beer garden where we stopped to rest for a while and the boys ate lunch. From the outside this beer garden looked like a prison, the surrounding walls had barbed wire along the top. Inside it was a sunny little place where a lot of locals go for beer and lunch.

After the beer garden, we continued wandering around and headed back towards the center of town. Along the way we passed by this little shop with a bunch of dirndls in the front. Jackie and I walked in and the boys sort of grudgingly followed. In the back part of the store the boys stopped grumbling because it was basically a second-hand vintage store. There we were all trying on funny hats and Jackie and I both tried on awful gaudy dresses. We couldn’t stop laughing. There was another group of girls from Germany that were trying on the awful dresses as well. We were all laughing at each other and taking pictures. I think Jackie and I both agreed it would be our favorite memory of the day.

We wandered back to Marienplatz where we found a cute little café where Jackie and I had a light lunch. I got a tomato soup (which was white). It seemed odd, but it was delicious. After that we started to wander in the direction of the Hofbräuhaus where we were to meet the others at 5:30 for dinner and some good German beer.

We got a little lost trying to find it. We stopped to ask about 3 different people and were in a blocks radius of the Hofbräuhaus before we finally found it. We were early enough to find a seat, which can be quite difficult. It is known for the beer and the waitresses in dirndl’s that serve the beer. These women (and now some men) will carry up to 5 full liter beers in each hand (it’s crazy!!). The four of us each got a liter of the original house beer partly because that’s the only way it’s served. Jackie and I both got desserts (I got apple strudel: it was incredible!!). Mike got white sausage and Brendan a port knuckle. All the food was incredible. There were women who walked around the place selling large pretzels for a couple Euros as well. It took me 2 hours to finish the liter of beer.

The rest of the gang finally arrived at 7. They had gone out to Dachau (concentration camp outside the city) and had to wait for a train back. Once they arrived, it was late enough that there weren’t any table’s open. They wandered around for a while looking to see if they could find anything. There was one that had some space and apparently there were a few German guys in lieder hosen that wanted the “pretty girls” to join them. They were a little creeped out so opted not to. There was a table that opened next to ours, but was then put on reserve as it turns out for the umm-pa-pa band that had been playing. There are tables throughout the Hofbräuhaus that have family names over the table. If they decide to go, the table is automatically given to them. There is also a tradition for the regulars. If you sit at a regular’s table, the waitresses will not serve you.

Luckily after a few minutes the table behind us opened up and we were all able to squeeze into the two tables together. There we wall caught up on our day and enjoyed the atmosphere at the Hofbräuhaus. It was quite noisy in there so it was a nice change from Austria to be able to be a little louder, laughing and having fun without sticking out like sore thumbs as the “noisy Americans.”

Around 9pm, four of us were ready to go, so we left and caught an earlier train. Once again, our train from Munich to Salzburg was canceled, so we had to take another to the last stop and switch. Once we arrived, we had missed one connection by about 5 minutes. We had to sit and wait for about 40 minutes. Unfortunately we all had to use a bathroom, and as it was midnight, everything was closed. We were all tired and a little hysterical. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone else at the train station. We were all laughing and Brendan kept us occupied reading the history of the Hofbräuhaus in an amusing voice and singing as well. When the train finally arrived, we took seats right next to the bathroom. As it turned out, we were only one stop away from Salzburg and only 3 of us had time to use the bathroom.

Once in Salzburg, we all caught cabs to our respective homes and crashed. I didn’t wake up until noon.

Now it’s about time for the college to close for the evening, I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday afternoon.

Friday Afternoon/Evening

The 14 of us that were planning to go to Munich all met up on the first floor of the college. We all went to the train station together to get the tickets which were only 6 Euros a piece roundtrip. The OBB has a deal for 3 to five people traveling from Salzburg to Munich for 30 Euros roundtrip for a day. It includes train ticket and the public transportation system in Munich while your there. However, everything is so close together in Munich, there isn't too much reason to use it unless you're in a hurry get to something.

After the train station, the 14 of us split up, some went to the outlet mall by the airport, the rest of us elected to go to Europark again to walk around since it was raining. We all agreed to meet up at the school by 6:30 to then walk over to the Christian International Church for the concert our professors were giving.

It was a magnificent concert. All Schuman Lead (Schuman Art Song). Dr. Hardenbergh and Yvonne were both very glad to see the number of us that showed up, it was probably close to 25 of us if not a bit more. Yvonne said it was wonderful to look out into the audience while performing and seeing our "shining faces" sitting forward and soaking it all in. I know from experience it's nice to have an appreciative audience.

After the concert we met a couple of the members of the church who are also from the state. One young man, close in age to all of us, is here studying some sort of bio-chemical engineering (or something of the sort) and is here until November. He joined our group as we headed into town and went to see The Magic Flue on the screen in one of the squares. The production was from a previous Salzburg Festival year. It was an updated version with Papageno dressed as a calypso guy with dreads and Tamino in a business suite. I stayed through the Queen of the Night Aria then went to catch my bus to go home and get some sleep before the trip to Munich.

Sir Thomas Allen

Yesterday afternoon, instead of a master class within the program, we all had tickets to a master class that was being conducted by Sir Thomas Allen. This master class was the first for the season as part of the Salzburg Festival. Sir Thomas Allen is from England, on the border of Scotland.

The majority of the master class was given in German (with a scottish accent), but he did also speak in English as well as a little Italian and French. It depended a little upon the singer and the language the piece was in. Yvonne, my voice teacher, was sitting in front of us, so she turned around and translated a little for us. I think my favorite quote from the entire master class Sir Allen actually said in English "Sopranos spend a lot of time on their knees." At the time, the soprano singing was doing Zerlina's two arias from Mozart's Don Giovanni. In the first aria she's pleading with Masetto (her husband) to forgive her. In the second aria, Masetto has been beaten up and she's comforting him... the majority of these two arias are being sung on her knees... however Sir Allen knew exactly what everyone would think with the comment.

The last singer was a Bass.. who had all of us with his first spoken word. It was one of those deep voices that just sends shivers down your spine. As soon as he started singing we were all fanning ourselves. Jackie fell in love right away. We had the chance to speak to some of the singers and Sir Allen after the master class. Most of us were all too nervous to go talk to the bass. Jackie finally did, but was like a star stuck school girl. We also had to ask Sir Allen if he'd be willing to come give a master class with us. Unfortunately he was flying back to London today, otherwise he said he would have loved to.

Once we all left, we headed back to the college, and grabbed our things. Then Jackie, Brendan and I went for a drink at the Irish Pub a couple doors down from the college. There is no German spoken in that pub. We talked about the master class, our own experiences performing at events such as weddings and musicals in hs (Brendan and I both did "Oklahoma" played Curly and I played Laurey).

Once I got home, I had dinner with the family then just relaxed up in my room. I enjoyed shutting the blinds so that it was pitch black in the room and then sleeping in this morning.

Once I got up and had breakfast, I played with the girls for a while. Then we all had lunch together, and I came into town to practice and meet up with Jackie. We have to get our train tickets for Munich tomorrow and tonight at 7 a couple of our professors are giving a Schumann recital at the American church across the river.

It's raining again... I should go buy an umbrella today.
Ciao!

Es ist Donnerstag! (It’s Thursday!!)

I am very excited it’s Thursday! This week we have Friday (Frietag), Saturday (Samstag), and Sunday (Sonntag) off; absolutely nothing has been scheduled for us. Some are traveling to Prague and Vienna for the weekend. A few of us are just going to go Munich for the day on Saturday.

We didn’t end up going out for Jackie’s birthday yesterday. Instead we’re going out tonight as we don’t have to be up for class tomorrow.

Yesterday Martina and the girls picked me up at school. It only took Laura 30 minutes to bike here. We went to Demel’s and had dessert. The girls were good while there. However, when we were finishing up, Lisa got a little anxious and started walking around the table and called “mama” a couple of times. Then some older man started saying something to Martin about it. This man was not happy. We left pretty quickly after they had some words back and forth. I didn’t have a clue what they were saying but I got the jist of it.

Then the 5 of us went to McDonalds for dinner (not one of my favorites, but I had a tomato and mozzarella salad). It started raining, so Laura, her bike, and I took the bus home. The rest of the evening I spent studying for our German quiz this morning.

I only had half a lesson this morning with Yvonne. She had rehearsal for a concert and had to leave. For the second half I just rehearsed with my pianist, and Yvonne and I will make up the other half of the lesson next week.

This afternoon we have a master class that is part of the Salzburg Festival. Sir Tomas Allen will be conducting the master class. It’ll be interesting to see what language it is done in and to see who is singing.

Ciao

(The pictures are of the storm that is currently rolling in as I type this post.)

Guten Tag

I had a nice quiet evening at home last night. I did my Deutsch homework, ate dinner with the girls and kept an eye on them for a little while before their grandmother arrived. Martina and Martin had a dinner to go to with one of Martin's clients. Lisa was put to bed, and I read for a little while, but at 8, I shut the blinds and was asleep by 8:45. As I can't sleep in in the mornings, this was my compromise.

This morning we had to but sentences together that Jasmin cut up. It was like putting a puzzle together then putting the conversation dialog in order.

After class I completed my homework and started to make flash cards for our quiz tomorrow. Then 4 of us went to a cute little cafe a couple of blocks away to get some coffee.

We're having lasagna for lunch, then a master class at 2:30. At 5 Martina and the girls are meeting me at school and then we're going to pick up Martin. From there we are all going to the cafe Demel at Mozrt Platz. Martin received a gift certificate for 4 banana splits. I'm really looking forward to it, and it is a nice day today.

On our trip Monday, a bunch of us starting quoting lines from "Mean Girls." So, today, we're all wearing pink. (For those that don't know the movie, there's a line that say's "On Wednesdays, we wear pink!")

It's Jackie's 21st birthday today, so after Demel's I'll probably come back to the school for a little while then meet up with the gang to go out for a bit. Neither Jackie nor I want to stay out late, we both have voice lessons first thing in the morning.

Have a wonderful day!

Morgen!

It’s another rainy day in Salzburg. Despite the rain in the morning yesterday, the afternoon was beautiful.

We spent the entire afternoon at Hellbrunn Palace and Watergames. First we took a tour of the water fountains the Arch Bishop/Prince created. He liked to play tricks on his guests. While sitting at the table, no one was allowed to stand unless he stood. As such, if he turned on the water (which would shoot out of the seats) they were not allowed to get up, and his chair stayed dry. Throughout the entire gardens are fountains that could turn on catch any passer-by and get them wet. There were also little figurines that moved and were powered just by water pressure.

Then we walked through his palace and looked at all the beautiful rooms. After we had all completed that tour, Phoebe took us (or those that wanted) to hike up the mountain to see the “month” palace with a beautiful view of the city. (At least because of that hike, I’m not longer sore).

We walked down the other side of the mountain. On this side of the mountain is one of the first theaters ever build where the first German opera was performed. There is a stage (made partially out of cement) and the backdrop was carved out of stone. Also carved out of the stone was an entire “backstage” area with a bench carved out and stairs to that people could be on different levels for the actors to be on. Of course we all climbed up standing and sitting on the different spots and sang; though none of us could find an opera chorus or song we all knew.

Next we walked along the path back towards the palace. We stopped at a little wade pool. I was the only one brave enough to wade in the chilly water and walk all around. It’s there to help cleanse and get your circulation going. The water is so clean and refreshing.

The final stop on our little hike was the gazebo where “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” was filmed in the Sound of Music. We had a lot of fun taking different pictures there.

I didn’t end up getting home until 7:30 and by then I was ready to just go to sleep. However, I did eat dinner with Laura and Martina, red a few poems in German to Laura, then did my German homework. Once that was done, I read for a short time and then fell into a very deep sleep.

In German this morning, we’re learning the rooms of the house and items/furniture you may find in those rooms. We made posters and drew pictures. My group had the Kitchen (die Kuche) and made a very colorful poster with silly cartoon drawings of kitchen appliances.

I hope all is well in the States.
Ciao