B horn K

All Caught Up

2010-01-20T13:10:00.002+01:00

So...Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! That means we're all caught up then, right?!

Naw, as always, I get caught up in things, but lately, blogging has obviously not been one of those things. I was thinking about why my posts have been so sparse lately, and I came to three conclusions, either: 1) I am not as talkative or creatively inclined word-wise lately, 2) I have had little time for a post, or 3) the rise of Facebook.

I don't think #1 is the reason, since I always enjoy a creative outlet, and as for #2, even if I'm really busy, I could spend 15-20 minutes over breakfast (which I spend at my computer anyway) to do a little mini-post if I wanted. So that leaves option #3. Which brings me to a conversation I had last night with a few colleagues.

Many of you keep in touch with me over Facebook, and those of you who don't know what it is anyway, so I can skip over the boring stuff. Basically I was hanging out with a few people who I see either on a fairly regular basis, or ones that I rarely see or don't know extremely well, and we were discussing Facebook, a topic that started while discussing StudiVZ, the German form of Facebook (a total copy, and with a lot fewer features, oh, and it's red-colored instead of blue, ha!). Side note: many of my StudiVZ friends are now on Facebook.

Anyway, I found during our conversation that I was trying to decide if our consensus about Facebook was more positive or negative. Of course it's great for finding and connecting with old friends, or for sharing things or playing games with friends you have now, but suddenly we started talking about the annoyances (people posting different unimportant, irrelevant statuses multiple times a day) or the shocks (people posting intimate information or their own personal health information), and even the evils (wasting time, and ...addiction...AAHH!). To which one of us said, "well, you can spend as little time as you want or don't want on Facebook", which I also feel to be the "fun" of Facebook - you can give (or take) as little or as much time or information as you want, and everyone has to figure that out that balance for themselves!

Although I did see a few funny news stories about Facebook, like a burglar busted while checking his Facebook during a crime, and Facebook addictions (just type "Facebook addiction" into Google and enjoy! Apparently, it has it's own name, FAD, or Facebook Addiction Disorder)!

So back on topic, I have decided that I post here less not because I am a Facebook addict, but because some things I would post here I post on Facebook in short-form during my breakfast time!!

Nevertheless, here I am again. After all, blogging is another nice option.

As for the update, I figure a short version will do since my last post was behind schedule and I don't need to add a time lag to this blog any longer. After my trip to the States, I was busy working again, and moving! We finally found a nice bigger, warmer, lighter apartment (without mold) that is even closer to downtown, but still affordable. It is a 2-room place with a balcony, and owned privately, so the owner takes good care of the place. Since it's on the 4th floor (without an elevator), moving was a real workout, but we had a nice 180° view of fireworks over the city for New Year's Eve (if we'd have known that, we wouldn't have needed to buy any ourselves)!. And, as you can see in this picture, it's a nice place to watch the snow and store herbs (and sit outside when the weather's good and enjoy the tiki torches, which we only had a few nights of after our move before it got too cold).

Renovating the old place was kinda a pain since we had to rip down the wallpaper and tear out the laminate, but it got done (and was something I'd never had to do before). Took some great pics of the mold growing on and behind the wallpaper - we're really lucky we didn't get sick living there! Renovating the new place happened before the America trip, and was also fun (painting, putting up a little wallpaper, laying down laminate).

Since then we've been getting a few extra things we needed for our place now, and although it still isn't completely done, it's quite livable and *almost* presentable!

Fortunately, the bedroom had lots of room, but both fortunately and unfortunately, it is gone now since I got a used practice box for it! It was an absolute beast to transport (took 10 hours with 4 guys, although 2 came halfway through) and is extremely heavy, but I got it for a halfway decent price since to buy one new is pretty much unaffordable. And as a musician, the opportunity to practice at home at ANY time of day at ANY volume WITHOUT a mute is pretty much priceless (yes, just like the credit card commercials, you know - practice box: $xx, movers to help you get it: $xx, practice at home: priceless). Hehe. Now I just have to find a place to put the rest of my clothes...

As for the rest of the place, we have a spacious entrance hallway, a little storage room (also priceless), and a big living room with big windows toward the balcony. Although it lies fairly centrally, it is still quiet and parking at night is no problem (good for me since I get home late from work). Will just have to get the finishing touches done between work soon so we can enjoy the fruits of our labor!

And with that, I leave you again til next time!

Hiatus on hiatus for another travel post?

2009-11-13T13:26:00.007+01:00

So...apparently I went on hiatus with my blog! A very long post break was the result, but I'm back for now!

There is of course lots to catch up on, but for this post, first things first - my USA trip from Summer! If you'd like to see the whole album before reading further, see USA Trip 2009. As I'd mentioned before, this trip was different than the trips I've had back in the past few years since I was back in Summer, when the weather is (supposedly) nice and warm! And for the most part, besides the first rainy week, the weather was pretty decent, as my photos will show. Of course the heat of the Summer did NOT appear, probably because I was there, but it was at least Summer clothes time!

For the first week, we just kinda mulled around town with my mom, trying to get over our jet lag (when else would I be going to be at 9:30pm??). We did, however have a few activities planned, like visiting my brother and his new baby; my turn to meet my niece! It was really nice to see my brother and his fiancé, too. Little did I know by the second visit to see them, my niece would be sitting up on her own already! Man do little kids grow fast.

Week one also consisted of a little mini golf escapade, which is always fun...as you can see!

Week two was road trip week. We went on a 2-day drive to Pennsylvania to visit my Aunt, Cousin, and Great Aunt, which was really great. We even managed to fit in a trip to the beach, which turned out to be on two of the hottest days we were in the States. Since we were also in the vicinity and were driving through the area anyway, we went on a little driving tour of downtown Hershey, where everything has a chocolate theme - even the street signs and street lamps! These people are serious about their chocolate.

Week three started out with a change of location, this time to my dad's for the remainder of the trip. This was also coincidentally the second year in a row that I was back for our County Fair, which was during week three. This was Jan's first American county fair, so we had fun seeing everything, and trying everything - and nothing was spared, not even the deep-fried Oreos (which were actually not as gross as you may think)! Some highlights of the Fair were: the pig races with the mile-a-minute pig-related jokes, the lumberjack show with world champion lumberjackers + lumberjackette, the loud and dirty tractor and truck pulls, the demolition derby, the harness racing, and of course, the animals.

After a week of lots of walking around, we decided to take it easy on the farm for our last week in the States, week four. We did do a few things, like see a well dug and flowing since 1895, accept a delivery per semi truck, visited my brother again, and enjoyed nature on the farm.

To see the entire album, visit: USA Trip 2009.

All said, it was a nice trip and we had fun seeing friends (I didn't mention my 10-year high school reunion!) and family again, and enjoying the Midwest when the weather is nice and mosquito-y.

More on what's happened since then on the following post...which would mean my posting hiatus is in fact on hiatus.

Colors, camera, action!

2009-07-28T10:59:00.003+02:00

Wow, almost another month has gone past since the last post. If I keep this up, this will turn into a pure monthly blog, geez! Well, here we are, and here are the issues at hand:

First of all, in just short of 3 weeks I will be in the States, and I cannot wait!!! So far I have several things planned, like a road trip to PA and the Walworth County Fair, and that's of course besides time spent at home with the immediate family. I've been working more to make up for my time when I'm gone so I can stay for a whole month. Yippee!

Next, I had been thinking of buying a digital camera for a while, but wasn't sure exactly what I wanted. I really wanted a SLR camera (for high-quality photos, sees exactly what you see and takes quick pictures with a shutter), but they are usually too expensive for what I would consider my hobby. Luckily, I found a way to have both through a sale at an electronic store nearby! On Friday I got the Olympus E-420, a digital SLR camera set with objective. It was considerably cheaper than the price on the Olympus website due to the sale, and I finally decided the investment was justifiable. You can decide for yourself - my pictures from now on will be taken by it (including the one posted here)! So far I'm happy with the purchase - it has a lot of different modes (portrait, action, landscape, etc) as well as light settings (sunset, candles, night, fireworks), and if you have it set right, it will also take some nice action shots and close-ups. Oh, and it's supposedly one of the lightest (if not the lightest) SLR cameras out there. So I have a new toy to play with for the time being!

I took this picture at a wedding I was at this past weekend, which was my first wedding in Germany (and only my 2nd overall). It was a civil ceremony in a small town, and quite interesting. First of all, the first half of the ceremony was taken up with paperwork (questions about what address the pair is living at, who's taking whose name, etc.), and I was wondering if there was even going to be any talk about relationships and commitment and, God forbid, love. But yes, it did appear in the end, and was quite nice - I just had to ignore the pitchforks and other sharp farm tools hovering over our heads during the ceremony, as well as the taxidermy hawk glaring and the ferret bearing his teeth at us as we walked outside for pictures. But no, before the pictures there were a few traditions to uphold - the throwing of the rice, the release of the doves, the tossing of the flowers (which was hilarious since she kept tossing it too far or too short or to the side) - and the sawing of the log. Yep, the bride and groom, elegantly dressed in white wedding gown and tuxedo, put on their work gloves and sawed through a log with one of those 2-person saws before heading off for photos! I don't know if that is a typical German tradition or not (or Russian, since the groom was Russian), but it did get their hearts pumping and flushed their cheeks for nice pics.

There was also a nice reception - a buffet, during which the couple made some nice and partly funny speeches, and some entertainment planned for us including a magician and a fast sketcher (someone who would sketch your portrait in just a few minutes). Not to mention the yummy cake! Was a great time, and like I mentioned, quite interesting!

In other news, there was a European Parliament election held a while ago, and since I'm not too up on German politics, I found a website to help. It has a quiz you can take of your opinions on different topics, and it will compare your answers with some of the top political parties in Germany for the results: in case you're curious where you sit in European politics and issues visit the Wahl-O-Mat (in English). The funny thing was, under my top 4 parties was....the Pirate Party! Haha! Arrrr! I guess they are actually not radical or weird, but have an unfortunate name. What would people think of a civilized country run by pirates? Had to laugh at that one.

Back to a more personal note, we are finally moving into a bigger, lighter, closer, and less-moldy apartment! We get the keys tomorrow and decorating will start immediately, but the move will be delayed due to our US trip. It is pretty exciting though, and I am currently flooded with many decorating ideas. We bought paint yesterday, with colors like blackberry, caramel, and espresso - which sounds really tasty and made me wonder if we are moving into a gingerbread house! I will probably post pictures at some point once the decorating is done, and will be keeping busy til I leave for the States.

Until then!

Belgium by (my) car!

2009-06-30T15:04:00.005+02:00

So, you can be amazed - another post before the month is out! As promised, I have more photos to share, this time from my car trip to Belgium for 2 auditions. Since I was there for a few days, I had some time to see the capital city Brussels and visit a friend in Ghent, about 45 minutes away from Brussels. Driving in Brussels was sure crazy - so many roundabouts, tunnels weaving above and below the street level through downtown, and often no traffic lights, which means you just went when you felt inspired and no one was walking in front of you at that moment! Was a bit nerve-wracking at first, but then I got used to the pace, and by the end loved driving through the tunnels (which were really like an underground city, with on and off ramps and all, and actually a good idea since it let traffic flow for those going directly through the city)! To view my photo album of the trip before reading my account, look here: Belgium - June 2009!!

I saw some of the city on the first evening, and was blessed with some sun to see the city hall, as well as walk around the restaurant area and enjoy a nice meal outside (with some famous Belgium beer).

The next day I had off, so I went to Ghent to visit a friend, who ended up giving me a very nice city tour! After visiting the cathedral, we bought some chocolate, another fame item of Belgium, and visited the beautiful canals and old buildings. We then arrived in an area with the oldest buildings in town and a view of the three towers at once! Tired, I headed back to Brussels for my last day.

The third day provided me with lots of rain and only a little sightseeing time in Brussels, but I did manage to fit in the famous Mannequin Piss statue, which is so small in real life (and crawling with tourists)! Before taking of for home, I also saw the cathedral, as well as a Turkish military band marching on the main square, playing historical instruments, and claiming to be the world's oldest military band. They also claimed that Mozart and Beethoven drew inspiration from them, which sounded pretty far-fetched if you ask me, so I guess you have to take their claim to fame for what it's worth!

So for the rest of the photos and more info on my trip, view the entire album: Belgium - June 2009!!!!

More on my non-travel life coming up soon, hopefully!

Copenhagen Trip!

2009-06-16T12:34:00.004+02:00

So, as your reward for waiting so long for a post, you get another photo album! It's from my trip to Copenhagen, Denmark (see the whole album) - one of 2 trips as of late for auditions (next post coming soon!), and sight-seeing, and vacation, and visiting people... ;)

Since Denmark is quite close to Hamburg, I decided to drive, which was my first time driving in another country other than Germany. Needless to say, my saving grace was, once again, my GPS navigation (aka Navi)! It only failed to tell me one thing - the car ferry to Denmark was NOT at all free (I was expecting about 10-15€ fee, but it was 64€!) and included in the travel time, but all in all the trip was still around 5 hours. I made up my mind to find another way back to Hamburg to avoid the car ferry - my Navi found a way on the mainland, which included a toll bridge (still cheaper than the ferry) and only extended to trip half an hour!

Anyway, besides paying exorbitant prices for everything, Copenhagen was a beautiful city. The opera house is fairly new and built on the water, which makes for an interesting setting. After my audition, my friend showed me around the city, which was great! We saw the parliament and the stock exchange, as well as managed to catch the changing of the guards!

I thought the most charming part was the harbor area, with colorful buildings and many outdoor cafes. We also had to laugh when we saw a farm fair display on the city hall square - a nice contrast of country and city. They even had a "guess which animal this poop came from" contest - ha! Afterward we headed to the world's oldest amusement park, Tivoli, and saw the old rides and gardens. My friend was telling me about this really yummy ice cream they have, and guess what it was - Coldstone, something I've never seen in Europe! Of course, we had to try it.

So, hope you enjoy the whole album; here it is: Copenhagen 2009! Next destination coming up soon!

The Majorca Report

2009-04-16T11:40:00.005+02:00

As promised - the Majorca Report (for the full photo album, visit here: Majorca April 2009)! First off, I had asked last time if you'd ever heard of "Mallorca", but I have since been informed that the English spelling is different (with a "j" instead of "ll"), so maybe that's why you'd never heard of it!

So, I made it back safely from Germany's 17th State (they actually only have 16)! Turns out it was even more German than I expected. Here's the report:

Day 1 - Arrival. Late afternoon, so I didn't really get to do much. Basically just walked around in the *drizzle* before the evening meal at the hotel to see what the city where I stayed, Paguera, looked like downtown. I had a real cheap package deal from a travel company, so the hotel (mine was 2-stars, incl. breakfast and dinner), the flight, and the transfer from the airport to hotel (I flew into Palma and had this view) were all included in the price. On top of that, it was still off-season, so not many of the tourists were there, so the prices were also cheaper. This also meant that several of the stores or restaurants were not open as long, which meant after dinner hanging around at the hotel (which everyone did).

Day 2 - Trip to Palma, the capitol city of Majorca. Despite the rain and cool temps, I had a nice day at the capitol. My first stop was an amazing gothic-style cathedral called Le Seu, which deserved a visit inside. This was, of course, after my stop for breakfast tapas, which was a disappointment - I did not think tapas with ham and cheese would just be a ham and cheese sandwich! Made me weary of trusting my travel book, but I later found out it was just an outlier.

After the cathedral I just wanted to walk around town to see the sights, like the Place Major (main square), the Passeig des Born (with photo exhibits and shopping), and the Placa Cort with an old olive tree and the city hall. Other activities included escaping the rain for some typical Majorcan almond cake and a café con leche (coffee with milk), very tasty! Unfortunately the wind sorta broke my umbrella, which didn't make it always that pleasant for just wandering around, but I just dodged into different shops to look around between the drops, and enjoyed the cute little streets.

Day 3 - relaxing in Paguera. On top of the cough I brought from Hamburg, I woke up this morning with a stuffy head and nose due to the heating not working in my room - I slept the night with a scarf wrapped around my head! Perfect opportunity to take it easy and see the beach and the town, relax, and eat some real tapas - and enjoy some native oranges (lots of flavor). I actually found a spot on some rocks where no one went (mainly because the tourists that stayed in Paguera were older couples and not up for off-the-path trips), so I took a rest and took some pics, like this one, a nice coastal view.

Day 4 - relaxing in Paguera, part 2. Since it was my last day, and the whole point of this vacation was to refresh and de-stress, I decided to walk around in a few new places around town, and to save a car rental for next time! It was a few degrees warmer, and the sun shone for a few minutes, so it was nicer for being outside, although still not warm enough to swim. I spotted my next hiking destination, and headed on up for a better view over the island - and found my way there and enjoyed this view! This was a spot without any people as well, so I could enjoy it as long as I wanted, undisturbed. All that hiking made me hungry, so I headed back down for some more tapas.

All in all, my hotel was fine for the price - the food was actually really good (fresh fish every night with veggies), but the amenities were frugal (no TV, alarm clock, telephone, or soap in the bathroom...and I think I blew the circuit breaker one night while using my water cooker - oops!), and it was very close to a bus stop to Palma and the shore. Assuming there is a "next time", I think a week would be a good amount to stay, which would give me time to rent a car and see some other cities, like Valldemossa, a cute city where Chopin stayed one Winter. I would not recommend going in July or so, during the main season, since the partying would be sooooo crazy - all the late-year teens go there to drink and party (mainly in Palma)!

So, to see my whole album (only some pics I included in this post), visit: Majorca April 2009. Til next time!

Drinking while driving

2009-03-29T13:48:00.004+02:00

As promised: another post! This time pre-departure...for a trip to Germany's so-called "17th State". In other words, I'm off to Germany's most popular vacation destination, Mallorca! Don't worry, I never heard of the place before I moved here either, so for those who don't know, it's an island South of Spain with (I'm hoping) lots of warm weather and sun. I will not be staying in Palma, the capitol city, but in a smaller city outside called Peguera. Luckily it is not the main tourism season yet, because when it is, the island is crowded with young Germans drinking and partying all the time! So I will get to enjoy a few days away (on my few days off of work) of (hopefully) good food and landscape - it is supposedly very pretty. I booked a package deal with hotel and flight included, and 2 meals a day, which will still leave me some leeway to explore the "native" culinary culture as well. So stay tuned, since the next post will be a report!

But true to the actual theme of this blog, I will now give a report on driving in Germany! I can say that I am officially used to driving here...after 2 months. There are quite a few differences that made the first few weeks *quite* stressful, so I compiled a list of "problems" associated with driving in Germany (from an American's perspective) and Germany's solutions to these issues:

Problem: VERY narrow lanes
Solution: smaller cars, many even smaller than an American small car

Problem: bumpy, cobblestone streets
Solution: limited to side residential streets with a low speed limit

Problem: lots of city traffic
Solution: a yellow traffic light to warn drivers that the green light is coming (a good idea in my opinion)

Problem: speeders
Solution: permanent traffic cameras that "flash" you, taking a picture of your license plate to send you a speeding ticket. The only problem with this is drivers learn where the traffic cams are and only slow down when they know one's coming up!

Problem: expensive gas prices (yesterday I paid 4.64€ per gallon, or about 1.20€ per liter)
Solution: get this - mostly diesel cars! Diesel prices here are sometimes 20cents per liter cheaper than normal gas. What I also find astonishing is that Germany is in general very environmentally conscious, but apparently not enough to pay more for gas cars! But see the next one...

Problem: pollution
Solution: lower car taxes for cars with low emissions and high efficiency (so drivers are rewarded for non-diesel cars in lowered taxes somewhat)

Problem: small streets thus limited parking
Solution: rarely marked parking spots (allows for closer parking), and allowed to park in some areas with car half on the curb

Problem: parking with car half on the curb
Solution: the curbs here are much lower than in the States!

Problem: no straight intersections
Solution: white marking lines guide you around curves and through crooked intersections (which can actually look a bit confusing...)

Problem: uncertainty if allowed to turn at intersection
Solution: a blue sign showing if you have to drive straight ahead or can turn, as well as white arrows on the street at practically every intersection showing if you are allowed to turn or not (things for which I am very thankful)

Problem: crazy street connections, confusing street formations
Solution: GPS navigation. So many cars have it built in, or people buy it separately to find their way through the cow paths of German cities. I luckily had Navigation and GPS by default built into my cell phone PDA, which I now am also very thankful for!

Problem: high highway speeds
Solution: more cautious and "smart" drivers, and semi trucks really going the speed limit (which is lower for them) and almost never trying to pass. German drivers pay upwards of 1.500€ for driving school, and have strict written and practical tests. In my experience, this leads to very cautious drivers who watch out for people needing to change lanes and people wanting to pass!

Problem: publicly-run buses that need to stay on schedule despite city traffic
Solution: buses are always allowed the right of way - you have to wait for them to turn out onto the road from a bus stop, for example.

Problem: uncertain middle lane markers, close oncoming traffic
Solution: this is something I just had to get used to, since the oncoming traffic is just as close as the lane next to you. As far as markings, the middle lane is sometimes marked with a white straight line, but otherwise it's a dotted white line, just like the normal lane markers! So I guess the only solution to this problem is to stay in your lane if you're not sure, and follow the other cars - and gather experience!

Problem: more pedestrian and bicycle traffic
Solution: stricter laws on running red lights and speeding

Problem: no cup holders in the car
Solution: no thirst, I guess! But for real...travel times here are generally shorter (commute to work or visit to friends), so I guess there just isn't a need to drink in your car while driving (hehe, of course I mean non-alcoholic!). I did by a cup holder, but it didn't work - somehow wouldn't support the weight of anything! To say the least, that is one thing that I will be purchasing on my visit to the States this summer.

Problem: Limited air conditioning in cars
Solution: Summers that are not that hot. Plus, cars without A/C have a sunroof (like mine) to help with circulation. We'll see how that turns out...

Problem: different street signs
Solution: well, there's nothing to do but learn them! And try to pay attention to them as well as other cars...

I think that covers most issues I've had with driving here. I feel you have to be much more active as a driver here since all other drivers are too!

So, I'll wrap it up now until I get back from Spain. By the way, the picture is one of the Easter stickers (mostly kinda ugly in my opinion!) included for free in a TV magazine for which I have a test-subscription, but this chick one really cracked me up - it looks like this chick has pecs and abs of steel, like he was really working out! HA!

Seasonal Seasonings

2009-03-19T17:06:00.002+01:00

Well, so much for "posting more often"! Guess I've just been more busy with stuff than inspired to post more often! There are, however, a few topics to discuss...

Now that Winter's nearing a close, at least over here (I can't speak for the snowy Midwest), I am thankful for one thing, which is for sure - I managed to escape the many ailments which have been going around here all Winter (knock on wood!). From bronchitis to a flu virus, almost everyone I know here (mostly musicians) has been hit pretty hard this season with more than just a little cold, leaving them off work for a period of time. And I know, every Winter people tend to get sick, but this year seemed especially rough, which makes me wonder if people reading this who work in other fields have also noticed this this season, or if it isn't maybe related to the stress of a musician's life? Irregular hours and long nights? Bodily stress and being in close contact with so many others who are sick? Too much partying...and/or drinking??

What leads me to some of these points are the not-so-common ailments in with the mix over the past months of those I know such as a herniated disc, lumbago, a heart attack, numb fingers, uneven hearing between the ears, acute hearing loss, rumbling in the ear, and a knee operation. Not to mention burnout syndrome (check out Wikipedia's career listed first for this entry) and weirdness (hehe). And in addition to the musicians, there are the musical dancers with their pulled hamstrings and tendons as well as the singers (especially fatal in opera), who get hit the hardest with even the mildest of a cold and are often forced not to sing a performance.

This leads to many substitutions in the performances, which can lead to somewhat amusing results: we once had a Hänsel and Gretel performance with both Hänsel and Gretel sung by outsiders (and once with the originals acting in the opera and subs singing the parts from the sides of the stage); we had Carmen in Carmen sung by someone with an old, wobbly voice; and my personal favorite – for the final performance of Hänsel and Gretel, the witch, which can be sung by either a male of female voice (we usually have a male) was acted on stage by a male – and sung on the side by a female! Ha! What gender swap is next (I don't know which would be funnier) – the Queen of the Night aria being squeaked out by a man, or Don Carlo being done by a petite woman??

But anyway, on the topic of seasonal change, Spring is definitely making itself noticeable (and in other ways than a laundry drying-outside-difference of 4-5 days or more to 1-2 days)! The sun has shone its (embarrassed) face several times as of late, and the temperatures are up to the mid-40s and 50s. Spring fever has definitely set in, which means one of many things for me - the start of the gardening season! Yes, it is actually a bit to early for it so far, but it's not too early to get a head start! I got some compost soil (should be very nutrient rich for my little balcony garden), as well as some seeds (zucchini will be replacing something this year), and something special - a little greenhouse! It's just a little plastic case-shaped thing with room for soil and a larger green covering for starting seedlings indoors. So I planted some tomato seeds (cherry and larger), as well as zucchini (and a melon seed to see if they are still good). Then I can plant them outside later rather than buying small plants as I did in the past. Know I will just hope that the ground doesn't mold like what happens to many plants on the window sill....!

So, stay tuned for more soon, the next post is in the making!

P.S. By the way, I have no idea what this is supposed to be a picture of, but I found in on my phone and it looks cool!

Still Alive....

2009-02-04T14:28:00.002+01:00

Yes, just wanted to let you know that I am still here, somewhere! Been a while, I know. Man how the time flies by!

Onto the update - this photo is of my car! It's used, from 2000, a VW Polo (a model that I believe they do not export to the States since it's not one of the more expensive models). Bought it from a VW dealer in Hamburg a few weeks ago, a good deal from what I can tell. It's of course automatic, since I can't drive stick and have enough other things on the road here to worry about other than that. And it's purple! But a decent purple. Hehe. My license transfer did actually go through as well, for once some bureaucracy that worked how it should here. I've definitely been having fun driving, and it makes my work commute much more relaxed and independent. I do find it more difficult due to a few factors: smaller lanes, irregular intersections, crazier drivers (but better), and the recognition/internalization of road signs not yet automatic on my part. Plus I would be lost without my GPS Navigation that came with my cell phone/PDA, quite literally. I get lost even with it! ;) Next week I will get to test out my car on a long stretch of a few hours (rather than the usual half an hour or one hour), so wish me luck!

In other news, I have booked my flight to the States for this summer! Got a pretty good deal considering it's Summer, but had to go back a week later than I actually wanted, but I don't have to fly on a certain airline based in India like in the past! This time it's Holland's best in the air. I'll be back from mid-August to mid-September. I already can't wait! And I will finally be there for a while when the weather is warm, which will be a nice change from the usual Winter's-Still-Here-Although-It's-March crap, and a nice escape from the cold European Summer. Just my luck this year will be warm here. Can't beat the heat and humidity of a Midwest Summer, though! Plus I will be back for our County Fair, which I have posted about before, something I enjoyed a lot as a kid, and even got to see last summer when I was back for a week.

Luckily I haven't been hit (knock on wood) by the various flu bugs that have been going around. One colleague has had 3 different sicknesses, one after the other, for a few weeks now, and another has been out for 2 weeks with bronchitis and a fever. Not to mention the many people with colds I'm around. Music is a very infectious business, so I am trying to make it through unharmed!

In other news, I actually found a store in Kiel that sells root beer! The real stuff. Funny enough, it's a video store with lots of imported American junk food - sodas, candy bars (last time they actually had a Butterfinger!!!), chips, cookies...the works. I couldn't believe it - this was something that I never thought I'd find here, but something that I love (and a memory of back home)! Of course it's overpriced (1.50€ for a can), but it's worth it, and not really all that expensive considering all! Also got some cream soda and some Welch's Grape soda there, gotta love that fake grape flavor too ;)

My friend Heidi came to visit over New Year's, which was nice, since we hadn't visited for a while. We went to the harbor, the big place to be, for midnight, but had to get off a subway stop before that since it was closed off for 2 hours around midnight for safety reasons. Luckily, there is so much going on there that we still had enough action without total craziness. There were still people throwing fireworks into any opening on the ground (or in the middle of a crowd) that they could find, so we would watch each others' backs (literally, and legs), and yell "watch out!" if we saw one waiting to blow at our feet. Was cold and the air was smoky, but fireworks abound for about 45 minutes after midnight, like every year. Oh yeah, so Happy 2009, even though a whole month is already past....

Well, enough for now. Hopefully the next post won't be so long coming!

Christmas Letters Post

2008-12-23T12:43:00.003+01:00

Dear Santa,
I would like a new car and a nice house with land for Christmas please, if that's not too much trouble. Oh yes, with a fireplace. Yes, I have been a good girl for the most part. And by the way, I figured out your secret of how you get around the world in one night - you give yourself extra time by making Europe celebrate on the 24th. Good one.

Dear Deutsche Bahn,
No, you may not have my understanding. Just requesting it is not the same as asking, apologizing, which is the least you could do for being 20 minutes late last night, so the answer is no.
P.S. For as much as I've been riding lately, the least you could do is ask nicely next time.

Dear Winter,
I see you have been keeping things for us here nice and balmy, but actually, if you don't mind, I think it'd be fine if you sent some of the snow you've been giving the Midwest to us here in Hamburg. Thanks.

Dear Family,
I wish I could spend the holidays with you for once and have a nice American Christmas with you again. Just so you know, miss ya! Merry Christmas!

Dear heart and lungs,
Don't forget to keep on beating and breathing this year. Keep up the good work, you've been doing a great job.

Dear auto industry,
Please don't collapse. I'm worried about you. Have you tried selling more abroad? With the low dollar price you might have some luck!

Dear wall,
Please don't put any more dents in my horn bell. The one you gave me this week is generous and obvious enough. Thanks, I'd appreciate it.

Dear John,
(insert bad news)
Love, Jane

Dear dreams,
I was wondering if you could tell me why you are so weird sometimes.

Dear mold all over my apartment,
You suck.

Dear weird drunken mumbling man at my subway stop,
I have no idea what you are saying, so please keep your distance next time and do not try to touch my hair again.

Dear phone charger,
Where are you?

Dear Hamburg Christmas Market,
Sorry to have missed you this year. Hope to catch up next year!

Der Kiel and Lübeck Christmas Markets,
Nice to have met you this year!
P.S. Kiel market - do all German reindeer have huge bunny ears like in this picture?

Dear Nimm 2 Vitamin Candies,
Why are you so yummy?

Dear German driver's license,
I am so happy that things worked out between us. I am very excited that you will be arriving in about 2 weeks! Can't wait to get a car, learn German street signs, and start using you!
P.S. Please thank the German Department of Motor Vehicles while you're there for me for lifting the 3-year license exchange rule that was preventing me from getting you til now! I was worried that I'd have to retake driving courses here and pay upwards of 2,000€ for it! But getting you this time was easy as pie...a 35€ piece of it, that is.

Dear New Year 2009,
Please bring my friends, family, and blog readers happiness and health. I look forward to what you have in store for me!
P.s. If you need any help, a sweet orchestra job and a nice sunny, warm summer would be a good place to start! Of course after the health and happiness stuff...

Fun and Games In a City Called Kiel

2008-12-09T16:38:00.006+01:00

Yep, you may have guessed right - this is a view from my room in Kiel on the weekend nights of the clubs right across the street. I apparently unknowingly moved to the going-out district in Kiel (quite unlike my quiet place in Hamburg), which consists of just one lonesome street, my street! Luckily I live high up and am a musician (meaning I don't go to bed that early). But just take a look at my nice view, all those people outside smoking and drinking, screaming and yelling every weekend for joy every weekend.....hehe.

This post is once again true to the topic of this blog - the "best-of" life and culture in Germany with a personal twist. You'd think after living in Germany as a foreigner for over 4 years (well, total of 5 including my exchange year) that I would have tried everything German by now - but in fact, last night I had a few "firsts" after all! I was out with some Germans at a German restaurant where they served Grünkohl, or something cooked kale, and since I had only had it once at someone's house for Christmas a side dish, I decided to order it, wondering how it could be a main course. What I didn't know was that it also had meat with it, in this case with a huge tasty sausage (probably the best one I've ever had, which is saying a lot for Germany!) and some ham! In addition they served sweetened potatoes - which means basically cooked, little round yellow potatoes caramelized with a sugary substance on the outside, which was unusual but tasted good.

Afterward, a group of us moved into another room for some activity - for Kegeln! This is basically the German version of bowling, but with many differences. The ball is small enough that you can hold it in your hand, and it has no holes. The lane is a bit shorter and much, much thinner - probably a third of the width! And as you play you also discover it is not as dangerous as far as the ball rolling into the gutter since the lane is gouged out in the middle and curves upward toward the gutter a slight bit! There are only 9 pins rather than 10, and they are attached to strings that pull them up at the end of your turn - which how we played was only 1 roll, so you only got 1 shot to get some pins down! The rules are of course also different: we played on 2 teams, and had to get each combination of pins down a few times each, so only 1 pin, 2 pins twice, 3 pins a few times, and so up to 9 pins (also only once).

Of course at the end of each game, both teams were stuck trying to get down all 9 pins since that was the hardest (if you roll normally, you usually get between 3 and 7 pins down). This meant we ended up first giving everyone two turns, then finally all giving up and calling it even (aw, how sweet, everybody's a winner).

The funniest moments were those when we discovered how to get only 1 or 2 pins down: with the curvature of the lane it tended to go in the middle and knock down many at once, so a few of us developed a technique for our team of rolling very slowly. This meant too, that once in a while the ball got stuck down in the pins due to the slow rolls, which meant my other job was to sometimes run down the lane and roll the balls back from between the pins so we could play further. Even better - it was my job a few times to throw the slow ones (for the 1 and 2 pins, which I did get), but the problem is, if I rolled too slowly, a funny thing happened - the ball stopped a foot short of the pins and came rolling back!!!!!! Ha! Imagine your bowling ball rolling back at you, how sad!!

So, as you see I do find some time for amusement a.k.a. good ol' fashion German fun between the work and train-traveling, which I just found out may soon be car-traveling since I am allowed to drive here again! The 3-year limit to drive here without converting your license to a German one has been lifted, and I am able to convert it again, so I am considering the possibility of have a car (and eliminating the need for 2 apartments plus travel costs). I have an appointment to get it switched over this week (before the officials change their minds again...). We'll see!

It's Christmas-ing a lot...

2008-12-02T16:55:00.004+01:00

...as the Germans would say it (well, and in German, i.e. a direct word-for-word translation of what I put up). Gotta love German verbs, they are great: to christmas, to breakfast, to music (musicate?). Anyway, this gingerbread house was part of a large display outside of the Kieler Nachrichten, the city newspaper, whose office lies near the theater. AND, this particular house was made by 9 to 11-year-olds! Such fun things German kids do at Christmas! I also so them skating on the open-air skating rink outside the theater during the day, too. I guess Germany's dark and embarrassing past comes in the later classes...oh no, not gonna go there...

Speaking of Christmas, I went to the well-known Lübecker Weihnachtsmarkt, the Christmas market in the historic center of Lübeck, about an hour away from Hamburg (or Kiel). For those who don't already know, Christmas markets are an age-old tradition in Germany, where friends and family (and strangers) gather to drink and eat and be merry, as well as buy and sell mostly handmade crafts (like wooden incense men, straw Christmas tree stars, metal or ceramic figurines, herbs, sweets, candles made from honey, or just plain old honey). Lübeck's market is in the historic town center, at the city hall, with some nearby streets also hosting the stands that don't fit on the square. What makes Lübeck special are the special displays that you don't usually see at the markets - for example, in the "historic" section of the market, many traditional German fairy tales (mostly from the Brothers Grimm tales) were depicted through puppets in small window displays with some moving parts. A few stands also sold older items from Germany, like old pictures and paintings.

Luckily we (I went with a group) got there early enough, and it was a Monday so we all had off work, so we actually had space to walk around, and even got a seat for our Glühwein (mulled, spiced hot wine)! Some people had some hot egg nog (or what I believe to be hot egg nog) later, but I thought it tasted a little gross - maybe it's an acquired taste. Some ate some little Dutch hot pastries (kinda like thick, but light, mini pancakes), some had Feuerzangenbowle, a tradition of burning a sugar cube/cone soaked in rum over wine and then drinking the result (generally more a New Year's Eve drink), some ate toasted glazed almonds, some ate vanilla almonds. I also learned what a Lumumba is, which is basically hot chocolate with a shot of rum. You can also get Glühwein with a shot of rum too. Smelled like the egg nog had some in it too. Seems like at the Christmas market everything is with a shot of rum...

In walking around, we also saw a store for which I have also see signs in Hamburg: T.K. Maxx. Sound familiar? Yeah, seems like somebody stole everything from T.J. Maxx - the font is the same kind and color, same idea, and the store even looks the same! Wow, even the websites are surprisingly similar. Kinda like a previous post when I mentioned Balzac, a coffee house chain here in Northern Germany, which I later found out was started by an entrepreneur after her internship at Starbucks - check it out (logo, products, product names, and if you could only see the shops)! Guess they know a good idea when the have it. All I can say is, I really had NO IDEA how much influence the US has had on Europe, especially Germany, until I came here in my exchange year. And now, geez, everyone has an opinion about America!

On that note, before I ruin this nice Christmas-y post with political gab, I wish you all a Happy December!

"Oh, the first snow fall of the Winter..."

2008-11-21T11:51:00.003+01:00

.....and this photo is the proof of it! Take a look at the light dusting as I see it through our living room window. Quite impressive - already snow here, and last Winter we only had snow for one hour! And now it has shown its ugly face before the Fall is out!

Well, in today's post I have some funny things to report. First off, I'm sure you Americans have probably heard that Obama is looking for a dog for his girls, who have dog hair allergies, which means he is trying to get a purebred dog so as to have no chance in getting any fur there. For example, here's a hypo-allergenic dog option, if the girls can stand to pet it, or even look at it....worth a try!

On a funny note, apparently Croatia has banned Christmas and New Year's, so to say (party pooper)! I mean, come on, isn't the capitalism of Christmas usually good for the economy (i.e. promoted spending)? Check out the grocery stores here - Christmas items line the shelves since the end of September, and decorations have been up for weeks in the stores (and I thought the US was bad)! Oh right, now I understand - the Croatians didn't get any economic stimulus checks like we did....

And on a positive note: of all places in my lovely State, Eau Claire was chosen by Business Week as the best place to raise your kids in Wisconsin for 2009! Not the choice I was expecting...I guess there are just soooo many good options. ;)

So, enough making fun of the news for now! Not too much new here, just that busy time of year with lots of concerts and such, and for me more services in Kiel to mix in with my Hamburg stuff. Luckily a few American friends and I will be having a big Thanksgiving dinner together - even if it's 2 days early since we're all already booked out on Thanksgiving Day! We will have to do the best we can with German ingredients to make American items - pumpkin pie mix has already been found! Now if they only had lima beans here for the succotash...

Holiday Scare and Fancy Cares

2008-10-28T11:35:00.004+01:00

So, after a week of recovery after our premiere (slight exaggeration!), I am capable of blogging again - and that for the 2nd time this month! Such as strange feeling to actually pretend to start blogging again on a regular basis.... (again, said quite ironically). Anyway, our premiere was good! It was quite the posh event, a real red carpet leading up the main stairs, with photographers and TV cameras and people (including myself!) in fancy dresses there the whole night; and of course German talk show hosts, actors, and such as well as Phil Collins and people from Disney at the show and the party! The orchestra even got individually introduced, which is not something that happens often - our so-called 15 minutes of fame! Unfortunately no autographs, but if you are interested in some profi pics from the show, click here!

In other news, there is just the election anticipation here in Germany, although not much has been reported in the news lately - that all will come next week! I am looking forward to attending an election party with live coverage American-time until the polls close (with buffet and big-screen TV and everything!) in the spirit of it all. Or it is at least a good excuse to hang out with people on a weeknight! ;)

In other news, although my tomato plants are half dead, I am still getting small tomatoes off of them! They seemed to have an early fall bloom, and there are still some green ones waiting to ripen, although with these temperatures I'll be lucky if I get them at this point in time for Christmas. The rest of the onions appear to have been a nice feast for an entire community of aphids, and the pea plant died of being powdered to death (by powdery mildew). Otherwise, beets, radishes, and carrots are still growing, albeit slowly. Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

This is of course also the time of year when people get all dressed up as something more scary than other days - Halloween! Since this is a fairly new holiday in Germany, and also not very widely celebrated, the traditions that we Americans had as kids and still have are not settled in here yet. For example, most people here don't realize that you don't necessarily have to dress up as something evil. For them, witches are one of the only options for females. So one year, my friend and I dresses up as normal things, and we got such a hard time for it - our friends were confused and trying to tell us what to wear, and that we weren't allowed to dress up as a strawberry and a blueberry (or whatever it was)! Funny.

Trick-or-treating is becoming more popular here, from what I can tell, and the German children do have a tradition of their own - a lantern parade. With little lanterns on sticks, they march through the streets making noise with their school class in the evening. Very cute. You do not, however, see lots of jack-o-lanterns sitting on porches or balconies, all lit up, although two years ago we did make a cat one for our apartment since Jan had never done it before (and I baked the pumpkin seeds in the oven to eat)!

So any candy bought this week will not be eaten by any random kids wandering around! ;)

P.S. If you are still unsure of who to vote for, or want to just check for fun, visit this quiz to see who you should vote for! http://www.votehelp.org/

Fall Food Fun

2008-10-13T13:00:00.002+02:00

Here's a nice picture I took one misty morning in Kiel at the bus stop near my place. Liked how the sun shone over the benches and onto the street. For those of you wondering, yes, I do have a second city that I could call home (if I was there more than a few days a month) besides Hamburg. And yes, I am using my 2-home excuse and traveling back and forth between them for my lack of blogging in the past (oh man-o!) almost-month. I have a huge room in Kiel, but most of my things are in Hamburg since I'm there most of the time, which means I have a huge room mostly good for: a)gymnastics, b)yodeling, or c)playing fetch with the cats. Depends on my mood ;)

I do expect things to tame down soon since our premiere is coming up on Sunday!! That means the rehearsal phase is over and the show will go on as long as it can...we'll see! The acrobatics and lighting effects are supposedly something to see as well, and the winners of the TV casting show for the 2 main figures should also draw a crowd! I will finally get to see it tonight!

So my commute and travels have lead to a few funny (or something) incidents. For example, the other day on the bus, I saw the most horrendous ad on the bus TV, and it went like this: Screen 1 - "What would a giraffe look like if it lived in America instead of Africa?", Screen 2 - (picture of a super fat, sorta bloated-looking giraffe). I mean, how out of taste and offensive is that?? How is that supposed to help relations with the States (and the general public's opinion) and stereotyping? And worse, what is the point of that anyway?? And that from the public transportation. Not that I can't appreciate a joke (those who know me would hopefully know this), but I feel that is just going too far. As if the number of obese Germans hasn't been growing steady for years due to consumption of fast food. So for those who still are wondering, yes, there is an anti-American aura in Germany!

On the topic, guess what I found the other day at the import section? Lots of stuff! A few unbelievable things: Pop-Tarts for 6.50€ (!), Shortening for 6€, Mac 'n Cheese for 2.50€ (!!), Pumpkin Pie Mix for 6€, Pam Cooking Spray for 7€ (!!!). So for almost 14€ (that's $19 at today's exchange rate. The dollar's gone up ironically since the financial crisis), I got shortening and 3 Mac 'n Cheeses. Eating American here is not cheap! But the occasional splurge makes it worth it ;) And to be fair, shortening does go a long way...

So, fall is definitely here, and I like it. It's a nice season. Crisp air, cooler, but not cold. Yellow leaves falling from the trees. And this year, election time. I mailed in my absentee ballot a while ago already, so it better be counted. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to vote for anyone other than president, so I left it at that.

Here's to the next post in the nearer future than this one!

The Many Faces of Milk

2008-09-16T12:38:00.003+02:00

My garden adventures continue, as promised! This sad picture is my second pea plant crop, i.e. second attempt. My first plants were fine and we got a few peas from them, but they turned kinda brown (no, not from lack of water...!) and had a sorta white powder on them. So I killed them and planted a second time, only to have these plants develop the same disease. I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but it kinda looks like powdery mildew to me. I tried spraying the leaves once with water and dish-washing soap, but that appeared to have no effect on it, and there are still some flowers and peas to save! So today I just tried spraying a milk and water solution on them, recommended by Wikipedia as a natural solution (figured it wouldn't hurt), so we'll see if it clears up. Who would have thought....plain ol' milk.

Otherwise, I just planted our (I believe) 4th harvest of radishes - all worm-free due to dry black tea leaves in the soil. They're loving it here! Still getting radishes and onions and tomatoes, but the melons were a lost cause - too damp and cramped.

After I finish using our radiator heaters as makeshift clothes dryers (way too damp outside for clothes to dry within a day or 2), I will finally head off to start my one job in Kiel! I have a limited work permit now, and will hopefully get my full work permit soon so that I am allowed to work both jobs. Between no appointment times available at the foreigner's office, a left-winged attack on the district foreigner's office (link in German), and (still) waiting for the "ok" from the national employment agency that my jobs are legal, it's been quite a process trying to work here. It's always an adventure...more later!

Oh brother, here it goes again...

2008-09-05T13:20:00.005+02:00

As if horn playing isn't tricky enough (to rub in in a little, rumor has it that in one of the recent Guiness Book of World Records, horn surpassed oboe as the most difficult instrument to play), it sure doesn't help when the media shoves it down everyone's throats, giving hornists around the world that sting in the heart. Here's to you who enjoy writhing in pain rather than laughing: Horn - that Wildcard of the Orchestra by the New York Times of all papers. Nothing like critique from people who've never actually tried to play the thing. Real great for our horn-esteem and reputation (not). Makes ya wonder how anyone can get anything out of a horn the way they talk, geez!

Anyway, I was in the States last week because of family circumstances and also got a chance to go to the Walworth County Fair, somewhere that I always enjoyed as a kid and haven't been for almost 10 years now, I think! Was good times, lots to see - some good hometown fun. It is supposedly the 2nd best county fair in the nation (maybe every fair claims that, but it is the best one that I've seen around the area). For my pictorial review of that and my visit, visit: My USA Trip August 2008.

More later!

The Lazy Cat Days of Summer...

2008-08-14T14:42:00.003+02:00

It probably doesn't matter from where you are reading this blog - the title would probably be more appropriate for your location, at least weather wise! Meanwhile, I am sitting here in our mid-60°F weather (with a bit of sun, but also some rain mixed in) and trying to imagine and remember what it was like but just a few wee weeks ago - sunny AND warm. Wow.

But anyway, I am enjoying my lazy-esque summer anyway, catching up on things, practicing, and enjoying some down time by trying out some new super tasty and healthy recipes. Now's the time to do it - before I start at my new job next month (see photo - it's the Theater where I'll be playing half of the time!). As a memoir of summer times, and for something to read since it's been a while since my last post, I will let you in on a few amusing experiences from this summer so far:

Summer in Germany is not like Summer in the States in many ways, some more enjoyable than others. For example, how often does a mosquito or fly get into your place? Once in a while, tops. And how often does a huge green grasshopper get in?? Probably almost never - unless you're living here, where I had 3 days of terror trying to keep the things out. You see, one huge difference here is that windows are not made with screens, despite the fact that Germans always have to air out the apartment for "good air circulation" and to prevent mold. And granted, they do not have nearly as many insects in summer as the humid and hot Midwest does, but still, it is not nice to be trying to cook something and then bam, a huge grasshopper crawling rapidly toward you on the cooking surface. Or lying in bed and you see him (or his friends) crawling on the light, reflecting a huge shadow on the wall which really makes you jump and be terrorized for the rest of the night that something's crawling on you. Or the clincher for me - watching a nice movie the next night and actually feeling something crawling on your leg; when you look down, there he is, and as you scream and try to kick him off he jumps somewhere undetectable and you just hope it's not under your skirt....

Well, there was one solution for this, and it had to be done. The next afternoon I went to a Home Depot-type store and actually found and bought some screen material - not made of metal like in the States, but a fishing line type material, like a cloth, which I could cut to size and tape with double-sided tape into the window frames. It's not sturdy enough to hold up to a certain cat scratching on it a lot, but it does the trick - Summer problem 1 solved!

Next past-time - use some of the green tomatoes that I am growing on th balcony to make a green tomato pie (something I used to like as a kid). Green tomatoes - no problem. Recipe - no problem. Pie plate - big problem. Not only do they not have any kind of pie here, but they also do not have our normal kinds of cake tins since the "cakes" they eat here are tortes and only need a pan with a solid bottom (not sides too, aka here you can take the sides off). Nothing in the department store I went to even resembled a pie plate except for a pizza tin, but it was a bit too big. Finally, on sale, I found one brand of pie plate, which I quick snatched up, and will also use for cakes. Although it is ceramic and not metal, it does the trick. How silly - a huge part of our bakery products just do not exist here! Summer problem 2 solved!

And last but not least, to an unsolved mystery.... A few weeks ago I had 2 friends visiting. After a long day out on the town, we decided to stop by a really good Thai joint at my subway stop on the way home for dinner. We went in, ordered take-out, and were standing around waiting. Quite often at this kind of place you find gambling machines (slot machines or what not), and this place just got a new one (come on, I walk by it every day on the way to the subway, so I notice these things). Well, my one friend was just kinda goofing around playing with it, not with real money or anything, just with this one button that said "auto play", assuming it was just some kind of demo play. She was just pushing the button and we were seeing if the "fake plays" of the slot wins matched. Suddenly, the lady behind the counter starred at us and was saying something in an grumpy tone of voice, and an unrecognizable language (although I did here 2 German words - "7 Euros") and then came rushing over to us and babbled something (probably in Thai) to us about the machine, making it clear we were not to touch it - but obviously in a way where we had no idea what she was saying! What could have been so terribly wrong with us checking it out I still do not know to this day! But after that, friendly as ever, she wrung up our bill, we paid and left, and were quite perplexed on our walk home.

Oh my!

Wow, Summer. I am Impressed.

2008-07-30T12:20:00.008+02:00

Hamburg etc Vacation 2008 Album

So, at the risk of jinxing everything, I just wanted to mention that the weather we've been having lately has been amazing! Like a real summer! Yesterday we actually hit around 90°, although today it's back down to the mid-70s, and except for today (sorta), the sun has been shinin'!

Between eating my onions, beets, radishes, and tomatoes, who have been enjoying the warmth, I have been enjoying the weather as well. I had 2 friends come to visit last week, and I got to play tour guide and show them around (as well as see some things that I hadn't gotten to see yet). We started out with the first day in Hamburg - around the harbor, at the beach, climbing the Michel cathedral for a nice view over the city, and of course enjoying a nice fish dinner. The next day we still had more in town to see, so we went on a harbor boat tour, saw some of the downtown such as the Alster lake, walked around in Planten un Blomen (a huge downtown park), and then went home and made sushi. The next day we went to visit Bremen and saw the famous town musicians statue, a windmill, the Hanse Quarters, and the Schnoor District among other things. The next day we were off to Kiel to go to the beach, and got a nice boat ride on the way! To view the whole photo album as we experienced it, visit here!

Coming up this week in Hamburg is the Cruise Days - a weekend when tons of cruise ships, including the Queen Mary 2 (the largest cruise ship ever built, as of 2003), will dock in Hamburg's harbor, or at least pass through. There are of course some events surrounding it all, like a blue light show, which looks very blue I must say, or cruise ship tours, bands, and of course food. Might be something to see if the weather's nice and you can fight your way through the crowd!

Here's to Starting a New Chapter!

2008-07-17T12:57:00.004+02:00

Well, if I was writing a book it would be a new chapter anyway! First off, some history - i.e. recent history that after a semi-brain-dead stretch of time after the end of the semester I finally get around to reporting about. The picture here is a nice little mob scene, one created thanks to one of the Euro2008 soccer games (German ended up losing in the finale to Spain, btw!). This nice little mob blocked not only the street, but also caused an overfilled subway station that the police had blocked off because it was "too full". They were only letting people in when the train came (sounds like a mixture for disaster if you ask me...tons of drunkards running down the steps in hopes of squeezing on the next subway)! Just the scene you would like to see after you play a musical (this one to be exact) - not! The perks of doing substitute work in the red light district! (although there is a so super tasty Vietnamese place, reasonably priced, on the street with all the prostitutes that I can recommend...hehe).

Anyway, enough irony for now and onto some not-so-past past! As in the title of this post, this summer marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next in my life! Some of you probably already know, but I have finished my studies here in Hamburg, which makes me the USA-equivalent of a Master (in music performance)! I had a public performance in the small hall of the main concert hall downtown which was fun, and also had a jury the following week at the music school with different repertoire. So for the first time in I'm-not-saying how long, I'm not a student anymore! Which leads to the next news of what I am, or will be as of September - an year-long intern in this opera orchestra 1 hr. from Hamburg and hornist for the new Disney musical coming to Hamburg! I was really lucky to get something right after my studies, and then such a mix of pop and classical. Will definitely be interesting. Looked at an apartment in Kiel yesterday that is 2 min. by foot from the theater! Hope I get it - will keep y'all posted.

So I will enjoy my summer here with it's spring weather by doing a little playing, hanging out, and tending to my balcony garden, which, btw, it on it's 2nd radish and onion harvests and appears to be actually growing a few melons! Hopefully it'll stay warm enough that they'll get big enough. Some peas and cherry tomatoes have also been harvested. Unfortunately, the peas then got some sort of infection (probably from the bad construction air from the empty apartment next to ours) and I had to kill them off, but I planted a second round - we'll see if they get big enough too!

Well, in the interest of not clogging up the mind too much, I will post more later! And hopefully more regularly again now that summer's here...

It's that time again...

2008-06-18T10:32:00.003+02:00

Well, it's that time of year again. You know, the time where everyone in this country is thinking about the same thing. The time when on certain evenings, the streets are empty, but the bars are packed fuller than any other time. You know, when you have to make sure not to get hit by a firecracker on your way home in the evening because you never know when one might go off. The time when you have to hope you get an earlier subway so as to miss tons of loud, drunk people dressed in a funny way. Ok, another hint - the one time of year when Germans seems to be proud to be Germans, finally feeling that sense of national pride, or should I say, national team pride. Yep, it's time for the European (Soccer) Cup, or EURO 2008, the hit sporting event of the year, so much that even the scores to the current games are displayed on the subway signs (as in this picture) instead of the route of the subway line. Germany's doing pretty well this year so far, and has advanced to the next level, which means lots of people partying all over town. What's funny is, in my neighborhood you can even see what nationalities live here - firecrackers go off for goals scored not only by Germany, but by Poland, Russia, and Croatia (among others)! So I just wanted to say, have some fun Germans, show your national spirit with 2 flags sticking off of your cars for once! ;)

Speaking of my neighborhood; I have had some time to observe my surroundings since I have been living here for over a year now, which is, by the way, has been a record length for Hamburg (this is my 5th apartment now within 3 years! Maybe I can finally strike moving as a hobby...). Each apartment has been in a different neighborhood, all of which quite fine. Where I am now is a larger complex of buildings, and in a somewhat more inexpensive area of town. And with the most character. It seems to be a hangout for certain types of people, including the curiosity-arousing. Some neighbors on our corridor I know and are very nice and friendly. Not quite as scandalous as a past apartment that I posted about, but still interesting, our one neighbor in a different building (unfortunately, the gender is not really determinable, although we're leaning toward female) likes to enjoy the warm weather - with friends (one of which is a very large, person-sized yellow bear of some kind), all day from morning to evening, drinking beer starting at 9am! And yes, it is really all day. There is also a flow of people in and out of the apartment at all times of day, which is facilitated by a ground floor entrance. Just makes you wonder what sort of businesses are run around here... hehe. It's definitely not a throwing-wormy-radishes-off-your-balcony business, not anymore...

Well, with less that 1 week til my degree recital and less than 2 til my jury exam that will complete my degree requirements here, it's a busy and exciting time of year. Still lots to do, auditions to take, concerts to play, and on that note, more later!

Long awaited pictures and more!

2008-06-02T11:32:00.010+02:00

USA 2008 Album!

Oh geez, my lack of blogging has really gotten crazy! It's already been almost a month since the last post, as you've probably noticed...ooopsie. Again, the only excuse is the one I always have, i.e. being busy! But not a bad thing.

I'm back in Hamburg again...didn't even know I was gone, did ya?? I spent a week in Bremen for a few concerts this past week and had some extra time to sorta discover the city. Bremen is also a Hansestadt like Hamburg (and Lübeck), which means a port/trade city back in the day, a long time ago. Also like Hamburg, although much smaller, Bremen has its charm - a cute downtown quarter called the Schnoorviertel with old buildings in the Hanse-style architecture, such as this typical building facade. Just a few steps further and you come across the famous Böttcherstrasse, where I saw this striking gold sculpture lifted out from the bricks. Since it was mostly nice weather there, I had some time to explore the downtown square, where the Dom (cathedral) is located, as well as this intricately-built building, I believe the Rathaus, or city hall. And what would a square be without a big statue in the middle, where people gawk and take pictures? Where we stayed was on the Weser, the river in Bremen, which had a nice view of this pancake restaurant ship (mm, tasty) and this modern art presentation painted on the river bank. Among many places to sit, there was an ice cafe on the river with a German-style Strandkorb, or literally "beach basket", which I couldn't resist sitting in to eat my walnut-flavored gelato in the sun.

Last but not least, Bremen is known for its famous Stadtmusikanten story, or "Bremen Town Musicians", you know, the rooster on top of the cat on top of the dog on top of the donkey, which went around town singing in the story? Well, these creature were everywhere, painted in different ways, including this one in front of a Starbucks that also happened to be in downtown Bremen. At our one concert later the next day, I had to laugh at this bathroom sign...Germans. hehe! (to view the whole Bremen album, visit here)!

So, other than traipsing around Northern Germany for auditions and concerts, I have been enjoying the summer weather (yes, summer!!) of sun, sun, warmth, and oh yeah, sun! And of course practicing in between for my degree recital coming up on June 23rd! ...to which I am off to now!

By the way, my long-awaited America pictures are also finally online! View the album from my photo page: USA 2008! Enjoy!

Spring into Action

2008-05-05T12:12:00.003+02:00

Did I go on vacation? No, you couldn't say that. But was I enjoying a nice warm spring afternoon I had free in downtown Hamburg the other day? Yes - and that is where I took this picture of one of the canals, on which a few restaurants lie (ideal spots to dine, or mainly just to enjoy a coffee or so since the dinner prices I bet are not affordable...). The weekend was also beautiful here, which resulted in our Spring Initiation Weekend - consists breakfast outside on the balcony and grilling for dinner (fish, wurst, steak, veggies, and marshmallows for dessert). Today is another warm and sunny day, probably the 5th in a row with some sun, quite special for here. Bodes well for summer, yay!

On a spring topic, our balcony garden is planted! Hurray! Did that last weekend, and even expanded to accommodate a few pea plants (sugar peas) in a large pot. Now is the exciting part - waiting and watching, then tasting! The peas are already up, as well as radishes and onions. And of course our tomato plants are flourishing - 3 different varieties this year! I also am testing out a plan to help out the radishes (last year most were inedible due to worms...) - I planted them with some black tea, which is supposed to repel worms, so we'll see! I think we got also an earlier start this year, so hopefully we'll get more yield since they should have a longer growing season. And if we're lucky, this summer will be warmer too - was amazing to see the day-to-day growth of the plants last year in the 3 really hot days we had.

As for indoor plants, I built a wall to keep the cats away from the plants on the window sill using the top of a shoe box - otherwise they would enjoy another nice herbal dinner like the last one, which one night consisted of an entire pot of basil plants!! Taz (Jan's black cat) seemed to like them, but then she barfed them up - hard lesson to learn. Sometimes I really do think cats are more like little kids then we think. Hehe.

Speaking of hard lessons, I had some unfortunate action on the computer front last week! For some unknown reason my computer would not start up suddenly last week, no matter what I tried. I spent a few days trying to do different sorts of recovery (I had made a restore point, but it was gone! - I believe due to lack of space on the recovery drive and an unsuccessful backup attempt before), but nothing seemed to work, so I resigned myself to the fact that I had to test out my Windows Recovery DVD, one that I got to be safe when I bought my laptop. Gulp.

After a successful boot in safe mode (without use of DVD burner) and a few more days of transferring files to Jan's computer (so I wouldn't lose anything important), I used the DVD - and it worked! Indeed everything was reinstalled and loaded just like when I got the bugger. So here I am doing the first post from my new old computer, which seems to be working fine now. Reason for the problems? I don't know, but I suspect a worm or virus or something that my virus programs didn't catch. Lesson learned: keep up-to-date virus protect on computer and make restore points (a point at which your computer can recover itself, found on Vista under "System Maintenance--Backup and Recovery" - do it") more often...and hope for the best!

More update later on what's been happening; time to spring into action again now and enjoy the day!

P.S. Photos from my USA trip in March coming soon!

Back in Hamburg!

2008-04-21T15:16:00.002+02:00

Yes, believe it or not, I did make it back from the States in just one piece! After almost a month of not posting, here you go:

To conclude 2 weeks of lots of rehearsals and recordings and such, I post this picture of a castle concert hall where my horn class gave a concert yesterday, so nice! It was a bit small (especially for our horn octet...), as you can see, but it was beautiful - a real castle where someone actually lives. And the nice maid even brought us water! Hehe. The kind of place that makes you wonder if there is a secret passage anywhere...well, the only one I found was to the bathroom, and probably not all that secret.

But anyway, it was nice to return to Germany this time around, too. It was great to see my family (unfortunately it didn't work out too well to see friends! ... :( ), and of course enjoy the things I miss about America, mostly being some sort of food ;) I also carried on my tradition of digging around in my stuff in the States when I'm there, looking for a few small treasures to bring back with me. Among my findings this year were a few books and my slap bracelet (a leopard print one). Hehe, a brush of little girl fashion my youth, good memories. Found out that my dad's cat liked to wear it on his tail, too. Must be his inner tiger.

So, a luggage of sweets later, I am back in the what looks to be partly sunny weather again, a nice spring surprise. Hopefully soon it will be warming up and I can get started with my balcony garden! Speaking of back to things, I had a kinda interesting concert last week - a concert to celebrate the restoration of its organ. We did a woodwind quintet piece, and there were also various interviews, including with the organ restorers, and a guy who was present when the church was founded. We as performers also got a special gift - our choice of a pipe from the old organ! I chose this one (close-up view), an F (of course, the key of a horn, and supposedly also of the universe based on this text). Very unique! And due to the texts and interviews and stories between the pieces, the audience i.e. church members seemed to be actually very amused by the whole thing. It seems to me that if other classical concerts could incorporate more of an interactive or explanatory aspect, that might be something attractive to drawn in more attendance at concerts...

Gotta go now, hopefully soon I will have my trip pictures from the States up and ready to be explored!

Laying Low in the Midwest

2008-03-31T21:38:00.002+02:00

Nothing like an American experience without a nice and long road trip! This picture is my favorite part of the road trip to Pennsylvania - driving through the (approx. 4 short) tunnels in the mountainous terrain of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. After a 2-day trip to get there, I got to visit with some relatives who I hadn't seen for years, which was really great and just hang out and have a nice time. And I got to brush up on my driving, a skill not used since my visit last year, as I drove through rush-hour traffic in downtown Chicago (but a really beautiful sunny day at that point - much more enjoyable than the rains we got driving one night...). I hope my next visit back East won't be as long coming as this one was!

Otherwise I've been laying low here in the Midwest, eating out some (especially breakfast, my favorite meal to eat out - gotta catch up for the year!). Tried out a new diner near my mom, and actually ate at a nice little restaurant, a very charming café, in the downtown of my small hometown! We also have a Mexican restaurant and a Mexican grocery store downtown now - a huge step in diversification and a sign of the increasing size of the town (up 2,000 people since I left it almost 10 years ago...wow, I must be getting old ;) ). Helped my dad out with a newly-ordered corn stove used for heating my grandpa's house - a very practical alternative fuel method considering the rising oil prices, and very practical for a farmer that grows his own corn! (use like a wood stove, but you only need to put shelled field corn in 2x per day). Very hot (one in our house here, it's like summer, no exaggeration...). More pics of this and my trip to come when I get back to Germany!

Back in the good ol' US of A...!

2008-03-10T20:17:00.002+01:00

...no thanks to the Hamburg Airport! The day of my flight, unbeknownst to me, there were strikes of the security personnel as well as the fire department from 6-9am, the time I was supposed to fly out! First the security people finally decided to open briefly to let us check in our bags and do body checks and such, and then we boarded our plane and got all comfy only to hear from the pilot that we couldn't leave for another 3 hours since with a striking fire department, no planes would be taking off! I was to transfer in Amsterdam, and of course they couldn't give any kind of information to let us know if we would still make our connections in Amsterdam or if there even were any more connections that day!

So we waited patiently (I with my magazine and way-overpriced airport coffee), and were supposed to take off at 9, which may have left me enough time to catch my connection. But then, some passengers weren't there on time to board, plus the entire luggage was unloaded, and a security check was performed again - on each individual baggage piece!! Needless to say, our flight was delayed even longer, and we finally took off about the time I was supposed to catch my connection in Amsterdam.

Luckily in Amsterdam they booked me on a partner flight which would still get me into Chicago on the same day (whew, no worries about trying to find a place in Amsterdam for the night), and after another transfer in Minneapolis I arrived after over 24-hours of straight traveling safely at home in Wisconsin!

....where I was greeted by snow landscapes that I have not seen in a while - such as this huge parking lot snow pile pictured above (notice the stop sign next to it)! And sunny days, while chillier and much much drier (never seen my hair this straight or my lips this chapped before), are quite enjoyable.

And I'm finally on my long-awaited US vacation! Let the fun begin!

Guess there is another "Windy City"...

2008-03-03T19:23:00.007+01:00

The last post before I leave for the States deserves a video, a rather unsettling one from my perspective, at least! I have one more day on German ground before I make my way to colder climates and days of old - it's that time of year again, yay! It's been very windy here lately, so much that I really had trouble walking the other day to my concert(s). So windy, in fact, that in this video a Lufthansa pilot got to test his expert skills in a landing at the Hamburg airport (yikes, where I fly out of!) the other day! I can only hope that it calms down a bit.

They are calling this windy weather an Orkan, basically like a hurricane but not over water (much broader than a tornado) - a huge, very windy weather system! There was one of these a few months ago too, and I believe that some schools even got off - it was mega windy! Guess another perk of living near water....

So I'm off to pack and prepare for my long flight ahead of me, hopefully without too much wind problems (as if you're not jumpy enough when there's turbulence)...

Cream-colored Ghosts

2008-02-22T14:09:00.002+01:00

If you look at this photo and see a man in uniform sitting on a hospital bed and an old lady with a doll, don't bother with anti-hallucinatory drugs - your eyes do not deceive you! This is my view of the stage for an opera production with which I have been and will be busy until I leave for the States. It's called Ghost Sonata, by Aribert Reimann, and is actually quite entertaining if you can keep the dead people and the living straight (well, and if you know German)! Written for 12 solo instruments, our part is also not something for those afraid of complicated rhythms. Tonight is the premiere in the Opera Stabile, a small stage of the State Opera here. But don't blame me if you have nightmares about vampire cooks or people who can see the dead! Oh, operas. Hehe.

In other news, I am amazed to say that eggs and milk products baffle me. Well, at least German ones. Try to go grocery shopping here and find the eggs. Unlike in American stores, where they are always kept refrigerated, they are not kept so here! Which means searching the entire store to try to find them - of course not in any logical place (near veggies and health food items, between milk and washing detergent, next to meat and wine). I once almost really gave up and went home without them. You may also encounter similar problems with milk, believe it or not. They have a milk here which is called H-Milch, short for haltbare Milch, or nonperishable milk (shelf-life of months unopened)! This is of course also not kept in the cold section, but it slightly easier to find since its section is usually a little bigger than the eggs'.

The other day I wanted to make Fajitas (I already found tortillas here for a decent price - maybe 8 for 2€s!), and wanted to buy sour cream. I didn't find sour cream, but I bought what I thought was the direct translation - saure sahne, but that turned out to be too runny. Similar cream-like substances that I had to choose from included: Sauerrahm (also translated as sour cream), Creme Fraiche, Schmand, whipping cream, cooking cream, Quark, Speisequark, and Magerquark, amongst others. How do Germans ever decide what they want? And what the heck is the difference between these things? We don't even have Quark in the States - it's sorta like whipped cream but denser and more sour. I guess it's mostly used to spread on bread or with muesli and honey. And despite all of this, the closest thing to Cheddar cheese I can get here is the cheese singles slices called "Chester" cheese.

Guess it's just a German thing!

beep...Sounds of Silence....beep...NOT...beep

2008-02-07T22:48:00.000+01:00

Well, take a look at that. It actually snowed here on Sunday if you can believe it or not, and I think I captured every flake that fell in this one photo. As surprised as I was to see the snow (quite a change from my former life in the Midwest), it was a short joy - gone within the hour. The snow fall was followed by sun (the other burst of sunlight this week), then by clouds, then by hail, then by sun again. And I thought the Midwest was finicky - here it can look fairly clear, but by the time I get on my coat, head downstairs, and leave my building, it's pouring. And then back to clear within 5 minutes. The good thing is if you are trapped on your way somewhere without an umbrella, you can just wait under a nice tree for 5 minutes!! Too bad the temperature isn't as dramatic here - sure wouldn't mind an occasional 75° day....especially in the "summer"....

But now onto another note - that note being a beeping note. One of our neighbor's smoke detectors has been beeping since I got home this evening (that is, for the last 4 hours as far as I can tell), an occurrence not quite as rare as I'd expected or hoped. This past summer (2007), our building complex (several buildings with many many apartments) decided to install smoke detectors, which isn't a requirement in homes like in the States. Apparently in Hamburg, as of 2006 any newly-built apartments are now required to have them, and all apartments are given time to get them before the general requirement in 2010. But, as like some new trends and improvements, there are a few issues:

Placement - It seems like the repairmen are not that familiar with the whole placement issue, like where are good points to put them. When they installed them in our apartment, they put in 3 on our ceilings, 2 of which in the middle of the bigger rooms, and one in the less than 1 square yard entrance area enclosed by 3 doors (1 to the bathroom, 1 to the kitchen, and 1 to the outside). Doesn't seem all that effective to me...
Climate/Weather issues - just like in the States, when a building is under construction and the dust stirred up triggers the smoke detectors, the weather i.e. moisture here does the same thing - thanks to the smoke detector placed by our front door AND the bathroom (and the only ventilation available through the opening of windows, which allows in the moist Hamburg air), I would be confronted with trying to blow the smoke detector quiet every morning after my shower while standing in my towel, water dripping everywhere, trying not to deaf. Or the air from outside would just be too damp and it would go off due to the open window for ventilation, which is what I suspect happened to my unfortunate neighbor tonight. Too bad they're not home, but that would lead to the next issue....
Reset button - After managing to take down the detector while tottering tediously on our step ladder, I failed to find the reset button to shut it off and also could not open up the stupid thing to take out the battery (there was a special seal over where I assume the battery was with a scary warning), so I was left with one option to shut it up - wrap it up in the thickest winter coat I could find, put it on the toilet seat in the bathroom, and shut all doors between it and me. It lies to this day far away from the bathroom.
Not to mention it appears that Germans are not educated about what to do in case of fire in your house, and the tips and tricks to follow (stop-drop-roll, stay low, wet towel around you if needed, feel the door to check if hot, block cracks under the door, etc.) that I took for granted in my American education as a child. After a conversation with a neighbor, they seemed very impressed by this what I thought to be basic information. And don't even bother asking about fire extinguishers.

Being from a country apparently famous abroad for having cheap, fire-welcoming wooden houses and where I took smoke detectors and how to deal with them for granted, it seems kinda funny seeing the introduction of them here. Real funny, until I hear a beeping noise for hours on end from yet another apartment in my nice and quiet apartment complex...

Music, Shopping, and International Relations

2008-02-01T11:57:00.000+01:00

The other day I was in town and looking for a replacement pair for my black boots, which are unfortunately seeing their last days as of late due to holes that are forming, and had to take this picture (luckily no one saw me, thus no one thought I was crazy...). I must say, it is not all that often that I burst out laughing while shopping, but this time it was inevitable. What is this shoe supposed to be? It really raised some questions upon spotting: would someone actually seriously wear this? has anyone bought this shoe? if so, why?? I mean, first of all, what is this shoe trying to say? Is it a support of war and military in general, or of a military liaison between Germany and Great Britain...and Norway?? Or is it just to wear in case you are taken captive my a militia group and you can point to whichever flag on your shoe to claim what country you're from depending upon who captured you???

In other news, I just finished reading a book (thanks Heidi!) that I would really recommend to any classical musician (or anyone else interested in the arts): Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music by Blair Tindall. This autobiography/arts non-fiction book written from a New York freelancer (with groups such as the New York Philharmonic) and later journalist shows an interesting and flat-out view into the struggles and real-life of her life as a musician - from the beginning on. As a freelancer myself, I could relate very well to many of her stories, and found it at other times interesting to see how her musical life developed differently. This book was also thought-provoking and very informative as to the development of the arts and funding in our current era, and raised several questions in regards to how classical music is viewed by young musicians, the public, and professionals as well as many other topics. After this good read, let me know what you think of it!!

And not only that, as soon as I finished reading this book in the subway yesterday, I picked up an abandoned paper next to me on the seat (Die Welt), opened up to the Feullieton (culture) section, and what kind of an article did I see? An article about orchestral musicians here who want to go on strike (defined as rehearsals shortened by 15-minutes) due to only an 3.9% salary increase rather than the normal 8%. The writer was of course pretty harsh, arguing that music is not at all necessary in our culture and that they have no reason to go on strike (unlike the train locomotive drivers recently, who have had major pay cuts), which I must say I agree with (that they should be happy with 3.9% in this day and age). Just goes to show that the arts issues in Germany are also not non-existent...

Winter's Over

2008-01-18T12:35:00.000+01:00

I must really be getting old. Time has been literally flying by faster than I can believe. Just the other day I realized that our horn studio concert is already next week - the end of January! I was literally so shocked! I really could not believe it, and then I of course realized - with everything that I had going on (check out my concerts page to see some of where I was) I hadn't made one post on my blog this year (well, or month)! Not that I had much to say besides concert blab anyway, and the fact that I saw a strange phenomenon way too often, one that others see on a daily basis, but one that I as a musician rarely see - a beautiful light in the sky - the sun at sunrise!

And speaking of sun, it is slowly approaching the end of Winter...at least as far as I'm concerned, if you could even call it that in the first place (Hamburg had about 2 hours of a light snow dusting months ago, and had reached temperatures below the freezing point for maybe only one week so far). But this week - highs in the upper 40s to lower 50s. A warmish evening breeze on my face as I step off the S-Bahn and go home. And best of all - my 5pm time for teaching my one student is now officially not completely masked by darkness - I can walk to her house in the light of dusk! Not to mention the beautiful sunsets as of late - skies entirely of pink and orange that remind me of an scene from a futuristic book.

On a different topic, I just read in the subway yesterday that there is a new polar bear cub that was born in Nürnberg recently - sounds like the cub Knut that had won the hearts of the German public (and the world for that matter) has a replacement! Ah, how fast fame fades in the life as a star...

P.S. Enjoy the view I had on a walk through Hamburg of the TV tower, and important urban monument in many European cities!

Have a nice slip and fall into 2008!

2007-12-30T22:07:00.000+01:00

Yes, I am still alive, and even kicking! I have no legitimate excuses for the long pause in posting, just that I was busy (gee, the only person in the world who is busy..) playing concerts and traveling around to do so! This picture today is from a concert I did 2 weeks ago in Saarbrücken (about 6 hours by train) in a very nice church - with an overnighter, of course! I think lately there hasn't been a week go by that I didn't have something in another city - this past week was in Göttingen, for example, a trip on which I actually got to see some snow and ice (something non-existent this winter as of yet in Hamburg, considering our 43°F weather today).

Anyway, I hope you all had nice holidays and have something fun planned to ring in the New Year 2008 - year of the rat, a leap year, an election year (no, I will not go there on this post), and also according to Wikipedia the "International Year of the Potato and of Sanitation". Had to laugh at that one, whoever thinks these things up must have a lot of time on their hands...

Anyway, I had a nice Christmas with Jan's family for a few days, lots of good food and just a nice relaxing 3 days (X-Mas Eve, X-Mas Day 1, X-Mas Day 2). Unfortunately I had to get up early on the 27th and made my way to Göttingen for a rehearsal, and the train company in Hamburg is currently doing construction i.e. replacing a part of the bridge that trains take out of Hamburg, which means that from Dec. 24-Jan. 1 all travelers have to get on the train in Hamburg-Harburg, a 20-min. S-bahn (fast city train) ride away from the main train station. Nothing like pushing through masses of holiday travelers with huge pieces of luggage with my horn at 7am... ;)

Well, other than that I don't have a whole lot to report, but check again soon! Frohes Neues!

Travel once again in a balmy Winter

2007-12-05T10:46:00.000+01:00

Yes, you can believe your eyes, your negligent but busy blogger has posted another update! For today's update you get a nice night river view of Germany's financial capital, Frankfurt, where 2 friends and I spent the night on Sunday for an audition. This is a view of all of the skyscrapers, which noticeably hover above the city skyline all in one plaza - home of the headquarters of many large banks in Germany. Despite it being not just an overcast night but rather a full-on rain and wind storm (during which I accidentally flipped my umbrella back to its normal shape and direction exactly in a man's face behind me who I didn't see or hear until it was too late, oops), we still wandered around the downtown on Sunday night in search of a nice cozy place to eat our dinner since the pretzels at the youth hostel were less than inviting. One nice cafe, one night, and one audition later, we headed back to Hamburg, where we belonged. Hehe.

Other than that it's been gigs and stuff to do as normal. And by the way Happy Advent! It seems like downtown Hamburg is already in its full holiday commercial swing - the stores are already fuller than normal and much more decorated. Lights are strung in the shopping "malls" and even prettier is the light-chandeliers hanging in the main train station! Adds a nice touch. ;)

It is still the same weather here now as always, currently a balmy 50°F, and of course cloudy and drizzly. I have yet to hear a personal account of it, but stories of massive blizzards, snow falls, and electrical outages in the USA and the Midwest have made it into German news - are these stories true?? If so, sounds like Winter has arrived in at least one part of the world!!

Americans

2007-11-21T13:01:00.000+01:00

Thanks to these kinds of Americans (see below) and the publicity they obtain, Americans abroad (like myself) get so much crap about being American. Enjoy!

Watch the YouTube Video: Ignorant Americans

What non-Americans forget is how easy it is to "point the finger" - that there are just as many ignorant people in their own country (for another laugh here's a German example that I saw on TV here, with subtitles). I think that people just have much more fun making fun of Americans - being an influential world power, it seems that the USA always end up being in the spotlight somehow...!

Fall Again, boom boom boom

2007-11-19T13:41:00.000+01:00

One of my first memories of Hamburg was the first night that I spent here in July for my audition over 3 years ago - I spent the first night in a youth hostel on top of a hill at the harbor (Landungsbrücken). The hostel has a fantastic view over the harbor from the dining area, including a nice terrace that you can walk out on to check out the view. It was (as I later found out to be typical, especially for this time of year) a stormy day, which meant some moments of dark gray sky and rain, followed in a few minutes by the sun peeking through the clouds, illuminating their colors while doing so. As it just so happened, I was sitting reading my book at just this time, and I could just imagine what the Northern German painters saw as they did their masterworks (which I'd seen in the art museum earlier) - colored clouds in oranges and pinks and purples, wafting over the boats that were lit up by the sun's rays in the sky, with a dark, storm cloud background. I think it was then that I knew I had to come here. Why the story? Well, it's that time of year again (sorta) when these moments occur - and a little taste of that is today's photo - taken from my balcony a few days ago, probably lasting but a few fleeting minutes as the clouds drifted over the trees and the sun set.

After a weekend of concerts, I must say I am glad to have a quiet day today to get a few things inside done. I guess since my last post not too much exciting has happened - or even out of the normal for that matter, thus the minimal writings. For all of my lucky friends who are in the States this week, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! I once again have a commitment on Thursday evening (every year since I've been here I've had a concert or something on Thanksgiving), as well as a lesson that day, not to mention stuff on other nights this week, so I probably won't be celebrating. Last year I managed to see a few minutes of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on the internet - before I left for my concert, and one year I made a big Thanksgiving dinner for a few friends on the following Friday. Oh! And one year I ate a big Thanksgiving day dinner on the following Sunday with a bunch of Americans!! We'll see, maybe something will transpire for this year last minute, as things seem to like to transpire as of late....

And right now, for the past few hours, there has been random booming in our building - sounds like it's coming from upstairs where the storage rooms are, so I know it's not loud neighbors. Yikes! It's so loud that our cats are looking up at the ceiling, and it sounds like the ceiling might crumble around me and my laptop as we speak. I'm just going to tell myself it's construction, which it probably is.

Well, I'd better get to doing some things, like washing my black clothes for this coming weekend! You can never seem to have enough of them...

Germany's Quasi-Wilderness Audition Adventure Travel Post

2007-11-06T10:43:00.000+01:00

There are still first times for everything, even the most unexpected things, especially looking back. As I look back on my audition experience last weekend in Koblenz (on the Rhein River in middle Germany not too far from Cologne), I had yet another "experience". Last week was the first time that I was a bit afraid of getting lost in the woods on a mountain and being eaten by a bear on the way to an audition (well, that is if I didn't already know that some woodsman shot the only bear in Germany a while ago..., that is bears that are known...). Sounds silly, but really. First of all, I got there when it was already dark (thank you, time change), and I had booked myself a room at the youth hostel there, not knowing that it was a) quite so far away, b) on top of a mountain, or c) on the other side of the river from downtown with only limited bus transportation. After figuring out that the transport lines I saw on the map weren't trams but buses, I caught a bus to the youth hostel, where I proceeded to find out that the stop isn't really even close to the hostel, and there are 2 ways to get to the hostel - a foot path up the mountain, or the road for cars up the mountain.

Loaded down with my horn and backpack, I decided the footpath was the right way according to the bus driver, so I took off. After climbing a good deal upwards and being pooped out since I was dragging all my stuff with me, I was nearing the top and saw absolutely no lights or signs of a hostel when I looked up. It was starting to get so dark that within minutes I wouldn't be able to see the footpath anymore, and I certainly wasn't in the mood to get lost in the woods the night before my audition, hungry, in the cold. What to do, what to do? Well, I had tried calling the hostel, no one answered. I was starving, so I ate my apple faster than ever before (didn't want any wild animals to smell the apple and attack me), and after climbing back down the mountain, despite the longer route, I decided to take the "safer" lighted road for cars to the hostel. After hiking/walking for over half an hour, following the road and a few sparsely-placed signs I finally saw some lights up ahead, and behold - the entrance of what looked like castle grounds. Not knowing if I was still on the right path and at this point being beyond exhausted, I found a lady at the entrance who gave me a map of the castle and pointed me in the direction furthest from the entrance toward the hostel. Finally.

Relieved and still hungry, I checked into the hostel and ate a pizza in the bistro downstairs, had a chat with some other Americans in my room, and after getting slightly electrocuted by trying to turn on the light by my bed, fell asleep.

Luckily the next morning, day of the audition, was much less eventful, and I took this picture (above) of a cable car hanging over the city from our hostel window. I had no idea how long it would take to get downtown, so I left with another American and went down the footpath that I had tried to take the night before (much easier going down, no surprise there!), and finally made my way to the city, found the hall, had a short warm-up, and did the audition. Considering the less-than-ideal circumstances it went ok, but was still not my day to win...not yet! ;) But lessons learned indeed... And afterwards I had a nice walk around the city, it's actually really nice since it lies on the merging of the Mosel and Rhein Rivers.

So back at home in Hamburg now, things are back to normal - gigs to play, stuff to practice, things to do. Currently little Dusty is making his first visit to the veterinarian for a certain operation that pets receive at his age, if you know what I mean! Poor little fellow. I got him some special duck and goose wet food to welcome him back this afternoon after we pick him up. I hope he is not too mad...

More adventures later!

Munich Travel Log Post!

2007-10-29T15:57:00.000+01:00

Munich 2007 Photos

Welcome back to Hamburg! Well, I guess then I'm welcoming myself since most of you are not from Hamburg. I made it back from "deep south" of Germany - Bavaria's most famous city, München (Munich, for you non-German speaking types). As always, I took many several pictures from my trip which you can view here nicely: Munich 2007 Photos. As you probably know, I went down south for an audition, which I also combined with a visit to a friend, which also meant some sight-seeing. So here was my itinerary:

Day 1: Arrival
After a 5.5 hour train ride through the valley and mountains of middle and southern Germany, I finally arrived downtown. Before meeting my friend Yuan who was still working, I decided to check out the main shopping and tourist area of the downtown, Marienplatz, which had a very nicely lit hotel downtown, decorated with flowers. After meeting up with my friend and a few of her friends, we decided to go to the Schrannenhalle for some chow - a huge hall with live music where you can sit anywhere you want and order from any of the restaurants there - from German to Asian to ???. We all somehow settled on Indian food. Mmm.

Day 2: Audition
After warming up at home before the audition, I left and found my way to the BR building and somehow ended up being the last one there (although I was quite early), so I ended up getting the last number - 21. After over 2 hours of waiting for my turn I played, and ended up not advancing, but much was to be learned! On this day I didn't do too much else since I was a bit sleep-deprived, but as always I had some nice conversation with the people where I was staying. Time to rest up for the next day of fun!

Day 3: A Day on the Town
My first stop was a nice palce to have brunch, the best way to start out the day. I got a recommendation from Lonely Planet to go to Café am Beethovenplatz, which was a nice old-style place. I had a funny breakfast - since I miss American breakfasts so much, I ordered their "Gershwin" breakfast - complete with toast, eggs, a bit of lettuce, rolls, jam, oj, and the funniest part - cornflakes, a muffin, and peanut butter!! It's like they just threw every American together they could think of, even though you would never get cornflakes at a restaurant in the States! Ha. Was tasty though.

After my belly was full, I settled on the Deutsches Museum for my museum visit for the day. A bit like the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, I was excited to see what all they would have, and oh boy, did they have it all! It is apparently the world's largest science and technology museum, and I would believe it. There were exhibits on pretty much any area of science or technology or human interest that you could think of! So many articles, from astrology to agriculture to water technology to textiles to computers to physics to the environment. The exhibits I found to be the most interesting were the music exhibit (filled with instruments from all genres/eras/countries, also complete with "experiments" which were nice, but most were non-functional), the photography exhibit, and the environment exhibit. The airplane display was also not bad - I went inside an old passenger plane. In general a very impressive display of everything, but impossible to look at everything in one day. Student prices were only 3€! Definitely worth the visit.

After the museum visit I was anxious to see a bit more of the city, so I went for a walk on the Isa river. Little did I know that I would experience a very beautiful sunset in just a few minutes after I began my walk!

Day 4: Amusement Park
Today my friend had off, so we and 2 other friends decided to go to Skyline Park in the middle of nowhere outside of Munich, an amusement park. I didn't know what to expect from a German amusement park - my only comparison is Six Flags (the one near Chicago, which I've been to several times). Although we missed our train and had to wait 2 hours for the next one, it ended up not mattering - seems that we picked a good day to go since although was a bit chilly, we enjoyed how little people were there! We never had to wait in line for the rides (which compared with Six Flags is something just short of a miracle). In general the park was geared more for kids than teens, meaning there were more littler rides there, and really only 3 big rides that I would have considered really scary, like this one. To start out we took a ride on the Ferris wheel to get an overview of the park - there were so many trees that when you walk around it's hard to see the other rides!! But we definitely had a fun time.

After getting back into town, my friend and I walked around downtown a bit, saw the city hall, the opera house, and made a quick stop in the famous Hofbräuhaus, but left just as promptly - it was chalk full of loud, drunken people, and we couldn't find any decent seats to have a bite to eat!

Day 5: Time to Leave
On my last day we didn't have too much time to visit too much, but after getting up an hour too early (due to forgetting about the clock change) to practice, we did manage to make it out for a nice Irish breakfast (with baked beans, bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, and a cholesterol heart attack....just kidding about the last, so far...) and a walk on the Isa River. It seems to me like Munich really had more fall colors than Hamburg, but maybe I was just looking in the right places.

After a long trip back at nighttime, I was happy to finally be at home again, and refreshed after a long-needed getaway.

On that note, time to get cracking on some things yet today! Hope you enjoyed the travel post and don't forget to visit the album to see all the pics!

Travels around the country again...finally!

2007-10-24T09:46:00.000+02:00

Well, I haven't really taken any pictures of any interest since the last post, so I hope you cat-haters aren't too disappointed by being stuck with another photo of my little (cute) Dusty! Hehe. In this pic his is up to his favorite pastime - pawing at the wet windows! Just look at those rippling arm muscles as he rapidly paws at the water running down the window. Who needs a treadmill when you've got a wet window...

Well, just wanted to do a short post since I'm leaving for Munich in 2 hours for an audition. And weirdly and appropriately enough, for some strange reason I heard what sounded like an um-pah band playing outside this morning - maybe a brass quintet, but definitely live - playing German folksy songs from the old days....to see me to my trip to Bavaria, land of the um-pah! ;) Anyway, luckily the train workers aren't striking today (unlike many other days in the recent past) since I have a 5 1/2 hour train ride ahead of me on the fast ICE train, but I will have my laptop, which means not 5 1/2 hours of wasted time! Don't worry, it's not like time riding in (or on?) a train (watching the landscape, doing some light reading, or drinking a coffee) is ever wasted time!

I must admit that I am looking forward to the trip - I've been wanting to take a mini-vacation for a while now, but didn't have the money to go anywhere, so this audition is a nice excuse to see another city and have a getaway! I will be sticking around town then to visit it since I've only ever been to the train station or the airport and would like to actually see the city this time around - and I have the weekend free. I'll post again when I get back on my exciting adventures!

So I'm off to packing now, and a bit of practicing before running off and springing into the train just in the nick of time to claim my seat reservation...!

P.S. I saw the Egg Man the other day! I was just walking home when suddenly, from behind...."oooh oh oooooh!" - the cock-a-doodle-do (or as they say here, "kiki-ri-ki") of a rooster! I spun around only to see a completely white, large plain van with a megaphone on the top - no large chicken-mobile, how disappointing.

Fact or Fiction?

2007-10-16T11:19:00.000+02:00

Well, you lucked out. I was about to post another picture of Dusty because I haven't taken that many photos lately, when I realized that I do have some other pictures - some late pics of my balcony garden! So here's some green tomatoes on my plant, waiting to ripen. Unfortunately the melons developed some sort of whitish mold and the leaves dried up for the most part, so no melon pics! Too bad, since there were so many blooms on them and I even filled my role as mother bee and pollinated them. But anyway, the tomatoes we've had so far have been amazing - I did NOT expect that! They were perfect. Just like this fall has been so far - similar temperature as summer, a tick cooler, but the air is crisper and there has been little rain. Hurray for a nice fall in Germany! (Too bad the leaves don't really change colors, so you see basically just green and brown. Well, the grass is always greener...on the other side of the ocean....!)

I read the Yahoo! news headlines since I see them every time I check my mail, of course, or come across interesting news-bits from other sources like anyone else. I particularly enjoy as of late those with population statistics. I guess I like to see just how everything lines up, how and why. One as of late did in fact caught my eye, however: most depressing jobs, or jobs with the highest rate of depression. After checking out the following attached report for more details.

Turns out that the personal care and service industry is the most depressing one out there (10.8 percent of workers with major depressive episode in a year)! Makes sense, I guess, with customers complaining the whole day about this or that (if it were here, you as the clerk could just yell back at them to shut up and leave...hehe, just kidding sorta), and I guess the personal care thing too would be tough - also dealing with others and their problems. Which is probably why community and social services is also number 3 on the list. I was of course curious how music would be rated - I didn't expect too highly, but who knows since musicians can be a bit obsessive sometimes, and the whole mental-illness-leads-to-good-art theory (topic for another time)....well, turns out "arts, design, entertainment, sports and media" rank number 5 (9.1 percent) on the list! Probably also due to the stress. Looks like lawyers have it better with only 6.4 percent, and computer people even better (6.2 percent). The least depressing jobs out there: "Engineerings, Architecture, Surveyors" with only 4.3 percent! It would be interesting to see their theories as to why these results are so, but one thing I also noticed is: the least depressing jobs also mostly involve some sort of physical labor - maybe it's those endorphines again, or just the fresh air! But really, sniffing hospital hallways all day, stuffy concert halls, dry office rooms - definitely can't help! hehe.

Speaking of curious, today something very weird happened online - something to support the conspiracy theory for those who believe: I was searching in my mail for something, typed in the term, clicked on "search mail" and the next page was my yahoo mail as always, but everything in Chinese! The buttons, the titles, the options, the date, everything! I clicked on back and did it again, then everything was fine. What was that about? Communist plots to take over the world again?? Well, if they think they can do it by reading my mail, I've got a message for them!

And another news bit just spotted - no wonder that some people choose gossip as a means to make friends - people believe gossip over truth! Well, at least according to this study, people believed gossip even when they had access to hard facts to the contrary!

So on the string of babbling, enough for today, more later!

Caught in the "Egg"kt

2007-10-07T16:23:00.000+02:00

I think I'm really beginning to realize now just how the saying "curiosity killed the cat" came about and just how much truth there is behind it - I just need to observe Dusty for a day. He runs around the apartment crazily, not even really looking where he's jumping to. He eats all foods put in front of him, even dead plant leaves and whatnot, not a care to the world if it's dangerous or not. He even jumped out the window one day (well, onto the table on the balcony...)! And, he provokes a certain black cat who is much larger than he is and can hit much harder! Today his new trick is to jump INTO the refrigerator...and is unwilling to leave even when we shut the door! Silly guy...

Something that had spurred my curiosity was a noise that didn't fit in - the crowing of a very loud rooster a few times in our neighborhood! I said then to Jan: "What on earth was that?! Is there a rooster in the park out there??!" He says: "No, that's the Egg Man." Me (even more confused than before): "WHAT? The egg man??"

Well, as it turns out, just like in the States in times past the milk man came around and delivered farm-fresh milk, apparently here a man drives around in a little truck and delivers fresh eggs. Luckily, unlike the ice cream truck where Day lives, the "deliveries" take place at normal times. I don't know any more details about it than that, and have never seen the truck, and apparently no one else has either since I can't find any photos of it on the web! ;) (and, you don't even want to know what my Google searches found for results, since the word for egg in German is the same as certain parts of the male physiology...)

I do wonder about the necessity/practicality of such a thing - I mean, I can even understand still having an ice cream truck - perfect for kids after school or something, or when they're out playing in the neighborhood, but what now, "hey kids, want an egg?" Talk about a sign of the culture! Well, it's probably more for the families who want to make a nice breakfast at home in the morning with rolls, cheese, and eggs - until they realize they're out of eggs - oh, the horror! Luckily there's the egg man. But wait, what if they want fresh rolls from the bakery too (which many people do get before breakfast from the bakery)? Well, guess they'll have to leave the apartment for those....but at least the eggs will be delivered to them at their doorstep when they're back from the bakery!!

More updates again soon from the land where I sit now, wondering if my eggs will last until the stores are open tomorrow...

"Another Year Over, And A New One Just Begun"

2007-09-29T13:40:00.000+02:00

Now I, like many of my friends this year, have left my 25th year of life behind and have entered a new one! After a few nice surprises on my birthday, a short rehearsal, and some celebrating, I woke up this morning ready to start the semester and wonder what this year has in store!

But what I actually wanted to post about this time was some more worldly things that I found amusing and/or interesting:

Germany's Chancellor Merkel greeted to Dalai Lama in a historical meeting - and was the first chancellor to officially receive him. Big step for Germany; the meeting was conducted despite pressures from China not to hold it.

A member of the Christian Social Union Party in Southern Germany made a proposal to limit marriages to 7 years! She of course faced a lot of criticism (since this is pretty much against what her party believes in!) and was the talk of the town for a few days as she proclaimed that this new law would allow people a safe "out" in an unhappy marriage.

Not only did a man in China recently die in an internet cafe where he was for 3 days straight, but in America, citizens can go longer without friends and relationships as the internet! Sounds like addictions to me. Both the rise and downfall of the human race, really. Hehe.

And last but not least, also as Spot mentioned, the Euro-Dollar exchange rate is going crazy: 1€ = $1.42! Geez, that's the highest yet! I've got to start investing my money (which is now all in Euros) in the American market! ;)

P.S. Check out the picture of Dusty exploring the washer - luckily he hasn't gone in there recently, or we will have to start making sure we won't have a very wet and soapy little boy!

A Tribute to the Fall of...

2007-09-23T16:44:00.000+02:00

...summer! Today's the first official day of fall, even though you wouldn't know it here - it's actually warm and sunny, something we have seen so seldom in the past 4 months!! A nice treat. It is of course sad to see summer go (despite the weather!), and I find myself thinking: wow, over already? What did I do all summer? Considering how I had no summer last summer, let's take a closer look at how I decided to spend this summer:

- Played 2 premieres: 1 at 4:30am outside where I rode on a ferry from the former East Germany to West; and one for a bunch of kids in the library where I, as the hornist, was the evil dragon
- Took a mini-Hamburg vacation: took a harbor tour, ate at a few new restaurants, went to the zoo incl. aquarium, went to my first beach club in Hamburg, walked around the fish market
- Grew a garden: incl. eating the veggies and picking the flowers
- Got my own kitten!
- Won a substitute position at the new musical coming to town
- Watched a lot of Smallville
- Played a number of gigs with my favorite groups
- Helped a friend move
- Painted the bathroom and decorated the apartment (photos to come when I'm done with my project in the bedroom)
- Went to the caves in Bad Segeberg
- Finally played SimCity 4, which I've been dying to do since I brought it back from the States in April
- Took a little "r & r" time off from horn
- Made some new friends
- Created my own new favorite salad dressing using fresh herbs
- Finally went out to Molotow, where I've been wanting to go for a while(and go out for a while! ;)

Well, for starters not as bad as I thought!

Oh, and one more thing for the list - played a concert as part of the "Night of the Churches" in Hamburg a week or two ago. That's the great thing about Germany - so many beautiful cathedrals! The "Night of the Churches" (Nacht der Kirchen) is sorta like an open house, where the main cathedrals/churches around town have a number of short concerts and food for the guests from early evening til midnight, all for free with optional donations, I guess to promote an awareness of the church and classical music. I have seen a similar event in Hamburg and Berlin, "Night of the Museums", where the main museums are open very late and there is a bus service that allows convenient transportation from one to the other - all for one price. Was a nice atmosphere; I played at the St. Johannis Church in Altona, a district in the western part of the city, also where this picture is from - I find the pattern inside interesting! Maybe next time I'll check out the "Night of the Museums", who knows!

Ciao for now!

The Obligatory Topic and the Best of Hamburg Put to the Test!

2007-09-11T17:03:00.000+02:00

My Hamburg Vacation Day 1 and Day 2!

I think it was almost exactly 6 years ago to the minute when I heard about the attacks on the World Trade Center - I was just about to leave my room during the first week and a half in Germany (in Freiburg) when my phone rang. Someone from our exchange program called me to tell me what happened - at that point it was after the first hit to the towers. I was on my way out the door to go to an organ concert in the Münster (or cathedral) downtown, and was a bit confused and surprised to get the call. That this was an important and tragic day in American history is only something that sank in during the concert that my fellow exchange student Heidi decided to go to anyway - we had no TV and couldn't do anything more at that point anyway.

Even in the fairly small (200,000) town of Freiburg the news hit hard - one page special flyers about the attack were handed out in the cathedral during the concert, and on the way home people were lined up at the local newspaper store (which was closed) to read the latest news flash on what had happened. The next day our program all met together to talk about what we were going to do and how we as Americans abroad would react - try to blend in as much as possible, since we didn't know what would happen next.

That was 6 years ago today, and has definitely not been forgotten - by individuals, media, and the general political climate in the US. Even in Germany has not forgotten and for this day has written an article about "America as the Enemy" (Stern magazine, in German) where memories of the day are brought to light as well as the general perspective of America in foreign countries (their poll says that in Germany as well as in France, only 30 percent of the population has a positive opinion of the USA). The author himself even says quite honestly: "Anti-Americanism is the most popular prejudice of the people who pride themselves in being non-prejudiced". The affect of and opinions about 9/11 and Americans has not improved much over the past several years, if even that!

On a more positive note, I decided to take a Hamburg vacation since I decided to have the feeling of "getting away" and being on vacation without having to dish out the dough to travel somewhere far away (although a warm and sunny location was oh so tempting....), so I took a few days to see Hamburg as a tourist with Jan:

Day 1: Hagenbeck's Tierpark (Zoo) with Aquarium (see my photos) and an ethnic dinner at Ethio, and Ethiopian restaurant sorta near the university. The zoo was great, lots of animals, and the rain even held out until as we were leaving. The aquarium was also really neat - tons of great large displays as well as smaller ones with tropical fish. The restaurant afterwards was a cozy place to rest our feet and fill up our bellies afterwards, and although it was quite tasty and unique, I found it to be a bit overpriced for the quantities that we got.

Day 2: Harbor tour, walk around the whole harbor/port area, stop for coffee and cake at the beach club, dinner American style. We had always seen ads for a boat tour of the harbor, which also turned out to be really nice - so many huge ships, was cool to see them up-close. We even got to see a small airplane do a water take-off! Check out my pictures from Day 2. After the harbor trip we wanted a real vacation feel, so we headed to StrandPauli, a really nice beach club on the harbor. Then we wandered around the fish market area for a long time, and then after almost dying of hunger finally made it to an American-style restaurant called Big Easy, with a lot of Tex-Mex and Southern-style chow. Jan and I both were starving and ordered a perfectly-done steak with potato. Mmmm....

More vacation days are still planned, but only intermittently, but I will report on my findings as they come!

Back from vacation in the city where I live I will leave you with this post for the evening!

Slow sorta summer

2007-08-31T12:44:00.000+02:00

OH man, it's been a while since my last post, sorry about the break! No excuses for it really, was just one of those periods where when I'm at my computer I don't feel like posting, but when I'm somewhere else, then I think of things to post. Well, here I am just squeezing in the last post for the month now!

Last weekend was one of the highlights of summer in Hamburg, the Alstervergnügen, or Alster Festival. That is an annual festival with stands of foods, games, drinks, rides, and trinkets lined up along the entire bank of the Binnenalster, or the smaller part of the Alster (the main sorta lake in Hamburg). Well, this year we decided to hit it a bit earlier, since last year when I was there I went once it was dark, and it was SO crowded that you could barely move, plus all the music was turned up so loud at some stands that it probably scared the earthworms out of the ground, something that even the Hamburg rains don't really accomplish well.

Anyway, this is a picture from one bank where there were mostly just food stands. At one part was a really old boat from the Netherlands selling wooden clogs and refreshments. Like I mentioned, there were also drinks, and I just had to take this picture...gotta love the word separation, gulp. Turns out there was really big crowd there, with many people sitting on Jungfernstieg to look at the Alster, people walking by, and the helicopter rides. And the most tempting event of all was a bicycle-type water rider thing - you peddle like a bike and are upright - and you can ride on the water as you can see here a little bit!! Was a nice time just walking around there before the crowd got too thick, watching drunks get kicked off a a stage by the cops, trying to avoid being harassed by cross-dressers advertising for their party.....

On another topic, I am not a "gamer" nor do I play games that often. The other day on the news here I saw the opportunity to visit the Dresden Art Gallery online - and based on the news segment, it looked pretty cool! With 3-D characters, sort of an alternate reality set up just like the real gallery. So I went online to check it out, and it turns out you have to become a member of Second Life, an online game/reality setting. Once I got it all set up and downloaded, I logged on, and it seemed pretty cool! You can change your 3D appearance in any way you want, and are first guided to an orientation island where other "beginners" are too - and you can actually see them and talk with them (real other people like you). Then I began looking around - and teleported myself to the gallery - not bad at all! The graphics are great, and you really can walk around and look at the map of the museum, and each painting has information that you just have to click on to see. After that visit I looked around some more to discover that many companies or places also have location in Second Life; and you can also get a virtual job through Second Life for your character. I think there's a lot more to it than I saw, but exploring will be left for another time. But a neat thing to check out if you have some time and want to "travel"! (My logon is Bethany KungFu if I happen to be on and you see me lost anywhere...!)

I also have been watching the show Smallville since I saw that at least Spot and Day enjoyed the show and wanted to see what the hype was about. For those who don't know, it's about Superman's early days when he is developing his powers and trying to live a somewhat-normal life. Well, needless to say, I am still enjoying the show and am already almost on the 4th season - and liking it a lot! I like of course that I can watch it in English, which makes me feel at home, but I like it of course mainly because it's very exciting, and I love to see who develops what abilities and how Clark deals with their problems as well as his quest for his destiny and his own problems with his abilities. Recommended!

And on a current events topic, Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, has been named "The World's Most Powerful Women" by Forbes magazine for 2 years in a row now. Go Germany! ;)

Otherwise it's been a typical summer in Hamburg, rainy with rain. As the beginning of the month comes around and fall nears, my schedule is luckily also starting to fill up with some more concerts, breaking a somewhat dry spell this summer, which I am looking forward to. Not that I really have had a lack of things to do - few appointments but still some things with my web job and such. Speaking of web job, gotta go, more posts later!!

P.S. Sorry for the website problems as of late, the other pages were inaccessible because the server where I was hosting my website was corrupted and they deleted everything (grr!), and I had to reload everything to a new account. Luckily my Blogger page (this one!) is always available and unaffected! ;) Yay Blogger!

Time for sight-seeing!

2007-08-14T10:32:00.000+02:00

Ah, Hamburg in the summer. Of course not scorching hot like last summer (which provided a record high temperature of over 100°F!), but nevertheless a projected mid- to upper-70s here for the next few days, and the past few were also ok. I'm not posting to give you a weather report, but to say that last week I got to enjoy one of those warm/hot days being a sightseer near Hamburg. On Thursday I went to see the Kalkberg Caves of Bad Segeberg (video), a small town near Hamburg from where I took this picture, with Jan and his sister and son. I actually didn't know that Germany had any caves before we went, but apparently they do! This was a type of cave formed by water not with stalactites and stalagmites, but the formations naturally created were interesting to see. We had a half-hour long guided tour in the chilly 9°C (about 50°F) cave, saw tree roots, tried not to hit our heads on the low ceilings, and got dripped on (not surprising with a near 100% humidity!). Not to mention, the air quality of the cave is very high, and is good for people with lung problems - one family was there with their kids because they had had a cough and been sick for 8 weeks!

But these caves are not only famous as such, but are also known as the "bat caves", with thousands of bats that supposedly live in the caves. I say "supposedly" because we only saw 2 flying around in the cave during our tour...guess they were hiding out from the tourist traffic, understandably. But they had a whole other exhibit Noctalis, an exhibit with tons of information presented very well about bats, as well as a room where you could look at bats - unfortunately very dark (had to be so that the bats were active), but due to some hanging fruit we were still able to spot some bats up close. They're so weird - fly sorta like an insect, sorta like a bird, but are a mammal!

Speaking of other things flying around, Dusty (my new kitten) cannot stop flying around this apartment! He dashes from room to room, apparently without getting tired, for hours on end. He even doesn't mind jumping in the shower if it isn't too wet, and tries to climb up on everything. We had to take down the barrier during the night to keep him and Taz apart because he found a way to scale it - although it was flat and pretty high! Luckily no big falling-outs with the 2, just a little hissed or batting at each other. At night they sleep peacefully together in the same bed, usually Dusty next to my head or face. So sweet!

Otherwise I am just doing my web work and not much else. More posting later!

Lasers and Subways and Cars

2007-08-05T14:41:00.000+02:00

As I sit outside in the warm (finally, again!!) breeze and sun to write this post, I hope that the summer will stay longer than just 2 days this time and wonder just how many people are watching Formula 1 car racing in our complex! I hear the squealing of tires going around corners at super high speeds blowing out the windows of several neighbors, including ours, and wonder what the joy is of watching the same thing for 1.5 hours - as far as I'm concerned, a 15-minute recap at the end of the race with any highlights (i.e. crashes, cool passes, etc) would be plenty for me to watch! To each his own...

I also found out yesterday that our city Stadtteil or "district" (Dulsberg) has 14,000 inhabitants - more than 2 times the number that live in my hometown! And this is not a big area. I also saw that our little cafe where we have brunch and were I saw the sign for my cute kitten posted was listed in the newspaper article as a "highlight" of the district. And we discovered it on our own! ;)

For all who area interested, since I like taking photos so much and have been entertained by what I've seen in the U-Bahn or "subway" lately, I have started up a new blog called "Subway Sightings" where I will regularly post my sightings and comments in the form of a photo blog. Could turn into an interesting study of the city life through public transportation - the strange, unique, and funny random sightings underground! Enjoy! ;)

By the way, the photo today is a beautiful sunset I saw while at the music days in Hitzacker last week. I think we had some time in the rehearsal and were waiting for info as to what to play via walkie talkie, and I couldn't pass up capturing this sunset over the water.

On the kitty front, we have taken to building up a huge wall between the living room and the kitchen each night or when we're gone so the 2 felines don't kill each other. They have some really intense staring contests, or "talk" to one another, which is usually followed by hissing and maybe even more unless we step in to calm them down, so the acquaintance process may take some time (someone told us up to 4 weeks the other day!). The only problem is the little guy is a really good climber and jumper, and he some how managed to pull down one of the bags we were using to block the entrance and crept through, forcing us to block now using only smooth surfaces! We also got this really cool toy laser beam - he goes crazy chasing the laser dot on the floor, and we don't have to run after him the whole time to play (fun and practical...hehe!).

More later, gotta go practice for once!

"Great Balls of Fur"

2007-08-02T12:31:00.000+02:00

Here was the phone conversation with my mom last night:
Me:"Hi Mom! Guess what I did today?"
She: "Got married?"
Me:"No, Mom!"
She:"Well, is it good news?"
Me:"Yes."
She:"You got a job?"
Me:"No, it's good news but not quite that good. You can keep guessing, but I don't think you'll ever guess it..."
She:"Oh, I don't know, you got a cat?"
Me:"Wow, yes!"
She:"Aw, really? Congratulations!"
Yes, I did it, I got my own cute little red and orange striped kitten last night!!! He's 10 weeks old and from a lady who had a poster up at a cafe near us. We were thinking of getting a cat anyway at some point, or another cat I should say, and lately after I saw that sign I kept thinking, why not get my own cat, really? I definitely wanted a kitten so I could see him while he was young, and a little orange fellow was just perfect. We picked him up last night and he seemed happy right away, that was until our/Jan's cat Taz discovered him. Then they had a little face off, he ran under the couch and Taz left. After a while he of course came out again and began looking at everything, sniffing, running through stuff, and getting his cute little nose all dusty. He's so small, like a cat wurst. We blocked off the living room and gave him his own room for the night so he wouldn't get killed, and today Taz seems to be ignoring him, and he's having a ball checking out the apartment (well, now he's pooped and is sleeping, thus picture 1). The other picture is him at breakfast. He even jumped in the shower and meowed - his new game! He's so cute, I've always wanted me own cat, and now I have a little cuddly ball of fur to call my own!! I'm still deciding on a name; I had originally thought Jack or Emil, but somehow Dusty has seemed to stick - the final results will be in in the next few days, I'd say! ;)

Yesterday afternoon I also met up with the sister of a friend of mine who I had seen last when I spent the summer of '04 in Berlin - she was in Hamburg with her boyfriend and we met up in the Schanze for a bite to eat/drink. Was interesting to see her impressions of Germany and the differences from the perspective of an American discovering Germany. Also interesting to hear what her German-born boyfriend missed from here - the bakeries (of course), the availability of food at every corner (be it a small fast-food Turkish Döner Kebab or an Asian snack), and the markets everywhere run but Turkish people selling tons of fresh fruits and vegetables.

And news flash, for those of you interested, today is the first day that you can shop at H&M from the comfort of your own home: visit hm.com (as if there isn't already and H&M at every corner anyway.....!)

Jet Lag minus the Jet

2007-07-31T13:53:00.000+02:00

Well I finally made it back from our landscape new music premiere from this past week! This picture is one I took in the rehearsal - a very outdoor and modern music (or should I say modern sound) experience! Here's one review from the Cellesche Zeitung for my German-speaking readers - a very chilly and super early concert! I swear I am just now getting over the jet lag minus the whole jet and flying part - 2 nights in a row we got a maximum of 3 hours of sleep due to rehearsals and having to get up at 3am for the rehearsal and concert. Threw our body rhythms way off, it really was like jet lag! Not to mention I thought it would be a tad bit warmer the whole week than it was - I ended up wearing practically everything I had with me for the 4:30am concert and was still cold by the biting wind! The sunrise was absolutely gorgeous, and the landscape there was really beautiful (expect another pic from it on my next post), and our group got to ride on a ferry to the other side of the Elbe river to play our part of the concert. Don't worry, we were armed with radio-controlled watches and our music was covered in plastic in case it rained! Despite a bit hectic week, in general fun was had by all with the other people involved, and in specific imitating the swiss accent the whole week - a few players came from Switzerland, and it never got old trying to talk like them!! So now I'm working on getting over my jet lag minus the jet and trying to recover some stability in my inner core body temperature so I don't get sick (again. from another outdoor concert. in the cold and rain.)!

So that was my past week, since my last post, basically. In other news, not much to report. I have 2 auditions coming up in the fall, which is nice to know, and I have basically the whole summer free now to: 1) do a website and 2) practice oh, and 3) play 1 gig so far. I will of course spend my free time also 1) visiting a friend in Munich, 2) finally decorating our apartment more, 3) doing more website stuff, 4) tending to our every-growing garden, and 5) exploring Hamburg and surroundings - I still haven't been to Sylt, Germany's most famous island in the North Sea! I will keep you posted!

That's what happens when the streets are too small...

2007-07-23T09:49:00.000+02:00

Well, I managed to do it again. 2 weeks without a post. Seems that I have a sudden bout of activity last week during which I was not inclined to post, but now I shall! So, what's the news:

You may think that I escaped somewhere warm and sunny to take this picture, but instead I ate brunch right around the corner from my apartment! A restaurant called Cafe Werkstatt set up a beach club for the summer starting 2 weekends ago, and that is just something I couldn't pass up. Jan and I went and enjoyed the lovely Sunday brunch buffet they had set up, and I sat there with my toes buried in the imported sand and my face turned toward the sun. Of course after a while when a few friends came and we started to play Clue, the rain clouds rolled in, but luckily we were spared of the rain, despite how foreboding the sky looked. On Saturday I once again enjoyed a cheap breakfast there - gotta take advantage of a beach club in my neighborhood!!

This past week I was in fact busy, and it was working for auditors from a law office in town, a temp job on short notice, or "mini-job" as they'd say here! Something different for sure. One morning as I was on my way to the job where I make copies of weigh-in slips and delivery notices for tons and tons of sugar worth millions and crunching numbers to see if it all lines up or not, I was riding the bus as usual in a trance since it was way too early in the morning for me (getting up at 6:30am is not my thing). Then suddenly, I look out the bus door and think, hm, the driver's getting awfully close to that car (as he turned a corner), then *crunch*, he had hit the car parked there!! Guess on a sharp turn with small streets and crazy parkers he underestimated the curve. We then all had to get out and walk to the next bus stop, where I took some nice pictures of the canal with the early morning sun shining over it. But I did get to work on time anyway, and put in another long day. My day-job lifestyle of last week is now over - something I haven't done since living in Germany (when I was in the States I would work full-time all summer, but here I'm not allowed to put in that many hours in a year).

Well, luckily the weather has shaped up a bit here, but it is still only hovering around the 70° mark. But there's been more sun, so I'm not complaining too much! And just for the record, don't expect another post this week either - I'm gone again! This time for music, at the Hitzacker Music Days, a short summer music festival on the Elbe river. They organized a premiere of a modern piece for brass ensemble and I was asked to do it, so that's where I'm headed in 2 hours. We'll be there the whole week, and here's the scene - it's a concert set to the landscape to take place at sunrise i.e. 4:30am!! Aaah! And not only once, but twice - the dress rehearsal is at the same time the day before!! The question remains - do you go to bed super early and hope you can wake up enough to play, or do you stay up all night and hope you're not too tired at 4:30 to play?? I tell you, always an adventure. Wouldn't want to have missed out being a musician for the world (and actually, I've been able to see the world being a musician, too! yay!)

So, I guess that's about it for now. I will post again when I get back. Til then, toot-a-loo!

News, Updates....what else?

2007-07-08T17:06:00.000+02:00

Had to post this picture - from our concert on Friday night. This is indeed the audience, welcome to summer concerts in Hamburg (well, to be fair, this summer anyway)! Despite the rainy and fairly chilly weather which, by the way, gave me a cold, this was the final concert in a summer series, and the stage was especially built for just this concert, so we had to play outside at all costs (there was also a fancy dinner and fireworks planned into the event for the audience). Since we were an orchestra, we were of course "under cover"-ing, but the audience shivered in rain ponchos, blankets, and under umbrellas. The "best" part was when we all (including the audience) went inside after our exceptionally long 1st half to warm up, and the audience never came back outside for the second half!! After we started up again, then can maybe 10% of the audience back outside, but otherwise we shivered for ourselves!! Ah, last official concert of the semester...

Well, as it looks I will have a contract with a new musical that is coming to Hamburg in the fall to play substitute when needed, which I am happy about! I will have more infos on that once I actually have it all official, with written contract and all!

I'm also currently planning to head "down south" to Munich for an audition this coming week assuming my cold isn't so bad that I can't practice enough in the meantime. It will be sort of more of a get-away than an audition since it is a fairly desired position, but it's experience....and a mini-vacation! I will be able to stay with a friend, which is also nice, so I will have a visit and see the city for once!

Well, this wasn't all that long considering how long since I last posted (ahem...), but I'm off to make some salad (a veggie salad with a vinaigrette dressing) for our ladies' night dinner! Who knows, maybe there will be another update in the not-to-distant future. ;)

The Fair, Concerts, and Football

2007-06-28T11:42:00.000+02:00

Geez, been a long time again! Lots to do, though. This past weekend I had a concert in a very typical Nordic place - a shipyard! Well, not typical for concerts, and where we played had the very unfortunate name of "Hitzler Werft", which was the brunt of many jokes due to the result of it's mispronunciation. As you can see in this picture, the boat storage building (so tall!) was directly on the water, where there was a wurst stand outside and tables where one could enjoy a wine or beer beforehand, or also in the intermission. So there we sat inside on a temporary wooden stage, staring over the audience at 2 huge boats partially covered with a tarp, marveling at how I could only hear myself playing since the whole sound of the string section wafted up into the air and over the audience. There was I swear at least a 5 second echo in there, no joke, worse than a cathedral! After lots of waiting around for it to start, we could at least eat our free wurst for dinner, and the rain managed to hold out long enough to let us eat outside. Never played at a shipyard before - welcome to northern Germany!

I have a confession to make. I have had a mild obsession lately with the fair. But not just any fair, the world's fair, or the World Exposition. In the process of reading one of the most fabulous books I have recently read, The Devil In The White City, I got an inside look of how the world's expo of 1893 in Chicago formed the city and drew it into a place of respectable stature in the US and the world. Not only is the book and account of the fair, but also of the problems involved, the creation of it, and a few personal stories including a murderer included. There are enough details to make it quite interesting, and it is written so that you get a glimpse into what the outcome might be, which makes you want to read even more to see exactly what happens how. But I never knew just how important such an expo was at the time - it was the world's most coveted event! Many died in the realization of the fair, and everyone wanted to go to experience things beyond their imaginations. Many people got inspirations from world fairs that shaped their lives (I remember learning in music history that Debussy, amazed by hearing and seeing Indonesian music for the first time at the World Expo in Paris, had traces of Asian rhythms in his music, a sign of the impact that the new experience had on him).

I've always like the idea of a fair. Since I can remember, every year I would look forward to our county fair, which took place the last Wednesday in August through the following Monday, Labor Day. As soon as the schedule of events for it came out, I would study it to see what all there was, as well as to check out if there were any new exhibits than last year. And every time we drove into town for errands the week before the fair, my brother and I would curiously check out the building of the fairgrounds to see if there were any new cool rides that year. We would both even have a "talk" about the fair right before it opened - trying to relive the foods that are there, the animals, the exhibits, and of course the rides and games. But a world fair is the fair of all fairs! You'd think that in the age of technology world expos wouldn't exist any more, but there was one in Japan in 2005 and the next one is in Spain in 2008. I am just so curious to see what all they might have there, and if it is so exciting and shocking today as it apparently was for the people over 100 years ago. Just knowing what awaits you there, or rather not having any idea what to might see and be amazed by, sounds so enticing!

To bring the post back to a more earthly topic, audition fever is now pretty much over. I had auditions the past 2 days, one of which I made it to the 2nd round, and the other which was such a fun audition since after the solo piece I had to sight-read something with one of the other auditionees - with a back-up band accompaniment (2 guitars, piano, drums)!! Unfortunately I don't know the results yet and will have to wait an agonizing week to hear from them. Just have another short concert tonight and one tomorrow, then another audition next week if I decide to take it, then the semester is over!! Yay summer, if it ever warms up here (it's a chilly 55° out right now)!

The first harvest from our garden is done! A few radishes were ready, so we picked them and ate them last night, mmm. Anyone know any radish recipes? Should I make the opening photos for each post a little bigger, by the way, can you see them ok this way?? Anyway, another funny thing is that American football has also made it over to Germany. We flipped on the TV and saw a game playing, and I just about freaked out - not because I'm a fan, just because it was so weird to see that on German TV! What's next....root beer?? (yeah right, like anything will stop my nightmares about finding root beer by accident over here...)

That a girl, Hamburg.

2007-06-17T17:56:00.000+02:00

This week Hamburg did a good job of being itself. I was starting to get worried when it was so warm last week and weekend (up to maybe 80° or so or more!), but this week it slipped back into old habits of rain, and even pouring rain like today! This picture is, however, from last weekend as I sat in the Sternschanze, a more alternative area of town with tons of cafes of many nationalities. A capoeira group had come to perform in the shade, and here you can see the audience enthralled by the display. We were lucky enough to pick the restaurant where they ended up coming, and we enjoyed an appetizer of fish and a galao, or Portuguese cafe au lait.

An update on our balcony garden...it's going so well! The melon seeds that I thought wouldn't germinate did, and well! I had brought them back from the States last year, but didn't have a good opportunity to plant them. Well this year tons of plants came up, so I'm giving the extras to friends (unfortunately our balcony cannot support about, hm, 10 melon plants!!!). All the other plants and flowers have come up as well, and it looks like the radishes are not too far from harvest! Our tomato plants are blooming and have reached the point that I needed to put up some support for them. Yay!

Last week our neighbor came up to us and gave us a special treat - a smoked sea trout, fresh from Denmark where his friend had been on the weekend. It was so huge and tasty, and I left the details of getting the meat off of the bones to Jan. ;) So tasty! On the topic of food, we made some cool-aid this week that I'd brought back from the States since Jan had wanted to try it. I explained how this is (almost) every American child's favorite drink, which he also liked, but was a bit freaked out at one point - his mouth was purple (grape flavor). This would of course not happen with anything from Germany, because they have fairly strong rules about groceries and what is allowed to be put in them (in general less preservatives and colors than in the States), but I reassured him that he would not die from it!

I saw this week on Yahoo! news that a small town near my hometown made the front page - 6 killed in shooting in Delavan. This kind of thing really can happen anywhere, and no town is immune from it. It's just weird to think that it happened so close to home.

Well, I'm off to go nowhere today, it's my day at home to hang out and enjoy doing not much. After my crazy week of rehearsals, I had barely seen my apartment, and when, then only with half-opened eyes. I even went to bed at 10pm one night this week! But our music school concert on Friday evening went alright, and you can even watch in on the web later. We did one of my all-time favorite pieces, Brahms 2nd piano concerto! Have a good week!

Something Smells Fishy....

2007-06-06T14:24:00.000+02:00

Well, I don't actually have that much news to post about, I don't think, but just felt like doing another post since it's about that time! This is a pic I took of Jan's cat, Taz, as she peeked her nose into the sun out of our front door onto the balcony. You probably can see that I did a little editing in Photoshop, but I thought it looked cool anyway! Silly Taz, she gets so scared at every single noise - sometimes just when I uncross my legs and put my feet on the floor she goes a runnin'. Still can't pick her up for longer than 2 seconds (unless you want to be horribly scratched). She must have really had some trauma earlier in life before she got into the shelter!

I recently got a few private translating jobs which reminded me that I really do like to translating as well. It's fun to try to capture the essence of what someone else has said in all the details (it was an interview about an art exhibit that is being shown in the Elbe River Tunnel right now and is being moved to Shanghai), and although you of course try to stick as closely to the literal meaning of what was originally said as possible, you still have some freedom of word choice and can add your own personal touch to clarify the meaning! And other plus - you get to read whatever it is you're translating, which has so far been pretty interesting (have translated interviews in the past with large pharmaceutical company heads on topics of medical ethics and media coverage)!!

Today I played a gig with the police orchestra in Hamburg downtown for a special event - the Matjes Festival downtown! What is that? Such a typical Northern German treat - a fish that is eaten raw (I think a kind of salted herring); usually (at least in Hamburg) served in a roll with lettuce, pickles, and onions called a Fischbrötchen ("fish roll sandwich"). I guess it's that time of year, just after asparagus season, when you see asparagus specials everywhere, and everyone tries to put asparagus in everything (although asparagus on pizza is unexpectedly tasty!). I knew I had tried them some other time, and thought back to when.... When I first arrived in Hamburg I thought I should try some fish, so I bought matjes from the grocery store (2 kinds, one flavored with herbs, one sweetly). I didn't know if it was cooked or not (couldn't tell based on the packaging), so I fried them in a pan, and of course used too much salt too. So it wasn't the best introduction to the fish, and actually tasted kinda bad, but that was just due to my preparation style. So today I tried them again, how they are supposed to be eaten - and sooo tasty! So I'm converted, and they are of course healthy too. The only kind freaky thing is that you can see small fish bones in it when you eat it, but I have been assured by many sources that they are too small for you to choke on - you just eat them with the fish. So now I have another item to add to my repertoire!

Oh, and while we're on current events, I saw that Germany has been making international news recently due to the G8 summit that was held in Rostock this week (not too far from Hamburg). Most of the press was due to the amount of protesters who are against the G8 and the spread of globalization. I just saw this photo on Yahoo! News today, and thought one thing - oh, Bush realized that massaging the shoulders of a world leader as a greeting is not very professional and decided to shake hands of the German Chancellor this time!!

The Home Life (as of late)

2007-05-30T16:43:00.001+02:00

Well, if you can believe it, today is actually not a holiday in Germany!! May is just one of those months that for one, is almost over (yikes!!), and is jam-packed full of holidays i.e. days with closed grocery stores! Starts out with the 1st, Labor Day. Then the 13th, Mother's Day. Then the 17th, Christ's Day of Ascension (Himmelfahrt) and Father's Day. Then the 27th, Pentecost Sunday (Pfingstsonntag, then the next day, 28th, Pentecost Monday (Pfingstmontag). Not to forget the whole week that schools have off for Pentecostal Vacation, or the week before Pentecost (the 27th). Talk about religious holidays! The month of holidays is almost over!

As a celebration of the fleeting warm weather that is gone again (current temp 16°C or 61°F), we managed to grill out on our balcony last week twice using our new grill, thus the nice table setting picture for today!! They have these awesome pepper steaks at Aldi...marinated, so good that I ate 2 of them, or should I say, inhaled 2 of them. I also made a veggie salad with vinaigrette dressing to go with it. So. Tasty. Oh. Man. Will definitely be doing that more once it gets warmer again!

Last weekend we took a trip to a store similar to Home Depot called Max Bahr to get some supplies for our apartment since Jan had a gift certificate. So good news, we got a bunch of gardening stuff too, which is so exciting! This is the first time in probably about 10 years that I finally get to plant stuff. We got those widow boxes that you can hang on your balcony, as well as potting soil and seeds (radishes, onions, beets, carrots, and miscellaneous flowers), and a few tomato plants that we have in bigger potters. Hurray for balcony-grown vegetables! I hope it works.

On to other home projects, which are very practical since may throat's been hurting the past few days (today is feeling much better), and that is transferring all my mini disc recordings over to CD. I found a program to record them to a CD-player readable format, and it's been working nicely. The funniest and interesting part of it all is listening to old recordings of yourself. Sometimes I was a bit surprised, wasn't quite as painful to listen to as in years past, but sometimes I was like, well, at least it was 1-2 years ago, and I've improved since then! But still kinda neat to hear. And, you never know when you might need to send in a recording of yourself, and then there they are, ready to go!

I also got some paint and am in the process of creating some good ideas to decorate things a bit more here "my style". More on that, with pics, later!

So, that's all for now, folks.

Pretty Birdy

2007-05-25T10:34:00.000+02:00

Geez, you know it's been a while since you've posted when Blogger requires you to log in again without doing it automatically! Wow, it's actually storming here so much right now that my cell phone can't send the text message I just wrote! I mean, pouring, which is fairly rare here. But anyway, here's the scoop...

I went to an art exhibition yesterday with Jan that we've been wanting to see entitled "New World. Creating an American Art" at the Bucerius Art Forum, which was really nice! It is a pretty small exhibition hall on the city hall plaza, and there were in total probably about 40-50 paintings (was totally worth it thanks to the great student discounts here!). Mostly paintings done around the time of the Civil War, and were really beautiful paintings of mostly landscapes with lots of color and details. I found Frederic Edwin Church's works to be the most interesting and colorful. The paintings were not, however, only of American landscape scenes like the Catskill Mountains or the Niagara Falls on the US side, but also of Italy or South America that American painters made after trips to those countries at the time. One painter even lost his wife to yellow fever on a trip just to travel around and see the world (many mosquitos and they drank the Panama Canal water against advisory)....my my, am I glad that traveling is safer today!

After our art tour we sat downtown and drank a coffee outside from Starbucks (which seems to be slowing invading Hamburg) to enjoy the nice weather, and that's when I got this picture of a swan. They, with some geese and pigeons, flock around anyone who gets too close to the canal because they think they will get food...and they usually are correct! Be it bread, a roll, a muffin, or maybe even a curry wurst, who knows...!

I have had a fairly eye-opening week-and-a-half as far as horn playing is concerned. I had 2 auditions (road trip!) and a competition, none of which turned out to be fruitful, but none of which were a waste of my time. I played in general well, but also finally got input from sources other than just my horn prof about what I need to do to play closer to 100%, as well as had a good lesson from my prof about some important audition and performance (well, and playing) issues. I just really realize now exactly what I still need to work on, and thankfully it is not a fundamental problem, just an issue; it's something I can and will work on. Yay, here's to another fresh start and a kick in the butt!

And on a lighter topic, short are finally starting to be stylish and be worn here in Hamburg anyway, but they still don't quite understand the concept - I've seen people wearing leggings and stockings under them! Ha! Well, I'll just have to show them the right way...

No title, just read the post.

2007-05-13T13:45:00.000+02:00

Ok, this picture posting is really not meant to offend anyone, but seriously, what the heck is it? I was on my way to a hornist's house to catch a ride to a gig the other day, but I was a little bit early, so I decided to catch my breath in a nice park nearby on a bench in the sun (definitely something to soak up when the opportunity presents itself!). I was just looking around at the nice shrubbery, then down at the footprints in the dirt, then I saw this thing made of apparently plastic. My best guess is the bottom half of a kid's toy, what I have no idea....

It's audition-fever again! Since most jobs start in the fall around September, most orchestras hold auditions for their practicum (paid internship/paid help) positions or temporary positions at this time of the year, i.e. May-July. I have been of course waiting patiently for months for invitations, many of which haven't come because a) I'm a foreigner, b) I am still a student, or c) I haven't won an audition yet i.e. haven't had an official position in a professional orchestra yet. Luckily a few have come and auditions are happening! I had one yesterday, which actually went ok, but it was for a low horn position, and as I've mentioned before, the one low horn audition solo piece can make or break the audition; in my case it just wasn't strong enough to get me ahead (plus they only did one round!!). So another one down and chalked up to experience!

Jan and I took a trip downtown the other day to check out the food import section of Karstadt, a German department store, since we'd heard from our neighbor that they had American foods, supposedly baking powder and syrup!! So we found the display case and I just about fell on the floor. Of course imported foods have a long journey to make and are subject to taxes....we saw the syrup alright, for a whopping 7€ a bottle!! Here's some other killers -
- Poptarts, 6.49€ (remember, that's a total of 4 2-poptart packages)
- Campbell's New England Clam Chowder (my fav soup, btw!), 3.99€ (not even a normal-sized can, probably 8oz)
- Baking soda, 1.29€ for maybe 1/3 lb (which I actually though isn't a bad deal since you don't use much at once, although it's still 5x the price in the States)
- Bag of the Small Marshmallows, 2.69€
- Betty Crocker Brownie Mix or cake mix, about 6€
- Pumpkin Pie Filling, 5.99€
- Small Frosting tin, 3.99€

And keep in mind those are Euro prices, so the poptarts are actually $8.80 and the soup is actually $5.40 with the terrible conversion rate now (1€ = $1.35)!! There were probably some others, but those are the ones I can remember now. A few things I wish they'd had were: brown sugar, cranberry juice, fruit roll-ups, root beer.

Not that I'd be able to afford any of those things either!! It's just funny to see simple day-to-day products sold at exorbitant prices. Actually the soup I might buy just once if I was dying for it, or the syrup too, and even the pie filling since that would be a vital ingredient for a typical Thanksgiving meal. But the other things are just not worth it, even once!!

OH, also, I just posted the pictures of my new humble abode to my photo page! Check it out. For those who live in Hamburg, yes, we are still planning to have an Einweihungsparty or housewarming party, but we still have a few things to do before that, so don't give up hope!! ;)

It's so true...

2007-05-09T15:20:00.000+02:00

I was at Jan's family's house the other weekend with him just to visit and have a nice grill-out German style...which was so tasty. Tons of different marinated meats, pork (rolled, in bacon form, spiced), and of course sausages (even ones with cheese in the middle!). Not to mention a tasty homemade potato salad. This is a picture of the sunset that evening looking over the trees and neighbors' houses at the sky, which looks like it may storm at any minute, although we were sitting in the sun the whole time anyway. Ah, the days when Hamburg was warm like summer - we seem to have slipped back into typical April i.e. spring weather now - wet and "fresh".

On a more technical side, due to my recent purchase of a new laptop with Windows Vista operating system pre-installed, I would just like to say that I am liking Windows Vista more that I thought I would. I really like this take on Windows Vista by CNET, which has a lot of the same points I would have mentioned for my likes and dislikes. Before purchasing the laptop I was a big fan of Windows 2000 Professional, and frankly was a bit reluctant to have to switch over, basically because the layout was a lot different and sometimes the new products are released with big problems or lacking certain features that I need (like IIS, which Vista does in fact have).

But not long after working with Vista, I have grown to like it's partially see-through window frames, it's previews of the window from the task bar (when you hover your mouse over it), the new organization, the easy navigation within system windows (you can just click on the path rather than always hitting "back"), among other things. What I don't like, however, is the massive RAM usage to run it (I luckily upgraded to the recommended 2GB RAM since Jan had only 1GB and his computer seems to run pretty slowly), the accessibility/user control permission requests (all actions have to be confirmed, and sometimes it doesn't allow access to programs), and the software compatibility issues (my version of Nero doesn't run properly for some reason - says I need permission to burn anything, which I don't know how to give myself). But in general, I'd have to say I'm happier with it than I expected, and the problems I'll just have to find a way around, I guess!

And on a personal health note, I finally got to the doctor last week to ask a few questions I was having and experienced a perfect example of one of the drawbacks to a social-based health system like there is here. One question I was having is about back/shoulder pain/aches due to horn playing - my physiotherapist this past summer even said that my overly-trained left side could cause scoliosis if I don't get that evened out with some physical/occupational therapy. After talking to an older colleague, he said that back pain is just something you have to live with as a hornist, and I know others with similar problems, but I just refuse to resign to that fact, and don't believe it's true anyway, so I went to my general practitioner. I explained the situation, and asked if he could prescribe me physical therapy, but he said not right away - he wanted to try this very weird "suction massage" tactic where suction cups are placed on your back to relieve muscle cramping. However, this does not seem like a long-term solution to me, and that would only work in the moment if I was having a problem in that moment.

So after confronting him again about the situation, he admitted that their practice is only allotted a certain number of prescriptions for physical therapy (and other prescriptions) per month, so he would only allow it if the therapist in the office said I needed it (which she did). So basically the general welfare of the patient is suddenly not that important just because the government can't give the health care system as much money as it needs to take care of its citizens properly - preposterous, unbelievable!!! At least I was well taken care of last summer, and now I'm also playing the squeaky-wheel-gets-oil game. So in a few weeks I will hopefully learn some exercises to straighten and strengthen things, which I am hoping should help in the long-run!

Oh, and don't forget to check out my Denmark or USA2007 pics if you haven't gotten to them since I posted them on the last post!

By the way, you were probably wondering why the title is "it's so true..." - there's one product that does definitely not display false advertising, even if it's motto seems a bit subjective. The product - (sour cream and onion) Pringles. Once you pop you truly cannot stop. Seriously. I cannot buy those stupid fatty things anymore, it's just asking for trouble.

Big Quarter-Pounder Photo Supreme

2007-05-03T14:51:00.000+02:00


Denmark Photos!	USA 2007 Photos!

Check it out, just like I promised! Click on one of the pictures to view the corresponding photo album that I just posted on the web! I had made the photo pages for all my other photos, but with so many pics it's just not worth the trouble - and since there are so many useful programs (and programmers!) who already made up the applications for this stuff, from now on I will host any additional photo groups I take/put on the web at picasa and will link to it still from my photo page!

I finally got all caught up today on reading all of my fellow web-ies blogs, which I must say was very satisfying. My ol' Madison and world buds have turned up in so many different places in over the past years, and have had lots of experiences. But most importantly, they are also going through lots of good and challenging stuff, and developing wonderfully as people, changing, and many times even changing and coming to the same realizations that I am. It's amazing, but although we are scattered across continents and cultures, some things are still developing parallelly (hey, spell check told me that's not a word...damn my English skills of late!). Certain bonds will never break. Hurray and good for you guys for doing what you're doing and sharing it with me, far away through the web (and with all the other who enjoy it too)!!! Side: for those of you who got abroad, I think that's great, and I love reading about what things are like where you call home! ;)

It has been absolutely gorgeous weather here lately - so much sun, and warm enough that you can wear short sleeves if you're sitting in the sun. Spring is here, the trees are filling out, snow is flying (i.e. pollen stuff from the trees), and I'm sneezing. Damn hay fever, although it's not nearly as bad since I've been living in the city (my days growing up on the farm were so much worse - crap to the people that say you are resistant to it if you grow up with it! Not the case for me!). The best part is that we can finally dry our clothes on a rack outside the apartment. There are no dryers in Germany (correction: you almost never see them in homes), so all winter we have to wait literally days for our clothes to dry inside our quite damp apartment while we trip over the legs of the rack on the way through the kitchen and knock clothes onto the floor while opening the kitchen door. That's what 41 square meters for 2 people is all about! Anyway, slight digression...! Thank God for our balcony / outdoor-hallway-area!

The other day we watched some (well, probably about 10) episodes of Pinky and the Brain, a cartoon that I used to live for my last year of high school. It's basically about 2 genetically mutated lab rats who escape from their cages every night in the lab and conjure up intricate plans to try to take over the world, which inevitably fall through every night. One character is the Brain, the one supposed to be the genius but is also humorless, and the other is Pinky, the goofy sweet one, but supposedly a bit dim-witted. The thing is, while it was still entertaining, it just didn't seem quite the same - or my memory has just faded. The jokes are funny, but seemingly are all along the same lines with the side characters. And I found myself always being confused if people really see the 2 as rats or as people or as a strange mixture of both. Especially the last episode, where Brain was trying to prove in court that he was a mouse, but they said then that he was just a small person because he was too smart to be a mouse (that turned out to be the basis of his claim). Not only that, but the strength of rats is quite, um, escalated. And I must say, while they really will try out anything to take over the world, and the writers are very creative about the stories, you just have to overlook the fact that rats can't drive or navigate submarines and it's not possible in general to get a job and keep it and then lose is in one night (each night a different story, and they had to be back in their cages by the next day so the lab people didn't catch on). Ach, using your own fantasie as they would say here - still a fun little show, but not an addiction any more! Does that even run on TV anymore?

And to wrap up this post, I'd just like to share my new food(s) of choice for lunches of late - toast with olive oil, fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and spices on it with a frozen strawberry/banana/milk smoothie! Perfect for the weather right now to sit outside and eat while goofing around on this strange machine in front of me with a keyboard...hehe!

Fields of Yellow on May Day

2007-05-01T16:54:00.000+02:00

One of my most favorite signs of spring in Germany is the multitude of raps ("rape weed", which if you ask me just seems like a silly name for a plant, might be nice to find out the story on that sometime) fields that span the countryside. I actually was not aware of the existence of this plant until I lived here (first spottings in my exchange year in Freiburg), and didn't know what exactly it was until I moved to Hamburg. I just remember riding in the bus on a trip to Berlin with a class I was taking during my year in Freiburg about Jewish Culture in Berlin, when suddenly, amongst the freshly-grown green leaves on the trees, are these bright, almost fluorescent yellow fields of what I thought at the time was flowers. I just couldn't believe my eyes - was such a shocking contrast! Now I know that rape weed is raised mainly for making oil for cooking, but some people also make a sort of gasoline-substitute using raps! It's just funny and interesting when even nature is different than what you're used to. I still don't even know if rape weed is grown in the States....??

And also, Happy May Day! This is an official holiday in Germany, with stores closed and everyone off of work and everything, since it is also, i.e. more officially, Labor Day here. Seems funny, no one labors on Labor Day. Well, except some musicians - I just got back from a concert - a short mid-day ditty where I subbed in a youth orchestra. Soon it's off to web work in the sun on our balcony!

But before that, 2 more bits of news. The legendary soloist, cellist, and conductor Rostropovich died this week! That made pretty big news here, don't know if it made it to the States or not, but I also heard that one of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut also died recently. Big week(s) for artists! Also, the Hamburg marathon took place this past Sunday, which meant most of the streets downtown were blocked off and buses weren't running. I got to see some of the runners on the way to a gig, and one guy even ran the marathon and was so fast that he was able to make it to play our concert! Talk about overachiever! One that note, my goal is to achieve something today....

Goodbye USA, Hello Germany!

2007-04-25T16:51:00.000+02:00

I know, I know, I already have a "welcome back" post, but this one is just once more as a memory of the time I spent there with a nice sunset on the road next to our farm on our last evening there.

In other (good) news, I finally have internet and phone back again! After some confusion and cancellation of our internet and phone without us wanting that, they finally turned it back on today!! So I will be posting again starting now more regularly, and will be occupied for a few days now with catching up on my friends' blogs and the like. Yay, so exciting!

Otherwise things are back into full swing. I believe I had about 5 concerts last week, so my embouchure was forced back into shape pretty quickly. A bunch of gigs, which is awesome, and after sending out xxx number of applications for jobs, also some invitations to auditions, but I am still unsure which of those I will take (must consider the travel cost to chances of winning ratio, which by some of my invitations is tipped dramatically to one side, you can probably guess which side). I will also be taking part in a solo competition for our conservatory. 3 pieces from 3 different genres, one piece written after 1950, and one piece memorized (must be a concerto if one's on your program). I also found an accompanist, a different one who is probably about my age who I usually don't play with, who should be fun to work with. At least til that happens I still have a couple of weeks.

So between that, audition prep, gigs, teaching, and my web job, I am not currently at a lack of things to do! On that note, I have to leave for a rehearsal now. More later, and remember to keep checking back more often now!!

Smells of a big city

2007-04-13T17:21:00.000+02:00

Even blindfolded, I would have been able to tell I was back in Hamburg. Smells of fries and doner kebabs, car exhaust, cigarette (or other kinds of) smoke, flower blossoms, and just a different smell in the air fill my nose. No more fresh country smell - I'm not in small-town America anymore! Really, even without smelling anything in particular, the air is definitely different here. No picture today (although I of course have lots from my vacation) since I'm at an internet cafe right now. Unfortunately we don't have internet or telephone at home right now, but they told us that it would be back up again in 2 weeks - I'm hoping it's not late, and really crossing my fingers that it comes sooner! So don't expect much posting for the next week either...but keep checking back!

Had a day to recooperate from flying and readjust to the fast-paced life of a freelancer and student here in Hamburg by unpacking and sleeping! Jet lag has seemed to not hit me that hard this time, mostly thanks to forcing myself to sleep at night, getting up at a decent time in the morning, and of course an afternoon nap for the past 2 days! Flight was fine - had 2 carry-ons and because of that had a few close-calls with our airline getting through, but luckily one was a music instrument, so I was allowed to have another small bag (otherwise they were very very strict about just ONE bag of any kind per person - a purse had to fit into the other bag if you had one, which mine didn't). Whew.

I stocked up on American goodies that I'd been craving for the past year - cinnamon Altoids, caramels (for caramel apples!), brown sugar, baking soda, jelly bellies, flavored instant oatmeal - well, I didn't say the things they don't have here are particularly healthy. ;) I also brought my crock pot back since they don't have them in Germany if you can believe that, and it seemed to have survived the trip. Got a converter ahead of time since I don't want it to blow up while I'm not there. Now come the days where dinner is served (and hopefully not char-burnt) as soon as you walk in the door!

But in general, my visit to the States was very nice - got to see some museums and places, only got to visit one friend though. Will hopefully post sort of a photo memory of the trip on my website when I have internet again. Was fun to take pictures with my cell phone/digital camera this trip - I could take silly pics too! It is nice to be back, though, in the spring weather (not 4 inches of snow like WI!) and just back to the day-to-day happenings in my life in Hamburg. This weather was a really great welcome-home gift!! Oh, that and my flavored oatmeal for breakfast this morning! ;)

Woohoo! USA Vacation!

2007-03-15T00:12:00.000+01:00

The White House? No! My house? No! It's a photo of my first trip on my USA vacation - a trip to my alma mater for the day, Madison! Yes, I have already enjoyed almost a week of my 5-week super duper American vacation! Am at my mom's now and we took a trip to Madison to see the sights - walked/window-shopped on State Street, saw the campus, visited my former horn professor shortly, went to the Union and sat on the terrace, walked ON the lake since it's frozen over, walked through the capitol, took pictures, and most of all - drank a coffee and had some crumb cake at my favorite coffee shop on State Street (Espresso Royale Cafe) and ate dinner at one of my favorite restaurants (Himal Chuli, a Nepalese place)! We even met another German guy while we were sitting on the terrace, another fan of Madison. Was weird to be back since it was my first time in 2 years - was all so familiar (except for the to-be-expected new stores on State Street), but still a part of my past and my development. Not to mention the awesome weather we had for the day, as you can maybe see!

Am pretty much over my jet lag now, had woken up at 6am for the first few days (and managed to fall back asleep after that), and was dead tired by 9pm, but it's sorta evening out now. Of course I am already completely there enjoying all the American favorites I miss out on in Germany - have already been out to breakfast for pancakes and hash browns a few times, and have had a tasty steak dinner!

Am also having a nice time getting in some good practicing. Speaking of which, the potential buyers for my old horn flew up to try it out - and bought it! So I am happy to have sold my baby. Sad as it is, it is finally done (it's been over a year since I've wanted to sell it).

My new laptop has also arrived, and this post is written from it! My old one was totally freaking out and was not reliable, and especially considering I need a decent one for my web stuff, I got this one with many customizations. It seems really really sweet so far, but has Windows Vista Home Premium, which I didn't really want, but seems to be responding ok so far; we'll see. Also got a carrying case and a free 3-in-1 printer. Hurray, hopefully this one will last for a while!

'Nuff news for now, gotta go, more updates from the US of A lata'!

Almost lived to turn 2 years old

2007-02-27T22:21:00.000+01:00

No, the picture is not a ghost or alien a vision. That is Hans Christen Andersen - well, in traffic light form! For the 100th birthday celebration of his birthday, the city redesigned itself and changed a lot of traffic lights (the ones that tell you to walk, for example) into Hans Christen Andersen figures. You would not believe what I had to go through to get this picture, or even to get one that turned out - tricky with lighting...and oncoming traffic! Ha.

Well, despite the whole country (meaning Denmark this time) freaking out about a "huge" blizzard which turned out to be where we were about 2 inches, our train back to Hamburg was not canceled, or even delayed (although over 200 flights out of Copenhagen were canceled)! Was indeed nice to come back although we were only gone for a week. Must say that the food was much better this time, a better caterer. We even got Mexican food 2 times, even with some guacomole (I got to explain to people what that was), which I am now convinced is the makes-you-happy food! We also had a super nice breakfast buffet in our hotel every morning where you can get anything you want (well, any breakfast food you could want), very fancy.

As for the music, our rehearsals continued to be good, although I must admit that modern music is a bit tiresome to rehearse sometimes since there are lots of rests at times, and, uh, is not always the most melodic. But I learned some things (also some words in Danish), was a good experience, and got to hang out with my Danish friends as well as meet new people, which is always nice. Our concert went ok, and there will supposedly be a recording sent to our school, but because of the weather there we unfortunately not that many people in the audience. And they arranged for a nice little party after our concert, also a nice gesture. Was fun, a nice getaway, but nice to be back home!!

My mp3 player died this week. I realized that it was seriously ill for the past week since I would turn it on and it would buzz and turn off, and then, the stroke that killed it - tried to turn it on and nothing. Even after a little rescusetation (oh man has my English spelling gotten bad) attempt, i.e. attachment to computer with USB cable, nothing could get its little heart beating again. Oh well. At least it lived to be almost 2 years old. Guess it's time to consider the options...!

In other news, it looks good about selling my old horn while I'm in the States, have had some contact with possibilities! Which reminds me, in just a few hours from now in exactly 1 week I will be on the plane to the States, YAY!!! I can't wait!! Hope the coldness/blizzarness/wintery-ness leaves the Midwest soon; I'm starting to get spoiled here with the constant above freezing weather! ;)

Greetings from Denmark!

2007-02-18T12:38:00.000+01:00

Greetings from the home of Hans Christen Andersen, aka Odense, Denmark! I found some computers here at the conservatory, and just thought I'd put in a post to say hi from somewhere other than Hamburg! Thus no photo today.

I'm here at the music conservatory for an orchestral academy put on by the same people as when I was here in the summer of 2005 for the opera academy. We have already spent 2 nights here, and we are staying at a nice hotel downtown with a super big and tasty breakfast buffet...hmm! Luckily we get all of our meals taken care of since we only have 500Kr for the whole time (approx. 70€), and everything is super expensive! We got sick of rolls on the first day and decided to check out McD's for something. I ordered medium fries and a medium milkshake, costing me a total of 37.50Kr (or 5.50€!) for just that, and a friend got a cheeseburger and carrots for over 4€! Just goes to show....no wonder Denmark doesn't want the Euro, it would just drag down their economy.

But anyway, we've just had sectional rehearsals so far, and besides we 5 from Hamburg, the rest appear to be from Denmark, or at least are all Danish-speaking, which means many jokes not understood. The music sure gives us something to work on, but is not necessarily always as rewarding for the soul as one might hope (Lutoslawski, Gregson, and Ravel - all semi-modern to modern composers...). But have at least met up with a few Danes that I knew from last time. Have some time to practice, just hang out and chat or whatever, watch TV (since it's Denmark, they broadcast all the American shows in English with Danish subtitles, a nice little treat!), and see the city.

In news from before I left, I am done moving now - did that on Wednesday. Rented a moving van for cheap but had to have a friend drive it since I can't drive stick (too bad, I wanted to try to drive here in this crazy country!), but we managed to move everything in our allotted 3 hours (just the 2 of us)! Good exercise, that's for sure. And, I have to announce that I won.....the battle with the foreigner's office to get my visa! After much deliberation, I was finally able to convince them that I can and will and have earned enough money to support myself in the future, and I got my visa extension for a year and a half!! That's a big relief since I had been dreading what means I'd have to use to extend my visa without cash in the bank. But the believed the truth and the power of convincing!

So, I'm off to eat lunch at the academy now, then we will see the city a bit and take some photos before our rehearsal tonight. More to come from the Denmark adventures!

P.S. So far, to my relief, just normal sandwiches for dinner every night....no frikadelle and pineapple sandwiches....!

Long time, no post

2007-02-10T18:29:00.000+01:00

Here's a neat photo I took the other day on the way to work - yes, it has been cold enough here that ice and snow have shown their wintery faces and are here to stay. Finally Winter!!

Am off to play Brahms Serenade at school in a few minutes, but just thought I'd put up a post since it's been a while here while I eat. I made a tasty mozerella-tomato pasta sauce using fresh mozerella - I love the foods that I have cheap access to here!

The busy season is starting to wind down a bit - just have the concert tonight before I leave for Denmark next Friday for a week to play at the orchestral academy there. Good musicians, speaking English with the nice Danes, and a wonderful breakfast buffet every morning at our hotel. I'm just hoping they have come up with something new to serve us for dinner every night other than a sandwich with frikadelle and pineapple (what they gave us a year and a half ago at the opera festival there)! Ick.

Am still trying to organize transportation for my move, which I hope will happen next week before I leave. My Valentine's Day present to Jan will be all of my crap lying around his apartment...ha! My current roommate has been bringing people over to look at the place every now and then, and some more are coming tomorrow, so I will go now and do some finishing cleaning-up touches (dishes, vacuuming, cleaning excrement off the floor, etc. By the way, just kidding about that last one ;) )

I want to do my taxes again!

2007-01-31T20:22:00.000+01:00

This was a few days ago when it actually got down below freezing in Hamburg; my attempt to take a picture of it snowing (which you can sorta see, I think). I was actually debating if I should buy one of those super thick puffy coats because my peacoat wasn't quite as warm as I'd hoped - and I was happy that I didn't need my umbrella because it was just snow! But, of course, that cold a.k.a. winter streak did not last for long - it only stayed about 2 days maximum and now we are back up to 46°F (right now at 8:30pm)! I really don't know if winter will come at all this year, til now it has just seemed like an indecisive season to me.

I love nice surprises (uh, maybe that's a stupid thing to say - who doesn't?!). Anyway, I had agonized for a long time about the whole daunting process of German taxation and filling out my German taxes because I was sure I either 1)turned in my taxes for 2005 way late, or 2)did them completely wrong - both of which I was just hoping would not end in a)an audit, b)a hefty fine, c)a visit to the local jail, or d)deportation. After hearing nothing for a long time, I finally got notice today that I will actually be getting TONS of money back - I couldn't believe it! I felt like I won the lottery at the IRS! Such good news, a very pleasant surprise - also a relief that I conquered and won another German beaurocratic "conflict"!

Something that I thought was taboo in general and especially taboo in Germany has happened; a public poking-fun of Hitler - in the new movie Mein Führer (my leader, a term almost exclusively reserved for referral to Hitler). Seems to, as one would expect, have caused a lot of debate among the public, and I was really shocked to see posters up for a "cheeky comedy" about Hitler. I just thought that this would be a topic that would never come up in this way - seems pretty weird or out of taste to me (I know the Germans of today have nothing to do with it, but still...), but you can read more about what TIME wrote about it here. On a side note, as far as I know, any kind of Nazi symbols or denouncement of the existence of the Holocaust are illegal in Germany!

In other news, still plugging away busily with rehearsals and concerts and the like, plenty to do!

Did you know......?

2007-01-24T13:29:00.001+01:00

Ok, and to join the masses in the list-making-frenzy; I present the following as a response to the originally tagged list from my NY friend:

5 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me:
1. I rarely get up before 9:30am! Yes, I do have plenty of things to do, but I still get them done, and most of my appointment commitments (rehearsals, lessons, concerts) are always in the afternoon or evening, which means I get to bed late anyway.
2. I hate German-style showers - the ones where the shower head isn't attached to anything and you have to hold it in one hand; mainly because I need 2 hands to shower - gotta plug your ears with something to keep the water from running in!
3. I love taking secret photos of people and then showing them the picture I took.
4. Somehow, the majority, if not all, of my diet/meals lately has had something to do with eggs or cornmeal or apples.
5. My day must start with coffee and end with a cup of tea!

Hm, that list seemed more like 5 Confessions From Me, but it'll do for now.

In other news, I have now officially booked my flight for the States, from March 7th-April 10th - so friends and family beware! ;) I am so excited I can't wait! I do however have to get an extension for my visa before I leave, which I am secretly dreading - after all the problems I somehow had 2 years ago with this, I am just hoping that since I've been an upstanding, tax-paying, self-supporting citizen since then that I won't be put under so much scrutiny this time. At least I got an appointment and I won't have to wait for hours and hours and hours in a room filled with other foreigners, sitting in rows of cold, hard plastic chairs stuck together, trying to read a book and listen to my mp3 player and check to see what number is up simultaneously, wondering if you should kill the baby who's been screaming and running around for the past hour or the mother who's been screaming at it to shut up in some language that I can only guess what it might be for the past hour!

OH shoot, gotta run and teach English, then Horn!

Here....and there!!!

2007-01-17T22:56:00.000+01:00

Enjoy the photo of Jan's cat, Taz, in the window looking down at me one sunny, yes, I said sunny, day with blue skies!

Back at it again as usual. Just as my schedule starts to clear and I think, man, what will I do with all my time, things fill up - more students, more performances, more applications, more auditions .... just more music! Yippee! Will keep you posted of any important results or other news in this regard.

The weather is till pretty d$*# mild here, mid-40s if you can believe that! Not even giving snow, none the less flurries, a chance! I'm really beginning to wonder if a real winter will even come at all. It has been fairly rainy as usual, though, which isn't a problem anymore with my (rain) hat and (rain-proof) boots. All set to go!

Also, I am planning my next US trip now!! I think it will be around the first week of March thru the first week of April so I can spend Easter with my family - will be nice to finally spend a holiday with them and in the States! And, Jan is coming with me! Never brought anyone along before, should be a really good time (showing him a positive view of American culture....!).

Oh, one other big news - just decided today! I have found another apartment solution! As you may recall, my roommate announced his marriage to his girlfriend and is moving in with her fairly soon, so I must move (yes, again). But, good news - I will be moving in with Jan!! It will be great!!!

(hope you enjoyed the short but sweet news flash! ;) )

Yeah....so....

2007-01-12T13:17:00.000+01:00

Another audition past and some time spent in Berlin! My audition this past week was near Berlin, and just as chance would have it, a horn friend of mine from the States (with whom I always seem to meet up somewhere in Europe - last time was Denmark) happened to be on tour with Jeunesses Musicales, a world orchestra, in Germany, with a one-day stop in Berlin - the one day that I also had to travel through Berlin to get back to Hamburg! So despite my being tired due to a sleepless night on a very thin air matress on a concrete floor the night before my audition and her being tired after getting up at 4am to go by bus to Berlin with the orchestra, we met up for a few hours in downtown Berlin, where I went to their dress rehearsal and concert (thus the photo for today!). Was a fun little adventure, culminated by another short night on the air matress in their 5-star hotel, and was of course great to see a friend I've known for years again!

Oh my gosh, the sun! I have to take a short break from writing to look.

In other news, I'm still on the apartment search and trying to decide what to do about that whole thing. I have either til end of January or end of Febraury to get a place, guess that's kinda flexible. I just really don't want to move...so ist es!

Over a week without a post, and that's all there is for now folks! More again soon!

Bang into the New Year

2007-01-02T20:54:00.000+01:00

I couldn't resist it. I had to post 2 photos this time that I took as documentation of the aftermath of New Year's Eve in Hamburg, aka unregulated useage of firework debrit and the results there of. The first is a street near mine, looks like a war zone, not to mention this nice bench at my bus stop, which I almost sat on til I looked down and to my horror and disguist saw bits of shrapno and explosive powder covering the thing. Wow, it will take a while to clean up the city!

Hope your New Year came in with a bang! As I mentioned, here it came in with hundreds of bangs, if not thousands, starting on the 31st, with the culmination of constant cracks and booms for at least 30 minutes straight at midnight. Really crazy. The air was thick with fog, and smelled like those cap guns that we used to shoot off as kids. Although the weather was a bit drizzly, that did not dampen anyone's fun.

Yes, I did get a chance to celebrate too, dispite my 4 concerts within 24 hours! Went over to a friend's house for a little party, which is where I experienced the above mentioned going-ons. We even managed to squeeze in a few minutes to watch part of "Dinner for One", a British short film that is one every channel here and watched widely across Germany as a New Year's tradition. Earlier that evening, I did another German tradition for New Year's - Bleigießen, or "pouring of lead". It's a just-for-fun way to tell your fortune for the upcoming year. Here's how it works - you take a spoon, put a small lead good-luck figure on the spoon, hold it over a candle to melt it, then quickly dump the iron into water, which forms some sort of figure. Then you look at their interpretation list to see what your figure means. I'm still trying to figure out what my lead figures even could resemble! ;) I mean, come on, some of the things that were options, which I really wonder how someone could see that in their lead, were: torte, pineapple, casket, hunting horn, scissors, child, and a cube, among others. What they really looked like was more like: blob, long-skinny thing with 1 leg, another blob, and a smeared chunk. Like I said, I'm still trying to figure out what mine were, but it's fun to do anyway!

Another year is past, and all I can hope for is that it is just as exciting as the last year. Lots of stuff happened, both good and not-so-good. That's what makes life interesting! But what else is so different this year? As for everyone here in Germany in general, on a day-to-day basis, a few things have changed.
      1. Taxes have been raised as of the 1st of January from 16% to 19%, which I might say is quite an increase. It's just a funny thing to experience, since in the States politicians become popular for agreeing never to raise taxes.
      2. Stores are now allowed to set their own opening and closing times. Before, most stores had to close by 8pm and couldn't be open on Sundays. Now, stores including my grocery store are open til 10pm!
      3. Many cigarette vending machines on the streets have been rebuilt to only deal out cigarettes after inserting a card which varifies your age (16 years old). Before, anyone just had to put in the 4 Euros of coins and they'd get a pack, no questions asked!
      4. All computers (with internet capabilities, also if not used for internet) and all cell phones capable of internet or radio connection must be reported and registered by the GEZ and you must pay a monthly fee just to own these devices, even if you never use them. Til now, just TVs and radios (also radios in your car or alarm radios) were federally required to be reported.

Hope your year is off to a good start, and hope that you can stick to your resolutions, if you can remember what they were for longer than 2 weeks (my problem with keeping past resolutions...)!

Happy New(s) Year!

2006-12-30T11:11:00.000+01:00

Last holiday pic for the year! This is a close-up of a christmas light on our, or should I say, Jan's christmas tree, or at least the one we decorated and have at his house. Yes, your eyes do not deceive you, that is indeed an originally-made, American-style popcorn chain to decorate the tree (my idea that I imported, of course), which does not look too bad on the tree at all...a bit like a chain of snow, hehe!

Hope your holidays til now were nice! I was at Jan's family's house in Hamburg for a few days, where we enjoyed a typical German celebration of Christmas, which occurs on the evening of the 24th with Present-Unwrapping and The Eating of Good Foods (we had raclette (see picture), a toaster-oven type thing where each person had a little pan and puts veggies and meats and cheese on it to melt). They also celebrate the 1st and 2nd Christmas Days, meaning the 25th and 26th, by basically hanging out with family, eating good food like tortes and duck, and playing with your Lego-City train set you got for Christmas if you're the 6-yr-old nephew of Jan and ringing your bell and blowing the train whistle ALL evening! But it was a very nice time, quite a homey feel.

After a few days off and a first lesson of another new 9-yr-old student I just got (she got a horn for Christmas and I will be teaching her from the start), I have now embarked on my New Year's Eve and New Year's Day 2-concerts-per-day journey. It's a great time of year for gigs, but I am still going to try to fit in a New Year's Eve party between the concerts, which should also be fun, so I will be in Hamburg for that. It finally got a bit colder here, and we even had a light dusting of snow 2 days ago, which is of course gone by now, but it still hasn't gotten much below the upper 30s (F). Today's it's cloudy, windy, gray, and rainy.

In other news, my roommate, who I never see and announced his sudden marriage a few weeks ago, let me know yesterday that I cannot stay in my apartment since I do not have a full-time employment (required for the main lease-holder by the landlord), which means that I will in fact be moving AGAIN by the end of February at the latest. Yes, I have lived here for less thatn 6 mo. and have to move again, and yes, this is the 2nd time in-a-row that a roommate cancelled our lease on me. Oh well, I guess you could say I have a new hobby then - cleaning out / minimizing my stuff in order to move efficiently!!

I wish you all the happiest of New Year's! I hope the following year brings lots of luck and happiness, and don't get into too much trouble on Silvester (New Year's Eve)! Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!! (as they say in German, a good slide/fall into the new year!)

Christmas cheer, that time of year

2006-12-21T12:39:00.000+01:00

Just in time for Christmas, as the world is remembering the birth of a child by a virgin, this animal is apparently also a virgin mother, which is just weird. I wonder if the church will now have to rethink the whole idea that Mary became pregnant through the spirit, or if she just made herself pregnant?

This is another photo of the Weihnachtsmarkt or "Christmas Market" that takes place across Germany every year til the 23rd of December. This is a pic of a few people enjoying some food and or Glühwein outside at the market! So far this year I've been to the one at the city hall and the one at the main shopping street, but the one at the city hall is nicer - more compact and cozy. And there you're not disturbed quite so much by hasty shoppers bumping past you or street musicians!

I'm officially freed of all duties until after the holidays now! No more lessons, no concerts, just holiday stuff, hanging out, and practicing for my next audition (scheduled the beginning of January). I will have a New Year's Eve concert and New Year's Day concert, and a lesson to give in between, but otherwise it's holiday time in Hamburg for me, yippee!

Finally, I would like to share this hilarious and cute holiday poem that I just heard at a private Christmas party that our horn quartet played at this week. The grammar and words they chose to use are so typical and funny, well, funnier if you know some German, so more geared toward a semi-dual-language audience, but here's a shot at it anyway, enjoy!

When the snow falls wunderbar
And the children happy are,
When the Glatteis on the street,
And we all a Glühwein need,
Then you know, es ist soweit:
She is here, the Weihnachtszeit

Every Parkhaus is besetzt,
Weil die people fahren jetzt
All to Kaufhof, Mediamarkt,
Kriegen nearly Herzinfarkt.
Shopping hirnverbrannte things,
And the Christmasglocke rings.

Mother in the kitchen bakes,
Schoko-, Nuss- and Mandelkeks
Daddy in the Nebenraum
Schmückt a Reisen-Weihnachtsbaum
He is hanging auf the balls,
When he from the Leiter falls...

Finally the Kinderlein
To the Zimmer kommen rein
And es sings the family
Schauerlich: "Oh, Christmastree!"
And a jeder in the house
Is packing die Geschenke aus.

Mama finds unter the Tanne
Eine brandnew Teflon-Pfanne,
Papa gets a Schlips and Socken,
Everybody does frohlocken.
President speaks in TV,
All around is Harmonie,
Bis mother in the kitchen runs:
Im Ofen burns the Weihnachtsgans.

And so comes die Feuerwehr
With Tatü, tata daher,
And they bring a long, long Schlauch
And a long, long Leiter auch.
And they schreien - "Wasser marsch!",
Christmas now is voll im........Eimer

Merry Christmas, merry Christmas,
Hear the music, see the lights,
Frohe Weihnacht, Frohe Weihnacht,
Merry Christmas allerseits....

How are YOU going?

2006-12-13T10:48:00.000+01:00

Another pic from the Christmas market at the city hall - that is Santa in his sleigh with some snow girl waving from a cloud attached to the bottom of the sleigh as they fly in the air above us at the market. Well, I guess they weren't really flying since they were attached to a few cables, but at the least they were gliding in the air above us and waving as Christmas music played very loudly in the background. Very festive and interesting as always, good ol' Weihnachtsmarkt! Will be heading there again soon since it is of course only open til the 24th.

Been preparing for my audition lately that I have tomorrow! Should be fun, am looking forward to having the experience. It's high horn, which means the first 2 rounds are just Strauss 1 and Mozart 4 with Cadenza and piano. Only in the 3rd round will they get to the excerpts, funny, huh? Although it is quite the list, also including the long call, ugh. But as I just thought, almost exactly 6 months to the day after I first got sick I'm playing an audition! My second one, yeah! And also good preparation for the one in January I'll be doing too.

You'll never guess what I found aka bought here the other day! Was looking around at a larger grocery store here and found Oreos! And marshmallows! Such American traditions that are hard to find here but now I know....not impossible. Now I can make this yummy sticky caramel popcorn that my mom always made with the marshmallows - and hope that the German version of brown sugar is ok (they don't have our brown sugar here - what they call brown sugar is what we call sugar-in-the-raw).

Here's the ironic thing, though. It appears that the Oreos were packaged in *gasp* England, since it says on the front "America's number one biscuit". They're not biscuits for gosh sakes, they're cookies! Speaking of which, I never really thought about all the differences between the different kinds of English floating around in the world much before coming to Germany and having contact with people who speak these other kinds of English. For example - a good Australian friend of mine, with whom I had an amusing discussion yesterday about their sport cricket and our sport baseball (apparently similar). The conversation went something like this - me:"that's not even a sport, that's an animal!" - him:"well at least in cricket we can hit the ball anywhere on the field, not just within certain parts of the diamond!" As he would say, we had a good "rag" on each other's national pastimes! And of course there is the neverending discussion of how to ask how someone is feeling. We of course say, How's it going, or how are you doing, but in for the Aussies, they say how are you going? To which I reply, "well, I'll probably take the bus or just go by foot". Hehe. Sillies.

Christmassy warm fuzzies

2006-12-05T11:57:00.000+01:00

This is a photo of what 2 typical Germans look like. There are no ovens here, all food is entirely meat and cooked over a flame fire. They know no other flavorings besides ketchup and mustard. If you believe that, I've got more for you coming....! Haha. Well, this is a photo of 2 Germans at the Weihnachtsmarkt, or Christmas Market, here in Hamburg, which has been going on now for about a week and a half. It still is a bit warm to be thinking about Christmas, but at least it is December now - it's even worse here than in the States about how early the X-Mas stuff goes up. At least by us they usually wait til after Thanksgiving, here you see displays in the stores starting mid-November.

This is a Spiess (pork or turkey skewer) stand at the main X-Max market at the city hall (Rathausmarkt). The Christmas Market also has many other typical albeit old-fashioned German food stands (sweet things too!), as well as stands selling handicrafts, be it candles or woven things or wooden toys or ornaments. And don't forget about the Glüwein, or mulled spiced wine, which is a must if you go just to hang out with some friends. Here you can see that there are other markets around town with slightly different themes, but as far as I know the one at the city hall is the biggest. I think it's a great tradition, and think it's unfortunate that we don't have such a thing....well, I've heard there's something similar in Chicago, is that true?

In other news, playing is going well. I am preparing for an audition next week that I am basically doing for the experience and have 2 horn students now, which is fun! I'd never really taught lessons before coming to Hamburg, and once I've been here I've also had some English students, which is also interesting for the sake of comparison. It's amazing what you learn when you have to teach it to someone else - makes you really analyze what you're doing yourself and think critically.

Speaking of horn, I must practice now, then I'm off to enjoy some of the nice weather while it's here - it's so warm today (14C or 57F)! I'm wearing a skirt and am not cold! And to think that I just heard that WI got 13" of snow - so. different.! Doesn't exactly put you in the X-mas mood, but I cannot complain at all!

P.S. Hm, guess it's been a while since I felt inspiration to write here!
P.P.S. The value of the dollar, or should I say dis-value, is really starting to make me cry.

Population control through bakery food?

2006-11-24T00:26:00.000+01:00

First of all, I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, no matter where you are living or what your personal and societal view on the holiday are! Thanks to Google and the internet, although I am of course living in Germany and also of course have no TV, I was still able to find a streaming live web-cam of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade online here, which I watched for a little while. A tast of home! Speaking of taste, my Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a pretty bland soup with overcooked veggies and some chunks of something, maybe egg, maybe dumpling, who knows, that I ate at the gig I played. It was actually nice of them to provide us with some warm food before the concert, but of course nothing in comparison to what most of you are probably eating today! I just had to laugh. What also occured to me is that this is not the first time this happened. Last year on Thanksgiving I also played this gig, same orchestra, same place, and of course same food! Never thought my Thanksgiving traditions here would be like this....but as a last comment for the holiday of giving thanks, I give thanks for not only being able to make music, but also some cash! hehe.

Ok, this is a photo of something that I've seen actually quite often here at bakeries or cafes, including the one across the street from me (pictured here) and the music school - brötchen, or rolls, with RAW BEEF on them! What about mad cow and bacteria? What ever happened to cooking the meat? What about serving it to customers?? What is with people eating raw beef in these days??? I really just can't believe it. Guess it's my American side coming out again - the one that has been told so many times about the dangers of dealing with raw meat let alone raw beef, mad cow disease, and just the idea of it. For me, just doesn't have to be, and won't be! Interesting how they always serve it with onions on it...

My horoscope today, which I have automatically displayed daily on my Yahoo! front page as a feed, was particularly insightful and really had more truth and wisdom to it than I was expecting. It read as follows:

Despite all the advice you've been given, focusing on your limits today is not going to help you get past them. Right now, you need to forget about whatever is holding you back. The more you think about it, the more power you're giving it. It's time to fake it until you make it! Stride forward with all your energy, and don't even think about failure. If you can convince yourself of your value, then other people will soon be convinced, too -- and doors will start opening.

Of course it could apply to anyone, no matter what their zodiac sign is, but I really do find it actually, well, wise - and most people would be a lot happier if they followed this advice!

On that inspirational note, I go to bed, for I have another 3 concerts and 2 rehearsals ahead of me this weekend, and possibly a big Thanksgiving dinner if I can swing it!

Here a little, there a little, everywhere a little

2006-11-18T12:40:00.000+01:00

In German there's a saying durch die Blumen reden, which means literally to "talk through the flowers", meaning to sugar-coat everything you say and not speak directly. Well in this photo if you look very carefully through the flowers here, you can actually see the outline of the sun directly, which is a rare thing for this season, so I post this photo (taken through the flowers on my balcony) in honor of durch die Blumen reden. Plus my computer still won't recognize my phone to transfer more photos, so I'm running out of photos I had orignially loaded from it onto my computer....!

I saw a really good German movie here last week called Das Parfum, or "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer", based on a book by Patrick Süskind. Basically a murder story, but also a story about a lad who has no personal scent but the best sense of smell in all of Paris and is working on developing the perfect parfume, trying to discover the exact formula that the ancient Egyptians had used but no one knew what it was. A good film (directed by Tom Tywker, probably the most famous German director) - also good if you've read the book from what I've heard. Other than this film, I have absolutely no idea what is playing in the theaters - that's how up I am on things now, hehe!

Looking back on it, this week was definitely a week of getting odds and ends done - sent in some applications (hoping for invitations!), did my taxes (finally), sent in loan deferment forms from Madison (gulp), sent in a bill for my paycheck, played Hunter's Moon in our horn class performance (which went pretty well actually), cleaned my apartment, did laundry, etc, etc. Nice to check things off the list. Even had time to visit the Caspar David Friedrich exhibit at the Art Museum downtown, which was also great and by the way has had supposedly record numbers of visitors!

Now I can add updated my blog to those things accomplished! ;)

P.S. Among other things this week I decided to get a monthly public transportation pass, the CC-Card, since it rains a lot and I had to travel quite a bit (also far) - will save me money in the end, and since music students aren't considered real students in Hamburg, we don't get a monthly pass (Semesterticket) already included in our tuition. But I still have to laugh. For 30€ (a price that has gone up 1.50€ in the past year) the ticket is only good for the month in 3 city zones (you can choose which, and outside the zones any time of day is another 1.50€ per trip) and not from M-F between 4-6pm. But still cheaper than the alternative - a day pass is 4.90€ and a single ticket is 2.50€! Still cheaper than a car...(with gas prices at 1.20€/liter), but nothing beats the time- and price-saving qualities of my good ol' bike most of the time!

How could ya, WI?

2006-11-10T11:23:00.000+01:00

News sure travels fast and far! With America's position under the world's magnifying glass, I'm sure that most Germans knew our election results before I did (as confirmed by the fact that one did tell me the results). And as is also common abroad, everyone was thrilled that the Democrats once again have a majority in the House and Senate, translating to the fact that Bush has now been left powerless for his last 2 years in office. A number of people I saw yesterday greeted me by saying something to the effect of "Hi, isn't is great that Bush can't cause any trouble any more?". Seems to be that the nation is not so convinced of the GOP after all! Although nobody seemed to notice the special issue ballots, they seem to be amused here the Schwarzenegger got another term. Speaking of which, I was a extremely disappointed to read how Wisconsin voted on the special issues ballot. What happened to A Fair Wisconsin Votes No campaign? Really. I'm sure they'd really be shocked here if they knew, since in Germany homosexual marriage is legal.

The photo is of my lamp from above one evening - just looked cool from that perspective. Guess I thought it looks like it could me a number of other objects too, if you use your imagination. ;)

In other news, I have been enjoying watching what TV I can on my computer - translation: shows that stations have put online for free viewing. My favorite as of late is Frontline, a PBS program that takes a closer look at current event or current interest topics. For the most part is an interesting and informative show that I really enjoy, and I appreciate their span of topics over the years. Yesterday I watched The Merchants of Cool, an episode about marketing to today's teen culture, and A Class Divided, a provocative program dealing with a small-town teacher and her lessons and experiments on discrimination. I must admit, though, that the first of the two was interesting, but seemed to have some holes in the research, leaving in some respects more questions than answers, while the second one was really quite...well, like I already said...provocative. Just goes to show that the world would be a better and quite different place if people just jumped into the shoes of others more often. The show is a little educational escape to the States for a while for me I guess!

After downloading the new Firefox 2.0, I decided to look around and see what they meant by the Extensions and Add-Ons since I'd never really delved into that before. I was happy to find a few tools that seemed useful, which I proceeded to download, so now I have a built-in e-mail notifier, google previewer, mini-download manager, and constant weather update all in the status bar of my browser!! Yippee!

Wow, that's a lot of links for today.

My orchid is terminally ill.

2006-11-06T15:00:00.000+01:00

This post's photo was taken on a nice and sunny fall day in Hamburg as I was riding my bike home - it's of the side stairs to a school.

Wildlife: I don't know how to save my orchid. It really loved the climate in the hospital - bloomed for almost 2 months straight, until my old lady roommate, the one who always insisted I put the toilet seat down in our bathroom, decided she knew all about orchids and gave it too much water one weekend when I was at home in Hamburg. Since then, it's not been looking so good - the flower stem has dried up (I cut it off then), and one by one it's thick leaves are turning yellow and falling off, not to mention that I discovered some white patchy furry stuff on the leaves (maybe a fungus?). Any ideas? I just moved it to the window although I thought they don't like that much light...maybe that will help (or is it too cold by the window?). Not only that, but my rose that as of a month ago had grown back many many leaves that it had lost due probably to spider mites has gotten them back again and lost all of its leaves again - where are these spider mites coming from? Are there any kind of flowers that you can keep alive and blooming in this climate...as a student??

Music: My first gig this weekend back on the horn went pretty well - somehow had the feeling that playing was more automatic than usual, or in other words, was easier or flowed more than before. Was fun anyway, can't complain about that! I also will be playing Vinter's Hunter's Moon in our horn class performance in 2 weeks - a fun little piece to play for others.

Food: In the past few months I have eaten more fish then in my whole life combined up til now, I swear - and located in a harbor city, I'm in the right place for it here! Lately, my favorites have been fresh wild salmon (Wildlachs) filets and trout (Forelle) filets (maybe smoked too, but anyway good to eat on rolls for breakfast or something). Also had a Dorade (gilthead - never heard of it in English) with a garlic/rosemary/olive paste cooked in it - so tasty, ate the fish whole like a real Northern German. If you want good fish, Hamburg is the place to be. And someday, even though I have lived here for 2 years, I will get up at 6am on a Sunday morning and make it to the fish market, really, I will, someday....

Living: I must say, I really do like my apartment a lot; it's quiet, big, and cozy - but there are 2 really annoying things about it - 1) no microwave, and 2) freezer doesn't really work. That means no frozen foods or freezing anything, and it's difficult to heat left-overs and you have to dirty a pan just to make a hot chocolate. How civilization lived before the days of the microwave, I really don't know. Not that I'm one of those people who cooks using the microwave all the time (I really don't), but it just makes some things easier sometimes.

Internet: I'd just like to comment that I think it's funny that the new Internet Explorer has adopted the "Tab" function that Mozilla's Firefox has had for a while - an attempt to convert the masses back??

Got bit in the butt...

2006-11-02T16:09:00.000+01:00

...by Winter! Man, it's like Winter jumped on Hamburg in the past few days like a pitbull attacking an unsuspecting kid in the park - hey, both even bite you in the face! Whipped out the winter coat AND gloves AND thick scarf to ride my bike a few days ago. This Fall was beautiful but short lived; who knows, maybe we'll get a reprieve before Winter is here for good. By the way, here's another pic I took maybe 2 weeks ago - sunset on one of the many canals in Hamburg, with the TV tower in sight!

Played my first concert since the beginning of June last night - our music school concert of Mahler 1, which actually went pretty well. Better than in previous years as an ensemble, and personally also not too bad. Have also seen even in the past week a noticable increase in strength and ability in my playing - and just over the span of a week! My prof said in my lesson today at one point that my playing sounded better than before - hm, if that's true, guess the time off really did eliminate some bad habits. Playing is getting better more quickly now, and I have some time to put in the right amount and quality of practice that I need to get back to normal - and then to improve more, yeah! Also will play Brahms Requiem this weekend, which I'm looking forward to.

And is in fact true, as I first found out from my boss, Wal-mart is closing up shop in Germany! Wal-mart has been losing money pretty much since it arrived in Germany; the American ideal of low prices, convenience around-the-clock anywhere, and one-stop shopping just doesn't jive with Germany's competing Toom market (among others) and the tendency toward shopping at a nice little small store - albeit a nice little small store where you can buy only one of the items on your list of 10 things. When in Germany, do as the Germans do.....?

Went to Fürth (a smaller city in Southern Germany) the other day with my boss for AxDay, a kick-off info day for the up and coming product, Axinom, which offers a CMS solution and support for businesses (basically a software to manage and create websites for companies and manage business stuff). Nice little trip for the day, a day on which I got to see the beautiful colors of fall and both the sunrise and sunset, a rarity for me! - but of course we had car problems and ended up sitting and reading the Focus or Spiegel magazines at the BMW fix-it place in Kassel, which in turn made us late for the conference, but at least we could go and talk to some representatives anyway, and enjoy their catering treats! ;)

Carved a pumpkin with Jan on Monday for Halloween, a tradition that doesn't really exist here - Halloween in general is a fairly new holiday in Germany (about after the fall of the wall it started to appear here), and for some reason I still am shocked when I ask my German friends if they've carved a pumpkin and they say no. Well anyway, we made one with a Halloween cat on it (an evilish one with arched back sitting in a moon) - hopefully if my computer ever gets over itself and gets into the 21st century I will be able to transfer a photo of the jack-o-lantern to this site! We also (tried to) roast the pumpkin seeds in the oven to eat them - ok, they were in fact edible, but a bit too brown and not as tasty as I'd hoped or imagined. Better luck next time!

Enough update for now - ah, is it nice to be "back among the living", to quote someone I talked with today! ;)

Beautiful Hamburg Fall....so far....

2006-10-18T12:55:00.000+02:00

I was feeling a bit photographic the other day, and am still entertained by my new phone, which has a digital camera feature, since I don't have a "DigiCam" otherwise (as they'd call it here). After so many years of taking pictures the "traditional" way, waiting for film to be developed, and trying not to take too many pictures so your entire salary doesn't go toward film development, I must say that I am starting to explore and enjoy the artistic freedoms that having a (sort-a) digital camera allows. Since there probably aren't too many more sunny days left this year in Hamburg, I was feeling especially inspired as I rode my bike home from the Sternschanze the other day. So I will be doing 1 photo per post for the next few posts to show a few of my favs that I took. This one is on my balcony - I'll call it "The Sun shines a new light on German Pride".

Unfortunately, Hamburg in the Fall is not quite as colorful (unless you like the color medium-brown) as we are used to in Wisconsin, but has it's charm in other ways. The air is definitely a bit crisper, although I wouldn't say it's actually cold yet (still need a jacket, though). Ach, enough about the weather, as if there's nothing else going on...! ;)

I have decided my horn playing will be back to normal by the end of the month! Yes, it is a somewhat ambitious goal, but I have experienced a noticable strength in the past few days that has just developed, and I've tried to play a few pieces (Adagio and Allegro, Strauss 1), and can get through a page of each at a time, so I figure the goal is not too far off base if I keep working hard. Basically it's just an endurance and strength in the high register thing right now. I've also started saying yes to gigs again, which I'm looking forward to. I have my first rehearsal today since the last time I played in a group in June (!) with the music school orchestra, Mahler 1st. I am doing it low - 7th horn (as a nice ease into playing again, hehe). So I'm excited to see how that goes, but I think it should be alright for now!

For those who are wondering, health is still getting better and better - stronger every day, and I think a bit more feeling in the extremities. I shower now without shower shoes, which was the last thing that I really did differently in day-to-day life. Thinking back on my time in rehab, I really did learn a lot, and even picked up a few new things - like a love of the game Die Siedler von Catan, or Settlers of Catan. Winning "Game of the Year" award in Germany, this is seriously one of, if not THE, most fun game I've ever played in my life! You have cards and dice and a knight and a windmill, and you try to build up cities and buildings using raw materials you start with and can win/steal during the game. I know this 2-person version, and there's supposedly a board game version for more players, but for now, the 2-person one is so fun - I guess because you can use different strategies, and depending what your plan is and what the other person does or doesn't do your plans can be rewarding. So, highly recommended!

On the home front, our new washer is great! No fumbling around with the dial the whole time, but it still takes 2 hours, which from what I can tell is fairly normal here! It doesn't take that long in the States I don't think - there I waited a max of 45 minutes. And it's not like I had it on the economical water-saving setting - what's the deal? Oh, and I know for a fact now that washers do in fact eat articles of clothing - in my last washer I found one of my socks stuck in its lip by chance - i.e. wrapped in the outer edge of the rubber lining to the door where you can't really see.

As long as they don't start eating bigger things I guess I can't complain too much...

Which magazine IS the Proverbial Dolphin reading?

2006-10-09T23:15:00.000+02:00

My roommate is really on top of things. I just noticed that the kitchen door is missing - why? Because we are getting a new washing machine today, which my roommie organized in no time, yeah! No more turning the knob every few minutes for 2.5 hours while the washer does its thing...

I got the strangest e-mail yesterday. Although junk mail, it somehow got filtered through the normally-effective mail filtering service of Yahoo into my Inbox with the ambiguous subject lin "lena". Out of curiosity (no attachments, so I wasn't worried about a virus) I opened the mail to find what appeared to be an ad for a (very possibly fake) penny stock called "Investigative Servicees Agency" (yes, spelled that way). The whole e-mail had double letters, misspellings, and foreign letters to replace similar American ones. Even more confusing and perplexing was the last paragraph, which I will cite below because it's worth posting in entirety, to which I really was baffled and wondered 1) where on Earth did they (or he or she?) come up with this; 2) what this was supposed to mean; and 3) if this was some sort of a mad-libs puzzle or secret code?

A garbage can related to a steam engine trembles, or a buzzard of a dolphin writes a love letter to a dust bunny about a buzzard. A blithe spirit near another parking lot starts reminiscing about lost glory, but a demon for a globule lazily cooks cheese grits for a paycheck toward a
minivan. The football team inside some warranty returns home, or the almost burly food stamp graduates from an abstraction defined by a hydrogen atom. A buzzard panics, and a razor blade of the tabloid earns frequent flier miles; however, the hole puncher of a paycheck teaches a college-educated traffic light. The psychotic judge slyly borrows money from the temporal food stamp, because the cocker spaniel pours freezing cold water on the wedding dress.

Most people believe that the cheese wheel satiates an abstraction living with a senator, but they need to remember how carelessly the fat scythe returns home. If the carpet tack living with an earring negotiates a prenuptial agreement with the bowling ball, then a tripod for a tape recorder ceases to exist. A parking lot avoids contact with a flabby girl scout. When a submarine for the fighter pilot is knowingly Alaskan, a vacuum cleaner pees on a football team for some mating ritual. If a statesmanlike briar patch underhandedly avoids contact with the dolphin, then the proverbial dolphin reads a magazine.

Woah. It's all English, but makes absolutely no sense...actually quite amazing if you think about it - not to mention offers some messed-up visual images. Please let me know if you ever see a vacuum cleaner pee on a football team or if you believe that cheese wheels satiate abstractions.

And for the list, for all who commented (since this post isn't long enough already! haha):

Day
1. We never played Scrabble when I came to visit you last! :(
2. Find 5 meals at 5 ethnic restaurants that are under $10 in NYC!
3. Dark purplish-brown.
4. I like your enthusiasm/curiosity for things, that you can get along well with different types of people, and that you make people feel good about being themselves.
5. Same as you for me, i.e. breakfast with Cara at Espresso Royale on the morning of orchestral placement auditions. Clearest would have to be the party at Isaac's where we talked about dying your hair.
6. Blueberries.
7. Where/how did your love of elephants get started?

Joel
1. I enjoyed seeing X-Men with you that one summer after Holton Band!
2. Find a way to get back into music, even if it's just motivation to practice on your own!
3. Chartreuse.
4. I like that you can laugh and are honest and true to yourself.
5. Hm, would have to say one of our mixed-grade band rehearsals/concerts that we had.
6. Lettuce.
7. Remember that T-Shirt you wore to our one band concert....the one with the tie on the front? (I can't believe you got away with that!)

Lorn
1. That was cute that are moms were friends because of our recital. That was fun.
2. Find a venue to use your mandolin talents!
3. Medium green, I think because of that scarf you had.
4. I like your kindness and open-mindedness, and your ability to laugh and be silly.
5. Meeting you through Emily, I think at orientation for the music school. Yes, the early cat house times of no furniture are unforgettable! ;)
6. Guinea pig.
7. What is the meaning of "salamandastron"?

C de C
1. You were always pretty creative in horn class.
2. Learn how to make a Mexican dish that you don't know how to yet, as well as some "insider" Mexican!
3. Purple.
4. I like your open-mindedness, your motivation, your adaptability, and your willingness to try new things.
5. I saw you putting stuff in your locker right before I left for my exchange year and I think I asked you if you wanted some music of mine.
6. Koala.
7. How do you see your future and Mexico - do you want to stay there, or is it still too early to know?

Heidi
1. Remember Mongoose?
2. Figure out if you really do want to come back to Germany or not (weigh all aspect and be truthful)!
3. Redish-pinkish-orange (is that even a color?).
4. I like that you are eager to try new things (always do/like things I wouldn't expect you to!) and have a good time, and take others opinions to heart, and are a good friend.
5. Our first day in Freiburg, roommates, wandering around the town (or what we thought was the town before we discovered the real downtown) trying to find a store or restaurant, not even remembering if we took a tram or bus to get to the town from our residence! Man oh man were we lost and confused!
6. Oh, I guess pink amethyst.
7. Would you really be happy living in the Midwest for the rest of your life?

Oops, just noticed that I had made a comment too, but I'm NOT doing this for myself....well just to be really silly, what the hey.
1. I drank Pepsi last week for the first time in at least over 2 years.
2. Try not procrastinating any single thing, no matter how small, til I'm all caught up with things (aka better time management).
3. Medium blue-green.
4. I like my eye color.
5. Before school times, maybe I was 2 or 3, riding an orange tricycle in our yard.
6. Opal. (thank you everyone else for not answering turtle here for me)
7. What are my plans once I've reached my career and family goals - if that ever will happen?

Happy 16th B-day, Germany!

2006-10-03T21:39:00.000+02:00

Today is Tag der Deutschen Einheit, or Day of German Unity, a national holiday to commemorate the reunification of the former East and West Germany to form what Germany is known as today. Of course all stores and offices, besides a few gas stations and restaurants, were closed today. And as you may not have expected, it seems like a number of Germans are not as thrilled by this holiday as you might expect. Despite the political reunification of Germany, the division and tension between the West Germans and the East Germans has all but been healed. There is an overlying bitterness between the two sides; not to say the least many jokes that are less-than-harmless. Nevertheless, this division and ambivalence over this holiday was confirmed again to me this year as the following 2 Northern Germans said in response to my comment about Tag der Deutschen Einheit: 1) One said, "oh, you mean the Day we Bought East Germany?"; and 2) another expressed that to him it was not a real holiday to celebrate because of the total non-unification of the German people, mentioning the same points I just brought up above. About as controversal as our celebration of Thanksgiving...

One topic (among other popular ones, such as Bush/Politics) that always seems to come up with me as an American living in Germany is religion, and how the American people are stereotypically quite religious. Sidenote: Last summer I met a German woman who went so far as to say that she would never let her kids do an exchange program or study in the US because she didn't want them to get brainwashed by all the Christianity! Anyway, I inevitably get asked the question, "and what are you"? I reply that I was in fact raised Methodist, which has on more than one occasion (actually, I can't tell you how many times this has happened) been countered with the reponse, "what's that, some kind of sect?" What is with the Germans and their sects? After hearing this so much, I decided to do a little bit of googling just to make sure I was right and that I wasn't a member of a sect without knowing it (hehe), and to find out what exactly the definitions of sect and denomination are. Turns out that denominations are offshoots of an established religion (like Christianity) that last in time and spread geographically but still follow the main beliefs (Methodist), whereas a sect is an offshoot (short-lived) which has a deviations from the beliefs of the main religion (for example not believing in the trinity for Christianity). So, next time I am asked, I am now an informed person and will have a better response than just "no, it is not a sect!"... And living in the primarily protestant region of Germany (the South is however more Catholic), I have even heard that there are Methodists here, somewhere, waiting in the bushes for a spaceship from outerspace to come and take them away to the promised land... ;)

Ach, these are just a few of many things I just wouldn't get to think about if I wasn't living abroad!

That's enough religio-cultural babble for the day folks!

P.S. As for the comments from the list on yesterday's post, I will be attending to that soon (i.e. more time for you to add your comment)...since today is a holiday, it felt like Sunday, the day of rest - does that sound like a believable reason not to tack it on here yet?

MS for the day

2006-10-02T11:44:00.000+02:00

Happy October! Time is flying by as always....today marks the begin of the Winter Semester as well as the fact that the Indian Summer we had had here for weeks has packed its bags and been replaced by a typical Hamburg fall - a season that is cool, rainy, and cloudy.

It also marks a new quartal for the health insurance system - here you pay 10€ per quartal for doctor or other visits per practice unless you are referred from one to the other (don't have to pay another 10€ if your doctor sends you to the hospital, for example). I went to my doctor today to get my prescription for physical therapy, and just as I had suspected, she had had no idea what all had happened to me at all and was reading my releasal reviews as I was called into her office. She agreeably gave me the prescription, of course didn't know which center I should go to, so I told her about the one at Mundsburg that was recommended to me in Jesteburg. Then, when trying to assign an illness in her computer to me for the prescription, she couldn't find Miller Fisher, exclaimed something about me having a rare syndrome, and put MS in the computer (of course I will have to explain around that when I get to the therapy center)! So I guess I will have to do that scheduling myself, but at least she didn't give me any problems about that all and will help me to get what I want!

I also saw a special at the grocery store today and bought a gymnastic ball and 2 massage balls inexpensively since I learned a bunch of exercises for the ball and also used the spiked balls in ergo therapy to help with sensitivity training in hands and feet. The larger ball is good to use as a chair anyway; good for spine, back, and posture. A few days ago I also had gotten some Theraband, an exercise band for your whole body and an accompanying book, which my therapist had also recommended and is very helpful. My very own fun rehab and fitness center at home!

Since my 2-year cell phone contract was up, I got to renew that contract and get a free (well, almost) phone to go with it! After considering which options I'd like and searching through the models, I decided upon the Sony Ericsson W810i - had everything I wanted. White design, MP3 player and radio, 2.0 Megapixel camera for photos and videos, memory stick, usable in most countries, and generally way cool. I also noticed a metronome on there the other day - and a loud one, good for rehearsals. A new toy for the time being! So now with that, I will be putting more photos up here. I just updated my apartment photos, so you can see the hot new flat I call my own! I am still working out camera settings, so excuse the average quality for now. The photos on this posting are also curtesy of the phone camera!

And last but not least.....:
If you comment on this post...
1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll challenge you to try something.
3. I'll pick a color that I associate with you.
4. I'll tell you something I like about you.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal,vegetable or mineral you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something I've always wanted to ask you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours.

Celebration on many fronts

2006-09-29T16:07:00.000+02:00

....and the news flash is in....

Health: I've been back in my apartment for over 2 weeks now, and things are still getting better! My balance and strength are much better, and the feeling that isn't there or the weakness that is still there are things that I can live with until they decide to come back (although it is a bit annoying that I always have to make sure my hands and feet don't get too warm, which makes them considerably more numb). I go to the doctor on Monday and get my prescription for outpatient physical therapy, and I also got a band and a book with some exercises I can do at home. Am riding my bike most of the time when I need to go places, which is of course quite convenient. So that's all heading in the right direction, yippee!!

Music: I will also get to have my first lesson next week as well....despite my vacation semester, my professor has generously offered to give me lessons to get me back into shape. Should be interesting; I will just play for him as a check to make sure I'm not doing anything weird and make some sort of practice plans, etc. and check in with him for the start of the semester, which begins here at the beginning of October. Luckily (at least getting-in-shape-wise), I have said no to any horn commitments/gigs a.k.a. goals for playing a concert until November, and that can always change if I need to, so I still have weeks of time or more if necessary.

Work: I started up working at my web job again (after over 4 mo. hiatus!), as always with new things to learn and do. I should be able to do a bit of that from home here now, since I also just fixed my computer up so that I can use our flatrate internet in my new apartment (big hurray)! Will be able to put in more time with that in the next few months due to my time off and my vacation semester.

Home and Living: I really love my new apartment, it's great! My roommate seems really nice; emphasis on seems because he is very rarely home, but from what I can tell he is really nice. Just one thing....I cannot find a grocery store near me, which is really a bit strange since it seems like there is at least something on every other block! Til now I've just found the Toom market, like a Walmart, but I think it is too expensive for regular purchase, and just walking around I somehow can only find restaurants, kiosks, and an Apotheke for stores, although there is supposedly an Aldi store around here somewhere....

Entertainment: Am meeting with a few friends tonight to celebrate my birthday and my releasal from rehab! Spent a leisurely day yesterday for my birthday having typical German coffee/cake at Cafe Unter den Linden in the Sternschanze and splurge for dinner at Sushi Circle with Jan. A little treat was a must!

Weather: It's been surprisingly warm this month here; so warm that I've been able to wear summer clothes for the most part, and only cloudy for the past 2 days. Let me tell you, this is really amazing for Hamburg, a real "old hag" summer as they say here!

Hope to post more often now that I figured out the internet here, that is, barring any further internet complications....!

My welcome (back) to the real world

2006-09-18T13:39:00.000+02:00

That's right, I've been released back into the wild - from the rehab clinic back into 'normal' life, and boy is it nice to be free again! After 11 weeks in the physical rehab clinic in the middle of nowhere at the beautiful Waldklinik Jesteburg and a 3.5 weeks at the hospital before that, I am doing worlds better and am happy to be back into a normal living situation again, where I can decide when to get up and eat breakfast (i.e. not at 7am even on the weekends), and where I do not have a curfew (10pm building closed, after dinner at 5:10pm almost everyone went to bed!). I am relieved to have reached a point again where I am well enough to be self-sufficient and don't have to worry about anything getting worse - on the contrary, things are always getting better, although very slowly (btw, I don't run any higher risk of getting Miller-Fisher again as anyone else). I have regained much strength mostly in muscle mass and am back up to my normal weight again, have no problems eating, and my facial paralysis is gone. I will still have to have some out-patient physical therapy a couple times a week for a while since my general strength/endurance (incl. walking and running) is not 100%, and although my hands/feet/lower legs are still partially numb, there is nothing there that can be done but wait and hope that time heals the nerves there as quickly as possible (trying to touch lots of things helps to stimulate the nerves too and remind them what to do!). On the good side, as far as I can tell my recovery has been super good, since most people said to expect atleast half a year, and my one physical therapist told me in my last session with her that there are many people who never get back on their feet after this. So I am pleased and hopeful at this time, and am trying to remember to be patient!

My semester starts up here again on October 1, but that isn't a big problem for me right away because I have a semester off to recoop and get back into playing...taking my time, but doing what I can to get into shape asap. I will still, thanks to the grace of my wonderful professor, receive lessons to help me get back into things. Feeling in my lips/face I would put at about 90% now, so I am hopeful about playing again. Muscles hold my embochure, just have to watch out not to overdo it! I tried playing horn yesterday for the first time in over 3 months (had played some on my mouthpiece in the past few weeks just to test it out, but very little), and as expected it sounded horrible, like a beginner, but what can you expect? Was interesting to see what was gone and what wasn't. I can't say that my time away from music and horn was lost time - quite the contrary. I learned a lot of things at the clinic and through this experience and must say I do have a different outlook on life after this all; the time was spent not just lying around being bored. Learned lots about general health and fitness, about German health care (all the German medical words too!), about the many sides of serious illness and rehab, lots about the body and how to take good care of it, and I also met a several amazing and interesting people at the clinic (several around my age as well), so I was not as bored as you might imagine, with hanging out and several therapy sessions a day. Most patients are approved for only 3-4 weeks at the clinic, so with my 11 weeks I was a senior at the place (although one of the youngest by far) and got to see many people come and go. The body is an amazing thing, as is modern medicine!

In other news, I am all moved into my new apartment, only possible thanks to the generosity of my wonderful friends, who helped me with the move as well as finding an apartment. I am living now in a 2er WG (2-person shared apartment), which is just great! Furnished, has a nice big living room, balcony, wash machine, is not far at all from the music school or the Alster, the lake in Hamburg, and is across the street from a store called Toom, which seems sorta like a German Walmart. It's on the 4th floor without an elevator, but as the chief doctor in Jesteburg told me, that's good since it wil be good strength training. My new roommate is a 39-yr-old guy who works for Hansenet, the Hamburg internet and telephone company, which means we also get flat-rate DSL and unlimited calls to land lines within Germany for free (although my computer is still having problems with his wireless LAN set-up)! He has been very nice and understanding with my circumstances, and I think this apartment will be great.

So that's the long-awaited update for now, since I'm out on my own again now, I will be able to update much more often, so keep checking!

P.S. Just one last plug...I would really like to emphasize the importance of blood and plasma donation - it was the only thing that saved my life, no joke, and helps many many others as well. I guess you never know what can all happen!

News flash: Blog hiatus explained!

2006-07-29T19:05:00.000+02:00

To answer the question that I'm sure you've been wondering, yes, I did fall off the face of the earth in a sense!! Hehe. For more info, you can send me an e-mail, but today is the only day I can check for a few more weeks. So, here's the short version: as I mentioned in my last post, I was feeling a bit under the weather at the time. Well the following Sunday I woke up with some strange symptoms which did not go away overnight. After going to the doctor the next day I was sent immediately to the hospital, where I underwent so many tests and got transferred to another hospital with a neurological department, and after a week of worsening symptoms (numbness, nausea, weakness/partial body and facial paralysis, headaches among other things) I was diagnosed with Miller Fisher Syndrome, an autoimmune syndrome that occurs usually if your body gets too run down with a virus infection. I was then in the ICU for 5 days (my mom flew over at this point and is still here, thankfully) where they began with immunogobin therapy which stopped my body from sending antibodies to eat my nerves. Luckily that helped (and thanks only to people who donated plasma) and th worst was over - I was happy they found out what I had before it got too much worse and was happy that it is very usual that with this rare syndrome patients get back 100% with time - just a matter of time and lots of patience once the therapy is done. So now it has been over 1.5 months that I've been in the hospital and am now at a rehab clinic for physical therapy since I have lost a bit of muscle mass/weight and still have numbness overall. It's not possible to say how much longer I'll be here, but for now they're hoping for 3 weeks since I've made so much progess with eating and strength/walking in the past few weeks (I've been impressing my doctors and therapists ;) ). And today is the first day that I've been able/allowed to leave, so I went to my horn prof's house to get away and have some real food! (trust me, hospital food in Germany is not any better than what I've heard of it in the States - I swear I ate stuff that looked like poop and hot chocolate pudding soup for weeks on end when I couldn't swallow well!). So I've been making good progress, I'll be able to get a vacation semester to get back in shape, and there is no reason at this point to think that with time I won't be back to normal. So I've had a bit of a break from everything and have had help from my wonderful horn prof and friends and family and am thankful for the people who donated plasma! Anyway, it's been pretty hot here and of course there's no AC here (even in the hospital - strange!), but a nice afternoon soda and ice cream do the trick! Hope your summers are going well, and greetings from the forest clinic in Jesteburg (right outside Hamburg), named after the weevil (not like something in friendly like in the States, ha)!

Have y'all and I all gone mad?

2006-06-06T22:03:00.000+02:00

Hehe, I seemed to have found another new hobby, or at least one that will last until I'm done been sick and lying around all day. Watching the clouds go by. That's right. Sounds exciting, I know, but at least here in Northern Europe there is some major ocean winds pushing those clouds at speeds to make the changes quicker than watching TV!! And it's quite peaceful.... anyway. I either have a vivid imagination or am really losing my mind. But then again, if I am, then so is the entire Associated Press. I'm not sure if my vivid sky-sightings are based on this article and photo or not, but even if they're not - can these people really be serious?? An alien? Did they even stop for one minute to consider that, hm, maybe it could be so many other things in the duck...? Anyway, days like today make for good cloud watching. The other day, when there were just sperce (d%§* it, German has really messed up my spelling) clouds in the sky, I seriously saw a big white fluffy poodle's head just floating past the window, really, detailed and all. Tonight was even better since it is evening and there were clouds of different colors, really changing by the minute. First there was a white wolf with a falcon head sitting perched on the back of a much larger dark gray crane, who was flying with him on his back. Then there was a cow head blowing a smoke ring. Then there were 2 dogs, one stretched out, and the other one reaching down with his light gray hand, tickling his belly. I really saw these things, but well ok, maybe the last one was only half a dog stretched out. Ok, it's time for my sick body to get some rest. But, now it's time for you to decide....who is madder?? ;)

P.S. Why do I just see animals in the clouds??

Survived....barely ;)

2006-06-04T22:08:00.000+02:00

From the looks of the past week, you'd think I have nothing else to do but play in my woodwind quitet - hours and hours (no exaggeration on some days, sometimes all day!!) of rehearsals, since we just had our concert today. Our quintet played for the opening of a new concert series in the Speicherstadt, an area of town on the harbor, which is supposed to serve as an initiative to save that area of town (the older buildings I assume). Was a well-to-do event that took place this afternoon in the old Hamburg city hall, and was such that coffee and cake were first served, as well as during the performance - with a total entrance price of 30€! Well, not only due to the small building, there were about, hm, say, 11 people there, all well over the age of 55. But they all seemed really into it, and didn't seem to mind that the concert lasted almost 2 hours! But it was at least a relaxed atmosphere to play in since it was so intimate and it went over all pretty well, and my quintet is nice and fun.

....and I managed to pull through a fairly decent performance despite Day 4 of being sick. Don't know what kind of thing I have now, not a cold or the flu, but it's sure made me tired and gave me the challenge of trying to play the concert with a my lip a bit bloated and my embochure weakened (from 2 days of lying in bed). Seems like once I've been up for a while and moving around then it's fairly ok for a little while, but the first few hours of the day are really rough, even after 12+ hours of sleep. And of course then still need to go to bed early. But things are looking up, slowly. Just have to sleep a lot, and since tomorrow is another holiday in Germany (Pfingsten, some sorta religious holiday, I really don't know what, might be Pentecost, but it's a celebrated holiday all over Germany), nothing is really open for long anyway, so that'll fit in just fine!

Other than that, it's hit that busy time of the year again, when all the groups have their concerts, and when many auditions take place for positions that start in the fall. I got a few more invitations this past week in the mail (yay!), all for Praktikum or internship positions in orchestras, so I will most more after those happen (after next week).

Well, it's 10:30pm, and it's just now starting to get dark enough to turn on the lights, so I guess I will go to bed now and will try to sleep away some more of the sickness and sleep back some health! Ha. Bis zum nächsten Mal! (til next time!)

Surrealism

2006-05-28T15:03:00.000+02:00

Well, another month since my return from the States has almost gone past - and I think summer in Germany is already over. It's returned to cool and rainy fall weather here and has been so ever since the 2 weeks of sun and warmth a few weeks ago. Please tell me this is not true! Well, I guess it technically is early to expect real summer weather. Anyway, at least I got to see that my new hat does work for keeping rain off of my glasses while biking (a purchase before I left the States)!

In other news, it has a been another enjoyable but surreal weekend. Just weird or abnormal stuff that happened. I had the weirdest dream last night, well, actually this morning - had to do with a wheelbarrow full of ice, a crazy guy who had glasses that suddenly appeared on his face, and him running about a store that I and a bunch of people were in bending and throwing large spikes of metal in very non-friendly ways. I also seem to have dreams a lot that have people in them that I actually don't know in real life, but in my dream I know them well. Hm, try not to analyze that too much!! Anyway, probably didn't help that our downstairs neighbors decided to have a huge party last night with music louder than in a disco blaring through our pooring-insulted old-style building without letting us know ahead of time. Although I've never been in their apartment, I know based on volume and amount of floor vibration that their stereo is located directly underneath my bed, so I spent the night sleeping with earplugs on our couch in the living room where I at least had a fighting chance of falling asleep. I think it was their 1st party, but they could have warned us! I also went out on Friday night with a few friends - 2 at first, but then we ended up meeting up with 2 other people we knew separately by chance, and they stuck with us. Hurray for the Barbarabar being open again!

I also have my next audition already on Friday, so I am busy working on that and the piece that I will play tomorrow in our Klassenvorspiel, a monthly performance class/opportunity for our horn studio. I'll be playing Neuling's Bagatelle, which is the low horn solo required for audition here in Germany other than Mozart 3 (both are asked). It's basically like a cheesy virtuosic low horn etude without any real musical virtues, but definitely shows if you can play low or not, and how well. Written by Hermann Neuling, and former East German, basically as a solo for the single Bb horn (like our modern double horns minus the F side, which was quite common here in Germany). I've recently had to work it up since a few of the auditions I'll be doing soon are for positions that require low and high playing called Wechselhorn positions (in the next few weeks they are practicum positions, where is quite common that you would have to play both high and low horn), so they ask for a high (Mozart 4) and a low (Bagatelle) solo for the 1st 2 rounds (like I mentioned once before, the 1st two rounds in an audition here consist exclusively of solo works). So off to the grinding block now it is!

OMG, it's true!

2006-05-26T13:16:00.000+02:00

I've always wondered exactly what kind of a store or whatever I live above. At street level, sorta 1/2 above and 1/2 below ground level, on either side of the entrance to our apartment building, is a very strange and curious looking store. On one side is a big large red buddha and a sign that says asia shop, which sounds hopeful. On the other side, the windows are painted over with red paint and very strange paintings of a woman in a position that I don't even think is possible or comfortable, sort of hovering in the air. The windows also have phrases painted on and around them like, "esoteric market" and "relaxation" and "tantric massages" - without actually saying what the heck goes on in this place. Is is really massages, or do I live above a brothel?

Well, the other day I checked out the website for the place, which, if you check out, has a picture of the weird woman that I mentioned who is painted on the windows by the entrance to our building (real pic in the upper right corner of the store on the site). After clicking on a few of the links, the real purpose of the store became clearer - see for yourself. Even though the site is in German, I think you'll get the picture. Can you believe it? This is where I leave, on a big street in Hamburg - geez Germany!!!

Anyway, otherwise I've received 3 invitations in the past week for auditions, one of which is in a week from today. All for practicum positions for a year. So at least I am getting invitations, we'll see what becomes of them. Yesterday was a holiday in Germany, Christihimmelfahrt, or the ascension of Christ into heaven. Most stores were closed, but we were told that the music school was open so we had a quintet coaching planned. Of course, we get there, wait for 1/2 hour outside in the rain, and finally some prof comes and opens up the building for us. Upon entering we discover that the building is not really supposed to be open - but no one was informed of the closing until the night before, so basically no one knew and that's why we all showed up at the front door! Luckily they let us stay (our prof came from Kiel to teach us), but the lack of organization at the school can be a bit annoying at times. Every date for anything that they set gets changed and you never find out about it! I guess they stay flexible, that's the good part....right...?

Car racing?

2006-05-21T14:19:00.000+02:00

Despite the drizzly, typical-Hamburg weather it's been a nice weekend. I met up with a few people that I just never really got to see much of before, and it was fun! On Friday I had coffee with a friend and walked around Planten un Blomen, which is a really nice park right in the middle of downtown Hamburg. The name of it is in Plattdeutsch, btw, which is the language of this region of Germany, but unfortunately almost extinct. Most people from here can understand it partially, but cannot speak it themselves. It's like a Scananavian-sounding German. But anyway, the park has a botanical garden, and a few domes, like a tropical dome and a desert dome! There are also events in the summer that go on in the pavillion there, like concerts (where I played one outdoor concert last summer). This is a good time of year to go since everything was in beautiful full bloom...if you can dodge the raindrops! It's so nice to have something like that right in the midst of everything downtown, and it was bigger than I thought!

Yesterday was the grand opening of the Jungfernstieg, which is an area on the Alster downtown with a lot of "schicy-micky" (aka chic) stores and a fast-train and subway stop, which they just rebuilt. There was a festival with a bunch of different stands that I walked through with another friend. Was nice, but kind of annoying trying to hold umbrellas in the masses, and trying to decide if we even needed umbrellas - and trying to decide if it was too cold out to walk around. Typical Hamburg weather!

A friend of mine also wondered if I wanted to watch the Grand Prix with her and a few others last night, and I was thinking - didn't realize she would get so excited about a car race that she wanted to get some friends together to watch it. I said something to her on those lines about it, and she laughed and said, no, it's the Grand Prix de la Chanson, or the Eurovision Song Contest!! This is the European pop music award/competition, that is popular, which many watch every year, as did we! The final round is on TV, and 24 European countries took part, each by shipping a band in any genre of music in any language. To determine the winner, all viewers around Europe phone in their top choices (can't vote for their own country), and the scores are tallied by tops votes for each country. I'd hear of this before, but never really realized that it was such a big part of European (pop/modern) culture as it is. It was pretty long, but interesting. Germany's entry was a German band called "Texas Lightning" that does Country music, and the singer is an Austrailian Professor of Pop Music from the school here in Hamburg!! Lithuania had a song called "We are the Winners (of Eurovision Song Contest)", which is a bit pretentious, but they did it as a really amusing satirical performance. There were also a few tamer songs, and a few that didn't really seem to have any kind of style whatsoever. I thought the German song was good, sort of a country/pop mix, well performed, but guess the other countries didn't agree - Finnland ended up winning with an orc-looking band called "Lordi" who performed hard rock "Hard Rock Hallelujah"! They were by far the "hardest" band, a bit grotesque-looking. But they put on a good show and went for it. I guess their win was a first-of-its-time, since usually ballads or your run-of-the-mill pop usually win. And there at the end is a band of alien/orc-looking creatures holding up the trophy and flowers! Ha!

Rite of Passage

2006-05-17T11:21:00.000+02:00

Little did I know, but there exists a whole other society right here with in our own music world - the audition society. Once you have come of age and decided that it's time for you to start taking auditions, you have entered this secret realm, which apparently recongregates at every audition for a while. If you're lucky, you get the rite of passage onto the next world and win the audition. If not, you just travel around to audition after audition, seeing the same people, who have also come of age, there as well. You never know who all is a member of this secret realm until you are a member yourself. Now it is known that I am also a member.

With my first audition under my belt (yes, that means I didn't win it), I can say that it was alright. I wasn't as focused and concentrated as I need to play well. Here in Germany, if say there are 3 rounds for a normal orchestral audition, the first 2 rounds are almost exclusively the solo pieces: for high horn Strauss 1 and Mozart 4, and for low horn Mozart 3 and Neuling's Bagatelle. One round for each, with possibly an excerpt or 2 at the end of the 2nd round. Of course with piano accompaniment, which you can practice with beforehand if you get there early enough (which I didn't know). For this one, the Strauss was first, and I was actually doing my best until about 2/3 down the 1st page (we all had to play the entire 1st movement in the first round), then I was just too distracted by certain things to keep it up and started missing more and more notes. My number had come up sooner than I thought, so I wasn't mentally as prepared as I should have been. Then I kept hearing the papers rustling and people shifting behind the screen, which because of my already distracted state just became more noticable. But about 5 of 14 went on to the 2nd round, and we left then after we found out the results. But all in all, it was a good experience and I learned a lot. A few others from Hamburg were there, and I also saw a hornist from my exchange year in Freiburg who I hadn't seen since then (4 years!), so we exchanged numbers. So now I'm sending out another round of applications since I'm all ready to take more auditions!

So that's 2 down and 1 to go for the week. I am looking forward to the competition on Sunday since I really like the pieces I'm doing and have performed bits and pieces of them already in my jury / horn exam - they are all fun to play!

In the eye of the storm

2006-05-15T12:58:00.000+02:00

I'm sitting here in the eye of the storm, the day of calm between event days - but good storm it is! In the midst of some fun and exciting things in my playing career this week. I had my first solo concerto performance on Saturday...that of Mozart 4th's horn concerto, which went pretty well! All rehearsals leading up to that were getting better and better, as should be, and then on Saturday I was energized and ready to go. After waiting all day for the concert that night (the worst part was waiting and staying calm in the meantime!), the warm-up rehearsal was finally over and I ate a small dinner to have some energy for my body to work with. I waited my little room off-stage, trying to stay focused on the music I was about to make, and finally went on stage and performed the piece for a sold-out crowd in the church. It was a pretty exciting and fun experience. 1st movement went well but not 100% as I'd hoped...I was still trying to stay calm, and the 2nd and 3rd movements were much better since by then I really was relaxed. Luckily I recorded it, so I will listen to that shortly and see how it really sounded (you always think it went one way and sometimes it sounded differently to the audience). But it was super fun to perform and work with the orchestra, and was such a good experience -- I hope I get more opportunities like this as well!!

My good friend Heidi came to hear the concert this weekend, which was really great to have a good friend and fellow musician I've known for a while there as well, and a few other colleagues came as well. The day after, yesterday, was a nice relaxing day in the city, although the weather was a bit chillier. We had coffee at the Pony Bar, a popular and vintage-style cafe/bar at the University downtown in Hamburg, and as is often the case, got into a conversation with a person sitting in close quarters at a table there next to us (while we were enjoying our milchkaffee and muffin). He was an author in Hamburg, an older man and self-proclaimed "lover of music". The more we all chatted, the more we realized that he was in fact quite knowledgable about music and really did love music and felt its importance, and wasn't afraid to admit that he is proud of the deep classical music tradition here in (especially) Germany. But it is often times never-the-less quite interesting to hear the perspectives of non-musical-professionals on classical music. For example, he claimed that clarinet is so much harder than oboe, who is the clarinet's jealous cousin! I'm not sure where he came up with that idea, since really the oboe is known to be a difficult instrument to really play well. But he was nonetheless convinced of this, but was perhaps swayed a bit in his stance after our conversation! ;) He of course wanted to remind us how difficult it is to get a job performing (gee, never heard that before), but was generally nice and had some interesting things to say. As a response to the question of if he is a professor or not (this cafe was very university-oriented), he answered wozu?, meaning, what for? or why would I want to do a thing like that? You sure do meet some interesting people sometimes.

More update later, but for now I must return to my new hobby of checking the mail in eager anticipation of an audition invitation, and practicing, for I have my first professional orchestral audition in Germany tomorrow (and my first competition at the music school on Sunday)! Wish me luck; and wish me fun!

Columnists a-miss

2006-05-10T22:56:00.000+02:00

I was recently reminded of one of the things that I do miss about living in the States recently when I changed my "start page" for my browser to My Yahoo!. There you can edit the content of what is displayed on the page according to the various RSS Feeds that Yahoo! offers (or that you can find yourself). For those who don't know, an RSS Feed is a file that allows you to include information from one website on another, and when the info is updated on the first site, it is correspondingly immediately updated on your site as well without you having to do anything. My Yahoo or My MSN have these features to include content from a very large variety of sites.

Anyway, I was choosing the RSS Feed information that I wanted to appear on my "start page" (stuff like weather for Hamburg, news, new messages, horoscope, daily Garfield comic, daily sudoku) and I came across some of the opinion/commentary columns that I used to regularly read in Madison since we were subscribed to the Chicago Tribune, which are also available online (archives available as well). I found a feed for Dear Abby, the daily advice column that I find amusing to read. I also found a feed for the weekly Dave Barry column, who comments, often satiricly, on trends or daily events or anything he can think of. I used to enjoy reading his weekly column in the Chicago Tribune Sunday magazine that was part of our subsription, and had totally forgotten about his column until this week.

I happened to come across a particularly long article of his from the holiday season - it's a review of a bunch of real gifts that he found out on the market, purchased, tried out, photographed and reviewed. These are real articles! One if the funniest ones is the Poopsadaisy - Feces Toting Bag for Dogs, which is just ridiculous! The best line was:

"...thanks to this incredible invention, you can make the DOG carry the poop, in a little rucksack strapped around the dog's neck. Hey, it's the dog's poop, right? Why shouldn't the dog carry it?..."

Cracked me up, along with the other funny and ridiculous articles/items/photos! I love the picture for this one.

I suppose there are some quality German columns, but I'm not subscribed to a paper, and it just seems to me like these columns are just an "American Way of Life" thing, as they'd say here. There is a magazine here called Titanic, which is a German satirical magazine that I saw floating around a few times at the music school, but that's about all I know about.

'Nuff of post 3 of 3 days in a row, hurray!

Spring is a time of change and learning

2006-05-09T22:25:00.000+02:00

What kind of a place do I live in? Well, unless I donate myself to a cannabalist, I guess I ought to be alright here then.

A post 2 days in a row -- won't you take a look-y at that!

Another gorgeous sunny day in the rainiest place in the world (as far as I'm concerned)! It's amazing how different the city is when it's springtime. I had gotten enough sun yesterday, though, to last me through the day today, which was good considering I was loaded up with rehearsals, practicing, and a lesson. I've had a few ground-breaking lessons and realizations lately where my prof and I have dealt with some really fundamental and important issues to playing and performing over all that will really help me to make a leap forward. My new horn of course has helped some things too, but I feel that lately it's been a time of great progress horn- and music-wise, which is really great! I felt ready for this when the semester started last month, and now with a few performances coming up it's a good time to soak it up and let it all sink in. I guess it's all due to the fact also that I've just been able to focus more on horn playing and music in general lately since the other things I had been doing are (for the time being) on hold. I know that is sounds all a bit vague, but it is nonetheless a good time - and all this stuff is a good reason why I'm here, right?! By the way, if you or anyone you know wants to buy or has any interest in buying a Holton 179 in good condition, please contact me!

By the way, I just found out I'll be in the States this summer from July 18-August 23 (orchestra tour is July 18-August 4 to Michigan). Here's to a hot summer Midwest-style!

And here's to my bedtime now, after a bit of reading....!

P.S. By the way, I seem to be having trouble lately being able to tell if a word is 2 separate words, 2 words joined with a "-", or just one big word (springtime? bedtime? ground-breaking? music-wise?) German grammar can REALLY mess you up sometimes! ;)

Suddenly Summer!

2006-05-08T12:08:00.000+02:00

Hamburg has been sooo unbelievably gorgeous for the past week, and this week is supposed to be the same! Suddenly summer is upon us - it's been pleasantly warm (low/mid-70s) and sunny every day (if you can believe that!); and with trees blooming and petals from the pinkish white cherry trees floating down around me to the ground as I ride my bike around the Alster. As I look out my window I see blue skies with only a few wisps of white summery clouds above the red clay roofs (and church tower, that still loves to ring every Sunday morning at 9:30am). The best part too, is that Hamburg just seems to come alive in the spring and summer. All the cafes, that you maybe before never noticed, have chairs and tables set up outside for outdoor dining, everyone is jogging or biking around the lake, wandering around lazily downtown shopping or eating ice cream, walking with a friend or two, sunning themselves on the grass, or just sitting on a bench reading. Suddenly everyone is happy and out and about! Hurray for warm and sunny weather!

In other news, this past weekend was the yearly celebration of the Harbor's Birthday in Hamburg. It's a 3-day celebration with events to celebrate certain aspects of the city and the harbor life here, as well as many many "fair-type" stands - food, candy, drinks (although here alcoholic drinks are also available), games, and even a few rides. I went with a friend on Friday afternoon, since I'd heard by night time it gets pretty full and crazy. So we walked around and looked at all the stands, and discovered the Estonia exhibition - Estonia has a few Hansestädte (harbor cities) like Hamburg, so I'm assuming that's the connection. But they had typical Estonian music, food, clothes, and crafts for sale. We also went up on the Ferris wheel for a beautiful view over the festivities and the city surrounding the harbor - unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me! A few games and snack later, we took a break as it turned dark and thus more crowded. After a few fireworks later that evening, we decided it was time to leave, as you could barely walk any more and some people were starting to get out of control due to alcohol intake. But the atmosphere was really great; everyone just having fun milling around and enjoying the food and weather! Happy B-Day, Harbor!

Well, within the next 1.5 weeks I will have played my first solo concerto, first official professional audition in Germany, and my first competition at the music school here (for all instruments), so I have to get crackin', for I have a lot to practice! And of course have time to enjoy the weather as well!!

May day away, yay!

2006-05-02T13:23:00.000+02:00

Despite the cold weather and rain, I was still able to enjoy a nice weekend away visiting the city of Berlin! Of course everyone was out and about the whole weekend since Monday was a day off work. Here May 1 is also Labor Day, so it's a second reason to have the day off. We of course enjoyed some night life with a friend of Heidi's at Sage Club, the place we went to on New Year's Eve. We also went to one or 2 other favorite places of ours, but once we had to wait for 1.5 hrs, so we made a pit stop at Molotow Cocktail, a trendy yet comfortable place with a mixed crowd right in the middle of the Kreuzberg district. Luckily the weather cleared up on Sunday afternoon so we could walk around a lot and enjoy some nature at the Tiergarten. On May 1 there are a lot of riots in Berlin, especially in the Kreuzberg district, and the Molotow place we were at even had pics from these protests in their bar, but we didn't see any....maybe a case of wrong place at the wrong time! P.S. See Heidi's Blog for a more detailed description of the weekend!

Wow, I just looked and check out the warm and sunny weather that Hamburg should be getting this week, not a day of rain in the forecast - some kinda record I'm sure! Maybe spring is eventually going to come! So amongst preparing for auditions (got another invitation!!), concerts, and competitions, I will hopefully get in some nice bike rides outside among other things. More later; after a fun and relaxing weekend away anything else sounds not too interesting to write now!

The Berlin Solo Melon

2006-04-28T09:09:00.000+02:00

It's another extended weekend this weekend, with the national holiday of May Day being on Monday, so I accepted an invitation to go to Berlin for the weekend, for which I will leave this afternoon! And it's another sunny day in Hamburg! (Maybe a reward for getting up on time...)

I had my first rehearsal as soloist with the orchestra I'll be playing with on Wednesday. Was interesting....quite exciting to be standing in front of an orchestra and you get to play your solo! Unfortunately our rehearsal space is kinda small and weird, so we were playing backwards on the stage (the conductor at the back, all facing the rear), which as you can imagine wasn't the greatest for my sound (my bell right up against a curtain, which we then moved so it was right up against a wall. ugh.). The orchestra wasn't bad at all, but luckily we still have a few more rehearsals. 3rd movements move by pretty quickly for the orchestra sometimes, and I also have some things to figure out! Was definintely fun though.

I finally found canteloupe at the store yesterday! It was indeed labeled as canteloupe melon, but I was skeptical based upon past experience buying similiar-looking melons that turned out to be green inside i.e. honeydew. But there they were, sitting in a basket next to other baskets of very similar but differently-labeled melons. Quite small in comparision to our midwest homegrown melons, but nonetheless I figured I'd continue the quest of the muskmelon. And my breakfast right now confirms their presence in Germany! Yeah!

Reflections

2006-04-20T23:52:00.000+02:00

Before I got to bed, I will reflect upon you some highlights of my day:

1) Having my first lesson in about 2 months. Was nice, made me feel like a musician again after practicing at home with my practice mute and having no rehearsals or gigs lately. Was the first time my teacher heard me play my new horn (actually used, but new to me), and confirmed that my sound is way better on this one - full and resonant. It's fun to play; so many things are easier too. Yippee! Also got some inspiration as to goals/direction/auditions/competitions/etc to do for this semester as well as worked out the cadenza for the Mozart that I will be playing on May 13 for my first time with an orchestra.

2) Riding my bike. I oiled it up well and made some adjustments on it when I got back to Hamburg, and now I'm pretty much back in shape again too, so it's just so fun to ride around everywhere again, especially since it's not terribly cold!

3) Mailed off the rest of second batch of 6 applications with my new and improved cover letter and resume. They are some good practicum positions in orchestras all over Germany among other things, so I will be excited to see if I actually get some invitations this time!

4) Ate a soft-boiled egg using my new rabbit warmer and rabbit egg spoon for breakfast. Well, not at all an exciting highlight, but nonetheless something different from what I usually do.

After a nice horn studio concert last night I also got my first horn student! I've wanted to do some horn teaching, but hadn't really gotten into it before. But I'm interested to see how it will go and am excited about having a student.

Off to bed to start off my new and revised lifestyle!

ow, toothpaste hurts

2006-04-18T11:50:00.000+02:00

As I wait here for my toothpaste to stop burning my lips and mouth before I warm up, hope your taxes got sent in well and all - as a citizen abroad I have an automatic 2-month extension - yippee!! ;)

Been back now in Hamburg for just over a week and am finally over my jet lag, i.e. able to fall asleep at normal hours. My body seemed to have finally normalized itself and I have (finally) broken the sleep-at-4am and wake-up-at-1pm routine! Haha. Life is returning to normal here in Hamburg, although the weather is showing signs of spring....if not by temperature, by amount of sun (more!!)!! Seen blue skies and sun several times in the past week!

Had a pretty good Easter weekend. A few friends of my roommate were visiting, so I decided to cook up a big American-style Easter dinner on Saturday with duck and stuffing and all! Was good. Then on Easter day we dyed eggs, ate a leisurely brunch, and went to Stadtpark near us and played minigolf - which was fun, but much more low-budget than any minigolf I've seen in the States. The holes were all on ramps above ground, with absolutely no decorations, and the paths didn't even have any of that green turf on them....just metal! Plus I felt that the patterns and designs for the actual shots were not that creative or varied - guess that's one thing the German government decided not to fund! But it was still a fun time, and we even got a few rays of sun amidst the rain sprinkles.

And of course since here yesterday was a holiday ("Easter Monday"), lots of people went out on Easter night, myself and a few friends included, just to a few different places to celebrate the holiday and the following day off.

Good thing I have my practice mute now too, since with all of these holidays the music school is only open today again for the normal amount in 5 days! Guess it really is quiet enough that it doesn't bother my roommates much, and I don't think the neighbors hear at all. Hurray mute!

So, back into the swing of things, slowly but surely. Hope your Easter holidays were also good!

P.S. Oh yeah, for the culture too - there's a German word I've heard so much lately - asozial (or asi for short). As you may guess, it literally means antisocial or asocial, but not just in the hermit-type way, more like against society. It is not something good to be called - basically means a combo of weird/not normal/doesn't fit, but also sorta has any connotation of something against societal norms and values (bad for others, like cheap or dirty or dumpy). Guess in more of a socialist-run democracy like here it's a bigger and badder deal to be against societal norms or something. Interesting adjective usage that I've at least never really heard in English!