A day late and a post short

Merry 5th day of Christmas everyone! If you're wondering, Brenda did indeed give me 5 golden rings. I hope your holidays are going well and that you have exciting plans for ringing in the new year. We are planning on going to a party at a friend's house which should be a step up from last year when Brenda was sick, lying on the couch wondering if she should go to the hospital - which we eventually did.

You may have noticed that today isn't Monday, or as I like to call it, Blog day. Well, once again, Brenda and I were out last night painting the town red and I wasn't able to complete my Blog duties. If we keep up this Monday night socializing thing, I may have to rethink which day should be Blog day.

Last Wednesday, Brenda performed in La Bohème for the second time. It was another great performance that I enjoyed by way of the speakers in Brenda's dressing room. I like hanging out with Brenda during her performances. I feel kind of like her boxing coach; she comes back to her corner after each round and I give her water, massage her shoulders and bandage any wounds she may have gotten while on stage.

The day of the performance, Brenda got an e-mail saying that the guy who plays her on-stage boyfriend was sick and he was being replaced by someone else for the performance. The new guy hadn't done the role in almost a year and had 5 hours notice to get the lines and staging back in his head. Now, in an ideal world, a performer would get ample rehearsal, much of which would be on-stage and with orchestra, and would perform with the same cast members for the sake of continuity. You know what to expect when you're performing with the same people. For this production of La Bohème, however, Brenda didn't have the luxury of much rehearsal nor performances with the exact same cast. In spite of these less than ideal conditions, however, the show went really well. Brenda has one more performance of La Bohème on the 8th.

Brenda in her costume for La Bohème.

Christmas came and went last week and, other than all the stores being closed for 3 1/2 days, it felt a lot like Christmas in America. On Christmas eve, Brenda and I went to the English speaking church around the corner with our friends, Barb and Michael. Barb was scheduled to sing a duet at the service but wasn't feeling her best and asked Brenda to fill in for her in singing "What Child Is This". After the service, Barb and Michael had us over for a really nice home-made Italian dinner. They made an amazing baked ziti and served it with equally amazing garlic bread. We had a really great time and, since we're all natural talkers, we ended up staying till the wee hours of the morning.

Brenda opening a present and, seemingly, liking it.

Barb, Michael and me on Christmas Eve. And the amazing baked ziti.

Looking at this picture is making me hungry.

We've been doing a lot of socializing lately but, after the new year, we'll be getting down to business. Brenda has been working on Orlando Furioso more and more lately and will start staging rehearsals on the 4th. My German class will be picking back up on the 4th, as well, and it looks like I'll be starting rehearsals for a small role in Parsifal with Frankfurt Opera mid-way through February.

That gets you caught up with us. I hope you have a very happy New Year and I'll talk to you next week!

Frohe Weihnachten!

Hey All! Frohe Weihnachten, Buon Natale, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noel, and Merry Christmas! I hope the heavy snowfall in recent days and weeks hasn't thrown a wrench into any of your holiday plans. It is certainly beginning to look a lot like Christmas around these parts. One of the major, and regrettable, signs of the coming holiday are the ever-dwindling closed doors in our Advent Calendar.

The other sign of the season is the snow. Oh yes, we got snow and it was beautiful. It's not very obvious in the picture I posted below but the snow was actually coming down pretty hard. That's the view from our balcony, by the way.

Since the temperatures today rose into the mid 40s, a lot of the snow has already melted. Brenda and I are both hoping for a little cooler weather on Thursday and Friday so we can have a real white Christmas.

Last Friday, my language school threw a holiday party. Brenda was kind enough to make a batch of chocolate shorts, which I took in to share with all of the other Deutsch learners. I enjoyed sampling the diverse home-made foods that the students and teachers made, as well as visiting with students from different German classes. Brenda made an appearance late in the party and got to show off her German chops. My classmates were impressed.

On Saturday, Brenda sang Musetta in La Bohème. She went into the performance with very little rehearsal and without ever having a full run-through of the opera. Not really an ideal way to make a role debut. As you might imagine, however, she was outstanding. I know I say that about all of her performances but it's true. Every time I've seen her perform here she's been truly exceptional. I promise I'll tell you if she ever stinks it up. My German teacher and her boyfriend came to La Bohème with me. My teacher had never seen an opera before and she seemed pretty impressed. She laughed, she cried and she clapped. What more can you ask for from an opera?

Last night, instead of writing a blog entry like I should have been, Brenda and I ate dinner with our friends, Marlar and Florian. Florian is one of Brenda's colleagues at Oper Frankfurt and also happened to sing in La Bohème on Saturday. After we enjoyed some delicious potato soup that Marlar made, Brenda helped Marlar decorate their Christmas tree while Florian and I cheered them on.

Proof that Brenda and I have friends in Germany.

Brenda and I made our last visit of the year to the Weihnachtsmarkt today. I have to admit, I'm sorry to see it go. My waistline, however, is breathing a sigh of relief. I now have 11 months to lose weight in preparation for next year's Christmas market.

Brenda and I have made plans with some friends for both Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. While nothing can compare to spending the holidays with our families, we are very excited to be celebrating with great friends. We hope that your holidays will also be filled with loved ones and happiness. Until next time, have a very Merry Christmas!

Good posts come to those who wait

Hey All! Brenda and I had a lovely Monday in Frankfurt am Main. Because of our fun-filled day, however, I am unable to write the high-quality blog entry that you deserve. Therefore, you will have to check back tomorrow to hear about the most recent goings-on in FFM. Until then, I hope you have a great night! Tschüss!

Cookie fever

Hello everyone! I hope you had a nice weekend. I'm assuming that your lives, much like ours, are being filled with more calories the closer we get to Christmas. Over the past week we have had several occasions to throw calorie counting to the wind and indulge. First and foremost, we made another trip to the Weihnachtsmarkt. We want to buy some cups but each time we go they're sold out and they tell us to come back another time. Each time we go back, however, we aren't able to resist the delicious treat options all around us. Below I have included a couple of pictures of the market.

The sky scraper in the background is the Commerzbank Tower which is the 2nd tallest building in Europe.

In this picture, Brenda is standing in front of a stand that sells Schneebälle or, in English, snowballs. They are basically balls made out of hardened dough that are filled and covered with various delicious things. We bought one dipped in chocolate, covered in nuts and filled with chocolate nougat. My parents no doubt remember Schneebälle from our trip to the picturesque Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

On Friday, Brenda had a performance of The Magic Flute at Oper Frankfurt. She hadn't sung the role since October of 2008. She was given a day of rehearsals two weeks ago, as well as a couple of coachings, but other than that she was on her own. I had the pleasure of seeing the performance and she was, of course, fantastic. I wish you all could have been there.

On Saturday, Brenda and I went to a friend's place where Brenda made cookies and I played Wii tennis. I'm sure that my many matches (most of which I lost) cancelled out the dozens of delicious cookies I inhaled. We followed the cookie bake-a-thon with a get together at another friend's place where Brenda got to see me eat authentic home-made Swedish meat balls. Yesterday, we went to a friend's 40th birthday party which had all kinds of delicious things to eat. I'm telling you all of this so that when you see us next, you'll know why we've gotten so fat.

These social engagements have been most welcome. It is good for us to get out of the house so we can resist total hibernation. I really don't think, however, that Brenda has the option of hibernating at the moment. She is singing her first Musetta in La Bohème on the 19th and, on top of that, rehearsals for Orlando Furioso will be beginning soon. Earlier today, I was able to catch Brenda in the midst of deciding between a nap and learning music.

In order to help Brenda stick to her work, I made her a delicious dinner. If you can't tell, the words "I Luv Broy" are spelled out in cheese on the top of the casserole. Broy is one of my many nicknames for Brenda.

As you can tell, the dinner worked.

You are, once again, caught up with us. I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season as much as we are. Until next time, have a great week!

Weihnachtsmarkt: Round 2

Hello all and Happy Laura's Day! "What's Laura's Day?" you ask. Well, Brenda and Laura decided that they each needed their own special day at some point during the year. I'm guessing it has to do with the whole twin thing and that they are forced to share a birthday. Brenda's Day was a week ago or so. I wish I could tell you that we celebrated accordingly but, believe it or not, Brenda forgot about her own day. Sad but true. I'm hoping Laura hasn't forgotten about her day, but if she has, maybe she'll read this before it's over. Either way, Happy Laura's Day!

Now that Brenda and I have moved on to year two of Chenda in Germany, I am forced to look back on previous posts to see what I wrote about last year. One of our outings this week was a welcome rerun; we went to Frankfurt's Christmas market. Let me give you a quick reminder of what the Christmas market (Weihnachtsmarkt) entails. There are tons of shops set up over a couple of pedestrian blocks in downtown Frankfurt. Some shops sell food, others sell various holiday-friendly items and many, many shops sell Glühwein.

I like to think of our trip to the Christmas Market last week as merely a scouting mission, which is to say, we will be going back in the coming weeks. We did, however, get the answers to many pressing questions, such as:

Are all the same shops still there this year?

Answer: Yes.

Should we eat the cheese fondue before we eat the cheese crepes?

Answer: Let's dip the cheese crepes INTO the cheese fondue!

Does the Glühwein still taste good?

Answer: Yesh it doesh...hic!

The Christmas Market is really quite enjoyable and it arrives in Frankfurt at a much needed time. As I've mentioned too many times to count, Frankfurt is grey from November until April. The Christmas Market provides people with a place to go that is decorated beautifully and is extremely festive. And everyone is happy! I've never seen so many smiling Germans in one place. Unfortunately the market will close around the 22nd of December. In my opinion, they should keep it going until the sun comes back out in April. If you care to read more about the market and/or see some pictures click here.

In other news, I have been cooking a lot lately. In the last week or two I have made lasagna, rice and bean casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, and something vaguely titled Tuscan Casserole. All of these these dishes have demanded several trips to the grocery store and that is why, on Saturday, Brenda and I went to the big grocery store. In order for you to get an idea of how big the big grocery store is, I want you to imagine the biggest grocery store you've ever seen. Now imagine the cat food aisle in that grocery store and that is approximately the size of the big grocery store that we went to on Saturday. Ok, I may be exaggerating a bit but the next time you go to a grocery store in the US, think of us and how much we wish we could buy ranch packets and shredded cheddar cheese.

A very special thing about the big grocery store is that they have an international food aisle and, oh yes, US cuisine is represented. Foods imported from the US include, and are pretty much limited to, marshmallows, Oreos, Pepperidge Farm Cookies, ranch dressing in a bottle, Arm and Hammer baking soda, Pam, and Mac n' Cheese. We happily bought the last three items for about 300 times what we'd pay in the US.

Not only did the big grocery store have products from the US but they also had people from the US! We must have spotted at least a half dozen Americans wandering around the store. One guy was wearing a sweatshirt that said "Hoboken" and a New York Yankees baseball cap. People don't really wear baseball caps here. Another guy was wearing sweatpants and tennis shoes. People here definitely don't wear sweatpants. It was fun to see other Americans and it reminded me that we aren't the only foreigners in this foreign land.

Well, that's about all I've got. Brenda has some singing coming up this week which I will tell you about next Monday. We will also be making an effort to take more pictures to post on the blog. It will be as if you are here drinking Glühwein with us. Until next time, have a great week!

Brenda wants a dog

Hello all! Its me again and I'm back with a full edition of the weekly Chenda web log. This past week was filled with quite a bit so let's get to it.

The hotel that is our apartment hosted a special guest last week named Lola. Unlike some of our other guests, though, this one was very high maintenance. She demanded to be fed, walked and petted multiple times a day. That said, we loved having her here and would welcome her back any time. Lola is a beautiful little dog who belongs to our friend, Elaine. She is a really friendly and well-behaved dog who loves to be near people. In fact, every night when we got into bed Lola would climb right in and each morning she'd still be there waiting for us to wake up and play with her. We loved having her for those few days and she further convinced us that we need a Lola of our very own at some point in the future.

You may not remember this but last Thursday was Thanksgiving! On Thursday morning Brenda and I got a call from our friend Elza van den Heever who is one of Brenda's fellow sopranos at Oper Frankfurt. That morning, Elza decided to make a Thanksgiving dinner and invited us and our friend Richard over to enjoy it. We found out that, in addition to Elza being a truly incredible artist, she is also a heck of a chef. It was a great evening filled with lots of laughs and even more calories.

On Saturday we had our 2nd Thanksgiving dinner which was also a lot of fun. Brenda had to sing in a gala at the opera house that night so she was only able to enjoy some of the party. Don't worry, Brenda got her fill of rolls and stuffing before she had to head to work.

In Germany, in the weeks leading up to Advent, stores are fully stocked with chocolate-filled Advent calendars. There are dozens of choices and the prices vary greatly. I'm under the impression that most people get Advent calendars in Germany. Since they are so popular, by the time Advent actually roles around most stores are sold out. Last year, Brenda and I tried to find a calendar a few days into Advent but all we found were a few rather shocking calendars that showed Santa with numerous bikini-clad helpers. We assumed that a calendar like that wouldn't be sold based on the quality of the chocolate and so we went without last year. This year, however, we planned ahead and, after thoroughly examining all of our options, we bought a Lindt Advent calendar filled entirely with dark chocolate. The calendar is quite big as you can see from the pictures below. We had our first piece of chocolate from the calendar today and it was delicious. It was sour cherry, chili pepper, mousse flavored.


As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Brenda and I went to La Bohème last night. It was quite good and I'm looking forward to seeing it again in a couple of weeks when Brenda takes over one of the roles. After several weeks with little to do, Brenda will have a lot of opera running through her head in the weeks to come. She will be performing roles in La Clemenza di Tito, La Bohème and Die Zauberflöte as well as learning a role in Orlando Furioso. When it rains, it pours and Brenda is starting to see the clouds roll in.

Well, that does it for us. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Until next time, have a great week!