Laundry time

Hey all! I hope you had a great weekend. I am happy to report that my lovely wife will be returning to me in just a couple of days. Less than 36 hours actually. From what she's told me, it sounds like she's been having a great time in New York. She spent a few wonderful days with her parents, got lunch with my lovely aunt Ann, saw several friends and even found some time in there to have a few lessons and coachings. Now that I think about, she's having such a good time, I hope she's still planning on coming back to Frankfurt.

I have, of course, been suffering greatly since Brenda left me last Tuesday. In spite of that, however, I managed to have some fun visiting my friend Jeff over the weekend. Jeff lives in Hagen and works full-time with the opera theater there. I didn't really get to see much of Hagen this weekend, though, because Jeff was singing at a theater in Gelsenkirchen. I saw him perform in two very nice productions and also got to meet some of his friends and colleagues.

The town of Gelsenkirchen has a population of somewhere around 250,000 people. As I sat in their beautiful 1,000 seat theater, I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if every town in the US with 1/4 million people had an opera house. If that were the case, our blog might be called Chenda in America. I doubt that will happen anytime soon, though. Opera houses in Germany are funded in large part by the government. That is the only way they're able to stay afloat. Opera houses in America are privately funded and, therefore, there are a lot less of them.

The train ride up to Gelsenkirchen lasted 4 1/2 hours and was quite enjoyable. The German countryside is beautiful and I always like seeing Germany's various towns and castles. I look forward to exploring even more of Germany when my parents are here in a little over 2 weeks.

I'm back in Frankfurt now and it's time to face the music. Brenda is coming back early Wednesday morning and I haven't done one bit of cleaning. I had planned on doing a little every day but I, of course, didn't and so tomorrow is the day. I will try to take some interesting pictures in the coming week so I have something for you to look at on the blog next week. Until then, have a great week!