Land o' Lakes

Hello all! Well, obviously Chad and I didn't get a real blog entry written last week, and we hope you forgive us. It's been a busy week, full of studying, family time, friends, the stomach flu, and more studying. I avoided the worst of the stomach flu, but the rest of the Graham family wasn't so lucky. Chad and I went to Ankeny this past weekend for a very belated Christmas celebration with the Gast crew. We went to a place called Incredible Pizza, which is a child's dream come true. The little ones ran around playing arcade type games, riding go-karts, and even playing some indoor mini-golf. Sadly Tim and Gail had to stay home since they were so sick.

Some of Chad's lovely cousins and aunts and uncles!

Chad's brother Brad playing mini-golf with

sons Ethan and Noah

This is Nora, Derek and Jessica's

beautiful 3 month old baby girl!

On Sunday, Chad returned to Iowa City, and I started the trek up north to see my twin Drew. I stopped in St. Paul for the night, and our friends Dan and Whitney let me crash on their couch. It's always great to see them, and the next morning they showed me around downtown St. Paul, since most of my time in the Twin Cities has been spent in Minneapolis! There was a winter carnival going on, which featured lots of ice sculptures, including unicorns, a bowling bear, and a giant Lego man. They also took me to a pretty awesome old-timey candy store, called Candyland.

A sculptor working on a scene from the highly

addictive game Angry Birds

Dan and Whitney showing off the candy selection.

I actually bought a bag of the "squirrel turds" which

turned out to be chocolate covered pretzels with a peanut

butter filling. Best squirrel turds ever!

This is the Fitzgerald Theater, where

A Prairie Home Companion is broadcast!

I headed up to Duluth on Monday afternoon, and have been enjoying spending time with Drew and Bettina in their beautiful home. You can see Lake Superior from their living room window! It's my first visit to Duluth, and I have to say, I was expecting it to be colder. :-) Eh, it's been a warm winter... We're going on the hunt for snow a little further to the north over the next few days. We went to Bettina's parents' house tonight for a fun and delicious family dinner, and I found out that Bettina's mom actually studied in Frankfurt (she was a German professor)! We had a good time reminiscing over the Grüne Soße, and I think I should come back in the spring for a special Grüne Soße dinner. :-)

Drew and Bettina - happy times in Duluth!

I go back to Iowa on Friday, and I hope my hubby is feeling completely healthy by then! It was a bad week to get sick, since he has a paper due on Thursday... At least I'm not around to distract him! Although, I do wish I could have been there to nurse him back to health. I'll have to save some squirrel turds for him to make it up to him. ;-) Have a great week all!

Chenda together again

Hey All! I'm happy to report that Brenda and I are in the very same apartment right now. She'll be in the US for four weeks and I couldn't be happier that she's here. I'm afraid I wasn't able to make time for a full blog entry today but I will try to write one tomorrow. Until then, have a great night!

a wand'ring minstrel

Happy Tuesday everybody! Today a sleepy Brenda will be bringing you the blog! I had great plans to have a lot of pictures of Munich to show you all, but I failed pretty miserably in that regard. I pretty much holed myself up in my hotel room last week, desperately trying to heal in time for the show on Saturday. It seems to have worked, as the show went very well! I'm also feeling much better now, and tomorrow's show should be much less stressful. Maybe I'll even remember to take some pictures this week! As it stands, I only have a few pictures of things around the opera house. The man in the statue is Maximilian Joseph, who was king of Bavaria in the early 1800s. I thought the contrail in the sky made it look like he had the ability to shoot something out of his forehead...

Here you can see the opera house behind the statue. The street to right is Maximilian Street, which is a very famous shopping street, filled with all the designer shops.

The opera house itself is incredibly beautiful. It's the largest house in Germany, seating 2,100. There's a huge crystal chandelier in the hall, and this website has some beautiful photos that showcase it.

I went back to Frankfurt the day after my first show in Munich for a few reasons, but the main reason was to get my passport back from the Italian Consulate. I need a work permit for my upcoming concert in Verona, and I don't know if they actually sent my passport to Italy to put the visa in, but I'm really glad nothing went wrong, since that could have caused some problems for my upcoming trip to the States! Being abroad without your passport just feels wrong! Thank goodness it was there waiting for me, safe and sound... I also repacked my suitcase, and boy is it getting heavy! I'll be away from my Frankfurt home for over a month, but I'm super excited to see lots of family in the US! It'll also be nice to spend some time with Chad in the Iowa apartment, since I haven't been back there since September.

Well, I'd better think about getting to bed at a decent hour, since breakfast is included with my hotel room, and I'd hate to sleep through it! :-) Hope you're all having a great week so far!

Pump up the volume

Hey All! The bass is thumping in the apartment below me, I plan on being in bed by 10, and I spent most of the day with my head buried in a book - I must be back in Iowa. My spring semester has begun and I've already learned a few things about Criminal Law and European Union Law. Over the next few days I'll be introduced to Constitutional Law and Civil Procedure. It should be an interesting semester.

It is never easy to leave Brenda and this time was no different, but we'll be seeing each other again soon. Until we do, we'll both be very busy; me with school and Brenda with her house debut in Munich. I wish I could tell you that Brenda is having a great time rehearsing for her first performance on Saturday but there is a problem - Brenda is sick. She's had two days of rehearsal so far, and she wasn't allowed to sing at either of them (doctor's orders). She'll be headed back to the doctor tomorrow to find out if she's on the mend. Keep your fingers crossed for her!

I hope that you're all enjoying the bizarre winter we're having right now. It's nice not having to get all bundled up (I still haven't used my winter coat this season) and I don't miss driving in the snow. However, it seems like we should get some snow at some point, doesn't it? I'm not advocating a lot of snow, but the occasional reminder that we actually have four seasons might be nice. In any event, I should call it a night. I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you next Tuesday!

Start the year off with a bang

Hey All! I hope you enjoyed ringing in the new year a few days ago. Brenda and I spent a good part of New Years Eve with some friends of ours, but we were home before the clock struck midnight. I believe I've told you before about how Frankfurt erupts in fireworks at the start of the new year. This year was no different, but this time we had a great view of some revelers setting off fireworks in front of our apartment building.

Several of our neighbors setting off fireworks in the street.

Another view from our window.

As far as I could tell none of our neighbors were injured while playing with fire. Although, as seems to happen every year, we heard ambulance sirens shortly after the fireworks died down.

Brenda has had 5 of her 8 La Calisto performances. She'll have her last 3 performances between now and Saturday. On Sunday she will be going to Munich to start rehearsals for Die Entführung aus dem Serail. This will be Brenda's first time singing at the Bavarian State Opera and she is very excited.

I head back to the US on Friday. It's hard for me to believe that this time next week I'll already have had two days of classes. I don't really remember what was so stressful about the fall semester so I think that means I'm ready to start the spring semester. It will be hard to leave Brenda, but fortunately we won't have to be apart for long. She will be joining me in the US as soon as she's done with her gig in Munich. We are really racking up frequent flyer miles. I hope you all have a great week and one of us will talk to you next Tuesday!