In the desert

Hello from Santa Fe! Brenda and I finally made it to our new home for the next two months, and we're settling in nicely. Our home is actually a two-bedroom house, which is a new experience for us since we've never lived together in anything bigger than a two-bedroom apartment. I've had to actually search for Brenda a couple of times because I didn't know what part of the house she was in. We both agree that leaving this place is going to be difficult (especially because I'll be returning to my soon-to-be-demolished student housing apartment), but we'll just have to enjoy it while it lasts.

Brenda has already had her first two days of rehearsal, and things are off to a good start. In addition to her rehearsal schedule, Brenda has been invited to partake in several events. For example, this evening the cast of La Traviata was invited to a dinner hosted by some opera supporters. I got to tag along as Brenda's date, which allowed me to meet her friendly cast mates. We will be going to a couple more events this weekend including the premiere of the first opera of the season.

Proof that Brenda and I were actually in New York for a couple of days.

I took this picture while hiking yesterday on some trails not far from our house. 

The trail.

You don't see plants like this in Iowa. Or Germany for that matter.

As I mentioned last week, Brenda's recent performance in Austria was broadcast on an Austrian radio station yesterday. Don't worry if you decided not to wake up in the middle of the night to listen to it. Today I discovered that the radio station has the entire recital on its website. So if you're in the mood for some music featuring clarinet, piano and soprano, click here. FYI, Brenda sings in 3 pieces (of 9 or 10) on the recital, so you will hear a lot of music that doesn't involve her.

I should head to bed. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

Au(some)stria

Good morning! For some reason I woke up early this morning, and I thought I should take advantage of my extra awake time to write to all of you. Brenda and I will be leaving for the airport in about four hours where we will board a plane to the Big Apple. Once we arrive in New York later today, we will have been in four different countries over the last eight days. I've been having a great time bouncing around to different European locales, but then again I'm not the one who has to sing shortly after landing in each place. Brenda's most recent performance was part of the Schubertiade Festival in Schwarzenberg, Austria. She performed three pieces in an afternoon recital with two outstanding Swedish musicians. The performance was wonderful, and you can hear it yourself when the Austrian radio station Ö1 broadcasts it on Monday. You can find more information about the radio broadcast here (FYI, the broadcast is at 10 AM Austrian time which unfortunately means that anyone in the Americas will have to be awake in the middle of the night to hear it).

 A sign for the festival in Schwarzenberg.

 I went for a walk up the nearby mountain one afternoon and had a beautiful view of the town.

 Audience members milling about outside the performance hall during the intermission.

 Our hotel.

 During my walk I came across a friendly cat. 

When it meowed it had an adorable Austrian accent.

And then I met another local resident.

Brenda and I have a friend named Andreas who has worked for the Schubertiade for the past couple of years. This was our first opportunity to visit him in Austria, and we had a great time catching up.

It's time to start squeezing as much into our suitcases as possible. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday from Santa Fe!

from Arcachon to Austria

Greetings from Austria! After fleeing Germany and its myriad distractions earlier today, we finally found the time to write you the full-length blog entry you deserve. Brenda and I are currently in the adorable mountain town of Schwarzenberg. As I mentioned in a previous post, Brenda will be singing in a chamber music concert on Monday as a part of the renowned Schubertiade festival. In fact, she's going over her music next to me as I write this. But I can tell you more about our little Austrian excursion in the next blog entry. We promised you pictures from our trip to Arcachon, so let's get to it.

We sat in front of the Hotel de Ville (city hall) while applying our sunscreen for the day. 

Looking up at the rather rickety tower we were about to climb. Only 8 people are allowed on it at once. 

Showing my displeasure at being forced to climb the tower.

The view of Arcachon was quite spectacular from that height though!

We later took a bus to the Dune du Pyla, a huge sand dune. It was very impressive.

And very steep. We decided to be tough and not use the stairs. It was harder than it looked.

But we made it to the top! Brenda thought the water looked very inviting, so we walked all the way to the bottom. Unfortunately this meant we had to walk all the way back up again.

Brenda's happy dance in the ocean. The very cold ocean. People were actually swimming, but they looked young and foolish.

An enormous, thankfully dead, jellyfish. Reasons not to go swimming.

Our few days in Frankfurt were packed with things to do and people to see. We even managed to see two operas at Oper Frankfurt that we'd never seen before. The one negative part of our time in Frankfurt was (of course) our trip to the foreigners' office. Brenda and I have to get our German visas renewed every year, and we are incapable of having a meeting at the foreigners' office without running into some problem. And in spite of being completely prepared for the appointment, this time was no different. I will spare you the gruesome details. Long story short, it looks like everything should work out fine (meaning the German government probably won't forcibly remove us from the country), but sorting everything out will likely involve more contact with the foreigners' office. Oh joy.

Brenda and I are flying back to Frankfurt on Tuesday and then heading to New York City on Wednesday. My parents are going to be in New Jersey visiting my aunt and uncle when Brenda and I are in NYC, and we will all probably meet up somewhere for dinner. Well, I should get back to staring at the beautiful Austrian mountains. Just a heads up, the next blog entry may be a day or two late because of our upcoming travels. I promise that we'll get back to our normal Tuesday schedule as soon as we're settled in Santa Fe. Until next time, have a great weekend!

On the move

Hello from Frankfurt! Brenda and I are back in our German city, although we're not in our German home. One of Brenda's singer friends is staying at our apartment at the moment, and we have imposed ourselves on our generous friends, the McCowns. Since our arrival yesterday, Brenda and I have been busy meeting up with friends, getting ready for an appointment at the foreigner's office, and going to the opera. Because of all of that, we still haven't found time to tell you about our trip to Arcachon and to share a few pictures. We will do our best to write that post tomorrow.

Our next couple of weeks will be quite busy. On Saturday we will be going to Austria where Brenda will perform in a chamber music concert as a part of the Schubertiade Festival. After that we are headed back to Frankfurt for a night and then to New York City for a few days so Brenda can have a few lessons with her voice teacher. Finally, we will fly to Santa Fe where we will remain for the rest of the summer. We are very excited to be in one place for two months!

Chenda back in Deutschland

Hey all! Brenda and I spent the day packing and traveling and are once again in Frankfurt. I'm afraid we weren't able to find time to write the blog today, but we will write a post tomorrow that includes plenty of photos from our trip to Arcachon. Until then, have a great night!

si le temps le permet (weather permitting)

Hello all! I hope you're having a lovely June so far. Personally I've got mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the weather in Bordeaux has been fantastic over the past few days, and we've actually been able to leave the house without wearing coats. On the other hand, Iowa City is experiencing some flooding that could possibly reach our ground-floor apartment. The good news is that things appear to be drying up. Soon I should be able to stop worrying about what I will do if Brenda's bean bag chair gets ruined.

Brenda and I plan on taking advantage of the good weather by going to the beach tomorrow. Specifically, we'll be going to Arcachon, a town about an hour away from Bordeaux on the western coast of France. Oddly enough, the University of Iowa has a month-long program in Arcachon for law students who want to study abroad. That program is happening right now, and I would like to track down my fellow law students who are there and rub it in that I'm on vacation while they have to study. I think Brenda would rather just go to the beach, so that's probably what we'll do. 

Brenda and I took a walk one sunny day to the public garden. 

We found palm trees!

And speaking of Brenda, she's at work right now doing her third performance of The Magic Flute. Her premiere last Wednesday was great, and she was greeted with hearty applause at the end of the night. I would say that the show went off without a hitch but the audience was quite distracted for about ten minutes during the second act. While Brenda was singing her second aria, a woman a few rows ahead of me apparently started to feel ill. Several people stood up to tend to her while others hurried in and out of the theater presumably in search of a doctor. In spite of the commotion, the show did not stop. Brenda later told me that she had no idea anything was going on in the audience because of how dark it was, and the conductor also appeared not to know even though it was happening only a few feet behind him. Eventually the ill woman was escorted out of the theater. By that time, Brenda's aria had ended and we were well into the next scene. I'm afraid I have no idea what became of the women who wasn't feeling well, but I'm almost positive that her episode had nothing to do with Brenda's singing. 

Brenda and I have a week left in France. We will miss the baguettes, but we're both eager to get to Santa Fe. We have some bouncing around to do before we land in New Mexico, but I can tell you more about that next week. I hope you all have a great week, and I'll talk to you next Tuesday!