a merry Munich meeting

Hello All! It is once again time to fill you in on our recent endeavors. As I mentioned last week, Brenda and I spent the weekend together in Munich celebrating her birthday. We had a great time together, as we always do. We weren't able to pack all of the celebrating into one day because of Brenda's performance, so we just spread the merrymaking out over the whole weekend.

Brenda's performance in The Tales of Hoffmann was wonderful. Even though she's performed a role in this opera before (Olympia), this was the first time she was singing the role of Giulietta. The version of Hoffmann that the Bavarian State Opera is currently doing has three soprano roles, which are typically performed by sopranos of different voice types (that's right, there is more than one kind of soprano!). Sometimes, however, one soprano will sing all three of the roles in the same performance. As you can imagine, this makes for a lot of singing in one night. Now that Brenda knows two of the three roles, she'd only have to learn one more...

Brenda posing outside of the Bavarian State Opera.

For her birthday, Brenda wanted to have a nice meal at one of the vegetarian/vegan restaurants in Munich. She settled on Bodhi, a wonderful little place with an all vegan menu and a very friendly staff. The only complaint I have is that they didn't stop me from eating everything they put in front of me.

Appetizer: beet soup for Brenda and sweet potato Thai curry soup for me.

 The main dishes were vegan versions of traditional German food. I had the "beef" roulade with gravy, which was served with red cabbage and potato dumplings. Brenda had some seitan patties covered in a champagne sauce and served with truffled potatoes and a root vegetable of some sort. (Not pictured, the Kaiserschmarrn we had for dessert.)

Alas, the celebrating had to come to an end. (Well, at least for me it did. Brenda is probably still partying in Munich.) My flight back to London last night was uneventful (just how I like them) and week five of my spring semester is now underway. I'm planning on checking out one of London's museums sometime this week and am also going to Oxford on Saturday as a part of a class field trip.

Before I sign off, I wanted to share with you two posters I saw while waiting at Heathrow for the train back to London. They were advertising The Economist, and they give you a little insight into one of the current debates in Britain.

I should call it a night. I need to get to bed a little earlier tonight so I can get up early to walk to class. The underground (aka subway) workers are going on strike again this week. After two days of walking to and from class, I'm ready to give in to their demands. I hope you all have a wonderful week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!