As I write this, movers are in the other room packing up selected items from our apartment to ship to America. I'm using the word "ship" literally. Our belongings will find their way onto a boat in the coming weeks and then they will spend the next three to four months in transit. It does raise the question: if we can live without these things for four months, do we really need to keep them? As a devout materialist, I say yes.
Here's a quick overview of the last two and a half months. Everything went great in Zurich. Rowan thoroughly enjoyed the parks and, by all accounts, Brenda's performances went very well. Once her shows began in Zurich, Brenda had to return to Frankfurt for rehearsals of I Puritani. As an added surprise, Oper Frankfurt asked Brenda to do two concert performances of Verdi's La Traviata in early November. Thanks to our friend Simone looking after Rowan, I got to attend one of the performances. It was a great night for Brenda, Oper Frankfurt, and opera in general. The I Puritani premiere, which was another excellent performance, took place a few weeks later. Once again thanks to Simone, I got to see the performance and attend the opening night dinner afterwards. Sometime over the past few weeks (I forget when) Brenda sang at Oper Frankfurt's annual gala, and earlier this week she sang a recital, which she will repeat in London on Sunday. So the main takeaway from all this is that Brenda has been busy and she's awesome.
Zurich and the surrounding area is beautiful.
That's Lake Zurich in the background.
One of the Frankfurt newspapers wrote a really nice article about Brenda last month. Obviously, it's in German. Sorry about that.
We will be ringing in the new year in Minneapolis so our time in Germany is definitely nearing the end. It just so happens that we're moving out at the close of my favorite season in Frankfurt. We've been enjoying the Christmas market for the last few weeks, and the days have been getting shorter, which, call me crazy, I like. The days, however, don't feel short because Rowan wakes up pretty early. He and I have been spending a lot of time in nearby parks, and one day we even had snow. We made a snowman right outside the front of our building so Rowan could look out the window and see it. Rowan wasn't very happy when it melted, but I assured him we'd have plenty of snow for snowmen in Minneapolis.
Rowan likes the Christmas market. Especially the carousel and the little train.
We're all very excited for our upcoming move to Minneapolis. There are a few things to be done before then (Brenda has four more performances, for example), but we can't wait to settle in a little more in our house and, most of all, be closer to our family and friends. The downside is that we'll be far away from some wonderful friends we have here, but we'll do our best to see them as often as we can.
Until next time, Happy Holidays!
