Return of the Ausländerbehörde

Hello everyone! I hope you had a nice weekend. We certainly did. It was filled with opera. We went to Arabella on Saturday and Simplicius Simplicissimus on Sunday. The former is an opera by Strauss that is about men fighting over a woman and a girl dressing up as a boy (typical opera stuff). The latter opera is about, well, actually I have no idea. I saw it, I understood some of the supertitles but I left not really having any clue of what I’d just seen. Both operas, however, were very well done so bravo Brenda’s colleagues!

Friday we had an appointment at the infamous Ausländerbehörde. You know, that office for foreigners that I consider a second home. In July, we had to go in to get an extension added to our passports that allowed us to come back into Germany after August 31. Brenda gave them her two year contract when we first arrived in Germany but apparently we can only be handled one year at a time and so we had to renew after the first year. Since we were unable to meet in August, however, they gave us an extension of 3 months starting in July. Why they couldn’t give us another year of approval starting in July is beyond me. Red tape in action.

Anyway, we had our appointment on the books for almost 3 months having scheduled it right before our Summer vacation. While we were sitting on the train heading over there Brenda turned to me and said “It is beautiful outside! Maybe that’s a sign of how our appointment is going to go.” I was hopeful that everything would go well, too. We really are at the mercy of this one office so all we can do is cross our fingers and hope for the best. We arrived early, 20 minutes or so, and waited patiently in the lobby. When the time came we headed to the appropriate office and went in. The woman that we were supposed to meet wasn’t there but instead we were greeted by a nice enough man sitting at the adjacent desk. He said Frau so-and-so was sick and that we’d have to head down the hall and knock on another door. We did that and were redirected to yet another door which was locked. Just as I was starting to think that it must actually be pouring rain outside a young blonde woman walked up to the door, unlocked it and invited us in.

We took our seats, glad that somebody was willing to help us, and sat quietly as the young woman got situated at her desk. Finally, she turned to us and said in wonderful English “Would you like to speak in English or German?” Um...English please. She took our passports and then the three of us started chatting while she worked. It turns out that this young lady was a nanny in North Carolina for a time. She met her current boyfriend there who is in the US military and is stationed in Wiesbaden, a town just west of Frankfurt. We couldn’t believe how lucky we were to be working with this really friendly, American-loving German official.

I’ve been curious ever since I first walked into the Ausländerbehörde what it must be like to work there. There are always stressed-out foreigners lined up (sometimes for hours) waiting to meet with government officials that will (or will not) allow them to stay in the country. I can’t imagine that Brenda and I feel the pressure that some of these other foreigners feel. If push comes to shove and we have a problem we can always go to the opera house and they will (hopefully) go to bat for us. I would imagine that a lot of the other foreigners that walk through the door only have themselves to rely on.

I’ve also observed that the government officials that work at the Ausländerbehörde are a bit cold. Not that they’re mean, they’re just down to business. I guess its that they don’t seem to take much pleasure in their work.

Now that I had a really friendly government worker chatting with us I decided to ask what it was like to work there. She said when she is working with people like Brenda and me it’s fine. With a lot of people, however, its really hard. She pointed to a stack of several 3-4 inch binders held together by a single rubber band and said “That is one person’s file.” She went on to say that some people come in and start yelling at her and threatening her. Some even threaten to kill her. She’s had people wait outside until she is done with work and follow her home all because they are mad at her for something she has no control over. She doesn’t write the laws regulating foreigners living in Germany. She’s just doing her job. Her boyfriend tells her that he’s worried about her and he’s a soldier. You’d think she’d be the one who worries about him. Which, I think, she does.

Needless to say, I have a new appreciation for the people that work at the Ausländerbehörde. I may get frustrated by the hoops we have to jump through but I now realize how much easier it is being on my side of the table than it is being on hers.

I almost forgot the most exciting part of our meeting. As we were finishing up I had the wherewithal to ask if she knew anything about where I could take cheap German lessons. As it turns out, the German government subsidizes up to 600 hours of German language lessons to foreigners. For those that are trying to become citizens it is required but since we’re not on that track it is optional which must be why no one mentioned it to us before. For the price of 1 euro per hour of class time I can start taking German language lessons! I have a list of schools to choose from and am now trying to decide which one I’ll go to. I’ll keep you posted on how it all works out.

Brenda started staging rehearsals for La Clemenza di Tito today. Performances will start next week. Until then we’re going to enjoy as much of the beautiful weather as we can. I saw some pumpkins at the store today so we may have to do some carving to get in the Halloween spirit. If we end up getting one I will post a picture of our ghoulish creation on the blog. Until next time, have a great week!

Germany - Year Two

Hello my friends. As you may have guessed from the title we are back in Germany. We have been here for a total of 38 hours and, believe it or not, we’re already starting to adapt to the time difference. The weeks leading up to our trip back were action packed so I think I’ll fill you in on a few of the highlights.

Brenda had a really fun and productive trip to New York City. In addition to taking several lessons with her wonderful voice teacher Edith Bers, Brenda had the opportunity to work with the famous soprano Renata Scotto. They worked on the title role in the opera Lucia di Lammermoor, which Brenda will be singing later this season at Oper Frankfurt. Lucia is one of the roles Scotto is famous for so it was an especially great experience for Brenda. When she wasn’t studying, Brenda was spending time with friends and visiting all of her favorite NYC spots. I have to admit, at times I was jealous but whenever those times hit I went golfing.

After Brenda returned to the midwest we spent some time with our families and, as you can imagine, a large chunk of time packing. On one of our marathon driving days we stopped off in Iowa City and had dinner with my voice teacher from undergrad, Stephen Swanson. Of all the voice teachers I’ve had, not to mention all the professors, I can easily say that Steve and I had the best relationship. I’ve wanted Brenda to meet him for years and we finally made it happen. It was especially nice because Steve sang opera in Germany for almost 20 years so we had plenty to talk about.

And now we’re back. The flight wasn’t bad at all, 7 hours and 40 minutes direct from Chicago O’hare (thanks to my folks for driving us there!). We were a little disappointed that the movies they had on the flight were the same as they were almost 3 months ago but we got over it. We landed, got our luggage, hopped on a train and went home. Easy. It was such a stark difference from last year. I guess that’s called progress.

There was one little snag, when we arrived home we didn’t have a working phone or internet connection. It seems that I was supposed to renew our phone contract before we left for vacation but I didn’t and so history is now repeating itself. You may recall me ranting about internet troubles about a year ago or so. I don’t anticipate it being as big of a deal this year but it will leave us without our internet connection for 2 weeks. Ah well, I guess we’ll have to go for walks or read a book or something equally torturous until we get online again.

I am going to try to blog more frequently this year so stay tuned for updates. Also, Brenda and I will be finishing her website in the coming weeks and I will post a link to it once its up and running. We’d love to get feedback on it.

Until next time, have a great week!

Our Summer Sabbatical

Hello Dear Friends. I hope you are all having a wonderful summer. As I'm sure most of you know Brenda and I are back in the US enjoying a very long (but definitely not too long) summer vacation. We arrived in early July and will be here until mid September. As you can imagine our vacation has been packed full of seeing friends and family as well as spending a lot of quality time on the highway.

Our first stop was my parent's beautiful new house. Wait, scratch that. Our first stop was actually Chipotle where we ate gigantic burritos and marveled at how large a small soda was. How quickly we forget. Then, with bellies fit to burst, we headed off to my parent's house to help them break it in. We had a great week in Ankeny re-acclimating to the US where we could go to stores and make small talk with the workers and give directions to people without having to rack our brains for the German translation for "go six blocks that way and turn left". A highlight of our first week back, at least for me, was running a 5k race. I ran the same race last year and was looking forward to doing it again. I was pleasantly surprised when Brenda said she wanted to run too. So on the morning of our 4th day back in the states we met up with my brother (Brad) and my sister-in-law (Tracy) and ran 5k with my parents and nephews cheering us on.


With our first fun-filled week behind us Brenda and I made the 24 hour drive down to Florida to relax with our friends Dan and Whitney and to catch a few rays. We stayed on the gulf side of Florida, not too far from Naples, and enjoyed many hours in and around the swimming pool and beach. We had a blast with Dan and Whit, as we always do, and probably could have spent a month down there without too much trouble.

Our next stop was Appleton, WI to see Brenda's parents (Jim and Joanne) and her sister (Laura). Our trip coincided with Jim and Joanne's 40th wedding anniversary which we helped them celebrate by singing a duet at church and eating some delicious Indian food. The night before we had gone up to Eau Claire, WI to see Laura perform with her band. It was a great concert and the locals loved it. We only hit a little bump (literally) on the way home when we hit a deer. Our car fared much better than the deer I'm afraid. We thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our time in Appleton. Brenda spent some time with her mother and her aunts in Door County while I made a brief trip back to Ankeny to help my dad celebrate his birthday.

After Appleton we headed back down to Ankeny for the Gast family reunion. My mother's maiden name is Gast and she organized a reunion for the kids, grandkids and great grandkids of her parent's, Clyndon and Beatrice Gast. It was a weekend affair beginning Friday night at the IA State Fair where we ate all kinds of fried foods many of which came on a stick. Saturday we had a progressive day starting at my cousin's house for breakfast, moving to my brother's house for lunch and finally eating dinner at my parent's house that evening. It was a fantastic weekend and quite an accomplishment considering how far some people had to travel.


After the reunion we headed up to Minneapolis to visit Laura and her girlfriend Lacey. You may remember hearing something about tornadoes in Minneapolis recently. As it turns out one touched down 3 blocks away from Laura and Lacey's apartment while we were all there oblivious to what was going on. I suspect that even if we had known that there were tornadoes touching down around us we still couldn't have interrupted Brenda's game of Guitar Hero. Rock stars can't be bothered with things like natural disasters.

And that brings us to the present. I am back in Ankeny and Brenda is in Portland visiting a friend. We have a little less than a month left in the US and in that time we will be back up to Appleton twice, I will go to Minneapolis and Kansas City and Brenda will be off to New York City. Stay tuned for more updates and have a great rest of your summer.

Hey! It's the other one!

Hello all! Yes, it is I, the elusive Brenda! I absolutely had to post a blog after tonight's performance of La Finta Giardiniera, not only because I want to share this story with you all, but because I want to make sure I remember this night!

So, I'll start with a bit of back story, in case you're not up to date on what I'm doing right now. We at Oper Frankfurt are in our last weekend of the season, and all of us go on vacation on Monday. Excellent! I have three shows this weekend: two Fintas (in which I have the title role) and one Palestrina (in which I have a tiny role!). Tonight was a Finta. Now, I love this show. I love the cast, I love the director, I love all the musicians -- it's just been a fantastic experience. So! Tonight was our 2nd to last show, and even though it was DREADFULLY hot in the theater (we perform this show in a converted train station -- very cool place, but it's like a sauna in the summer) it was going really well! All of our complicated staging was going well, people were singing well, the energy was great - a good night! With less than 20 minutes of the opera left, the tenor (Jussi Myllys) and I had just been lifted up to the stage on a hydraulic lift for our final duet. The music starts out very calm, as if we're waking from a dream. We sing our first few phrases, and I notice that one of the supernumeraries (a non-singing, non-speaking acting role) is laughing, hidden from sight. A second later I realize what he's laughing at as I hear some sort of alarm coming from somewhere! I thought at first it was an ambulance passing by the building, since this happens quite frequently. Yet, the noise stays constant! I try to keep the smile off my face (I have a tendency to get the giggles onstage! Uh oh! :-)) and keep my cool. As the tenor is singing, it's obvious that this alarm is something nearby and is not showing signs of stopping. I thought to myself, "Perhaps a car alarm?" Finally, the conductor actually stops the orchestra, turns to the audience and addresses this noise problem. None of us knew where it was coming from! So eventually he leaves to find out more, leaving the tenor, the supernumeraries and myself onstage, not sure if we should break character or not!! Finally our stage manager tells us from offstage that we should leave the stage and go outside, because the noise was actually the fire alarm! And it wasn't a false alarm either... So we make our way offstage and leave the building. Now, another funny thing is that the tenor and I are tethered together, so we have to make every move together! We stand around for maybe 15 minutes outside, waiting for further instructions, hoping that we can continue the show. Sadly, we received news that we couldn't finish the show. However, we were told the audience was still standing in front of the theater, and so we hustled over to do a makeshift curtain call! Thankfully, they were all in high spirits and being really good sports about it all! After the whole cast and conductor had assembled in front of the applauding audience we decided to sing the final ensemble piece, which is just a short lively chorus! We didn't want to leave the audience with an unresolved story! After all, in this opera, it isn't until the very end that all the lovers finally end up with whom they belong! 

So in the end, it was okay that we didn't get to finish the opera, since a very special and positive memory was created! However, I must say that I hope tomorrow's (last!) Finta performance goes on uninterrupted!!! 

Here's a picture from the opening night curtain call. Most of the cast is pictured, as well as the conductor, director and the costume designer. 

If you'd like to see more photos of the production, click here!

Next stop - Rüdesheim / Assmannshausen

Hello dear friends! I hope things with you have been going well. We have been doing very well here in Deutschland. Brenda opened the show "La Finta Giardiniera" on the 21st and already has 4 performances behind her. There are pictures of her and other cast members on Frankfurt's website if you care to look at them.

I am also in an opera at Oper Frankfurt at the moment. I am performing the role of Brühlmann in the opera "Werther". I am in one of the production photos on the website. I'm on the right side of the first picture and I'm dancing...or at least trying to.

We are heading back to the States for vacation in 9 days. It is really sneaking up on us. We will be back in the States for 10 weeks! We're really looking forward to it.

But enough chit-chat, let's get down to business. The pictures below are just a few glimpses into our trip to Rüdesheim and Assmannshausen. Rüdesheim is a town about 45 minutes west of Frankfurt. To give you an idea of our day there we took a lift up to the top of a small mountain where there is a big monument, then we rode down the other side of the mountain, toured a castle and took a boat ride on the Rhein back to where we started.

Here is a picture of the lift on the way up the mountain. Brenda and I are in the cart ahead. I realize its very small but the monument is in the upper left hand corner of this picture. The monument commemorates the re-establishment of the German empire. I believe it was having its 125th anniversary this year. You may have already noticed but the lift took us over a beautiful vineyard.Brenda and I posing for a picture at the benches set up around the base of the monument. In the background is the Rhein river and Rüdesheim.

As we traveled around Germany we kept seeing beautiful yellow fields. We finally asked someone what they were and it turns out they are fields of rapeseed. Rapeseed is used to make animal feed and vegetable oil among other things.

This is a picture of the Castle Rheinstein from the lift going down the mountain. We toured the beautiful castle and enjoyed a glass of wine in their cafe (see below).

We really enjoyed our trip to Rüdesheim. Actually we enjoyed it so much that we took Laura and Lacey there when they were in town. Since its so close I'm looking forward to going there again soon.

So that's it for now. Next stop is the beautiful Rothenburg. Stay tuned and have a great week!

The places we've been - Heidelberg

Hello dear friends.  I hope you have been well.  We are continuing to enjoy Laura and Lacey's stay in Germany.  They are spending a few days in Berlin right now so I'm taking this opportunity to post a few pics from my parents' visit.

Proof they were in fact in "Mainhattan".

Our first trip out of Frankfurt took us to Heidelberg.  In the background you can see the Heidelberg Castle.  Highlights from this trip include eating lunch at a towny bar (with drunk locals and all), touring the giant castle you see in the background and paying 50 cents to use the restroom.  (It was totally worth it.)

Here is a view of the bridge (seen in the previous picture) from the vantage point of the castle.

And here is the giant keg in the castle.  I found out after the fact that I had studied a German song in college that referenced this very keg.

So there are a few glimpses at our trip to Heidelberg.  Stay tuned for more pictures from other German hotspots.

A month in review

It is strange. I swear it was just a week or two ago that I posted my last blog entry but I see now that it has been almost a month. As I think back over the past 4 weeks, however, it doesn't take long for me to discover why they went so fast.

My parents came to visit in the first part of May and stayed for two weeks. We had a great time and squeezed in quite a bit. Within the first few days of their arrival they saw us perform in the last performance of Gianni Schicchi at Oper Frankfurt. After that we traveled to several different German locales.

Our first trip took us to Heidelberg where we got to enjoy a beautiful old city with a gorgeous historic city center equipped with period bridge and castle. Our next stop was Rüdesheim which is about 45 minutes west of Frankfurt. There is gigantic German monument there standing at the top of a big hill (small mountain perhaps?) which we got to by riding up the hill in a small ski lift type cart. After wandering around at the top of the hill we came down on the other side, also by ski lift, and ended up in a beautiful town called Assmannshausen. Its true, we have pictures. The castle Rheinstein is there which we toured and thought was very beautiful. Interestingly enough it was bought and preserved by an opera singer in recent decades.

In subsequent days we went to Wittenberg, Rothenburg, Füssen, the castle Neuschwanstein, Dinkelsbühl and the Schwarzwald. It was my first time really getting out of Frankfurt since we moved here in August and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

After my parents headed back home we had just enough time to change the sheets on their bed and welcome Brenda's sister and her girlfriend Lacey. They have been here coming up on a week now and will be here for a total of around a month. We love having them here and look forward to exploring more sights with them.

We took over 500 pictures while my parents were here and we have already begun taking pictures with Lacey and Laura. I will post some of the highlight photos in a subsequent entry. Until then, I hope you have been well. Have a great week!