So we got this letter...

Hello one and all!  Things here are moving right along.  Brenda and I have had rehearsals for Gianni Schicchi almost every day for about a week now.  It has been a lot of fun going to work together and since we are playing husband and wife in the opera we have a good excuse for our excessive PDA.

The weather here has been crap.  Rainy, a little snowy and all around gloomy.  We had high hopes that Spring was right around the corner when Brenda's parents were here but that has proven not to be the case.  We keep hearing about this beautiful Spring that Frankfurt usually has but I'll believe it when I see it.

In keeping with the grey skies we received a grey letter on Saturday.  Its actually not all that uncommon considering the opera house uses grey envelopes and we get pay stubs and other such information from them on a regular basis.  However, this letter was grey in many respects.  Allow me to paraphrase its message.

Dear Ms. Klinkert,

We won't be paying you this month.

Sincerely,

Frau So-and-so

Frankfurt Opera

Ok, so the letter said a little more than that.  It also explained why Brenda wouldn't be getting paid for a month's work.  In order for me to explain it, though, I'm going to have to give you some info on the tax system in Germany.  Here goes...

All working people in Germany are in a given tax class numbered 1-6 depending on their situation.  As I understand it, if you are single with no dependents then you are in tax class 1 and are taxed at around 50%.  If you are married and both people work then one person (generally the higher income earner) is in tax class 3 and is taxed at around 40%.  The other person is in tax class 5 and is taxed at around 60%.  People are mailed their number on a tax card at the end of the current year for the following year.  They are then supposed to give the tax card to their employer in the new year. That's all I know about the German tax system and I wouldn't take any of that as law if I were you.

So our little we-can't-pay-any-of-our-bills-this-month problem fits in like this.  Our tax class numbers had been reversed on our tax cards which means that Brenda was in the higher taxed group (5) and I was in the lower (3) when it was supposed to be the opposite.  We noticed this and got the problem corrected before we turned the tax cards in to the opera house a couple of weeks ago.  What we didn't realize, however, was that our recently corrected tax cards would not take affect retroactively.  

Thus far in 2009 the opera house had been operating under the assumption that Brenda's tax class was the same as 2008, tax class 3.  When they got our tax cards last week they realized that according to the cards they should have been taxing Brenda at tax class 5 for the first 3 months of 2009.  To fix this mistake they would have to take her entire next paycheck to make up for the unpaid taxes for the first quarter of 2009.

Does that make sense?  Well even if it doesn't I applaud you for reading all of that.  My main question all along was why did the city change our tax classes from 2008.  Brenda was a 3 then and I was a 5 so why would it all of a sudden switch?  We talked to several different people and the best theory we could come up with is that someone assumed that since I'm a man I must have been the primary income earner.  Nice, huh?

We went to the opera house on Monday and spoke with a woman in finance.  We explained our situation and she was very kind and empathetic but said that basically we were screwed.  Legally the opera house couldn't do anything to help us and we could try our luck at the city office but she doubted anything would come of that.

We have been doing pretty well communicating in German lately but the idea of explaining this in German seemed overwhelming so we enlisted the help of our friend Michael.  He agreed to be our spokesman at the city office and so on Tuesday we all went down there.  Michael explained our problem to the guy at the information desk and he said that it was unfortunate but doubted that anything could be done.  He gave us a number, though, and we went up to meet with some other person.

Michael explained our situation to this new person who went to talk to someone else who in turn went to talk to a 3rd person.  The 2nd person came back and said that we should have fixed this when we got the tax cards at the end of last year.  Michael explained that we were new in Frankfurt, we didn't have any idea how the system worked and reminded them that someone in their office had made the mistake of switching our tax classes from the previous year.  To my great surprise they said all they needed was a fax from the opera house saying they were ok with the change and then they'd issue us new tax cards that covered all of 2009.  Problem solved.

So that was our week.  We laughed, we cried, we entertained the idea of living on the street but in the end it all worked out.  Gianni Schicchi opens next week and I'm really excited to get it up and running.  Until then we'll be in rehearsals and searching for sunshine and warm weather.  I hope you have a great weekend!

An interesting discovery

This past weekend quickly came and went and with it went my penultimate Caligula and Brenda's final Un Ballo in Maschera. We are both ready to move onto something new which is good because we start staging rehearsals for Il Trittico on Wednesday. (Warning: The rest of this paragraph is filled with opera talk.) Il Trittico isn't actually an opera itself but rather the title of a set of 3 one-act opera's by Giacomo Puccini. They are Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. Brenda and I play husband and wife in Gianni Schicchi and Brenda is a nun in Suor Angelica. Oddly this won't be the first time she's played a nun in an opera.

We've been in Frankfurt coming up on 7 months now and I've noticed lately how much more comfortable we've become in our new city. We've got places where we do our shopping, favorite restaurants, a gym and most importantly some great new friends. We're even more confident in our interactions with German speaking people. No doubt our German has gotten better since we arrived in August but more than that I think we've just become more courageous. When it comes to speaking German we get an A for effort. Let's not discuss our German grammar grade...

At the very least we know that we'll get to practice our German once every two weeks. As it turns out a pound of coffee wont last longer than two weeks in our apartment and so a trip to the wonderful Wacker's Kaffee is regularly required. This past week after a beautiful early-evening walk to Wacker's we decided to go to Saturn, the closest thing Frankfurt has to a Best Buy. As we wandered around the store we came across their amazing classical music section. A recording sitting at the end of one of the rows caught my eye. The name of the opera was Lear. Upon further inspection of the CD I realized that it was Frankfurt Opera's recording of Lear in which I sang a part. I flipped the case over and looked at the cast list and sure enough there was my name. Now I knew they were making a recording of Lear. I had a mic strapped to my body for 4 or 5 of the performances. I also signed something saying that I'd do the recording for the fee of 3 copies of said recording. What I didn't know is when the recording would be finished and where they'd be available.

It was a surreal experience. I have scoured classical music sections for about 10 years now and to actually pick up a CD in a store that had my name on it was definitely a first. I reminded myself that it wasn't a big deal because I only sang one line and it isn't exactly a famous opera but still, it was a pretty great find.

Things here have been moving more and more in the direction of Spring. I am really looking forward to the day that I can take a nice long walk without my coat. Brenda is chomping at the bit to test out her new bike. She may even take it to work tomorrow. I hope things are looking more Spring-like in your neck of the woods, too. Have a great week!

Hey! Remember us?

Hello all!  Please forgive my extended hiatus from the blog.  As you can imagine quite a few blog-worthy things have happened over the past month but I've been distracted by this and that and have neglected my blog duties.  The good news is I have many new stories to tell and things to get you caught up on.

First things first, Brenda and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary yesterday!  After a morning trip to the airport we did a little shopping and then spent the rest of the day in-doors avoiding the rain.  It may be too early to tell but I think we are developing an anniversary pattern.  We ate Mexican food for lunch yesterday and afterwards we realized that we had eaten Mexican food on our first anniversary as well.  Next year we'll know for sure if its going to become a tradition.  Considering how much we like Mexican food it may be on the menu for our next anniversary whether we plan it or not.

The reason we went to the airport yesterday was to see Brenda's parents off.  We had the pleasure of their company for an action packed week that involved two operas, some sight-seeing and a lot of great food.  We always love spending time with them which is probably why the week flew by so fast.

In other news, Brenda and I are both involved in productions at the opera house at the moment.  I'm in an opera called Caligula which is a really cheery story about the crazy, murderous Roman emperor by the same name.  Brenda and her parents said they really enjoyed the opera and even though the opera house isn't filling up the people that do come seem to love it.  Brenda is in Un Ballo in Maschera at the moment and has her final performance this weekend.  I've been hearing a lot of great things about her performance from other people and I, of course, think she's fantastic.

Well, I've filled you in on most of our recent highlights.  I have some entertaining stories to share but my eyes don't seem to want to stay open so the stories will have to wait.  I hope you have all been well and enjoy the rest of your week!

Brenda's Birthday!

Our apartment is for sale.  That's right, now is the time for you to buy a little place in Europe.  I don't know how much it is but I'm sure its a deal at twice the price.  So instead of buying that condo in Florida or Arizona I suggest you pick up a Winter home in Frankfurt.  You wont be getting away from the cold but you will be getting a lot closer to all the piping hot mulled wine you can drink!

We have known for some time that our apartment was on the market.  In fact, our landlady first approached us about buying the place but we let her know that unless we could pay her in pretty songs we couldn't afford it.  On Friday a realtor came through with three different groups of prospective buyers.  It gave us a good excuse to tidy up our apartment a bit and we got to work on our German with a very nice lady from Hanau.  We're happy that our landlady has put the apartment on the market.  It sounds like she is going to move to America or Canada to be closer to her mother and I think the sooner she sells this place the sooner she can head over.  On top of that we have gotten to know Frankfurt much better and have found a few areas of town that we'd love to live in.  We are very interested in living in Sachsenhausen (an area in the southern part of the city) because we really like the area and we'd love to see the Main river everyday.

Yesterday was Brenda's birthday!  We started out the day by making french toast from scratch.  In the afternoon our neighbors the McCowns brought over a big plate of chocolate chip cookies of which we ate WAY too many.  Finally we went to the dodgy English movie theater and saw Twilight.  You may have heard of it, its a romantic vampire movie set in a high school in Washington State.  The female lead is new in town and is immediately drawn to the incredibly handsome, pale, lip-stick wearing guy that looks kind of like a vampire and, surprisingly enough, turns out to be one.  Brenda enjoyed it so much I think she'll be picking up the book the movie was based on.

I hope you're having a great week!

Jet lag

And we're back in Deutschland.  We had a great time in the U.S.  We opened presents, did some cross-country skiing, spent a lot of wonderful time with our families and we ate.  A lot.  Our plane left Des Moines at 10:30 am and we got to our apartment in Frankfurt by 7:00 am the next morning.  As we were schlepping our 4 bags (each weighing precisely 49.9 lbs) down the sidewalk I had two thoughts: first, I was amazed by how warm 31 degrees fahrenheit feels after having experienced -20 degrees and second, our bags were making an enormous amount of noise on the cobblestone sidewalks for 7:00 am on a Sunday.  It was a good way to let our neighbors know we were back.

We were tired when we got to our apartment so we went to sleep right as the sun was starting to rise.  We slept well and woke up as the sun was setting.  As one might imagine we stayed up until about 6 or 7 the next morning and again slept through most of the the daylight hours.  This pattern went on for several days and it was very unsettling to only see a few minutes of daylight each day.  Over the past couple of days we have made some progress and are seeing at least two hours of sunlight each day.

Brenda went right back into coaching for her upcoming role of Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera.  They begin staging rehearsals on Monday.  I have started looking more seriously at my upcoming roles including the one in which Brenda and I play husband and wife on stage.  All told things are pretty much back to normal.

Have a great week!

Chenda NOT in Germany

Hello everyone!  I thought I'd drop you a quick note letting you know that we are no longer strangers in a strange land.  Yesterday we made the long trip from Frankfurt to Des Moines (with a little stop in Chicago to switch planes) and we were very tired when we arrived.  We figured out that we had been awake for the better part of 42 hours.  We slept well last night.  

We will be in the states for 2 1/2 weeks and we can't wait to do the American things that we've missed.  We've been asked what we want to do most now that we're back.  Our answer, eat Mexican food.  What could be more American than that?

Have a great rest of your week.

Happy New Year!

I hope all of you had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year.  Brenda and I had plans to go to a party hosted by some Oper Frankfurt donors but ended up not going because Brenda was not feeling well.  Yesterday she started feeling achy and light-headed but was still healthy enough to perform the role of the Voice from Heaven (Voce dal Cielo) in the opera Don Carlo.  Today, however, she seems a little worse off having added coughing and stronger aches to the list of symptoms.  She has been getting plenty of rest and drinking lots of water so we're hopeful that she's on the road to recovery.

Frankfurt seems to be a very organized city.  The streets are kept clean, the trains and buses run on-time and pedestrians cross the street only when the little green man is illuminated.  When I compare Frankfurt to New York City I usually come to the conclusion that Frankfurt has things under control while NYC is perpetually on the brink of utter chaos.  That's why I was so surprised when last night the streets of Frankfurt erupted into loud and colorful explosions.  It seems that New Years is not taken lightly here and the way people celebrate is by buying fireworks and letting them off in the streets at the stroke of midnight.  And these are real fireworks, not just the sparklers you're limited to buying in Iowa.  They are just like the ones you see at your favorite 4th of July extravaganza.  After the noise died down, and it went on for quite a while, we looked outside and saw a cloudy, firework induced haze blanketing the streets.  Today when I ventured out of the house the normally clean streets and sidewalks were littered with remnants of last night's party.  

Where did the German people buy their fireworks you ask?  Well at the grocery store of course.  So to recap what you can and can't buy in grocery stores in Germany:

CAN

• Fireworks that are illegal in many US states
  
• Cool American Doritos (no joke)
• Fresh baked croissants

CAN'T

• Vanilla extract
  
• Black beans (not in mysterious chili sauce)
  
• Ranch dressing
  

But that's neither here nor there.  This blog entry is about Frankfurtians celebrating the New Year and I have to admit, I was impressed.  Part of me thinks its crazy to mix a whole bunch of champagne with things that explode but thats probably just the anti-firework lobby that had a firm grip on my firework education in the state of Iowa.  Maybe next year I'll be so inspired by the New Year that I too will go to the grocery store, buy some sparkling wine and explosives and join in on the festivities.  Happy New Year!