Why I like Germany...

1. Everything is within walking distance, or within walking distance of an SBahn or UBahn station: I've been eating stuff like toast with butter and nutella on it every morning, but I'm still losing weight because I walk like, 10 or so kilometers per day!
2. Bread and most groceries are really cheap: Garrett and I bought a loaf of bread for 65 cents. Brötchen cost about 10 cents. I bought some nuts today, which cost 1.86 Euros. In the US, they would have been at least $5. Produce, however, is a little more expensive, which is sad...
3. Everyone recycles.
4. You HAVE to save water/electricity: It's expensive.
5. No one will come up to you in the store and make awkward small talk, but once you have a reason to talk to someone, they are the sweetest people.
6. There's so much history here: most of the buildings/churches are really old, and there are plenty of art and historical museums. (Yes, I realize this one isn't Germany-specific, but since I am here, I will count it among the reasons why I like Germany!)

Internship!

I have officially started my internship at the Staatsoper! So far, all I've done is observed rehearsals, but it's been great! I'll be working on a production of Viva la mamma by Donizetti, performed by the "Opernstudio", which is a program for young opera singers. The director of the program/the man who set up the internship for me is really nice. All the singers are really great, too! It was really neat, because they are from all over the world! We usually speak about half German/half English, which is nice, because I can understand both!

I started on Wednesday, and I felt at home as soon as I walked into the room. Everyone was so nice and friendly, and I walked in to a conversation about German grammar... way cool! So far the rehearsals have been very similar to the way we do rehearsals at Tech. The first rehearsal was a dialogue rehearsal, in which a dialogue coach worked with the singers on their spoken dialogue to fix any subtle diction problems and to work on word stress in the sentences, since German is, for most of them, a second, third, or fourth language. That being said, I am so impressed with how great their German is- diction-wise, and conversation-wise. I am also impressed that they know English so well, too! I think it's incredible that they were able to learn a whole script in a foreign language! I don't know that I could even memorize dialogue in German at this point!

The second rehearsal I went to was a music rehearsal. They pretty much just ran the arias, duets, and ensembles. I really enjoyed this one because I got to hear them all sing! I also learned a lot from the rehearsal about musicality, what is expected of such singers, and just how much work from the individual really goes into these performances. They all sing absolutely beautifully, and I'm really looking forward to the upcoming rehearsals!

The next rehearsal I observed was a private coaching in Italian. One of the sopranos in the studio had a coaching for her Italian diction. (Because it's a comdey, they will perform the dialogue in German and the arias/ensembles in Italian.) I learned so much about Italian diction-especially about open vs. closed vowels and how to sing double consonants effectively. I know this is probably stuff I should already know, but it was great to hear it and have it all clarified.

Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to the rest of this experience! It's been so much fun so far, and I have learned so much already. Plus, I'm getting some really great German practice!

My face!

I can actually say that this injury was probably one of the worst I've ever experienced... which is totally sad, because this one was really not that bad. I've just had a pretty boring life as far as injuries go... I'm totally fine now, and I'm actually even able to laugh about it. So, no worrying!

Here's the story:
Garrett and I were helping our friend move a really heavy cabinet (a Kleiderschrank for those of you who speak German... there's really not a good English equivalent) to her second story apartment, and one of the back panels came loose and hit me in the face! At first it just hurt, but not too bad, so I had no idea what happened. When we got to the top of the stairs, I felt something running down my face. When we set it down, Garrett looked over and told me I was bleeding a lot. Luckily, Garrett has a merit badge from scouts for first aid, so he cleaned up my face and took great care of me! It's totally fine now-the cut is healing very nicely. I do have a bit of a black eye, but that's to be expected when one suffers an injury in that general vicinity!

I actually think the bandaid on my face (which Garrett insisted I wear :p) was worse than the actual injury. Hey, at least we learned the word for bandaid... Pflaster. It reminds me of Larry the Cucumber from Veggie Tales, and how he learns the word for lip in Polish when he spends six weeks in lip rehab after getting his lip stuck in a gate... There's good that comes out of every situation. :)

Arrival in Germany!

Garrett and I arrived safely in Germany on Thursday afternoon with no problems at all! Unfortunately, we were on different flights, but we left and arrived around the same time, so it wasn't too bad. Our gates were even right next to each other at DFW! Our new friend, Andrea, who is graciously letting us stay with her until we find a place, picked us up from the airport.

So far, we've had a blast speaking German, eating Brötchen, and seeing the beautiful city that is Berlin.

More to come...