T&K’s Spring Break Pacific Northwest Road Trip Adventure 2015: Bucket List

This is my second post about this trip and we haven’t even left yet. Can you tell I absolutely can’t wait? I need a vacation bad. But also, I’m so excited about all of the different cities and national parks that we’re going to visit. Here’s my list of absolute musts for this trip, some of which we already have booked. Huzzah!

1. See a show at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.

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I’ve been dying to get to Ashland for ten years, ever since it was offered as a senior class trip in high school and I couldn’t go because of marching band. Sigh. That was the beginning of rehearsals interfering with my life. Anyway, T and I have talked about going a couple of different times since then, but now we’re actually making it happen! We have tickets to see Shakespeare’s Pericles, which wouldn’t have been my first choice, but it’s what’s playing and I’m too excited to care.

2. Visit the original Starbucks at Pike’s Place in Seattle and buy a tumbler.

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In college, while on a choir trip through the Pacific Northwest, I bought a travel mug at the original Starbucks. I absolutely loved it and used it all the time, until somewhere in the process of moving home after graduation, I lost it. So many sads. But now I have the opportunity to replace it, and so I shall.

3. Cheer for no one at a Canucks game in Vancouver.

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One night in January, T and I were at a Sharks game, watching them lose depressingly, when one of us said casually, “We should go to a hockey game in Vancouver.” That was enough to distract us from whatever travesty was happening on the ice in front of us, and we promptly hopped on our phones, found a game on one of the nights that we’ll be there, and bought tickets. It’ll be the Canucks vs. the Phoenix Coyotes in the second-to-last game of the regular season, but we’ll be proudly displaying our teal inside Rogers Arena. No one will care since the Sharks won’t be in the playoffs anyway.

4. Go for a walk through the rain forest in Olympic National Park.

Poor drought-riddled California hasn’t seen that much green in a long, long time. I would love to take the time to enjoy some greenery and some damp weather… and maybe we can convince some of it to come home with us.

5. Take T to Powell’s Books in Portland.

Powell’s is basically heaven on earth. This was another stop on the aforementioned college choir tour, and I could have lived in there. Obviously our time was limited because of traveling with a giant group, but I’m very much looking forward to getting lost in there for a few hours. T wasn’t with me last time (though I did bring him back a book of German fairy tales  auf Deutsch), so I can’t wait to see his face upon first walking in.

Have you ever been to any of the cities or places that I mentioned, or do you live in any of them? Any recommendations are more than welcome!

T&K’s Spring Break Pacific Northwest Road Trip Adventure 2015: What I’m Packing

Back in September, when we bought our outdoorsy, all-weather Subaru Outback, we decided that we needed to take it on a road trip as soon as humanly possible. Of course, for us, “as soon as humanly possible” meant “seven months from now when we have time off.” So we planned a spring break road trip adventure up the Pacific Northwest, through Oregon and Washington and up into Vancouver.

When we found out we had to move out of our apartment and our stress levels tripled in a matter of seconds, I began counting down the days to our vacation in earnest and making concrete plans. We leave the day after Easter and I can’t wait to share our travels with you, but for now, here’s what I will be packing for eight days in the car and enjoying all the West Best Coast has to offer.

Tops: peach/beige sweater, white sweater, long-sleeve t-shirt, red sweater, white v-neck t-shirt (x3), yellow cardigan. Bottoms: black skinny jeans, blue skinny jeans, black/white maxi skirt.

Outerwear, shoes, and scarves. Not pictured: tennis shoes because I forgot to get them out for the picture. Oh well.

More to come about preparing for our trip! Stay tuned!

Five Secrets for Rocking Public Transportation Anywhere in the World

I’ll just be real for a second: I’m the master of public transit. I’m honestly not sure where, when, or how I gained my ridiculous skills for navigating a transit system, since my hometown is far from a model city in that particular aspect. But regardless, I’ve always been very confident in my ability to get myself around on public transportation, even in countries where I don’t speak the language. This year alone I successfully directed myself and various friends around Rio de Janeiro, London (and outside), Paris, and eastern Germany, and only one of those systems was actually in a language I speak fluently.

The Hauptbahnhof (main train station) in Erfurt, Germany.

So what are my secrets for successfully finding my way around foreign cities?

1. Do your homework. Before you venture off into the unknown, take a little time to prepare. First, figure out the best way to get to the exact place you want to go, then backtrack to find each step of transportation. Look up the bus schedule online beforehand and note times, bus numbers, and directions. Download an app with an offline map of the subway system (here’s the one I used for the London tube system, and the comparable one for the Paris metro). Know which color line you’ll be taking. Figure out where you will need to transfer from a train to a bus or vice versa. And most importantly, write it all down if you don’t trust yourself to remember every step.
2. Have the right type of currency. I don’t just mean the correct kind of money for whatever country you’re in––that’s a given. If the bus requires exact change, make sure you’re prepared for that. If there’s a chance that the ticket machines in the subway station only take cash, get some in advance. Being ready with the right payment method will help you blend in like a local.
3. Understand the cardinal directions. Or at least know what major landmarks, stations, or cities are in the same direction as wherever you’re going. Your particular stop may be too small to show up on a train station marquee, but if you know which direction you should be traveling, it will save you a lot of headache.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Sometimes your common sense and preparation will fail, or you will need to buy a train ticket at a foreign airport right after you land, or your language skills will be shaky. It’s helpful to learn how to say phrases like, “I am learning [local language],” or “My [language] is not very good, do you speak English?” Those sentences have earned me a lot of sympathetic smiles from locals, followed by much more assistance than I would otherwise have gotten. There’s no shame in asking which platform your train is on or whether the bus makes a particular stop. It’s better to ask than to end up somewhere you didn’t want to go.
5. Act like a local. If everyone walks fast, try to keep up with their pace. If people are standing on the right of an escalator and walking on the left, do the same. Pronounce places, stops, and stations with as correct of an accent as you can manage. Keep your eyes up and look confident, like you do this every day. The more you pretend you know exactly what you’re doing, the easier it will be.

By relying on these things, I’ve grown to be quite confident in my ability to find my way around unfamiliar cities and countries, even without ever having been to them before or speaking the language. Public transit is nothing to be afraid of, it just requires a little bit of advance effort. May your next travel adventure be that much less stressful because of it!

Weimar, Germany: Excursion to Erfurt

On our one free day during my month in Weimar, a group of us girls took the train about fifteen minutes away to the town of Erfurt. It was a Sunday, so there weren’t many shops open, but we had a great time wandering around the town.

The Erfurt Hauptbahnhof.

Me in front of one of the many adorable streets.

The lovely group of ladies!

As we walked further into the city center, we discovered this gorgeous Gothic church, the Katholischer Dom St. Marien. It was actually open, so we wandered in to admire it.

When we came out of the church, we found ourselves looking straight down at a wine festival. Oh darn! It was a wonderful way to end the day.

I would have loved to go back to Erfurt had we had any more free time. Maybe next time!

Travel Bucket List

Me in front of the Eiffel Tower (obviously) earlier this summer. One more country checked off the bucket list!

I write this post from my office job, which, while far from the worst job ever, or even a bad job, is certainly not an exciting way to spend my summer. I’m finding myself daydreaming about T’s and my next big vacation. The world is our oyster, really. So I thought I’d share with you my travel bucket list.

• Obviously I would love to go back to Italy, as I shared in this post.

• The Holy Land. We had an opportunity to sign up for a trip next January through our church, but it’s just too expensive for us right now. Sigh. Maybe another time.

• Australia. Specifically Sydney, because duh, the opera house and climbing the harbor bridge. Bonus points if we can find Nemo. We may even expand to New Zealand by T’s request.

• Russia, mostly for my family’s history.

• The east coast of our own United States. T, who has his degree in American history, has shamefully never been back east, and I feel it’s my duty as his wife to take him there. My top three stops would be Washington DC, New York City, and Boston.

• Hawaii. One can never get enough Hawaii.

That’s my short list. Once we begin to cross those off, I would like to expand to Asia and maybe some of the smaller countries in Europe. One of the perks of being a singer is that I’m getting to know people in all corners of the world, which opens up lots of travel possibilities!

What are some places on your travel bucket list?

The Greatest Trip of My Life

Today I’m participating in my first blog hop, hosted by Casey at We Took the Road Less Traveled! It’s Fresh Face Friday and the topic is “the greatest trip of your life.”

Eight years ago, the summer after my freshman year of college, I had the opportunity to spend three weeks in central Europe on a college choir tour. We sang our way through Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg, the small Austrian mountain towns of Durnstein and Schladming, Munich, Oberammergau, Karlovy Vary, and Prague. It was an incredible experience for 18-year-old me… but that was not the greatest trip of my life.

The greatest trip of my life was the one I took right after that.

Two days after I returned home to my family and T, who I had been dating for two years at that point, we left for a week-long houseboat trip with some close family friends. Our lake of choice was Trinity Lake, where my brother and I had grown up camping every summer, and one of my favorite spots in the world to this day.

You can see why I love it so much.

After three weeks of intense international travel with 100 other college students, getting in the car and driving to the lake with my family and T was absolute heaven. I will always remember that trip for a few reasons.

1) On our way there, something broke on our boat trailer, and we sat on the side of the road while my dad tried to fix it. Meanwhile, the car thermometer heated up beyond what any of us had ever seen, and though it wasn’t actually quite THAT hot, my brother, T, our friends, and I were thoroughly entertained.

131 degrees. Yep.

18-year-old me and my brother’s best friend.

2) During the last couple days of our trip, the lake, which is up in the northern California mountains, became surrounded by wildfires. It didn’t endanger our trip at all, but the sky turned gray and orange and you could smell the smoke. This didn’t bode super well for T or for one of the other guys on the trip, who both had asthma, but T sucked it up enough for us to go wakeboarding together while the forest burned down around us. (Okay, not really, but we got some cool pictures.)

Creepy, no?

Sorry for the blurriness. This was taken by a 2006-vintage camera phone (lol what) on a very choppy lake.

3) After a stressful and long international trip, I got to spend the entire week sitting around a houseboat reading, napping, and playing card games with T, my brother, and our friends. Everyone was so relaxed and so happy, and it was the perfect way to recover.

T, our friends, and my brother playing a heated game of Family Business.

My dad in his element, driving his boat.

T and me, all the way back in 2006, happily at the end of our long-distance relationship.

What has been the greatest trip of your life to this day?

Weimar, Germany: Things to Do

After a crazy last several days in Germany, I’m finally home in California and spending the rest of this week recovering from the past month. I loved living in the town of Weimar, so I’d like to share with you some ideas of things to do should you ever make it there.

Weimar is about a three-hour train ride from either Frankfurt or Berlin. I chose to fly in and out of Frankfurt because the train goes right to the airport. It was very easy to get there, which was really important to me since I was traveling alone and speak very little German.

The main thing Weimar is known for is being the hometown of Goethe, the 18th- and 19th-century poet and writer. It was also home to Friedrich Schiller, a slightly lesser-known but still famous poet/philosopher. Goethe and Schiller memorabilia is everywhere… you can tour both of their houses as well as find numerous places throughout the city that are named after one or the other of them. For example, there’s a department store called “Schiller Kaufhaus,” and the plaza that housed our theatre is called “Goetheplatz.”

The statue of Goethe and Schiller outside the Deutsche National Theatre. Photo credit: Peter Hamon.

Speaking of the Deutsche National Theatre, this is one of the major attractions in the city. The theatre houses both opera and straight theatre, and though my program ended right before the start of the DNT’s season, their full calendar seems to indicate that the theatre is thriving and that it is a huge part of Weimar’s cultural scene.

The DNT in the daylight. It was on our route to our (smaller) theatre every day.

The theatre lit up at night as part of a multimedia presentation that was projected across the Platz onto the facade.

Another major attraction in Weimar is the castle, which I didn’t actually try to tour because I didn’t have enough free time. However, it’s really pretty on the outside, and I’m sure the inside is fascinating as well.

Right next to the castle is Goethe-park, deep within which is Goethe’s Gartenhaus. The park is absolutely beautiful and has lots of paths for jogging, walking, or just general exploring, the latter two of which I actually participated in.

The river running through the park is really lovely too.

Lots of open space!

Exploring with friends.

Goethe’s Gartenhaus.

There are lots of good places to eat… I’ll do another post on food sometime. Weimar is also full of shops, though not a lot of them are clothing stores for our generation, as my friends and I discovered. There’s at least something for everyone though, and of course, there is Müller, a giant department store that puts Target to shame.

Four stories of German department store goodness? Yes please!

I wish I had more to share, but we didn’t have very much free time during the program to explore the city or be tourists. I would love to return one day and make sure to complete my experience!

Weimar, Germany: The Fach System

As you probably know, I’m not here in Germany just for funsies. I’m here to work, which for me means to sing. I’m participating in a program called Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, which includes training components like voice lessons and coachings, master classes, and language studies, as well as the opportunity to learn and perform a full role in an opera.

Me and two of my singer friends from this program, on one of our concert days.

One of the unique aspects of this particular program is the opportunity to learn from and sing for various artistic staff members of the German opera world. Earlier this week we had a seminar with a German stage director who talked to us about how to make it in the German system. One of the major aspects of the singing world over here is the Fach system. Yes, it sounds like a bad word, but essentially it means what vocal category you fall into. I discussed it a little bit back in February.

Determining your Fach is much more specific than being classified as a soprano, alto, tenor, or bass in a choir, for example. There is even a book called the Handbuch der Oper that serves as the Bible of the Fach system. (Am I allowed to say that?) It lists every role in the standard operatic repertoire and assigns each one to a voice type. Again, though, we’re not just talking about “soprano” as a category. “Soprano,” as an example, is broken up into the following categories (in English):

-Lyric coloratura soprano

-Character/soubrette soprano (a little bit outdated; mostly used in operetta in old houses)

-Lyric soprano

-Dramatic coloratura soprano

-Young dramatic soprano

-Dramatic soprano

-Wagnerian soprano

My voice falls into the first, lightest category, the lyric coloratura soprano. According to the Handbuch der Oper, there is a specific list of roles I’m “allowed” to sing as a lyric coloratura, including Adele in Die Fledermaus, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Cunegonde in Candide, and Norina in Don Pasquale. Singing anything outside one’s Fach, even just a single aria, is really frowned upon in Germany.

What that means for singers is that when we go to auditions, we should only bring arias that reflect our current Fach, or things that we could be hired to sing right now, even if that means our rep list consists of almost entirely Mozart (which mine does, under these rules). This is different from the system in the States, where you’re expected to present an assortment of arias that include a variety of time periods as well as three or four languages. In the States, an English aria is required, preferably a contemporary one. In Germany, no one cares a bit about English-language opera, so no one sings (or asks for) English arias.

In general, the American categorization system is a watered-down, less intense version of the German Fach system. You’re definitely expected to sing arias and roles within your voice type, but you’re not expected to abide by the Handbuch to the letter. There are obviously pros and cons to both systems, but it’s something to understand and get used to if you ever want to audition in Germany.

Weimar, Germany: Observations So Far

Ew, I’ve been so horrible at posting since I’ve been here. To be fair, I’m kept very busy, and when I do have down time I spend it talking to my roommates and otherwise socializing. We’ve even had Robin Williams movie nights in the living room of the house.

But since I’m here now, I thought I’d share with you a few observations I’ve made thus far of German life in general. Remember, this is the product of me having been here only a week and a half, so those of you who have actually lived here may have different thoughts. I’ll also be making a separate post about German singing culture.

First of all, German rainstorms are not to be taken lightly. The sky could be perfectly blue, and all of a sudden out of nowhere, you’ll be soaking wet. This is especially likely if you’re out and about in town in your concert attire and dress shoes, and if you don’t bring your umbrella everywhere you go, well, then it’s guaranteed to downpour.

Germans also really love their carbs. This one probably comes as no surprise, but I don’t think I’ve eaten a single raw vegetable since I’ve been here, or a meal that didn’t include meat and some type of bread or pasta. I love carbs more than the average person, but if we didn’t have a lot of walking to do every day, there would be problems by now.

When it comes to sit-down meals, the timeline is much slower here. You can sit down at a restaurant and wait twenty minutes for someone to begrudgingly show up to take your order. The food comes out fast, which is nice, but if you have any sort of deadline at all, you better ask for the check (Rechnung), and don’t be surprised if the server rolls their eyes before meandering off to fetch it. In fact, most people who work in customer service are about as cranky as can be. On the other hand, German public transit is absolutely punctual and very efficient, so I’m all confused.

When you walk around a public place in the States, it’s pretty easy to find a trash can. That’s not so much the case here, so the cleanliness of public areas is particularly impressive. I don’t think I’ve seen any trash on the ground at all, even with the lack of trash cans. Dog poop is another story.

Sundays are pretty dead around here, which can be a little bit of a shock if you’re not used to that (and I’m certainly not). You have to plan ahead with groceries and errands and such. That said, Germans don’t just stay at home on Sundays, oh no. Several friends and I stumbled upon on a wine festival last Sunday that was clearly the place to be. And by the way, the wine here is just as good as the beer.

The Erfurt Weinfest. Yesss!

Unlike what I experienced earlier this summer in London and especially Paris, fashion is, shall we say, not a high priority in Germany. One of my colleagues pointed out that people here dress like they’re still in the 90s. We’ve seen a lot of interesting fashion choices, which is ironic since there are several chic clothing shops in the immediate vicinity.

In terms of language, it’s pretty easy to get by with minimal Deutsch skills. Most customer service people speak enough English to help you out if you get stuck, which is refreshing after having been to Brazil earlier this year. They’re not always pleased about it, but if you at least try to speak German first, they’ll smile and be nice to you, especially if you look like you just got off a 10-hour flight.

So there you have some of my initial observations. Stay tuned for more!

Weimar, Germany: One Week Down

Hallo! I’m about one week into my opera program out here in Weimar. It hasn’t been the easiest week of my life, since I’ve been homesick in addition to struggling with some difficulties and issues at the program itself. To be honest, I haven’t had much time, energy, or desire to post at all. But now that we’re starting to settle into a routine (and I’m not needed for rehearsal at the moment), I thought I’d post sort of an overview of what it’s like to be here.

The program is based on one particular property in Weimar. There are two houses on the property, the “front house” and the “back house.” The majority of us live in the front house, and that’s also where we have all our meals and German classes. In the back house we have coachings and occasionally music rehearsals, and we are only allowed to sing in that building. No singing in the front house!

The front house as seen from across the street. My bedroom window is the second from the top on the right.

I share a bedroom in the front house with four other girls. Yes, there are five of us in one room. It feels a bit like being at Hogwarts, so I actually kind of like it. Two of us are from the States, and the other three are from New Brunswick, Kenya, and Hong Kong, though all three of them studied or are studying in England. There’s a whole variety of countries and languages represented here, which is really amazing.

Our bedroom before everyone unpacked. It doesn’t look like this anymore.

In the mornings we have breakfast (Frühstück) provided for us by two lovely Frauen, followed by German class. It’s very early and very hard to motivate ourselves to actually go to class, but it’s at least somewhat helpful to be able to focus on the language by itself for a little part of the day. After German, we jump in to both staging and musical rehearsals. These are usually held at the theatre where we’ll be performing our final shows, which is about a ten-minute walk from the house. It’s really lovely to be able to walk through town several times a day, and there are lots of shops and things that are conveniently located on the way.

A typical street in Weimar.

Lunch (Mittagessen) is served back at the house at 2:00, which is incredibly late for even a German lunch. I don’t know why it’s scheduled that way, but everyone is always starving by then, which I guess is good because Mittagessen is the main meal of the day in Germany. It usually consists of something hearty, like pasta, stew, or meat of some sort. Germans love their carbs, and it can be tough to find fruits or veggies (at least raw ones) that are readily available.

After lunch we head back into rehearsals, usually working on new staging in the afternoons. Throughout the day, people are scheduled for individual coachings with some guest coaches back at the house, which can be a welcome break from a long rehearsal. Dinner (Abendessen) is always “on our own,” so we head out in groups to find something to eat before coming back for the evening rehearsal session. I won’t lie, a few of us have had ice cream (Eis) for dinner more than once.

The day usually ends at about 10:30 PM when we all drag ourselves back to the house and go to bed… or more likely, gather in the living room in the front house and watch Robin Williams movies. Sad face.

That’s a basic overview of what a typical day looks like. On the rare occasions where some of us have free time because we’re not called to rehearsal, we spend it getting groceries, doing laundry, napping, going to the giant heavenly Target-esque department store called Müller, browsing through Bärenreiter scores at the music shop, and of course, studying our roles and practicing. But those, meine Freunden, are stories for another time.