Save me from the German Polizei

Has anyone ever seen the show "Mommy Swap," where 2 mothers switch families for about 10 days to experience life in another family? I've only seen a couple episodes in America, and as usual in American TV, the drama level was high as the families tended to be extreme opposites (ex. big city cosmopolitan family vs. hut in the woods folks), thereby producing a very conflict-prone situation.

Germany's version, "Frauentausch," is not only less dramatic, since most of the families are generally pretty similar, it's about 2 hours long. So the result is a looong show about basically nothing. But I still like it, of course.

Last week's episode, however, everything other than boring. The first family was a orthodox Catholic single Russian mom of 3 and the other family was a black cloak-wearing gothic family with lots of kids. The climax of the show was when the gothic dad made the Russian mom take part in a rabbit sacrificing ceremony. I was pretty amazed that they showed it on TV, but they actually killed the rabbit. The Russian was so upset by the situation that she cried before, during, and after the process. She convinced him to not make her kill it so he agreed to let her just hold the head while he cut.

As disgusting and, in my opinion, cruel as it was (where was the German PETA?), the families learned a lot from each other about open-mindedness and not judging based on looks. They actually had really nice mom-mom reunion where they shared stories from each other's households. They each commented the the other one had a warm heart. It was pretty interesting....and gross.

I played my oboe solo on Wed. during our studio's recital. Overall it went pretty well. It was a very technically challenging piece and though there were a couple wobbly spots, I mostly got all the passages that I was worried about. One of the girls from the studio recorded it on mini disk so I got to listen to it on Friday. It was strange to hear myself play. I'm using a different oboe and reeds than my last recorded recital (May 2004). So after hearing myself from a different perspective than listening to myself while playing, I caught some things I want to work on.

Next Wed. is our last performance of this year and it's in the nursing home again. We get cake and coffee and then are each playing a slow movement of a piece. After that it's a gift-exchange within the studio and a nice Christmas dinner. The next day, Thurs., I'm planning on driving to Hamburg to visit Bethany. After that I'll probably join Matthias' family again in Bonn for Christmas.

It's hard to not be home over Christmas yet again. This will be Christmas #3 away from home (exchange year in Freiburg and these 2 years in Berlin.) At least I was able to fly home in Sept. and am hoping to fly in March again during our semester break. But that doesn't make up for the fact I'm missing Christmas with my family. I'm also not looking forward to the post-Christmas bleakness of Berlin. The weeks before Christmas are filled with lights and Christmas markets. After Christmas it's just kind of sad and dark here in the cold months to follow. But at least I can look forward to spring.

So the neighbor's son decided to come back the past couple weeks and do his usual routine of screaming in the middle of the night. I called the apartment owner's office and complained again. She said that after speaking to a lawyer, there was nothing legal they could do about the situation, i.e. kicking the old Frau out of the building. She's 85 and a welfare receiver. That means she is protected from anything and more or less treated like a queen, and the son gets to benefit from the flawed system.

The only thing left for me to do, she said, was to file a report at the police station. So after the very next visit and screaming session (the 3rd that week), I filed a report online for the police. Much to my surprise, the next day the landlord (who's family lives in the building), said the police had already been there that day to talk about the report I filed. The police told them the next time the neighbor's son comes by I should call the police and he will be taken away based on disturbance of peace. We'll see if that actually happens or if the men in uniform walk away with their tails between their legs like usual after getting a scolding from the little old lady.

In the meantime, I can pay 10% less of my rent. If you have a problem that isn't being taken care of (for example no hot water) you can pay a certain percentage less of your rent if you write a letter explaining why. 10% is the usual amount. We'll see what comes of all this!

p.s. Thanks to Megs for the Christmas card!!

Explosive Vivaldi?

I just played my first concert as "audible" oboist basically since coming to Germany. The concerts I played this summer were on English horn, which was nice, but wasn't oboe. And the past 2 conservatory concerts I played with were never solo parts. So it was really fun to play Vivaldi's "Gloria" with choir this weekend. The choir was a church choir, so mostly older folks, but compared to the little old ladies with so much vibrato you can't hear the notes, these ladies just had very airy, not-supported voices. It was kind of funny because, even though I'm no singer and can even sound airy, I'd have to try to sound this airy and unenthused.

But the concert went well and the little chamber orchestra accompanying the choir was really good. I just love string players in Germany... Even the ones that don't study music love playing for fun and are really good. I was happy with my performance, using the school's oboe (mine has a leak and this one is SO nice..but not for sale) and the new shape and scrape of reeds. And like I said, it was my first "solo" performance (one movement was oboe and soprano) so it was almost like I hadn't heard myself play in an orchestral setting for so long and felt good.

I ended up sitting next to a trumpet player from California who studies at the same music school as me. We have both been there for 2 1/2 semesters, but hadn't met, or even seen each other before. He was really nice. It's always fun to meet another American and have a chance to speak in English with another native speaker, and now I'll know another music school student.

I also had a nice weekend outside of the gig. I hung out with my German friend Janine and Turkish friend Ulas at a nice little cocktail bar and then headed to the Arabic lounge for mango juice. It was a really fun time with a lot of laughing, which felt good. This morning I went to bruch with Ulas and his Turkish friend and wife. It was a very fancy breakfast buffet on the main level of the Arabic Loung with things like stuffed mushrooms, olive and mozerella salads, and tiramisu for dessert. I stuck to more conventional things like bread and cheese and fruit salad because the thought of corn on the cob with seasoning just didn't appeal to me at 10am.

Last week I attended a Christmas party I had been invited to from the company I did the English tour recordings with. It was a fancy, private buffet in a really nice restaurant. I met some nice people and got to chat with the guy who I did the recordings with. They are in the process of finishing and selling the recordings to i-tunes and plan on doing more tours in the future, for which they asked if I would translate and record. We'll see how much time I have. If everything goes as planned I will be busy next semester preparing my Master's recital and chamber music concert.

That same night a bomb was found in downtown Berlin. A bomb? From when? From 60 years ago in WWII! Apparently, and this surprised me, there were many bombs that were dropped during the war that never went off. Over time the land was totally rebuilt and the bombs were unknowingly covered by dirt and buildings. Occasionally a construction worker controlling a digger or bulldozer will come across one of these bombs. Metal detectors are used to check the land while the ground is being dug, but sometimes bombs are overlooked. In Germany the job of a bulldozer has the nickname of "death sentence job" because of this risk.

Last week, the bomb was found at a construction site on one of Berlin's main streets downtown. The area was quickly blocked off and traffic was stopped so the bomb could be removed. It didn't explode and luckily no one was hurt. So that was an interesting piece of history that I learned from the whole event!

p.s. I want to thank Sarah for the lovely Christmas picture and card she sent me all the way to Germany!! It was fun to read the year's summary and the family picture was so nice; I have it up on my fridge!

Am I that old already?

Last week when I went to the daycare to pick up one of the little girls I babysit/teach English to she was in another room playing, so the teacher went to go get here so I could stay in the doorway with my wet, wintery shoes. There was another little girl sitting right there with a teacher's helper making something. After she proudly showed me her art creation, she looked at me a bit harder. I knew what she was thinking,"who is this person picking up my friend? I've seen her mom, and this person is not her mom." But I sure didn't expect to hear what came out of her mouth: "Are you Joelle's grandma?"

Though I didn't want to laugh at this little child and embarrass her, I couldn't help but chuckle. The teacher nicely told her that I wasn't old enough to be a grandma and I explained that I was Joelle's babysitter. Ahh, the innocence of kids...or was it?

Joelle's parents are the ones building a new house that I've mentioned before. It has been a VERY slow process; they started with the ground breaking last November. But there is an end in sight: they're moving in next week, though one would not get the impression they are going anywhere by the state of their current apartment. Nothing is out of place, there aren't any boxes anywhere... They said they're doing all the packing and a moving company will do all the hauling. I am curious to see what will come of all this.

I've been to the new house several times since Joelle has already started going to the daycare in the new neighborhood. It's quite a long drive for me; what used to be about a half hour has turned into 1 hr. 15 min. when all said and done (i.e. walk,train,bus,walk). The house has been a true construction site every time I've been there. What I missed with my own parents building a house all spring and summer, I'm making up for by seeing the whole process with this family.

They have had some funny decorating styles, in my opinion. It is typical German to not use carpet but rather tile flooring. But not to worry that a tile floor could be uncomfortably chilly in the cold months, for their heating system comes though the floor itself, totally forgoing air vents and registers, or even slippers. But their choice of tile is a little funny, especially in the basement.

There are several small rooms: laundry room, hobby room, canning room, storage room, and office. Each room has its own "tile theme," and of the two ever-present colors, a burnt orange and cream color, the patten of each room is different. One room has checkers, one room has cream with an orange border, one has orange with a cream border, etc. The hallway is cream with some tiles sporting an orange star on them, which they designed themselves. I suppose it's good to keep things interesting, but to me it just looks wacky!

I taught English to the other family today. The kids ended up getting sick with a fever and while I was there they were both really quiet and lethargic. It's the quietest I've ever seen them. I just hope I stay healthy after being around them! Since the mom didn't want to put the kids in the car and drive me to the train station like usual, she asked if I'd take the little tram to the next village over which has a train station.

So I took a ride in the old, antique-looking tram. It's a really cute old streetcar-type thing with wood finish on the inside. It is never full leaving their village, and for half the ride I was the only person in the entire tram. I felt a little silly because the cars drive along side it and can look in, as well as leave me in a cloud of dust since tram putts along so slowly. But it's a fun little experience.

As Time Goes On..

The Thanksgiving report comes a bit late, but it was a great meal and really nice company. I met a couple of American missionary families in Berlin. They were nice, and boy could they cook. I, being the student of the group, was only asked to bring bread, apple juice, and wine. They didn't expect me to cook anything, which was nice since I didn't have any freetime to do anything fancy anyway. But the rest of them had really worked hard scrounging Berlin, as well as bringing special things from America that couldn't be found here, in order to get all the ingredients necessary for all the dishes: sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, etc. I was the lucky one who got to benefit from all of it!

Okay, I realize now how that just seemed like really old news.

I've been keeping busy as usual. I was in Dortmund this past weekend, which is ca. 3 1/2 hrs. with the ICE (the express) train. I have a train card which, after its purchase, grants 50% off all train rides. With me traveling back in forth between Dortmund and Berlin a lot in the past year, the card paid itself off long ago.

In addition to visiting Matthias, I got to surprise my German friend Sandra at her birthday party. She had sent out the e-mail invitation a couple weeks ago, but I wrote her back telling her I wouldn't be able to make it since at that time I was planning a trip to Hamburg to visit my American friend Bethany.

As it turned out, Bethany got busy with gigs and I was able to make it to Dortmund for the birthday bash. I called my other friend Steffi, Sandra's best friend, to tell her I'd be able to make the party, but didn't tell Sandra. So it was fun to surprise her later at her door and make her birthday party the smashing hit that it was...eh hem...did I just write that?

Our oboe studio has a concert coming up next week. Instead of solo recitals typical at American music institutions, German conservatories generally have 2-3 studio recitals a semester. Everyone plays one piece generally. The last studio concert I played a very modern piece...so modern, in fact, that it was impossible to sight read. It was made up of lots of squiggly lines and dots. However, with a bit of creativity and absolutely no shame, it can be played. It ended up even being kind of fun to play, though hard on the ears because of it's atonality and lots of squealy high notes. But despite its unconventional style, I managed to receive a comment from a lady in the audience who loved it. I found that hard to imagine, but hey...I'll take it!

In next week's concert, however, I'll be playing a fun little piece no one has ever heard of by the French composer Challan. It has taken a lot of time and patience to practice because of it's technical strangeness, but is a lot of fun to play. And I am excited to be playing something I chose, as opposed to my professor choosing for me, which has been the case the past 1 1/2 yr.!

And I just got my first paying Christmas church gig here in Berlin. I had asked my prof. to keep me in mind if he got any calls for xmas gigs. True to his word (which, believe me, isn't a given), he gave out my name for a gig this coming weekend. I'm playing Vivaldi's Gloria with a choir, containing a big oboe solo/accompaniment in one of the movements. It should be fun, and I'm really glad to be playing in a church around Christmastime. There's just something special about it.