Say Cheese

I finally went in to get my "resumé" photos taken. In Germany you have to attach a professional picture of yourself to your resumé when you are applying for a job, even for orchestral jobs. I find this strange because then the employer can make judgements based on your appearance before you are judged based on your abilities. In America a lot of orchestral auditions are even done behind a curtain, at least until the last round, to make an initial absolutely non-biased opinion of the musician. But this is Germany, so even though I don't like the idea, I have to succomb to the policy if I ever have a chance of them taking my application seriously.

So as I'm in the process of sending in my resumé to any orchestral internships and jobs I see available, it was time to get the photos taken. I went to a little instant photo store where they take your pic, including passport or resumé/professional photos, and print them out in minutes. I wanted the pictures to be taken with my oboe, which the photographer assured me would bring luck... we'll see, but they did turn out well.

The whole process took about 20 minutes and as the photographer was cutting apart the printed shots, she surprised me by asking me if I'd be interested in posing with my oboe for pictures to use as advertisements. She said they don't get people very often who bring their instruments so this would be a chance for the store to make some shots of me with my oboe to show how it would look to have an instrument in the picture. She said they'd take several different shots with different clothes, sizes, black and white photos, etc. and I'd be able to keep the copies for free. So I heartily agreed! She already called last night to schedule an appt., but I was playing at our studio recital.

The recital went pretty well. I was annoyed by my lack of concentration at the beginning of my solo. I was kind of thrown off by the amount of other oboe players there, also from the other studio, so even though I didn't feel that nervous, I just kind of felt like it wasn't me playing. I had to tell myself to kick it in gear for the next 2 movements. I felt like it was a little wobbly in the first movement but the last 2 were solid. I don't know, though; Ulas recorded it on mini disk so I need to listen to it to make the final judgement. After the recital the studio went to a pizzeria around the corner from the music school with the money we earned from playing in the nursing home before Christmas.

Tomorrow we have our music school choir concert. I took choir because it's required for one semester of the degree. I'm not sure if that also applies to me; it might just be for students in the first half of their degree, but I took it just to be sure. Besides, I wanted to take some classes just to have a little more substance in my schedule. I usually get more done with more to do and more structure. But it's been fun to sing again, not having sung since high school choir, and though I'm not saying I sound good, it's been fun and also a chance to meet some new people.

I also got a new English student, a older German woman. She called me from a recommendation from Diana, my infrequent, go-go dancing Russian English student, who has recently gotten a new job (not as a go-go dancer as planned, thank goodness), and hasn't gotten paid yet, so hasn't been able to have lessons. Anyway, Beate, the new student, came over last Friday. Sporting a 'do of half blond, half black short hair and long painted nails, this 50-something "trend-setter" explained she was the stylist and nail-doer for Diana, which made sense. She said she wanted to learn better English to get by better on their annual trips to the good ol' US of A. Apparently she and her husband are big Vegas fans but also try to hit other traditional tourist spots along the way. She also hasn't told her husband she is going to take English lessons in order to surprise him with her (hopefully) drastically improved English skills the next time they have to speak English and to make him jealous. I don't ask; I just do my job!

I never know what to expect with the level of English of the different students, but I found out after her "deer-in-the-headlights-look" with the first couple of questions I posed that she really was at a beginner level. So instead of asking and translating my questions the whole time, I decided to start from scratch with prepositions and the conjugation of 'to be' and 'to have'. With all the others it's really conversation (in the case of the kids, playing in English) so this is fun, too, because of the challenge of really teaching someone the language. We'll see how far I can go before having to look up grammer rules as a refresher!

Ice Ages

Where are the snow plows and sidewalk shovelers in this city? MIA, apparently. Well, I should be familiar with this by now; it's the 3rd time I've experienced a Berlin winter (though the first one was just a week during my audition). It's always the same: no one clears the snow. Then it melts and is just plain wet and slushy, until the slush freezes. Then it's simply dangerous because the whole city is iced over. And in the words of little Joelle, the 3 1/2 year old I teach English to, it's very "slippy." I haven't fallen yet, but I sure do slide around a lot and lose my balance more than I'd like to. It's just a matter of time before I take a nose dive and get to know the sidewalk personally.

I had a nice evening with my former bible study leader Petra and one of the other girls tonight. We met at Petra's house and had "Abendbrot" with her British husband and 1 1/2 yr. old son. Abendbrot is a typical German dinner which is just bread with butter or a spread, like paprika or herb, and cheese, meat, or spreadable tea wursts, etc. Then we three girls had a nice chat.

I filled them in on the current state of my situation here and what the near future holds as far as when I'm graduating, etc. If I finish as planned, after the 2 years, that will be this coming July, 2006, after which I'd be coming home. I have a student visa which means I'm only allowed to stay for as long as I'm a student here.

Something common most students do, however, is take one or 2 "vacation semesters." The time you are allowed to study at one institution is sometimes strictly regulated and at my music school, it's a total of 8 semesters for oboe, and I entered in the 5th semester. By taking a vacation semester (2 are allowed), it just means you "win" a little time by being enrolled but concentrate mostly on practicing rather than taking classes. In the case of foreign students, it can also mean for a lengthened visa. For example, if I take this coming semester as a vacation semester, I will do my 8th and final semester in the fall. The whole time I will be considered a full-time student, so I will be able to have my student visa lengthened with no problem.

For me, taking a vacation semester would mean having time to prepare my graduation recitals, one solo and one chamber music, stress-free, and then perform them at the beginning of next semester, finishing everything before Christmas. I could also use the time to help solidify the changes I've made here musically in order to feel prepared for taking auditions for jobs.

Unfortunately living here is not free and I am not earning enough from my English-teaching jobs to fully support myself. Plus, I have a small pile of loans from home that need to be paid off. So that basically means if things continue the way they are financially, I will have to finish as planned this July and return home. But the question is if there is another option. Truthfully, I'd like the time here to be able to prepare my recitals slowly and relaxed. I also think I'd like to stay in Berlin a little bit longer.

Today when I took the train to the other family's house to play with the kids in English, I mentioned leaving in July to the mom, Birgit. She got all panicky that I was leaving soon, and I reminded her that it will have been 2 years, like I told her from the beginning. I also explained the financial situation and she had an idea of her own: for me to move in with them and become an sort of "on-call" nanny for when the kids got sick so she didn't have to miss work.

As good and as generous as an offer as it was, I am not sure that with my schedule as it is, I am not free to be a nanny, or au pair, but she told me not to worry - the kids would be in "kindergarten," or daycare, all day and she'd still come home from work in the afternoon to pick them up. I'd just live there and take the kids when they were sick or she was on a business trip. She insisted that it would work - I wouldn't have to pay for rent or living expenses and could take the office upstairs for my room. So while I am considering it, I really don't know if it can work because I don't have the flexibility to stay at home all day if I have an orchestra rehearsal or an oboe lesson or class. I get along great with the mom and the kids are fun and cute (ages 3 and 5). Anyway, I will think about the offer and continue to see what other options might become available to make it financially possible to stay in Berlin.

If I finish in July I won't be flying home in March. Not only will I be home soon enough after that anyway, I will really use the time to practice without distractions for my recitals. The only thing is, there are a couple auditions I wanted to take in March in the States. So this doesn't get any easier!

But life is good because I know that I don't have to worry because I know God is in control. He has my life mapped out and knows where there's a job and location for me, wherever they might be, and the route to get there. And also because I got my hair cut on Sat. and don't hate my hair anymore! The last cut was just so annoying to work with. Even when it grew out, it was still way too layered which made it just look messy. I'd been waiting for it to grow out enough to get the bottom layer cut, making the other layers less drastic.

I went back with my tail between my legs to my trusty hair stylist in my old neighborhood to fix it for me. I'd wanted to try a couple of the interesting salons downtown, which is where I got my hair cut the past 2 times, but realized there is nothing like a dependable stylist to correct a hair cut gone bad. She was pretty disappointed by the cut as well and promised to make it better. And she did, as well as giving me some nice highlights. So now I can finally wear my hair down without being annoyed anymore. See, life is good! :)

All Jazzed Up

The concert went great! I was enjoying it so much (thank you reed for working...) that I wanted to do the whole thing over again when it was done! I received some positive comments from some other musicians that made me feel good, especially after having a really hard year getting used to the new materials and adjustments in reeds and playing. For so long last year I felt like I couldn't even play oboe anymore. So it was just a really good experience and I hope it's not too long before I get to play again.

My friend Jan came and brought his parents. He sat in the side balcony and took pictures the whole time. I met his parents after the concert and Jan presented me with a bouquet of flowers which was a really nice gesture. After that I hung out with the other musicians in the Concert Hall's bar; every concert hall here has a bar where musicians and concert goers can hang out in afterwards and get discounted prices on drinks. It was fun to talk to people and get to know a few new people from the orchestra.

At one point I went up to the counter to order a drink and the American jazz prof./conductor was standing up there with someone waiting for the cashier to come back. He insisted on buying my drink and after ordering for us and leaving 5 euros on the counter, he ran off to change out of his suit. So I took his change and kept my eyes open for him after that to give him his change back. Awhile later I found him and set off to return his money. We chatted for awhile - he's really warm and friendly - and he told me just how busy he is: he flew to America 18 times in the course of a year! Plus he conducts the BBC orchestra pretty often in London, and flies from where he lives in Bonn, Germany, to Berlin every week to teach at our conservatory.

After leaving the concert hall at close to 2am, some of us from the orchestra walked to the night bus. The other 3 were going in the opposite direction as me, so I kept an eye open for my bus stop. Then I saw my bus stuck waiting behind a car which was apparently not moving for whatever reason. We all watched as the bus driver came out and shouted at the woman to move her car or she'd be paying the Berlin Public Transportation for lost time. Then he summoned some men from the bus to help push the car to the side. I asked the driver if I could get in and sat down and waited. And waited.

About 20 minutes had gone by and we were still stranded there, but I didn't see the car ahead of us anymore, and it became apparent our bus was having problems of its own moving. Finally the bus driver asked us all to get off the bus. As I stood there waiting in the cold, I looked at the bus' destination a little closer. Turns out it wasn't even my bus! *hitting forehead* It was the right line, just opposite direction and I had confused the two "T" names. With a sigh I went to the next bank to get out money for a cab. At that point I didn't have any more desire to search for and wait for a bus that wouldn't even take me to my door. So I got money out and as I was leaving the bank I ran into the last group of stragglers from the concert hall's bar. After I explained the situation and they saw the poor bus stranded in the snow, we all said good bye and I hailed a cab and finally got home safe and sound.

In other news, always getting back to news of the obnoxious screamer from next door, the unwanted neighbor's son came back last weekend. After having filled out a police report and being informed that this time the police would, indeed, be able to take him away, I waited till the shouting got loud enough for me to not be able to sleep over. I finally called the police and made absolutely certain that they would NOT come to my door this time (no more answering the door at 3am in pjs, please), and to take him away this time!

Well, the good old idiotic German polizei struck again. Twenty minutes later I got a ring and buzzed the men in uniform in downstairs, which I was expecting to do, as the old lady doesn't buzz them up for obvious reasons. However, this is where the police were supposed to take over and NOT come to my door. What did they do? Rang my doorbell, of course. So I dragged myself out of bed and in pjs opened the door, quite annoyed. Rudely, one of the policemen said there was no noise and asked what was I complaining about. I informed them that, first of all, they were not supposed to come to my door. Secondly, it is obvious he's going to shut up when he knows the police are there. He always hides himself till they leave again.

After I told them I was not happy that they came to my door, partly out of fear the man next door will learn I'm the one summoning the police, and partly just because I don't want to be disturbed, I said "this is not okay," and shut the door after a curt goodbye. They didn't even bother to try ringing next door and just left.

I angrily called the police back and explained the situation. And you know what they said? Totally disregarding everything I'd been told earlier by the police about taking him away, etc., I was informed that this was a case for the Ordnungsamt, the city ordinance bureau. Huh?? Why does everyone keep changing their story!? Anyway, I told the dispatcher that it was only a matter of time before he started up his screaming antics again but to not waste my time by sending more police that night to do nothing again. After hanging up, I shoved some ear plugs in my ears and tried to sleep, which ended up working, luckily.

And keeping to the theme of police, I happened to catch a sort of "police highlights" show taken from hidden cameras in police cars in America. One clip showed a police in southern state pulling a man over who, in a very high, excited, southern-accented voice, had a million explitives for the cop after learning he had to pay a ticket. Then he threw some money out of the car. It was then re-played, followed by the German narrator's voice responding by saying, "Pretty strange behavior by this man, but he is, after all, from America, the country where some of the biggest weirdos stumble around." I just shook my head when I heard that. What is THAT supposed to mean?? I tell ya..

My Turkish friend Ulas just go back from Turkey yesterday after taking and winning an audition for first oboe of the Ankara (Turkey's capital city) State Opera. Wow, a true professional from the studio, and now of course everyone back here is expecting him to treat us to dinner since he's making the big bucks! I can only dream of such days!

Locked out with the key in my hand...

Rehearsals for the orchestra concert are well underway and going great so far. My initial worry about our first sectional with the (ornery) French flute professor ended up being unnecessary as he was actually pretty nice....very picky, but nice. After that it was mostly rehearsals with the entire orchestra until last night when we started rehearsing with the big band. It's an all jazz concert, by the way. One piece is the Gershwin piano concerto (without big band), which is really fun to play, and the other two pieces I'm playing are with big band...and really jazzy. It's cool to hear the big band with the orchestral accompaniment. And it changed my stereotype that Germans are too rigid to play jazz. Of course, the jazz professor who is conducting those two pieces is an American....and he's really great, but the German musicans are doing a great job, too.


Anyway, so that's been taking most of my time this week. I wasn't able to teach English to the little girl because of time conflicts, and the other family cancelled for today because of a sick kid. But my new student I've had about 5 times just left. He is a really nice pharmacist.

My bible study leader as well as one of the other girls and I met for dinner on Wed. night. It was our first time seeing each other since beg. Dec. and so it was fun to catch up. We ate at a cool place on a street (Simon Dach Str.) in Berlin famous for its hip restaurants and cocktail bars. I was glad to finally have a reason to that area of town there since I always forget about checking it out. It's true - the strip was pretty hip and everything was affordable since it's mostly a student district. But I think it's a lot cooler in the summer when they have outdoor seating. During the course of the evening, our leader announced that she will be retiring as our bible study leader but would like to continue meeting without the responsibility of preparing a lesson. It was sad news, but what can ya do? She's busy raising a 1-yr. old and is planning on adding to the family soon.

By the way, I'm drinking tea from my new teapot. It was a Christmas present from my parents that I picked out here. I also got a stand that holds a tea light candle so the pot stays warm as you drink. I've been excited to have any chance to make tea, so every time my English student comes over I have a pot of tea for us. Since he's Russian/German, he is always happy to drink up! Bethany gave me 2 nice teas for Christmas, white tea and a fruit tea, and I just bought some jasmine tea.

I also was introduced to a Tajikistan Tea House a little while back by Jan and went back with Bethany while she was here. I took this link from her website (thanks, Bethany!) which has a picture of the interesting tea house, including interesting artwork and low tables with cushions on the floor. It's a well-hidden little place and hard to find, but always packed and almost impossible to get a seat in! http://www.berlin-bildergalerie.de/displayimage.php?album=random&cat=0&pos=-132

In other news, true to my heading, where something strange happens nearly every day, I had a very awkward and troubling experience last weekend. As Matthias and I were leaving my apartment to go into the city, I opened my door by unlocking it with his key that was in the door. My key was hanging from the handle, and was the one I was going to take with us. Matthias left to throw the trash down the chute and I pulled the door shut behind me and then tried to lock the door by turning my key in the lock. But 'lo and behold, the key didn't move. I panicked and quickly remembered that I hadn't actually taken Matthias' key out of the lock, but had turned it only enough for the door to unlock. That meant that his key was still in the lock on the inside and mine couldn't therefore lock, or unlock, for that matter, the door. We were officially locked out.

No amount of jiggling or pushing with my key could loosen his key on the other side of the lock. Not even all the little doo-dads on my pocket knife keychain would do the trick. So we went downstairs to ring the Housemeister's doorbell. No one home. I called their number, then their son's (who also lives in an apartment in this bldg.) and no answer on any of theirs. So we went back upstairs to try again, still to no avail. A little old neighbor lady (not the one with the monster son) came out to help us and brought us some screw drivers to try. Nothing worked. Then she nicely brought the cell phone numbers of the Housemeisters over to me. I called both numbers and there was also no answer there. So we went back down one more time to ring the doorbell and then knocked. Much to my surprise, the door opened.....

....to a VERY angry, sleepy looking Frau Housemeisterin with no pants on! It was clear she had been sleeping and was absolutely not happy to have been woken up (probably several times with all the phone calls). This woman is usually very nice and helpful, so I felt terrible to see her standing there glaring at us with a death look. I stood there in shock and tried to apologize. I said since we thought quiet hours were from 1pm-3pm, and it was 4pm, that it would be okay to stop by. She retorted angrily that she thinks sleeping a little later on the weekend could be expected. sidenote: *Fine, but the house rule is quiet from 1pm-3pm...and if she wants to sleep longer, no problem. But if woken up, it's her own fault!*

Anyway, we explained that we didn't come for no reason, but that we were locked out. She said we'd have to call the locksmith. Then she left and came back a min. later, (probably after talking to her husband) and confirmed that we'd indeed have to call for help. We went out to the lobby and got the number from the board. Problem was, it was going to cost 90 euros for the job! As Matthias was on the phone, however, Mr. Housemeister came running out telling us to stop. He thought he could fix it and had a piece of wire hanger with him.

I was relieved that he would try, despite the annoyance, and we all went back upstairs. Unfortunately the wire didn't work, so he went to get a stronger one in order to lift the latch. The 2nd one didn't work either. I was praying hard by this point. Then an older neighbor man came out into the hallway and joked about how he wasn't now the only one who had locked himself out, and had a different hanger of his own for such instances that he gave to the Housemeister. This one did the trick and the door finally opened. The freshly painted door is now chipped around the knob, but we were just relieved to save the money. Upon insistence of some money from us for him, the Housemeister requested 10 euros and I was very happy to have saved 80 euros that day! But the question is if his wife now hates me...and if I can get the image of her in her underwear out of my head!

p.s. Also thanks to Jen, my Grandma, my parents, and the Jones' for sending me Christmas cards! They're still decorating my fridge even though I took the tree down and stuffed it back under my bed for another year...or till I move out, which ever comes first!

New Year's Greetings

Happy New Year! Well I survived Christmas away from home (for the 3rd..and hopefully last year). I went to Hamburg for a couple days before Christmas and enjoyed my time with Bethany. Then I left for my German friend's house a few hours south of that in the train. It turned out to be slightly awkward, as she and her mom (who live alone) have a strange interaction which mostly consists of the mother talking to her....and my friend sitting with a pouty face, ignoring her. Yes, the mother was a little overbearing and strange (always named her "child"), but she was nice. It was just a strange relationship. The hardest part was knowing my family was all celebrating without me back at home. But I was able to call and talk to them as they were opening presents which was really nice.

But to their credit, my friend and her mom did make a very nice effort including me in their Christmas. They gave me some very thoughtful gifts and they seemed to like mine. We also ate lots of fondue: cheese fondue on Christmas Eve, and meat fondue on Christmas day with their cousins. It was all very tasty. We also played a lot of games, which was a lot of laughs. And their little town was beautiful. It has 3 castles with real moats. The downtown was also charming.

After that adventure, Matthias came through from his house and picked me up after Christmas Day #2 (Germans celebrate an extra day...go figure with all their holidays). We drove to Berlin spent the week in here before New Year's. It was a fun week and we finally made it to an art museum. I went to so many museums my year in Freiburg that I haven't necessarily had the urge to go to all the art museums here, but Matthias took art history classes in school and really wanted to go to an exhibition that was going on. It was pretty fun and nice go do something I haven't done for awhile.

On the Sat., New Year's Eve, Bethany came in from Hamburg. While I was picking her up from the station, Matthias took the subway to the club we were going to that night to pick up tickets for that night. Once we were all back, we ate lunch, had coffee, tried to take a nap.... but unfortunately the loud "pre-show" of firecrackers was not to be slept through. The firecrackers had, in fact, started about 2 weeks before New Year's, with random explosions occurring at any given time, sometimes right outside my window. It really felt like I was living in a warzone.

But it's no wonder there were so many people setting these "rockets" off; you could buy the things at discounted prices at the corner grocery store! Having no rules or laws against such, in some cases, dangerous little crackers, kids of any age were the ones lighting and setting them off. They were even standing sometimes at the top of the subway stairs and throwing the crackers down to scare the people coming up.

So, as one could imagine, New Year's day itself became a constant drone of explosion and a palette of color. As my apartment is on one side of a soccer field, it seemed to be the place everyone was using to set them off. Everyone in the neighborhood seemed to pull together around midnight and we had what seemed to be our very own fireworks show right from my balcony. So that definitely made it all worth it, though I'm glad the mess and noise is over. Now I just have to make sure I avoid the shells of the firecrackers, which, upon explosion and in the snow, resemble dog poop, which is also all over. It's a dodging process to get by the unidentifiable substances without getting a footfull.

The club was pretty fun. It had the theme Venetian masquerade, but we didn't bring masks, though some did. There were even a couple of cool ice structures there. The next day, on New Year's, we made sure to turn on the TV at 11:45am because that was when my orchestra' s documentary was on. A little background: This summer I played in the 'Young Berlin Symphony,' which had 3 projects. The final project was a joint effort with a Russian orchestra from St. Petersburg, as a 60 yr. WWII anniversary of the German and Russian conflict.

The cooperative project was to be filmed for 2 German television stations, with one of the directors being highly-acclaimed for his already-produced film "Rhythm Is It," showcasing Sir Simon Rattle (Berlin Philharmonic) and co. working with street kids, transforming the undisciplined rough group into hard-working kids, proud of their finished dance project, which was performed before an audience.

With all the talk of this 'amazing' TV producer, we were all curious to know how he'd make our slightly unsuccessful project look on TV. You see, the Russians basically stayed to themselves, and likewise with the Germans. It was just too hard with the language barrier and everyone was a little shy. Our Russian conductor was also rude and impatient. Things got a little better after the "get-to-know-each-other party," but I don't think it was really what anyone expected. Unfortunately, the TV documentary captured just that. They seemed to take mostly negative interviews, show the moments of tension, and fail to climax it with a real positive ending, if there was one. Oh well, the week was fine for me because I got to hang around some really nice people I'd already met in the other concerts and we got free lunch everyday. And it was fun to be on TV, even if it was mostly the back of my head!

Now it's back to school and the normal schedule. We started rehearsals for the orchestra project last Thursday and they continue all week with our concert next Wed. night. The concert is all jazz. It'll be fun, I think, and it's fun to finally be playing first oboe after a year!