Happy Birthday Mom!
First and foremost, I'd like to pass on warm wishes to my wonderful Mom on her birthday! Since this blog was started yesterday, the date is wrong, but it was finished on the correct date: May 17th, her birthday!
It's been awhile since my last blog, but I am still up and runnin' in this crazy city - wait, did I say crazy? Actually, this regular chaos is nothing compared to the insanity that's to come. Soon the World Cup will be in Berlin and the days of leisurely subway rides will be a thing of the past and getting a seat will no longer be the only worry: squeezing in, staying out of drunken fights, avoiding riots - basically staying alive - will be.
I experienced foreshadowing of this last summer during a regular soccer game. After transferring trains I only needed to go one stop with a different train to get home. Waiting on the platform, an announcement came on saying there would be a delay because of a police deployment. So I waited...and waited...and checked the busses outside to see if there was anything at all that drove somewhat in my direction...then went back to wait for the train longer...
But then finally I saw, or should I say heard, the train coming. When I say heard, I mean, screaming and pounding fists against the windows. When the train stopped, crowds of people poured out of the train onto the platform. Amidst the screaming some people started lighting firecrackers right there. The train was filled with police in riot gear, so as I got in I was sure to stay close to the men in (green) uniform, but once in the train, we continued to wait.
There was so much commotion and chaos and since the last thing I wanted to be was stuck in a train with exploding firecrackers, I decided to leave the whole mess after all and take a taxi the last stretch home. What a waste of time.
Unfortunately this image of Berlin will not only be repeated, but multiplied in June. Alas, what is a poor, soccer-clueless girl to do? Without a bike, I will be forced to battle the very inebriated, unruly masses. I think I'll try to avoid riding in the subway, however, and take the above ground trains as much as possible. At least then you don't have that feeling of being stuck underground with pure chaos.
I've been gathering people together to play in my chamber music concert. Finally this week it seems to be coming together and I have most of the people I need. I'm excited about my chamber music program with things like the Britten Phantasy (quartet with strings and oboe), Telemann Tafelmusik for flute and oboe (with bassoon and harpsichord basso continuo), and hopefully "Ich Habe Genug," a Bach aria for baritone and oboe with basso continuo. I still need a singer, but I would love to do the piece. I need one more piece and my program should be complete.
We also have to do a repertoire concert which is just basically some solos and orchestral excerpts. The catch is that we are given a piece a few weeks before the concert that we are to prepare ourselves, without professor, and perform. This concert is more like a jury, though, because the professors stop pieces, and/or ask for specific things during the concert. It shouldn't be too bad.
Last weekend I went to Hamburg to visit Bethany. She was performing a solo with a small orchestra outside Hamburg. It was in a really beautiful suburb of Hamburg with beautiful brick streets complete with outdoor cafes. There was an old castle with a pretty pond where tons of college-aged young people were sitting around. Bethany played her solo at a big church and it went great. Afterwards we hung out at an Italian restaurant with the orchestra and the following day walked around Hamburg, by the lake, etc., and finished with coffee.
I decided to play it cheap since I was just staying for one night and I found a ride both ways. There's a website in Germany where you can post a route you are driving and people who are also going that way can ride with you. It's a lot cheaper than the train, and though you sometimes have to deal with traffic or crazy drivers, it's sometimes a nice chance to chat and meet interesting people.
This time I rode to Hamburg with a girl who had just finished a 7-mo. internship in Boston and was happy for a chance to talk about all her experiences in America. On the way back I rode with a nice guy who had been in the German army and was interested in comparing ours with theirs.
On a different note, I feel like the past 2 weeks I've been in the "right place at the right time," in witnessing a couple strange events. Well, one was a car accident in Hamburg with Bethany - a series of cars rear ending each other after a sudden stop from the car in the front. Luckily most of the cars were barely hurt, except for the last one who really crunched his front. We heard the squealing of the brakes and saw the last car ram into the one in front of him. No one was hurt, but it was just strange to be there at that moment.
The other one was less damaging, but stranger. Last week as I was walking from my apartment to the subway I saw 2 delivery vans stopped in the middle of the busy street. The front van belonged to 2 German men and the one behind it belonged to 2 Turkish men. Apparently they had just had some sort of problem and were fighting loudly. The 2 Germans got back into their van, and just as it looked like the waters had cleared, I saw one of the Turks approach with a really long knife (probably for cutting lamb meat for a doener, a Turkish gyro.)
He literally went running up to the van with the Germans in it and just in the nick of time the Germans drove off. I have no idea what the Turk wanted to solve with the long knife, but I'm guessing it wasn't to shake hands and say sorry. His friend was shouting at him in Turkish, probably to come back and not do anything stupid, but luckily the Germans got away in time anyway. I watched astonished and wondered what the heck I'm doing living in this area of Berlin, the so-called slum!
But in better news, I've received word that my friend Katy and her husband Matt have gotten tickets and will be coming to Berlin at the end of July! Bethany's and my friend Jesse will also be coming to visit in Germany at some point. Hooray for visitors!
It's been awhile since my last blog, but I am still up and runnin' in this crazy city - wait, did I say crazy? Actually, this regular chaos is nothing compared to the insanity that's to come. Soon the World Cup will be in Berlin and the days of leisurely subway rides will be a thing of the past and getting a seat will no longer be the only worry: squeezing in, staying out of drunken fights, avoiding riots - basically staying alive - will be.
I experienced foreshadowing of this last summer during a regular soccer game. After transferring trains I only needed to go one stop with a different train to get home. Waiting on the platform, an announcement came on saying there would be a delay because of a police deployment. So I waited...and waited...and checked the busses outside to see if there was anything at all that drove somewhat in my direction...then went back to wait for the train longer...
But then finally I saw, or should I say heard, the train coming. When I say heard, I mean, screaming and pounding fists against the windows. When the train stopped, crowds of people poured out of the train onto the platform. Amidst the screaming some people started lighting firecrackers right there. The train was filled with police in riot gear, so as I got in I was sure to stay close to the men in (green) uniform, but once in the train, we continued to wait.
There was so much commotion and chaos and since the last thing I wanted to be was stuck in a train with exploding firecrackers, I decided to leave the whole mess after all and take a taxi the last stretch home. What a waste of time.
Unfortunately this image of Berlin will not only be repeated, but multiplied in June. Alas, what is a poor, soccer-clueless girl to do? Without a bike, I will be forced to battle the very inebriated, unruly masses. I think I'll try to avoid riding in the subway, however, and take the above ground trains as much as possible. At least then you don't have that feeling of being stuck underground with pure chaos.
I've been gathering people together to play in my chamber music concert. Finally this week it seems to be coming together and I have most of the people I need. I'm excited about my chamber music program with things like the Britten Phantasy (quartet with strings and oboe), Telemann Tafelmusik for flute and oboe (with bassoon and harpsichord basso continuo), and hopefully "Ich Habe Genug," a Bach aria for baritone and oboe with basso continuo. I still need a singer, but I would love to do the piece. I need one more piece and my program should be complete.
We also have to do a repertoire concert which is just basically some solos and orchestral excerpts. The catch is that we are given a piece a few weeks before the concert that we are to prepare ourselves, without professor, and perform. This concert is more like a jury, though, because the professors stop pieces, and/or ask for specific things during the concert. It shouldn't be too bad.
Last weekend I went to Hamburg to visit Bethany. She was performing a solo with a small orchestra outside Hamburg. It was in a really beautiful suburb of Hamburg with beautiful brick streets complete with outdoor cafes. There was an old castle with a pretty pond where tons of college-aged young people were sitting around. Bethany played her solo at a big church and it went great. Afterwards we hung out at an Italian restaurant with the orchestra and the following day walked around Hamburg, by the lake, etc., and finished with coffee.
I decided to play it cheap since I was just staying for one night and I found a ride both ways. There's a website in Germany where you can post a route you are driving and people who are also going that way can ride with you. It's a lot cheaper than the train, and though you sometimes have to deal with traffic or crazy drivers, it's sometimes a nice chance to chat and meet interesting people.
This time I rode to Hamburg with a girl who had just finished a 7-mo. internship in Boston and was happy for a chance to talk about all her experiences in America. On the way back I rode with a nice guy who had been in the German army and was interested in comparing ours with theirs.
On a different note, I feel like the past 2 weeks I've been in the "right place at the right time," in witnessing a couple strange events. Well, one was a car accident in Hamburg with Bethany - a series of cars rear ending each other after a sudden stop from the car in the front. Luckily most of the cars were barely hurt, except for the last one who really crunched his front. We heard the squealing of the brakes and saw the last car ram into the one in front of him. No one was hurt, but it was just strange to be there at that moment.
The other one was less damaging, but stranger. Last week as I was walking from my apartment to the subway I saw 2 delivery vans stopped in the middle of the busy street. The front van belonged to 2 German men and the one behind it belonged to 2 Turkish men. Apparently they had just had some sort of problem and were fighting loudly. The 2 Germans got back into their van, and just as it looked like the waters had cleared, I saw one of the Turks approach with a really long knife (probably for cutting lamb meat for a doener, a Turkish gyro.)
He literally went running up to the van with the Germans in it and just in the nick of time the Germans drove off. I have no idea what the Turk wanted to solve with the long knife, but I'm guessing it wasn't to shake hands and say sorry. His friend was shouting at him in Turkish, probably to come back and not do anything stupid, but luckily the Germans got away in time anyway. I watched astonished and wondered what the heck I'm doing living in this area of Berlin, the so-called slum!
But in better news, I've received word that my friend Katy and her husband Matt have gotten tickets and will be coming to Berlin at the end of July! Bethany's and my friend Jesse will also be coming to visit in Germany at some point. Hooray for visitors!
posted by Heidi at 2:48 PM
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