World capitals: get ready for a whole lot of Andy!

Apparently Thursday is my new "blog writing day." I don't know why, that just seems to be the only day of the week I have the time to sit down at a computer. Last week I began my "world capitals" part of the tour. I leave Berlin today for Vienna, then on Monday to Paris until back to London!

But let's jump back to Switzerland, as I believe that's where I left you. Have you ever heard a Swiss youth band play Stars and Stripes Forever? I have. In fact, I have several times, including two times with baton twirlers between the ages of 4 and 16. The band was very good, but the performance was definitely not American. They were simply too musical with it. They actually enjoyed it. They did not realize that in the United States everyone plays Sousa as fast and as flat as possible, because nobody really likes and wants it to get over. But the concert was very good overall, except for the 1 long award ceremony, all in Swiss-German.

Earlier that day we had gone hiking, except I don't believe that hiking is a strong enough word. Apparently in Switzerland their are two types of trails, hiking trails and Mountain trails. Hiking trails would be one of the more extreme paths in Rainier or Glacier. Mountain trails are vertical, along cliffs, and the paths are uneven boulders. And that's what we did. We road up a cable car, met some awesome nuns, (who at 73 and 83 have decided to back down to the Hiking trails rather than the Mountain trails) then we stopped by a restaurant on a cliff, then we went down the cliff. I enjoyed the mountain scaling, but my legs apparently did not, or so they told me the next two days.

Sunday also consisted of a cable car ride, this time to the Santis where you can see the entire country of Switzerland and all the surrounding countries. Another billion photos later, complete with the most extreme farmer's tan I have ever had, (and I'd rather than not talk about the tourist tanline I got from my camera strap on the back of my next) I found myself on a boat ride over Lake Constance at sunset. The ride ended in Germany, where we had ice cream and then took the boat back to Switzerland. It was nice, listening to Lady Gaga play from the inside as we stood on the deck watching the full moon and counting the hundreds of large spiders that had taken up residence on the boat.

By Monday it was time to leave; a short trip up a hill offered a last breath-taking view of beautiful St. Gallen, then we went to Zurich to catch my flight. At the airport I supplemented my latest hobby, which is pretending I can read German magazines. This is accomplished by buying magazines about classical music with a lot of pictures, and then understanding about 2% of what is being said. When I arrived in Berlin, there were Josi and Robert! They had looked up the wrong flight time and had arrived an hour too early, but it was all good.

Tuesday Robert and I explored the city in the morning. I had my first Doner (it's good) and hit three museums. Then Robert went to soccer, but Josi got of work so I met up with her. The three of us ended the night with ice cream. (I know what you're thinking: Andy, that's a lot of ice cream. Aren't you lactose intolerant? My reply: Have you tasted Gelato????)

Wednesday I went solo around the city, much to the worry of Robert and Josi. They, like many of my friends and family, were concerned about my well-being in a new city where I don't speak the language. They reminded me to buy a train ticket, not to forget their address, etc. I got on the train, (then remembered to get a train ticket, but luckily police officers weren't involved, so it was okay) and hit the city. Three museums later and a long walk through the Tiergarten, I made it back to the apartment relatively unscathed. But I did do something unbelievably American. I went to starbucks. But I had to; it was there, I need the tea and atmosphere, so I did it. It's my confession to the world. Pleas eon't judge me.

But I need to go. I think I have to see some more Berlin before I head to Vienna!!!

In search of Heidi

Another week has gone by, and by next week I'll have been in Europe for a month! Hard to believe, but my time in the little house on 118th seems like ages ago. This is the summer I have been looking forward to all year, even if the weather has been a little too reminiscent of the Puget Sound.

Thursday, as promised, I went to a castle: The Schwerin Schloss. As it happens to be one of Germany's most beautiful castles, I took a bajillion photos, currently on facebook. The outside of the castle was vastly superior to the inside. The tour was overpriced and incredibly short; you didn't even get to see a fourth of the building. But the gardens made up for it, though our exploration was quite wet due to rain. That night we finally found some Italian restaurant. I'll spare you the gruesome details of my worst dining experience in Germany ever, but I will tell you the food was awful.

Friday we took a walk in the forest looking for the mysterious "Blochberg" but never found it, then we went to Lubeck where we found TWO awesome music stores. Henle is outrageously cheap in Germany (no duh! why didn't I think of that before--German publisher!). I resisted the temptation to buy anything, though now I seriously regret not getting that Mozart concerto. That night we went to a play that Mareike was performing in...in German. Luckily it was a spoof on the Odyssey, so with my knowledge of Greek literature and German swearwords I understood a surprising amount.

Saturday we once again tried to find the Blochberg, but no luck (I'm still no entirely sure what the heck it is...some medieval fort or something?) That night there was a party with the family which was great fun.

Sunday was really fun: a church service completely in German. That was wild. After lunch my host parents said we should all go on a bike ride. They brought a picnic basket, and Marlese joked about "no more than 40 kilometers, or my knees won't hold up!" to which I laughed at happily. Foolish Andy. The bike rides I'm used to, especially ones involving picnics, are no more than a mile, or say, 2 kilometers. WE WENT ON A 33 KILOMETER BIKE RIDE. I'm happy to say I did not die, but the next day I wanted to considering the pain in my legs and backside. Nonetheless, it was beautiful ride, and how often do you get to have coffee and cake on the beach by the Baltic Sea after 20 kilometers of bike riding? I think what really did me over was that we went dancing that night.

Monday morning everyone got up at 5 am to say goodbye to me (excluding Wiebke: she gave me my hug goodbye the night before.) The breakfast was very nice, and Oma said she hoped Marieke would drive too slowly so I would miss my flight and have to stay. Marieke managed to drive right pass the airport when we got to Hamburg, but it all turned out and I got on the flight okay. By 10am I was in Switzerland!

I met up with Lukas, an old camper of mine, and his mother at the airport in Zurich. We explored the city, but the oh-so-Seattle weather made it a very wet ordeal. Then we went to St. Gallen where they live. At 70,000 people, it is the 5th biggest city in the country. I'm still in awe of the world-class public transportation, which is sadly more functional even in the tiniest villages than the vast majority of the US. That night we saw sand sculptures from around the world. (random, I know, but super cool.)

On Tuesday we hopped on a train and heading deep into the Swiss Alps! I kept an eye out for Heidi. When we got to see the Rhine I got my other eye out for Rhinemaidens, but luckily I had on my glasses, so I had another 2 eyes to see the scenery. The trains here are unreal; we ended up on the "Bernina Express" (or at least that's how I translate it) and it went OVER the Alps, climbing several thousand meters. To me now Amtrak is Steve Urkel and Swiss trains are Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was crazy how steep they would climb, often going in complete circles over themselves! We ended up in Italy (crazy, I know!) and had lunch there. On the train ride back Lukas casually pointed to a castle. "See that castle" yep, sure do "That's a country." WHAT!?!?!? Turns out I was staring at Lichtenstein. But we didn't go because apparently it's too boring, but we could also see Austria outside the window too.

Wednesday I got to experience Appenzell, a little Swiss town with culture of it's own. They have their own special cheese, their own clothing, their own folk music, even their own piercings. We got to hear a family of 8 perform traditional music.

Thursday was the most amazing thus far. We went to Jungfraujoch, which apparently you can't go to Switzerland without seeing. After about 4 train rides, passing through the alps and lakes and towns like Interlaken, we found ourselves on "the top of Europe." Picture this: An underground train climbs up a mountain and stops at the highest train station in Europe. We then explore the ice palace, complete with sculptures and other touristy things, then we go out on the Jungfraujoch. It's a small connecting valley between two peeks from which you can see a 16 mile long glacier, the longest in Europe. We had lunch at there, and I will never complain about American ski resort prices again. My brat with fries was $18! (which apparently is "really reasonable for Switzerland.") A very small bowl of cereal with milk was $8, and a bottle of water was $5.50. And this was the cheap restaurant at the resort. Of course I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, as it's probably one of the most beautiful sites in the world. We stopped in Bern on our way back and got a brief tour of the capitol city.

This morning I got to be show and tell for an English class. Lukas' father is a teacher and thought it would be great to bring in a real live American. Americans are definitely a rarity in Switzerland; I think I've heard a total of 3 American accents my whole time here thus far. At the Jungfraujoch there were a lot of British, but the majority of tourists are from mainland Europe or Asia.

I'm not sure everything else that's planned (there is a little bit of a language barrier...Swiss German is a lot harder to understand than regular German, but their English is getting better every day! Lukas' mom even told me she dreamed in English last night) but I think it will involve cable cars, band concerts, and who know what else. Probably cheese. Let me give you idea about the Swiss diet: lots of cheese and chocolate, both of which they tell me is the finest in the world.

Ich bin Pansdorfer!

Hello from Northern Germany!

I will try not to make this too long; I got on the internet for the first time in a couple days today and there were a bajillion emails, all of which were urget of course. I really need to finish up on the computer and go and join the living and breathing downstairs, but since I don't know when I'll get computer time again, another update!

Travel with me back in time and space to London last Saturday. (I'm sure other authors have given you more exciting time and space travel, but who cares? It's my blog!) I had a personal adventure exploring the town while Amy went to a 6-hour lunch with a friend. Got caught in the rain in London, which is not nearly as romantic and wonderful as it sounds. Really, it's just very wet and miserable. Eventually I made it to St. Martins-in-the-Fields and met up with Amy for our final concert of the project. Oh, and what a concert to end it on. Picture this: a mediocre Mozart-sized orchestra dressed in drammatic red and black. A conductor who had an uncanny resemblance to Dr. Brown. A program that would make any non-musician middle-aged woman's heart soar: Pachabel Canon in D, Bach Air on the G String, Handel Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Vivaldi Four Seasons. The harpsichordist's lipsick unfortunately was the exact shade as her violently red dress, and the soloist wore no shoes while taking the most extreme rubatos immaginable in her cadenzas. All by candelight. And the audience loved it. They went WILD. These were tourists who had paid a hefty sum for a sub-par performance, and they thought it was brilliant. There was a standing ovation, an encore even. And it actually was wonderful in a way. Of course Amy and I laughed at how corny everything was, but these were musicians who shamelessly presented themselves and were adored by their audience. The encore was by far the best, and by far the strangest. Put yourself in a beautiful baroque church lit by candlelight, an orchestra with soloist playing a PIAZOLLA TANGO, and police sirens in the background. Really, if I ever write a screenplay, this will be a crucial scene.

The next day we explored Amy's old stomping grounds, and then with a few interviews. Oh yeah, and Paul Lewis took us out to Indian food. No biggy! It was really strange just sitting and talking with someone so famous; by the end of this year he will have played 12 proms concerts! But he's really down to earth, and very humble.

Monday Amy and I said goodbye on the tube. She continued on to Heathrow and I took the overground to Luton. What a strange airport and airline. Easyjet is incredibly cheap, and definitely culture shock. After standing in line forever, I realized that my ticket had no seat number. I asked the friendliest face I could find what this meant. It meant no assigned seats. Which meant absolute choas covered by British restraint. Naturally I just observed in shock as others fought their way through, and eventually I found my seat between incredibly overweight man and a very nice old woman who I'm not sure understood a word I said.

Upon my arrival to Hamburg (with minor difficulties at customs) I arrived a full 45 minutes late, but my welcoming party was still bright eyed. Nils, Mareike, Wiebke, and Ina picked me up and drove me to their house. One huge German dinner later we went swimming in the Baltic Sea.

The next morning we went camping. I know what you're thinking...Andy and camping do not belong in the same sentence. But I will let you know that I survived a whole day without running water. It was supposed to last for 3, but then we ended up getting running water via rain, so we retreated back to the comforts of the 21st century. Yesterday we went grocery shopping (an experience I recommend to anyone who goes to germany) and I cooked them my grandmother's spaghetti sauce while they made egg noodles. Mareike and I spent last night exploring Lübeck, which was wonderful. And now I think I'm going to a castle, so I really should get off the computer!

Live from an overpriced coffee shop

Here I am, sitting in an overpriced coffee shop somewhere in a northern borough of London, watching people come and go on their visits to the restroom as I frantically use of up my 2 hours of wifi.

Our time with the grant is nearing it's end, so Amy is using today's unusually open schedule to cram in all the museums and sites that she hasn't made it to yet. Since I will have plenty of time to experience these later, I am using to day to scope out my future: currently I'm looking around the Borough where I will be moving to in September, and a little bit I'll hop on the tube and see if I can find where the institute is.

Since I built it up so much last time, I figure I had better stop talking about today and jump back to Wednesday and Glydebourne. This was Amy's idea as she is aware of my infatuation with opera, but we had no idea what an ordeal it would be. It took literally ALL day. I had some time in the morning to walk around our borough and buy some lunch and stuff for our picnic dinner while Amy caught up on sleep and worked on the budget. By 2 we were dressed in formal attire, Amy in a new purple dress with heels and me in my bowtie and blazer. We had to catch a specific train, so naturally we got a little confused. Fortunately there were two ladies who were also overdressed, so we asked them if they were going to Glydebourne, and they were! This is how we met our friends Barbara and Penny. They were our guardian angels for the whole day; they got us on the right train (hour delay due to flooding) then on the bus (imagine dozens of overdressed people frantically running off a train and on to a tour bus...it was so WEIRD!) as so on. The Glydebourne crowd was literally fighting for seats on the bus; one woman ran past Amy and slightly snagged her dress with her picnic basket, offering no apology. Fortunately no major damage was done.

Barbara and Penny had warned us when we first me: Glydebourne was very little about the opera and very much about eating and being seen. Of course the opera was brilliant--flawless even. Probably one of the best I've ever seen. I'm trying to think of what aspect wasn't amazing, but singers, set, staging, orchestra, conductor, lighting, even lighting was superb. The opera house is ridiculously small, but it is a private opera house. The intermission is an hour and a half long, for that's when you eat your picnic lunch, and for most people this is really what Glydebourne is really about. Of course we ended up by God's good will actually sitting next to Barbara and Penny during the performance, and they offered to buy us champagne during the interval (no small gesture, 10 pounds a glass!) Also, the setting was beautiful. Think of those British movies, like 4 Weddings and a Funeral, and it was straight out of that. Huge opera house in the middle of the country, manicured gardens organized in a maze of hedges, wealthy British people eating dinner on the lawn and playing croquet. It was quite the ordeal.

We ended up sitting with our friends on the train ride back, and they were simply marvelous for conversation. They had much to say for our grant and we're flattered when we asked if we could quote them.

On Thursday Amy and I went separate ways, which was definitely for the best considering we had been spending almost every waking hour together for the past two weeks. I took an adventure trying to find my mom's doctor friend who lived near Greenwich who had promised to keep my extra suitcase while I go explore mainland Europe. After finding it quite easily, I explored Greenwich and took a long walk along the Thames. I was doing quite well until I got lost somewhere on the South Bank, going further South instead of the intended North. Things were getting sketchier and sketchier until I finally managed to find a train and then take it to London Bridge. There I went to find the Gherkin (Swiss Re building) and got to see financial London. Needless to say in my jeans with a camera around my neck, I felt a little under-dressed as the rest of London was in Armani suits and such. Then I took the tube back to Balham, where I met up with Amy and some other friends who took us out to Persian food, which was of course amazing.

Friday I was just eating breakfast when Amy ran in telling me she had just scheduled an interview that started in 15 minutes and we had to leave immediately. Thank goodness we did; the man we interviewed turned out to be our number 1 source for our grant. He ran the Barbican (think all of Lincoln Center, or Seattle Center times 3! The Barbican is a really BIG deal in London.) Then we had another interview with a man who started a very famous television show in the UK, which is pretty much reality TV with a youth orchestra. Then we went to our final Prom. It was an amazing orchestra; they started with a British piece I didn't know, then Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 3 (Paul Lewis as the pianist...and Amy set it up so we got to meet him backstage at intermission!) They closed with Ein Heldenlaben--brilliant!

Well, I'm going to run out of internet time. My next update will likely be from Germany or Switzerland...I fly out on Monday!

To make up for absence, now a blog of ridiculous length!

Where to begin…Life has been insane for the last week and a half! Amy, even after a week, is still without a normal voice. Finally the notepad and whispers was abandoned after day 3 and now when she talks she sounds like frog with a serious nicotine addiction. It’s quite entertaining to watch her interview people

On Friday we wandered around in the morning—-by this point I’ve seen so many of the sights that I’ve lost track of when I saw them, and there still so much to see! Because we are here doing grant work instead of being tourists, all we can really do is walk past all the museums instead of actually go in them, something I look forward to doing when I come back next month.

I did make inside one museum though; I met up with my good high school buddy Ben who is here for school. (Westpoint bootcamp in Scotland; you know, nothing too out of the ordinary.) He was in-between British military schools and a soldier's personal pilgrimage to Normandy, and had a couple of days in London with a buddy. The Tate Modern was smack in the middle of my two appointments that day, so I suggested we meet up there. I didn't intend on going inside with them, but the insisted, then spent most of the time asking me "how is this art." Apparently modern art and the military don't mix. But is was great to see Ben and we had a nice time eating fish & chips in a pub.

That night Amy and I and her friend Jami went to see Pink Martini at the Barbican. It was incredible. Ironic that we were watching a Portland band in London, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

On Saturday Amy and I spent hours doing computer research and comparing notes...also we had dinner at this great Belgium restaurant. That night we went to the all-Sondheim concert at the Proms. It was awesome. I got to see Bryn Terfel! who is just as incredible as you would imagine, even when he’s singing Sweeny Todd instead of Don Giovanni or The Flying Dutchman. Also, Judi Dench made a special appearance and sang Send in the Clowns. Then Sondheim himself came out for a curtain call at the end! It was a great concert, and we had a blast.

On Sunday we went to the church service at Westminster Abby. That was really special for me; I sang hymns, took communion, lit a candle for my catholic grandmother, and got a chance to find God in the midst of a giant urban jungle. Then Amy met up with her friend Jami to help her find a dress. (Glyndeborne, which is on Wednesday, has a dress code we didn’t notice—-black tie! Thank goodness I randomly packed a bowtie; of course, it would have been more practical had I remembered to pack an outlet converter.) We met Jami for lunch before the two girls had their adventure. Amy was dreading shopping. When I asked Jami how excited on a scale of 1 to 10 to help Amy find a dress, she said 11. So I left them to "have at it" went exploring.

My exploring took me to Oxford Street. The only way I can describe it is think the chaos and shopping of Westlake center in Seattle, and instead of being a single block, extend it for a mile. Eventually I got so overwhelmed with people I got off Oxford Street and went to Hyde Park, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite places.

Then I attended a literature lecture about famous literary lovers that was connected Proms. It was pretty cool---I got to see a feminist Greek poetry specialist from Cambridge duke it out with an established British romance author a la manner of Nicholas Sparks, while a Tony-nominated actress performed various readings. The fight did get quite aggressive, and at one point I was worried if they would start throwing their glasses of water at each other, but British restraint rule sovereign in these situations.

After the literature lecture I met up with Amy, now the proud new owner of a fancy dress and shoes, and we went to the Proms again. The 2nd half was dedicated to Tristan und Isolde act 2, which I can now say with certainty does not work in concert version. The worst part was that Ben Heppner, Heldentenor God, was horribly disappointing. He cracked at least 5 times, and the long lines were beyond the control he was retaining in his 60s, though his voice did prove that it was beautiful none the less. King Mark (Franz-Josef Selig) was the best, but 105 minutes of unstaged Wagner is too much even for me.

Monday we went to our first “lunchtime concerts.” There are so many ways that London is simply brilliant: amazing, cheap public transportation, amazing, free Museums, and amazing, free Lunchtime concerts! It was a piano violin duo, and we got to hear some Gershwin, which was a little weird considering we’re in London.

That afternoon we interviewed Mina, a local pianist and friend of Amy’s. Mina is your typical freelancer/teacher/artist making her way in the city, and out of her numerous jobs two of them definitely sound like dream careers for me. 1, she’s a cruise ship pianist, and thinks it’s awesome. Goes to places like Caribbean, Greenland, Norway, and gets paid great for it. 2, she’s a piano teacher at a private all-boys school. Awesome.

That night Amy and I did the actual Prommer thing where we stand for the whole concert. We opted for the gallery up top instead of the arena down below, but it was a little disappointing. A Mozart piano concerto isn’t really suited for something the size of Royal Albert Hall, and where we were it was impossible to hear nuance. There was a modern piece as well that got it’s London premier that was slightly interesting, and then a Ligeti piano solo piece that was absolutely boring in my opinion. Amy and I decided we really wanted dinner instead of hearing the 2nd half, so we left. I mean, it’s not like we short on concert attendance or anything.

Tuesday was pretty wild. We met up with a young conductor at his flat in South London. We had to reschedule to Tuesday from our appointment a week before because of, well, Amy’s frog-like condition, but though she still sounded like an amphibian a week later we had to go. When we rang, we must of surprise the man. He had completely forgotten about our appointment, but he was very hospitable and super energetic. Since our scheduled time was 11, Amy and I figured we would be done at 12 or 1, but it wasn’t until 3:20 when he was dropping us off at a bus stop. We had spent the 4+ hours talking in his tiny flat, having lunch with him on the roof (awesome, random, weird, incredible), seeing some very poor sections of London, seeing a community house where he started a youth music program, and going to a pub with him and the man who currently runs that community house. The information we collected was perfect, plus he has set up interviews with other important people he knows.

That evening we took our host Re and David out to Ronnie Scott’s, this swanky jazz bar in Soho. Apparently all the greats have played there, the atmosphere was incredible. The 2nd band was too loud in my opinion, but the rock fan inside Amy came out and she had a great time.

Then yesterday was all Glydebourne, which I will dedicate a complete post to because it deserves exactly that!