Life across the pond

I arrived in Vienna on Saturday morning and after standing in a not so long line at the airport customs, was greeted by a smiling man that spoke broken English but that did have a picture of me! We hopped in his Mercedes-Benz taxi cab and were headed to the center of town. We arrived at my hotel and he insisted on helping me with my luggage and showing me exactly how use the key to open the apartment outer doors and then went up with me to the 6th floor to my apartment. He even came in with me to make sure that all was in order. It indeed was.

The rest of the afternoon was spent getting unpacked and settled in my home away from home. After I had finished unpacking, I phoned my new friend Tammy and we met for an early dinner. It was GREAT food! I was there for a few hours and already had a friend, and was now having a beer, Wienerschnitzel, and a very yummy Goolash soup. This made for a great night.

On Sunday, I woke up around 10am and again phoned Tammy, and this time we were headed to meet new people. We went over to Johannes and Monica's. They are Germans that are living here in Vienna, as he is a fest bass at the Staatsoper. They are GREAT people. Johannes and I are long lost brothers. We had a fantastic breakfast of eggs, toast with jelly, cheese, various sandwich meats, and of course, shots of aquavit! After hanging with them for a few hours, we headed out and met up with my old friend from Texas Texh, Becca Babb, who is now Rebecca Nelsen, and her husband Greg. Ooooh, I forgot that Brigitta joined us over at breakfast...so, now thats 6 new friends in 2 days. Pretty cool, eh? Its great to see Becca again and to meet her husband...a Texan as well. After hanging at the Starbucks for an hour or so, we headed back to rest. Then, later that evening...I cant believe that this was YESTERDAY! ...anyway, later yesterday evening, we headed with Johannes and Monica (his fiancee) over to Matt and Mary's for a wonderful Greek dinner!~ Mary is quite the cook...we had Moosaka...I have no clue how to spell that, but certainly ate my filling! And then at Matt and Mary's, we met the infamous Al. What a character this guy is. Wow. Fun guy, but I think small doses would be best. I mean that in the nicest way. ;-) So, then I headed back to the apt and crashed.

Today I woke up and had my first German lesson with Prof. Helge Hambauer. She is a VERY sweet woman and a very good German teacher. After my lesson I went grocery shopping and then came back to my apt and started work on DER FERNE KLANG. I'm singing this with the American Symphony Orchestra in April...and boy is it TOUGH! Hopefully it will start becoming easier I get better with the German and more familiar with the music. Then, I met up with Tammy again and we went to get my sim card for my new "Handy" or cell phone. So, we got that situated, and I now have a European cell #. Cool, right? We then had a fantastic dinner at this Middle Eastern restaurant that was cheap-o but yummy-o! My other new friend Genevieve met us at the restaurant...whats that , like 8 new friends? Oh, I forgot about Tom, who I went to Juilliard with, and this other guy that I met...shoot, I cant remember his name!! Anyway, all nice folks. :o) -- After dinner we headed back to the center of town and decided to go over to Max's apt, who lives just around the corner from me. So, we then met Max and he had 5 friends over having dinner...so, I met all them too! IS THIS CRAZY? So, yeah..I will always have a place to stay in Wien!

Wow, I'm exhausted just by reading all that I've done...and its just Monday! Tomorrow I have another German lesson and start my voice lessons with Hilde Zadek. Should be interesting to say the least!

More later...