One week down...

Well, it's been a week, and I'm loving Berlin so far. The Deutsche Oper is filled with wonderful, helpful colleagues and employees. The singers I've met so far are all relatively young and the voices are terrific. Many are Americans, which isn't helping my German, but it's definitely keeping me from getting lonely! 

To start at the beginning, I arrived last Tuesday. If any of you fly into Tegel, be warned that the luggage is right when you leave the plane, not a half mile away and next to the street like it is in American airports. So, missed that, and had to wait for a while in the Customs Luggage building for unclaimed bags. Luckily, my friend Randy had met me at the airport, so I had someone to help me out. I went to the opera house first to get my apartment keys, and then crossed the street (literally), walked up three flights of stairs, and met my new apartment. It's huge! And very nicely furnished. Big kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living room with a futon for guests. Tons of space, and lots of furniture so it doesn't look empty. It's made entirely of IKEA.

Rehearsals have been great and there haven't been too many so far. I staged my two arias for Das Zauberflötchen (our Magic Flute for kids) the day after I arrived. We've also been rehearsing for the opening gala concert this Saturday, at which I'm singing the Carmen card trio and Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music with the rest of the group. Had our first rehearsal with the orchestra tonight that went well.

Costumes are looking good so far! My Königin costume for the kids' show is fantastic. It's a half globe skirt that's about 6 feet in diameter with a corseted top and long sleeves that cut off before the shoulder. There's a big collar that attaches and everything's covered in stars. I'll have pictures at some point. I also tried on my costume for the main Zauberflöte, which is completely different - silver and more straight with slightly poofy long sleeves. Most of my Sophie costume has been shipped to China already because it is very poofy, so I only got to try on bits and pieces.

I have my first private coaching tomorrow, on Sophie and Hirt (Tannhäuser) for China. I still haven't finished learning Sophie, so I'm a little nervous, but I'll be fine. I'll learn the rest of Act II in the morning before my coaching. ;-)

I had the weekend off, so I took Saturday to explore my neighborhood (Charlottenburg in West Berlin). Saw lots of the landmarks that are on the covers of guidebooks, and went to the KaDeWe, Europe's largest department store, which has a top floor dedicated to national and international foods. It's not organized in any way, but fun to walk around. On Sunday, I went to brunch with a friend of mine from USC who's been living here, and then she took me around the rest of Berlin for the day. At 4pm, there was a free outside concert of the Berlin Staatsoper performing Beethoven's 9th with Barenboim conducting.

So, after a week in Berlin, here are some of the things I've noticed:

Things I think are neat:

• You buy a Twix king size pack, and instead of four bars, you get 2 really long bars.

• Starbucks uses real mugs (I actually haven't gone and probably won't, but it looks nice from a distance)

• Wine is cheap! I was looking at a wall of reds, and the most expensive one was 4,99 (about $7.50). Most were 1,99 or under. And none of them were called Charles Shaw.

• Bread! Not only is it always delicious, but that $6 bread you pass by in Wegman's? It's 0,95 and twice as big here.

• The check-out people at every register in every store, faster than a speeding bullet they are.

• Cheap German chocolate bars. (Duh.)

Things I think are not neat at all:

• No matter what direction I turn the faucet, my bathroom sink continues to get hotter.

• No clothes dryers.

• No top sheets for beds, only fitted sheets. What?

• The folks in City Hall who don't speak any English, and that's the place you have to register when you move here from a possibly non-German speaking country. Even the guy at the Currywurst stand speaks perfect English.

 • I really need to learn me some German. I have traveler's German down pat, and it's pretty useless at the opera house.

• German cardboard, I mean toilet paper.

Things I'm not sure what to make of and find relatively amusing:

• No stop signs at intersections. My friend Meredith was saying that it was planned that way so drivers pay more attention and drive slower.

• Oil of Olay products are Oil of Olaz. Maybe because the German keyboard switches the y with the z? Still looks weird.

• Berlin fashion, if you come out here you'll know what I mean. I'll try to sneak in some pictures of crazy looking people if I can. And I see WAY too many mullets per square km.

• Spongebob Squarepants is translated as Spongebob Schwammkopf, i.e Spongebob Spongehead. Why?

Pictures! We have me standing in front of a lot of sausage at the KaDeWe, the side of the opera house (the view from my balcony), the outdoor concert, the old Kaiser Wilhelm Church that was bombed during the war and next to it, the new one that is now used, and the Holocaust Memorial consisting of 2711 concrete slabs of different heights on a sloping field to represent confusion and disorder.

Döner kebab count: 1

Sausage update: 1 Currywurst, 1 Bratwurst

Aack, last day in the US of A!

Hey, it's my first "real" post! Just arrived home from Opera North at 1am last night, and after unpacking everything, I've spent the evening packing my life for the next 10 months into two suitcases and two carry-ons. No more matching sneakers for every outfit. Boo.

So to give you a short recap of this summer, I spent three busy weeks in Vermont singing a tiny role (Annina in Traviata), and getting coachings on my Berlin music in my spare time. Met lots of neat Canadians, and ingested a lot of maple products. Then had a bit of a break, and drove to NH for Opera North. Great singers, great people, not as much time as I would have hoped to learn music. Not as much maple, despite the close proximity to Vermont. Most interesting bits of Opera North were the lining of my entire shower with plastic and duct tape by the landlord since the water was apparently leaking through the tiles (see picture), and my costume for Queen of the Night that was held up by swim noodles. Pointy swim noodles, apparently, since my left shoulder is all scratched up and actually started bleeding during my final performance. (See pictures. Not of the shoulder, of the costume!) Anyway, it was fun to sing one of my many dream roles, and I'm glad I got the opportunity to sing it with orchestra before I make my Deutsche Oper debut as Queen in October.

For those of you who don't know, I've been asked to cover two roles when DOB goes to the Beijing Music Festival in the beginning of October. I'll be covering the Shepherd in Tannhäuser, and Sophie in Rosenkavalier. And with all the things in China that can kill you or make you sick (which is pretty much everything according to the lady at the travel center who gave me my shots), there's probably a 50/50 chance I'll go on. I'll keep you updated!

So yep, leaving in about 18 hours, and by Tuesday afternoon I'll be decorating my apartment in American flags and settling down to a nice meal of sausage with a side of sausage. My dad will be taking over my cell phone, so unless you really want to talk to him, probably don't call my number. Email me, chat with me on Facebook, or be a really good friend and download Skype (for free!) and add me so we can actually talk. My Skype name is EricaMillerSoprano, and as soon as I have internet in my apartment I'll be on it whenever I'm home.

If you want to drop in for a visit, or send me care packages, letters, or kittens, my address will be:

Erica Miller

Richard-Wagner Strasse 1

10585 Berlin

Germany

Auf Wiedersehen, USA!