Life Update

Hello Friends, Family, and Fans!

I just wanted to give an update on my life. I'm currently living in the Twin Cities suburb of Minnetonka, MN. It's a nice, well developed suburb on the West side of the metro. Jean Marie and I are living in the Stratford Wood Apartments.

Pictures of the apartment:

The kitchen/dinning room

The living room with vaulted ceilings

The view from our balcony

The master bedroom with sink and walk-in closet

The office/extra bedroom

I am currently doing several things as I search for full-time

employment:

Interning at the Minnesota Opera

Ushering at Orchestra Hall

Singing in the Central Lutheran Church Choir

Singing in VocalEssence

Jean Marie is nannying/babysitting for a couple families and is also working at the Eden Prairie Community Center in their play-care center. Parents can drop their kids off to be watched while they work out.

Let us know if you're in the area!

Carmina Burana Live!

Hello Family/Friends,

Here's some info about the Ann Arbor, MI trip and a link to where you can listen to the Carmina Concert on the internet live from Blue Lake Public Radio...

It's this Tuesday (July 28th) night at 7:30pm Eastern - 6:30 Central.

The first link gives info on the "Experience Blue Lake" weekend.

http://www.bluelake.org/Experience_Blue_Lake.html

At the second link you can find a link to download the radio stations online stream - which can be opened in iTunes.

http://bluelake.org/radio.html

I will be singing the Baritone part and Jean Marie will sing the Soprano Part. This concert will include the BL International Youth Symphony Orchestra and several BL Alumni in the chorus.

Last Stop in Germany, Minus Jean Marie's Appendix

I last wrote Friday evening, where I had weekend plans of sightseeing and movie watching with my Dillingen host family. However, plans change, and I spent a couple days with Jean Marie in the Dillingen hospital as she had her appendix taken out.

Following our trip to the Rheinsberg area, the two of us were able to stay together so I could help her recover. She was not feeling much better yesterday so we went to the doc. and he told us to go to the hospital again... So she got to have a bunch more tests and another night in the hospital. Luckily this time they gave her some antibiotics to treat an infection in the bowel area. She feeling much better today and we are preparing for the 4 hour bus trip to Hamburg and the flight the leaves at 6am Friday morning.

We land in Chicago at around noon on Friday and return to Blue Lake via the equipment van... I will post some final pictures once I've settled back in at BLFAC.

-reid

Dillingen, Germany

Today is our first full day in the Dillingen area of Germany. It's a nice little farming area in Bavaria. I am not on my computer at the moment so a picture update will have to wait. :(
(the z & y are switched on German kezboards... verz annouzing.)

This morning we had a Carmina Burana rehearsal from 10-1 in preperation for tonights 7:00 concert. The rehearsal went fairly well - this conductor likes slower tempos. He is also the Chairman in charge of organizing everything. Someone failed to mention to him that he's in charge of organizing everything. Luckily I'm staying with a very nice familz, the Öxlers, they have 4 kids. The oldest, Lisa, speaks very good English and is easy get along with. After tonight's concert there is a B-BQ, lets hope that the rain quits long enough for it to be outside. I swear it rains every day in Germany.

Tomorrow (satruday) we have the whole day off! I'm going to sleep in and go to Augsburg with my host sister in the evening. But first I'm going to go with her to work at the Cinema and see a movie for free... Ice Age in German

Sunday night is a joint Choir Concert with a couple other choirs and then we leave on Monday morning for Reihnsburg. This stop is not so busy, which is nice - the tour is starting to ware on me.

Oh, here's a link to an article from our stop in Lübeck:
http://www.ln-online.de/regional/ostholstein/2619466/Musikalisches_Festival_der_Freundschaft.htm
You can barely make out Jean Marie and I on either side of the conductor. (this is the smelly conductor)

Carmina then Dillingen, Germany

So... I haven't been posting lately. Sorry. I'll prepare a lengthier post this evening hopefully on our 12 hour bus ride to Dillingen after our Carmina concert in Flensburg.

Now I'm off to pack up.

Dissau, Germany - Day 2

Just another day in Germany...

Today Jean Marie and I met up and visited the city of Lübeck with her host father. The city is known for its seven towers (which are attached to churches). We sing at one of these churches tomorrow (Friday) night.

The city dates back to 1200 and has many historic and beautiful sites. I will post several pictures some other time.

This afternoon we had Carmina rehearsal. First with piano only - from 2-5pm. Then a hired orchestra joined us from 6-9. 6,000 Euros buys a semi-professional orchestra in Germany. It has proven to be a lot different singing with this conductor and orchestra. He's very hard to follow and he sweats a lot. It doesn't help that the soloists are sitting two feet from him. Luckily he changed shirts and put on deodorant half way through the rehearsal. :)

I'm off to bed after a cold Paulaner.

The Baltic Sea

July 1st - Dissau, Germany

Today we departed the beautiful home of the Wirtz family where Dr. Webb, Marcus, Eric and I stayed for several days. As you can see it is an old farm house built in 1889 that was restored after many years.

After leaving the Minden area late morning we arrived in Stockelsdorf, Germany at about 2:30pm. At this point everyone departed with their new host families. I am staying with a lady named Andrea Engel who lives the nearby town of Dissau with her husband and two sons (Marcus and Malti. Her husband is away for several months for additional Cost Guard training (he flies helicopters).

Lucky for Jean Marie and I our host families met at pickup time and were very happy to allow for us to met up during these next few days. (If you want to spend time with your girlfriend in Germany.. all you must to is say, "I love you," in front of your host parents.) I went home with my host for about an hour when Jean Marie called from her host's phone and we all decided to meet up and go to the beach of the Baltic Sea. It was very pretty and had some strange water skiing contraption where you could ski without boats...

Of course two counselors would never escape all the campers... We managed to run into about 12 of the kids at the beach and refrained from PDAs while they were around.

Near the beach was an ice cream shop that Jean Marie and my host families went to. It was very good.

Andrea and her two sons speak English very well and have been enjoyable this evening as we ate a late dinner after the beach.

Tomorrow morning I will meet up with Jean Marie and her host father, as well as fellow counselor Anthony, and we will head to Lübeck, Germany for the morning before we have some lunch and head to a Carmina Burana rehearsal with a hired orchestra. Scary. I'll be sure to look at my score between now and then. The Carmina concert is scheduled for the night of July 4th. Maybe there will be fireworks?