Busy busy

I just came to the jarring realization that it's been more than a week since my last post! And quite a week, at that. I moved into my dorm last Friday night, had a weekend of choir rehearsal, got set up and went shopping, went out to dinner... Tonight I'm going to the theater and this weekend the Choir has its first performance!

I was actually not too happy with the move at first, since I really liked living with the Krebs family. Add to that the fact that I spend an entire weekend at choir and didn't have time to set up my room and buy food until the third day there... It was a nasty couple of days in a completely bare room with nothing to eat but bread and cheese.

Not that I spent that much time there, or I could have done something about it! Last Saturday I was at choir from 9:30 am to 9:30 pm! We had a couple of short breaks, and an hour for lunch, and the last couple hours were spent watching the director's cut of Amadeus (which was great,) but we still managed to get in lots of rehearsing. We finally got around to starting the Lacrimosa section of the Requiem, which I'll freely admit is way cooler in its original form than the SSA arrangement we did in high school (which I was in love with anyway at the time.) Sunday was a little lighter. We met again at 9:30, but we were done by 2:30.

I finally had time to put stuff on my walls and unpack my suitcases! Unfortunately, shops are closed here on Sundays, so no groceries.

Monday, as always, was nuts. Neuro lecture in the morning, lab during the day, two german classes and choir again at night. Tuesday I only have one evening class, so after that I finally stocked the larder. Pasta, more bread, nutella, vegetables... But instead of bringing my big backpack, I only had the small one and a couple of smaller canvas bags. Luckily almost everything fit, and I strapped the bags reasonably well into my bike basket, tucked a basil plant between them and set off, with a small sack of bread in my hand and purse over my shoulder.

I've never successfully ridden a bicycle while holding something before, so by the time I got back to the dorm I was pretty proud of myself for not wiping out. Unfortunately the process of getting off the bike proved to be a little too complex, and I dropped the bread. Twice. The second time the plastic bag popped open and my brötchen were all over the pavement. Oops. I checked them over, brushed them off and tucked them back into what was left of the bag, and hauled all my stuff inside to the kitchen to put it away. At that point I discovered something else...

There were two tomatoes in my sack. Of the five I bought. Must've hit a bump back there somewhere...

Luckily that's all that was missing... and now I know for next time!

Wednesday night I skipped my german classes and went out for dinner with the Krebs'. I ate half a duck! The food was great, especially the cinammon ice cream for dessert.

Yesterday I made pasta, and it turned out decently well. I went a little heavy on the onion and garlic... but it's nice to know I can feed myself.

Tonight is Hexenjagd, so I need to bike up to Weende. First, though, I'm heading into town to see if I can get a ticket for a concert next Sunday night. As soon as I saw the poster on Monday, I knew I had to see this:

Sorry it's a bit blurry... but I think the important part is readable. That's right, chamber singers and cs alums, St. Jacobi's choir is doing the Brahms! And I get to be in the audience!! Woohoo! That afternoon the uni choir is performing our Bach cantata at another local church, so it promises to be another musical weekend. I can't wait!

Another cool thing that I learned this week, just to come full circle: My lab is on Von-Siebold-Straße. There was a Dr. von Siebold who lived in Göttingen way back when. This guy had a daughter, Agathe. She was a soprano, and she was engaged to Brahms. He didn't go through with it, but he did write her a sextet with her name spelled musically, A-G-A-D-B-A. (H is German for B-natural.) Pretty neat! The history just crops up all over the place over here!