Bilder

Click Here! If you want to see pictures from my Christmas in the Czech Republic. Featuring pictures of the infamous Miki. You can see how beautiful he is! It's the same album I posted on facebook so if you've seen it there you've already seen the pictures.

Gefühlssache Revolution

This was the title of our most recent colaboration project with the Blasorchester. They took players from three Orchestras: Zentralkapelle Berlin, Blasorchester das Jungen Ensemble Berlin (the one with which I normally play) and Bläser des Coppi-Gymnasiums, combined with singers for numerous different Choirs around Berlin plus three soloists (1 tenor, 2 basses) and together we performed some sort of Oratorium that was I think written by the guy who directed us. I don't know what it was about because I never read the words, and Miki couldn't get much out of it besides that he thinks it had to do with socialism.

I had gotten Miki a ticket since this was the first night he came to Berlin. The performers were allowed to watch the rest of the performance (our Oratorium was only about 20 minutes long) so I snuck in the side aisle along with a bunch of other young people dressed in black. I had no idea what to expect, because, like usual, I didn't really read up on anything or really pay attention when anyone said anything that didn't relate to when we had to be somewhere (even though I still ended up showing up late every evening thanks to the cat and my incredible cooking skills that set off the smoke detector one night).

**Side Note: I just answered the phone correctly in my office! I am learning how to be Germany.**

As it turns out the second part of the show that I saw (I missed a little during the transition) was at first two battling rock bands, one representing good, and one representing evil. They were getting challenges from the voice of God. He was asking them to answer questions about Revolutions (what makes a good revolution, what was the best revolution, und so weiter). They were earn points after each song and then the points were displayed on the walls (it was a multi-media production) and I learned later from Miki, that all of the point totals that were also years, were years of different revolutions. At this point, I was sitting on the steps and Miki was in the audience. It wasn't until after intermission that we sat together. It worked out nicely since my knowledge of European history doesn't really extend past the German boarders, and Miki doesn't have nearly the receptive German skills as I do (along he's studied it for about just as long). With our powers combined, his knowledge of unamerican history and my ability to understand fast speaking Germans, we were able to pretty much peice together the majority of the jokes.

Oh and I say rock bands because they were rockin'. However, they played a plethera of types of music and the instrumentation: flute/bari sax, 2 clarinets, 3 altos, 2 tenors, 2 trombones, 4 trumpets, 2 horns, 2 tubae, and a rythm section (minus a piano) so I guess they should be called jazz bands. And I actually listed the instrumentation for the band that played the entire second half, but the little bands were like that big one split in half essentially. They were really good. I was very entertained. They played until 11 and the whole thing started at 8, yet I wasn't getting tired or bored or eager to get going or anything. I'm not going to lie, there were some really bizarre guests they had come out to sing some songs. And some wierd costumes and/or videos that accompanied the songs, but that was all part of the charm.

**Warning Adult Content**

The adventure of determining the sex of Litti continues. The main conclusion I have come to is that I should look under Meeko's tail more often. I apparently have no idea how to diferentiate between the gentials of male and female cats. Miki is visiting this week. He got here on Friday (Miki is Olga's brother, he plays the accordion and was briefly mentioned in the Christmas and New Years re-cap. He definitely deserves his own post, but I've never been one to wear my heart on my sleeve, so this is all you're getting.) and has been accompanying me on the cat feeding expeditions. The gender of Litti has been the subject of many debates. Miki (pronounded like the famous Disney mouse, short for Mikuláš, which is czech for Nikolas) has never had a cat though, so he doesn't have much of an opinion. He thinks it's a girl. Since to me the genitals are very non-descript, I decided to check for nipples. Female cats (and dogs, and pigs, and probably a lot of other mammals) have a lot of these. But cats also have a lot of fur, so feline-nipple-finding is no easy task. Litti is not declawed either, so everytime I try to grope his belly to feel for nipples, I end up getting scratched, and then he runs away. I've stopped trying so Monika and Dieter don't return home to an angry cat. And I've also decided that it's a boy. My main reasoning (besides that I think his face looks masculine) is that since they let him outside, I would assume is either spayed or neutered. And Litti doesn't have the baggy skin resulting from a missing uterus like Meeko does. Also, I think I see tiny balls.

Katzen

I'm house/cat sitting for Monika and Dieter (my host parents from last summer in Bonn who now live in Berlin) while they are on vacation for the next two weeks. It's a pretty sweet deal in that I get to live in their very nice appartment, eat their food, and watch their TV. Sure I have to do the kitty litter and feed Litti (the cat) and set up the latter every night so it can go outside, but still, it's pretty sweet gig. Espicially since their place is really close to my work. So I can sleep later too! There's just one problem. Actually it'S not really a problem, it's just kind of funny. I suppose there's an easy solution as well. I don't know the gender of Litti. I actually didn't know its name either until it was written on a tupperware container of chicken in the fridge. That's right, they cooked two weeks worth of chicken so that I can give Litti some everyday while they were gone. But as I think about my entire extended family, I realize that I am surronded by people who are similarily crazy about their cats. Don't get me wrong, I love Meeko, she's the background of my computer at work, and cats are WAY better than dogs (I'm still mad about the Shadow throwing up on me while in bed and the camper being bitten incident) but still, I don't really get it.

Vánoce

It's been quite the Holiday season. I did a lot and for the sake of your time and mine will post the highlights in list form. So here goes...

I did the following:
- Arrived in Prague a day late because I forgot my passport but as it turned out never really needed a passport.
- Successfully ate the Christmas carp without choking on any bones.
- Ate more soup than probably ever before in my life.
- Tried yeast (it's disgusting)(thanks, Olga)
- Played Kuhhandel until 5am Christmas morning.
- Went to a Czech church service.
- Played scrabble in Czech. (I was on someone's team and actually contributed one word: Depo)
- Learned how to say the following words in Czech: cat, mouse, dog, hello, cheers, yes (that's all I can remember)Oh, and Christmas (that's the title of this post)
- Attempted to sing along with the traditional Czech Christmas songs and other folk songs that were accompanied by the guitar and accordion.
- Sang the following with the accordion: The Star Spangled Banner, My Country Tis of Thee (listed in the book as God Save the Queen) and America from West Side Story (I had to teach Miki the rhythm.)
- Played ice hockey on a frozen pond.
- Rode on a Tandem bike.
- Went jogging in the dark.
- Ate my weight in Christmas cookies (I'm not sure that's accurate but it certainly seemed like it).
- Missed a train.
- Missed a plane.
- Successfully didn't cry when the two aforementioned things happened.
- Ate Danish birthday cake and balls (it's what they call buns).
- And most importantly, it appears I didn't forget any German!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a wish you the much happiness in 2009.