We started our journey on July 20, bright and early! Since the plane tickets were cheaper in Canada, we drove up to the Vancouver International Airport for our first flight which took us to Calgary, Canada. We enjoyed our little lay over at a bar and enjoyed a cosmo and gin and tonic!
Our second plane was by far the longest clocking in at 9 hours! It was sooo luxurious and comfortable though that I didn't want to get off! One of the coolest features was that they simulated a sunset, night and sunrise with lights in an attempt to help with the jet lag, which yes, has been dreadful. We had a delicious little chicken dinner which was followed with a breakfast just a couple of hours later! It felt very strange to have dinner and breakfast back-to-back!
After a quick 9 hours, we landed in Frankfurt, Germany. This was by far the most stressful part of our traveling. Since our boarding passes didn't print in Canada for our last flight, we had to go to a kiosk to have them printed. However, the woman who printed them created a big fuss over our luggage ticket for our checked bag, which we didn't have! She said our luggage wouldn't make it to Verona without the tickets so, of course we were a bit worried. After much finagling, we managed to get a luggage number which incidentally we didn't even need. The two German women who caused the fuss were very curt and dismissive, but we did meet a lovely family that helped us feel better! We heard them speaking English so we introduced ourselves and asked if they knew what to do about that dang luggage ticket- they just laughed and told us that it was unnecessary and that it was just a very "German thing" to fuss about it! What a great reminder to us that kindness to foreigners is so nice. I hope that as Americans we are kind, patient and accommodating to our guests! We are representing our country so be nice!! I do hope to spend some more time in Germany at some point, I know its a wonderful country and I'm sure the people are friendlier than our encounter. They do have delicious pastries though!
 |
| The kind family! |
At last we boarded our final plane- a short 1 hour flight from Frankfurt to Verona! We were greeted by Dr. Madelyn Gearheart who has been so sweet and welcoming to us. She and her husband drove us back to our residence. Here at the Residence all'Adige we will be attending lectures on stage presence, business, and several other helpful topics. Nathan will also be practicing and rehearsing with his cast mates here, which is very convenient for us! Our little studio is very comfortable and has a beautiful view. It is funny how some things are different here that we didn't expect! For example, the bidet in the bathroom gave us a good chuckle! The outlets and doorknobs are also different from the states, but as Dr. Gearheart said, "What do you expect? It's a different country!"
The jet lag is terrible. We are now 9 hours ahead of Seattle and boy have we felt it! It was a struggle to stay awake late enough last night so that we'd sleep through the night. I think Nathan had more luck than I did though, because I woke up at 4 am and couldn't fall back asleep until about 6 or 7, which is about 10 pm in Seattle. Then once I did fall asleep I couldn't wake up till 1 pm Italy time. Once I did wake up, our first goal was to find coffee! This proved significantly more difficult than we had expected! We wandered around town for a while and finally stumbled upon a little shop with a few chairs and a man and a woman sitting outside. Very laid back. The woman met us inside and we asked her for coffee, which was not so hard... I was foolishly expecting a cup of coffee and almost even asked for an iced coffee... but that wasn't what I received. It was a straight shot of espresso... I'm the kind of person that has a little coffee with her cream and sugar, but I sucked it up and drank it for the experience! It wasn't terrible.. I still prefer my Starbucks, but who knows, maybe I'll be converted by the end of three weeks! The really fun part wasn't the coffee though. It was the woman- I wish I had caught her name. She tried speaking with us which was absolutely hilarious! She didn't speak a lick of English and we don't speak a lick of Italian aside from poetry we know through music! Haha! So here we are fishing for words out of 18th century Italian poetry trying to make some sense of what she was asking us! All we could do was laugh and smile at each other. Before we left I took a picture with her, which she loved! One of her coworkers/friends joined us in the shop and was able to translate a little for us. She wanted to print the picture out so she took us to an ink and printing store down the street! We certainly made a friend! Such a good memory. We had several other encounters throughout the day like that. We also met an Italian woman who had wonderful English and a British accent! We asked her and she said she'd never stepped foot in England! How funny is that?!
 |
| The awesome espresso lady! |
 |
| We also stumbled upon a "Christian Bar"- Drinks and gambling included! Lol |
 |
| Nathan also put his German skills to use! He communicated in German with this woman who translated to Italian for us, which Nathan would then translate into English for me. What a clever husband I have! :) |
 |
| Dr. Gearheart from New Hampshire and Dr. White from Juilliard |
Eventually we made our way back home and went to the meet and greet with our fellow Opera Viva! colleagues. Everyone is very friendly and the program sounds delightful. We met the faculty which included professors from Juilliard and The Manhattan School of Music. Nathan is working on scenes right now as I'm typing this post! I'm sure it's going well and I think there is the potential to make lots of wonderful connections and some lifelong friends and colleagues. Hope all is well in the states!
Love,
Hana
Thank you so much for posting your updates and photos, so happy you are having an amazing time!
ReplyDeleteThis was a delight to read! Keep us posted and have fun and learn lots!! :)
ReplyDelete