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Goodbye Ankara, but hello Istanbul, or Constantinople?
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After an amazing farewell Turkish dinner with Elia, this morning we got up, packed our luggage, cleaned our apartment and took a cab to the huge Ankara train station. After going through security, we had a nice cup of coffee and a muffin, and made our way to the express…
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Living in Ankara
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As we planned this grand adventure there were several things going through my mind. The overarching rationale was to train teachers and guest conduct music festivals in schools and regions that often lack the type of musical and educational opportunities more easily accessible in the United States. However, we also…
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We Are Teaching Kids!
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The reason we have been in Ankara is to help a young high school band/orchestra teacher transition into her requirement to teach Choir, General Music, and Pre-K on top of her high school work. I guess life in foreign schools is no different than the music education world in the…
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Freedom of the Press; National Monuments; Ancient History
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It seems bizarre, but the two-hour time difference between Munich and Ankara seems worse than longer time differences I have experienced. We did not get going until late and the day’s planning was also affected by the fact that I have to be back to the apartment and ready for…
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Turkey – Is that Asia?
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Today, after about a month of traveling, we finally get on an airplane! Since January 2nd it has only been Uber, Trains, Boats, and Busses. We leave Munich and head for Istanbul and finally Ankara, Turkey! Home to the school for American Military children as well as the children of…
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Snow, Castles, German Alps
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So far on this trip-of-a-lifetime, the only thing that I have missed from home is SNOW! But today that is changing as we board a bus and head up into the Alps to see castles and snow. We picked up a tour bus about a 20 minute walk from the…
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And Just Like that, We Move to Munich
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Goodbye Kaiserlautern. Hello Munich! We headed off to Munich by train. A very easy and scenic ride (once we figured out where our seats were). Once in the city we settled into the Deutsch Eiche Hotel which is a really cool hotel where Freddie Mercury used to hang out. He…
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Hildegard von Bingen
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Today we took the train out of Kaiserslautern and into the German wine country on a bit of a musical and religious pilgrimage. We are going to follow in the steps of Saint Hildgegard von Bingen. A true polymath and visionary. And for many of us, the first female figure…
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A little bit of “normal”
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We are settling in to a bit of regular life in our Kaiserslautern apartment. School work, score-prep, and even some quiet time at night. We are really happy here. We have been doing a lot of exploring given that we have made it the habit to take walks around the…
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Living in Downtown Kaiserslautern
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Now it gets real. Although we have been gone a long time, we have only been on ocean liners, hotels, or academic conference locations. And the goal of this trip was to experience “regular life” living in different countries. And now, we are about to do just that. Grocery shopping,…