Adventures in Würzburg

overlooking the city of Würzburg

Today I decided to take a walk to the famous Marienberg Fortress in Würzburg atop a hill overlooking the Main River.  It was a short 20-minute walk through the city and over the Alte Mainbrücke (Old Main Bridge) to the bottom of the fortress.  My next task was determining how to reach the entrance gate.  As the city map from my hostel did no good, I whipped out the iPhone.  I followed its directions up the the point where there was construction and absolutely no possible way to continue.  So instead, I just sat on a bench and overlooked the city.  It was less expensive than paying the entrance fee anyway!

After lunch at an organic café (spinach quiche, tomato soup, and a pastry dessert), I made my way back to the Hochschule für Musik, where I had been last night.  Today I met the 2nd professor here in Würzburg and attended her Klassenstunde, which was just a studio class.  Because they have only been in session a couple of weeks, the new students to her studio were singing for the other students.  This voice teacher is an American, and her entire studio is foreigners!  Greece, Russia, Spain, Korea....not a single German.  It was a good way to hear what her other students sound like, and have an idea of her teaching style.  She was very encouraging to her students, and she spoke a mixture of German and English.

Marienberg Fortress

I had a 2-hour break before my voice lesson, so I used the opportunity to walk around the building and get a feel for the atmosphere of the school.  I made my way to the 4th floor, which is entirely used for practice rooms (word of the day: Überaum), about 30 of them.  Each room has a grand piano and enough space for a string quartet.  Apparently you have to reserve practice rooms, but I was lucky and didn't get kicked out until it was time to leave for my lesson.

Unfortunately, I am still confused about my voice and what I should be singing.  This professor started off the lesson saying my passaggio indicates that I am a mezzo, then we sang some more and she said I am probably a zwischenfach (meaning I could sing both soprano and mezzo).  After that, her husband came into the lesson and did some other vocal exercises with me, and now they both say I'm a soprano.  According to this professor, I have some weight to my voice and should not be singing light coloratura.  So yet again, I've perplexed another teacher.  However, she was very intrigued by the color of my voice and range.  Even though I still have no idea what direction I'm supposed to go, I am encouraged by the fact that my voice is definitely unique.  That means I'll be able to have a career, right?  I really liked this professor because she is energetic and encouraging.  She pulled some good sounds out of me, and explained things in a way I could understand.  The only problem is that this school does not audition in December.  So if I want to study there, I'll have to wait until June to audition.

Later this evening I walked 10 minutes down the street (literally, I didn't even have to make a turn) to meet Alex (the soldier I met on Sunday) for the German Bible study.  It turns out that the organization is Campus für Christus, the German sector of Campus Crusade for Christ.  It was all people around my age, mostly students studying at the University here in Würzburg.  I met lots of people and tried to speak as much German as possible.  When young people find out you're a native English speaker, they want to practice English with you, of course.  But if I explain in German that I'm here in Germany to learn German, then they're much better about speaking to you in German.  The only girl I really allowed to talk to me in English was Viola, because she's an English major.  She will be done with her studies in November, and then the state of Baden-Württemberg will assign her a teaching position.  That's right, the state determines in which school you will teach.  Then there was Jochem, a funny guy whose brother was a missionary in Brazil.  And David, who worked with YWAM in LA for 9 months and is studying theology.  He's the one who gave the message about why it's important to read the Bible and how to do so.  And I also met Tim, who has duel-citizenship because his father is an American.

Everyone was really welcoming, especially because Alex kept taking me around and saying, "This is Valerie, she's from California too!"  I was surprised at how many people came to the meeting, I'd have to guess around 65, because the room was packed!  They started off with announcements, had a time of worship through music (with all the songs in English...go figure!), the message, and then we grabbed a partner to pray with.  Since Alex and I were the only English speakers, we nabbed each other.  He's actually off to Missouri this morning for a month of training and tests for the Army.  Don't ask me what it's called....all I know is he's not looking forward to it because a) he'll be in the States, but won't get to go home, b) apparently it will be cold there, and c) if he doesn't pass all his tests, bad things will happen.  So we prayed about all that, and also that Alex would be able to stay in Germany with the Army.  I guess we're both kind of in the same boat in that regard.

After the service was over, people stayed around to chat.  Anybody who knows me knows that is never a good scenario for me.....yep, I ended up staying until 11pm.  Hope I'll get the chance to come back sometime!

Würzburg