Opersängeren sind ganz unehrlich!

R.C., an extremely vivacious soprano from America who has sung in Germany for the past billion years or so gave a workshop this afternoon on Singing In Europe (well, Germany/Austria, anyway). It was really great, and gave me a lot of ideas, such as working for Berlitz to pay the bills while I'm still learning German. She also said that, at all costs, you should lie about your age- which those in Germany are allowed to ask about. Write on an application "See resume" for age, and then don't write anything on your resume about it. Be forever 28, and make sure you remember the year you were born in. Funny. Also, if you are an American trying to move to Germany, and don't have work (which is hard to get as an American), don't get a tourist visa. Don't register. Just sublet, and get paid "under the table" until you have a job. And when you get the job... well... you just got there a week ago, right? So basically... be an illegal immigrant. Brilliant. Luckily, once I get my British passport, I can probably do all of this legally.

In the play category, some other AIMSers and I took the tram into the center of town last night, where there is a Platz (square) with a giant TV screen, showing all of the World Cup games, as well as tents serving Bier und Brot (bread) und Bratwurst, usw. <- (Und so weiter, like... and so on. Deutsch equivilent of "etc"). It was a really great outside gathering of people and fans... there must have been several hundred, at least... supposedly you couldn't even get in for the Germany v. Italy game. I saw a couple of cops somewhere, just in case a soccer riot happens... but altogether, people behaved themselves. The Bier they sold came in reusable cups... they took an extra Euro for each one, which we got back when we returned them- great system! People here are so civilized. Well, go France... Portugal did put up quite a good fight, though. I'm definitely going back on Sunday night, at any rate.

Tonight there was a presentation on travel possibilities... I need to wait to see where I need to go to sing for potential teachers, before I spend big money going to Budapest (ooh, how I want to, though) or Prague. I'd very much like to make it to Poland at the end of this, but it really depends on if I have any money at the end of this. I need to start economizing, anyway. Which, I guess, means getting up for breakfast tomorrow, as tempting as it is to sleep in, when I don't have anything until at least 10. It'll be worth it for the coffee, anyway, which I can now only get at breakfast, unless I go out and buy it. For alas, I am senza coffee maker.

Interestingly enough, I didn't suffer from jetlag at all, but at 11:23pm, I'm still pretty tired after a completely full day of master classes and practicing and hearings and workshops on how to lie on your resume... so I think I'm going to head in the direction of my hard bed. I'm sure it's good for the back, anyway. Bis morgen!