Hugs from Germany!

Hello Friends and Family! I am still here in Germany. I am doing well. It is definitely time to write in my blog. Sorry there are still no pictures! I will have to take care of that soon.
I am not sure what to write about except that I am still trucking along out here. The last few days have been relatively quiet. I have used the time well though. Sending out more materials for auditions, practicing up in a room on the top floor of Mark's apartment building, taking Charley for walks to the park and picking up her poop in the approved and official German doggie poop bags that hang from a plastic zebra print dog bone on her leash. I have also been to the opera a couple of times at Mark's theater, "Musiktheater im Revier." Although Mark has been sick with a bad cold all week and wasn't able to take part in the shows, I went to see Benjamin Britten's "Peter Grimes" and Verdi's "Aida." It is so exciting and inspiring. What an amazing thing that there are theaters here in every town and city where you can see an opera at the drop of a hat!
It has been such a pleasure to stay here with Mark and Mark. They have been so kind and we have been having fun. They both have different schedules, so sometimes we will eat together and some times I will spend time with just one of them and talk about all kinds of things including Mark's ideas about philosophy and cooking, but also about music and art. We have also been playing games in the evenings. I found Carcassonne in a department store, which is a really fun game my friend Susan introduced me to and Phase 10 which I played with Joy and her sister Abby. This Phase ten is tough though because we got the masters version, and the rules seem complicated. I was thinking this afternoon up in the quiet little practice room about how languages are like games. When Susan showed Luis and I how to play Carcassonne it seemed pretty easy because she already knew how to play. But, when Mark was trying to figure out the rules here in Gelsenkirchen it took us all a while to understand how to play and seemed more complicated than it actually was. Languages have rules too, and seem more complicated than they are at first too. You just have to get into the game and then it all starts to make sense. But, there is a certain amount of trust that goes along with it too. You can't expect it to make sense or you will never get past the directions and really play.
I should write more about my walks with Charley because they are hilarious! I have been bringing her green rubber ring to the park that she loves to chase and leap for. She can barely contain herself as soon as her little legs are heading in the direction of the park. She starts to pull me along and as soon as we go around the little lake where the ducks are swimming in the only unfrozen portion, she is ready to fly. Some times she runs so fast that one of her front legs will get caught in the ring, but she'll keep running anyway. She'll leap into the air and grab the ring and she'll dangle from it like a fish. She's a small dog but she is all muscle and her mouth opens like a Chinese take-out box! People on park benches like to watch her and laugh and people walking by will stop to stare at crazy Charley! Here's another funny story. Charley was pooping today on the sidewalk and I was getting a dog poop bag ready for action when I noticed an old lady begin to tighten up her facial muscles in disgust. The lady looked like any moment she was going to come and lay into me about letting the dog poop on the sidewalk. But, she was pacified when she saw the poop bag fill up. Mark says it would have made her day if she could have yelled at me!