Willkommen in Hamburg!

My inaugural blog post, wow! Thank you for your interest in my journey through Northern Europe; it is an extremely exciting time in my life, full of change, unexpected surprises, and growth. In fact, as soon as I got off the plane in Hamburg, I realized that I was a bit in over my head. As some of you may know, I am pretty close to fluent in Spanish, which has gotten me decently far in most countries where I have traveled. But ahaHA, not in Hamburg.

At the airport, I was met by Jodi, a friend of my mother's college roommate (Jodi is from Ohio and lives in Hamburg), and her German exchange daughter, Marike (It is a long story...but she is the best!). They kindly escorted me on the train to my home for the next two months.

I am living 10 minutes walk from the rehearsal halls in a beautiful studio apartment, which is part of a building that used to be a shoe factory!

I am so grateful to be surrounded by supportive, lovely people who immediately welcomed me and my three huge suitcases, packed to the brim with all the Laducas I possess, the Lulus, and many essential oils. I also transported wine and See's Candy as gifts for my hosts, which, I am happy to report, made it across the Atlantic without any spillage.

More on Hamburg and my first week of rehearsals, you ask? A few things I have learned:

1. In Hamburg, you may not jaywalk in front of a child or the police. You will set a bad example and/or get fined. Germans follow rules. 2. Though many words are similar between German and English, (i.e. kaffee=coffee, gut=good, apfel=apple, ikea=ikea), Duolingo will NOT adequately prepare you to actually ask for, order, find, or colloquially say ANYTHING.

3. In most Eastern European countries, you get a duvet cover on your bed and that is it.

4. German riesling. German architecture. German coffee.

5. The street art in Hamburg is UNREAL! Such talent and color!

A slideshow, for your perusal.

In terms of my work week, I am dancing from 10 am to 6 pm most days, with an hour lunch. My cast is small (6 singers, 2 dancers, and 1 floor artist), and I can already tell that we are going to have some stories. What a lovely, talented, and hard-working group of people to be cruising with! I am also stoked because half of the cast has done cruises before, so I can get all of the details from them. :)

BEST MOMENT OF THE WEEK: I won the AIDA 2018 Bake-off with peanut blossom cookies. Repping the U.S. right!

Happy Holidays to you all, I will be posting again in a couple of days! Much love, Evy