What We've Been Up To!

Sheesh ... it's October 11 (that's 11.10.2021 in Europe - thankfully, not YET November!) ... we're coming up on our first month in Poland. It's going really, REALLY fast!

Joe is entering week 2 as a visiting music professor at the Akademia Muzyczna Bydgoszcz. He'll be teaching a weekly seminar on choral practices, with somewhere between 6 and 50 or so students.

OK, yes, there's a story there! Joe was expecting 6-8 students last week for the first class, based on what he'd heard from his sponsor at the Academy. He showed up for class, ready for a nice small discussion group, to find that there were 50 or so students there! Some, many, or most will actually stick with the class and attend this week -- who knows?!?!

He'll also be co-directing two of the choirs -- the chancel choir, which has about 40 or so voices, and the faculty choir, which he's meeting with for the first time today. And he'll be partnering with other choral conducting faculty to coach 4-6 or so students in individual lessons.

Monday through Thursday, we're in Bydgoszcz ... During the days, Joe with his various Academy duties, and Deb hanging out at the Strefa Cafe, running errands, posting blogs, keeping on top (somewhat) of things at home with Footbridge, PPCC, and CEIR ... so far, no worries about being bored! We're mixing it up in the evenings, sometimes cooking at the apartment (which is great, by the way), other evenings exploring town.

Speaking of meals, we have already found our "go-to" dinner spot -- the Weranda Restauracja at the Hotel Bohema. It's a 4-star dining establishment with a wonderful menu and absolutely stellar service. And it's situated nicely between the Academy and the apartment, so is a wonderful spot to meet after Joe's evening choir rehearsals. Wadny! (Nice!)

For weekends, we're starting to get the sense that it'll be good to mix it up with some shorter outings (e.g., to Gdańsk/Sopot/Gdynia, which are a 2-hour train ride), some longer weekends of serious touring (e.g., Berlin and Kraków will be coming up soon), and some down weekends here in Bydgoszcz.

More to come...!!!

Love,

Joe & Deb