German Culture - A Week of the Arts!

This week has definitely been a week of  Culture for myself. I have done things this week that I would normally never choose to do, but have had the opportunity through school, as it was free.

On Tuesdays, I work with the teacher that organizes the theater trips for the students. The German government is pretty supportive of culture, so if you apply, you can get tickets (costing usually about EUR50) for just 5, which includes train travel!

Well, as staff, I go for free (if invited) so when I was, I grabbed the opportunity to with both hands, Using three excuses
1) When in Rome..
2) Its free!
3) Gets me out of the flat for a free night out!

My week's Tickets!

Both productions are in the same place,so im pretty well practiced at getting to the theater now! Which is a nice place:

Frankfurt Shauspielhaus

Thursday was "Faust",


Before the performance , we made use of the time and headed to the Staedel Museum to see "Schwarze Romantic", which is an art exhibition of paintings depicting the dark side of romance. Again, never my first choice (in fact, ever) but it was interesting to see them all. The Museum also plays host to Goethe's most famous painting (which all I know about it, is that he has 2 left feet!)

Goethe in the Roman Campagna

"Faust" is a very old German play, which tells the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil in order to gain ultimate knowledge but renders him eternally dammed. (in sort)
It is all spoken in INCREDIBLY old German, making it difficult for , not just me but also the students to follow..  all in all though, it was a good performance.
I found it tough to keep up..  so much so that I tended to zone out at times and just watch with the background noise!

Friday this week , I worked.   Not that it was a bother, but one of the members of staff were off, and I offered to go in to her older groups and do something useful instead of leaving them trusted.. (cause it never works!)

It was a good day, and I made use of the free coffee in the staff room! :D    It gets me out of the flat for an hour or so and  get some fresh air!

Saturday was the day of the Opera.   I had never been before, so m expectations were all over the place. Those of you that had seen my Facebook will know that I put the status"

"ooohh. Opera tomorrow - a very cultural week.. cant wait for the fat viking lady to show her lungs off! :D"

Well, It wasn't like that. It was different .. the tickets that we had got us brilliant seats, that normally cost about EUR70, without the train..  (not my picture, but definitely taken from where we were sat!)

Frankfurt Opera House

It was, however, a typical Opera.   

Man meets Woman
Woman meets Man
They fall in love

She spends 25 minutes dying...

Standard

I enjoyed it - there were German over titles to translate the Italian, s which made it easier to understand!  So from a language point of view, pretty good!

Saturday was , before the Opera,  a day to rest. I was tired this week, more so than usual - but I think its because I am settled in, enjoying it, and grabbing opportunities Left, right and center!


Aside from that - I hear that the UK is once again enjoying the joys of the weather there..  If you need a swimming kit - there is a spare one at my house- help yourself..  I don't need it here ! :D

Auf Englisch, "Buggered"

Also, I would like to use this opportunity to shout out to the 3 German police officers who gave me 3 hours of entertainment last Monday.  The two for crashing the car into the ditch (baring in mind I live on a dead end I i don't know what they were doing, let alone with the blues on...:/)


So that was my week!!   
Pretty different, Id say...

Till Next time

Mike