Coraggio, Ü 7

              The whole purpose of this trip is to find job. How successful has it been? I finally went back to YAPTRACKER again. Matt told me about writing to ZAV long ago but I completely forgot about that. I've sent my applications to various organizations with some requests of dates according to where I was at that point. A competition in Italy got back to me, except the dates conflict with so many other things. At the same time, it wants to charge me a ton of money for registration to the competition and the hotel business. After I arrived Paris, I received some news about Freni's masterclass in Italy. Again, with just the audition plus student housing registration up to 195 Euro. It also means routing back down to Italy by the end of September after my audition with an agent in Karlsruhe. It's a huge task to my reflex. Alright, I have to use my brain unlike reflex... Perhaps, as Dottie likes to say, "I bounced back well!"

                No one got back to me about the dates I was available. I have to make their schedules happy. At least, all the Italian organizations got back to me after processing my applications from the deadlines. Most of them were the reminders of payments. Of course. The myth of writing to houses for audition chances wasn't really working. There must have been so many applicants already that most of the houses didn't even get back to me. An agent told me that there is an Asian overflow that he doesn't even want to hear me. When I sang for a Studienleiter, he told me that with my talent, I should be able to find some jobs once they hear me. However, some places didn't even want to hear me before I take some German language classes. With that being said, until this very moment, the only one who agrees to hear me is the one agent in Karlsruhe. I was told to stay strong and focused in Germany but I didn't see anything happening in the area in terms of auditions. When La Scala wrote to me to remind me of the payment of the application, I decided to risk my application fee.

                A message to my love, and the application fee for both Freni and La Scala was done. After the payments, I heard back from both Freni and La Scala having audition opportunities by the late Septembre. The trip down is inevitable. Friends also told me datajobs.de, but you must be in the union to use that website. I kept hitting the wall writing to people/theaters/agents. Out of no where, I saw Hungarian State Opera casting for mainstage on Ytracker. It didn't cost money and I emailed my material right away. A few minutes later, Ágnes wrote me back and said that she would call me a day later for my audition time. I was very impressed but I knew no Hungarian except one swearing word Ligeti taught me in Taiwan during Don Giovanni rehearsal. The day later didn't bring the news from Ágnes. I then wrote another email telling her that I also had a German cellphone if that was easier to be approached. So, I got it from Ágnes. The audition time is in a few hours, 17:00 on the 18th of September. Finally, I looked at where Budapest is on my Eurail map. In the mean while, I checked the tourist situation as a Taiwanese person from the tourism Büro. I happily confirmed the time, and here I am in Budapest.