This evening, Julika, my host brothers, Peter's parents, Libby, Hannah, and I all went to a concert at a Waldorf school in Hamburg. The concert conductor is my older host brother's music teacher at the Waldorf school in Bergedorf. The music of the concert was Brahms' Requiem, which the director selected because two teachers he knew had passed away the previous year. The concert featured a professional orchestra (perhaps with some student members), two professional soloists, and a choir of parents, teachers, and students. Peter was part of the choir, and he said they had been practicing for the concert since August. We could not really understand German lyrics of the Requiem, but it is difficult to understand sung words anyway, so it did not detract from the experience for me. It was amazing to me how powerfully the music could convey the range of emotions associated with death; at different points during the concert, I felt melancholy, reflective, angry, and jubilant.

The concert hall at the Waldorfschule

After the concert, Libby's host mom took Libby, Hannah, and me further into Hamburg so that we could participate in the "Long Night of Museums" (Lange Nacht der Museen). We started at the Maritime Museum and had a bratwurst and bier outside the museum before going in. We walked around the maritime museum for a while and met up with Josh and Ashley.

Maritime Museum exterior

Maritime Museum interior

Knot your average museum display

Boats, Boats, Boats (actually men assembling tiny metal boats inside the Maritime Museum)

Then we took a bus to Deichtorhallen, which was near a hangout spot where all the museum night buses converged. We bought some Glühwein, which is German mulled wine, to warm ourselves up a little. The Glühwein smelled like bread pudding but tasted like a lot of spices added to a warmed red wine (which is what it is, I think). After a while, we got on another bus and attempted to find the emigration museum (BallinStadt - Auswanderermuseum) because we had heard good things about it. Unfortunately, Libby and I had to leave basically as soon as we found the museum, but we are hoping to have the chance to visit it a bit later!