The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Bridgid Eversole And Matthias John Joined Michael Urpí & Nickolas Urpí On "Today y Mañana!"

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

Bridgid Eversole, Education Director at Charlottesville Opera, and Matthias John, Owner of Matthias John Realty, joined Michael Urpí & Nickolas Urpí On “Today y Mañana!” “Today y Mañana” airs every Thursday at 10:15 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Today y Mañana” is presented by Emergent Financial Services, LLC, Craddock Insurance Services Inc, Charlottesville Opera and Matthias John Realty, with Forward Adelante.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Today and Manana. I'm Michael. I'm very happy to be joined by Nicholas over here. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Today and Manana. I'm Michael. I'm very happy to be joined by Nicholas over here. Good morning. It's a chilly morning here in Charlottesville, but we're going to try and make it work. Luckily, we're in nice heating. Jerry's got the heating going, so we don't have to freeze. Which we appreciate.

Exactly, yes. Especially in the building. Especially, yes. Especially on a day like today. As always, we are happy to be presented by Emergent Financial Services, powered by our fantastic sponsors, Matisse Realty, Craddock Series Insurance, Charlottesville Opera, and of course, Faba. We love being here today. We got a fantastic lineup for you today. We're going to be joined shortly by Bridget Eversol from Charlottesville Opera.

She's going to be here to talk about a couple of great things that are coming up our way. After that, we're going to be joined by Matisse Young from Matisse Young Realty. He's got a fantastic story he wants to share with us. He also was very lucky because he actually spent some time in Germany

during Christmas season. And Copenhagen. Wow. I want to hear how Copenhagen was too. Yeah. Our mom is always like, she watches all these kind of like YouTube things, like these people traveling. Yeah.

I don't know how they get to travel. But I'm always jealous. But my mom, every time she sees these fantastic Christmas markets in Germany, and she's like, I got to go during Christmas season. But I'm like, it's cold.

You know, I don't think my mom's been out of the house for the last week, because it's been so cold, maybe just on Sunday for church, but literally she hasn't been out all week. It's like, it's too cold. I'm like, well, if it's cold now, I mean, it's cold in Germany during, you know, December. So maybe it's less cold. We'll have to find out.

Well, maybe right now, but I'm sure, I don't know. We'll ask Matthias. Hopefully Matthias gives the right answer. He's like, actually, it's warm. You don't realize how warm it is in Germany. It's like, oh, okay. Sometimes you have to be careful when you ask people who are from the regions whether it's cold or warm. Because my dad always tells this story. When he used to live in Brooklyn, he had a neighbor who was from Russia.

And one time my mom and dad were kind of at home. They were freezing because it was like 30 degrees in New York. And they look outside, and like, the lady, I guess the wife who was from Russia was outside, she was like with shorts and like a tank top. And my parents are like, what the heck, they're crazy. And so my, you know, my dad had been talking to the Russian neighbor, he goes, Oh, you have to remember, he goes, you know, from where we are, it's like 30 degrees is a warm day. You know, so it's like it's amazing how it's like perspective for us. 30 days, 30 degrees is freezing, I guess, from here in Russia.

It's like, oh, wow, it's summer over here. Well, they remember there was a Alex always uses that famous story that said that there was an they went to they would go somewhere somewhere like in the Baltic Sea. And there was the unbearable heat. But like his professors like that's like 60, 70. Like the authors was the unbearable heat, but his professor was like, that's like 60, 70. The authors describing the unbearable heat, it was 70 degrees and we were like, oh, that's perfect. It's the same thing for people in Arizona. It's like 100

degrees and they're like, hey, it's got a little cool tonight. But I don't know about you, Nick. You ready to jump into our guest? Yeah, absolutely. We are very happy to be joined by Bridget Eversole from Charlottesville Opera. Bridget, wonderful having you on. Thank you for coming. It's great to be here.

Thank you for having me. Did you have a good Christmas season? I did. It was nice and relaxed and lots of time with family, which is good. You're relaxed and now you've got to gear up. Now you've just got to go full force. I know. I don't know if we had as much wonderful food as you.

I know. I feel bad. Yeah. We did have lobster, though. Oh, there's lobster. Yeah. I was going to say, the thing is that the herpes are 80% about food. So that's part of the problem is you have to be prepared to be at the table for hours on end.

Right. Because we only eat and drink. And that is the holiday. And then there's a little bit of presents. And then there's more food. And it's like, that's what we do. As it should be. Your present becomes the food at that point.

It's like, you know, what do you want for Christmas? A nice meal. That's what you end up getting. I would like an invitation to the house next year. A lot of people are trying to get it. I don't think Mama Herbie can handle it, because the problem is, we try to offer to help cook. But the problem is, A, she's like, no, because she's got to do everything herself.

And B, on the flip side, you know, nobody's as good. So, of course, you know, it's like who wants, you know, our cooking when you can get Mama's cooking, you know. That's true. That is true. I always try to, you know, I tell my mom, I said, try not to cook too much stuff. Because then she feels like she's in the kitchen all day. I said, you're in the kitchen all day cooking. I said, try to cook a little less. I'm like, no, more, more. Yeah, but my mom's Italian, so there's never enough food. There's been times, like Christmas meals, where it's like, the table

is like full of food. She's like, did I make enough? I'm like, man, we got a lot of food. For days, you made too much. My best friend growing up, her family was Italian, and the day after Thanksgiving, her mom started preparing for Christmas. We were always the poison testers. That was really wonderful. Especially with the cookies. That was my favorite. That's a wonderful thing.

Try. Is it good enough? I was missing something. Do it again. I know, Bridget, we have you here because I know you've got a big event coming up, and I know you kind of wanted to share a little about it. So can you tell us a bit about that? What's it called? Sing Me a Story, Your Journey to the Stage.

Sing Me a Story, The Journey to the Stage. So last year, Charlottesville Opera started with Sing Me Your Story, Finding Your Voice, and we're hoping to turn this into a trilogy, really. So this is our second series, and we are inviting kids from grades three through eight to come and learn about opera, and not just about what you see on the stage, but all of the behind-the-scenes actions, too, and just what a team it takes to put on this magical production. And so we're really excited about it. So the last event was about finding your voice. What did the kids kind of learn during that one?

So what we talked about with the singers, with the Behind the Sage scene team, was all about how did you get into opera? How did you, you know, when did you find your voice? Whether it was, you know, I was in math class and I really liked seeing how these angles came together. But I like art. Oh, I could be a lighting designer and something like that.

Or one of our singers started out in violin and just never wanted to practice. And then she learned about singing. And she said, oh oh my gosh this is it so she found out that a little easier right well i don't know if it's easy well i mean violin you don't have to carry around your instrument yeah i know but playing in instruments i mean at least singing yes you have to do a lot of work but you know you don't have to learn a new instrument you kind of know how to use your voice i actually don't think you do i think singing is harder

yeah but that's because you can't sing. That's exactly why. I think singing is harder. I know, but if I press the key on the keyboard, it always makes the same sound. And if there's something wrong with it, it's the piano and not me. Yeah, well. Sorry.

Anyway. Anyway, so it was just showing how everybody found their way to the stage in different ways. And that's kind of what we're building upon. The same idea of everybody has a different background. I'm really excited. The program is going to be starting out with, you know, some people found their journey to the stage through church and singing in church. So we have spirituals and

jewish folk songs but then we also have music theater we're including and just regular classical art song and showing how all these different paths led to the stage and again talking to the wig and makeup designer and director and different people. So just showing that everybody has a voice on the stage and it's important. Everybody has something to say and we're all part of the team. So when there's a production for a musical and opera, how many people, I know this might be a little too specific, but how many people kind of like are involved in like a production? Well, I think if I recall, Leanne, our general director,

I believe she said that we go from a staff of five people during the year to over 140 people in the summer. So it's a pretty big jump. So these kids kind of get to see all the different areas where if they're interested in music, whether it be musicals or opera, they can kind of get to see all the different areas where if they're interested in you know music whether it be musicals or opera they can kind of kind of get a sense of it's like okay this is something i can do that's exactly it and showing that you know it's not always a clear path yeah and um but there's a place for everybody on the stage and again it doesn't mean that you have to be a singer you can be a violinist or um you know a stage director you have to be a singer. You can be a violinist or, you know, a stage director. You just

might be really good at organizing things or about leading people. And so there's a place for everybody. Okay. And so when you have these kind of students, what's the biggest impact you kind of want to make? Because we're talking about, so ages, well not ages, grades from three to eights are kind of like between like the 9, 10 to 14 range. What's the biggest takeaway you kind of hope that they get from this event? Well, I just, you know, I wasn't exposed to opera until I was in college. And I think it wasn't, it was always this mystery to me. What is opera?

And I definitely did not have a clear idea of what it was and it was a little overwhelming and kind of you know I I just didn't think it was anything that would ever appeal to me and then I actually saw Carmen which is our that was my first one which is our yeah main stage this year and I fell in love and I want these kids to understand that, as we say, you have a voice and you fit in in any capacity, whether it's somebody behind the scenes, whether it's somebody on the stage, or whether it's somebody in the audience. Because opera, these stories,, all the generations and just making everything really approachable and hoping that even if we touch one child, I think that will make a difference. But I'm hoping that we,

you know, do reach out to a lot more than that. So, so far we are sold out. Well, not sold out because thank you to the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation. This is free for all students who attend. And our first show is completely booked. So we are hoping to add a second show. Oh my goodness. Because there is a waiting list. So that's a really wonderful problem to have. How many folks are you expecting? Well the cap was 950 I believe. So that's a lot of kids. That's a lot of kids. That's a lot of kids.

So we've got to make that show tight. But no, it will be. So yeah, we're really excited about that. Just the more kids we can reach. Yeah, that's fantastic. So 950 kids are going to kind of get a little introduction to stage and opera. That's phenomenal. I think that's important, too too because I feel like musicals,

I feel like in today's age, definitely kids are kind of like accustomed to that. There's a lot of big musicals out there that people are extremely popular. Wicked. I was about to say Phantom of the Opera, but I think they discontinued that one, didn't they? Did they stop on Broadway?

I just saw that they stopped on Broadway, but I heard that they're going to be on tour, a U.S. tour. Oh, wow. But even with the movies, I think just musicals are a more integral part of American culture than opera has been. So it's a good gateway drug is what I was going to say, but it kind of is. People can get introduced to it, the singing, and then may find that opera is not as unapproachable as it seems to be or it's because in media it's always like opera is like this big elevated thing that only fancy rich people go to and there's a musical that's for you know debbie reynolds and everyone else and but

that's that's not really the case it never really has been even historically yeah yeah absolutely i mean we i grew up going to musicals we We had subscriptions. I was able to do that with my parents, and it was wonderful and a great exposure. But again, it was just opera was this weird thing. And they're really not that different from each other. But kids do. I mean, I spent New Year's Eve watching Wicked. And they're great, absolutely. And we might even hear a little bit of Wicked on the program. So there's a sneak peek. So, yeah, I think it's just showing all of the different elements that can come together. I think having a little youth come into opera would be good. Because I do notice sometimes, you know, when you go to like, we do the Charlottesville Symphony things, it does seem like the audience skews more older. And it would be nice to kind of introduce classical music, opera,

to a younger generation that they too can kind of start coming to these events. And I think appreciate the music that's behind that. I mean, really, in reality, it is just kind of like an old-fashioned musical. I mean, maybe Nick might not like that. It's kind of like an old-fashioned musical in a sense. I know he's not thrilled with that assessment, but that's okay.

It is an old-fashioned musical. I was going to say, if you go back all the way, it's just Greek tragedy, but that's too far. That's what I like about it. Bridget, you did mention that you have another show. Where can people sign up if they're interested? Well, I also want to thank the Paramount Theater for being wonderful partners in this.

So you can go to the Paramount's website and sign up there. It's either through homeschooling or through the individual schools can sign up. And they can also check out our website, charlottesvilleopera.org, to find out more information but um yeah i think one of the things that that impacted us the most last year

was just seeing a little girl whose eyes walking to the theater you know seeing the paramount for the first time and live theater this was amazing and then somebody else saying oh my gosh i love opera and you know just having that and seeing people who look like them on stage and i think that's one of the things that we want to achieve in this is making it as approachable and personal and so we hear the stories of everybody so that you know anybody can do this and it you and they are just like you. I imagine some of the kids, it must be their first time probably walking into the Paramount. It's pretty impressive. It's really exciting.

It's a beautiful area. I was going to ask, so how many people, though, are going to be on, I guess, on the other side of the stage, sort of like singers and production designers and directors? We have four singers, and then we have jeremy thompson who is a wonderful pianist in town i'm sure you know he um is conducting for us and we have four instrumentalists coming in in addition to jeremy so he'll be playing the piano um and so we have each section of the orchestra represented we aren't able to have the full orchestra but um so we'll have the instrumentalists and then i'm not sure how many backstage people i don't have that answer but um

there's going to be a good team but that's good too because i think that's important because there's probably kids out there that know they don't want to be in like music but know that they aren't musical that right as you were pointing out you can be an artist still be involved you can be a director still be involved there's a be a director, still be involved. There's a lot of, even the techie kids can, because the amount of, especially in today's day, like the projectors and the... The math, the science, everything.

It's so integral to making the whole show work. Even the lighting. Absolutely. Someone's got to control that lighting. Yeah, it doesn't go by itself. You think it does. It works so well that while you're there, it doesn't go by itself. You think it does. It works so well that while you're there, you don't realize that there's some guy going with the sliders.

It's true. And it's Judah. That's the magic of opera. It just comes together, and it seems like it's this flawless thing, but it's all of the work behind the scenes that makes it so exciting. So when is the event? Because I don't think you've said yet. So when is it?

So it is February 25th, which is a Tuesday. Okay. Right now, 10.15, and it is a 60-minute program, which is about 50 minutes of the performance and then 10 minutes for questions and answers. And hopefully a second performance, I believe 12.15 or 12.30, if we can get that happening. Do parents kind of have to show up with their kids 10-15

minutes early? Well, most of them are through schools, so the buses come. And then for homeschools, I'm not sure how they do that, but the Paramount takes care of all of that. Which, again, it's so fantastic to have them. They've got this down to a science, and I don't have to

worry about anything. You don't have to drive 950 kids. I do not have to drive 950 kids. So also, I know you have an upcoming duet in February. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yes, so this is a new series we have through Charlottesville Opera. It is a duet concert series. We've had two so far and our third one is coming up on

valentine's day so there's a lovely way to um we we have it all done for you you just have to make a dinner reservation somewhere and then come on over for the opera this is at saint anne's um belfield and it is one of our former i i believe he was an emerging artist back when it was Ashland, but he was at Charlottesville Opera at some point anyway. Peter Kendall Clark is coming, and he's doing this duet series with a woman named Molly, and they are doing music theater. There we go. Again, there's a lot of crossover nowadays, so it's going to be all of the greats of music theater. There we go. Again, there's a lot of crossover nowadays, so it's going to be all of the greats of music theater. You can, again, find

out more about that online. It should be really fantastic. You can purchase tickets at charlottesvilleopera.com? Absolutely. .org. Yes, so you can purchase tickets there. I believe we'll also have them available at the door.

But again, it'll be a really great event. Yes. I will say get your tickets early because even though they're at the door, they do the last. Elizabeth and I went, my wife and I went to one, the December one, and it was pretty, it was full. It was there. Yeah. It was at the First Presbyterian Church. The church was almost full. It was great. yeah. It was at the First Presbyterian Church. The church was almost full.

And it's general admission. It is general admission. We were there early. If any guy is just wondering, it's like, oh, what can I do for my wife or Valentine's Day or girlfriend, exactly. There's no excuses now. If you've watched A Day Manana, you know exactly what to do.

You take her to an opera duet. I don't want to throw Jerry under theana, you know exactly what to do. You know exactly what to do. You take it to an opera duet. Exactly. I don't want to throw Jerry under the bus, but Jerry knows what to do. You know what to do, Jerry. Matias knows what to do. Yes, it will be wonderful. Sounds exciting. So thank you, Bridget, so

much for coming on. Thank you. So I'll just do a quick rundown before I end your interview. So Sing Me a Story. That is February 25th, correct? On a Tuesday at 10.15 and then potentially another one at 12.30 or for sure another one at 12.30? Potentially. Potentially? Yes. Okay. We'll know for sure in the coming days. Got it. But you can go to charlotteforopera.org to look for that there? Yes. Or to the Paramount's website under their education. Under their education. And then the duet on February

14th? That's correct. And that you can go right to charlottesvilleopera.org and find out information there. Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. Good to see you, Bridget. You too. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye. Well, that was great. And we're going to do another little switcheroo from one fantastic guest to another yeah no but it's always great what the Charles Ford Opera

is able to do for the youth I think introducing them to opera is really great you've got to start when they're young everyone always says young because you've got to

get used to it because it's harder it's let's be honest most of the time it's in first of all it's in another language

let's be honest which is difficult yes which is difficult because you're not going to understand really the words. Even if there's translations, you're not going to understand the words. So you have to begin to appreciate the music, the performances. You just have to get over the idea that it's an unapproachable form of art.

That's really what it is. If you have the perspective that you can't understand opera, you can't approach opera, then as you get into adulthood, it's going to be harder to bring your kids to it. Whereas if you grew up going to it, that's one of the successful things about the Nutcracker is that there's always debate, is the Nutcracker good for ballet or bad for ballet?

And a lot of people point out, if it weren't for the Nutcracker, most parents wouldn't take their kids to ballet. It's true. So it's just sort of like, that's a their kids to ballet. It's true. So it's just sort of like that's a great intro to ballet. And so with opera needs to have I mean what they're trying to do is have that because there really isn't a children's opera the same. I mean Ravel tried to write one

but it's never been as popular. Yeah. And it's just sort of like where do you Well think about children get introduced to musicals basically actually probably mostly through anime movies. Think about it. When you watch The Lion King or Tarzan, there's always singing. Technically, it's a musical.

It's just animated. It is a musical. You're right. Yeah. It's an animated musical. So in reality, that's kind of their introduction. Opera doesn't really have much of an introduction. The closest thing you maybe had was Fantasia, potentially.

Maybe at least it introduced you to classical music. Not a lot of people have seen Fantasia. I know. When I met my wife, she had not seen Fantasia. It's just not an approachable, yeah, I was very disappointed. I know. But it's not an approachable

Disney movie at the same time. Like, where people don't start by it. What? It's got Mickey Mouse. I know, you would think that that would be an easy sell, but anyway, we're swapping

from one. Yes, we're swapping now from opera to Mr. Matias Yon. Matias, thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for having me again. You know, we're swapping now from opera to Mr. Matias Young. Matias, thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for having me again. We're going to pick on you. Even in 2025, I'm still allowed here. We're going to pick on you a little bit.

We're going to pick on you a little bit because we were a little jealous because we heard rumors that you were in Germany during Christmas season and we had some jealous herpes around here. Kind of knowing what it was like like well the experience was like so I wonder if you could maybe share a little bit now you know how I felt when all of you guys went to Italy in the summer we invited I was here you didn't get the invitation yeah went to Germany in the time leading up to Christmas. We were back here for Christmas to be with my wife's family.

But it was good to travel and see my family over in Germany, see relatives, and also to take my daughter, who is a little over a year old now to Germany for the first time which unfortunately includes traveling in a plane with a baby no fun at all but she did better than than we thought she would and so yeah and we made a lot of a lot of progress in terms of learning how to travel with a baby. A lot of lessons learned for the next time. And I know now that I have to plan less activities when traveling with a baby. Because you only have this time window between 12 and 3 p.m. each day, between the two major naps to do anything.

And that's where I cramped all the activities and all the sightseeing and it ended up being a little bit too busy. I think, yeah. It's a little hectic and stressful. Now, do you enjoy the hectic? Because I know that with Elizabeth and I, I tend to be like, let's go, let's keep going. And then you stop for lunch and then let's go, let's keep going. And then Elizabeth prefers to be a little bit more paced.

Well, it depends. When traveling with my wife, if we want to explore a city or a country, obviously we have a packed schedule for the day and that's fine with us. We like to only use the hotel to sleep and then just explore and venture the given area. But with a baby, you know, there's only so much you can do, and there's a lot of logistics to consider. How do you travel? Do you go by train or do you have a rental?

And just putting a baby in a rental takes a little bit more time than just two adults traveling somewhere, right? So it's a different story. But I guess that's just my life now. So my travel adjustments. But it was good to be back. It was a lot of fun to be on the Christmas markets. That's what I definitely wanted to ask.

What are the Christmas markets like? that's that's what question i definitely wanted to ask what the christmas market's like because here i know in charlotte we have like the holiday market but it's pretty much the same you know farmer's market with just kind of a few additional kind of markets sunday some holiday stuff but when i see like the videos of like christmas markets in germany i mean it's like it's a big thing like they have like these stands where they're serving like i want to say hot chocolate but like some sort of hot drinks. Other stands are selling food, and then they have all these Christmas things, and my mom's just dying to go there. What's it like? Imagine an arts fair or a farmer's market, but Christmas-themed. You have all kinds of vendors in their booths or little shops set up.

They either sell food, something typical to the region you're in, or maybe typical to the Christmas season. The hot beverage you referenced, that is a spiced wine. We call it glue wine. And there are variations of this with and without alcohol, but also honey-infused ciders and just hot spiced beverages. That's what you traditionally you find those Christmas markets. Downtown and different areas of the city.

It's an authentic festivity that everyone looks forward to. And obviously tourists love to go there. It gives them the spirit of Christmas, but it's also something typically typical for Europe, right? And it's always nice to go there. I can find foods that I can't find here. There's just this

atmosphere, a lot of people gathering outside, even though it's cold, snowy, or windy, or rainy. Yeah. Is there a lot of fun. Is there a specific food that you can't find here that's your favorite, or one or two that you'd say that you were glad you were able to get while you were there? So I remember my wife being particularly interested in honey nuts or like roasted candied nuts, whether it's almonds or walnuts.

That's something you find in every Christmas market. What I always look forward to is the different types of sausages that they serve in a bun. Of course. You're like a hot dog. I like savory meat. Don't call it a hot dog. I like savory meat. Don't call it a hot dog. I'm just kidding. A Christmas hot dog.

It's amazing. It's easy to leave the show if you call it a hot dog. That's what I go to the Christmas market for. Your savory, sweet, that's the bottom line. And do these Christmas markets markets do they run like all day or at night when do they run from like all week they typically start early december um when the advent starts okay right first sunday of december and they run until after a few days after Christmas. And it's typically the afternoon to early evening hours

is when people gather there. And it's like all week or just on the weekends? Every day. Every day, wow. Every day. And imagine a county fair. Those vendors,

they travel the country from fair to fair. And so if you are a vendor who sells either food or craft or whatever it is on a Christmas market, that's the season for you to generate income. So you want to make sure it's every day. And most downtowns, most cities allow that throughout December, every day in the afternoon to the evening. That's fantastic. Yeah, I'm so jealous, especially when you mention all the sausages. I love spice nuts, too, so I'm jealous of that, too too because I remember spice nuts are one of my favorite things too.

Now that I know, thanks to Natalie, that it's a thing, when we go to Germany, I will get some. I remember the one food I would look forward to is just German bread. It's hard to find here. German bread, does it have... It's hard to find here. Yeah. Is German bread, does it have like, what's?

It's more dense. Dense, okay. And it's dark bread, black bread. Interesting. Imagine a pumpernickel style bread that you sometimes find pre-packaged here in the grocery stores. That color of bread. Oh, wow. Okay. Just everything baked tastes better in Europe.

I know. At least in my mind. In my mouth, mind, whatever. To be fair, sometimes here on farmer's markets, you find people selling European-style bread, which comes close. Yeah. Oh, that's nice. Yeah.

As long as you can get a little closer. Because that is difficult. The breads are just... It's hard because you even hear that, like, it's the water, it's the temperature, it's every... Like, especially bread is so finicky. Like, it's the difference between a New York bagel and here. I know that Charlottesville just won something for Bodo's bagels, but, you know, no disrespect to them. But I'm like, I'll still take a New York bagel every time because it's just different.

I think sometimes with the issue with bread is that Europeans very much like their bread fresh. Here in America, people are mostly okay with eating bread that was, like, packaged and, like, you know, like a Wonder Bread kind of thing. Where it's like, yeah, it's been packaged, it was made, like, a week ago, but, you know, they're happy to eat it like that. Europeans don't eat that kind of bread. they only eat freshly baked bread they'll go that morning to go to the bakery to get the bread and that's their bread for the day and the next day they'll go to the bakery and get another loaf of bread that's kind of markets are almost not daily but they're much more frequent than like here we have the charlesville market is every week on a saturday yeah in europe it's throughout uh throughout the week because, you know,

I mean, my dad always tells the story, his grandmother and aunt used to just go walk together down to the market and be like, what are we eating tonight? That looks good. That looks good. That's like, and they would, or they would buy it there. I mean, when Elizabeth and I would walk around early and we were always up earlier than everyone else, we'd see the guys packing the fresh fish at the store, just unloading right from the truck into the store. The guys are cleaning it, and you get that wonderful briny smell. For me, it was like, oh, it's amazing pre-breakfast. In Europe, they did a good job of not having to make what we would call supermarkets.

They have specialized little stores, like the butcher, the fish guy, the bakery. Here in America, we have supermarkets. It's great to have one place where you have everything, but because of that, you kind of eliminate all the smaller people who would be just, I'm just a butcher, I'm just a fish guy. Part of it is that they couldn't because of the size of the storefronts.

You can't tear down a baroque building. But I also think they made an effort. I think in Italy, specifically, they made an effort that's like, some people are like, oh, they should open up like a Walmart version. Italy is like, no, no, no, absolutely not. Yeah, they banned Whole Foods or something. I can't remember. They tried to like, yeah, they went out of their way. It was like, Whole Foods for us is like, we're trying to get closer to Europe. And they're like, no, we don't want that that here but I think we have to make a distinction between urban areas and then that

scenario that idyllic small country store scenario that you're describing that you do still find in Europe but it's less and it's more in rural areas so sure you will find the butcher with amazing

cuts in each city, and there's a bakery around each corner, but you also see more big corporations and chain grocery stores. So that's at least my observation. So I think in America we sometimes have a romanticized image of how Europe is, and what you're just describing, it certainly still exists. I mean, you know, you travel to Europe all the time, but don't you think that it's also becoming less?

You know, everything is subject to change. One example, when we went in December, we started our journey in Denmark, in Copenhagen. And what I noticed, and that is a development that must have happened in the recent years leading up to last year, because I don't remember seeing it back when I still lived there. 7-Eleven. Everywhere you go in Copenhagen, you see little 7-Eleven stores, which I thought is just this American phenomenon, but

they are at every corner in Copenhagen right now, and they're actually nice stores. I tried it. The coffee was amazing. Not like a coffee you find here in the 7-Eleven. They have baked goods in there. Everything is fresh. They sell fruits. It's actually

a solid store. I hate to admit it, but I went there. It was interesting to see. So it's just an example of how even those traditional things in Europe are slowly changing. There's definitely a fight, not to get

too much into this topic, but there's definitely, because I've seen people talk about Florence getting, it's the size of a small city, but it gets millions of people per day. And so there is definitely a push to preserve it, even because you can find a Starbucks everywhere in Italy. That is 100% true, and I've seen, and I was

disappointed because I thought it was all Americans going there, but it's not. It's even like, I heard two British ladies coming out of the Starbucks like, oh, thank God that I got my Starbucks because I can't live without it, in their British accent, I'm like, you're in Italy. Get a cappuccino. What are you doing? But everyone's

different. They've tried to creep in. I think the benefit that Italy has is that streets are still extremely narrow. It's harder to have a giant store like that function in some cities. Siena is a no-drive zone, their historic center.

So it's really, really difficult for a major chain store to look at Siena and say, I know there's tons of people living there. I know millions of people come every day to see it, especially during the summer. But I really can't necessarily break into it the same way because I can't get the logistics right. It's impossible. If you have a city where you need a license to run a special, not only do you need the taxi license, you need the license to be able to go into the pedestrian zone as a taxi to pick people up, you really can't have giant trucks coming in unloading goods on a daily weekly monthly basis

so i think part of it is italy has been in some way preserved from that because like you have the hill towns you have all these things that it's like these are they were intentionally chosen to be inaccessible because for defensive reasons in the middle ages or in ancient times but now what you've made they're they're still inaccessible to larger corporations because they can't make the logistics work. So in some areas you can do, unfortunately with some places like Germany and France, they got bombed in World War II, cleared out. And now it's like, okay, well, we can rebuild however we want. So they've somewhat been able to modernize. I think Italy, even though it got heavily bombed,

it didn't have the same, doesn't have always the same problems. I think it's the same in Spain and Greece, especially Greece with all the islands. You have a logistics problem. Whole Foods is going to look and be like, I have to ship my goods from here onto here to get them onto a boat to get to this store. They're going to think twice about doing it.

It makes more sense to move to larger regions like Germany, China, places where it's like, okay, I have dense populations and I have accessibility. And I think the Mediterranean, because of its terrain and the way the cities are structured, it makes it harder for them to do that. But that push that you talk about, that push to preserve something authentic

and something small, batch, local. We see this here too. Maybe that's a good segue into, you know, same topic, but focusing on Charlottesville. We have nice bakeries here too, right? Isn't there a new Czech bakery in Crozet that opened up? Yeah, in Prague. Yeah, exactly. I like it.

We have the same here in Charlottesville. There's this push to do sure, farm to table is not a new idea. But we see more and more small restaurants and small shops that are not affiliated with a bigger chain.

And so that's the personality of a city like Charlottesville. We see this in Europe, we see it in the U.S., and I'm thankful for it. There's the convenience of going to a big grocery store, and I go to Walmart sometimes, of course. But it's also nice to have the opposite. Right?

And I'm glad we have it here in Charlottesville. Actually, many of them. I agree. It's important to have the option. That's really what it is, is that you have the ability to do it, even if you can't. Because even a lot of people complain about the expense of going to the markets and things. Yes, it can be more expensive at times than getting the cheapest item at Walmart, but at the same time, even if you just do it every once in a while, even as a

special occasion, you're still helping out a local business just for that week, for the day, whatever you need. It's important just to remember that it doesn't have to be if you can't afford to make your weekly thing or your daily thing or or or what have you it even if you just sort of like on a special occasion i'll go get a cake from a local baker or i'll go get a loaf of bread for christmas that's from the local baker that helps them out too like it it's not a matter of just making your weekly thing even if it's the occasional thing, it's important. But I think what we also see is in dire economic times, which is certainly the case for some people right now, the specialty coffee is one of the first things people avoid, right?

Specialty coffee or coffee at Walmart, right? So that's an easy decision for many. And so I think that's the challenge a lot of small shops and companies face these days, as always, whether it's in Italy, in the old world, or here in the U.S. The new world. The new world.

Yeah, so that was a great topic. But I know Matthias had wanted to share. I know you kind of wanted to share a little story. You wanted to kind of give everyone, like, start the new year on our right foot, right? So I wanted to make sure we save some time for that. Something inspiring, yeah. I thought it would be a good story to share here as we start 2025 and we are looking to make an impact and we

still remember all the New Year's resolutions and in that spirit we are motivated and enthusiastic. It's actually something that happened in December. A few months prior to that, I met a family. It's a family from Afghanistan that had to flee years ago already. So they fled to other countries. They went to Syria and to Turkey. And eventually, they were granted an asylum visa from the US. Apparently they had to wait many years for it but they didn't give up and eventually they received it and so they made their way to Virginia, to Charlottesville actually. And I met them last October, I believe, through a Turkish friend who employs one of them in the family.

And so they spoke to me. They asked me if I can help them find a home. Sure, I work in real estate, of course. You can become a client. I can find you a home. That's what I do. But this one was a little bit different because they have this amazing story to tell. First of all, how they made this

long, strenuous journey into the U.S., which I find already inspiring. But then, as I learned about the family, about their story, and actually what they all do for a living, and how they are able to qualify for a home loan, for example, in order to purchase this home that they now own. And, you know, as a realtor, I have to sit down, and we have to ask uncomfortable questions, but also find out what kind of home they're looking for and how many people will live there and what area, you know, all the standard questions.

And in the process, I just learned about this family and wanted to share about it a little bit because when they moved here, they obviously, after a while, all received their work permits as well. And so it's a family, mother, father, and then they have five children. Four of them are with them here in all ages from age 7 to 20, I believe. And, of course, the younger ones go to school here, but the older ones, while they're waiting for PVCC or UVA and so on, they all have jobs here. They work at Walmart, they work in restaurants, they work at Wegmans, whatever they could find.

They have a handyman job as a side hustle. So they are really hardworking people, all of them in the family, there's no exception. The mother works as well. And the mother and the father, they don't speak English or they're just learning English. But that was not a reason for them not to work. And so everyone works and together they actually qualify for a loan. So they found a loan. So they found a loan officer that specializes on situations like this

where there are a lot of cultural differences, there's a language barrier to consider. And it was just a fascinating process and inspiring, I think, as a story how they all chipped in and together as a story how they all chipped in and together as a family each individually but together as a family they qualified for the loan and then in December we were able to close on a brand new house up in in Greene County it's a new construction like four bedrooms. Everyone has their own separate bedroom. It's, as I said,

it's brand new. It has a yard. It is the American dream, basically. And I know we all talk about how, especially Americans often tell me the American dream is dead and it's harder and harder to accomplish that. But for me, that is an example of the American dream in action. And I acknowledge that it sounds a little cheesy, you know, but I find it an incredibly inspiring story. Especially in a city like Charlottesville, we have a lot of immigrants here from all parts of the world. We also have refugees here.

I believe Harrisonburg and Charlottesville are refugee hubs in Virginia with a higher concentration of those. And I've known about it. I've seen them. And at one point I volunteered at the International IRC, International Refugee. I forgot the exact name of it. So we all know that it exists, but I was never that close to one of them. And I wanted to share it because it teaches me and I believe others a valuable lesson. Just talking to the members of this family, how motivated and also grateful they were just to be here, to be given the opportunity. I've never before heard someone speak so enthusiastically about being able to pay taxes, right, to have three jobs. They were happy about it. They all work 12, 14 hours a day, but that's how they're able to maintain a family,

and that's how they're able to qualify for a loan, right? And there were a lot of obstacles along the way. Believe me, whether it's the language barrier. You know, oftentimes we had someone translating. Of course, the younger ones, they go to school here, so they speak English and they could translate between the parents and me. Because, to no surprise, I don't speak Afghani or Urdu. But then also topics like septic system, right? So if you come from Afghanistan or in the Middle East,

chances are you're not familiar with the American septic system or even a city sewer. And all those topics along the way, they were observing how the house was finished, completed. So many questions when we sat down with the builder just to explain to someone unfamiliar with American real estate, with American processes of construction, everything related to building a home and then purchasing a home, right? If I worked with you, it would be a very different conversation, an easier conversation, because you come, you bring a lot of knowledge already to the table.

And that's one of those obstacles that I talked about earlier. But we overcame all of them. And it was a wonderful experience for me. And that's the inspiring part that I wanted to share, especially as we sit here comfortably in an affluent area in Virginia, right? And at the same time, we complain about the challenges that we face individually or as a demographic or whatever it is, and then compared to the story and the experience of this particular family, it's a little humbling sometimes, you know?

And at the same time, inspiring. I don't know how you perceive that, but that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. I think it will always serve as an example of discipline and ambition and endurance and just overcoming obstacles for whatever it is in life. And I sound a little bit like a motivational speaker right now, but I think that's exactly what it is.

It gives me motivation and inspiration. Well, it's better than a motivational speech because it's real. And one of the things you mentioned, it sounds cheesy, but if you're living it, it's not cheesy. It's completely different. You don't see it as cheesy when you're the one who has to go through it and then overcome. Then it just seems like this is just the the things that we take for granted are things which are so important to

somebody else and they're things that they never thought they'd have and so it becomes a gift i think sometimes in america we are spoiled because you know you could you have to look at everything from a perspective and i think you know we can go out in a situation where it's like we're used to eating, for example, three loaves of bread for dinner. And then suddenly we go down to two and like, oh, my gosh, we're starving. But then there are other people who have zero loaves of bread to eat for dinner and then suddenly come to America, give them one. And they're like, oh, my gosh, we're so full. We're so grateful. You kind of lose perspective with the fact that you know people kind of are

the way we live life here we're and i hate to use the word spoiled but we're very um what's what i'm looking for we're very lucky fortunate to have the life that we have here people come from much less fortunate situations and they come here and what we take for granted they are like oh my gosh i'm so happy to have home. I'm so happy to have these jobs and to kind of work and everything. And like Matias said, like hard work, you know, I think it kind of shows that, you know, the American dream is still achievable through hard work. It's not easy. It never is and probably never will be. But it doesn't mean that it's not achievable.

But, you know, like you said, the kids are working. And how many kids do they have? They have five and four of them are here. And they all work. And how old is the age range? Ages 7 to 20, I believe. Very inspiring. And we all acknowledge this right now, but we also at the same time, we read those headlines every day in our American media here about how there are systemic barriers that make it impossible for someone to accomplish what they have determined their dream to be.

That it is impossible to achieve your dreams here. And that serves as a good example of how it still exists. This is the perfect example for me, and I would like to tell this story to everyone, to anyone who complains about the government putting up barriers and making it unachievable and the American dream is dead. No, it's not. I think that's proof for me on a very personal level, of course.

It's a good story to start 2025 with. Hopefully we're going into better times and just kind of an inspiration for people to kind of really get, like Matias said, anything's possible, really, you know, with hard work. And, you know, the American dream is still alive. And a little faith, because they have to have a lot of patience. Bless you. A lot of patience to wait to not only come into America,

but just in the hopes that they'd be able to find those jobs and everything. It's a wonderful story. Thank you for bringing it to us. I think that's great. I will send you a picture of the family standing in front of their house. I have it framed at home. Oh, that's wonderful.

Would they be okay sharing it or no? I asked them first. Probably some cultural implications to consider. It's always polite anyway. I wouldn't want my photo shared unless I knew, regardless of any implications. So next time

you go to Walmart and you see a lady in the produce section, think about the story. I will. Or when you go to one of the downtown restaurants, think about the story. I will. Or when you go to one of the downtown restaurants, that's where they work as well. Maybe

off the show I'll ask you which restaurant. Just so that we let them keep a little bit of their privacy. Thank you for letting me share that story. Thank you for coming to share it. It's a good story to start of start the new year off. Right? That's what I thought.

It starts off on the right foot. Instead of starting off the wrong foot, you kind of start it off, you want to get the gear on the kind of good note, you know? So that's a good way. Because, yeah, we don't do resolutions, so we've got to do something. I think I had Matisse.

We had Matisse on last. I think Alex and I were on the show he's like what's your birthday and I'm like I don't have one because Batiste and I

were talking about that yeah I put Michael on the spot exactly I don't do that I don't do that I always resolve not to have one

and I always keep it exactly you never fail your New Year's resolution yeah well I've been noticing like obviously every year

one of the biggest New Year's resolutions is get in shape kind of lose weight yeah and I've been Well, I've been noticing, like, obviously every year, one of the biggest New Year's resolutions is get in shape, kind of lose weight. Yeah. And I've been noticing because I've been going to Planet Fitness lately

and it's just, I went in and I'm like, like all these people and I'm like, oh. It's full, huh? It's full now, yeah. Yeah, every January.

But everyone always says it's like, you wait a month and then it's just back to normal because it's like, they go there, they do a month

and they're like, oh, I'm tired of this. So it's like, what's the point of the New Year's know if you're gonna quit so lent is better because you have to stick for 40 days yeah humans are interesting that way right but then there are also those that actually continue their push through and you will see them every month in the gym the gym is just one example of places where you try to accomplish what you write down in your

New Year's resolutions but yeah in that spirit may we all achieve what we plan what our dreams are our own individual American dreams hopefully we get to achieve them that's right

thanks guys for having me again thank you for coming on it's always a pleasure and I threaten that I'll be back next month we look forward to it we hope you keep your craft you better thank you so much

that was fantastic go waste the new year that's a great story. I love stories because as Matias points out, the only difference sometimes between a speaker that's like a motivational speaker and something like that is that the story, there's something about narrative that is intrinsically human. And so we can relate to it better. And this is one of those. I mean, well, it happens to Matthias. Matthias lived it. He experienced it. Versus sometimes

people give a hypothetical story or it'll be very vague. Was the story real or did they just make it up for the purpose? Matthias is like, no, I lived this. This is authentic. And it's not even just Matthias. These people went from Afghanistan to Syria to Turkey.

Imagine all that chaotic life, what they were living. And now they come here and they find out they have a home. And, you know, they're living that mundane life that sometimes you take for granted for them. It's heaven right now because what they had to kind of go through. So it's fantastic, you know. Good for them. And, you know, I hope they continue to have success here in Charlottesville. We're happy to have them.

And you never know. Maybe some of the kids end up at the Sing Me a Story. Maybe. You never know. You never know. Because some of them are still not. They're right in that age. They'll have the singers.

Exactly. There's a lot to be grateful for. I'm grateful for having you as my partner today. That was a great show. You're supposed to say, I'm grateful for having you as my partner too, but that's okay. That's all right. You missed your shot. Thank you, Nicky.

I didn't take my shot. I wasn't that grateful. I'm just going to slide right by that one. Okay. For next week's show, we're kind of like figuring out a guest. We're holding off on guests. Yes, exactly. So we're figuring out who's hosting, I can promise you one thing,

it won't be me and Nick next week. After what happened, it's not going to be me. After you think it's not me. But definitely we always want to thank our sponsors, our presenter, Merger Financial Services, our fantastic sponsors, Matias Young Realty,

Credit Series Insurance, Charlottesville Opera, Faba. Always a big thank you to Jerry for having us here. Big thank you to Judah for making this look good. Thank you to all our viewers. No, we had a number of viewers, but

I... Okay. Thank you to all the viewers who watched, liked the show. Big thank you. Hopefully everyone will have a great start to the new year. We look forward to seeing you next time, but until then, hasta mañana. Thank you.