Tosca

9:30 a.m. We wake up early so that we can go to school and get some work done.

10:30 a.m. So hungry that we stop at Der Mann for coffee and dohnuts. Although they arent really dohnuts they are called "Baellchen," which means little balls. Don't laugh, they are delicious. Slightly bigger than dohnut holes, and so much better. I got two of plain dough, with sugar-raised outer shell, and two that had a powdered sugar and, Surprise! , pudding in the middle. But not too much pudding... just enough. And coffee to go.

For the next hours before class, Kim worked on her painting masterpiece for her art class. (Which, don't believe a word she says, is really good!)  I hunkered down on the second floor to study for our music quiz and listen to Mahler's Resurrection Symphony. I don't get very far when I run into J! We catch up for a while until he has to go to a meeting. I go back to my listening, but again I don't get very far when I see another person from my class, and we quiz each other on the reading until Kim gets there!

1:30 p.m. Class : Quiz, then lots of listening, a Saint-Saen piano concerto, followed by Brahms piano concerto. Mozart Violin concerto, and Brahms Violin concerto.

Meeting with Mr. Dunn. Bruckner 7.

Off to the opera!

5:45 p.m. It was the longest line we have seen so far! and people were cut throat. When we got to our seats, the Italian family behind us gave me a really hard time for doing absolutely nothing wrong. Very rude. They didn't even stay past the first act. Amateurs.

Celia Kim and I went to subway for a quick meal before taking our seats for the first act. Several differences: no ice for your drink, the smallest soda dispenser I have ever seen, Dorito's that look like they are from the 80's, instead of Lay's they are called Walker's, and the five-dollar-footlong doesn't exist! it's only a five euro six inch. What. the. What. That being said, their meats were exceptionally fresh, and their cookies as delicious as ever.

The opera was fantastic, although from where we were sitting it was pretty hard to tell. We were so far to the left, that everything stage right was unseen! And the way the staging worked, most of the most dramatic action took place (guess where?) stage right. :( So we did not get to see Tosca stab Scarpia, nor did we get to see the love duet at the end between Tosca and Mario, or Tosca's suicide.

The voices were incredible, especially the male leads (Mario and Scarpia). Tosca didn't have me at the first scene, but by the end I was onboard 100%. The passion here is incredible. I am so excited for my next voice lesson tomorrow!

10:30 p.m. Coffee with Celia, Kim and a new friend we met at the opera named Dan from Boston! Chatting for about an hour when we head back home!

12:00 a.m. Skype with Julie and Jason!

Blogging.

1:25 a.m. Goodnight!

E