A night At the Opera (with apologies to the Marx brothers)

I left work at a little before 4 because the opera started at 6 and I had to go home from school and change. I debated whether I should take a cab, but I decided I would have enough time to take the subway. But the going was so slippery again, I thought there was no way I would take the subway home. I figured if I feel walking home from the station at night, nobody would find me until I’d frozen to death!

By the way, the temperature today was in the high 20s and it felt positively warm.

I should also note before I forget, that the landlady did not object to my puzzle being on the floor and she’s going to Lithuania to visit her daughter for a few months, so I get to finish it at my leasure.

But back to the opera. I walked the 10 minutes to the opera house from the subway station and the sidewalks there were really clean. Anna met me there and, after checking our coats, we went to look around first. The place is stunning. Anna also pointed out to me that the decorations have a distinctly Tatar character.

So, when I bought the tickets, the lady told me it was standing room only. When we got there we saw that we actually had two chairs in the 2nd row in a loge on the side. The problem is, if you sit down, you can’t even see the damn stage. So we stood during the performance as close as we could to the side of the loge and then I could see half of the stage. The problem was, it was the half where the least amount of action was.

We saw The Magic Flute. It was in sung German and a Russian translation ran above the top of the stage. That was almost as fun as the opera itself. The sets were beautiful and the direction was very cleverly done. (What I could see of it.) it was really well sung  and turned out to be a very pleasant experience.

Going home I took a cab from in front of the opera to my door for $2. I don’t understand how cab drivers exist here.

Today the 2nd graders but on a 30-minute performance about Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer totally in English. It was excellent. These kids are really beginning to grasp the English language tand Emma and Matthew are doing a great job teaching them.

Tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday I will have to work very long days because my TA will be taking a short vacation. It will be a handful, but I’ll take two extra days off for it at the end of January. I’m ready to call it a day now.