Opera and Ballet

(I took a long break from this because it is very difficult uploading videos on here. Sorry for the delay.)

One of my goals before coming out here was to make sure that I would partake in the cultural life. Part of that culture includes being able to attend ballets, operas, and symphonies on a regular basis. Well I'm happy to say that I've at least attended one of each of these so far, and there will be plenty more to see!

First I went to the Czech Orchestra at the Rudolfinum with Philippe. One of my co-workers had season tickets, but was feeling ill so he wasn't able to attend. I was really excited to go inside of the building and just feel like a grown up.. sipping champagne during the intermission, getting all dressed up, having a date to chat with.

It was a really lovely time. It's pretty comical, though, how the conductor goes in and out of the back doors just to receive more of an applause! Ridiculous! Seriously, after one song he would leave, and then come back and more clapping. Then at the very end jesus.. I thought it would never end! My hands started hurting!

Ashley came out to visit me in November. We went to Muse which was amazing- not exactly in the same realm as the Opera/Theatre events that I'm dedicating this page to, but still noteworthy to talk about. We went to Munich to see them in the Olympic stadium, and I have never seen so many people at a concert before. It was the largest one I have ever seen, and it was packed for good reason. Muse is amazing! Loved their performance and love all their songs!


My school tries to hold staff events and that's how I was able to go to the Opera and Ballet for so cheap. The last Sunday that Ashley was here, just the night before she was leaving, we went to the opera and saw Carmen. This is a story of a gypsy named Carmen who pretty much everyone in the town loves. A military man tries not to fall in love with her.. but of course he falls victim to her. She gets put in jail and he gets her out and they run away together. Then they start getting sick of each other and she starts falling in love with a matador. The military guy get jealous of course, and kills her in the end and then the police kill him. So a typical opera of love, betrayal, and murder. haha of course the opera was in French, but they had a screen above the stage with Czech and English subtitles. It's just freakin hilarious to see the translation of some of the things that they say. One simple sentence takes 5 minutes to sing. Gets kinda ridiculous at times.. but I loved the actual musical numbers.



In December, I finally got to see a ballet and what better to see than The Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol. It was kind of strange that they mixed the two ballets together.. but it actually did make sense the way they did it. I have never actually seen The Nutcracker so I didn't have much to compare it with. I've only seen movies of A Christmas Carol... so all in all I was able to see two stories at once. Beautiful dances and costumes.. and I freakin loved the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies but the video didn't turn out so great.. oh well. Here's a different clip:


In March I went to Paris with Philippe to watch his brother's girlfriend perform at the National Opera House. She is a professional pianist, and I was blown away by her performance. This theatre kinda puts the Prague theatre to shame.. sorry Prague, but Paris definitely beat you on this one (among other things). The theatre was huge, and the fact that she was performing with only 4 other people- violinists- it was just amazing! Great job Ruta! You can see her in the back- behind the piano- obviously.

October's Adventures

I went to Bratislava, Slovakia at the beginning of October and completely forgot to post about it. I had to go to apply for my visas. It was a last minute trip, since we (Stephanie and I) found out that we were only able to go to the office on a weekday and since our tourist visa was going to expire in only one more week we had to go quickly.

We went on Wednesday night- had a problem with the bus/train system.. but ended up taking the overnight train at midnight and got into Bratislava at 6 in the morning. Wheew.. long trip! I didn't know much about the city.. so I didn't really have any expectations. I just imagined it to be boring buildings from the communist era. We arrived and were immediately lost because we took the bus in the wrong direction.. we got off and looked around and just thought that the city looked soo ugly! It was boring and drab and just plain depressing! But just like Prague, it has a beautiful old town center which is the main part of the city.. so that completely changed our views.


This compass thing in the middle of the street was awesome. It showed many major cities and how far they were and what direction it was. Pretty nifty




















They have a castle.. but we didn't have much time to explore it so we didn't make our way up it. But it looks beautiful. Maybe when I have to go back to pick up my visa I'll explore it a little more.



They're this random building that looks like a UFO. There's a restaurant at the top and apparently nice views of the whole city.














Lots of allies.. just walking around was really nice. There's not that many tourists so it feels like a smaller city which is nice.















There are a ton of these statues all over of regular working type people. There a man popping out of the sewer. A tour group was walking by and the guide said that many people rub the hat for good luck!

























We walked around to a less populated area and found ourselves back in world war 2 era.. the buildings were crumbling, the streets were a disaster zone, and the graffiti was crawling all over the sides. It really felt like we just got put onto a movie set for world war 2! Wondering why they haven't reconstructed this part of the town.. or maybe they are keeping it to remind themselves of their past? I don't know.

Nice town.. many people from Prague think that it is a shit place to go.. but I enjoyed it. Wouldn't want to live there.. but it's worth a visit! A week later we were supposed to go back and pick up our short term visas.. but luckily another coworker had to go down to apply for his.. so he was able to pick it up for us! I do still have to go back to pick up my long term visa which will be ready in December.

The rest of October went by way too fast! I'm getting closer with my coworkers. My friend Kristin threw a payday soiree and it was a great opportunity to meet new people, make new friends, and of course drink lots and lots of wine! Went to a Halloween party at another coworkers house, Troy, and won the pumpkin carving contest with my team, and won the mummy wrapping contest! This is our winning pumpkin and this is my admirabel partner Philippe-the mummy! I've never done that before playing games like that for Halloween so that was great! I dressed up as a pirate again.. I actually brought the costume from the states! haha pretty ridiculous but it came in handy since I didn't have to buy one here! Didn't win the costume contest though- can't take em all!




















I finally went to the Rudolfinum which is this beautiful building right along the river (it doesn't have this awful scaffolding anymore). I saw the Czech Orchestra play. One of my coworkers, Paul, had season tickets but was feeling ill and was not able to go, so he asked me if I'd be interested.. which I jumped at the opportunity! It was really last minute.. and I wasn't sure of the dress code. I didn't know if people got really dressed up, and my student said that it would be ok with dark jeans or slacks even- especially cuz I was a foreigner.. but that's no excuse! If people dress up.. then I want to too! But I wore slacks.. and went I got there I felt a little sad that I hadn't dressed up more! Girls were in skirts and dresses..dang.. next time though I'll know. We had some sparkling wine in between sets.. ahh what a wonderful time! It was really funny though, watching the conductor. They get so into it.. it looks so ridiculous like this big show! He kept going in and out of the back doors between numbers and every time we'd have to clap for like 5 minutes for his entrance! At the very end I was clapping for a good 15 minutes! Very glad I went though.. and in November I'm going to the National Theater- Narodni Divadlo to see the opera Carmen and then in December I will be watching the ballet The Nutcracker! So exciting!