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Back to uni
Jul. 15th, 2010 08:17 amGetting the hang on this 'studying' thing again. Even did some out of class study today. Main observation from my readings: Milton Keynes - fan of naked struggling/wrestling. Ideology vs ideologies lolwhut.
Possibly not productive, but given we HAVE to write a page of notes for each chapter we read, I figured it may as well be entertaining. I don't like making notes like that because it breaks the flow of my reading, and it really annoys me that this course is telling me how to study, like I'm to dumb to figure out my own strategy, but I'm a grownup. I'll cope
Anyway, courses. Italian same as ever, Spanish pretty similar, but with friends and a different teacher, International Relations interesting, if occasionally hard to follow, Political Science boring as fuck. And also the lecturer's a dumbarse. This is the course where they force us to conform to their study habits.
The course itself should be good, though, so I haven't quite given up hope.
I'm doing my normal well-meaning but crap job for Women's Group - today I was in charge of minding the stall we're running, but I didn't know how to set up or where any of our stuff was stored or anything, so I looked around a bit and asked a few people, then basically freaked out a little bit and went home. I do ok when I'm working with someone else, but by myself I just have no clue. Anyway, first meeting tomorrow, should be good. Also, we're starting a blog to which I'll be contributing, so when I start posting stuff, I'll link to it here.
Gareth asked me out tonight, which made me feel pretty awesome, not gunna lie. I told him I thought he should be on his own for a bit, but the odds were good that at some point I'd be willing to give it a go. I feel good for asserting myself :)
Possibly not productive, but given we HAVE to write a page of notes for each chapter we read, I figured it may as well be entertaining. I don't like making notes like that because it breaks the flow of my reading, and it really annoys me that this course is telling me how to study, like I'm to dumb to figure out my own strategy, but I'm a grownup. I'll cope
Anyway, courses. Italian same as ever, Spanish pretty similar, but with friends and a different teacher, International Relations interesting, if occasionally hard to follow, Political Science boring as fuck. And also the lecturer's a dumbarse. This is the course where they force us to conform to their study habits.
The course itself should be good, though, so I haven't quite given up hope.
I'm doing my normal well-meaning but crap job for Women's Group - today I was in charge of minding the stall we're running, but I didn't know how to set up or where any of our stuff was stored or anything, so I looked around a bit and asked a few people, then basically freaked out a little bit and went home. I do ok when I'm working with someone else, but by myself I just have no clue. Anyway, first meeting tomorrow, should be good. Also, we're starting a blog to which I'll be contributing, so when I start posting stuff, I'll link to it here.
Gareth asked me out tonight, which made me feel pretty awesome, not gunna lie. I told him I thought he should be on his own for a bit, but the odds were good that at some point I'd be willing to give it a go. I feel good for asserting myself :)
A) I overdid the tequila last night and can't remember about 80% of the night. Apparently I hooked up with two of Jessie's cute flatmate's friends. And I am wearing the cute flatmate's t-shirt.
B) Gareth and his girlfriend broke up
I do not know up from down at the moment. WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN WHEN I AM SO HUNGOVER
B) Gareth and his girlfriend broke up
I do not know up from down at the moment. WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN WHEN I AM SO HUNGOVER
(no subject)
Jun. 27th, 2010 08:46 am Had a pretty good week this week. High points:
- lots of hanging out with everyone in the Bennett Lounge. This is quite funny because I don't live in the Bennett building and nor do half of my friends, it just has the nicest lounge to hang out in. If only the TV got reception, it would be perfect.
- studied relatively a lot for my Spanish exam and pretty sure I kicked it's arse. Aiming for an A+, touch wood.
- I finally had a serious discussion with Gareth and we've come to the conclusion that he's not going to come up here until either he can keep it in his pants or he breaks up with his girlfriend. And I won't be going down to visit him either. This is slightly sad, but I feel good that we had this conversation like mature people (adults might be stretching it :P) and we still get on fine.
- I've been having mad skillz with the boys. I picked up a dude, Matias from Chile, on Weds. He then (much to my surprise) text me on Saturday, asking if he'd be seeing me in town. And he did, but not until I'd already got to know Josh from Welly and Santiago from Argentina. Both of whom actually text me today! This is so surprising I can't even tell you.
Next week's gunna be pretty strange - everyone's going away for the holidays and I'm basically the only one of my friends still here. So I guess I'll be getting to know all the other folk at Vic staying for the holidays. New friends! I hope!
- lots of hanging out with everyone in the Bennett Lounge. This is quite funny because I don't live in the Bennett building and nor do half of my friends, it just has the nicest lounge to hang out in. If only the TV got reception, it would be perfect.
- studied relatively a lot for my Spanish exam and pretty sure I kicked it's arse. Aiming for an A+, touch wood.
- I finally had a serious discussion with Gareth and we've come to the conclusion that he's not going to come up here until either he can keep it in his pants or he breaks up with his girlfriend. And I won't be going down to visit him either. This is slightly sad, but I feel good that we had this conversation like mature people (adults might be stretching it :P) and we still get on fine.
- I've been having mad skillz with the boys. I picked up a dude, Matias from Chile, on Weds. He then (much to my surprise) text me on Saturday, asking if he'd be seeing me in town. And he did, but not until I'd already got to know Josh from Welly and Santiago from Argentina. Both of whom actually text me today! This is so surprising I can't even tell you.
Next week's gunna be pretty strange - everyone's going away for the holidays and I'm basically the only one of my friends still here. So I guess I'll be getting to know all the other folk at Vic staying for the holidays. New friends! I hope!
I keep opening a post to write about what I've been up to, going to Christchurch and going to Dunedin and seeing Gareth again, then I just leave it open and don't write anything. Too much to say, I guess, and at the same time I don't know what to write.
Christchurch was really nice, though. I can at least write about that with a degree of coherency. I spent a lot of time relaxing at home with the fam and the ADORABLE new kittens, and caught up with all the major Chch friends too, which was cool. Mum and I went up to Hanmer for a night and just had a really nice indulgent time, eating out and going to the hot pools and getting massages. It was nice to spend some time with her just hanging out, all casual.
The whole Dunedin thing was a very spontaneous last minute decision, but it was really good. It was great going down there with Surin and her flatmates and being chill. I also saw Gareth again and Surin and I ended up staying at his place the night and that's where things get complicated.
Suffice to say that nothing's really changed between him and me, even though we said it would. Our platonic resolutions of platonicness lasted all of about two hours, and that was only cos we were at his mate's flat with a bunch of people.
Surin doesn't like him, which I think is interesting. I'm doing my best not to be all like, "But you just don't UNDERSTAND him!!1!!ELEVENTY!" but it's pretty hard. Certainly I know he can be a dick at times, but he also seriously isn't at times, and I dunno, I think I might be a tad biased :P So all in all, I still don't know what to think or do, or I do know but I'm not prepared to do it.
Le sigh.
Christchurch was really nice, though. I can at least write about that with a degree of coherency. I spent a lot of time relaxing at home with the fam and the ADORABLE new kittens, and caught up with all the major Chch friends too, which was cool. Mum and I went up to Hanmer for a night and just had a really nice indulgent time, eating out and going to the hot pools and getting massages. It was nice to spend some time with her just hanging out, all casual.
The whole Dunedin thing was a very spontaneous last minute decision, but it was really good. It was great going down there with Surin and her flatmates and being chill. I also saw Gareth again and Surin and I ended up staying at his place the night and that's where things get complicated.
Suffice to say that nothing's really changed between him and me, even though we said it would. Our platonic resolutions of platonicness lasted all of about two hours, and that was only cos we were at his mate's flat with a bunch of people.
Surin doesn't like him, which I think is interesting. I'm doing my best not to be all like, "But you just don't UNDERSTAND him!!1!!ELEVENTY!" but it's pretty hard. Certainly I know he can be a dick at times, but he also seriously isn't at times, and I dunno, I think I might be a tad biased :P So all in all, I still don't know what to think or do, or I do know but I'm not prepared to do it.
Le sigh.
We went, we saw bubbling mud, we played Wii Olympics! And also ate excellent food and soaked in the hot springs (mmm hotsprings).
We unfortunately didn't go raging all night cos Anam wasn't feeling 100%, but we had fun hanging out at the hostel with the other people there instead. FANTASTIC hostel; the staff were really awesome and there was really good free spag bol on Friday and free mudmasks as well.
So all in all, GREAT TIME, pity that the bus ride on the way home took about 15 years/10 hours. It was only supposed to be 7 and a bit, but... didn't quite pull that off. Very tedious.
Also, Palmerstone North is a complete hole and I advise wholeheartedly against going there.
Tomorrow I'm probably heading back to Christchurch for a couple of weeks, assuming my parents actually email me my flight information. Should be good! Looking forward to having a kitchen! And, you know, seeing my family and stuff.
Today has been a bit of a boring day. I was supposed to be meeting up with Paolo for a coffee and I had every intention of dragging him back to Vic and getting friendly, cos Chelsea's already gone home for the holidays, but he cancelled. His loss, I guess.
We unfortunately didn't go raging all night cos Anam wasn't feeling 100%, but we had fun hanging out at the hostel with the other people there instead. FANTASTIC hostel; the staff were really awesome and there was really good free spag bol on Friday and free mudmasks as well.
So all in all, GREAT TIME, pity that the bus ride on the way home took about 15 years/10 hours. It was only supposed to be 7 and a bit, but... didn't quite pull that off. Very tedious.
Also, Palmerstone North is a complete hole and I advise wholeheartedly against going there.
Tomorrow I'm probably heading back to Christchurch for a couple of weeks, assuming my parents actually email me my flight information. Should be good! Looking forward to having a kitchen! And, you know, seeing my family and stuff.
Today has been a bit of a boring day. I was supposed to be meeting up with Paolo for a coffee and I had every intention of dragging him back to Vic and getting friendly, cos Chelsea's already gone home for the holidays, but he cancelled. His loss, I guess.
Got back yesterday from AFS camp and went straight to bed. Surfaced briefly for roast chicken, then went back to sleep.
Camp was really good, great even. I wasn't sure how it was going to be - whether the other volunteers would accept me for being so young and being so freshly back, whether the students would accept me bossing them around when half of them are older than I am - but I was surprised about how positively everything turned out. I didn't have quite the responsibilities of the other AFS co-ordinators, but I still helped them out, and helped the students in other ways, too.
There was one other returnee, Gareth, who's twenty and went to Paraguay in 07, and he really made the camp for me, to be honest. The students were great, especially some of them, and the co-ordinators weren't bad, but Gareth was the one I had the most in common with and we spent most of camp hanging out together.
The kids were cool; most of them were very friendly and interested in the activities we were getting them to do. This was End-Of-Stay camp for most of them, and it was interesting how much lighter their camp was than my end of stay. We just spent our whole time crying and holding each other, but these guys were just laughing and chilling out and stuff. I don't really feel like we did enough exercises to help prepare them for going back - or they wouldn't have been so cheerful :P - but I talked to quite a few of them one-on-one, just to share some of my experiences and hopefully give them a better idea about what they were coming back to.
Some of the activities we did were pretty stupid, one or two so dull it left even the volunteers WTFing, but there was no one totally above it all, thank god. And there was plenty of time left for the kids to hang out, which was basically all they wanted to do anyway. On Saturday night, most of them didn't go to bed at all, and I swear, those South American girls are like NOTHING ELSE. One of them danced from about 11 to 6 in the morning. I absolutely do not know how she got the energy.
Oh, and when I say <i>they</i> didn't go to bed, I actually mean <i>we</i> didn't go to bed. All the co-ordinators had to be reasonably well rested to drive back home on Sunday, so Gareth and I stayed up all night to make sure no one set fire to things or got pregnant etc etc. As far as I'm aware, none of that happened, but honestly, I wasn't following people going out for 'walks' just to make sure. No one even brought out alcohol, which is a bummer, because Gareth and I had planned to confiscate any booze presented and drink it ourselves, but it was not to be.
Oh yeah, and Gareth. Heh.
That is not a guilty heh, by the way. That is a just-as-well-someone-interrupted-us-before-we-did-something-stupid heh. Not saying that we would have, just that we certainly could have. We hit it off really well, so we were hanging out all the time and then went for a walk last night and I was hitting on his knee and we were chatting and he kept shoving his FREEZING nose into my neck and stuff, and... well, it wasn't an issue because then Charles, another of the volunteers came up to make sure we weren't students sneaking off to get drunk and it was all cool. Then after a while we went back inside cos it was bloody freezing, and we sat on the couch together and cuddled up and chatted.
He's got a girlfriend, and I - yeah, that's right, I have a boyfriend (for the first time in like, a century). It wasn't a big deal, we didn't do anything sexual, but you do get the feeling that had we not had partners, or had we been drunk, we would have gotten involved. I think he actually did try kiss me a couple of times, but I kinda turned my face away and just carried on with the conversation, so no biggy. He's invited me down to Dunedin (where he lives, btw) for his 21st, which is the week after mine (18 yay!) and I invited him up to mine. If we keep in touch I fully intend to go down there for it.
So yeah, we're friends. We've been texting each other more or less since we got back into cell phone reception, chatting about this and that. He's cool, and we do really get on very well, so I'm happy to leave it at that, at least for now. As for the future? Well, I'll figure that out when I get there. Plus, he lives in DUNEDIN, ew.
And I'm going to hang out with Thabo tomorrow, yay!
Camp was really good, great even. I wasn't sure how it was going to be - whether the other volunteers would accept me for being so young and being so freshly back, whether the students would accept me bossing them around when half of them are older than I am - but I was surprised about how positively everything turned out. I didn't have quite the responsibilities of the other AFS co-ordinators, but I still helped them out, and helped the students in other ways, too.
There was one other returnee, Gareth, who's twenty and went to Paraguay in 07, and he really made the camp for me, to be honest. The students were great, especially some of them, and the co-ordinators weren't bad, but Gareth was the one I had the most in common with and we spent most of camp hanging out together.
The kids were cool; most of them were very friendly and interested in the activities we were getting them to do. This was End-Of-Stay camp for most of them, and it was interesting how much lighter their camp was than my end of stay. We just spent our whole time crying and holding each other, but these guys were just laughing and chilling out and stuff. I don't really feel like we did enough exercises to help prepare them for going back - or they wouldn't have been so cheerful :P - but I talked to quite a few of them one-on-one, just to share some of my experiences and hopefully give them a better idea about what they were coming back to.
Some of the activities we did were pretty stupid, one or two so dull it left even the volunteers WTFing, but there was no one totally above it all, thank god. And there was plenty of time left for the kids to hang out, which was basically all they wanted to do anyway. On Saturday night, most of them didn't go to bed at all, and I swear, those South American girls are like NOTHING ELSE. One of them danced from about 11 to 6 in the morning. I absolutely do not know how she got the energy.
Oh, and when I say <i>they</i> didn't go to bed, I actually mean <i>we</i> didn't go to bed. All the co-ordinators had to be reasonably well rested to drive back home on Sunday, so Gareth and I stayed up all night to make sure no one set fire to things or got pregnant etc etc. As far as I'm aware, none of that happened, but honestly, I wasn't following people going out for 'walks' just to make sure. No one even brought out alcohol, which is a bummer, because Gareth and I had planned to confiscate any booze presented and drink it ourselves, but it was not to be.
Oh yeah, and Gareth. Heh.
That is not a guilty heh, by the way. That is a just-as-well-someone-interrupted-us-before-we-did-something-stupid heh. Not saying that we would have, just that we certainly could have. We hit it off really well, so we were hanging out all the time and then went for a walk last night and I was hitting on his knee and we were chatting and he kept shoving his FREEZING nose into my neck and stuff, and... well, it wasn't an issue because then Charles, another of the volunteers came up to make sure we weren't students sneaking off to get drunk and it was all cool. Then after a while we went back inside cos it was bloody freezing, and we sat on the couch together and cuddled up and chatted.
He's got a girlfriend, and I - yeah, that's right, I have a boyfriend (for the first time in like, a century). It wasn't a big deal, we didn't do anything sexual, but you do get the feeling that had we not had partners, or had we been drunk, we would have gotten involved. I think he actually did try kiss me a couple of times, but I kinda turned my face away and just carried on with the conversation, so no biggy. He's invited me down to Dunedin (where he lives, btw) for his 21st, which is the week after mine (18 yay!) and I invited him up to mine. If we keep in touch I fully intend to go down there for it.
So yeah, we're friends. We've been texting each other more or less since we got back into cell phone reception, chatting about this and that. He's cool, and we do really get on very well, so I'm happy to leave it at that, at least for now. As for the future? Well, I'll figure that out when I get there. Plus, he lives in DUNEDIN, ew.
And I'm going to hang out with Thabo tomorrow, yay!
Nano, A&P, AOA (and other acronyms)
Nov. 14th, 2009 03:57 pmRight. First thing first. I'm getting pretty slack about writing my Nano, and haven't been writing 2k a day, but I think I'm still more or less where I should be, and I plan to have hit the halfway mark by tonight or tomorrow (it should be tonight, but I'm going out and I'll probably be too tired to write then). My character has just undergone a very messy breakup, and hopped on a plane to Italy.
I think from here on is the easy bit; mostly it'll just be an amalgamation of my memories and what-could-have-beens, and there's oodles of describing stuff to do, which will just eat up that pesky word count.
In life stuff, I went to the A&P show, which is like THE event in my city, with a guy I met at Hadee's party last Saturday. We had a really good time and we get on really well, and I accidentally stole his phone, but we're going to a movie together tonight so I'll give it back then. I feel a bit like Alannah, actually; a whole date and we haven't even made out! We've barely held hands! But then I did a fortune-telling app on Facebook and it said, "You will receive the kiss you've been waiting for," except in Italian, so that's made me pretty cheerful.
Not that I believe in that stuff.
Though I totally do.
Anyway, I think that's all of interest to add here. Will update later with news of my date, and see whether my Facebook a[[ is right!
I think from here on is the easy bit; mostly it'll just be an amalgamation of my memories and what-could-have-beens, and there's oodles of describing stuff to do, which will just eat up that pesky word count.
In life stuff, I went to the A&P show, which is like THE event in my city, with a guy I met at Hadee's party last Saturday. We had a really good time and we get on really well, and I accidentally stole his phone, but we're going to a movie together tonight so I'll give it back then. I feel a bit like Alannah, actually; a whole date and we haven't even made out! We've barely held hands! But then I did a fortune-telling app on Facebook and it said, "You will receive the kiss you've been waiting for," except in Italian, so that's made me pretty cheerful.
Not that I believe in that stuff.
Though I totally do.
Anyway, I think that's all of interest to add here. Will update later with news of my date, and see whether my Facebook a[[ is right!
*yawn* Hectic Week
Jun. 13th, 2009 10:36 amWell, I've had a very busy week. Except for yesterday, when I did almost nothing. Out of seven nights, five of them have not been slept in my own bed.
Saturday: Went out for dinner with Christopher and Claudia, who are Cantabrians but came over for the Bienalle cos he was covering it in the Press, then went to Ben's house. There were a bunch of people over to watch the soccer (Ben, Ale, Elvira though she went home to sleep, Pablo, Manuel, Oscar, Eirik, Rocco, other Italian guy, an me). Great fun, and I think I mentioned it in another post, but I did hook up with Ben again.
Sunday: Ming's birthday party, then after that the Mogliano Rugby Club end of season do. That night I did sleep at home, but I slept in Davide's bed because he wasn't there and I couldn't be bothered shifting all the crap off my bed.
Monday: Lauren's school formal, which was really fun. Ok, the formal itself wasn't, because the music was rubbish and I didn't know all that many people, but getting dressed up was fun. I looked HOT.
Tuesday: Last day of school. There was a big party and I ended up sleeping on the floor because all our beds were taken, and given both Lauren and Charlotte had been throwing up EVERYTHING, I didn't wanna take a chance and sleep with them.
Wednesday: Party at Irene's (a friend of Elvira's). Lots of fun and I met a whole bunch of people from Elvira's school, who all seem much more sympathetic than those from my school. I ended up sleeping on the floor AGAIN, but at least there was an airmattress that time. And I was sandwiched between Ben (who I think must have been traumatised from some of the drama earlier in the evening (it wasn't important, but it was very dramatic), so he didn't even 'accidently' feel me up) and Charlotte, who spent most of the night making out with Irene.
Thursday: Half the AFSers from the Triveneto came to Venice for the day which was awesome, so even despite being more or less comatose after the less than excellent sleep I'd been gtting lately, I went and socialised and saw all my friends again, some of them for the last time *sniff*. On the other hand, went to bed in my own bed and slept for thirteen hours (about the same amount as Mon, Tues and Weds put together)! Yay sleep!
Friday: Did very, very little all day. Read my first book ALL MONTH. Made a pavlova and also brownies. Then in the evening I went out to eat pizza with my class, which was fun. It got a bit sad at the end when they gave me an Italian book and some photos of us together and I had to say goodbye to everyone, but still fun.
Saturday (today): Have yet to do anything of particular, but there's the AFS potluck lunch, and after that I'll probably go out with the AFSers in the evening. It's a little sad, because it really feels like Andrea should be here, but he's off doing stupid stuff with stupid other AFSers in stupid Toscana. *pout*
Saturday: Went out for dinner with Christopher and Claudia, who are Cantabrians but came over for the Bienalle cos he was covering it in the Press, then went to Ben's house. There were a bunch of people over to watch the soccer (Ben, Ale, Elvira though she went home to sleep, Pablo, Manuel, Oscar, Eirik, Rocco, other Italian guy, an me). Great fun, and I think I mentioned it in another post, but I did hook up with Ben again.
Sunday: Ming's birthday party, then after that the Mogliano Rugby Club end of season do. That night I did sleep at home, but I slept in Davide's bed because he wasn't there and I couldn't be bothered shifting all the crap off my bed.
Monday: Lauren's school formal, which was really fun. Ok, the formal itself wasn't, because the music was rubbish and I didn't know all that many people, but getting dressed up was fun. I looked HOT.
Tuesday: Last day of school. There was a big party and I ended up sleeping on the floor because all our beds were taken, and given both Lauren and Charlotte had been throwing up EVERYTHING, I didn't wanna take a chance and sleep with them.
Wednesday: Party at Irene's (a friend of Elvira's). Lots of fun and I met a whole bunch of people from Elvira's school, who all seem much more sympathetic than those from my school. I ended up sleeping on the floor AGAIN, but at least there was an airmattress that time. And I was sandwiched between Ben (who I think must have been traumatised from some of the drama earlier in the evening (it wasn't important, but it was very dramatic), so he didn't even 'accidently' feel me up) and Charlotte, who spent most of the night making out with Irene.
Thursday: Half the AFSers from the Triveneto came to Venice for the day which was awesome, so even despite being more or less comatose after the less than excellent sleep I'd been gtting lately, I went and socialised and saw all my friends again, some of them for the last time *sniff*. On the other hand, went to bed in my own bed and slept for thirteen hours (about the same amount as Mon, Tues and Weds put together)! Yay sleep!
Friday: Did very, very little all day. Read my first book ALL MONTH. Made a pavlova and also brownies. Then in the evening I went out to eat pizza with my class, which was fun. It got a bit sad at the end when they gave me an Italian book and some photos of us together and I had to say goodbye to everyone, but still fun.
Saturday (today): Have yet to do anything of particular, but there's the AFS potluck lunch, and after that I'll probably go out with the AFSers in the evening. It's a little sad, because it really feels like Andrea should be here, but he's off doing stupid stuff with stupid other AFSers in stupid Toscana. *pout*
I went to the opera today, which was fun! We went to see Madama Butterfly at La Fenice, which is big and famous and beautiful and costs an absolute bomb - I went through school, so it was €6 instead of €100.
I was really excited about it, because I fail at reading and I thought we were going in the evening, where everyone gets up POSH and it is SWISH and I could've worn a pretty dress and my orange high heels. However, I'd misread the sheet, and it was actually just the matinee, which is a lot lower key. Luckily I noticed in time, or I would've shown up at nine going, 'Hang on, where is everyone?'
But so we went, and it was cool. It would've been a lot cooler had we had decent seats, because ours were CRAP. We were up high in the gallery, right beside the stage, directly above the orchestra, and there were lights hanging over our window, blocking what little view we had. I stayed there about five minutes before realising I'd miss the whole bloody thing if I didn't move, so I then roved a bit, and accidentally invaded the box of a bunch of guys from the navy, which was pretty amusing.
I thought that box was empty (actually, it was the one next door), so I barged on in and was suddenly surrounded with guys in shirts and ties and sailor hats going o.O I was kinda like, 'Scusate, wrong room, I'm going now!' and tried to back out, and they went all gallant, 'No, no, sit here, take my seat etc etc'
And then another girl from my class came barging in behind me, slammed into the back of me, I nearly toppled into the nearest sailor's lap, then me and Eny both went bright red and ran out of the box again. One of the guys waved at me later on, when I was back in my own box watching the orchestra, but that's about as interesting as things got, social wise.
The opera itself, what little I managed to see, was really funky. The very modern staging was a bit dischordant with the very very old-style Fenice, but in and out of itself did a good job of conveying different spaces in a very minimalist way, and they used lots of funky lights and transparent screens to create a faux-Jappanesey feel.
Of course, the whole thing was so very faux Jappanese it made me cringe at points with the cultural imperialism, but I keep telling myself it was written in a different age, and I'm pretty sure Puccini had never been to Japan, so he was working off the very general stereotypes he knew (lets hope, anyway).
But even the lame setting aspects aside, the music was AMAZING. The singers were really good, especially Butterfly, but it was the music that was really really stunning. I'm going to try and track down the CD when I get back to Christchurch and shock Alannah by listening to classical music, because it's just so pretty.
Operas probably won't ever be my absolute favourite style of theatre, but I have to admit they have a certain sweeping grandeur to them, and the style of singing is actually quite cool once you've got used to it. Plus, because I've said such good things about the ones I've been to, Giulio (my host dad) has promised to take me to an opera at the open air Arena in Verona, which would be the coolest thing ever. If there are still tickets left, I'm voting for Carmen, which I think is another Puccini.
Yay for opera!
I was really excited about it, because I fail at reading and I thought we were going in the evening, where everyone gets up POSH and it is SWISH and I could've worn a pretty dress and my orange high heels. However, I'd misread the sheet, and it was actually just the matinee, which is a lot lower key. Luckily I noticed in time, or I would've shown up at nine going, 'Hang on, where is everyone?'
But so we went, and it was cool. It would've been a lot cooler had we had decent seats, because ours were CRAP. We were up high in the gallery, right beside the stage, directly above the orchestra, and there were lights hanging over our window, blocking what little view we had. I stayed there about five minutes before realising I'd miss the whole bloody thing if I didn't move, so I then roved a bit, and accidentally invaded the box of a bunch of guys from the navy, which was pretty amusing.
I thought that box was empty (actually, it was the one next door), so I barged on in and was suddenly surrounded with guys in shirts and ties and sailor hats going o.O I was kinda like, 'Scusate, wrong room, I'm going now!' and tried to back out, and they went all gallant, 'No, no, sit here, take my seat etc etc'
And then another girl from my class came barging in behind me, slammed into the back of me, I nearly toppled into the nearest sailor's lap, then me and Eny both went bright red and ran out of the box again. One of the guys waved at me later on, when I was back in my own box watching the orchestra, but that's about as interesting as things got, social wise.
The opera itself, what little I managed to see, was really funky. The very modern staging was a bit dischordant with the very very old-style Fenice, but in and out of itself did a good job of conveying different spaces in a very minimalist way, and they used lots of funky lights and transparent screens to create a faux-Jappanesey feel.
Of course, the whole thing was so very faux Jappanese it made me cringe at points with the cultural imperialism, but I keep telling myself it was written in a different age, and I'm pretty sure Puccini had never been to Japan, so he was working off the very general stereotypes he knew (lets hope, anyway).
But even the lame setting aspects aside, the music was AMAZING. The singers were really good, especially Butterfly, but it was the music that was really really stunning. I'm going to try and track down the CD when I get back to Christchurch and shock Alannah by listening to classical music, because it's just so pretty.
Operas probably won't ever be my absolute favourite style of theatre, but I have to admit they have a certain sweeping grandeur to them, and the style of singing is actually quite cool once you've got used to it. Plus, because I've said such good things about the ones I've been to, Giulio (my host dad) has promised to take me to an opera at the open air Arena in Verona, which would be the coolest thing ever. If there are still tickets left, I'm voting for Carmen, which I think is another Puccini.
Yay for opera!
