Oh those hostels...

So this past week I had planned almost a perfect weekend of operas.  Turandot at La Scala, Rigoletto and La Traviata in Torino, and then a matinée of Barber of Seville in Parma.  However, after much stress and disappointing seats at La Scala, I was feeling off about doing the rest of the trip (I couldn't see the stage whilst sitting and could barely see half of it while standing).  Then what reeeeeally sold me on cancelling the trip was returning to the hostel where I'd locked up my bags,  to find my bags outside of the closed locker, the lock rented from the hostel gone, and my suit jacket and scarf on my bed.

I immediately searched my stuff and everything seemed to be there.  I told the people at the front desk and they just laughed and said, "oh, another one.  Just check your stuff to make sure nothing is missing."  Hmmm...doesn't seem very helpful.  I checked it all and the only thing I found missing was the charge cable for my computer, but then I found it later in the floor under some other bags.  Even my computer was untouched.

I began checking my keys with similar looking locks on the lockers and, surprise surprise, I could unlock them!  A roommate woke up and we started talking.  Apparently everyone's stuff had gone missing but they eventually found it all thrown under beds.  But someone was missing a journal, a girl was missing her iPod, my roommate was missing an iPod cable (which made me double check and find that I was missing one as well, never to be found), and worst of all, some guy was missing his passport.  Thankfully I'd doubted leaving all my stuff in the locker and took my passport, iPod, and camera with me.  Full pockets and awkward walking, but worth it in the long run.  I was a bit freaked out and talked to the guys in the room, talked to people back home, and got a little calmer.  However, I slept with my bags in my bed and woke up early the next morning and got out.

I turned in the keys for the lock to the new attendants at the front desk and explained to them that I no longer had the lock because it, along with some other things, had been stolen.  They were completely shocked and couldn't believe it.  Apparently thefts aren't reported at all, and thus not told to other people working at the hostel.  There was a young guy and a young girl working the desk and a middle age guy doing other things.  The young guy said it was impossible to open the other locks with the keys.  He even tried it, but obviously not hard enough.  The older guy took random keys and began unlocking all the other locks easily.  They of course didn't know what to do or tell me.  I told them that thankfully the only thing stolen from me was an iPod cable, but that some people had lost iPods and passports.  So, they offered to reimburse me for the lock rental and asked how much the cable cost.  I looked it up on the Internet and found the most expensive one I could, which was $20, so they gave me 20 euros.  Of course it was really just 15 after the return deposit of the lock which was 5 euros, but they were going to be having a lot more trouble as other people woke up and began checking out, so I just let it be.

Once I left I went to the train station to go to Torino.  Torino was lovely, but I just couldn't make myself stay in another hostel, so as soon as I got there I purchased my ticket back to Florence on a train leaving at 17:57.  This ticket did not guarantee me a seat though....

So, I put the ticket in my bag, paid to have my bags locked up at the train station, went to tourist info and said, "Okay, I have about 5 hours, maybe 6.  What do I do?"  They gave me a map, highlighted my course, and I was on my way.  I did the whole thing, plus lunch, in about 2 1/2 hours.  Granted, I was moving fast, but I was in contact with people in Florence through texting and wanted to make it back for some events I had been invited to and originally said I couldn't make.  So I went back to the station and had to pay to get my bags so I could get my ticket and try to exchange it for an earlier time.  So now I had my two bags and when I asked about changing the ticket they said it wasn't possible.  I even asked about the tickets that didn't guarantee seats, but they said I couldn't even get one of those.

So now I was stuck with ~3 hours to kill.  But with two heavy bags and a hot day, I decided not to stress myself more.  So, seeing as there was a lovely little park and a pond in front of the train station, I laid out in the grass and got some reading accomplished.  Even took a little nap.

So, got on my train, had a seat until the first stop in Milan.  Even had Internet for half an hour!  Then a lot of people got on in Milan.  And then we were told there was a technical issue and there was a 20 minute delay.  Great.

Then it just kept getting later, and we had to switch trains, and the train was apparently smaller or numbered differently, thus people were arguing over seats and stuff.  Also, instead of just sitting and waiting, Italians were arguing with the staff about why the train wasn't going anywhere and thus slowing them down more and making us all more miserable.  As if complaining and asking questions will make us move faster.  And then we had to load up the food for the on train restaurant, which was actually done extremely fast.  So props to them on that.  All in all, we ended up a full hour behind schedule.  The second stop in Bologna was super short, thankfully.  Between Bologna and Florence a snack cart came by with free goodies due to our delay.  However, a bag of pretzels and a cup of water/juice/soda does not compensate for an hour long delay on a 68 euro train ticket.

I finally got back to Florence, met one friend, but it was late.  So I went home, dropped my bags, took a 2 minute shower (because the shower at the hostel that morning consisted of a shower in which you pressed a button and cold water sprayed on you for about 5 seconds then shut off, thus I did not feel clean).  I rushed down to the aperitivo close by to say hi to my friends, but most were already gone and there was no food, so I didn't stay long then went to get food elsewhere.

So, lousy day.  But, we learn from our mistakes!  The next day I met with friends and spent several hours laying in the sun at a park.  Ended up being a lovely day.  So now, I should probably finish this paper that's due on Tuesday!

Buona pasqua a tutti!

Rotarians and Royalty

Okay, so my adventures in blogging have kind of failed.  But hey, I never kept a journal as a kid either, and I've only sort of kept one during my travels here.  I guess I just don't like writing.

Anyway, not too much has been going on for me, but this week I did meet the princess of Jordan!  However, I hear princess and think of Jasmin, but I think she was in her 60's or 70's.  I believe she is currently the ambassador of Jordan in Rome, but I'm not completely positive.  She was very nice and spoke a lot about womens' rights in the Islamic world, and it was quite interesting.  She was very strong about not pushing beliefs onto others, so as to allow everyone to have their own minds and own opinions.

me and H.R.H. Princess Wijdan F. Al-Hashemi

It's finally gorgeous and sunny most days here in Florence, which really lifts my spirits.  It will make it really hard to leave.  I know I'll miss Italy somewhat, but I'll really miss the Italian friends I've made here, and getting to speak multiple languages on a daily basis.  However, I do miss having my own car, and my bike.  Man, do I miss having my bike.  I have one lent to me, very kindly, by a Rotarian here, but it's no where near the same.  I also miss having some source of income.  Here, I have nothing.  The scholarship is great, but I'm constantly worried about my fixed budget instead of having a regular incoming check.  Also, I miss my own clothes.  I mean, I have clothes here, but I've been living in Europe since the second week of July, so I've basically only had what I could pack in a suitcase for almost a year now.  So very little variety.  But, other than my fantastic friends and speaking other languages, I will definitely miss the food.  Not just Italian food because I can't eat out very often, but the freshness and quality of everything here, along with how cheap it is.  Vegetables and fruits are extremely cheap and most of my meals have become vegetarian because it's just plain cheaper to eat that way, and it tastes great.

So far as my Italian goes, it's gotten much better of course, but I still do make mistakes.  I've started reading a short Italian novel and I'm underlining all the conjugated verbs in one color and the words I don't know in another.  I'm underlining the verbs so that I really pay attention to all the different conjugations and exactly what the author is saying.  I thought about trying to label all of them with what tense they were in, but I think that would be far too much like actual homework.  And I've also sort of stopped my Italian language work, partially because I'm not in any classes for Italian this semester, and I've started working on the Tuscan/Florentine dialect.  I bought a book called Vohabolario which is the Tuscan dialect spelling of "Vocabolario" or vocabulary.  It's very interesting, and of course all in Italian, so it's forcing me to work really hard.  Now I just need to find one for Neopolitain dialect!

my new Italian book

Okay, that's it for now I think.  I couldn't find the pics I've taken of sunny Florence on my iPod, so until I figure that out, a picture of our puppy that is no longer a puppy.

Београд, Србија!!!!!

                I will now share with you the events of one of the most amazing weekends of my life.  It took place in Belgrade, Serbia (Београд, Србија).  I just finished with the Rotaract European Meeting (REM) for 2011.  This meeting happens every year for Rotaracters in Europe, but it’s always in a different city.  Since I am living in Italy as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, I was given the opportunity to go, even though I only heard about it the week before the meeting.  Nothing too official actually took place, which was really nice in a way.  Countries sent representatives to be more official and go to meetings and discuss upcoming plans and things to do for the year, I assume, while the rest of us met others from all over the world and made amazing friends and toured the capital of Serbia.  And how many Americans really get a chance to come to Serbia??

               

                So anyway, when I first arrived in Belgrade, I was met by very friendly Rotaracters and natives of Belgrade.  Everyone was extremely friendly and helpful.  One of them, Lazar, gave me a ride with some “future” German friends to my hotel and then later that same night took us for a small tour of the city and also to an authentic Serbian dinner, which was fantastic. I say “future” friends because, as is often the case with the wonderful connections you make through Rotary or Rotaract, he did not know these two guys before they arrived, but knew someone from their club in Germany who had previously lived in Belgrade and been a friend of his, and thus the connection was made to give them a ride and also a tour around the city.  Quite amazing in my opinion.  Before the dinner I went downstairs because I was starving and wanted to get something from the café.  I began to sit by myself and noticed another guy by himself who had on the same name badge for REM as me.  So we started talking and I joined him.  We were both waiting for dinner basically, but still starving, so we split a pizza.  Thijs is from Amsterdam and after my recent travels through there I was very excited to talk about that.

                After my dinner with the Germans, Florian and Franz, and Lazar and lots of socializing we went to Serbian New Year’s because in Serbia they follow the Julian calendar due to the Orthodox church and their new year is later!  We were at a very loud club on a lake and it was a pretty fun first night.  Somehow though, I came all the way to Serbia, to a program with people from all over Europe, who all speak English, and I still spent most of my night with Italians and speaking in Italian.  But it was fun!  And of course this was just the start of me being introduced to people as being from the United States and getting responses such as, “What are you doing here?  This is the European meeting!” or “Wow!  What a long trip!” or “What…?”  I was acting as not just a representative of the United States but also for Florence because no one I knew from any of the clubs I attend was at the REM.  (Edit:  I met the one other person from Florence in the Florence airport when we got back.  Pretty funny!)

                For the second day we did some touring around the city.  I saw a big fortress famous around the city and took lots of pics, but eventually just sat around with my new Italian friends from Milan and Como and got to know each other, which was fantastic.  I’ve made several great new friends from the Milan area:  Fabio, Enea, and Francesca.  There were a lot of Italians who were all great as well, but I didn’t spend quite as much time with them and there are too many to name here!  When we went to lunch we met a guy, Selim,  and a girl, Vera, from Lebanon.  They ended up being great friends.  Throughout the whole REM one of the most fun things to do was sit at tables with mixed countries.  The Italians would talk in Italian and then I would speak with them, or translate for our new friends.  Or we would all speak in English.  Or our friends from Lebanon would speak in Lebanese together.

                After this lunch we went directly outside for a Bohemian Street Festival put on by the Serbian Rotaract clubs.  They all had projects and were trying to win a competition of our votes so that they could get all the money raised that day buy the rest of us buying tickets and then using them to essentially buy things from the clubs, usually different foods or a local alcohol.  After this I went back to the hotel with some friends and took a nap because we had another big party coming up!

                This was a “Red Hot Winter” party, so the majority of us wore red things.  The crazy thing this time was that though our buses had been showing up 30 or 40 minutes late, the one this night showed up and left 30 minutes early, so we had to take a cab.  So I was talking to Vera, who was talking to a friend of hers, Elyes from Tunisia, and then a guy from Germany (Munich to be exact), Florian (different from the other one I met), came over to tell us that we had to take cabs.  So the four of us hopped into a cab together, and THEN officially met.  So of course when we got to the restaurant we all sat together.  It was so much fun.  Florian and I were instant friends.  After we had finished our meal another friend of his from Munich, Heidi, came to join us.  Once we all finished our drinks we headed out to walk to the party for the night.  Along the way I would say random phrases or single word answers in German, which almost got me into trouble because they began thinking that I knew more German than I actually do!  Once again, an amazing time partying with new friends and meeting even more.  Of course the problem is that I would meet so many people at these parties, but it was too loud usually to hear someone’s name, especially if it’s a very foreign name.  But of course we always see each other at some point the next day and say hi again and get reacquainted.

                Thus concludes the second day.  My third and last full day and night was probably the most amazing, aside from being rained on without having an umbrella.  The day was spent walking around the center city of Belgrade, but the really fun thing was the people I spent it with.  I teamed up again with Selim and Vera, and met a new friend named Housni from Morocco.  Then we found Fabio and Enea and a few new Italian friends.  So I was hoping between these two groups of friends for the whole tour, spending more time talking than listening to our guide.  New friends!  More important!  Well, Housni’s English wasn’t great he said, so some things Vera would have to say in Arabic to him.  But I thought about the way his speech sounded and my knowledge of the Francophone world, and low and behold he speaks French!  So, he and I would speak in French, he and Vera in Arabic, Vera and I would speak in English, and when Selim showed up he just won because he spoke all of them.  And then Fabio joined our group and I had to translate between French and Italian a few times, which is always fun.

                The group then split up for lunch and I ate with two Italians, Fabio and Matteo, and a guy from the Serbian Rotaract.  So we were hopping between Italian and English.  After this there was a special event to plant Christmas trees for a Christmas tree forest in front of the former president’s building.  It’s to beautify and unify the city a bit, and to have people from all over the world planting these trees and donating money was really special.  I purchased a tree and planted it in the name of the Jonesboro Rotary Club.  Oh, and I also got to meet Miss Serbia and have my picture taken with her.  On my way to this project I began talking to a girl I had previously met on another bus ride who is from Slovenia.  I can’t remember her name right now, sadly.  But I sat on the bus with her and two of her friends from Slovenia and another from Croatia.  We had a good time talking about what I’m doing in Europe and being an opera singer.

                After planting the trees, it was a bus ride back to the hotel to get ready for the final gala dinner.  I sat with Fabio, Dunja (one of the Begrade Rotaracters who was organizing almost everything), and Maria, a wonderful Greek girl.  After getting back to the hotel I went to hang out with Maria and her Greek friends and they were some of the coolest people I’ve ever met!  I have never really met Greeks or even heard the language spoken.  It sounded nothing like I’d expected.   They were having a small dinner and shared some pizza and what not with me.  The more we talked the more fun we had and I decided that for my last night, instead of sitting with Italians, whom I love but live only about an hour away from me in Italy, I would hang out with the Greeks!  They were so much fun.  Though when they speak to each other, well, it’s all Greek to me.  But they were very hospitable and interested in what I was doing and open about their culture and lives.  We laughed and joked all night long.  I told them that I’d already looked up flights to Greece and it looks like it would average around 70 Euros round trip.  The last night was definitely the best party because we were at a big hotel with a huge ballroom and a live band, so you could actually move around, so of course I danced everywhere.  I was hopping between dancing with the Greeks, Italians, and Germans all night long.  If one group slowed down or wanted to get more drinks I’d just go find my other group and dance with them.  In the process I met people from Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Austria, and some others that I can’t even remember.

                It was an amazing night, and a truly amazing experience overall.  Now on my list of places to visit in Europe before I go home, and also where I’ve been offered a place to sleep for free, I have Munich, Milan, Greece, Lebanon, Serbia, Morocco, and Amsterdam.  Now, to start looking at some flights!  But really, an enormous thank you to Jonesboro Rotary Club and Dr. Bob Warner who helped make this weekend in Serbia possible for me.  I’ve acquired a few more banners and sent some out to other clubs.  I know that the club in Lebanon now has their first banner ever from the United States of America.  Rotary truly is an amazing thing.

Serbia!

I'M IN BELGRADE, SERBIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

more news to come later.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone!  New year's in Florence was pretty cool.  Lots of music, people, and fireworks.

So, I've needed to post for a while, especially about my travels to and from the United States.  Well, to start off, the Friday before I was supposed to leave on Sunday had the most snow that Florence had seen in something like 24 years--about 5 inches.  Of course everyone here was sooooo happy to see snow, but after living in Pittsburgh for four years I knew how much it could suck when it snows.  And of course flights were cancelled.  Even the buses just pulled over on the sides of the roads and quit running.  The entire airport shut down Friday and didn't reopen until 5 p.m. the next day, and that was mostly just to rebook flights.  My plan Saturday night was just to stay up all night and sleep on my flight across the Atlantic because I had to be at the airport by like 5 a.m. anyway, which also meant getting a cab at around 4:30 a.m.

Due to the snow, the cabs wouldn't book a ride ahead of time, so that sucked.  Then I kept checking the airports all night and around 2 a.m. my flight had been cancelled.  Luckily, I got in touch with my mom and she called the airline and found a new flight for me, but as soon as she booked it (or maybe before) the flight was cancelled.  But no matter what I needed to go to the airport to rebook.  Around 3 or 3:30 I started calling to book a cab, but they kept saying that I couldn't book ahead of time because they wouldn't know who would be available.  Well, that's why I wanted to book ahead of time!  So around 4 I just started telling them I wanted a cab right then.  Well, at that point they just kept telling me that no one was available and hanging up.  So I couldn't even get information on what I should do to try and make it to my flight!  They really didn't care.

So, I got my stuff together, bundled up, and started walking.  I didn't go very far until I found some other Americans my age and asked them if they were waiting on a cab.  They were waiting on a shuttle to the train station where they would try to get a cab.  So we stood and talked while I kept calling cabs.  I finally got one and when he showed up I asked if they wanted to go with me.  They were two girls with 8 or 10 bags; one of their friends wasn't there at the moment.  I told them they were welcome to join me in the cab, or they could stay and wait on the shuttle, but I was leaving then.  So one hopped in with me and we went to the airport.  The cab driver was really nice and we talked quite a bit.  Luckily it only cost me 15 euros since I had someone to split the cab with.

So, at the airport my flight was of course cancelled, so I just went and got into line.  For the first hour or so I just stood in line by myself.  I didn't even have headphones for my iPod.  Then a friend showed up in the back of the line and we talked off and on and tried to figure out the system.  For the last hour and a half or so I made some friends that had actually been at the same school as me this whole semester!  After they had stood in line as long as I had the guy told them that they could have just gone to the check-in counter and taken care of everything.  So they left and when I got up to the counter they told me that I could get on another flight later the same night to go to Amsterdam, then fly directly to Memphis the next day.  It was a a much better plan than staying in Florence because Florence doesn't have any airlines that cross the Atlantic.

Oh, funny story right before I got my flight.  I was next in line and a friend behind me said, "You're almost there!" or something and I said, "Yeah, except for this guy that just kinda magically appeared in front of me..." and a few people understood me and the whole line behind me started yelling at him that he couldn't cut.  It was fantastic.  It was really cool that the entire time I was there the mood was just sort of, "Hey, we're all screwed right now.  There's nothing else the airport can do.  There's no sense in being rude so let's just be nice to each other."  So if you cut, everyone yelled at you.  Otherwise everyone was nice and friendly; lots of chatting in English and Italian.  A bit of other languages.

Okay, so that story had to be told because of the goodness of people does exist from time to time, and also because for the girls that had been told they could just take care of their flight at the counter, as soon as they had gotten out of line the flight was officially cancelled and they were stuck.  So they needed back into the line which they had already stood in for three hours or more.  Luckily I was still there so one of them just ran over and went to the window next to mine.  No one made a big fuss, but if they had I was ready to explain her case.

So, they got a flight to Paris for around the same time that evening as mine to Amsterdam.  So we had some bonding time, which was nice.  Then I found out my other friend who is an actress here in Florence was on the same flight as me to Amsterdam.  So, I hung out with my new friends for the rest of the day, and we all went down really early to stand in line for check-in, but we all just stood in line for the ticket counter because other Paris flights were still being cancelled.  I decided it would be better to have a spot in line just in case my flight was cancelled.  Eventually it wasn't and I my other friend from Florence and I ran to get into line.  Thankfully, due to the airline problems, there were no charges for heavy bags!  So I checked mine straight through to Memphis to sort of trick the system and get a heavy bag on all my flights for free.  Score.

For the rest of the day my traveling partner and I hung out and had some good bonding time.  We called my mom and asked her to book us rooms at a hotel.  But the flight was pushed from 16:50 to 17:30 and then to 18:30.  So we waited until we were on the plane and the door was shut before sending a text to book the room.  The Amsterdam airport is fantastic.  We both were starving and got hamburgers and beer.  Obviously we weren't pumped to get back to the USA.  We tried to take a cab to our hotel but the driver told us we should take the free shuttle (which we had been told didn't exist) instead of paying him 30 euros for the cab.  But then of course the shuttle didn't exist and we came back and he was booked.  We finally found a cabbie who charged us 35 euros for what should have been a 10 minute cab ride but took about half an hour because he got lost.  But at last we got to the hotel and got a good night's sleep.

So the next day we'd planned on taking public transportation to make up for the expenses of the taxi the night before.  The lady at the front desk told us to take a cab because it would be impossible to get anything and even if we did it would take forever.  As she was saying this the bus we were supposed to take drove by and then came back in the direction we needed it.  We ran out but missed it, but then waited about 5 minutes and another one showed up.  We tried to pay, but nothing really happened, so we got a ride for free.  We had a lot of fun reading signs in Dutch and figuring out what things said.  Then at the train station we tried really hard to buy tickets, but there was only a machine which only took cards, but none of the cards we had.  So a train came up, we ran upstairs, hopped on (because she had said it was the right train), then she had to ask someone if it was the right train.  Luckily, it was and the airport was only one stop away!  So, we ended up getting free public transportation for the whole morning.  But we tried really hard to pay!

We had an amazing breakfast at STARBUCKS!  My first American style coffee in months, and a delicious blueberry muffin.  There are pictures, just not on my camera.

So, I already had a boarding pass, but she didn't, so we had to check her in again.  She also had bags which needed to be checked.  When we got to the counter she had to move stuff around so as to not have an overweight bag (hehehehe....I had an overweight bag....) but then we found out that she had been upgraded to business class!  Jealous.  And she was very smart to realize that that meant she could check TWO bags.  Lucky.  We were both very over theatrical about her being in business class and me not being upgraded, which seemed to make the days of the women working at the check-in counter.  But after we walked away we looked at my ticket and I WAS in business class on my flight.  Woo-hoo!  Though we were both pumped to go hang out in our lounges, we would have had to go through separate security checks, so we opted to hang out and shop.

So anyway, we finally did have to separate.  I was worried about being late to my check in, so I rushed right through it, but then, being business class and all, I got to hop right around the line and check in.  So then I was just there for a couple hours.  That was kinda lame, but not too bad.  We we started boarding I got to walk straight up as well, and I was in the front row of business class.  There was a bottle of water, pillow, blanket, and a goody bag waiting for me.  So cool.  I was sitting there for a short while, was served a bit of sparkling wine, and having a great time when I was asked if I would mind sitting in an aisle seat.  I of course did not and I actually prefer the aisle on a plane.  So I switched so that a husband and wife could sit together and was bumped up to FIRST CLASS.  First class is so great.  Lots of food, reclining chairs, and never an empty glass.

So far as food, I had a multi course meal on actual plates with real silverware and even table clothes!  The menu as I recall it was:

Appetizer:
Mixed nuts
Smoked salmon with capers
Delicious soup
Caprese salad (tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and olive oil)

Main Course:
Mixed salad
Filet of beef with mushroom gravy of some sort (a very large piece of meat as well)
Mashed potatoes
Spinach sauteed with garlic
Cooked carrots

Both of these with a variety of dinner rolls to choose from and three different wines I think.  Oh, and quite good coffee.

Desert:
I was going to go for the healthier choice of cheeses and fruits, but when the guy referred to the ice cream as a sundae, I had to go for it.  So I had a giant scoop a vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.

And then at a random point during the night a lady came buy and offered me a chocolate chip cookie.  It was still warm.  Fantastic.

Then about an hour before we landed I was to have a turkey sandwich, which I assumed would be a crappy sandwich, but it wasn't.

Lunch:
Turkey and melted cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and mayo on a loaf of whole wheat bread with pumpkin seeds on top.
A salad of shredded carrots, nuts, and dried fruits.

So, the trip home pretty much.  It was pretty fantastic.  The trip back of course was pretty bad of course because I was back into coach which was only slightly more uncomfortable, but had like half the food.  Luckily I planned ahead.  And once again I couldn't sleep on my transatlantic flight.  Very annoying.  Then when I landed in Munich they were very surprised that I made it to my connecting flight because I had to get my passport checked again, go back through security with my bag, and run across the airport.  But I made it, and then we sat in our plane for about an hour just to be told something wasn't working and we had to switch planes.  Of course, this wouldn't have actually been that terrible if the flight hadn't been filled with Chinese families with like three or four kids each.  None of them spoke a common language with anyone on the plane, they wouldn't sit down, they were constantly changing seats, and they moved other people's stuff.  I couldn't find my backpack in the overhead bin at one point because they moved it without telling me.  And every time we had to get up for something they all acted like they would actually get somewhere faster by standing up and grabbing their bags immediately.  For one, at both of these airports everything took place out on the tarmac, so any transfers meant that everyone had to get on the same shuttles to be transported, so it doesn't matter if you're off the plane first or last.  Also, airplane aisles are super small, but for some reason they all thought that we could get up and stand in the aisles at the same time, and of course that if they didn't immediately get their bags then they would disappear.  I was telling them in as many languages as I could to calm down and wait.  I had to push one man behind me at one point because even though the line wasn't moving he kept pushing against me.  So, that flight was kinda hell.

I got to the airport, and for the first time ever my bag had been lost.  It was bound to happen eventually and seeing as there was nothing I immediately needed in the bag I didn't worry about it.  And actually they had my bag the next day and delivered it to my place.

So, that's my long story about traveling home and traveling back to Italy.  New Year's here was cool.  More details later I hope.

How did that audition go? Oh, and prizes!

The "audition" went great.  Mary Sue and I basically just flipped through my arias book and she had me sing random things to test me out through trouble spots in certain arias.  It was really a lot of fun!  Of course some things I hadn't sung in three or four years, so they were very problematic, but she also wanted to see how quickly I could change and how I take advice.  I ended up getting a great little lesson.  The biggest problem was that I had just come from an hour long lesson and the only break I had from singing was the bus ride to the church!

So, some cool things she told me: picking the best pitch in the phrase and sing around it, counting my vibrato, and of course using my air more.  So, picking the best pitch in the phrase was kind of cool to keep from switch the timbre too much.  This worked especially well in phrases going from low notes up to my middle voice to keep me from pressing too much on lower notes and then not having the right position in my middle voice and thus losing overtones.  I'm going to go out of order from my list to talk next about the air thing.  It was the same problem I encountered when I had a coaching with Mark Trawka at Pittsburgh Opera last year in that I often back off the air when I go down in pitch instead of keeping the sound alive.  Also, I change the majority of pitches in my throat, not with my air, which is bad.  So, that's something we worked on a bit and I know needs to change, so it's sort of up to me.  But my coloratura was really cool when we figured it out in that brief amount of time.

Now, the coolest thing was counting vibrato.  I'd heard of doing this to get a more pleasant sound, but never to actually know how to release a note.  She had me count how many reps my vibrato went through on high, dramatic notes, and then always release on an odd number; that way I was always releasing UP instead of down.  It was so cool!  The sound keeps going after the note, and it works especially well if a note needs to be released tenderly instead of dramatically.  Probably the coolest thing we talked about.

So afterwards we went to get some coffee and talk, and then walked around Florence for several hours.  It was a great time.  She said she'd like me to come to Arizona to visit her Rotary club and maybe do a concert.  She also wants to introduce me to some great directors, conductors, and composers.  So exciting!

So, speaking of Rotary, I've had some great dinners and social events with them lately.  Last night we had a gala d'auttuno with the theme of Casino Royal.  I was afraid that more people would be in tuxes and only a few of us with be in suits, so I wore a black suit, white shirt with French cuffs, and a silver tie.  Some guys had tuxes, most of us were in suits, some were in jeans and hoodies.  It was really cool though because we got a lot of chips and two free drinks with our cover charge.  The only games they had were Poker, Roulette, and Blackjack.  I was holding out for a while on Blackjack, but I gave up and began playing Roulette, and losing a lot.  Also, I had to explain how to play to some people all in Italian.  After a while of losing and being down to only a few chips of hundreds and a 500 I left, hung out with friends, and kept having a great time.  But eventually I went back, played at a different table, and did alright back and forth and got a little bit of money back.  Then I got mad because the guy spinning the wheel sucked and the wheel would stop spinning before the ball finished.  Not exciting, so I left.  Same thing of hanging out with people, dancing, making new friends and everything.  Then a friend gave me some chips because he had won a lot at Poker and was going to Blackjack.  So I went back to a table, and started playing high stakes and getting a lot of chips back.  It was a lot of fun and on the last spin I bet 2,000 on black, 2,000 on the cross with 35 black, and I bet around 6,000 or 7,000 on the column below 35.  And, as luck would have it, the ball landed on 35 black!  But then the jerks just said, "okay, done!" and left.  They wouldn't even pay us!  And then I argued and they just kept telling me it was the last roll and didn't matter, but of course there were prizes to win and I'd won something like 16,000 or 20,000 in chips.  They didn't have enough 500's for me!  So, I told some of the guys that knew me and they helped explain it to the guys giving out the prizes and I won a gift certificate for two to a spa outside of Florence and two more free drinks!  Great night.  Made a lot of new friends, got prizes, and was the only American not speaking English.  There were at least two American girls there that I only really met by them being at my table or because I heard them talking to other people, and they weren't even trying to speak Italian.  Not even for simple colors and numbers!  Very strange to me.

So anyway, had a great night and met a lot of new people and got closer with my other friends that were there.  Soon I'll update you all on the really cool Italian Thanksgiving I had!

Audition of my lifetime!

Hello all!

So sorry to have not been posting very much.  Such is life I guess.  But, I have an extraordinary story for today! Today it was like everything just magically came together by meeting one person.  Mary Sue, and I don't know her last name, was presenting a check to St. James Episcopal Church here in Florence this morning.  She had actually sat two rows behind me the whole service and I could tell she had some sort of musical experience when we were singing the hymns.  It was an extremely musical day today!  There was a wonderful tenor there today who sang three very lovely pieces, the last of which was Panis Angelicus as a duet with our music director.  He sang from the altar and she sang from the choir loft in the back of the church.  A-ma-zing.

Anyway, my morning was filled with music.  After the service, Mary Sue and I began talking about what I do and where I went to school.  She almost went to CMU for voice, but decided on Curtis instead.  Yeah...but she was a great friend of Lorenzo Malfatti and was actually in Lucca when I was there two years ago, we just never met!  I gave her my card and she saw Rotary and said, "hey, I'm a Rotarian!" and I proceeded to tell her that I'm an Ambassadorial Scholar and she demanded that we meet again sometime this week.  She also wants to go to a meeting this week, so I just sent a quick e-mail to try and find a meeting to go to this week and I'm very excited.  We talked off and on a bit more and it was all fantastic.

Afterwards I went with our guest tenor, Grahm, to grab a drink with Mary Sue and a music director at the music school in Fiesole.  So, Mary Sue and I began talking more about what I do, what I want to do, etc.  I talked about my senior recital and the recital I just did here so that she could get an idea of my rep, and when I mentioned the Old American Songs by Copland she taught me an amazing lesson.

Aaron Copland, Lee Hoiby, and Lorenzo Malfatti were three of the first Fulbright Scholarship winners EVER and they all studied in Italy at the same time.  Copland wrote the Old American songs FOR Malfatti, who did their world premiere at St. James Episcopal Church WHERE I SING IN ITALY and I sang six of the twelve on my recital, in St. James Episcopal Church.  O-M-G!  Chills when she explained this to me.  She also knew Copland and still knows Hoiby.  She thinks I should meet Hoiby and perform some of his work....

So, she said that she has to hear me sing.  Thus, we are meeting up on Tuesday of this week and I'll sing for her.  SO NERVOUS!  To me, this could really be the audition for me.  She knows so many people, and is so gracious, a Rotarian, graduated with Dr. Page's daughter from Curtis (yes, they're friends and were in the same class I believe).  And she wants me to come to Arizona, where she lives, and perform for like Rotary or something.  Ugh, overwhelming.  Anyway, that's the newest and biggest news.  Hopefully I'll have a great follow up this by the end of the week!