Host Rotarian Found!

I received an e-mail this morning that I have a host Rotarian in Florence!  His name is Michele Taccetti and of course I already did a bit of Facebook stalking and what not. I'm pretty sure it's the right person because that name only appears once on Facebook and the hometown is Florence, Italy.  He has a link to a website, www.china2000.it, and I checked it out.  This is amazing!  His father established a corporation to facilitate trade between Italy and China 30 years ago and it's still going strong today.  They export fine Italian goods such as clothes, leather, jewelry, and foods.  They also have locations in several other countries to help facilitate Chinese exports.  I know the US is in debt to China, but this is not a political blog or a place for arguing.  I think this will be really cool for my experience.  Now to brush up on my Italian!

Also, I've established a general rule of I can't speak French until after 3 p.m.  I sort of made that up arbitrarily, but it's pretty true.

In other news, I cooked chili yesterday.  Several hours on the stove.  It ended up being a lot spicier than intended, but quite delicious.  Ryan and I were frustrated when we sat down to our meal and realized that we had forgotten to make cornbread!  ARG!  Alas, that just means that we have to do it again.  Today or tomorrow I think we're going to make ribs.  I bought some at the butcher a couple days ago for 10.30 Euros per Kilo.  Not bad!  I only got half a Kilo anyway.  I am about to go to the store and pick up some ingredients for cornbread and barbecue sauce.  Sorry Mom and Dad, we ate out a lot at the beginning of the week because our schedule was weird for rehearsals and my per diem from the festival is gone.  Gotta pull some money out of the bank!  :(

Things are really looking up this morning with so much news from Rotary.  It was pretty worrisome for awhile, but I've been getting e-mails almost every day about info that the US Rotary is sending to the Italian Rotary and now I'm getting e-mails from the Italian Rotary with names of contacts and phone numbers.  I still don't actually have a place to live though and Dr. Taccetti is on holiday.

So that's it for now.  Also, to any of you who may be wondering as Steven did as to why Ryan and I are not eating more French food, it's because we are on a small island in Brittany and our French cuisine consists of crepes.  And they're all really expensive, too.  So, enough of that.  Sidebar, I installed multiple keyboards on my computer so I could get proper accents and such for French and Italian, but the French keyboard seems to not have a button for the 'e' with a hat, such as 'e^'.  So crepes is currently spelled wrong and it will stay that way until the French fix their keyboard layout!  Mwahaha!  Bye!

And I rested on the....ummm...what day is it?

Oh dear, it has been quite some time.  I'm still trying to figure out how to get this thing to send you all e-mails when I update the page.  Right now it looks like I can enter up to 10 e-mail addresses to get the updates.  Very odd.  I guess blogspot wants you to return to their page pretty often.  Probably gets them money somehow since otherwise it's a free service.

So, what's been happening for moi??  I'm actually going to have to refer to my last post to see what I last told you all about!  Man, almost a whole week.  Well, since then we've had the pre-final dress and final dress rehearsals for Rigoletto and started staging the chorus into Cosi fan Tutte.  Sadly Ryan and I haven't been making it to many of the Cosi rehearsals even though we're supposed to be covering the roles.  It's just that usually we have rehearsal most of the day and then a dinner break and during that they start rehearsals for Cosi or we have choir things for the sacred music.  Alas, we have gotten the impression that we were never actually covers, but actually just told that to make us happy.

I've been having a lot of fun practicing my French on the island.  Everyone told us how terrible the choir is here and how mean they are, but obviously they've never worked with a community chorus.  They're all the same.  A bunch of older people who enjoy singing, probably aren't very good at it, and enjoy talking.  Sometimes talking too much, but hey, it helps me practice!  It's really nice when some of the older people are familiar with the actual grammar of the language and they can correct my little mistakes.  There is a local restaurant and bar called La Chaloupe and the last few days I've been practicing my French with the waitresses there.

So, if you ever feel the need to vacation here, I'm sure it would be fantastic for like a week, especially on vacation!  However, we're working and in rehearsals during all the prime hours of the day and when we get out all the businesses are closed.  Also, there are very few resources on the island.  A few things to remember in you travels because you will be hard pressed to find it here:  deodorant, allergy medicine (such as zyrtec), anything sports related such as drinks, protein bars, etc., sunscreen (it's usually around 16-20 euros...), a hoodie or sweatshirt (cold nights!), and sandwich meat (1.10 euros per SLICE!).

So, the main singers here are pretty amazing for the most part.  I put up a video last time of a teacher of mine singing in the quartet from Rigoletto.  This time I'm putting up a video of the girl who is singing Fiordiligi in Cosi.  The only thing I could find was some Handel stuff, but it's still great.  She has already sung the Queen of the Night at the MET.  The video is in two parts, so the second one is the pain to the left.  So here is Amanda Pabyan!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX93GDsFTBc

Well, I started writing this a couple hours ago, then Ryan made dinner and we ate, then I answered some Rotary e-mails (exciting things happening!), and now I've lost my train of thought.  So, until next time I guess!

Summer nights, summer nights

I'll probably reuse this post title later because it has interesting and slightly fond memories from CMU.  Anyway, the summer nights here are amazing because it doesn't get dark until after 10 p.m.  Usually from about 10-10:30 is a really cool twilight (not the book, the real thing) sort of glow around the island.  Several nights here I've looked up and seen a planet in the sky, but I don't know what it is!  Of course, I could easily figure it out using google, but bonus points to anyone who happens to know what it is already.

Well, now that I've uploaded these pictures, I can't see the planet!  It's to the right of the moon, which is the white dot.  As you can see, this was after 11 p.m. and it was still pretty light out.  Fantastic.

Ryan Brock is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So very excited.  He got in Saturday night after coming straight from the states.  That's a really rough trip.  Two planes, two trains, a ferry, and a car.  We've finally gotten all settled in and it's really nice to have my best friend here with me so we can get into all sorts of trouble on the island.  We've done a bit of hiking, which sucked for me because I didn't bring any hiking boots/shoes.  And last night we went running, which sucked for him because he didn't bring any running shoes.

Rehearsals look like they are about to settle down because we have two shows here now, which means that half the day has to be put to the show that we're not in right now.  Of course, Ryan and I will be sitting in on a lot of the rehearsals as we are "covering" some of the roles.  I talked to Richard and apparently we're going to start having master classes during the days, so I need to get some arias together and probably some duets with Ryan.  Ugh!

I found out at a party the other night that my French has gotten quite good, but my Italian has suffered.  There is a new tenor here who is Italian and I was trying to talk to him, but to no avail.  I ended up speaking to him in French and English, not Italian :(.  It will come back though!  I had dreams last night in both Italian and French, so it's still there.  For me I think the biggest thing for the switch is to switch my accent.  Words sometimes look the same but sound different, so if I can switch that in my mind I will be fine.

So, until later!  Also, since we are singing Rigoletto a lot of the music keeps getting stuck in my head.  Then I remembered this video existed!  Three huge name opera stars and then one of our teachers from CMU whom I adored!  The woman acting all sexy in the yellow dress is Mildred Miller Posvar.  She's fantastic.  Enjoy it!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD9MxhSxSCM

Bon soir!

I need to start coming up with more creative titles.  Anyhoo, I've been in Europe about a week now.  Yesterday was a rough day of rehearsal, mostly because we didn't really know our music (our own faults) and it was also a super long day, made worse by not know music and getting griped at for it.  I personally felt bad because I was being so unprofessional.  So, I stayed in instead of going out for Bastille Day (or 14 julliet en francais).  Today was still a rough day of singing, but we worked mostly on act I in staging and things were a lot more secure.  However, tonight will be another night of act II study.

So, on a lighter note, I took some pics today!  Let's start with when I got off the train at Quiberon and went to catch the ferry over to Belle-Ile.  This was the first beach I saw and it was FULL!

This is the Citadelle on the island.  It was an old fortress and it has a museum and hotel inside.  We rehearse and perform in here, but this year it's apparently really complicated because they have a wedding going on and also an art auction, with a few Monets actually!

That's what it looked like when we rode up on the ferry.  And now, for today's pics.  As I was leaving the Citadelle I decided I just had to take some pics of the water.  You can actually see the different depths of the ocean and way out in the distance you can see part of the mainland.  It's really quite beautiful.  You can definitely see the mainland of France at night when it's all lit up along the shore.  Maybe I'll get some of those pics soon!

Hope you all enjoy!

Je suis à Le Palais maintenant!

Bonjour tout le mond!  I'm now on Belle-Ile!  Exciting, I know.  We arrived yesterday after taking two trains, walking a fair way, and a boat.  I also kept singing, "Je suis en bateau!" but no one really got it....

So, the island really is quite beautiful.  Clear water for as far as you can see, lovely night life, and fantastic weather.  It actually got a little cold last night.  I meant to bring a hoodie, but alas, I'll just have to get a souvenir! Also, google's spell check does not like 'hoodie'.  It doesn't really get dark here until about 9:30 or 10 p.m. due to our northern position.  My house is pretty nice and it's easy to find.  It's bright yellow on the outside, and bright yellow on the inside!  My room is teal and orange.  Our bathroom is bright pink.  I believe the name that the festival kids have given it is the "seahorse a go-go house" because along with the flamboyant colors, there are seahorses everywhere...

I haven't found a bike yet.  I am really thinking I won't be able to get an actual road bike on the island because everything is really touristy and thus they only have the cruiser bikes.  It seems that there may be some mountain bikes, so maybe I can get one of those and then just do some tough trails around the island and try to ride fast but fail.

So, not too much going on as of yet.  I woke up sort of early this morning and since no one else was up I walked down to the area where we arrived yesterday, had some breakfast, then did a bit of shopping.  It's pretty nice out.  Hopefully I'll have more exciting posts soon, along with some pictures!  Au revoir!  Also, feel free to comment!  I love all my followers, but I don't know if anyone is actually reading this stuff!

Je suis à Paris!

Bonjour!  Je suis à la maison de mon amis Bryn et Campbell Vertesi.  I think I'll only write a bit.  So, my journey!

So, I slept on my first flight from Memphis, TN to Charlotte, NC.  Pretty big mistake since it was only about 2 hours.  My seat mate was carrying her own hoola-hoop to Germany though.  Never got the full story even though I tried.  After that I tried to change my money over while I had about an hour layover, but in Charlotte's airport you have to leave security to get to the currency exchange.  Bad, Charlotte! BAD!  Then, in preparation for a long flight, I had a delicious locally brewed brown ale and bagel sandwich before my flight.  Then I boarded the plane, very simply, and I was in the front row of coach, left most aisle seat of the center aisle.  To my left where two girls from Paris chatting away in French (very friendly) and there was no one in the two seats to my immediate right, but there was a Parisian mother and her child (I'm assuming about a year old or so) in the far most seat in my aisle.  Throughout the flight I helped the two of them with a few things here and there and the baby only cried every once and a while.  Not terrible.  I also had noise cancelling headphones that were magnificent.  I watched about 3 1/2 movies in flight (I didn't see the last 20 minutes or so of Enchanted!)  and just could not fall asleep.  That sort of made sense as we didn't even land until about midnight CST.  So, why would I really be tired?

So, I arrived in Paris and all was fine.  On the plane I realized that I had no phone number for or any real way of contacting my friend who I was staying with.  I finally broke down and bought a half hour of WIFI and sent her messages on Skype, Facebook, and e-mails, then actually called her on Skype.  It took a couple tries but we got through.  I waited for her, but sadly I had sent her the wrong itinerary and she went to a terminal that I wasn't at to pick me up.  A few phone calls, airport transits, and a bit of patience later, we found each other!  It was very nice to see a friend, especially one with better French than me.

We got back to her place (after a detour due to a train strike) and I took a COLD shower, which was awesome.  It's quite hot here and very little A/C in places, none at their apartment.  So it felt like going for a swim.  Then we went to a little lunch nearby.  From now on I'll try to take pics of food and post them on here because the food is beautiful.  I had Confit de Canard and Bryn and Cam both had Tartare de Boeuf.  I really needed pictures of these.  Mine was a duck leg, small side salad, and a vegetable and fruit puree.  It was fantastic and beautiful.  And the rosé wine complimented it beautifully.  Bryn and Cam's   dish was a type of raw, ground beef with different herbs and spices mixed in, and a raw egg yolk in a small shell on top.   And French fries!  Or....just fries here.  I had a bite of Bryn's tartare.  It was interesting.  I may try it again at some point, but it was raw beef, so it was a crazy texture.  And it also sort of looked like all the preparations for a hamburger, but you just didn't cook it.  Very interesting.

So, Cam bought my lunch, which was super cool, then we came back to their place and it was time for my nap.  I slept for 4 or 5 hours, even with cats jumping on me, people driving up and down the street, and Bryn and Cam occasionally practicing.  And now here we are!  Tomorrow I leave for Belle-Ile.  Exciting.  More to come soon and hopefully beautiful food and countryside.

Prologue

So, according to Wikipedia, the prologue gives a sort of account of what precedes the story.  The preface is about why you're writing something.  Well...I found it interesting anyway...

Before the prologue, I forgot to explain the name of this blog.  GooglyElmo comes from the opera Cosi fan Tutte by Mozart.  The character's name is Guglielmo and while the Italian pronunciation of gli sounds more like an l stuck in the back of your throat, I've heard many people unknowingly say Googlyelmo.  So, I thought it was fun.  Also reminds me of Giggly Elmo.  And then all the other stuff is me trying to be fancy and fit in a lot about myself in a title.  So, I'm young, I sing opera music and am a baritone, I am an ambassadorial scholar for Rotary, and I'm hoping to travel to a lot of Rotary clubs in Europe, essentially taking a tour.  Also, the tour part refers to cycling tours.  So that's that!

So, for about two years I have been in the process of applying for this Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, applying to schools in other countries, and being accepted by everyone.  For the scholarship alone I had to write three different essays and translate them into Italian, French, and German because I was applying to go to those countries.  Some of the translations were better than others...

So, for most of the summer I've been working on getting all the applications and paper work in on time.  The most complicated situation has been that I'm singing in a music festival in France on Belle-Ile.  The complicated part is that I had to apply for an Italian Visa, and for an Italian Visa you are required to go to an Italian Consulate in person for a brief interview and to hand in all of your paper work.  The consulate for my district is in Houston, TX.  Pretty far away.  Also, their earliest available interview date was in mid-July when I was supposed to already be in France.  Luckily, we found out that I could go to a vice-consulate in New Orleans, LA.  Slightly closer, but I would still have to ship all of my documents to the Houston Consulate.  Once again, not too bad, except for the fact that I would have to ship my passport to them and they were going to keep it.  That's right, they would keep my passport until I got my visa.  Very scary as the website said that it would take about two months in the summer and I only had about 3 weeks.  Every day I would check the tracking number, hoping to see that my passport was on it's way.

Then about 10 days before my departure, I checked our mail at 4:30 in the afternoon to discover a note that the post office had tried to deliver a package that required a signature.  I left immediately and made it to the post office, in the middle of Jonesboro, during rush hour, in about 8 minutes.  I got my passport!  They were only about 5 minutes from closing and I had to sign a few things and confirm my address, but I got my passport and visa with time to spare.  It was great.

So now, I'm just about ready to leave.  All that is left is to complete my Rotary orientation and then hop on a plane to France.  Hopefully I'll be able to upload plenty of posts and pictures of my travels.  So, my next post will probably be from the airport or France!

Also, check out the tour!  I'm going to try and make it over to see at least one stage.