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