Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Ciao!!
I’m long overdue for an update, but these past two weeks have been filled with many things everyday that it’s difficult just to keep up! But, I will try to fill you in on my weeks 2 and 3 in the program, mostly through me looking at my pics to remember what happened when, because it is all a blur ;) Most of this was written Saturday morning, July 18 :)
Program wise, these last two weeks have been very helpful! I am learning more and more about the Bel Canto style of singing. This is being taught to me through performance class, coachings, and voice lessons, which I have every day. The first week, I had performance class everyday (including Saturday and Sunday!) and a voice lesson Tues/Thurs/Sat, and a coaching Mon/Wed/Fri. This was very helpful and I am really enjoying being able to solely focus on one style of singing to really know the background, traditions, and reasoning of each composer for how to perform their music. The two pieces I have been working on are the song “Amiamo” by Donizetti, and the recit and aria “O! Quante Volte!” by Bellini. A very neat opportunity was provided by Jane Klaviter and the faculty here for myself and a few other people! Since this is not only a vocal program, but also accepts a few instrumental students so they learn the Bel Canto style as well, I get to sing with 5 instruments on the final concert! The Bellini aria is from an opera, and its style is accompagnato recit (so with orchestra, not harpsichord), and we have several instrumentalists who I am collaborating with to do the piece on Friday night :) It will be with Maestro Malouf conducting (I think), Mike playing French Horn, Margaret on the harp, Kai playing “cello” on his double bass, Levi playing double bass, and Maestro Morrison filling out the accompaniment on the piano. We’ve been able to rehearse twice already, and will rehearse again this coming Monday. What makes it doubly fun though is that another student, Ju Han, is also singing the same recit and aria and gets the same opportunity for the Monday night concert! It’s been fun hearing her interpretation and line to the recit and aria, and we have had fun rehearsing with each other and getting to know each other as well outside of rehearsal :)
Let’s see, what else… language classes continue to go well, with us passes the “first grade” book in two weeks, and now we are on to book two. We started to learn past tense this week, which was nice, seeing as everything before was always in the present tense when I talked with my host mom, lol. Barbara continues to be so kind and loving to Yuri and myself, and we couldn’t ask for a better host family!
In addition to all the school things that take up most of my day, I have been able to get out a little and do some personal interest and also some “touristy” things! One night during the second week, I went out to dinner with Yuri and another gal, Laura, to dinner in the city. We settled on a place near Il Trillo, the music school, and had our first taste of wild boar for our appetizer! Apparently it’s something you MUST try while you are here, so we did, and it was very tasty!
I have also gone shopping a few times, both for clothes (nice light dresses since it is so HOT!) and for gifts and souvenirs. I found some very nice shops just past the Ponte Vecchio bridge, and got a souvenir for myself while I was there too – a T-Shirt that says “Ciao Bella!” seeing as I get that a lot here, lol.
Some other interesting things I have done are seeing Michelangelo’s David (the perfect Renaissance man!!!) who was completely stunning and gorgeous. I also had my portrait drawn by an artist while sitting next to the Duomo! I decided that would be my souvenir while being here, as I really couldn’t think of anything else I wanted, AND my friend Sarah also wanted hers done, so we got them drawn at the same time. We are both very pleased with the way they turned out, as mine definitely looks like me, and, well, as Sarah herself put it, hers is the idealized version of her! But that’s ok, because it’s a gift for her boyfriend, so he will love it ;) On Friday of week 3 (so last Friday), I got a big workout! First, I climbed to the top of the Duomo dome, which was 463 steps to the top! It actually didn’t feel as bad as the climb to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica, and the view was gorgeous. You could really see all the orange rooftops and a 360 degrees view of Florence! I got some very nice pictures. After that I had performance class, and then walked with three friends to the train station to buy our tickets to Pisa for Saturday! Well, I wasn’t watching the time, and I was supposed to be at an internet place at least 25 minutes away to talk with Matt at 4:00. We arrived at the train station at 3:55, oops! So, we hurridly got the tickets, and I ran in 98 degree heat to the internet place, and arrived soaking wet at 4:15. Well, I felt good that at least I had gotten my exercise in for the day (or several). But there was more! This was also the night I had planned to stay in the city and go to the Piazza di Michelangelo and watch the sunset overlooking the city with a few girlfriends! So, another hike and many more stairs later, we got to watch a very nice sunset, and cool off in the large breeze that had come into the city. We went out to eat at a nice restaurant afterwards, and then headed home! This all took a bit longer time (as it always does in Italy) than we had thought, but I still got home before midnight, which was good.
____________________________________________________________________
Ok, I will post more later (and include more pics), but today (Tuesday, July 21, 2009), I am about to go sing my first concert!!
Ciao!
~Heather
I’m long overdue for an update, but these past two weeks have been filled with many things everyday that it’s difficult just to keep up! But, I will try to fill you in on my weeks 2 and 3 in the program, mostly through me looking at my pics to remember what happened when, because it is all a blur ;) Most of this was written Saturday morning, July 18 :)
Program wise, these last two weeks have been very helpful! I am learning more and more about the Bel Canto style of singing. This is being taught to me through performance class, coachings, and voice lessons, which I have every day. The first week, I had performance class everyday (including Saturday and Sunday!) and a voice lesson Tues/Thurs/Sat, and a coaching Mon/Wed/Fri. This was very helpful and I am really enjoying being able to solely focus on one style of singing to really know the background, traditions, and reasoning of each composer for how to perform their music. The two pieces I have been working on are the song “Amiamo” by Donizetti, and the recit and aria “O! Quante Volte!” by Bellini. A very neat opportunity was provided by Jane Klaviter and the faculty here for myself and a few other people! Since this is not only a vocal program, but also accepts a few instrumental students so they learn the Bel Canto style as well, I get to sing with 5 instruments on the final concert! The Bellini aria is from an opera, and its style is accompagnato recit (so with orchestra, not harpsichord), and we have several instrumentalists who I am collaborating with to do the piece on Friday night :) It will be with Maestro Malouf conducting (I think), Mike playing French Horn, Margaret on the harp, Kai playing “cello” on his double bass, Levi playing double bass, and Maestro Morrison filling out the accompaniment on the piano. We’ve been able to rehearse twice already, and will rehearse again this coming Monday. What makes it doubly fun though is that another student, Ju Han, is also singing the same recit and aria and gets the same opportunity for the Monday night concert! It’s been fun hearing her interpretation and line to the recit and aria, and we have had fun rehearsing with each other and getting to know each other as well outside of rehearsal :)
Let’s see, what else… language classes continue to go well, with us passes the “first grade” book in two weeks, and now we are on to book two. We started to learn past tense this week, which was nice, seeing as everything before was always in the present tense when I talked with my host mom, lol. Barbara continues to be so kind and loving to Yuri and myself, and we couldn’t ask for a better host family!
In addition to all the school things that take up most of my day, I have been able to get out a little and do some personal interest and also some “touristy” things! One night during the second week, I went out to dinner with Yuri and another gal, Laura, to dinner in the city. We settled on a place near Il Trillo, the music school, and had our first taste of wild boar for our appetizer! Apparently it’s something you MUST try while you are here, so we did, and it was very tasty!
I have also gone shopping a few times, both for clothes (nice light dresses since it is so HOT!) and for gifts and souvenirs. I found some very nice shops just past the Ponte Vecchio bridge, and got a souvenir for myself while I was there too – a T-Shirt that says “Ciao Bella!” seeing as I get that a lot here, lol.
Some other interesting things I have done are seeing Michelangelo’s David (the perfect Renaissance man!!!) who was completely stunning and gorgeous. I also had my portrait drawn by an artist while sitting next to the Duomo! I decided that would be my souvenir while being here, as I really couldn’t think of anything else I wanted, AND my friend Sarah also wanted hers done, so we got them drawn at the same time. We are both very pleased with the way they turned out, as mine definitely looks like me, and, well, as Sarah herself put it, hers is the idealized version of her! But that’s ok, because it’s a gift for her boyfriend, so he will love it ;) On Friday of week 3 (so last Friday), I got a big workout! First, I climbed to the top of the Duomo dome, which was 463 steps to the top! It actually didn’t feel as bad as the climb to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica, and the view was gorgeous. You could really see all the orange rooftops and a 360 degrees view of Florence! I got some very nice pictures. After that I had performance class, and then walked with three friends to the train station to buy our tickets to Pisa for Saturday! Well, I wasn’t watching the time, and I was supposed to be at an internet place at least 25 minutes away to talk with Matt at 4:00. We arrived at the train station at 3:55, oops! So, we hurridly got the tickets, and I ran in 98 degree heat to the internet place, and arrived soaking wet at 4:15. Well, I felt good that at least I had gotten my exercise in for the day (or several). But there was more! This was also the night I had planned to stay in the city and go to the Piazza di Michelangelo and watch the sunset overlooking the city with a few girlfriends! So, another hike and many more stairs later, we got to watch a very nice sunset, and cool off in the large breeze that had come into the city. We went out to eat at a nice restaurant afterwards, and then headed home! This all took a bit longer time (as it always does in Italy) than we had thought, but I still got home before midnight, which was good.
____________________________________________________________________
Ok, I will post more later (and include more pics), but today (Tuesday, July 21, 2009), I am about to go sing my first concert!!
Ciao!
~Heather
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
First week at Bel Canto Institute!
Buon Giorno a Firenze!
It’s been a little while since I posted here, but I hope to let you catch a glimpse of my activities in Firenze thus far through this update! I am settled at my host home now, and am quite happy. I was a little homesick upon arrival, seeing as I had already traveled for 6 days prior, but am very happy now and embracing this amazing experience and opportunity! The Bel Canto Institute is going very smoothly, and I have already had 10 hours of beginning Italian class. Here is a typical day in the life of Heather in Firenze this past week, with several fun experiences thrown in, so enjoy!
6:30 a.m.: Wake up, stumble to the shower, and start getting ready for the day! I have a yogurt and cereal for breakfast, and grab a small croissant as I go out the door. I have to leave the apartment by 7:45 for the bus because I take one of two busses, and there’s no telling when they will come. So, I either arrive at my Italian Language class right on time (8:30), or a little early with time to settle in. Then, I have Italian class for 2 hours, studying verb forms, vocabulary, articoli indeterminativi, and preposizioni. We learn from the teacher, then do exercises, and read back examples to our fabulous teacher, Sara. I had always thought I would die in a language immersion class where the whole class is taught in Italian, but I am actually doing quite well and catching on, yippee! Plus, our teacher was obviously trained in teaching foreigners Italian, as she goes at a wonderful pace and is very encouraging… not to mention drop dead gorgeous, which the guys in the class appreciate ;) I have about 17 classmates, and we are all enjoying the class.
10:30-11/12:30: Depending on the day this past week, I had practices that were at 11, 11:30, or 12, so I would dedicate the next bit of time to singing and memorizing. Jane Klaviter, the inventor and head of the program, assigned us singers only 30 minutes of practicing a day. Now some would believe this to be too little, but she explained that with the hour coaching or voice lesson a day we will have starting next week, half an hour of practice was plenty for our voices, and I agree! I really enjoy singing in Florence, and had a 3.5 octave range when I first practiced, lol! That has since diminished, but it was a fun moment ;) My practices went well, and we actually very fruitful as I had to be focused the whole time since I only had thirty minutes. I think I may change my style from now on to be more like that as it is much for productive.
12:30-1:15: Next, I would eat lunch! I am saving my money by not going out every day, but by going to the supermercato (super market!) about once or twice a week and buying chiabatta bread, tuna, fruits, veggies, and other snacky items that I can keep in my apartment room and bring to school each day! It has been working out very well, and I can pick exactly what I want to eat, as breakfast and dinner are with the host family and a set meal ;) Plus, then I have more money for gelato… :D Ah yes, the famed GELATO! Yep, it’s as good as it is famed to be! AND, some friends told me about a place right across from the music school where you can get a 1 euro gelato, yippee! That’s the cheapest I have seen, and it’s a nice small amount too which is good for my not-so-flat stomach ;) There is also a coffee and small snack place right next door to the music school, and I have had 4 “caffe latte” there so far, also for 1 euro, which is reasonable.
1:15-3:45: Performance class! Well, actually, this time and area varied widely this week –
Monday, we went on a small tour around Firenze. Our guide didn’t have a microphone, and when you are 1 of 50, and in the back of the line, it’s doesn’t help… so, I talked with people and introduced myself and met new people instead! It was fun to walk around and see the sites (Duomo, Ponte Vechio, and multiple piazzas) and also get to know the other program participants. Several of you have asked me how many are in the program, and now I have an answer! There are 50 total participants in the program: about 10 instrumentalists, about 15 youth singers (ages 15-17), and about 25 SVP (summer voice program participants, those 18 and older). So we range in age from 15-55, quite the spread! I think the largest group is in the 20-22 range, but there are those older and younger as well.
Tuesday/Wednesday: On these days of performance class, Jane went through a thorough list of Italian terms with us, ones that I had never actually defined clearly before! She played musical examples and provided each student with a large packet of information on the examples, as well as each composer we are studying: Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Puccini, and Verdi. Things like the difference between a “legetura“ and a “portamento” were spoken of, and it was great to learn about the different tempo markings and emotion markings in the various pieces, and even special markings by certain composers.
Thursday/Friday: These last two days of the week began the first performances by students of the program, with Jane coaching them in front of the other participants! We had 3-4 people on Thursday, and I got to go with 3 other people on Friday! It was a great experience, and I really appreciated Jane’s candor and wisdom in coaching me on the recit portion of “Oh Quante Volte” by Bellini. It was neat because another student, Ju, is also learning the aria, so we kind of split it – I sang the recit and was coached on that, and Ju sang the aria and was coached on it! We each got about 30 minutes, which was a perfect amount of time to sing it through, and then go work through the piece. I will get another coaching with Jane later on in the program :)
3:45-6:15: I typically had this time free in the day, so I used it to eat a light snack, do my homework, check my email, and mark up my music for the role I am learning. There is a nice sun room off the main area of the Language school, so I would typically walk back there and sit in that room to work. It was quiet and out of the way, and it was nice to have some solitude for the day ;) On Tuesday, my friends showed me a good “internet point” as they are called here, where I could bring in my little Netbook (small laptop) and surf the internet and Skype, yay! So, on Wednesday, I brought my computer with me and went there during this free time and got to Skype with Matt and my family, yippee! It was good to see their faces and hear their voices… something missing when you can only communicate through email. But hey, I know I’m lucky to have both, and can’t imagine a time when relationships were sustained through letters that would take weeks in the mail, yikes!! I’m spoiled to have lots of good email to read in my inbox when I check my email :D
6:15-8:15: During just this first week, we had diction classes every night for 2 hours… It was really great information, and had a very patient, yet insistent, teacher, but the timing of the class wasn’t that good ;) We were all in a very warm room (no air conditioning in any room except the auditorium where we have the performance classes!), about 20 of us, sitting, a little hungry or full of gelato, for 2 hours… lol. But I learned sooooo much, especially about the actual differences between closed [e] and open [E] and closed [o] and open o, and also about the importance of doubled consonants and how to do them, and the VERY important [f]! Our teacher liked a LOT of [f], so he would write about four on the board and say “that much!” ffff…. :D We all spoke and sang a lot in class, so I know my pronunciation and flow of Italian phrasing got much better, and I think the other people in the class can say the same.
8:15-10:00: After class, Yuri and I would walk to the bus stop (10 minutes), and wait for our bus to pick us up! Typically, people would have dinner at 8:30, but since we live the furthest away, we asked Barbara, our host mom, if it was ok to move dinner to 9:00. She is soooo sweet! I like her more and more each day, and she tells us that she is “our mommy” while we are here. So, Yuri and I caught the bus, and watched our purses and backpacks (lots of thieves and pickpockets on the bus), and traveled home. We walked to the apartment and arrived with a “bueno sera!” (good evening) to Barbara, who was busy cooking our super. She usually tells us to “relax” (one of the few English words she knows) and we go into our shared bedroom to drop off our things, wash our faces (it is SO humid here…), and relax for a little before dinner. Around
9:00 Barbara calls “Yudi, Erik!”…. um, oh yes, did I mention how hard the name “Heather” is to say in Italian? Barbara has asked me twice how to say my name, but now I just respond to “erik”, lol :) My Italian language teacher calls me “edeh”, and that’s close enough too ;) So, we would sit down to a nice dinner with the prima and seconda courses = LOTS of food! I’m still getting used to having a big bowl of pasta, and then also having my plate filled with meat, bread, and salad after that (not to mention sleeping shortly afterwards..)! We’ve had some great pesto with spaghetti noodles, tortellini (filled with meat or spinach), and then some chicken stuffed with cheese, or chicken kabobs, or melon (cantaloupe) wrapped in prosciutto, and on Friday night she really spoiled us with some red wine and cooked mussels! They were very very good, and she put a heaping serving of them on top of a piece of bread in a bowl and then poured the juice over them, which soaked into the bread and made a delicious ending to the meal. The wine from Tuscany is very good (and inexpensive!)! We had a strong red wine, but I’m forgetting the exact name. It had a lot of body and flavors that would dance in your mouth, but was also not too dry at the same time – very pleasant :)
After dinner, Yuri and I said “grazie della cena!” (thank you for dinner), and headed off to get ready for bed. By then it was 9:45 or 10:00 (depending on how much conversation we were able to have at dinner), and we were tired from our full day. If we didn’t do it earlier, Yuri and I would do our Italain homework (competi), before we went to sleep. Then, we would lather ourselves in mosquito repellent (there are so many here!!) and drift off to sleep, hoping that the night would become cool and blow into our window a little so we could sleep ;)
Whew, it’s takes a lot longer to type that all out than to speak it! I hope you enjoyed the first week of the Bel Canto Institute with me, and I believe I will be able to update the blog again on this coming Wednesday. Today, Sunday, we will be having a shorter performance class with 3 singers around 12:30, and then will be meeting all the voice teachers and coaches who will be working with us during the next 3 weeks around 5:00. This first week was a week for us to get acclimated and have intense Italian diction, and now, during these next 3 weeks, we will continue the 2 hours of Italian language and also the performance classes, but also add in a total of 16 hours of coachings and voice lessons, so one hour everyday (including a Saturday).
Ohhhh!!! I almost forgot! Yesterday, Saturday, was a day out of the norm in that we didn’t have the typical schedule you see above (that was for Monday through Friday), but instead took a day-long tour! The first stop was Puccini’s house where he composed a lot of his operas and also where he is entombed. This house was gorgeous and was located in a very small and tranquil town by the name of “Torre del Lago” in the countryside of Tuscany. It is located right on the water, and was a place of quiet and opportunities for Puccini’s other interests as well which included hunting, fishing, and driving automobiles. When Puccini died, this house immediately became a Museum to him, with all original artifacts. He is entombed in a wall of his house, directly behind his piano (the one where he composed), along with several other members of his family. It was very neat to see this and to have a guided tour to hear all about Puccini’s personal life. Apparently he would hunt and fish and do his other interests during the day, and then go home to compose at night.
Puccini’s house in Torre del Lago
Our next stop was the very famous town of Lucca, the place where Puccini was born and spent his childhood years. We also got a guided tour of the town and its history there, which was very interesting as well. The guide would tell us in Italian, and then Jane would translate into English for us. When we first got to Lucca, we were able to wander off around town on our own and go find lunch. So, three friends, Joane, Sarah, and Hannah and I wandered away from the MASS group of students, and found a quaint piazza with a pretty fountain and a nice outdoor eating area. We only had to wait about 5 minutes for a seat, and then ordered our food, which was very reasonably priced :) We laughed a little at their menu as they listed the items both in Italian and English, but the English translation wasn’t that great ;)
Puccini’s house in Lucca
We then went on our tour, and then back on the bus for the ride back to Firenze! We got back around 5:00, and then Joane and I went walking and talking around Firenze’s shopping areas for about 2 hours, which was so pleasant! We both have very similar interests, and it was very good conversation :) we also found out that a lot of the clothes are waaaaay too expense for us (135 euro for jeans??), but we also stumbled onto a free organ concert while walking down random streets! So we sat in on a pipe organ concert for a little while, enjoying the sights of the inside of the beautiful church, and I even recorded some of the concert on my camera… shhhh ;) Next, we again accidently stumbled upon a paper shop! Kelly, a wonderful lady I babysit for in Colorado, told me to find some paper shops in Florence when I was there as Florence is famous for its marbled paper and paper in general. Well, she was right! We looked around for a little while, and I finally settled on buying a beautiful card with a cut-out on it and behind the cut out is the famous marbled paper :) Joane and I then parted ways, and I started heading for the bus for home! On the way, I stopped in a clothing store, and actually got a nice white shirt for 8 euro, yay! That’s much more my price range ;)
Ok, that’s all I can type now! I typed this up on the evening of Saturday night and then also Sunday morning, and will post it Sunday afternoon when I am on the internet.
I hope you all are well, and please feel free to comment and tell me how you are doing and ask me any questions you would like to!
Ciao!
~Heather
***Disclaimer: I tried to post this blog 3 times with issues each time :( So, hopefully this time will work!!
It’s been a little while since I posted here, but I hope to let you catch a glimpse of my activities in Firenze thus far through this update! I am settled at my host home now, and am quite happy. I was a little homesick upon arrival, seeing as I had already traveled for 6 days prior, but am very happy now and embracing this amazing experience and opportunity! The Bel Canto Institute is going very smoothly, and I have already had 10 hours of beginning Italian class. Here is a typical day in the life of Heather in Firenze this past week, with several fun experiences thrown in, so enjoy!
6:30 a.m.: Wake up, stumble to the shower, and start getting ready for the day! I have a yogurt and cereal for breakfast, and grab a small croissant as I go out the door. I have to leave the apartment by 7:45 for the bus because I take one of two busses, and there’s no telling when they will come. So, I either arrive at my Italian Language class right on time (8:30), or a little early with time to settle in. Then, I have Italian class for 2 hours, studying verb forms, vocabulary, articoli indeterminativi, and preposizioni. We learn from the teacher, then do exercises, and read back examples to our fabulous teacher, Sara. I had always thought I would die in a language immersion class where the whole class is taught in Italian, but I am actually doing quite well and catching on, yippee! Plus, our teacher was obviously trained in teaching foreigners Italian, as she goes at a wonderful pace and is very encouraging… not to mention drop dead gorgeous, which the guys in the class appreciate ;) I have about 17 classmates, and we are all enjoying the class.
10:30-11/12:30: Depending on the day this past week, I had practices that were at 11, 11:30, or 12, so I would dedicate the next bit of time to singing and memorizing. Jane Klaviter, the inventor and head of the program, assigned us singers only 30 minutes of practicing a day. Now some would believe this to be too little, but she explained that with the hour coaching or voice lesson a day we will have starting next week, half an hour of practice was plenty for our voices, and I agree! I really enjoy singing in Florence, and had a 3.5 octave range when I first practiced, lol! That has since diminished, but it was a fun moment ;) My practices went well, and we actually very fruitful as I had to be focused the whole time since I only had thirty minutes. I think I may change my style from now on to be more like that as it is much for productive.
12:30-1:15: Next, I would eat lunch! I am saving my money by not going out every day, but by going to the supermercato (super market!) about once or twice a week and buying chiabatta bread, tuna, fruits, veggies, and other snacky items that I can keep in my apartment room and bring to school each day! It has been working out very well, and I can pick exactly what I want to eat, as breakfast and dinner are with the host family and a set meal ;) Plus, then I have more money for gelato… :D Ah yes, the famed GELATO! Yep, it’s as good as it is famed to be! AND, some friends told me about a place right across from the music school where you can get a 1 euro gelato, yippee! That’s the cheapest I have seen, and it’s a nice small amount too which is good for my not-so-flat stomach ;) There is also a coffee and small snack place right next door to the music school, and I have had 4 “caffe latte” there so far, also for 1 euro, which is reasonable.
caffe latte I have as part of my morning routine now :)
1:15-3:45: Performance class! Well, actually, this time and area varied widely this week –
Monday, we went on a small tour around Firenze. Our guide didn’t have a microphone, and when you are 1 of 50, and in the back of the line, it’s doesn’t help… so, I talked with people and introduced myself and met new people instead! It was fun to walk around and see the sites (Duomo, Ponte Vechio, and multiple piazzas) and also get to know the other program participants. Several of you have asked me how many are in the program, and now I have an answer! There are 50 total participants in the program: about 10 instrumentalists, about 15 youth singers (ages 15-17), and about 25 SVP (summer voice program participants, those 18 and older). So we range in age from 15-55, quite the spread! I think the largest group is in the 20-22 range, but there are those older and younger as well.
Tuesday/Wednesday: On these days of performance class, Jane went through a thorough list of Italian terms with us, ones that I had never actually defined clearly before! She played musical examples and provided each student with a large packet of information on the examples, as well as each composer we are studying: Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Puccini, and Verdi. Things like the difference between a “legetura“ and a “portamento” were spoken of, and it was great to learn about the different tempo markings and emotion markings in the various pieces, and even special markings by certain composers.
Thursday/Friday: These last two days of the week began the first performances by students of the program, with Jane coaching them in front of the other participants! We had 3-4 people on Thursday, and I got to go with 3 other people on Friday! It was a great experience, and I really appreciated Jane’s candor and wisdom in coaching me on the recit portion of “Oh Quante Volte” by Bellini. It was neat because another student, Ju, is also learning the aria, so we kind of split it – I sang the recit and was coached on that, and Ju sang the aria and was coached on it! We each got about 30 minutes, which was a perfect amount of time to sing it through, and then go work through the piece. I will get another coaching with Jane later on in the program :)
3:45-6:15: I typically had this time free in the day, so I used it to eat a light snack, do my homework, check my email, and mark up my music for the role I am learning. There is a nice sun room off the main area of the Language school, so I would typically walk back there and sit in that room to work. It was quiet and out of the way, and it was nice to have some solitude for the day ;) On Tuesday, my friends showed me a good “internet point” as they are called here, where I could bring in my little Netbook (small laptop) and surf the internet and Skype, yay! So, on Wednesday, I brought my computer with me and went there during this free time and got to Skype with Matt and my family, yippee! It was good to see their faces and hear their voices… something missing when you can only communicate through email. But hey, I know I’m lucky to have both, and can’t imagine a time when relationships were sustained through letters that would take weeks in the mail, yikes!! I’m spoiled to have lots of good email to read in my inbox when I check my email :D
view from sun room off of language school where I like to do my work
6:15-8:15: During just this first week, we had diction classes every night for 2 hours… It was really great information, and had a very patient, yet insistent, teacher, but the timing of the class wasn’t that good ;) We were all in a very warm room (no air conditioning in any room except the auditorium where we have the performance classes!), about 20 of us, sitting, a little hungry or full of gelato, for 2 hours… lol. But I learned sooooo much, especially about the actual differences between closed [e] and open [E] and closed [o] and open o, and also about the importance of doubled consonants and how to do them, and the VERY important [f]! Our teacher liked a LOT of [f], so he would write about four on the board and say “that much!” ffff…. :D We all spoke and sang a lot in class, so I know my pronunciation and flow of Italian phrasing got much better, and I think the other people in the class can say the same.
8:15-10:00: After class, Yuri and I would walk to the bus stop (10 minutes), and wait for our bus to pick us up! Typically, people would have dinner at 8:30, but since we live the furthest away, we asked Barbara, our host mom, if it was ok to move dinner to 9:00. She is soooo sweet! I like her more and more each day, and she tells us that she is “our mommy” while we are here. So, Yuri and I caught the bus, and watched our purses and backpacks (lots of thieves and pickpockets on the bus), and traveled home. We walked to the apartment and arrived with a “bueno sera!” (good evening) to Barbara, who was busy cooking our super. She usually tells us to “relax” (one of the few English words she knows) and we go into our shared bedroom to drop off our things, wash our faces (it is SO humid here…), and relax for a little before dinner. Around
9:00 Barbara calls “Yudi, Erik!”…. um, oh yes, did I mention how hard the name “Heather” is to say in Italian? Barbara has asked me twice how to say my name, but now I just respond to “erik”, lol :) My Italian language teacher calls me “edeh”, and that’s close enough too ;) So, we would sit down to a nice dinner with the prima and seconda courses = LOTS of food! I’m still getting used to having a big bowl of pasta, and then also having my plate filled with meat, bread, and salad after that (not to mention sleeping shortly afterwards..)! We’ve had some great pesto with spaghetti noodles, tortellini (filled with meat or spinach), and then some chicken stuffed with cheese, or chicken kabobs, or melon (cantaloupe) wrapped in prosciutto, and on Friday night she really spoiled us with some red wine and cooked mussels! They were very very good, and she put a heaping serving of them on top of a piece of bread in a bowl and then poured the juice over them, which soaked into the bread and made a delicious ending to the meal. The wine from Tuscany is very good (and inexpensive!)! We had a strong red wine, but I’m forgetting the exact name. It had a lot of body and flavors that would dance in your mouth, but was also not too dry at the same time – very pleasant :)
After dinner, Yuri and I said “grazie della cena!” (thank you for dinner), and headed off to get ready for bed. By then it was 9:45 or 10:00 (depending on how much conversation we were able to have at dinner), and we were tired from our full day. If we didn’t do it earlier, Yuri and I would do our Italain homework (competi), before we went to sleep. Then, we would lather ourselves in mosquito repellent (there are so many here!!) and drift off to sleep, hoping that the night would become cool and blow into our window a little so we could sleep ;)
Whew, it’s takes a lot longer to type that all out than to speak it! I hope you enjoyed the first week of the Bel Canto Institute with me, and I believe I will be able to update the blog again on this coming Wednesday. Today, Sunday, we will be having a shorter performance class with 3 singers around 12:30, and then will be meeting all the voice teachers and coaches who will be working with us during the next 3 weeks around 5:00. This first week was a week for us to get acclimated and have intense Italian diction, and now, during these next 3 weeks, we will continue the 2 hours of Italian language and also the performance classes, but also add in a total of 16 hours of coachings and voice lessons, so one hour everyday (including a Saturday).
Ohhhh!!! I almost forgot! Yesterday, Saturday, was a day out of the norm in that we didn’t have the typical schedule you see above (that was for Monday through Friday), but instead took a day-long tour! The first stop was Puccini’s house where he composed a lot of his operas and also where he is entombed. This house was gorgeous and was located in a very small and tranquil town by the name of “Torre del Lago” in the countryside of Tuscany. It is located right on the water, and was a place of quiet and opportunities for Puccini’s other interests as well which included hunting, fishing, and driving automobiles. When Puccini died, this house immediately became a Museum to him, with all original artifacts. He is entombed in a wall of his house, directly behind his piano (the one where he composed), along with several other members of his family. It was very neat to see this and to have a guided tour to hear all about Puccini’s personal life. Apparently he would hunt and fish and do his other interests during the day, and then go home to compose at night.
Puccini’s house in Torre del Lago
Puccini's view from his house :)
Our next stop was the very famous town of Lucca, the place where Puccini was born and spent his childhood years. We also got a guided tour of the town and its history there, which was very interesting as well. The guide would tell us in Italian, and then Jane would translate into English for us. When we first got to Lucca, we were able to wander off around town on our own and go find lunch. So, three friends, Joane, Sarah, and Hannah and I wandered away from the MASS group of students, and found a quaint piazza with a pretty fountain and a nice outdoor eating area. We only had to wait about 5 minutes for a seat, and then ordered our food, which was very reasonably priced :) We laughed a little at their menu as they listed the items both in Italian and English, but the English translation wasn’t that great ;)
Puccini’s house in LuccaWe then went on our tour, and then back on the bus for the ride back to Firenze! We got back around 5:00, and then Joane and I went walking and talking around Firenze’s shopping areas for about 2 hours, which was so pleasant! We both have very similar interests, and it was very good conversation :) we also found out that a lot of the clothes are waaaaay too expense for us (135 euro for jeans??), but we also stumbled onto a free organ concert while walking down random streets! So we sat in on a pipe organ concert for a little while, enjoying the sights of the inside of the beautiful church, and I even recorded some of the concert on my camera… shhhh ;) Next, we again accidently stumbled upon a paper shop! Kelly, a wonderful lady I babysit for in Colorado, told me to find some paper shops in Florence when I was there as Florence is famous for its marbled paper and paper in general. Well, she was right! We looked around for a little while, and I finally settled on buying a beautiful card with a cut-out on it and behind the cut out is the famous marbled paper :) Joane and I then parted ways, and I started heading for the bus for home! On the way, I stopped in a clothing store, and actually got a nice white shirt for 8 euro, yay! That’s much more my price range ;)
Ok, that’s all I can type now! I typed this up on the evening of Saturday night and then also Sunday morning, and will post it Sunday afternoon when I am on the internet.
I hope you all are well, and please feel free to comment and tell me how you are doing and ask me any questions you would like to!
Ciao!
~Heather
***Disclaimer: I tried to post this blog 3 times with issues each time :( So, hopefully this time will work!!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Arrived in Florence!
Hello all!
I hope to make an actual blog soon and copy and paste into here, but right now I don't have much time :)
Just wanted to let you all know that Yuri and I arrived safely in Florence yesterday, Sunday, and we met our Bel Canto Institute collegues and leaders last night at 5:00! Before that though, we went to our host home and met the host lady, Barbara, and her nephew and his finance who also lives there :) Barbara then helped us find where we were supposed to go downtown, as we have to take a bus to get there! I believe Yuri and I are the furthest ones away from the various schools, but that's ok. It's either a 40 minute walk, or a 10 minute bus and about 7 minute walk, so we opted for the latter today. Yuri and I now feel like local commuters with our July bus passes, lol. I will probably walk it a few time, but with my 2-hour Italian class starting at 8:30 in the morning, it's very tempting to get on a bus ;)
Well, I am typing on an apple computer with a foreign keyboard, but hey, at least it's free! The language school has 6 free computers with internet access to use, which is very convienient. The only thing is, you gotta give it up if someone has signed up for a slot!
I can post some of my second day in Rome, however, so I will do that!
Saturday was pretty relaxed and chill, with fun moments interspersed :) We left the hostel pretty late, around 10:30 or 11, and headed straight to the Vatican via the metro (mastered yet another subway, lol). Fortunately, since we got there later, so there wasn't any line! I had also read in our guide book about cheaper tickets for students, so we both showed our Colorado student IDs and got in for 8 euro instead of 13! Yippee :)
The train ride to Florence was very relaxing and calming. I studied music, slept, and wrote :)
Then, we got into Florence via the train, got money from the ATM and a taxi, and he took us to our host family!!
OK, I will have to end there. Thanks for journeying with me, and I will hope to find a way to get pictures up soon!
Heather (which is a very hard name to say in Italian...)
I hope to make an actual blog soon and copy and paste into here, but right now I don't have much time :)
Just wanted to let you all know that Yuri and I arrived safely in Florence yesterday, Sunday, and we met our Bel Canto Institute collegues and leaders last night at 5:00! Before that though, we went to our host home and met the host lady, Barbara, and her nephew and his finance who also lives there :) Barbara then helped us find where we were supposed to go downtown, as we have to take a bus to get there! I believe Yuri and I are the furthest ones away from the various schools, but that's ok. It's either a 40 minute walk, or a 10 minute bus and about 7 minute walk, so we opted for the latter today. Yuri and I now feel like local commuters with our July bus passes, lol. I will probably walk it a few time, but with my 2-hour Italian class starting at 8:30 in the morning, it's very tempting to get on a bus ;)
Well, I am typing on an apple computer with a foreign keyboard, but hey, at least it's free! The language school has 6 free computers with internet access to use, which is very convienient. The only thing is, you gotta give it up if someone has signed up for a slot!
I can post some of my second day in Rome, however, so I will do that!
Saturday was pretty relaxed and chill, with fun moments interspersed :) We left the hostel pretty late, around 10:30 or 11, and headed straight to the Vatican via the metro (mastered yet another subway, lol). Fortunately, since we got there later, so there wasn't any line! I had also read in our guide book about cheaper tickets for students, so we both showed our Colorado student IDs and got in for 8 euro instead of 13! Yippee :)
We started with the picture gallery, home to Raphael’s last painting, The Transfiguration, along with some pretty neat other paintings. Apparently, the Vatican Museum is the richest museum in the world. Period. So, with that said, there was a bunch to take in, and I’m sure I didn’t even come close to fully appreciated all the art I was walking by too fast ;) You could be there for 8 hours and still not see everything, so we picked and chose. We got to go to the Octagonal Courtyard and see some beautiful marble statues, and also to the Gallery of the Maps and the Hall of Constantine where the original painting stands of Constantine declaring Christianity legal. On the way to the famed Sistine Chapel, we also got to go through the Raphael rooms and see both the School of Athens and the Liberation of St. Peter. It’s too bad that these are just “on the way” as the path lays out, because people are just rushing past them trying to get to the Sistine chapel. Yuri's legs got some muscle, and now she knows how to walk with a good pace, yay! I had to wonder where she was going so fast today, lol!
Ok, back to the museum… So then we finally got to see the Sistine Chapel, and it was gorgeous just as the first time I saw it. It wasn’t nearly as crowded though as last time, and I actually got to sit down on the side where there are benches for at least 15 minutes while Yuri did her rosary (she’s Catholic) and I marveled at the paintings and enormity of it all.
After that we went and stood in line for St. Peter’s Basilica, yet another engineering and artistic wonder. The first thing I went to was La Pieta, Mary holding Jesus’ body after he was taken down on the cross. I am still moved every time I see this statue by Michelangelo, and stood there for a little while taking it all in. Whenever I see the statue, I am moved by the moment of Jesus’ death and lifeless body.
After that, I had decided that I wanted to do something I hadn’t done before, and that was to go to the TOP of St. Peter’s Basilica’s Dome!! Whoa… not really sure how high up it was, but let’s just say that I counted 498 steps on the way back down! Yep, Heather climbed up and down at least 1096 steps today, and hardly broke a sweat, actually :) You could either pay 5 euro to take stairs the whole way, or 6 euro to take a lift part of the way. Well, of course stairs!
So, up I went, in my sundress and backpack and jacket no less (can’t show shoulders in the church!). The first opening was only about 160 stairs up, and that was up at the top of the inside of the dome, looking down into the church. Well, I didn’t know that wasn’t the top, so I marveled a little and thought it was cool. Then I stepped back out and saw people going up more stairs… ok, guess I will follow. OH Boy! Yes, there were more stairs, lol. And they got narrower and narrower as you went up them! The last bit was about a 18 inch wide spiral staircase, with no railing and just a vertical rope to steady yourself as you climbed! But the view was so worth it :) I took a video and pictures, and actually the bells of the church were ringing in 5:00 as I was videoing, so that was pretty neat! I stayed up there for about 10 minutes, cooling off, and taking it all in… then came the climb down. By the end, my leg would shake if I even put a little pressure on the front part of my foot, lol.
Well, after finding Yuri out in St. Peter’s square, we took the metro back to the hostel, got out our music to study, and took the metro to a beautiful park and the Piazza del Popolo up north. We got Burger King for dinner and took it to the Piazza to eat! Then we walked and found a beautiful pool inside the park, and stayed there for about 1.5 hours, watching the sunset, barely missing a thunderstorm, and listening to and memorizing our music. It was very relaxing. Then, we came back to the hostel, and I wrote some emails and went to bed!
The train ride to Florence was very relaxing and calming. I studied music, slept, and wrote :)
Then, we got into Florence via the train, got money from the ATM and a taxi, and he took us to our host family!!
OK, I will have to end there. Thanks for journeying with me, and I will hope to find a way to get pictures up soon!
Heather (which is a very hard name to say in Italian...)
Friday, June 26, 2009
Hello from Rome!
I have written this blog in MSWord, and hope it will copy over well to the internet blog when I am on the internet! Unlike America, where you can practically steal someone else’s unsecured wireless from just about anywhere, that isn’t the case of here :) BUT, in my new hostel in Rome, they give you ½ hour free, and then just a Euro an hour after that, which really isn’t at all that bad…
Back to the beginning! Yuri and I took off on Monday morning, after fretful packing and rethinking of what to bring the weekend prior. I myslef was able to take most of Sunday off, which was nice, and spend the day with my boyfriend Matt :) He was very kind and understanding of my frantic and scattered brain, and we had a great time at church, hiking, motorcycle ride, and then out to dinner and a movie back in Boulder – he treats me well!
The next morning, Yuri’s mom drove both of us to the airport, and it was goodbye America, hello Canada!! Wait, say what? Canada? Well, yes… our lovely 3-legged flight to London first dropped us off in Montreal (where we had to go through customs and fortunately the officer told me that if we didn’t change our own luggage over, it wouldn’t make it to London! Fortunately, he was right, and the lady in Denver who told us it would check through all the way was wrong… we got it on and it is all safe!) So, we had lunch in Montreal, and then caught our flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia. I’m sure it was pretty there, but we got there just before dark, and waited in the airport (free internet!) playing around and checking in with people until our 11:45 p.m. flight to London.
I was planning on trying to sleep the whole 6 hours, but that was near impossible in coach with the flight attendants feeding us both an hour after takeoff and 1.5 hours before landing. I think I got a little sleep, an hour at a time. Needless to say, by the time Yuri and I got to London, we were DONE with flying, and ready for walking! We caught the underground (tube) Picadilly line, and went to Kings Cross station in London. After a bit of lost walking around, I realized via our map that we had walked too far west and not far enough south, traced back, and found our hostel! Since it was about 1:30, and we couldn’t check in until 3:00, we were able to leave our luggage in a locked room, and took off to explore and walk out our leg cramps. With an all-day pass for the London underground, we were free to do what we liked! So, we went first to Hyde Park, where we saw beautiful flowers (including my namesake), the Serpintine River, geese, and of course had to stop for some ice cream :)
We then wandered over to the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, where we were able to see many pictures and paintings. The ones by Monet, Van Gogh, and another person who came as a surprise to me were among my favorites. I will have to research those and let you know who it was!
We then traveled to Trafalgar Square (sorry if I spelt that wrong!) and then on to Covent Garden. It was there that we saw a fun street performer, the apple market, and also the Royal Opera House! We couldn’t go in much past the gift shop in the opera house, but we did get pictures. That was enough for one jet-lagged day, so we headed back to the hostel (which was a converted courthouse!) and settled in for the night. It was an ok night of sleeping, though our window faced the main street and had to stay open (no air conditioning), so it was a little loud. But we took our time waking up, and after a lot of rest, headed out for another big day in London!
This day, June 24th, was Yuri’s 21st birthday!!! I’m sure not many of her friends could say that they spent their 21st birthday in London, haha. We had a lot of fun, starting with the very touristy sights of Big Ben, Westminster Abby, Houses of Parliament, and the London Eye. We got to be there when Big Ben struck 12:00 noon! It was very exciting, and we enjoyed seeing everything from the outside. They charge huge amounts for going into Westminster Abby and the London Eye, so we admired from a distance. After some more ice cream and some good chatting and lunch, we headed back on the tube for The Tower of London. I had not seen this on my last trip to London, so this was exciting for me :) However, the tube was experiencing some backups from some electrical fires earlier in the morning, so instead of going the short way around the Circle Line, we had to go the long way around! It was a welcome for our tired feet, but still ate up a bunch of time. Nevertheless, we got to the tower and walked around it and got a picture in front of Tower Bridge as well, which was beautiful.
We got back on the tube, and went to St. Paul’s Cathedral! It was another beautiful church, and the weather was nice and cool on that side of town. It was more in the business district, so it was neat to see all the people dressed up fancy and business-like. The people in London dress very professionally, and yet with style, and it is easy to appreciate their taste ;) Although, there is a trend over there that I am wondering when it will come to the US: Girls/women wearing shorter skirts and shorts, yet wearing full length dark black stockings/hose underneath! Not sure how this trend got started, but who knows, U.S.A. could be next! Next in my musings is how much I liked being around people from all over the world! I decided I really love the multiple ethnic groups seen both at the hostel and all over London, and am enjoying hearing the many different languages from all over the world. That has motivated me to really try hard to learn the Italian language so that I can start communicating with people at the grocery store and otherwise all over Florence when I get there!
One of our last stops of the day was the British Museum – mostly to see the Rosetta Stone on display. After oooooing and ahhhhhing over it (it is actually quite large!), Yuri went and saw the Asian artifacts on display, while I went to the Africa exhibit. It was a small, yet detailed part of the museum, and I enjoyed learning more about this part of the world. I recognized some of the clothes and patterns from when I went to South Africa, and I also saw a great display of large pots that was quite spectacular.
Well, talk about tired feet now!! Yuri had decided that she wanted to go to a restaurant called “Pizza on the Park” for her birthday, so we headed back on the tube to Hyde Park one last time. It was a lovely restaurant, and Yuri had her first public taste of wine, a white wine of the sauvignon blanc class, and I had a “sunrise sauvignon blanc” that was quite nice and refreshing. We had risotto for our appetizer, and then I got a “funghi” pizza (mushrooms!!) and Yuri had a pesto pasta dish. We shared, and were both quite stuffed by the time we were done! But that’s ok, because after dinner we took a long walk down to the royal Buckingham Palace to see it! It was gorgeous and quite ornate, with many guards (both traditionally dressed and non) and a beautiful statue dedicated to Queen Victoria out front. We admired it for a while, and then took a walk through Green Park back to the Picadilly line headed for “home.” We dropped some things off at the hostel, and then went back to McDonalds for free internet!! Hehe. We had discovered that they had free internet there the day before, so we took some time (and our computers) and I got to skype chat with both Matt and my family, yay!! It was wonderful to hear and see them both, and I got a little chocked up doing that :) Although, I was smiling so much, it might have been hard to tell ;)
We then had a bit of a rough night at the hostel trying to sleep, but with girls coming in and out of the room (10-bed girls room), and some packing at 2:30 a.m. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but we had to get up at 6:00 to start our day, so Thursday was a little rough. But, we made the tube to the Victoria bus station to the Stanstead airport! And, since we were flying Ryan Air, a low-cost (read: CHEAP and lots of hidden fees), we were worried that our luggage would be over the 15 kilo (33 pounds) limit for checked baggage. Miraculously, mine was only 14.4, and Yuri’s was a few over, but the guy said it was fine! It probably helped that we were joking with him, and the fact that he was helping Ryan Air as he was actually a Swiss Air operator!
After a bit of a rough flight (we were very tired, and the plane tried to land once, then suddenly pulled up right before we touched down and had to circle back around for another chance, then they couldn’t get the door unlocked and disarmed because there was a loss of power to the plane, lol), we made our way out, got our luggage, got our passports stamped, and were on a bus to Rome’s Termini station! Our hostel was quite close to the station, but were we tired and paid a cab to take us there. Well, he was close, but no cigar. So, after looking around a bit, I spotted it down the road!! So happy :) Whew!! And that is where my blog will have to end for now! This hostel is even better than the last one, and we have 6 very nice roommates, all around the same ages as ourselves.
They also fed us a free dinner of pasta when we got here, and also get a free breakfast in the mornings, yay! I’m all about low-cost meals ;)
Well, I wrote most of this blog on the night of June 25th, and am now posting it the morning of June 26th! Yuri and I have had breakfast, and are ready for the day. We are planning on the Coliseum and the surrounding ruins today, with perhaps the Trevi Fountain and Spanish step as well. Then tomorrow, it’s off to Vatican City first thing in the morning to beat the crowds, in our skirts of course, so we can go into St. Peter’s Basilica :)
Thanks for reading about our trip so far! I hope to update it again once we get to Florence and are settled with our host family and have met the other participants in the program!
~Heather
P.S. I tried to include several pics with this blog, but they weren't uploading! will try again tonight :)
Back to the beginning! Yuri and I took off on Monday morning, after fretful packing and rethinking of what to bring the weekend prior. I myslef was able to take most of Sunday off, which was nice, and spend the day with my boyfriend Matt :) He was very kind and understanding of my frantic and scattered brain, and we had a great time at church, hiking, motorcycle ride, and then out to dinner and a movie back in Boulder – he treats me well!
The next morning, Yuri’s mom drove both of us to the airport, and it was goodbye America, hello Canada!! Wait, say what? Canada? Well, yes… our lovely 3-legged flight to London first dropped us off in Montreal (where we had to go through customs and fortunately the officer told me that if we didn’t change our own luggage over, it wouldn’t make it to London! Fortunately, he was right, and the lady in Denver who told us it would check through all the way was wrong… we got it on and it is all safe!) So, we had lunch in Montreal, and then caught our flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia. I’m sure it was pretty there, but we got there just before dark, and waited in the airport (free internet!) playing around and checking in with people until our 11:45 p.m. flight to London.
I was planning on trying to sleep the whole 6 hours, but that was near impossible in coach with the flight attendants feeding us both an hour after takeoff and 1.5 hours before landing. I think I got a little sleep, an hour at a time. Needless to say, by the time Yuri and I got to London, we were DONE with flying, and ready for walking! We caught the underground (tube) Picadilly line, and went to Kings Cross station in London. After a bit of lost walking around, I realized via our map that we had walked too far west and not far enough south, traced back, and found our hostel! Since it was about 1:30, and we couldn’t check in until 3:00, we were able to leave our luggage in a locked room, and took off to explore and walk out our leg cramps. With an all-day pass for the London underground, we were free to do what we liked! So, we went first to Hyde Park, where we saw beautiful flowers (including my namesake), the Serpintine River, geese, and of course had to stop for some ice cream :)
We then wandered over to the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, where we were able to see many pictures and paintings. The ones by Monet, Van Gogh, and another person who came as a surprise to me were among my favorites. I will have to research those and let you know who it was!
We then traveled to Trafalgar Square (sorry if I spelt that wrong!) and then on to Covent Garden. It was there that we saw a fun street performer, the apple market, and also the Royal Opera House! We couldn’t go in much past the gift shop in the opera house, but we did get pictures. That was enough for one jet-lagged day, so we headed back to the hostel (which was a converted courthouse!) and settled in for the night. It was an ok night of sleeping, though our window faced the main street and had to stay open (no air conditioning), so it was a little loud. But we took our time waking up, and after a lot of rest, headed out for another big day in London!
This day, June 24th, was Yuri’s 21st birthday!!! I’m sure not many of her friends could say that they spent their 21st birthday in London, haha. We had a lot of fun, starting with the very touristy sights of Big Ben, Westminster Abby, Houses of Parliament, and the London Eye. We got to be there when Big Ben struck 12:00 noon! It was very exciting, and we enjoyed seeing everything from the outside. They charge huge amounts for going into Westminster Abby and the London Eye, so we admired from a distance. After some more ice cream and some good chatting and lunch, we headed back on the tube for The Tower of London. I had not seen this on my last trip to London, so this was exciting for me :) However, the tube was experiencing some backups from some electrical fires earlier in the morning, so instead of going the short way around the Circle Line, we had to go the long way around! It was a welcome for our tired feet, but still ate up a bunch of time. Nevertheless, we got to the tower and walked around it and got a picture in front of Tower Bridge as well, which was beautiful.
We got back on the tube, and went to St. Paul’s Cathedral! It was another beautiful church, and the weather was nice and cool on that side of town. It was more in the business district, so it was neat to see all the people dressed up fancy and business-like. The people in London dress very professionally, and yet with style, and it is easy to appreciate their taste ;) Although, there is a trend over there that I am wondering when it will come to the US: Girls/women wearing shorter skirts and shorts, yet wearing full length dark black stockings/hose underneath! Not sure how this trend got started, but who knows, U.S.A. could be next! Next in my musings is how much I liked being around people from all over the world! I decided I really love the multiple ethnic groups seen both at the hostel and all over London, and am enjoying hearing the many different languages from all over the world. That has motivated me to really try hard to learn the Italian language so that I can start communicating with people at the grocery store and otherwise all over Florence when I get there!
One of our last stops of the day was the British Museum – mostly to see the Rosetta Stone on display. After oooooing and ahhhhhing over it (it is actually quite large!), Yuri went and saw the Asian artifacts on display, while I went to the Africa exhibit. It was a small, yet detailed part of the museum, and I enjoyed learning more about this part of the world. I recognized some of the clothes and patterns from when I went to South Africa, and I also saw a great display of large pots that was quite spectacular.
Well, talk about tired feet now!! Yuri had decided that she wanted to go to a restaurant called “Pizza on the Park” for her birthday, so we headed back on the tube to Hyde Park one last time. It was a lovely restaurant, and Yuri had her first public taste of wine, a white wine of the sauvignon blanc class, and I had a “sunrise sauvignon blanc” that was quite nice and refreshing. We had risotto for our appetizer, and then I got a “funghi” pizza (mushrooms!!) and Yuri had a pesto pasta dish. We shared, and were both quite stuffed by the time we were done! But that’s ok, because after dinner we took a long walk down to the royal Buckingham Palace to see it! It was gorgeous and quite ornate, with many guards (both traditionally dressed and non) and a beautiful statue dedicated to Queen Victoria out front. We admired it for a while, and then took a walk through Green Park back to the Picadilly line headed for “home.” We dropped some things off at the hostel, and then went back to McDonalds for free internet!! Hehe. We had discovered that they had free internet there the day before, so we took some time (and our computers) and I got to skype chat with both Matt and my family, yay!! It was wonderful to hear and see them both, and I got a little chocked up doing that :) Although, I was smiling so much, it might have been hard to tell ;)
We then had a bit of a rough night at the hostel trying to sleep, but with girls coming in and out of the room (10-bed girls room), and some packing at 2:30 a.m. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but we had to get up at 6:00 to start our day, so Thursday was a little rough. But, we made the tube to the Victoria bus station to the Stanstead airport! And, since we were flying Ryan Air, a low-cost (read: CHEAP and lots of hidden fees), we were worried that our luggage would be over the 15 kilo (33 pounds) limit for checked baggage. Miraculously, mine was only 14.4, and Yuri’s was a few over, but the guy said it was fine! It probably helped that we were joking with him, and the fact that he was helping Ryan Air as he was actually a Swiss Air operator!
After a bit of a rough flight (we were very tired, and the plane tried to land once, then suddenly pulled up right before we touched down and had to circle back around for another chance, then they couldn’t get the door unlocked and disarmed because there was a loss of power to the plane, lol), we made our way out, got our luggage, got our passports stamped, and were on a bus to Rome’s Termini station! Our hostel was quite close to the station, but were we tired and paid a cab to take us there. Well, he was close, but no cigar. So, after looking around a bit, I spotted it down the road!! So happy :) Whew!! And that is where my blog will have to end for now! This hostel is even better than the last one, and we have 6 very nice roommates, all around the same ages as ourselves.
They also fed us a free dinner of pasta when we got here, and also get a free breakfast in the mornings, yay! I’m all about low-cost meals ;)
Well, I wrote most of this blog on the night of June 25th, and am now posting it the morning of June 26th! Yuri and I have had breakfast, and are ready for the day. We are planning on the Coliseum and the surrounding ruins today, with perhaps the Trevi Fountain and Spanish step as well. Then tomorrow, it’s off to Vatican City first thing in the morning to beat the crowds, in our skirts of course, so we can go into St. Peter’s Basilica :)
Thanks for reading about our trip so far! I hope to update it again once we get to Florence and are settled with our host family and have met the other participants in the program!
~Heather
P.S. I tried to include several pics with this blog, but they weren't uploading! will try again tonight :)
Monday, June 15, 2009
Heather's Itinerary
Hello!
Just wanted to give another update before I leave for Europe in a week!!
Here is my rough itinerary for my trip:
Monday, June 22: leave for London!
Tuesday, June 23: arrive in London and spend this day and the next touring around and seeing the sites :)
Thursday, June 25: leave for Rome and spend this day and the next two touring around and seeing all the history and museums in Rome.
Sunday, June 28: Go to Florence, find host family, and get settled in for the Bel Canto Institute for the next 4 weeks!
June 28-July 26: Study at the Bel Canto Institute with a wonderful voice teacher and vocal coaches and conductors, learning the Italian language and the Bel Canto style of singing through composers Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini!
Sunday, July 26 and Monday, July 27: journey back to the states!!!
I hope you are all well, and stay tuned for more updates and globe trotting :)
~Heather
Just wanted to give another update before I leave for Europe in a week!!
Here is my rough itinerary for my trip:
Monday, June 22: leave for London!
Tuesday, June 23: arrive in London and spend this day and the next touring around and seeing the sites :)
Thursday, June 25: leave for Rome and spend this day and the next two touring around and seeing all the history and museums in Rome.
Sunday, June 28: Go to Florence, find host family, and get settled in for the Bel Canto Institute for the next 4 weeks!
June 28-July 26: Study at the Bel Canto Institute with a wonderful voice teacher and vocal coaches and conductors, learning the Italian language and the Bel Canto style of singing through composers Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini!
Sunday, July 26 and Monday, July 27: journey back to the states!!!
I hope you are all well, and stay tuned for more updates and globe trotting :)
~Heather
Monday, June 1, 2009
I'm headed to Europe!
Hello All!
Just wanted to let you know that I am going to actively use this blog this summer to tell you of my adventures in Europe!
The main reason I will be going is to attend the Bel Canto Institute in Florence, Italy from June 28 - July 26. Their website with all the info about this wonderful vocal and Italian language program can be found here : www.belcantoinst.org
I will be posting my itinerary and pictures and stories for your enjoyment and amusement, and hope that you will check back with me often for my latest post!
More to come....
~Heather
Just wanted to let you know that I am going to actively use this blog this summer to tell you of my adventures in Europe!
The main reason I will be going is to attend the Bel Canto Institute in Florence, Italy from June 28 - July 26. Their website with all the info about this wonderful vocal and Italian language program can be found here : www.belcantoinst.org
I will be posting my itinerary and pictures and stories for your enjoyment and amusement, and hope that you will check back with me often for my latest post!
More to come....
~Heather
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