A Night at the Opera

Okay, techinically it was a night at the ballet but that didn't have nearly the ring to it that "a night at the opera" did. Besides there was opera involved. Yesterday afternoon, I came home for lunch after school and then I went back to school to recite a poem for Teachers day. Personally I thought teacher's day was awesome and I think we should have it in America. See, basically in Russia October 5th is day of teachers. This means that the students give cards, flowers, and candy to their teachers to show their appreciation. Our school also had an assembly where the different classes did different things to show their appreciation of the teachers at our school. That's where I recited the poem. The poem I chose to recite was by Robert Frost. The title? The Road Not Taken It goes as follows:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler long I stood
And looked down one as far I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps a better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh I saved the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads onto way
I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Someday ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wook and I
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.


It was funny because I went up to the mike and said hello in Russian and everyone clapped for me. It made me smile. When I was finished, everyone cheered which made me feel really good about myself.

after the program, Raisa picked me up and we went to see the famous ballerina Anastasia Verochkova. She's danced in Moscow which is really cool. I was surprised because there was no rule or announcement about not taking pictures during the performance. So I did. Unfortunately most of the pictures turned out badly. Stupid camera.



My favorite dance was where Volochkova danced with a guy, but he was all stiff, kind of like he wasn't there. Then at the end you find out that he'd been killed. It's hard to explain, but I really enjoyed the story the dance told.

In between ballet sets were opera singers. Naturally they were really good. Probably the best I've heard, though I haven't seen a ton of opera so I'm not really an expert.

That's basically it I guess. The ballet was awesome, the night went well. That kind of thing. I'm tired right now as I've been going at a constant pace all week. It's funny because whenever I don't have anything planned, Raisa tells me to call someone to hang out. I tried to get a hold of a few people but they're all busy. Good. Maybe I'll take a walk by myself. There's a CD I've been wanting to buy and I've also been wanting to hit the Pushkin library, I just haven't had a chance.

By the way, it's been snowing all day. Again. People have started telling me that winter's begun. Actually I'm enjoying the weather as even though it's pretty cold here it doesn't feel nearly as cold as home. I finally figured out why. There hasn't been an icy winds. I hope it stays that way!