Teatro Solis and other things

Monday night we had tickets to hear the Montevideo (I keep almost saying Abilene) Philharmonic. We all dressed up,took the requisite, "Hey for once we are dressed nice pictures," piled in taxis and headed to Teatro Solis, the opera house. It is gorgeous. It was newly renovated when I came last time, but somehow I never made it. Outside the theater Wimon divided the us up into groups with the tickets. The four oldies, Sandra joined us too got our tickets together. When we went up to the first level some how the tickets didn't look to be together. But the students were still there and we got it sorted out. One of the ushers was super excited to get to use his English, even when Wimon, Rosalinda, and Sandra spoke to him in Spanish. :)

Once we made it in the auditorium we saw that we were in for a real treat. The auditorium has floor seating then 5 or 6 balcony levels. We were in the first balconies. Half of our group was on one side and half was on the other. In the picture on the left, my students are that row of people. Each balcony only had 2 or 3 rows of seats. If you are sitting on the front row (which we were) there was a cushion on the front of the balcony that you could lean on. It was fun during the performance to watch the people in the higher balconies lean over to watch the concert. There were also lots of little doors that lead to the different sections of the balconies. One of the students suggested it would be an awesome place to trick or treat because there were so many doors.

The concert itself was very good. In the first half, they played some slower music to which I'll admit most of us found ourselves closing our eyes. Not in a bored way, but in a very relaxed lull you to sleep way. After the intermission the music was a definitely more peppy. We all got a lot of giggles watching one of the young percussionists playing the maracas with flair. The last song had everyone bobbing. I thought maybe Wimon was going to actually start dancing.

One funny thing of note, before the concert I noticed that two of the young violin players were wearing strapless dresses. This struck me as a bit odd. From where we were sitting it, once they were behind their music stands, it sure did look like we were going to a concert in a nudist colony. Of course being the mature person I am, I had to try to get a picture. Doesn't this picture totally portray the common nightmare of "I'm on stage and I forgot to put on clothes!!!!"

It was a gorgeous night so we walked back to CasaACU. One of the funny things is that after being here a month, the idea of walking two miles in dress clothes is not a big deal at all. (Because we are wise, Rosalinda and I did bring flats to wear, so we changed out of our heals after the concert.) On the way home, we had to stop at Cigales. What is Cigales? Only the best ice cream shop in the world.

So that was our adventure for last night. There is not much to catch you up on from the weekend. Saturday I slept until 11, I think the college students are rubbing off on me. Then I hung out in my apartment totally avoiding people until like 4. I then decided if I didn't get out of the house I'd never sleep that night. I walked to Tres Cruces and looked around. Then I wandered the streets a bit and came home. I spent most of the evening playing cards with my students. We played a game called Mao which Josh and I knew how to play, I'd tell you more about it, but that's against the rules. :)

One of the funny things about professors and students living together is that you have conversations like the one I had Saturday night. Student: "Man I meant to study all day." Me: "Yeah, you can't even try to make me feel guilty by telling me how much you studied, because I've been playing cards with you for the last 4 hours." (P.S. I don't feel guilty when students study a lot... future students don't try that tact.)

Sunday after church I went with Wimon and Rosalinda to Gran Sportman which is our normal Sunday lunch place, partly because its right next to a big ferria (market). After lunch Rosalinda and I wandered the ferria, we didn't buy much. On the way home I nearly gave her a heart attack. One thing that it is hard for folks from the Southern US in general and from Christian College Campuses more specifically to get used to is that here you don't make eye contact or generally acknowledge the existence of people you don't know on the street. Well we were almost home and Rosalinda notices there are some young men on the opposite side of the street but doesn't think any more about them. About that time she hears me "Hola, chicos!" The look on her face was definitely, "Autumn, what are you doing??? We don't acknowledge people we don't know on the street, esp. young men!!!!!" Of course, I knew that and knew them. It was a couple of the youth from church, they were just sitting on a different street than ours so they could be in the sun. It was kind of fun freaking out Rosalinda though... Yes I know... I'm not nice.