Welcome, to Drew Carey's House Payment! the water's rising but I know the course

A while ago I realised that I would be in the States for Thanksgiving. Feeling that I should probably take advantage of this somehow, I emailed my mother’s old host family who live in Hartford, Connecticut. They agreed to let me join them for thanksgiving and to stay with them for a few days. This morning I took a train from grand central station and, after a delay apparently caused by someone falling out on the platform and possibly injuring themselves, I got to New Haven. I was met by Linda, mother’s host mother, who is very sweet. We drove to Hartford  and I settled in here, talking to Linda’s son Matt and his wife, and played with their daughter Juniper. I also met Linda’s mother who, upon hearing I was [gasp] unmarried, declared that a man must be found for me.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, today for you Aussies reading this, so I hope you enjoy the day. There’s a race (5 miles) on tomorrow which I am supposed to take part in but I probably won’t as I am feeling ill.

G’night guys

So here I am in not very sunny Connecticut, the night before Thanksgiving. Bring on the Turkey and Pumpkin, and possibly a running race, thought I’m not feeling particularly up to it.

Yesterday I was travelling around NYC still. In the morning we called the Metropolitan Opera house to check if they had student tickets available, and then took the subway (the shuttle to Times Square and then the 1 to 66th st/ Lincoln Center) to the box office to buy the tickets. With a student card, it is possible to get 2 tickets at $27.50 each ($25 and a 2.50 fee). Luck of the draw, we got excellent seats (21 rows back and slightly to the right).

From the Lincoln Center we took the subway to Canal st, in Chinatown. Chinatown is a mix of vendors selling knockoff handbags, fresh fruit and vegetables and is full of people who don’t seem to speak English. We had lunch in Chatham Restaurant, where they sold small dishes of delicious food for $1.75. I was stuffed when we walked out, having only paid about $12 for 2 people.

I then walked to Soho, to the bevy of clothing boutiques all around. I had to buy myself a Theory Cashmere Jumper ($45) from an overexcited but very very nice owner who was shocked when I said I was from Australia (‘that’s like…another world!’) She insisted I go to Williamsburg, Brooklyn too. I also had a snack at Rice to Riches, which only sells rice pudding in a variety of flavours with a variety of toppings to go with them. It was yummy, if very rich.

Afterwards I ventured into Noho, where there were a number of shoe shops and chain stores such as Crate&Barrel, a massive Adidas store and Swatch. There were also many shoes stores around. I grabbed an ice tea (unsweetened!) from Au Bon Pain and watched people go by, feeling vaguely ill. The Noho store has free wifi.

I returned home relatively early to nap and watch Dr. Phil for a dose of Schadenfreude and went out to the Opera with Takami san.

From the House of the Dead is based on a Dostoevsky novel of the same name. It’s about the happenings at a Siberian prisoner camp. Life at the prison camp is dreary and a new prisoner, Grianchikov(?) arrives. He is a nobleman, and the prison guard decides to beat him because of that. As one does. This nobleman befriends a prisoner and promises to teach him how to read and write. But he is stabbed during a fight that breaks out when they are labouring.

The way they created the mess for the cast to clean up was epic. At the end of the first act they dropped a large pile of papers and rubble from the ceiling. It was a surprise and it was awesome.

Throughout the play prisoners tell the audience how they came to be imprisoned. One killed the man his true love was forced to marry and another killed his new wife because a man claimed to have slept with her, and he found that this was not the case.

In the end a prison guard apologises to the nobleman for flogging him, and he is set free from the prison.

Altogether an interesting opera. The music was good and the singing excellent, and I greatly enjoyed the way that it looked. The translation jumped from place to place to different parts of the set which I liked. As it was the Met Opera, there was also a translation provided on the backs of the seat in front, which I wish we had in Adelaide.

Connecticut post coming soon!