The Most Delicious thing I've ever eaten

When I was younger my father used to make strawberry mousse out of some of the wild strawberries that we picked. He only made it one or two summers and when I asked him why he did not continue to make it during subsequent summers he replied that it really wasn’t worth the effort.

However to my memory it was the most special thing that I’ve ever eaten. My father served it in his mother’s shrimp cocktail glasses which added their own smell of the china cabinet. I can conjure that smell in a moment and I see the frosted glass, I eat very carefully. These are special glasses, and the pink soft mousse inside is the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten.

all Fached up

So I knew that coming to conservatory would bring a whole number of interesting changes. Size of fish and ponds, type of studies, whatever. But I was not particularly expecting a major fach change.

I went to my first lesson, which was after a sing in for my studio class (we all sang for each other, it was nice!). We sat down and basically the first thing that he said to me was that all of my repertoire was wrong and that we had to choose all new. His point was that my voice was just too big to be singing the rep that I sing.

You have to realize, that I still operate under the impression that I am a small voice. But the last year and a half has brought a lot of changes to my voice.

I have been singing this character (which I love, also yay bizarre staging!), but if I'm singing that, the "smaller" of the two soprano roles, who is going to sing this role, the supposed bigger. The answer is apparently no one.

so I have to stop thinking of myself as Zerlina, and start thinking of myself as Donna Anna.
Super hard, because the roles that I had been doing are teasing coquettish sort of roles, and the roles that I'm headed into are more tragic types of roles. Not something that I relate to quite so well.

great day!

I had an amazing excellent day!

I had an interview for an awesome job, and they called me with in less than an hour to offer it to me! I'm going to be working for a really neat radio show that features super talented kids! I'll tell you about it if you want to know more.

Then my studio class had a sing in (where everyone who studies with my teacher sings for each other) and I thought that I was going to sing like crap because I hadn't warmed up, but then I ate part of an apple and sang quite well!

Apples are magic!

The only "bad" thing about my day is that my calves hurt all day. But it's for a good reason! I'm changing my running style to be completely toe striking from heel striking. I have done this before, but I had fallen out of the habit. Anyhow that means that my calves are getting all sorts of new muscle attention.


I thought I'd document my good day so I don't forget, and can remind myself on not so good days that sometimes days can be super awesome!

new time and place

I thought that maybe when I moved away from everyone I would fall back into the habit of blogging as a way of keeping. Thus far this has not proven to be the case.

I do want to go back to the goals that I made on my birthday last year. They've been on my side bar all year. So I'm going to see how I did. I will make new goals for this year, but I don't think that I have it all figured out yet, so that may have to be a future post.

• 1. Be in at least one production

Yes! I was Mabel in Pirates of Penzance! fun!

• 2. Apply and get into summer program

I did apply and get waitlisted, but I did go to Egypt to visit Lisy. This is a goal for next year now.

• 3. Win a competition

I did not win a competition, but I did win money in a competition

• 4. Apply and get into Grad school

Yes! Totally accomplished! In Grad school!

• 5. Blog weekly

hahahahahahahahahaha! ...... no

• 6. Give a recital

Yes! I sang a recital of new music written by Michael Thorn in October!

• 7. Stay in touch with friends

I think so...?

• 8. Learn to knit or crochet

well you see...the thing is I tried, but then the cat swallowed a yard of my yarn, and I had to keep it in the closet, and I forgot about it. But for alittle bit there I was totally getting better

• 9. Run 3 times a week

Sometimes I did well with this, sometimes not so much...this is a constant goal in my life, I'm happier when I run

• 10. Mail Cards before Christmas

This was something of an epic fail. Noel and I decided to make a CD that we wanted to send as a christmas card, so I held off for that to be done....it's still not done

• 11. Be useful at work

I got a fantastic review from my boss....so that's good. I always feel like I need to do more for them though.

Soo, lets see:
3 definite yeses
3 definite noes
the rest are somewhere in between.

I don't feel too too bad about this. I think that my most important goals were accomplished, namely I applied and got into grad school.

Oh! and I totally got an article published in a news paper!!!! (sorry the link to the actual article is long gone, it was published in November)

So here I am in Boston. A new adventure in a new city. I'll try to let everyone know how it goes.

things get churchy

One of the first indications that old Cairo is old is that you have to go down a flight of steps to get there. I love that old cities that have been here for centuries have built on top of themselves. There are a series of Coptic churches built on top of places where the holy family stayed while they were hiding out in Egypt. One church had a well that they had used. I find it interesting that flight to Egypt is a recurring theme in the bible. Abraham and Sarah go, I think Rebekah and Isaac go, the entire Jewish people go, and the holy family goes. I'm sure I could find a ton to read on about this. Almost all of the churches there are the church of St. George, because they are built on top of the Roman prison in which St. George was held prisoner and tortured. I'm pretty sure this happened after he slew his dragon. The biggest and most oppulent church is actually a Greek owned and run church. There was also a beautiful Synagoge.

The next trip we made was my favorite so far this visit. We drove out to the Sinai Peninsula to St. Katherine's. We drove under the Suez Canal and through miles and miles of empty desert. The first stop we made was at the plave of Moses' bitter wells. There were Bedoine womenpedaling handmade beaded ware and other such things for cheap. As we continued we watched the red sea, or the bit that leads up to the Suez canal go by. There were tons and tons of resorts on the water. It was interesting to see the desert meet the sea. No trees of any life to greet the ocean. First desert, then water. Not even a dune. We drove to a place that Wahied called the bath of the Pharaohs. There were hot springs that flowed out from under the rocks straight into the sea. There was a cave that you could go into that was like a sauna. I walked up and down the beach, enjoying the sea, and collecting a few shells. Mostly the ride was unremarkable desert that slowly gained rocky mountains. We did drive through an oasis though where there was a Bedoine village. THey had a date farm and plenty of goats running about. Finally reaching the hotel was a relief. We were in the mountains where it wasn't as hot, the air was not polluted, and there was a huge beautiful pool waiting in the evening sun.

As I hopped into the pool I quickly realized that 100% of the other tourists there were Italian! For once I was the one of our tiny crew that could understand the chatter all around me. We ate our dinner with gusto, then went straight to bed. We all had to wake up at 12:30 to head to Mount Sinai to beat the sun to the top. We climbed the mountain in the dark with a Bedoine guide and a pliveman. (all Americans and Israelis are escorted by the secret police or whatever). The Bedoine guide played prayers all the way up and down the mountain on his phone. Presumeable asking for a safe passage. The policeman was a nice guy who joked with us. He however felt license to grab my hands at certain points. If I were in the US it wouldn't have mattered because it was to guide me away from camels or over rockes, but here it is not ok to touch women, so I was not so pleased. The walk was not too hard at all, and even going very slowly to wait for Marc with his bad knees and his huffing and puffing, we made it up with nearly two hours to wait for sunrise.

(sidenote: Marc had just earlier been telling us how he was in good shap for a 55 year old man, but my parents, who granted are not yet 55, would have scampered up hyst as fast as I did. Well, perhaps Mom a little slower, but she has little legs.)

At the top there are two little chaples, everyone sits in the cold waiting for the sun to rise. The sun rises a lit faster here near the equator tha it does in the north, so when the sun did rise it just popped right up! The mountain rock formations are different than anywhere I've ever seen. Infact I had seen biblical paintings of Sinai and aasked myself what sort of mountains they were since I hadn't ever seen the like. They are dramatic, yet rounded. I don't know how else to describe them. The walk down was uneventful, but obviously much better for taking pictures.

After a hot shower and breakfast we went to St. Katherine's Monestary, built some time in the 3rd century. There is a teeny church, a mosque and the burning bush. They say that that bush is the only one of it kind on all of Sinai. The drive back was a brutal one for the drivemer. Imem is a really good natured, handsome young man, my guess is that he is perhaps 22. Everyone else slept in the car, but I stayed awake and made facces at him in the rearview mirro to keep him company. The poor kid was exhausted when we got home. So was I and all I had done was sit...and climb a mountain at one in the morning I guess...

pyramids!

this is not the great pyramid! I climbed up inside the great pyramid. It was hot and muggy and a little creepy inside. A lot of people mistake this one for the great pyramid because it looks taller, but it is only built on higher ground the first one is actually the great pyramid.
The sphinx was not damaged by time, it was defaced by a man trying to prove to the citizens who were worshiping it that it would not hurt them, and that it was not a real god. So he took off the beard and the nose. He was killed by these people.
The casing on the pyramids was not broken, but taken off by later Pharaohs to build different things. All of the royal chambers were found completely empty. The grave robbers came within the Pharaoh's time though. It's funny how a giant pyramid helps grave robbers find your stuff. This is one of the reasons why the later pharaoh's were buried in the valley of the kings down in luxor...in an attempt to hide their stuff. Still most tombs were broken into.

the citadel and beyond

I was lucky enough that the folks that Wahied's touring for the time that I'm here didn't mind me tagging along.

Sunday we went to the citadel and the Egyptian museum. the citadel is a huge fortress built on one of the highest points of the city. Inside the citadel is the mosque of Muhammad Ali. It is made all of alabaster and the domes are covered in silver. Upon reflection I don't know why the domes weren;t tarnished. Muhammad Ali is actually interred at the mosque. It has a very western feel, employing the same configuration of domes as the basilica in Rome. there are three pulpits called members, of different sizes. The tall one is beside the back dome, the second tallest is at the back of the dome, and the smallest is intended to be by the door. The tall ones help amplify the sheik's voice, and the small one has some one repeating what the sheik says so that those outside can hear. Now of course everyone has speakers.

Next came the egyptian museum. There Wahied's friend, also named Wahied, took me into the royal mummy room while Wahied started Marc and Nico's tour (the folks who Wahied is taking around these weeks). I have to say, for people that have been dead for 4000 years, they look pretty good!. Ramses II in particular. His hair is still there, he might have been loosing his hair during life, but not in death. Their finger nails were well manicured, and their ear lobes intact. The finery from king Tut's tomb takes up an incredible amount of space. His tomb is the only one that was found in its full splendour. From the amount that was found in his tomb, a fairly insignificant pharoh, one can imagine all that was in Ramses II's tomb. It was fantastic to see all of the treasure up close and personal after having seen pictures of it in National Geographic. Some of the neaterst things were: the camping bed that folded using hinges that are nearly identical to the design that is used today. The precise base relief carving on the sarcofoci that we still can not imitate with all of our powerful modern tools and technology. Finally something that I saw when I was wandering around by myself for a bit. There was a period of time, during the reigns of the two pharoh's previous to King Tut when the art style was noteably different. The notes marked it as more naturalistic. The body shapes were more pearlike and their skulls were elongated, their lips fuller. On the whole it looked more like the art work that yo usee from the rest of the continent of Africa.

Sunday also happened to be my birthday so Lisy and Wahied took me out to dinner. Afterwards we sat in the garden of the Villa that the restaurant was in and hade ice cream cake and sheesha. The evenings here are quite comfortable. It has not been too hot at all, and there is always a lovely breeze.

That is all that I have written so far. I'm woefully behind, as I have visited old coptic cairo, and climbed mount sinai since then.