Aug 08

So Sunday was a long day. i was up at 6am to get the 7am train to vienna (3 hours) then had another 3 hours in Sudbahnhof before the 4 hour train to Prague. Then I got to the hotel and they hadnt recieved the reservation yet but they gave me a room anyway and had it straighten out by the time I got downstairs in the morning. Yesterday I went to the castle and the charles bridge. About half way through the castle grounds my camera decided not to work any more, so I was going to buy a disposable and figure out what was wrong later but i left my debit card at the hotel so i had to walk all the way back then of course my camrea started working again so I had a little rest and bought a bag of microwave popcorn from the desk and went back accross the river and up the hill to finish the castle. I also saw the astrnomical clock which always looks like it is really high up but it is acctually at the bottom of the tower. I looked in a couple churches around the square and then walked up Wensaclas (like the christmas carol) square back to the hotel.
Last night I acctually found good british tv, its so funny they have all the usual terrible stuff on durring normal hours and then there was a late night sitcom on that was absolutly hillarious.
This morning I went to an old fortess that I cant spell the name of but its something like vhyarhd. Unfortuantly the big basilica up there was closed today. Then I went back up to the castle grounds to see the basilica there because i ran out of time yesterday. It was cool and that is where St Wencaslas is buried. Then I looked in some more chuches and walked around for a bit and now Im going to find some dinner and pack. My flight dosent leave till 2 so I will proabably go walk around a bit in the morning.
The check language is weird, they have words with no vowels.
It is kind of cool being in Hungary, Slovakia, and Czech Republic before they switch to the euro in the next year or so because now I have cool coins that wont be used soon. Although it is kind of a pain to figure out. I know it is about 25 czech krowns to one euro, Slovakia i have no idea but its a weird one, and then about 270 hungarian florints to 1 euro, that one was hard to figure out. Also they dont have cents in hungary just florints, but here they have cents which I only just figured out today.

So we had our concert this morning and then I had my last Itlalian diction lesson a little while ago and so Im done now. Its cold and rainy today which is kind of good because it makes me want to just go home and pack and I have to leave really ealry tomorrow and head to Vienna because I#m not to sure how the train to Prague is going to work or how getting to my still unknown hotel once im there is going to work.

So it was a pretty routine week last week. We start with gymnastik at 9:30 for an hour where we all get our butts kicked by a 55 year old man. We have to run around the room and stretch and do ab excersises and isometrics which get more intense everyday. Now we have to do the ab isometrics while doing our deep breathing hyper ventalating. Then I either have a musical class with the woman or a tech lesson with the guy again and then every other day I work with a vocal coach/accompianist who is thankfully american so we can have good english converstations. Then some days i have Alexander tech which is always awsome and then every day I have italian diction. The italian prof is really funny, very steriotypical italian. My favorite day though was saturday when he went from his usual tight white jeans and half unbuttoned dress shirt to liederhosen, it was great. Then Friday was a holiday so we only worked a half day and unfortuantly it was pouring all day and everything was closed so there wasnt much to do. Then Saturday we worked another half day, we didnt really have normal class though, just italian and a mini concert for the other people in the class. Again it was cold and rainy but thankfully it cleared up that night so i could watch Don Giovanni in the square with the castle over the screan and the moon eclipse over that, it was pretty cool. Still really really cold though so I didnt watch the whole opera which was too bad, it was fantastic and this years production from the festival. Then Sunday we had off completely so I slept in and then went to Schloss Hellbrun. It was cool, there are a lot of springs underneath the property so the emporer that built it had a bunch of trick fountains installed so he could spray people as they walked around the grounds. He also had a stone table with a wine cooler in the middle, and when people were getting to roudy he had a button that had water shoot up from a hole in the bottom of the chairs. There are also a bunch of little mechanical things that run on water pressure. The inside had some frescos and a room with fantastic accoustics and then a couple rooms of paintings of wierd or rare animals that the emporer owned. I also saw the gazebo from sound of music

THEN I was looking in a book of sound of music landmarks in Salzburg and fliped over to Schloss Frohnburg! Thats where I live! I have lived in the sound of music house for a week and had no idea! Its because it is the house they used for the front facade and courtyard and I only ever use the back gate, but ya I live in the sound of music house!

Later I walked up to an old chuch on a hill accross this river from the castle and the old town. Then I walked up to the abby from the sound of music and got there just in time for the early evening gregorian chant, so that was pretty cool. And then I ended going to the square again to see Romeo et Juliett which was unbelievable. Again this years production but just amazing singers. Unfortuantly it was the last night of the opera recordings in the square so i have to find something else to do now for the next week.

i forgot to add that although Ive been pretty much converted to fresh apricot jam, after 7 weeks and 3 countries I have finally found a jar of peanut butter

Last night I went to watch a play on the bis screan in the square but i was really tired and ended up going all the way back home, there is a really good opera on tonight though so hopefully i last a little longer.
This morning we all went to our group breathing lesson. Which was acctually runing around the room, stretching, isometrics and sit ups in our dress clothes and then a couple standard breathing things at the end. Next I had a diction lesson with a very italian man, he is funny. Then I ran over to my practice room becasue they overlap 15 minutes (im going to see about renting another hour later in the day) my room is in they very bottom corner of a basement which I am so happy about now because it is soooo hot out. Then I had to run over to masterclass (of course everything is in a different building) it went well and because it is so hot they are being quite relaxed about dressing up and we can sing in our barefeet because they teacher dosent want to wear shoes. Then I had to run over to my Alexander technique lesson which I just finnished so Im all ready for a nap now before tonights opera in the sqaure.