French Word of the Day: opéra (oh-pair-ah)- opera

The strike was extremely exaggerated.  The metro workers must have said, “Meh, we’re tired of striking.  Someone else do it this time.” because there were no delays on the metro at all.  (The RER, the train that goes to the suburbs, is a different story, but they’re pretty much constantly on strike so they don’t count.)

To make up for the metro’s working perfectly, the opera people decided to pick up the slack.  Our group had reservations for the opera, but Shelley got a call this morning telling her that there would be “no decorations.”  They said the opera would be performed without a set or costumes.

They were lying about the costumes- the actors were wearing them and they were awesome.  The lack of set, however, made the opera seem a bit more like a rehearsal.  But easily the best sung and acted rehearsal I’ve ever attended.  People at the French Opera gots mad skillz.  For cereal.  I had total voice envy.

I understood the French subtitles, and so this opera was much more entertaining than the last one I went to (Madame Butterfly).  Well, that and The Marriage of Figaro is a comedy whereas Madame Butterfly is just depressing.

Now I’m off to completely forget French for a week whilest I travel to Barcelona and Lisbon.  I’ve never been to Portugal before, but everyone I mention it too lights up and tells me how amazing it is.  I’ll be with three others from our group who aren’t exactly seasoned travelers.   This should be interesting.

I won’t really forget French.  One of my teachers kindly gave me 40 workbook pages to complete after break.  At least I’ll have something to do on the plane?  I thought the French didn’t have homework.  There are just some stereotypes that should be true.

Thanks for the pictures and posters, everyone!  I’m still getting them, so I’ll wait until after break to put everything up.  (I also can’t put them up yet because I’m still trying to figure out where I can buy tape.  Seriously, not as easy as you’d think.)  I’ll show you how it looks when I get them all up.

Pain au chocolat count: 23 (not likely to go up in Spain or Portugal)