Except it looks like the TV in the hotel doesn't feature a channel that is showing the game. UGH. Laker coverage, galore. But the World Cup? Il n'y a rien. I AM SO ANGRY RIGHT NOW.
Anyway.
First things first...I went to see Carmen on Wednesday with like 20 people from the program. We got seats in the fifth row for 12 euros because we got a great group discount, so we had an amazing view of the stage. The show was pretty good. The concept is to create a performance that mixes ballet (Bizet's opera, which is beautiful and makes me want to see the opera itself!) and flamenco (music played/sung by musicians on stage). Both types of dance were gorgeous in their own way. Flamenco seems to me like a kind of more dramatic, faster form of tap, because they can really create the most elaborate rhythm patterns just with their feet. There was one soloist who moved his feet incredibly fast, all while wearing very high, all too tight pants (or pantaloons, as I prefer to refer to them). Turns out he's only 22, on top of all that. How are these people so talented? The male dancers in general were uber elegant and dramatic. The women were beautiful and their costumes were as cool as could be expected. The only real complaint I found myself having as I watched the hour and a half show was that Carmen herself, though talented, was a bit overzealous in her dancing, and (this is just a personal opinion), I thought she was a little too skinny and muscular for the part. I really think flamenco lends itself very well to curvy dancers, especially because the costumes and the movement of the arms/hips are meant to accentuate a curvaceous, seductive female body. So for me, Carmen was a bit angular and her dancing, because it sometimes was kind of over the top, seemed too sharp to be seductive in the manner her character is supposed to have. Anyway, it was fun to try to understand the story, since I wasn't familiar with it at all. But, like I said, it really most made me want to watch the opera, to really get immersed in the story (and to see how much of the French sung in the opera I would actually be able to understand. I could pick out a word or two here and there, totally randomly).
All right, this post comes to an abrupt end because I am not entirely in the mood to write any more right now. I am still quite disgruntled about not being able to watch the US vs. Slovania game right now (particularly because Slovania is currently WINNING...) and I'm also having one of those I'm-tired-I'm-bored-I-want-to-hang-out-in-my-own-home kind of days. Maybe it is because today is my brother Andy's graduation and I don't get to be there, which really bothers me, and while being in Valencia is exciting because I get to see another part of Spain, I sort of wish that I were home, just today, just so I could see my brother graduate. But, alas, it didn't work out. I'm going to call him tomorrow in the morning (it'll be like 10:30 p.m. Friday night for him) and see how it all went. It's the least I can do, of course.
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