A spare hour on the beach...back to Vienna on Saturday I go, where it's a little cooler nowadays -Gabe

Gabe

Has a new toy

Boop

Alrighty, my essay/blog post about cinque terre is now done, and I added a few notes to the translation in places where google translate just gets whacky (though I really do like that section about my camera). Our 1-month course is ending rapidly, and we're getting ready to say goodbye to the people we met and friends we've made. Sad! We start up a new course on august 4th, though we're not sure where (I might switch colleges, since I'm only here for 2 weeks in august and there's a college here that offers intensive 2-week classes)

Tomorrow, we're going to the lake nearby with a friend or two, and we'll hopefully get to see the weird boat race on land that just happens to occur the last sunday of July. Crazy video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqhI89YipTw

While I've learned a lot of Italian, I haven't learned as much as I'm hoping to by the end of this process, which makes it weird to have classes ending right now; we're getting ready for exams and stuff and it's just a bit weird, since I'm certainly not done with what I set out to do.

Today we had a lazy day around the house. Fabio, Loan and their family are here now, which I was a little worried about initially (7 people in 1 house with 1 bathroom!) but has turned out to be great. Fabio's daughter Alice is a real sweetheart and has taken to following me around the kitchen and telling me how to say everything in the kitchen. Every time I say the word 'coltello' (Knife) ("Non colTRELLO, colTELLO! colTELLO!") I'll think of her. Spent an hour today talking about career and work and all sorts of things with Fabio in Italian and English (he in english, which he's trying to learn, me in italian), which was super cool.

What else, what else...looks like we're going to Rome next weekend. A quote from the owner of the B&B we're staying at: "I thank you very much, and I tell you that your holyday in Rome will be unforgettable,because Rome is wonderful!! Giovanna" aww

Meredith and Bryan were thinking of dropping by on my last weekend here, but looks like that's fallen through, so we'll just have to go to Florence or something and have a REALLY GOOD TIME WITHOUT THEM. And stuff.

That's all! Hope all's well with ya'll -Gabe

Cinque Terre (In Italiano!)

Prima, ancora una link a Google Translate!

Questa fine settimana, abbiamo viaggiato alle Cinque Terre, cinque città che sono qualche le bellissime città nel mondo. Alle Cinque Terre, quale cose sono nate come Pesto, Focaccia, il famoso Vino Bianco delle Cinque Terre, e Sciacchetrà (come 'Port' - un vino rinforzato e dolce). Le città sono tutti al mar (Quattro delle cinque hanno una spiaggia), e sono, come ho detto, bellissime! Purtroppo, non vi posso dare le foto, perche la mia macchina fotografia è senza carica, e la mia macchina di carica è nella posta perché l'ho lasciata negli Stati Uniti (Ops!) Invece vi do alcune foto dal Internet! La prima città che abbiamo visitato era Vernazza, #4/5: (Wow nice translation; i left my camera charger at home, so i only got pics of half the trip and can't upload them)



Vernazza è una bellissima città con un naturalistico porto, che è molto importante per trafficare il vino bianco delle Cinque Terre da molti secoli. Come ho detto, stiamo andati li prima, e abbiamo dovuto trovare un albergo o una camera per affittare. Questo era purtroppo impossibile, perché c'era una festa importante questo fine settimana, e non c'erano camere libere. Per ciò, dopo un'ora di cercare a Vernazza e solamente abbiamo trovato una camera cara (expensive, not dear) e libera per Domenica, stiamo andati a Monterosso al Mar, città #5/5 delle Cinque Terre.



Monterosso è anche bellissima, ma non ci abbiamo visto niente, perché abbiamo domandato alla donna chi lavorava nella officina turistica se c'erano camere libere, e lei ha detto 'Assolutamente no!'. Mannaggia! Stiamo andati a Riomaggiore, città #1/5:



Finalmente, abbiamo trovato una camera - forse l'ultima camera nelle cinque terre. Al fine, abbiamo speso 200% più del nostro bilancio, ma avevamo un letto per noi, e questo era più importante del nostro bilancio (more important than..)! Abbiamo mangiato nel Ristorante Marina Piccola, dove ci sono le ottime cozze del questo mondo. Dopo Marina Piccola non posso mangiare ancora un'altra cozza. Dopo siamo andati al Bar Centrale a Riomaggiore, dove abbiamo bevuto Mojitos e mangiato un po' di gelato. Cosi è finito il primo giorno.

Domenica mattina siamo camminati da Riomaggiore a Manarola. Li c'è un sentiero dei vigneti, che è molto bello. Dopo abbiamo preso il treno per Vernazza, e li abbiamo lasciato le nostre valigie e pranzato al Ristorante Taverna del Capitano, dove c'è una dolce buonissima - semi-freddo panna con salsa di fragole. mmm! Dopo pranzo siamo andati sulla spiaggia di Monterosso. Abbiamo nuotato per un mezz'ora e corso alla Barca per ritornare a Vernazza (eravamo stati tardi!) La gita per Vernazza era bella e non ha fatto troppo nausea, e siamo tornati a Vernazza con abbastanza tempo per fare le doccie e cambiarci prima cena.

Cena era sopra un grande colle a Vernazza, dove è possibile vedere tutta la città e il mar. Bellissimo! Li, abbiamo avuto buono cibo, ottime viste del tramonto sul mar e brava conversazione con 4 Americani. Due di questi ci hanno invitato a suo appartamento, che era nel questo colle e aveva un terrasse dove è ancora possibile vedere tutta la città. Forse la prossima volta, che saremo alle Cinque Terre, resteremo li!

Siamo tornati al ristorante e ci seduti, per aspettare i fuochi artificiale, che ci erano per una grande festa della santa patrona di Vernazza, Santa Margherita. Erano buonissimi! Poi abbiamo mangiato troppo (veramente troppo!) gelato al centro di Vernazza, e siamo andati al letto.

Lunedì mattina ci siamo alzati presto, e perché avevamo abbastanza tempo, siamo andati al café Il Pirata, dove ci sono paste buonissime. Abbiamo mangiato un perfetto cannoli, due panzerotti freschi e caldi (come donuts, ma meglio!), e una granite di fragole. Con questo collezione (breakfast) siamo partiti a Perugia per lezione, e così è terminato una gira buonissima!

Week 1

Well our first week in Italian is over (we ended it a little early since it's just the first week and we did pretty well), and we haven't killed each other or ourselves yet, so things are going pretty well! :)

The google translation of the post below is way better than anything I could come up with, but I'll stick my direct translation there for your amusement. I have attempted to retain any errors in the Italian, but have not unfortunately introduced new errors due to Google Translate. For more humor value, please click the link down there.

We're going to Assisi tomorrow, because, why not? it's 25 minutes away by train. Pictures and report forthcoming.

Our classes and teachers are very good, the city is beautiful, and pretty much the only source of stress is the language itself, which is plenty stressful, but overall, I'd say things are going really well. Italian is coming much faster than German came; I think I(/we) have a much better idea of how languages work now, and I think I'll probably come out of this summer with a pretty good working knowledge of Italian. A great help in that direction is the satellite TV system, which provides a good 1-2 hours a night so far of Italian-dubbed american TV/film.

Currently the Umbria Jazz festival ("OOM-bree-a JETS") is going on in Perugia, which means all over town, inside and outside, for money and for free, there are jazz concerts going on most of the day and all of the night. We went to the center of town and followed around a marching band from New Orleans and then listened to a set from the Roosevelt High School jazz band next to the city's 800 year old fountain. Pretty awesome.

That's all I got! Send poorly translated comments! (or if you send them before monday for me, I shall read them in English)

Ops! Non ho Inglese!

Prima, ecco un link a Google Translate.


Dopo, mi scusa! Non ho fatto mio Blog, quando posso scrivere Inglese, e il mio Italiano è molto male adesso. Allora, faccio una Traduzione a Sabato. Puoi aspettare a Sabato, o puoi usare Google Translate.

Sono adesso in Perugia, dove è troppo bello. Da qui, posso vedere a qualch'una direzione, e la sarà una vista dalla cartolina postale. È ridicolo bello.

Siamo insieme in una bella casa con Fabio e la sua familia, ma non abbiamo trovato la sua familia, perche siete adesso al mar. Anche è Fabio adesso al mar, e siamo soliti fino a domani.

Informazione importante: -Nostro indirizzo postale è:
Gabriel Wyner/Melanie Henley Heyn
Via Brunamonti 19
06123 Perugia
Italy


-Nostro numero telefonico è lo stesso:
818 935 5039

-Sono qui 7/1 - 8/19, e Melanie è qui fino al 8/31.

-Parliamo, Sentiamo, Scriviamo, Leggiamo solo in Italiano eccetto Sabato (e forse Venerdì sera)

Basta! Ecco delle Fotografie:

First, here a link to google translate.

Then, excuse me! I haven't done my Blog, when I can write English, and my Italian is very bad now. So, I do a translation on Sunday. You can wait on Sunday, or you can use Google Translate.

I am here in Perugia, where it is too pretty. From here, I can look at some direction, and there will be a view from the post card. It is ridiculous pretty.

We are here together in a pretty house with Fabio and his family, but we haven't met his family, because you are now at the ocean. Also Fabio is now at the ocean, and we are alone until tuesday.

Important information: Our postal adress is:
Gabriel Wyner/Melanie Henley Heyn
Via Brunamonti 19
06123 Perugia
Italy


Our telephone number is the same:
818 935 5039

I am here July 1 - Aug 19, and Melanie is here until Aug 31.

We speak, hear, write and read only in Italian except Saturday (and maybe Friday night)

Enough! Here the photographs:

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Blase

I went in to the doctor today for some ultrasounds of my stomach and surrounding organs (everything's fine). The doctor was a gruff elderly Austrian lady, and she asked me what was up and then took ultrasounds. Then she told me to clean up and eat breakfast and drink some water, and we'll do more scans when my blase was full. I didn't quite pick up everything she said, and asked her if I should go eat my breakfast, and she said yeah, eat my breakfast and drink my water, which she left out on a table for me. She left the room, and I said "What's a Blase?" (Pronounced BLAH-zeh), but noone answered because I said this to myself. I figured she needed my stomach and things to be full so she could get a look to see what they look like when they're full or something. So I went to the waiting room with my water and my breakfast, which was packed in my Mr. Bento (which turns out to actually be one of my favorite possessions in the world), and my water, which was in a very large 1.5-2L plastic pitcher. And then I studied my music history notes (test's in a few days) and ate my breakfast and drank my water and waited. There was an elderly man who was there before me with another pitcher of water and I guess no breakfast, since he had no Mr Bento and all. Anyway I waited, and waited, and started noticing the time, since I had somewhere to go at noon (I got there at 9:30), and after drinking half the water in boredom, and going to the restroom, and then drinking the rest of the water, it was getting late, so after going to the bathroom again, I went to the receptionist and asked her whether I could come back at 1pm, to which she responded "We've been just waiting for you to tell us whether your blase is full. We can't do the scan until you tell us it's full." At which point i realised that Blase is the german word for bladder. I told her I would have to drink some more and went back to the waiting room with a third liter of water. Later, I was joking with the doctor about the whole situation, and told her "I even thought, 'Why are they giving me all this water'". She responded, gruffly, "The water is for your Blase." Adventures in Austria.

The Time of Visitation

Following Melanie's Jewish escapades, we began to get lots and lots of visitors. Krysta and Kenneth arrived in mid May with lots of Reese's peanut butter cups, snickers and peanut m&ms (thank you!). Also they were nice to have around. We did touristy things, ate sausages (well Kenneth and I did), and generally had a great time.

During their visit, and the two weeks after, we were gearing up to our big performances of Così fan Tutte. Rehearsals had moved into the Odeon Theater, a very very pretty, church-like venue, and we were getting our final few dress rehearsals in before the big day(s). Shortly before our first performance, Chuck and Andrea (Melanie's parents) arrived from their travels across Europe. There was much merriment had by all.

For me, Così was a great, difficult, great experience. It was nice, if a little weird, to perform with Melanie on Monday (one [necessarily, I think] distances oneself while preparing and doing something as nerve-wracking and demanding as an opera role), and Monday night was a really good performance. For me, though, I spent much of the time trying to get laughs and it wasn't really natural or fun. After a couple of days of thinking and recovering, Wednesday night was just what I wanted it to be. I had fun, I actually got the laughs I had been trying to force from Monday's audience, and a good time was had by all. I spent a lot of Monday making sure I was doing everything right, and Wednesday I just enjoyed myself. (Melanie would rightly point out, a second performance can make a big difference all on its own, just from the repetition). Anyway, it was a great experience, and I learned a lot. Looking forward to the next time.

On Wednesday afternoon, Noah arrived from London to visit for a few days. We went to Schönbrunn gardens to relax a bit before the show, drank heavily after the show, and spent the next few days tiredly doing touristy things with Chuck and Andrea. 'Twas lots of fun (I believe Noah might still be travelling, currently in China now!)

Since the opera, things have been somewhat slow. To me it feels a little like graduating; things go slowly and awkwardly and there's a touch of postpartum depression going around. This will last for, say, a week or two, since then the Summer of Insanity begins, which will end in late October.

The Summer of Insanity begins on June 13th, when I fly to Los Angeles for Josh's wedding. After a very busy time at home, I fly to Italy to study Italian in Perugia for 2 months. This will be cut short because I need to be in Vienna in late August to rehearse for Rigoletto chorus, which will put me touring throughout Japan for 5 weeks in September and early October. As soon as I get back, I fly back to Los Angeles to have a big meeting of the parents to discuss our own wedding, and then I fly back and start catching up on the month+ of school that I've missed. Oh yeah, and Melanie will be in Venuzuela, performing Così fan Tutte in June.

Insanity.

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