What I've been doing

I’ve been neglectful of this blog for weeks and I need to prepare myself to make weekly (at least!) posts when I’m in France for my upcoming crazy 9 month adventure abroad. So, I’m going to take it slow, as is customary here in the South and do a blog post whenever something interesting is going on in my life. On my last free day, a few of us decided to check out some local wineries and a cidery. Charlottesville is full of so many wineries- it’s apparently Virginia’s wine capital. There’s even a micro brewery downtown that I’m determined to check out one day! In actual work related news, Bohème opened last week to positive reviews and rehearsals for Carousel are going strong. Why someone chose these two shows for a summer season is beyond me. This company is not one that I’m accustomed to working for and things definitely have to change for their to be any real progress, but I’m not going to talk about that here. I’ve decided that this blog is not for that, so if you came to read about the latest gossip in the Charlottesville opera world, you came to the wrong blog. I came for the sights, the chance to work on a Bohème, and to prepare myself to live in a small town with no skyscrapers. My posts will be about that sprinkled in with a bit of opera. It’s only been 4 and half weeks since I’ve left that most amazing city which is Chicago and I already miss it terribly. It’s funny because there’s a few of us from Chicago and it seems that no matter what, no one can go a full week without mentioning something that reminds them of the city. So it’s nice to know that I’m not the only who talks about it constantly. 10 months away is going to be a very long time, and quite frankly I think afterwards I’m not going to want to leave the glorious city ever again. We have everything, including that Midwestern charm. It’s nice to explore the world every once and awhile but it’s equally as nice to come home to the city where you can get a doughnut at 2am. Tonight I make my visa appointment for August…..dun, dun, dun. Evidently you need your passport number to secure your appointment, which is why it hasn’t gotten done sooner. Not really looking forward to the appointment, which will be entirely in French. Let’s hope it goes better than last time, where they forgot to call my name so I sat in the consulate visa appointment room for about 45 minutes before they asked me if I’ve been assisted. So glad to be getting home before the sunsets, especially with this 90+ degree heatwave. Sunsets in Virginia are gorgeous and I’m hoping to capture one where the sun isn’t glaring directly into my camera. How google images brings up these gorgeous mountain sunset pictures is beyond me. Here’s the best one I’ve been able to take thus far. Enjoy!