San Francisco!

San Francisco

On Saturday, June 21 I left Bloomington for the last time before going back to Austria... Abby and I took the "redeye flight" that left in Indy (-anapolis) at 9:28pm. Here the view from an airport - window before getting on the plane:

At about midnight (West coast time, so 3am for us) we arrived there and moved into the "St. Paul Hotel" - room where we are going to live for the next 5 weeks. It's a really old but nice building, almost like an "Altbau" in Vienna, with high ceilings, carved wooden doors and nice furniture. The next morning we had some time to walk around and have breakfeast - here the view on the jail - island Alcatraz! (with a very colorfu bus in the front)


Then we hurried back to the hotel to be in time for our "mandatory orientation meeting" for BASOTI, the opera program, that is going to keep busy for the next weeks... (we have exactly 1 day off for the whole time, including weekends!)
Some impressions on the way back:


Apparently we ran into a funeral march:



Then, today I had 5 hours off in the afternoon (while most of the others were still rehearsing), so for the first time since we arrived, I left the holy halls of the Catholic Elementary School (and church, of course), that serves as our rehearsal site during the summer. I just walked some blocks straight ahead on one of the closest streets and - suddenly - I found exactly what I was looking for:


The Golden Gate bridge! And a beach! Here the proof that I was really there:


The weather was really cold actually... 12°C at most and windy...thet's why the camera didn't really stand still during the auto-timer. Therefore this very lopsided mermaid-picture:


Beautiful plants on my way back to school.



It was a long day and now I'm really tired. So much singing the whole day and if there is a break you still hear people vocalizing behind every closed door... I am singing "Nella" in Gianni Schicchi and Baby Doe in a scene of the opera "The ballad of Baby Doe". And hopefully I can still see more of San Francisco as well!