December 12, 2009: Riches

Here's the most awesome thing about travel: not only do you gain experience, knowledge, appreciation of a foreign culture and land, but you get to leave some of your "baggage" behind. I suppose some of this is inherited from my frugal grandmother, but I love taking along with me clothing items, shoes, toiletries that are nearing the end of their days, but I would feel very guilty about throwing away at home. So, for instance, underwear that have old elastic, old bits of soap, shoes with worn soles, all come along on trips, get used prodigiously for a month, and then left behind. It's like the sloughing off of old skins cells...underneath, as you travel back home, you have the new experiences shining all the more brightly.

Of course all this is true (hopefully) for some more metaphorical, psychological baggage as well...like maybe time alone in a foreign place and all of the loneliness and learning that occurs makes you grow. I think this is true. Unless all you do is go to Amsterdam and visit its sundry places of business. Not sure how much psychological growth occurs there.

But me, on the other hand: I had a unusually educational audition yesterday, in which the auditors essentially gave me a coaching on my arias. There advice was very useful, and I wish I'd had my recorder to preserve their thoughts! Last night I went to Rouen again, and saw Il Barbieri di Siviglia, which I'd never seen live before. Today I'm back in Paris and seeing Bach's Christmas Oratorio tonight. The performances I've seen on this trip make me almost embarrassed...these are the riches of the post title. Every performance is learning opportunity, and I'm so glad that I've been able to see so many. And I made some gorgeous paper snow flakes with my little cousin this morning, so I got my own creative juices flowing too.

I've read some wonderful books on this trip (somehow ended up with an abundance of murder mysteries...)

1. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

2. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

3. The Selected Writings of Lady Gregory

4. How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill

5. some of The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches (good section on Irish history)

6. Careless in Red by Elizabeth George

7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

and yes, I'm going to have to purchase something else tomorrow or at the airport to read on the plane. I used to read a lot, and in the past few years since undergraduate studies, I've found it hard to find anything that I could finish. Maybe it's a state of mind. In any case I'm glad I'm back in the state where reading is more enjoyable than watching most TV, even if it's just a good murder mystery.

Tomorrow is the last full day, which will be spent packing, searching out a few remaining gifts, and hopefully seeing a friend and an uncle. I've been homesick nearly the whole time, but now I'm feeling the melancholy of leaving this time behind. I have to trust that my future holds more such adventures. Indeed when I get home, I have a lot of digesting of information to do, the learning of two roles to complete, and the planning of some more auditions and competitions. Having this time to just be and absorb so much wonderful feedback has been remarkable.