Apparently Carmina Burana is not actually an opera, it's a cantata. Meaning there's no linear plot, so I was even more lost than in Don Giovanni. With their flamboyant corsets and mostly naked people on stage, it was quite interesting, but not my kind of show. Needless to say, it was an adventure getting home too afterwards. The theater it was at, the Nelson Mandela Forum is across town from the Duomo area and right across from the sports stadium in a poorer-looking neighborhood. It's not a nice place to walk around in at night, but I had to anyway. Walking around trying to find the theater at eight-ten at night by myself was scary, but doing the same to try and find the bus to get home around eleven was scarier. At least then I had friends with me, but we made sure to first find a well-lit street with more people and then pull out the map to find our way back. I probably won't be making my way back to that side of town unless I really have to.
Besides that experience, the Chocolate Festival is around! It started Feb. 8 and goes till the 17. The chocolate vendors set up their tented shops in Piazza Santa Croce where people can buy chocolate and/or real hot chocolate (cioccolata calda...mm!). It's not always the cheapest, but there are some really great chocolate concoctions to try there. And, if you're lucky and it's not busy, they might even give out free samples. It's a small festa, but definitely worth it. The chocolate is excellent here.
At the end of the fifth week here, I've been just starting to make my end of the program plans. I'm going to London after spring break for the next part of my program and I'll really have to scrimp and save there. I do find myself spending most of my money here on food and souvenirs. Sometimes more on food, though, especially with the Chocolate Festival around.
One exciting find was The Diner, an American-style diner (literally) that serves American-style food. My friends and I had brunch there on Sunday and it was so good. Decently priced too, and the waitresses spoke English. Not only that, but we got 10% discount cards for being students and they recommended the restaurant right next to them that also gave discounts and served really good food. I'm planning to check that out sometime, but I usually eat breakfast and dinner with my host mom just to save money. Otherwise I'm not going to have any for the traveling I'm planning to do after the program!
ACM is taking all of us to Venice tomorrow on a weekend trip. It's going to be really fun and I'm excited to see everything. The last time I went to Venice for carnevale was horribly windy and rainy, and this time they said the water's risen quite high. I really hope my trip to Venice this time around is at the very least a little nicer and less rainy!
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