August 9, 2016

Friday night we got to go to the Cordoba Symphony.  It was really, really nice.  The theater was like a theater in Austria or Russia - plush curtains and a soaring ceiling.  There were seats you could buy on the 5th balcony.  We chose to sit close because I like to SEE the musicians, not imagine them through binoculars.  There were plush boxes all around, like you see on the Phantom of the Opera.  We didn't have our cameras, so didn't have any photo opps, but the place is pretty spectacular.  Our seats were on keyboard side row 4 on the aisle.

We didn't know if we were going to go, (voy a ir) because the program didn't start until 9:30, and our bedtime is 10:07.  But we bucked up and got on the bus right outside our door and rode downtown, purchased our tickets, and then had an hour before the doors of the symphony opened.  So we started walking around and found a big indoor mall and walked almost all of it.  I got an ice cream cone from McDonalds and it felt like a real date.

The concert was supposed to start at 9:30, but it didn't get going until 9:45.  At intermission, hardly any one stood up.  They just stayed in their seats.  Except me, of course.  I went roaming around looking at the place.  That's when I sneaked into one of the Phantom of the Opera boxes and walked upstairs to some of the tiers.  And that's when I saw the statues and artwork above the stage floor.  It really was nice to be there.  The theater is a National Historic Site.

The symphony was a little less formal that American symphonies, with the women wearing black sexy dresses and large silver sequins, and carrying their purses with them on stage.  After intermission, I guess some musicians were getting hot because the men appeared without their suit jackets.  They just put them on the back of their chairs.  (That's like everything here.  Everyone is too warm.  It just started to get warmer than freezing today in church when the windows started opening up.  That's when my scarf went up too.  I might as well wear a t shirt to church because no one sees anything except my coat.)

When the concert was over, it was 11:30.  We walked back to a bus stop and waited for a while - like 30 minutes - for a bus.  The first bus had been crowded, but this one was pretty empty so we just chilled out on the ride home.  At 12:30 we saw little kids walking around and the restaurants and fast food places packed with people.  We got to bed at 1 a.m.  It's definitely the latest I've been up since Utah played a 10:00 game for ESPN.

One day this week I got to try leche mate at the temple kitchen.  There were three of us and we sucked up mate until it slurped, then refilled it and passed it to the next person who did the same thing.  Then my boss found us and told us to get back to work when we were through socializing.............I haven't changed.  Always in a little bit of trouble........