kareina

This weekend I hosted an Italian couch surfer who has been living in Japan for the past five years. Talk about a fabulous guest! Not only was he pleasant company to visit with (which meant I got some progress made on the underdress I started right after returning from Vienna), he also insisted on doing a bit of house-work in thanks for hosting me (which meant that I cleaned the loo whilst he did sweeping in the rest of the apartment), and he also gave me a singing lesson! In addition to the wonderfulness of the time he was at my place, he also had enough other things to do while in Milan that I was able to also spend hours on line in my office without neglecting my visitor. This morning he moved on to stay with another friend, but also invited me to join them at a concert at the Milan Conservatory.

I decided that it was about time I got out and did something cultural, so I opted to head out. He told me that the show started at 9 pm, but I didn’t manage to put the computer down early enough to walk there (about 35 minutes away), so I wound up taking the bus instead. This got me there with about 15 minutes to spare, and there was a queue, so I joined it. Despite this being Italy, it was a very orderly, well mannered queue. Normally when people here wish to be in the same place they funnel themselves in rather like a herd of cattle going through a gate, with much pushing and shoving. It was fascinating to see them line up and chat quietly amongst themselves with no pushing whatsoever. I guess that concerts at the Music Conservatory attract a different sort of crowd than I’ve seen elsewhere.

Since my friend was not visible in the line, I gave him a call, and he said that they were still about 15 minutes away. Therefore, as my place in line got close to the entrance of the building I slipped back one clump of people. The line moved slowly, but it was necessary to repeat the slipping back a few places in line trick a few times. Every so often someone would say "prego" indicating I should precede them, to which I would reply "mi amigo in arrivo" and they'd smile and go past me. Eventually someone replied with something complicated, and I had to say "non parlo italiano", to which he replied in perfect UK-accented English that he could use English if I preferred. We chatted a bit, and then my friends arrived, so the timing was good.

When we got into the entryway of the building we noticed that there was an entrance fee after all (I’d asked my guest that morning if there was a fee, and he said “no”). He looked kind of embarrassed, and quickly told me that since he hadn’t thought there was one, he would cover my entrance, and then proceeded to ask for 3 when we got to the top of the line. I would have been more than willing to pay for my own ticket, but since I thought it
sweet of him, I graciously accepted.

The concert involved his singing teacher, who was doing a spoken performance, and a small band (orchestra?) consisting of a bass, a violin, 4 assorted wind instrument, and a drum set complete with cymbals. The performance alternated between music and story-telling, which consisted of wonderful vocal variety--using different voices for different characters. Even though I couldn’t catch more than a few words of what he said, it was still a pleasure to listen to him. The musical interludes were definitely classical; it would have fit right in to any Warner Brother's cartoon. All in all a good evening: Good music, pleasant listing to the guy speaking Italian in a variety of voices, and good progress made on my current nålbinding project, followed by a pleasant 40 minute walk home.

Alas, summer has arrived in Milan in full force—I got home at 23:00, and it was still 30 C (86 F) out! Needless to say, all of the gelato shops I passed were doing booming business. I didn’t bother stopping though, since I’m not hungry at night, even for cold things. Thank goodness for cold showers; they make the heat bearable.