day eleven: laundry, modern art, madame butterfly

A good start to the day: instead of continental toast, we could have eggs and ham for breakfast! And I did. Also, Will and I hurried off before school to get laundry done nearby - just $2 for all my laundry. Not bad.
In class we learned all about the Spanish occupation of Mexico, and the social system that resulted, which is good information to have traveling around here. Spanish class was unexpectedly brutal - a lot of translating things on the fly, which wasn´t hard so much as it was stressful being put on the spot. Luckily I´m getting better with that, thanks to Latin and Geyssen.
After class I had a quick nap and then Anne and I set out for afternoon adventures. We had intended to go back to see the second floor of the Anthropology museum but there wasn´t really time, and there were lots of things to see downtown, so we stuck to the area. We thought we might visit the higher end clothing stores to do research for our project, but tripped over the museum of modern art in the main square, and as admission was free, we decided to give it a try. We couldn´t take pictures, which is too bad, but it was a really nice afternoon. Some of the paintings were hard to connect with, but there was a traveling exhibit of bronze arches that I enjoyed. They were very organic and most of them were sliced in curving cuts like three dimensional puzzle pieces.
Unfortunately we had to hurry back early in order to get ready for the evening; as it ended up, though, even after showering and dressing, there was time for Anne and I to go to El Trapiche for a quick bowl of soup before we had to leave.
The big event of the night? The opera! Most of us bought tickets to go to the opera house two blocks from the hotel to see Madame Butterfly. I was in the second story balcony, in the front row - not the best seats in the house, but pretty good. I could see and hear everything.
It was so weird watching an opera in Italian, set in Japan, with Spanish subtitles running along on a screen over the stage. The opera was beautiful, especially the imaginative set design and the costuming. My only regret is that the action and singing made it difficult to appreciate the hard work by the orchestra in the pit beneath the stage, but during the curtain call the cellists represented, waving the cellos by their necks from below in the pit. Good times.
Unfortunately I wasn´t feeling well after the opera, so I went straight to bed to try to sleep it off before the morning and traveling.