Hey everybody! Yes, I speak to you directly from one of the
coolest cities in the world. New York! And I’m here to tell you all about my
first day in the city that never sleeps!
So it all actually starts at the international airport of
Guarulhos. It seems odd, but the whole journey to New York seemed easy and
quick which wouldn’t be the case with an international ten hour flight. But we
checked in in the airport, got our boarding passes, went into this awesome VIP
room where there was FREE FOOD. YES, free food. I ate a lot because I know
planes are notorious for having crappy food.
As soon as we finished eating it was already time to board
the plane. The plane was white and pink, hell yeah! At first I thought there
was nobody sitting next to me but along comes this lady at the last hour and
takes her seat next to me. We started chatting a bit and not before much longer
do I discover that her husband is in fact a musician, a composer, who does a
lot of stuff for Marin Alsop. How amazing is that? We chatted half of the
flight and the other half I battled to try and get some sleep. Because I did
not want to get in New York in the morning and sleep, sleep is for the weak, especially
if you are travelling abroad. My mum always says we can’t sleep much in trips
like these because we would be sleeping in dollars. One of the many hilarious
things my mum says.
But although the flight company was great (Delta), the turbulence
was almost constant and the breakfast quite unsettling. Landed at about 6 in
the morning and it was still pitch dark which was quite depressing, but as we
waited in the long immigration line the sun came up. It was during that long
time we waited that I wondered if my favorite opera singers took the same line
or if they could just go on as ambassadors of awesomeness or something.
Probably not, but they are my ambassadors of awesomeness anyhow.
My mum had hired a guy to take us from the airport to our
hotel who had actually been born in our city. So as we drove through the
morning’s rush hour we laughed about my uncle’s nickname that still today is
used by many and funny football stories. Unfortunately that plane breakfast had
really disarranged my mother, she felt very sick after we arrived in the Hotel.
And mind you, our check in time was at 3pm, we arrived at 8am. What to do hun?
Me and my mum had some coffee in a random italianish plane
of 57th street between 7th and 6th avenues, I
think, great coffee, great croissant! I left my mum at the hotel reception
couches resting and hit the city by myself. I think it was then that I realized
that THIS WAS IT. I was in New York for real, walking alone, taking whatever path
I might want to take. And although all roads lead to the Met, first I went to T
Mobile to get my phone working and BAM, just like magic I have power in my
phone again.
Then I almost flew to Lincoln Center, I didn’t have any maps
or anything like that. But it’s a funny thing about New York, I’ve been here
once before and I had the same feeling. The feeling that I knew exactly where I
was going and had to just keep on walking that I would surely reach my
destination. As I walked to Lincoln Center I started to feel kind of nervous
and before turning on the corner of the Empire Hotel I stopped, took a deep
breath and put my big sunglasses on.
When I saw it, it was like a gunshot of greatness. It’s so
HUGE! Especially the Met, as you get closer and closer it just gets bigger and
bigger and you do feel like an insignificant ant! Before I could notice I was
crying. Silently though. I entered the Met and the Met Store and couldn’t
actually believe that that was real! The amount of incredible things they have
in that store cannot be matched by anything I’ve ever seen and I’ve been to
Disney people. I, however, as a tribute to the Yankee Diva, only bought ReJoyce
and as soon as I had paid for it was ripping the plastic to shreds to get a
look inside. What I saw made me cry out of joy.
Me and baby sister immortalized by the awesomeness of
Cinderella/Joyce. Plus something else that made me so honored the fact that
Joyce chose what I’d written about her to feature in the cd and there it was.
I was over the moon and one of the guys who worked there
noticed ad told me that I must have seen something I really liked in that cd to
have that reaction. And I told him that I had actually seen myself there, I
showed him the cd and he was quite happy/stunned to actually see me there. He
asked me what I did and I told him I was studying to be an opera singer and he
told me he hoped to see me more often at the Met but on the stage. That was so
sweet! I was so happy!
I had a walk around Lincoln Center after that and then went
back to my mother who was sleeping in couch where I had left her. We had lunch
at a rather not so good place but we were kind of hungry so we didn’t mind.
Then we went to Carnegie Hall to get our tickets. I had, earlier that day
passed by Carnegie Hall and noticed there were some people protesting. But the
lady at the box office told me they were trying to get it solved for no later
than today and that the performances I was attending were not going to be
cancelled but I was a tad apprehensive.
Then we went to the Lion’s den, where no woman shall never
enter without going broke, Wallgreens. Oh man, everything is just so colorful
and sparkly in this country. I got some pretty awesome but totally useless girl
stuff and ONLY THEN did we finally check into our hotel.
But the wait was worth it, the room is enormous, it’s bigger
than my entire apartment in São Paulo. We rested for a while and made all kinds
of calculations to see how we could save more money buying my opera CDS. Met
Opera won that battle and then we were off to the Met again! It was about 6 and
the people were starting to get there for tonight’s The Nose. I felt like a
homeless person in my golden trainers, sporty dress and provocative cleavage.
 |
| later that day back at the Met |
At the shop I just ran around getting everything I wanted
like it was Christmas time. I found that the people there were very cold, or
maybe I’m just too silly and bubbly. But I would think to myself “This is the
Met, like of the coolest places on earth, be excited about this!”. I bought a
lot of stuff I must admit but it was most of the cds I wanted to buy anyways. Jonas Kaufmann, the Verdi Album / Renée
Fleming, Guilty Pleasures / Piotr Beczala, Heart’s Delight / Jonas
Kaufmann, Romantic Arias / Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Sondra Radvanovsky, Verdi Opera Scenes / Angela Gheorghiu, My Puccini / Jonas Kaufmann,
German Arias / Mariusz Kwiecien, Slavic
Heroes / and last but most certainly not least but the very last one in the
store, Olga Borodina, Arias. Plus Adriana Lecouvreur’s Royal
Opera House dvd! Yeah, loads of money!
There was actually only one guy who sounded like a true fan there, I talked to him for a bit, while he complimented my golden trainers, about Anna Netrebko. Such a cool guy!
After that we went back to the hotel and
contemplated on the fact that we were too lazy to look for someplace nice to
eat in. So we went to place we thought was nice, it wasn’t though, fail number
two of places to eat. And now I’m back in my hotel almost dropping out of the
chair because of the little sleep I got last night in the plane so I’ll be
going to bed now (as soon as I organize all the things I have thrown in my bed).
Tomorrow will be awesome! Cheers!
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