January 12, 2011: A night out with friends

January 12, 2011: Today turned out to be a rather social day for me. Although my classes ended at 12:10 and I could have gone home, I had to stay at school in order to practice the Waka Waka dance routine with the teachers for Friday's performance. Practice for that began at 2:30 meaning I had to wait around for two hours. However, a colleague stopped by and asked if I'd like to go to a coffeehouse nearby for a cup of coffee while we were waiting for practice to begin. A short walk took us to a pastry shop that I had passed by on the bus and looked interesting and this was the coffee shop she took me to. We had a nice chat over coffee and returned for our dance practice.

Then, in the evening, another colleague asked me to go to a Japanese movie that was showing downtown for free. This movie theater shows Japanese movies with English subtitles twice a month. Tonight's movie was written by Akira Kurasawa, a very famous Japanese filmmaker who passed away a number of years ago. As expected, the movie had outstanding cinematography. My colleague had also invited a close friend of his to come to the movie too. So we three saw the movie and afterward went out for several beers. It was fun to socialize with the two of them. My colleague's friend works in the Department of Justice and teaches university law courses on the side. He also is a singer and guitar player in a rock band, so we had a lot to talk about. At any rate, it was nice to have socialized with my colleagues today even though there are several decades difference in our ages; it made me feel young again.

Speaking of singing, another colleague at school who is in a very fine choir asked her director if I could join the choir and he said I could so it looks like I will be joining them to sing in future concerts. The concert that she gave me the rehearsal dates for is for Bach's St. John's Passion. There are two other concerts coming up, too, for a work by Berlioz and one by Puccini. She will also be singing in the choir for Mahler's Third Symphony, but that work only calls for a women's choir so I obviously can't participate in that, although I certainly do plan on attending that concert. And speaking of concerts, I have ordered tickets for two of the concerts that will take place during the Spring Music Festival in Budapest. This festival has over one week of concerts, theater, and other cultural acts that will take place in Budapest in March. Among performers are Zubin Mehta, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and others. I'm really looking forward to attending some concerts for this festival, although one of the concerts I wanted to attend is sold out. My name is on a list in case someone returns their tickets. We'll see.