The Strike of the Opera

Last night I saw a ballet entitled Le Parc, which means The Park in English. I know, that one was tough to guess. Don't worry guys, I'll always translate those difficult French words for you.

Now what exactly was Le Parc about? Well, that's a very good question. One I puzzled at through the entire ballet. I stared at the people dancing and went, "Wow, you're all lovely dancers and I wish I could do that, but seriously WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

Of course, being the creative-minded person that I am, I made up what I thought was a plausible storyline. First, the curtain opened to reveal 4 men in goggles and apron-type things. They were dancing robotically, so I was pretty sure they were either from the future or aliens. I just read a review and apparently they were supposed to be gardners. This makes no sense to me at all, so we're just going to flow with my storyline.

So the people from the future danced robot-ballet (it can be done), and then they disappeared. In their place came a bunch of men and women dressed in 18th century clothing. They danced with chairs and flirted with each other. I assumed the aliens had gone back in time to a party. Everyone left the stage, and a woman and a man shared a dance. I think she turned him down. It looked like a rejection dance. Obviously, they were the main people.

There was more group dancing (which is obviously just filler so the real people can have a clothing change), and then the main people danced again. She rejected him again, and then the aliens with the goggles got her. They dance with her and then return her back to the main guy, who she finally kisses. I assume this was because she was so happy to be back on planet Earth and not with the aliens.

Ok, so what it was supposed to be about: love. The aliens in goggles (or "gardners") were supposed to represent love being blind and all the dances were different facets of love.

That's not a real story. I need a concrete plot. New plot: the main girl didn't love the main guy until she got kidnapped by aliens and realized that he was better than an eternity in space.

Who really cared what the ballet was about? I was in the Phantom of the Opera's opera house. I couldn't find my camera, but here's the picture of the famous chandelier that one of my friends took:



Isn't it fabulous? The movie did a really good job of sticking to what the opera house looked like. I want to live there.

I was worried today because everyone kept making a big deal about the metro strike today. Everyone told me it was going to be horrible, and that I would have to walk to school (an idea which I shot down- that's several miles away). I was told that people in Paris enjoyed striking in the spring so they could take the day off. Molly and I went early, but everything was running according to schedule. Apparently, someone forgot to tell the metro guys they were striking. The closest thing I saw to a strike was a bus driver wearing a sweatshirt. I suppose that's one way to sick it to the man. "Damn you! I'm wearing casual clothing to work today!" You go, dude.

Molly went on the RER, which is the metro that goes out to the suburbs. Apparently, that was a million times worse. Thankfully, I didn't have to take it. I suppose I can't blame them for wanting the day off, it was a very nice day with actual sunshine and everything.

Tomorrow, I head to Marseilles. It's in the south of France, so hopefully it's even nicer there!