It's getting colder and colder here

To warm up your day, I have included some more pictures from the beach at Puerto Vallarta.

Our weather has taken a turn for the colder. We are heading for some mighty frosty days ahead. The temp is in the 20's today, but is heading lower in the days ahead. We are experiencing some flurries now, adding to the dusting already on the ground. So what was more appropriate than to go to a concert yesterday which featured Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" ? The piece was part of a CSO series entitled "Beyond the Score," in which the background of the piece is explored, exerpts played and commentary by Gerald McBurney and an actor. A huge screen is located behind the orchestra which features film clips and other visual artifacts. This makes for a very interesting afternoon. In the second part of the concert the piece is played completely. The conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen was very energtic, though his suit jacket appeared to be little tight. This was the first time I had heard the piece in its entirety. I was surprised that it didn't seem as cutting edge as I expected. It has a lot of folk song material in it, though most of the songs were Lithuanian, not Russian. It was explained in the commentary that the Lithuanians were the last people of the area to become Christian, so the archeologist who was working with Stravinsky, believed that their folksongs were more closly related to the preChristian pagan culture than those of the Russians. Paganism was what they were looking for in this piece. The orchestra was huge, and the sound was huge. All in all it was a very interesting afternoon.

Two other comments, we saw someone busted by the security for taping the program. They took his cassette away and let him go. I saw Stravinsky conduct in the 1960's when he came to Chicago to the Ravinia Festival--don't ask me what was played at the concert.

The Vacation from Hell

The trip to Mexico wasn't a sucess. It all started when I checked the travel sites and saw negative comments about the hotel. I just filed those away. Then I was hit with a $50 charge because my bag was overweight. Now the plane wasn't full, so they usually let it go. Not this time. Although the hotel was lovely, the decor was a little dated, but that's not a major problem. My husband got sick on Sunday with a high temp and diaherria. Then on Monday, we got a call from the nurse at my Mom's apartment that they were taking her to the emergency room. She was really seriously sick. By the next day, she was doing better, and the nurse in the ICU told us that we didn't have to rush back that day.
My husband , on the recommendation of another guest, got some medication from the concierge, which was quite effective. We made our arrangements to return to the USA on Wednesday. That morning, I didn't feel too good, but since I didn't know when I would see a meal, I decided to eat breakfast. By the time we got to the airport, I was nauseated, and spent several hours throwing up in the airport washroom. I had the chills and had to put on my winter jacket and sweater. Fortunately, the trip home was uneventful, and we arrived home safely. My mother is doing much better, but is still in the hospital. Neither of us feel great. I was so disgusted with the hotel, that I posted my story on 3 travel web sites. I have informed our travel agent. A woman read my comments and decided to cancel her Barcelo reservations and book another hotel. It really annoyed me that the hotel was so secretive and continued to have new guests check in. Personally, including ourselves, we knew of 6 people who were sick. It was rumored that there were at least 50. They didn't seem to be too concerned, and certainly didn't follow up with the people who were sick.
The real tragedy of this was that the hotel was on a beautiful site, the food was good, the service was good and Puerto Vallarta is an interesting town. I will put pictures on the blog in the next few days so you can see how nice it was.

Tomorrow is the day,

6:30 am is the time that we will be on our way to Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. We are about as ready as we can be--except for packing and other little things. Mentally, we are ready.
I am glad that Wednesday is over. It was a very busy day, a meeting in the morning, a class in the afternoon and another meeting in the early meeting. The two classes I participated in at Oakton were very worthwhile. One was learning how to use a grade book program, the other was instruction in how to put a syllabus on the web. Of course, you have to have a web page in order to do this, so that is another project. Another detail, the syllabus has to be done. Oh well. Anothter thing to do when we get back.
So, off for a week of sun and eating new foods, and seeing new places.