Hallo. Ich heisse Louisa. Ich komme aus Amerika.

Everybody warned me that things would seem expensive here, what with the dollar being at an all-time low and the euro doing pretty damn awesome, and sure enough, things do seem expensive, with two exceptions. One is public transportation; for my week's pass I paid less than I did in New York, and even the taxi I took to my apartment yesterday seemed cheap. And the other thing that costs less here? Opera tickets! At the Met I paid $20 for standing room tickets, and for tonight's performance of Ballo? €3,50 (about $5)!! And those were the nicest standing room tickets; you can actually pay €2 if you don't care about actually seeing the opera. Now, €3,50 buys you standing room that's a little less luxe than it is at the Met (yes, that is possible), but you certainly can't beat the price.

I think I met end up at the opera more evenings than not, although if you're looking for an edgy, Eurotrash production of your favorite opera, the Staatsoper is not the place to go. Nobody in Ballo rode a motorcycle, broke the fourth wall, or mimed lewd sexual acts. Nobody was naked at all, actually. Disappointing. It was an old-fashioned production whose set consisted mainly of drops, and the staging was very standard "park and bark." The few times the singers attempted to do some actual staging, it was so clumsily done that it elicited snickers from the audience (at least the hoi polloi in standing room, that is). My favorite part: Hui He, the incredible Amelia. My least favorite part: there was a definite line where the lighting stopped about 3 feet upstage of the plaster line, and yet the singers insisted on constantly singing downstage of that line (possibly to be closer to the prompter box).

Here are some facts and figures about my first day in Vienna (hey, I was a math major for about 5 minutes in college, you know).

5 Number of successful conversations I held in German outside of class

0 Number of successful conversations I held in German in class

2 Number of inches my jaw dropped when the teacher said the class might be too easy for me

3 Number of hours I napped this afternoon

3 Number of male flatmates I have

0 Number of female flatmates I have

75 Approximate number of people the standing room area will comfortably (ish) hold

852 Approximate number of people crammed into standing room at the beginning of the opera

50 Percent of people still left in standing room after the first intermission

30 Percent of people still left in standing room after the second intermission

2 Number of people speaking German in standing room

6 Number of people who listened as I explained the plot in English during the first intermission

4 Number of times I took public transportation today

0 Number of times someone checked to see if I had a ticket to ride

4 Number of men who asked for my phone number

0 Number of Austrian men who asked for my phone number

12 Number of minutes I had to wait for my tram while a man from West Africa told me about his favorite nightclubs

Time to do my homework (wow, it's been a long time since I've had to say that) and then go to bed.

Gute nacht!