Holiday Adventures

Life has been a whirlwind for Katja since late October, filled with travel and the nonstop activity/festivities that start with Halloween and don’t end until the New Year (or in her case, mid-January). She prides herself on being a cheery sort, but nevertheless has a tendency to feel a bit gloomy when the sparkly Christmas lights start disappearing and the cold weather sets in. That said, she has yet to take down her Christmas tree, which she prefers to think of as a winter penguin tree. As an adult, and one who has never cared much about conformity, she figures she can make her own decisions regarding decor and what’s appropriate.

The rather unpleasant cold weather has made her a bit more of a homebody recently (well not really a homebody, but for her), so she figured she’d reminisce about all of her holiday season escapades. And while Katja is not a big social media girl, she has noticed that these days a lot of people seem to be living their lives online, so why not share her fabulous adventures (not that she's the type of girl to try to make others jealous, she's much too well-mannered for that).

As usual Katja’s more local travel was ballet-centered - quick trips to Boston for the Boston Ballet’s magnificent Swan Lake (she saw it three times), and to Washington, DC for the Washington Ballet’s Tango Soirée fundraiser, held at the beautiful Organization of American States building (Katja might have had a bit too much red wine, not that that would surprise anybody who knows her).

Then it was off to London, the first of three separate European trips in four weeks. What can she say, she’s a jet setter. Not surprisingly the trip also involved some ballet. She doesn’t like to go too long without taking class, and thankfully was able to make it to Dance Works, her go-to studio in London, a few times during her visit. She also saw a Royal Ballet triple bill of works by Brandstrup, Scarlett and Wheeldon.

The cultured girl that she is, Katja has been to opera houses and theaters throughout the world, and she believes that the Royal Opera House is the most civilized place to take in a show. Not to mention that it has a surprisingly good house red wine.

Katja spent most of her time in London hanging out with friends, gossiping, shopping and enjoying lots of wine and tasty treats– including a divine cheese plate at Li Veli restaurant

and a delicious afternoon tea at the Ham Yard Hotel. She was especially pleased by the lovely vegetarian offerings, minus the slight trauma of a salmon sandwich (which she unfortunately bit into) having made it onto the vegetarian platter. But she forgot about that as soon as she started devouring the cakes…

It was then back home for just over a week before jetting off to Budapest for the Thanksgiving weekend…but more on that later, as it’s time for her to head to BAE for class. Even the cold and rather unpleasant post-snow New York streets can’t keep her from dancing.