London Bound

Katja has been counting the days until her trip to London and is happy to report that the day is finally here…she's sitting in the United lounge drinking red wine (surprise, surprise) and eating snacks she doesn't need while waiting to board her flight.

She hasn’t been to London in over six months, which seems like a lifetime to her. That said, the time has flown by, as she’s been keeping busy with ballet, museums, and socializing over wine and bubbly. In other words, the usual. And of course there’s always travel of some sort, even if not to the most exotic of locales.

Katja has become quite a regular on the Amtrak to Boston, mostly for Boston Ballet performances and events (sadly performances are over until next season), although her most recent trip was for the opening of Getting There, a friend’s exhibition at the St. Botolph Club (go see it if you can!). She also ventured down to Philadelphia to catch up with a friend she hadn't seen in quite some time.

While much of the afternoon was spent gossiping and leisurely sipping bubbly at Rouge, a restaurant right off of Rittenhouse Square, they did find time to go to the Dance: Movement, Rhythm, Spectacle exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the tiny but very charming Rodin Museum. Katja does, after all, love culture as much as she loves her cocktails.

Katja was less excited about her trip to Cleveland for a bar mitzvah, neither the city nor the occasion holding much appeal. While she is young at heart she prefers a crowd slightly older than 13 year olds, yet not quite as old as the parents of the 13 year olds. There was, however, a carousel at the Western Reserve Historical Society, where the party was held. She’s never gotten over her childhood love of merry-go-rounds, so that, along with the open bar, helped her survive the evening, and perhaps even enjoy herself a little bit.

Katja really enjoyed her excursion the next day to the Cleveland Museum of Art. She was most impressed by the beautiful space, great collection, and sophisticated interactive activities, and she loved the small exhibition The Novel and the Bizarre: Salvator Rosa's Scenes of Witchcraft.

Of course she’s also been indulging in lots of culture and cocktails in New York (never difficult things to do in the city). She attended a party a MoMA (she always appreciates the open bar with bubbly) for the Yoko Ono show, saw ABT’s production of La Bayadere, and, on her birthday, caught one of Cedar Lake’s final performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

This was followed by sparkling red (her favorite) and some yummy German food at Berlyn.

In between all of these various activities, she did, believe it or not, find time for researching and writing (social butterflies have day jobs too), and could often be found working hard at Ballet Academy East, which has become something of a second home.

Of course her hard work would probably pay off more if she made an effort to in indulge in a little less red wine/bubbly and to go to bed at a more respectable hour, but what’s the fun in that…