An uneventful week. Wednesday night, I went to see the Nutcracker done by the Hong Kong Ballet. It was good. Very different from what I'm used to, and I didn't tumble to what was queer about it till halfway through the second act. They're not much for petit allegro. There's not a lot of footwork or anything, it was much more elaborate lifts, impressive leaps, and series of turns. The pas de deuxs were all fantastic strings of lifts and dangerous looking poses. The Sugar Plum Fairy's pointe shoe ribbon wasn't tied correctly, and she had to run offstage during the big duet to retie it. The Prince walked, literally, in circles gesturing grandly but awkwardly. Heehee.

The Stuttgart Ballet company is coming to HK in February. They're going to do Swan Lake and some ballet called Onegin. I think I'll go see it. And then the HK ballet is doing an All Tchaikovsky show in March, which I will also try to get to. We had tickets for the second balcony, which is farther from the stage than I've ever seen a show, but it was nice. I could see all the formations (speaking of which, I wasn't terribly impressed with the Snowflake scene or the fight scene...the choreography didn't seem to match the music at times and the fight lacked a certain je ne sais quoi...liveliness if you will. But the Arabian dance was quite fantastic. And the costumes were gorgeous...although tending to run in the white/pink/yellow range, and all very pale). Anyway. Yes, I forgot what I was saying. Oh right, the tickets were only 75 HKD which is crazy cheap, because we got Student Discounts.

For the most part, I've spent the last week reading, watching Friends, and sleeping. And I've done a bit of shopping/making Christmas cards. I sent a package home on Wednesday with Christmas cards for everyone...I hope it makes it there before everyone leaves town.

Mmmm what else...I guess that's about all. Done a lot of Agatha Christie reading, started reading Proust which I enjoy. He's a bit dense to read though. And I took out a Faulkner, just to give him another try.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to everyone!!