It's a bird! It's a plane! It's.... Becca in heels?

Now I know how classy people feel...
Last night, I attended my first ever opera. (Or, as every German will pronounce it 'Oprah' like the talk-show host/goddess). It was Maria Stuarda. You can go ahead and look it up, I had to.

 It was quite a night, I got to fancy-pants it up with my new shoes and dress along with a little help from Bobbi. Carrying the opera glasses, I felt quite the lady mingling with all the rich old people sipping their champagne (that costs extra...) and wearing their furs (those also cost extra). However, since students here are given discounts at literally everything possible, our tickets were cheap and our seats were good.

I had a wonderful time, even though after every act I had to ask Niklas for confirmation of what just happened because the opera was in Italian and subtitled in German. The music itself was enough to tell the story though, and I got the gist of it. My high school band director would have been proud.

Funny how I can do all of this while having so much trouble getting any of my money. And with that, let me tell you another, less fun, tale. For some reason the bank I chose to use for this trip will not allow me to withdraw cash from an ATM. Bummer, considering you cannot pay for anything except train tickets here in credit/debit card. All cash, all the time.
 Which is a disappointment considering I chose this bank for the very reason that withdraws from certain ATM are free. Too bad my card will not work at these for some reason. I went into two banks, one being the headquarters, and neither was helpful.
'Perhaps your card is broken after the flight. Or perhaps you are not authorized to withdraw from another country, did you inform your bank?' ...Please people, it's not my first rodeo. The crazy thing is, any other ATM from a different company will allow me to withdraw. So Mom, take a deep breath, I have money. I just had to pay the fee I changed banks for to avoid. Makes perfect sense, right? Trust me, many calls are being made to this bank to get things sorted out.

Now I am off to meet my host family and jump into the German school system. Wish me luck.
Bis bald