SIS for serious and travel plans

Sweeeet--- In that magical-it's-memorized kind of way, I have the first 49 pages and the Act III quintet of opera-number-one memorized!!!
Did I "try"?
Well, not really. Not like writing down what my lines are and going through them in my head every few hours of every day.
But it's there! Hey, I HAVE reviewed it passively (ie, as I'm falling asleep for my afternoon nap) every day for about 1.5 hrs.
I'm attributing the quintet memorization to the fact that I've already sung it (9 years ago). Woah, that is weird.

But the first scene? That's just plain there-- so woo hoo!

In upcoming-month-of-insanity-and-learning news,

I heard back from the VIPs that I needed to hear back from.
I can now buy train or plane tickets for everywhere I need to be, sing and study through June 30th.
It is also "decided" from the responses in the emails that I will have to end up taking trains to the competition that's 5 hrs away, instead of a flight.

The flight (round trip if I make it for the ENTIRE competition from Monday-Sunday) is 114 dollars.
Guess what it is ONE way if I want to buy just that since I don't know how far I'll get in the competition? 533! NOT KIDDING.

Trains aren't any better, because if I reserved NOW it would be about 70 Euros each way, but if I do it the day before (which is the only time I"ll know when I need to be there or not), it jumps to 130 each way. Euros. Ouch.

The ONLY thing that makes these prices OK (well, not the 530 dollar flight, but the 5 hour expensive trains) is the fact that I have people to stay with so I won't be paying for a hotel.

And hey, I've read all of those posts on nfcs about how great it is to find a train compartment all to yourself and warm up in one--so maybe that's what I'll take advantage of- at least on the way there.

That's all for now.
I'm kind of looking forward to trying to pack all of my clothes and books back into those 2 suitcases and hoping that they are not over the weight limit (again) for my upcoming flights. I'm looking forward to only having to deal with a carry-on suitcase for the next week, and traveling during my week before the learning really begins, and of course, looking forward to the learning as well!