How time flies! 开学13周了，圣诞新年假倒计时中！

Hello，Ximalaya. It has been a long time since we met last time! How time flies!

How time flies! 时间飞逝，转眼就过完了11月，开始进入冬天了。

Winter in New York is really long; we wear down coats from November all the way to April. Schools may even close in April because of a sudden snow storm. The fun part is that we can enjoy ski season (滑雪季）. Actually, my family has booked a Christmas ski trip with some other friends. I am very excited!

Down Coat, 羽绒服。要穿差不多半年羽绒服。虽然冬季很长，但是可以滑雪ski。很多家庭已经开始预定冬假圣诞节的滑雪旅行。Stella, 到时要来和我们分享啊！

Sure, I will. Last week, we went to the Metropolitan Opera to see La Traviata, an opera by Giuseppe Verdi for an Italian class field trip（出游）. The show was a dress rehearsal（带妆彩排） and free for students. What impressed me the most was the sets of the stage（舞台布景）. They were so beautiful.

林肯中心是美国最高级别的演出中心了。其中的大都会歌剧院最为大型和豪华。美轮美奂。除此之外还有芭蕾，爵士，电影，等各演出场地。La traviata，茶花女，这是法国作家小仲马的原著小说，威尔第改编为歌剧，一般这种演出的商业票价好几百美金，而学生看白天的彩排场则是免费的。因为是意大利语歌剧，所以学校所有选意大利语的学生都可以报名去看，去年也有这个活动，看的是蝴蝶夫人。高雅艺术的熏陶就是这样慢慢来的。

The opera is a love story sung in Italian. I could not understand what they were singing, but there is a machine set up in front of every seat providing translations into five different languages, including English. With that help, I followed the plot （情节）very well. When the musicians first started playing the music, I realized I had played that music before.

在翻译机器的帮助下都听懂了。音乐有些也是以前演奏过的并不陌生。这回是看了全本了。意大利语是Stella选择的外语，从小学开始，美国学校的外语教育是紧紧和文化介绍联系在一起的。正因为在小学阶段对意大利文化包括音乐与美食以及罗马文化的介绍，才让Stella在中学以后选择了意大利语作为正式外语学习，至今喜欢。

Since this was at the Metropolitan Opera, we had to dress nicely. Also, instead of a normal yellow school bus, we took a coach bus into Manhattan. A coach bus is much more spacious and comfortable than a school bus. It even has a few TVs. The transportation was comfortable, but the traffic into and out of the city was really bad.

因为是在歌剧院看演出，学生们要求dress nicely。穿得好看，也就是要相对正式一些。比如平时上学穿的牛仔裤跑鞋套头戴帽衫就很不合适，女孩子可以穿裙子和皮鞋皮靴，男孩子则要穿西裤衬衣，有些还穿了西装夹克。去曼哈顿城里的车也不是日常交通的黄色校车，而是豪华旅游车，Coach Bus。听上去，是一个相当高大上的活动。Now, Let’s see what Lindsay has done in week 13th.

Hello, ximalaya, this is Lindsay from New York. This was a really quiet week. There was not much going on at school and I maintained a very fixed schedule（固定的时间表）. Getting up to school, going through my classes, coming back, doing homework, practicing violin, extra math, which my mom asked me to do, and extra reading, which I always enjoy.

That sounds boring.

Well, there were some interesting things going on too! I participated in NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal I set for myself was 26,000 words, and I managed to finish it by the last day of November.

Congratulations! Is this a school requirement?

No. I just want to do it. I like writing. But I have a bad habit of leaving my story open ended. With this signed up writing event, i hoped to make some more progress into my novel.

11月是全国写作月。Lindsay这个月自己给自己布置的功课就是写完整一个26000字的故事，这是网上发起的一个活动，她参加了，也做到了，自己很开心。

Over the weekend I went to see a magic show on Broadway called The Illusionists. It was fascinating and beautiful, and I really can’t imagine how they did all the magic tricks.

Broadway，就是大名鼎鼎的百老汇，全世界的观众到纽约都不会错过到百老汇看一场舞台演出。百老汇有很多剧场，不光是音乐歌舞剧。尤其到了圣诞期间，有不少适合全家老少一起看的秀，魔术秀就是其中深受喜爱的。这次的魔术取名Illusionist，幻术师。

One performer was Shin Lim, who won America’s Got Talent. He is very good at sleight of hand and does all sorts of magnificent card tricks. In one of these tricks, he managed to change the deck （一副牌）into blank cards, then when he fanned them out again it spelled out MERRY CHRISTMAS. Another performer was Colin Cloud, who is supposed to be like a real-life Sherlock Holmes（福尔摩斯）. He was supposed to able to deduct anything from you from a psychological （心理学的）viewpoint. It was amazing for us to see what he could find out just based on the way people speak and hold themselves.

听歌剧看魔术，Heading to Christmas Break 第13周