At times I feel like I'm just not getting enough of a cultural experience and so I like to mix it up by going to an opera sung in Italian, set in Japan, subtitled in Spanish, shown in a European theater located in Central America. THEN AND ONLY THEN do I feel like I'm getting a good experience!

Last night some girlfriends and I went to see Madame Butterfly playing at the beautiful Teatro Nacional in San Jose. It was a chance to get dressed up, put makeup on for the first time in six weeks, have a nice dinner and go to the theater. It was stupendous!

Lindsay and I were lookin pretty snappy, and believe me we all fawned over each other. We were wearing clothes that in the US would be standard fare, but in our subculture of Tevas and tank tops we were rollin high!

Before the opera we all had dinner at the Gran Hotel Costa Rica, which is in the same plaza as the theater. The restaurant was open air but replete with chandeliers, china and the works. Having depended on $1 lunches at local sodas this looked like unparalleled elegance! We were reveling in it.

This is the entrance of the Gran Hotel Costa Rica.

Look...even a guy playing the piano!

We had a lovely dinner, I had sea bass in garlic sauce and shared a bottle of German white wine with Lindsay. We all thoroughly enjoyed the American style food.

At 7:00 we crossed the plaza to the theater. It was absolutely georgeous! Built in the 1870s it was built to mirror the European style theaters and art houses the Costa Ricans had seen in their recent trips there as they built trade relations. Recall that Costa Rica obtained their first printing press in the early 1830s, so culture was slow to develop and when it did it was largely borrowed from the Europeans. The theater is small but divine.

The inside is full of marble sculptures and rich red velvets with gold guilding...

And the opera itself was wonderful to watch, a timeless story of course. The costuming was great, our seats were fantastic and the orchestra was top notch!

We had a great night all around, it was a wonderful experience!!