My participation in the contest: My best memory of 2021// by @papi.mati

My best memory of 2021... it wasn't a very exciting year compared to others - I couldn't travel, never left my city even for 10-15 km away bicycle trip (last time I've spent the whole year in one city when I was 4 years old), I couldn't learn Spanish properly because most of the year language schools were closed, neither do anything exciting, even though I was planning to jump from the parachute or learn horseriding.

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That unnatural rhythm for me was difficult to proceed and yet, I consider 2021 as moderately successful and it will be difficult for me to find that one memory that could deserve to be named as the best. It could be any moment spent with my family, even when we were doing small things, like playing board games, going out to the cinema, watching Netflix, or spending time in a swimming pool. It could also be the moment when I joined Steemit 8 months ago and my life has changed because I received some financial stability in a country that is struggling with hyperinflation and scandalous low salaries. Those things I already described in my previous publications, so I wanted to find something else.

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_{My only trip in the 2021 was to the islands on Parana river, right in front of the city}

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Even though it's not the trip to Mars or winning the Nobel prize, I'd say my best memory was related to the visit to a theatre to see "Madame Butterfly" opera. A small thing, but very exciting for me.

I used to spend a lot of time in the theatres while living in Poland. The language barrier made it difficult when I moved first to Chile and then, after a few years to Argentina. I continued going for philharmonic concerts as classical music is my passion (especially XIXth century, mostly Russian, but I'm into everything from those times as well as sometimes something older, like Bach from Baroque), but comedy or drama acts were not for me anymore. Unfortunately.

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_{Madame Butterfly in Teatro Circulo, Rosario - I didn't take many photos, because I was consumed by enjoying that event}

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The Opera is something on totally another level. I used to watch plenty of operas online, on youtube, or other platforms of that type, but I've never seen any live until 2021. It's because in Poland it's very difficult to see it. Operas are played only in the biggest cities, price is 6-7 times higher than in Argentina (at least 50 USD for the worst seats) and... all seats are booked two hours after the new program is announced so it's nerve-wracking refreshing the website to buy the tickets on time. Here, I managed to buy the cheap tickets with the nice view of the stage, I did it without any problems, because not that many people are interested in the higher culture of that type and all that left was waiting for the date of the premiere.

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_{One more from the theatre - pausa between acts}

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The opera, like most of them, at least besides the newest, was in Italian with Spanish subtitles. I knew the story, as I was watching it many times before on the screen. Besides that reading in Spanish is still much easier than understanding the conversation, so I could follow it with the mentioned subtitles and understand 50-60% of all what has been said.

The scenery, music, arias, costumes - all was so exciting and so well made, that I could feel every single emotion that was desired by the composer to be felt by the viewers: there was an excitement, fear, and sadness so strong, that I had tears in my eyes. I have (well, "we have", as I was there with my two boyfriends) making the standing ovation at the end.

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_{Me with my boys waiting for the opera to start. We had the nice seats on one of the balconies}

The whole experience had nearly spiritual meaning for me. It made me relaxed and happy for the next few weeks and I'm sure it will be something that I will manage to remember to the end of my life, even if at some point I'll get dementia :)

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