Sunday, June 26, 2005

GREETINGS FROM CANTERBURY!

Happy Birthday, Mary Kate!

We’re here!  The festival is for real and there are large numbers of kids all over the place!

We started the day by picking up the kids at our meeting location all dressed and ready to go for the Shottery St. Andrew’s Parish performance and church service.  We had time to have a nice warm up and get used to the acoustics and sort of see how the order for worship was going to run.  They started out with a prelude of two pieces, sang during the eucharist and finished up with a 20 minute recital which the congregation absolutely loved and appreciated fully!  Afterward we joined their fellowship time and visited with the kind people there.  They especially enjoyed “Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain” using the Shakespeare text.  No doubt, they all pretty much are familiar with the works!

Then onto the bus for a 4 hour ride to Canterbury, with a brief lunch stop at a rest area.  With our capable, smooth driver Tony, the ride was perfect and uneventful.  Pulling into the Kent University campus and to our building, Darwin, we found our rooms, got some basic information, hung out, ran around, and got settled into our “pods” where there are 5 individual rooms sharing a shower and a toilet and separate entrance.  Off we went to the dining hall where we saw two of the other choirs, the one from Kalamazoo, Michigan and the one from Greensboro, North Carolina.  Nice cafeteria food with a good selection to fill our bellies.  We were so pleased to see our kids, when finished with their dinners, to go mingle with the other groups.  Believe me, that dining hall was a bit loud! 

We had a little more free time and then off to our orientation and introduction meeting.  Our lights out time tonight must be early, since our wake up is for  6 a.m. in time to get first in line for breakfast at 6:50!  Good night, now!

Til next time,

SUE