So, yesterday the choir started the long expected tour. Let me tell you about the experience from the beginning. 0500 we arrived at the airport. Half of us were waiting at one side of the terminal for the other half, which turned out to be on the other side of the terminal. So after getting my bags checked, I was handed my boarding passes, as were about 6 others, and were told to go through security. After doing as we were told as good choir boys should, we sat down across the hall from the checkpoint and started to wait for the others. However, we didn't know that the entire choir was still on the other side, still waiting on the boarding passes. Apparently the printer had stopped working, so the rest of the choir had to wait outside the checkpoint. Well, eventually we all got through the checkpoint and all boarded the plane safely. We had a rather uneventful flight to Atlanta. When we landed in Atlanta we were let off and went to go get food. I went to Checkers and had a good American chicken sandwich. We did have a few problems with new choir boys walking off without a buddy, but we all got that resolved. After getting to the concert venue at around 1500 hours, we then proceeded to have a rehearsal where it was deemed we were really tired and were then told to go and rest until dinner. For dinner that night the church grilled us burgers, and gave us watermelon and chips. The concert that night was amazing. They really liked us, and I have got to say that we really nailed it that night. The Buffalo Niagra Youth Chorus also had about 20 minutes worth of music that they sang for us. In my semi-professional opinion, they weren't too shabby. After the concert that night we all went back up to our changing room and were given rooming assignments and went home with the host-families.

Sunday morning we sang at the morning church service of the church who hosted us the previous night. That day was apparently the gay and lesbian pride day in Buffalo, so the church service was geared towards gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender members. Just a bit of trivia, but Westminster Presbyterian was one of the first Presbyterian churches to widely recognize gay rights and advocate them. Well, after singing at the morning church service, we went up, changed, had lunch, loaded up the bus, and then got on our way to Canada to see the Niagara Falls. The entire experience was amazing. After taking the Maid of the Mist tour we went to this large souvenir shop the bus driver knew about. It was “ginormous”. They had a specialty chocolate shop, a glass shop, and a place very dear to most of the choir boy’s hearts, a food stand that sold a cone of ice cream for $3.99. It was pretty cheap compared to some of the ice cream bars in the little machine that sells them at $5.00 a pop. After leaving the impressive shop, we went back to Niagara to get a few more pictures. We then proceeded to head back to the United States. We ate dinner that night at two places; we split between Arby’s and McDonald’s. The hotel stay that night was nice.

Monday was a busy day. After getting up and loading the bus at 0930 hours, we made our way to Rochester, NY. WE got there around mid-day and had a nice, somewhat long, lunch at the Center Stage Café at the Eastman School of Music. After eating, and seeing some very scary homeless people, we all went in for a tour of the campus at the Eastman School of Music. We got to see Kilburn hall, and the Eastman Theater. We all went up on stage and sang Billy Joel’s “And So it Goes” for the tour guide and the head of choral activities for the ESOM, Dr. Weinert. After that we took a tour of the dorms and headed back fo a workshop with Dr. Weinert. Working with Dr. W was amazing. After the tour and workshop we headed out to our concert venue at Asbury FUMC. We sang a concert with the Rochester Boys Choir, even doing a song together. We all stayed at a host home that night.

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