On the bus, the group started with
some more city tours. I tried to stay awake during the bus parts, I
really did, but I kept nodding off. The jet lag was still with me.
We were told it would be warm again, but it wasn't. A sweatshirt was
not enough for my tiny, cold self to stay warm during our walking
parts. Bobby so gallantly gave me his second sweatshirt to wear
under mine so at least I wouldn't be shivering even if I was still
cold. We visited the beach and some cool monuments and parkour
spots, which Bobby jumped around on. We wound up on one of our
walking tours going almost the exact reverse of the meandering route
Bobby and I went on yesterday. This time the guide explained some
bits of history about the place, including that a good chunk of the
old buildings had stones in them that were taken from Jewish
buildings and cemeteries when the Jews were forced to leave Spain or
else convert to Catholicism a few centuries ago. It's kind of creepy
that you can see old writing on the sides of the buildings and
knowing that someone stole a gravestone to put it to their own use.
After the tour we only had about an
hour for lunch, and we spent half of it running around with the tour
guide who kept insisting she knew where places were to exchange
money. The tourist money-exchange place had an even higher rate than
the airport, and all of the regular banks, which should be able to
exchange money, had hastily-written signs up saying that they weren't
changing money that day, for whatever reason. We wound up using an
ATM and Bobby's card, because I'd taken most of the cash out of my
account, thinking there'd be a better exchange rate here. So, that
was kind of annoying. It also left us with almost no time to go eat.
We wound up getting crepe and waffle things from a cart, which were
more dessert than meal, because it was the fastest thing there was.
Then, after being rushed back to the bus, we wound up waiting around
for a while because the bus was late. I was kind of annoyed about
that.
Anyway, the bus then took us on about
an hour and a half ride to a small town called Manresa, where we were
to perform later that evening. We only had about an hour to explore
the town on our own. Also, everything was closed for siesta, so it
wound up just being us wandering around taking pictures of
interesting alleyways and jumping on the small things that could be
found to jump on. There were a couple of interesting parkour spots,
including the square we met up in at the end of our free time. There
were these three guys there, just sitting on top of a wall. They
were in sweats and sneakers, so I thought it feasible that they did
parkour. Bobby and I started jumping around while waiting for the
bus, to the great delight of all of the choir group who were also
waiting. After a particularly impressive leap over a fountain by
Bobby, one of the guys did a precision from the edge of the fountain
to the top of a bench next to it. The way they were watching us and
talking to themselves, I was wondering if they were ever going to
join in. The waiting crowd went crazy when the local traceur did his
jump. I thought it was pretty cool to run into some other parkour
folks randomly in another country. They seemed really friendly, and
there was a short conversation with them before we had to go get on
the bus. I really wish we'd run into them at the beginning of our
free time, or had time to exchange information. Regardless, it was
nice to be doing parkour somewhere that everyone was cool with it.
The locals all thought it was really impressive and cool, at one
point a cop walked by and didn't bother us, and everyone on the tour
with us were all excited about it, including the new Dean of SCSU.
In various conversations with other adults on the trip, it appears
that everyone actually gets what parkour should be from how we
describe it. It's rather refreshing. I'm looking forward to our
partial-day-free, which we've dedicated already to finding some fun
places to train and hopefully meeting up with people in Barcelona.
We haven't gotten any response from online parkour groups in
Barcelona, so we're not sure if the latter was going to happen, but
at least we got to meet some parkour people by luck in Manresa.
After the free time, we had rehearsal
for a little over an hour in the church, which was built into a
mountainside after a monk had spent some time in a cave on that
mountain and felt divine inspiration. No pictures of the church or
the cave, because it was dark by the time we got there and so nothing
would have come out. The church was freaking freezing. Our
rehearsal went pretty well, and we were told we sounded great in that
space. The funny thing about resonance is that sometimes music
sounds great to the audience, but you can't hear anything on stage.
This place was like that. After rehearsal we went to a local
restaurant for supper. The main course was alright, some kind of
breaded turkey and rice with vegetables, which I didn't really eat
because there were peppers in it. The vegetable cream soup we had
before the meal was absolutely amazing, though. I wish we'd just had
more of that. Then we went back to the church to meet with other
choirs and rehearse our one group piece for the exchange concert that
was happening that night.
Even with my street clothes on under
my concert dress, I was still freezing in the church, as was everyone
else. Who decided short sleeves were a good choir uniform? At least
the guys in their tuxedos had jackets and long sleeves, though they
were cold too. I don't know how people put up with this crap in the
middle ages. Maybe they were just warmed by the love of God. Or
maybe the preacher explained to them that it was so cold in church
because by being in a holy place, they were as far away from the
fires of Hell as they could possibly be, and thus the wicked heat of
the devil could not reach them. But I digress.
I think it's really cool that music,
choral music in particular, can be so universal. We'd never met
these other groups in our lives, but after one short rehearsal, we
were singing in perfect harmony. The song we were doing together was
"Joy to the World" in 4-part harmony. The group from
Catalonia (the region of the country Barcelona is in, like a state)
sang a verse in their language and then we sang a verse in ours, and
then we sang together, and it was really cool.
The concert itself was really
entertaining and moving at different points. There were two youth
choirs; one was a group of local school children, maybe 8 years old
at most, and the other were middle/high schoolers from the area.
They sang their own songs, classical songs, and also American
Christmas carols. There was some adorable dancing to go along with
these, and the whole thing was just precious. I was also really
impressed by how well these kids sang. I mean, they certainly
deserved to be performing a concert in a famous old church (Cova de
Sant Ignasi). There were a few adult and older adult groups as well,
and they were also amazingly talented, and the sound in the church
was just phenomenal. Our group went on last, and the crowd loved us.
I don't know how this company goes about promoting their shows, but
there was standing room only in the audience, and every single person
cheered, cried, or both at some point in our show. Our repertoire
was a mix of classical European choral music, including some by a
composer from Catalonia, which the crowd really loved. But their
favorite parts were the gospels, spirituals, and very clearly
American songs we sang. I never really thought about it before, but
I guess these people came to see an American choir, and thus they
were really excited about American songs. I have probably thought
about this before, actually, when I went on the Italian concert tour
with Pilgrim, but I'd forgotten about it until now. I mean, I guess
it's similar to how I enjoy listening to music I can't understand,
these people appreciate things which seem so mundane and regular and
natural to us because we're native to our culture and they're not.
The whole time, whether we were watching the others or performing
ourselves, I really felt like I was part of something better than
just a show. Like we were sharing ourselves, our countries, our
cultures with each other and really getting an understanding that can
only come through the sharing of music. I think there would be fewer
wars in the world if people just had choral exchange concerts more
often. No competition, no hostility, just coming together to create
something bigger than any one person or nation.
Okay, that's enough philosophising for
now. It's late, and we've got another full day tomorrow.
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