Equestrian Blog

Ok I am still a bit behind so we are going to travel back in time once more. Our destination this time is a little more then a week ago. It will have us at the end of Judson's spring break.

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March 22, 2010

So, spring break this year was pretty much amazing. Over spring break every year the Judson College Choir takes their spring tour. During tour, the choir sings at a variety of churches and schools - at churches they often serve as worship leaders and at school they are recruiting for Judson. It is a ton of fun because it gives us the opportunity to meet a lot of people, to tell them about Judson and why it is so special to us.

This year for tour we traveled to North Carolina, then up to Maryland, back down to Virginia, then North Carolina again before heading home. It was a busy trip with a ton of driving, but it was well worth it.

 The trip began on Tuesday with a 10 hour drive to get us form Judson in Marion, Ala. to Highpoint, NC. Once in North Carolina the whole choir had dinner with a family that Dr. Ransom (our choir director) knows. When we were through eating we took advantage of the few minuets of spare time and walked around the neighborhood to stretch our legs. I am sure all of the people driving by were wondering why there were girls walking around everywhere they looked! After our walk we had a short meeting to debrief for the day and then we headed out to meet our host families.

            Host families are one of the really cool things about going on choir tour. Rather then staying in hotels when we travel we stay with local families who are part of the church that we are working with in the area or who have some connection with Judson ....To Be Continued

             It is so much fun to stay with these people, who have opened up their homes to us to make our trip possible. It is really neat too, because so often the people that we stay with are just so happy to have us stay with them. They treat you like royalty, preparing food and doing everything they can to make your stay more comfortable and they do it simply because they are THAT glad that we are staying with them.

            On Wendsday, the second day of tour, we began our performances. The first place we sang was at Southwest Guilford High School.  There, we sang for two of their choir groups and they sang for us. When everyone was done performing we had a question and answer session to tell the students about Judson. Afterwards, we  headed across town to Penn-Griffin High School which is a fine arts magnet school. We went through the same routine there, listening to them sing, singing for them, and then answering question about Judson. From there we loaded up the bus and headed to Maryland. When we finally arrived six hours later we met our host families and headed to bed.

Thursday, the third day of tour we spent the day at Glenelg  High School.  I think we sang four or five times there and we went back to our host church, Gethsemane Baptist,  to perform for our host families. After church my host family had a bonfire for the four of us that were staying with them and the two girls that were staying with their neighbor.  It was really neat to get to know everyone better and to talk to our host family about what it was like living in Maryland. They were from North Carolina, but he was serving as youth minister for the host church...To Be Continued.

         Friday, was probably one of the most rememberable days. We sang at Hammond High School. We spent the morning performing for their choir classes and hearing them perform for us. Then during lunch there was a session where students who were interested in learning more about Judson could come meet with some of the choir members and talk to a Judson Recruiter.  Then in the afternoon, because of snow in February, the school was holding their Black History Month assemblies and asked us to sing in them. Yes, the school was so big that they had to have two so that half of the school could attend the first one and the other half of the school could attend the second one. It was a great opportunity for us to participate in and we got to watch all of the performances during the first assembly. The choir performed, a guitar ensemble played, the dance class did a routine, and the drama class did a couple of skits. Between the first assembly and our performance in the second we, waited in the choir room. Their Boy's Ensemble took this opportunity to sing to us, and let me tell you, if you want to get a Judson Girls attention have a guy with a really good voice sing to her! When we were finished at the school we traveled south to Virginia.

            On Saturday we spent the day in Norfolk, Virginia. We toured St. Paul's Episcopal Church and had the opportunity to sing from their balcony. It was one of the most amazing sounds I have ever heard. Then we went to the Freemasons Abbey for lunch and spent some time by the river. Once we had enjoyed the sunshine for a while we continued on to North Carolina, where we spent the rest of our trip....To Be Continued.

     Sunday, we served as worship leaders at Trinity Presbyterian Church, and Handbells also played. When the service was over and we were getting ready for the rest of the day, Dr. Brown, our pianist, decided that he wanted to make a skit featuring some of his piano students and other choir members as his personal assistants. I think it may have been the funniest thing I have ever seen! When we finally left the church we headed to Old Winston Salem. My group had a lovely lunch in a little Irish Café before spending the afternoon walking around the old village admiring the beautiful old buildings and enjoying the delicious backed goods from the local bakery. We even found a building which strongly resembled a castle and sang one of our step sing songs; I Won't Live In A Castle, in front of it. We then spent the evening with our host family and just enjoyed our last day in North Carolina before heading home.

      Monday was another travel day and we met early in the morning to start the long journey back to Alabama. Luckily for us, Dr. Ransom thought that we should get a break for all the hard work we had done during the week and so we stopped at the outlet mall in South Carolina to shop for a couple of hours, just to break up the bus ride a little. It may not have been a good idea for our bank accounts, but it was fun.

     When we finally made it back I think we were all glad to see good ole Judson,  mostly because it meant no more riding on a bus. We had a good week, though, and I can't wait to see what next years tour has in store.

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     We are now back and hopefully will remain in current time.