Student Life Blog

            Friday was definitely my absolute favorite day of the entire tour. I think it was for most of us. We spent the day at Hammond High School in Columbia, Maryland. We started the day off listening to the freshman concert choir and then we sang a few songs for them. We had some refreshments and then the Madrigals came in and again we performed and did some recruiting. While Christine and a few of the girls headed to a recruiting session the rest of us went to grab a quick lunch. When we got back to the school we only had a short time before the first school assembly. We got to hang out with the music students for a little while. They were so much fun and so talented.

The first assembly started at around 12:35 pm. It was their Black History Month celebration. They were not able to do it in February because of snow days. It was really cool. They had several musical presentations both vocal and musical and there was a dance team performance too. It was all really interesting. We got to end the show by performing one of our fun more upbeat songs. They were all so excited even before we started singing. We had a little intermission and went back to the music room and their male ensemble serenaded us for a little while. We had to leave in the middle of it though to sing for the second assembly. When we came back they finished serenading us and we hung out at the school for a little while longer. It was just like getting to go back to high school for a day and it was just so much fun!

When we finished up at Hammond we headed for Chesapeake, Virginia. We ended up getting stuck in stop-and-go traffic just outside of Washington D.C. This put us off schedule by several hours so our host families ended up having to meet us around midnight instead of around 8 p.m. It was crazy.

            Saturday started with a mini concert to thank our host families and then we headed to St. Paul's church in Norfolk, Virginia where we sang just for fun in the choir loft. We went to a local restaurant called Freemason Abbey. We got to have some free time and walk down to the marina and explore the area a little. It was bright and sunny outside and it felt so great. It really made me miss my home and it really made me even more excited about this summer.

There was a really cool little area in the marina that had huge metal "letters to home" from fallen soldiers. They were so cool. After about an hour or so of soaking up the sun we had to get back on the bus and head out for Winston-Salem, North Carolina. We met our host families at the church and ate supper there before leaving for their homes. There were six of us in our host home for Saturday and Sunday. It was Kaylee and I and then there was Audra Kennedy, Brittany Glann, Katlin Bailey, and Amanda Fee. We stayed with Judson alum, Jessica Randell, and her husband Ryan. They had a super cute little girl named Chloe. They lived in a really nice town house so we had our own floor that was just for us. It was really cool.

We settled in at the house and then we started talking about Judson. It was so much fun hearing all of her stories about when she was at Judson. She graduated in 2005. We stayed up late talking and looking at her yearbook. Jessica was just so excited to have us all at the house. She kept telling us, "Okay, I'm going to leave you alone now. I'm sure you're tired." She would leave and then maybe five to 10 minutes later she would be back downstairs with us talking. It was really exciting for us too. I am glad that I finally actually will know at least one of the alums when they are all around on J-Day. She is very excited to be coming to that. She said that it has been a couple years since she was last able to come and she has been looking forward to it for a while now.

            Sunday morning we ate breakfast at the church and then we practiced how the service was going to go. We were told that we were, for the most part, basically going to BE the service. There was no preaching except for the little short Bible study time with the kids. We would sing a little bit and then we would get a little break while FAITH or Hand bells performed and then we would all get a little break while we would do congregational reading and response times or we would all sing congregational hymns. It was a really nice service.

            We spent the afternoon in Old Salem, a historic town where the people in the shops still dress up in the colonial outfits. It was so cool to see all of the historic homes and shops that lined the tiny streets. While we were walking down one of the main streets I happened to see a castle off on one of the side streets so on our way back we decided it was a must to go check it out for at least a little bit. Holly Beth, Audra, Bethany, and I stood in front of it while Corey Finlay (our "documentary film maker" for the trip) videoed us singing We Won't Live in a Castle. We thought it appropriate to sing that treasured Judson song in front of a castle. Our host family took us shopping and then out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. When we got back to the house we talked for a while and then decided to watch a movie and just relax. It was a great way to spend our last night on tour.

            Monday morning we got up early and met at the church for a while before we started our long trip back to Judson. Dr. Ransom decided to give us a little break on the way back so we stopped at a mall and shopped for a couple hours. We got back to Judson around 6:30 pm or so. It was so nice to be back but yet I wish we could have stayed on tour a little longer, too.