Sunday, April 30, 2006
I am not confident that I will be able to do justice to the trip by blogging it. There is just so much that cannot be adequately espressed through mere words or pictures. It's such a phenomenal experience that you really had to have been there to comprehend it, as cliche as that sounds.
So bear with me and my rusty memory (growing older by the second, man!) while I try to present to you all that has happened for that amazing week in as much sense as I can manage.
I think the best way to start will be a chronological summary of the whole event, although my decaying memory will no doubt fail me somewhere in the middle.
((Happenings))
Warning: Long and incoherent paragraphs ahead.
We met at the airport at around 1730 on Monday evening. I had the luxury of a long weekend to prepare for the trip, gradually adjusting my bio-clock and what not (I took Monday off from work as well). I was on time; the kids were all there already. Boy, they are an excited bunch. Already you could see them happily snapping away. And mind you, this is the generation of 6.0 megapixels digital camera, and memory space certainly isn't an issue for most of them. I've already mentioned how photo-happy they all are. I'm not complaining, lots of them are well above average on the photogenic scale. Miss Lim was the late one, go figure!
Ms Chua was there to see us off! Such a pity that she won't be able to go together with us. NOt to be rude, but she's nicer than Ms Teo! Oops. Huacheng, Joan and Serene were also there. I bet they are all jealous that they won't be boarding the plane with us. Haha! There's always 2 years later *HINT* HC bought ricola for everyone, how nice!
We went into the holding area and had MacDonald's dinner. There, me and Timo began our quest to "get to know everybody", starting from the 4 seating right next to us.
The choir was divided into 12 groups of 4 for the duration of the trip (the teachers are fond of small groups somehow), but Timo and I were left out. I suspect that it was a cunning move on the teacher's part, bidding us to mingle around with everyone unrestricted by the groupings, which we happily exploited as you'll see.
The flight to Bangkok was uneventful. At the holding area in BKK, Miss Lim lays down her rules.
The flight to Milan was long and tiring. The plane was nice, though. We had individual screens! Beat that, FinAir! (We didn't have individual screens when we went Bremen in 2004.) First time I'm on a flight with personal screens, heh. Watched The Chronicals of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Still found it as good of a show as I did when I first watched it in the theaters. Food was served, and it was time to sleep (enforced by the teachers). I tried to find a comfortable position but to no avail. So I was literally staring into blank space, sometimes drifting in and out of sleep, while most of the rest were busy snoring. Come breakfast time, everyone woke up and watched more movies and played more games. Not a bad flight all in all.
We touched down at around 0730 Milan time to an 8-degree weather. Blowing out mist while talking was quite cool. We checked out and met our tour guide, a lady named Zwenette (spelling notwithstanding). Headed to Milan city center for a short tour. There was this hugh, beautiful fountain, which of course set everyone snapping away. Then we went into the castle for a walkaround. The guide mentioned about the courtyard having amazing accoustics, and BAM! Here we go! Ave Verum Corpus in the middle of nowhere, earning us applause from strangers! First sign of jet-lagged voices.
Had lunch at a restorant enroute to our Hotel. After the eating, we began taking photos with the chef and waitress. Flashlights everywhere, you'll think some celebrity was having lunch there.
Reached our home for the next 5 days - Hotel Vittoria, Bardolino, Verona, Italy.
We toured the place a bit. Then we had a pretty bad practice. We were split 50-50 into 2 separate but nearby buildings. Me and Timo were in the annex. As guys we helped the girls carry their heavy luggages up the stairs to their rooms, the hotel having no lifts. Who says chivalry is dead! =D Lights out was at 2200, so not much off free time to speak about.
The second day was all about preparation for the competition. We woke up early, ate, and practiced. Not as bad as yesterday, but still not too good. Miss Lim's face turning blacker. Que Ms Teo's two cents. Mr Chia remains calm and composed. Can see a storm brewing (Bremen 04 people should know what I'm talking about!). Nonetheless, we were quite capable of enjoying ourselves, going out for some shopping and lunch. Timmo and I were with Louis, Andrew, Claudia and Chuwen, I think. Strolled along the lake and walked here and there amongst the shops. A very lovely place, I'm sure you all will agree with me.
Then we had more practice in the afternoon. Then dinner. Then some of us went for the opening ceremony. Those who were clearly falling sick stayed behind for an early bedtime. In any case, the opening ceromony was nothing fantastic. The theater looked like the set from King Kong, but apart from the rather nice architecture, the program was a bore. Lengthy introductions in 3 different languages grew weary after a while. When the performance finally started, we were already half asleep. After the first item, we quickly sneaked out; the whole program threatened to last till 1am, and we needed our beauty sleep for tomorrow! We ended up reaching the hotel at around 12am.
And the big day arrives! Had an okay warm up in the morning, then it's off to the competition grounds. There was a nervous jitter in the air. Everyone was rather tensed up; well, I was, anyway. We gathered at a holding place not far away, while Miss Lim and the SCs went to check out the theater where we will be singing in. Had a brief warm up. A few of the guys were trying to look for a toilet, but none was to be found. Miss Lim came back and told us about the bad accoustic, which was pretty much expected. Anyway, we headed to the theater and dumped our bags in the cloak room. The dancers changed into their costumes and we went to the holding room to wait.
Short practice at the rehearsal room, which had rather good accoustics, causing us to feel pretty good about ourselves, and boosted our confidence as well.
On stage. Nervous. I thought I wouldn't feel as nervous as I did. I think it's standing in the last row. I've always been in the front row, so was feeling quite uncomfortable behind. My legs were literally shaking as we started "As Vesta Was". Luckily the nervousness faded away quite rapidly. Still, standing at the back meant that I couldn't hear anyone else but myself. Tried to focus; could feel most of the rest doing that too. Miss Lim had a confused look on her face. She later confessed that the accoustic was so bad (a.k.a we sounded bad) that she didn't know what to do. The songs went by quickly. Last song - "Janger". Cil was fabulous as usual. His chanting was so chilling that I almost forgot to start singing when Miss Lim qued us in. The dance was quite well received as well, even though Amos shook a bit at the last pose.
So we had our 10 minutes of fame on stage. Quickly went out and back in among the audience to catch the next choir who was going to be singing Water Night. We experienced the bad accoustic for ourselves the first time. The poor twenty-plus-membered chamber choir on stage sounded thin and unimpressive. Their Water Night was nothing to speak of. We splitted up and found seats where they could be found, but the show started to get boring and I soon dozed off. We left after less than 1 hour, if I recall.
Grabbed our stuff and changed, then headed out for a tour around Verona. Highlight was visiting the balcony of Romeo and Juliet! Not to mention the statue.
Apparently, if a woman touches the hands, she will find a husband soon, and if a man touches the breasts, he will be virile forever!
Our tour guide left us on our own for a while after that. There wasn't much time, so we just grabbed gelato. Then it's back to the hotel for our own dinner.
Went back to the same restaurent as yesterday's lunch, this time with different people. Turns out that a lot of us were at the same place! The word must have spread that the restaurent served food fast. Me and Timmo sat with a bunch of girls; YuehHsin, JiaYun, Tiffany, Joanna, Emile and LingZi. Timmo ate a whole set meal, which came with white wine, which everyone soon had a sip or three. Some, like ZhiRui, had more than that. Oh, I forgot to mention. Some time before this we celebrated ZhiRui's birthday.
Anyhow, while waiting for the food, we went around taking photos with different people (as usual). Then the food came, and we finished it quite quickly, except for Timmo and his 3 course meal. The girls were hurrying him so that they could go shopping. We still ate until quite late though, so that by the time we left the restaurent there wasn't much time for any shopping at all, and most of the shops were closed anyway. So we went for - you've guessed it - gelato! We formed a human road block on our way to the supposedly best gelato shop in the area. The eight of us blocked the alley just nice. The gelato was, of course, great. The best thing about Italian gelato was the generous serving. Fantastic!
So we were heading back to the hotel, and met the waitress of the hotel! The very woman who served us our meals! After a few lost-in-translation exchanges, where we finally know that her name is Patricia, she motion for us to sing a song. By then we were joined by another group of people we met at the gelato shop, so there were quite a few of us there, enough for "As Vesta Was", which was what we sang. Even at that time of the night, we still managed to attract a few onlookers who stopped and listened to us. That's what I love about the culture there! In Singapore they will only complain about the noise you're making! Anyway our gelato were melting while we happily sang, so that I was half-singing and half-licking my gelato. I still ended up in a really messy state though, which earned me a joke-ish remark about how I needed to not eat gelato like a kid. We later find out that Patricia met Amos and company by the lake later, and they too broke out in song (with Amos accompanying) for her and others.
Back at the hotel we were chilling outside where there were tables and chairs. Amos was strumming away, Cheryl and company broke into "Fire", which everyone sang along anyway (catchy accompaniment). Then when everyone was present we celebrated ZhiRui's birthday again! There was more singing - we even sang National Dream with Amos on the guitar, which sounded rather good! Everyone was quite high after the competition is over, haha! The fatigue of the day caught up with me, so I didn't stay up till very late. Everyone else were tired as well; I think most slept early that night.
The next morning, we trekked 3km along the lake to the market place, not unlike our own pasar malam. As usual we were singing and snapping photos along the way, but the view was fantastic so I guess the photo-taking was justified. We went separate ways for free time in the market. At first it was just me and Timmo walking together, but we were soon joined by Amos and Cil, and then CJ, Sheena and Sixuan. There wasn't really much to shop. The things sold were not very different from what you might find in SG. So it was more of just walking around, enjoying the view and, yes, snapping photos.
At around 12 we headed back to the hotel, as the stalls were all closing anyway. Had lunch at a different restaurent, but it was pretty much the same food. After lunch and dumping our stuff back at the hotel, me and Timmo went back out to spend our free time. Amos was with us, together with his guitar. At this point I was determined to spend my money on things other than food. It was surprising that I actually managed to buy stuff while shopping with two other guys. In particular there was this little shop that sold small figurines and toys and stuff that were quite retro. Met a bunch of little kids kicking a ball around. We almost joined them, but didn't in the end.
We went to the docks and sat ourselves on this stone/marble table that was supposedly where the natives sold their fish back in the old days. Amos whipped out his guitar and started his thing, so the four of us were pretty much just sitting there and singing/harmonising. Took a while for us to warm up, but in the end we overstayed and had to run back for dinner at the hotel.
I can't remember what we did after dinner. I think we had a little practice in anticipation of the next day, where there will be the prize presentation and the Gold choirs would be asked to perform on stage. As Miss Lim said, "just in case we get Gold".
The next morning we left bright and early for the closing ceremony, sitting at the same place where we sat for the opening ceremony - a single row of circle seats in the third or fourth storey. The American choirs were behind and above us, and they were big and noisy, so we got reminded by the teachers not to make so much noise, especially if we managed to get Gold.
And so began the long and nervous wait. Somehow I thought it was more agonising a wait than that which we had before the competition. I was experienced in waiting for results now, and I don't really want to be disappointed again. Anyway Miss Lim, Cheryl and Mr Chia were seated on stage, and the flag bearers were standing in a row at the back with the flags of the nations represented. After a surprisingly brief introduction (in four languages no doubt), they started giving away the prizes, from Bronze to Silver, in reverse order of merit. It was a terrible wait. The process was such that the schools were announced only in Italian, and the flag bearer of the nation of the school would move to the front to wave the flag when they receive the prizes. As such, all our eyes were on the guy carrying our flag, silently willing him to not move. There were many occasions that he appeared to be moving out, fidgiting and looking to his left and right, so we got quite a scare a few times. Finally all the Silvers were given out, and we all breathed easier.
As it turned out, we did even better than we expected, coming in second and earning for ourselves also a Distinction in the set piece "Ave Verum Corpus", which was worth 500 euros. They also gave out a few special awards, like for best interpretation and best conductor. We didn't get any of that, but we were more than happy with our results already. Went up on stage to sing "El Hambo" and "Janger" which were quite well received. Sat through the performances by the rest of the Gold choirs, which was quite enjoyable.
We actually managed to interact with an American choir before the closing ceremony, which was the chamber choir that sang "Water Night". Nice bunch of people. Photos were taken, emails exchanged. Generally same age as us, but they were definately, erm, bigger. Haha.
Anyway after the closing ceremony all headed to the arena for mass singing of this Italian song. The arena had really good accoustics, which this choir (whose conductor, an african american, won the best conductor prize) quickly made use of, presenting quite a few songs. Sang the Italian song twice, and that's it. Quite a short affair. After much persuasion Miss Lim led us for "Janger" and "El Hambo", and as we left we sang "Lay a Garland".
After the whole affair, we changed into casual clothes and went our own ways for sight-seeing and shopping around the area. Walked around in a rather large group. We saw this man painting pictures on the road side, so we stopped for a while to admire his work, which was quite brilliant. Inadvertable, we started singing "Lay a Garland", which brought quite an appreciative crowd.
We also went back to the Juliet statue, where me and XianYong had a change to touch it (previously Timmo was the only guy who did). Then we sang again, this time both "Lay" and "Ave". Ah well, we're a choir after all, and suffering from post-Gold high! Haha!
Anyway after shopping around, a bunch of us bought the same "Romeo & Juliet" t-shirt in different colors; me (dark blue), Timmo (red), Hsin (yellow), Jia (orange), Mae (magenta), Pris (purple), Phoebe (green), and Ting (black). We all wore it on the last day. Power rangers! Haha!
In the evening we went to this little church for an exchange with an Italian choir and an Austrian choir. Quite a cosy place, the church. We sang "El", "Janger", had the a cappella groups ("Fire", "That Thing You Do", "Smooth Criminal", "Dui Ni Shuo"), then sang "Hey Jude" as finale where we sang and walked around shaking people's hands. Our program was a little weird for the church, but it was rather fun. After the singing we retired to a side room for some food and drinks, and of course, more impromptu singing. The Austrian choir was particularly fun. Considering our language difference, there was quite a high level of interaction. It was really a good experience.
By the time we reached the hotel it was almost 1am. Not many people slept, of course. Many had instant noodles party, playing cards and talking and stuff. Those that slept are either the very tired, the sick, or, like Hsin, the I-didn't-want-to-sleep-but-KOed-the-moment-my-head-hit-the-pillow. Haha. Me and Timmo slept quite early at around 3+am. Some stayed up till morning. Well, can't pretend I can match up to the stamina of the kids!
The next day we left for the airport soon after breakfast. Then it's onto the plane and the 14+ hours ride home!
Touch down at Changi Airport at around 12pm. Picked up by Dad and Sis (in her new car!). Reached home and KOed in bed.
Well that's basically it! I'm quite sure I left out some things here and there, but that can't be helped. Also, while the events described are fairly accurate, the chronological sequence may not be. Haha...
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I think this post is becoming too long. I'll post my thoughts and reflections another day! And the photos as well! =)
{/4:38 PM}
me