Written by: Brody Rodriguez
Today, I had a fantastico breakfast with some bacon, eggs, and toast. I had some orange juice for the first time in a while and enjoyed it much more than I usually do. I haven’t been the biggest fan of orange juice ever, but maybe… “times they are a-changin.” I also had real grapefruit for the first time, and that was pretty good as well.
After parting ways from our home stays, we started off by traveling to Good Hope Lutheran Church in Bucyrus for the Sunday morning service. Many of them came up to me at the conclusion of the performance and thanked us for being there. Having a space that is so welcoming and inviting is such an absolute pleasure. It was also cool to see their senior choir sing, too. Maybe that will be us someday!
For lunch, we were presented with a “choose your own adventure”, as Matt Downing stated. There were four different subs to choose from. I indulged in a ham, bacon, and cheddar sub. They were fantastic. We were also given blue raspberry Sour Patch Kids jello that was really interesting to have. It was the first time I ever tried it and I wasn’t disappointed. Some of the other Chorale members were indifferent with the taste of it, but they’re wrong.
We journeyed to Columbus where we were greeted by a church bells performance by Ryan Kemper at King Avenue United Methodist Church. He played us a couple of our well known pieces on the bells overhead, such as “Be Thou My Vision:” and “This is my Father’s World.” Super cool and special.
The space we sang in had amazing acoustics. The sanctuary was also filled with an amazing organ performance of a Star Wars medley by King Ave’s organist, Andrew Willis. The sound of the organ in the space was insane!
For dinner, we dined on a create your own Chipotle-esque bowl and I got pretty much everything on mine. I tried to limit myself on how much I ate of it, but I could not resist.
While getting ready for the concert, I noticed that my friends from home were in Columbus today. I wished I wouldn’t have checked on them because they ended up showing at the concert and I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if I had been surprised, but it was great to see them!
Tonight’s concert was absolutely fantastic. We are making amazing progress so far for the second full concert of the tour, and we cannot wait to hear how we sound by our final concert on Wednesday. Something unique we do after our concerts is open auditions. I convinced my friends to audition, and now I wait to see if they actually join… we can only hold out for hope.
At my homestay for the night I was greeted by lots of pizza, snacks, and music. I stayed with Pastor Justin Williams, who is member at Powell UMC. I actually got to stay with him last year, too, so rekindling that connection was a really nice thing. We had fun with their dog, Obi, and their cats before we finally got ready for bed for the night. Today was very special and full of great meals and memories.
Until next time!
Also, you should come to our concert in Dayton on June 9, Findlay on June 10 and/or Coshocton on June 11. More information here!
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