November 1

Receiving the Award


Today was decently eventful. It began rather slowly (that may or may not have been caused by Halloween´s festivities) with the usual breakfast at Ametzagana. Everyone made themselves look decently presentable for our concert. Only the Tolosa 40 were singing in this concert,so all of the grads and choral scholars were going to watch. BUT there were no tickets left,so we decided to go shopping. BUT as this is Europe every singles store in town was closed for All Saints Day, so we all just kind of hung out in a cafe.

(Meanwhile, across town, the Choir sang two songs for the final concert, and received the trophy for first prize in the youth category.)

Then we all hopped on over to the barn for lunch and the closing of the festival. After another long mean of beans, bread, cake and cheese, all served by people in traditional Basque dress, we left for Portugalete, just outside of Bilbao, where we were having a concert. A seemingly eternal bus ride followed then. We arrived at the location of our concert (AKA - drum roll - a Church). By the time we actually got there it was almost time for the concert, so we had a quick dress rehearsal and all got changed. The concert went well, no giant explosions or anything, so we really can´t complain. The Spanish audience seemed to enjoy adding on their own comments for the whole world to hear in the middle of Mrs. Knight´s speeches. The concert ended up being taped for some form of TV show, which was nice. Afterwards we all ate a late supper, hopped back on the bus to Ametzagana for a good night´s sleep.

Chris Earle


Singing in Portugalete


Dinner after the Concert