April 29th - Tour Day 8 - Exeter

Today was our last Day in Exeter. And it was the day Jocelyne left, many of us were not able to say goodbye (she left in the morning). So Jocelyne if you are reading this - Goodbye, we all miss you!

This is Jocelyne on the evening before she left on her way down from the church tower:



We had one performance today at a local school - St. Luke's in Exeter. Here is a picture of the choir
practicing for the performance:



We had some time in the afternoon and so we went to a beach at Budleigh, Salterton.
On the Beach at Budleigh, Salterton:

Brenda (and Karen) were laughing so hard at this moment that Brenda almost didn't catch this on Camera!



Some singers enjoying the beach walk!

April 28th, 2009 – Tour Day 7 - Exeter

Today we doubled the number of performances we’ve done. We did an afternoon recital at Exeter Cathedral – this was fantastic!
Performance in Exeter Cathedral:



Practicing at Broadclyst Church:




Then in the evening we did a concert at Broadclyst Church. A highlight for some of the choir was walking up the spiral stairs at the church and seeing the stunning view from the top of the tower.

April 27th, 2009 – Tour Day 6 – Exeter

It was raining this morning when we woke up. For the most part, the weather has been beautiful – sunny with blue skies! So I guess we were due for a rainy day. We visited two places today; Buckfast Abbey and a little town called Widicombe on the moors. (See photos below)

The Chambers Singers were given permission to sing in the Abbey and this was a very memorable experience.

From Stephanie Jean-Paul:
My favourite part of the trip so far has been meeting the locals. We’ve been making great friends along the way, and having interesting conversations. A few girls and I on tour had our first official tea party in a real manor!!

Some of the students (and Brenda), were housed at a Christian retreat centre in Torquay. It was luxurious and they even had a swimming pool! Here are a few pictures from it:





Widicombe on the Moor:



Buckfast Abbey:



Henry and Jocelyne in the Gardens at Buckfast Abbey:

April 26, 2009 Tour Day 5 – Torquay.

After a quick breakfast at the Youth Hostel, we went to the sung Eucharist at Salisbury Cathedral. For me, as an Anglican, it was heavenly. The choir sang beautifully and each part of the liturgy was perfectly done.

After the service a few of us had “Cream Tea,” where we had tea and scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. This was great, and as a tea drinker, I really enjoy the tea here in England!

At 12:30 we met at the bus and enjoyed a lunch organized by Chris Banman with many students and staff helping (See picture). And when all was cleaned-up we headed to Torquay for another concert. It was a longish drive and we only arrived at St. Matthias Church at 4:00. After a short rehearsal, and supper provided by the church, we performed our second concert of the tour.

From Ja’red K Miller:
Cream Tea and Scones with strawberry Jam…YUMMY!

Ja'red having cream tea:




Feeding 40 people on a budget can be difficult. Chris Banman has this figured out:



Practicing at St. Matthias Church - Torquay:

April 25, 2009 Tour Day 4 – Salisbury

Today was a travel day with some sightseeing. We arrived in Salisbury and then spent some time at the Salisbury Market and Cathedral. It was wonderful. Brenda and I spent at least an hour in the Cathedral where we were both mesmorized by the new baptismal font. It was huge and a baptism could be a full immersion! The font was dedicated in 2008, and yet it fit into the cathedral nicey and the way the water sat in the font reflected the roof, windows and the light. Both Brenda and I took many pictures of this font. (See below).



We also discovered a “Choirsters bumping stone” where each boy chorister gets his head bumped when he is accepted into the choir (the girls have a Bible bumped on the their head)! We found this to be quite an interesting tradition and wondered if we should start a similar tradition at Providence!



After a few hours in Salisbury we met back at the bus and made our way to Stonehenge. We spent an hour looking at the rocks from many different angles and learning the ancient history of this spot.



We stayed at a Youth Hostel this night and Dr. Schellenberg, with some home made us a wonderful spaghetti supper. It was yummy!

From Stephanie Andrews:
We found that in Canada things aren’t as well preserved as here in England. We were walking around the Salisbury Cathedral and we found a tombstone, the name of the person was unknown but the date was 1107-1129. It made me feel small in the huge expanse of history that we have. Thinking about how small we are in history made me think about how small we are to God, which made me feel both insignificant and significant at the same time.

A picture from the Youth Hostel:

April 24, 2009 Tour Day 3 – Brighton

This was our first concert day. We left from our London Hostel at around 10:30am. After what seemed like hours of traffic through London, we finally had a short view of the rolling countryside, before we arrived in Brighton. We had a few hours and so we explored the pier on the Ocean and ate lunch by the Ocean.



The concert went quite well, although we all were a little rusty, but it was the first concert. This was also our first day being billeted, and it was wonderful to get to know some residents from Brighton. Here are a few stories:

From Jocelyne Schellenberg:
We met a host who brought their neighbour to the concert. The Neighbour was determined to come to the concert, even though she has limited mobility, because during World War II she was engaged to a Canadian Soldier. Then the soldier died at Dieppe. She recovered from this loss and married an English Sailor, but always holds Canada and Canadians dear to her heart.

Itinerary

I thought some of you may want to know our schedule, so here it is:

Apr. 22 & 23 – London
Friday, April 24 – All Saints Church in Patcham (Brighton)
Concert/Service – 7:30

Saturday, April 25 – Cholderton Youth Hostel
Visit Salisbury and Stonhenge

Sunday, April 26 – St. Matthias Church – Torquay
Evening Service – 6:30

Monday April 27 – On the Moors – Exeter

Tuesday April 28 – Exeter Cathedral
Recital 1:15-2:00
Broadclyst Church
Concert 7:30pm

Wednesday April 29 – St. Luke’s Church of England (Exeter)
Recital 1:45-2:15

Thursday April 30 – Oxford (Day off)

Friday May 1 – All Saints Church – Huthwaite
Concert 7:30pm

Saturday May 2 – Ayr Baptist Church – Avr, Scotland
Concert 7:30pm

Sunday May 3 – Participate in morning service then to:
Tayport Parish Church
Concert 6:30pm

Monday May 4 – St. Andrew’s – Day off

Tuesday May 5 – Peterhead Baptist Church
(during day spend time at Dunnottar Castle)
Concert 7:00pm

Wednesday May 6 – Edinburgh – Time off

Thursday May 7 – York

Friday May 8 – Cambridge

Saturday May 9 – Cambridge
Informal Recital “Round” Church 2:30
St. Andrew’s Church Oakington
Concert 7:30

Sunday May 10 – Tour complete.

If you need to reach any of us (in an emergency) we can be reached through the coach company:
Lakeside Coaches Ltd
Tel: 01691 622761

April 23, 2009 Tour Day 2 – London.

Another day of Sightseeing. The group was left to explore London as they wished. From what I have heard so far activities included seeing and visiting the following places and attractions:

Hyde park
Tower of London
British Museum
Phantom of the Opera
Les Miserables
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream coat
Shopping along Oxford Street
Harrods
The Canadian Pub – The Maple Leaf
Buckingham Palace
Big Ben
Boat Tour on the Thames
Seeing Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus at a premiere
Westminster
Canadian Embassy
Camden Town Market
Shakespere Globe
London Tower
Thames River
Tower Bridge
Millennium Bridge
The Monument
Diana’s Memorial Fountain
National Art Gallery
St. Paul’s Cathedral









Because friends, family and colleagues may be following this blog, I feel that it is important to hear some stories from different members of the group. There are 36 of us right now (including Jocelyne Schellenberg, Henry’s wife, and unfortunately she will be leaving in the middle of the tour to return to Kleefield to work!) and I am overwhelmed with the amount of stories and experiences that I am already hearing about. I want to give everyone at least one chance to tell a story. So beginning today I will be working with one or two others to complete my blog entries about any given day. I am hoping that this will give you a more complete story of our experiences on tour in the UK.

From Jesse Hamm:
We (Jesse and Lisa) decided to go on the ‘Big Bus Tour.’ This open top bus tour offers three different routes all over London and you are able to get on and off the bus if you want to explore an attraction further. We got off the bus at Big Ben and Westminster Cathedral. I felt like there were so many people that it always felt like rush hour and I found it to be too crowded for my liking. The ticket also included a boat tour and so we saw London from the river Thames. We learnt a lot about the history of the area and it was neat to see the sophistication of the architecture, even though many of the buildings were so old. Some other sites we saw were big ships, Tower Bridge and the Millennium Bridge. The Millennium Bridge, a foot bridge (pedestrians only), was majestic, although it is famous because when it first opened it wobbled one foot in each direction and after two days had to be closed and re-done. It was re-opened, after seven years of upgrades.

From Brenda Peters:
On our way to find the theatre for Phatom of the Opera, we were sidetracked by a large crowd of screaming teenagers. We decided to check it out and discovered a huge crowd with a barricade and paparazzi snapping away at some unknown subject. We realized that the crowd was surrounding a cinema theatre which was featuring the premiere of the movie “Hannah Montana.” We deduced that Miley Cyrus must be at the theatre. We were about to leave when all of a sudden an announcer came to the balcony of the theatre and introduced Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus. Like one of the screaming teenagers I went running back and snapped many photos of the two of them. We eventually did make it to Phantom of the Opera and it was even better than Miley and Billy Ray.

Pictures from Days 0-1

Traveling to London



From the town of Windsor



St. Paul's Cathedral

April 21 & 22 - Castles and Cathedrals

Day 1 - We're in London!

After the long plane ride we were exhausted - most of us had very little sleep and then tried to stay awake for the rest of the day (we arrived in London at 7am!) It was a long day, but an exciting one!

We saw Windsor Castle in the morning - some of us went inside and did the audio tour, while others walked around the town around the castle. It was great. In the afternoon we checked into our hotel and relaxed for a bit. Then a few of us went to Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was great. We already have some great pictures and I will post them as soon as I can.

Last night and today will be time for exploring London. I will update as I can and then post pictures as I can! It's hard to keep up with everyone and I hope to have some individuals stories as I can!

More Later!

One day until the adventure begins

I am frantically trying to get my packing completed, because we leave for the UK tomorrow. I always have a hard time with the final day before a big trip. It is so difficult to get packed and ready and I am already second guessing my clothing and book choices. I can't wait to be on the plane.

My hopes for this blog is that friends and family can follow the ups and downs of our three-week tour in the UK. I will be posting pictures (and videos if possible) as well as short (or maybe long) updates about our experiences. I will talk more about the group (and individuals in the group) as I start to write while we are on the trip. My hope is that some students will also submit some entries to help keep you updated.

I look forward to the adventure ahead... Stay tuned for more!