Holland

Apologies for not writing sooner, I've been in Holland, as the title may suggest. Here's the first pasrt of my recollections, it's only been two days and I'm pretty sure some of it's in the wrong order... Friday and Saturday to follow! Sx

"Wednesday:
Got up and said goodbye to mum, who went to work. Set of to college with my travel bag and went to philosophy. Then set off to find some friends and say goodbye before I left. After dragging myself from college I tried dropping in on my dear friend Jacob who had had a History Aptitude Test that morning but he wasn’t in so I set off toward the train station. Where I met up with the other members of the Glyndebourne Youth Opera Group 4 and selected musicians from the South Downs Youth Orchestra (sorry for all the long names!) and from there we travelled to London, Gatwick to be precise. It being the 31st, of course, Halloween costumes were being worn… I think the most amusing was Rosa’s: an orange poncho with the words “Safe Sex” written on it. Not sure why though…

We said goodbye to our luggage and made our way to the plane, the high spirits seemed to annoy the attendants… The journey itself was short and fairly enjoyable and Claire was waiting at the other end, ready to take us to the hostel for dinner and a quick practiced before bed lying awake and telling jokes.

Thursday
The boys managed to prove many old myths wrong by not only getting up before the girls. Score. After breakfast we trundled off for our first glimpse of Delta College. Which wasn’t all that shabby! We went through it once ate lunch then threw ourselves into the first performance. Got to admit that I was temporarily distracted (during my solo :O ) when a bloke sporting an “I hate Opera” badge on his hat walked past me… Singing with a grin. After the performance we got to know the Delta students a little better. I taught (a boy whose nickname was) Amsterdam how to body-drum. We also sang an awful lot of songs together. A shame it wasn’t repeated. L

We had a lil bit off free time that evening and went to find a chemist. It was interesting trying o define “tickly cough” to a Dutch chemist. How typically English… This was the day that we discovered that it was Ben’s birthday, a plan was conceived in the depths of a (non brown) pub when I took one of the YO festival posters off a wall… later to be turned into a Birthday card.

In the evening we set off to watch a performance by another YO! Group called Alive and Kicking, it was rather enjoyable and one of their number was rechristened as “crazy biro man” the tea they were serving was also very nice. J After that I sat, rather surreptitiously, on a wall and listened to an accordion class. ;) "

Sx