We're home now, and all glad to be back where the humidity is a tick less than 100%, the toilet paper can be flushed, the tap water can be drunken, and the Chinese food is generally a bit better.
I just wanted to add a post about Samara, since it looks like no one wrote about what was possibly the best day of tour.
We had spent two nights in Nicoya, which was hot and humid and notable only as a town along the way to the beach, so when we finally got to the beach early in the day on... Tuesday? yes? it was quite a relief. Samara Beach is a thoroughly tourist-ized area, but this was midweek and the off season (which is to say, the weather was so perfect that a NY beach would be packed to the gills, but in CR that's par for the course) so the beach was completely deserted when we arrived, and stayed mostly empty for the rest of the day.
After applying many, many layers of SPF 65, we dove in. This was basically the perfect beach. The water was wonderfully warm, probably about 80 F. The waves were frequent, high, and just below the cusp of too-rough-to-be-safe, which is perfect. Swimming past the break took some effort and you generally got wiped out several times before finally forcing your way past, but it was worth it, because past the break the water was calm and you could float on top of the waves before watching them crest and slam the inattentive and Cara Ferrentino off their feet.
Because we're good responsible RCS, we implemented a buddy system, and no one was drowned. But quite a few bathing suits were rendered momentarily ineffective by these waves (memorable moment: counting heads after a particularly rough wave and seeing Anne Lew holding her bathing suit bottoms in her hands)
Antonia was our resident surfing expert, and put us all to shame by looking so incredibly cool on her surfboard - she's been suffering from some seriously severe sunburn since, though. We had lunch at the beachside cafes, then checked into our fantastic hotel, led there by a local dog who took a shining to us. We were also flagged down by a guy who'd been at one of our previous concerts and recognized us, despite being in bikinis instead of black gowns, since I guess a pack of 40 American women is pretty easy to spot.
My section of the hotel was designated the Quad, for being smaller and separater and awesomer than the rest of the hotel, with our private swimming pool and its jungle backdrop. The Quad even lived up to its name by hosting the evening's party, which eventually devolved into an aloe-application party, since the Costa Rican sun was not very nice to the Whitey McWhites of RCS.
In the morning we swam again, and several girls took surfing lessons (and were so hot that the surf instructors took their picture for publicity purposes), before we packed up to head back to San Jose - and had a very, uh, adventureful bus ride that inspired a prank that you'll just have to ask an individual RCSer about. Even with that epic traffic jam, for me these were the best two days of tour - nothing can beat having full run of a perfect beach and battling the gorgeous warm waves of the Pacific with RCS.
Meanwhile, the Glee Club was in Idaho.
-Liz-
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Nicoya: Scene of the craziest concert ever
Hello blog readers! I know this is incredibly belated, but I thought you would enjoy a brief summary of the most chaotic, stress-filled concert I have ever been involved in. It all took place in Nicoya ...
So RCS got into Nicoya a few days ago (the days blur in my mind, maybe less than a week ago?) and the first thing that we noticed was that it was HOT. As in, over 95 degrees plus the most intense humidity I've ever experienced. Very different from "cool" San Jose. We looked around the city and quickly discovered that it's not quite as welcoming as San Jose (or at least, the posh, wealthy part of San Jose that we quickly became used to). However, we were enjoying ourselve and the super cheap internet ($1/hour! Amazing!) so we didn't really mind ... until call for the concert.
The concert was scheduled for 7pm, so we had call at 6 and rehearsed for about 20 minutes before we let people get water and try and catch some moving air somewhere to relieve us from the heat. However, Stella, Jenny, Erin, Katie and I (Kavita) didn't have a chance to enjoy the break, because a string if unfortunate incidents happened that left us wondering what on earth the deal was in Nicoya.
It started out with Natalia (our contact person for the concert) telling Erin 30 minutes before the concert that the Chinese Association of Costa Rica (who was hosting us and helping publicize for this benefit concert) was going to give Erin a gift, and she had to make a speech to the entire audience of several hundred thanking them. One major problem: Erin speaks not a word of Spanish. So she, Stella, and Katie started working with our tour moms to try and come up with an appropriate speech.
Meanwhile, I had to deal with an interesting audience member who had been video taping us during rehearsal. Due to copyright laws, he couldn't videotape us during the concert in case he sold the tapes illegally, so I and Cheryl (Bianca's fabulous mother) and to "convice" him that he didn't want to video tape us. This was harder than we thought it would be, since he offered multiple excuses as to why it should be ok, with each excuse changing depending on who he was talking to. Eventually (during the first piece of the concert, when I realized he was still taping and I had to leave and talk to him) Bianca's mother told him very firmly that he couldn't tape, made him turn off the camera, and unplugged the camera, throwing the plug to the floor. She's amazing.
While dealing with this before the concert started, a totally unknown man came up to myself and Katie and started asking us about the prominence of Jesus in our repertoire. I had to explain to him that while we sing lots of sacred music, we also have secular music in our program. I thus attempted to describe several pieces in the following manner:
Wayfaring Stranger: This is about a man who's looking for his family and his home and he just really wants to be back with the people he loves. Note: this is actually a somewhat religious piece.
Utopia: This is about trying to be happy and looking for joy in life. Also a religious piece.
Amazing Grace: This is an American song about a man who's thanking someone who helped him through a really rough time. Also religious. I'm sensing a pattern here.
Mata del Anima Sola: This is about a tree. At least we didn't need to hide the religious elements here - I just sounded somewhat crazy.
And then the concert started, while I was worrying about video taping man and religious man. Luckily, Cheryl and I were able to convince the video taper to change his mind at the start of the concert, and I only had to leave the concert two other times: when the priest of the church decided to set up a microphone that worked on an altar that was in the middle of our rows, while he was talking with Natalia, WHILE THE MICROPHONE WAS ON, and when the doors to the sacristy (where all of our belongings were) blew open and Katie turned to me and mouthed "Go. Deal with it" in the middle of the piece.
We also had bats circling our heads in the church at the end of the concert. Some theories as to why they didn't leave: our voices were bouncing off all the walls and confusing them, or they were hearing the overtones that were bouncing off the walls which were also confusing them. Either way, they kept us company for a large chunk of the concert.
However, at the end of the concert, several people came up and told us we sounded like angels, we sold tons of CDs, and a group of adolescent boys approached Krystal to get a picture with her (we've discovered she looks like a local telenovella star here, so everyone is fascinated by her). Though the audience didn't clap at all during the concert, they were all so incredibly generous with their compliments that all the craziness was worth it.
Kavita
So RCS got into Nicoya a few days ago (the days blur in my mind, maybe less than a week ago?) and the first thing that we noticed was that it was HOT. As in, over 95 degrees plus the most intense humidity I've ever experienced. Very different from "cool" San Jose. We looked around the city and quickly discovered that it's not quite as welcoming as San Jose (or at least, the posh, wealthy part of San Jose that we quickly became used to). However, we were enjoying ourselve and the super cheap internet ($1/hour! Amazing!) so we didn't really mind ... until call for the concert.
The concert was scheduled for 7pm, so we had call at 6 and rehearsed for about 20 minutes before we let people get water and try and catch some moving air somewhere to relieve us from the heat. However, Stella, Jenny, Erin, Katie and I (Kavita) didn't have a chance to enjoy the break, because a string if unfortunate incidents happened that left us wondering what on earth the deal was in Nicoya.
It started out with Natalia (our contact person for the concert) telling Erin 30 minutes before the concert that the Chinese Association of Costa Rica (who was hosting us and helping publicize for this benefit concert) was going to give Erin a gift, and she had to make a speech to the entire audience of several hundred thanking them. One major problem: Erin speaks not a word of Spanish. So she, Stella, and Katie started working with our tour moms to try and come up with an appropriate speech.
Meanwhile, I had to deal with an interesting audience member who had been video taping us during rehearsal. Due to copyright laws, he couldn't videotape us during the concert in case he sold the tapes illegally, so I and Cheryl (Bianca's fabulous mother) and to "convice" him that he didn't want to video tape us. This was harder than we thought it would be, since he offered multiple excuses as to why it should be ok, with each excuse changing depending on who he was talking to. Eventually (during the first piece of the concert, when I realized he was still taping and I had to leave and talk to him) Bianca's mother told him very firmly that he couldn't tape, made him turn off the camera, and unplugged the camera, throwing the plug to the floor. She's amazing.
While dealing with this before the concert started, a totally unknown man came up to myself and Katie and started asking us about the prominence of Jesus in our repertoire. I had to explain to him that while we sing lots of sacred music, we also have secular music in our program. I thus attempted to describe several pieces in the following manner:
Wayfaring Stranger: This is about a man who's looking for his family and his home and he just really wants to be back with the people he loves. Note: this is actually a somewhat religious piece.
Utopia: This is about trying to be happy and looking for joy in life. Also a religious piece.
Amazing Grace: This is an American song about a man who's thanking someone who helped him through a really rough time. Also religious. I'm sensing a pattern here.
Mata del Anima Sola: This is about a tree. At least we didn't need to hide the religious elements here - I just sounded somewhat crazy.
And then the concert started, while I was worrying about video taping man and religious man. Luckily, Cheryl and I were able to convince the video taper to change his mind at the start of the concert, and I only had to leave the concert two other times: when the priest of the church decided to set up a microphone that worked on an altar that was in the middle of our rows, while he was talking with Natalia, WHILE THE MICROPHONE WAS ON, and when the doors to the sacristy (where all of our belongings were) blew open and Katie turned to me and mouthed "Go. Deal with it" in the middle of the piece.
We also had bats circling our heads in the church at the end of the concert. Some theories as to why they didn't leave: our voices were bouncing off all the walls and confusing them, or they were hearing the overtones that were bouncing off the walls which were also confusing them. Either way, they kept us company for a large chunk of the concert.
However, at the end of the concert, several people came up and told us we sounded like angels, we sold tons of CDs, and a group of adolescent boys approached Krystal to get a picture with her (we've discovered she looks like a local telenovella star here, so everyone is fascinated by her). Though the audience didn't clap at all during the concert, they were all so incredibly generous with their compliments that all the craziness was worth it.
Kavita
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Poas, La Paz
Today, Stella, Stephanie, Jenny Z, Eun Young, myself, and bus driver Leo headed out of San Jose, not to raft on the river, but to explore nature again! We arrived bright and early at the Poas volcano because we awoke early with the rafters, and we had to wait for the national park to open. When it did, we discovered the price was more than twice as expensive for foreigners. Oh well. Anyway, we got off the bus, and we realized it was really cold, but none of us had dressed warmly. Oh well. Everyone had told us that Poas was a better deal than Arenal, because it is lower and thus is not as affected by cloud cover. Not so today. SO MUCH CLOUD. The volcano crater looked like a big white foggy nothingness. As did the side lagoon. So while we did not quite experience the volcano-ness of the volcano, we did go for a walk in the rainforest. It was chilly and windy, but the trees protected us a bit. We saw some really cool plants, including flowers that look like teeth and gums. We also discovered that Stella is really scared of big leaves. We walked through dark, tangly woods with root systems that threatened to grab us like in a horrific fairytale or in Lord of the Rings or something. Then we returned to the bus for warmth. And that was Poas.
Next, we headed to La Paz waterfalls. This was a pricey deal with no student rate. But the four of us who went for it thought it was well worth it. La Paz was like a mixture of botanical garden, zoon, and hiking trails (one of which included huge waterfalls). So we spent 3.5 hours wandering through ferns, getting close up views of Costa Rica's birds, frogs, monkeys, and butterflies, and walking up and down a "constant stairmaster" in Stephanie's words as we walked along the waterfall series. Everything was really well maintained and actually safe feeling.
Then we headed back to our host families, but not before stopping at a roadside soda for tipical food and spending 10 minutes at the end of it trying to figure out how to pay for one bill when none of us have exact change in colones.
It was a good day!
Jackie
Next, we headed to La Paz waterfalls. This was a pricey deal with no student rate. But the four of us who went for it thought it was well worth it. La Paz was like a mixture of botanical garden, zoon, and hiking trails (one of which included huge waterfalls). So we spent 3.5 hours wandering through ferns, getting close up views of Costa Rica's birds, frogs, monkeys, and butterflies, and walking up and down a "constant stairmaster" in Stephanie's words as we walked along the waterfall series. Everything was really well maintained and actually safe feeling.
Then we headed back to our host families, but not before stopping at a roadside soda for tipical food and spending 10 minutes at the end of it trying to figure out how to pay for one bill when none of us have exact change in colones.
It was a good day!
Jackie
Centro Israelita
Yesterday, Rachel, Liz, and myself went to the traditional ashkenazi synagogue in the outskirts of San Jose. That made it sound simple. It was NOT simple. Rachel had spent a week trying to convince the synagogue that we were harmless Jews, and that had involved the Centro Israelita (http://www.centroisraelita.com/) calling on Harvard Hillel to make sure we were so. Then, each of us had very special experiences when trying to reach the Centro Israelita on our own from our host families around San Jose. My difficulties arose when I realized when I woke up that my hosts had left for work, their landline was down, and the wireless internet had stopped working. And I had no idea where the syngagogue was, didn't know how to get a taxi, or how to speak Spanish. Deepa helped me figure it out. We got the internet running to find a map, we found taxi numbers in tour book, and the house maids used their cell phones to call me a taxi. The taxi driver got me just to the right spot, but I was the only one there! The security guard interrogated me in Spanish and wouldn't let me out of my taxi until I somehow managed to communicate that we had called ahead of time and that, yes, I was one of the group of women who were coming that morning. Meanwhile, Rachel was having her own difficulties (Rachel, feel free to add to this post!) and got there ten minutes late, after I waited for a half hour. I was RELIEVED to have a Spanish speaker with me. Interrogation became much easier. But where was Liz (Hey Liz, add to this post!)? Rachel felt incredibly guilty, realizing she had provided incomplete directions and didn't get Liz's phone number so she couldn't correct it. We hoped Liz would figure it out, and the two of us told the guards what she looked like and headed into the walled, airlocked compound. Liz got there soon enough, having spent a very long time with her very nice taxi driver who finally figured out where she needed to go through a series of phone calls. I have never seen someone look so relieved.
The syngagogue compound was huge and beautiful. They had a small museum, a dairy cafe, a day school, a big sanctuary, and a small sanctuary. It seemed like a thriving community which had integrated well into Costa Rican society, following the typical pattern of the Eastern European Jewish immigration wave to America, only on a smaller scale in Costa Rica. We loved reading the prayers and biblical quotes translated into Spanish and seeing "G-d" as "Di-s." The most disappointing aspect of this visit is that we interacted primarily with the security guards, who escorted us everywhere, and the assistant museum curator, none of whom were Jewish so far as we could tell. The only Jewish person we actually talked to was the woman who was running the cafe, where we ate a really yummy meal. Also, we had been hoping for a juicy history which would have explained this community's paranoia when it came to welcoming American Jews into their walls. Turned out they were worried because of the current state of affairs in Israel and Palestine. That seemed a bit far removed from Costa Rica, in our minds.
Jackie
The syngagogue compound was huge and beautiful. They had a small museum, a dairy cafe, a day school, a big sanctuary, and a small sanctuary. It seemed like a thriving community which had integrated well into Costa Rican society, following the typical pattern of the Eastern European Jewish immigration wave to America, only on a smaller scale in Costa Rica. We loved reading the prayers and biblical quotes translated into Spanish and seeing "G-d" as "Di-s." The most disappointing aspect of this visit is that we interacted primarily with the security guards, who escorted us everywhere, and the assistant museum curator, none of whom were Jewish so far as we could tell. The only Jewish person we actually talked to was the woman who was running the cafe, where we ate a really yummy meal. Also, we had been hoping for a juicy history which would have explained this community's paranoia when it came to welcoming American Jews into their walls. Turned out they were worried because of the current state of affairs in Israel and Palestine. That seemed a bit far removed from Costa Rica, in our minds.
Jackie
Friday, June 20, 2008
More Pictures!
I'll leave the details of the last few days to someone else... for now, pictures!
RCSers dipping their feet in the pool after our amazing cocktail party at the Morrison's, awaiting instructions from our fearless leader, Stella Lee.
Allison Hsiang and Kristina Yee at our post-concert dinner in Puriscal with the Coro Infantil y Juvenil de la Academia de Musica Carlos Luis Fallas.
Molly O'Laughlin receiving a gift from a member of the Coro Infantil.
This is the super scary hanging wooden bridge we had to cross with our busses in order to go to Nicoya. Kavita Kannan, our fearless manager, is truly fearless to stand on this bridge.
RCSers enjoying the surf in Samara!
- Stacey Hanson, '10
Monday, June 16, 2008
Best. Concert. Ever.
(apologies for the highly inconsistent punctuation. silly Spanish keyboards)
Judging by the measurements of audience size and audience response, last nights concert in Puriscal was easily the best tour concert we have had in the last five RCS tours.
We performed with a local childrens choir in a 5 oclock concert following mass at the big church in the center of town. Costa Rica is a very Catholic country - 75% according to wikipedia, and like 95% christian overall - so at first we wondered if the, oh, 500-600 people at mass were there for services or for us.
They were there for us. After the childrens choir sang a set (which included a three part arrangement of My Heart Will Go On and a song with hand motions that inspired me and Jenny to start twirling our fingers a la Inkolovane), RCS did the singing-in-the-round thing where we spread out down the aisles between the pews and sang the Van Ness and Duo Seraphim. We then moved into normal standing positions for the rest of the concert, but we definitely hooked them from the start by surrounding them with RCS;s sound. Their enthusiasm grew and grew over the course of the concert, and after Amazing Grace, which was announced as our final piece, we received a universal standing ovation. So we launched into our planned encore of the first half of Mata Del Anima Sola, featuring rockstar soloist Bianca Calderon. The audience started clapping along, which was of course nearly disastrous (consecutive notes of equal value etc etc and whatnot) but Katie held it together. We then got another standing ovation, so we sang Utopia. Which prompted ANOTHER standing ovation, so we polished it all off with a round of R-A-D, and then called it a night. Three encores! We also sold all the cds we had with us at the performance (unfortunately, we didn{t have enough for everyone who wanted) and some old ladies were collecting RCSers signatures on their programs and, basically, they adored us.
And by the time we finished having a lovely dinner with the childrens choir and playing many ridiculous rounds of musical chairs and lime tossing and something involving balloons that will most certainly be joining the human pyramid racing in next years lineup of new retreat games, we adored them as well.
-Liz-
Judging by the measurements of audience size and audience response, last nights concert in Puriscal was easily the best tour concert we have had in the last five RCS tours.
We performed with a local childrens choir in a 5 oclock concert following mass at the big church in the center of town. Costa Rica is a very Catholic country - 75% according to wikipedia, and like 95% christian overall - so at first we wondered if the, oh, 500-600 people at mass were there for services or for us.
They were there for us. After the childrens choir sang a set (which included a three part arrangement of My Heart Will Go On and a song with hand motions that inspired me and Jenny to start twirling our fingers a la Inkolovane), RCS did the singing-in-the-round thing where we spread out down the aisles between the pews and sang the Van Ness and Duo Seraphim. We then moved into normal standing positions for the rest of the concert, but we definitely hooked them from the start by surrounding them with RCS;s sound. Their enthusiasm grew and grew over the course of the concert, and after Amazing Grace, which was announced as our final piece, we received a universal standing ovation. So we launched into our planned encore of the first half of Mata Del Anima Sola, featuring rockstar soloist Bianca Calderon. The audience started clapping along, which was of course nearly disastrous (consecutive notes of equal value etc etc and whatnot) but Katie held it together. We then got another standing ovation, so we sang Utopia. Which prompted ANOTHER standing ovation, so we polished it all off with a round of R-A-D, and then called it a night. Three encores! We also sold all the cds we had with us at the performance (unfortunately, we didn{t have enough for everyone who wanted) and some old ladies were collecting RCSers signatures on their programs and, basically, they adored us.
And by the time we finished having a lovely dinner with the childrens choir and playing many ridiculous rounds of musical chairs and lime tossing and something involving balloons that will most certainly be joining the human pyramid racing in next years lineup of new retreat games, we adored them as well.
-Liz-
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Families in Puriscal
We are spending the weekend in the town of Puriscal, home of the famous Puriscal chorizo. A few weeks ago, I made the mistake of describing Puriscal as a ¨rural town¨in order to differentiate the living conditions there from those in San Jose, where most of RCS would be living in posh villas with American ex-patriots. I think that throughout the course of tour, the myth grew such that some grew to believe that in Puriscal, we would be ¨roughing it¨living with local families in a shack in the middle of a bean farm...
Yesterday night, we arrived at a municipal building, where we were greeted by a large group of people holding signs with our names on it. I especially liked the 1´ x 3´ handmade banner that read, ¨Jenny Hsu¨and the printed ones for Emily and Erin, complete with borders and colorful trim. Each RCSer was adopted by her respective host family consisting of cute Puriscal children´s choir members and their families. And as my host mother drove her pristine Toyota Corolla through the automated gate to their house, Cheryl and I decided that it was no rural town.
I met members of my host´s extended family and was served dinner with typical Costa Rican hospitality. We had a great conversation during dinner, despite the fact that I spoke no Spanish and the family spoke no English. (This was mostly to the credit of Cheryl, who translated everything from ¨the guys peels off people´s faces in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre¨to ¨teachers receive low salaries here¨). They were particularly amused by my comparison of the phrases ¨tengo hambre¨and ¨tengo una hermana.¨
My host sister, Victoria, is 13 years old and really sweet. She likes marine biology, archaeology, and Zac Efron, and she wants to go to Paris someday. She also has a great taste in music, as far as I can tell from the music blaring from the bathroom (rather impressive speaker system in the bathroom, it seems). It appears that she is hogging the shower, and I am hogging the internet. Somehow, this makes me feel at home...
Speaking of home, Happy Father´s Day to all the families, on behalf of RCS!
Yesterday night, we arrived at a municipal building, where we were greeted by a large group of people holding signs with our names on it. I especially liked the 1´ x 3´ handmade banner that read, ¨Jenny Hsu¨and the printed ones for Emily and Erin, complete with borders and colorful trim. Each RCSer was adopted by her respective host family consisting of cute Puriscal children´s choir members and their families. And as my host mother drove her pristine Toyota Corolla through the automated gate to their house, Cheryl and I decided that it was no rural town.
I met members of my host´s extended family and was served dinner with typical Costa Rican hospitality. We had a great conversation during dinner, despite the fact that I spoke no Spanish and the family spoke no English. (This was mostly to the credit of Cheryl, who translated everything from ¨the guys peels off people´s faces in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre¨to ¨teachers receive low salaries here¨). They were particularly amused by my comparison of the phrases ¨tengo hambre¨and ¨tengo una hermana.¨
My host sister, Victoria, is 13 years old and really sweet. She likes marine biology, archaeology, and Zac Efron, and she wants to go to Paris someday. She also has a great taste in music, as far as I can tell from the music blaring from the bathroom (rather impressive speaker system in the bathroom, it seems). It appears that she is hogging the shower, and I am hogging the internet. Somehow, this makes me feel at home...
Speaking of home, Happy Father´s Day to all the families, on behalf of RCS!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Pictures!
Waiting to go Ziplining... See that tower way off in the distance? Yeah, we ziplined to that.
Costa Rica is gorgeous. Enough said.
Hanging Bridges! In some ways, these were almost scarier than ziplining.
Horseback riding! Costa Rica sometimes randomly gets very foggy, as shown here.
Happy RCSers in front of the Arenal Volcano!More pictures to come later... it's time for our cocktail party!
- Stacey Hanson '10
From the conductor's perspective...
This tour is going so well! We've had 3 incredibly different performances so far...
Our first was in Monteverde in a small, rustic church (about the same size as the chapel we sang in at Taft, for those who were there. Remember Mtn Nights in that space? Yeah...) We weren't sure what kind of audience we'd have but we left the doors open and many people trickled in as we were singing. And most of them stayed, which was even better! The concert was just under an hour and we performed most of our current repertoire (sans Verdi.) The audience was so grateful to us! We attracted many local Monteverdians (?) as well as some American tourists. Excellent.
Concert #2 was at the afore-mentioned Pan-American school. Other people have already described the challenge of the setting so I won't elaborate on that. Except to say that during our warm up it began to rain. Very hard. They were singing the Sanctus and the rain was so loud that I (standing 3 feet away from them) could hardly hear! Fortunately the rain cleared up in time for the concert and the students in the audience settled down enough that there were few distractions. I also changed the order of the concert program as we went along... which RCS completely rolled with. It's so nice to be working with a group that's so flexible!
Concert #3 was in the cultural center in San Jose and, indeed, presented an entirely different set of challenges. The audience was young-ish (lots of high school students without the watchful eyes of their teachers or parents on them) so they were incredibly chatty through our first piece, Sanctus. The Van Ness (2nd on the program) captivated them, though, and by the time we got to "...plena est..." in the Victoria, they were hooked. They were especially impressed by Bianca during "Mata del Anima Sola" and the 'Cliffe Notes. We officially closed the program with "Amazing Grace" (which is becoming our custom on this tour) but then sang two encores to follow. So despite their inattentiveness at the beginning, I believe we won them over!
My hope is that with at least 1 of the next 3 concerts we'll have a forgiving enough space to sing the Verdi...
Next we travel to Puriscal - more adventures in acoustics coming soon!
Pura Vida!
Kat(i)e, La Conductura
Another great concert!
Tonight we had our third performance of the trip, a concert at the Eugene O Neill theatre at the Centro Cultural Costarricense Nacional. There were many school-aged kids in the audience, including a guy in the front row who found it necessary to listen to his iPod and laugh during the course of the concert. But distractions aside, the concert was awesome. It was a delight to perform in a center like this one and to see so many people enjoying our music! One fan named Geno particularly enjoyed our concert, saying that we should go "from the north pole to the south pole, from Japan to here (meaning Costa Rica) and everywhere in between."
Another amazing experience we had today is that during our tour of the Costa Rican Assembly, we were asked to sing in a certain rotunda-like area of the building. We sang Amazing Grace and Duo Seraphim, and it was so moving to see people come out of their offices to see where the music was coming from and then stay and watch in wonderment. It was such a unique and powerful experience that the tour moms started getting choked up, which in turn made me choke up (oops). Seeing our music produce such strong emotions in people made me step outside of myself and the routine of just singing through Duo Seraphim and made me actually listen to how beautiful we sounded, and it was just heartbreakingly wonderful.
Heres to an exhausting but great day in San Jose,
Colleen
P.S. Sorry for the lack of apostrophes, I havent quite figured out how to use a Spanish language keyboard yet...
Another amazing experience we had today is that during our tour of the Costa Rican Assembly, we were asked to sing in a certain rotunda-like area of the building. We sang Amazing Grace and Duo Seraphim, and it was so moving to see people come out of their offices to see where the music was coming from and then stay and watch in wonderment. It was such a unique and powerful experience that the tour moms started getting choked up, which in turn made me choke up (oops). Seeing our music produce such strong emotions in people made me step outside of myself and the routine of just singing through Duo Seraphim and made me actually listen to how beautiful we sounded, and it was just heartbreakingly wonderful.
Heres to an exhausting but great day in San Jose,
Colleen
P.S. Sorry for the lack of apostrophes, I havent quite figured out how to use a Spanish language keyboard yet...
Friday, June 13, 2008
Today we performed in an assembly for the students of the K-12 Pan-American School, in their classy-but-acoustically-troublesome gymnatorium. I love when RCS sings for students - little kids really love us. The enthusiasm of the 3rd and 4th graders in particular reminded me of the performance at the elementary school in Soweto, when the kids mobbed the gate like we were the Beatles.
In the evening, Ellie, Bianca, Cara, Steph, Julia, Lin, and I went to the ballet at the Teatro Nacional. This was possibly a mistake. It was an adaptation of a story by Oscar Wilde called "The Birthday of the Infanta," which is really perfect source material for a ballet for any composers/choreographers out there. Unfortunately, this performance turned out to be by a ballet school, and not one like the ABT or something. The costumes were lavishly literal, the climax featured pre-recorded dialog (dialog!), the harpsichordist was no Julia Carey, and they had two full sets of drops that were seen for less than a minute each. I think this is a rare case of the arts actually receiving a wee bit too much funding. The jugglers and the tightrope walker were pretty good though.
My hosts have a giant trampoline in their backyard. Seven girls are staying in a house with an indoor swimming pool. Jenny and Katie's host is having a Buffy marathon with them tonight. And when Ellie and I were talking to our host's 8th grade daughter, she said "It's so frustrating when the principal stands at the back of the classroom, because then she can see when we're on facebook instead of taking notes." 8th graders are using facebook in class now too? 8th graders in Costa Rica?? We nearly died.
-Liz-
In the evening, Ellie, Bianca, Cara, Steph, Julia, Lin, and I went to the ballet at the Teatro Nacional. This was possibly a mistake. It was an adaptation of a story by Oscar Wilde called "The Birthday of the Infanta," which is really perfect source material for a ballet for any composers/choreographers out there. Unfortunately, this performance turned out to be by a ballet school, and not one like the ABT or something. The costumes were lavishly literal, the climax featured pre-recorded dialog (dialog!), the harpsichordist was no Julia Carey, and they had two full sets of drops that were seen for less than a minute each. I think this is a rare case of the arts actually receiving a wee bit too much funding. The jugglers and the tightrope walker were pretty good though.
My hosts have a giant trampoline in their backyard. Seven girls are staying in a house with an indoor swimming pool. Jenny and Katie's host is having a Buffy marathon with them tonight. And when Ellie and I were talking to our host's 8th grade daughter, she said "It's so frustrating when the principal stands at the back of the classroom, because then she can see when we're on facebook instead of taking notes." 8th graders are using facebook in class now too? 8th graders in Costa Rica?? We nearly died.
-Liz-
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
First picture! Arenal (from iphone)
Arenal at dusk. Shortly after this photo was taken, we saw highly awesome lava flows. Apparently (according to our homestay hosts) the volcanic activity we saw made the front page of the paper today.
Rachel Popkin '08
Hello from San Jose
This afternoon we arrived in San Jose after another twisty, bumpy bus ride. I never thought I would say this, but one thing that I've liked on this tour is how our buses don't have televisions. Strange, I know, but we have just had fabulous pan-bus conversations lately...or spent the entire time talking about our hair, but regardless, it's time well spent.
It's very nice to be in someone's home after spending the past few days in hotels (I don't know about everyone else's hosting situations, but for me, this is the understatement of the decade). We rehearsed at the Pan-American School today. The school has a very interesting layout. There is a giant old tree in the center that they built the school around, and the gym/auditorium has no walls. While this creates a fantastic open air effect that would have been wonderful for gym class, it makes a less than ideal space for singing. The acoustics are...interesting. I have never heard the Koscar "Sanctus" sound quiet. The flapping of pigeons overhead also creates an interesting effect.
--anne
It's very nice to be in someone's home after spending the past few days in hotels (I don't know about everyone else's hosting situations, but for me, this is the understatement of the decade). We rehearsed at the Pan-American School today. The school has a very interesting layout. There is a giant old tree in the center that they built the school around, and the gym/auditorium has no walls. While this creates a fantastic open air effect that would have been wonderful for gym class, it makes a less than ideal space for singing. The acoustics are...interesting. I have never heard the Koscar "Sanctus" sound quiet. The flapping of pigeons overhead also creates an interesting effect.
--anne
los animales!
So one really cool thing about Costa Rica is all of the animals frolicking around...as well as their utter disregard for human activities and boundaries.
At the Monteverde Cheese factory, we met a dog who proceeded to lead us back on a fifteen minute walk to our hotel. At one point the dog had gone ahead, and we proceeded to take a short cut. When we got to the end of the path and back onto the main road, our canine companion was there waiting for us, as if to say, what took you guys so long? Once we got back to the Trapp Family Lodge, he stationed himself right outside the door, guarding us from all comers.
There was also another, smaller dog who chased after one of our lumbering, luggage laden buses, a number of humped cows outside of the barbed wire, watching us on the roadside, a dog who nonchalantly ran tripped through us, while we were singing in our first concert in Monteverde, and then my favorite interaction with the Costa Rican fauna (besides the mating sloths) occured today. While we were eating breakfast a parrot and a cat decided to join us. They were walking around the floor like they owned the place and were perfectly at ease hopping through the obstacle course of chairs and tables to twitter and meow at us.
have to go to rehearsal now, bye!
please ignore all misspellings!
Candace
At the Monteverde Cheese factory, we met a dog who proceeded to lead us back on a fifteen minute walk to our hotel. At one point the dog had gone ahead, and we proceeded to take a short cut. When we got to the end of the path and back onto the main road, our canine companion was there waiting for us, as if to say, what took you guys so long? Once we got back to the Trapp Family Lodge, he stationed himself right outside the door, guarding us from all comers.
There was also another, smaller dog who chased after one of our lumbering, luggage laden buses, a number of humped cows outside of the barbed wire, watching us on the roadside, a dog who nonchalantly ran tripped through us, while we were singing in our first concert in Monteverde, and then my favorite interaction with the Costa Rican fauna (besides the mating sloths) occured today. While we were eating breakfast a parrot and a cat decided to join us. They were walking around the floor like they owned the place and were perfectly at ease hopping through the obstacle course of chairs and tables to twitter and meow at us.
have to go to rehearsal now, bye!
please ignore all misspellings!
Candace
Greetings from Arenal!
Last night, RCS hiked around the base of the active Arenal volcano (which erupted a bit only just a few days before), then stood at sunset watching the sparkling red lava flow down the side of the tremendous mountain -- which was followed by a long soak in the hot springs while sipping cocktails during a lightning storm (they have a high tolerance in the rainforest for, um, danger).
Meanwhile, the Harvard Glee Club was in Utah.
RCS ftw!
-Liz-
Meanwhile, the Harvard Glee Club was in Utah.
RCS ftw!
-Liz-
Monday, June 9, 2008
Green and Mist
As Kavita mentioned, we went horseback riding today. We rode through the woods and through the mist. Everything is so green, and I cannot get over how beautiful this country is. I can understand why so many people come to Costa Rica on vacation and stay here for their entire lives! I love this country. That is all.
Stella
Stella
Commenting enabled
I just fixed the comments setting, so now anyone should be able to leave comments. Thank you, Lauren, for pointing out the problem!
And leave comments! We love you!
And leave comments! We love you!
Those lazy animals...
So, last night on the night tour through the rain forest, we saw two sloths mating in a tree. Our tour guide said that he had never seen it before and that we were really lucky. (For those of you who are curious, it lasted about 40 seconds. Our tour guide made endless jokes about that)
Opps. My time is up. Gotta go pay the interenet cafe people. More about the animals (including RCS) later. Bye!
Opps. My time is up. Gotta go pay the interenet cafe people. More about the animals (including RCS) later. Bye!
Horses!!!
Today some of us went horseback riding! And let me tell you, horseback riding through rainforests and over hills where you can see the ocean in the distance is NOWHERE near like horseback riding at a friend's birthday party when you're 8 years old. In fact, it was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done - and that was after only two days of being here!
Luckily for us, we had two excellent guides who were able to demonstrate all the basics of horseback riding. For the less Spanishly adept, we also had Jackie Granick, horseback riding afficionado, ready to take on the hills and rocky paths with her trusty sidekick, a horse whose name we couldn't quite decipher. There were 12 of us, and all of us except Jackie had limited-to-no experience doing this, so it was quite exhilarating when the horses broke out into three second trots.
The view was absolutely gorgeous, and we managed to finish the ride right before one of the all to frequent downpours started. The ride through the hills was like being on a horse in Ireland - super green, with massive hills and a view of the ocean. After the hills, we went in the opposite direction and ended up going through a small chunk of a rainforest (in Monteverde, there are rainforests EVERYWHERE), and that was so fabulous. It was a very different perspective from our hike through rainforests yesterday - we were focusing on the "not green" things yesterday, and today we spent more time focusing on trees and things that the horses would want to rub up against or eat in the middle of the trail. All in all, a very successful adventure!
Kavita
Luckily for us, we had two excellent guides who were able to demonstrate all the basics of horseback riding. For the less Spanishly adept, we also had Jackie Granick, horseback riding afficionado, ready to take on the hills and rocky paths with her trusty sidekick, a horse whose name we couldn't quite decipher. There were 12 of us, and all of us except Jackie had limited-to-no experience doing this, so it was quite exhilarating when the horses broke out into three second trots.
The view was absolutely gorgeous, and we managed to finish the ride right before one of the all to frequent downpours started. The ride through the hills was like being on a horse in Ireland - super green, with massive hills and a view of the ocean. After the hills, we went in the opposite direction and ended up going through a small chunk of a rainforest (in Monteverde, there are rainforests EVERYWHERE), and that was so fabulous. It was a very different perspective from our hike through rainforests yesterday - we were focusing on the "not green" things yesterday, and today we spent more time focusing on trees and things that the horses would want to rub up against or eat in the middle of the trail. All in all, a very successful adventure!
Kavita
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Hola!
Only 24 hours in Costa Rica and already we've done so much. Our very first activity was an extremely perilous bus ride from San Jose to Monteverde - five hours on small buses over roads that wind around the edges of the mountains and are probably more appropriate for travel by donkey. Our tour guide this morning quipped that in Costa Rica, the roads don't have holes, the holes have roads. But it was a gorgeous journey, and our bus drivers were real professionals, so although if one of us were driving these roads we would have died about a thousand times, we made it to the Trapp Family Lodge none the worse for wear (though our luggage was a bit damp). We certainly learned a new appreciation for asphalt.
And this morning was a hanging bridges tour and a canopy tour in the rainforest. This is a real proper rainforest, guys. Lots of rain, first of all. And it's overwhelmingly green, just gorgeous. The zip-lines were much higher and much longer than the ones in South Africa, and therefore much scarier but much much cooler. We had to double up sometimes, wrapping our legs around each other while soaring down a cable strung from towers reminiscent of the one at the end of Buffy season 5.
Btw, if anyone from comm choir reads this... we taught our zip-line guide to say baller. Yesss.
-Liz-
Only 24 hours in Costa Rica and already we've done so much. Our very first activity was an extremely perilous bus ride from San Jose to Monteverde - five hours on small buses over roads that wind around the edges of the mountains and are probably more appropriate for travel by donkey. Our tour guide this morning quipped that in Costa Rica, the roads don't have holes, the holes have roads. But it was a gorgeous journey, and our bus drivers were real professionals, so although if one of us were driving these roads we would have died about a thousand times, we made it to the Trapp Family Lodge none the worse for wear (though our luggage was a bit damp). We certainly learned a new appreciation for asphalt.
And this morning was a hanging bridges tour and a canopy tour in the rainforest. This is a real proper rainforest, guys. Lots of rain, first of all. And it's overwhelmingly green, just gorgeous. The zip-lines were much higher and much longer than the ones in South Africa, and therefore much scarier but much much cooler. We had to double up sometimes, wrapping our legs around each other while soaring down a cable strung from towers reminiscent of the one at the end of Buffy season 5.
Btw, if anyone from comm choir reads this... we taught our zip-line guide to say baller. Yesss.
-Liz-
H2O
Water is awesome. It is the essence of life. So far, it feels like we've spent a lot of time here in Costa Rica thinking about water. Allow me to make a list:
-Water was pouring from the skies (by which, I mean it was raining) when we arrived and were waiting to load our buses at the San Jose Airport
-Water got onto and sometimes, into our luggage that was strapped to the roofs of our tiny buses
-Some of us really needed to release water from our bladders while we were on the 4-hour bus ride from San Jose to Monteverde
-We are afraid to drink the water here
-We are also afraid to eat fruits and vegetables that may have been washed with tap water
-All of our clothes are slightly damp with water and won't dry because of the humidity.
I love water. I love Costa Rica (so far...muahahaha). and most of all, I love RCS.
Cheers,
Joan Xu '11
-Water was pouring from the skies (by which, I mean it was raining) when we arrived and were waiting to load our buses at the San Jose Airport
-Water got onto and sometimes, into our luggage that was strapped to the roofs of our tiny buses
-Some of us really needed to release water from our bladders while we were on the 4-hour bus ride from San Jose to Monteverde
-We are afraid to drink the water here
-We are also afraid to eat fruits and vegetables that may have been washed with tap water
-All of our clothes are slightly damp with water and won't dry because of the humidity.
I love water. I love Costa Rica (so far...muahahaha). and most of all, I love RCS.
Cheers,
Joan Xu '11
WE SURVIVED!
ZIPLINING!!!!!!!!!!!
Not as non-scary as it sounds. Or maybe it doesn't sound like it. But we did it. And it was actually really fun! I was in the later group with Anne, Laura, Candace, Emily, and Molly O, and although some of us were losing our nerve on the tram ride up and climbing up the first tower (namely me and Laura), we all did it and had a blast! Molly entertained us by telling us how the whizzing sound of the zipline sounded like a velociraptor and I even belted out a rendition or two of R-A-D while soaring above the forest. Such an exciting experience!
Then the 6 of us plus Sara, Rachel, Jess, and Joan headed into Santa Elena for lunch and other necessities (such as this internet, por ejemplo). On the ride we saw some toucans!! Our driver was kind enough to stop and point them out to us, prompting a brief Lion King song or two over the Zazu comparison for the rest of the ride. In Santa Elena we ate at a tree restaurant that reminded me of the Rainforest Cafe, but less extreme. A random skinny little cat wandered in at some point and proceeded to look at us mournfully and eat crumbs off the floor. No one else seemed to notice or mind. Weird. And now here we are, using the internet and getting in touch with our families for the first time (for some of us).
I am excited for our next adventure!!
-Colleen :-D
Not as non-scary as it sounds. Or maybe it doesn't sound like it. But we did it. And it was actually really fun! I was in the later group with Anne, Laura, Candace, Emily, and Molly O, and although some of us were losing our nerve on the tram ride up and climbing up the first tower (namely me and Laura), we all did it and had a blast! Molly entertained us by telling us how the whizzing sound of the zipline sounded like a velociraptor and I even belted out a rendition or two of R-A-D while soaring above the forest. Such an exciting experience!
Then the 6 of us plus Sara, Rachel, Jess, and Joan headed into Santa Elena for lunch and other necessities (such as this internet, por ejemplo). On the ride we saw some toucans!! Our driver was kind enough to stop and point them out to us, prompting a brief Lion King song or two over the Zazu comparison for the rest of the ride. In Santa Elena we ate at a tree restaurant that reminded me of the Rainforest Cafe, but less extreme. A random skinny little cat wandered in at some point and proceeded to look at us mournfully and eat crumbs off the floor. No one else seemed to notice or mind. Weird. And now here we are, using the internet and getting in touch with our families for the first time (for some of us).
I am excited for our next adventure!!
-Colleen :-D
Day 2: Monteverde/Santa Elena
RCS arrived safely in Costa Rica yesterday! We're now in Monteverde, exploring the beautiful cloud forest.
Our hotel is a very cool lodge high up in the mountains. Stella had to book our hotel for this part of the trip without visiting first, so she "rounded up" and got us really nice housing.
We spent the morning doing SkyTrek and SkyWalk tours - see http://skytrek.com/. Ziplines are awesome. Hopefully we'll get some of the many hilarious pictures we took up here soon - some fantastic(ly terrified) facial expressions were captured.
I'm getting a lot of chances to use my Spanish, but it's pretty rusty. Not only that, but it turns out my teachers lied to me about the meanings of some of the verbs I know. For example, I learned that llevar = to wear or to carry. I used it in a sentence (to ask a waiter if he was ever going to bring the guacamole) and got a blank stare. Turns out it means closer to "to take". Um, whoops.
Anyway. Food is great here, weather is rainy but still beautiful. Right now I'm at Pura Vida Internet in Santa Elena, the tiny rainforest town where we will have our first concert (tomorrow, in la Iglesia Santa Elena, a historic church.
BTW, I'm working on a way for those of us who have camera phones to post pictures to this blog directly from our phones... so if you see weird or broken-looking posts, that's probably what that is about.
Hasta luego,
Rachel Popkin '08
Our hotel is a very cool lodge high up in the mountains. Stella had to book our hotel for this part of the trip without visiting first, so she "rounded up" and got us really nice housing.
We spent the morning doing SkyTrek and SkyWalk tours - see http://skytrek.com/. Ziplines are awesome. Hopefully we'll get some of the many hilarious pictures we took up here soon - some fantastic(ly terrified) facial expressions were captured.
I'm getting a lot of chances to use my Spanish, but it's pretty rusty. Not only that, but it turns out my teachers lied to me about the meanings of some of the verbs I know. For example, I learned that llevar = to wear or to carry. I used it in a sentence (to ask a waiter if he was ever going to bring the guacamole) and got a blank stare. Turns out it means closer to "to take". Um, whoops.
Anyway. Food is great here, weather is rainy but still beautiful. Right now I'm at Pura Vida Internet in Santa Elena, the tiny rainforest town where we will have our first concert (tomorrow, in la Iglesia Santa Elena, a historic church.
BTW, I'm working on a way for those of us who have camera phones to post pictures to this blog directly from our phones... so if you see weird or broken-looking posts, that's probably what that is about.
Hasta luego,
Rachel Popkin '08
Friday, June 6, 2008
On the road again...
Hello all!
We leave for Costa Rica in just under eight hours! I'm no where near done packing yet, but of course I am pausing to inaugurate the tour blog. I am so happy and lucky to have the opportunity to squeeze in one more summer tour with RCS - which has been my not-at-all-secret plan since, oh, freshman spring. It's been so long since I've done any traveling that wasn't a choir tour with 40 of my best friends that I really can't imagine traveling any other way. So excited!
-Liz-
(Liz Weinbloom '07, that is)
We leave for Costa Rica in just under eight hours! I'm no where near done packing yet, but of course I am pausing to inaugurate the tour blog. I am so happy and lucky to have the opportunity to squeeze in one more summer tour with RCS - which has been my not-at-all-secret plan since, oh, freshman spring. It's been so long since I've done any traveling that wasn't a choir tour with 40 of my best friends that I really can't imagine traveling any other way. So excited!
-Liz-
(Liz Weinbloom '07, that is)
Sunday, June 1, 2008
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