Day two

August 15
Duration of day: 8 AM Ireland time – 2:30 AM Ireland time

Written on the bus to Rehearsal/the Hotel/the hotel Lobby

This morning Emily and I woke up at 8 to the bizarre ring of the telephone for our wakeup call. I was going to just roll over for an hour, but then Emily rolled over so I forced myself up. After taking care of the usual morning hygiene, though, I was feeling much more awake.

After Emily woke up, we went down to the lounge for some internet action and I was able to make 2 posts… it was really irritating, though, because I spent about 15 minutes trying to format the itinerary post so all the text was the same size, but it just refused to cooperate. Everyone wants to use my laptop to check their e-mail, but it’s okay… maybe I can rack up some favors that way.

Breakfast was only okay. There was some really good black currant jam, though.

The first thing we did was go back to the castle where we had dinner last night for a tour. It wasn’t too interesting, but it was fun to explore all of the little stone spiral staircases. They were a little scary, because they were so thin. I went all the way to the top from two different staircases and the second time I took some really cool pictures. I’ll post them if I can…

It was really difficult to keep track of people in the castle, so I ended up switching groups a bunch of times. Towards the end, I was with Freddy and Jake, but then they decided to go pet the miniature horses (they are different from ponies), so I spend some time with Hannah, Bryce, Chris, and Chris Laux. It was really hilarious, because Freddy ad Jake were sitting two or three hundred feet away from us, sitting on the stone wall next to each other and petting the horse. Somehow, it looked like a romantic moment, so we took incrimination photos (you’ll see them on facebook within the next few days). It was all very amusing.

After that, we went to a farm for lunch. It wasn’t very substantial, but we had a good time. I sat with Hannah, Maria, Reed, Chris and Chris Laux. We had some very… interesting conversation and Reed managed to spill all of his coffee through 3 different incidents, as well as get sugar all over his hair (which still mystifies me). At one point, Maria made an extremely perverted comment, which earned her criticism, but caused the conversation to go downhill from here. (By the end we were talking about Reed selling his “white sauce” at the market, and how his face on the bottle would definitely boost sales. It was a fun time. We were forced to tour the farm, which was not so interesting (I mean, a farm’s a farm, wherever you are) and then made our way to Ennis. Oh yes, and I suspect Bryce likes me a little, but that could just be the way he is.

We actually got to explore Ennis a little, which was awesome because we haven’t really done anything unstructured so far. Gordon’s been whining about wanting a cheeseburger since we got here, and he finally got one. I went to the bathroom in the restaurant and it was up like 4 flights of stairs. It was a hike. On the way back to the bus I saw some bright green sparkly Hello Kitty flats, and I was really sad that I didn’t have enough time to see if they had any in my size. I took a picture, though.

We then went to rehearse and have dinner, Apparently there are actually 4 alto twos instead of 2, so I was pretty happy about that.

Dinner was alright, but the knives were really not sharp enough to cut the food so it was kind of a pain. The dessert was amazing, though. Halfway through dinner I got this really sharp pain in one spot on my stomach. I immediately thought it might be me ovulating, but it’s only been about a week since my period ended and it was a little too high up… it was really worrisome. My cheeks were really warm, too, though not my forehead. It would really suck to get sick.

We changed into concert attire in the hotel and made our way back to the church. The concert was extremely disappointing. Only about 5 people outside our group showed up, and one was required there. The altos missed one note in “Shoheen Sho” and half of them still don’t know the correct notes for “We are the Choir.” It’s really irritating. I talked to Madelyn about it afterward, though. Also, Freddy sang his solo and I really can’t believe how he didn’t take into consideration any of Jenny Cook’s suggestions from SYMS. He sings really nasal for a bass, which is odd because basses sing in the male voice, or chest voice. Nasal singing is in the female voice, which is the head voice. Also, his “a” vowels are really odd. I’ve actually sing the same song for a recital and a competition, so I’m really familiar with it.

We don’t have a performance tomorrow, so we didn’t have a bedtime tonight, which was pretty awesome. It meant I got to talk to you a little bit! What was not so awesome is how like 5 people wanted to use my computer, and just when I got to talk to you. Also not awesome is how the power went out. Yeah, sorry about that. The power came back on, but I think it’s coming from a generator the hotel has, and the town still doesn’t have power. Which means that wherever we’re getting internet from doesn’t have power. I feel really bad for Madelyn, because she was using the computer when the power went out, and her reason for checking e-mail is that her aunt is sick or something, and she is just hoping that she lives through the night.

Typing this all up is so tiring! But part of the reason is because I had to type up yesterday and today. The next hotel is the Malton, so I know I have internet. After that we’ll be in uncharted territory.

I hope you’re on late into your night! Then you might actually be up when I get up, and we can talk. I feel so bad that I can’t get back to you tonight; I hope you’re not worried.

Oh well. Up to bed. We’re leaving bright and early, unfortunately.