Practicing in York
Brooke Privett
So, we loaded up the busses in London bright and early this morning and headed out for a 4 hour bus ride to York. York is a very neat city filled with history. I felt like I was in the middle of a movie set as we drove through the town filled with Victorian, Gothic, and Tutor style buildings. We are staying at Acluin College in single dorm rooms (which are fabulous, we even have our own bathrooms even though I would describe taking a shower in them a work of art! Pictures will explain.)
We were given about 15 minutes to move into our dorms when we arrived, then it was off to our very first rehearsal overseas. We spent a majority of the time refreshing our memories on what we had learned at band camp. I didn’t mind the rehearsal because the weather was gorgeous. Sunny and about 73 degrees! Jealous? I know! The only problem with York is that they have a major problem with Canadian geese, so there are geese droppings EVERYWHERE!!! That was fun to march in!
After the first rehearsal we went to eat dinner in the college cafeteria. I’ll just say all it was interesting. They had roasted lamb and onions as a main dish, but I didn’t feel too adventurous so I ate the mushroom and cheese ravioli. After dinner it was off to more rehearsal. We set up our parade block (because we have a parade in downtown York tomorrow), performed the parade song a few times, and then we received our music for the finale of the Tattoo, which is 20 minutes worth of music, and the trumpet part is rather strenuous. Well, tomorrow is a big day for us, so I’m off to bed.