Wrapping up a wonderful gift of a trip...

Well, we're back, but I couldn't let the end of this fantastic voyage (sounds like a great name for a movie, doesn't it?) fall by the wayside for lack of an internet connection while we were traveling. So here I sit at home in the comfort of my man-cave pounding out the last details of "Mona Shores Choir Does Brazil '08."

Following the excellent visit to the Corcovado (the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking all of Rio), we made our way back to the hotel for a brief independent lunch (or shopping or trip to the beach or pool or whatever else we could squeeze in within the 80 minutes we had) before saddling up and bussing our way to Petrópolis. The trip took us out of Rio and back into the mountains that seemed to be everywhere in this country.

We reached Petrópolis at what appeared to be rush hour. The trip took us 90 minutes to reach the city from Rio (an incredible climb through winding mountain roads) and every bit of 30 more minutes to traverse the few miles to where we would perform. The streets were cobblestone and small and our busses were large, but some adroit driving on the part of our Brazilian chauffeurs got us there in time and without incident. The cathedral in which we were supposed to have performed had been usurped by a wedding. However, the theater in which we ended up performing was charming. Very good acoustics, a raked stage with risers, padded (non-squeaking) seats, and hard wood parquet tiled floors were just a few of the niceties that made up our closing venue.

Perhaps most significant was the appreciative audience. Granted, many of them may have been there to see the opening act, a mixed choir of what appeared to be elementary through high school Brazilian students accompanied by a guitar playing choir director (we certainly understand if you don't play guitar, Shawn.) But once the crowd heard our students' voices, the volume of their applause increased by an order of magnitude. I truly believe we did a great deal that evening to cement our reputation as a world class choir, at least within the population of Petrópolis. And, who knows, maybe even farther since our concert signified the opening of the Petrópolis Winter Festival which includes concerts, a plethora of cultural events, shows and workshops, and is apparently quite well attended by many people even from as far away as Rio de Janeiro.

Following the concert, Shawn was presented with a bound booklet containing all of the press clippings that had been published advertising the coming of the Mona Shores Choir to the Petrópolis Winter Festival. I had only a quick glance at it, but it was quite impressive. The organizers really went out of their way to make us feel welcome and at home in their city. Just before we were ready to leave, I asked our English speaking liaison about the very cool logo of the Petrópolis Winter Festival. One gentleman explained that the logo was designed with the idea that Petrópolis had been started by German colonists and that the evergreen tree (created with an eighth note) on the logo was meant to be symbolic of the trees in Germany. He seemed quite pleased when I shared that we had many evergreens back in Michigan and that their logo fit very well with our own aesthetic. When I inquired about purchasing one of the shirts I had seen with the logo on it, she told me that unfortunately there were none to purchase. But then she went and found an extra (which just happened to be in my size) and gave it to me. How cool is that? Anyway, I asked if they would mind emailing the digital file containing the logo to me. Once I receive it, I will put together an order form for anyone from the trip who would like to purchase a shirt with the logo.

We closed the evening with a great meal at a local Brazilian steak house (churrascaria, for those of you in the know) and enjoyed our bus ride back to Rio on contentedly full stomachs. Back at the hotel, some made a final foray into the market, others went back to their rooms to pack, and a few even went back to their rooms to go to bed. The next day part of our group would begin the trip home while those who had come later to Manaus at the start of the trip had part of the day to spend on the beaches of Rio. But, whether we left with the early group at 4 AM or with the later group at 4:30 PM, we would all be traveling home with indelible memories of the past two weeks in a country of surprising size and beauty and majesty and friendliness and fun.

On a personal note, I would like to say thank you to everyone who supported this blog with their positive feedback or appreciative comments or even by simply being there to read it. It was truly a pleasure to travel (and document the trip) with such an outstanding group of students and adults. I am very much looking forward to editing the more than 20 hours of footage I took while traveling with your sons and daughters and brothers and sisters and boyfriends and girlfriends and nieces and nephews and grandchildren and spouses and teachers and friends. I do have other projects still waiting to be completed ahead of this one, but I hope to have the Brazil Trip DVD done by the start of the school year. I will post information about it here, as well as alerting Shawn to post it on his blog and on the Brazil Trip Facebook group he created, once it is complete.

Also, I would like to collect the best 10-20 photos from each person willing to share their pictures. I will put them on a disc and create a slideshow of our time together set to music to include with the DVD. While I would love to see all your photos, I fear that with digital technology being so prevalent, the numbers of photos taken (overheard from some participants to be in the 500-700 picture range) would be overwhelming given that we had 118 people on the trip. So, if you would like your pictures included in the slideshow, please choose the best 10-20 and get them to me on a cd labeled with your name and phone number. Please do not email them to me as that would quickly max out my mailbox limits. However, if you need/want to contact me about getting photos in or getting a dvd, you can reach me at velaluz at comcast dot net (I spelled it out so that the bots that roam the net don't slurp it up and start spamming me, but you know how to format an address, right? name@domain.net)

Anyway, thanks again, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer even half as much as I have enjoyed the start of mine!

p.s. The very biggest thank you goes to all of the parents, grandparents, and other family members who scrimped and saved and sacrificed to help pay for so many of these students to go on this trip. I hope in some small way this blog has helped you realize what an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime gift you have given your child. Thank you!