Our First Concert and Adventures in Dublin - Day 4

Wow - what a day! Today has been my favorite so far! This morning we left our hotel at 9am dressed in matching white sweaters and khakis to wear for our first performance. We began our day with a bus tour of Dublin where we were joined by a local tour guide who told us about Dublin's history and landmarks as we looked out the window. We saw the home of Oscar Wilde, the Guinness Factory, Trinity College and several cathedrals. At one point in the tour we stopped at a park where a giant cross was placed for a visit by Pope John Paul II. We used this stop as an opportunity to take pictures in our performance outfits.

Brittany, Ashley, Maureen, Bret, and Caitlin thought our outfits looked like 1950s cheerleaders' uniforms.

Chelsea and I decided to pose with our director Will and President Schwab.

After all of our picture taking, we got back on the buses and headed for St. Patrick's Cathedral for our first concert of the tour. We gave a 30 minute performance of several selections of sacred music. We began with "Tenebrae Factae Sunt," which is a very special piece to the choir. We sing this song at all of our concerts and invite choir alumni to join us. We then sang a few of the songs we learned especially to sing on tour. My favorite part of the performance was when we would end a song and could hear the reverberation for several more seconds! The cathedral had amazing acoustics! We ended our performance by singing "The Lord Bless You and Keep You," which we close all of our concerts with.

After the performance, we all had to change out of our performance outfits so we would not get them dirty. The rather uncomfortable part of this was that the only place there was for us to change was in the Lady Chapel of St. Patrick's which is situated behind the altar. The ladies and gentlemen took turns changing in the chapel while others guarded the area to make sure no one wandered into the makeshift dressing room. We then left the cathedral at about 2pm for a free afternoon in Dublin.

For safety we always break up into good size groups during our free time. Chelsea, Caitlin, Virginia, Nolan, Jeremy, Maureen, and I began our afternoon at Trinity College to see The Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript. I was so excited to get to see it because I studied illuminated manuscripts last summer with the British Studies at Oxford program. I always enjoy getting to experience first hand the things I study in school! We then found a place for a late lunch and did a little shopping. We had hoped to visit Dublin's many museums, but unfortunately, all museums are closed on Monday! We then went to the tourist information center for suggestions on what we should do in Dublin before 8pm when the buses were coming back to get us. We were told that everything would be closed by 5:30pm except for places to eat, so we decided to take a bus back to the hotel. Two hours and two buses later, we finally made it back to the hotel after getting off at the wrong stop once or twice. It was quite an adventure, but I think our bus trip will be one of the most memorable moments for the seven of us.

I am now back at the hotel and watching the news. The biggest stories in Ireland have been about Tony Blair stepping down as Britain's Prime Minister and the kidnapping of four year old Madeleine McCann. The search for Madeleine has been constantly on the news since we have been here, and it looks like they may have found a new lead in the case.

Tomorrow we are leaving Ireland on a ferry for Great Britain. We have a concert tomorrow at a school in Wales and then we are continuing on to Chester, England. I hope we will have internet in our next hotel so I can easily update with all of our activities!

The End. Love, Margaret