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Punta Negra and Dancing with New Friends

 Our second day in San Juan, we were given the option to board a bus in the morning and travel an hour to Punta Negra or stay behind and attend lectures and explore the new city. Some of the group stayed behind to catch up on rest or walk around town but most of chose to see this beautiful lake and dam. The hour bus ride was nothing compared to the rest of the traveling we’d been doing and we were greeted by a view of a beautiful reservoir, dam and mountains. We learned that the dam helps generate hydro electric power for the province. When we arrived we learned that kayaking and pedal boating was available. We had a lot of fun exploring the water or staying on shore skipping rocks. After we enjoyed the reservoir, we walked up the hill to the restaurant and we enjoyed a lunch featuring punta de espalda, which was recommended to us by new friends we met there. After lunch, we headed back to town to get ready for the opening ceremony of the festival. All the competing groups met that...
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Day 14 (?) - To Shrine,

Today we arrived back in the United States after a long almost two weeks of being out of the country. The flight today has allowed me to do a good amount of reflecting on the tour. I won’t lie and say that these past weeks haven’t been without issues but they have brought some of my most incredible memories.  Adjusting to a new culture and trying to get around a city that speaks a different language than me was a tough barrier to get through for the first few days. I was incredibly blessed to have a group of people who allowed me to learn alongside them (with David’s help translating) was an experience I will never forget.  Instead of writing a post talking about how grateful I am for everybody on this trip, I’d like to write about my favorite memories (in order of how I remember them) 1. Getting to Argentina completely exhausted and pushing through to walk through the streets and be blown away by the architecture of the buildings for the first time (this will be a common them...

Day 14- Farewell Argentina Tour!

Hello to everyone who has kept up with our tour and supported us along the way! You may have noticed that your “choraliers” are back at home in the United States! When I sat down (sick and jet lagged, as I imagine everyone is) to construct my blog post I was initially disappointed that I would only get to report on our fourteen hours of flying and the hour long (only mildly uncomfortable) uber that I took home… BUT then I realized that I had actually been granted the unique opportunity to reflect on this tour as a whole and report back to y’all my favorite experiences!  Argentina Tour Highlights: (as told by Ava Marie Pack :) Coffee/Café I am a certified coffee enthusiast and I would be remiss if I didn’t report on the amazing coffee in Buenos Aires and San Juan. I was particularly fond of Café con dulce de lèche (yet another aspect of Argentina that will be sincerely missed).     The Subte! The Buenos Aires underground metro system was a godsend in navigating the city an...

Day 10–Dakota—Day 2 of San Juan Canta

 Today was indeed quite the day! This morning we got to have a relaxed morning with hotel breakfast and using our time how we saw fit, so me and my roomies decided to take the time to get some extra rest. After some rest and relaxation we put on our shrine swag and headed to  Domingo F. Sarmiento Museum/Birthplace where we would share some of our set with other festival attendees. Afterwards some of my friends and I met up with members of the ensemble BLOESEM, from Buenos Aires, for a wonderful lunch of Italian food, the cream raviolis (pictured at the bottom) were amazing! This day had so many new friends and wonderful experiences. This was also our first performance day for the competition side of this with our Universal choral set. The concert on this night was a late for us with us going on at about 9:30 or so but it was all worth it, coming off that stage with the whole ensemble putting their absolute hearts into every note was truly special. My travel bunch rounded out ...

Day 13 - David Gagon - TRAVEL TRAVEL TRAVEL!

 Thanks for reading! Unfortunately, just like Logan, I also got food poisoning; however, traveling was surprisingly a breeze today. After an early morning bus ride (that I woke up 15 minutes before to go on), we arrived 2 hours South to a city named Mendoza. Although we didn’t stay long, it was special to me. My mom’s family is from Mendoza, so it was cool seeing the Andes mountains like they would’ve. And wow, after that plane ride, we REALLY got to see the Andes! Mendoza and Santiago, Chile are divided by those mountains and flying above them was magical (and a little scary). Landing in Santiago, we dropped our bags off and traveled to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. The museum recounted the history of Chile’s coup-d’état of 1973 and military dictatorship until 1990. It was a reflective experience, especially seeing all of the handmade art that prisoners made while incarcerated. After two cappuccinos and an AMAZING salami sandwich, we made our way back to the Santiago airp...

Down with the Sickness

Yesterday the awards for the festival were revealed. Shrine will be taking home 1st prize in our Universal Repertoire performance and 2nd prize for our Popular Repertoire performance. The joy and pride that we shared in the moment of the reveal were unforgettable. But even more powerful was what we shared beyond competition and prizes. In some grand poetry, I found myself tremendously ill with food poisoning on this last day of the festival, where we were to perform with all of the other participating choirs in a collective four-hundred voice ensemble. I wasn’t able to perform, but I still made it to the rehearsal, contributing and experiencing the process. Choral music is never just about performance. It’s about sharing. And even if I wasn't able to share our final product with an audience, I was able to share an incredible two week journey with many of my closest friends, share a passion with new friends, and I even shared a bit of illness with those unlucky enough to also have o...

Day 12- Ezekiel Jaramillo *Los Ganadores!!!*

Today was an incredible day. We started this morning with an amazing breakfast at our hotel that we are staying at after our breakfast. We walked down to a local thing. Theater, in which our privates aura presentation was held at this A. War ceremony, we were informed that we placed seconds in the coral music, popular category. And first, in the choral music universal category Period it is so amazing to not only represent the United States of America, but most importantly, yeah, Arizona as a state and even more specifically flax f Arizona, and it university of northern Arizona period the public ceremony was later. Tonight and we were able to perform 2 pieces from our sets because we were you placed twice in the competition. It was a very emotional time. And this being my last concert with shrine at the ages, specifically, I was so moved and so emotional and so grateful for this experience. I'm glad that we were able to impact people's lives. Through our music and be able to tou...