Day 3 - Zac Curtis - Small World!

¡Hola! I am a first year graduate student in composition, and this is my fourth international choir tour. In between all the fun we’ve been having, Shrine gave our first Argentina concert last night with a local group called Cámara XXI. This was such an enriching experience, and it was personally enhanced for me because a friend of mine from high school was able to attend the concert! Kiara and I were in our school’s chamber choir for two years, and we also toured internationally together. She is now in law school and is living in Buenos Aires this summer for an internship through Indiana University. It was so wonderful to catch up with her and recount memories of our own tour, as well as reiterate what choir has meant for us in our lives. I will likely see other friends from high school at the San Juan Canta festival, as the BYU Concert Choir will be there. It’s been so fun to remember how small the world truly can seem, especially in the choral field. I am looking forward to hopefully seeing old friends, as well as making new ones at the festival!

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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 2 - Drake Hammack - Buenos Aries!!

Today we landed in Buenos Aires and got our first taste of the new sights, sounds and cultures we get to experience on this tour. After finishing a long 9 hour plane ride -and getting through customs- we took taxis to our hotel which lies right in the middle of downtown. Just walking through the streets of downtown was a great experience, many beautiful buildings surround the area. Some standouts for me were the museum and the cathedral. Packed in between the wonderful architecture were so many little shops and food vendors it was hard to choose which ones to stop at and which to walk by. Eventually the group I was with stopped at a bookstore. The store was decorated from top to bottom in antique signs and furniture, and the whole store had that old book smell. We even found a shelf full of classical music recordings, full of a bunch of composers and pieces a bunch of music nerds on a choir tour instantly recognized. After leaving the bookstore we found a small restaurant to grab ...

Day 10 - Liliya F. - Big Hot Dogs

Hello! I started this day off right with the best drink ever invented: espresso and condensed milk. Vivian and I tried this drink during one of our first days in Buenos Aires and I think it may have changed the course of my life forever… it aligned my coffee chakras. It was a beautiful morning in San Juan; the weather was perfect and the sun was warm and it made for a cheerful walk to and from the hotel. We had a short performance at a historic home for some of the locals and some members of the other choirs that are participating in the San Juan Canta festival. The home belonged to one of the former presidents of Argentina and his impact is still clearly felt and beloved by the people of San Juan. The home itself had been turned into a well groomed museum and was open for members of the public to get a glimpse of Argentinian life during the 1800s. We sang four of our pieces: Domine, Leron Leron, Soneto De La Noche, and De Colores. Each of the pieces included brief introductions about ...

NAU Shrine of the Ages Blog: Adventures in Argentina

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