Next we drove to the Edinburgh Castle, home to the Scottish Crown Jewels (also known as the Honours of Scotland). They wouldn’t let us take pictures of the jewels, unfortunately, but we still got to look at them. Plus, the castle had plenty of other exciting things we could take pictures of like the prison, the museums, and the weaponry. My favorite part was definitely seeing the Crown Jewels though.

After we finished up there, we headed back to the hotel to get settled and unpack our things. I even got my own room! The day finished with us going out to eat at Wildwood. We all ate mixed green salads, marinated chicken, and for dessert, chocolate honeycomb fudge cake.

It’s been a long day but so far I am enjoying myself.

The church we went to was small, but very pretty. It had a pipe organ, detailed glass paintings, and even a large enough performance space for us. We had rehearsal for about fifty minutes and then the service began. We sang a few of our songs prepared for the trip (including my personal favorite “Come Traveler, Haste Away”) and some hymns as well. Despite being in a different country, the service wasn’t too different from church services back home. They had plenty of prayers, hymns, book readings, and a benediction at the end. There was also another choir that sang with us and they sounded good as well. After the service, we were invited to mingle and have tea and biscuits with the church patrons.

We had some free time before our next location so I went to get lunch with a small group. We ate at this really nice club our tour guide recommended to us. I ordered a cheddar cheese sandwich with chips (fries).

After lunch, we walked to Edinburgh’s by Methodist church where we were given a tour, even though it was more of a lecture. Our guide brought us into the worship room and started informing us how Methodism started and facts about two important composers in Methodist music, Jon and Charles Wesley. She even asked us what we knew about Methodism, and since my group is going to be on music in the Methodist church, I shared some facts of my own. Then we went upstairs to the exhibition and learned some more interesting facts on Methodist churches. For example, each Methodist Society was divided into classes and the leaders of said classes were responsible for contributing to the poor. I took plenty of photos of the exhibition including the Covenant prayer, which included some nostalgic lyrics for Dr Ryder.

When we finished at the church we had some more free time so I went to some stores to buy a power adapter and a hot chocolate. Then at 5:30 we gathered at St. Gile’s chapel for a piano recital performed by Alexandre Prévert.

The recital was titled “Which romantic are you?” and the theme of all of the songs played was romance. The setting we were in was definitely appropriate for this since it was a quiet, beautiful, old chapel. On the other hand, the seats weren’t organized in the best way. While most of them were facing the performance space, some were backed against the wall, where people most likely couldn’t see anything. However, the performance space was in the middle, so I imagine everyone could see.

The music for the performance was really well done. All of the pieces were played magnificently and it was clear the performer had practiced a lot. There were five total pieces in the program. The first few pieces I was unfamiliar with but I knew some parts of the last two. Despite having a small number of songs in the program, the concert lasted for more than an hour. One reason for that was the performer gave speeches related to each piece before playing them. I didn’t really understand them all that much, but I was impressed on how much he could say about each composition.

Another reason the recital was long was that the songs themselves were fairly long. The piece played in the middle, “Waltz from Gounod’s Faust”, sounded like it had a dozen movements and each one had a different style. At first, it sounded like an actual waltz song but then it became slower and sweeter. Then it got faster and more dramatic. Eventually it just got random until it returned to its original waltz style. Another song that was even longer than that was “Scherzo n02”. Not only was it longer and more random than its proceeding song, it had several places where it sounded like it should have ended but it didn’t. Despite the long performances and confusing monologues, I enjoyed the concert.

Our day finished with us eating dinner at Hector’s. We started off with some lentil soup with potatoes. I didn’t like it very much but I ate some anyway. Our entree was a butternut squash Rossetti (which in my opinion, was much better than the soup) and for dessert we had cream puffs. I am excited to see Middlesbrough tomorrow but I’m also completely exhausted. I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

We toured the cathedral for about an hour before we got back on the bus and drove to High House Chapel and Weardale Museum. Both were very small buildings but we were given a tour of them anyway. Unfortunately, our group was too large to fit in each room so we split up into two groups. My group went into the museum first. There were only four small rooms in the whole building, but they still had plenty of interesting props and tapestries to admire. I especially liked the tapestries as they were incredibly detailed. Once we got a look around, we got called back into the church and we learned more about John Wesley and how he got into outdoor preaching due to being unable to preach indoors because he wasn’t allowed to in established churches. Apparently, he attended the church quite a lot when he was alive. We finished up there by singing a few of Wesley’s hymns (like Hark the Herald!) as well as one of our favorite songs, “The Lord Bless You and Keep You.”

We stopped in Whitby to get some lunch before getting back on the bus and driving to York. On the way, we saw Saint Mary’s church and the remains of Whitby Abbney. According to our itinerary, Whitby Abbney was founded by Abbess Hilda in the year 657 and it is where a famous poet named Caedmon sang his “Song of Creation.” The site was destroyed about two hundred years later. Saint Mary’s Church was originally built as a Norman church in 1110 A.D. and it overlooks the River Esk. We stopped to take some pictures before we got back on the road.

It was another hour before we got to York and checked in at our next hotel. By the time we got there it had started snowing so Andy told us to wear appropriate clothing before we went to dinner. He also told us we weren’t going to use the coach the next day so we had to take our robes with us.

Without a coach, we had to walk to get dinner. We went to this place called Ye Old Starre Inn where we ate salad, some kind of meat pie, and apple pie for dessert. Of course, I don’t eat meat so I got some kind of cheese pie with beets on top. The dessert was the best though. It was some homemade apple tart with vanilla custard \240and it was amazing!

We walked for about ten minutes and then we got to York Minister. I have to say it was probably the biggest church we’ve been to so far because our tour guide told us it could fit up to five whales if it was filled with water. Apparently, it could seat up to 2000 people, making it a perfect performance space for choirs. The most prominent part of York Minister was its glass windows. Our tour guide told us they had to be cleaned panel by panel and that it would take one person sixteen weeks just to clean one of the panels. I thought that was insane. The tour guide also told us about their nativity scene and how they would have characters from the story placed all over the chapel and have them moved closer and closer to the display every day. He also mentioned that this lasted until the beginning of February, after Christmas was over, since the Christmas season lasts longer in the United Kingdom.

When the tour was over, we didn’t have any time to explore the rest of York because we needed to rehearse for our concert that day. We walked across the street to York Central Methodist Church where we were performing. We had an hour to rehearse before the concert. At first, we were worried that no one would show up since it wasn’t like we could invite family to see us. Luckily, after we got changed into our robes, some people were sitting in the pews. It wasn’t as big a turnout as most of our concerts, but it was better than nothing. Of course, Dr Ryder would make us sing no matter what, since we needed rehearsal time for the rest of our concerts.

The concert setting was mostly okay but one thing I didn’t like was how much performance space we were given. While there was plenty of space between us singers, there wasn’t much space between us and the audience. I wasn’t too bothered by this, but I am used to singing a good distance away from the audience so it was a bit of a change for me. Also, the acoustics in the room weren’t the best and I wished we were performing at the York Minister instead since it had a huge empty room with amazing acoustics.

Despite all this, I sang just fine with everyone else. I messed up a few times on lyrics, but I felt confident enough to not look at most of the music. I think the song we did the best on was “Wondrous Love” because our balance was incredible and our timing was good too. I noticed we messed up a little at the end of “If Ye Love Me” though so hopefully we will have more time to fix that.

My back and feet ached when the concert was over so I was glad to get a little break afterwards. We took a 40-minute lunch break and then we met back up to go to the Abbney Garden. It wasn’t as interesting as what we saw yesterday, but it was still nice and I took pictures anyway. After that, we all had a couple hours of free time to explore York. We went to a few shops and a few of us attended the Evensong at York Minister. Overall, it was a fine service and the child singers were cute too. Some of the hymns they sang only used one note though and that did bother me a little bit.

As always, we finished the day with dinner. This time, we went to a place called “Slug & Lettuce” (yes, really). For our entree, we had smothered chicken and peas and chocolate caramel bars. There were also some fried mushroom things but I didn’t eat them. When we finished our meal, we walked back to the hotel. On that note, I’m glad we get to use the coach again tomorrow because my feet are sore.

We walked over to Wesley Methodist church afterwards, where we were lectured more about how Methodism came about. What surprised me the most was learning that the church is even younger than our college, even after it was relocated. After the lecture, we were invited to explore a bit before we got back on the coach.

Our day finished at Café Rouge where we ate some strange, spicy concoction with butternut squash, spinach, corn, and other vegetables and for dessert, creme brûlée.

We had a presentation on the bus today about Women in Anglican Church Music. The presentation was done by Tori, Dustin, and Jacob. Tori was the first one to present. She began by introducing everyone to the history of women in Anglican Church music by bringing up each musical period and explaining the role of women in each one. For example, before the Enlightenment, men and boys represented every musical part in choirs and it wasn’t until the Enlightenment when women began to displace men singing soprano. By the 20th century, men were taken away to fight in the world wars, so women had more opportunities to become choristers. To this day, very few cathedrals have added girl choristers.

Next, Jacob discussed the trends of female choristers in recent years. Salisbury Cathedral (the cathedral we visited today), was supposedly the first cathedral to include women in its ranks and it even launched its own all-female choir. He also brought up a woman named Sarah MacDonald, the director of music at Selwyn College, and lay clerks, musicians paid by cathedrals to sing lower parts.

Dustin was the last to talk and he discussed the history of Salisbury Cathedral. He mostly mentioned a lot of dates, such as the day the stones of the foundation were laid, the day the body of the cathedral was finished, and the year girls were admitted into their choir. In addition to that, he told us about Sir Christopher Wren, a famous architect in England. He was important to the cathedral because he was involved in refurbishing and repairing it following the 17th century.

After an hour and a half drive, we made it to Salisbury Cathedral, our performance location for the day. Before rehearsal, two guides offered to give us a tour of the cathedral. We were shown plenty of interesting artifacts, architecture, and tombs in the cathedral. The highlight of the tour was the Salisbury Magna Carta, one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta. The document was preserved in a small room with plenty of space and we were allowed to take pictures of it. Our tour guide explained how the Magna Carta stressed that everyone, including the king, was not above the law and was required to be respectful and fair to everyone else. It also stressed the rights of the church and due process in law. Other highlights of the tour included the oldest living clock and a beautiful fountain with inscriptions written across it.

We had an hour to rehearse and then the Evensong started. It was honestly a lot like the Evensong from two nights ago. It started with an organ playing, the congregation stood when the choir entered, the choir sang a few hymns, the clergy read from the Bible between hymns, and then the choir exited. The only difference was we were singing with the choir this time. The choir we sang with consisted of older men and young, school-aged girls. I thought they sang great alongside us, but their robes were definitely better than ours. While we wore plain and simple black and white robes, they were decked out in blue, white, and turquoise robes. They were really pretty and I was a little jealous.

At this service, we sang “Magnificat”, “Nunc Dimittus in C”, and “Bethlehem Down.” Personally, I didn’t like how we sang the first two. While I don’t think our performance was terrible, we weren’t really prepared for the changes in tempo, so we had some trouble on downbeats and note durations. I was especially having difficulty since I was already used to singing the pieces at a slower speed. Not to mention it was difficult to watch the conductor and look at my music at the same time, since they made me place it face down in front of me. If this is how it is going to be for the next few Evensongs, I hope I will have learned the music well enough to not read it.

As for “Bethlehem Down”, I thought it was performed much better than the other two songs. However, it was a much easier song to sing since it was basically the same notes four times in a row. It also wasn’t completely perfect since I noticed some people (including myself) had trouble with one of the transitions. Other than that, I thought it was done well.

We got some dinner at a place called Bill’s. I got a chicken Caesar salad, mushroom soup (which I ate despite not liking mushrooms), and frozen custard.

After two hours of waiting, we got back on the bus and headed back to Salisbury to eat lunch. Then at 2:50, we met up at the town square to go to Salisbury Methodist Church. This church was actually rather small and it looked more like a preschool than a place of worship. Nonetheless, I liked this church a bit more than the others because it was brighter and more welcoming. While we were there, I noticed a bright, beautiful picture on the wall and I learned from a pamphlet that it was called “The Creation Embroidery.” The pamphlet said it signified the completion of a rebuilding scheme to redesign the interior of the Grade 2 Listed church and the renewal of other premises. The embroidery was made out of silk and man-made fabric backing and it was mounted in seven aluminum frames. The pamphlet also mentioned how some parts of the embroidery were symbols. For example, the central glow of the setting/rising of the sun indicate death and resurrection.

We didn’t have anything else planned for today so we went back to the hotel early and got dinner there. I ate risotto while everyone else ate lasagna. I can honestly say I liked the risotto from the first night better. We also had some strawberry ice cream afterwards.

Before we went to bed, we had a presentation about English Church Music by Jordan, Andrew, and Jake. Unlike the last three presentations where each person said a specific portion of the group research and stopped, the group members for this presentation talked multiple times and switched off frequently. The majority of the presentation was on composers, but Jordan started off explaining the music’s history and significance. For instance, in Anglicanism, music is a part of what the congregation offers to God in the liturgy and during the Tudor period, it was important for secular and sacred life.

One of the composers mentioned was Thomas Tallis. He was known as one of the most important composers of sacred music before William Byrd. He was also an organist, a singer, and a proud member of the Chapel Royal. With his contributions, he was able to make music more available to the common folk. Not to mention he made it more affordable, especially with the printing of music books.

Another important composer to English Church Music was Peter Warlock. He was significant because he was known for arranging and transcribing other composers’ pieces, such as Henry Purcell and John Dowland. He also wrote several books on these composers. One of his books was called “The English Ayre” and it was about the composer Gesualdo. The group ended their presentation by reminding us that we were meeting the composer of one of our pieces in a few days and that we should take notes during his lecture and include it in our blog.

Our next stop of the day was the city of Bath where we visited the former Benedictine monastery Bath Abbney. This place came into existence specifically because of Jesus Christ and its community is committed to helping the poor and worshipping God. The highlight of the church was definitely its glass windows. They were probably the largest glass windows I’ve seen so far on this trip. One of the windows depicts the story of Jesus Christ in 56 scenes. I also really liked the font used for baptism they had at the far end of the building. The guide said babies were baptized in it and the water they are dipped in is a symbol of Christ washing away wrong-doings.

45 minutes later, we walked next door to the Roman Baths. This was the site where Romans bathed in a hot, steaming body of water. We were given some sort of audio guidebook and we explored the exhibit. Along the way, I learned plenty about Roman culture and religion. One thing I thought was interesting was the concept of curses. According to mythology, when someone had one or more of their possessions stolen or lost, they would write down a curse and send it to a goddess to punish whoever wronged them. The best part of the museum was definitely seeing the Bath itself. Even in the cold weather, it was still steaming like it did centuries ago. I almost wished I could swim in it. At the end of the tour, we were allowed to take a cup of the spring water and drink it. Unfortunately, I don’t like drinking warm water so I didn’t enjoy it much. I am looking forward to tomorrow. It’s going to be a special day.

We took a 2-hour break to eat and then we met back at Bristol Cathedral to have a workshop with David Bednall, the composer of one of our choir pieces, “I Saw a Stable.” He told us he didn’t have a lecture planned so he spent about a half hour talking about his studies and British church music history. He mentioned a few composers whose names I didn’t recognize and how they were influenced. But what I was most curious about was how he became inspired to write “I Saw a Stable.” So I asked him and he told me he got the idea when he was in a pub and wanted to come up with a Christmas song. The problem was, he had trouble narrowing Christmas down to a few words. So he read many Christmas themed stories and poetries and took inspiration to write the composition’s lyrics.

We had another Evensong tonight, so we spent an hour rehearsing before it started. This time, we would be in our seats before the service began, so there was no need to practice entering and exiting. The choir we were performing with was smaller than last time. It consisted of what looked like middle school aged children (about half were girls and the other half were boys). They wore these really nice red and white robes. They weren’t as nice as the robes from the last Evensong choir, but I was still a bit envious of them.

The procedure this time was largely the same as last Evensong’s and the one before that. The choir came in and sang a call to worship, there were readings between each song, and there was collective prayer. However, the audience space was considerably smaller this time and the pews looked like they could only fit a few rows of people. But the good news was we got to sit near the front so I could hold my music in front of me instead of looking at it on a table. It was also nice because I was able to see the conductor while reading my music.

The three songs we sang tonight were “Magnificat”, “Nunc Dimittus”, and “I Saw a Stable.” I thought we sang the Magnificat a lot better this time around because we sang it at a much more reasonable tempo. I also thought the dynamics were done well, and they sounded even better with the cathedral’s acoustics. “Nunc Dimittus” was also done better, but it could still use some revisions. For starters, our entrances needed to be stronger and more confident. There were also a few notes that I couldn’t get right and it would have been nice to go over them a few more times. “I Saw a Stable” was fine too, but I felt the tempo was a bit too slow. At least I didn’t need music for it, and at least the composer himself was there to hear it.

Tomorrow is going to be a REALLY special day; more special than today even. I’m really looking forward to it.

We left Bristol at around 8 am and headed for Cambridge to visit King’s College. We didn’t have time to get lunch so we were given a packed lunch to eat on the way. When we got to Cambridge, we dropped our robes off at our performance spot, Selwyn College. Then we walked over to King’s College to explore the cathedral. It had pretty much everything all of the other cathedrals had: glass windows, praying rooms, memorials, and space for Evensong. However, in addition to all of that, there was a mini-museum in the cathedral halls. One thing I found interesting was the college’s royal emblems. These emblems included a greyhound, a red dragon, a fleur de lys, a red rose, leopard, a red and white rose, and a portcullis. I thought these were very odd and specific choices for royal emblems until I read about it. Apparently, red dragons represent the people of Britain that will be over run by the white dragon (the Saxons). Greyhounds were said to be the beasts of the Beauforts and red and white roses became symbols during the time of Henry VII’s marriage to Elizabeth. The other emblems have a great level of significance as well.

We had an hour break before we went back to Selwyn college for another Evensong rehearsal. This time we had to take off the white parts of our robes because we weren’t supposed to wear them during rehearsal. Speaking of robes, the accompanying choir actually had similar robes to us this time so I didn’t feel inadequate around them. In addition, we got to separate ourselves and sit between some of the college’s choir members. I thought this was a good idea since it meant we could actually bond with them. We had rehearsal for a bit and then we had time to put on the other halves of our robes.

When it was time for the Evensong, I got the biggest surprise of my life. Dr. Ryder called me to the door and standing outside were my dad and stepmom! Apparently, they had been staying in London for a few days and wanted to surprise me on my birthday. They said they were going to stay for the service and dinner afterwards. I was overjoyed that they were here and my birthday had just gotten better.

The Evensong went just like all of the other Evensongs except we were standing with the accompanying choir rather than across from them. There were still readings from the old and new testaments in between “Magnificat” and “Nunc Dimittus” and we said (and sang) the same basic prayers from every other Evensong and church service. There was still a blessing and a sermon, but this one was a bit different. The man giving the sermon was actually very humorous and he managed to get a few laughs out of the patrons, including me. I have no idea if the jokes he told were approved or not, but they at least made this Evensong more unique from the others.

Our singing was a little weaker this time around. The “Magnificat” still sounded good, but “Nunc Dimittus” needed serious work. This time, we had to speed up at one of the phrases and I was not prepared for that at all. We also fixed some of the notes I’ve been struggling with, but that new tempo messed up even more notes for me. We sang “Bethlehem Down” as well, but it didn’t go as well as the first time we sang it. For some reason, our conductor wanted us to hold the last pitch of every phrase down before we got to the next one. Because I wasn’t used to this new rule, I kept cutting off too early. The tempo slowed down on the last verse too, so that was a bit distracting.

We ate dinner in the dining hall after the Evensong concluded. We ate some sort of shrimp salad, some cooked beef with mashed potatoes and carrots, and some chocolate tart thing for dessert. I didn’t eat much of the dessert since I wanted to eat my cake later. When dinner was over, the whole dining room sang “Happy Birthday” to me. This birthday turned out to be even better than I expected. I got my own birthday cake, a nice birthday card, and to top it off, I got to see my dad. I was still disappointed I couldn’t see my mom too, but I’ll get to see her on her birthday next week.

After rehearsal, we prepared for our recital. We put on our robes that were stored in the back room, got in a line, and when it was time, we walked into the chapel. We had more of an audience this time around than we did last time, but it was still a relatively small turnout. I felt like more chairs could have been set up in the room, especially in the back, but given how many people actually showed up, I guess it didn’t matter. The space between us and the audience was still a little too small for me, but again, it was better than our last concert.

We sang a total of 12 pieces in our concert. Lucky for me, we didn’t have to sing the “Magnificat” or “Nunc Dimittus” so I was perfectly comfortable not holding a folder. Surprisingly though, I was the only one who wasn’t holding any music. There were some students who had some songs memorized and didn’t need to read the music, but everybody except me read from at least one copy of sheet music throughout the recital. I found this strange because last night at the Evensong, I was the only one reading off of “Bethlehem Down” which was a song we just recently learned, unlike the songs we sang today which we’ve spent a whole semester on. Admittedly, there were some lyrics in some of our pieces that I had trouble remembering, but I still wanted to attempt to go off-book.

I noticed quite a lot when we were singing this concert. First of all, “Light” sounded absolutely beautiful in Lady Chapel. Every phrase we sang from it gave a powerful echo, even when we sang softly. I think it was the perfect song for that kind of space. “The 23rd Psalm” was also some very well and Tori did a great job of conducting us. Our strength on that one was definitely our dynamics. However, on “Loch Lomond”, I noticed we didn’t put much emphasis on our consonants as we did in rehearsal. During rehearsal, I really heard the “d” in “dai”, but during the recital I heard less of it. We aren’t going to be singing “Loch Lomond” anymore on this trip, but maybe it could be something we can work on during the spring semester.

We got back on the bus at 2 pm and started driving to our last hotel in London, where we would be staying until we went home. We got ourselves settled at our hotel and then we went to a restaurant called Garfunkel’s for dinner. They fed us tomato soup, fish and chips, and cheesecake.

We split up into groups and were given four hours to have a look around the castle and get lunch. Our group went to St. George’s chapel first. There, we got to see the casket where Queen Mary lies as well as candles that we could light ourselves. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures of anything. Next, we walked down to the State Apartments. We couldn’t take pictures there either, which was a shame since there were so many beautiful sites and rooms that I wanted to remember, such as the Waterloo Chamber, the Throne Room (which honestly looked more like a dining room with a throne), the King’s Bedchamber, and my favorite of them all, St. George’s Hall. Not only did this room have suits of armor laid out everywhere, but there were also coats of arms plastered all over the walls, including the ceiling. Lastly, we visited the Queen’s Dollhouse Room, which I was the most disappointed to not get any pictures of. Mostly because it was a literal dollhouse version of the queen’s palace, with every detail included. I thought this was really beautiful and I was sad I wouldn’t get to save it among my memories. Still, pictures or not, the Windsor Castle was a lovely experience, even if it didn’t have as much as the castle in Edinburgh.

We got some lunch and looked through a few stores in Windsor (including the book store, the candy shop, and the electronics store) and then we took off for Royal Holloway College for our final Evensong performance. When we arrived, we were invited into a room to put our robes in and then we had our final group presentation by Austin, BJ, and Callie. The presentation was called “The Three Organs.” Callie introduced the topic by explaining what a pipe organ was and what it was made of, including its four main parts. The she talked about the progression organs have made by giving examples of organs from different time periods, including the Hydraulis (invented by Ktesibios in the 3rd Century BC), the Bellows Organ (2nd Century AD) and the Electronic Organ (invented by Laurens Hammond in 1935). Austin then talked about the Salisbury organ and explained how it worked. The Salisbury organ was built in 1877 by Henry Willis and while it had some mechanical alterations, its sound quality was similar to the way it sounded in the nineteenth century. Austin showed us a picture of the organ and explained how you use both the four keyboards and the pedals at the same time, so you have to use both your hands and feet to play it.

Next, BJ took the floor to inform us about the Greyfriar’s Kirk Organ. This organ was also known as the Peter Collins Organ and it was completed in 1990, replacing the chapel’s old organ, the Hamilton Organ. This organ is said to have 3,400 pipes and three manuals and it also has Latin inscriptions written over it. One inscription is from Psalm 150 and it reads “Let everything that hath breathe praise the Lord.”

Finally, Callie spoke of the two organs used at Selwyn College: the West Organ and the East Organ. The West Organ is the college’s main organ and it was installed in 2005 by Orgeus Létournea Lte. This organ has 30 stops, over 3 manuals, and pedals. The East Organ was built by Kenneth Tickell and installed in 2010. It has significantly less stops and a smaller chamber than the West Organ. Both of these organs are played by students from the college. The group challenged us to take a picture of the organ at Royal Holloway College and post it in our blog, so I did.

After the last group presented, two nice men named Jack and Will gave us a small tour of the college. They showed us places like a statue of one of the queens, the library, the Boiler room which provides performance space for choirs, and the student unions. I was most impressed with the library though because it was more than just a library. In addition to books and a quiet study area, there was also a cafe and an area for eating. I thought this was much nicer than the library we have back at RMC so I made sure to get a picture of it.

We got ready for Evensong at around 4:45. We wore our robes all through rehearsal, and when it was time, we lined up outside the chapel and walked to our seats. I have to say, this was probably my favorite location for Evensong. The reason I think this is that this spot seemed brighter and more welcoming. However, there was one thing that annoyed me. The music stands were too tall so every time we sat down, we couldn’t see anything. At least we didn’t have to constantly look down to see our music.

Once again, we sat between members of the college so we could get to know them better. Their robes were almost like our robes except they only wore the black part and not the white. I wasn’t really jealous of that. Our choir director was fairly nice as well.

We sang the same three songs we sang for pretty much every Evensong we’ve participated in. This time, I attempted to sing them all offbook. I thought I could do it during rehearsal, but unfortunately, I still had a hard time remembering some words. Luckily though, the programs had lyrics I could glance at if I needed them. “Magnificat” was fine as always and “Nunc Dimittus” was getting better too. However, there was one change the director told us to make to “Bethlehem Down” that bothered me. Instead of taking a breath between each of the verse’s four phrases, we had to sing half of each verse without taking a breath! \240I thought this was a bad idea so I decided to address this issue, but he told us to just stagger breathe our way through it. I still didn’t like it though, and quite honestly, it made “Bethlehem Down” much harder for me to sing. I could barely catch my breath after singing each verse.

After our last Evensong, we were invited into the college dining room to eat our evening meal. Andy gave us some money to pay for it so I ordered chips, steamed rice, steamed broccoli, a banana, a rainbow cookie, and a bottled water.

We walked over to the Methodist Central Hall next. We had a considerably shorter tour than our last, but there was still plenty to see. The building had four floors and we went to every one of them. We were shown the area called the Great Hall where community worship services took place. We also got to go up on the balcony and I got pictures of the London Eye and Big Ben. While we were there, we sang the “Alma Mater” for our tour guide in the Great Hall.

We ate lunch and then we went to the Wesley Chapel (originally called New Chapel before Wesley’s death) and John Wesley’s house for one final tour. We split up into two groups and ours went into the house first. We were allowed access to three floors of the house and each had two rooms. The basement rooms were both dark and thus, we couldn’t take pictures. Our guide gave us some background on all of the rooms. The kitchen, for example, did not have running water when John was still alive. We got to see John’s prayer room as well, which was actually an empty room with a prayer book on the desk. The bedrooms were really pretty too, and I especially liked the beds, even if they were small. When we finished in the house, our guide invited us back into the chapel to take some pictures. Then we took pictures of John’s grave and his first organ (which still works!).

Before our final meal in the UK, we walked over to the London Museum. There, we got to view and take photos of the Aldersgate Flame. This was a bronze, flame-shaped sculpture that stood near the location of John Wesley’s conversion, which took place on May 24th, 1738. On the memorial was text written from Wesley’s journal, describing his conversion experience. We took one final picture together in front of the memorial.

Dinner tonight was at a place called the Silver Cross. We started off with tomato and basil soup with bread. Then for our main course, we were given sausages and mashed potatoes and gravy. But I don’t eat sausages so instead I got fish and chips with peas. Our dessert was vanilla ice cream with chocolate drizzle and a cookie.

This has been an incredible experience. I really enjoyed my time here and I hope one day I can come back and explore this amazing country even more. I’ve learned an awful lot and I’ve had some fun to boot. I can’t wait to go out of the country again, but for now, I’m ready to go home.