My Chorus Trip

Hi everybody! This is Ansley, Kevin and Benay's second child. I'm a little crazy, as you can see, but I get that from my dad. I'm fourteen and in the eighth grade (if I lived in the United States I would be in the ninth). I go to a different school than my sister who posted before, and I play volleyball and sing. I'm just going to tell you a little bit about a recent trip I made with the youth chorus I sing in. I left on Friday, the 26th, and got back last Sunday, the 28th. The first thing I need to tell you is that I am the second oldest person in the chorus, the oldest is fifteen. Everyone else goes from about six years old to thirteen. So I was never really excited about going to chorus practice; it was that sort of thing that if I went, I liked it, but if I was given the chance not to go, I wouldn't.

When I heard about this trip, the first thing I thought was: "no. I am SO not going because I wouldn't have ANY fun at all and I would probably be bored the whole weekend long, not to mention that I would have to sing a bunch of songs in front of five hundred people... no way." I thought that from Friday to Sunday I would be at home, sleeping, reading, getting on the computer, catching up on my studies, going to the mall, relaxing... But God had a change of plans for me. I went on the Wednesday before the trip to sing with my chorus in a small "preparation performance" in Porto Alegre (where we live). I sang the songs, said my goodbyes and was getting ready to leave when my mom mentioned something about if I was sure I didn't want to go on this trip. I was about to say yes when something inside me told me to say no. So, I ran up to my teacher and asked her if there was still a way for me to go, and she was delighted! Right then she gave me a list of things I would need and thanked my mom for letting me go on the trip. I don't know what it was, I didn't know how to explain it, but I just felt like I needed to go. It didn't matter that I didn't really want to, or that I was worried that I wouldn't have fun, it just didn't matter. I had to go.

So Friday I missed school and got on the bus that would take us to Erechim, this cute little town about 7 hours from our city. Here are a couple of pictures from the bus ride:














This is me, Laura and Victoria. They are both so nice!






This poor feller fell asleep on the bus. Everybody started taking pictures. Let's just say he got a little angry when he woke up.

On our first day there, we got settled into our lovely five star hotel (as you can see from the pictures below).....

The bed on the left was mine. The room was almost the size of my bathroom. Listen, I know what you're thinking. But trust me, the hotels in Brazil are not like this! This is an exception. At least now I know why the trip didn't cost very much.

This was our "bathroom". No toilet. The only bathrooms they had were 3 little ones in the hallway that were for everyone in the hotel to use. I sort of avoided them.

Ah, and here we have the view from my window. Gas tanks and mud. Lovely, lovely!!

Okay, but here is the funny thing. Our hotel was right beside this HUGE and fancy hotel called "Hotel Climax". Observe the picture below:

The little blimp surrounded by red is my hotel. Funny, huh? The good thing is, according to my dad, that I will have a lot of good, funny memories when I get older; If I had stayed in a really nice hotel it wouldn't have been as much as an experience. The very first night there we had a presentation in front of about 600 people. I wasn't nervous at all though! It was really fun. I don't have any pictures of us singing, but trust me, it was very cool. On Saturday, we paraded around the streets of Erechim, singing songs and inviting people to the second presentation that night, for the chorus that had gotten there that day and hadn't had a chance to sing yet. I made a video of one of my favorite choruses singing, and you can see it in the video below, all you have to do is click on it twice and then hit play.

This young gentleman played a very important part in my trip. He is from Argentina, and he speaks Spanish, which is very different from Portuguese, which is what we speak in Brazil. He, along with all his other buddies, helped me decide which school I am going to next year. Currently I'm going to a very strict school, that only offers English as a second language(which for me is very easy), but where I have a lot of friends. But going on this trip and finding how easily I was able to communicate with these guys, even though not knowing hardly any Spanish, I decided I'm going to go to the school that my sister and brother go to. It offers Spanish as a second language, and the school is always offering trips to go to Uruguay and other countries in Latin America. So next year I am going to be very nervous about leaving my friends and making new ones, but I feel it's for the best, I feel that's what God wants me to do.
On Saturday night, after the 2nd presentation (here is the chorus from Argentina)...

We partied!! Here are some pictures of us before the party:

Kenie, Santiago and I, in the bus headed to the party!

Luiz Andre and I. He is so sweet!

Pablo and I! He is SO funny.

Here is part of the gang. Santiago, Luisa, Luiz Andre, Leticia, Helena, Brenda, Carla, me, Pablo, Lucas and Kenie.

On Sunday, on our way home, we stopped at a beautiful park, and I took a TON of pictures. I'll only put 5 on here though, because you are probably already tired of reading.


Me and Carla.

Laura and I.

Me and Kenie.

My family and I. I think I fit right in, don't you??

Kenie and I.
I got home tired and happy from the trip!! I'm glad I didn't let fear get in my way of having fun. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

-Ansley Blume