Following a great night of brotherhood, the 6:30 call time we had seemed entirely too early! I grabbed some scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon. Germany understands how to do breakfast! Anyways, after breakfast we set out for Switzerland. About 10 minutes into the drive, our drivers realized they took a wrong turn when we started to cross into Austria! I just dont understand why they just cant use GPS's! Anyways, we rode for about 2 hours then hit border patrol for Switzerland. Luckily, they didnt require us all to show our passports and have the bus searched, which made us all pretty happy. I thought it was interesting to note that we drove through three countries in about 2.5 hours.
The first thing one will notice about switzerland is how ridiculously over the top gorgeous the scenery is! I mean every country we have been to is simply outstandingly gorgeous but switzerland, with its mountains with waterfalls that fill the lakes are just absurd! The one downside to it was that it was raining all day there. We drove about an hour into the border, then stopped for lunch. They told us the place we would stop had lots of choices and yada yada yada. We arrive and all there is is a Burger King and a place across a barricaded highway. I wasnt thrilled because if I would have known then that those were my options i would have packed a lunch from the breakfast buffet. But, if we go somewhere new I like to try the local cuisine. Not Burger King. Especially this one! Switzerland as a country is incredibly expensive and this was prevalent at BK. It was €13 for a Big Mac! I went across the street and got a deli sandwhich, which was €6.
After we ate, it was off to our hotel. For our 2 nights in Switzerland, we were split up into 3 different hotels in Fluelen, all of which were right by each other. The PVGC Seniors were given a hostel so we had it to ourselves. It was very nice actually! On the drive there, we drove I. And our of mountains and the tunnels were as long as four miles! We were greeted by a man playing a big music box that played classic Swiss music. It was cool! We had an amazing view of our surroundings with cascading mountains and waterfalls. It was gorgeous. Once we dropped off our things, it was a one hour drive to my very last formal venue as a member of the Purdue Varsity Glee Club. We arrived and had dinner, which was delicious as always!
The first thing one will notice about switzerland is how ridiculously over the top gorgeous the scenery is! I mean every country we have been to is simply outstandingly gorgeous but switzerland, with its mountains with waterfalls that fill the lakes are just absurd! The one downside to it was that it was raining all day there. We drove about an hour into the border, then stopped for lunch. They told us the place we would stop had lots of choices and yada yada yada. We arrive and all there is is a Burger King and a place across a barricaded highway. I wasnt thrilled because if I would have known then that those were my options i would have packed a lunch from the breakfast buffet. But, if we go somewhere new I like to try the local cuisine. Not Burger King. Especially this one! Switzerland as a country is incredibly expensive and this was prevalent at BK. It was €13 for a Big Mac! I went across the street and got a deli sandwhich, which was €6.
After we ate, it was off to our hotel. For our 2 nights in Switzerland, we were split up into 3 different hotels in Fluelen, all of which were right by each other. The PVGC Seniors were given a hostel so we had it to ourselves. It was very nice actually! On the drive there, we drove I. And our of mountains and the tunnels were as long as four miles! We were greeted by a man playing a big music box that played classic Swiss music. It was cool! We had an amazing view of our surroundings with cascading mountains and waterfalls. It was gorgeous. Once we dropped off our things, it was a one hour drive to my very last formal venue as a member of the Purdue Varsity Glee Club. We arrived and had dinner, which was delicious as always!
With emotions running high, we watched the local adult "Gospel Choir", which sang all 50's rock. Maybe gospel means something a but different to the ? Idk. Anyways they were followed by Purdueetes and Bells. Standing out in the lobby waiting to run in it was hard not to think about it being my last performance. I was pretty fired up for the show and wanted to give it my all one very last time on stage. Getting ready to run in, we went to open the door to see if it was time to go and it had locked!! We quickly ran around finding someone to unlock it! After that scare, we were good to go. I sang Brothers in Song, our run in, for the very last time and sang it with as much pride and gusto as possible. During our opener, "Life is a Highway", jban and I had a moment where we met eyes and it was an understanding that this is it. Its all over afterwards. Being up on stage for our 30 min. set, I just let the stage light fill me up and I tried to soak in as much as possible. It was also the last time I would sing "This is the moment" as well as "prayer of the children" and I rumbled down in the bass the only way I know how for one final time. I will miss singing those songs tremendously. I can't even tell you. We followed those with "The Prayer", Ted's final arrangement for the group and it was difficult to stay composed to say the least. It felt so surreal to be on stage one last time, with those lights in my eyes. I will never forget after singing Hail Purdue and getting tapped to leave the feeling of "what if I don't move? I don't want to leave the stage. I'm not ready". I felt how I did when ever I had played my final football game and was walking off the field. Yet, we had performed a fantastic show. We ran off stage, for the last time, to the wings and a couple of us seniors had to stay for a bit to get our emotions in check before we went and mingled. During that time, I took my carnation off of my tux and put it in my pocket. The 2nd Carnation I've ever kept. (The 1st one being when I met Neil Armstrong.) We all headed back in a rather somber mood and all of us seniors had a few drinks and swapped stories in our hostel that night just reminiscing.
I will miss this group a lot and the people in it, and the thrill I get when singing in such a finely tuned men's choir. We have done amazing things and met astounding people. When i joined, I never thought my very last show would be in Switzerland. That is crazy to me. But ringing those cords for all there worth one last time was fantastic. Who could ask for anything more? (I've got rhythm reference.)
On another important note, tonight there was a suicide on the alter of Notre Dame. A man killed shot himself in protest of the approval of gay marriage in France and he thought the church wasn't doing enough and wanted to get the church's attention. Because of this, a protest of gay marriage is being organized for this Sunday, when we are going to be singing at Notre Dame. I don't know how this will affect us but I'm sure we will find out when the time comes. Ill keep you posted.
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