Journal entries from Cantiamo’s 10th Anniversary 9 day trip to the international choral festival Festival 500 in St. John’s Newfoundland. The names may have been changed to protect the innocent…
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Day 1 – Wednesday, July 3, 2013
We met at the Ottawa International Airport in the early morning hours. Everyone was excited to be heading out on our trip. The trip went smoothly with no lost luggage. We arrived in St. John’s to a beautiful sunny day and were met at the airport by Festival 500 volunteers who transported us and our luggage to our accommodations in Doyle House residence at Memorial University (MUN). Lunch was a very welcome sight by the time it arrived from Subway. Unfortunately we missed the opening ceremonies but had a leisurely afternoon to settle in. The chaperones went shopping for groceries and kitchen supplies. We met our festival liaison, Margie Winter, who was very helpful and friendly and smoothed out any problems we had. Dinner was at the residence. We had a rehearsal in the evening and then went to bed early.
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Day 2 – Thursday, July 4, 2013
We awoke to a beautiful, sunny day in St. John’s. After breakfast in our residence, the choristers attended the first of many massed youth choir rehearsals in the Music building at MUN with composer and conductor Francisco Núñez of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City.
From there we were bussed to the Avalon Mall where we performed a lunch time concert in the mall’s atrium to the delight of the patrons and employees of the mall. After dining in the food court we headed back to the university.
The choristers attended workshops for the rest of the afternoon in the Music building at MUN and the chaperones did more shopping, chopping and cooking for dinner. After dinner at our residence we performed in an evening concert at Gower Street United Church with the English Montreal School Board Chorale youth choir and Shallaway’s Jubilate youth choir from St. John’s. We filled in for the Nakem Choral Group, an adult choir from Gambia, Africa that couldn’t get VISAs. Gower Street was a beautiful and unique church and was a great introduction to the beautiful and varied churches in St. John’s. As is the usual, they closed the concert with the entire audience and performers singing of The Ode to Newfoundland, verses 1 and 4. We moved to Blackall House at the end of the day. It was a renovated residence and suited our needs much better than Doyle House.
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Day 3 – Friday, July 5, 2013
We awoke to another beautiful, sunny day in St. John’s. I was starting to not believe the warnings about the weather there. We had been there three days and had had three beautiful, sunny days. After breakfast in the residence we attended another morning massed youth choir rehearsal with Francisco Núñez in the Music building at Memorial University. This was the first rehearsal I observed. I found the rehearsals to be very interesting and demanding. This was something that not all of the choristers were prepared for. Our choristers were well prepared, enjoyed the rehearsals, participated fully and excelled. From there we were bussed downtown to Gower Street United Church again for a group rehearsal for our evening concert here. We had lunch downtown and had some time to do a bit of exploring before continuing rehearsal. This was when we discovered some of our favourite eateries including The Rocket Bakery , The Happy Hummus Hut and The Sprout. After fortifying ourselves with dinner from Swiss Chalet, we headed back to our residence to change, and return for the concert in the evening. Unfortunately, there was a mix up and our bus didn’t come to get us. After getting some help from the Festival organizers we were on our way and then headed back downtown as quickly as possible. We warmed up and rehearsed on the bus. I enjoyed sitting in the middle of a rehearsal and I think the bus driver did too!
We performed with Shumeyala youth choir from Alberta and Seton Cantata Choir adult choir from Nova Scotia. We were fortunate to have Jussi Chydenius of Rajaton in attendance for his first performance of The Look and The Kiss, the two pieces he wrote for us for our 10th Anniversary. Jussi brought some other composer friends including singer, composer and conductor Bob Chilcott. It was a rousing rendition of the Ode to Newfoundland at the end of the concert with such great singers in the audience with us!
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Day 4 – Saturday, July 6, 2013
We awoke to yet another beautiful, sunny day in St. John’s. I was really starting to doubt the weather warnings I had been given and was getting sick of carrying around extra layers just in case – in case of what??
After breakfast at the residence, we had another morning massed youth choir rehearsal with Francisco Núñez at the Music building at Memorial University. We met up with Margie who showed us that we had made the local newspaper The Telegram the previous day (see photo). We had a quick lunch at our residence and then hurried back to the Music building for a workshop with Jussi Chydenius. Now that he had heard a performance of his new pieces The Kiss and The Look the night before he had some new ideas and points he wanted to communicate. It was a fun and interesting hour. After the workshop he posed for photos outside and gave autographs. He was very kind, patient, gracious and generous with his time.
The choristers were able to attend workshops or take the afternoon off. We had dinner on campus at Extreme Pita. Then everyone attended the evening concert at The Arts & Culture Centre where we saw the Cantabile Youth Singers from California, USA, Shallaway’s Camerata older youth choir from St. John’s and Jeunes Chanteures d’Acadie choir from New Brunswick. It was a great concert and was well received by all.
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Day 5 – Sunday, July 7, 2013
We awoke to yet another beautiful day in St. John’s. It really is a lovely place. By this point I was ready to move to St. John’s. After breakfast at the residence, we boarded a bus to Wesley United Church to perform in their Sunday morning service.
We arrived to find another beautiful church full of wonderful, thoughtful, welcoming people. Reverend Bill Mercer gave a beautiful and moving service focused on music and singing. Jackie changed a piece on the fly to reflect the service and the girls didn’t bat an eye. They sang the most beautiful rendition of ‘I Thank You God’ by Gwyneth Walker I have ever heard from that group. We found out after the service that although the church is small and the attendance appeared to be a bit sparse they have over 25,000 radio listeners! They handed us a copy of the recording after lunch. It just goes to show that you just never know how much something will reach people both figuratively and literally.
Following the service, lunch was provided by the ladies of the church. I must say that the ladies providing the lunch outdid themselves. They had quite a few restraints given all of our various food allergies, sensitivities and restrictions and the fact that we were headed out to go whale watching after the service so we wanted something that would settle well. Lunch was delicious and nutritious and we knew they had put a lot of effort into it to great success!
After lunch we boarded a bus from O’Brien’s Whale and Bird Tours and headed out to Witless Bay and Bay Bulls for our whale watching tour. Our boat held about 50 people and since we were a group of 38 we were most of the people on the boat. We had a beautiful, calm, sunny afternoon and headed out. Our captain was a local musician and sang a few songs for us to entertain us on the trip to where the whales were. Once we found the whales, (the capelin were in!) the guides would yell and call to the whales and they came quite close and right up to the boat. The girls sang Lukey’s Boat with the guide. Then Jackie started to sing Kanna Kameme. The girls joined in and before we knew it the whales were waving their tales and fins in time to the music! The whales also enjoyed Shumeyala, Gahu, The Song of Life and Maid on The Shore. Fortunately, Jay and Kate were able to video tape it or I know you wouldn’t believe it. You can check out the video yourself on Youtube at this link or by going to Youtube and entering “Cantiamo” and “whales” in the search criteria. As of the date that I wrote this it was at over 12,000 hits.
Then we toured around Gull Island with the nests of puffins and other sea birds on it. They estimate there are over 1,000,000 birds on that island and I believe it. After heading back to land, the captain invited us to join him at his performance at a local George Street pub on Tuesday evening but most of the choristers were underage and couldn’t attend.
We returned to the residence for a pizza party and free evening. What a great end to a fantastic day!
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Day 6 – Monday, July 8, 2013
We awoke to another beautiful, sunny day in St. John’s. After breakfast at the residence we had a bit of a bussing mix up but we eventually headed to a morning massed youth choir rehearsal at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (aka The Kirk) with Francisco Núñez. We were treated to salsa lessons by Francisco which was fun for everyone who attended. This was another beautiful church up the hill from Gower Street United. At the ends of all of the rows of seats there were little brass buckets at ground level and little brass railings up above them for people to set their umbrellas in. I have never seen that in a church before and it was my only clue all week that perhaps it rains a lot in St. John’s sometimes.
Lunch was at the residence. Then we headed back to St Andrew’s for our afternoon concert. While we were there, Kate chased down a CBC reporter who was interviewing someone else from the festival and told them about our amazing whale experience in the hope of getting some TV coverage. We performed in an afternoon concert at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church with Shumeyala youth choir from Alberta and the Forest Ridge Women’s Chamber Choir from Washington, USA.
Dinner was at Extreme Pita again on the MUN campus. In the evening we split up. Some people went to the Arts & Culture Centre to see The Maryland State Boys Choir (I wonder what the draw was there?), the Georgetown Bach Chorale from Ontario and the Cape Breton Chorale from Nova Scotia. Some people went to the Gower Street United Church and saw The Spurrell Studio Choir from Ontario, the Prince of Wales Collegiate Chamber Choir from St. John’s and the Cantabile Chamber Singers from Ontario. The rest stayed home and had a quiet night at home.
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Day 7 – Tuesday, July 9, 2013
We awoke to another beautiful, sunny day, although a bit cooler than previous days. After breakfast at the residence, we took the city bus which we could ride for free during the choral festival. Due to the city bus scheduling we arrived early and the choristers rehearsed outside at the entrance to the Mile One Centre which was the venue for the final gala performance. There were massed adult, massed youth and massed adult and youth combined rehearsals with Bob Chilcott and Francisco Núñez. After a CD signing session with Francisco that the chaperone’s attended, we had a quick lunch downtown (Subway, Second Cup) and returned for more rehearsals in the afternoon.
Rehearsal ended at 4:00pm, so we had hired a bus to take us from Mile One Centre to Signal Hill. We weren’t sure the bus was going to make it up the hill to Signal Hill but our bus driver Paddy persevered and we made it! We had a nice although windy visit and even saw and heard the explosion of the firing of the cannon at 5:30pm. Then we bussed back downtown to Yellowbelly Brewery and Public House restaurant for a great dinner trip with birthday cake for everyone since there were three girls who had a birthday during the trip. We had tried to get tickets for the Size2Shoes performance upstairs at Yellowbelly that evening but again the girls were underage and it was sold out. Laura pulled some strings and the brothers came and performed for us in the restaurant! It was a great intimate experience. They are wonderful singers! After dinner we bussed back to the residence.
Another great day in St. John’s!
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Day 8 – Wednesday, July 10, 2013
We awoke to another beautiful, sunny day in St. John’s. After breakfast at the residence, we attended a massed rehearsal and question and answer session with Witloof Bay (6 part a cappella group from Belgium) at the Arts and Culture Centre and then were bussed down to the Mile One Centre for more massed rehearsals with Bob Chilcott and Francisco Núñez and the orchestra. We had a more leisurely lunch downtown and then had more massed rehearsals in the afternoon. We ordered in Subway for dinner. Some of the choristers expressed their inner fan girls and got their photos with Bob, Francisco and many other performers. One of our choristers asked Francisco if they could call him “Frannie”. He was very friendly and funny but declined that offer. Some of the girls were not feeling well during the afternoon due to exhaustion but they persevered and everyone was performance ready by the evening concert.
The grand finale concert was very interesting and well received. It included performances by Witloof Bay and Size2Shoes. I must declare that I am now a David Pomeroy fan. Some parents had made it out in time for the grand finale concert and found us to be a well running yet exhausted group of people. After the performance, we retired to our residence. The girls had a popcorn party. Kate had received an email saying that our whale story had made the news on the previous day. It took a while to find it and we watched a lot of video of moose running loose in St. John’s but we eventually found the video at the end of the 5:30pm CBC news show Here and Now from Tuesday, July 9th. Our part starts at the 1:27:57 mark.
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Day 9 Thursday, July 11, 2013
Although the previous night had been late, we were up at the usual time to have breakfast and pack up. We had to be out of our rooms by 10:00am. Yes, as you probably anticipated by now, it was another beautiful, sunny day. We stored our luggage and then broke up into groups to visit downtown and go to The Rooms which is the local art gallery, museum and archive building that is easy to pick out in the St. John’s skyline. We took the city bus again for free and met up with our same bus driver from Tuesday morning. At 1:00pm the group departed for the airport. Everyone and all of their luggage arrived safely in Ottawa and said goodbye amid many hugs and tears. Everyone left exhausted but happy after making beautiful music with beautiful people in a beautiful place all week!
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– Jane Pickett
cantiamo.ca 
Journal entries from Cantiamo’s 10th Anniversary 9 day trip to the international choral festival Festival 500 in St. John’s Newfoundland. The names may have been changed to protect the innocent…
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Day 1 – Wednesday, July 3, 2013
We met at the Ottawa International Airport in the early morning hours. Everyone was excited to be heading out on our trip. The trip went smoothly with no lost luggage. We arrived in St. John’s to a beautiful sunny day and were met at the airport by Festival 500 volunteers who transported us and our luggage to our accommodations in Doyle House residence at Memorial University (MUN). Lunch was a very welcome sight by the time it arrived from Subway. Unfortunately we missed the opening ceremonies but had a leisurely afternoon to settle in. The chaperones went shopping for groceries and kitchen supplies. We met our festival liaison, Margie Winter, who was very helpful and friendly and smoothed out any problems we had. Dinner was at the residence. We had a rehearsal in the evening and then went to bed early.
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Day 2 – Thursday, July 4, 2013
We awoke to a beautiful, sunny day in St. John’s. After breakfast in our residence, the choristers attended the first of many massed youth choir rehearsals in the Music building at MUN with composer and conductor Francisco Núñez of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City.
From there we were bussed to the Avalon Mall where we performed a lunch time concert in the mall’s atrium to the delight of the patrons and employees of the mall. After dining in the food court we headed back to the university.
The choristers attended workshops for the rest of the afternoon in the Music building at MUN and the chaperones did more shopping, chopping and cooking for dinner. After dinner at our residence we performed in an evening concert at Gower Street United Church with the English Montreal School Board Chorale youth choir and Shallaway’s Jubilate youth choir from St. John’s. We filled in for the Nakem Choral Group, an adult choir from Gambia, Africa that couldn’t get VISAs. Gower Street was a beautiful and unique church and was a great introduction to the beautiful and varied churches in St. John’s. As is the usual, they closed the concert with the entire audience and performers singing of The Ode to Newfoundland, verses 1 and 4. We moved to Blackall House at the end of the day. It was a renovated residence and suited our needs much better than Doyle House.
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Day 3 – Friday, July 5, 2013
We awoke to another beautiful, sunny day in St. John’s. I was starting to not believe the warnings about the weather there. We had been there three days and had had three beautiful, sunny days. After breakfast in the residence we attended another morning massed youth choir rehearsal with Francisco Núñez in the Music building at Memorial University. This was the first rehearsal I observed. I found the rehearsals to be very interesting and demanding. This was something that not all of the choristers were prepared for. Our choristers were well prepared, enjoyed the rehearsals, participated fully and excelled. From there we were bussed downtown to Gower Street United Church again for a group rehearsal for our evening concert here. We had lunch downtown and had some time to do a bit of exploring before continuing rehearsal. This was when we discovered some of our favourite eateries including The Rocket Bakery , The Happy Hummus Hut and The Sprout. After fortifying ourselves with dinner from Swiss Chalet, we headed back to our residence to change, and return for the concert in the evening. Unfortunately, there was a mix up and our bus didn’t come to get us. After getting some help from the Festival organizers we were on our way and then headed back downtown as quickly as possible. We warmed up and rehearsed on the bus. I enjoyed sitting in the middle of a rehearsal and I think the bus driver did too!
We performed with Shumeyala youth choir from Alberta and Seton Cantata Choir adult choir from Nova Scotia. We were fortunate to have Jussi Chydenius of Rajaton in attendance for his first performance of The Look and The Kiss, the two pieces he wrote for us for our 10th Anniversary. Jussi brought some other composer friends including singer, composer and conductor Bob Chilcott. It was a rousing rendition of the Ode to Newfoundland at the end of the concert with such great singers in the audience with us!
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Day 4 – Saturday, July 6, 2013
We awoke to yet another beautiful, sunny day in St. John’s. I was really starting to doubt the weather warnings I had been given and was getting sick of carrying around extra layers just in case – in case of what??
After breakfast at the residence, we had another morning massed youth choir rehearsal with Francisco Núñez at the Music building at Memorial University. We met up with Margie who showed us that we had made the local newspaper The Telegram the previous day (see photo). We had a quick lunch at our residence and then hurried back to the Music building for a workshop with Jussi Chydenius. Now that he had heard a performance of his new pieces The Kiss and The Look the night before he had some new ideas and points he wanted to communicate. It was a fun and interesting hour. After the workshop he posed for photos outside and gave autographs. He was very kind, patient, gracious and generous with his time.
The choristers were able to attend workshops or take the afternoon off. We had dinner on campus at Extreme Pita. Then everyone attended the evening concert at The Arts & Culture Centre where we saw the Cantabile Youth Singers from California, USA, Shallaway’s Camerata older youth choir from St. John’s and Jeunes Chanteures d’Acadie choir from New Brunswick. It was a great concert and was well received by all.
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Day 5 – Sunday, July 7, 2013
We awoke to yet another beautiful day in St. John’s. It really is a lovely place. By this point I was ready to move to St. John’s. After breakfast at the residence, we boarded a bus to Wesley United Church to perform in their Sunday morning service.
We arrived to find another beautiful church full of wonderful, thoughtful, welcoming people. Reverend Bill Mercer gave a beautiful and moving service focused on music and singing. Jackie changed a piece on the fly to reflect the service and the girls didn’t bat an eye. They sang the most beautiful rendition of ‘I Thank You God’ by Gwyneth Walker I have ever heard from that group. We found out after the service that although the church is small and the attendance appeared to be a bit sparse they have over 25,000 radio listeners! They handed us a copy of the recording after lunch. It just goes to show that you just never know how much something will reach people both figuratively and literally.
Following the service, lunch was provided by the ladies of the church. I must say that the ladies providing the lunch outdid themselves. They had quite a few restraints given all of our various food allergies, sensitivities and restrictions and the fact that we were headed out to go whale watching after the service so we wanted something that would settle well. Lunch was delicious and nutritious and we knew they had put a lot of effort into it to great success!
After lunch we boarded a bus from O’Brien’s Whale and Bird Tours and headed out to Witless Bay and Bay Bulls for our whale watching tour. Our boat held about 50 people and since we were a group of 38 we were most of the people on the boat. We had a beautiful, calm, sunny afternoon and headed out. Our captain was a local musician and sang a few songs for us to entertain us on the trip to where the whales were. Once we found the whales, (the capelin were in!) the guides would yell and call to the whales and they came quite close and right up to the boat. The girls sang Lukey’s Boat with the guide. Then Jackie started to sing Kanna Kameme. The girls joined in and before we knew it the whales were waving their tales and fins in time to the music! The whales also enjoyed Shumeyala, Gahu, The Song of Life and Maid on The Shore. Fortunately, Jay and Kate were able to video tape it or I know you wouldn’t believe it. You can check out the video yourself on Youtube at this link or by going to Youtube and entering “Cantiamo” and “whales” in the search criteria. As of the date that I wrote this it was at over 12,000 hits.
Then we toured around Gull Island with the nests of puffins and other sea birds on it. They estimate there are over 1,000,000 birds on that island and I believe it. After heading back to land, the captain invited us to join him at his performance at a local George Street pub on Tuesday evening but most of the choristers were underage and couldn’t attend.
We returned to the residence for a pizza party and free evening. What a great end to a fantastic day!
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Day 6 – Monday, July 8, 2013
We awoke to another beautiful, sunny day in St. John’s. After breakfast at the residence we had a bit of a bussing mix up but we eventually headed to a morning massed youth choir rehearsal at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (aka The Kirk) with Francisco Núñez. We were treated to salsa lessons by Francisco which was fun for everyone who attended. This was another beautiful church up the hill from Gower Street United. At the ends of all of the rows of seats there were little brass buckets at ground level and little brass railings up above them for people to set their umbrellas in. I have never seen that in a church before and it was my only clue all week that perhaps it rains a lot in St. John’s sometimes.
Lunch was at the residence. Then we headed back to St Andrew’s for our afternoon concert. While we were there, Kate chased down a CBC reporter who was interviewing someone else from the festival and told them about our amazing whale experience in the hope of getting some TV coverage. We performed in an afternoon concert at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church with Shumeyala youth choir from Alberta and the Forest Ridge Women’s Chamber Choir from Washington, USA.
Dinner was at Extreme Pita again on the MUN campus. In the evening we split up. Some people went to the Arts & Culture Centre to see The Maryland State Boys Choir (I wonder what the draw was there?), the Georgetown Bach Chorale from Ontario and the Cape Breton Chorale from Nova Scotia. Some people went to the Gower Street United Church and saw The Spurrell Studio Choir from Ontario, the Prince of Wales Collegiate Chamber Choir from St. John’s and the Cantabile Chamber Singers from Ontario. The rest stayed home and had a quiet night at home.
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Day 7 – Tuesday, July 9, 2013
We awoke to another beautiful, sunny day, although a bit cooler than previous days. After breakfast at the residence, we took the city bus which we could ride for free during the choral festival. Due to the city bus scheduling we arrived early and the choristers rehearsed outside at the entrance to the Mile One Centre which was the venue for the final gala performance. There were massed adult, massed youth and massed adult and youth combined rehearsals with Bob Chilcott and Francisco Núñez. After a CD signing session with Francisco that the chaperone’s attended, we had a quick lunch downtown (Subway, Second Cup) and returned for more rehearsals in the afternoon.
Rehearsal ended at 4:00pm, so we had hired a bus to take us from Mile One Centre to Signal Hill. We weren’t sure the bus was going to make it up the hill to Signal Hill but our bus driver Paddy persevered and we made it! We had a nice although windy visit and even saw and heard the explosion of the firing of the cannon at 5:30pm. Then we bussed back downtown to Yellowbelly Brewery and Public House restaurant for a great dinner trip with birthday cake for everyone since there were three girls who had a birthday during the trip. We had tried to get tickets for the Size2Shoes performance upstairs at Yellowbelly that evening but again the girls were underage and it was sold out. Laura pulled some strings and the brothers came and performed for us in the restaurant! It was a great intimate experience. They are wonderful singers! After dinner we bussed back to the residence.
Another great day in St. John’s!
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Day 8 – Wednesday, July 10, 2013
We awoke to another beautiful, sunny day in St. John’s. After breakfast at the residence, we attended a massed rehearsal and question and answer session with Witloof Bay (6 part a cappella group from Belgium) at the Arts and Culture Centre and then were bussed down to the Mile One Centre for more massed rehearsals with Bob Chilcott and Francisco Núñez and the orchestra. We had a more leisurely lunch downtown and then had more massed rehearsals in the afternoon. We ordered in Subway for dinner. Some of the choristers expressed their inner fan girls and got their photos with Bob, Francisco and many other performers. One of our choristers asked Francisco if they could call him “Frannie”. He was very friendly and funny but declined that offer. Some of the girls were not feeling well during the afternoon due to exhaustion but they persevered and everyone was performance ready by the evening concert.
The grand finale concert was very interesting and well received. It included performances by Witloof Bay and Size2Shoes. I must declare that I am now a David Pomeroy fan. Some parents had made it out in time for the grand finale concert and found us to be a well running yet exhausted group of people. After the performance, we retired to our residence. The girls had a popcorn party. Kate had received an email saying that our whale story had made the news on the previous day. It took a while to find it and we watched a lot of video of moose running loose in St. John’s but we eventually found the video at the end of the 5:30pm CBC news show Here and Now from Tuesday, July 9th. Our part starts at the 1:27:57 mark.
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Day 9 Thursday, July 11, 2013
Although the previous night had been late, we were up at the usual time to have breakfast and pack up. We had to be out of our rooms by 10:00am. Yes, as you probably anticipated by now, it was another beautiful, sunny day. We stored our luggage and then broke up into groups to visit downtown and go to The Rooms which is the local art gallery, museum and archive building that is easy to pick out in the St. John’s skyline. We took the city bus again for free and met up with our same bus driver from Tuesday morning. At 1:00pm the group departed for the airport. Everyone and all of their luggage arrived safely in Ottawa and said goodbye amid many hugs and tears. Everyone left exhausted but happy after making beautiful music with beautiful people in a beautiful place all week!
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– Jane Pickett
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