Homestay in Hradec Králové

Well, we are still here in Hradec Králové, although I should be sleeping now since we head out early tomorrow morning!

We arrived in Hradec Králové this afternoon and met my host-dad and his daughter (who is in her late 20s, I believe.) She came with him because he doesn't speak any english, so it was an interesting start to the night! Luckily, her English was GREAT since she studied in New Jersey for a while.

We arrived at their house shortly after and dropped our stuff in our room. After informing them that we had just had lunch an hour before, our host-mom proceeded to serve us a 3 course lunch of soup, chicken, sausage, vegetables, potatoes, potato salad, and dessert. Needless to say, we were incredibly full by the time we finished.

After lunch, we relaxed in our room for a few minutes ... this is where I posted my last blog entry. At 5:00 we had a quick choir rehearsal at a local church. The first thing we were told as we walked to the sanctuary was "bring your coats." This was the understatement of the night.

As we walked into the sanctuary, we quickly realized that this huge stone room was not heated. At all. In fact, the only sources of heat in the room were small heaters under the first 5 rows of pews, and a heater at the piano for the accompanist. I'm horrible at estimating temperatures, so I will just say that I could see my breath as we sang.

Our concert was a combined program with a Czech mixed choir (adults) and a young women's choir. Both choirs were absolutely spectacular, so we were very nervous to follow them. We performed probably just over half of our repertoire, but it was received very well by the audience. Our final piece is a famous arrangement of the folk song "Shenandoah," and we circle the audience to sing it. The woman in front of me was crying quite a bit as we sang, so it was powerful to see the impact of our music.

After the concert, our host family invited us to have a second dinner ... so we gladly obliged. This dinner consisted of everything from the first dinner, plus ham and a desert pastry. After dinner, our host-mom brought out wine, trays of crackers, cheese, vegetables, and nuts -- these people know how to eat! With the help of their daughter, we had a great time making small talk about similarities (and differences, of course!) in our languages and cultures. It was so much fun to get to know our host family a little bit, and it will definitely be sad to leave them tomorrow -- after just one night!

I think that's all for tonight. Tomorrow we are headed to Breclav/Velké Bílovice for an early concert and dinner at a vineyard, so it should be another fun day. Cross your fingers that the internet situation only improves!

Drew