The last few days are the first since tour began that we've had more free time than we really know what to do with. Hotels mean finding your own breakfast and getting yourself about the city, and so on, but they also mean you don't have to be social to hosts or unpack and repack your suitcase every day. I've spread my stuff about the room like a child stamping petulant feet in the midst of the candy aisle.
It's 2pm and I'm still in my pajamas, perfect attire for bouncing between the couch and bed. I feel like I should feel guilty for my sloth, but mostly I just want to drift for awhile. It's not until the spinning top of activity loses momentum and slows to a lazy 'choose your own adventure' twirl, that you realise how much energy it takes to maintain equilibrium, to stay upright.
Then again, we've done a total of 14 performances (of varying length and purpose) in 11 days. Plus traveling and sightseeing and maintaining a certain level of sociability with hosts and other choristers, which sometimes takes a bit of deep breathing or Mbiri dancing in one's head.
So. This afternoon and most of the evening we record the CD, tomorrow there will be a workshop around lunchtime, and then we can pack away the music along with the blacks and red lipstick and enjoy our last few days away together. Some of us are continuing on to other places, but most of the group head home on Thursday evening. Negotiations are currently in progress to see who a) has room in their case and b) what they're willing to accept as a bribe for lugging our stuff back to Australia.
Either way, it's been an awesome trip and I'm sure everyone has learnt a lot about the slog of constant performing, not killing your fellow choristers and possibly a bit about Canada as well. I'd love to come back some day and see more of some of the places we visited than the church we sang in and the street our hosts lived on. And I hear they have plenty of schools here, as well as pretty easy working visa restrictions, so who knows? ;)
This post has been a work in progress over the last few days, so I should say that Calgary is a bit ghostly. One of the locals told us that they're all hibernating and nursing their Stampede hangovers, to which I say eat a spoonful of concrete and harden up, Calgarians. That, or come to Australia and we'll show you how to *really* drink. The streets are deserted in the evening, bars close very early, and I have a theory that there's some kind of secret tunnel underground for locals, because there aren't a lot of people around unless it's lunchtime. Adelaide looks like a people-filled mecca compared to this place. But it's nice not to have to fight your way through the crowd for a drink, and even nicer when you find other people willing to pay for them ;). Being a foreigner has its perks.
Farewell dinner tonight, as people are leaving at various times tomorrow and its probably the last time we'll be together as a group for awhile. We've been told to come up with our favorite or funniest moment to share at dinner. I've been trying to narrow it down and realized how much I'd forgotten, even in just a couple of weeks.
So to end, here are some of the other things I've learnt on the trip:
1. Thongs, hills, jelly, 'hook up' and the verb 'to get nailed' do not mean the same thing in Canada.
2. Portion sizes are inevitably bigger. Ordering five Chinese dishes for four people results in enough leftover food for about eight (and a trip to the local homeless shelter if you're a good person like Marianne).
3. Telling a Canadian that multiple days at 5 degrees is the coldest Adelaide winter in 60 years usually results in hilarity and then descriptions of eye-freezing cold. Mentioning 45 degree summer days sometimes puts a stop to this madness.
4. Never judge a choir by their pantaloons.
5. Don't mess with skunks. You might get nailed. (I wonder what 'getting hammered' means here. Must ask stranger on street)
6. There is such a thing as too much of the following: cherries, blueberries, fruitboxes, wearing black. However, you can never have too many raspberries, too much maple flavored anything, or too many cowboys in one place. Mmmmm. ;)
7. Even if there isn't a 'Don't Feed The Wildlife' sign, it's still not a good idea to go waving bitable parts near anything, especially anything small cute and furry.
8. It's a sign we've come a long way when 8 songs in a concert bracket is a bloody easy night. And on the subject of music and performing, a 'game face' is a wonderful thing and so is a bit of pre-bracket abandoning of inhibitions to dance like a cross between African princesses and Gumby on acid.
9. There will inevitably be some tool in the audience that will do one of the following: talk, kick the back of the pew in their own personal rhythm, fang it down the road in their hot rod while you're recording, sing badly under their breath, or fall asleep. Best not to a) look at Christie (for fear of snorting mid-song) or b) take it personally. There's a good chance that at least 2% of any audience are slightly inconsiderate, unaware, or just assholes.
(No, we love you all, really...)
10. It is actually possible for 17 women between the ages of 18 and 37 to spend almost three weeks together and still all be on relatively good terms at the end of it (without any parts having to be locked in a room and told in no uncertain terms to sort out their issues or stay in there all night, like on a previous tour). Actually, I'd call that a pretty awesome effort on behalf of most people. Go team!!
So, we're pretty much done, and I'm sure there are lots of other stories to be shared - I'm just the one with the greatest propensity to babble crap via iPhone Notes app when I've got a bit of spare time. Are we coming back to Kathaumixw in two years? Will Christie ever want to take us out of the country again? Will everyone manage to make it under the suitcase weight limit? Are Mounties *really* easy?
Yeah, I realise these questions (and the entire blog, really) are not 'where did the world come from' or similarly philosophical musings, but I'm sure you're not too disappointed. And if you are, well, sucks to be you. I've had fun, and I hope you did too.
"In case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening and good night!"
J x
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