Blogs from Denver, Colorado, United States, North America

Letter from Wolfgang Ziegler, ICC Ave Verum Dear Choral Friends, ICC-AV went over so fast! We all are still full of excitement and happiness you gifted to us with your wonderful musical contributions. Again and again I want to say thanks to all of you. You made our start so successful and easy. I hope you've all arrived home safely and I wish those of you who are still on tour lots of beautiful and memorable moments. Thank you for being our guests. I do hope to meet you again. Make a joyful noise Wolfgang Letter passed along from Chor Weidling via Melissa: Hello Melissa, Well I must say that you have made me, and indeed the whole choir very happy. But it was so easy to host such wonderful guests. From our point of view, ... read more

We arrive in Denver early at around 07:00 after having an early 06:00 breakfast. We all alite the train feeling a little sleepy. A coach is there to meet us, and takes us on a quick tour of Denver before checking into the Warwick Hotel. We arrive at the hotel at arond 09:30, and have to wait around a little while for the rooms to be made ready. The hotel provides lemonade and cookies while we wait. We dont have too many things planned for the day in Denver so we plan a relaxing day. We have a wander around Denver. It is on a smaller scale to the other American cities that we have visited. It is well laid out and "sightseer friendly" as regards being able to walk around as opposed to using Metro, ... read more

And the countdown begins...8 days until departure. Suitcase measured and just squeaks by. Chip is working on his German with his Rosetta Stone Course:) Dog boarding reserved. Next week we go into our final week of preparation musically and watch student presentations on our upcoming travels along with reconnaissance research on "competing" choirs. The ensemble is bonding and sounds better than ever! And by the way, there may be some choral flash mobs on the UNC campus this week... read more

We started out the CT at Waterton Canyon on Friday afternoon. We are spotting cars for as many of the segments that we can and plan to do weekend trips until we get to Breck. Were we plan on taking a few days rest with our good friends! Allow me to add a disclaimer.....WHEN YOU SPOT CARS...remember to bring your keys for the car at your final destination. Not that we forgot them....just a reminder :) So we had a two hour delay....got started at 2pm on Friday. 3 miles in I started to have foot problems. My toes were angry...good thing I hike with a Nurse. He whipped out the medical bag and flew into action. My feet were all tapped up and I began to start the trail again...This time my feet resembled something ... read more

Dear Followers, Wow. Once again I fail. Really. Truly. I know I have a lot to cover over the past two months, but I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate all your support of me, the mission of FOCUS, and just being there to read this blog. So. To start off, I have chosen a new word to live by for the year of 2012... (drum roll, please)... it is... ADAPTABILITY. I have chosen this word because ever since graduating college and moving to a new place, I have had to get outside my comfort zone and really ADAPT to new places, people, and things. It has been fun thus far, but I still have a lot to learn and a lot to give. I am really excited to continue being ADVENTUROUS (my ... read more

The flight from the UK to Denver was delayed by a couple of hours, so rather than at 6 p.m., we landed at 8 (i.e. about 7 the next morning on my body clock). After the usual delay for US border stuff, I was then the only person taken out of the queue to have my luggage searched. (Something similar had happened when I left the US in 2007 – if not my face, there’s something suspicious about random facial hair that's not in the passport photo). When I finally took possession of my vehicle, I was in a hurry to get to bed, so I set off in one of those 1940s Chrysler retro-vans without trying to shut the window. The next morning I had to go the 30 miles back to the airport (still ... read more