Events as it tranpsired by Spencer: The day started off with an early wake up call at 7:00 am with Mr. Cupid knocking on my door, speaking in Spanish, "Buenos dias señor!". He knocks until I answer my door. "Wakey wakey" and then asks "chicken or fish?". I reply "chicken". He then asks, "white bread or whole wheat?". I'm trying to eat healthy so reply "whole wheat". He will remain at my door asking me questions until I give him eye to eye contact to let him be certain that I'm awake. After having breakfast at 7am, we went back to our rooms, got changed and boarded the bus at 9:30 with our yellow TASSO shirts and blazers in hand. We arrived at Hawkhill House, a private nursing home, with mature trees surrounded by lush gardens ... read more

Today we had a free day. Yippee!! After a bit of housecleaning and room inspection, all the musicians walked downtown to go shopping, while simultaneously, a Macallam Distillery Tour was organized for 18 of our chaperones/adults. A private coach picked up the adults and off they went to drink scotch. After two hours of free time shopping downtown, the young musicians decided to take in a movie, Inside Out. On our way back to Hillhead we stopped for dinner along the beach front, then we had a 45 minute walk back to our residence. It was a long day, and everybody passed out as soon as they got back.... read more

Today we all dressed in our Canada gear, as it was the opening ceremony. There were 14 other countries participating in the festival. This year there are three Canadian groups, including a fiddler group from Victoria, BC and a marimba group. It was a well presented ceremony. They spoke a little bit about each musical group, going over their history, and in our case they spoke of our past visits to the Aberdeen International Youth Musical Festival. There are groups from the United States, Spain, Russia, Mexico, Finland, Germany, Belgium and South Africa to name a few. After the ceremony was over, we ate our packed lunch and proceeded to the Union Terrace Gardens. We participated in a workshop with a local street drumming group from Scotland, the TNT group. Performing in the Terrace Gardens was ... read more

We had a fantastic flight and arrived in Edinburgh after a small delay trying to find one of our group members' bags. We cleared border crossing and were reunited and welcomed by the Crooks family in the arrivals area. After a small stop for a quick breakfast snack at the airport cafeteria, we met with the our coach driver, Peter, and our journey to Aberdeen continued. It was a three hour bus ride. Band members took the opportunity to catch up on missed sleep. We then arrived at the university (HUB), where we were once again reunited with more Toronto All Star Steel Orchestra (TASSO) family. Those families flew ahead, in some cases, three or four days in advance. We then met our courier/tour guide who will be with us for the duration of our trip. ... read more