Long Time No Post! Lots to Cover!

Hello there! My apologies for my lack of communication. We have been SO busy with SO MANY exciting things here in Barcelona, I've been negligent in my blogging responsibilities. I've noticed that the students and Ms. Mullen have been doing a great job, so I've been sitting back and enjoying things a bit. But now, I'll try to catch up!

First, more recordings of the Jazz Band and Orchestra are now online at the same address from before:

http://www.box.net/shared/jzxuujpndu

I'm trying to share several of my pics of the amazing things we've seen this week, but it isn't working for me right now for some reason. That does allow me, however, to get to the most important part of what I want to share with you all back home...

Families - Your students have done some AMAZING things this week. They have performed well, traveled well, sight-seen well, and have been an absolute joy to work with. They have learned a lot on this trip, whether they realize it or not. They have demonstrated a lot of maturity in terms of how to handle stressful situations, performance jitters, and the experience of being in a foreign place in new circumstances. To say that our chaperone team is proud of them is an understatement.

I won't pretend to say they were smiling at every moment of the tour. There were certainly some tired eyes and weary feet as we did A LOT of walking on our tours this week. But even when they were at their most tired moments, they responded positively when asked to move closer to the guide, to walk a little faster, and to do all the little things that help make a tour go better.

So... thank you for sharing your students with us these past two weeks. I think you'll see they've grown up a bit in this short amount of time and I think you'll really enjoy getting to know more about their new perspective on the world.

I'll try to post my pics later. For now, I'm off to write a few more emails and to start packing before dinner.

See you in Chicago!