Just a few student points of view:

Dec. 30 Slovakia in route to Zakopane, Poland

I loved Vienna!!! As my first European experience, I found everything about it so interesting. The first day fighting jet lag was pretty hard, but shopping at night in all the European stores was beyond cool. (Don’t worry, Mom, I only spent 14 Euros on clothes J) Viennese food was good, especially when we went to Eisenstadt. The little restaurant we found had the best pasta! Everything seems tastier here, especially the coffee. I had at least five cups of it yesterday!!! And coke light here has to be the best carbonated drink I’ve ever tasted. The buildings of Vienna were so ornate and interesting and OLD! The fact that a lot of them are older than the US makes it that much cooler. My favorite part of exploring Vienna was walking around the city with my friends. And people here are such good drivers!!! They stop for pedestrians and they can parallel park in like 30 seconds. Our bus driver is probably the best driver here. It’s amazing what he can do with our gigantic bus! My favorite part of Vienna, though, was singing in St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The acoustics were amazing, and I loved the organ. It’s probably the most amazing instrument I have ever seen!! But the best thing was watching our audience react to our music. One woman was crying!!  And afterwards, they wanted to meet us and take pictures with us!! Right now, we’re driving through the mountains and I’m falling in love with all this snow! I can’t wait for Poland!

 ~Kaitlyn Jones

I am an American and I have found that my nationality defines me in a way that I never knew it could. When the locals in Vienna heard us speak, they would ask us if we were from England or America.  While we found the distinction between the two accents easy to make, these people heard the words we were saying and immediately categorized us. Some were amiable after we revealed that we hailed from the US and others were too wrapped up in their preoccupied notions of Americans to recognize our appreciation for the city.

The most memorable experience in Vienna was our performance in St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Our biggest fear was that we would be singing to empty pews and that our songs would resonate only to the soaring arches above our heads. Our brilliant choirmaster, Mr. Hillard, had us sing in front of the church before walking inside to begin our program. As a devout music lover myself, it amazed me to see the reactions of the people on the streets of Vienna. There were over 300 people who took an hiatus from their individual journeys that day to not only stand on the street and hear us sing, but to follow us into the church and allow us to share our songs with them. Music is embedded in this city and the hearts of the Viennese. It showed in the smiling faces of the strangers who stood to hear us. They were ecstatic and eager to meet us afterwards. I couldn’t believe they were thanking us, when it was they who deserved the gratitude for teaching a group of American teenagers that music transcends the barrier of language and nationality. I learned that the ears and the heart are truly connected from the nonchalant manner in which the Viennese open their hearts to us.  A piece of my heart belongs to Vienna because it is a place to be heard and a place filled with endless inspiration; it always has been and now like countless other musicians, I leave a bit different than I was when I arrived.

 ~Danica Daniels

When we walk on the streets of Vienna, people look at us and see a mass of American teenage tourists. The storekeepers grudgingly anticipate the difficulties they will face trying to communicate with us because we have no idea what they are saying when they speak in their native tongue. All the natives and tourists hurry past us in the streets. We merely take up space and present minor complications to most everybody we encounter.

However, when we put on our performance attire, we transform into international singing superstars. As we get in formation in front of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, people swarm to us like magnets. We are Americans singing a Nigerian carol in Austria. People take videos and pictures of us, parents lift small children upon their shoulders so they can get a better look, and some viewers are even moved to tears. People find ways to relate to us: “You’re from South Carolina? I’m from DC!” “I’m from Washington!” “I sing in a choir too!” We make them feel special, but they don’t realize how much more special they make us feel.

            On Glee, Rachel Berry once said: “Being part of something special makes you special.” I believed her until yesterday. It’s not about what makes you special; it’s about making someone else feel special and giving him or her something special, something treasonable, that truly matters.

 ~Savannah Harwood

Passing through the mountains of Gondor was really cool. I think I even saw Frodo and Samwise taking the ring to Mordor to destroy it, in an attempt to save the world from evil.  On a serious note, Vienna was awesome.!!  We toured palaces and sang in St. Stephen’s Cathedral. St. Stephen by the grateful dead was stuck in my head the whole day after that concert. Poland is gonna be fun too.

 ~David Buck

I am loving this trip and all the experiences I’ve had touring with the Select Ensemble! I feel so blessed to have been given this opportunity. This trip was my first time flying, but I really wasn’t nervous. I was mostly ready to get off the plane after our eight-hour flight to Frankfurt and connecting flight to Vienna! However, it’s not very often that you can say that you’ve been through four different countries—Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Poland—in one week!

Vienna is beautiful: every building is gorgeous and decorated with statues, even those housing grocery stores. Although many of us felt that the Austrians had a special dislike for Americans, our perceptions definitely changed after seeing their reactions to our concert at St. Stephens Cathedral. They seemed to love us, and we had a great time performing.

Poland is exactly as I pictured it: picturesque, snow-covered mountains with little villages nestled between them, lots of trees, and friendly people. Zakopane, the town that we spent the most time in today, looks like a life-size version of the miniature Christmas villages that people put up during the holiday season: basically, it’s adorable. One of the town’s highlights is the beautiful woodwork houses that are everywhere, some dating back hundreds of years.

I’m really enjoying myself and am loving every moment of our trip. Mom and Dad, I love you and miss you and hope to see you soon! Happy New Year!!

~ Alex Rice