Tuesday, April 16

The fourth day of our expedition was jam-packed with events. The group fought off a communal sense of exhaustion from the activities on Monday. Our day began at 7:00 a.m. for breakfast and announcements. We were instructed to be ready in our choir dress which includes a white button down shirt, Lands’ End khaki-khaki-color pants, a black belt, black dress socks, black shoes, a navy blue blazer, and a fitting maroon and gold tie; fortunately, today the choir had no issues with the dress code.

This morning there was no time for dilly-dallying or shilly-shallying, as Bill likes to say. As the clock struck 8:20 we rushed out the door to our bus. We heard from Bill about Stanislas College, a Jesuit, Catholic public school with about 2000 students in grades 6-12. Today we performed a “friendship concert” with the school and took a tour around the campus with our student guides. The school was described by students as big, vibrant, and full of character. As we got settled into Stanislas College, we found our way to the chapel, where we had a brief yet beautiful concert in front of students from the school. As the concert concluded we met up again with our guides and shadowed one of their classes – I had the privilege of learning derivatives in Dutch for my hour. After class we embarked on a tour around the school, seeing different classes, labs, music rooms, and the gymnasium. The school was very interesting to say the least, and the students were certainly amused by our visit. We later gathered back into our groups and had a platter of sandwiches waiting for us in a classroom. As we were finishing up our lunches, we were instructed to put our walking shoes on, as we would be walking back to the luxurious Ibis Styles Hotel.

We returned to the hotel and had about an hour to relax before our journey to The Hague, the “government” capital city of the Netherlands. Everyone lazily made their way to the lobby, as many of us were still experiencing the effects of jet lag and the events from Monday. Our tour guide, Dick Stammes, greeted us in the lobby to share some insightful information about The Hague as an introduction to what we would be doing later. The bus right to The Hague was spent listening to music, napping, and hearing from Bill and Dick about the history of the city. We wasted no time getting off of the bus and walking straight to the statue of Willem of Orange, known to many as the “father of democracy”. As we were leaving the statue, the heavy rain of the Netherlands started to fall. The group swiftly made their way to the Binnenhof of Den Haag, where the prime minister of The Netherlands rides his bike to work every day. Despite the deluge of rain, we learned about the roles of the prime minister and the king of the Netherlands. However, due to that same driving rain, our tour of Den Haag was unfortunately cut short, a true tragedy.

Bill later told us on the bus about our plans for dinner, which would be a pumpkin soup, a buttered fish, and a churro, custard, and cinnamon ice cream dish for dessert. Upon the return to the hotel from The Hague, we got changed into dry clothes and walked to the restaurant. The dinner was delicious and marked the conclusion of a long yet adventurous day.

Note: When we say there are a lot of bikes in the Netherlands, we mean…there are A LOT of bikes in the Netherlands. What you’ll see below is the bike parking lot at Stanislas College.

Reade O’Hara ’25

Monday, April 15

It’s day three, and we all feel the burden of jet lag upon us, but we equally have some ground under our feet after our choir sang in Church. But today was something special. It meant a journey back to Amsterdam for artful education and a little canal action.

We started off a little groggy from a late night. It was 7:30 a.m., and we had overslept a bit. Fortunately, an enjoyable bite downstairs and an hour to spare gave us ample time to prepare our spirits. We ate scrambled eggs, waffles, sausages, and doughy pastries. At 8:50 we finished the meal successfully and were ready to embark on our journey. We brought backpacks, rain jackets, and hoodies, cognizant of the impending weather that lay ahead. Then, after being rounded up by Dr. Rozenberg and taking a head count a few times, we went on the bus to begin the day’s adventure.

On the bus, we all dealt with the exhaustion differently. Some slept, some twiddled their thumbs, while some energetic choir kids provided music at the back of the bus. In fact, the music was a “Careless Whisper” that followed us the whole ride.

After the hour bus ride, we arrived at the Rijksmuseum, a place that, according to Bill (our half American, half British tour guide), housed one million works of art but displayed only 8,000 of them. We took selfies with Rembrandt van Rijn’s famous “Night Watch” painting. The three floors gave us a lot to talk about afterward. So, we met at noon and Bill wanted us to go on an hour-long walk to Anne Frank’s house. There, he gave a short summary on who Anne Frank was, followed by Dr. Rozenberg’s rousing remarks. Then the rain began to pour, supported by strong gusts of wind. Every inch had to be fought for. We were split into groups to get lunch then meet up again for a canal tour. Those three hours of lunch and free time were spent exploring the train station where I bought a nice hat, ate at BrewDog, and took in the sights.

When we met afterward, Bill led us to the Lovers Canal Tour where we learned about how Amsterdam how it was founded in the 13th century and about its architecture. The canal had many twists and turns, leading us around the whole of Amsterdam in a mere hour. Following that, we ate dinner a few blocks away. The meat was savory, and the pudding melted in our mouths. After dinner, God’s hail started to rain down upon us again, but this time a rainbow appeared.

Teo Reyes ’24

Sunday, April 14

Day 2 in the Netherlands! Today, we spent the day exploring the traditional town of Delft, where we are staying for the week. Delft was founded in 1075, which is a lot older than what we have in America. We woke up after a long day on Saturday and had a nice breakfast in our hotel. Once we had all eaten, we took a tour of Delft. We were split up into two groups so we could see things a bit easier. When traveling, one learns a bit of the local language one way or another. Today, our tour guide, Yvette, taught us another word to add to our Dutch vocabulary, fiets (bike) – this is an extremely important word to know! Yvette used this as a way to warn us if any bikes were coming and for us to move out of the way. It is safe to say that that word has become a favorite amongst the students, and even the faculty. During the tour, we saw houses of the rich, some of the oldest churches around, and even the spot where the founder of the Netherlands, William of Orange, was Murdered in 1584. I think it is safe to say that this town has a deep, rich history. Not only did we learn about the murder of William of Orange, but we also learned that he is buried in the new church of Delft, which is where all the royals of the Netherlands have been buried ever since.

After finishing our tour, we ended up in the Market Square in Delft. There was an outdoor market today, so we had an hour and a half to eat, and even do a bit of shopping. There were rows and rows of people selling textiles, pieces of art, and even old maps. We walked through all of these shops to get to the “food court” on the opposite side of the square. We were all split up into groups, so we had a bit of freedom in choosing lunch. I was able to have some nice chicken empanadas and some fries.

After having lunch and doing some shopping at the Market, we started walking towards the Royal Delft Museum. Delft is famous for a type of pottery called “Delft Blue”. When looking at the pieces of artwork, you might mistake them for Chinese porcelain. Well, these pieces were made to mimic the work of Chinese artisans. Back in the days of the Dutch East India Company, a big ship would come into Delft annually (when it was a harbor city) bringing exotic things to the Dutch like coffee, tea, and Porcelain. When a Chinese civil was cut off the supply, local artisans, who were losing the competition to these Chinese artisans, decided to mimic the porcelain to the best of their ability. They were incredibly successful, as we saw in the museum. The museum was filled with everything from vases to plates to porcelain tile paintings. We were also able to see some of the artisans making the pottery, which was very interesting.

After the museum, we walked back to our hotel to prepare for our evening performance. After getting into our formal choir dress, we started heading to the church where we performed. We sang at 6:00 mass at the Maria Van Jesse church here in Delft. The church is quite old, dating back to the late 19th century. It is a beautiful church with a lot of character to it. Being Europe, we saw many ornate side altars and paintings in the church, as well as beautifully set up main altar. We sang well and the congregation seemed to love hearing us. We also had a very special Guest in our midst this evening. Many of you may not know this, but Dr. Rozenberg used to have a choir in Russia before she came to the United States. One of her students from 20+ years ago, Yulia, came to see us sing. Yulia is a very good musician and singer who lives here in the Netherlands. After mass, we sang a few more songs, ending with a Russian favorite of Dr. Rozenberg’s and Yulia’s, “Ya vas loo Biel” or “I loved you once” in English. Yulia was moved to tears and loved to hear us sing.

Following mass, we walked back to our hotel to quickly change for dinner. We ate at a lovely restaurant called “Da Baarbar” here in Delft. We had a burger buffet, which seemed to be a fan favorite among the boys. This was shown when they promptly put their jackets down on the chairs and went straight for the buffet, we were as hungry as ever. Once we all ate some nice burgers and salad, we were served some nice yogurt and berries for dessert. After this lovely meal, we walked back to our hotel. As you may have noticed, we have not once taken the bus anywhere today. We have been walking all around Delft. I think it is safe to say that we all got well over our 10,000 steps for the day.

Note: The picture of the donuts is from Dunkin’ Donuts – this is what Dunks looks like in Delft! Also, the bikes you’ll see below were rescued from the bottom of the canal – over 500 bikes were pulled from the canals in Delft last year…and one piano!

Joachim Arokiaraj ’25

Saturday, April 13

The 2024 BC High Choir Trip to the Netherlands started off with some of us boarding the plane via the stairs after a two hour delay and a malfunctioning gate bridge. After our overnight flight, we arrived in Amsterdam around 11:30 a.m. local time and what felt like 5:30 a.m. to us.

Once we got off the plane, we went through the relatively short customs and baggage claim line and met our tour guide, Bill, for this week-long journey. We then took the bus to Amsterdam and met up with the other part of the group that had to take an earlier flight to Amsterdam via Detroit (due to a deeply unfortunate mishap with the airline). While in the city, we split up into groups to have lunch. My group walked around the Albert Cuyp Market and bought some local chicken on skewers for us to eat. I found the food lovely, but as we were walking around, we were surprised by the sheer number of bikes that we came across along our journey. When crossing the street, we found it much easier to avoid the cars than the bike riders who were reluctant to stop since many of the bikes in the Netherlands do not have handbrakes.

After lunch, we went on a tour of Amsterdam’s inner city. On the tour, we learned about how the city is built on mostly reclaimed land, and we learned the history of Amsterdam’s canals and dikes that demonstrate the city’s connection between architecture and nature and why many of the buildings are leaning since their foundations are wooden tree trunks. I also found it very interesting to explore the boat houses by the canals, to see the Dutch Royal Palace, and to watch Amsterdam’s trams roll on by.

Once the tour was finished, we took the bus to our hotel in the small town of Delft, which is about 45 minutes outside of Amsterdam. We then walked to dinner at a Boterhuis where we enjoyed an exquisite meal that included fresh bread, chicken breasts, well-seasoned fries, chocolate mousse, and even ice cream. Dr. Rozenberg let us break the “NO ICE CREAM” rule, just this once. It was a great way to end an exhausting day. We eagerly headed back to the hotel to rest our weary heads.

Michael Kester ’24