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

We made it back safely and had a lovely trip, in no small part due to warm spirit of the group participants. Thanks especially to Dr. Rozenberg for planning the trip and the other adults (both school staff and chaperones who joined us).

The day began abruptly at 6:45 A.M. with the clamor of an alarming wake up call from the illustrious Ibis Styles hotel in Paris. As noted by baritone Jaden Flaherty, the hotel is, “exactly like the bumper of my car: riddled with countless dents and water damage.” The array of breakfast food was, to quote John Kanter, “super super mid.” The slew of croissants (cwa-sawns) and double shots of espressos were a necessity to rally the choir after a late check-in the night before.

After most of us managed to gather ourselves down to lobby on time, we began the journey of what seemed like a lifetime into the cobblestone roads of Paris. Our Pariasian tour guide for the day, who’s name no one can seem to remember, shared stories of what to expect at our first stop, The Musée du Louvre. She told us we will see many scandalous Greek statues and provocative Renaissance paintings, and that we did. Our new driver, Mohammed, flexed the skilled techne of what it is to drive the narrow traffic filled streets of Paris. The choir explored the halls of the old palace, which holds The Mona Lisa, Liberty Leading the People, The Wedding at Cana, along with many works stolen from the African continent. This quick stop was just the beginning of our day-long exploration of what Paris has in store for us.

We then bussed off to the magnificent Eiffel Tower for the iconic tourist photo opportunity. I forcibly persuaded the choir to take the ritualistic .5 (point five) photo. 

In need of sustenance  “the squad rolled up” to the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, which was a glorified Natick Mall, pimped out with Parisian architecture. To quote senior Micheal Duffy, “we experienced another mid meal.”  (Editor’s note: I can’t decide if the description of food as “mid” reads as overly negative, which  we, of course, would not want to portray. However, the lads have turned it into a thread running throughout the blog posts, so stay it must). While the cafeteria made the interesting choice to add olives to perfectly fine pizza, the food was overall passable.  After taking in the sights of the city from the terrace, the beautiful boys were treated by the omnipotent and omniscient Dr. Marina Rozenberg to some well-earned gelato. The boys soon realized that they were in the La Femmes section and decided to take the pilgrimage over to the L’Homme section. After spending money that we quite frankly did not have, the boys, excluding myself, were on time to the meetup.  I showed up 10 minutes later with a bag in hand, but no Jaquemues Chiquito necklace 😦 .  Within minutes, our gang was once again on the bus, barely preparing for the upcoming performance. The collective then shuffled through traffic, barely surviving the maze of Parisian infrastructure and entered the Cathédrale de la Madeleine to rehearse for our concert. Our performance was mediocre at best (Editor’s note: it was lovely), and we struggled our way towards dinner, at a lovely little establishment below street level. The three-course meal we enjoyed was bittersweet as addresses were given by each of the seniors; toasts to our memories with Dr. Rozenberg, who was celebrating her 400 birthday,  and the choir program.  In addition to our heartfelt tributes to our time as choir members, we were pleasantly surprised with a good meal; thanks, Monssier Bill. We then switched buses in order to take a trip up the Seine on a Bâteau Mouche. “Roll Tides” and shouts of cheer were shared as we finally returned to our hotel for a restful night before our long trek back to Boston.  See y’all soon!

Cordially,

The illustrious, magnificent, stylish, Johnny Sullivan

Today was a big day, so we will have a big blog post. It’s so big, in fact, that it’s still being written. It will be worth the wait, we promise.

We have so many lovely pictures from recent days, but the internet speed via a hot spot reminds this editor of her days with a dial-up modem (yes, I know this shows my age). So, expect a bunch of photos from recent days to be posted when we return home.

Written by Zach Ewing, ’23

Frankly, it has been a long one. To say nothing of how much we enjoyed the day, I  have little to no interest in writing this blog on the ride to Paris. We are likely to arrive at our hotel a little before midnight, staggering, completely exhausted into our beds. So I would honestly rather get an extra hour of sleep before another long day tomorrow, but I still will do my best to recount the events of our day.

The day began only a little later than usual, with the increasingly annoying wake up buzzer rousing us at 7:30. After another near identical, but still pleasant breakfast, the students finished packing their khakis into suitcases, sport coats onto hangers, and toiletries into plastic bags. As the clock approached 9:00 more and more suitcases found their way into the hotel lobby whether by a student awkwardly hobbling the case down the stairs, or the elevator smoothly whisking them down. All went smoothly, tuxedos packed neatly for the day, students in dress code, rooms checked, keys returned.  With the help of our tour guide Bill, and driver Fred we loaded all of our luggage onto the bus. And with the most difficult of the morning executed to perfection, we were able to get on the road. Some students fell asleep, others became absorbed in their AirPods, and even more were consumed by their phones.

We arrived at the Jesuit school that would accommodate us for the remainder of the day, Institution Notre Dame Sain Francois. The school had a pretty amazing campus. Situated topographically above the City of Evreux, the buildings were beautiful, and the students were very welcoming. After a filling lunch of mashed potatoes, wax beans, and beef, with beure blanc, we made our way down to the City Hall of Evreux. The city is truly beautiful, and though it is only inhabited by 50,000 people there was something about the city that Ms. Winter articulated as Evreux being, “the first place we have went to that feels real.” While the other places we have been were beyond amazing, they felt like the way that a film director would portray France, the way that a tourist is intended to experience the country. Evreux, on the other hand, felt like a place that you could live, rather than somewhere you could simply visit. Accompanied by the boy’s and girl’s choirs of the Institution Notre Dame, we were able to perform in front of the mayor. While it was very difficult to top the performances of the choirs that preceded us, we sung quite well, singing three songs for the mayor before being invited down to the steps of City Hall to take a picture. 

After the picture and some refreshments in city hall, we were granted some free time to take a look around the city and go shopping. The choir spread out throughout the city moving to whatever stores we found interesting before congregating in front of the river to bet on some ducks.

We eventually made the long trek back up hill to the Institution Notre Dame Sain Francois for a ping pong tournament and our final concert of the day. The concert was excellent; before getting our chance to sing we had the opportunity to listen to the boy’s and girl’s choirs. While I cannot speak for the other people in our group, I was truly moved by their singing, and it was truly some of the most beautiful live music that I have ever heard. Our concert went very well, maybe it was the pressure to perform just as well as the choirs that proceeded us, or it was the way their singing or the crowd inspired us, but regardless it was some of our best singing of the year. This was to say nothing of the joyous entertainment that was watching Michael attempt to translate Doctor Rozenberg to French.

After a somber goodbye from the students and phone lights waved through the dark, we left the school. The lights shrunk. Waving, smiling faces faded into the dark. A somewhat somber reminder that we are unlikely to see these people again passing through our minds. And as we drive further away we find ourselves where I began. Tired. Ready to sleep. Pretty good day. Good night….

Writer: Mike Duffy, ’23

This morning, the choir was awoken by the lovely wake-up call we’ve all come to love at 7:30. After a short, yet sweet breakfast, the Chamber Choir met at 8:15 for a rehearsal in the lobby, much to the pleasure (or dismay) of our fellow guests. We boarded the bus and took a bus ride, just under 2 hours, to Mont Saint-Michel. We got off the bus and met by a tram station, where we boarded a tram to cross the bridge to the lovely abbey town. The view from the tram was absolutely breathtaking, and when we reached the foot of the mountain, we couldn’t help but take a mountain of photos ourselves. 

Once inside the small town, we hurried up the long, winding road uphill to the monastery. While the weather was brisk, we enjoyed ourselves anyway. Green stickers were distributed to declare our statuses as Mass Participants, and we made our way to the beautiful chapel. We sang the mass opening, as well as two songs during the Eucharist. Once Mass was over, we were allowed to explore the town for ourselves for an hour and a half. Then, we met up with our tour guide to take a guided journey through the cathedral, learning about its historical value of the abbey while appreciating its aesthetic value.

Then, once the excitement of the abbey had worn off, we returned to Fred and his lovely bus and once again made the 1.75 hour drive back to Bayeux, where we found a new restaurant to try to enjoy dinner. While the food was “mid”, to quote Jaden Flaherty, the vibes were immaculate nonetheless. Tired from our full day, we returned to Novotel, from where I write this post. :3

Written by Zach Ewing, ’23

The day began promptly at 7:00 am to the near incessant ring of the wake up call, the beginnings of a sunny day in Bayeux shining through the window. Groggy students hobbled down into the lobby to enjoy the same breakfast as the day before. Following breakfast we performed a rehearsal in the lobby of the hotel in preparation for the laying of the wreath ceremony later in the day. As we strode out into the light of a new morning, the weather was slightly colder than the sun alluded but still very pleasant.

We boarded the bus ready for our longest trip since the morning that we arrived, accompanied by a new traveler on our journey, a tour guide to show us around Normandy named Corinne. With all delighted by Jaden’s merriment ( Doctor Rozenberg less so than the rest), we traversed to our first stop of the day: Pointe du Hoc, Normandy. At Pointe du Hoc students were able to see the consequences of the Second World War on the landscape, fields littered with craters, grassy plains covered in bunkers and cliffs shielded with barbed wire. As we reached the monument at the tip of Pointe Du Hoc, we had the opportunity to sing the National Anthem in front of the monument honoring the service and sacrifice of the Army Rangers who scaled the sheer cliffs. As we began to look around at the geography and topography that the Rangers scaled, we were shocked by their perseverance in scaling the sheer walls of the Pointe in the mud, storm, and sea of June 6th, 1944.

After traveling to Pointe Du Hoc, we traveled to the western most point on Omaha Beach to see the section of the beach on which some of the youngest soldiers in the entire war lost their lives, the youngest soldier being only 17, and the oldest only being 22. As we traversed eastward along Omaha Beach, we only stopped briefly with the intention of taking some pictures. 

Our next stop was  Arromanches les-Bains to eat some lunch. Many of our students split off to go to one of the many Boulangerie-Patisseries to purchase their lunch, with the majority of the remaining students enjoying some burgers and fries at Sargent Willy’s. 

For our one and only concert of the day, we proceeded to the Normandy American Cemetery, a beautifully maintained park created to honor the soldiers who died during the liberation of Normandy. We had the opportunity to participate in the laying of the wreath ceremony in front of the main monument, where three of our students with veteran relatives were able to lay the wreath themselves. It was a truly meaningful experience, and, for many of us, it was one of the most significant ceremonies that we have had the honor of participating in.

After paying our respects to the fallen soldiers, we returned to Caen for the opportunity to explore William the Conqueror’s castle, and go shopping. 

We finished off the day with dinner at La Fringale. As was the standard for our dinners on the trip, the food was excellent. The appetizer was a vegetable soup, following the appetizer we had a northern french adaptation of a chicken stew that leaned heavily on the butter, and cream. We ended the night with a crème brûlée the perfect send off to a good day. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as fruitful, bon nuit!