Day 14 - Visit to City Hall and Boat Excursion, Last day in Valencia

I at first want to apologize for the delay in completing these entries in a timely manner! As you can tell, our days have been chalk full and late with late nights! The Spaniards wouldn't have it any other way!!!

We woke up a little on the earlier side, meeting at the conservatory at 8:45 instead of 9:30, with our luggage in hand to be stored there all day while we went out on our adventures for we were not to be with our homestays that night. 

Both our singers and the conservatory singers were already feeling quite emotional knowing this and extra hugs were already starting to happen. 

Before we got on the bus, we had a few minutes to acknowledge the number of years the singers have been in Ensemble, and give them their little gifts. This has been a very sweet tradition for quite a while. Carmen Sanchez was on her 6th Ensemble tour! Once our luggage was all stored away upstairs in the conservatory, we were back on the bus to go downtown to town hall.

We had a great concert and then the conservatory choir joined us in the end for our two joint pieces, El Tio Pep and Rise, Shine. The Minister of Education was so overwhelmed by our visit and performance, and was quite excited learning about the news of our next festival in 2018, that there was mention that the city of Valencia will try to fund the conservatory to come to San Francisco!!! Everyone was so excited, and are quite hopeful that this will be able to actually happen!!

We had some time to walk around the city center which was just like downtown San Francisco with shops and restaurants. Some traditional Spanish horchata was being sold on the streets, which was delicious, and then it was time for us to be back on the bus for a boat trip at Albufera. We got on these boats, very similar to dragon boats, and went on an adventure through waters that they use to flood the rice fields for all their paella! We boarded the boat and went through a tall tulle type lined pathway before getting out to the main body of water where there were nice pockets of warm breezes. It was quite relaxing. 

Our boat tour was over and we were back where we started, and within 5 min walking distance to our lunch restaurant, in a very small neighborhood, Quiques, a little hole in the wall restaurant, which is known for its paella. We were offered three different types of paella, black ink with seafood, seafood, meat which has chicken and rabbit, and veggies. However, it wasn't just paella, we had our traditional lunch with several tapas for appetizers. By now, we are pros, and pace ourselves accordingly! Tapas of fried calamari, and papas Freitas. We then had a nice refreshing chocolate and vanilla ice cream cup for dessert, and Quique, the owner, was insistent that we sang for him and his staff.

Our first song was El Tio Pep. Within seconds, Quique had tears streaming down his face, his waitresses were videoing and motioned that they had chills on their arms. It was a moment that was truly touching. For the kids to be able to see the beautiful effect music has on others was truly amazing. It put a lot into perspective. Going along, from day to day, they are totally fun loving, normal energetic kids, but for them to be able to see the power of their sound, their music has on others, was spectacular. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our last dish of paella in España and were back on the bus, to head back to the conservatory for our closing circle, and then our final dinner with our Valencian families. 

As part of the closing circle, if Maestro's keeper is graduating, the keeper selects someone to pass Maestro on to.  Ben Nguyen picked Jeroen Breneman to pass Maestro onto.  Everyone was pleased with Ben's choice!

We were in for quite a treat for dinner. Our meal consisted of at least 25 tapas!! We began with olives, potato chips, papas fritas, baked potato, calamari, gazpacho, fish, fried mozzarella balls, salad... the plates kept coming! We couldn't believe our eyes. The food was fantastic, and the kids had a lot of fun talking with their homestays and us adults had a lot of fun talking with the parents. It felt like one big happy family, and we were all very sad knowing that we will be saying our goodbyes soon. For dessert, they surprised us with two chocolate cakes, one that said Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir on it. They were delicious. That night we ate to our hearts content. After cake, we sang a few songs together, and then being that it was the 4th of July, we sang our National Anthem for them, sharing a part of our traditions. 

The night was coming to an end rather quickly. A few of the chaperones started bringing the luggage downstairs to the lobby of the conservatory to be soon loaded on the bus. The kids played a few rounds of the pony game, and then it was finally time to say goodbye. 

All the kids were crying, both from the conservatory and ours. The close connections each of our singers made with their families was one they will never forget. A fantastic trip had by everyone in many different ways. The magic of music that brought us together in the first place is truly a gift, for these connections and memories will be held deeply in our hearts for years to come.

We brought our sleepy and slightly emotional singers to the hotel for our final night, and got them checked in by 10:30. We encouraged everyone to try to get a little sleep, for our wakeup call the next morning was 3:00AM!!!

Click through the slideshow below to view some highlights from today: