Final hugs as the touring choir separates for the summer.
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Day 11
Thur., July 8, 1999
Back to the USA! We left the hotel later than we had planned, due to bus-loading problems, but still made it to Gatwick Airport in time (with the girls singing 'Oo-ee-oo-ah-ah' and 'We love to party' on the way!). Security at the airport, however, took a tremendous amount of time -- we were all quizzed and frisked and had several carry-on bags thoroughly searched, and we had to show our passports and boarding passes at three different locations before we could board the plane. With 76 people, this took quite a bit of time! We all got on safe and sound, however, and had a long but uneventful flight to Philadelphia. Once there, however, our plane was held away from the gate for about half an hour, and our time was already tight. By the time we got into the airport, we only had one and a half hours to get our luggage, get all of us through customs, recheck our bags, and get on the plane! Thanks to U.S. Airways assistance, we made it with time to spare. We flew to Atlanta, picked up our luggage, boarded our buses, and fell asleep immediately. It had been 20 hours since our wake-up call in London -- a long day indeed.
We arrived in Chattanooga at 12:30 a.m. and were greeted with cheers and flowers by our families. Hugs and tears and laughter were everywhere! Plans were made to reunite in a few weeks to share photos and memories of the trip.
It's been a wonderful, exhausting, exciting, challenging experience. We've had some girls quarrel, and some girls had brief stomach problems (food poisoning in France?), and some girls (and chaperones!) got homesick; but also the girls made new friends, and some learned to cope with new and difficult situations, and some got a much broader understanding of the world, and some just learned to appreciate what they'd left behind at home! It's been a very rewarding experience to travel with these exceptional girls.
We intend to keep these pages available as long as space permits (at least until next summer). Hopefully, we'll be able to do this again on our next tour. Thanks for following us on the web!
-- Amy Campbell
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Final hugs as the touring choir separates for the summer.
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Main Page | History | Directors | Auditions | Tours | Calendar | Choir News