by Zach McRae '12

First I need to give a little more back ground information. So I will. The Catawba Singers are made up of 70+ singers of varying majors and interests. Our director is the fabulous and handsome Professor Paul Oakley, he joins us on this trip along with:

• The legendary accompanist Dr Robert Hallquist,
• the angelic soprano Professor Christina Pier,
• the sage-like Dr. Ken Clapp,
  
• heaven-sent Dr Renee McCachren,
  
• joyful Roseann Pannell,
  
• eloquent school representative Erin Phillips,
  
• And providers of the world's finest bus rides, Jasper and John  

Something else you must know about how we the Singers work, is well ... how we WORK. To divide the responsibilities of touring, all the students have been divided into committees. They include:

• Logistics (they do all the thinking, thank goodness) led by Rachel Mehaffey as Stage Manager
  
• Risers (they lift and load the risers so we look good on any stage) led by our Token Marine, Josh Owen
  
• CDs/Merchandise (hey, a choir's gotta make a living) led by Felicia Youngblood
  
• Goobers (no seriously- it comes from the clever acronym Get Outfits Off Bus, so I've heard) led by Zachary Roe
  
• Luggage (including me! you can probably guess what we do) led by future country icon Canaan Cox
  
• Hospitality (they take care of matters such as organizing letters of gratitude and program distribution) led by Alec Thompson
  
• And Spirit! (who keep up morale, provide activities, present awards and break into spontaneous song) led by Rob White (He's my roommate!)
  
• There are even three students assigned one each to our director, accompanist, and soprano as personal valets. (I assume they drew short straws or something.)

Day 1
From Catawba to Henderson, N.C.
 
I didn't quite get enough sleep this morning, and something tells me I wasn't alone in that. Anyhow, I managed to find the energy to perform despite it, and I was ready. And by ready, I mean ready at the buses at 8:00 in the morning and the freezing cold in what most students still consider winter break, but not us, we have work to do. And by work, I mean a leisurely bus ride to Greensboro, which included some catching up, small talk, announcements, and a small game of "Catchphrase." You know I think I have that game back home and I just never play it. Turns out it's pretty fun.

Our first destinations were two area high schools, North and Southeast Guilford High. In both cases, we had a small-ish turnout, but one that was happy to get out of class. I feel like we really impressed.

After the school performances, there was a general consensus of "Feed me!" We stopped at large mall complex where there existed many culinary choices. Under the pretense of being on the run from the adoring mob played by the rest of our bus, Rob, Danielle, Quinn, and I rushed into a restaurant we all thought looked pretty agreeable. It was Asian bistro called Red Bowl. What follows is a Reader's Digest-size review:

• Atmosphere - clean, relevant to Asian theme without feeling fake, dimly lit in a relaxing way,  overall classy;
  
• Price - reasonable;
  
• Service - friendly and timely;
  
• Food - between the four of us we ordered:
  • General Tso's Chicken (spiced well, unless you bite into one of the peppers)
  • Sesame Tofu (perfectly cooked with a delicious sauce)
    
  • a few assorted sushi plates (my only complaint was a couple of the fish were not fresh enough and suffered from mushiness)
    
  • but overall a very pleasant, clean meal, I give it my recommendation (especially the sweet potato roll).

That afternoon, we arrived at the First United Methodist Church of Henderson, N.C. We warmed up for our first church concert and got the picture of where we stood with our repertoire. Let's just say that dinner time came just in time. Dinner by the way was baked spaghetti with pepperoni. We had a bit of a small performance space, and it wasn't the easiest to sing in as far as acoustics go, but we had a very receptive crowd.

I was actually very excited to find my host family, drive back, and chat for a while, and even more excited to sleep in a comfy bed.

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