A wonderful trip

Hopefully our last three members will arrive home today, had a misstep in the Glasgow airport delaying them.

I had a great time and hope I was able to keep the parent's at home and other family member's apprised for what we have been up to on our trip. I so enjoyed all the kids and parents and while I felt at time we were running on empty (energy wise) I found it a wonderful memorable trip.

Raising hands ...paco paco paco to one and all

Last Day in Edinburgh

Rest of the photos are at http://nelsonphoto.smugmug.com/Theater/Edinburgh-fringe-Festival-2010/Last-day-in-Edinburgh/13350942_rZMay#970653581_W6aBH will be uploading over next couple hours.

We had a good last day. Everyone had lots of free time, our only "scheduled" events was a closing ceremony, lunch and our celebration dinner at Merchants. Everyone took in some last minute site seeing. Here are a few photos of what my group went to see, and the rest of mine will be uploading here in a minute.

We were also doing Taylor's senior photos, so we had a lot of fun running around.

We will be boarding buses at 5:30 am and driving to Glasgow. We are on BA1447 from Glasgow to London landing at 10:15 am. We have a lay over until 2:00 London time when we board BA 287 and head toward home. Its funny we leave London at 2 pm London time and are scheduled to arrive at 4:45 pm in San Francisco. We will be picked up my Emerald Charter at that time and will head north toward good old Oregon . We are all sad to leave Scotland but ready to return home.

Saturday in Edinburgh

We had a mostly free morning this am. Students did laundry, packed a bit, or took in a show, or ate breakfast and then took in a nap.

At 1 we took in the show "And Justice for All" from Broxville high school. It was actually two short plays, the I liked the first one much better than the second but thought the acting was very good.

A bus takes us to see the shows we are scheduled to see and we always get there a little early as we ride with the cast and they get some time to set up. In the bottom of the venue we perform at is a place called Looney Lorna's Tea House. Very good tea and a lot of us end up in there when we have time. I am a long time tea drinker, but I think some of the kids have taken to the English "Tea time" http://www.loopylornas.com/da/86375

Our last show was at 7 pm and while it was not a huge group there to see it (we are spoiled after yesterday's crowd) a middle aged woman sat alone in the seats and turned to me after the show and said "I have seen dozens of shows this week and that was by far the best I have seen" She could have been our only audience member that was so wonderful to hear.

We all then went back to the dorms and ordered pizza as we had been at our show during dinner time. We all sat around in the practice room and had a good old sharing session.

as Matthew said " No amount of words could explain what this experience has meant to each person who has been involved in it, but we have all be changed by it" We laughed together, we cried together, and we shared our feelings together.

Tomorrow we have a ending ceremony lunch, and then the casts out for a celebration dinner. The rest of our day will be pretty free for students to pack, do last minute shopping, or attend shows. We will all enjoy our last day in Scotland.

Monday we board the bus at 5:45 am to head for Glasgow and the plane home.

Great show today and the Tattoo was fabulous!

We had a large crowd at the show today and they had a wonderful reaction to it. I always enjoy sitting in the back and watching people's reactions. There were several moments where students who were watching turned and looked at each other with a reaction of knowledge.

They were very supportive after and gave a long stand ovation, followed by a second one as the actors left the studio. Was very wonderful.

We went as a group to the Military Tattoo and had such a good time. The photos above are a sampling from it and the rest will be uploading overnight. Please know that I was sitting in the stands, in the dark and with a slow lens, so they might not be crystal clear but more of an idea of what we saw.

The other photos in this group (which will upload) include some taken while waiting for shows, or on the bus. Two more days here, can't believe it went so fast! Our last show is tomorrow, Sunday is our closing ceremonies and Monday we fly home.

Ceilidh Dance and Royal Mile Performance

I am uploading photos from the Ceilidh dance on Tuesday night and the Royal Mile performance yesterday. http://nelsonphoto.smugmug.com/Theater/Edinburgh-fringe-Festival-2010

Sorry they took so long to get up, been a busy couple of days.

Tomorrow's performance is 3 pm to 5 then we will race back eat dinner and join the Q for the Military Tattoo.

2nd Show was wonderful!

We had our second show today to a pretty good sized audience. I would say twice the size of our audience for the first show. They laughed at all the right places and everyone seemed to enjoy the show.

We all went to see "Greater Tuna" today which was very funny. Seemed to be about Tuna Texas and the small town happenings. From the local radio show, to the lady who was killing all the dogs and accidental poisoned her husband's $2000 hunting dog.

A lot of kids stayed after our show tonight to see either "The Wiz" or another show.

Lots of rain today, with broken blue sky from time to time.

Tonight at 10 we are having "pizza tea" in the AHSTF office, not sure what that is but I am sure we will find out.

We may all be talking funny when we come home, between "bugger" and "wee bit" and french fries being "chips" a lot of us have picked up some the "Scot" language.

No Tatoo for us tonight

There was some sort of a mix up so we ended up with Military Tattoo Tickets for Friday night instead of tonight. Many of us were able to change our plans for things were were planning on doing Friday night for tonights instead.

Several students went to plays, a couple to the Ghosts and Ghoul's show inside the vaults under the city.

Samantha's cold has moved to Kevin, so he spent most of his day resting. He was feeling well enough to come out for dinner :)

We went this am and saw "A Western Guild to Theatre" which everyone really enjoyed. The actors were so happy with our groups laughing and carrying on during their show they asked if we could come every day. They also promised to come to ours one evening. They came out and talked with the students for some time and it was a good exchange.

We then ran down the road and around the corner and took in "An Adult evening of Shel Silversteen put on by Billerica Memorial High School in MA. We enjoyed that as well.

Tomarrow we take in "Greater Tuna" and perform again at 5:15.