el coro

As a student in Carlos III, I get the chance to participate in university activities, which includes clubs and sports teams as well. When we first got here, they gave us a presentation on what we could do. We could do anything from play tennis to be on a dance team to acting in their theater group. What caught my eye though was el coro, or the choir group. So I told Rocio, our director, that I wanted to participate and she talked to the director for me. I guess it was unusual because they usually don't let people join at this point because I'm only here for a couple months. Also, Rocio told me that right now in their coro they have twice the amount of girls they want and not enough men. However, for some reason the choir director let me go!

I wanted to participate really badly because I usually take gospel choir. When I heard the details of the choir, it didn't look as attractive. First of all, choir practice isn't in Getafe. They meet in Leganes, another Carlos III campus, so I had to find a way to get there. Second, practice is every Friday night from 6-10pm. 4 HOURS. On a Friday night. Interesting.

I decided to check out the coro anyway. I had already told Felix, one of the directors, that I would go and I didn't want to make our program look bad. He told me that my audition was at 5:45 before practice at 6. So I left at about 4:50. Goodness gracious it took a long time to get there. I had to take the Metro to Sol, switch to another line, go to Atocha and switch to another train, then go to another station and switch back to another Metro line. THANK GOODNESS I had my iPod touch. It has an app called "Metro" where you can download Metro systems from around the world. I just put in my starting Metro stop and where I wanted to end up, and after that it wasn't too hard. It just took an hour to get there, and that included me literally running to make every connection and barely making the next train. Each time, the train would arrive in the station right when I was descending the stairs. Let's just say I was a bit sweaty when I got to Leganes.

Before getting there, I had looked at Google maps to see the street view so that I could kind of see where I would end up. I knew that the building I needed to get to was across from a Burger King. When I got off the Metro, I saw a few people that looked like college kids, so I was a creeper and followed them. Jesus was definitely with me because after a brisk 10 or 15 minute walk, the street led me right to the Burger King, and there was the building right where it was supposed to be. I must have looked confused because the security guard inside showed me which rooms to go to and was really nice. I got there at exactly 5:45. Too bad the director wasn't on time. I waited about 15 minutes more for her to finish practicing with some guys. Finally my audition began.

She asked me what I was, and I told her that in gospel choir I'm usually a first soprano. She told me that she would probably put me as an alto because they have way too many sopranos. I thought that was interesting, since in gospel choir, the altos outnumber the sopranos, tenors, and bass put together. She played some exercises on the piano, and I sang along with the piano. I think she was testing my range and whether or not I could actually sing on key. Then she said to sing any song I wanted, and I had chosen "Always Forever" by Phil Wickham because that has been the song I've been listening to over and over lately. In the end I passed.

Then I joined the others. The choir has about 40-45 people but only like 23 people were there (sounds like gospel choir). It's SO different though. I was surprised because it was made up not only of college students but older people as well. Almost all of the other altos (except for maybe 3) were in their 40's and older. All the sopranos were college kids. So for the next 3 hours straight, we sang. We sang songs in Latin, so I felt like I was singing in a church or something. The thing about these kinds of songs is that even though it sounds beautiful when it's put together, it's also always depressing. Beautiful, but depressing. Then we had a 20 minute break, and I got to meet a few other people. I met Laura who was super nice and speaks pretty fluent English, and I met this other lady whose name I forgot who speaks a million miles an hour. I also met Eric, who is the other American in the choir. I guess he's from Vermont or something, but he's really good at playing the piano. Then for the next hour, we sang again. I love to sing, but I have to say that last hour felt like an eternity. I tried not to check the time every five minutes.

Also, for the first half practice was with only the women and we had a different director. That director was really nice and was patient with us. After the break when all the men and women were together, the director that auditioned me led it. She's more strict and has less patience for error. Seriously, she was going so fast through the music, I felt like my head was going to spin. She was seriously like, "Ok sing this. Sopranos good, altos again. Okay better, sing this now. All together. Ok good, next song." By 10pm, I was glad to get out of there. I was so tired. Now, I had to make the hour commute back to Madrid. At 11pm I finally made it home.

I don't think I'm going to join the choir. Not only is it far and at a weird time, but you have to come to every single practice every single Friday. We have weekend trips with our program and other things planned so I wouldn't be able to make it every week anyways. Plus I'd be gone every Friday from about 4:30-11pm. I'd rather do homework.

Well that was my experience with el coro. I think for now I'll just stick to singing in the shower and humming on the Metro on the way to school.

"Always Forever" by Phil Wickham