LivingBetter

Last night the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed in Kansas City, their
fifth city on a seven city tour of the Midwest United States. They
perform Saturday in Norman, Oklahoma and then next week in Denver
before returning home to Salt Lake City. http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/

I heard the Tabernacle Choir live for the first time forty-one years
ago when I attended my first General Conference of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. I've attended their concerts and
broadcasts on Temple Square in Salt Lake City numerous times since
then and in 2005 I heard the choir on tour in Boise, Idaho. Their
Sunday morning CBS broadcast (now in its 80th year) focuses mainly on
sacred music. These tours (like last night's concert) combine the
sacred and secular in a mix of music that will suit most everyone's
taste.

Ten years ago the Mormon Tabernacle Choir began performing with the
Orchestra at Temple Square. On previous tours and previous occasions
the choir might have joined with other orchestras for one or two
concerts. However, this is a permanent situation. Although the
product is excellent, I think the arrangement has changed the nature
of the choir presentation. At times the orchestra takes over and
becomes the dominant feature, dwarfing the choir. For example, when
the music reached a crescendo in last night's presentation, the force
of the orchestra dominated the choir, so at times they could barely be
heard. Nothing is more beautiful as when the voices in a choir show
true range and flexibility as was demonstrated on several of their
pieces last night which were sung acappella such as "Rock-a-My Soul."
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic," their signature number, was weak
in comparison because the orchestra overshadowed the choir.

This problem may have been increased because we sat on the top row in
the back of the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The Sprint Center seems
to have acoustical problems. We had to rely on a poor public address
system rather than hearing the true sounds of the choir and orchestra.
My experience in Boise was much better, probably because the venue at
Boise State University was smaller and we sat closer to the choir and
musicians.

I've just returned from four weeks and a day in Europe. The time went
by too quickly, although I must say it is nice to come home. I should
have done a better job keeping up posts on my blog. However, the
Internet was not always reliable and I did have some more interesting
things to do. During the next couple of weeks I will post some
suggestions for traveling in Europe and share some tidbits about some
of the places we went to.

I'm now waiting for my wife's plane to get into the Kansas City
airport. She decided while I was in Europe that she would join me.
She found some excellent fares within a week of leaving, but couldn't
arrange to travel with me but once. (This is a great year to go
overseas - fewer tourists and lower fares.)

Our paths crossed in Barcelona, Spain. And this was a surprise to me.
She had sent her itinerary, but somehow I missed it in my email. I
kept asking how we would meet up and she told me she would find me.
Our final destination was Sevilla. I was sitting reading, waiting for
my flight in Barcelona, and someone called my name. I looked up and a
camera flashed. Melanie arranged to be on the same flight from
Barcelona to Sevilla. What a nice surprise. We were able to spend
three great days in Seville and another five days in Paris.

Actually this was our first full day in Athens. I've found the food
is great - and not too costly if you are careful about where you eat.
Our first night we went to a local restaurant where I had a Greek
salad and the tastiest mousaka. One of its main ingredients is
eggplant. I couldn't even tell there was eggplant. The price was 9
Euros. On Friday we spent the early afternoon at the Acropolis (12
Euros) and then walked. We walked for eight hours until I got a
blister on the one foot. By six o'clock we were starving. In the
flea market we found a small counter restaurant that served cheap
food. We ate Greek salad and had a plate of five or six kinds of
meat. The cost was 10 Euros. Both times the meals were much more
than I could eat. My traveling companion is a big man - high energy
needs. He says when his father travels with him his father always
puts on weight. I'm going to have to start eating less and let him
eat what he wants. I bought a kilo of cherries at the open street
market for 3 Euros. I washed them and so Saturday that's what I will
eat all day.

We made all our airline connections, but barely. Only because every
plane we took was late taking off. The plane was late getting into
Kansas City and then had to change a part. In Newark we had to take
the shuttle bus from one terminal to the other. By taking the bus we
avoided going through security again. That was good. We barely made
the plane so didn't get to go to the toilet (the word they use in
Europe). In fact the nearby toilets were all closed. When we got on
the plane, we waited over a half hour in a warm cabin while mechanics
changed out parts in the air conditioning system. The plane circled
in London for half hour so we were late getting into Heathrow. We
walked a good distance to get to terminal 2 for our next flight. We
went through security again. Much more relaxed, although serious. We
didn't have to go through customs and immigration. This time I was
sure to use the toilet even though we were late. We got to our gate
about 10 minutes before scheduled take off. We waited at the gate.
The plane was 45 minutes late getting off. Everyone is late on both
ends, but don't depend on that. An older couple in Newark missed
their plane. From the loud complaints we heard it was obviously
upsetting. The airline people didn't show much empathy either. "It
wasn't our fault. You'll have to take it up with them," they said.

I survived the night flight of 6 1/2 hours because we had lots of
movies to watch. I watched Last Chance Harvey, Inkheart, and Dial M
for Murder. I lost the last few minutes of Dial M for Murder. The
flight attendants were great on all our flights. Friendly and
helpful. I was dehydrated by the time I got to London, though. I
should have brought or bought a bottle to refill with water at water
fountains. In London we had to go through security so would have lost
our water, but not our bottles. I brought snack bars, but only ate
one. There was plenty of food on the flights. The flight from Kansas
City had a snack plate with several items. On the flight over the
Atlantic we had two meals. Pasta and meatballs for dinner and fruit
for breakfast. The person in the neighboring seat didn't want her
salad so I had two. Olympic Airlines offered pasta and meat, salad
and pastry. I asked for water and a can of juice at each meal. The
secret is ask for the can and you get more liquid. I didn't drink the
soda pop and caffeine drinks. They destroy you immunity and keep you
awake.

Yay Dad. I am so happy for you and jealous. Of course your hotel was 5 minutes away. That is always what happens. What movies did you watch that kept you up your whole flight. I am excited to see pictures and hear more details later. Love you lots. Remember to think of Jacob tomorrow. You can yell a shout out to him. Maybe we'll hear it from here. Have fun and enjoy every second of your trip.

Love,
Angelene

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Elliott and I are spending our first night in Athens. We had quite an
experience finding our hostel, but eventually after taking a bus and
the metro, we took a taxi. When we got the taxi, we were five minutes away from the hostel.
It cost us 5 Euros for the taxi. The bus from the airport was packed
with tourists. Cost 3.20. Metro was 1 Euro. On the bus we sat near a woman from
Winnipeg. She was a pharmacist, one year out of school, taking her first European vacation on her own. No one we asked knew where the address was on a map. They
didn't even want to help. However, most everyone we asked were
immigrants. Not very helpful. Finally we asked a beautiful blond
woman, who spoke great English. She was Greek and knew the city. She went out of her way to help us. Temperature is about 80 degrees. A good time to come to
Greece. The deskman at the Athens International Hostel speaks good
English and knows the city. We're discovering how really helpful and friendly the Greeks are.

The trip went a lot faster than I would have thought. I watched 3
movies from Newark to London and slept from Heathrow to Athens. The
food was good on Olympic Airlines. Lamb with pasta, salad and filo
pastry. A touch of Greece. Elliot thought the baklava was too sweet so gave me his.

One suggestion. I put my backpack in a duffel bag with rollers. It
was hard to maneuver through crowds. I should have just carried my
backpack on my back. It would have been easier.

Ef-ha-ri-sto, John

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