I’ve Got The Victory!
Hey, guys! Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while; school’s been really intense this week. I kind of set myself up for it though because I had two papers, a presentation, a course assignment progress report, and a test due this past week…and I didn’t work on it at all this weekend. But, I’m SO glad that I didn’t because I had an awesome weekend that made the stress of this week totally worth it!
I went to Cincinnati with Victory A Cappella!
This was our first road trip since I’ve been in Victory and I definitely want to do it again. We were invited to sing at an alumnus’ church so we took the 6-hour drive there and back for less than 24 hours in Cincinnati. The 6-hour drive wasn’t too bad, though, because I learned a new road trip game; it’s called contact! We played that for most of the ride. However, the best part of the drive was when I started to get antsy at about 5.5 hours and we reached downtown Cincinnati. I’ve never been there before, so it was great to be able to visually explore the city and see all its beautifully streamlined skyscrapers.
Once we arrived at Eric (our alumnus’) church, we practiced for about an hour before heading to Eric’s house for dinner. The families that were going to host us were there as well as Eric’s family, and we had a BBQ with TONS of homemade food. Since most of us hadn’t eaten a home-cooked meal since this summer, we were salivating the minute we walked in the door. The weirdest food I tried that night was the skyline dip–a Cincinnati specialty. Apparently you either absolutely adore it or hate it. I was in the aforementioned category. Eric’s family was so welcoming and kind-hearted, telling us that we needed to eat more than the two or three plates we each had. And, of course, after dinner we randomly broke into one of our favorite songs from last year, Baba Yetu (the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili). We sang it at Spotlight and so had it completely memorized. It was one of the most chill and beautiful times we had sung it. After dinner, we played several rounds of murder in the dark before heading to our host family’s house for bedtime. Our host family was also very sweet and accommodating.
The next morning, we had to get up at 7am to head to the church (that’s 6am central time!). Our first performance was slightly terrifying becuase I had a solo and was apprehensive about it. But it turned out great; the audience loved us and we performed well. We stayed for that serviced, practiced between it and the second and then performed a different set of songs for the contemporary service. I participated in that one, too, because it was more similar to my home church Ethos — where I go with my fabulous roommates Savanna and Dexy (you should read her blog!!) and my boyfriend and his friends from Lipscomb. We also performed at the final service and I feel like that was the best one we did all day. It had the most audience members, confidence in our performance, and well-warmed-up sound!
After that, we went out to a family-style Italian restaurant for lunch and just enjoyed each other’s company. A lot of our parents were able to come up to see us perform (not mine–silly Switzerland!). Then, we drove the 6 hours back, and I promptly collapsed in bed. It was a totally incredible weekend that made me appreciate my Victory family even more than before! :D Vandy is a great place for getting involved in whatever activity floats your boat and you make lasting relationships there!
…Until next time!