DZIĘKUJĘ POLSKA!

We return triumphant.

After what has to be one of the most amazing foreign trips of my TEFL-riddled lifetime, I am now safely back in small-town Brazil, weak limbed with jet lag, but with several songs on my brain, several Poles in my heart, and a sharp aftertaste of Żubrówka in my throat.

It was an often tearful tour, such as when we arrived at our bed and breakfast establishment on the first night exhausted from our 14-hour journey and mustered what strength we had to sing a song for our hosts. Amid open weeping, I have to admit the emotion-charged atmosphere brought a tear to my eye, but that could have been due to the fact that I'd been supressing a bowel movement for the previous twenty-something hours.

Another highlight was singing Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium in a room at Malbork Castle where choirs have been performing since the fifteenth century, but what will mark me always is the reception we received from our Polish counterparts, who were the most gracious of hosts and made sure we wanted for nothing throughout our stay in their country. As I predicted in my pre-match post, our choir won over the locals with its charisma, positive energy and sense of fun, even if, as the only amateur choir performing amongst professional and university ensembles, we were a little way behind in technical terms. Having said that, we were awarded a bronze diploma in each of the three categories in which we competed in the festival, no mean feat for our first attempt in any kind of contest.

Also, I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life, as the natural playfulness and lack of alcohol-fuelled aggression of the Brazilian is a delight to partake of, and is certainly contagious for those with whom they come into contact.

I also expect to gain a number of new private students for English classes, especially one of our troupe, who went white after a scorching Czech girl from another choir whispered a husky, "Let's go" to him at the end of festival party. "No! No!" he replied, thinking she was informing him that she was going home, which she in turn understood as a rejection of her saucy advances, and rightly stormed off. He spent the rest of the evening searching for her amongst 800 frumpy choristers, but, sadly for him, the curtain had already fallen.

Congratulations have to go to the University of the Philippines Singing Ambassadors Choir, who deservedly won every category in the festival and the prize for Best Choir. We really are not worthy.