HIGH LIFE : Singing Sojourn : European Tour Broadened and Bonded 100 Members of Musical ‘Family’

One-hundred people, who at the beginning of the summer were relative strangers, bonded through 70 hours of singing and three weeks of traveling to become a family.

With 92 parents, 42 sisters and 26 brothers, we may not be the typical family unit, but after Orange High School’s 1988 European Vocal Music Concert tour, there is no doubt that family is what we are.

We left Los Angeles July 14 after being told time and again what we should expect in Europe, what the tour would be like, and how close we would become.

One of the first lessons we learned, however, was to expect the unexpected.

We had been promised a block of seats in the nonsmoking section of our flight, but it turned out we were scattered throughout the plane. Most ended up in the smoking section, and one even got to sit in first class.

Sherri Whitley, a June graduate of Orange High, sat in the middle of a team of field hockey players from India.

“They were curious about us and wanted us to sing for them,” Whitley said. “Actually, they wanted me to, but I wouldn’t sing by myself so some others sang with me.

“Then the team sang to me--’Sherry, baby’--and even gave us autographed booklets and called us marangues, which means orange.”

Twelve hours later, we arrived in London’s Heathrow Airport. It was noon there but only 4 a.m. in California. However, most of us were wide awake with excitement. Those who weren’t woke up fast because right after we picked up our luggage, everyone was evacuated because of a bomb scare.

The next morning, Saturday, gave us our introduction to the European tourist’s standard meal--the continental breakfast. Ours soon became a love-hate relationship with the hard roll--some tried to see how many days they could avoid the rock-solid ball of yeast, others looked forward to their daily jaw-breaking exercises.

Later in the day, we toured London. Westminster Abbey was the tour’s highlight. Poet’s Corner was a particular delight for those who had studied British literature. The only upsetting thing about many of the sights we saw--the Abbey, crown jewels and some of the cathedrals--was that photography was forbidden. Senior Anna Pezzetti advised us to “take mental pictures. . . . Photographs don’t always come out the way you expect them to, but your memories do.”

We held our first European concert that night at St. Mary’s Church in Isleworth, just outside of London. There was a decent crowd and we were nervous about their reaction, but they were appreciative and even held a post-concert reception for us.

On Sunday, some of us went to Camden Market, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the London Dungeon.

One place that everyone ended up visiting was the original Hard Rock Cafe in London.

By the end of our stay in London, we were used to seeing people drive “on the wrong side of the road”; however, one thing we couldn’t get used to was how recklessly Europeans drive.

“I’m most surprised by the fact that everyone made it through Europe alive,” senior Nimisha Gohil said. “I mean, in France, they parked their cars on the sidewalks, and you can’t even cross the streets in Italy.”

During Monday’s boat ride to France, Michael Short, our choir director, decided we needed practice, so we all met below deck to rehearse. It was amazing the crowd we drew for our impromptu “performance,” and it made us feel good when they applauded us despite our mistakes and embarrassment.

It wasn’t until Short told us about our Paris schedule that we realized how little free time this tour would give us. That evening we took a boat tour of the Seine River. Tuesday morning included a guided tour of the city, and that evening we performed at the Basilica du Sacre Coeur.

“I had heard about the guys in Paris,” said Traci Nichols, a recent graduate, “but until I was kissed by one, I didn’t believe they would just come up and kiss you when they wanted to.”

On Wednesday, we were off and running again, this time to Strasbourg, France. One thing the tour did allow us was a lot of time to think, make friends and relax--specifically while we were on the road from city to city.

“The tour brought out the human side in all of us,” graduate Doreen Degenhardt said. “Being on a bus nine hours, getting up at 5:30 a.m. during the summer and eating hard rolls for breakfast is real dedication for any family.”

After Strasbourg, we traveled to Lucerne, Switzerland. On Friday, we performed at the Lucerne Music Pavilion, which was a large, outdoor choral shell near a park. We drew a large audience from the many passers-by.

We spent our second Saturday traveling to Milan, Italy, where the heat and humidity were oppressive.

As if this wasn’t enough, the hotel we stayed in had only a few air-conditioned rooms, poorly working elevators and inadequate dining facilities. We ended up walking half a mile in the sweltering heat to get to dinner, although running was more appropriate in order to avoid being a hit-and-run victim.

We next visited Venice, which left us with a much nicer impression of Italy.

Venice was probably the most unique place we toured, since we had to use a boat to do so. On Monday, we visited St. Mark’s Square.

That night we performed in Noale, a small town outside Venice. The concert was scheduled at the last minute because another we had planned fell through. With only two days’ notice, the town built a stage for us, got us gifts, printed a program of our songs and planned a post-concert reception.

We left Venice on a nine-hour bus ride to Salzburg, Austria. We arrived at 5 p.m., were shuffled off to dinner and then performed at 6 p.m.

The concert took place at the Cathedral of Mondsee, which is called the Sound of Music Chapel because the wedding scene for the movie “Sound of Music” was filmed there.

Wednesday was probably our most relaxing day. In the morning we toured Salzburg, and the afternoon was free for browsing and shopping.

That evening, sophomore Jennifer Bayer was rushed to a hospital, where she was diagnosed as having appendicitis. She rejoined the group after remaining in Salzburg five days after her operation with Short’s wife, Vicki.

“Most people leave their hearts in San Francisco,” Bayer later said, “but I left my appendix in Austria.”

The hotel at our next stop--Budapest, Hungary--might not have been the most modern, but it wasn’t lacking for much. Our rooms had television sets, radios, mini-refrigerators and showers, which was more than we had anywhere else we stayed.

Our last performance was on Sunday at a Lutheran Church in Budapest, where we sang as part of the evening service. For many of us, it was our last performance as part of a choir. We wanted to make it a memorable experience and it was.

“The best part of the tour was the visit to Hungary,” senior Patti Aldrich said. “I learned that the more our countries communicate, the better we’ll understand each other, and the more barriers will be broken.”

The next morning were on our way to Heidelberg, West Germany--our last stop before heading home.

We had our tour awards dinner that night in Heidelberg. Everyone received at least one certificate. The honors included the “Typhoid Mary” award, which went to junior Tricia Dannenbring for giving nearly everyone her cold and laryngitis, and the “Casanova” award, which went to senior Kevin Archambault.

From Heidelberg to New York to Los Angeles to Orange High, we arrived home--half-asleep--at midnight on Aug. 3. But as tired as we were, we knew we had experienced and learned a great deal.

One of the most important things we learned stemmed from a running joke: When we arrived in London, a lot of us joked that we had simply circled LAX and returned. Why? Because everything looked the same.

It didn’t take us long to realize that Europe isn’t that much different from America. A tree in the Black Forest looks the same as a tree in Big Bear, and a poodle in France isn’t any different from one in Beverly Hills. Most of all, we realized that a person is a person, whether he is from Camden or Costa Mesa, Salzburg or Santa Ana.

“People are the same all over the world,” senior Ariana See said. And that was the most important lesson we learned on a tour that saw a group of 100 become a family.