Day 4!

Ok! Well I have some catching up to do!

Day 4:) Tuesday! March 15!

Our day off! We left for Busch Gardens and got there right when it opened. Kirstie, Jay, Wes, Diana and I set off for some roller coasters, and we screamed a lot, even though we’re on a CHOIR tour, and supposed to be saving our voices… why we went to an amusement park on a day off is beyond me, but ahhh what a wonderful day it was!

Eventually Izzy, Trina and Jonee met up with us, and we went to some acrobat show, which was amazing. We went on more roller coasters, and had basically the time of our lives. We goofed off and had so much fun. Pictures will be on Facebook soon I’m sure.

When we left Busch Gardens after a long and full and fantastic day, we went to eat. Zach, Michael, and Josh met up with Trina, Jay, Haley, Jeff, Jonee and I for dinner, since they’re spring breaking in Tampa as well. It was just so funny that people from all over Greenville met up for even just an hour and a half.

We left and went to the church where we met out hosts for the night. We were in St. Petersburg last night, but only to meet our hosts. We actually don’t sing there till Thursday, the 17th.

Alright. Every tour, you can expect at least one “bad” host home experience. And it wasn’t exactly that it was bad. It was just really awkward, and very uncomfortable at times. And I’m going to refrain from using names, just for the sake of possibly being a little kinder if at all possible.

Let’s call “her” Sally. Ok, so Sally shows up when our names are called for who is staying with who for the night. Realize that most of this area are retirement communities. Sally didn’t seem very old at all. She seemed sweet, and kinda fun. She helped us get our things in her car, and we were on our way. When she was outside the car walking to the front seat, I whispered to Kirstie and Trina that I think she was gonna be a host we would stay up talking and joking with all night. We hadn’t really had one of those, besides Diane the night before. Ahh, Diane and Greg were hilarious. Loved. Them.

So, on our way to her house, she started talking about her fiancée. Let’s call “him” Henry. Sally told us about Henry already, saying he was from Illinois. It gave the impression he was still in Illinois, for whatever reason. She mentioned a few things about him, and we realized Sally was kinda quiet, and besides quiet, a little timid. We tried to warm up to her, and allow her to warm up to us as well, and tried starting more conversation in the five-minute drive to her home.

Right before we pulled into her house, Sally blurted out that her fiancée lives with her. While this is obviously something the three of us wouldn’t exactly claim to be “right,” we tried to cover up the awkward reaction by saying we were excited to meet him and things like that. Sally seemed genuinely awkward, and almost apologetic. Obviously we were 3 girls from a Christian college… most people know it typically isn’t “accepted” to live with someone if you’re not married. We tried to be kind and a blessing to her though.

We small talked with Henry when we walked in, and he helped us get our bags up the stairs. We had a choice between 2 rooms. One room had bunk beds, and another had a queen-sized bed. The night before, Trina didn’t exactly love sleeping all three of us in a queen bed. So we figured we’d split between the two rooms with the 3 of us.

We took showers, and noticed it was a little dirty in the bathroom. The towels had some weird stains on them. We aren’t exactly complainers, though we did take notice.

Kirstie and I went downstairs and talked to Sally and Henry for a little while, while Trina was in the shower. We noticed right away that Henry knows EVERYTHING. Or thinks he does. Or at least speaks as if he does. Sally was extremely subdued, and hardly said a thing, and kept looking down the whole time. They got us some juice and a soda can and we eventually moved into the living room and chatted. Trina came down, and got a glass of water and we chatted for a little while longer.

The conversation has several awkward pauses, filled with “yeah…” type of sighs that attempted to cover any uncomfortable-ness.

When we retreated to the bedrooms, we all agreed we needed each other, and didn’t want to be alone. We all felt a sense of unrest in the house. Like something was slightly amiss. Something just felt odd, and we didn’t want to be apart.

So yea. We all 3 slept in a queen again.

There was just something rather odd about the manner that Sally hardly spoke, and acted really odd when Henry was around. We figured it to be the fact that they were not married and living together tied with the fact that we came from a “conservative” (as she told him in front of us) Christian school.

Another odd thing was that they didn’t feed us. Now that may seem childish to mention that, but it’s choir tour. Host homes feed and feed and feed. She didn’t know I was gluten intolerant. The host homes get descriptions about us to be ready, but we guessed they didn’t see that or something.

It was weird that they had this huge pool in the back yard and a hot tub, which Henry was out by roasting marshmallows before he came inside. It was just sort of odd that they didn’t invite us to do anything, and just sort of sat there and sent us off eventually. It was just a different experience.

When we went to bed, we noticed weird stains on the pillows, and a kinda gross smell on the sheets in the bed. Whenever anyone moved we got a whiff of whatever it was. We were glad to get back to the church the next morning. And so was Day 4!