TEXAS IS HOT!

We got back to my all-time favourite school when on tour: Little Elm High School in Little Elm, a small town in the outskirts of Dallas.
We have been coming here for the last couple of years, and the school is absolutely fabulous. So are our hosts Frank Felice (the band director) and his assistant Celeste Sosa. They are the best!

We got to the school at the crack of dawn, and Mr Sosa offered to do Wall-Mart/Starbucks runs for the members with the school van early morning before we did brunch just like he did the last couple of years.

The school is pretty new. It was only built about 6 years ago. It's HUGE! And not only the building, but the classrooms, the gym, the band room... everything was built providing plenty of space. just the hallway itself is impressive!

The school, just like most High Schools in America, offer a wide variety of extra activities in addition to the regular weekly schedule. The auditorium/theatre in the school seats about 550 people I'd say. There are quite a few city theatres in The Netherlands that would be jealous of this. If I only think of theatre "de Willem", which is situated within a school in our neighbouring town of Papendrecht... That really is NOTHING when compared to what this school has to offer!

Then there are several gyms, dedicated to different sports programmes. The corps was sleeping in one of the main gyms, and the color guard used the other one for their sectional. We could all use the cafetaria (which was wonderfully air-conditioned!) for brunch and for dinner.

At brunch the MONSTER-truck shows up. "MONSTER" is the very popular high-energy drink. One of the Blue Devils alumni members is the regional manager for Monster in the Dallas area, and comes by the school every year when BD is in town. All members get free cans of Monster. What a great gesture. He used to promote the product in the parking lot at the stadium too. Free cans for everyone! Yeah!
For us (Devils Food) he had a special delivery - coffee flavoured! - and made sure two containers made it to our fridge! Great stuff!

Today the corps had a two-block rehearsal. During the day they stayed at the field next to the school, but after dinner they all went to the beautiful and impressive school district stadium, about a mile from the school. And the district only has ONE school, so Little Elm HS pretty much " owns" the place!

In the afternoon we went to the Wall-mart which is nearby and spent about an hour cruising the store. I like it when we actually get a chance to do some errands ourselves. Dinner was all ready waiting to be put in the ovens, and we had plenty of time! The temperatures here in Texas are known to be high, and today was no exception. It was about 101 degrees outside! Bloody HOT!

After dinner I got a ride to the stadium with Andrew Rogers' mom Liz (who helped out in the kitchen these days) and saw the evening rehearsal. BD are changing the ending of the show. They learnt the music today, and the drill is being adapted as they go. The color guard had most problems learning the new drill, equipment and dance, so they probably won't perform it yet tomorrow! We'll see what happens!



Snack was another one of the corps' favourites: ICE CREAM BAR!


Numerous jars of ice cream were out on the tables with an incredible variety of toppings.: chocolate, sprinkles, walnuts, peanuts, M&Ms, Skittles, gummy bears, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, strawberry sauce, caramel,... you name it.. it was out there!

Lights out at 11:30 PM. Well,... for the members that is,.. we stayed up a little later!

Enjoy,

HK