I finally reached my second hometown, Christchurch, by 5.30 pm on the 29th of August. I was greeted by my dear friend Theo and his lovely mother Liz and sister Bella. Even Libbie, their dog, recognized me and got really excited! That evening we just talked, walked the dog and caught up with the neighbors for the birthday party of a cousin.
The next day I couldn't wait to see my old school, Burnside High, again. Mrs. George was the only one in the International Office I knew, with Mrs. Brodie now working in Auckland and Mr. Mitchell retired. But by wandering around the school grounds I found Mr. Christeller, my Outdoor Education teacher, supervising his class repairing mountain bike tires. I still remembered this exact lesson and wondered how little had changed in those five years. It was as if I had never been gone at all!
My main destination was of course the Music Department. Almost everyone I had come to see was there, Mr. Atlas (SMP), Mr. Petch (Music and now Head of Department), Mr. Hurley (Performance Music) and Ms. Densem (choir). They were all very surprised to see me and I was greeted very heartily. Afterwards I sang in SMP again and the students asked me all sorts of questions. Mr. Atlas made it seem as if I was a professional singer already and I tried to do my best. SMP now consists of over 40 students, separated in Juniors and Seniors when in my days we were about 10 people in total! Five years is a whole high school cycle in New Zealand so the Year 9 students I had known had just left and the only ones that could remember me were the teachers...
The next day I returned my rental car and used the moment to have a look around the city center. The earthquake damages were still visible everywhere and although I could see dozens of builders I didn't think that they had gotten far in all this time. Many streets were still closed and half-collapsed buildings lined the streets. The container mall was still the same as well. What really disappointed me was the substitute cathedral, made of cardboard and hugely expensive. It was just a modern building with a cross hanging on the wall. You can imagine how glad I was when the synod finally decided to rebuilt the real one!
the ruin of the old cathedral
That evening Liz and I went to a concert of Bel Canto, Senior Chorale and Atlas Voices in the new venue, "The Piano". Mr. Atlas had offered me to join them but I wouldn't have had time for the rehearsals so I declined. They were really good though and every movement of Ms. Densem's conducting was so familiar, the shuffling, the voice matching, her gestures and of course the uniforms. All together sang the New Zealand premier of "Requiem for the Living" by Dan Forrest and their sound was amazing!
After I had congratulated everyone on their performance Liz took me to an Italian Restaurant to round off the evening.
Again I went to Burnside and had lunch with Ravil Atlas, his wife and Mr. Hurley in the teacher's room. After that I listened to Ravil's singing lessons. It's amazing how he can change from opera to musical theater so perfectly! At 3pm I watched the Bel Canto rehearsal but they only did some sight reading after their concert. Malestrom was more interesting: over 100 boys sang and performed a rousing war song while marching in complicated patterns through the room. Impressive!
After "school" I walked back to the house of the Mitchells, my former host family. I still knew every turn by heart and enjoyed the feeling of belonging. When they came to greet me I found that my three host sisters had grown up quite a bit. Beth, the oldest with now 13 years, had become a teenager, with her Laptop on her lap and trying to be mature. Katy was still a whirlwind and the stories she now writes are more creative than ever. And finally Julia, only 3 years old when I first met her, had changed so much that I barely recognized her at first. She still loved hugging though and so I had her around me the whole evening. For I was invited to stay for dinner and we played board games and talked for a long time. It was great to catch up again and I was looking forward to staying with them the next week.
Time could not wash away my picture completely... I still remember when we built this fort!
Tim and Lisa even lent me their old car and while it was so rusty that you even needed a raincoat inside when it was raining I was glad to have it, being so used to having one waiting outside the door just in case.
