“Hola! Como estas?” is a phrase that choir students will be saying more frequently in the summer of 2014 as it was announced last week that the choir trip this year will be to the country of Spain. The trip includes five nights touring and playing on the beach in Barcelona, sightseeing in Valencia, and performing in Zaragoza. The group will leave June 8, 2014 and return home June 14, 2014.

After the announcement, sophomore Siri Bruhn was ecstatic.

“I was super excited because I’ve never been to Spain before and I’ve heard that it’s beautiful. It’s going to be awesome, so I was absolutely thrilled,” Bruhn said. The interesting thing about the choir trip this year is that it is in June, instead of spring break like it has been for the past couple of years.”

Because of this date change as well as the fact that students had to commit to going by last Wednesday, several choir students have found themselves unable to go.

“I was definitely excited when I heard about this trip,” junior Karina Kitchen said, “but the deadline for telling our choral director whether we were going to go or not really didn’t give me or my parents enough time to think about it.”

The trips, like a recent cruise to Mexico, are taken by RBHS choir students each year and alternate between a choir trip and a show choir trip, which is usually to perform at show choir nationals.

Some of the students like sophomore Alex Carranza have been to Spain before with their families and are thrilled to be able to experience the country a second time.

“When I was there [my family] was only there for 2 days, we like basically did the tourist thing,” Carranza said. “I want to see the small things that we skipped over and that no one ever pays attention to. I want to see all of that. I want to go to the beach and do all that stuff and see new people and meet new people.”

Mike Pierson, the director, was especially excited when he decided to choose this trip as he hopes that the majority of his students will take this unique trip to a foreign country.

“It’s a great enrichment opportunity, it’s maybe an opportunity for them to get to go to a country that they may not get to go to the rest of their lives-or at least as long as they are a student,” Pierson said. “It’s definitely an opportunity that they may never get experience again since they will get to perform in some of the cathedrals and experience some of the culture there.”

By Mikayla Bessey