Rock Concert by a Minister!

June 14, 2012

Rock Concert by a Minister !

Last night I ate at the Beijing Restaurant at University and Euston and it was only my second day in Charlottetown! I though I could lose some weight by just eating fruits and vegetables for these 3 weeks but it didn't last long. I had some dumpling and shredded potatoes and chile chicken; it was yummy! Great that you can find Chinese restaurants almost anywhere you travel these days.

When I walked back to my hostel I had new room mates in my room. Doreen, from Vancouver, Sau, from Hong Kong, Sarco, from Japan and another lady from Germany. They are with a tour group called Moose Travel Network. They started their 21 days east coast tour from Toronto and their itinerary sound very interesting and the cost is pretty reasonable, around $2,200.00. with almost everything included except for a few dinners and lunches. I need to check it out!

I worked at the library today doing research on the PEI school system. I did a lot of reading today trying to learn about the PEI schools and the French Immersion program. I was quite impressed by some part of their early childhood education philosophy. I will definitely include that in my writing. Sarah, the librarian, was very helpful. She suggested ways for me to organize my written material and helped me with some computer technical skills so that I could retrieve my written work easily. I look forward to start putting a framework and the outline of my book tomorrow!

After working the whole day, I made sure that I was back at the hostel, ate dinner and went to the concert on time at the Trinity United Church at Richmond and Prince St. The concert was supposed to start at 7:00pm but there were not a lot of people there. I did not know what to expect for I only got the information from the church board outside,  in concert - Keith Gale and the Heretics, what a name for a band!

The music was loud ! It was definitely rock music! No mistake about that. I am in PEI and I kinda expected to hear country or island music talking about fishing, farmers' daughters, drunken sailors and goofing around with you know whom etc.  I would never guessed that it was a band playing Christian music, with a lady drummer ( who turns out the sister of the singer), another lady on the keyboard and three guitarists including the singer, Keith.  The tunes and mood of the music were very rock band like with lights flashing on the stage/ altar with very powerful loud speakers indeed. No wonder I had never gone to a rock concert until now. You need to really like rock music to stand the loudness. Since this was the first concert I attended on the island, I decided to stay till the end. I guess you could get used to anything once when you have decided to stay with it. The music actually got better. Keith bellowed out his lyrics with gusto, stopped short of bouncing on the stage while his and the other guitarists' fingers flying on their guitars.  The audience got into it too. Two elderly ladies sitting before me even got up, started swinging and clapping their hands. Then a couple of ladies stood up and joined them. It was kind of fun.

I found put that the singer, Keith is a minister at the Memorial United Church on PEI and he and the band are doing a tour on the island and other parts of the Maritime cities. Keith just recorded a CD and was selling it at $10.00 each with the proceed donating to a church project. I bought one too. Hope they would have collected enough donations at the end of their tour to cover their expenses.

 This is one thing I truly admire Canadians - just go ahead and do the things you love to do!. Don' t be afraid of failure. The turn out of the audience might not be too great, but these guys were doing what they love to do and gaining great experience and having a lot of fun while doing it. Why not? Sometimes, we are too afraid of failures and keep postponing our projects and we end up doing nothing and life just passes us by. No pain, no gain! What are we afraid of?

I thought about my loved ones in Toronto, and in New York. I miss them already. Hope everything goes well with them. This is almost the end of the school year and things could be quite hectic for teachers, i.e. our son.
But there will be two months of holidays ahead of him, maybe he could come out to PEI and enjoy the peace and slower pace of life here. There are a few backpackers still chatting in the kitchen, quite a number of young people from all over the world. Young people like Yohan will sure have a fun time together!