So what does my job involve? I’m basically a Gap Student. Well, I am. I go with the boys on their tours for their concerts, which is probably the most exciting part, but most of the week I spend it in the school helping out in a few English lessons here and there. I take their break and lunch times with the PE teacher, and I generally hang around so that nobody does anything stupid.
As you would expect, these kids are all from Catalunya (or Catalonia), one of the areas in Spain where there are many people who want independence for theircomunidad, or region, in this case Catalonia. Who would have thought that within the first hour of having met the boys I had already been asked about five times if I supported the monarchy? They seemed to say it out of curiosity, and then they would very quickly move on to a different subject.
They leave on Friday afternoons to go home, which means I have time off until Sunday afternoon. Some Fridays they have the occasional concert, either in Catalonia or other areas of Spain. They have recently come back from a tour to Moscow, whic proved a huge success apparently. They are going to St Petersburg during the last week of March.
The choir’s history stretches back almost one millennium since its foundation. That is the reason why it is one of the only Benedictine schools in Spain nowadays. During the late 18th/early 19th centuries most Benedictine schools closed because they were seen to hinder the children’s development because of their isolation. The Escolania of Montserrat along with the Escolania del Escorial (Madrid, also up a huge mountain coincidently) are two of the remaining Benedictine schools, because they were set up such a long time ago, and because they were specialised in Music teaching.
There’s a nice bit of history I have learnt! It looks like this place has mountainous amounts of history. Excuse the pun.
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