Raleigh, NC

Hello again, everyone.  We are now officially in the South!  It hit me slowly... but I'm loving it now.  Raleigh was our next stop after Roanoke/Blacksburg and the humidity, sweet tea, mosquitos, and hospitality greeted us in style.  We were treated, upon landing, to a delicious steak dinner followed up with awesome strawberry-rhubarb pie (second time having rhubarb...it is still SO good!).  The family that put us up was Allen's girlfriend's family.  The Conley's, for those of you who don't know, are awesome, in spite of Jaimie.  ;)  Our steak dinner was with the pastor of the church (St. Joseph's) that we would be singing for the next night.  We stayed up late talking and got to know just how the big family works.  They were all quite musical and well-schooled, so we had good conversations with all of them about the most random things.  We didn't do much sight-seeing in Raleigh, but it was a nice break.  I saw the dry cleaners and the Food Lion (those are so cool... one of these days, I want to see a gazelle run out of one and get chased down by a "Food Lion").  In the South, we have been shopping mostly at Food Lion for our lunch food.  I find it strange that we haven't hit up a Piggly Wiggly yet... or a Winn Dixie.  At this point, we had yet even to hit up a Waffle House, and you all know how ubiquitous those are in the South.  We sang at random intervals for the family, but our main contribution occurred at Wednesday night mass.  We sang our five minute long Sanctus and Agnus Dei, testing the patience of the zealous mass-goers attempting to put down their kneelers too early.  :)  They seemed to like it and afterwards we had an awesome reception where people listened to a few of our secular pieces, and we even dedicated a song to the hard-working Mrs. Conley on her birthday.  We stayed up late again that night watching YouTube, running around trying to feed everyone pizza (no one is satisfied with my taste in pizza... except Gina, the next oldest sister).  We rocked out and had a Disney party in the car.  By that I mean I found Gina's Disney soundtracks, put them on and forced everyone to join me in a song and dance spectacle as we went out for ice cream after the concert.  We sang some more at the ice cream place and then called it a night.  We got up early the next morning, well-fed and well-slept and left for South Carolina.  My little brother in Mu Alpha, Alex Cothran, had generously offered his house and church as a place for us to repose in Charleston.  So off we went!