[POSTCARD FROM THE USA] A typical American high school activity

- Hey, ambassadors, Christina here.

And I have a little surprise for you this morning.

I was sitting in my parents' house doing some work

this morning, and I heard a lot of noise like

(imitates drumming)

And I was like, "what is going on outside?".

And so I came outside and I kind of had an idea of

what it is, because I had done this before.

I'm gonna, I'm not gonna tell you, I'm gonna see maybe

if you can imagine what it is.

Let's run and see.

(drumming)

So here I am with, sorry, what is your name?

- Cameron Meyer.

- Cameron. Okay, and Cameron, you are the drum captain

if I've understood.

Can you tell us a little bit about like what y'all

are doing out here and...

- Well, basically we're just, you know, we march from school

just around the neighborhood

- Yeah.

- You get used to carrying the drums with the weight

and the heat so that way once everybody gets down here

next week with the full band that we're already prepared

so that we're not dragging anybody else behind.

- Okay, well that's pretty good.

How long have y'all been out here this morning?

- We've been out here since about 9:30.

- Since about 9:30. Okay, and it's pretty hot?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, it's pretty hot out here, yeah.

And so what do you like about playing the drums?

- I don't...

It's just, it's a lot more fun.

- Yeah.

- You know, you get to do more stuff, you definitely put in

a lot of work and toward the end of the season

the competition when that work is finally put through

and we get the score that we want.

It's a lot of fun.

- Yeah. Drummers were always like, the cool people

in the band. They're not like, you know, the flute players

or something.

- I'm a little biased, but yeah.

- Yeah, right, yeah.

Okay, well good. Well thank you very much for taking

a minute out of your practice to talk to us.

Yeah, thanks.

(drumming)

So that's it! It's actually a group of drummers who are

practicing for the summer high school band.

In the US, extra-curricular activities, extra-curricular

activities like sports, music, are pretty important.

And, you know, it's summer here, so technically

it's vacation time. But these kids, they give up one

or two weeks of their summer to prepare the halftime show

at the football game.

That's the football stadium in the background.

Right here in front of us is the baseball field.

Back there the football stadium.

And so starting in a few weeks there will be American

football games there for the high school team.

And of course there will be a halftime show.

And these kids who are marching back there,

kinda like, right there now, are actually gonna perform.

They'll be with the drums, the musical instruments like

the clarinets, which I played.

It takes practice to put it together.

And they're gonna spend this week and next week

practicing all day out in this hot sun preparing their

halftime show. So, respect for them, and if you ever

go to an American game and see the halftime show,

you'll really, really appreciate it.

Alright, we're gonna enjoy the show.

(drumming)