Wednesday:
At 3:45, we left the school with a nice little send away by some of the gymnastic girls and a few of the teachers. Driving to Denver was difficult due to the crazy snowfall, but we got there in good time.
Thursday:
We got up at 9:00ish and headed to the air port in three groups. Checked our luggage and got on the plane. It was about a three hour flight, but with the time change, it was like one hour, not. We head to the Grand Hyatt in New York, and are faced with culture shock with signs like 'if bell rings, call 911' and 'Prostitutes not permitted beyond this point' and, ya, many more. Also, we saw how New Yorker's drive first hand!We arrived at the hotel and unpacked. Then we went to dinner, a fun little place called Ellen's Stardust Diner.
Friday:
That morning, James, Mark and myself went downstairs to explore Grand Central Station...yes you read it right, we could get to Grand Central Station through our hotel! Anyway, we found some GOOD food, ate it (most of it, i gave some of mine to a hobo :) and went back to our floor where we had a meeting. Then we had choral practice, and the rest of the time was ours. So a few of us went shopping, and a few of us stayed at the hotel. THEN....That night, we went to Lion King. AMAZING!! WoW, it was sooooo good! That was probably the funnest part of the trip.
Saturday:
The morning we had to our self; some stayed, others went. Lindsay Sowards and I went to the New York City temple to do church stuff there. After that, we had choral practice till five. At that point, a group of us went to go get ready to go to Hairspray! That too was funny. It was so different from the movie, that I can't compare them. After that, we went and got ice cream, Kitchens' treat.
Sunday:
We arrive at Carnegie Hall for a dress rehearsal of our concert. During the dress rehearsal, I found a hole in one of the banisters on stage. In it was dust, and, amazingly enough, gold from the paintings of the stage. So obviously I grabbed a hand full, and now I have Carnegie Hall dust/gold/hair! haha. Then we had lunch off, so we went to Dr. Jeckles restaurant, which was pretty fun. It was like a haunted house diner. At two o'clock we performed. It was amazing singing at Carnegie Hall!! I recorded a video of the standing ovation....oppps. After the performance, we went on a harbor tour, which was amazing! It was really fun. We circled the statue of Liberty, then had a party downstairs! It was pretty bomb! After the cruise, we went back to the hotel to change clothes. Then James, Donovan, Angelica, and I went to the Empire State Building, where people learned to hate Alamosa kids. We created an atmosphere that was both awkward and funny! We would obstruct the view of people trying to look at the city by drawing attention to our selfs; some thought it was funny, and some didn't. After having mass amounts of fun there, haha, we were asked if we wanted to ride in a Limo....yes, thats right, we did. It was awesome!! We rode a Limo in New York City, it was shazz! Then we went back to the hotel for a night of fun! We decided to pull an all nighter for the things we were going to do the next day....
Monday:
At three thirty in the morning five of us leave to wait in line for the today show. Little did we know that Alicia Keys was performing there...ya....it was amazing. There were about 10 people in front of us, so we were pretty close to the line. As the morning came, more people came, filling up two blocks! At 7 they let us in. We got pretty close to the stage. And the best part of that was that Alicia waved, TO ME! haha, as she was getting ready to perform 'no one' for us as a warm up, the people started to calm down. James turns to me and says "Jump up and down screaming 'I love you, Alicia" so, ya, I did, and everybody thought it was funny, even Alicia, she looked up and saw me, and gave me a wave! That was the coolest thing ever! After that, we went to the hotel and slept, until we left for the World Trade Center area. We started off with an audio/walking tour of the twin towers, which was amazing. Then we went to SoHo, Little Italy, and China Town! haha, talk about bargains! WoW!! After spending money I partially didn't have, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the final Broadway performance: The Phantom of the Opera! wow, it was amazing. although Emily and I sat next to each other, and we were laughing through the performance, I still thought it was cool. After that, we went to bed, and got ready to come home the next day.
This trip was possible the best trip I've taken, and I've been on a few so far. I'll try to add more later. Thanks for looking!