The Best Things about NYC
New York was very interesting. The trip to and from was not. I have never felt more bored or confined in my life. I am a person who can't read or do much of anything except talk/sing in a moving vehicle without experiencing motion sickness to some degree. The good thing is that I didn't get sick during the 17 hour one way journey. I also didn't get more than two hours of sleep per journey. One particularly bad experience was being awakened after only just getting to sleep by my choir director singing loudly through the speaker system and then expecting everyone else to sing at six o'clock central standard time in the morning. I also just came down with a cold and had a very sore throat that morning. Needless to say I didn't participate in that cheery sing-along.
The trip only improved from then on. We arrived in Secaucus, New Jersey early Wednesday afternoon and got settled in the hotel. A couple hours later we boarded the bus for the theater district of New York City. Many saw shows such as "Les Miserables", "Phantom of the Opera", "The Lion King", or the Rockettes Christmas performance. I walked around with my roommates. We shopped and took pictures of Rockefeller Center's famous tree and other intriguing sites in downtown New York.
Thursday started out with a practice at the hotel and from there we took the bus to Calvary Baptist Church which was just across the street from Carnegie Hall. We practiced more there and then went across to Carnegie. After taking group pictures in the lobby, we went to our dressing room and finally took the stage. My first impression was "Wow!". I had heard of Carnegie and knew that anybody who was anybody in the music field has performed there, but I didn't realize the great honor it was to be able to sing on that very same stage as so many great musicians had before me until that moment. After letting the first phrase of our opening a cappella piece reverberate around the room I was awed at the perfect accoustics of the hall.
After the rehearsal, I went to eat at the Brooklyn Diner after seeing Hard Rock Cafe's long line. The diner's food was very good, but the prices were exhorbitently expensive. My bottle of root beer was $3.75 and my roast beef sandwich and noodle kugel was $13.95. I guess you have to be a New Yorker to be able to afford to eat in New York.
Our choir was the second of three groups to perform that night. The first was the Coppell High School choir from Texas and the last was the Tri-State Millennium Honors Orchestra from New England. The first choir performed a variety of styles and ended with Theme from "New York, New York" and the Orchestra performed "Syphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64" by Tchaikovsky.
Our group probably didn't sing the best that we had ever sung, but we sure enjoyed ourselves. I wasn't nervous at all. I just felt honored and proud that we had been chosen to perform at the last concert of the century at Carnegie Hall. After the concert we went on an hour and a half cruise on the Hudson River and saw the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Friday was free to do whatever we wished. My roommates and I went back into NYC and walked and walked and walked down Lexington Ave. We did find a really neat Pizza place that was fairly cheap. One slice of New York style pizza was only $1.60. In case you don't know what New York style pizza is - very thin crust, no excess folded on the edges, sweet sauce and lots of cheese cut into pieces the width of your hand outstretched. Very good!!
We next took a bus to the Empire State Building and had a fairly long wait until arriving at the top. Once there we didn't leave for almost an hour. We arrived shortly before dusk and stayed until it was dark. Seeing New York's lights from that height was truly magnificent.
From there we went up the block to Macy's but weren't too impressed with the size or prices, so we decided to walk back to the main bus terminal. On the way there we approached Time Square and were amazed at the amount of people. We rang in the New Year with London and Paris and then set off for the hotel. From the safety and comfort of our hotel room we watched the ball drop and could even see some of the fireworks from our window. We left by noon the next day and arrived home around 3:30 a.m.
Well, there's the story of my adventures in New York. Hope I haven't bored you. : )
