January 18 - 25, 1999
New York City
Sam's Journal
Calgary Children's
Choir Tour 1999
January 18 - 25, 1999
New York City
Sam's
Journal
Click on picture for full size image
I woke up at 4:30 am the morning of the trip (normally I wake up at 6:30 for school, but ouch!). I got all my luggage, had breakfast, said goodbye to Dad then went with Mom to the airport.
Once everyone had arrived, we said our goodbyes and headed for the gate.
The flight went on without any delays (thank God), and we cleared U.S. customs with ease. Then we boarded the plane to New York. That's when the trouble (and the barfing) started.
We were almost in the New York area when we had some MAJOR TURBULENCE!!!! Five people threw up (but I didn't). There was also a storm above New York City, and no planes could land. So, the pilot said we would fly to Montreal, re-fuel the plane, fly back to Toronto and from there board a plane that would take us to New York! Well, we were tired from that! Luckily, the second plane landed at La Guardia airport in N.Y.- at midnight!
The choir got to the hotel very late, and got to our rooms. We were NOT pleased! The rooms were so small for four people to stay in and they were considerably dirty, too! We went downstairs to the diner to eat. The flight that should have taken an hour that wound up being seven gave us as much as a cookie! At the diner I had some french fries and an ice cream soda. Afterwards, we got to sleep. What a day!
Today we woke up at 7:00 in the morning (we're supposed to get up at 7:30, but hey! When you need a shower, you take a shower!) We had breakfast, (scrambled eggs and bacon), and headed on our tour bus for the day.
We did the whole NYC tourist gig:
Stopped at St. John the Divine cathedral
Toured Upper Manhattan and Harlem
Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Soho, Chinatown, etc.We ate lunch at the fancy-schmancy McDonalds (yes, I'm telling the truth!) There were chandeliers, live piano music, as well as a large vat of ketchup packets. There were even people at the door to see us in! Also, there was a gift shop at the top.
After lunch we took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. It is a LOOOOOOOOOONG climb up to the top of the crown! (354 stairs) I am afraid of heights, so it wasn't very enjoyable climbing up, especially the "cork-screw" stairs. While one spiral of stairs is going up, the other is spiraling down so it creates a sort of a corkscrew. The bad part is that the stairs are narrow, and in the middle of the statue, almost at the top! I was practically crawling up the stairs! When I did get to the top, I was surprised the crown wasn't bigger. There were only small windows at the top. To tell you the truth, I was happy to get back on the ground! We found our chaperone and headed back to the ferry.
Afterwards, we went to the 110th floor of the World Trade Center. It too was scary, but at least we didn't have to climb up stairs.
Back at the hotel, the people there had heard our complaints about our rooms and moved us to a cleaner, nicer floor. We were psyched! Even the bathroom was clean! We had a much better sleep that night.
ThursdayThis morning I woke up with SORE THIGHS!!! I guess climbing all the stairs yesterday took it's toll. Today we walked around town. We sang at St. Patrick's Cathedral and had lunch at this cool little restaurant. Each table had this: there were cushioned chairs, and the tables were little tablets screwed onto the arm-rests so they would swing open.
We also went shopping. Our group went inside F.A.O. Schwartz toy store where we found racks and racks and racks and racks and racks and racks and racks of FURBYS!!!!!!!!! However I didn't buy one. Too expensive (says mom [$39.95 American] on the phone) My friends Lisa and Danya bought one each, though.
We walked to Rockefeller Center and went inside. There was a mural on the ceiling and a tiny shopping center downstairs (do you know painful it is to walk downstairs when your thighs ache?!)
Other things we did today:
- Went to the Disney Store
- " " " Warner Brother's Studio Store (and met Noel [worker at store])
- Walked and walked and walked and walked and walked.........
I bet today didn't help my thighs a whole lot! Thank God I can rest now!
Today was another early morning. Today we were going to take the subway to the Manhattan Country School. This place was really interesting. The building itself used to be a house for a wealthy family, and from the outside looks like an apartment. But now it's a school for children from grade 1 to 8. There are about 13 kids to a class! We performed for them and they did the same for us. The kids were so appreciative of our singing. It was really cool.
Another interesting fact about the school is that the grade twos are already dissecting fish! On our group tour of the school we smelled smoke from the school office. We went in with our guide to see that the class was smoking a fish in the fireplace! They had gutted the fish and pinned it to a log. The school was really neat!
Later in the evening, we went to see the Broadway play, "Beauty and the Beast" at The Palace Theatre. We took a cab there since it was raining. Toni Braxton was Belle! It was an awesome show!
After the show, we tried to get a taxi. Suddenly, a limo pulled over and said we could get a ride. Some of the chaperones said it was too expensive, but we begged to get a ride. They said we could if we split the cost, so we got to ride in the limo! It was a little crammed, but we at least got to ride in one back to the hotel.
Today we got a carriage ride to central park. It was so fun! I even got in the carriage that I wanted. It was crushed blue velvet inside.
After that, our chaperone group went to Sony Wonder for a tour of Sony technology. We got a plastic card and had to enter in our name, take our picture and take a sound sample of our voice on the card with a machine so we could do the activities on the tour. We met a guy named James who operated the robot downstairs in the lobby. He told us how it worked and we also found out that he used to be a rap producer for rappers like l. l. cool j! He was really funny, too. There were also a lot of other activities in the tour.
Other than that, we spent the whole day shopping. We went to Macy's where we could spend $35.00 and get a free Macy's bag. I bought a jacket I had been looking for for a long time, and found it here, and I bought a cute tank top with butterflies on it. I got a Macy's bag after that. I spent exactly $35.00!
I had to go to bed early tonight because tomorrow we would go to Carnegie Hall for a workshop in the morning.
Today we woke up really early in the morning to go to Carnegie Hall. We took taxis there because of the weather. The choir did a few workshops (two) until about noon. Then the rest of the day we walked around town.
Later in the evening, we ate supper at Planet Hollywood, NYC. It was so cool! They had a whole bunch of movie memorabilia in cases all around the restaurant. Some examples are:
- Chewbacca costume
- Batman's Gotham City license plate for the Bat Mobile
- "Thing" from the Addam's Family movie (you know, the hand).
Meals there were really expensive, like a hamburger is $12.00! (or something like that.) However, it was really fun to go there. That was the highlight of my day.
This morning was pretty much like yesterday morning, only today we had to lug our dress uniforms to Carnegie Hall. We would sneak in another workshop (boring, but I learned a few tips from it) and go to a photo shoot before lunch. After lunch was the big concert. All the choirs sang two songs together, then did their own songs. It was a pretty good concert and the choirs were all great. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and started packing up our bags for tomorrow. It will be a long day ahead of us.
We’re going home today! We said our final goodbyes and packed our bags in the bus. We did not have any plane problems on the way home ( that’s just how it is, isn’t it? You get there with a whole bunch of delays and storms, then you’re just fine coming home!). I came back to Calgary with a cold. Too much smog in my lungs. However, I’m sure going to miss New York City, even if there is a lot of smog and noise. I will never forget my experience in the Big Apple ( as long as my pictures stay in tact and this journal doesn’t get deleted). I had an awesome time there, and I would enjoy going back there someday.
Written By Samantha Deutscher
