Ok, so it's finally time for a NYC entry.

To quote the little tricycle kid from the Incredibles: "WHOA! THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!"

No pun intended with the Wicked reference.

So let's see how much of the trip I still remember.

Wednesday, March 16
Kristen, Gabe and I decided to leave history a half hour earlier than we were supposed to, because we couldn't take any more of that class, but it was harder than you may have thought. At about 30 seconds till 2, Ierace once again walked out of the class. He came back in about 5 minutes later, but sat at his desk, and the whole class was silent for about another 5 minutes. So the three of us just kept looking at each other, and everyone was telling me to go, but there was no way I was gonna get up then! So as soon as Ierace had talked a little, we got up, and he was very pleasant about it, told us to have a good time, etc. We got outside and started breathing again. So then we went to the band room and joined the percussionists and no-class-ers. Played some cards, then took the bus to the airport. Getting through security with 101 people was interesting, but luckily there wasn't much of a line. So we got to our gate and were sent off in groups of 4 to go get dinner and hang out. After we ate a bunch of us came back to play cards/chess, and who walks through the airport, but Regis Philbin with his wife. It was so funny. Crocco ran over to us, grabbed Kristen's shoulder, and said Look! It's Regis!! So after about 2 hours we got on the plane. I sat on the aisle next to Dimitar, with Mr. Gregory across from me. It was a pretty fun plane ride, but I didn't get any sleep. So we arrived in NJ, grabbed our checked luggage, and headed off for the airport. That was one fun bus ride though. First, some background info. When my brother asked where we were staying and I told him NJ, he said "haha, b.y.o. air freshener." So we got on the bus, and what was hanging from the emergency exit in the roof? An air freshener! One of those pine tree things. I so took a picture with my phone. We also had some funny New Jersey jokes. Keep in mind, New Jersey is dirty. Along with Mexico, tequila, Talahassee, and Vivec.

1. Me: Newark takes advantage of the night to use the darkness to hide the disgustingness of their city.
2. Gabe: I wonder if there is anyone here from NJ
Me: Beelzebub.
3. Gabe: The devil went down to Georgia....from NJ.
4. Me: New Jersey is to the United States as Ethiopia is to Africa.
5. Thomas: During the industrial revolution New Jersey experienced more changes than a bunch of babies at a beer drinking contest.
6. Thomas: Gabe, I'm tired. As soon as we get to the hotel room I'm flopping on the bed like Dick Cheney after a triple cheeseburger. (as per adam's request, this quote was grifted from Capitol Steps)
7. Me: It needs five toes.
Amalia: No because the....oh..

Needless to say, there were many laughs on that bus ride. It was a good start to the trip. And good thing Gabe keeps a clip board in his backpack so we could write all that down.

Thursday, March 17
The next day was the parade. We all went down to breakfast, then had a marching rehearsal in the parking lot at about 10:30. It was fun because everyone in the hotel watched us from their rooms. Then we ate lunch in the hotel before departing for 5th Avenue. We got there and waited in this alley for about three hours. It was cold. We had many cuddle orgies to keep warm. It was really fun though. We met cool people. There was one guy who explained to us how a bagpipe works! We also had fun talking to the Notre Dame alumni who were behind us. Lots of people on the street enjoyed drum line's cadences and our subsequent dancing. Finally at about 4:30 (an hour late) we stepped off. The parade was amazing. I was so glad to be on the end. And it was the end that was away from central park, so I got to see the people the entire time. Many drunk Irish-Americans yelled stuff at me. Apparently Meredith got three separate marriage proposals. We went past everything though, Central Park, Trump Tower, the Met, the Plaza..it was awesome. Mind you, I had never been to New York, so my first views ever of Manhattan were from the middle of 5th Avenue. Quite an experience. We had this guy who took our picture from the top of some building, and our lines were SO STRAIGHT!! It's awesome. At the end of the parade, we had a bit of a pep talk from Crocco and Lerner, and they told us that they had to make a decision as to whether we would be able to change or go to the bathroom before the NY Philharmonic concert, and they chose going to the bathroom. So we had to wear our band uniforms to the concert. A lot of people were very disappointed/angry. I was not one of them. I was perfectly fine wearing my band uniform...I mean come on people, we were going to see the New York Philharmonic!!! So we grabbed our yucky chicken dinner and ate it on the bus, then went to the concert. It was such a great concert. Famous actors played the speaking roles. The only one that I had heard of was Marcia Gay Harden (sp?), but the lead guy was someone Amalia really liked. I forget his name now. But the show was hilarious. At times, it was hard to stay awake, I'll admit it, but I did not fall asleep. It was a running gag for the rest of the trip to "wooo" through the "chink." Wooo.. Don't be offended when Un Jin runs up to you in the hallway, makes some sort of hand gesture, and says "Chink!" This is a reference to Midsummer Night's Dream. So after the concert we regrouped and headed back to the hotel. We were all exhausted. I had room check though, so I was a bit later getting to bed.

Friday, March 18
The next day we woke up early, ate breakfast together as usual, then went over to catch the ferry to go to the Statue of Liberty. It was really awesome. The Statue was a lot bigger than I thought. I took TONS of pictures. Then we got another ferry to Ellis Island, which was cool. It was not my favorite part of the trip, so I guess it's good we did it early, because I thoroughly enjoyed myself, not having much to compare it to. :o) I did buy an Irish flag in the gift shop.
We then headed down to South Street Seaport for lunch. Man did it smell! But the mall was fun.
After that we went to the Museum of Natural History, which I was really excited about. I think that's the only place we went where we got to see everything we wanted. I spent a good amount of time looking for a stegosaurus, and I found it!! Then we looked for Adam's tigers, and we found them too. We also saw a lot of interesting things. Like a giant sloth. And a big prehistoric moose. Tons of pictures there too.
We ate dinner that night at Charlie O's Shubert Alley, which was a lot of fun. We got a really good table with everyone together. We also tried to buy Vaidehi. 50 cent long time love. And two fwee egg woll.
Then we went to Fiddler on the Roof. It was simply amazing. Words cannot do it justice. Harvey Fierstein was awesome. I heart broadway.

Saturday, March 19
Breakfast again, where we hear announcements and whatnot. First thing we did Saturday was the Uptown/Downtown bus tour. Our guide was ...knowledgeable. We saw EVERYTHING. I was happy because we got to see the theatre where the Late Show is taped, and Rupert G's Hello Deli. We stopped at a pastry shop, in Central Park, and at Ground Zero. Again, TONS of pictures. Like 80. Crazy.
Next we went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, which I thought was gonna be kinda weird, but it was really fun. Some of the wax figures were really good. I think my favorite was the Beatles. After we went through the museum, we went to see this movie thing, and while we were waiting for it, there was this game show-ish thing, which Un Jin participated in. It was a Jessica Simpson themed thing, and Un Jin kicked ass, which is kinda scary. He did win a free wax hand though, which was fun. The movie kinda made me dizzy, it was weird.
After the museum we ate at Mars 2112, which was so awesome. The whole thing is made to look like Mars. Entertainment - $2. Ms. Crocco knew our waitress from elementary school or something, so they had a weird reunion sort of thing. Then we played in the arcade.
Then we went to Times Square for our group picture. We waited for the light to turn red, then ran out into the median. There was some confusion, as there was another photographer there taking pictures of cars. o.0 But we eventually got ourselves grouped up enough to take the picture. It turned out so good! They "rewarded" us for being good taking the picture by giving us 20 minutes in the Virgin store. When we got back to where the buses were meeting us, only bus 2 was there, so we had to wait around in the cold a little. I was going insane, because we were standing right outside this store that had an awesome phantom shirt that I really wanted to get, but I knew I couldnt go in and buy it. Eventually I lost control of myself and asked Mrs. Lerner if I could go in the store for 30 seconds with a group of 4. She looked a little confused, then said she would go in with me so I wouldn't get in trouble. I hadn't brought my purse with me, since we were just going to take the picture, but luckily I had $20 in my pocket. I ran in the store, found the Phantom shirt, and went to buy it. Then when I was checking out it turned out the shirt was $27! I was about to cry, and I asked a few people outside the store if they had any money on them, and then Mrs. Lerner said she would spot me 10 bucks. She rocks!! I paid her back as soon as we got on the bus, and revelled in my Phantom glory for the rest of the trip.
As if the day wasn't enough, after we finished up in Times Square, we went to the Empire State Building. Granted, this was not the most enjoyable part of the trip, as we waited 2 hours in a 90 degree basement in winter clothes to get to the top. But once we got up there it was worth it. It was such a clear night, you could see for miles and miles. A bunch of people complained about having to wait so long, but I was glad we had...going to the top of the Empire State building had to be part of the New York experience.

Sunday, March 20
First thing we did Sunday was our "optional non-denominational religious service." About 15 people showed up, and the first thing Crocco did was raise your hand if you're Christian. Would have been bad had it not been 100% Christians there. But it was Palm Sunday, so..yeah. We had an old testament reading, a new testament reading, a devotional type thought for the day, then we held hands and said the Lord's prayer. Afterwards I went back upstairs for a few minutes, then we all headed down to breakfast.
First thing on the agenda was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was one of my favorite things of the whole trip. Probably ties with the Bronx Zoo, both of which fall drastically short of the parade. We spent a while in the renaissance section, then went to modern art. We were looking at this awesome joan of arc painting, when I turned around and looked into a room. First thing I see, on the wall opposite of the door that you see when you look in: Monet's Waterlilies. I went almost as nuts as when we found the stegosaurus. I went into that room, and the whole thing was Monet and Van Gogh. I took soooo many illegal pictures. I did actually get yelled at in that room for taking pictures. I would have felt bad, but none of them were flash pictures, I was doing no harm. We also found a Picasso room. Unbelievable. I bought a few postcards in the gift shop. Rock.
At breakfast on like the second day or something Crocco asked how many people would be interested in taking a ride on the subway, and nearly everyone raised their hands. So after the Met we went to a subway station and took that to Grand Central Station to eat lunch. It was pretty cool. One of my favorite pictures is all of us in the subway station.
After we left Grand Central we went to the Gershwin Theater to see Wicked. It was amazing. What a great show. I took some illegal pictures there too...not during the performance, but of the stage setup before it started. I thought Wicked had some cute twists, although they were predictable. I tend to ruin most endings for myself. I still haven't decided if I like Wicked or Fiddler on the Roof better. I think they're incomparable.
We ate dinner that night at Fridays, and none of us could finish our dinners, so we all gave them to Shane. He literally had a mountain of fries. I think he took them back with him to the hotel. Other highlights of that dinner include interesting soda drinking contests that I got on tape. That's all I'm gonna say.
After dinner was another highlight of the trip: Ice skating at Rockefeller Center. It warmed up a bit, which was fine. I got tons of video footage of everyone skating, as well as lots of pictures. We took a group picture (group of 8, not 101) with Mrs. Lerner after skating, and it's another of my favorite pics. We went back to the hotel and sacked out.

Monday, March 21
Last day of the trip. I think even though we were having an amazing time, most people were ready to go home. It was hard coming out of school straight into a trip where we were just going the whole time. Everyone was exhausted, a lot of people were sick. Most people were just generally cranky. It's hard to be around the same people for 6 days, 24 hours a day. After breakfast we went to Macy's, which was having its Flower Festival. It was really pretty. There were flowers everywhere! We went all the way to the top floor, then back down. Yay for wooden escalators! One thing that I did like about the trip was our moderate amount of freedom. When we went to Macy's we could be anywhere on 34th from 5th to 7th. I got a nice picture of the Broadway/34th Street sign. I had a thing with street signs this trip. So many famous streets...5th Ave, Wall St, Broadway.. We had lunch at Pizza Hut, only because it was cold and we couldn't find anywhere better, and then we went to some street vendors for shopping. I bought my parents t-shirts because I hadn't found any good souvenirs on the trip for them. I bought my grandmother this pretty butterfly box at Macy's. I also bought Will an I <3 NY shotglass. :o)
After a good 2, 2 1/2 hours at Macy's and the surrounding area, we went to the Bronx Zoo, which was the part of the trip I had been most looking forward to. We saw a bunch of birds of prey, some aquatic birds (yay penguins!), sea lions, polar bears and brown bears, monkeys, and TIGERS!! I was so excited to see the tigers. I enjoyed them even more than the stegosaurus. I got some really great pictures too.
From the zoo we went to the New Jersey mall for dinner. Got a bit of shopping done. We spent most of our time in KayBee Toys.
At the airport we got a group room, which was really nice. Free sodas and pretzels. The flight back was a lot better than the flight up since Amanda was able to switch to sit across the aisle from me and there was no one next to me. Plus the in flight movie was Bridget Jones 2, rather than Fat Albert, and everyone knows Hugh Grant is adorable. o.~ We got back to school and everyone pretty much went their separate ways quietly. Amanda took me home because my mom was in Orlando, and I just went to bed for about 13 hours.

Enjoyed the rest of my spring break, but was pretty unproductive, which I paid for later. Eh, I deserved a break. All in all, New York was awesome. I seriously took 490 pictures. No lie. It took 3 hours to upload them onto snapfish. Let me know if you want me to email you an invitation to the album.

Man, that was a long entry. What can I say, the trip was very eventful. Great way to go out of band. :o)

Never look back.