Day 11 - 4:18 PM
New York, NY

The last few days have been simple and busy! Yet a lot of fun.

So the free day in DC was really relaxed. I ended up meeting with a friend from Bethesda and just hanging out with him and his friends for a few hours. After that, I took the Metro back into the city to meet up with some friends. We went to the museum of natural history and one of the cooler things there was that there was like an enclosed cage of butterflies that we got to walk through and have them landing on us and stuff. Pretty neat.

Then I walked back to around the metro center where Tammy (host mom) took John (guy i was housing with) and I out to dinner at this great place called Zaytinya. It was an awesome Mezze style mediterranean place, and the food was amazing. I even tasted snail (that's 25 cents when I get home, dad) and loved it.

After that John and I met up with some other people and did another walkaround of the national mall, finally taking the metro home and calling it a night.

5/16

The next day went by very quickly. We were up early to catch the bus at 9:30 at the train station, and we headed out towards Philly. We stopped at an indoor market once we got to the city, and had some great cheese steaks, of course. Then we headed to the concert venue and prepared for the show, all excited because this was the prank concert. Oh yeah.

So the beginning of the concert we do well, and then we hit our fourth set. As DR is introducing Chester, a piece which was the anthem of the Revolutionary War, our flautist and drummer don Tri-cone hats, much to everybody's amusement. We then, later on, in We Rise Again, don't move when we're supposed to at the modulation, but instead move on a second prank modulation as we walk out. Snaps to David, the pianist, for still playing along even though he was transposing everything on the page.

For the last prank, we get the pitches to the song we open the second half with, and start a completely different song that isn't even on the program. Although it wasn't flawless, it was pretty darn funny. The real prank comes during Varsity and the Victors, when DR calls Paul Rardin, the last conductor of the glee club (and my All-State Conductor) up to conduct, which was an incredible and emotional experience for all. Many of the clubbers were flat-out crying by the end. It was such a wonderful thing to see them caring so much about their old director.

Then we met our host families and such, and ours were really kind. We went to a diner which was great post-concert, and that grilled cheese hit the spot dead-on. Then we all hit the sack, exhausted from the day.