| | Spring Break--NYC TripNYC was freaking amazing. Wednesday night we met at school 11ish. After securing pink ID tags for our bags (Lord knows WHY we needed them, when all the bags would be on one bus all the way to the hotel), handing out drama club shirts, and prayer, everyone boarded the bus, shoved as much as possible in the overhead compartments, pulled out junk food, books, CD players and pillows, and we were off. I was initially sitting next to Sarah, and Dan and Mike were behind us. The first movie they put on was Newsies, which I've never seen and still didn't watch. I ended up talking with Dan and Mike. Somehow the conversation came around to Erin and then even further to how me, her and another girl friend all slept in the same bed for a week straight in August. To which Dan and Mike asked if we took pictures, or had videotaped it, or if we could reenact it for them. Guys. *eye roll* Everyone played musical chairs, people in the front migrated to the back and vice versa. Alot of people were just standing. Eventually my back started hurting so I stood up for awhile and then sat in the aisle. Dan wanted to sleep in the aisle (as did many others) so I traded him seats, thus ending up next to Mike. Elf was the next movie. I watched it and talked to Mike. There was a rest stop at about 3am, and almost everyone got off the bus for a few minutes. There were a bunch of vending machines, including a coffee one, though God only knows why a bunch of people on the bus needed coffee at 3am. I fell asleep really late (or early I guess you could say). I ended up leaning against Mike with his arm around me to sleep. We stopped at a Burger King in the morning for breakfast. They were not expecting 50-60 people to storm the place I'm sure. When I was in line for the bathroom behind Fish, she made the comment about me "sleeping in Mike's arms." I just had to laugh. What can I say? It was comfortable. After breakfast it was another hour or two til we got to the city, so I (and a few others) stretched out on the floor and slept while everyone else watched Italian Job.
We made it into NYC about 10am I think, just a little late. We met our tour guide and walked over to Times Square. It was great, and we so looked like the group of tourists we were. We walked back to the bus and drove over to Radio City Music Hall, where we walked a few blocks and saw Rockefeller Center, the NBC news ticker, and St. Patrick's. Then came lunch. We split into three pre-planned groups. I was in a group with Debbie, Benton, Rae, Dan, Matt, Julie, Rachel W., Mike, Katie B., Sarah, and Billy. We started walking and some guy came up to us and convinced us to go to this little place called Diamond Cafe to eat. It was pretty good, but kinda small and cramped but we managed to grab a table so we could sit and eat. The lunch conversation was interesting to say the least, and somehow Rachel started a running joke that Matt was gonna rape me in the middle of Time Square. A joke which kept popping up throughout the day. After lunch we still had some free time so we walked through Saks Fifth Avenue and then went to the NBC Store. I ended up buying a Cheers shotglass (I freaking love that show) and then we met up with the large group again for a tour of Radio City Music Hall. It was amazing. They had alot of cool art work on the wall and a massive auditourium. We got to meet an actual Rockette, the hydraulics system under the stage, and see the bathrooms which were insane cuz they are the old-fashioned kind with the giant sitting rooms and push-pedal hand dryers. It was all very impressive. After Radio City we drove over to the Central Park area. We divided into our groups again, and first went into FAO Schwartz, the most amazing toy store I have ever seen. They had so many stuffed animals! Ridiculously overpriced, of course, but amazing nonetheless. They had penguins but the regular sixed were $38. They had a giant one too that was at least $100. Dan tried to convince me to steal it. I told him it might be kinda obvious. There is an ice cream shop inside the store where one scoop is equal to about half a pint for $5. So we all got ice cream and chilled outside while we waited for our chaperones. We walked over to Central Park and some of us took carriage rides around the park, which was fun. Did some street vendor shopping, and Katie got her portrait drawn, which turned out to be $65. Yeah. She was freaking out for awhile after that, cuz that was all her money.
We met up with the big group and drove to dinner, which was at this place that served sandwiches as big as your face. Me, Rachel, Benton and Billy were at one table, and Rachel took pictures of us all trying to bite our sandwiches. They were hilarious. After dinner the girls were supposed to get on the bus and change into our theater clothes, then the boys. Well...that didn't work out cuz the bus couldn't park in front of the resturant. So here we are, all of us on this bus, driving in New York traffic through the city. Me and Katie both decide we're going to change cuz we can do it without too much problems. After we start changing, everyone else decides, Fuck it we're changing. So everyone starts changing on the bus! It was so funny. And let me tell you, it is hard to put on panty hoses on a moving bus without flashing the two guys sitting behind you. There were clothes and shoes and blankets being held up as curtains everywhere. But when you're in drama club you have no modesty, so it's ok. Eventually we all get changed and make it to Broadway. We got to see Phantom of the Opera, which was amazing. I loved it, even though I was so tired.
After the show it was back to the bus and finally to the hotel for the evening. My original room was supposed to be me, Sarah, Katie, and Corina, but Corina couldn't come on the trip cuz she was sick, so Rachel was in our room instead. Total insanity. We got to the hotel 11ish and had "girl talk" til about 230am. Some of the boys kept calling our room to mess with us. Our bathroom looked like a beauty shop cuz we all brought shampoo and hairdryers and all that other stuff. And eventually--there was sleep.
I'm Ba-ack! Part 2
Current mood:  energetic
Friday morning we had to be down to breakfast at 745. Which meant I got out of bed around 720. We all rushed to get dressed and complained about the blue drama club polo shirts we had to wear and made it down to breakfast, which was buffet-style and yummy. Somehow we got in a conversation about the four girls in my room sleeping in the same bed (which we hadn't). I don't know. Eventually everyone boarded the bus, all looking like an identical herd of blue cattle, and drove into the city. First thing was this audition workshop which was helpful for the actors I guess but all of stage crew were like, couldn't we have gone shopping during this? Seriously, 12 people came in and "auditioned" in front of these two experienced casting people and they told how to give a good audition. Kinda boring.
After the workshop we went to Ground Zero. Last time I was there two years ago they had had a big black fence around it, but now a regular fence was up and you could see in. They had all the victims' names up and a steel cross and alot of other things. It was very nice. Then we broke into groups and ours walked across the street and bought lunch and while we were chilling out on the sidewalk eating this guy came up to us, opened a briefcase, and asked if we wanted to buy a fake rolex. It was so funny. Our group was looking them over, but no one bought one. We shopped around at some street vendors and then some of the girls went across the street to Century 21, this huge discount store, to use the bathroom. I wish we woulda had time to shop in there but we had to meet up with everyone.
After that we went to Lincoln Center which was fucking amazing. We broke into our three groups and each had a different tour guide. Ours was this lady, originally from France I think but now lives in Brooklyn cuz she has a Brooklyn accent. She was very eccentric and called Matt "little flower". Matt is a big kid. lmao. So that became his nickname. We got to see stage crew at work! 200 members, only 6 girls, work 6 days a week and make $48 an hour! Me and Debbie were like, just leave us here, we'll be fine. lol. Katie said she wanted to sing on the stage so our tour guide had her stand in front of the orcestra pit with her back to the stage and her eyes closed. The rest of us had to close our eyes and wish that Katie would come back and sing on that stage. Then Katie had to throw a penny over her shoulder toward the stage, and if it landed on the stage she's destined to come back. And the penny landed on the stage. It was pretty sweet.
The gift shop in Lincoln Center had alot of cool souvenirs but was a bit pricey. After Lincoln Center we hopped on the bus and headed to another workshop. This one was sweet. It was on improv. The two guys teaching it were hilarious. First they had us all get in a giant circle to play this game called Zip Zap Zomp. One person started and made eye contact with someone around the circle, did this hand clap thing to "send" the zip to them, then the next person sent a zap, and so on. Eventually we added in "Boing", which was where someone could say "Boing and put your hands over your head clasped together and squat down type thing, and the whole circle would have to do it. Then there was "swish", which meant you swished to the person to your right and it kept going until someone yelled "Whoa", which meant it changed directions, said "Boing", or until someone started zip zap zomp again. Then there was "Groovealicious", where you did your own funky dance move and everyone had to repeat it, and finally "Freak Out!" where everyone had to run around screaming and stand in a new place in the circle. It was funny.
Next we all had to go around the circle and say out first name, then we played a game called Missile or something, where one person starts, picks one person, says their name. The other person has to say "Yes" so the first person can walk across the circle to take their spot, and the second person finds another person's spot to take and so on. Eventually when you went acros the circle you had to imitate someone you'd seen in NYC, and then we did impersonations of teachers at school, both of which were pretty funny. Then we had to count off in 4s and they had one group up at a time. First they gave the group standing an emotion, and they had to act out the emotion on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst, as each number was said. It was so hard not to crack up laughing. Which I did through pretty much the entire time I was up there. The second thing we had to do was they gave each person standing up a line to say (mine was "Whoa") and then a general emotion for the group. When the guy pointed to you, you had to say your line as angry as you could. It was like a musical symphony type deal and it was so funny. Katie was next to me, and her line was Chia, so we were both just yelling our lines at each other cuz that was the only way we could make them sound angry.
Lastly, we did Picture. A guy and a girl sat in a chair, and a group of about 8 people were beside them. The guy and girl are showing a slide show of photos, and each time they say "click" the group of people all have to strike a pose and the couple has to describe it. That was hilarious. I laughed so hard. It was a great workshop.
After the workshop it was back to the bus to head for dinner at The Playwriter's Tavern. The food was pretty good, but I didn't eat much cuz I wasn't feeling so hot. After dinner was the Empire State Building. Rachel is terrified of heights so she didn't go up, but I think everyone else did. The line was about an hour wait, and I spent the entire time talking to Dan, Debbie and Mike. The view was amazing, just like last time. It was really cold and windy though. Everyone made it down to the lobby, and while we were waiting for a few stragglers a bunch of our group just started this big massage circle which must have looked so odd in the middle of the lobby.
We got back to the hotel around 930, and a wedding reception happened to be going on, so there was an ice sculpture in the lobby of--go figure--Cinderella's horse and carriage. We took pictures with Rachel standing in front of it. Our chaperones gave us a midnight curfew, so we went up to our room and I changed into my PJs and me, Mike and Sarah headed up to the 10th floor because we were gonna hang out and watch TV with some people in the club lounge up there. I got Benton's key (only ppl with rooms on 10 had access to unlock the door), but there were some old guys in the lounge so we chilled out in the hallway for a bit. Apparently one of our rooms was having a party down on 9, and then four junior girls of ours got kicked out of the lounge at 1030ish cuz it was "closed". Which it wasn't, security was just getting annoyed with us I think. Michelle was out in the hall outside her room and I sat down across from her and we ended up talking for about 2 hours or so til curfew. And managed to freak out a bunch of people cuz we were actually talking. I'm not gonna go into details...but it was interesting. Made me do alot of thinking. About 1145 Dan, Rae, Sarah and Debbie were out in the hall and they were trying to order Chinese, but they couldn't understand the lady on the phone and she couldn't understand them so they just hung up. The chaperones came around midnight so I went back down to my room and hopped in the shower. When I got out, the other three girls were freaking out. Our room, which connected to another room which the previous night had been empty, now had some drunk guys in it! Drunk teenage guys! lmfao. Sarah and Rachel were listening at the walls with glasses and I wrote a note which Sarah slipped through the door. We were laughing and being loud and rowdy. Sarah had our connecting door open and was listening at theirs' when the guys tried to stick the note back through and hit her in the ear! They couldn't get the note back through though, sadly. lol. Oh well. Around one I called down to the front desk cuz our message light was blinking. It was another message for Corina (who couldn't come cuz she was sick but...yeah...long story), and the lady told me in this completely bitchy attitude that someone had called and complained about our room being too loud and if she got another call she was gonna come up there personally. I was just like, ooook and we quieted down. Eventually we all went to bed around 2.
Saturday morning both Katie and I woke up feeling shitty, but we had to have all our stuff packed and loaded on the bus by 8. It was chaos trying to pack everything. I shoved as much as I could in my suitcase and carry-on and stuck the rest in a plastic bag I'd gotten the day before when I bought something. When I took my stuff down to the bus around 740, my mom had taken my seat so I put my stuff in the seat behind her and went to breakfast. Breakfast looked good bu I felt too sick to eat anything except for drinking some orange juice which Rae and Debbie told me to. They watch out for me though. On the bus I ended up sitting next to Mike and Dan sat next to Debbie across the aisle from us. Mike had, by far, the best story from the night before.
Mike (a sophomore), Anthony (junior) and Billy (senior) were all in a room on 5. After curfew they decided they wanted pizza, so they call the front desk and ask for the numbers of some local pizza places. Domino's ends up still being open, so they call and order a large pizza and a two liter, which says it will be delivered in about 40 minutes. Around 130am the fron desk calls their room to tell them the pizza is there but they have to come down to the lobby to get it. So they decide to dress Billy up in a nice shirt, pants, a tie, and Anthony's glasses. He apparently looks about 40. He walks down to the lobby, where one of the directors and some chaperones are standing around talking to some adults from other schools. Billy walks right past them--and they don't recognize him!! He pays for the pizza and gets back upstairs without any problems. Around 2am they call up to Benton, who is on 10, and tells him they got pizza. Benton decides he wants a slice and, in a Carroll shirt, walks down to their room, has one slice of pizza, and walks back up to his room without getting caught! I laughed so hard. They even saved the pizza box flap with the delivery address and the coupons to prove it.
We got into the city 40 minutes early, so somehow a bunch of people persuaded the bus to stop and get Starbucks. I don't drink coffee, so I ended up sleeping for awhile. After Starbucks, we went to a workshop for stage combat. We got to learn to beat the crap out of each other! It was so much fun. We learned how to fake choke, punch, slap, kick, and slam people into walls. It was funny as hell watching everyone practice on each other. Our two instructors were excellent at it. After the workshop we got dropped over on Broadway by The Lion King. We had almsot two hours to split into our groups to have lunch and walk around and do whatever. My group split down even further cuz me, Sarah, Debbie and Mike decided we wanted to go shopping while the others went to Dave and Busters. I went into Sanrio (the company that makes Hello Kitty) because they also make a penguin character. They had some cool merchandise for the penguin, and I ended up buying this cork board and a necklace. When we walked into the Yankees store this group of teenage guys started trying to take pictures of us. We were like, ok wtf? We shopped for awhile and grabbed a quick lunch at McDonalds, which was the most amazing McDonalds. It was huge and electronic and had so many checkouts, we were all amazed. Then we met up with everyone to see Lion King. The theater was amazing and pretty and kinda high up, and there was no room to walk once everyone sat down. Your knees were about an inch from the next row. Not even kidding.
The Lion King was amazing. All these people seriously looked like animals. They had a giant elephant operated by 4 men, and two giraffees that must have taken so much practice to be. The show was really good, pretty much stuck to the movie. One of the weird things was that in the middle of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" these three random couples in spandex body suits came on stage--one couple was actually one stage, the other twoo were suspended in midair above it--and were doing these really suggestive dances. I said to Mike, the lions can't kiss but the others can dry hump in midair. A little weird. Plus there were these men that looked completely naked except for strips of green to represent grass. Debbie made the comment, I'm sure all the gay guys in the audience are happy. During intermission Sarah, Debbie and I had to go to the bathroom. Yeah. Never let me try to find the bathroom in a theater. We ended up walking down three long flights of stairs to the bathroom, and the trip back up was loooooooooong. We were all out of breath. lol.
After The Lion King we drove over to St. Patrick's cathedral for Mass. About 10 of us got separated from everyone else and sat by ourselves over to the side with *gasp* no chaperones. The church, which is huge by the way, was packed. Right before communion three nuns came walking out on our side and Sarah leans over and says, Real nuns! They're so cute! Communion was a free-for-all. No order at all. lol. Everyone just gets up and goes. The mass actually went quickly and pretty soon we were back on the bus for the night.
We drove for a couple hours and me and Mike talked for awhile. Ever After was playing, which by the way is an excellent movie. Around 830pm we stopped for dinner. Our choices were either Friendly's, Arby's, or a chinese place. Sarah, Rae, Mike and I ended up going to the chinese place with a group, and on the way across the street this guy in a red car laid on the horn at us girls! And then he ended up turning into the parking lot where the chinese place was so we had to walk in front of his car again and he honked at us again! The chinese was good. I ordered chicken friend rice for $5.75 and got a small mountain. lol It was so much! Their portions were huge. Mike, Rae, Sarah and I sat at a table together. Mike didn't order anything except something to drink since they cook the food with peanut oil and he is allergic. We were supposed to be back on the bus at 930 but Fisher called to say the group she was with at Friendly's had just ordered their food so we could hang out for awhile. When the bill came, Sarah, Rae and I started trying to figure out who owed what but Mike picked up the bill and paid it for the entire table! He is such a sweetheart. Then we read our fourtunes and added "in bed" to the end of each. When we were walking back to the bus Mike told me he'd probably be out in about 5 minutes cuz of his medicine. When we sat back down, we started talking and he conked out in the middle of it. lol.
I finished watching Ever After, and then came Pride and Prejudice, the newer version. I tried to watch it but the sound was low so I couldn't hear alot of it. Mike was out cold, and at some point Dan leans across the aisle and shakes him awake to ask if he has headphones. I was like Dan leave him alone! Mike was like No, leave me alone you son of a bitch--right as Fisher walks by! I started laughing and Mike fell back asleep. I lent Dan a pair of headphones and tried to sleep but couldn't really. I'd fall asleep for a bit, wake up, watch about 5 minutes of the movie, and fall back asleep. Eventually there was a rest stop and I had to jump over Mike--still out cold--to get out and go to the bathroom, but it's all good. At some point really early/late, I woke up again and Mike was actually awake, so I finally found a comfy position and fell asleep for a couple hours. Plus then I got to tell Mike the funny things he did when he slept :)
We got back to school around 730am. I got home and went back to bed around 830am, woke up at 130 til about 215, then fell back asleep til 6ish. I had to revise my term paper last night, so I ended up staying up til about 230am, slept til about 430, then have been up since then. Got the paper done around 6, decided to say fuck it to math homework, and had a pretty damn good day. Except my car almsot dying. Yeah, that part sucked. But I'm getting it taken care of.
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