Day 3 started with a change of plans as woke up to blowing snow. After a good night sleep on a real bed, We decided that Central Park would be no fun in the cold. Instead we decided to check out Time Square. The kids got to check out the Disney Store, M&M store amd the iconic Macy's on 34th Street. From there we headed to Grand Central Station for lunch. It is a beautiful building and we got to learn more about it as we listened to our step on tour guide. These guides were with us for the afternoon and showed us all around the city. The highlight of our Grand Central Station was the whispering wall. It is a hallway in the station where you can talk in one corner and the tile helps sends the sound across the hall the kids were amazed it actually worked. Then we got to ride the subway. For most of our kids it was the first time they had ever done so. We made it on and off with out loosing anyone so that let me breath a sigh of relief. Next we walked to Central Park. We saw Alice in Wonderland statue, the Bethesda Fountain, the Mall and Strawberry Fields. The kids in Bus 2 were also obsessed with the tv show Friends. They ran like Phoebe, and took pictures at a fountain like their credits. Next we hopped on the bus to tour some more. We saw Lincoln Center, Harlem, Columbia University, The Cathedral of Saint John the a Divine, and the Plaza Hotel. Our tour guides were really great and we enjoyed their commentary. We finished our night at Carnegie Hall with an orchestral concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Senior Hannah said the music was captivating, entertaining and made the trip exciting. Senior Kristen said that the acoustics in the Hall were amazing, and Senior Lily said that being in the iconic hall was amazing. See some pictures from Time Square, Grand Central Station, and Central Park.
Day 4 started thankfully without snow or rain. We headed into NYC to have the first of two choir performances today. We traveled to The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine for the choir to sing. We found out that the Cathedral is the largest cathedral in the world and is so tall that the Statue of Liberty could walk down the length as long as she put down the torch. It had beautiful stain glass windows and wonderful acoustics. The choir then gave their first performance and did a really great job. We did video it (and our performance later in the day; I will post it when I get home) We took a little while to look around and then headed back to Grand Central Station for lunch. In the afternoon we headed to the United Nations to take a tour and for the choir to have their second performance of the day. This performance went really well too and we had quite a big audience which was really exciting for the students. People were even recording us and taking selfies (which the kids also thought was pretty cool) I even had a lady from either Australia or New Zealand stop and talk about us and our performance. I was very proud of our kids! Then we took a tour of the building. We got to see the general assembly hall as well as one of the council rooms. It was very educational as many of us, myself included, didn't know much about the UN. From there we headed to the iconic Empire State Building. It was really really windy up there today, so it was hard to spend much time outside but everyone got to see the city and its beautiful lobby. We finished our day at Swing 46, which I think most kids thought was really cool. Swing 46 is a Jazz Club that invites HS groups in. They had a live big band who was great along with a Jazz singer. They serenaded us as we ate our supper. (Which was also very tasty!) Then they offered us Swing Dance lessons. I was surprised that probaby a third of the group went up and tried to learn some dance steps. (Although I am not sure the dance instructor was use to teaching 20 HS kids!) Check out some of the video on Twitter, its great. With that we come to the end of Day 4. It is hard to believe we are half done with this trip. Tomorrow the band gets in on the action and has their own first performance. Check back in tomorrow night!
