Mid-Lent update
Hey everyone,well I think this is the first Sunday of Lent I've spent "frittering away in front of a computer screen" so I guess that's good. My internet bookmarks are starting to not work anymore, it's kind of funny.
Random things:
Well...I did officially get into London, spring 2007, so that will be cool. I'm still a little sad about missing Rome, but I'm getting used to the idea of London. Rome might have been too much for me anyway, what with the language difference.
I'm waiting to find out if I got a job at the Kelly farm as a "historic site guide." Crossing my fingers...
If anyone knows how a bunch of 19 year old students could rent a car, or get from Notre Dame to Minnesota for Easter, that'd be great. :)
Spring break:
was amazing.
Saturday I flew into Philly w/ Chris and had dinner with his parents that night before meeting up with some of his friends. Slightly intimidating way to start the week! But it was fun. Sunday we went first to a little itty bitty Catholic church in town, but I really liked the homily. Evidentally the East Coast has a lot more Catholic churches which are much smaller than midwestern ones, which makes sense historically speaking. It was strange tho. We also went to Chris' family's church (Assemblies of God) which was cool too.
Monday we went to the beach, which was amazing. It was randomly about 75 degrees and sunny, and i definitely wore my swimsuit and a skirt most of the day. We decided to go swimming in the ocean...unfortunately we didn't time it very well and we hadn't gone in the water yet when a really cold breeze started up. So we just held hands, ran straight in, and ran straight back to our towels where we wrapped up as tightly as possible. :) It was still a sufficiently beach-y day for this minnesota girl! Also Chris made french toast for breakfast that morning. i just felt like that deserved a mention.
Tuesday we got off to a little bit of a slow start, but we went to midday Mass at the cathedral in Wilmington and then drove into amish country in Pennsylvania. I definitely saw the buggies in the yard and everything. We took a tour of a "typical amish house" but the best parts were 1) the drive through the winding hills dotted with farmhouses (so beautiful!) and 2) stopping at this little amish bakeshop. We saw the sign pointing off the road, and followed it to this house where the front porch was a bakery. It was staffed by this older lady who seemed to live there and she was really cute, telling us about the deals and stuff.
Wednesday we hung around, did some homework, and visited Chris' old high school, and Thursday we went shopping for a shirt for me for Carnegie before heading up to New York City.
We met up with my dad that night which was really great to see him. Friday morning we headed into the city on the orchestra bus. We got there about 10, had breakfast, and watched some of the St. Patrick's day parade. I don't think I've ever seen so many police officers in my entire life! We poked around some stores and stuff too, and then we had to meet up with some of my extended family around 2. From 3-6 we were supposed to have rehearsal at Carnegie, but they ended up not wanting us onstage just yet so we just had to wait backstage for the Cheiftains to be ready for us. And by backstage, I mean in this little room that looked like a gym (but as one of my friends pointed out, there must have been somebody famous that had waited in that room at some point too!). We ended up only having an hour to rehearse, and it wasn't even with the Cheiftains. Then some more waiting until finally we were on. It was so surreal walking out onto that stage. But then everything went so fast and suddenly we were done and walking out. It wasn't the greatest concert the orchestra has ever played, but that's ok.
Saturday morning Chris went back to Deleware, and my dad and I went into the city with Aunt Jan. We did a pretty good tour of NYC in 10 hours:
Madison Square Garden
Times Square (and the ticket place)
the subway
Ground Zero
a little bit of Wall Street
Little Italy/Chinatown (and Sal's pizza place, with 10 tables and an owner with an italian-ny accent who threatened to make me wash windows if I didn't finish the pizza)
St. Patrick's Cathedral
The American Girl Doll store
Carnegie (so i could get something from the gift shop)
Central Park
Grand Central Station
hot dogs and pretzals from a street vendor.
phew!
I liked NYC better than I had...I was noticing that there weren't any kids walking around anywhere, so that's probably part of why I didn't like it before. Still, two days was about enough for me. too much stimulation!
Then I took the bus back with the orchestra, all 12 hours, through the poconos and boring parts of ohio and indiana.
The end. :)
posted by Jessica @ 6:45 PM
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