I just got back from my school’s amazing orchestra trip to PHILADELHIA!!!! It was sooo much fun. All my friends went, Nicole, Ari, Olivia, Emily, Ann, Hannah, Jason, Patrick, Katie etc! Everyone was there! We left on Friday morning at about 8:30. The bus ride was really long. We stopped half way in PA near the NY border. I ate at Arby’s and then we looked through the convenience store. BUT THEN, our bus broke down in the middle of no where PA. We stopped at this sketchy truck stop place in time, to try to get it fixed. Luckily, within 2.5 hours, this mechanic named Bob (how sterotypical) fixed our bus (there were 2 buses, and the other one waited) We sat on the lawn in the scorching sun playing various card games like Egyptian Ratskew, that was fun! We even checked out the store near by. Finally after the 2.5 hours were over and our bus was fixed, we continued to Philly and made it there! haha. Closer to the city, there was an insane amount of traffic…that took FOREVER! We even saw these people driving backwards on the highway trying to turn around. It was quite terrifying. We got to the hotel at 8:30, (I was rooming with Ari, Olivia and Emily) and unpacked. Our hotel was in NJ, so we had to cross this bridge every time we went into the city, it was a nice view from the bridge though.That night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe!! It was pretty cool, but the food wasn’t all that great. It was funny how Jason was eating everyone else’s food, haha.

The next morning we got up early to go to the Art Museum of Philly! It was funny at first because all of these people were exercising on the steps, and this group of Asian tourists joined them. haha. After that we got into our chaperone groups. We had to walk around to the other side of the building to get in or something. All of us were sad because we all wanted to run up the stairs like in the Rocky movie. Our chaperone (who was insane most of the time) let us run up the first set of stairs. Haha, it was so funny, we were all running really fast up the stairs and then back down. The museum inside was gorgeous! All the art work was fantastic and beautiful. except for some of the modern art stuff, I wasn’t a big fan of that. We ate lunch in the museum and I ate a Philly cheese steak, because of course I wanted to eat one while I was there. haha. After that we went to one gift shop and then another (in the 2nd one, everything was 75% off!! omg!! and we finally broke off from our chaperone at this point) and then we waited and hung out on the front steps. The view of Downtown was gorgeous! When we got back to the hotel, we had a little downtime and a fun of people came into our room to play cards. That was fun! Ari taught us how to play Asshole. After that we went to the Italian restaurant called Buca di Beppo. They gave you a ton of food and the decorations were pretty cool. Some kids told the staff it was Moose’s (our conductor) b-day ( it really wasn’t) and they brought us all cake. LMAP After that we went to see the Philadelphia Orchestra. Kimmel hall was gorgeous and it had a glass celing. We went up to the top section and you could see far across the city. Then we went into the aud and saw them play! First they played a violin concerto and the soloist blew me away! He was the best violin player I’ve ever seen! holy crap!! After that they played another piece that was really good.

The next day we went to the independence hall area. First we saw the liberty bell! It was smaller than I imagined and it was really cool to see. After that we tried to go into Independence Hall, but apparently there were too many of us. Instead we walked into a small park and then to this mall area called The Bourse. It was cool inside! I ate Chinese and then shopped for souvenirs. After that we went to Adventure Aquarium in NJ. It was really cool there! They had a lot of cool exhibits and fish! I even got to pet a shark, it was awesome!! haha. After that we went back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner cruise. The cruise was fun! The view was okay, kinda crappy haha. And the food was okay. The dancing was fun!! There were a few issue on the dinner cruise because some kids got caught drinking so Moose was really pissed. So our curfew was cut when we got back to the hotel, even though only a few kids were doing it.

The next day we left around 9:30. We stopped two times, once at a little park area and then at the same place we did on the way back. I ate at Subway this time. Then we boarded the bus and continued home. The ride was looong. I used up all of the battery on my DVD player. I played BS with a few people which was really amusing. haha. I got home around 5:30, so I’m quite tired now. What a fun time!!