so I wrote about the wonderful town

Once upon a street in New York City, a group of 39 Utahn youth bought purses, ate gyros, sang sweetly, skipped sidewalks, and rode subways. 

Highlights include, but are not limited to:

• singing in Carnegie Hall. Truly one of the best experiences of my entire life. The acoustics were unlike any I've ever heard, and our last song's cut-off was followed by a feeling of sheer, echoey bliss, then thunderous applause that didn't end until long after we dissapeared backstage.
• performing for the elderly in Brooklyn. So moving and rewarding. The difference between the assisted living center and Carnegie Hall didn't seem so huge in retrospect.
• sleeping on the subway.
• reading on the subway. Although I didn't see a butterfly.
• windy boat rides, american history, ellis island, lady liberty
• going to starbucks and ordering a coffee-free frappucino.
• throwing caution to the winds and running pell-mell across the street.
• the twinkling lights of Broadway and Times Square. Even the sidewalks sparkled.
• a misunderstood phantom, a wicked green witch, and a practically perfect nanny-Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, and Mary Poppins. Oh, the magic. The glory.
• spending far too much money on food. Paying for tap water.
• not spending enough money on random trinkets, but feeling very proud of my Mary Poppins umbrella.
• bartering for jewelry in chinatown.
• a rice-paper parasol
• shopping day with the gals
• H&M, H&M, H&M, H&M
• walking into the empire state building completely by accident
• my good luck charm
• my bass, my tenor, my alto
• being banished to the boonies of the hotel
• loving the boonies of the hotel
• Mad46!
• bagel and shmear, bagel and shmear
• making friends with the shuttle guy
• barnes & noble...supersized.
• new journals and a novel
• collapsing in the hotel room, swearing up and down that we would never eat that much again, and staying up all night talking. Every day.
• hearing more swearwords than ever before-also more languages. Also, probably a combination of the two.
• the angel Moroni in the middle of Manhattan, going to church, seeing the temple.
• butt-neked singing, Hershey's chocolate bar, fig + leaves, jinny = stone cold fox.
• the really cool pretzel guy
• zero blisters
• almost involuntarily taking pictures of everything - hopelessly sticking out as Mormon tourists.
• young + love = cute, dramatic, fun to watch, silly, ridiculous, filled with jealousy.
• finding out that I don't really belong to any clique at all.
• finding myself walking down Times Square in a lonely box of space, but secretly enjoying myself.
• the best roommates in the universe
• MASH and true love on the way home
• (the chances are 95% in my favor)
• serious withdrawals
• wanting to walk everywhere I go.

I want to go back,
but I really have missed the fresh air and mountains.