I have only one word to describe this experience. Phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. This is probably one of the best school trip experiences I've ever had, even though the trip was three and a half days long. Never had I had so much fun before, and had it all packed into such a short amount of time. This was basically what happened:

We left school at 7:20-ish on Thursday morning. We traveled to Iowa by bus (it was a four hour drive.) We got to have a joint concert/clinic with a tiny high school that had only 270 students total. They only had 60 kids in the band program which is about a fourth of what we have. Our total band count is 240 people. It's almost as big as their school! Anyways, after that we drove into town to our hotel, dropped our stuff off and were on the run again. It was so hectic. After that, my memory kind of fades until we get back to the hotel. We didn't get back until nine-ish which was actually our earliest arrival time. Sadly my memory of Friday is completely screwy. I can't remember what we did or where we went. I keep getting things messed up with Thursday and Saturday which is sad.

But anyway, we arrived in Chicago on Friday at about nine AM. It was an early day. This is where my memory goes blank. I remember seeing a percussion ensemble that evening and getting back at ten but that's about it. It's pretty horrible I know. But anyway, Saturday comes around and we have to leave by 8:15 to get to a clinic. We get there and are there until about 10:30. We then get lunch. We ate at the Northwestern College, which has an absolutely gorgeous view of the lake. It's surrounded by rocks along this path and these rocks are covered in graffiti by people proclaiming their love for one another. It was pretty fantastical and I made sure to get pictures of it. After that we got back on the bus and headed towards Navy Pier. The day was absolutely gorgeous! We didn't need sweatshirts, despite the fact we had the sea air blowing all around us. It was gorgeous. It was bustling with unfamiliar faces, and unfamiliar smells. I got an airbrush tattoo with the Chinese symbol for courage. I also bought a deck of cards that had a picture of Chicago on the front and a blue coffee mug for my dad. It was awesome! After that, with our feet already aching, we climbed once more onto the bus to head to our next destination: Michigan Ave. One of the busiest streets in Chicago. It was... Well, busy! We got to shop around for two and a half hours and by the end of it, my feet felt like they were on fire. They hurt so much I wanted to cry! (The shoes I wore were literally brand new.) I managed to find a three story borders which made me uber excited! I bought "Howl's Moving Castle", pocky, and Ramune. It was almost 40 dollars! They have a 10% sales tax there, can you believe it?! That's even on clothes. Minnesota doesn't have clothes tax thankfully. Phew. Almost done blabbering. After shopping, we had a fantastic dinner at this Spanish placed called Emillio's. It was a restaurant which specialized in foods from Spain. I tried some pretty interesting stuff: Penne noodles covered in veal and.... I can't remember all of a sudden! Anyway, there was a potato omelet which is hard to describe. Beef rolled in pepper with carmalized onions on the side, flan.... The list goes on! It was family style so we got to try a little bit of everything.

We then got to see one of the four most prestegious orchestras in the world; The Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The music was amazing, but there's always something worth complaining about. The last piece they played was literally an hour long. We had to sit, and sit, and sit, and then sit some more in these ridiculously awful seats! When you sat, your legs literally touched the seats in front of you! Where we were sitting, the stairs went a nearly 60 degree angle, no joke. It was ridiculous. My knee hurt so much afterwards I wanted to cry! But that's fine. We got back to the hotel at eleven PM. It was late and we were exhausted. People could hardly keep their eyes open. Finally it was time for packing, and then bed.

Today was our last day. People were sad, but obviously ready to be back home, here in Minnesota. Things were packed into the bus and we were on our way by nine AM. The trip home was boring but it felt nice to have some quiet down time, away from the noise of cities and hotels and the hustle and bustle of life. We stopped in Madison for lunch. I had this awesome Japanese stuff that rivaled Osaka at Northtown. Those of my friends from here will know what I mean. Anyway we got back around four. Sadly I had no time to rest. Right from the school parking lot I had to hurry to conformation. I finally got home around 5:45. All in all it was one of the best memories of my life. I hope to remember it for as long as I live.