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Today was our final performance day. We had a light breakfast, a quick rehearsal and then boarded the subway and bus system for a trip to the Bronx for the Riverdale Senior Center. I've found trying to rush 35 performers through turnstyles and subway car doors to be a great way to get the heart pumping. Making sure that the iPods are off in time to recognize the next stop is ours is another thriller. We thought we were being clever by loading up 4 "Metro cards" with enough money to get our crew on by just swiping the cards as each singer goes through. Little did we know that after about four or five swipes the cards stop working -- I'm not sure I understand the logic of it, but there we were with about ten people on one side of the turnstyles and all of the others on the watching the -- holding up traffic on the other side. On our first train ride the police officer opened the emergency pass and let us go in. The bus drivers didn't even want to deal with it so they just told us to get on without even swiping our cards. On the way back the operator insisted on resetting the cards every time they stopped working so after a tedious effort we all managed to get on.

We were the guests of Arlene Schalet, Iesha's Grandmother, at the Senior Center. She treated everyone to pizza, juice and cookies. The performance space was challenging as it is not really designed as a performance space -- it was more like a hallway with a piano in it. Fitting all of the singers and chairs for the audience was a neat trick. We were told to expect between 10 and 30 people in the audience but there were significantly more -- I wouldn't be surprised if there were over 50. We were very well received and the performers did so well considering the challenging circumstances. We gave the same performance as we did on the 23rd at Cathedral Village except Jane took out Sea of Berries and substituted Miss New Orleans. I was thrilled with the change as that was a favorite of mine. The singers did a fabulous job. The crowd begged for an encore, so we did the Samoan Chant. Afterwards, some of the graduates got misty eyed when they realized it was their last concert with BCS.

When we got back "home" to the St. Thomas Choir School, we had to adjust with a new world without Ellen. Patricia had to go home a few days early so Ellen took her. (That made me misty eyed because she leaves tough shoes for me to fill,) but fortunately Joanna Horobin was waiting for us looking refreshed and ready to chaperone. We had a few hours of free time (when I got to find internet access!) and then another quick, but impressively constructive rehearsal. Mary prepared another amazing dinner -- all organic food I'm told. Mea wanted to offer her appreciation to all of the students who accepted her 7 year old son, Tobias, so warmly. The singers have been great with him -- keeping him occupied, looking out for him, and treating him like a teenager... a 7 yo boy's paradise.

The evening ended with the option to stay in the choir school and "chill" or take the quick walk back to Columbia Circle to the Time Warner Mall. The grads and Gabe opted to hang out back the the school with me, but the others went to the mall and came back with hats, bags, bargains and stories. We had to say good-bye to Shu Yi as she was taking a train to Yale very early in the morning.

As you know we have been touring two wonderful states and currently we are in New York and having fun. Today, after pizza and orange pineapple juice,we performed in a nursing home with great joy. It was mainly for Iesha's grandmother named Arlene who actually bought the pizza for us. Afterwards, we took the bus and train back to the choir school, took a two-hour break, had a calming rehearsal, and had delicious and healthy dinner. Then came the very best part of the day, the shopping. There were two groups; One group that wanted to go to the mall and one group that stayed at the school. So technically, while we were out buying hats and looking at gadgets, everyone else was still in the school playing ping-pong and watching the television. The funniest part was the "accents" everyone in the chorus kept using. All day you could hear French, British and Spanish accents. All in all, I'm pretty sure that everyone had fun today. - Najah

We've made it to New York with all of our singers. Whew!

We enjoyed a final breakfast in Philadelphia University before we gathered our luggage and bade farewell. We have learned that it is easier to do mass transportation when we divide and conquer so we broke up into the same groups that we formed when we toured Philly before hopping onto the SEPTA (Philly Public Transportation) communter train, taking the BOLT bus to New York, navigating the A train to Columbus Circle and then managed to two block walk to St Thomas Choir School.

This place is like a little oasis a block away from Central Park. It is a private school for grades 3 through 8 where the grade sizes are from three to eight boys. They learn all of the major subjects here and spend amazing amounts of time getting to sing. The building it self has many features that look historic and yet it is quite modern. There are several common spaces where the singers can relax and enjoy themselves, two elevators (the boys who go to school here are not allowed to use the elevators to conquer the 13 story + basement building.) The rooms are lovely and vary from a narrow single just large enough to hold a bed, armoir and desk, to a guest suite with a kitchenette where all 7 fellas can fit.

We took a short break in Central Park to go over some rules and to play. Many of the singers got their first taste of New York food stand fare with mixed reviews.

The cook here is named Mary. She made this amazing dinner of porkloin, salad, broccoli and the most amazing peach pie I think I have EVER had. Emily H. commented that the dinning hall reminded her of Hogwarts. It's true -- although smaller. There are long tables with many, many chairs. It is a very live room so while it made announcements easier than the dining hall in Philadelphia, it takes no time at all for light chatter to build to din level.

After dinner we broke up into our groups and walked to Times Square. My group was fortunate enough to snag Anna who joined us here in New York. Meg is an additional chaperone who joined us as well. She is not only a former New Yorker, but a former Broadway actor. The singers in my group were loving every minute. We visited several stores, noticed every theater marque, sang and pointed and took pictures of everything in sight. We made it back to the school loving New York.

Ben was the MVP for his active, conscious and consistent friendship and inclusiveness to everyone on the tour.

As you may well know by now, this section of the blog is covered by singers. So yes, I'm a singer, and yes, I am covering this report for the day.
It started on a hot and muggy morning, with birds were chirping incessantly (as always), and those fireflies which we loved so much were long gone. I even caught a couple last night! After packing up early and eating breakfast, we went to the train station, carrying our thirty-five thousand pounds of luggage (1 K per singer, that is). I think I broke my back carrying my suitcase, but the boys helped me, and a lot of other people cart things up and down stairs. The chaperones were really good about having us hydrated; they forced us to take swigs of H2O periodically. And after boarding a bus for close to three hours, we arrived in New York. Fun fun!

The MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority?) was really hectic and kind of scary. By the time we got out of the station, I could see rain droplets start to form on my clothes, and we hurried to our destination. Now that we're here, I have to confess that it's a really nice place. There are lots of rules, like no gum chewing and no tangling up the binds, no opening the windows (rumor has it that a naughty choir boy threw a beer can out a window once), and no playing in the gym, because if Jane broke a couple bones and decided to bring up a lawsuit against this school, it wouldn't be too nice. Despite these caveats, advantages are always present, such as: a foosball table, television with Disney Channel on it, really nice dorm rooms, a library, and super excellent food. Not to mention we have two ping pong tables, and people keep wanting to face me, even though I profess to stinking at it though I'm Asian.

After a short rest, we went out to Central Park, which was really...green. Following that little detour, we came back to have rehearsal. Now let me tell you about the gym. At the back is this room for rehearsal. It's PART of the gym. There's this literal HOLE IN THE WALL (more like rectangle) and it's a ROOM and it's separated by a NET. The sound was nice, but the benches were uncomfortable. Those choir boys probably never shoot their basketballs very high, because that room is really well preserved. We talked a lot, and Jane threatened to make us donate to the J-A-N-E fund if we did tomorrow. But I don't think should would...or would she?

Dinner was amazing. At first, people panicked because they didn't seem to have enough food (there's something about small bowls of food as opposed to giant-sized bowls at the University), but we soon realized that there was more than enough. And it was delicious. The seniors + Vanessa had this system all worked out for us to help with the dishes and everything. But today, we discovered that we had a little problem. Some people forgot to indicate on their sheets that they were vegetable-arian, as Jane likes to call it, and so we had a problem with providing food for all those special people. Did you know that there were SEVEN vegetarians on this trip? I've never seen that many in a room before. I'm no math whiz, but that's 20% of the population! But as for me, I like meat too much.