Washington thing I wrote for the yearbook

On the evening of Tuesday 11 March, the College Choir and specially selected “Washington Orchestra” left the last rehearsal with cries of “See you tomorrow!” and shrieks of “Oh my God! Washington tomorrow!” as everybody began to realise that the long anticipated music trip to Washington DC was finally about to happen after so long preparing for and talking about it.
Unsurprisingly, the excitement had not worn off by the following morning when the eighty or so students and eight teachers met at Dublin airport, and after checking ourselves in – a more difficult process than first imagined, particularly when the most common question asked was “What state is Washington actually in?” – and clearing security, everybody was seized with a sense of patriotism that was to prevail for the rest of the weekend. This therefore required the purchase of hats in all shapes and sizes, tiaras, flags, socks, scarves and feather boas in the national colours, especially as we were to represent our country in the Washington DC St. Patrick’s day parade!
The flight itself, though long, was pleasant enough, the excitement enough to keep everyone entertained for the 6-7 hour journey (the fact that I can’t remember the exact time must show how the time flew by!).
On our arrival at Washington Dulles Airport, we encountered a rather unnerving trip from the plane to the terminal in what appeared to be some sort of bus cum spaceship before clearing emigration, collecting our bags, and confessing our possession of apples, sweets, chewing gum and bottled water to the customs officer. We stood waiting for the buses under the “No Parking, No Standing, No Waiting” sign outside the airport, and by the time they had arrived, Kate and Leanna had already found themselves inside a police car!
After a quick – no thanks to “Suzie”, the world’s slowest lift – turnaround at the hostel, we went to dinner at ESPN Zone and the choruses of a less than tuneful “Fields of Athenry” as we walked to and from the restaurant announced to the city that The Irish had arrived!
We were up bright and early the next morning, in full black and uniform for the boys, for our first performance of the trip, at Gonzaga College High School in their huge auditorium. It went very well, or so we believed, until their choir got up to perform for us “completely unrehearsed”. We found it very difficult to understand how, if they were so unprepared, that they had choreographed all their songs with swaying and finger-clicking! After a rather humbling tour of the music department and their “chapel”, which could easily have contained our entire school building, we departed Gonzaga for Grand Union Station, where we had lunch in the food court, and had our first encounters with a real American candy store!
We returned to the hostel to change after lunch, and walked to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, where we were entertained by the planetarium, flight simulators, displays and of course, gift shop, where one could buy real space food!
After having the rest of the afternoon to relax and rehearse, that evening we had the talent show, which was a great success with talents varying from the legendary “Sandford Boys” song to a somewhat unprepared rendition of “Like I Love You” to backflips to excellent timing when it comes to switching off music to cross-dressing to just good old-fashioned singing a song with a guitar. That evening also contained the most Domino’s Pizza most of us had ever seen in one place, having arrived in bags big enough to fit a full grown person inside!
Friday was the longest day, as we had to get up extra early, and had the most activities that day. We got the buses to Georgetown Visitation, where our first performance of the day was to be. When the students started filing into the – larger than before – auditorium, we realised it was no ordinary day, as most of the girls were dressed as Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach, and while we gathered that it was some sort of funday, when a girl got up to explain to us exactly what it was, her accent was completely unintelligible and none of us had a clue what she was saying! Our performance went extremely well, the boys’ quartet, unsurprisingly, being the best received by the girls. Immediately after our performance in Visitation, the chamber choir and strings had to rush off, as they were playing at the St. Patrick’s day mass in St. Patrick’s Church, which was a considerable distance from the school, and time was very tight. They played very well and while they were off being terribly busy and important the rest of the choir and orchestra got to stay in Visitation and were shown around by the girls, who were ridiculously nice!
After lunch we then walked around the corner to Duke Ellington Academy of Performing Arts, where we waited for the chamber choir and strings to return, however they were delayed, and despite our best efforts to prevent Ellington’s choral group from singing before us, they went ahead. To say we were blown away is a vast understatement. Most of the music they sang had been written by past pupils of the school, and their performance was professional to the point that we all either had goosebumps or our jaws had hit the floor! After their astounding performance – during which chamber and strings arrived – we sang first alone (not as poorly as we had expected either!) and then together with them, led by their truly inspiring conductor.
After Ellington, there was time for a little bit of shopping in Georgetown before going to dinner in Johnny Rocket’s, Eddie’s American cousin, where the staff get up and dance every half hour. After our food, we all got back on the buses, which turned into changing rooms as we were going back to Gonzaga to see their spring musical, West Side Story. Even now I find the whole thing nearly impossible to describe, other than the fact that I was torn between forgetting entirely it was an amateur production and being completely amazed that the actors and actresses – all of whom were also expert singers and dancers, of course – were all our own age, and yet were so professional, and I may be tried for treason for saying so, but it put “Oklahoma!” to shame! At the end of the performance we got an extra round of applause, just for being the best audience all week, and then we all got to go backstage! Absolute pandemonium is the only way I can describe it. At least 120 people backstage, all of whom nearly hysterical, cheering and blinding cast members with camera flashes and singing choruses of “Olé, Olé, Olé”. We had to be torn away from the whole thing, but we had to leave, and at least we got a lie in the following morning, as we were going shopping. Saturday was a long, but fruitful day, and I’m sure Abercrombie and Hollister were just rubbing their hands with glee when they saw the buses full of teenagers pull up. In the evening we went to the cinema, scraping together what was left of our money for popcorn and Twizzlers, and then home to bed as we were up early the next morning for the parade.
Sunday morning dawned grey and, of course, rainy. Nevertheless we decked ourselves out in green, white and orange accessories, and by the time we were ready to go the rain had stopped. The parade was great, very surreal, but a lot of fun at the same time, though we were thoroughly sick of listening to the marching band play “My Favourite Things” by the end of the parade. After some sightseeing around the city, we went to lunch, where we had another mini-performance after eating, and then we went back to the hostel, where we changed and got ready to go bowling in the evening, which was a lot of fun.
We got up on Monday morning, in a slightly more sombre mood than the day before, as we faced the enormous task of packing up everything before we left. Through some miracle it was achieved, and we were on our way to Capitol Hill for a tour. However, Harriet, Aaron and Ms Hearns were not going to be coming with us. They were going to the special St. Patrick’s Day ceremony in the White House! When we arrived at Capitol Hill, after having toured Senator Patrick Kennedy’s office, we sang outside, and though we planned to have a tour of Capitol Hill itself, there unfortunately wasn’t time, so then we went back to Grand Union Station for lunch.
When we got back to the hostel, the havoc started as the bags started coming down from the storage room and everyone was desperate to find their own, but everyone got theirs, and soon we were on the buses, ready to leave. We got to the airport with no trouble, and unbelievably nobody had overweight bags! I would tell you what the flight home was like, but I actually slept for nearly the entire thing, like most of the people, so I’ll have to take the word of the people awake that it was fine.
Washington DC is most definitely one of the best school trips anyone has been on, and none of it would have been possible without the endless work of Ms Hearn and Mr Browner and all the teachers that came with us and helped organise everything. We all had an absolutely amazing time, and it is definitely a life experience to be remembered for a long time.


Shit 3 pages... I better get editing...