A Whirlwind Trip to NYC!

Before returning to Oberlin, I visited Carianne for 3 days in order to gain some required NYC experiences. Prior to this trip, I had been to NYC only 3 times, each for 2 days or less. I've never been a fan of big cities (my Mom has commented on how, even as a child, I never liked going into San Francisco, which barely qualifies as a big city), but there were a few NYC experiences that I wanted. Plus it was an excuse to visit Carianne. Not that I need one, really. I'm just going to go through each day one by one and attempt to summarize each experience.

Day One: The Epic Fail

On Tuesday, we had a genius plan. We were going to go Uptown (see! I'm even learning the NYC lingo, yo) and grab student rush tickets for Carmen at the Met that night. As we're on the train from NJ to NYC, we call to see if they are doing student rush tickets, which they aren't. That's the first fail of the day. We go to the Met anyway, hoping to find out info on Varis Rush tickets. We get there around 10:30am or so and they tell us that they're doing Varis Rush and that people had already started to line up. We went and checked out the line and it was about 10 people, so we decided that we'd come back later.

So we caught a cab and headed way downtown, where we met Miranda for lunch! I hadn't seen Miranda in probably at least 2 years, so it was fun to see her and catch up and whatnot. I've missed her. After lunch, Carianne and I caught a cab back Uptown, where we stopped at Barnes and Noble to caffeinate and buy a book to read while in line. By the time we get to the Varis Rush line, it's about 1:30 and the line is pretty long. We decided to brave the line anyway.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Varis Rush tickets don't go on sale until 6pm. So yes, we sat in line for 4.5 hours. After waiting in the ridiculously long line full of people who kept trying to convince people to leave (including one evil lady who cursed us, I'm sure), we get to go to the box office. They sold out. Four people before us. Fail. Epic, epic fail.

So Carmen was a no go, but I'm still glad we tried. We headed back to NJ.

Day Two: Jordan, Broadway, and Down the Jersey Shore

For Wednesday, we made plans to meet up with Jordan at Times Square, buy tickets at the TKTS booth for a matinée of a Broadway show, have lunch, and then head down the shore to have dinner with Carianne's family. Unlike, Tuesday, Wednesday went off without a hitch. We got to Times Square around 10:45, met Jordan, got in line, and nabbed 3 tickets for the 2:00pm showing of Hair. This was to be my first Broadway experience! After grabbing our tickets, we headed to Beccos for lunch (read: delicious, all-you-can-eat pasta for $20 = heaven). After lunch, we wandered to waste a bit of time and then headed to the theatre. Our seats were in the 4th row on the right side of center when facing the stage (stage left...?). Hair was fantastically fun! The interactions with the audience were hilarious. The musical was very Oberlin, so we felt right at home. The cast was phenomenal (and extremely attractive, which always helps when they're not fully clothed for the full musical). During the finale, we got to go up on stage and dance with the cast and other audience members. My Broadway debut! SO much fun! Basically it kicked ass.

Now for the interesting part of the day. Carianne and I walked to the Path, rode a train to New Jersey, then took a train down the shore, where her mom picked us up. We went to a karaoke place down the shore, which was an interesting experience. We were there for, oh, 3ish hours. By the time we left, Carianne and I were ready to kill ourselves due to the horrible karaoke singing. Seriously. Okay, I know I can't sing, but I know I can't sing and I will never get up in public and sing. Oh well, the food was delicious!

Day Three: NY Phil, John Adams, Thomas Hampson, and Stiffelio

My last day in NYC was most definitely the most intense. We left New Jersey at 7:45 to get to a 9:45am open rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic. Several comments on this: 1) They are amazing. 2) They were playing in a pretty crappy hall for being the NY Phil. I mean, Davies is way nicer than Avery Fisher Hall. Just saying. 3) Phil Smith is a GOD. 4) We got to hear Thomas Hampson sing a John Adams piece - and John Adams was there! It was a fantastic experience, really.

After that, we met Jordan for lunch. Again, delicious food. After a brief detour to the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts (I think that's the name...), Carianne and I got to go on a backstage tour of the Metropolitan Opera. It was fascinating and awe-inspiring. The random facts I learned were amazing, and we got to see some awesome stuff (Renée Fleming's wig, anyone?). It was a 90 minute tour and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Last on our agenda for the night was a performance of Verdi's opera Stiffellio. It's a lesser-known work that Verdi composed relatively early in his career. The cast was amazingly talented and engaging (and some of them were quite young, especially for opera), and the performance was conducted by Plácido Domingo. To be quite honest, Plácido's conducting was probably the worst part of the performance. This is the second Verdi opera I've seen (Tosca in SF was the first), and I seem to enjoy his work.

So my trip to New York was amazingly fun. I actually miss it and would LOVE to go back again sometime soon. Am I perhaps growing more comfortable with big cities? Who knows. It's hard to not like a city so full of music and arts that I'm quite fond of.