By Emma Alexander, 01/20
While the last few days have been exciting getting ready for classes to start, it would be remiss of us not to mention any of our trip back home from DC to Ithaca!
After our fantastic reception the night before, we woke up in DC bright and early on Saturday to hit the road! While it was sad saying goodbye to our homestays and knowing tour was coming to an end, we still had a long bus ride ahead of us. To pass the time, we talked, made friendship bracelets, and took much-needed naps to rest up for our return from tour concert this Friday.
For lunch, we stopped at a mall in Pennsylvania, where there was unfortunately no singing cotton candy machine this time. After a nice lunch and looking through stores that were having sales (we are on a college student budget after all), it was time to hit the road again. For the second half of our drive, there was more laughter, talking, and much-needed rest. After driving for a few more hours through gorgeous snowy hills, we arrived in Ithaca around 6 pm.
The fun didn’t end there, however. Once we arrived, we got to sing Will the Circle for one of our fantastic bus drivers, John. John and Stacy, our other amazing driver, worked tirelessly to make our tour as smooth as possible, and it was such a joy getting to know them throughout our trip.
After parting ways, a group of us stood outside laughing and waiting for a bus back to our dorms, a memory I’m sure we aren’t soon to forget. That evening, a few of us couldn’t quite seem to part ways, and we spent hours reflecting on the joys that tour brought us.
To everyone involved in this tour, whether it be our tour managers, professors, homestay hosts, or those who attended our concerts, I want to say thank you. Thank you for giving us such wonderful memories to look back on, and for helping us to create a community of music lovers. I know I speak for all of us when I say that we hope you enjoyed our tour as much as we did, and we hope everyone we met along the way will keep in touch!
And again, thank you, thank you, thank you.
With love,
Emma 26’