Despite the cold, members of the music ensembles were eager to depart for their trip to New York City on Friday, March 7.

 This year marks the fourth year that the band, choir, and orchestra have traveled to New York together. With at least eight hours in the city, students had plenty of leisure time occupied with activities such as a Broadway musical.

 Every trip three musicals are offered to the students in the beginning of the school year. Throughout the four years, the ensembles have had the opportunity to see Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Newsies, Pippen, Memphis, Anything Goes and more. Much of the eager attitude was associated with the musical selection. There was a large portion of students that selected Les Miserables as their musical. The Susquehannock Concert, Marching and Jazz Band Director Chris Poole was not only excited to see it himself, but also excited for the students to have this opportunity.

 “The majority of our students [saw] Les Mis that’s what [I was] excited about,” said Poole. “I think it’s one of the top two shows on Broadway…”

 While musicals play a large role in the excitement, they are not the only activities that students and teachers filled their day with. Some students chose to visit music row, sheet music stores or Times Square. This was freshman Addy Achterberg’s first time ever in New York City. Other than Les Miserables, Achterberg looked forward to the little things in the city.

 “I’ve always wanted to go to a coffee shop in New York City,” said Achterberg. “I think that’s really cool.”

 Other students attended the trip for their second time, such as junior Hannah Steinhauer. While Les Miserables was also Steinhauer’s choice of musical, she was even more excited to focus on the sights of New York.

 “I [hoped] to do a little more sightseeing this time because last time all we did was shop,” said Steinhauer. “I hoped to see more of Central Park and stuff like that.”

 Steinhauer chose to sightsee indoors spending a portion of her day in the Modern Art Museum.        The trip is an experience unlike other field trips. Groups of around five can visit New York City with one chaperone only limited by generous boundaries. Students, especially ones that went on the trip for the first time, are adjusting to the amount of leisure time.

 “We have a bit more freedom,” said Achterberg. “We had freedom in Annapolis, but it wasn’t as cool as New York City.”

   Some students were just excited to spend the day with friends. The groups and chaperones were selected by the students, allowing the most positive experience. Junior member of the choir Patrick Hogan attended the trip for the first time and looked forward to learning more about the students that he sees everyday in class.

 “[I was most excited to] getting to bond with fellow members of the choir without being in school and actually getting to know each other outside of school and what they like to do,” said Hogan.

 In past years, the trip has been planned for May; however, this year had involved some minor changes. Due to the rescheduled orchestra trip to Boston, the combined trip to New York City had been pushed up two months. The ensembles also departed from the school earlier than in previous years. Poole was excited to travel and get some extra time in the city.

 “We tend to get stuck in a number of traffic related problems on the way,” said Poole. “We thought we would leave a little earlier to try to beat some of that traffic and have a little more time in the city.”

 The altered departure time did in fact allow them to avoid the traffic that delayed them in previous years.

 The changes do not come without some concerns from students. The weather recently has been unpredictable. Steinauer was concerned with the impact that the change might have had on sightseeing and spending time outdoors.

 “I would have rather it be in May just because it’s warmer and I feel like we would to be outside more,” said Steinauer.

 The weather concerns; however, proved to be unwarranted because the weather was 40 degrees and sunny. The three ensembles arrived in New York City at noon and spent the entire afternoon and evening with friends sightseeing, shopping or exploring the city returning to Susquehannock at 4:00 a.m. Saturday morning.