Gallery • 18 Photos

Eshan Cheema

Mural In Chelsea

On March 13th

During the St. George’s two-week spring break, interested students passionate about expanding their artistic, cultural and experiences knowledge took part in a 6-day trip to New York City. The group was comprised of 4 supervising teachers and 30 students. The trip was a huge success and was a great learning experience for the students as well as teachers. The group stayed at the Yotel Hotel in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC.

The trip began with a red eye flight, departing YVR, Vancouver at 11:00pm for a 7:00am arrival in JFK airport, New York City. Most students slept or at least attempted to because in a few hours they would be starting their experiences in the Big Apple. On the first day, students checked their bags into the hotels rooms and then travelled to the Museum of National History, which was very captivating. In the afternoon students had free time and most spend time in SOHO, which is a very nice shopping district/area. To tie the first full day together, the entire group enjoyed a dinner at HB Burger and then proceeded back to their hotel rooms for an early night.

Most of the group was awoken by the sound of the half marathon which took place outside of the hotel in the morning. On the second day, the group visited the Morgan library in the morning, which was very lavish and interesting. Later that day, the group saw the musical, Into The Woods, which was our first Broadway show of many for the trip. From there, the students had free time until meeting back at the next theatre to watch “Every Brilliant Thing” Dinner that night was by individual groups and students ate wherever they chose to eat.

On the third day in, the group had settled in pretty nicely to the NYC constant hustle especially during a weekday. The day started with a fairly early wake up call in order to be and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was many of the boys’ favourite museum. Shortly thereafter, the boys had free time to do as they pleased until meeting for dinner at Gossip Restaurant. Later some of the boys chose to go to the Lucia di Lammermoor Opera Show or the play, “Avenue Q”.

For some the fourth day meant sleeping in, but for others it was a chance to see some of the iconic landmarks of the city.

“Chad, Justin and I decided to get up really early that morning,” said Eshan Cheema (Grade 11). “We got breakfast first and then took a cab straight to the Empire State Building. There wasn’t a lineup so we saved ourselves a couple of hours of standing in line. We spent nearly an hour at the top of the Empire State Building, the view was just so gorgeous. It was very windy on the top and there was also some light rain, but standing there felt out of this world.

“After that we decided to head out to the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. Someone had told us that the best place to stand would be at the Apple Store near Grand Central Station. Despite all the traffic, we were able to make it there before the parade started. The parade was cool, and there were even some soldiers from Quebec in the parade. It was worth getting up early to see!”

After that the group met up at the hotel and then broke off into smaller groups to go out and explore the art galleries in Chelsea. The boys spent a couple hours exploring the galleries before agreeing to meet up again at either Pio Pio or 5 Napkins. The Pio Pio guys went to go see the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime on Broadway, while the others went to go see the Knicks playing the Spurs at Madison Square Garden. It was a long day, and by the end of it everyone was ready to go to bed.

The next day we spent the morning at the MOMA. “The galleries were amazing, and we were lucky enough to get a several to walk around and look at the art” Chad Carbol (Grade 11). After that the group went to go see another Musical, but this time on Broadway. “I was really excited to see a Gentlemen’s Guide to love and Murder. I heard it was really good musical, plus our seats were in the first row.”

After an amazing Broadway performance the boys got some free time before they met up at either Hard Rock Café for dinner and a show or 5 Napkins for dinner and a game. The group that went to 5 Napkins wen to go see the Rangers play the Blackhawks at Madison Square Garden while the boys who ate at Hard Rock Café went to go see Skylight. Skylight was a Broadway show as well, and it starred Bill Nighy. After the show the boys decided to wait outside to get Bill Nighy’s autograph as well as a picture. It was a great night, but for some it didn’t end there. “Frank and I were making our way to our room when some guys at the lobby challenged us to a game of pool. We accepted out of pride and mostly fear. But it was a fun game and surprisingly enough me and Frank won,” said Eshan.

On the last day the boys met up in the lobby before making their way to the Brooklyn Museum. After a couple hours of exploring the Museum, the boys were allowed to go out and explore Brooklyn as well. The boys met up one last time at Bucca di Beppo before heading of to the Airport. On the plane back as we were talking, Dugald Lamb (Grade 12) said with a tear in his eye “New York, it’s like Rome.”