Over spring break, Albert Lea High School hosted two big trips to different locations. The music department went to New York City and the other trip was to four different cities in Italy for seniors in the CIS Western Humanities course.
New York City is at the center of all things artistic including music and theater. This is one of the reasons that it was a part of the music department’s trip. The band wanted to perform music for people who would be appreciative of it. This is why their destination was at Care One, a nursing home in East Rutherford, New Jersey. For their performance, they played songs from three famous musicals: “The Phantom of the Opera”, “The Greatest Showman” and “Wicked”.
While their performance was in New Jersey, they spent most of their time in New York City. They saw many famous landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, the Empire State Building, the Museum of Broadway, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, Lincoln Center, American Museum of Natural History and Rose Center for Earth and Space and Time Square.
“Some of the highlights for me were going to the Statue of Liberty and taking the ferry there,” said Hunter Schmidt (12). “Another thing was going inside the Empire State building. They had a cool King Kong exhibit and I got grabbed by Kong.”
There seems to be some agreement between people in the band.
But even with all the planning there were some pitfalls. The group missed their visit to Central Park because of bad traffic which could be considered a New York experience of its own.
They got the opportunity to see the music they played in action as on their last day in the city they saw “Wicked” on Broadway.
“I just really like musicals,” said Gaby Tufte (12). “It was really cool seeing one that I’ve liked for a while in person on an actual Broadway Stage.”
The second big trip over spring break was the CIS Western Humanities classes. The group was led by Therese Netzer as they explored four Italian cities: Milan, Venice, Florence and Rome. They also went to areas like Verona and the Vatican City that were near their destinations. These places were hubs for art in the time periods that they have studied in the CIS Western Humanities classes.
They flew into Milan and spent a day there. Then they traveled to Venice where they got to see St. Mark’s Square and Basilica and Doge’s Palace. Their next stop was Verona on the way to Florence where they got to have a guided tour and saw the Piazza delle Erbe, Romeo and Juliette’s balcony and the Verona Arena. The next city was Florence where they saw the Palazzo Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria, Chiesa di Santa Croce, Ponte Vecchio, Duomo, the Gates of Paradise, Giotto’s Bell Tower and Dante’s House.
“My favorite thing to see was definitely Venice. I also really liked all the museums because we saw so many statues that I had learned about,” said Ivory Devenport, a senior who went on the trip to Italy. “It was the trip of a lifetime and I definitely recommend it to the class of 2027.”
Their last day and a half in Italy, they spent in Rome where they saw the Colosseum, Forum Romanum, Piazza Venezia, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Piazza Navona. They also spent some time in the Vatican City where they saw the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica.
“The whole experience is so good in helping you be grateful for what you have but also be so excited about the world and open to other people and new ideas,” said Netzer. “How do you capture the grandeur of the Sistine Chapel on a Smart Board?”
If these trips sound enticing, ALHS had another two trips coming up this summer. The foreign language department is traveling to France and Spain which is organized by Peter Sunnarborg and Wison Bohada. There will be another trip to Italy, specifically the Mount Vesuvius site, hosted by Ken Fiscus. As for our CIS Western Humanities classes, Netzer is already planning next year’s trip to Greece.
“My vision is a trip every year for the senior class,” said Netzer.
