Michelle Hoffman

Day 5, Part 2 After a dinner at several different nearby restaurants, MYSO loaded into the buses and headed for the Usina del Arte. Usina del Arte literally means “Factory of Art” or “Art Plant.” The building does produce art, but the name has a more literal meaning. The building used to be an electrical […]

Day 5, part 1 Bus one! Bus two! Bus three! We left in groups by bus to head down to the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. This 28 meter tall stone and fresco heaven was my favorite thing to see today. The Italian influence mixed with the music and dance of the theater made the

Day 4, part 2 We broke for dinner. The groups split up on a quest to find smoothies, pizzas, and more empanadas. Everyone met up again afterwards in the hotel lobby dressed in bright red; no one liked the idea of showing up at a futbol game in Argentina wearing the other team’s colors. In

Day 4, part 1 We arrived at the hotel around 2:15am from our performance in Rosario. As 81 musicians rush up to their respective hotel rooms, the elevators were overwhelmed. My roommate and I decided that waiting 30 minutes for an elevator wouldn’t suffice for our need to sleep, so we walked up 24 flights

Day 3 After a full night’s rest for the American Airlines group, we agreed to let the United group sleep in; this meant that we left for Rosario an hour later. Soon after breakfast, we piled in the buses and before anyone could start a headcount, people were leaving the bus with an excuse of

Yesterday blended into today, as we landed in Buenos Aires close to midnight this morning (last night?). After making our way through customs, immigration, and a pit stop at McDonald’s, we left the airport (finally!) in buses and headed to our hotel. After around 36 hours of traveling, and not being able to brush my

By the time the American Airlines group touched down in Buenos Aires, the United Airlines group was still stuck in Houston. It started innocently enough– a mild thunderstorm, a forty-five minute delay. But delays started piling up, and eventually someone with keen skills of observation mentioned that it was midnight, so we were technically on

Day 1 Today was the day we wanted to get out of the way as soon as we could: it was flying day. This may seem glamorous, as movies paint a picture of rich celebrities sitting in cushy leather seats, drinking champagne, and walking off the plane looking like they were ready to film a

I set my alarm for 5:30 this morning and I woke up two times before that because I was worried I would sleep through it. (Needless to say I didn’t.) We drove down to MYAC and gathered together in Youth Arts Hall as we arranged ourselves by the buses we were taking to O’Hare. For