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 all the buildup and months preparing for this trip, reality hadn’t set until then. Everyone was packed and we were literally on our way to South America!
The bus ride to Chicago was pretty uneventful, but things started to pick up once we got to the airport. We all grabbed our luggage and checked it. We split up into our chaperone groups to walk through security. It was funny to see random clusters of MYSO people in the sea of people as we walked through the airport. Like all of a sudden you would just see the cello section walking by, or a few French horns waiting in line for the bathroom.
The flight to Houston was pretty uneventful. We spent a lot of quality time together at the Houston airport, enjoying each other’s company, charging phones, and eating overpriced airport food for approximately 12 hours. Our flight kept getting delayed because of weather and technical issues until it was finally cancelled at 2 a.m. We all spent the night huddled up next to each other with stolen flight pillows and blankets on the airport floor. I think I slept for about 2 hours. However, as I sit in Houston writing this at 5:30 am, exactly one day after my alarm woke me up, I’m still pretty excited to go to Argentina.