Today is the day I thought, staring wide eyed at the bus parked in front of the place I’ve worked so hard at for the past nine months.

“Are you excited Kiddo?” My mom asked. She seemed happy for me but at the same time sad.
“Yes, Super. This is an exciting thing, but I’m really nervous too.” I replied.
I hadn’t been out of my state before, let alone a different country! I twiddled my fingers and swallowed hard. I look at the bus once more. Mom and I get out of the car, we search for where I need to put my luggage and where any familiar faces were. After a while of socializing, it was time to get on the bus, I give my mom a big hug.
“Love you mom, I’ll be home soon.” I say and then I climb up the steep stairs to my seat. I’m not looking forward to driving three hours to get to the border and another four to Toronto…

Day One:
I curl up in my favorite red fuzzy blanket, pulling it up to my neck. I look out the bus window and there’s the sign, its the Michigan/Canada border. I really hope this works, AAA said I’ be fine. I will be fine. I will be.Next thing I know a woman comes onto the bus and asks us to hold up our identification, she does a quick run though The woman got off Okay, see? I saw fine and we drove onto a road, we were officially in Canada!
It was pretty weird at first, wherever we went there were Canadian flags and not American.
“Wow,guys, we’re in Canada!” I said with a large smile I my face.
“Yes, everything is different like you expected. DIfferent air and everything!” Gillian’s dad said sarcastically.
After about ten minutes we arrived to a park that just so happened to have a small gym. We ate lunch I had an uncrustable, well actually I had the entire box, after I was done eating like a pig, we got back on the road.

Three hours and forty minutes later,a few pit stops in between for food or to use the bathroom, we were finally in Toronto, ON, Canada, I wanted to jump up and down. We checked into Hampton Inn but then got straight back onto the bus, I really wished to just relax for a half an hour but we had to start touring. On the first day my favorite tour had to be when we went to the CN Tower,though at first I was scared.I hate heights and my palms were super clammy, I couldn’t stay still when we were in line
“I don’t want to go on this! I hate heights, please do make me!” I begged
“Hate is a strong word, just chew your eighth piece of gum and breathe. You will be fine.” I will be fine but once we got up the 1815 ft. tower I was enjoying it quite a bit. The view was astonishing. You could see almost see all of Toronto and the beautiful view of Lake Ontario, the colors of orange and red painting the sky, I was speechless. We had done so much that day that when it was time for bed, I was out like a light, and barely said a word to anyone.
Day Two;

All four of us groaned when the six AM alarm went off, especially since the alarm was super catchy and SUPER annoying, all through breakfast the only thing going through our mind was

“Good Morning, ba-ba-ba-bow-bow-baba-ba-bow, Good Morning!” Over. And over. But other than that the food was great, they had it so you could make your own waffle (YUM) though it was pretty disappointing when they had a tray that said bacon and when I opened it, it was just cooked ham.

“What all are we doing today?” Morgan asked.

“Singing, singing, more singing, Science museum with IMAX, we’re watching Under The Sea I think, then we go to the Toronto Eaton Centre, and we have the Spaghetti Factory, and after that we have a concert. Loaded day girls.” said Gillian’s dad

Obviously we had a big day, our feet were going to be swollen before it’s half way over!

There’s a lot so lets get on with my favorite part. The Toronto Eaton Centre, a mall with over 230 stores in it. Was massive, not to mention just outside was an outdoor concert for Rock Cafe, I didn’t know the bands but they were pretty popular there, not to mention really good!
After our hectic day we got to the motel and decided to watch some TV to only be extremely surprised. Just five miles from where we were right at that moment, was Drake, PSY, Justin Bieber, the bands we saw and a bunch more stars. There was a huge celebration in downtown Toronto that we could see from our window. As Gillian, my friend who was bunking in my room with me was freaking out and calling the other rooms with people in our choir about how Justin Bieber was five miles away from us, Morgan and I were begging our chaperone to call a cab and get us there. But obviously we didn’t. We were exhausted and had another six AM morning, we continued to watch until 11:30. Long story short, the next morning was dreadful.

Day Three (Going home)

We packed all of our things and went downstairs to get breakfast. We were going home today but we still had things to do, but at least they were fun things.
By about eight we got on our bus that was loaded and departed to Niagara Falls.
“I think I’m getting bus lag” my friend Celia said.

“I feel you, my back hurts and I’m tired and a tad cranky” I replied with.
So after a really boring hour and a half drive, we were there. I took a look and was really surprised, oddly enough I didn’t expect it to be that big. This was our last day and I still had about thirty dollars left out of the sixty I brought, and I didn’t have too many souvenirs, might as well spend it here right? First we have to look around and do our activities though, we take pictures in front of the falls for the memory and after that we went on Maid of the Mist which was a feature they do but this was their last year and it would be only an American side feature in 2014. It was quite a bit of fun but it was really wet because you’re on a boat legit right next to the falls plus you have nothing to hang on to besides your friends and you can barely see anything because water is everywhere, also it’s crowded. But other than that I’d say it was pretty fun being thrown everywhere on the boat. Then we went to Behind the Falls, that’s where you go through really freezing cold tunnels to get right under the falls, kinda amazing, and great for pictures, all I have to say is thank God for ponchos.

After we were done with our activities we had lunch right next to the waterfalls

“My goodness, it’s so hot.” our choir director Mr. Snyder kept saying but it was great because even though it was a pretty hot day, with water wisping off the falls it felt like heaven. The food there was really good not to mention. After lunch was done we were allowed to buy merchandise where I happened to have bought the bag I take to class everyday, it was about 25 dollars, so in my price range, I bought it and I still love it.
We all drag our feet to the bus that will take us back to Michigan, I found it kind of odd that we didn’t just take the Rainbow Bridge into New York and then take that route, but I didn’t argue.Just another five and a half hour drive I thought

Honestly, the ride back home was magnificent. All of us really bonded during that ride, I don’t think I had ever been that close to them all before. We were singing the songs we had learned in the past season and clapping after each song. We told stories and talked about how our lives were. One of my friends, Cleashe got in front on the bus and told everyone that this was her last year in Girls Chorus because it’s just too hard to balance everything she was doing in life with the choir. I knew that I wasn’t coming back because I was moving back to where I used to live but I didn’t want to announce it. I was sad enough, they’d find out in September when I wasn’t there. I however did tell a few of my really good friends in the choir, Gillian, Celia and Morgan.

“I can’t believe you’re not coming back Lori! I’m going to miss you so much!” Said Celia.

“I’m going to miss you a lot too! Choir will never be the same..” I replied, I could feel my eyes water as all of my friends look down. It’s quite amazing how attached you get after being together for a year. The last hour us four were just in our seats talking about memories and how much we’re gonna miss talking to each other. We got back to Battle Creek around 11:30. Mom couldn’t pick me up because she was in GR, she had to work the day I got home so I just went to Gillian’s house with Morgan after we got back. I had a lot of fun, for the half hour that I was still awake, I was so exhausted it wasn’t even funny. I had fallen asleep fairly early and was picked up from my mom the next day.
“I feel glum.” I told my mom, I had realized I was leaving the girls that I had grown to love.

“It’s okay, we’ll make it to BC again so you can see your friends again.” my mom explained.

Now I’m still in choir, but I’m in Girls Choral Academy, it’s similar but just not quite the same. I don’t think it will ever be the same. I’ll still never forget the time I went to Canada with my choir