My Oh My, How so much can change in so little time

Washington D.C. was amazing...a city I have been to only once and already know I love. It is such an empowering feeling knowing that you are standing in the hub of your countries decision making city. As we SOUL members have become professional crammers...we saw as many possible landmarks in DC in 8 hours as humanly possible. The Smithsonian, The Capitol Building, The FBI building, The Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, THE WHITE HOUSE....which I would like to take a moment to talk about. You can't fly to another country from a US airport without being subjected to thorough security checks, including but not limited to questioning, metal detectors, confiscation of personal hygiene products, and the occasional strip search - yet do you know how close you can get to the White House without any security checks at all?! The freaking house where the President of United States of America LIVES?? Yes Barack, Michelle, Sasha, Malia, and even Bo...you can practically stand right in their back yard separated only by a wimpy wrought iron fence that stands about six feet high and has 5 inch spaces between each bar....makes zero sense if you ask me. As I was standing...in the back yard...taking pictures of the White House, there was a guy with a strong accent standing next to me doing the same thing and commenting to his travel mate "I have traveled a lot...and I don't know ANY other country where you can get this close to where the President lives..." And as Teele mentioned for example: The US Embassy in Estonia is more protected than that!! Oh! And don't forget that since 9/11 you can no longer take tours of the inside of the White House....but you can take a lovely frolicking tour of the gardens on the grounds with massively large groups of people at a time and take pictures on the front porch. Well I guess it is helpful that they had one security guy dressed in all black standing on the roof in broad daylight...he really blended in with the WHITE house...Oh dear.

This is just something I found to be ironic...but overall I LOVE WASHINGTON D.C. Teele and I also visited the "Newseum" which was the most interesting and amazing museum I have ever visited...I wonder why it was so interesting to me? hehe They had everything from a memorial to journalists who have lost their lives reporting the news and a 9/11 news coverage memorial...to an interactive news room where people could experience things like the ethical dilemmas journalists face on a daily basis and what it is truly like to read breaking news from a teleprompter. My favorite part about this is seeing how difficult it is for some people...right after they say something like "Well how hard can it be?"...uh huh! It was really cool to me too, that the Newseum staff updates these shadow boxes EVERY day with a copy of the front page of nearly every major newspaper...in the WORLD. We also saw a "4D" movie about the history of journalism...what is 4D pray tell? Well it is 3D along with moving seats, puffs of air, vibrating floor, etc. It was really cool!

Also in DC....I think the biggest challenge SOUL 2010 has had to face....As many of you may have heard, SOUL has said goodbye to it's 4th singer, Makly Prophete from Haiti. Many people automatically think tragedy when they hear this news - so I just want to clarify that indeed Makly and his family are okay and his departure from the SOUL tour was unrelated to the earthquake.

Being in a management position, this is one of the most difficult situations I have ever had to deal with. This is a job where it quickly becomes difficult to separate the personal from the professional...when you spend practically 24 hours a day with people for five months you develop unique relationships that I have come to realize are equivalent to relationships you share with members of your own family. To lose one of our members...a part of our family...has completely changed our group dynamic and quite frankly changed our job quite a bit. It was a difficult decision, but ultimately the best one I think for the success of SOUL 2010. Although we miss Makly I am happy to say all things considered, the remaining members of our team are adjusting quite well and have been delivering outstanding presentations and performances as a trio.

Next Stop: New York City...talk about making the most of your time! Although I have been to the city many many times before...it never ceases to amaze me...and there is ALWAYS something new to see! Cramming for the group included: The Statue of Liberty, SoHo, Greenwich Village, Grand Central Station, Times Square, The Empire State Building, Central Park....WOW. I am glad for the singers that they were able to see most of the key landmarks...however, this type of sightseeing in a city like NYC is exhausting! What else? I did some minor shopping I couldn't afford, but also that I couldn't help. Teele and I received free tickets to an Owl City concert in which we attended and didn't actually see Owl City perform because they took too damn long to take the stage and they were wasting our precious opportunity to experience NYC nightlife...so we left. hehe The concert venue was really cool and the opening band wasn't too shabby, but it was going to take too long and there were too many pre-teens with their moms there. We are young and we felt old...that's how you know it's time to change the plan! We went to Adrian's Manhattan apartment (World Youth Choir friend of Teele's and now random acquaintance friend of mine!) I did see an opera for the first time, with Teele, that Adrian performed in at Juilliard..and I have to say it was above and beyond my expectations. It was Dialogues of the Carmelites and it was an amazing performance!! And Adrian still did a great job even though we kept him out until 5am Latin dancing at a Cuban bar and eating street meet on the Subway with some random kid whose friends drew a penis on his arm and then left him to sleep on the the train all night. haha fun times! I also saw a GIRL, who looked younger than I do on the subway with her husband and their little boy and she had the largest most obnoxious yet gorgeous diamond wedding ring I have ever seen in my life and a I took a picture of it, but the picture is on my cell phone - so unless you have access to my cell phone at some point...I won't be able to show you.

Now we are in New Jersey. We worked all day today at a private boarding school called the Pennington School...It was really nice...reminded me of the Cranbrook School in Michigan. We had a really good day and joined the host teacher after school for some delicious Gelatto. After work Teele and I returned to our hotel room and we were so tired we decided to take a nap before going out tonight. We laid down around 5...now it is 2:35am...we just woke up about an hour ago...and now we are starving because we slept through dinner so we are out to venture off and find a lovely greasy American midnight snack.

Countdown to The Netherlands!: 42 days :-D


Love, Jackie