Woo i'm back from tour and as such I thought i'd go against my usual argument against using a stupid journal and actually use it.

For those who don't know and for those who may have forgotten for the past 3 weeks me and the rest of the Symphonic Wind Syphony of St Peters Lutheran College have been on a band tour of America.

We played in Honolulu, LA, Seattle and Vancouver. We also stopped by in Aukland for a night. That's a total of 3 countries.

Alright now for some further detail on the trip.

Auckland:
Our trip started at 9.30am on Monday the 28th of November 2005. It was about a 3hr flight from Brisbane to Auckland and we were only staying there overnight. What we did see of Auckland wasn't all that interesting and it was very similar to Australia. Unfortunetly to my great disapointment I didn't see a single sheep. We did however see some cows in the middle of the city. I made up for the lack of sheep with a poscard with sheep on it.

Honolulu:
Next up Hawii. We left Auckland at 12.55pm on the 29th and arrived 8hrs later at 10.30pm the previous day. Dam confusing place that northern hemisphere. Yay America land of the realy realy realy long customs line.

It's a strange place in Hawii. They were in the middle of there winter yet it was Brisbane's summer temperature. They measure temperature in farenheight or whatever it is (0C = 17F). They have realy strange traffic lights. They can't spell the word centre. Everything is at least twice as big as it should be (including the toilets) andthey drive on the wrong side of the road... hmph.

Anyway we were in Hawii so that was cool. We were spending the next 4 or so days here so we had lots to do including our first few concerts which attracted virtually no one. The sightseeing part of Hawii was good. We went to some random beach that apparently had the biggest waves in the world (just not at that present time), Waikiki Beach which I give 3 humbs up and Pearl Harbour.

I found out that it was some Hawian king who introduced surfing to South America and Australia. All in all Hawii was a great place along with the people.

Los Angeles:
5hr flight to LA. Everyone note that United Airlines is 'the' worst airline ever. Uncomfortable seats, no room, have to pay for food, realy boringly painted aircraft and the people who loading bags unto/out of the airplane had no respect what so ever for them. Several of our instraments were damaged including my Tuba. Then again we had been flying with Air New Zealand in our last 2 flights which is complete luxury.

LA is awsome. Disneyland was great but anyone could tell you that. I won't say just what was there because there was too much and I can't be bothered but we performed there which was good.

The billets I was staying with refered to Hollywood as "Hollywierd" and for good reason. We of cource saw the famous 'Hollywood' sign and then went to Beverly Hills. This is the wierd place. The mall has chandeleer street lights. Some of the people there are also realy impatient. I saw some guy in his car beep at a guy infront of him for slowing down to turn the corner. We also went on a tour to stars houses tour beautifully stagged by our band directors.

Seattle:
I'm getting sick of all this writting. My bet is that most people will have stopped reading it by now but i'll continue. Seattle. Cold. Icy mountains in the background. Dormant Volcano. Great big Space Needle tower in the middle of the city from where we could see just about everything. Complete with widesceen zoom in camera so we could spy on the inocent little people going about their daily lives.

One thing I should have said before. The Americans love us. As Australians we were automatically cool. Including Rusten (any who know who Rusten is will understand). The only thing they were dissapointed in was our accents which they thought wern't strong enough. Any Americans reading my journal for reasons beyond me should note that only tards who live outback have rediculously strong accents.

Also Seattle has an underground called the Seattle underground believe it or not. Like the London underground only abandoned and in Seattle instead of London. Note I have never been to London. Any way it's got a realy interesting and exciting story to go with it but it's realy long so I won't put it here unless someone asks me to.

We also went to Boeing where they make all the Boeing aircraft for all over the world. Including that realy cool aboriginal Quantas plane if any of you have seen it. I promised my parents i'd buy a plane (model plane) there. I came back with a squishy plane toy thingy.

Vancouver:
Oh Canada Oh Canada. Bus drive from Seattle to Vancouver = 3hrs. We've gone from cold to f**king cold. I was wearing at least 4 layers to keep me warm. Canada is to U.S. as New Zealand is to Australia just to simplify things. So Canada is full of snow and not much eles save civilization. Fortunetly everywhere has heating so it's only cold outside.

On the first day there we went to some schools winter banquet where we performed, ate and then danced. I was asked by no less than 4 'Canadian' girls to dance. 1 of whome I rejected, 1 who asked me twice and a further 1 who I asked. Go me the chick magnet. That's a total of 5 dances I think.

Now I couldn't say I went to Canada withought going to a Hockey Match. Well I could but you know what I mean. Woot Hockey. Awsome game complete with fights every 5min which I took movies of thanks to my wonderful digital camera. We saw the Vancouver Giants slaughter the someonearather Rockets 4 - nil. I was so happy I bought a hockey puck.

The last day of the tour we spent at Whistler Ski Resort. Our band director had been telling us the whole tour that we wouldn't be going skiing because he didn't want to risk anyone breaking anything. But the other staff convinced him and so we did go skiing.

I had been skiing once before so only fell over 6 times or so. My left side is still bruised. We were put in groups with ski instructors depending on our skill. There were only 2 other 1 time only skiers making me in a group of 3.

2 girls who shall remain nameless Chaz & Ali managed in the 1st 5min to break both their wrists. Mr Mason wasn't happy.

So that pretty much sums up the trip. In between all that stuff we performed and stuff as such which was the main reason we went in the first place. It was great trip and an unforgettable experience.