Hannukah in Savannah

Sorry it took me so long to write this post. When I wrote the title down, I was sitting in an airport trying to access my blog from my new iPod Touch. (Sorry if I start to brag a little. I can't brag in real life without getting punched or countered by my brother, but I can't be punched here. (Maybe countered though.))

Right now, I am on vacation for winter break in Savannah, Georgia. I flew to Atlanta on Monday, and spent the night there. Then we drove most of the next day to Savannah. I spent the first night in Savannah with my friend, Jeremy. He had to leave to go to New York yesterday, though. Today, we went to see Marley & Me in theaters. It was terrific, yet sad. I'll talk about the movie later. We spent the rest of the day cooking, arguing with Jordan, watching an Ice Age 2 marathon, and playing around with my iPod. Tomorrow is my Grandma's birthday, so we are going to a reunion like thing at one of the family farms. I miss all of my friends and family at home though, so I want to go home soon.

Now, on to Hannukah. On the first night, I got an iPod touch (it is awesome!!!) and it is awesome!!! I've been going crazy with getting apps, music, and videos for it. I've realized, that it is much better to have an iPod with a screen, than a shuffle. I've only ever had really bad shuffles, so I'm glad for a change. On the second night, my Uncle Aaron and my Aunt Jenny got us a video game, and a pellet rifle for us to shoot airsoft pellets at the beach. (Don't worry, we won't shoot anyone. And if we did, the airsoft pellets aren't that dangerous. They would sting, but not injure.) Last night, no prestents, but tonight, we got a really old board game that we haven't used yet. 4 more nights to go, and 6 more days until New Years Eve.

Well, that's all I have to talk about for now. I'll write about Marley and Me, and the two Batman movies, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, which I saw recently, soon.

NBC Studio Tours

On our first day of the New York trip, we went to NBC Studios, near Rockefeller Center, and took the tour. First they showed us a cool video about the history of NBC. Next they took us into three studios. First, a news place for some nightly news. Second, The Conan O'Brien show studio. Last, they took us to Saturday Night Live, where we got to see where they did all of the performances. They also told us that the seats in the studio were actually old Yankee stadium seats. The next place we got to go was the makeup studio, where they showed us how the actors got into costume in less than 60 seconds. Lastly, they took us into a room where my best friend and I got to be a newscaster (Jeremy) and a weatherman (me). Every said it was really funny because I couldn't figure it out because the green screen made every backward.

NBC was a really cool stop and I had a great time. If you go, be sure to add this to your schedule.

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum was a really cool part of the New York trip. Everything there was life sized and very realistic. (As you can plainly see!) Everything was so realistic that my friend Joey put on glasses and sat on a stool very still and people actually started taking pictures of him, thinking he was wax.

The entire place was cool. Except for the Chamber of Horrors. My best friend, Jeremy, who loves horror films, refused to go in and see his two favorite horror characters, Jason and Freddy. I thought that he was being silly, not wanting to go into a room with some pieces of wax. My counselor, my friend Jordan, and I all went in at the same time. The entire time, my friend and I were clutching at my counselors arm. In the room/hallway, claws ripped through the wall as you came by, live actors dressed as horror people stood still, and then all of a sudden started moving and swung real looking machetes at you, and realistic blood stained the walls. When I got through, Jeremy told me that he'd been through it before and was freaked out. Now I know why.

They had a lot of other really cool exhibits, and I'm glad we went there. If anyone you know goes, warn them about the Chamber of Horrors.

The Lion King

As I said yesterday, one of the best parts of our trip was going to see The Lion King on Broadway. It had amazing sets and costumes. They did the songs perfectly, and they even included a new song and a song that was only in the special edition DVD. The story was nearly identical to the movie and had a lot of the same dialogue.

The thing that impressed me the most was definitely the sets. They had a very good way of showing the tall grass. They gave actors dirt colored costumes and hats with long, plastic (or rubber?) strands of grass on top. They moved around to make it seem like the lions were walking through it. The best set was the elephant graveyard. They made two separate parts that could spin around and made it look like one part connected by a bridge at the top. In the middle of the hyena scene, both of the parts disconnect and begin to spin away from each other.

The costumes were good too, but the best were the hyena costumes. The costumes for the lions were ok, and Timon and Pumba's costumes weren't original at all. Rafiki was probably the best character in the show, though. He/she (actor was a girl) was really funny in the show.

They also had a lot of good singing in the show. The song they took from the special edition DVD was called, "The Morning Report" and was sung by the character of Zazu, near the begining. It was ok. The song they created for the show, "He Lives in You," was probably my favorite. It took place right after Rafiki helped Simba see Mufasa in the water, getting him to go fight scar.

The whole play was amazing, and I would highly recomend it to anyone with the chance to see a Broadway show!

Lots to Write About

I did a lot of awesome stuff at camp that I really need to write about. Normally after camp, I wouldn't have much to say, but this year, we got to spend a week in New York City, so there are a lot of different things to write about.

The highlights of our trip were The Lion King (the broadway show), Madame Tussaud (the wax museum), a Mets game vs. the Seattle Mariners, and NBC Studios.

While I was in NYC, my group went to the Apple store on 5th Ave. There I had time to use one of the computers to moderate a comment and read a post from J Scott Savage. While there I also learned how to do a Rubix cube.

As you can see, I have a lot to talk about over the next few days... weeks... you know what I mean, so expect more than one post a day. Don't forget to enter my contest. Please.