DAY THREE:

Because I pretty much hit the sack the night before, Thursday morning wasn't so bad. Ann got the wake-up call and took her shower, I either slept or watched TV. Actually, I just slept. The breakfast was pretty good, but better than the breakfast was the chance to sit with some kids from ICC. They were nice to Ann and I (even though we were the only kids from our choir sitting at their table) and we played 10 Fingers. If you have never played this game, I'll explain it.
First you put all 10 fingers out in front of you. The first person to go says something they either have or have not done. If they say, for instance, "I've never seen a cow," and you have seen a cow, you put one finger down, and vice versa. After breakfast we had our second rehearsal.

I forgot to tell you about Prof. Yang in my last post. I don't know how I could have forgotten him, because he was so great. He directed the China Children's Choir (CCC) and he was adorable. When he directed his made quick, darting motions near his chest. He was probably in his late 70s (I think. I'm awful at judging ages.) and he used a cane. When he directed us during rehearsals he had a chair he sat in. At one point he stood up and did a little dance. I was the cutest thing ever. I think the pianist was his wife, and she rarely (if ever) watched him, which resulted in us singing one tempo, and her playing another. when that happened, he would stop us with a quick motion and tell her something in Chinese. His English was so heavily accented that we could barely understand him. He would try to hum things so we would know how to sing them. We were usually pretty confused. Fortunately, he was cute. Not only was Prof. Yang cute, he had Einstein hair. It was crazy-go-nuts.

I also forgot to mention that one of the songs we were supposed to sing together turned out to have been arranged by two different people. CCC sung one arrangement, and the rest of us had learned the other. Henry Leck said this was a good chance for us to learn to "sing with our ears." This was a fancy way of saying he didn't have enough music for us all, and couldn't get enough before the concert. I don't know about you, but I usually sing with my mouth.
While we were discovering the fact about our differing music, I commented to the girl beside me "Is it just me, or are they singing in way more parts than we are?" It wasn't just me. In addition to our parts (three) there were four other sections singing some other parts. Melody, descant, soprano 1, alto, alto 2. And our alto 1 and 2. It was ultra confusing.

The concert hall was air conditioned, so we didn't mind being imprisoned (ha ha, joke) in the place for a while. We were better off that CCC, who were all still in school, and couldn't come to the second rehearsal. This made it rather difficult to practice the commissioned piece, since all the choirs had a different part to sing.

I bet all of you people out there are getting pretty tired of choir talk, especially if you don't sing in a choir, so I'll get on to the more interesting events of the day. After lunch (which was good, but I really don't have anything to say about it, except that I think that was the lunch we ate with the good doctor, not the one on day two, but that's not so very important), we were supposed to see the Temple of Heaven, but it was closed for renovation, like most of Beijing. I suppose now would be as good a time as any to mention that Ash is allergic to soy nuts, and she had to eat at the vegetarian table for our Beijing segment of the trip. She finally got the tour guide to understand that she was allergic to soy, and not a vegetarian in Hangzhou, so after that she sat with us.

The Summer Palace was very pretty, but also a lot like the Forbidden City architecture-wise.

The one cool thing was the HUGE hallway. I think it was actually called the long hall, or something like that. We had a boat ride, and we were so hot we all wanted to take a dive into the water. I didn't get to sit with Ash because she was on bus 1, and I couldn't get to where she was sitting. The boat ride took a while, but the scenery was pretty. We pretty much just walked around to the boat at the Summer Palace.

We went back to the hotel for a while, and I went with Ash and Ann to get a Chinese shirt. I succeeded in my goal, and Ann got a pretty dress. Ash had already gotten her dress. Mine was shimmery aqua with pretty red and gold dragon designs. It was a little tight on top (It was and xx large, and it was the size of a normal medium or even small! Lots of girls couldn't get them because the bottom half of a shirt would fit fine, but the top was too small. Chinese women are petite.) but other than that, it fit nicely. I was so happy. I decided to wear it to the B minor mass the Masterworks Chorale was singing at.

When we went to eat, a dumpling splashed sauce on the front of my shirt, and it was not my fault at all. I had it on the chopstick perfectly, but by some freak it hopped off. I was upset about it. It was my new shirt! Plus I didn't have another shirt to change into. I guess I was preoccupied with that, and I left my camera under the table. Actually, my mother's camera. Actually, her digital camera. That also happened to have at least $50 dollars in it. I realized about five minutes later. I told Mrs. Waters, and she told Adam.

Good old Adam. He called the restaurant. They said that someone had taken it. At first I thought he meant stolen it, but he actually meant someone from the other bus. I worried about it the entire way to the concert. I walked down the path trying to contain my panic, flanked by Ann, Kris and Camp all trying to help me contain my panic when I saw Ash.

Holding the strap to my camera bag and grinning widely. I ran over and hugged her. "You saved my life!" I gushed. Turns out the bus driver for bus 1 saw the camera bag; he gave it to Mrs. Jay's son, Rick, who was on the tour with us; Ash saw it, and got it for me. I was close to tears, I was so happy and relieved. Little did I know...

Halfway through the concert I felt the zipper to my shirt slip down. The zipper was under my arm, so I figured I'd unclasped it accidentally or something. I asked Kris (who sat next to me) if she'd zip it up. "The zipper's off track," she whispered. "I'll fix it for you in the bathroom during intermission." I nodded, and turned back to the music.

It was gorgeous. I closed my eyes a few times to let the music wash over me. Then I looked down my row. Steve, I knew, hadn't even waited for the concert to start before falling asleep. All the other people in my row were either asleep or close to it. Kris was leaning on one arm, her eyes shut, her mouth slightly open. The front row was even worse. They were all asleep, and leaning the same way! Mrs. Jay (who is in Masterworks) told them jokingly that they could at least stay straight so people wouldn't notice.

While all the other members of my choir were asleep, I chould feel the zipper sliding lower and lower. I finally tucked a program under my arm (they were huge, or else I wouldn't have gotten away with it) and waited for intermission. Kris, Ann and Ash all came to the bathroom to help me fix my "wardrobe malfunction."

Do you know what the worse words to hear are? I'll tell you. "Whoops." You know what's bad to hear after that? "The zipper came off." Yeah. That tops the chart. It took 5 agonizing minutes for Kris to come back with a sweater, compliments of the choir managers. I was so very happy. I zipped it up, and went back to my seat for the other half of the concert.

DAY TWO:

Note: Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday or the day before; We went swimming Saturday so I was pooped and Sunday the internet was down.

We had to get up a 7:30. Not fun, but not too bad, relatively speaking. We had breakfast with one of the other choirs. They were from Indiana. Henceforth ICC. That was when I noticed that one of the guys was kind of cute. Unfortunately:
a) I never actually talked to him,
b) Their choir left before ours.
Anyway, at breakfast the spring rolls were really good. I sat with Lena, Ash, Ann and I think Kris, though I could be wrong about the last. Oh, and Bear. In case you cared at all.

A weird thing about the meals is every one of them had watermelon served. Is this a big thing in China? I liked it, anyway. Watermelon=very yes.
Also, they served cereal with yogurt. I think the yogurt was spoiled, though. It tasted gross.

As we visited our first sight to see, we discovered a few more things about our tour guide.
a) First of all, I'm going to marry him.
b) He's really funny.
c) He has seen a lot of movies, and remembers all of them.
d) He watches the movies to help him learn English.
e) His mom wants him to get married before he's 32. He has 5 years left to make enough money, he says.
f) When he mentions a number (like 2:30) he spells it out. "2:30. 2 3 0." He also draws it in the air, although that didn't help too much.
g) His name isn't really Adam Weaver. Actually, we thought for a long time, because of his accent, he was Adam Waiver. Apparently he has changed his name a few times. Originally it was Hu. Then he changed it to Larry James (at his college they called him Larry as a joke.). We thought he said Larry Jams. Anyway, he went to America, and one of his American friends told him that you couldn't have a first name as a last name. Then he asked a lot of people on his tours what his name should be and a woman said "Adam Weaver." So he kept it.
h) Cee kept thinking his name was Tony.
i) We had the best tour guide in the world.

The Forbidden City was CROWDED! Adam told us that a lot of people got lost there, but we were his perfect angels, and none of us ever did. Ann and I kept close tabs on each other.
The Forbidden City was interesting. There were about a billion different halls and stuff like that. We pretty much all decided that if we were Emperor we'd get lost every day on our way to breakfast, or whatever.
"Oh yes, there goes Empress Bard. It looks as if she's lost again. Do you suppose we should help her out, or just watch her wander around aimlessly? Yes, I think it would be much more fun to watch her suffer in the blistering heat."
Meanwhile I die. Either that or find some shady place and yell my head off.

One of the main reasons none of us got lost was Adam. He always waited for us at the left side of the building. We figured that even if we got far behind, we could just go to the left and end up back with the group. Being separated from the group was a real threat; Adam Weaver was definitely a speed walker. He walked faster than I run. I think towards the end he was worried we'd get off schedule, so instead of saying "You have 3 minutes for this and 2 minutes for that," he'd say "Alright Angels, 30 seconds." Tre amusing.

After the Forbidden City we visited Tian Anmen Square. Adam didn't say much about the protest there; he said that although he was there to tell the truth, the Chinese people don't like to talk about that much. We walked around for a little bit, and a bunch of peddlers tried to sell us stuff. Ann got way overcharged for a Mao watch ($9 when some people got it later for $5) but she said it was funny because it waved. Rachel bought a guidebook only to notice afterwards that it was all in French. She has a good sense of humor, though, so it was okay. She laughed.

Rachel and Dakota were waving as some guys in another bus and they started blowing kisses and junk. It was MUY disconcerting. Pretty soon the entire bus (minus me) started waving to everyone. They tried to get me to have a go, but I was pretty freaked out. They were mostly guys in their 30s-40s!

At lunch Ann and I got some ice cream. Most people didn't even know that they had ice cream at the restaurant. It was funny to see everyone in choir glaring enviously at us. Outside the restaurant (it was inside a museum, but we didn't really visit it) there was a little stall of stuff to buy. I bought a Jade rabbit for Monet. One down, 1,000 to go.

Right in front of the museum there was a countdown TO THE SECOND of how long until the 2008 Olympics being hosted in Beijing. There was major restoration going on, and cranes everywhere, especially in Beijing.

The Pandas I saw next were cute, but the prices on the merchandise was to die for. I got some nesting dolls for 5 bucks. They were worth at least twice that. I also got a little dress for Baby. I only hoped it wouldn't be too small.

Dinner was uneventful, except they served some really good chicken that we all liked, and the good doctor sat with us at the table. Good doctor being the physician accompanying the tour, especially for the children's use. My choir being the children. He was really cool. I think a lot of people said they had headaches and stuff just so they could talk to him!

Henry Leck was at our first rehersal. He's an... Interesting fellow, to say the least. His choir has to sing the same song before every meal to give thanks, I guess. It's cool the first time, but, I dunno, it just seems like they're singing because it's the right thing to do, not because they're actually thankful. That could just be me, though.
Anyway, the rehearsal went well; the choirs in China were a lot better than the choirs in Italy were. ICC was about the same level we are. I know it sounds really stuck up to say something like that, but it's not like I'm bragging. I'm just documenting. Besides that, I can actually tell a good choir from a bad one. The China Children's Choir was really good, but it was a different style than any of the other choirs there. The Hawiian choir was pretty good, although I think their hula-ing was better than their singing. The choirs mostly knew the music, unlike in Italy, where we were the only ones (along with the Canadian choir) who did.
So, although it is tiring to sing for three hours, it wasn't too bad.

I'm back!

Oh yeah. In case anyone was wondering why I wasn't posting for a while, I had a good reason. I haven't been home. And actually, since the 13th, I've been in China.
CHINA! OH MY GOSH!
I've actually been there. After a year and a half of waiting, I finally went!
I guess today I'll write about the first day there, since writing about it all right now would give everyone a mental overload.
So. Here we go.

DAY ONE:

So, the night before I left I was an emotional basketcase. I was 100% sure that somehow or another I would mess everything up. Either that or miss the flight which would have been more merciful to me than the wrath of the Choir Managers. I ran around like crazy trying to get everything together, cleaning my room, and worrying that I'd miss my flight. I finally got to bed (at 2:00 AM) only to be awoken by Edison wandering around my room "looking for something" at 3:00. I then had to wake up at 4:30. I was really tired, but I didn't sleep in the car. I read All American Girl by Meg Cabot.
When we arrived at the airport I saw Ash. I was flipping out. Surprisingly, I didn't cry as I left. I was just really nervous.

The first flight (from Cleveland to Chicago) wasn't so bad. Then from Chicago to San Francisco wasn't bad. The only thing that sucked was San Francisco to Beijing. We're all sitting there (after we'd all gotten our seats situated) admiring all the hot guys (Seriously, there was an uncommon amount of hot guys. They were all together, but unfortunately they weren't in the choir that was with us on the plane.) when we hear over the PA "There is a slight problem, we'll be taxiing back to the gate and have it fixed in 10 minutes." 20 minutes later "Our technicians are working on the problem; they'll be done in 45 minutes." No air conditioning. 2 hours later. "We need to get the flight attendants back on the the plane. They'll be here in 10 minutes." We didn't leave for 5 hours, total. Pretty much the only good thing was the hot guys. We didn't even eat until 11:00 PM Ohio time. I skipped breakfast, too.

I slept for a while, also I talked to Ash. They showed some movies, and I watched the TV show Monk, which was pretty good. There was a cute little kid.
The food was the best I'd ever eaten, but only because I was so hungry I was going to barf. I didn't get airsick on the way there, but my ears didn't unpop until the next morning. Well, one wouldn't, anyway.

We ended up not flying over the North Pole, which we originally planned to do, and that was a bummer. I did see the Golden Gate bridge, though. I saw a lot of things from the plane, but I had no idea what they were. The Almighty Pilot didn't say, so I didn't know.

Either Will or TU kept spraying cologne. I told them that I had a lot of pent up aggression on account of being on a plane for so long, and I was going to take my aggression out on their collective faces. They kind of laughed. They also looked a little creeped out, but then again 8 hours on a plane doesn't do much for one's looks. I'm talking about me, of course. TU and Will didn't even look bad. Then again, they're boys. They always manage to look okay. A little wrinkled and junk, but still basically okay.

We got into China 5 hours later than planned (grrr) but I wasn't mad at the flight people, I was mad at the plane. It also kind of creeped me out that the flight attendant said, "We'll be landing in Beijing shortly, and remember, if we're forced to make a crash landing, leave everything behind." Considering I'd been staring out the window the entire time picturing the engine falling off of the wing, this was a bit disgruntling. Not only that, our plane was delayed because, oh yeah, the wing was leaking fuel. We didn't know this, of course, until we saw fire engines speeding down the runway.

About the time I saw the engines, I saw one of the baggage handlers punch the other one in the car, then the one in the car started charging Punch with his car. Will and I were pretty sure Car was going to hit Punch and there'd be blood all over the place and we'd have to testify in court against Car, but he stopped at the last second.

When we arrived in the airport it was so weird. China (or at least what I saw of it) is just enough like America to be eerie. Everything was in both Chinese characters and English (and I mean everything). Even small restaurants and signs. Some of the signs were pretty funny. There was one on the ground (I think it was supposed to be on the cliff nearby) that said "Do Not Fall." The elevator was "Under Adjusting," and "This Slope is Slippery. Walking on it is Forbidden." Somewhere there was a sign that said "Mind Your Head." This caused my and my sleep-deprivated mind to laugh inordinately and mutter "Head Your Mind!" Also, some of the places we went had funny names. There was one about faraway hills seen by the disciplined mind, or something. It was a restaurant.

When we were still in the airplane (about the second hour of our 5 hour wait) Midge, Suze and I were doing some serious jamming to a Chinese radio station on the plane. Air guitars, drums, singing, piano, dancing, you name it. It was awesome. We were cracking up. Unfortunately we were the only ones listening to the station, so everyone else thought we were insane.

Our busses were a mixed blessing. Ash was towards the front of our group, so she went in bus one. Ann and I were near the back, so we had to get in bus two, but then they wouldn't let us switch busses. I hardly saw Ash at all in Beijing. The good part was our guide, Adam. He was so cool. He called us angels because we had such beautiful voices. "Adam Weaver's angels are the best!" he'd say proudly after a concert or practice. He told us a lot of interesting information about the divorce rate, but on the first day that hadn't happened yet, and I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.

The first hotel was really nice. I roomed with Ann. Pretty much on the first night we just went to bed. We were pretty tired. I was actually too tired to write in my journal. I think we may have watched some Chinese sitcoms, and I'm sure we showered.

Check back again later for DAY TWO.

Run, Luke, Run!

Okay. I just had the blastiest time of my life. I went to The Campout with Ash and her family. Her cousins are wicked sweet. Not only that, they actually like me (despite the fact that Allen nearly killed me. That's a different story.). I'm an adopted cousin!
Anyway, we played Spoons about a billion times. We even played it a bunch with Allen's dad. Only when we played with him we didn't jump on each other and wrestle for the spoons. It wasn't very mature. Whenever we weren't playing with Mr. Allen's Dad, we practically killed each other. I got to the point that when I said "Hey, wanna play Sudden Death?" Jill, Hera and Enid all said "You mean Spoons?"
On a side note, has anyone seen Animal Crackers, with the Marx Brothers? If so, as a joke, I shuffled the deck like Harpo does for Bridge. Everyone (with the exception of Allen, who said "That's gay.") thought it was hillarious.
I started calling Ash's 14-15 year old brother (I think his birthday's pretty soon) Luke Skywalker because Monet, Edison and Dad both said he looks like Mark Hamill. Mom and I have both decided that insanity runs in the male part of the family. Anyway, it bugs him, and my mission in life is pretty much to bug him (his mission is to bug me, so it's fair), so I do.
While we were playing Sudden Death, Luke ran by. I confided in my adoptive cousins that I had a strong urge to yell "Run, Luke, run!"
"So do it!" they all said.
Luke was annoyed.
He called me Kelly Goth, so this is just payback.

Yesterday, I did the unthinkable. I talked to TU. Without saying anything stupid! It was amazing! I carpooled with him and Ash, and then we were at Burger King for an hour. We talked about Star Wars and stuff. It was flippin' sweet. Ash agreed that I said nothing stupid.

I won't be posting until Sunday, most likely, and maybe not even then. Ash's graduation party is on Saturday so I'm going over to help on Sunday.
TU will be at the party.
Wish me luck!