DAY FIVE:

I suppose I've forgotten what I did before I went to sleep the night before. Ann and I (when faced with the prospect of an early bedtime and a late wake-up call) didn't go to bed, like normal human beings. Instead we talked all night about our miserable love lives. I discovered Ann had a boyfriend in third grade, and they were nerdy together. I found this idea irresistible, and reiterated it often throughout the rest of the tour. I told her about several things (including TU, which kind of just slipped out, but she won't tell. Neither will Kris or Lena, who I also told) and we laughed until 12:00. We were tired. Everyone else was fairly chipper; they'd all gone to bed at a decent hour.

Since we were going to go to a concert we all had to pack our concert attire in a trashbag. I was on the bus when Camp said "Okay, does everybody have their shoes." He looked pointedly at Tiger. He was referring to a time when Tiger had forgotten his shoes in just such an occasion, and had to borrow some from a member of the adult choir. I gasped. "I don't," I squeaked.
"Ha ha, Bard." He thought I was joking. I was already telling Mrs. W the bad news. We hadn't pulled out of the parking lot yet, so it wasn't so bad. Mrs. W rolled her eyes heavenward and said, resigned, "Run fast, Bard. Run."
Here's what was so bad: I had to run in front of the other bus, so they all saw me. I was wearing pink head to toe, too. A bunch of us girls were; we'd planned it. I took off back into the hotel, and managed to just catch an elevator. Dr. Jay was in it.
"Hey, Bard, what's up?"
"I forgot my shoes."I gasped for breath.
He smiled a little bit. "Run fast." I did so readily. I grabbed my shoes and was running pell-mell out of the lobby when I dropped one shoe. Actually, it was the restaurant section of the lobby. I was going so fast I accidentally kicked my shoe. "Shoot," I muttered, scampering after the wayward footwear. All the sophisticated Asians looked at my oddly. I smiled pleasantly, and took off again, feeling slightly like Resse Witherspoon. I entered the bus again, and Mrs. W announced my arrival with a happy "Our Pink Angel is back." I thought about bowing, but was too tired. Several people cheered. Kris and Camp later told me that the bus had been about to leave, and Adam Weaver saved me.

I don't remember breakfast that morning. It is quite possible I slept through it. It's also quite possible I stole some spring rolls from Marty, who I don't really like anyway. Not that I wouldn't have done so if I did like her. I like spring rolls more. I think I also stole some watermelon, but there was a lot of that, so no one cared anyway. It was only me being lazy again.

Have you ever been converged upon by 500 people speaking broken English, all trying to sell you something? I didn't think so. If you have, you've obviously been to the Silk Alley already, and I don't know why you'd bother to read this sorry account.

If you answered yes and haven't been to the Silk Alley, I don't want to know where you've been. It must have been scary.
If you've ever been to an indoor flea market-type place, that's kind of what the Silk Alley was like. Except it was huge. There were 5 (I think) floors of wonderful goodness. Clothes, jewelry, shoes, purses... You name it. It was incredible. Remember, this is coming from someone who doesn't really like to shop that much. It was a free market, meaning you were supposed to bargain for it. A salesperson would usually offer for 2 to 3 times what the item was worth in the beginning. Even that (because yen is worth less than dollars) wasn't a bad price at all. I ended up only getting a few things there (I wanted to get some camo pants, but we ran out of time).
The funny thing about haggling in China is this: they use calculators. They punch in how many yen they want you to pay, then you shake your head, look at your conversion sheet, and punch in what you want. Ash was REALLY GOOD. She kept telling them they didn't have that much money (which she didn't) and would get it down to a really low price. She walked out with TONS!

A few people had negative encounters. Will was buying jeans, and this lady in the next stall grabbed his bag from him. "You not have this back until you buy from me!" she squealed.
"My butt I will!" he answered. "Those things are 40 bucks!"
"How much you pay?" Then, Will did an immeasurably stupid thing.
He took out his wallet, and looked in it.
When he was telling us this, we were all listening quietly, until he reached this point. Other vendors were listening in, too, I think. We were in one of the aisles. When he said he took out his wallet all of us listening (5 or 6 girls) mobbed him. "How stupid are you? Why would you do that?"
He ended up having to buy the shirt. Botched job, beginning to end.
We also passed an underwear stall. We averted our eyes carefully (some of it was pretty weird). Too bad the owner saw us. "You, pretty girls!" he called "Buy for your boyfriends!"
*shudders*
Someone petted Ann's face and said "pretty girl, come buy!" Kris was dragged into a stall unwillingly. Midge and Tiger bought swords. Big ones, in Tiger's case. Camp said he liked to toy with the shopkeepers; they were his playthings.
I don't want to know what he meant.

The Silk Alley didn't actually sell silk. Figure that one out.

Lunch was fun because a bunch of us planned to wear pink (Kris, Ann, Ash, Lena, and me) as I mentioned earlier. We got a picture together. We also were served catfish with icing. They serve a lot of things with icing. They also serve things with heads still on the plate, which also described the catfish.

Rehearsals: long and tiring.
Dress rehearsals: Longer, more tiring, hot, sometimes boring, often hurtful, always hectic. Try getting 300 kids in order. There were actually probably more than that, even. Not to mention some people in our choir didn't feel good. Mrs. Jay kept telling us to keep it down when she was talking, but we weren't saying a word. It was ICC sitting behind us (who were really loud). The rehearsal was okay, except Mrs. Jay had me in different parts for every song, but I couldn't move between songs (a lot of people in my choir had this problem. She moves us around a lot). Midge got sick right before the concert. We all missed him; he's really cool. Plus REALLY tall. It's hard not to miss him (unless he's there, when it's very easy indeed). The concert went well. It wasn't the best concert, and we could see the people in other choirs mocking our song (we had to dance to it) but I met some really nice kids. Too bad we had to leave that night. Icc was leaving for good. Back to the states.

To be Cont'd....