DAY SEVEN:

(It's absolutely pitiful how long this is taking me. As a side note, Silvie asked me to list the 10 hottest movie stars I can think of, and I was supposed to do it a long time ago, so I'll just do it now, if you don't mind. If you do mind, skip it. They aren't in any order (except the first one).
1. Jeremy Sumpter,
2. Robert Carmine,
3. That guy who plays Oliver Wood,
4. Billy Boyd in LotR (PIPPIN!)
5. Rupert Grint,
6. Young Harrison Ford,
7. Tom Wellings from Smallville (not so much in Cheaper by the Dozen)
8. Jon Heder,
9. Pretty much any of the hockey players from Miracle,
10. Michael Landon.)

The breakfast buffet in Hangzhou was AMAZING! It was so good. They made fresh waffles, and excellent pastries that I wanted to eat all of. Also fresh fruit (some of which was speckled and really good, but I had no idea what it was. I think it only grows in Asia, or something.). Ash and I were really tired on account of our laughing jag the night before, but we could still appreciate the good food.
The first place we visited was West Lake. Bu told us that is was named after a princess named West, and she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was beautiful when she had make-up on, she was beautiful when she had no make-up on, and she was beautiful when she was crying. She cried a lot because she missed her home. The lake was named after her because it was beautiful when it had make-up on (sunny days), it was beautiful when it had no make-up on (cloudy days), and it was beautiful when it was crying (rainy days). This proved to be true. She also said that all over China there were lakes with the name West Lake, because everyone wanted a lake like West Lake. It was absolutely gorgeous, even though it had no make-up on. The water was a lot clearer than most water, and there were flowers all over the place. It kind of reminded me of home, because it was in a valley surrounded by rolling hills. We got to take a boat ride, and we waved to all the other tour boats. The boats were wicked sweet dragons! Dragons are, of course, a big thing in China. Pretty much the only thing about West Lake that wasn't perfect was the humidity. That wasn't the lake's fault, though. We had to walk for a long time, though, because the museum we had been going to visit was closed for renovation. A lot of people got ice cream. Kris and I wanted to jump in the lake. We also like the cool brooms people swept the street with. The bristles looked like they were made out of willow leaves. The people sweeping the street wore the classic China hats, too. Those wide ones with the pointed tops. Dear got one, and it was too big to go in her bags, so she had to wear it at all the airports and train stations. She looked really funny.
The adults found this really awesome bug. It was about four inches or so long, and was black with white dots. It didn't look real.
I think we went back to the hotel after lunch. We had about three hours before we had to be ready for the concert, so Ann and Kris came into our room and brought snacks, and we surfed through the different stations on T.V. We started watching a movie that was in Chinese, but had subtitles. It was REALLY funny. There was this guys who's name was Beach Boy, and he was being used by this other guy to traffic counterfeit money, and he liked this girl who's name was Ah Yuk (I think) and she like turtles. Anyway, she dumped him to find out about Beach Boy's boss, because I think she knew he was a bad guy. Then Beach Boy got this huge stuffed turtle and chased after her car yelling "Ah Yuk! Come back! I love you!" and had this turtle bigger than he was above his head. Then it got caught on something and ripped open, and this car dragged him away. It was a great movie. Then I told Ann and Kris about how love was in the air at SCS, and they laughed. Then Kris said we should make a list of all the couples in the choir. There are only 8 boys in choir, so it didn't take long. There were only a few actual pairings, so we made up some funny ones. Originally I paired myself with TU, but changed it.
"Wouldn't it be bad if someone found this?" I commented lightly.
"Yeah," everyone else laughed. Then they started talking like someone was going to find it. Then they said it would be great to plant it someplace. Then they changed the real couples, and planned to drop it on the bus.

DAY SIX, PART THREE:

The Mei Jia Wu Tea Plantation (where we went next) was beautiful. The countryside was all rolling hills and tall trees. Also a lot of bushes.
Fact of the day: There is such a thing as a tea bush. I always thought tea was made of a lot of different things (some of it is, of course) but for green tea there is actually a tea bush.
First Bu showed us the bushes a little bit. She kept saying the only leaves used for the tea were the "tender, young shoots." She said that about a hundred times, but she was really nice, also cute, so it was okay. She wasn't as cute as Adam Weaver, though. We all missed him.
We watched a man heat up the tea in a brass bowl. A huge brass bowl. It was sitting over a fire, and he dried it out by rubbing it around with his hands really fast, so he wouldn't get burned. Bu told us that he had to do this just right so the leaves would be flat and unbroken. If they broke they wouldn't keep the flavor as well, I think.
The name of the man who told us about tea was Sunshine. No joke. He said to call him Dr. Tea, since he went to America and got a degree in Tea. In the bus we talked about how funny that sounded, and if anyone could get a degree in corn or beef stew or something. Nevertheless, Dr. Tea was very funny. The girls who worked there poured us all tea, and dipped the spouts three times. That, Dr. Tea said, was a way of saying that we were welcome. The other way of saying it was to only pour a little tea the first time so the person could smell it. Then they added more water. He said in the villages in China if a boy likes a girl he asks her over for tea, and if she says yes, that's like being engaged.
Green tea means tea that isn't fermented. Black tea is for a long time, and there's a kind in the middle, but I don't remember what it's called. It isn't a color.
Dr. Tea said that tea in bags is the equivalent of instant coffee. I didn't think tea bags were that bad!
When you drink tea with leaves, you're actually supposed to chew up the leaves and swallow them when they get in your mouth. This isn't so bad.
He talked about how you can tell different grades of tea by the smell, shape and color. If it's a light color, whole leaves and strong smell it's grade A tea. While he was passing around samples of tea he asked us about actors we liked. Someone said Halle Berry and he said "Have you seen the movie Die Another Day?" We all started laughing. Remembering Adam Weaver. Dr. Tea looked nonplussed. After we talked about movies for a little while, (he didn't like Julia Roberts because of her large mouth. I like Julia Roberts. *pouts*) he showed us how to overpack tea. While he was packing it for the people who wanted some, we sang Da Hai, Gu Xiang (Great Sea, My Homeland). He looked stunned, then started to sing along. That's one of the best things about traveling in a choir; you get to meet people you would never meet otherwise, and touch their lives in a small way. Even though saying it sounds really cheesy.
After we were done listening to Dr. Tea we went into the gift shop. There were some pretty cool things there, some having nothing to do with tea at all. There were these little statues of men who would pee when the tea was hot enough. That was interesting, to say the least.
I bought Mom the China Pillow, which was filled with mulberry leaves and tea leaves. It smells oh so nice. Amy kept wanting to smell it. She said if I ever wanted some tea I could just dip it in the bathtub. Yeah.
Ash and I roomed together that night. I started getting really loopy, and laughing at nothing. Actually, I laugh at nothing even when it isn't really late, but whatever. Ash kept saying "You really need to go to bed," but I didn't listen. I was having too much fun. We watched TV for a little while, too.
It was at this point an insidious idea was formed, though neither Ash or I knew at the time. I was laying on the couch (the Hangzhou hotel was ever better than the Beijing hotel, and that's saying something!) and mentioned that people in our choir seemed to be pairing up. Like Camp (who was obsessed with Ash for a longo tello) was always with Lea. She was always laying her head on his shoulder. It was sweet. Ash was very happy, I think. Also, Camp's brother was flirting with two girls. They both liked him, I'm pretty sure. TU, of course, has girls surrounding him at all times. Will and Suze were always joking that they were going out, but I'm pretty sure they weren't exactly joking anymore. Anyway, I was lamenting the fact that this was having no positive affect for me, when I said "It's like love is in the air for SCS!" (our choir's initials) This became an issue at a later date.

DAY SIX: PART II

This was written by Bard but is being posted by her mother while she's away at a choir retreat.

********

The airport was sad and also exciting because
a) We were saying goodbye to Adam,
b) The trip was half over,
d) We were going to be on a plane again.
I was a little nervous about the last one. My ears had taken FOREVER to pop the last trip. I was also nervous that we would be on the plane for a finity. Ann hugged Adam before we left. He looked distinctly uncomfortable. I was jealous, but only a little. *grins*
For some reason customs took one of my waters, but the others were fine. I mean, I know they were checking them for drugs or something, but they even opened the sealed ones. We all had bottles of water, so this took a while. They left my razor, though.
When we got our boarding passes since we'd ordered as a group it didn't matter if we had our actual tickets or not. Mrs. C's son (Meg's brother) had me. I had Tiger. Kris (lucky duck) had TU. We were assigned to sit next to each other. I couldn't help but think that if I'd have gotten Tiger, but TU had gotten his own I'd be next to him. Anyway, I think I'd rather sit next to Kris. We talked for a while (about books, movies then politics) and I tried to write. I fell asleep. Not surprising. At lunch Ash got to sit with us since she told the guide that she wasn't vegetarian, just allergic to soy. That was rather nice. Then we talked to our new tour guide. I kind of felt bad for her because she was good, but of course we were all thinking of Adam. He had hard shoes to fill. Her name was Bu, I think. Anyway, she told us that now we were going to go to a temple. It was called the Ling Yin Temple. Bu told us about how the Monk who started the temple was reminded of home by the hill nearby. He said "That looks like the peak of a mountain from my village!" He was convinced that it had flown from it's former home to keep him company (or something). No one believed him, until he said "When I whistle, two monkeys, one black, one white, will jump out of the caverns under the peak." He whistled, and sure enough, two monkeys came to him. They immediately believed him, and they named it The Peak Flying From Afar. The other monks were so worried it would fly away again and carry off anyone one it they carved some sort of barrier in the many caverns. It must have worked, since the hill was still there when we visited. (Joke, hahafunny.)
The temple was quite surreal. There was incense burning all over the place. People used little stoves there to burn it. *coughcough* It was SO thick. I looked up at the sky and could actually see the smoke rising into the clouds, like it was some sort of factory. Ash, who has asthma, started getting really loopy and light-headed. It would have been funny if it weren't so scary. I thought she was going to faint. Anyway, we decided (partially because of that) to move away from the giant Buddha and look inside a building. You weren't allowed to burn incense in those. The Buddha we'd been admiring was enormous. It was probably two stories or more, but I could be wrong. It was all painted gold, and people came up and bowed to it and stuff. Some of the people looked like they were having spasms they bowed so hard. I wondered what would happen if someone actually did, and no one noticed.

The other building consisted of four giant statues (not as big as the Buddha) and we weren't allowed to take pictures. There were three men and one woman. The woman and pale man looked nice, but there was an African looking one and a red one that looked positively murderous. They were made so when you kneeled on the benches they looked at you. I would not want one of them looking at me. There were also two Christmas tree looking things that proved to be filled with tiny Buddha figurines. There was a large one in the center. We moved on to the other hall, which was filled with other Buddhas. Some of them looked nice, but some were scary. One had a man coming out of his chest! A bunch looked like they were holding huge paintbrushes. Ash started acting like they were talking to each other. She wasn't making fun, or anything, just saying things like "I'm going to flick you with my brush!" and "I have the arm of powah!" but Ann kept saying things like "Guys, don't be disrespectful." Which we weren't. I mean, we were the only ones in there anyway, and the hall was huge. No one would even have heard to be insulted. While we were there the monks started chanting. It was really cool. It was in Chinese, too, so it sounded even more eerie than chants usually do, because you can generally guess what Latin chants mean, but not Chinese.

We had time to climb The Peak Flying From Afar before we left, but only just. It was really steep, and it took us 15 minutes going top speed. Kris stopped halfway up because she didn't want to be late; she waited for us and was going to yell up if she saw the group. We were fine, though. Mrs. Jay's son got there about the same time we did, anyway. I don't think she would majorly chew him out as not only is he her son, he was also a chaperone. By the time we were finished we were all fairly dripping with sweat. Not pleasant a'tall, a'tall.

We left there, and Ash told me that when she was under the influence (incense) she had been going to ask me about Hank, who'd quit choir two years ago after we went to Italy! She was definitely out of it.

Con't...

DAY SIX: (or Farewell to Adam Weaver)

Breakfast was a little sad. We were leaving Adam and Beijing, which had grown to feel like home. I'd felt, for those few days, a bit like Eloise in our posh hotel and was loath to leave that freedom behind. The other hotels we would only be staying at for two days, and we would have to learn new room numbers, new elevators, new banquet halls, even new shopkeepers. Adam Weaver said a few things about the airport we were going to, then sat down. A few minutes later he stood up again.
"Angels, would you like to hear another story? Only five minutes." This reminded me of all the other stories he'd told us. Stories of his DVD collection (over 200), marriage, divorce, jokes, history, and many other things. He'd said that men were like popcorn; they satisfied, but only for a little while. He told us not to take him seriously. He'd protected us from bad water, hole-in-the-ground toilets and Chinese men. He'd recommended a great many movies. He'd called us his Angels, and been a perfect gentleman.
Cee had made him a paper with his name in bubble letters, filled in with a rainbow of colors.
"The Adam Weaver
"Aka Larry Jams,
"Aka Tony,
"Aka The Best Tour Guide in The World.
"Have you seen the movie..."
This is how great Adam is; he actually blushed! He held it up, and said it was the best present he'd ever gotten. "I don't think there is an Adam Weaver movie," he said modestly.
"There should be!" several people piped up. He turned more red.
Anyway, he got up to tell us one more story.
"Have you seen the movie 'Top Gun'" he asked. Some of us nodded, all of us laughed. "Well, your guide, Adam Weaver, was in the Chinese Air Force." We all looked at him in amazement. He was a pilot? He held up a little booklet with his picture. It looked like a sort of passport. He was in uniform. We all clapped. He said a few more things, then said "I want to say that you are all the best Angels. You never get lost or lose things," I ducked my head, remembering the camera, "and you sing beautifully. You are Adam Weaver's perfect Angels." I was sniffling by then, so was most everyone else. He stood straight, then snapped us a salute. We pulled in front of the airport, clapping and crying in equal measure.

DAY FIVE, PART TWO:

I love being on stage. I love the lights, the smell, the feel of it; I don't even care if there's anyone in the audience. I love being backstage, waiting breathless behind the curtain to make my glorious entry. I love being on the risers looking professional, being professional. I love making our (quite difficult, sometimes) songs look easy. Even during a dress rehearsal I get a thrill. At concerts I really come alive. Since we'd been out all day, we had to go to a dressing room to change into our concert attire. I had all of my stuff, despite the near miss with the shoes (I told Camp I was forever in his debt. He said no problem.) and Ash french braided my hair. She always yells at me for moving around, and yanks really hard. It looks good, but man, does my skull ache afterwards. Anyway, how am I supposed to sit still with all sorts of stuff happening? Another girl switched vests with me because hers was too big and mine was too small. Ash thought of it. Yay! My vest looked pretty frumpy 'cause it was all bunched and junk. We got a snack, but I gave most of my cookies to Ann and Ash. Or anyone else, for that matter.
The halls were MURDER. There were so many people it was insane. They had a ton of risers set up because the entire group was going to have to get on them. Even then we were squashed. We had to wait a long time backstage because our section wasn't until the second half of the program. There were four or five group songs that we sung in the mean time.
Henry Leck is a VERY good conductor. I mean, that thing I was talking about that sounded like the force is strong in him. Although I like Mrs. Jay as a teacher better because Henry Leck makes fun of stuff. Plus talks about singing in colors. ??
The audience was quite large, which I wasn't expecting. I kind of think that in America the only people who come to the concerts are related to the singers. Or friends or something. Backstage we were dancing silently for fun, trying not to laugh, until Maggie came over and chewed us out. I'm not sure why. She said the audience could see through the scrim, which was not true. I saw it, and anyway why would they make a scrim you could see right through? Like I said, all was quiet until ICC came backstage. I don't know if it's because they were the largest choir or what, but they were LOUD. During a concert, even! We couldn't even hear the Chinese choir at all!
There were some really nice girls from the Hawaiian choir who said we had a lot of energy (our choir, not just me and Copper who was also talking to her) which she said was good. I said that their hula-ing looked really nice and I wish I was that coordinated. "It's a lot easier than it looks, you could probably learn it fast," she said kindly. Pretty soon we were on.
I only had to switch for Rhythm of Life which is good since I hate having to move around. I always end up in the wrong place, somehow. You'd think Mrs. Jay would just keep me in one place, seeing as how I mess it up all the time, but noooo. She has to keep moving me around. *sighs*
Thankfully, the World Premere of Someday Soon composed by David Pettit only got messed up a little bit, and that was NOT us anyway. I think it was Red Rose, but I could be wrong. They did the same (wrong) thing in every rehearsal, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was them.
When we were on our way back to our bus after the concert we waved to all the other buses, but they didn't wave back. Oh, wait, the Hawiian kids did. They were nice. They handed out oragami swans. I got one. Ha.
After the concert was the Farewell Dinner (some of the choirs had been there for a while before we had) and ICC and Henry Leck were going back home. We had Peking Duck which was REALLY GOOD. The sauce you could add was not so good, but whatever. There was a Chinese band (the girls all wore really pretty dresses and they all played old instruments). They played Mo Li Hua, which was a song we had all sung at the concert so most everyone sang along. It was fairly spiffy. We all clapped for Adam Weaver because this was going to be the last night we saw him. The next morning he was going to take us to the airport and *sniff*
LEAVE US FOREVER!! *sobs*
It was a bittersweet evening, but oh well. We were as tired as a dog by the time we got back to the hotel.
Too bad that mayhem ensued when Ann and I weren't quite ready for the bellboy to get our stuff. We were busy packing, and Ash was visiting, when we heard a knock. I, thinking it was Kris, raced Ash to the door shouting "I'll get it, I'll get it!" We both hit the door at the same time (making a huge whump) and I pushed her out of the way, yanking open the door.It was the bellboy, looking mighty amused. My mouth dropped open. Ash slipped out quietly to go finish packing her stuff. Ann started rushing around the room, trying to shove more stuff in her bag. I stuffed mine full, sat on it, and tried to fit just a little more in. Since it wasn't folded efficiently I had trouble shutting it. Ann was throwing stuff on the bed and trying to stomp her luggage shut. She was in her pyjamas, and her long shirt trailed behind her as she rushed pell-mell through her packing. The entire time we both said "We're so sorry! I'm sorry! Just a minute!" The bellboy just laughed at us and said "No problem, no problem." Except it sounded more like "No ploblem."