The Tallahassee Community Chorus

"The Tallahassee Community Chorus"

"Beijing International Choral Festival"

is Currently on Location: FL, USA

July 8 - 18, 2007

"What's Up From China"

A Daily Blog of our activities and photos!

Wednesday, July 12th

Ni' Hao from China!

There is a HUGE breakfast buffet every morning after the 6:30 A. M. wake-up call.

When was the last time you had baked beans, corn on the cob, soup or salad at 7 A. M.?

One of the 300 Starbucks might be next door, but the hotel coffee is THICKER and STRONGER.

Each rehearsal is an amazing experience. Dr. Thomas and Dr. Fenton are

consummate professionals and relate to singers born from the 1920's to the 1990's!

We wish each of you could see them in action.

- LUNCH AND SHOPPING AT THE SILK FACTORY -

Silk trivia: One silk worm produces between 1000 and 1200 meters of silk.

It takes 8 silk worms to produce 1 strand of thread.

Many credit cards were used for purchasing comforters and duvets.

Off to the Emperor's Summer Palace and Dragon Boat ride across the lagoon.

There was much elation in the discovery of COLD DIET COKE! (it's the little things in life).

Due to the INSANE amount of traffic through Beijing during rush hour, we missed dinner and

went straight to rehearsal.

Needless to say, the Tallahassee Community Chorus arrived one hour late for rehearsal.

Hey, the conductor is our friend.

(Are you getting the picture? We have NO free time to get into trouble!)

Wait for it

Dinner arrived in the hotel lobby at 10:15 P.M.

McDONALD'S!!! Much more elation ensued!!!

Due to technical difficulties with internet access and service, emails and uploading pictures are taking

entirely too long. We will attempt to add photos if possible. Please know that MANY pictures will be

available when we return.

Everyone is healthy. Everyone is tired. Everyone is smiling. Everyone sends their greetings.

Thursday, July 12th

Scrambled Eggs for breakfast! It's going to be a great day.

Today we visited Tian'anmen Square and The Forbidden City / Imperial City.

Walking, Walking, Walking and more Walking

In the middle of The Forbidden City we met a group from Seminole Community College in Orlando.

"It's a small world after all"

Sheldon, our tour guide, estimated the walk at 5 miles from the bus drop off to the bus pick-up.

The Tallahassee Community Chorus invites you to take the journey with us.

Start at the capitol and walk to I-10, but you must find stairs to climb along the way...and we mean STAIRS!

The weather in Beijing is equivalent to the weather in Tallahassee. However, we feel the humidity is higher.

We sweat a lot.

Skipped lunch again to make dress rehearsal on time. Yes, McDonald's was delivered once again.

(we were hoping for KFC this time)

Dress rehearsal (more sweat) and performance (lots of sweat) were held in the Forbidden City Concert Hall.

"If sweat were a shower, we are bathing at least three times a day." - author unknown

We have a new appreciation for air-conditioning and ice. Both are sorely missed.

The Beijing International Choral Festival is well underway. Tomorrow's performance is in Tianjin (2 hours away)

The Chinese people are very proud of their country and heritage. They have so much to say and we have so little time.

There will be no blog entry Friday. We will be returning from Tianjin too late, and we are literally running on little sleep.

Saturday is the Great Wall, Cloisonne Factory, and Farewell dinner. There will be plenty for us to write Saturday night.

PLEASE GO BACK AND CLICK THE DAILY PICTURE BUTTON FOR MORE EXCITEMENT OF OUR JOURNEY.

We think of our family, friends, and pets often, and hope all is well at home.

Friday, July 13th

Excitement is still in the air and the energy level is high. An extra hour of sleep does a body good.

Breakfast buffet until 10 A.M. and it was on the bus to lunch at 11 A.M.

(overheard after lunch) "are we going to dinner now?"

All meals are served family style on a large lazy-susan.

Rice, beef, chicken, pork, fish, vegetables, soup, fruit (hot and cold), and FRENCH FRIES

Served as variations on a theme.

Street vendors are everywhere and ATTACK at all locations. It is amazing what you can purchase for

$1.00 - that's U.S. money! Honestly, there is no need to exchange currency. The street vendors love the U.S. dollar.

Off to Tianjin for another performance. The ride to Tianjin is 1.5 hours and on the coast of China.

With a traffic jam the journey was 5.5 hours.

Dress rehearsal was missed because the orchestra busses were further behind in the same traffic.

The Tianjin concert at the Music Conservatory was truly an experience.

(children running in the aisles, the audience eating potato chips, and at least 25 cell phones ringing)

The show must go on!

Dr. Thomas and Dr. Fenton smiled continuously and Dr. Marcia Porter (soprano soloist) was stunning.

14 bus loads of singers purchased all the Oreos, Red Bull, and Coke products at the truck stop going to and coming from Tianjin.

Room temperature Pabst Blue Ribbon was spotted on the shelf. We promise we're in China.

Prawn potato chips (passing as Pringles) are proof we're not in Kansas anymore.

Returned to the hotel at 1:30 A. M. - it's been a long, long day.

THE GREAT WALL AWAITS!

Saturday, July 14th

Today we journey to the Great Wall of China.

It's a very foggy day and we think we saw the wall.

Gathering at the watch tower, all the American choruses sang the Chinese National Anthem and The Star Spangled Banner.

We are happy to report that EVERYONE climbed the wall.

(some farther than others, but we can all say we climbed the Great Wall of China)

Lunch at the Friendship Restaurant / Cloisonne factory and shopping complex.

Did you know there are seven steps to making a piece of Cloisonne by hand?

The tour was informative and the shopping was massive.

Luggage weight limits are already maxed and we have 4 more days to go.

And if that wasn't enough, the Tallahassee choruses toured the Jade showroom and outlet store.

(Can you really say outlet store at these prices? MC and VISA are loving us.)

On the journey home, we were treated to a drive through the Olympic Village under construction.

HEADS UP: During the 2008 Summer Olympics, watch for the bird's nest!

Everyone enjoyed a lovely Beijing farewell dinner with more variations on a theme - please refer to Friday the 13th for a list of themes.

The Tallahassee Community Chorus presented gifts of appreciation to our tour guides and bus drivers.

Gifts of t-shirts and posters from the State of Florida were presented to our hosts and will be forward to a local orphanage.

Luggage must be in the lobby by 10 P.M. with a 5 A.M. wake-up call. It's amazing how quickly you can pack

when the taxi is waiting to go to the Hard Rock Cafe.

(REALLY, we're in China)

Tomorrow we're off to Shanghai - more adventures await.