pluwe

So, it finally ends. The honking, the haggling, the eating, the playing, the driving, the seeing, the feeling....it's done, but it will be remembered by us forever. To all the superheroes, the night cats, the raindrops in the greater storm, will you always remember? That is a question. I know I will. I mad a lot of friends on this trip, and experienced things I would never have imagined to experience. I hold a new found respect to a country I never really thought about before this trip, and I hope to come back someday once again to experience it all once more. The last day was awesome, just hanging out, and going to an amazing farewell dinner, and enjoying company in the world's highest bar. Just to think that this all came so fast, and left as fast. We will always remember the great times: Accident on Wall, Forgetting of passports, tallest bars in the world, getting what we want for cheap, becoming Chinese heroes....and being great symbols of what the US actually has to offer the world. My friends, professors, and the family members of students...this trip was the best I've ever been on, and I hope it will go down in PLU history as one of the greatest experiences to come out of the school. And in the tradition of the trip...White Storm Out.

After the day we spent with the earthquake victims, we took a flight from Chengdu to Shanghai. Shanghai...is awesome. It is building fast, and has about 5000 high rises in the city. After we arrived, we ate dinner, and then saw the Shanghai Acrobats. This was amazing. They did things that were improbable, yet they pulled it off with aplomb. My favorite might have been the Motorcycle Ball of Death, or the Chair tower...who knows. Then next day we visited the top floor of the Grand Hyatt, the former tallest building in the world. We had a fantastic view of a lot of the city. We then went to a silk making workshop, and then we all had the opportunity to buy some silk. Later in the day, we went to the Shanghai Normal University, where we had an exchange with the Youth Wind Ensemble, which were pretty good. Both the WE and JB played. Later, we went on a cruise on one of the rivers in he middle of Shanghai, where we saw the great lights of the city. A few of us met some people from bost, where we had a "singing battle" with them. That was fun. We went to a place called Zhujiajiao, a water city where we took a gondola ride down a few of it's channels. It was interesting to see the commercialization of an old village. I also experienced getting fake money, which I learned was fake while at a restaurant. Not good. We then had our rehearsal, dinner, and our last concert of our trip. It was amazing. Both groups really enjoyed it, and we played on the best stage of the whole trip. Overall, I will say our musical experiences on this journey have been awesome.

We have experienced a lot on this trip, and have had a blast. Today, we had a chance to give the gift of music to a city that had been greatly affected by the earthquake a little over a year ago. The city is known as Dujiangyan, and many people lost their lives, their homes, and just their way of life after the destruction. As our tour guides explained the story, all of us could not help but feel emotional to the fact that these people have gone through an ordeal that we can't even imagine. We played an informal concert for them, and you could tell that it really helped them, but the concert was only a small part. We played games with the kids, and everyone who participated could tell we really helped them enjoy themselves. For those of us who brought exchange items for the Chengdu (we didn't have a concert) we gave them to the kids, and they really enjoyed it. After we played with them for a bit, we all felt we could do something else for them. Some of the upperclassmen learned that they only had one soccer ball in the whole place, so we decided to buy them numerous sports items. The kids who came when we brought them the items were overjoyed, and we were happy to do it. In a place where destruction happened, I like to think we brought a litle joy to those kids, and maybe someday, they will do the same to other people. On this trip, we have seen a lot, and experienced a lot, but helping people, and doing something selfless really brings this trip full circle.

Here we are. A week in, and everything is still amazing. We have had some pretty life-changing experiences these past couple of days, which have turned out to be my favorite so far. The fifth day we flew into Xi'an, where we learned some culture from our tour guides Frank and Linda. We then visited the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which was an ancient pagoda built for a monk after his 17 year journey to India, and was used for his translating of Buddhist texts. The next day we took an 8 mile bike ride (both tandem and single) on the city wall of Xi'an, which is the most well preserved city wall in China. We then visited a Provincial Museum, which showed how the different dynasties flourished. Our concert was that night, and it was amazing, and even a few of our members became "rock stars", and signed autographs for local students at the Xi'an conservatory. We visited the Terra Cotta Museum the next day, and enjoyed an awesome journey through Qin Shi Huang's clay army, which had over 6000 troops. Our flight from Xi'an to Chengdu was enjoyable, and now we are safe and sound in the "spicy" capital of China.

Here is the website for photos: http://s611.photobucket.com/albums/tt199/pluchina/

There are three things after being in China for a few days that you learn. One, honking is a national past time. Everyone does it, and it's generally accepted. Two, you eat constantly. We have been eating these awesome meals, and it seems like the entrees never stop piling up. And three, bargaining is awesome. I got three things that were originally 150 yuan each, for just 150 yuan. On the third day, we went on a rickshaw tour (carts driven by bikes) and visited a local family within the Hutong (means "old alley", and it is the old part of China). We then rehearsed again, and the jazz band had the opportunity to play with a local jazz group.We had our first China concert, and it was awesome. The crowd loved it, and everyone who performed had a good time as well. The next day was the Great wall adventure, and we had an informal performance in which we were almost blown off the Wall by the wind. Then mostlyt everyone tried to climb the great wall, but only a lucky few 'superheroes' made it to the top, and lived to tell the story. We went to one of the biggest Jade companies in Beijing, where we had lunch, and everyone looked at Jade. One thing I learned: Jade is very, very, very expensive. We then went and saw the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, and got a ton of pictures. We then went to a famous restaurant, where we ate the famed Peking Duck, which to me, was the best. My table cleaned everything on the table, and became known in legends as the SUperheroes. A few of that night went to the night market, a marketplace that is down an alley, where we tried scorpion, starfish, giant bugs, and chicken hearts (all the above except starfish were good). Pictures are currently being uploaded to a photobucket, by monday we'll have all of them set in folders for the general audience to look at

Today, the second day in China, we have already experienced a lot of awesome things. The first day consisted of the usual airport stuff, customs and what not, and an extremely long flight. When we got to Beijing, we were greeted by ACFEA local Chinese tourist guides. We then loaded buses, and went to our amazing hotel, the Howard Johnson Paragon in Beijing. We ate a great dinner in the hotel, and then went in for the night. Today, we got up and went to a great breakfast in the hotel, which had a ton of great breakfast items. We then went to Tiananmen Square, and saw Mao's mausoleum and proceeed through the first gate of the Forbidden City, with Mao's portrait above it. The  Forbidden City was amazing, and a great piece of CHinese history, complete with the Forbiden gardens, and the Emperor's Palace. The lunch afterwards was the same style as the prior dinner, with a lot of entrees cming onto a lazy susan on the table. After that we went to a rehearsal at the Center COnservatory for Music, where we tested out the acoustics of the hall. After, we went to dinner in a hotel, where we also saw the Chinese Opera, "Eight Immortals Cross the Sea." It was an interesting experience, and we got to see how people perform in Chinese theater.  And now, I am in a hotel blogging. I iwll be putting up photos tomorrow, it is taking a while for photobucket to get all the pictures.

So, it is the fateful night before....everyone say bye to the loved ones, the house, the pets, and to Washington, for tomorrow we head to the China. We made it!