Day 6

Day 6:

Well, I have gotten my days confused. Our Day 1 and 2 is actually combined as Departure day and Day 1. We had to cram 20hrs of travel into two of our days due flying across the date line. Either way……I am blogging everything in the order in which it has happened for us.

I forgot to mention that while we were waiting in the lobby the other night, I look across and see a familiar face. Mr. John Trepp, the now retired choir director from Magee Secondary was casually strolling across the lobby until we noticed one another. I did my practicum at Magee and worked with John. We have stayed in touch over the years and I guess it is a small world after all! It turns out that John was here as part of a tour that Killarney Secondary (Vancouver) was on with Tianjiao.

Both Mr. O and I graduated from Killarney, however there were a few years in between our grad ceremonies. Bryan Knapp, in his final year as Band Teacher at Killarney, was my own Band teacher. He was in China for the second time and brought John along for the experience. I guess music really does bring people closer together.

Today we started off the day with a tour of the Cloisonné Museum. This is a factory/museum where traditional Chinese pottery is made. It is a very delicate art where the workers first form a vase or vessel, then take small pieces of copper wire and bend them to create some lovely art work. They then affix these hundreds of pieces to the vase to create a scene. They then color in each section with an eyedropper while utilizing dozens of water and powder mixtures. After they reach the desired look they fire the piece in a very large kiln. Once the colors have set they spend a good amount of time polishing the vessel until it reaches and acceptable smoothness and luster.

Next we had lunch and then it was off to the Chinese Conservatory of Music for our second performance. The new theater was absolutely stunning and reminded many of us of the Chan Centre at UBC (maybe 2/3 the size). As the students were getting warmed up and/or vocalizing we were informed that there was no M.C. for the evening and so I was called upon to read the program notes. My very first Chinese audience! Unfortunately my Mandarin is not what it should be so our tour guides Penny and Jerry stepped up for translation duties and we had a tandem announcing gig for the evening.

The students played and sang very well and the President and the Dean of the Conservatory were in attendance. It was great for the kids to be able to play on such a beautiful stage and where proper room acoustics could do their sound justice. We were treated to some amazing performances by 3 traditional Chinese instrumentalists to round out the concert. Later the music teachers, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Peake got to have a meal with their Chinese counterparts and the Chinese Musicians and we received many fine compliments about the students’ performance.

There were some interesting and new food choices presented to the staff at this dinner. We were exposed to dishes featuring jellyfish, sea ginseng, frog soup, turtle soup, duck liver, and traditional Beijing Duck. I’m probably forgetting one or two items but what a neat experience.

It is nice to see that the students have become fairly comfortable with all that is going on and have done well with the unique adaptations that we have had to make. There have been new foods at every meal, the touring lifestyle with busy Beijing traffic to contend with, and amazingly diverse washroom cleanliness standards. All the chaperones are very proud of how well the kids are doing.

Day 7:

Today was a more relaxing day finally. We had the option to choose our activities for the day and decided to visit the Summer Palace. This was the resident of the Empress for most of the year and had a beautiful “birthday cake” like palace up on the hill overlooking a lake. In fact, I believe this was the same man made lake that the freshwater pearls came from. The Summer Palace features a stunning view over looking much of the city.

Later we decided to return to the Hutong area that we visited the other day for another opportunity to look around. There were some streets nearby that had some more modern shops for kids to do some shopping in and there was a Vendor Mall that some of the kids went to so that they could by some wares. Strangely enough, one of the biggest highlights was the Starbucks that the kids rushed to at the perimeter of the Hutongs. I guess they were really in need of a Frappucino. Mrs. Roberts, Mr. Lewis, Penny ( the tour guide from bus “C”…..the best bus ) and myself all went for a rice noodle soup lunch. Penny said that this type of specific noodle was a very popular dish in that area.

Speaking of tour guides…….on bus “C” we were very fortunate to have Penny with us. She is a very kind person who the kids took to immediately and she not only taught us a lot but really enjoyed the music we performed. She even got into the spirit of the music and organized some music games and singing while on longer bus rides to help keep the kids occupied. Many of the kids even insisted on getting pictures with her and giving her a departing hug. We will miss you very much Penny. Thanks for everything!

Off to Xi’an tomorrow……..4:30 am wake up call….Ugh!