China trip adventures prt1

[natusko]

Even though I'm still in China, I'll still post up on what happened on this trip with the choir. The spaces between the points shows separate days.

[NOTE: Pictures will be posted later when I get back to the USA later.]

Beijing:

• Traveling day!


• I hate airplane food...no matter what airline I'm on.


• We finally met our two couriers named Jeff and Tony.  The choir and parents were split up into two buses: Choir girls - Bus A, Choir Parents - Bus B.


• Nora literally brought her whole family along, which was half of the people on the trip. XD


• Jeff (who was on Bus A) was awesome.  He was able to upgrade us to a better hotel since our original hotel's power went out. Thank you Jeff! <3


• I roomed with Nora and Rachelle (aka: Chunky) which I was really happy to find out.


• Our hotel has condoms in the minibar?

• Random Note: Started to Play "The World Ends With You"

• I woke up at 4:05am


• Breakfast is all American style?


• Found out that Dehn was ironing his shorts all night.


• Our local tour guide: Micheal [was pretty cool when he gave us the tour around Beijing.]


• Went to the Great Wall of China...got bombarded by the street vendors [Poor Dehn and Morgan got really harassed by them].


• Girls were freaked out by the squatting toilets *face palm*


• My god it was freaking hot out there...


• All of us had to change and we all used our dresses as tents.


• Weird flies were flying around us and stinging us.... D: what in the hell is up with China's flies?!


• Me, Mari, and Nora kissed the Great Wall....who knows what was on it.


• I wrote and drew on the Great Wall.


• My god it was freakin' hot out there!!


• We found out we left Morgan, her dad, and Harry (Katie Yakel's uncle) behind?!


• It started to rain during lunch?


• We finally found the missing people! :D


• Went to the Heavenly Palace...it's just...big.


• Saw a Kung fu show...fell asleep through that one. [Too Wushu for me and my dad]


• Had rehearsal from 9:15 - midnight. [Apparently I can sing while I'm sleeping?]



• Went to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden Palace


• Too many people.....and vendors...


• Lost Morgan's dad again.


• Found him again.


• Had a few hours to kill in the hotel so me and Nora just talked/took naps.


• Went to the Olympic Village and rehearsed.


• Performed and started to rain in the middle of our performance [Note: We were broadcasted on Chinese National TV]


• My feet died in the middle of the performance.


• Ate the Peking duck at dinner.

• Visited the Summer Palace...nothing much to see really.


• Had a Boat Ride around Kunming Lake.
  


• Choir started to sing random songs during the boat ride


• Visited a Pearl Factory..didn't really interest me.


• Rehearsed at the Beijing Central Conservatory.


• Performed and we did really well.

Xi An:

• Travel Day!


• Had really bad turbulence during the flight...right after lunch also. D:


• Arrived at Xi An and had lunch at the airport.


• Sat at a table of girls which I couldn't tolerate due to their stupid rules they made up [There was no more room. Ugh. Well fuck you and your rules!]


• Our tour guide: Frank. [was okay...kept talking a lot though]


• Started to rain


• Visited the Old City Wall
  


• Visited the Big Goose Pagoda


• walking without an umbrella was fun.


• Watched a Tang Dynasty Show [meh...was a little boring]

• Random Note: Finished Playing "The World Ends With You" (I'm way too obsessed with this game...but I love it. :D)

• Visited the Terra Cotta Soldiers


• Got to talk to Jeff on the way since I got left behind [he wanted to help me catch up to my parents]

• I had a taste of snake wine (which was pretty strong stuff), and apparently I have shocked a lot of people due to the fact that I don't "seem like the type of person" to try alcohol?
  

• Went to Xi An Conservatory and performed [holy crap that was an awesome performance]

Nanjing:

• Travel Day again! :D


• Arrived and met our t.g.: Jane [Very nice lady]


• A lot of trees in the city...


• Apparently a lot of girls were freaked out by Floors 6 & 7 of the hotel? [It's just a Karaoke Night Club people! D:]


• I was also asked to drink 2 Gin Tonics in order to get a free Pandar (aka: Panda) in front of my dad.


• Rehearsed and had a performance at Nanjing Art Institute.

• Nora decided to buy some men's tidy whities (for her ex-boyfriend) at the hotel minibar?


• Went to visit the Old Town area.


• Finally found some manga at a Newspaper stand [One of them is actually a book, but I think it's a porno book? >__>;; Not too sure...]


• Traveled to Hangzhou for 4 hrs in a bus


• Kicked Dehn's ass again on the Nintendo DS.

Hang Zhou:

• We went around West Lake after dinner.


• Finally gave in to eat at a Haagendaz.


• Got bit by mosquitoes on the toe and foot.


• Girls freaked when they finally found a Starbucks....wow.

• Mosquitoes bite on toe started to turn purple and blue...are they supposed to do that?
  

• Visited a Tea Village


• Parents bought a lot of tea.


• A lot of Llama Drama happened during the rehearsal about one of the choir girls [I will not mention on here what happened.]


• During dinner Dehn and Morgan's dad got asked by some Chinese University graduates to drink some alcohol. XD


• Had a concert at the Zhejiang Concert Hall [which was right down the street from the hotel]


• We sang with adorable Chinese kids! :D [Ontop of that, they're a really good choir.]


• It was pouring when we got outside D:


• Traveled to Shanghai for 2hrs.

Shanghai:

•  Met our t.g.: Micheal (aka: Hya [pronounced: Hai] Yen) [Very funny and nice guy! :D]

• Visited the Bund area [very crowded w/ tourists and vendors]

• Saw the Acrobatic Show which was amazing and awesome! [Yay for the "Motorcycle Power Rangers" and the "Backstreet Boys"!]

• Other foot got two bites near the bottom of foot. Couldn't walk at all.
  

• Went to Church w/ choir and had to sing in dresses

• Visited Yu Garden

• Ate a bird on a stick at the market in front of Yu Garden

• It was awesome watching Mr. Weed play the mini ErWu in the middle of the street. XD

• Visited the Shanghai Silk Factory [It was okay.]

• Had pizza for lunch since the girls were sick of Chinese food...[the icecream there was BAD D: ]

• Jeff you are a lifesaver to the choir! [He found out that the Shanghai University had lost all of its power due to the extreme heat outside.  So without freaking everyone out he was able to change the venue, and have the people get transferred to the new venue for our last concert.]

• Had our last concert at a Children's Conservatory in Shanghai. The Shanghai University staff choir also joined us in our concert.

• Decided to wake up with Nora and Rachelle at 3am since they had to leave for the USA.

• No one got left behind like in Italy. [Thank goodness!]
  

• Got off the bus earlier w/ my parents and Micheal in order to leave for Hong Kong.

• Traveled to Hong Kong.
  

Edit: Picture time~!!



This is what our bus looked like on the way to the Great Wall.





Great Wall of China and it's hundreds of stairs/steps!! :D



The Heavenly Palace. It was pretty cool lookin', but it sort of sucked that ya' couldn't actually go inside.



This is the front of the temple. (Sorry for the blurriness at the top of the photo)



The choir rehearsing at the Olympic Village.



Tianamen Square and parts of the Forbidden Palace



The thing in the picture says it all. It was in Tianamen Square.



Us on a boat ride in front of the Summer Palace in Beijing.  We all decided to get popsicles on the way since it was really hot outside.



The Concrete Boat!! Does it ever move? Nope.



The Terracotta Warriors...well some of them.





A photo of the Tang Dynasty Show.  In China, when they say "Please do not take any photos or video." It's more of a suggestion than an order.



The Big Goose Pagoda in Xi An.



I threw one of those lucky charms into a tree in order to wish for a good school/college year.  It's up there...somewhere...This was in Nanjing



In Hang Zhou, a guy was demonstrating on they dry the tea leaves at a tea village.\



Our M.C./Courier Tony introducing the Hang Zhou Children's Community Choir.



Looks like Dehn and Mr. Weed both got the same t-shirts! XD (The Asian guy in the green shirt is our other courier and lifesaver Jeff.)



Welcome to Shanghai! This is the older part of Shanghai...



And this is the newer part of Shanghai.



Pigeon anyone? Street food in Shanghai in front of Yu's Garden.  We were waiting for everyone to come back, so me and my dad decided to get some "Bird on a Stick" (usually it's on a stick, but this stand decided not to include the stick with the bird.



Me, Morgan, Nora, and Rachelle at the pizza buffet restaurant.



The choir at their last concert in Shanghai.

I will be posting what happened in Hong Kong later.