Well today was the first day of what will be many practice sessions. The humidity here is awful and I do not envy the kids having to stand out in the heat some of them with big sousaphones and bass drums. They broke off into sectional such as low brass, drum line, woodwind and cymbals. No matter where you where the various sections sounded amazing. The sheer numbers of kids from all over the world is almost overwhelming. I know our kids are definitely having an experience they won't soon forget. I have heard different stories from the kids as to the different people they are meeting and the different countries that they are from. I even hear the on of the cymbal instructors is a "Cute guy from Australia".
At the beginning of the practice today Mr. Price with Beyer High School took the bass drum line quite a distance from the hotel for their warm ups. Before they could begin practicing though there was a troop of Chinese performers on stilts. They were performing dance and acrobatics for a Japanese Tour Group. After the performance my wife Joanie and Jenn Henry became quite the celebrities. Just about every Japanese person in the tour group stopped them and wanted their pictures taken with Joanie and Jenn. Every man, woman and child had a blast having their pictures taken. Some even had their grand parents take their picture with "The J's" as I like to refer to them now. The photo shoot lasted about 30 minutes. We circulated around the grounds and listened to just about every group. I will try and post a video on the photo site when I tape the entire orchestra performing together.
This is also the monsoon season here in China and has been raining at least two times a day. That does wonders for the humidity. I know if I was a plant or a flower I would be loving' life, but no such luck. We explored some more of the grounds today. We visited the sports center. They have bowling, archery, billiards, ping pong, rock climbing wall, video games and a swimming pool. While we were walking past the archery part of the center it was apparent the Sky Harvick was not too familiar with archery. He did however successfully kill a light fixture in the ceiling. These are definitely the things that memories are made of as everyone had a good laugh over this.
We had the pleasure of eating our dinner tonight with our guide John. We had some interesting conversation about the cost of living here in China. The average annual salary here for your standard laborer worker is equivalent to $117,000.00 Per year. Doctors and Professors and Lawyers make around $3,000,000.00 That's right three million dollars. John was complaining that gas was so expensive and has doubled in the last two years. It now cost the equivalent to $0.90. He almost passed out when I told him that it cost about $120.00 US to fill my truck back home. He also told us that only about 10 to 15% of the population of China are communists. He told us that there are four different parties in China and you can belong to whichever one you choose. John owns four apartments himself. I'm thinking China has come along way in the last 25 years.
The last of the musicians arrived today and the real big practices will soon begin. The first scheduled practice where everyone will be together, will be this Saturday, Friday your time. Like I said earlier I will try and video tape the practice and post it on the photo site. The following people received the comments that you have posted and send their love and thanks for the sentiments:
Bobby Jordan - "Hey mom I love you guys and I'm having fun"
Crystal Rizzi - "How sweet of my Grandma to leave the comment" (Awwww)
Dennis And Ashley Crow - "Hi everyone that left us comments on the blog" "We are fine and having fun"
Everyone in the group - To everyone back home "nin hao" . . ."Hello"
Well I had better go and upload the pictures from yesterday onto the photo site until then don't take any counterfeit yuan. (Chinese money. . .I know I'm such a world traveler now)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
One Word . . . HUMIDITY ! ! !
Well we all arrived safe and sound and most of us have contacted our loved ones back home. As I said in my last entry if there is anyone that needs to get a hold of a member here post a comment and I will get them the message.
Well it was a very nice day here in China. The weather was that of, for lack of a better word " Humidity Hell". The temperature was about 85 degree with about a Kabillion percent humidity. That's right I said a kabillion as it's a scientific term I picked up when I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express on time. We got to have a free day to explore Grand Epoch City where we are staying and where the hotel is located. The grounds are HUGE with a capital HU. the entire city is surrounded by what ca only be described as a mini great wall of China. Everyone here is very polite and very hard to communicate with (I know. . . What did we expect?). Joanie called the front desk last night and asked for a washcloth and finally after repeating it four times really slow they delivered two bathrobes. We got one hell of a laugh about that one. We walked all over the city and took picture of just about everything. It is very beautiful here and it seems that you walk about five feet and see something else that you need to take a picture of. There were about eight of us walking around together and I uploaded everyone's pictures from today alone, and the totaled right around one-thousand pictures. I have uploaded new pictures of both the farewell concert as well as our first day travels to Beijing. I will be uploading a few pictures every day but not every picture that we have. We will try and set up a killer slide show of our adventures when we get back, so everyone has a chance to see the thousands upon thousands of pictures that will be taken over the next couple of weeks. I can't stress enough about the humidity here. I honestly don't know how some of the people here in china walk around in Suit Jackets and Ties without passing out. I'm afraid I would have to find the job where you could be naked all day. This must be the reason that there aren't very many fat Chinese, they live in a Freakin' sauna! The food has been interesting to say the least. Their Idea of "Western" cuisine is a little different than ours. Okay lets not bullshit each other it's a lot different than ours. They had corn on the cob, which you would think you could mess up too bad. Well we fondly called it "Chinese Rubber Corn". You can probably guess why we call it that. The next interesting thing was the chicken. They need to warn a person that the little pieces of cut up chicken is like eating shards of glass. They cut the chicken up into little tiny pieces and leave the tiny bone shards in the meat. . . Surprise!!! They also seem to think we love bread with little tiny raisin in it because they serve it at every meal. Thank god that as a group we probably have more food than most of the Chinese Supermarkets. I did manage to find Chips A-Hoy chocolate cookies that hit the spot. Well the kids have their first practice at 8:00am in the morning tomorrow, or should I say today as it is 12:40am right now. They received their uniforms today and I am sure we all will be taking another thousand pictures tomorrow. Along with the thousand if Olympic Orchestra member that are here there is a Dutch contingent on a "Walk China Tour". They are apparently into walking and they plan on walking everywhere, even though it's "Humidity Hell". At any rate I am very tired and need some sleep for tomorrows activities so until then. . .Goodnight John Boy. . . Goodnight Maryellen. . .Goodnight Ma. . . And So On And So on And So On.
Well it was a very nice day here in China. The weather was that of, for lack of a better word " Humidity Hell". The temperature was about 85 degree with about a Kabillion percent humidity. That's right I said a kabillion as it's a scientific term I picked up when I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express on time. We got to have a free day to explore Grand Epoch City where we are staying and where the hotel is located. The grounds are HUGE with a capital HU. the entire city is surrounded by what ca only be described as a mini great wall of China. Everyone here is very polite and very hard to communicate with (I know. . . What did we expect?). Joanie called the front desk last night and asked for a washcloth and finally after repeating it four times really slow they delivered two bathrobes. We got one hell of a laugh about that one. We walked all over the city and took picture of just about everything. It is very beautiful here and it seems that you walk about five feet and see something else that you need to take a picture of. There were about eight of us walking around together and I uploaded everyone's pictures from today alone, and the totaled right around one-thousand pictures. I have uploaded new pictures of both the farewell concert as well as our first day travels to Beijing. I will be uploading a few pictures every day but not every picture that we have. We will try and set up a killer slide show of our adventures when we get back, so everyone has a chance to see the thousands upon thousands of pictures that will be taken over the next couple of weeks. I can't stress enough about the humidity here. I honestly don't know how some of the people here in china walk around in Suit Jackets and Ties without passing out. I'm afraid I would have to find the job where you could be naked all day. This must be the reason that there aren't very many fat Chinese, they live in a Freakin' sauna! The food has been interesting to say the least. Their Idea of "Western" cuisine is a little different than ours. Okay lets not bullshit each other it's a lot different than ours. They had corn on the cob, which you would think you could mess up too bad. Well we fondly called it "Chinese Rubber Corn". You can probably guess why we call it that. The next interesting thing was the chicken. They need to warn a person that the little pieces of cut up chicken is like eating shards of glass. They cut the chicken up into little tiny pieces and leave the tiny bone shards in the meat. . . Surprise!!! They also seem to think we love bread with little tiny raisin in it because they serve it at every meal. Thank god that as a group we probably have more food than most of the Chinese Supermarkets. I did manage to find Chips A-Hoy chocolate cookies that hit the spot. Well the kids have their first practice at 8:00am in the morning tomorrow, or should I say today as it is 12:40am right now. They received their uniforms today and I am sure we all will be taking another thousand pictures tomorrow. Along with the thousand if Olympic Orchestra member that are here there is a Dutch contingent on a "Walk China Tour". They are apparently into walking and they plan on walking everywhere, even though it's "Humidity Hell". At any rate I am very tired and need some sleep for tomorrows activities so until then. . .Goodnight John Boy. . . Goodnight Maryellen. . .Goodnight Ma. . . And So On And So on And So On.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Holy Shit What A Day!!
Well we have officialy arrived in Beijing, after leaving on Sunday at noon. What a long journey to get here though. Our first leg of the journey started as I said in the previous blog entry in Modesto at the high school by way of Charter Bus to LAX. Well we arrived at LAX without a hitch and the representative with world projects (The organizers) met us there with our travel documents. Everything went smooth and actually very quick for a group of 38 all checking in at the same time. We only had one student have difficulties with the security check point and his luggage. We all thought that since he is one of the "Brainiac" kids that he may have brought a sience project with him in his suitcase, but it was only an issue with his latches/locks. After waiting in LAX for about 4 hours we were finally underway. This next leg was I felt the most difficult one and that was the one where we had to spend just over 16 hours on an airplane crossing the pacific ocean from Los Angeles to Bankok Thialand. There was no real comfortable place to sleep as the "Economy" class section has seats that only recline, and I use this term loosely, to a 36 degree angle. In other words they lean back they don't recline!!! We were on the plane what only seemed like ten minutes and they started the routine of passing out hot towels, beverages, and then feeding us. The first meal was served at about midnight, the second series of hot towels, beverages and food was at about 3:00am. Yes they work evryone up to feed us. then as you might have guessed it was about four hours later then they did it again. The food was actually not too bad and proves a good point about as human beings being condition to eat just about anything. We landed in Bankok at about 5:30am Bankok time, I have no idea whst time that is back home. All I know is that any way you slice it or dice it it was over sixteen hours (That's where the "Holy Shit" part comes in). We had about a six hour lay over in thailand airport where we learned about the Thia conversion and recieve some of the currency as change. With the lay over out of the way we were onto the next leg of our long journey. This consisted of a 4 and a half hour flight from Bankok to Beijing, them retrieving our luggage instruments and meeting with our guide John. We then had an hour and a half bus ride to the hotel in Grand Epoch City in Tianjin. We had fifty five minutes to shower and meet downstairs for a welcome dinner of local cuisine. Let's just say this isn't the "Chinese Food" that people from the states are used to. After dinner we had a quick meeting then we were released by Dan to settle in. If anyone is trying to get in touch with thier kids and can't, leave a comment to any of the posts at any time and I will get the message to them. Well I am wiped out so I will do more including pictures tomorrow.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
We are outta here!
Well it's too late to turn back now. We have left Modesto. The send off was great and had various family and friends there to wish us all a safe trip (some more tear filled than other). I just want to reassure everyone who have family members traveling with our group, they won't have me watch your kids without Joanie being there to keep us safe and sane. On a more serious note I will try and give everyone a behind the scenes look at our adventures so this is the one and only warning that there could be some adult content on the blog as well as the photo site. I need to apologize about not posting the pictures from the farewell concert (Especially Mama Sandy Mills). I have been rather busy with last minute preparations for the China trip. The coolest part of this update it is being done from our charter bus in Chowchilla. Man I love technology!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Bon Voyage Concert Was A Hit
Well like the title of this post indicates the Olympic Orchestra was a hit at their farewell concert held in Modesto last night. They performed the various music that they will be performing in China before a packed stadium at Thomas Downy High School's Football Stadium in Modesto. This was a benefit concert to raise money to try and offset the cost for the various students going to China. I took my customary "Ass-load" of pictures and will post them on the photo site later this evening. The kids that are playing in the Orchestra are so calm it's kind of strange. The adults that are going are more nervous and excited than the kids are. I don't really think they realize how huge this really is. I know they will understand once they are there and it has had a chance to sink in. This will probably happen for most of them, some time during our 40 actual hours of travel time. that's right 40 hours with transfers, lay overs, bus rides and flights (Lions, and tigers, and bears on my!) what else can a person say except Holy Sh*t!!!!! I wish that every parent gets to be as proud of their child as we are of Joey. He had his moments last year but I must say he has turned out to be a very focused and driven individual. I feel this is primarily due to his hard work and perseverance. It also doesn't hurt that between me and Joanie and Dan his band director all riding his ass, making sure he was always prepared and he stayed focused on his studies and music and less focused on. . . .Well . . . Girls he is where he is today. It really was mainly Joeys hard work though. Well I guess I better sign off for now before I start crying.
The VERY VERY Proud Drumline DAD!
The VERY VERY Proud Drumline DAD!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Latest Update Farwell Preformance
Hello again from Little land. Well we just received a new itinerary that includes not only the Tienanmen Square performance but a photo shoot and performance on the Great Wall of China. The kids are gonna hate that one because the first group are leaving at 4:00am. That's right that is not a typographical error I said 4:00am. As many of you know most teenagers are not prone to being up before 10:00am when they are on their summer vacations let alone 4:00am!!! At any rate we are looking forward to the adventure of a lifetime and alot of stories to tell for years to come.
Tonight is the "Farewell" concert being held in Modesto California. The Mayor of Modesto is supposed to be in attendance to give the performers commendation certificates as well as a "Modesto Pin" to either wear or trade with people in China. There is supposed to also be local media coverage but I am not sure which one yet, but I will keep you all posted. I have also purchase quite a few "California pins that I will pass out to our travelers so that they can trade with the people in China as well. Apparently trading pins is something that happens often. I will update the blog and photo site tonight or tomorrow after the farewell concert.
Tonight is the "Farewell" concert being held in Modesto California. The Mayor of Modesto is supposed to be in attendance to give the performers commendation certificates as well as a "Modesto Pin" to either wear or trade with people in China. There is supposed to also be local media coverage but I am not sure which one yet, but I will keep you all posted. I have also purchase quite a few "California pins that I will pass out to our travelers so that they can trade with the people in China as well. Apparently trading pins is something that happens often. I will update the blog and photo site tonight or tomorrow after the farewell concert.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Special Performance Announced
World projects has announced that the Olympic Orchestra has been invited to perform in Tiananmen Square. The memo was as follows:
World Projects Headquarters: 195 Glen Cove Marina Rd. Suite 201 • Vallejo, CA 94591
Toll Free Tel: 1-800-922-3976 • Tel: (707) 556-5885 • Fax: (707) 556-5896
Web-site: www.world-projects.com • Email: wpc@world-projects.com
July 10, 2008
Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra Participants:
We have just received some very exciting news! The Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) Cultural Division has determined that the Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra will perform in Tiananmen Square as part of the China/International Olympic Committee Cultural Celebration at the Olympics. We are the first and only foreign group to ever gain permission to perform in Tiananmen Square. The invitation is much like that given to the "THREE TENORS" five years ago when they were the only foreign group given permission to perform in the Forbidden City. This is a great honor for us, and we have been given 50 – 60 minutes to perform.
Due to high security, only 2000 spectators are to be allowed in Tiananmen Square. However, security has accepted an increase to 3000 for our performance only to accommodate the extra media that will cover the event. Entry into Tiananmen Square will be restricted to performers and a small number of staff only. Shadow participants and most chaperones will not be allowed on the Square for this event due to the strict security. However, we will try to arrange an area for everyone to view the event as it is televised. The event is primarily for international media and Chinese television.
This performance is part of a daily Chinese television show that runs from 7:00 – 9:00am leading up to the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. Our performance date is 3 August, 2008 at 8:00am. The Square is cleared and will reopen for visitors at 9:30am daily. Besides being the only foreign group, we are the only non professional group allowed to perform during this Cultural Celebration of the Olympics and China. We are making history at this event. This performance will be a treasured memory for all participants.
Sincerely,
Kirk Troen
Chief Operating Officer
World Projects Headquarters: 195 Glen Cove Marina Rd. Suite 201 • Vallejo, CA 94591
Toll Free Tel: 1-800-922-3976 • Tel: (707) 556-5885 • Fax: (707) 556-5896
Web-site: www.world-projects.com • Email: wpc@world-projects.com
July 10, 2008
Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra Participants:
We have just received some very exciting news! The Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) Cultural Division has determined that the Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra will perform in Tiananmen Square as part of the China/International Olympic Committee Cultural Celebration at the Olympics. We are the first and only foreign group to ever gain permission to perform in Tiananmen Square. The invitation is much like that given to the "THREE TENORS" five years ago when they were the only foreign group given permission to perform in the Forbidden City. This is a great honor for us, and we have been given 50 – 60 minutes to perform.
Due to high security, only 2000 spectators are to be allowed in Tiananmen Square. However, security has accepted an increase to 3000 for our performance only to accommodate the extra media that will cover the event. Entry into Tiananmen Square will be restricted to performers and a small number of staff only. Shadow participants and most chaperones will not be allowed on the Square for this event due to the strict security. However, we will try to arrange an area for everyone to view the event as it is televised. The event is primarily for international media and Chinese television.
This performance is part of a daily Chinese television show that runs from 7:00 – 9:00am leading up to the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. Our performance date is 3 August, 2008 at 8:00am. The Square is cleared and will reopen for visitors at 9:30am daily. Besides being the only foreign group, we are the only non professional group allowed to perform during this Cultural Celebration of the Olympics and China. We are making history at this event. This performance will be a treasured memory for all participants.
Sincerely,
Kirk Troen
Chief Operating Officer
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Upcoming Bon Voyage Party
Well tomorrow (Actually today just look at the time) we have a Bon Voyage party to go to. It is being thrown by the parent of a couple of alumni that will be traveling to China with the Olympic Orchestra. One of the Alumni's that is going has become my drinking buddy at a recent get together at Mikes Roadhouse, a local Bar and Grill that we like to frequent. It doesn't hurt that Bobby our oldest son has worked there for the past two years either. At any rate Joanie baked a suprise "Cake" for the party. We have taken a picture of her handy work and posted it on the picture site so go and check it out. I will add more pictures to the site after the party during the next few days. Until then "Xie xie" ("Thank you" in Mandarin Chinese) pronounced "shi shi".
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Pictures Of Our First Souvenir
I almost forgot to let everyone in on our first souvenir. We got them on Bobby's eighteenth birthday. Go to the picture site and check out the pictures. Surprise ! ! !
Happy 4th of July Weekend / 1st Public Performance
Well it's too late to turn back now. The Olympic Orchestra has had their first public performance (Well at least the Modesto area performers have). They marched in the 2008 4th of July parade in Modesto California. The performance was very impressive and we can't wait to hear what it sounds like with all 2008 members performing it together in Beijing. The Orchestra was well received by the onlookers, and there was only one comment made about "Human Rights" or "Free Tibet", and since that was not the general consensus, it was pretty much ignored. Most of the comments that I heard were supportive and ones of congratulations and pride. On thing is for sure, I haven't had to walk that far in very long time. That's right, all of us proud parents got to walk the route with the Orchestra while they played. We acted as liaisons to the crowd if anyone had questions regarding the trip, other performances and just general congratulations that are invoked from a chance of a lifetime such as this. The final result of this public appearance in the 4th of July Parade was that the Olympic Orchestra took first place in the marching band division in the parade. I have posted some pictures on the photo site that you can access at the "Little's Links" on the right hand side of the page. The Olympic Orchestra will have a farewell performance on July 22nd at the Downy High School Stadium at 7:00pm. Everyone is invited to attend as this is an attempt to raise some funds to offset the travel costs to the students. The cost is only $5.00 per ticket. If you aren't able to make it the program would happily accept any cash donations that you might want to give. That was my shameless plug at marketing and drumming up donations. I know it was pretty pathetic. Well enjoy the pictures and until the next fascinating installment of "Where's the Little's". . .Peace out!
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