Let The Practices Begin

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)