We Are Now Part Of History

Well it's official we are all part of history. The performance today went off without a hitch and I am not surprised judging from the police and military presence in Tienanmen Square. This event was by invitation only so we all (Including Chaperone's) were so honored to be in attendance. The Chinese Olympic Athletes were rumored to be in attendance as well as a huge contingent of media both Chinese and from all over the world. There will be some of us locals featured on both NBC and KCRA 3 over the next few nights, so make sure to Tivo or video tape it so we can see it when we return. Dan Bryan and Jessica Hayes were both interviewed by local Chinese news to be televised tonight and tomorrow. Bobby Jordan And Joey Little were also asked to play a portion of the bass drum part by Deidre Fitzpatrick with KCRA 3 so everyone be on the look out over the next few days. We have also made Reuters as a featured story via Yahoo. Here is the link for the story if any one is interested:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080803/lf_nm_life/olympics_orchestra_dc

The day started for everyone here at 2:00am to 2:30am. Mine started with an explosion in our room at 2:00am as something that Joanie had plugged into the 220 volt outlet wanted to argue with her and decided to emit a beautiful orange shower of sparks like a fourth of July firework. This in turn knocked out the power to the entire room. So we had to call the main desk at 2:00am and get an electrician to come to the room and remedy the problem. So with a few re-sets of the breakers and a few what I can only imagine were a bunch of Chinese swear words as he sounded none to happy about being disturbed at such a ungodly hour. We all had to be up at this hour as we had to be on the buses (About 25 buses all together) and ready to leave by 3:30am. Believe it or not everything went smoothly. I was amazed how organized everything was from getting everyone on the right buses to getting the instruments loaded to getting everyone their boxed breakfasts distributed. All went well and we arrived at Tienanmen Squared safe and sound around 6:30am. Our guide with world projects, John has been so awesome. He gave us some Chinese lessons as well as history of various key places and buildings on our way to Tienanmen Square. We gathered in groups in the square after disembarking from the buses. We had various pictures taken by Tom Burns which should be of professional quality, but I will have to find out the particulars about getting copies of them. After the pictures there was a bathroom break for everyone which was very interesting as the bathroom was a bus. That's right I said a bus. The had converted a bus in to a true mobile toilet facility. The guys side consisted of what we fondly have come to refer to them as "Squatty Potty's" and two long stadium style troughs. This was located in the rear entrance of the bus and the women's half was in the front of the bus and consisted of a few "Squatty Potty's". That was something else that most of the travelers won't soon forget either.

The audience was in awe of the performance as it only gets better with each day that goes by and the performers get used to playing together as a group. The fact that everyone in attendance was part of history was enough to send chills down your spine. I still don't think the kids realize the magnitude of the places and the people that they are playing at and for. I wasn't able to videotape the performance today as there were no places to video tape from as the media pretty much snapped everything up, plus there were no high vantage points from which to shoot a video from either. But I have posted the four part video of their IOC performance on the photo site along with pictures as well from both yesterday and today. Remember to let the videos load all the way before viewing them as it lets you experience it a little better. Sorry that I had to split it up into parts but since the photo site that I use is a free site they limit the file size that you can download at any one given time.

Tomorrow is the Performance on the Great Wall Of China. They will also be making history at this performance too as there has never been a musical performance group to ever perform on the actual Great Wall of China. So much history in such a short time, here is where the chance of a lifetime comes in. I will try and video tape a part of this event if at all possible so everyone can experience history as well. Well we have another busy day tomorrow so I had better go because I still have to upload pics and videos. Great Wall here we come....