Day 8 – Saturday

Today was the day for the homestay families to do something special with their guests.  David, Wendy, Jon and Rob spent the day with Flora and Linda.  We started out by sleeping in.  After this, Rob finished yesterday’s blog and then they all went to a park behind Flora’s appartment building.

It was a beautiful day and many people were in the park excercising, singing to boombox accompaniment and playing table tennis.   The locals were very friendly and soon we were playing table tennis with them.   We are fairly certain that they were playing with their metaphorical left hands in order to not embarass us too much.   This was another uniquely Chinese experience.

After this, we had lunch at a “Hot Pot” retaurant, where you cook your own meal in boiling broths (spicy and savoury).  This is similar to the Japanese dish Shabu Shabu.  With satisfied appetites, we all had an authentic oriental massage at a reputable business which was wonderful.   The cost for 70 minutes was ~ $10.  Maybe the best deal of the trip!

We did a little more shopping before heading back to Flora’s apartment where her father had been cooking all afternoon in order to present an unbelievable feast (see photo). It was delicious!

After dinner, we went to the West Beijing Train Station to say goodbye to the Esrigs.  This is the largest train station in Asia!

We needed a couple of things for the trip home so we went to Wal-mart where Wendy set off the anti-theft alarm with her backpack.  We managed to avoid an international incident and got home safely.

Here are some photos.

Day 7 – Friday

Today was a lighter schedule. After checking out of the hotel, we had a couple of hours in a mall to shop and then went to a resteraunt similar to Izzy’s for pizza buffet. After this, we went back to No. 159 for a final concert in their auditorium with their choir and the choir from the other high school we visited.

After the concert, we all met our host families (see photos) and everyone went on their own “adventure”. David, Wendy, Jon and I were invited to dinner with Principal Lee at a very nice restaurant and afterwards Linda and Flora took us to a place where people were tango dancing on the sidewalk and shops were open late.

I had some trouble getting the internet going last night, which is why this post is 12 hours late.    Here are some photos.

Day 6 – Thursday

Today was a long day and I am very tired so this will be short.  Enjoy the photos…

Enamel Factory:  We learned how enamel vases and other art is made and watched it being made by hand.  This was fascinating and I definitely have a new appreciation for this art form.

Temple of Heaven:  Very cool architecture and a lot of great pictures. The highlight for me was the Mao watch I bought with a waving arm.  Unfortunately, while I was buying it, the rest of the group continued on and it took awhile for us to be reunited.

The Great Wall:  We had no idea how Great this really was.  The guys sang “Manly Men” and Classics sang “Great Wall of China” at the 8th North Tower on the Wall.  Wow!!!

Here are the photos.

Day 5 – Wednesday

Today we went to another high school and once again had a great time. We joined the students in many of their activities including participating in English classes, taking part in their morning exercises and Tai Chi class, along with playing basketball and attending their choir rehearsals.

While the guys were in the rehearsal, the parents visited a Traditional Chinese Medicine Teaching Hospital, where we were able to observe acupuncture treatments bein administered and have our questions answered by the director of that department. After this, we visited the Pharmacy, which was facinating (see the pictures).

We met up with the guys and went to a non-Starbucks coffee shop and then to the Beijing Opera Arts College. Here, they train students between 8 and 18 years of age in the ancient art of Peking Opera. One of our tour guides was the most famous Peking Opera singer in China. After the tour, we met with some of their students and each group sang a song for the other. There was a Jinghu (Peking opera fiddle) artist and pianist who performed an incredible duet. Other performances ere planned, but we ran out of time.Dinner was fantastic, as usual and then we headed to the opera.

Peking opera is quite different from western opera and is an acquired taste. The costumes are incredibly complex and beautiful but without being able to understand the lyrics, it as difficult to appreciate the overall effect.

Here are today’s photos.

Day 4 – Tuesday

Today we visited the Forbidden City (Emperor’s Palace) and performed at our most important concert of the tour.  Unfortunately, Jesse was still sick with a resperitory infection so he missed the whole day and Wendy stayed with him.  Thanks Wendy!!!!

We entered the forbidden city from Tienanmen Square which was still freezing.  The sun was out and it gradually warmed up but not for a long time.  After this, the bus took us to a Starbucks where we gladley paid $5 for a Grande Latte.

We went back to the hotel to change into concert attire and then the guys went to rehearsal wile the parents did a little more shopping. The concert was wonderful and I think the video turned out really good.  It will be available along with other clips after the tour as a DVD.

Here are the photos.

Your faithful blogger,

Rob

Day 3 – Monday

Today topped yesterday, but I am too tired to say much about it. I have edited some video to upload but I can’t get to YouTube or other video sites. Very briefly….

We were honored guests at Beijing Middle & High School No. 159. This included the very humbling experience of being honored in front of 1500 students standing at attention at the flag raising ceremony. The people at the school ded everything in their power to make us welcome and all of us were amazed to be here and share this day with them.

Later in the afternoon, we went to the old site of the school which is a temple that is considered one of the countries national treasures. It is normally closed but they opened it with a handful of staff and an excellent tour guide who gave us an in-depth personal tour.

Our visit ended playing basketball and soccer with the students which forced us to hurry to a quick dinner in order to arrive in time for the Beijing Acrobatic Troupe performance.

We were brought in through a side entrance and given seats in the 3rd and 4th rows. I think this was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. Our jaws kept dropping and I couldn’t help but gasp several times in each act.

Here is the link to today’s photos.

Day 2 – Sunday

We got up at 4:30 this morning to go see the flag raising ceremony at Tienanmen Square.  We were a little late and only those who ran ahead got to see the flag a few feet from the top.  Most of us had to settle for seeing it fully raised.  This would have been much more dissappointing if it hadn’t been for the fact that we were freezing our bums off.   The wind was very strong and the temperature was around 30 deg F.  Fortunately there were some nice salespeople around who were willing to sell us stocking caps and gloves and red army winter hats to keep us warm.  Even with the hats and gloves, we were so desperate that we went to KFC for coffee to warm up.

After this, we went to the old downtown and shopped for stuff…. lots of stuff! We had a great time and found some very unique items.  Lunch came next with traditional noodle bowls.

After lunch, we visited Wal-mart to buy snacks for the week.  Although the signs were familiar, the food area was very different.  Dried and fresh meats were layed out with no packaging.  You put what you want into a bag and have someone weigh it for you to get a price sticker.

Next, we went to a traditional Chinese park.  By now it had turned into a beautiful sunny day and we thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon, including playing hack-e-sack and Frisbee and performing a short impromptu concert.

Then it was time to visit the Chinese National Conservatory of Music and join in their children’s choir rehearsal.  Wow, can they sing!  We listened to two 10 year old girls play violin and piano.  The violinist took 3rd place behind much older students in the National violin championship.  The other girl played the piano and was amazing.  YME and the Classics sang a few songs and the kids seemed to really like us.

The evening ended up at the same restaurant as last night but this time to experience Peking Duck.  Everything was delicious and we were definitely ready to return to the hotel and get some sleep.

Here is a link to today’s photos

This is Rob signing off.

Day 1 – Saturday

We arrived safely Saturday afternoon, tired but happy to be here.  We headed out on our bus (which barely had enough room for our luggage) to visit the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics, known as the “Birds Nest”.  After this , we had an fantastic dinner.

Photos can be found here.

Goodnight ……

Eugene Airport

After one hour of crowded airline gates and one frustrated UA employee, the YME has successfully traversed the ticket counter and security.  There was one close call when Linda Hwang forgot to get herself checked in.  The actual issue had something to do with her Taiwan passport.   Once that was all settled, we got to the gate with plenty of time to spare.

More later….