China - Aug. 2

From August 2nd - in China. This continues from the previous posting day...

After breakfast, we had a super long rehearsal (only 10 - noon) out in the parking lot in front of the Grand Epoch Village (where we're staying). The sun was blistering hot! We got into our formations for the joined bands and then rehearsed the combined music - a lot! Half-way through they told us to go find shade, because they realized we were sitting in the blistering sun for too long. Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of shade in a parking lot, so some of us sat next to the tour buses in the sliver of shade that offered; others found small decorative trees to be useful. Anyway, that was good, and then we practiced some more. I had to put sunscreen on the backs of my legs twice! (I burned them back in Seattle, so I was worried about it) Unfortunately, again, Natalie (my best friend in the mello section) got a little too much of the sun and spent the rest of the day extremely sick and throw-upy.

After lunch, I went on a little sightseeing around the Grand Epoch Village with Ben, Aaron and Kaitlyn, some of my mello friends. We went through the sports complex that's adjacent to the large dining hall, where we eat lunches and dinners. They have a laser tag course, a video game arcade, an archery range, a bowling alley, a rock climbing wall, tennis courts, badminton courts, basketball courts, a swimming pool, a massage place, and a BEAUFY salon (they could use a little spell-check on their signs). We then found this Buddhist prayer room. It was ornate and impressive. They had three big Buddha figures (along with many other smaller statues), and the middle one had a backwards swastika on its chest. Although I know that it's just an Eastern religious symbol that Hitler stole, it weirded me out a little, because I hate swastikas. We then walked outside under a beautifully painted covered walkway, and then walked around the pools. There were lots of small fish and a few turtles. It was a gorgeous day, so we kept walking around. There's a small river that flows through this village, and there were large plants that resembled lilies, but most of them were sticking up into the air. Maybe a different species. They have all sorts of Chinese statues; my favorite was a pair of Chinese dragons with little dragons all around.

After we got back, I decided to go out again, by myself, because I didn't have my camera with me when we all went around. I spent much more time in the prayer room, looking at all the engravings on the sides of the wall. They were crazy! There were pictures of people getting tortured and lots of people praying to Buddha and one person, I remember was lifting an elephant up - sort of like they do in Star Wars. Strange goings on... I did enjoy looking at all the detail. It was a little scary though, and I'm glad I'm a Christian. I brought my little Bible in there and read from Galatians and Ephesians. I love my God!

Although the weather is hot, the humidity is not that bad yet. I think that North Carolina in August is worse. (and the south too, I just don't know that very well) We're sweating like crazy though - I've drunk four bottles of water already!

In the evening, we had our first performance for several VIPs - I never found out who exactly they were - in the parking lot in our practice attire (which is colored t-shirts (the colors of the olympics) and shorts with white baseball hats). For every performance hereafter, the order is as follows: the "Yellow" Chinese band plays its tunes, then the "Red" American band plays first 'Strike Up the Band', then 'Sing,Sing,Sing', then the 'Classical Medley', then finally '76 Trombones'. The "Green" Australian and Japanese band plays its tunes. The "Blue" drumline from each hub band then combines to play a feature, and then all the musicians combine to play the Olympic Medley, which features music from John Williams, Beethoven and traditional Chinese songs. All this took quite a while, but it was fun to see everything come together. Our feet got very tired, and I took a shower immediately following its conclusion. I went to bed pretty speedily, because we had to be on the buses at 3:30 am.

More following immediately...