April 20th- Today, I Became A Hero Posted by Happy Blogger , 28.4.11 at Thursday, April 28, 2011, in

April 20th
8:18 am So great sleep last night. Showered this morning, cut my ankle pretty bad shaving, oh well. Rachel & I sat with this asian couple for breakfast and we were trying to tell them we are going to the Great Wall today. So we pulled out our sheet and wewere working all our chinese magic (poor talking) and tried to explain ourselves. Turns out they were Korean, but hey, we tried. They were lovely and we thanked them for breakfast.
10:09 pm. Dude, Great Wall!!! we pulled up, and I almost teared. First we performed. Mr. Herard was conducting very fast, so that was an interesting adjustment. We sounded amazing, and while we played, you could look up and see the wall. Then we began to walk. It was extremely difficult and very hard, by the end we were very sweaty. The stairs were very uneven, old and always changing. It was an intense climb, but so worth all the work. We got to the very top, and for Koryn, screamed "I'm the King of the World". We took tons of pictures and sang the Lion Kinh. Going up hurt the thighs, but doing down hurt the calves. By the bottom all our legs were spasming (Majorly!). Lunch was sketchy, we had weird KFC, Lime lays chips, banana and EXTREMELY SKETCHY packaged sausage / hardboiled egg. Jade factory was so cool and unbelievable, some of the things/it is crazy and you almost can't believe it is hand carbed. I tought nice stuff 3 jade necklace, 1 jade pendant and a key chain for Haley. Supper was better than thought. it was the least sketchy, however I didn't try any of the meat. We saw hundreds of pigs in a caged truck, and it made me think of the holocaust and I felt sick to my stomach and I think I want to be a vegetarian. Hung out with Madison & Rachel and we vegged/ranted about life, but couple& testosterone buddies. Life is swell, and I smell of hard work & hero-ness. That's right, I conquered (a mear section) Great Wall, but still I feel exhilirated.
ps. Rachel spilled tea on my pants, and I have to learn to barter and can I say I love my sister and her fantastic selection of undergarments for China. Seriously, never more comfortable in my life.
love love love

My ankle actually bled alot. Curses! That "Korea" story is my favorite story to tell since I've gotten home. We were trying so hard to communicate, so I give us an A+ for effort! Each ensemble except the Jazz ensembles performed at the base of the Great Wall. It was pretty rad! It was about an hour and a half to climb up. For what ever reason, I thought it would be a good plan to be prepared at anytime, so I lugged a bag loaded with water, medicine, food, hat, sunscreen, toilet paper, camera and money weighing about 20 pounds up the great wall. It was hard, because you had to focus on each and every step you took because each one was different. You could have a step about 1inch tall, followed by one almost a foot tall. There were 5 or 6 strecthes to get to the top, and it was hard to tell when you were actually getting to the top, so I have several videos of me thinking I'm reaching the top. By the top, everyone was super red and sweaty, but oh well. Yes, I actually did scream "I am the king of the world" .We sand "I just can't wait to be king" on the top. Coming down was faster, however every muscle in your calves were spazzing, so you couldn't take any breaks, cause all you wanted to do was get down to sit on the bus. The food was pretty redundant, and most the restaurants were serving us the same type of food. The food we ate was pretty greasy, so it was getting harder and harder to stomach. Whilst on this trip, I noticed that there were two guys that tended to spend a lot of time hanging around me. I eventually labelled them my testosterone buddies... Confucious said that if you can climb the great wall, you will become a hero. So me and 150 other students became heros that day! How exhilarating.

-Happy Blogger

April 19th- Summer Palace, Forbidden City and Tianamen Square Posted by Happy Blogger , at Thursday, April 28, 2011, in

April 19th (Because we sort of skipped a day)

7:33 am I slept really well, Rachel didn't...stupid watch. I'm going to help her calm down. We boiled tons of water, because we feel very dehydrated. We a vegging now, and we have a great day ahead=] We listen to music....sooooooo soothing.
10:01 pm got back from an Amazing Day I can't even believe I was in the places I was. Summer Palace was stunning and it was a beautiful walk. The Pearl Factory was cool , and I bought some pearl earrings of each color. Lunch was so-so. Forbidden city was massive. (ps, we hit a taxi going there, our luck...) I found the place where at the end of the movie, Mulan ran up the stairs. Then we went to Tianament Square which was HUGE! and there was a huge picture of Chiarman Mao. I tried Duck for the first time ...mmm... and I gave Lyssie cookies in exchange for my French Horn. All is well, also very tired. Kung Fu show was crazy, I wish I was as graceful and strong. I tried not to fall asleep. Lots of photo bombing, and very unattractive photos. woot wooot.
<3

I bought a crappy watch for when I was in China so I knew what time it was. Unforunately I didn't really know how to work it, so every hour it would start beeping. Aparently I'm a deeper sleeper than Rachel, because I never heard it, yet it woke her up throughout the night...ooops... Rachel (my roomate) and I have been best friends for about 3 years. High School can be crazy stressful, so we decided that we would meditate when we were in China. You can't drink the water out of the tap in China, hence the tons of boiled water. I believe the soothing music was feist. Summer Palace is a Palace in Beijing where Dowager Empress Cixi used to live in the summer time. From the stories we heard, Cixi was a crazy person who was super powerful/manipulative. Before she became the empress, she ordered the previous empress who was a beautiful dancer to have her arms and legs cut off, and after said to her "dance for me now!". Anyways, it was beautiful and it started to feel like we were in China. We got to see what real pearls look like, and we learned how to tell the real from the fake. If they are real, they will produce a powder if rubbed together, and if they are not uniform shape, they are most likely real. So I bought 4 pairs, a white, rose pink, a lavender purple, and a charcoal color pair. Then we went to the Forbidden City, where the Emperor lived. It was unbelievable and breath taking. The buildings are so unique. I pointed out the Mulan thing, and my tour guide rolled his eyes as if it was the whitest thing I could have said. In China, the smarter and more accomplished you are in your education, the higher ranked you would become, that's why education is so important there. At the exit of the Forbidden City, there was 5 different bridges to get in, and the center one was only for the emperor. So naturally when I walked out, I walked down the center one. Once we were outside the Forbidden City, Tianamen Square was right across the street. It was huge. My counsellor who came on the trip mentioned the Tianamen Massacre. We had to 'shh' her, because in communist China, they deny that ever happened. Silly woman. For supper, we had Peking Duck. It was okay, but Duck is quite greasy- wasn't a true fan of Duck. Lyssie guarded my french horn on the trip, because I couldn't carry the french horn and the bass at the same time. Later we went to this Kung Fu show, and I sat at the very back and in the corner. It was really hard not to fall asleep, even as much as I wanted to stay awake. For whatever reason, it was a goal to see who could get the most unattractive photos of me. Let the face making begin!

-Happy Blogger

April 17th - EnRoute to Beijing Posted by Happy Blogger , at Thursday, April 28, 2011, in

CHINA TRIP 2011

April17th/2011
-Got up at 5:50 am, Uncle Pat picked me up at 6:50am. Off to the airport where our 9:10am flight was delayed until 11:00am. Our flight to Vancouver was short and sweet. I watched an episode of "Sherlock", that Neil recommended I watch. Because we were so delayed, we had to run (I skipped) to our plane leaving for China. I sat with Haley. For meals I ate chicken/pasta, beef/barley which tasted like crap and make my stomach nauseaed the entire flight. So I took a gravol which was dunny because I became 'loopy' very quickly. I fell asleep by Joanna, and made remarks with how much she looked like a big baby, and then I passed out. Then Alayna(?) reclined her chair in front of me, and I woke up abruptly, snorting and screaming that my head was squished, followed by I had triple vision in yellow, and I could have sworn there was a dog on the plane. I watched Blue Valentine, Dinner for Smucks, Comedy Central, Harry Potter 7. Landing in Beijing was cool, because it looked so "lego" likeand clumped into little sections. Once we landed, we took pictures, took a train, went for supper where I tried everything but the Duck. Hotel is beautiful, and Rachel and I are very much excited. We have been up for over 24 hours so we are very tired. Chaperone group is awesome.
"I DIG IT" <3
-I'm Done I'm tired.

The night before leaving, I thought it would be smart to stay up as late as I could, and get as little sleep so I could sleep on the planes. I forgot how hard it was to fall asleep on the planes. On our way to the International terminal, I seriously skipped the entire way, because I figured I wouldn't be getting any excercise for a while, and it would help me become tired. Haley and I kept a countdown on the plane, which seemed to be the longest 10 hour flight ever. Most the movies I listed I nodded off in. I had never really taken gravol in my life until that moment, and thank god I only took one. I was seriously trippin. It took a while for it to really sink in that we were in China. We were convinced that we had turned around at some point over the pacific, and that Bishop Carroll had pulled the biggest prank in history. The food was pretty decent, and at this point I was ready to jump in to the chinese cuisine and eager to try new stuff. We stayed at the Loong Palace Hotel and resort, which is considered a high class hotel in China. It took forever for us to get settled into our rooms, so we stood around in the lobby for a while. At this point we had been up for several hours, and we were soo over tired it was painful. Gabrielle said "I think about to loose it", and I said "What ever it is, I've already lost it". We were so delirious, and everything to us was hilarious, we started tearing up. There were huge marble statues of aquatic animals, and Alayna said "Look those are cool!", and I (half asleep) responded "I Dig it", so that's that reference. Once in the hotel, I seriously just passed out and I don't think I have ever slept better.

-Happy Blogger

Bishop Carroll Heads For China Posted by Happy Blogger , at Thursday, April 28, 2011, in

As a brief introduction, my high schools music program went to China for an international music festival in Beijing. We would be gone from April 17-26. While I was in China, I wrote a brief journal for each day. I figured I would post this, because why not? I'm going to organize it in a fashion where what I wrote in my journal that day will be in italics, and I will elaborate/explain later. Warning: I will copy exactly what I put down, and I was pretty jetlagged/tired when I wrote most of these.

Hope you enjoy!
-Happy Blogger