UA group arrived home safely too

It was brought to my attention that I did not post upon the safe arrival home of the UA group. I was sound asleep by the time of their arrival Saturday night and by Sunday, I didn't recall what all I had posted on Saturday so my apologies.

Here is the UA group of chaperones at the Shanghai Airport with our guide May who came with us from Beijing. We all just wanted to bring her home with us. As you can see, she is proudly wearing the PLHS band shirt that was presented to her the previous evening.


Mr K said the trip home for their group was uneventful, especially in comparison to their sluggish start waiting on the tarmack at O'Hare.

I have asked for students to email me one or two of their favorite pictures from the trip so stay tuned for those posts this week. I will also continue to blog and post as I sift through the files of pictures I took and have receieved from some but not all of the chaperone's so far.

Hope all our family, friends and fans are enjoying the post-trip blogging.
If you are looking for pictures of specific students or events during the trip, please let me know and I'll see what I can do.

a little pick-me-up

These chaperones found a Starbucks in Shanghai to help get them through a busy day of touring...

the waterfront at night

On our last night in Shanghai, we went on an hour long boat cruise to view the glowing lights of the many well lit buildings in Shanghai. It was an exciting and fitting adventure for our last evening in China.

These pictures were submitted by Mr K. He finally has a digital camera!

Whose child is this???

88 stories above Shanghai

Some of the students and chaperones ventured to the top of one of the Shanghai skyscrapers to enjoy the views from up there...

more dinner time fun

Ask the students if they actually ate the fish heads, eyeballs and all, or just played with them and grossed each other out.

mmmmm, Peking Duck dinner

for the Hanson girls

Mr and Mrs Hanson's young daughters were home with grandparents this week. Here's a picture for them of Daddy hanging out with a duck. Thankfully they cannot read yet so I can post here that duck is what was for dinner at this restaurant.

what we couldn't post from China

At the acrobat show one of our students was pulled up on stage for the "knife throwing" segment and the kids loved it. And he then gained celebrity status because later in the week at the Mongolian BBQ, some British girls who were also at the show recognized him.

I thought it would be better for his family to not post about this until his safe return home. I am sure now that his friends are back home too, you can find the complete video segment already on youtube :)

trombones & saxes have all the fun

Apparently this section did not get the memo that there would be no mambo-ing in People's Square. The good news is that those who did mambo, did it well and we did not have mambo feet going every which way like in Beijing.
For any of you "Happy Feet" fans out there, did you recognize "Adeleiland" from the movie?

an Adelieland moment

The trumpet solo from the People's Square performance...



The clips being posted right now are not from the full length videos of all of the performances so eventually we will be giving the students a CD with full videos and tons of pictures. We had two videographers recording the trip and many, many cameras snapping away so we will be able to put together a nice CD of the entire trip.

People's Square

Here is a quick clip from Shanghai. We were the 4th marching band from the U.S. to ever perform in the People's Square. Or as one student put it, since we had learned that the number 4 in Chinese is considered by some to be bad luck (like our number 13) we were the FIRST after the third to perform :)

turning 18... twice

A student received an early morning birthday serenade from Mr K on the morning of our departure...










His friends toasted him with strawberry pocky in Tokyo.

He then started his birthday over again during the flight when we crossed the International dateline so he turned 18... again. The flight attendants brought him a tray of desserts from First Class.

Home again, home again...

jiggety jig!

The 67 NWA travelers arrived home safely this afternoon. They were welcomed by many anxious and smiling family members waiting at the school with big hugs and the kids were bubbling with lots to share. The 60 UA travelers are due in later this evening and I will post a note upon their safe return.

Please stay tuned for many more pictures, video clips and China memories to be posted in the coming days. For now, I am off to take a hot shower and a little nap. And my final note for today, if you have specific students you would like to see on the blog, please let me know because try as I might to capture all 127 in a photo on the blog at some point, it was not an easy task.

From back home in Prior Lake, this band groupie is saying thanks for all the support while we were on the road and in the air this past week.

Check back again for more updates and recollections...

Tokyo fun

The NWA group waiting to catch the last flight home.

Almost home

Lots of zzzzzz's were caught up on during the flights home.

Good night from Shanghai

I would love to keep posting pictures and sharing the band adventures with our adoring fans but I find I can barely keep my eyes open any longer this evening. The NW bunch leaves pretty early in the morning for the airport so I must bring this to a close... for now.

Because literally thousands of pictures and hours of video were taken, I think I am going to have to continue this blog stateside for the family and friends following us from afar.

Please stay tuned and check back later for more pictures and memories of this most excellent Laker Band Adventure.

The last picture posted for you from this part of the world is Mr K sharing his final thoughts and a little Chinese music with his students and chaperones. He played some Jasmine Flower on the traditional instrument he bartered for in old China town yesterday.

Until I post again from back home in Minnesota,
I remain humbly yours,

A Laker Band Groupie

Redheads unite!

Since they garnered so much attention this week, we had these kids gather tonight for a picture together :)

Chopsticks anyone?

As the week went on, more and more students were using chopsticks.

Happy Faces

Happy today, happy tonight, and happy to be heading home tomorrow.

One last Chinese Meal

I have finally figured out with two days left of the trip that if I only upload one picture at a time, it loads much quicker, hence the recent flurry of posts with one photo and a quick note...

Shanghai Send Off

A fun evening of laughs as gifts for our "secret person" and poems were shared.

Farewell Dinner

This evening was our final time to be together before our separate flights home tomorrow.

Last night in Shanghai

We enjoyed a final Chinese dinner at a hotel down near the waterfront before our boat cruise.

Chinese food again?

The kids are slowly growing tired of the local cuisine but are being good sports about it. Once in Shanghai, some did have a chance to grab Papa Johns and McDonalds but for the most part our meals provided for the trip have been Chinese fare. The dessert brought out at the end of every meal has been fruit and last night I overheard a student say, "yeah! hear comes the watermelon!"

on the waterfront

Checking out the views of Shanghai from the waterfront area.

this one's for Grandma

I received the sweetest email from a grandma following the blog.
This one's for you and you know who you are :)

When we got back on the bus at the waterfront, I asked the student of the above mentioned grandma if it was okay if I put a picture of him surrounded by six girls on the blog and he said,
"Are you kidding me? That's awesome!"

Watching the kids

As you can see, the chaperones and nurses are carefully watching over the students at all times.

more Shanghai fun

Boys just wanna have fun.

China Town... in China

One of the girls thought it was funny we were visiting China town when we were already in China. Then another student pointed out that at home we have NY, NY :)

the seniors

The senior band members gathered immediately following the performance to commemorate their last time wearing a Laker band uniform ever!

***sad face with a little tear***