Wow! What a day here in Beijing. As I sit here to recap the events of the day, I cannot believe it is still the same day from when I posted after breakfast just this morning before we headed out to explore the city.
We started in historic Tiananmen Square and the kids were just in awe of it all. I heard a few say it was surreal to actually be there walking around. We had many good photo ops including the large countdown clock to the start of the upcoming Olympic games. The Chinese people in the square were fascinated with our students. Many wanted photos taken with the pale, round-eyed tourists. Apparently it is considered good fortune to have your picture taken with a Westerner. But not to worry, our local guides and trusty chaperones are always right there keeping an eye on all activity surrounding our precious kids.
From there we went to the Forbidden City and saw many awesome sights and had some great first hand history lessons. We had a fun noodle lunch and most of the kids used chopsticks for the first time and did quite well. At my table, I had some boys anxious to try the many unique items that were placed before us on the large lazy susan. And I was proud of the group at my table because I talked 9 of the 11 of them into trying the oolong tea rather than drinking Coke or Sprite.
Then it was on to the joint performance and it was so cool. The crowds of Chinese people watching and taking pictures and videos were just wild. We were in the very heart of Beijing on a busy plaza and it was like our kids were rock stars. After they marched into the plaza, they interspersed themselves with the Chinese students who had marched in ahead of them. Our students played side by side with them. Indescribable!
After the performance venue, it was back to the hotel to freshen up and then we headed out to a local folk music restaurant. Some of the kids were starting to show a little fatigue after a long day but soon perked up during the after dinner entertainment which included music, dancing, and among other oddities, a large boa constrictor being placed around the neck of a certain middle school band director. The show ended with most of the students dancing ON the tables, woohoo!!
Uploading images is taking quite a while so I will include some pictures of today's performance in the next post. I haven't tried uploading video clips yet as they are much larger than pictures so not sure if I will get any clips up but please, enjoy the pictures!
And my final note on today... the weather was gorgeous! Clear blue skies and sunshine all day with temps in the mid to upper 60's and a slight cool breeze. I heard kids saying it was perfect weather and others saying, "who needs Florida for Spring Break when we have this?"
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