Harbin Day 2, continued: Snow! After a brief rest at the hotel we met in the lobby to go to soundcheck and it was snowing outside! I forgot to mention that Harbin is known as the Ice City- they are famous for beautiful giant ice scuptures in the winter. They also offer visitors a chance to see Siberian Tigers in a wildlife preserve devour the prey of your choice. I would have loved to see that, but we didnt have time! Anyway, we played our show to a packed hall on campus- standing room only and mostly all college kids. They audience was, as usual, very responsive and we had a glamorous hostess and young host on stage with us the whole time to translate for us. They added a lot, interjecting biographical facts about us between songs, translating for us, and asking questions. After the show we had the biggest photo rush as of yet! For 30 minutes these young folks crowded around us anxiously awaiting their turn to pose in pictures with us and to have us sign their programs! Wilson you would love it here- they all make peace signs when they take pictures :) Although to them its the victory sign. After the photo rush we headed off to another formal dinner, this time with the Dean of the school of music there and our singer buddy from earlier, as well as our two hosts from the performance and our friends from the consulate. As usual, the food was incredible. The table wasnt as big as we had at lunch, but there were more dishes and they kept piling them on top of one another to make them fit! We drank Harbin beer and had a lot of fun talking to the dean and answering his questions about our music. He was a lot of fun and everytime there was a toast hed say gahm bay which means bottoms up, so we drank a lot little glasses of beer! The dinner lasted a good while and we ate and drank to capacity. Nick had brought a little bottle of Jack Daniels as a treat to share with our dinner party and we passed that around and it was gone after the firs round. Several of our Chinese friends were very proud to show us how much they could drink! At one point, and I think its worth sharing here as an indication of how moving these gatherings are, Jesse Lege, man of few words, stood up and made a beautiful toast to all of the families that support us in what we do- our wives, children, parents. The Dean was very moved by this and he stood and shared a silent toast with Jesse. It was another amazing evening. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel for a few drinka in the English Pub style bar in the lobby. What a night! The next morning we rose early and took a three hour flight down to Shanghai, Chinas largest city, I believe. The weather is gorgeous here and were staying in a nice hotel right in the city with lots of attractions within reach. Its funny how there is this divide in the cost of things. It seems like a lot of services are very cheap- for instance a cab ride that would cost $35 in the US costs $5 here. But beer coffee and liquor are twice as expensive as back home! Were off until Monday night, so were just exploring and hangin out and try to find some cool little shops down near the river area called The Bund. Yay, downtime!
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 00:32:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015