Monday, July 03, 2006
Home Safe and Sound from China!
Ahhhhh. 24 1/2 hours from leaving our hotel in Shanghai, we've returned safely from China!!! Thanks to everyone for their love and support and prayers during our trip, and for all the attention we got while we were away!! Geez! The newspaper articles already out and the ones coming are terrific!!
Our last night in Shanghai was another one to remember forever. Since I wrote last, the kids had their last hurrah concert at the Lan Xin Theater in Shanghai. The concert hall was built many years ago with the intention of increasing Shanghai's cultural opportunities from the Western World. They have regular events there, emphasizing performing arts groups from around the world. This night was to highlight high school choral arts from around the world! We walked in to see our name in lights!!! Above the stage, in a very large sign that stayed lit throughout the concert, was written "Downingtown East High School Choir" and then our name written in Chinese right after.
The Concert Hall had a balcony, neo-classic architecture, and sat around 900. It was around 85% full, like the one in Beijing. The opening choir was a public high school choir from Shanghai. A lovely women's choir sang two numbers, and then their boys joined them for three more songs. The last song was the piece other choirs also sang for us when we were there, Steven Foster's "Old Folks at Home" in Chinese. We're thinking that there aren't a lot of choral pieces written in Chinese from Western music. So we didn't mind listening to it ... one more time. It made us realize that when we travel, we need to work harder to be sure we have a piece in the native language where we are performing.
After they performed, the choir filed off and sat in the audience, while our choir came out, this time in all black, the same formal attire they wore for the Whitacre concert, and they looked very good. They did their whole program, were very well received, and once again... "Johnny Schmoker" stole the show. I think our guys are getting big heads!!! :) Our guide, Emily, did all the translations into Chinese for Kate, and once again Kate said all the right things about it being our honor to be there, she complimented the Chinese Choirs and thanked them for their hospitality. Before they finished with "Let the River Run" (as the adults discovered later), Kate faced her choir and gave them smiles and hand gestures... "I love you guys." They gave "River Run" all they had, another emotional time for us Downingtown people, and the Chinese audience gave them a wonderful round of applause for their last performance in China. Kate was given a beautiful bouquet of pink lilies, gifts, and many greetings. Our choir invited the Chinese high school choir back on the stage for us to give each of their choir (our now famous around China... I think you can hear them in the distance) whistles with our website on them!!! The kids were just so excited to get a gift from the US, and of course we all giggled because on the whistle is written "Made in China". The choirs posed for group photos, then lots of chattering amongst themselves and greetings and photos with girls and boys in small groups. Jon Fisher's Mom works for a company in the US that is based in Shanghai. They sent their entire office to the concert. Tickets sold for 50 Yuan, a nice price for the Chinese to pay to see us. So, another night to remember!
Before the concert, when the performers were rehearsing, the adults walked down the street to a hotel and had cocktails by ourselves and raised our glasses in a toast to Charlie Moll. We enjoyed our time together as adults, made sure we bragged and boasted our hearts out about our kids and the amazing experience we'd been having, and knew someone was missing... We missed you every day, Charlie. NEXT TIME, my friend!
After the concert, Kingsway International (our tour company) gave us a very wonderful farewell feast buffet with wonderful food and drinks and dessert. Then Emily treated the kids to Karaoke at a local hangout. The Chinese (being modest and humble people) don't do Karaoke in a large public room; they have many individual rooms with the equipment in them. We got the largest room they had, and the kids had a ball (and Brad and Kelly Goebel, too!) singing away to the music videos on the big TV. That was such a wonderfully nice thing for Emily to do (out of her own pocket) for the kids. We learned that "Hey Jude" was Emily's favorite.
The next morning, we all got to sleep in, but remembered that breakfast was only served until 9am. We had to be checked out by noon and didn't need to leave the hotel until 2:30. Most people just hung around the hotel, but Morgan, Dawn, and I ventured out on our own. We asked the Concierge to write a local shopping area on a card for us to give the taxi driver. The card also had the name of our hotel on it (to be sure we could communicate where we wanted to be brought back to after shopping). The taxi drove us for 15 minutes to an area that we discovered was a shopping area for the local people. It was lovely walking around without being accosted by vendors! We discovered that the Chinese don't have stores that have more than one kind of thing to sell. Each store sells only one kind of something: women's clothing, shoes, children's clothing, jewelry, silk, books, etc. Department stores don't exist. We also learned that local people don't purchase what tourists purchase, so we didn't see anyplace to get the two items Morgan was still looking for.
OK. So now what do we do? We don't know how to communicate to any taxi driver (taxis are as easy to catch in Shanghai as in NY City) where to take us to shop for what we want! We found a post office. There were four men there, who were very willing to help us, but they spoke very little English, and we spoke very little Chinese even though Morgan had learned a lot while we were there. Dawn had her Chinese/English Dictionary with her, so we were able to explain to them we wanted souvenir shops, and asked where we could find them. They had no idea where to send us. Morgan had the brilliant idea to ask them (on a map) where we were now, and to see if there was a tourist attraction close by, knowing there would be tourist shopping nearby. She said the Chinese word for Garden to one man, and he knew right away where to suggest for us to go. He wrote Yu Yuan Garden on a small piece of paper for us, and we hardily thanked the men in the post office for their help (I wished I had another whistle to give to them, but didn't) and we hailed a taxi. The taxi took us to the same garden we had been to the day before and we found our souvenir shopping we needed. We had lunch at McDonalds, knowing we were clueless how to order in a Chinese restaurant, and hailed a taxi for our hotel. Whew!!! We did it! I think Dawn was really relieved to be back, but we made it in plenty of time to be ready to go with the group to the airport.
Zhou, our Shanghai tour guide, met us at the hotel at 2pm, and he brought with him some small Chinese currency to let the kids have. One one-hundredth of a Yuan coin, for instance, is pretty worthless, but such a novelty for Americans! We got all our customs paperwork from Zhou to have filled out before the airport, and we boarded the bus by 2:30. On the bus, Emily took the opportunity to say her goodbye to the group. We were all very touched and emotional as she also became emotional and broke down in small tears saying we were very special to her, and she was going to miss us. (for the life of us we couldn't figure out why!) Throughout the trip we've all encouraged her to come and see us, and we've offered our homes to her anytime. She told us she is going to London to graduate school in the fall, and she was going to apply for a visa to come visit us over the Christmas break! If she can get that visa, she'll be coming to visit!!! We were all so excited to hear that! I guess we really did find a place in her heart. She's found a huge place in all our hearts! She hugged each of us and had such personal and special things to say to each of us. [We can't figure out why, as we felt like we were such high maintenance for her!!!] We drove to the only station that has the Mag-Lev Train.. very space age. A trip to the airport that would have taken 45 minutes on the bus, took us 7 minutes on the train. .... How do you spell speed??? M-A-G-L-E-V. wow! In one and a half minutes we were traveling 431 km/hr. Outside was a blur, but the ride was smooth and even. Before you could blink we were there. Wow!
Everyone checked their luggage (Yippee!! No one's was overweight!!!) and we headed to the security point. Emily and Zhou said their goodbyes, we gave them our tips, and we headed through to wait for departure.
We boarded on time to leave by 6 pm China time on Sunday evening (6 am Sunday here). But our Boeing 777 was too heavy for the runways that were open. We waited for the longer runway to be available, and didn't take off until 7:20. Our seats were all more comfortable this time (or we were all more exhausted than on our trip TO China). Dale even got three seats to herself so she could lie down!!! She deserved it! Many of the kids slept 6-8 hours. The flight didn't seem too horribly long. We were just ready to sit still for awhile I guess. Our flight plan was a little different than when we went. We flew out over the East China Sea and flew south to north over Japan, then out over the Pacific and followed the southern shores along the Bering Straight, and flew over the US Coast just north of Seattle. Then pretty much a straight shot to Chicago. We landed over an hour late in Chicago and had to make our connection to Newark.... WHAT a race!!! Getting through Immigration (by the way, our officer was very wonderful, and spoke English!!!!) and it was nice to hear the words, "Welcome home". We collected our luggage ourselves and then went through Customs. Then we had to take our luggage to another United Airlines luggage conveyor belt to have them get it to our Newark plane for us. ... what a zoo! Then we had to board the shuttle train to Terminal one (after stops at three and two), Then we had to find our gate number, then we had to go through security checks... shoes off, open lap tops, take off watches... then run (sprint) to our gate which was already ready to close!!! Whew! What a crazy run through the airport for 28 people all at once..... remember there are also thousands of our fellow travelers trying to do the same thing. Whew... we made it. On the plane..... sit. Now the plane had to sit there and wait for our luggage to be boarded. That took another 45 minutes... but we finally took off and landed in Newark just before 1am Monday Newark time (1pm Monday Shanghai time). 26 out of 28 of us got our luggage; Jessi Goebel and Alicia Wyler were missing theirs. They filed their paperwork and bags will be delivered to their homes today.
At the Newark Airport, Morgan gathered our group together for one last time and the kids all surprised the adults with a gift!!! The kids bought a special pair of chopsticks for each adult in thanks to us for making the trip possible for them. They all signed a little card for each of us with their sentiments on it. What a nice surprise!!!
The bus that Dale arranged for us was waiting at the airport, and we boarded... yes... another bus and headed home to Downingtown!!! We pulled into the High School Parking lot at 3am (3pm Shanghai) Monday morning to warm hugs from parents, spouses, and siblings, and daughters!!! Whew... 28 people left 14 days ago, and 28 people came home. :) It was great getting our hugs from both Bill and Christine who met us at the school!
Noreen Vigilante's father passed away the day after we left, so she made the right decision to not go on the trip. Mike, her son, came with us, and learned from his mom in the parking lot that "grandpa" had passed away. He was glad he had gotten to say goodbye before he left.
Kim Smith's Mom was there to greet us, and they were happy to be in each other's arms, too. Kim's last days in China were healthy ones for her, and I'm sure she was grateful for that!
Morgan, John and I were hungry, so we chose our favorite things when we got home (a bowl of cereal with fresh milk for me, Morgan warmed up cheese dip and tortilla chips, John made a ham sandwich with..... BREAD!!!) Ahhhh… The wonderful smells, tastes, and smiles of home. We all crashed in bed around 4:15.
Glad to be home. We feel like we've made lifetime friends in our group, and lifetime friends with a few in China. Our experiences are larger than the events themselves or the itinerary we executed. If we learned anything, we've learned that people are people no matter where they live, or no matter what culture they were born in. We've learned that music is a universal language and can bridge any gap of culture, age, or spoken language. Smiles are universally welcome no matter where you are, and that the Chinese people as a whole are the most welcoming and hospitable people I've ever met. I learned that it's not fun to be stared at, and will be more sensitive to people who seem to need a smile when they need help or are out of their element. Children are honest and open to kindness in any culture, they will remember the important things around them, and adults are usually bothered with things that really don't matter, yet need to be attended to. I will miss seeing three generation families walking the streets. I will miss my "every minute a new experience" opportunities. And I will miss Emily's smile, her English phrases we all have come to use (time to 'refresh up', and 'punctuality'), and her ability to answer any question, solve any problem, and keep her positive attitude. But forever I will remember our kids and young adults... our performers.... who successfully broke the cultural barriers of enormous proportions that were thrown at them! They accepted their roles as ambassadors for their home town with amazing grace and humility and served their community with honor and aptitude in a foreign land. If we've bridged even just a small gap between our peoples, then nothing was in vain.
May God bless the great people and our new friends of China!
May God bless all of you for carrying our loads while we were gone, and being our anchors at home.
Gwen, Morgan, and John Carpenter
Our last night in Shanghai was another one to remember forever. Since I wrote last, the kids had their last hurrah concert at the Lan Xin Theater in Shanghai. The concert hall was built many years ago with the intention of increasing Shanghai's cultural opportunities from the Western World. They have regular events there, emphasizing performing arts groups from around the world. This night was to highlight high school choral arts from around the world! We walked in to see our name in lights!!! Above the stage, in a very large sign that stayed lit throughout the concert, was written "Downingtown East High School Choir" and then our name written in Chinese right after.
The Concert Hall had a balcony, neo-classic architecture, and sat around 900. It was around 85% full, like the one in Beijing. The opening choir was a public high school choir from Shanghai. A lovely women's choir sang two numbers, and then their boys joined them for three more songs. The last song was the piece other choirs also sang for us when we were there, Steven Foster's "Old Folks at Home" in Chinese. We're thinking that there aren't a lot of choral pieces written in Chinese from Western music. So we didn't mind listening to it ... one more time. It made us realize that when we travel, we need to work harder to be sure we have a piece in the native language where we are performing.
After they performed, the choir filed off and sat in the audience, while our choir came out, this time in all black, the same formal attire they wore for the Whitacre concert, and they looked very good. They did their whole program, were very well received, and once again... "Johnny Schmoker" stole the show. I think our guys are getting big heads!!! :) Our guide, Emily, did all the translations into Chinese for Kate, and once again Kate said all the right things about it being our honor to be there, she complimented the Chinese Choirs and thanked them for their hospitality. Before they finished with "Let the River Run" (as the adults discovered later), Kate faced her choir and gave them smiles and hand gestures... "I love you guys." They gave "River Run" all they had, another emotional time for us Downingtown people, and the Chinese audience gave them a wonderful round of applause for their last performance in China. Kate was given a beautiful bouquet of pink lilies, gifts, and many greetings. Our choir invited the Chinese high school choir back on the stage for us to give each of their choir (our now famous around China... I think you can hear them in the distance) whistles with our website on them!!! The kids were just so excited to get a gift from the US, and of course we all giggled because on the whistle is written "Made in China". The choirs posed for group photos, then lots of chattering amongst themselves and greetings and photos with girls and boys in small groups. Jon Fisher's Mom works for a company in the US that is based in Shanghai. They sent their entire office to the concert. Tickets sold for 50 Yuan, a nice price for the Chinese to pay to see us. So, another night to remember!
Before the concert, when the performers were rehearsing, the adults walked down the street to a hotel and had cocktails by ourselves and raised our glasses in a toast to Charlie Moll. We enjoyed our time together as adults, made sure we bragged and boasted our hearts out about our kids and the amazing experience we'd been having, and knew someone was missing... We missed you every day, Charlie. NEXT TIME, my friend!
After the concert, Kingsway International (our tour company) gave us a very wonderful farewell feast buffet with wonderful food and drinks and dessert. Then Emily treated the kids to Karaoke at a local hangout. The Chinese (being modest and humble people) don't do Karaoke in a large public room; they have many individual rooms with the equipment in them. We got the largest room they had, and the kids had a ball (and Brad and Kelly Goebel, too!) singing away to the music videos on the big TV. That was such a wonderfully nice thing for Emily to do (out of her own pocket) for the kids. We learned that "Hey Jude" was Emily's favorite.
The next morning, we all got to sleep in, but remembered that breakfast was only served until 9am. We had to be checked out by noon and didn't need to leave the hotel until 2:30. Most people just hung around the hotel, but Morgan, Dawn, and I ventured out on our own. We asked the Concierge to write a local shopping area on a card for us to give the taxi driver. The card also had the name of our hotel on it (to be sure we could communicate where we wanted to be brought back to after shopping). The taxi drove us for 15 minutes to an area that we discovered was a shopping area for the local people. It was lovely walking around without being accosted by vendors! We discovered that the Chinese don't have stores that have more than one kind of thing to sell. Each store sells only one kind of something: women's clothing, shoes, children's clothing, jewelry, silk, books, etc. Department stores don't exist. We also learned that local people don't purchase what tourists purchase, so we didn't see anyplace to get the two items Morgan was still looking for.
OK. So now what do we do? We don't know how to communicate to any taxi driver (taxis are as easy to catch in Shanghai as in NY City) where to take us to shop for what we want! We found a post office. There were four men there, who were very willing to help us, but they spoke very little English, and we spoke very little Chinese even though Morgan had learned a lot while we were there. Dawn had her Chinese/English Dictionary with her, so we were able to explain to them we wanted souvenir shops, and asked where we could find them. They had no idea where to send us. Morgan had the brilliant idea to ask them (on a map) where we were now, and to see if there was a tourist attraction close by, knowing there would be tourist shopping nearby. She said the Chinese word for Garden to one man, and he knew right away where to suggest for us to go. He wrote Yu Yuan Garden on a small piece of paper for us, and we hardily thanked the men in the post office for their help (I wished I had another whistle to give to them, but didn't) and we hailed a taxi. The taxi took us to the same garden we had been to the day before and we found our souvenir shopping we needed. We had lunch at McDonalds, knowing we were clueless how to order in a Chinese restaurant, and hailed a taxi for our hotel. Whew!!! We did it! I think Dawn was really relieved to be back, but we made it in plenty of time to be ready to go with the group to the airport.
Zhou, our Shanghai tour guide, met us at the hotel at 2pm, and he brought with him some small Chinese currency to let the kids have. One one-hundredth of a Yuan coin, for instance, is pretty worthless, but such a novelty for Americans! We got all our customs paperwork from Zhou to have filled out before the airport, and we boarded the bus by 2:30. On the bus, Emily took the opportunity to say her goodbye to the group. We were all very touched and emotional as she also became emotional and broke down in small tears saying we were very special to her, and she was going to miss us. (for the life of us we couldn't figure out why!) Throughout the trip we've all encouraged her to come and see us, and we've offered our homes to her anytime. She told us she is going to London to graduate school in the fall, and she was going to apply for a visa to come visit us over the Christmas break! If she can get that visa, she'll be coming to visit!!! We were all so excited to hear that! I guess we really did find a place in her heart. She's found a huge place in all our hearts! She hugged each of us and had such personal and special things to say to each of us. [We can't figure out why, as we felt like we were such high maintenance for her!!!] We drove to the only station that has the Mag-Lev Train.. very space age. A trip to the airport that would have taken 45 minutes on the bus, took us 7 minutes on the train. .... How do you spell speed??? M-A-G-L-E-V. wow! In one and a half minutes we were traveling 431 km/hr. Outside was a blur, but the ride was smooth and even. Before you could blink we were there. Wow!
Everyone checked their luggage (Yippee!! No one's was overweight!!!) and we headed to the security point. Emily and Zhou said their goodbyes, we gave them our tips, and we headed through to wait for departure.
We boarded on time to leave by 6 pm China time on Sunday evening (6 am Sunday here). But our Boeing 777 was too heavy for the runways that were open. We waited for the longer runway to be available, and didn't take off until 7:20. Our seats were all more comfortable this time (or we were all more exhausted than on our trip TO China). Dale even got three seats to herself so she could lie down!!! She deserved it! Many of the kids slept 6-8 hours. The flight didn't seem too horribly long. We were just ready to sit still for awhile I guess. Our flight plan was a little different than when we went. We flew out over the East China Sea and flew south to north over Japan, then out over the Pacific and followed the southern shores along the Bering Straight, and flew over the US Coast just north of Seattle. Then pretty much a straight shot to Chicago. We landed over an hour late in Chicago and had to make our connection to Newark.... WHAT a race!!! Getting through Immigration (by the way, our officer was very wonderful, and spoke English!!!!) and it was nice to hear the words, "Welcome home". We collected our luggage ourselves and then went through Customs. Then we had to take our luggage to another United Airlines luggage conveyor belt to have them get it to our Newark plane for us. ... what a zoo! Then we had to board the shuttle train to Terminal one (after stops at three and two), Then we had to find our gate number, then we had to go through security checks... shoes off, open lap tops, take off watches... then run (sprint) to our gate which was already ready to close!!! Whew! What a crazy run through the airport for 28 people all at once..... remember there are also thousands of our fellow travelers trying to do the same thing. Whew... we made it. On the plane..... sit. Now the plane had to sit there and wait for our luggage to be boarded. That took another 45 minutes... but we finally took off and landed in Newark just before 1am Monday Newark time (1pm Monday Shanghai time). 26 out of 28 of us got our luggage; Jessi Goebel and Alicia Wyler were missing theirs. They filed their paperwork and bags will be delivered to their homes today.
At the Newark Airport, Morgan gathered our group together for one last time and the kids all surprised the adults with a gift!!! The kids bought a special pair of chopsticks for each adult in thanks to us for making the trip possible for them. They all signed a little card for each of us with their sentiments on it. What a nice surprise!!!
The bus that Dale arranged for us was waiting at the airport, and we boarded... yes... another bus and headed home to Downingtown!!! We pulled into the High School Parking lot at 3am (3pm Shanghai) Monday morning to warm hugs from parents, spouses, and siblings, and daughters!!! Whew... 28 people left 14 days ago, and 28 people came home. :) It was great getting our hugs from both Bill and Christine who met us at the school!
Noreen Vigilante's father passed away the day after we left, so she made the right decision to not go on the trip. Mike, her son, came with us, and learned from his mom in the parking lot that "grandpa" had passed away. He was glad he had gotten to say goodbye before he left.
Kim Smith's Mom was there to greet us, and they were happy to be in each other's arms, too. Kim's last days in China were healthy ones for her, and I'm sure she was grateful for that!
Morgan, John and I were hungry, so we chose our favorite things when we got home (a bowl of cereal with fresh milk for me, Morgan warmed up cheese dip and tortilla chips, John made a ham sandwich with..... BREAD!!!) Ahhhh… The wonderful smells, tastes, and smiles of home. We all crashed in bed around 4:15.
Glad to be home. We feel like we've made lifetime friends in our group, and lifetime friends with a few in China. Our experiences are larger than the events themselves or the itinerary we executed. If we learned anything, we've learned that people are people no matter where they live, or no matter what culture they were born in. We've learned that music is a universal language and can bridge any gap of culture, age, or spoken language. Smiles are universally welcome no matter where you are, and that the Chinese people as a whole are the most welcoming and hospitable people I've ever met. I learned that it's not fun to be stared at, and will be more sensitive to people who seem to need a smile when they need help or are out of their element. Children are honest and open to kindness in any culture, they will remember the important things around them, and adults are usually bothered with things that really don't matter, yet need to be attended to. I will miss seeing three generation families walking the streets. I will miss my "every minute a new experience" opportunities. And I will miss Emily's smile, her English phrases we all have come to use (time to 'refresh up', and 'punctuality'), and her ability to answer any question, solve any problem, and keep her positive attitude. But forever I will remember our kids and young adults... our performers.... who successfully broke the cultural barriers of enormous proportions that were thrown at them! They accepted their roles as ambassadors for their home town with amazing grace and humility and served their community with honor and aptitude in a foreign land. If we've bridged even just a small gap between our peoples, then nothing was in vain.
May God bless the great people and our new friends of China!
May God bless all of you for carrying our loads while we were gone, and being our anchors at home.
Gwen, Morgan, and John Carpenter
