Week One

Hello!

A week ago today four CCMers arrived in the overwhelmingly gigantic city of Beijing.  Beijing is huge, and exploring this place is proving to be an adventure.

When we arrived here a week ago we were met by Ms. Wang, our contact with the orchestra.  She has been both kind and helpful with everything we need, and her English is good enough that she can even make jokes with us.  After meeting her in the airport, she took us to our apartment.  I believe we're located in the northern part of the fourth ring of the city.  The apartment is awesome.  We're located on the top (25th) floor of our sky-rise complex, and when there's no smog outside you can see all the way downtown (pictures of the interior coming soon!).   

View number 1 after a short rain shower.  Very cool!

View number 2..can you see the mountains??

The first few days here we were completely swamped with running errands.  We had to register our passports with the police, we went to IKEA to buy bedding, dishes, glasses, etc., as well as other household items, went downtown to set up internet, bought cell phones/sim cards, and the list goes on and on. Two days ago we had to go to the bank and set up bank accounts.  After two hours of paperwork and waiting, we had bank accounts, as well as new debit cards.  I was incredibly excited to see that my debit card was shimmery and had pink bunnies on it (I of course assume a momma and her baby), as well as a little bunny house.  This is the year of the rabbit, so that explains it.  The girl helping me probably took one look at me and thought definitely the bunny card.

 We had our first rehearsal with the orchestra two days ago, and a concert yesterday.  To be honest the level of the orchestra was much higher then we all expected.  Everyone is also really nice.  Most know a little English, and have been very helpful in rehearsals.  This past concert (as well as the next one) consisted entirely of Chinese songs.  From what I understand, July 1st is like China's 4th of July for the states, and the celebration begins in the weeks leading up to that date.  After the 1st we will start playing western music.

After our concert yesterday, we had a meeting with Ms. Wang regarding our contract (we haven't signed anything yet, as we wanted one article adjusted, so we may be doing that later today).  After that we hung out at Starbucks for about two hours waiting for our dinner date with Liya and Jing Huan.  For those of you who don't know, Liya is a CCM harpist who recently won a job in Beijing, and Jing Huan is Professor Gibson's (CCM orchestra director) graduate assistant.  Jing Huan has been a HUGE help to us.  I'm kind of sad that I didn't really know her until now, because she's awesome!  She has helped us through nearly everything.  I think a nice gift is in order.

Last night Jing Huan made a reservation at a very fancy restaurant so we could all have our first Beijing duck.  The restaurant was beautiful.  The server's were overly helpful as well.  One surprised me when she was putting the napkin in my lap for me, and another one put a slip cover over the back of some of our chairs to cover our jackets.  The duck was amazing.  They came to our table and cut it for us, and later brought us a very light and delicious soup that was made from the bones of our duck.  As most of you probably know, I'm a sucker for good soup, and this soup was wonderful. 

Beautifully prepared duck.

Later on in the meal they brought us dessert as well as a giant plate of complimentary berries.  For the life of me, I can't remember what they were called, but they were exquisite.  You peel the skin and layer of white stuff (like an orange) off and are left with a juicy interior.  We determined that it kind of looks like a grape in canned fruit cocktail and has an aftertaste similar to a pear.  Apparently they can be pretty expensive, so it was definitely a treat.  I'm sure the name will come to me later, but if any of you knows the name, please post!  I think it starts with an L?

Delicous!

One thing I love about China is that everything is so cheap.  Our amazing meal cost us 725RMB, so with a table of seven, we each paid about $15.  That's like going out to eat at Chili's or Applebees!

Four out of the five of us have a week off, as the orchestra is going to tour to Sichuan (?).  The land of pandas.  I'm slightly jealous because I would love to see a panda bear, though I'm not jealous of the 24 hour train ride.  I think we may go shopping later today.  I'm in need of a new wallet...and if you give a Brittany a new wallet, she's going to ask for a new purse to go with it.

I love and miss you all.  Until next time!

-B