Beijing
Today was another wonderful day. There aren’t words to describe this trip. Of course, that could be related to the fact that it’s almost midnight and I just got to my room. Don’t worry – your kids were home by 10.  I worked on paying for the airline tickets to Huangzhou after that and then relaxed with some other chaperones.  The airline tickets and optional Chinese acrobatic show were in yuan and the Concert DVD was in dollars – go figure.  It made the accounting entertaining.
Doing business here is interesting. Cash is king. Your kids have learned that. The eternal search for the ATM machine is a daily event. Some are easier than others. This morning’s variety assumed if I didn’t chose Mandarin, I was also blind. My entire transaction was audible. That made the experience much more interesting. Â
We started off at Tianamen Square. It’s enormous. We skipped Mao’s mauseleum – a very long line and walked from one end to the other.  Then we entered the Forbidden City. It’s also huge.  After that it was off to lunch. After lunch we went to a tea “museum” and the kids learned the etiquette of tea and tasted several different varieties. We will be bringing back lots of tea. At least it’s light weight.
Off to the Conservatory and a tour of the campus. Several kids played their Steinways. This school is for middle/high school students and they finished their term 2 days ago.   We played and then their second string orchestra played. They were fantastic.  They brought some of our kids to tears. We had another meet and greet afterwards and that means photo opps. This time, our kids went nuts -getting photos of their kids.  Â
We also had a birthday girl today. She was treated to a t shirt signed by our students, a cake procured by our tour guide and a round of happy birthday by both orchestras. Kelsey turned 16 in style.Â
