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Success!
The festival is over, and I’m exhausted, but very pleased! It was so wonderful to accompany for a great director, and the kids sounded fantastic!! It was nice to have a bigger group than last year - 23 as opposed to 7 - and they really put in a lot of energy to pull off a great performance last night.
Choir Festival, Day 1
We’re in Tianjin, with one day of choir rehearsing down, and one day to go… it was a long day for Sarah, who spent most of her day at the pianoor conducting the women, while with a cold. (It’s her birthday today, by the way - she’s 26! And we had lemon cake from the cafeteria, a tradition for her. The lemon cake, that is; not the cafeteria.)
Another reason the day was long was the traffic: what was supposed to be a 20-minute bus ride from hotel to school took over an hour and included us walking several blocks. Apparently earlier in the day a decision was made to temporarily turn a two-way street (of 6 or 8 lanes, mind you) into a one way street. Combine this with all the pre-olympics renovation going on in the city, and you start to see the difficulty…
This evening we went to a shopping complex for dinner, and there saw the Chinese version of the American grocery store, Trader Joe’s:
Way to be original. More rehearsing and a concert to come tomorrow!
Springtime
Happy Easter to all! Our Sunday morning service here in Chengdu was refreshing and invigorating. We had visitors from all over the world, including a couple from North Carolina come to pick up their newly adopted child. Fitting for the day, I thought.
We also had some members of an acting troupe at fellowship from New York. They are here rehearsing for performances of The Sound of Music, to be performed here in Chengdu before heading to other cities. It’s exciting to see international-quality events coming to our small city of 11 million - the Women’s World Cup, Cats, and The Sound of Music… we recently found out that Steven Curtis Chapman will be passing through our city in May as well!
We get on a plane tomorrow with 20-something students in tow, as the choir under Sarah’s leadership heads to their annual festival in Tianjin, a city close to Beijing. Sarah’s going to direct, accompany, and for general crowd control; I get to watch. 
Weekends with Wonderful Weather and Weddings
The title there just about says it all. I’m kinda proud of it.
The weather has unexpectedly given us a beautiful day today. (We would have known if we paid attention to the weather report; we usually don’t.) It was especially worthwhile as we celebrated the wedding of one of our national staff and my former co-teacher, Joy. Joy and her husband Collin have been married for the past three years, but are now having a wedding ceremony with family and friends to celebrate the union. This is a normal occurrence in China. Some people wait to have the ceremony because of financial constraints; others, like Joy, waited until 2008, abiding by her parents’ wishes, because it is a year of great fortune (read: the Olympics are coming to China). It was a beautiful time.
We’re doing fine, by the way. If you pay attention to the news you know that life has been stressful here in Western China over the past week. Though the US consulate and our company have encouraged us to be careful, our lives have not been effected by recent events. We have heard rumors about bombs placed on buses and people being killed in our city, but no one knows for sure and the local media won’t be clarifying these things anytime soon. We went into town last night for dinner and to see a play called Lethal English put on by the Cheeky Monkey Theater Company (great name; it was canceled - sad). Passing through the central square of the city we saw police with riot gear and guns, which is an odd sight, but that was the extent of local reaction in our experience. Our neighbors still feel comfortable flying their prayer flags.
Incidentally, there was also an earthquake which measured 7.2 in Western China recently; don’t worry, that didn’t affect us either. Saying we felt it would be like saying we felt an earthquake with the epicenter in California while in Texas.
Sarah and I have entered a busy schedule. With leaving China on the horizon (about 75 days left), our four-day week gave time for a Friday work day for the Spring play; grades for the third quarter are due on Monday. Wednesday we leave for TianJin for a choir festival, and the following weekend the students have four performances of Little Women. The following weekend is the Spring formal; then our solo and ensemble festival, and then… well, you get the idea. We appreciate your continued thoughts!
College is coming
For our students, the past week has had an emphasis on college planning. We had an admissions representative from Loyola speak to the students on Tuesday; on Thursday there was a field trip to the US consulate for a talk on college opportunities in the States from the Institute of International Education. That evening Chengdu held the first-ever (in our experience, anyway) college fair with several US universities, including many state schools. SUNY Buffalo was there, which is close to home and the alma mater for many friends from High School. It surprised me to see them there, come to find out that one grad started baidu.com, the Chinese equivalent of Google. I just finishing registering for classes in the fall myself - I’ll be a full-time student again soon!
This school week was busy with two activities: a jiao war, the Chinese equivalent of a penny war, where we met our fundraising goal to support a local migrant school; and science olympiad, which got the kids out of classes the entire day on Friday. They didn’t seem to mind.
Today is a very special day for a childhood friend of mine, Jeff Miller - he’s getting married! Best wishes to him and Alaine as they start their new life together.
Now’s the time…
We’re telling our students this week about our decision to return to the US. It seems early, but people more experienced at this third-culture thing say that we need to give them time to process before we go. Hopefully that doesn’t include shutting down on us completely. I realized this past week that the transition is beginning to hit me emotionally. I am likely to be a wreck those last few weeks… The logistical stuff is coming together. We are waiting for a visit from a shipping company, so we can make some final decisions on what to send and what to sell.
Four rehearsals left before I lead the choir to Tianjin! Aaack!! I’m really looking forward to this year’s Festival. I will be accompanying the mass choir again (yay!), and I’m so excited to have a bigger group this year. I probably am biased, but they’re starting to sound pretty good! And they are finally able to recognize when they’re not making good sounds, which is a bigger step then you might realize.
Dan will be traveling with me this year, which will be nice. Our first full day of rehearsals happens to land on my birthday, so it will be good to at least have Dan around if I’m not at home. We’ll have to celebrate with Bailey another day… ;-D
3 months left
Time flies. Sarah and I have about three months left in China before we head back to the US - clearly less than 100 days. And we will have spent three years of our lives, the first three years of our marriage, in China. Heading back to the States will be heading back to the familiar and the unknown at the same time.
We had some people traveling through China make a stop at our school this week, and Eric Kilgore played some songs for our High School students on Tuesday. It’s nice to have a fresh face talk to the students, as they listen to me most every weekday.
My life this week was filled with non-teaching details for school: school sweatshirts, next week’s jiao (penny) war, planning for the spring formal, taking care of random details for the spring play and the auditorium equipment, turning in budgets for next year. Sometimes I enjoyed the diversion; sometimes it was just a lot of stuff to do when I had grading to do as well. Filling out budgets for next year allows me to ask for lots of stuff that I’m not paying for. Of course, I’m not using it, either.
Sarah was sick last week; this weekend it’s my turn. So while Sarah is wandering around the city, I’m lying on the couch with my puppy on my legs. I’ll be here a while.
Spring is Here
After many weeks of unseasonably cold weather here in Chengdu (and around the world, in fact), we have started to see signs of spring. Winter in Chengdu is depressing; though it never snows (well, almost never), the sky is dreary and the humidity allows the cold to seep into your bones. This is the main reason people run away during the New Year to Thailand: to find the sun! But the darkness causes the light to seem much more bright, and sunny days over the weekend and today have helped everyone’s spirits.
These days not much is going on, though we are gearing up for a busy final quarter of school. The student government put on a talent show on the 22nd, and with some last-minute planning, it turned out really well. (I posted some pictures - See for yourself!) Other than that, not much has been going on at school. Year book photos, planning for future events and dramas - in other words, school is normal. We’re in the middle of a video curriculum during our weekly assemblies, and I think it’s getting our students to think about more important things in life.
Sarah and I are amazed at how quickly time is moving. Now that we know we are heading back to the US in June, the days seem to be speeding up. Think of us as we continue to plan the transition back and make all the arrangements.
Oh, and there are still fireworks going off as I write. If Sarah and I aren’t excited to go see a July 4th display, you know why.
Currently Reading:
Truth In All Its Glory: Commending The Reformed Faith (Resources for Changing Lives): William Edgar: Books