Well it doesn't seem like I've missed much at all so I can launch into telling you all about my adventures.
Tuesday 21st/Wednesday 22nd-I got up at 6:30 I think and we left the house at 7:30 after a final check that I had everything I needed. We picked up my boyfriend, Ben, who had the smallest case I have ever seen in my life. His french horn case was bigger than it! This was no bad thing in retrospect since we also had to pick Rachel up and her case was substantially larger.
We were the first ones at the airport so we went for a coffee and visited the toilet numerous times. When 9:30 rolled round and a few sightings of excited choir members had been made, we gathered at the check in desk and waited for everyone to arrive. There were 24 of us assembled but 25 of us going and the person missing was our headteacher. Eventually he turned up just as we were planning to go on ahead without him since he had his own ticket and passport and we began the process of saying goodbye and weighing luggage. Mine weighed 18.8 kg and Ben's was 12 kg meaning it was light enough for him to have taken through as hand luggage... The heaviest case was Mr Hughes', our headteacher!
The flights were ok, pretty boring but we survived them. I got some work done, though not nearly as much as I'd hoped I'd manage but then I did spend a while trying, in vain, to sleep. I hate trying to sleep on planes and this time round was no different. I think I squeezed 30 minutes out of 3 hours, if that.
As you can imagine, I wasn't exactly full of energy when we arrived but I got a kick all the same to see three people holding up a piece of paper saying 'Fairfield High School'. Once aboard our bus, we were introduced to these people who were to be our guides for the time we spent in Beijing. There was John (who actually stayed with us for the whole holiday), Helena (she was just great) and Ewan (I'm sure he was lovely too but I couldn't understand a word he said).
It took a while to get to the hotel since it was rushhour and the Chinese roads really are something else. Later on in the holiday, Rachel B made up a joke that summed it up - how do you pass a Chinese driving test? Turn on the engine and check the horn is working.
We checked into our hotel and went to freshen up a bit. We didn't have much time but during the hour we did have I managed to almost break my back on the bed I tried to collapse onto since it was like an ironing board, brush my teeth in Chinese water and convince myself I was going to die and get changed.
We met in the lobby and were taken for Chinese banquet number one. I was a little apprehensive about what I'd get to eat and how I'd manage with chopsticks but it was a lot of fun. I did get the hang of eating rice and we were fed quite well. The first thing I tried was pickeled cabbage which was not nice but the other bits and bobs I could eat were, plus the rice was fairly new and I hadn't exhausted that yet!
After lunch we visited the Temple of Heaven. It was pretty amazing but it all looked kind of fake to me. It was a problem I had throughout the holiday, all the palaces were just too elaborate and colourful to be believable!
We trudged round for a while, trying to keep our eyes open but without much success. We came to a nice, quiet little spot and Mrs Whittingham asked if it was ok for us to sing We sang O Ye Narembo, Tong Ye Show Ger and Auld Langs Syne for our guides and it went down well. I was rather relieved that they didn't find anything mortally offensive in the chinese song!
We braved the roads once more on our little bus after that and had an hour back at the hotel to get changed and showered so I felt a little better for having some clean hair on my head.
At 7 we met downstairs in the lobby again so we could walk to Chinese meal number two. It wasn't as nice, I didn't think. They did look after me but they served me some odd egg dish which wasn't possible to eat by itself or with chopsticks so I had to stick it in with some rice. I'm sure there was some really nice part of the meal but I can't remember it. Actually, maybe I did think to myself that it wasn't worth nearly dying crossing the road for.
By about 9pm I'd collapsed with a little more care into the ironing board they had provided as a bed, shivering to myself since my room mate had put the airconditioning on full welly.
