What have we here?
-Some press photos from the show.
-The "decorate bread" at the breakfast buffet in the Marriott. I loved this!
-A funny sign in a restaurant.
-A typical photo of our Gretl doing typical things.
-And a photo of me measuring my suitcase (on my leg). We were planning to buy new, larger suitcases in Chongqing, and I wanted to make sure I knew how big my old one was, so I'd be certain to get one even bigger.
Well, someone just told me that my blog is much appreciated by some of the cast members from the previous Sound of Music Asia tour. Thank you, cast members! I am honored! This makes me want to blog even more. But the pressure is on!
We are on our third day in Wuhan, and there is little to report because we haven't started our shows yet. We flew here on Tuesday, and the set and costumes are being transported by ferry, so they would arrive later in Wuhan, and then there would be a day and a half of load-in before we go to the theatre for the first time. That will be tomorrow, and I'm excited. Doing The Sound of Music puts me in a good mood! Not that I mind the days off, but it's nice to have something scheduled, once in a while...
The press conference on Tuesday was a lot of fun. I think many of us, myself included, were on the drowsy side of life, but that didn't matter. Nor did our casual clothes matter. One child's luggage had been lost on the plane, so he was even more casual than he wanted to be (he would have changed, if he had had his bag), but I don't think the press could have possibly minded.
We sat for a while at the beginning, while announcements and introductions were being made, and one of the younger girls immediately came and sat on my lap. (This usually only happens to Maria, which, incidentally, makes for good press photos. I don't know if they wanted photos of Louisa and a younger child, but who cares? I like the little kids and their affection.) We discussed what we were going to sing (Do Re Mi, always), and then we got up on the little stage platform to introduce ourselves and sing. Some of us were half asleep, and the younger kids didn't hide it very well, but that also didn't matter. They asked some funny questions, and we got some very amusing answers from the kids. For example:
We had arrived at our hotel in Wuhan at around 1:30 or 2 p.m., and the press conference was at 4:15 that same afternoon. Most of us, I assume, put our luggage in our room, tried to settle in a bit, then went to the press conference. The first question they asked us as the press conference was, "What do you think of Wuhan?" The stock answer, from most of the kids, was "Wuhan is very beautiful." This is a safe answer because we did see the city as we were driving in on the bus, and it was beautiful -- lots of nature and greenery, something we have not seen a lot since coming to China. When it was my turn, I explained that we had just arrived at the hotel and then met to talk to the press, but the view out my hotel room window was gorgeous (it is -- the Yangtze River!), and I was excited to see more of the city soon. Then our Gretl had the microphone, and she announced loudly, "I LOVE WUHAN." This led to many giggles and titters from the moms, the press, and Maddy, Christine, and me. It was very cute and amusing. How does she think these things up? Press conferences are fun just because we get to hear the things the youngest kids say to the press -- I love it!
Yesterday we had yet another day off, and I went with one of the moms to the big Walmart. It was not as impressive as our American Walmarts -- not that I'm an expert -- but it was neat to see what kinds of products they sell that we might need and not be able to find in other stores in China. We also went to a Dairy Queen -- in China!!! -- and got Blizzards, which tasted generically sweet but didn't have much other flavor. Not a problem though ... you know I like sweets, even generic ones.
Oh! I forgot to mention my new love: Haagen-Dazs Tiramisu flavored ice cream. I had some on our last evening in Chengdu and have been pining after it ever since. Well, on Tuesday when we arrived at the airport, what did I find, but a Haagen-Dazs cafe - at the airport! I dragged Christine over (she was also feeling the love) and we promptly ordered two scoops -- for seven US dollars! If I'm paying that much for ice cream in China, you know it's important to me! It was a special moment.
(I don't know if it's spelled Haagen-Dazs, or Haagen-Dasz, so I decided to just be constant in my choice of spelling.)
Yesterday, after Walmart and Dairy Queen, I came back to the hotel for a while, hung out with Christine for a while, then went out shopping for Pascha's birthday party. Pascha is one of the Ukrainians in our orchestra, really nice and a lot of fun, and our musical director wanted to throw him a big party -- just for the sake of having a party on one of our days off! So that's what we did last night, and it was a lot of fun. Nice to be able to do that and not worry about having to sing the next day (because today we are still off!). But I do love doing the show and I'm really looking forward to starting it up again tomorrow. We don't yet know where we'll be after Wuhan, so I must make the most of things here!
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