WE HAVE ARRIVED!!!

Well, we are finally in China! Our marathon 22-hr trip began Friday night. I got a ride to the airport with Maddy's parents, and we waited at the China Eastern check-in area for the rest of the cast to arrive. We were first, because we had been volunteered to watch the costume suitcases that were being delivered to the airport to travel with us. Everyone was quite awake and excited ... especially the kids ... and in very good moods to meet each other.

The flight. Ah. I don't sleep on planes. I can't sleep on planes! I got my requested aisle seat, but boarded and found myself in a row of 3 seats directly behind a row of 4, so instead of normal tray tables coming out of the row in front of us, our tray tables came out of our chair arms. If I were a few pounds heavier, that tray would have cut right into my stomach. I was squished! (Both people sitting beside me in this row were children, so perhaps when I checked in, they mistook me for one?) Normally, on a plane, I put a pillow on the tray table, lean forward, and try to sleep like that, but I couldn't fold myself in half to sleep with my head on this tray table, so I spent a lot of time shifting around in my oh-so-uncomfortable seat and trying to find a position that would let me sleep. There were none. But I rested, just sat with eyes closed pretending to sleep for much of the trip. I was jealous of the people around me who were ALL sleeping.

We got three meals on the flight: dinner, lunch, and breakfast, in that order. Dinner was a chicken and rice dish, very much an "airplane food" version of Chinese food, and a yummy hot bun. Lunch was a small sandwich, and breakfast was an omelette with tater tots, a strip of bacon, and some fruit and yogurt. Quite nice! They played several movies but I paid no attention to those, because I was trying to sleep. The 16 hours actually passed surprisingly quickly, considering the fact that I was NOT one of the lucky folks who immediately passed out and slept for 8 hrs.

We got to Shanghai, went through customs, got our luggage again, and lined up to transfer to domestic flights to get to Chengdu. It was the wee hours of the morning, so we got to spend some time in line with our luggage just waiting for the check-in counter to open. I changed some money so I could get some delicious bottled Milk Tea (and promptly got Zachary, "Kurt," addicted to the stuff as well).

We got on a much smaller plane to Chengdu, on a short flight of less than 4 hrs. Favorite moment: When the flight attendants came by with the drinks cart, I heard a boy's voice in the row beside me ask politely, "Do you have milk tea?" Zachary! They didn't, but I was proud to have a milk tea convert in my midst.

They also served a meal, a very good chicken and rice dish - real Chinese food on an airplane!

We arrived in Chengdu, picked up our luggage, and found ourselves accosted by many, many press people with cameras and videocameras. They were particularly focused on the kids (and "kids," but we older folks not so much), possibly because it was obvious who WERE the kids! They asked Gretl a lot of questions, and talked to some of the moms as well, and we sang a bit of "Do Re Mi" to a huge crowd gathered at the airport to watch us.

Then we got on our decorated Sound of Music buses (photos to come) and drove to our hotel. At last! We crashed in our rooms, took much-needed showers, and dragged our tired carcasses to a meeting room for orientation. Friedrich fell asleep during the meeting, and I wanted to as well! But I survived it.

Then we had a real first-day adventure -- looking for food. A small group of us went to the mall next door to Carrefoure, a store like Walmart. (Or maybe most Chinese stores are like Walmart, considering the prices?) We bought water, some snacks, and some milk tea (well, I did), then decided to find a place for dinner. We wandered through some of the floors of the mall, but the restaurants seemed quite fancy there, and we weren't dressed nicely at all, so we left the building and walked across the street.

Note about crossing the street in China: even though there is a "bicycles and pedestrians" walk signal, the cars don't stop! I fear for my life every time I cross a street, and I never want to cross alone, because I'd rather die with someone else than all by myself. We finally found a little restaurant across the street from the hotel, trooped in, and sat down. The menus were in Chinese with no pictures, but 2 of us had some notes on how to say some words in Chinese. The other table of our group was brought an odd-looking gelatinous soup to try, but our table managed to order "noodle chicken," and got a tasty bowl of noodles in a really good broth, with shredded chicken on top! Much too much food for me! We ate, extremely tired, worn out, and ready for sleep, paid our 75 cents each, and went home to go to sleep.

I, of course, being the wonderful insomniac that I am, woke up sometime around 2 a.m. and did not go back to sleep until about 7, an hour before I had to get up in the morning. Not pleasant! But I calmed myself by reminding myself that however tired I am today, the better I will sleep tonight (and with Benadryl to assist me!).

Today we had a press conference: just the von Trapp kids and Maria. We dressed nicely and met in the lobby to go over what we would sing: a small excerpt of "Do-Re-Mi" and part of "Edelweiss." Then we headed to the press conference. We were seated on the side and cameras and bright lights were shoved in our faces -- quite exciting! During speeches, we were continually referred to as "little friends," which I LOVED! So funny! The kids weren't required to speak at all, but Dallet (our director) and Randy (producer) and Maria and the Captain spoke a bit. Then we were all given beautiful paper cuttings of The Sound of Music logo, which I will show my loved ones when I get home. The kids were also given paper cuttings of beautiful and cartoon-like rats and pigs, which a woman was cutting right during the press conference!

After it was over, we stuck around, and I was prepared to sample the tasty-looking sweets in the room, but suddenly our company manager grabbed me and whisked me off to a nun rehearsal! I hadn't been called to it, but they needed me, so I ran back to the room to change into normal clothes, and headed over.

We had an hour lunch break between rehearsals, and 4 of us decided to turn down the Kentucky Fried Chicken that others were salivating over, and (thankfully!) find a nice Chinese place near our rehearsal hall.

AND FIND IT WE DID!

We walked into the first place we saw, and the man greeted us in a bit of English, which was a promising sign as far as our ordering capabilities go. Wonderful Jen pulled out her "How to Order in Chinese" guidebook, and pointed to Kung Pao chicken. The waiter took a look and nodded. At first we ordered 3 of those and another chicken dish, but then we realized we might have too much food, so we tried to ask how much food one dish was. Apparently he got the idea.

Shortly after that, he brought out a steaming platter of what looked like my favorite dish in American Chinese restaurants: Chicken with hot peppers and peanuts. We tasted it, and it was DELICIOUS! The best Chinese (or "Chinese") food I have ever eaten! He brought rice, and we loaded our bowls and scarfed it down. He had brought just one order of the food, and it was the perfect amount for the 4 of us. Our meal was punctuated with exclamations of "Yum!" and "Wow!" and "I am so happy right now!" coming from me. We paid 38 Yuan total (about $1.50 each) and went back to rehearsal. After it was over, 5 of us wandered around, walked to the theatre where we'll be performing, and looked in some stores and malls.

It was so fun, although I am still completely exhausted! Sometimes I think it might be easier to adjust to a 12-hr difference as we have here, rather than to a smaller difference like 3 or 6 hours!

Photos to come, soon, I hope. We have free ethernet in our hotel room, which is wonderful, but I share it with my roommate, so I don't want to dominate it in case she needs to get on!