Macau - the final days

(Written on Aug. 23)

I am sitting in the Philippine airport wishing the "free public wifi" network actually worked. Until then, I'll write up my blog and get ready to post it later.

Our run in Macau was fantastic! The theatre was gorgeous, and we actually had every set piece on stage, which we haven't had recently. If we don't lose the flying altar in the wedding scene, we lose the mountains or the stairs (in Guangzhou). It was great to be able to close the show with the full scenery as originally designed. Also, our audiences had a large percentage of English speakers (and the theatre, oddly enough, projected both Chinese and English supertitles of the show), so we were able to experience an entirely different audience reaction to our lines - as opposed to the Chinese translations. It was really fun and the cast definitely reacted to that in a very positive way.

I didn't do very much in Macau except wander around the Venetian Casino and hotel and visit Senado Square. Maddy and I went to the Venetian on a whim, to eat quesadillas we had heard about in the food court. We nearly got lost just trying to FIND the food court, it's so big! I believe it is the largest casino in the world. Incidentally, a few days later we were at a Starbucks, and a nice Australian couple sat down next to us and started chatting with us. When we asked them what they were doing in Macau, they told us that they are the directors of the Venetian! Wow! They were so nice and helped us find a store to buy party favors for the double birthday party we had that night.

It was James' (Captain understudy) and Greg's (Rolf) birthday on August 15, so after the show we all gathered in our company manager's hotel room to celebrate. It was the party to beat all parties! The presents -- an elegant Chinese robe for James and a new backpack for Greg, to replace his old falling-apart one -- were a big hit, and the party went until about 4:30 a.m. if not later. I found that I lost a lot of daytime in Macau because of staying up so late at night. I did not, however, gamble!

Senado Square was a big square in the middle of Macau that seemed to be the place to shop. There were many small stores and little restaurants, a Starbucks of course, and on one of the last days, I discovered a neat stand that sold knock-off LeSportSac bags, the style of which I love, and the brand name of which I could not care less. So I bought some! The stand was deserted until I got to it, then Chinese women swarmed the stand, looking at bags and laughing at me for holding ten bags on my arm while I tried to decide which ones I liked best.

Fisherman's Wharf was another popular place to visit, mostly for the restaurants. It looked a lot like a Disney theme park, with faux-European architecture, an arcade, and a small amusement park. We had some amazing hamburgers in one diner there, and I had some amazing Macanese-style fish (twice!) in another.

As we reached the end of our run in Macau, we heard about the typhoon warning: good old typhoon Nuri, here to ruin our travel day. Yes, it was scheduled to hit the Macau and Hong Kong area on August 22, the day we were scheduled to fly! For the people on Troika-sponsored flights home, they would be taken care of no matter what. Unfortunately, I took the buyout, which means I took the price of my Troika ticket and purchased my own ticket, which was an easier travel day and slightly cheaper. Those who took the buyout had to sign a paper waiving Troika of any responsibility for us, so of course I was on my own fending off the typhoon! Not really, but I was definitely responsible for any changes in travel and any affects Nuri would have on me.

As it turned out, all flights were canceled on Aug. 22. I didn't even go to the airport, because the storm warning was an 8 and we were told the bridges would close when it got to 8 ... if the bridges closed, we could get stuck at the airport and not be able to return to the hotel! I did have to check out of my room on my travel date, even though I wasn't traveling anywhere, so some of the Ukrainians (orchestra) in the room next door let me bring all my stuff into their room and crash there for the day and night. Then I started making phone calls, trying to get myself on a flight home.

It's a very long and arduous story, but the short version is that I talked to the Philippine Airlines office in Macau 5 times that day, and in each of the first 4 times, they offered me some good options to get myself back to San Francisco within the next few days. when I called back the 5th time to confirm, they told me that none of those options were available, not even the option of flying home on Aug. 27, a full 5 days after I was scheduled, which had been my worst possible option and last choice. No, no, instead, they told me, I could fly the first leg of my flight to Manila on the 26th, and camp out there for a night. The following night, Aug. 27, I could complete my flight to San Francisco. They could not understand why that wasn't a satisfactory solution for me!

Carter, Kurt's dad, saved the day by coming to the room and making a bunch of phone calls on Skype, trying to help me fix the problem and get another flight, or at least a refund. After three difficult tries, we found out just before 2 a.m. that Philippine Airlines was willing to refund $662 of the $876 I had spent on the flight, no more, or I could hold onto my flight on the 26th-27th, because that was all they could do for me. Not ok!

I was utterly exhausted, but before I went to sleep I emailed my parents the situation. When in a bind, my mother is the one who can always make the right phone calls and talk to the right people to get me out. So I went to sleep expecting to have a strange adventure in the Philippines several days later.

When I woke up this morning, I had about 20 emails from my parents, saying things like, "Good news!" and "Magic!" and "there's more!" and one that simply said, "WAKE UP! YOU HAVE A FLIGHT TODAY!" That woke me up pretty quickly, so I tried to skim the other emails and get the gist of things. As it happened, my mother had somehow, incredibly, managed to get me on my same flight I originally had, but one day later: today. How did she do it? I don't yet know. She promised me the full story when I see her in person. Boy was I lucky! I also realized that all of the Ukrainians were leaving for the Macau airport that morning, so I called to ask if I could tag along on the bus and get my airport transportation taken care of. I could! Things were looking up.

We got to the airport, and I was told that I couldn't even check in for two more hours, because the counter wasn't open until 1:40 p.m. I hung out with the Ukrainians that entire time, because they were having trouble getting checked in as well, and finally managed to check in on my amazingly confirmed flight to the Philippines and then San Francisco! We had the same gate, both flights delayed, so we sat there, slightly falling asleep on each other, for hours, until they left for a gate change, and I got ready to board my late flight! The flight was uneventful except for some delicious fish curry (yes, delicious airport food!) and the fact that I had the entire row, 8 across, to myself, so I could lie down and nap a little.

Now I have arrived in the Philippines and have gone through the most tight airport security I've ever experienced. I was a transfer, so I didn't even leave the secure area and "enter" the Philippines, but I still had to go through security and the bag check again. Then when I got to the gate area, there was a huge line to enter the seating area, and I had to go through yet more security, get frisked, and finally, finally sit down ... only to discover that our flight is delayed two hours! I hope my sister gets the message because I have no way of calling her. She'll be picking me up and taking me to stay at her apartment in SF until tomorrow.

So that's the story so far. The show has not officially closed and it's quite possible we'll be brought back eventually, so the departure was strange. Many of us were thinking, "Am I sad or not? Is this really the end, or are we coming back?" It was still pretty sad, and I think the end hasn't yet sunk in for me, with all of the drama of trying to fly home. I'm sure home will be exciting for the first few days, having access to all of the wonderful things I didn't have on tour (particularly my dad's homemade bread), but then it will get depressing and boring and I'll want to be back on tour.

I hope we come back!

Paddle Boat Olympics!!!

I think I forgot to blog about our First Annual SOMA Olympic Paddle Boat Races! It's a brilliant tale.

We were all set to meet in the lobby at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon in Fuzhou. Costumes and mascots were encouraged for teams, but Michael (Captain von Trapp) and I had not planned to do anything for our team: The Thunderous, Rampaging, Monstrous Rubber Duckies. Yes, the name was his idea.

I was out most of the day on Thursday, so I didn't even try to reach him, and on Friday he got in touch with me at 1 p.m. and asked if we should try to scrape together some costumes. We thought of wearing orange shirts (like ducks?), or wearing black shirts with paper cutouts of ducks on them, but we realized we'd be overshadowed by nearly everyone else, so two hours before we were to meet, we went out shopping at Carrefour.

We managed to find bright yellow shirts, possibly the exact color of your standard duck body, and orange sun visors that definitely looked like duck bills! We purchased those, along with some permanent markers. We tried to find some kind of duck mascot, but apparently the rubber ducky is not as popular in China as it is in the USA.

We ate a quick lunch at McDonald's (shame on us!) because we hadn't had time to eat before the race that day, then came back to my hotel room to create our outfits. On the front of the T-shirts, we drew an evil looking rubber ducky, traced from a template I drew, having looked up children's wallpaper online and found one with ducky outlines on it. On the back we wrote our entire team name, and on the visors we drew evil looking eyes and eyebrows.

We met the group downstairs at 3 pm, having finished our costumes just minutes before, and boy were we a hit -- the whole group, I mean! We had Mangor and Brunhilde, the Vikings (Uncle Max and Liesl), Zeus and Prometheus (Rolf and Friedrich), the over-prepared campers (Elberfeld and Elsa), the hillbillies (Sister Sophia and Nazi Youth), the Goat Boat (Sister Margaretta and Frau Schmidt), The Monkey Pirates (Gretl, her mom, and Mother Abbess), the Bible Boat (Franz and Baroness Elberfeld), and the plain old Monkeys (Christine and her husband). The costumes were amazing, from mop beards and binder-cover lightning bolts, to blacked-out teeth, to eye patches, gold earrings, and bandannas, to a full-body goat suit (Sister Margaretta was the back end). We were quite a hit in the hotel lobby and on the walk to the lake where they rented boats.

Each team rented a boat from two different places, because they didn't have enough boats at a single place, and then we all paddled to a bridge to start the race. I must admit it was tiring paddling that boat, and I had Michael as a partner! You can bet I did not slack off -- in the beginning, we tried taking turns resting and paddling, and he certainly noticed a difference when I was not paddling with him.

The race started at an arched bridge, went to a far bridge, under it, back through, through the original bridge and past it to another bridge, under it, back around to the original bridge. We discovered early on that it was easy to be in the lead, get under a bridge, and get stuck waiting for every single other boat to go under the bridge and turn around! This happened to Christine and Danny, who were in a larger boat and couldn't fit under the bridge with another boat there! They started in the lead and lost their position quickly.

However, Michael and I were charmed. We started near the front and did not get caught because we managed to sneak back under the bridge as later boats were just coming through for the first time. We broke away from the crowd, our boat dripping with speed, and forged away under the original bridge and to the far bridge, just tailing the tech boat and the Greek gods. On the way back from the far bridge, we caught up with the tech boat, with just the Greeks in front of us. We stayed side by side with the techies for a while, then decided to part ways as we came near the finish line, and we pulled ahead again! We watched the Greek gods win first place, and then -- lo and behold -- we won SECOND! The Rubber Duckies do it again! I was so proud of us, and our prize was a gold painted rubber ducky emblazoned with the race title and our second place prize. It was really a fitting prize for our team.

We finished the day with a small pizza party in my hotel room and then a bigger Ukrainian birthday party in one of the conference rooms, where we all sat and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Great times were had by all!

Eight show countdown!

This is the saddest week -- our final, eight-show countdown until we depart. On a high note, we left China and are in Macau, a special administrative region of China, which is nothing like China! For those who don't know, Macau used to be a Portuguese colony, so all of the signs are in Portuguese and Chinese, and some people speak Portuguese, and some of the people who speak Cantonese have an odd Portuguese dialect! It's so interesting. My sister speaks Portuguese, so it's neat to hear the familiar language here.

Macau is mostly casinos, and our hotel itself is even a casino. We didn't know what it would be like, but it's quite nice. Analisa and I were lucky enough to get one of the biggest, fanciest types of rooms here. Evidently the hotel is giving us all of their free internet rooms, so they tend to be nicer than the others, but they still vary. Ours is the nicest of all -- totally enormous, with practically a dance floor at one end, there is so much extra space. (Analisa did yoga there this morning, and we rehearsed some scenes there yesterday.) The bathroom has a giant shower stall with a separate tub inside of it, so the whole stall is the size of two bathtubs, and the shower has a large standing head, a hand-held head, and some funny openings that spray a fine mist out of them. It's so neat!

We are right near the Macau Fisherman's Wharf, which is sort of Disney-esque, with lots of faux European architecture and nice places to eat. We sat in a booth shaped like a car at the Miami Food Court, and I had some amazing garoupa (grouper?) fish. Tonight we got burgers at Al's Diner. Yes, it's a far cry from mainland China.

We've had a number of days off in order for the set and costumes to transit from China to Macau, but yesterday the von Trapp family had a press event. We were interviewed first by the Chinese press, then by the Portuguese press, and they took photos of us. Zachary (Kurt) takes the prize for the best interview response to, "Why do you wear the traditional Chinese clothing?" (This is because many of the kids had Chinese dresses or shirts made, and they've been wearing them to press events all the time.) Zachary said, "We wear the traditional Chinese outfits to show our respect for the Chinese culture." Good answer, Zachary! That kid is smart. They also asked each of the kids our opinions on our character, and our character's relationship with Maria and the Captain, so I told of the time I asked Christine (Maria) what SHE thought of Louisa (me), and she said she thought that Louisa reminds her of herself when she was younger. I quite like that! The press asked us if we feel like a real family, and we certainly do, although it was funny when I turned to Maddy and whispered, "I feel that Michael is like a father to me." Michael, our Captain, is not that many years older than I am, nor is Maria!

Christine and Michael talked about their compatibility and their chemistry onstage, and the press brought that up later, saying, "You mention that you have a chemical reaction onstage?" I loved it!

Today was another special day. The Macau presenter requested that we do a dress rehearsal here, although we don't usually do a dress rehearsal in a new city. They wanted to get an idea of the set changes and costume changes. But the stage manager decided to use the dress rehearsal as a chance to let Analisa go on as Maria, and to give Christine a day off (especially since it was her anniversary yesterday!). Today Analisa performed as Maria, and we were allowed to go into the audience and watch the show when we weren't onstage. It was fantastic! I mostly got to watch the Max/Elsa/Captain scenes, because those are what I'm not in, and they are absolutely phenomenal. I've always known that they were good, but have never seen them from the audience with full costumes/makeup/hair/orchestra, and I was absolutely blown away. This is really a great show through and through! I kept turning to whomever was beside me in the audience, and saying, "She is INCREDIBLE! She's so good!" about Tiffan, our Elsa, who really is perfect in the role. I've never seen anyone do a better job in that role, which can sometimes be boring or even forgotten if it isn't done well. There is so much more to this show than I realize from my onstage viewpoint.

Tomorrow we'll have Christine back for opening night, and we'll do an eight-show run here in Macau. We're told that it's pretty much sold out for the entire run, although our two optional matinees are not happening, and I wonder why not (if it's sold out!). Oh well! So this is our countdown. We also have two birthdays to celebrate, and a company party. We will have performed the show 62 times since opening night. I can only hope it comes back to Asia, or to another location, soon enough!

Counting down - final two weeks in China

Last night we celebrated our 51st performance, and our last show in mainland China. It suddenly hit me that this is all ending, we're all going to be leaving, and some of us may be in touch, and might see each other again, but many of these friendships might not hold past the length of tour. What a depressing thought! Many of these people I know I will never see again, simply because of their age (the kids!) and where they live. I definitely hope to have a cast reunion in the future. That is what is so sad about this business: every gig is so short-lived, even the longer runs. You meet a fascinating group of people, become very close to them, and then you part ways.

Today a group of us went to visit a Buddhist temple after having a wonderful Japanese lunch at the hotel next door. I must admit that my favorite meal, perhaps so far in China (and I'm sorry to say it's not Chinese food) is the beef stroganoff served in the Western restaurant of the hotel next door. It's incredible! I've had it twice and I'm getting it again tonight. My favorite Chinese meal in China was definitely the Kung Pao Chicken at that first hole-in-the-wall restaurant we discovered near our rehearsal space in Chengdu. I wish we could go back there! If I had known that the tour was going to be cut short, there are many things I would have done differently. (Every meal at Kung Pao chicken, etc!)

Some things I'm really going to miss about performing The Sound of Music in China:

-The audience applause we received in one city for the children's marching entrance. This isn't a meaningful moment in the show, but it felt so good to get entrance applause for our group of kids!
-Even more important, the audiences that applauded as Michael (Captain) began singing Edelweiss. What a moment!
-Trying to communicate with our Chinese dressers. It's so funny! They'll simply talk to us in Chinese, and we'll talk to them in English, and nobody understands the other. My dressers always have a problem because I enter one scene with a head kerchief on, and I exit without it (when Captain grabs it off my head). In every single city, my dresser mimes to me, "Where is your kerchief?" and I point to the stage, indicating that it's still out there in the scene. In the end, I have to get Justin, our head wardrobe, to explain to them that the kerchief is used in the scene and exits in Maria's pocket.
-The antics of our von Trapp kids. I won't go into detail, because I don't want to incriminate anyone, but we have got one dramatic, crazy group of kids here! (Not to mention talented...)
-Understudy rehearsals. We have done some understudy rehearsals that end up like a production of Noises Off. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound funny at all when I try to explain it, so I'll just leave it at that.
-The orchestra. What other situation would enable us to meet a group of handsome, young, in most cases Ukrainian men!

I'll leave it at that. Perhaps more later! We have a few days off here in Fuzhou, then we take a bus to Xiamen so that we can fly from there to Macau. I'm so excited for Macau, not for the gambling, which doesn't interest me in the least, but for the Portuguese influence! We'll have eight performances in Macau, and that's the end of our tour ... for the time being, at least!

Park joys in Fuzhou

We are now in Fuzhou and I'm almost over my recent illnesses! Yesterday, I was thinking about the fact that we have a show tonight, and I felt like I had been absent for a long time, since I performed none of our eight shows in Guangzhou feeling well. What a shame! Now I'll appreciate the show even more, coming back to it, in a sense. I also started getting my sense of taste back, and had some bread with peanut butter yesterday, and it was the most fantastic thing! Funny what you come to appreciate, after having lost it.

Fuzhou is quite nice, so far. We had been warned about the hotel (although I don't know who warned us, because nobody had seen it) and felt some trepidation over what we were to experience here, but it's totally nice! The rooms are significantly larger than the midget rooms we had in Guangzhou, and that's enough for me! Our hotel is right next to another (fancier) hotel that has a fabulous and not-too-expensive restaurant, where we ate our first meal here. I had the beef stroganoff and it was really good, with vegetables and all! Yesterday a small group of us went shopping at the Carrefour (my favorite store, still), and we were all hungry, so we made a routine stop at Papa John's for lunch. I think I've had more pizza (from Papa John's) on this tour than I've had in my life altogether before tour!

Last night another group of us walked from the hotel, through the park / waterfront, to a nice Thai restaurant some people had visited the previous night. On the way through the park, we saw big groups of children and teens rollerblading in a cement area. This seems to be a theme in China. The meal was tasty and just spicy enough for someone getting over a cold! Inexpensive, too. When we walked back home, we walked along the river through the park again, and this time we passed a huge group of Chinese people doing what looked like line dancing, or easy aerobics, or the electric slide, with music being played over a loudspeaker! It was so neat! A little farther down, some other music was being played, and older couples were dancing with each other, old-fashioned dances like my grandparents try to teach me, like the fox trot. They were just there, outdoors, in the park, and it looked like anyone who wanted to could join the dancing. People who weren't dancing were milling around listening to the music and watching. Now why don't we have this in the US? What a fun and neat idea? This is actually something that my hometown (Davis, CA) would do, but they would probably charge money for participation. Other events people have witnessed in parks here have included morning tai chi (groups or just single people) and aerobics! This is something that should be brought to the USA.

Today I'm having a rather quiet day before the show, mostly because I have enough leftovers in my room to feed myself for several days, so I'm trying to eat some of them and not go out and buy more food today! Several people on the tour are battling sore throats and other minor ailments, and we hope that everyone pulls through and is able to perform.

I still don't know what I'm going to do when I get to New York in the fall. I'll be in CA for at least two weeks after the tour ends, and then I'll fly to NY, but I have no place to live! I don't want to get stuck in a sublet (with strangers) in case the show IS brought back this fall, which is possible (they are storing the sets in China for now, just in case), and in which case I would have to break a sublet agreement to leave again! What a hassle. I wish my parents lived near NYC like a lot of my castmembers' parents.

Sad news for The Sound of Music tour...

I haven't posted a blog in a while, mainly because I've been battling various viruses and diseases, and it's sometimes hard to load the blogging page, but now -- I've got it loaded, and I'm back!

You may have heard on some other blog that our tour is closing early. We've been adrift with rumors about the future of the tour, post-China, and we finally had a company meeting and were informed that Broadway Asia has no bookings for us after Macau in late August, and we will be sent home on that date. So sad for us! Only a few cast members welcomed this unfortunate news. While it is possible that the tour will be re-booked this fall, I think we all expect the worst: the show is closing for good. It's terrible because it really is a good show with such a strong cast, not only onstage but off, and we all get along quite well! Things had been going so smoothly, and we actually had some expectations for an extension, and now this.

Please excuse my lack of wit and banter in this blog. It's not because I'm sad about the tour ending (although I am, I've had time to get used to the idea), but because I'm sick -- again! I had the coughing disease for two weeks, and couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting better, and then it turned into a full-blown cold about two days ago! I've still been able to perform, but my voice is doing funny things. I'm just glad this isn't an opera, and I keep reminding myself that it's much easier to sing Louisa von Trapp with a cold, than to sing any operatic role! Thank heavens for that.

Everyone is frantically trying to make plans for their future after the tour. Most of us have apartments in New York that we sublet until November, so we can't move back in September when we return to the USA. I'm probably going to end up subletting a friend's apartment until I can move back into my own place, although my subletter also might move out early, with no guarantees.

On a show-oriented note, we spent a wonderful week in Shenzhen, really getting accustomed to using the subways (NYC could learn something from China there), enjoying the various shopping and food areas in that city, especially Amigos mexican restaurant! I went there three or four times in the course of our stay in Shenzhen, and it was delicious every time. The backstage area of the theatre was so nice, we could go an hour early (if we were already around there from dinner) and just hang out. I can't say the same for our backstage here in Guangzhou!

The hotel here is quite nice, a non-chain Chinese hotel as far as I can tell. The rooms are VERY small for two people plus luggage, but otherwise it's all nice. I haven't been down to breakfast even once, thanks to this cold virus that makes me want to sleep in every day. The theatre is just on the next block, so we don't have to deal with bus calls in this town - very simple!

The theatre is sort of a colosseum, in my mind. The house (audience) is absolutely enormous, and I don't think we could ever hope to sell out. It seats five or six thousand, I'm told, and is in the formation of a half-circle. The stage and backstage area, however, is tiny! We've actually had to remove parts of our set in order to fit. We have no von Trapp house staircase, no mountain to climb, no Abbey outside, no altar for the wedding scene .... it's really the lack of staircases that changes things, including our impressive exit up the mountain at the end of the show. But these changes add excitement to the show, every time something is slightly different for us! If I weren't performing with this annoying cold, I think it would be even more fun to try to do the show this way. Of course I feel bad that the audience isn't getting the full experience, mountain and all, but nobody can help that. At last we have eight performances here!

I haven't really gotten to see much of Guangzhou, partly because of my all-encompassing illness, and partly because it is EXTREMELY, unbelievably hot here. We walk home from the theatre at 11 pm and it's still roasting hot, just a warm, dead heat that sits in the air. Quite unpleasant! I really wish we could experience this tour in cold weather, the way it was in the beginning of Chengdu last March.

Next stop is Fuzhou, after our two performances on Thursday, then ten performances in Macau, and then back to the USA for us!

Opening Night in Shenzhen

We have arrived in Shenzhen, and opened last night. It's a very special run in this city, because the opening and closing shows are to benefit survivors of the huge earthquake.

Before the show, the actors were invited to sign a huge poster in the lobby sending thoughts and wishes to the earthquake victims. The Shenzhen Grand Theatre is just gorgeous, and the backstage area is by far my favorite that we've seen. There are so many small dressing rooms, most of us only have to share with one or two other people, and there is a beautiful, clean, western toilet in every room! I share with Maddy (Liesl), which is a perfect situation for both of us.

We had our own unfortunate drama backstage during the show last night. I was changing from my nightgown (Lonely Goatherd scene) into the "curtains" outfit, when I heard a strange cry that sounded like an animal being kicked. I kid you not - it did not sound human. Then I heard sobbing, and looked over, and saw that little CJ, our Marta, was crying. As soon as I was dressed, I went over to her to find out what was wrong. It turned out that her dresser had accidentally zipped her skin into the zipper of her costume! Ouch! That would make anyone cry! But she's a tough kid, and with the comfort of the wrangler and other adults around, she was able to pull it together and finish the show perfectly. Poor girl!

At the end of the curtain call, a number of children who survived the earthquake came onstage for a flower presentation, and sang part of Do Re Mi with us. It was really amazing to see these young kids who have been through so much, yet were able to smile and laugh with us onstage. Maddy (Liesl), Christine (Maria), Michael (Captain), and I were taken out to the lobby afterwards to take some photos with more of these kids, which was really nice. One little girl came up to me to get a photo taken with me, then gave me a huge hug! I wish that we had had more time to talk to them (with an interpreter, for those who didn't speak English) and hear about their stories, but it was the middle of the night and everyone had to go home. It was a really amazing thing to happen for our show, though.

Today we have an understudy rehearsal all afternoon, because our two child swings will go on twice this weekend: once as their younger roles (Gretl and Kurt), then once as their older roles (Marta and Friedrich). Poor Brigitta doesn't get anyone swung in for her! We also have two new adult understudies who are learning their parts, so the rehearsal will benefit them as well. I really enjoy understudy rehearsals because, for one thing, it's a lot of fun to see how the understudy principals interpret their roles in their own way! It's also funny to try to put the show together without the principals there, and without our director. Wonderful Donavan, the stage manager, runs the rehearsals, but even he is not all-knowing and all-seeing, and there are sometimes small staging questions that we have to solve for ourselves. By the end of rehearsal, the adults often get quite slap-happy, which makes for a good time overall! Also, we'll be in the theatre area for dinner between the rehearsal and the show, and there is a lot of good food there, and ... a Starbucks! I find that coffee improves my performance a lot. :)

I've been struggling with a strange cough for the past few days, but the shows have still been fine for me. I was worried that I might lose my voice, but apparently the powers that be decided that I would turn out okay! I can't figure out what was wrong with me, because I never actually felt sick, but have just been battling a cough -- and I'm not a big cougher, in general! I get sore throats and colds, not coughs. But it's not a problem for the show, thank goodness.

We have a big weekend coming up, starting with a press event early tomorrow morning (ouch!), then two shows all in one day. Two more shows on Sunday, then a day off Monday! I might go into Hong Kong with Maddy that day, before our last two shows next week. It's going to be a fun run in Shenzhen!

Adventures in Nanning, China

This is our 4th day off! We had Monday off in Harbin, Tuesday was our long long long travel day, flying here for about 6 hrs. Our bus leaving the hotel that morning had a flat tire and we thought we'd miss the flight, but the company sent out another bus, so we waited on our bus for an hour for the other one to come, while the other half of the company (on a different bus) waited for us at the airport! But we all made the flight since we WERE the majority of the flight.

Now we're in Nanning, in the Best Western hotel which is my favorite so far, evennicer than the Marriott, in my opinion. It's really pretty and roomy in the double rooms, with comfortable beds and puffy, enormous duvet comforters.

Yesterday, Wednesday, we had our first press event since the hiatus. Before that, many of us walked to the nearby Walmart in the morning, and it's a NEAT store here in Nanning! It has food, a Chinese "deli" where you could eat lunch, everything! (We were at a Walmart in Wuhan that wasn't nearly as nice as this one, which is why I am excited.) We had to buy bathing suits because our hotel has a pool, but we didn't know that before, so most of us packed our suits in the luggage truck, which doesn't arrive until tomorrow. I also bought some powdered milk tea, which I'm drinking now, laundry detergent, which is silly because I keep forgetting I have it and I wash my clothes with shampoo or body wash ... and bottled water.

After Walmart, we got dressed up for the press event. I am blending in with the kids better and better, since they are growing so much! Brigitta is just about my height now, although she still looks much younger and more innocent. :) And our boy swing is nearly my height, which is really good ... all the kids are growing, but they are growing at different rates!

Back to the press event: we went to a school where we were greeted with speeches by the headmaster, then we had a Chinese lesson with the Chinese students, who were about 8-9 years old. We read a little fable about a snipe (bird) and a mussel who got in a fight, and while they were fighting, a fisherman came by and caught them both. Then we watched the kids learn to say it in Chinese with the teacher demonstrating, and watched them learn to write the characters with the help of a video that showed the order of the strokes. Then we watched another animated video explaining the fable and showing its political background (all in Chinese). We SOM "kids" were sitting interspersed with the real students, but we had translators near us to help us understand what was going on.

Next we had a music lesson, and we sang a folk tune from this Guangxi region (of which Nanning is the capital). It was written on the screen with numbers indicating the pitches, and Chinese characters beneath, which of course we couldn't read, so we sang it on an "oooo," trying to go by the numbers for pitch. Suddenly, one of the women shoved a microphone at me and said to me and Caitlin (Brigitta), who was sitting beside me, "Try to sing it!" They videotaped us "ooo"-ing the tune into the microphone with the music teacher accompanying. It was very funny, but I think they were impressed because we got most of the notes right! Even I was impressed by us. :) Then we Americans all got up onstage and sang the folk tune together with the Chinese kids. After that, we sang (poorly, because we didn't plan it) a verse of Do Re Mi -- twice! We had a gift exchange, and got some neat woven shoulder bags, a booklet about the school, and some other random gifts. One of mine was a big, heavy sculpture of a woman carrying bananas -- it was apparently one of the ethnic minorities (there are a lot) of this region. It was huge, and I didn't think I could carry it around with me, but then we found out that CJ (Marta) had been pulled outside for an interview during the gift exchange, and didn't get a "big" gift, so I gave her my giant woman! I told her I can't take it home, which is true, and asked if she would do me a favor and take it instead. I pulled it out of the box and showed her, and she LOVED it, so she accepted it and was suddenly happy again.

Before we left, we were bombarded with autograph requests from the kids. At one point, Michael (Captain) and Christine (Maria)'s little desk where they were sitting was so covered with kids, I couldn't see THEM at all! The kids would come up and hand us a torn scrap of paper (from the fable lesson) and a tiny pencil, and we'd write our names down. So cute! Then we were herded outside for some photos and short group interviews, and then we took the bus home. It was one of the most interesting and fun press events so far! This is the kind of thing that would have been called a "field trip" during the school year, to accrue school hours for the kids, and we adults wouldn't have come. I'm glad we were told to come this time, since there is no school!

Shortly after we got back, Matt, our Friedrich, was having a 13th-birthday party at the hotel pool. What fun for him! We all (kids and most of the adults) put on suits and spent ages in the pool, playing with water guns and throwing floating balls that some of the parents had gotten at Walmart. Then we had pizza, soda, and fruit, ordered from the hotel (and really good!) outside on the patio, which was so nice! And then, of course, we had cake. The party started at about 6 and I didn't go to bed until midnight (although mot of the kids did, so it was just adults chatting late).

At one point Gretl's mom asked me if I would braid Gretl's hair, because they were going on all day trip to a waterfall the next day, and she wanted it up. She offered to pay me, and asked if I could braid HER hair too, and I said of course, with no pay. First I did two French braids on the mom. Then 8-yr-old Gretl came over and patiently sat contorted in a chair, with her neck bent at all weird angles, and let me braid a CROWN into her hair! It was so neat, and she was so good about it! I was shocked that she was able to sit still so patiently for so long, let along all bent over so I could braid upside down. THEN Marta came over and saw what I was doing, and asked if I could braid HER hair specially. She is the one with wild curls, so I said I couldn't do a crown, but I could try to do something creative for her, if she brushed our her hair completely. She went to her room (it was about 10:45 pm by now) and came back later with brushed out hair, bobby pins, brush, combs, everything I could possibly need. Then she patiently sat in the chair while I braided 6 French braids down the back of her head, kind of like corn rows but prettier. Her mom LOVED it and asked our theatre hair person to hire me to do CJ's hair for the show (because in the show she just gets 2 plain braids, because her hair is so curly and hard to deal with). The mom even offered to pay me! So funny. Perhaps I should have a second career braiding hair ...

Then all the kids went to bed, and I sat with a few of the Ukrainians and cast members for a while chatting, until i went up to bed. All in all, a fun day! This is only Thursday, and we're still free until the show on Saturday night!

The Story of an Amazing Day in Harbin

Today was possibly the best day I've had in China so far! It actually started last night during the show, when someone had the brilliant proposal of a Game Night after the (rather early) show. We all got together in Uncle Max's room and played Celebrity, Mafia, and Encore, until the cows came home. It was great fun! We slept late this morning, which was necessary after last night, then I met Uncle Max (John), Mother Abbess (Anissa), Liesl (Maddy), Frau Schmidt (Emily), and Sister Margaretta (Rebecca) to eat lunch and go out for the day.

We ate at a delicious Russian face -- non-Asian food at last! I had some beef and cabbage red Russian soup, which tasted like a really good minestrone ... I could have eaten that for days! I also had mashed potatoes with herb sauce, and a piroshiki, which was a ball of bread filled with spiced, minced meat. We all shared some Russian bread and pickles, as well. All very good, and way too much food for us! I left feeling so satisfied, and without that slightly sick feeling that I sometimes get from questionably-hygienic Chinese food.

After that, we wandered down the walking/shopping street and peered into some neat little Russian stores selling Kachina (sp?) dolls, watches, jewelry, porcelain dolls, lighters, flasks, and USA military gear. We purchased a few things, including an awesome pocket watch for Greg, who lost his watch in Shanghai. This one has a picture of a horse warrior on the cover (the horse is the warrior -- not a warrior ON a horse), and looks sort of old-fashioned and rustic. When you open it up, the inside is fluorescent green! A brilliant find. We haven't given it to him yet, so keep this to yourself.

We kept walking until we came to the river, and there we bought tickets for a riverboat that circles the water and stops on the other side. It was a really nice day way up north here, not nearly as hot as the rest of Asia, so it was the perfect weather for a river cruise. We got off on the other side, and I believe our ticket was for a round trip, but we had other plans for our return. There was a neat park at the other side of the river, so we wandered around and looked at different options, until we came across tandem bicycles and three-person bicycles. Clearly, as there were six of us, we needed to rent two of these bikes and go for a ride, so we did! Let me tell you something: three-person bikes are scary! I rode with Rebecca and Maddy, and I was sitting in the middle, being the most awful backseat driver (biker), because I really just did not trust Maddy (steering) not to crash and kill us. It was a wobbly and loud ride. Toward the end of our allotted half hour, something happened to the front chain, so Maddy could no longer pedal, and suddenly the ride got better! I don't know why, really. Rebecca and I pedaled from the back, and Maddy steered, and it was an excellent balance of power. We took the bike back and got off before we were at the rental place, so they wouldn't see Maddy not pedaling, and wouldn't keep our deposit. We didn't break it, I tell you! They were fooled.

After that, three Chinese men approached us and signaled that they wanted to take photos with us. This happens pretty often here in China, but it's not often that they have enormous Chinese flags and Olympic flags, which they give us to hold for the photo! We were really representing China, and they took many photos -- and then we started taking photos as well! Great times were had by all.

Later we had some downtime, waiting for another group of our people to come across the water and meet us, because they wanted to take the cable cars back with us. A note: cable cars in China are not the cable cars (like trolleys, but electric, which ride on the ground) you see in San Francisco. A cable car in China is a little box that rises high on a cable into the sky and then travels along the cable, in the manner of a ski lift. We took one of those to cross back over the river! I thought it would be scary, looking at it from below, but it actually wasn't scary at all, and was really fun to be so high and to see Harbin from above. It's a really great city, possibly my favorite city so far (except for the lack of a Starbucks anywhere! How strange).

On the other side, we split up because some people wanted to go right home, some wanted to do more exciting things like ride a ferris wheel, and Maddy and I wanted to wander along the shopping street until it got dark. And we did! We went into every Russian store we found, until we discovered that they all sell the same things: Kachina (sp?) dolls, watches, jewelry, porcelain dolls, lighters, flasks, and USA military gear. All of them. Finally, after a bit more wandering, we caught a cab and returned to our hotel.

Tomorrow we fly to Nanning, down in the south, so this was a perfect day to end our stay in lovely Harbin, China!

Nearly done in Harbin!

Our run in Harbin has been wonderful! Packed audiences every night, two successful shows in a row yesterday, and our closing show is tonight. Yesterday in the opening, there was some strange feedback coming from the mikes, as if we had a pedal tone (music theory nerds, you know what I mean!) drone going on under the voices! Then when the keyboard came in to play chimes, they had accidentally forgotten to reset the "chimes" voice on the keyboard, so it came in sounding like a piano! It was very amusing, and the nuns all walked offstage and started laughing, which put is in high spirits for the rest of the show.

Yesterday morning I walked next door to the Carrefour to buy some snacks and breakfast food so I don't have to wake up early to get to breakfast in the hotel (it ends at 10). I picked up some batteries that I also needed, dried fruit, muesli, mangos, and soymilk. When I took them to the register, the cashier rang up everything except the soymilk (which had been troublesome to find, anyway!), which she just set aside. She showed me the total cost, without soymilk. I tried to indicate the soymilk, and my money, to show that I wanted to purchase it as well, but the woman simply wouldn't let me! I gave in and paid for everything else, then went back into the store to the soymilk area. By the way, soymilk is NOT big in China - I had forgotten that I saw it regularly in Malaysia, not China, so I expected to find it more easily!

I picked up another soymilk and showed an employee with a questioning face. She came around the counter, put my soymilk back, and picked out another one, that -- voila! -- had a special barcode label on it! Apparently you have to get your soymilk labeled before you can buy it, like fruits and vegetables! But I got in line again, bought my soymilk, and finally found success. Then I came home and had some cereal, and discovered that Chinese soymilk tastes like liquified tofu ... but the cereal was good enough that I could still drink it.

Two days ago a large group of us went on a trip to see the Siberian Tigers. The first part, which was a bus ride, was not very fun because you really had to have a window seat in order to see the tigers well (and I didn't!). Then we got off the bus and went on the walking part, which was really neat! Some people watched the tigers being fed chickens and other fowl, but I couldn't see from where I was on the walking paths, and I was glad of that. We saw regular tigers, lions, ligers (you can guess what those are even if you haven't seen Napoleon Dynamite), a jaguar, and a leopard! It was amazing! The best part was the very end, when we came to a place where you could pay to take your picture with a baby tiger, so we did! I got to hold it and pet it and it was so cute, about the size of a small-to-medium dog!

Unfortunately, after a long day out, it was hard to get the energy to do the show tonight, and I think the kids felt the same way! But of course, they pulled it together, and it went well!

Tonight is our last show in Harbin, and tomorrow we have the entire day off before we fly to Nanning the next day. Nanning is close to Vietnam, and I'd like to visit that country, but it requires a visa, which makes things complicated! We'll have three days off in Nanning while we wait for our sets and costumes to reach us there (it's really far), then three performances before we reach our next destination.

By the way, one of the moms uploaded some videos of the show from before the hiatus. They are a bit slow to load, but here they are:
http://gallery.mac.com/kyanro#101324

Opening Evening!

Yesterday was opening evening, and the show was great! The audience actually applauded the entrance of the von Trapp children, which was really neat, and all of the kids went offstage exclaiming, "Did you hear that? They clapped when we came onstage!!!" It was a nearly full audience, something we have not always had because, I believe, ticket prices are quite high for the best seats.

It is still quite hot backstage, and even hotter downstairs in the dressing room area. I pity my poor dresser, who has to pull costumes off my sweaty body. It makes it pretty difficult to change when everything is sticking to you! But I have a feeling this is something that we're going to see a lot in Asia this summer, since the heat is pretty crazy.

We still have not seen much of Harbin, but this will change now that rehearsals are over. We discovered a nice little dumpling restaurant near our rehearsal space, and then found out that there was another one near our hotel, so a group of us went yesterday. They didn't have an English menu at our local branch, but the menu looked exactly the same as at the other location, so we ordered based on where we remembered items being located on the menu --- and ended up getting quite different food from what we expected! It was still good, though. Nice to get back to Chinese food and not eat just McDonald's or KFC (!!!).

Today we have a matinee at the odd time of 3:20 p.m. Tomorrow is another early evening show, but in the daytime we're taking a field trip to see tigers and visit a park with paddle boats and other entertainment.

This blog is not very exciting, but it's my only update for now!

Opening night in Harbin!

We are back on track in Harbin, China, opening this evening. I have to call it opening evening, not opening night, because our shows are at 6:30 in this city! Why is that? Perhaps because the city seems to shut down in the evening? Harbin seems nice, although we've been rehearsing, so we haven't had much time to explore the city at all. It's quite nice that our theatre is attached to our hotel, with a big shopping center right beside it, for all our sundry needs.

We've had three days of rehearsal before today. The kids retained a LOT during the weeks we were away -- in fact, the only things that really needed polishing were some staging details (which steps of the staircase we stand on, etc) that had been forgotten. By the dress rehearsal last night things were pretty much in place except for some funny and uncontrollable details, like the guitar not being tuned properly and setting us up in completely the wrong key for some songs!

The heat has been a bit of a problem, as well. My conjecture is that Harbin is considered a "cold" city, so air-conditioning isn't needed as often, and when it does exist, it doesn't need to work very well or get very cold! Unfortunately, when we're sitting backstage in layers of costumes, and the temperature outside is in the uppers 80s not counting humidity, we wish the air-conditioning worked a lot better! After spending a week in Shanghai with beautiful 70-degree weather (but rainy), it's hard to deal with weather hotter than that, especially in costumes! But don't let me complain - it's wonderful to be doing the show again. Everything is falling into place, the new people are being incorporated (new child wrangler, production manager, conductor, and more) quite well, and the show has come together again! Now we all hope for a nice, long run through next fall!

More later - time to get ready for rehearsal.

Return to China!

I am back in China as of today, June 20, 2008. It feels familiar, feels right, feels like home! Clearly my past weeks in China have been a positive experience overall. But first: a few words about the time before our return to China:

After leaving Tioman Island, Analisa, Maddy, and I traveled to Singapore for a few days, just for fun. Imagine our delight to find that our hostel, which was located in a bad part of town up a really grimy, filthy set of outside stairs, was immaculate, new, bright and sparkly, and had air-conditioning and free Wifi! Who could ask for anything more? We had a private 3-bed room all to ourselves, and we weren't very social travelers because it was so nice staying in our room, addicted to the free internet. We spent a lot of time at the Bugis Mall in Singapore, which is a huge shopping area -- both an indoor mall and an outdoor street market, which would have been amazing to me if it had been air-conditioned! The three of us split up so we could do whatever we wanted, and met for dinner in the food court the first evening. This was no ordinary food court: this was amazing! It had every type of food, Asian, and non-Asian, you could imagine, a "drinks court," a dessert court ... everything! I was in the mood for pesto, so we all ended up getting incredible pasta dishes that were cooked right before our eyes. Analisa and I topped the evening off with gelato, just because it looked so delicious.

On our last night in Singapore, we met up with Christine and her husband Danny for a highly-recommended Mexican meal and movies! The food was incredible, and these crazy people I am traveling with decided to go on a gigantic swing and bungy jump (in an enclosed cage). I don't know how to describe it, except that it was huge and very high in the air, and just thinking about it made my heart pound! I was happy to be the Friend-You-Hate* and just watch them, taking photos and videos. After the adventure, we all went to see movies at the theatre: Prince Caspian for 3 of us, and Sex and the City for the other two. It was a very Americanized evening, lots of fun!

After Singapore, we headed to Kuala Lumpur, where we met up with Greg and got our new hostel. No free internet there, but it was quite nice, our bedroom had AC, and I really couldn't complain about it. The best thing was the location: we were just around the corner from the huge Berjaya Times Square mall, which had Starbucks (free internet), Orange Julius, Baskin Robbins, Auntie Annie's Pretzels, Borders Books, all sorts of shopping, and an indoor theme park! The first thing we did in KL was buy tickets to the theme park and ride the roller coaster, which was my first ever upside down roller coaster! Nice to reach that achievement with this group of friends. We did more wandering, shopping, and eating, with one dinner at Outback Steakhouse and another at Chilis! So bad, but ... we're preparing for 5 more months in Asia, and we won't always have Americanized food nearby, so we needed the splurge. This was especially necessary after all those weeks on the island, where the food was incredibly good, but repetitive.

Today we left those two English-speaking countries and returned to China: Shanghai, to be exact. When we arrived at the Shanghai airport, I immediately felt at home: I couldn't understand what anyone was saying, and they couldn't understand me! How neat! I'm not joking -- there is some element of adventure and mystery in barely being able to communicate, and I hadn't realized how much fun that was for me until I left Singapore and Malaysia. This country feels so right to me, after all the time I've spent here. (There is something ironic about that, since our layoff is now officially longer than the time we spent actually on tour!)

We flew into Hangzhou and took a 3-hr "bus" ride to Shanghai. We purchased our tickets on the plane, and arrived to discover that our bus was actually a large van. There were at least 11 people, all with luggage (some huge, like ours), trying to ride this van, and I didn't think we'd get on, but after some clever luggage packing and stacking, we did! I was sitting in the back next to Maddy and a huge stack of suitcases and backpacks, very cozy .. but we made it! (China is making me more aware of my slight claustrophobia and people-claustrophobia: I don't like to have people all around me!)

We got dropped off at the bus station, where a taxi/van driver immediately found us and offered us a ride. While we were at the airport, we had had someone from the bus company translate our hotel name and address into Chinese characters, so we'd be able to show it to our taxi driver. He quoted a price (80RMB), and we were off! It was a pleasant drive. Unfortunately Number 118 Nanchang St was not a hotel -- he made me get out of the van and have a look for myself. After some phone calls, some map consulting (by us), and some yelling, we discovered that the bus company had mistranslated our hotel address: It was Nancang St, not Nanchang St, but we had no way of knowing that was wrong, because we couldn't read the Chinese characters! Finally, with a new price (a whopping 180RMB), we got to our actual hotel and checked in. We were sharing two rooms among the four of us. This hotel is rated 4 stars online, so we were pretty excited! I stepped into the room I will be sharing with Greg, and discovered the bathroom -- with one wall completely of glass! Striped glass, not frosted glass, so where the white stripes are not, you can see into the bathroom from the room: bathtub, separate shower, toilet, and all. Now I can see a romantic element to a bathtub with a glass wall, perhaps in a honeymoon suite, but a toilet that you can see from the bedroom? Is that ever necessary or desired? I doubt it. Clearly this was going to be awkward since I was sharing the room with Greg, who is like a brother to me. The tub was placed along the glass wall, and had a shower curtain, but no matter how you pulled it, it wouldn't cover the entire wall. Finally, we made several phone calls and were able to convey our (my!) problem, and we got housekeeping to hang a second shower curtain, so we can now cover the entire glass wall! It's still a bit weird, but private now. Thank goodness! Who puts a toilet behind a glass wall, I ask you? I do not understand.

Other than that little detail, the room is quite nice, although a bit small. No complaints here, for the price we are paying! We'll be here 8 nights, and I think we plan to take it easy and just enjoy ourselves, without necessarily scheduling things to do every day, in this remaining time before the tour starts again. I'm very excited to see everyone else, and to be back performing (and earning money!) again! It's coming so soon, just 9 days now.

This blog will hopefully be updated more often as soon as tour starts up again, so check back soon!

*Friend-You-Hate: a term I coined myself. Might have previously been used on this blog, but to refresh your memory, a Friend-You-Hate is not a literal meaning. It is a person who comes along on a trip or adventure and takes photos!

Malaysia update - finally!

I wrote this on June h, but I haven't been on my own computer since then, so I'm posting it now. More posts to come soon, because we are in Singapore with free internet in our hostel! Amazing!

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Here I lie on my bed in the hut I share with Christine, and I feel the need to update you loyal readers on the adventures I have experienced in the past three weeks.

Tonight marks exactly three weeks that I have been in Malaysia. I flew here on May 13, met Christine in Kuala Lumpur, and we traveled together (a harrowing day!) from mainland Malaysia, on two buses and a vomit-inducing ferry, to this island off the eastern side. We left our KL hotel on the morning of May 16 and caught a bus to Kluang. We were supposed to get a bus right to Mersing, which is where the ferry departs, but there was only one seat left, so we asked for bus tickets somewhere nearby! We spent almost 3 hours in the bus station playing cards, scrabble word games, and talking, until our bus departed. Malaysian bus drivers are nearly as scary as Chinese ones, I note. Many times Christine and I had to close our eyes, clutching each others' hands, because we thought an accident was inevitable, and we didn't want to see it happen!

When we got to Kluang, which was a bus station in the middle of nowhere, random men kept asking where we were going -- potentially they were cab drivers -- but we asked at the bus station window, and it turned out that there was a bus leaving for Mersing in 5 minutes! They didn't even have time to open the luggage area so we could put our massive bags on, so we lifted them onto the nearly-empty bus seats and sat near them. That began our second bus ride, which was even scarier than our first -- windy roads taken at a very high speed. At one point a large number of schoolkids boarded the bus, and our luggage was taking up needed seats! There wasn't much we could do, but the kids were nice and helped us figure out where to get off in Mersing. As soon as we got off the bus, someone asked us, "Tioman Island?" Why, yes! We went into a little travel agency sort of office, and were told that the last boat to Tioman left in 5 minutes. Perfect! I was so glad we'd get to the island that night and not have to wait until the next morning.

We bought our ferry tickets, and the woman asked us about accommodation, but we weren't sure if Chris Ketner had indeed reserved us a hut on the island as we had hoped. The woman said that there was only one room available in the whole place (it was a big holiday weekend), and it was on the 5-star resort and very expensive! We decided to take our chances and hope that Chris had a room for us. We ran into the store/restaurant next door for snacks, and found only water and soymilk (for energy?), then came back and got on a van that took us to the jetty.

We boarded the ferry, which was so crowded (again - holiday weekend) that we had to sit on Christine's soft duffel bag in the AISLE! The boat started moving ... but it wasn't a forward movement -- it was a deep side to side dipping motion. I immediately began to feel bad, but not exactly queasy. I think it was a combination of extreme jet lag and little sleep. This was really one of the worst transportation experiences I have ever known. At one point a little girl and her dad got up (probably to vomit in the bathroom), and some schoolkids moved around, and there was an open seat, so Christine put me in it in hopes that it would make me feel better. Then she got a seat herself, and we were all set. I spend the 2 hours on that boat with my eyes closed, slowly counting backwards from 1000 to 1. It worked! Shortly after I got to 1, I opened my eyes. Two children had vomited near me, in front of me (on other peoples' luggage, lovely). But the island was there! We could see it! Our "resort" was the fourth stop, and we got off. It was about 8 by then, and we had no idea if we had a place to stay, or how to find the other people we knew on the island, but we started wandering around with our luggage along the road/path, world-weary. We asked some people if they knew where Greg and Maddy were, but they didn't, but they did recognize Analisa's name. Finally, as we walked back and forth even more, someone at a chalet reception desk said, "Christine?" Yes? "Christine, really?" Yes! Well, Chris HAD booked a room for us! Thank you, Chris, you saved us. Johan's Chalets had been told to look out for a tall, pale redhead, so they found us! (That refers to her, not me...) We put our bags in our lovely hut and headed to the restaurant for the most amazing fish dinner I've ever had. Later, we found Greg and Maddy, and Michael and Priscilla, and everyone that we know who is staying on this island, and had a number of good talks with them.

Well! That was the first day, and now it's been three weeks. How have I spent my time? The first week was pretty busy experiencing everything there is on the island, trying different restaurants (there are only a few), biking and walking to Tekek, the next town over, which has a bank and some more stores. I also got open water (scuba) dive certified, which took four days and was very exciting and a little scary! We did a lot of snorkeling, which I particularly enjoy because the salt water just kills my eyes, and a snorkel mask protects me - to some extent. Every evening we all meet at Sunset Cafe to - what else - watch the sunset, eat pizza and drink beer or milkshakes (that's me!), and talk. It's so peaceful and easy to be here!

I got to celebrate my birthday here, and we spent the day having meals with friends, snorkeling, making batik sarongs, and having a bonfire on the beach. John Baker (Uncle Max) designed my batik, then it was waxed onto fabric, then I painted it with color, it was soaked in a special wash, and then I got to take it with me! Maddy and Christine also made ones that day, and John made his own the next day. It was so much fun, even though we were absolutely dripping: 97 degrees in the shade, not to mention the humidity. We are 200 miles from the equator, so it gets quite hot.

I've been struggling a lot with sunburn. I hate sunscreen, but of course I wear it every day because I absolutely have to -- and I burn right through it! I sweat it off, even though it's sweat-proof, or it comes off in water, even though it's waterproof, or something else ... and I've gotten some interesting sunburns! I have a really bad one right now, but that's because four of us had an adventure in the last two days.

Maddy, Analisa, Christine, and I decided to trek over the mountain that covers most of this island and separates the west side (highly populated) from the east side, which is very sparsely populated and has one village, Juara. The trek goes through the rainforest and takes about 2 hours. We set off yesterday morning and walked to Tekek, which is where the road starts, then headed up the mountain. Some of it was real so-called bushwhacking, walking along a tiny path mostly overgrown with greenery, but much of it was cement stairsteps going up the mountain -- so tiring! Of course, we've all been lazy on the beach here (except Analisa and Maddy sometimes go running, and Christine will too when the sea urchins in her foot start to behave), so none of us was used to an exhausting uphill hike in the heat! It was quite nice once we got into the rainforest, which was shady and almost cool. We saw wild (?) cows, and had a view of the Juara beach from the top of the mountain, although most of the time our view was obscured by the trees. Finally, our hike ended in a long, steeply sloping downhill road, where we were overtaken by a number of vans (where do they go in Tekek? Not down those stairs!). We got to Juara and walked around trying to find a place to stay and a place to eat. It's so unpopulated, compared to ABC (where we live now) and our entire side of the island, we had no idea if we had walked through the "town," or if we needed to walk to it. Finally, we were tired of walking, so we found a cute place to stay and booked two chalets (nicer than Analisa's and Maddy's here, but not as nice as Christine's and mine, since we splurged on AC). We ate lunch there and met the woman's tame pet monkey, then played in the water most of the afternoon.

After a few rounds of cards, we walked back to the "center" of town (or so it seemed) for dinner, and got delicious and expensive fish and french fries -- a bit of a splurge. It was so beautiful and peaceful there! It's peaceful here, too, but there are just more people around, all the time -- not crowded at all. Just people. Juara was much more desolate. This morning we woke up early because of the heat in our hut, got breakfast, and hiked back home, which seemed much harder, although in this direction we were walking UP the steep road and DOWN the cement stairs, which was probably less tiring -- not counting the way our muscles were already feeling after yesterday!

We were dripping with sweat after about 5 minutes of walking, and made it home completely drenched! As I said to Christine, "Why shower? We're all wet!" Then I promptly took a shower. Now I'll have air-conditioning (aircon, which is its own word here) for one more lovely night, then I will move to Johan's, the "resort" where we spent our first two weeks, and I'll live in my own private non AC hut for the last week here. Next Saturday our plan is to leave Tioman and head to Singapore for a few days, just for the fun of it. (Christine and I took a two-day trip to Singapore last week, which was so much fun! We got to see Indiana Jones and have real movie popcorn and root beer, and we bought -- wait for it -- double stuf oreos!) This time it will be Analisa and Maddy with me, and possibly Greg. After Singapore, we'll make our way by bus to Kuala Lumpur, where we'll stay for another few days before we fly to China and return to tour -- again, a few days early to allow for any travel problems. Then the tour begins again! After this extended hiatus, though it has been amazing, I think we're all very excited to begin performing again!

Huge change in plans!

Well, here I am in the Hong Kong airport. What am I doing in the Hong Kong airport, you ask? It's a bit of a story.

I was moping around in sunny CA, trying to figure out how to pass the time until tour starts again. We recently found out that we are delayed yet another week, because some cities got changed and canceled and everything got moved around some more. The good news is we have potentially added Indonesia or the Philippines back onto the schedule, and Thailand is on the schedule, for certain, as well! But it meant another week of hiatus. So ... on Sunday night I was chatting on Skype with lovely Christine (Maria), who stayed in China during the hiatus. She was going to fly to Malaysia this week to join several others from tour who are spending the break on an island there. We sort of toyed with the idea of my flying back early to join her and travel to the island with her, spending the rest of my break in Malaysia. I looked up some flights, found an amazing deal, and realized it could be done!

Get this: we talked Sunday night. I went to sleep and thought about the idea. Woke up Monday and asked my parents their opinions. Got their FULL support. Bought a plane ticket Monday morning for a departure Tuesday night! Yes, in 2 short days my life has changed completely! And my parents are absolutely awesome for supporting this idea so completely. (I think my mom is more excited than I am, if that's possible.)

Last night my mom drove me to the San Francisco airport, and we were so early that we parked near the water and walked around, watching flights take off and land for a while in the evening. It was nice! Then I waited around the airport for a while, checked in, and waited for my red-eye flight. When I was going through security, with my hair in french braids, my pink sparkly shoes, and my hot pink duffel bag, the nice gate agent said kindly, "Where is your family? Are you all alone?" and I said, "Yes ... I'm older than I look!" Then he looked at my passport, saw my birthday, started chuckling, and said, "I see what you mean. Well, you're lucky!" and we both laughed.

The flight was quite painless, and I have high recommendations for Cathay Pacific airlines. I have never flown in a plane with seats that reclined back so far! (And I fly a lot...so that's saying something!) I was able to scrunch my legs up on the seat, turn completely sideways, and sleep as if I was in a bed sleeping on my side. Quite nice! I slept on and off for an hour or two at a time (this is coming from a girl who does not sleep on planes), and the 14-hr flight to Hong Kong passed quite quickly! The meals were good, and they gave us hot steamed pork buns as a snack, which was one of the most delicious things ever. (I thank my best friend Reed for introducing me to them, long ago.)

Arrived in Hong Kong and transfered to my next flight to Kuala Lumpur. I'm in the airport now, and we'll be boarding in about 20 minutes. I'll meet Christine at the airport (her flight comes in a bit after mine), and we'll go to a hotel in the city for the night, then head out tomorrow on a bus and a ferry to Tioman Island, where many of my favorite cast members are currently staying!

I have never before taken a vacation and traveled entirely for fun. I even declined a family trip to Hawaii when I was in college, for some reason. (I stayed home and took care of our dog, by choice.) This is completely new to me, and I am thrilled! I'll even get to spend my birthday with my friends in Malaysia - it's next Tuesday. Then we'll hang out for the rest of the time until tour starts again, head back into China, and continue our travels. And I won't even have to deal with jet lag, because I'll already be here! What fun.

I'm also realizing how much I enjoy Asia, being here in Hong Kong. Of course, it's an international airport, and there are people from all over the world, but I just found that I felt so comfortable on my flight here, with mostly Chinese or other Asian passengers ... after being in China for that time, it just feels right somehow, even though I don't speak the language or anything!

I just had a Starbucks mocha (those of you who know me have heard me wax eloquent about the quality of Starbucks, especially their chocolate drinks, in China as compared to in the US), and it was indeed delicious! It's 8:25 a.m. here in Hong Kong, 5:25 p.m. back in California, and I needed the caffeine to try to be awake all day and adjust to the time difference quickly. That's my goal, although we have no obligations except resting and playing on the island, so it won't matter if I sleep all the time! What fun. I might not have internet too often while on the island, but I'll try to write when I can. The adventures begin again!

Photos from the show

Since I have unlimited internet at the moment, I thought I'd take the time to post a bunch of photos from the show. Some of these may have been posted before. Enjoy!

Hiatus!

In case you are wondering why I haven't posted on my blog in a while, it's because we are on a hiatus for a few weeks! This hiatus was a surprise for certain people in my life, so I didn't want to advertise it. I will write again when things start up soon, or ... whenever I feel like it! Check back...

Day at East Lake

Yesterday was a Golden Day (day off, for those who don't know the lingo), so Christine, Oleg, and I went to East Lake for the afternoon. We walked along the edge of the lake, climbed stairs up the mountain to the pagoda, went down a giant slide, and had a generally good time. Here are some photos!

Loving the show

Have I mentioned how much I love doing this show nearly every night? What a wonderful, lucky life we all lead here! We had a 2-show day on Saturday, and Elita, our girl swing, was going in as Gretl for the matinee. This made the show so much fun, and such high energy, not only because she is good, but because there was a change that made things seem fresh and new. It was also probably the hottest day, at least inside the theatre, that we have experienced so far in China. My costumes now smell, thanks to our Saturday matinee performance.

Although we were all caricatures of the Wicked Witch of the West ("I'm mellllllting!!!"), the show was amazing! The kids all had extremely high energy, which rubbed off on other cast members, and it all came together perfectly. Everyone was just so happy! Between shows, a few of us decided to eat at the KFC (I know, shame on us) across the park from the theatre.

After we sat down with our food, three young Chinese girls came up to our table. Analisa, who has actually learned quite a few Chinese phrases, said to them, "Ni hao ma," which means "How are you?" The girls answered, and laughed, and said something back, and Analisa said in Chinese, "I don't understand." One of the girls scowled, and Analisa scowled back, and they walked away. But they kept coming back to our table, and Analisa kept practicing her phrases on them, which they would either answer (we couldn't understand), or repeat what she had said to them, laughing, or scowl. Then I said "Wuo ai ni" (I love you) to them, and another of the girls started laughing and said in a thick accent back to us, "I laff yoo! I laff yoo!" I remembered that I do know a few choice phrases in Chinese, taught to me by my beloved Chinese-speaking friends, Reed and Shuo, so I practiced them. I said, "You are sweet, like juice," and they repeated it back to me. Then I said to the scowling girl, "You are salty, like an elephant," and she knuckled me on the head with her fist. I guess I got that one right! Then I said, "Watch the ghost defeat you. Who is that ghost? I am that ghost!" And I don't think they understood it, because they just repeated it back to me, wonderingly.

Meanwhile, Analisa was practicing her (actually useful) Chinese phrases with them and trying to have a conversation. All of the other patrons in the restaurant were turned toward us, laughing, and some were sending their kids over to wave at us and say, "Ni hao!" It was a lot of fun. Also, I ordered the coffee sundae, which is not a sundae at all, but unsweetened coffee with soft serve ice cream in it, and it was soooo good. I was in a great mood, and wide awake, after that!

We had the second show that night, and we were determined to recreate the positive, high energy performance that we had had in the daytime -- and we did! I don't know what did it. Once again, it was sweltering backstage, and we were all sticking to our costumes and having trouble with quick changes because sleeves would stick to our arms, and so on.

The next day was Sunday, and we only had an evening show. There was a press conference in the morning for the seven von Trapp kids, two swings, and Captain and Maria. We were bused at 9:40 a.m. (ouch!) to an outdoor place, where a clown on stilts held a basket for us to shoot a basketball into, then another clown gave us balloon animals when we made the shot. We went inside and sat down for a bit, and autographed some CDs of the Sound of Music soundtrack, to give as gifts. Then we went back outside and sat in chairs. There was a dance performance - three little girls and three little boys, all about 8 years old, did a rather ... "mature" ... dance to the song, "She bangs." I think a dance teacher in the U.S. would be condemned for letting a child that young dance in that way -- but it was cute, in a strange way! The girls were dressed in flashy, tiny miniskirts, and halter tops or little tube tops, with lots of makeup, glitter, sequins, and glittery foil false eyelashes. The boys wore tight shiny pants and loose shirts with low, open necks. After that dance performance, we came up onstage and we sang Do Re Mi along with the movie soundtrack (which was quite funny), while children presented us with flower bouquets. Then we saw a family presentation: a man whistled songs with his fingers in his mouth, while his wife played the accordion, his adult daughter sang, and her 2-yr-old boy looked around in wonder. It was so cute! I wanted to take the little boy home. Then they asked Michael (Captain von Trapp) if he would like to learn to whistle like that. He said sure, put some Purell on his hands, and climbed onto the stage. The announcer said something in Chinese, and then the translator said, "You will sing Edelweiss, while he whistles -- with YOUR finger." Michael looked shocked, but being a good sport, he offered up his finger. The whistling man put Michael's finger in his mouth, and Michael attempted to sing Edelweiss and not be distracted by the fact that his finger was in another man's mouth. The whistler then whistled along to the song, in an entirely different key. It was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time, and I couldn't stop laughing! Afterwards, my cheeks hurt from laughing so much. Then, Michael shook off his hand, came offstage, and applied more Purell. There was another dance performance -- a little girl and boy performing to Latin music. Then we all went back up for the gift exchange: boys and girls brought us stuffed animals of the Olympic mascots, and we gave them our signed CDs (of the movie cast). Then we had a strange event: the Chinese kids tried to teach us all phrases, and we were supposed to act out a scene of children going off to school, leaving their parents. We learned "Mama," "Daddy," "Goodbye," and a few other phrases that weren't actually translated for us. We sang Do Re Mi with these kids, then grouped together for a big photo, and finally, the bus brought us back to our hotel.

Once we were back, I went upstairs to Skype-chat with my parents for a while, and I managed to get Oleg (our Ukrainian clarinetist) and Christine (Maria) on to meet them for a bit. That was quite fun. Then I had some time alone in the room -- my roommate was still upstairs using internet -- so I turned on some music and started making lists of things to do and think about -- the kinds of silly things that I think about late at night when I should be falling asleep, but am not falling asleep because I am thinking about things. Ah, insomnia, my friend. I was lazy in the room for the afternoon, which was quite nice, and then went to the evening show.

It hit me, during Do Re Mi last night, how much I enjoy doing The Sound of Music six million times. It never gets tired or old for me. This is my third time doing the show, and certainly the longest run, and I just love it. It puts me in a good mood, I love the cast, both onstage and off, and I feel so lucky to have this lifestyle for the next seven months!