Working Hard

Matthew's been working hard. They've had 2 run-through a day, some with costumes .  Everyone seems thrilled with the production.  Today the children that won a local contest (500 auditioned!!) to sing "Do Re Mi" at the end of opening night rehearsed today in costume.  They were fabulous, the youngest one is 5.  Matthew introduced himself to the "Chengdu Friedrich", nice kid!  We found out the company is starting to finalize more of the schedule...and some new COUNTRIES could be added!  Woohoo!  Today they went on a field trip to Wenshu Monastery. Kevin, the tutor had a questionnaire for the kids to do, the kids had a blast.  We were walking through the Monastery when we heard, "Friedrich" and there was Laura from the Chengdu Foreign Language School with an exchange student from Florida!  She's very sweet. 

Today's paper (3-27-08)

I'm still amazed to see how the traffic flows...although flow isn't quite the right word for it!  Today's paper had a photo of our kids answering question in the 7th grade advanced english class yesterday.  If you notice, the last paragraph has Matthew's and Michelle's name in English a couple of times so I tracked down one of the backstage translators to translate the paragraph for me..."After performance, the actors of Sound of Music were surrounded by Chinese students. The oldest blonde boy Matthew was the most popular one.  A girl gave him a gift box which contained a towel in it.  There was an English name "Michelle" on his towel.  Matthew was surprised and said, "you should know my name.  I am Matthew, although it doesn't matter!"  "Sorry...Michelle is MY name..."  Matthew showed an embarrassing expression and then the whole class was full of laugh!  The reporter asked him, "Have you ever accepted any gift from our fans?" He winked at the reporter, said "This is my first time."

Now, Matthew swears he never winked!!!

Chengdu Foreign Language School Press Conference

What a great event!  The kids got to visit the Chengdu Foreign Language School.  It is a 5,800 (!!!!) student school from 7th through 12th grade.  Most are residential but some are commuters from Chengdu. They put on a fun and entertaining show for the kids. Our kids sang "Do Re Mi" the students were disappointed that our kids didn't sing more, but we didn't have Maria, Lisl nor Louisa with us and most of the songs are full of their parts too!

After the show...well, all I can say is...Matt was a Rock Star!!!! He was very personable and comfortable with the press as well as the students.  As one girl put it "He's beautiful and he's famous all over China!" One girl Michelle, was so sweet, had a gift for Matthew and the press ran with it!  I was so proud of how he handled it!  He's beginning to realize how special this opportunity really is!

Panda visit news clip

Carter (Zachary's Dad) found he television news clip of our visit to see the Pandas.  It loads a kind of slow and the SOMA part starts at about 3:30.  Enjoy! 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! The kids had rehearsal this morning but then had a surprise.  Radar Rabbit, the Stage Manager, showed up with a basket full of American Easter candy! he kids were thrilled.  Then after a quick lunch we went with the American Commercial Consul's family to "Military Park"  The kids had a ball playing Frisbee and baseball with other expats (ex patriots, aliens, we're the foreigners).  They would have stayed there all night except we had to get home to see the Chines Opera a type of variety show with several traditional skits and music.  We were pooped when we got home!  Then Monday was Move-In-Day at the main theatre. It's huge and beautiful, the theatre and the set.  I've never seen the amount of sound and light equipment that was around, and the costumes were aplenty!

Chengdu News

Here are some newspaper articles that have come out since we've arrived. It's great!  We'd be walking down the streets and people will point and say "DO, Re, Mi"! And we smile and say "YES!!!" "Neehow" (hello) It's so special! The kids have been on the news station several nights, either singing or being interviewed. The Sound of Music is only the 2nd Broadway Musical to ever come to Chengdu...Cats was the first! Can't wait until opening night!

Wenshu Monastery

Yesterday (March 21, 2008)  the mom's got to go see the Wenshu Monastery.  Now I feel like I'm really in China!

Wenshu Monastery is a Buddhist monastery in central Chengdu and is dedicated to the God of Wisdom. Wenshu and was founded during the Tang dynasty that lasted from 618 to 907 AD. Most of the buildings date back to the 17th century and at present Wenshu Monastery is the biggest temple in Chengdu with almost two hundred buildings within the complex. These temples feature works of art, carvings and over four hundred Buddhist statues. More eccentric exhibits comprise a Bodhivista embroidered from human hair, books written by 19th century monks using their own blood and the skull of Xuan Zang who was a famous Tang dynasty Buddhist master." We weren't really allowed to take pictures so I only have pics of the buildings and gardens but the Buddist Statues were amazing.  I'm hoping we have time to take Matthew to see this before we leave.

Matthew has had rehearsal every day including today (Saturday) from 10-1, lunch is 1-2, and then school is 2-6ish.  Yesterday the press came to take pictures and interview the kids about their schooling.  Hopefully it will be in the paper tomorrow! Today the kids will be going to the local Science Museum.

Chengdu Press Conference

So it's Monday morning, we slept 12 hours last night! Woohoo! It's a good thing because the kids have a  We met the American Consul's family; nice kids. The kids news conference.  started school today also.  The mothers all walked around Chengdu.  It's very smoggy around here, I hope someday we'll see the sun! Crossing the street is sooo scary. Drivers do not stop if they take a right so when you walk across the street you are truly taking your life in your hands, come to think of it they don't stop when they're taking a left either! Plus the bikes and mopeds (and there are tons of them)have their own lanes so it's like crossing 3 two way streets at a time and clearly pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way.  I'm not sure if they even have lanes unless there are cones up!

Pandas and more Press!

Today the kids had rehearsal and got to go see the Pandas.  Matt really wanted to hold one but we ran out of time (and we were at the mercy of the press) so we hope to return another time to hold one.    The moms have been walking around Chengdu trying to see as much as we can the people are really nice and love to try out their english.  We get Kit or Kat (yes, those are their names) our company interpreters to write messages down for example for us to hand a taxi driver, or to the news stand people when we're looking for a specific paper) and it's amazing how many of the older generation don't read. The current chinese written language was simplified in 1949 and many of the older generations don't know how to read it!  I am currently trying to learn Chinese script and Matthew is doing the Rosetta Stone program in his class.  Both are very difficult!

Arriving in Chengdu

We're here! It was interesting checking in our bags and it was quite the plane ride, 16 hours from JFK in NYC to Shanghai and the 4 a four hour flight to Chengdu after a 4 hour layover ! When we got into Chendu airport the press was there to meet the cast! The buses were great too!

The hotel's pretty nice. The room is much bigger than any room in NYC! he time difference is 12 hours so when we're getting up around 7:30 am our time you all are just finishing dinner the night before! Amazing!