Under Hot Conditions (China Part Two)

Before I begin I have one question: How DEAD do I look in this picture?

I title this picture: "Jet Lag"

(Look how blood shot my eyes are... oye)

I usually -- don't look that... strung out in the morning. Oh, but this was taken at like 4pm this afternoon. It's sexy... 

Anyway - so I have many a story about the whole musical aspect of the trip to China to share with all of you :)

Overall I thought the production went really really well. For those of you who don't know - we put on a Musical Drama with the Hubei Dance and Orchestra Company. It's titled, "The Dream of Helen" and is about Helen Foster Snow's compassion toward the Chinese people in the earlier part of the 1900s. 

When we arrived it wasn't long before we started rehearsing with the dancers. Like day three. And we were set up really oddly in the pit in the theatre. So instead of the brass on the side with the percussion, it was the woodwinds. So essentially -- I had the piccolo player, and Dr. Vartan on Timpani in the same ear and in the space less than three feet away from me. It was loud - especially with the composer (Lou) wanted us to play "A-thousand forte." I've never, in my life, been asked so many times... to play louder. Ever.

To make it even more... traumatizing (?), Dr. Vartan has this particular part toward the very very end of the production where she hits these two eighth notes at the end of the measure... for a while. It's super catchy, but super loud. It was rather jolting. And the Piccolo has these obscenely high trills (like sounding two octaves over anything else that is going on) during the nightmare part of the end of the show and... that was always so wonderful to hear. It's okay though -- I laughed on this inside because she did a really good job and I feel her pain.

We moved to the really nice theatre for a dress/tech rehearsal on the Friday and Saturday before we left to come back to the States. There's something about the people of Wuhan you need to understand. It's hot and humid. To me, almost unbearably so. And they won't turn the AC on until it's time to rehearse. So, if you're like Tashina, Heather and myself and want to run through some fast passages BEFORE rehearsal -- you're going to sweat half your body weight off... 

But my ultimate point is that when you've got a full orchestra in a pit and don't turn the AC on before we all cram in there... we're NEVER going to feel the air. Ever. We're just going to sweat, and blow hot air through the woodwinds and brass and then we're going to start stinking and we're going to be pissed off and we're not going to play our best. Poor brass guys and having to find partials... I was slipping on my instrument...

I've decided to get all my more depressing stories out of the way before I talk about the funny ones. The principle violist. Was a guy. And he had a really beautiful solo in one of the parts, but the composer decided to change it to a Cello solo -- for volume, richness of sound, whatever. And, something about that killed me!

There's something about his face, and his mannerism that caught me off guard a bit. He was so quiet, and he wasn't fidgety, but I could tell when he was uncomfortable because he would sort of play with his hands, or with his bow. And I would just want to cry -- and here's the weird part. He's a grown man, and he's probably just quiet and just going with the flow. This is the way the world works right? But he looked... so sad. It killed me...

And I'm just going to say this quickly - due to intense heat and another performance looming merely hours later -- we totally screwed up big time like three or four times during the Matinee performance the fourth day we were performing...

Sweat. We were like 60 sardines.

Oh -- not to mention the Stairs of Doom

One of the highlights, for me, was getting the opportunity to play the Native American Flute part on the Funeral March part of the production. I guess Helen's body guard dies, and the whole scene is just the N.A. Flute and Helen dancing and stuff like that. To keep with the symbolism of sharing our cultures, Lydia got to play a few parts on these flutes but I only played this particular one. It's sad, and depressing. It sighs but it's beautiful, too. I felt like I was milking it for all it's worth and I want to thank the other musicians from SUU who went too for their support and their compliments. I always looked forward to playing that.

On a funnier note, the Flute had to get passed from Lydia to myself in a matter of a few minutes. It went through about seven people before it would get to me and the person who handed it to me was always the first oboe player. He has a really good sense of humor. One night, he tried to hand me his oboe instead. I laughed, because I think it's very clever and funny. However, part of me panicked like "Um... give me the flute. Now."

Because I'm sort of intense like that.

And there was a night where it ended up in the Low Brass section to get passed... and they wanted to keep it.  Go figure. The BRASS PEOPLE messing with me! Even in China!

There was also this one part - where the Cello's totally grooved out to their part, which was just the beat. They drove the melody and other things that were going on right there. I think it was just accented, short, quarter notes. But ... haha... they loved every single second of it!!!! It was fun to watch....

One of my favorite quotes of the trip:

"Piccolos happen." - Mike

I Dug My Hole to China (China Trip Part 1)

So, while I was in China I had this thought a few times... remembering being a little girl and the saying about digging your way to China. Especially at the beach when I used to dig a hole that miraculously filled with water...

Anyway - I went to China. Flew there... didn't tunnel there.

But before I talk about our traveling experiences I would like to just give a huge shout out to Dr. Lynn Vartan. She was amazing to travel with and helped make an otherwise all around irritating experience very fun.

Flying to China is no small feat. By the way. Especially when there's a group of 6 - 7 people together and we all have various instruments to handle and keep an eye on. But traveling in a group of 6-7 musicians has the potential to be very uniquely entertaining.

For example...

We all had to meet in St. George at like 10:00am on July 8th to take the shuttle down to the Las Vegas airport. From what I remember that's not all that entertaining. We were all very excited - Mike hadn't slept the previous night. I was a little on edge about a few personal things, but all in all -- calm.

But Dr. Vartan definitely let us  know that we were going to be arriving in Las Vegas airport like four hours before our flight to LA took off and we probably wouldn't be able to check in.
... and she was correct.

We haul our stuff into the check-in line where there is this lady who's directing the people in the line... probably to prevent stupidness and get people through as fast as possible. Dr. Vartan let her know that our flight wasn't taking off for a while and then the strangest thing happened.

We were corralled for twenty minutes. We were directed out of line, but ended up enclosed in this box of those ropes they use to shape the lines -- you know what I mean? I wish I knew what those were called... 

We got a big kick out of that - especially because Joe started calling Dr. Vartan "Mother Hen" by that point. We were also all being sheep and a few sheep sounds escaped from some of us at that time.

Anyway - we get through the check in very seamlessly. Then we went through security... twice. We wanted good food - which was in a different terminal. That was interesting.

We also devised a system of Points. 

Point 1: Everyone arriving in St. George
Point 2: Arriving at our gate in Las Vegas
Point 3.1: Getting our luggage in LAX
         3.2: Meeting up with Tashina at LAX
         3.3: Checking into China Southern at LAX
         3.4: Finding our gate in LAX
Point 4.1: Go through some sort of passport check/immigration in Guangzhou
         4.2: Check in our luggage
         4.3: Get through security
         4.4: Find our gate
Point 5: Getting picked up in Wuhan

Those might not exactly be the point system we used at the time - but they work! The points are basically a count down until Dr. V was no longer responsible for us.

"They're here! They're alive! I'm done!" 
"One, two, three, four, five, six!" (before meeting up with Tashina)
"One, two, three, four, five, six... and Tashina" (after meeting up with Tashina)

But I can't forget about our experience in Guangzhou. We got off the international flight pretty quickly and we have to re-check-in our luggage. It's hard to remember exactly why, because the tags were already on them to go to Wuhan, but we had to pick them up and take them somewhere else.

Anyway, we're going with the flow with our luggage and we find the lines to give them our luggage. And everyone is a mob in the middle of the room and we're about to join them when Joe says, "Hey... nobody's in that line," and points to what seems to be the correctly labelled line. So we stand in it.

And end up making quite a few people pretty upset. I'll leave it at that.

Then we head to security. And all of the sudden... people start "merging." This didn't make a whole lot of sense to us until we drove in China. But in order to get through security without being "cut" like a million times, we had a formation. And we had to be quiet. And not laugh. And it was all very serious...

We had instruments to arm us... so it was okay.

And eventually Dr. V's responsibilities ended (at least until the trip back) and we were picked up in Wuhan and driven to the Logosun Hotel.

I have one question: How do the Chinese drive like that and why didn't I see any accidents during my entire stay there?

Now to talk about the trip back:

"Do you know how many points are between now and Vegas? LIKE  NINE!"

We traveled with Dean Mendini and the dancers on the way back, but still hovered around Dr. V and stayed pretty close. The trip from Wuhan to Guangzhou wasn't bad at all, but I swear I was going to kill somebody on the International flight back to LAX.

First of all (and this is going to be a rant - I gave you fair warning) I'm six feet tall. I'm also NOT the tallest person I know so there are more than enough tall individuals in the world to make airplanes that don't smash us!!! Seriously. 

Also - people in Asia are generally smaller. So I GUESS I understand... just a little bit... why I had no room. None. Worst international flight ever. 

I was on the aisle seat, with Heather to my left and then Lydia by the window. Lydia... the smallest of the three of us. ;)

And this is a thirteen hour flight and I sit down and I'm like "Uh-oh." Because my knees are already jamming into the seat in front of me... and our seat backs are still in their upright position and everything. What looked like an American, older couple sat in front of Heather and I. And as usual, the nanosecond they could recline... the guy in front of my reclined all the way. 

On a side note before I go on - I feel like I'm a pretty nice and easy going person. I have patience when I need it, which includes over 13 hour flights. 

I ended up purposefully digging my knee into this man's back when we wanted to see if his seat could recline even farther. Just trying to say "HELLO! I'M RIGHT HERE!"

I was so pissed like two hours into it. haha so mad...

But it eventually ended. Eventually. 

And then we had to RUN to our connecting flight to Las Vegas. Here is what we all accomplished in an hour and a half:

- got off the international flight

- went through passport check

- Grabbed our luggage (I had managed to get ahead of most of the musicians and grabbed their luggage, too)

- Went through the a baggage inspection thing before we left the terminal completely.

- Ran to the southwest terminal (and enjoyed the cleaner and cooler air fyi)

- Met up with three "lost" dancers (they really just kind of got left in the dust)

- Checked into our flight and had lime green "late" tags put on our luggage. It was at this point that Dr. V had to stay behind to help the three dancers with their stuff and I was handed the boarding passes for everyone... guess that put me in charge for a few minutes.

- Made it through security and found our gate. All of us. Right as they started boarding.

The flight to Vegas was the most chill flight ever. It's only 45 minutes -- so my question is:

Why did I have more room on that flight than on the international one?

Here is a picture of how happy Mike and I were about: ice in our water, toilet paper in the airplane bathroom, air conditioning blasting in our faces and regularly spoken English.

A few quotes from the State side part of this trip:

"Hey it's hot... but not like in Chiiiina!" - Dr. Vartan

"We've started our initial descent into Las Vegas which means in about ten minutes we will have to collect your trash. That means your drinks, so start drinking your drinks. Thank you *awkward laughter*" - The Pilot

"Trash? Trash? Is everyone doing alright? Everyone doing okay? Trash?" - Flight Attendant.

 AAAAND Mike had a row to himself and had all three vents for the air conditioning pointed at him. LOL

And that's the end of the story

Katy's Going to China!!

So, I don't know when "packing" became synonymous with "cleaning."

Because both of these things have been absolutely necessary, yet elusive at the same time. I have been going pretty much crazy the last forty eight hours. It all started with a night that included a nightmare and only about three hours of sleep... which started an entire day that consisted of lots of productivity, hardly any food, and resulted in a very exhausted Katy.

My room was a freaking disaster area and every single time I went to pack, something came up. Every time. Every... time. -_-

I have also been seriously struggling to get my assignments for CSIS1000 done. I did get a week and a half ahead, but, unfortunately, I have to do some stuff in Wuhan. But I guess that's okay. Linux Mint is the death of me...

But, the point of this blog is to share some info before I fall off the face of the Earth (according to you people).

We are heading to St George at 9am tomorrow to catch a shuttle to McCarren airport. Our flight leaves LV at 4pm and we will arrive at LAX at 5 pm...ish.

Only to go through the International part of the airport and catch a flight to Beijing. A flight, by the way, that is about thirteen hours. But overnight. Sleep. It does a body good.

Then we have a connecting flight to Wuhan and will arrive there sometime Sunday morning their time. China is fourteen hours ahead of Utah by the way...

We start rehearsals on Monday. Probably from 9-12 and 2-5 on the weekdays. I have my part and it's not too difficult, but I will definitely need to stay engaged and I'll be exhausted at the end of the day.

Here are some pictures of after packing. I am too embarrassed to document what my room was like a mere hour before these were taken...

Ha! I Just Hit Waluigi into a Bus!

I spent the evening at Demk's house unlocking MarioKart Characters. Mind you, I was texted about it right as I was falling asleep for a much needed nap.

I walked into the house, and was literally handed the controller as Demk and Star said hello and asked why I had fallen off the face of the earth for the day. Apparently Demk had tried to get me over forty minutes before... but I have no recollection of that event.

So I sit down, and go to Mirror Mode - Star's favorite character is Rosalina. Because she's blond, wears blue and has a Star that giggles and twirls. Super cute.

And I failed. Epically!

(During Moo Moo Meadows)
Me: "It's like I'm magnetically attracted to everything that will slow me down!"
Star: "Katy, don't drive in the grass... you might stay in first if you avoid the grass"
(A few seconds go by where I find all of the grass patches and slowly drudge my way through them. Reminder that I'm the one playing because I'm supposed to be really good at this game)
Star: *laughing* "Wow..."
Me: (as I'm trying to avoid hitting the friggin' moving cows) "AH! MOO-MOO's!"

I did manage to hold down first and went on to the next race where, rather suddenly, a diagnosis came to mind.

Me: "Why do I always fail SO BAD on the third lap?"
Star: "I don't know..."
Me: "It's like I peak on the second lap or something."
Star: *giggles* "... that's what she said!"

Yeah... that's what she said...

About an hour later I'm on Moonview Highway. With traffic. And bombs. And everything that was right is left because I'm in MIRROR MODE. I have also resorted to being rather violent -- I upgraded from the light weighted Baby Daisy to the medium weighted Daisy to the heavy weighted (because of the SUPER cute Star) Rosalina once I unlocked her... JUST SO I COULD HIT THE OTHER COMPUTER PLAYERS! But I had to go back and re-do some stuff for Bowser Jr. (oh my gosh... I'm a closet chick gamer... )

So I'm barely dodging the traffic and the bombs but every once in a while the phrase "Aw, I just got ran over and now I'm FLAT!" was coming out of my mouth. With Star supportively laughing in the background while playing scrabble with Demk.

But I get into this intense smashing match with Waluigi. This usually does not happen because I'm playing against eleven computer players.

Star: "Wow..."
Me: "I know..." *manages to make Rosalina hit Waluigi into a moving bus and watch HIM go flat!*
Me: "Oh my gosh! I just hit Waluigi into a BUS!"

It was epic. Not as epic as Rosalina's star. Cutest Star in the world. One of the reasons I love Super Mario Galaxy. Because, deep down, I'm still a thirteen year old who has a soft spot for glitter and stars that giggle and twirl.

Good Night

Multiple Status Syndrome

Life is a whole big mesh pot of things that don't go together.

I blame the above statement for my inability to be content with just one or two facebook statuses per day....

Today I woke up a little earlier than normal to finish some homework... which, incidentally, also made me run behind on the whole "getting ready" regiment:

Shower. Clothes. Teeth. Face. Hair.

Put my school stuff together (mental checklist). Find my glasses, keys and wallet (which by the end of every single day are never in the same place). Leave (hopefully on time).

Now, when I initially wake up, I check my email and facebook. Saying that out loud sounds completely bizarre and almost sick, but I do. I had updated my status something like:

"TGIF! Happy July, too!"

-- because I am both excited it's Friday, and a combination of horrified and excited that it's July.

Approximately half an hour later I'm out of the shower, dressed, and I'm trying to not looked like a friggin' drowned rat! I look at my reflection and I have one thought:

"Oh my heck...I need a haircut. My hair is a MOP"

I watch my reflection crack a stupid grin because of my unusual wit.... 

But seriously... my hair was very mop-like. Flipping,waving, going... EVERYWHERE, but managing to look very heavy all at the same time. I didn't even want to begin the damage control...

But I do, chuckling to myself at weird moments (it's a good thing no one watches me in the morning). Then I turn around to find my school things (check) and my wallet and keys (check, check) and my glasses...

Took me 10 FRIGGIN' MINUTES to find my glasses...

Then -- I had a thought. FACEBOOK STATUS. I grab my iPad and pull up my facebook, thinking this status will be too hilarious that no one will notice I updated my status less than an hour ago anyway...

Only, when I wrote the status I only remembered the part about my glasses -- so I had to comment on my own status like seven seconds later about my hair. Five minutes later I finally located my glasses...

and had convinced myself that was the dumbest status ever -- who comments on their own statuses about their hair being a mop? Weird people, that's who... so I'm either weird... or I could delete the post and hope no one saw it to begin with. 

So I deleted it. Then I had a day filled with interesting... moments. All of which I want to transform into a magical, witty, "you-can't-help-but-comment" status. But, as usual, two minutes after I post it... I delete it.

I don't know what I feel weirder about: The fact that I updated my status probably close to ten times today -- all funny, unique and (during the school semester) normal as far as my kind of statuses go. OR the fact that only about three or four of them are still on my facebook... withstanding the test of time.

A few that didn't make it: 
Like when I referred to my bread stick today at the Pizza Factory as a Pepperoni.
When a bug got caught between my eye and my sunglasses... how does that even HAPPEN?
When I read an email with travel plans to China and was literally thinking "Holy freakin crap" for about fifteen minutes before someone else's status caught my attention and now my mind is completely on a different planet...

What is WRONG with me!?