News, traffic, weather and The Torch!

Today is Sunday, May 25th, I have to keep reminding myself what day it is, not only because we are a day ahead from most of you, but simply for the reason my sense of direction and time of day is somewhat out of whack! We spent the day on an adventure, just steping out onto the streets here is an adventure, but with forty four of the students opting to take a train into Shanghai, a few of us decided to stay in Suzhou and explore. My husband is now, at this point, functioning on shear will...and caffeine! He joined my daughters and I, along with Miles and Lisa Osland on an excursion to primarily find where the Olympic torch would be passing through. We knew it would be 10 a.m. in Suzhou, but exactly which intersection, corner or street was anyone's guess. We followed the masses since we figured they would be heading in the right direction....wrong, they were coming BACK from where the torch had passed. My sixteen year old, India, was very disheartened to think she missed the torch, after all here we are in the very town, on the very day of it's journey. Oh well, we at least could say we were here when it came through town. Plan B was to take a taxi to the old town district of Suzhou for more souvenir therapy. OK, sounds easy, we even got Chinese directions written out for us from the front desk of the hotel to give our taxi driver. We sped through I don't know how many city blocks, white knuckling the whole way and once again totally amazed at how people drive here! Our driver unceremoniously drops us off in the NEW shopping district of Suzhou and takes off! Uh oh....now what.....can we walk, can we find someone to direct us, can we even communicate with anyone? Precisely at this moment there is a loud chanting coming in our directon, hoards of people all carrying 2008 Beijing souvenir flags are running down the middle of the street....surrounding a city bus.....Hmm. With everyone running we thought we would run too (and why not?), our cameras shooting video the whole time. Not knowing what we just saw, we thought it was rather cool anyway, but then it dawned on us that we just saw the Olympic torch going by....on the bus! Of course with all the protesting that has plagued this trek, it made sense to carry the torch on the bus for protection. So, we saw it after all and felt pretty silly we didn't catch on sooner what was going on! Now what to do.....oh look, there's a TGI Fridays here! With joy, abandon and great celebration we went in and sat down to have a few moments of "home". The menu is exactly the same (and the prices were as high as back home too) but it felt as if we were in a Friday's in Lexington, a welcome respite we all agreed from the heat of the day! After being fortified we found a young man on the street who happened to be Chinese but spoke perfect English, being a student from the nearby University of Suzhou. He directed us into a VERY swanky hotel where we got the most lovely directions pre-printed on cards. After some very kind and gracious help (and we weren't even staying there!) we found we could just walk to the "Old City" and save another "white knuckler" taxi ride. Thank you! By the way, in all this craziness we haven't once seen a wreck, unbelievable but true, and we've decided it's because of the way they drive, the skill they have acquired in not hitting anything or anyone, AND it's all done without any seat belts. This sounds crazy, but seat belts are not available in taxi's, nor are the lines on the street indicators of what lane you should be driving in, no, these lines are merely suggestions!! A taxi ride in China is NOT for the faint of heart, (especially when you see three people on a moped holding a baby!!) but it is character building and provides a way for you to practice your faith! Now, about the weather, all I can say is it's hot, sticky, humid and definitely smoggy, without the slightest suggestion of blue sky, and it makes your eyes water. The only positive spin I can take on the weather is, you sweat so much you drop a pound or two!! We so appreciate getting back to our nice air conditioned rooms at the end of the day, a little luxury I fully appreciate! Well, we're back at the hotel now, with everyone tired and relating stories about their day, it's time for a little nap before dinner, tomorrow we head to Yangzhou for our third concert tomorrow night, after which we board an overnight train for Beijing.....this is going to be an interesting part of the journey. More when we arrive in Beijing.....

And let me say once again, this band is knocking the socks off our hosts, you would all be proud of your students, and the guest Trumpet, Jazz Ensemble and Irish pub band are simply awesome! To quote my favorite Starbucks employee, It's "very, very good....very, very good"! And so it is....