China

So, my three and a half weeks in China have come to an end. Yesterday, we flew from Shanghai to Paris, spent the night in Paris and then landed in Dublin, where we drove to Waterford. I'm spending our 4 day break here at Gillian's house with Jack and Kirsten as well. Today we are going to go see sheep and horses! Can't wait!

Anyhow, here are some pictures from China.



We spent Christmas in Urumqi. It was definitely the most unique Christmas ever. On Christmas eve, we had our show at 9pm, (usually it's 7 or 8pm). Then after that, we heard our promoter was throwing a part for us, with singing and dancing. So, naturally, we were very excited. Unfortunately, what he had in mind was different -- we were to preform at some corporate Christmas party, and there was in fact no festivities planned for us. So at around midnight Christmas Eve, things weren't looking up. However, after a couple of us dancing at the party and getting paid extra (a nice Christmas bonus!) we had our own party on the top floor of the hotel that looked over the city. We didn't sit down to dinner until about 3 am! We exchanged our secret santa gifts and listened to Christmas music. I had Dean for secret santa, the tenor from Clare, so I got him a Hollister tshirt and other little bits and bobs. It was quite funny seeing this guy, who couldn't be any more Irish if he tried, with Laguna Beach emblazoned across his chest. Anyhow, this picture is Gillian and I with Jack in a full kilt!! It's pretty amazing he pulled this off considering our 20 kg luggage weight limit. He surprised us all! It was amazing.



This picture says a lot about our show in Hangzhou. This was at about 1 am after filming the DVD. It was probably the worst show and day on tour.We got there super early to maybe film a few numbers before the show, which we didn't get to do. During the show, the microphones for the tenors did not even work! It was a hot hot mess. Hopefully the DVD will turn out okay. We stayed after to film some more, and we didn't get to fix all the things we needed to. All in all, we're quite glad it's over.
Much to our surprise, Christmas is actually kind of a big deal in China, at leas commercially it is. So we saw tons of Asian santas and it was fun!



The Shanghai skyline. We spent nearly a week in Shanghai. It was probably my favorite city. Well, besides the tropical island. I have lots of fabulous stories from Shanghai to tell you!

More later!
Love,
Laura