Home From China!

Ah the prodigal son returneth!

Sorry for the delay in posting. I received a lot of emails asking if Spencer made it home safe and sound. I'm happy to report that he did indeed, and it's good to have him home and to hear all his stories. He arrived home tired but happy. He didn't think he'd have jet lag but it caught up to him and has slept the last few days in between eating LOL the one thing he missed the most was milk since he's a very BIG milk drinker! I guess the milk there left a lot to be desired. I had people ask if he really did eat the previously mentioned items.....sadly yes he did! LOL

When we asked him what was his favorite memory his reply was EVERYTHING! He loved every experience and memory and has taken lot of pictures and promises us a presentation soon!

China Update #5

Weren't the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics amazing! What a beautiful show they put on!

Here's another China update...The Olympic Orchestra played their last performance together at Tianjin's Olympic Stadium before the women's soccer game.

The following exert was taken from Official Olympic Orchestra website:

"After some morning rehearsals, the group departed for Tianjin on 57 buses. This 'motorcade' of buses was escorted by police all the way from Beijing to Tianjin. At some points the police stopped traffic on the freeway to ensure the motorcade made it through swiftly. Local onlookers had to chance to wave to the Olympic Orchestra - now a well known group after the media attention it has received in China!"

I don't know about you but it's hard to fathom a 57 bus convoy, wow!

After their performance they were able to stay and watch the soccer game.

The next day they did some sightseeing at the Forbidden City and a bit of shopping.

The following day they were bused to the Summer Palace which looks amazing! with it's vast history! From Ferry boats to Marble boats the place looks breathtaking!

Here's a few faces of Spencer at the Summer Palace...

I received another email from Spencer. He shared with me some of what he's eaten so far...

"I've eaten cuttle fish, sea horse, cicada, and cockroaches, couldn't find the scorpions."

They are now on their way via sleeper train to Shanghai for their last few days in China before heading home.

China Update #4

There were lots of great pictures posted of

Spencer thanks to a certain chaperon. Whoohoo!

Spencer in action!

The Modesto High School group!

Spencer & Char After a day of performing.

China Update #3

Yay, another email from Spencer it was short and sweet and basically said lots of practice, some shopping and bargaining, performances and sleeping when he gets the chance! As you can see from the picture below he didn't waste anytime. Our first real picture and its of him sleeping LOL

Monday the Red Hub performed at the Great Wall. It was a 3 hour bus ride to get there. After their performance they were able to walk the wall and explore it.
Hopefully you can click the pictures to enlarge

to see how the wall seems to gone on and on in the picture below.

Tomorrow all the hubs will perform before the Woman's preliminary Soccer game.

China Update #2

No more word yet from Spencer in China, but we do know they had a big rehearsal on Friday. Rehearsals were done in sectionals, Red Orchestra (USA) and Green Orchestra (Australia, Guam, Japan) by themselves, and they also performed all together (2008 musicians) for the Olympic Cultural Committee (seated in the white chairs). If you enlarge the picture you can get a better idea of just how BIG a group this is WOW!

Sunday Aug. 3rd (our Saturday if your in the states), they made international news performing at Tiananmen Square. We heard it took 30 buses to transport them all! Thanks to one of the Modesto High school chaperons, there's a blog started along with pictures and videos of them preforming (Isn't technology awesome!) on a flickr site. Of course we scrutinized each and every picture and videos, as if we were searching a Where's Waldo book LOL and finally hit pay dirt! We recognized him by his nose!! Yep, that was our Spencer! (see the picture below with an arrow above his head).

After looking through all the videos this one is my favorite! I love how the front line kneels down so the drumline can be seen At the end you can really hear the horns playing!

China Update #1

Yay! we've finally heard from Spencer! He's arrived in China, so far he's enjoying the experience. What a relief to get an email from him, even though we've seen pictures posted of kids from the various high schools that went. It was good to finally hear from him. I got a chuckle out of his email I can feel his awe and excitement just like when he was a little boy and would get so excited seeing large caterpillar tractors and heavy equipment LOL

Hey guys,

Sorry it took so long. They don't have computers to use. The business center is just for mail and money, etc., but the plane ride was great. We had seafood and shrimp plus pork and noodles. it was quiet and dark most the time and I never once got sick. When we took off it was sooo cool, I felt like I was in the space shuttle. Oh and the city I'm staying in is well... think forbidden city but with 8 separate hotels, sports centers with a very large golf course and a waterpark. and it's all walled in. one of the hotels is actually the Staff Center and it's like a skyscraper. There are soo many gardens and it's not even in acres but in square kilometers/miles that's how big it is. I'm doing great and I'm picking up a little Chinese Mandarin and I'm getting to be a pro with chop sticks.

Love you all, and I'll see you soon. ttys.

Your thriving son

You can check out their tour photos posted each day HERE

Off to China...

Nope not me, but my son is China bound. We said our goodbyes today as he ventured off on a trip of a life time! He's on his way to China to play his trumpet in the Olympic Orchestra.

Yep, I'm sure you guessed, I'm both nervous and
excited for him!

The Olympic Orchestra will encompass 2008 musicians from 40 countries, the "B 2008 OO" has as a goal to support the Beijing Olympics goal theme of "One World, One Dream" and "Green and Human Olympics".

The Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra is comprised of three core units - the RED Orchestra (Americas), GREEN Orchestra (Pacific/Islands) and the GOLD Orchestra (China). Members of these three units will join together to form the Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra.

The entity will perform together over the course of the two week performance run, also as three representative "hub orchestras" distinct in artistic flavor. Each hub also has superb, award winning delegations which will also have a chance to perform as their own performing troupe. In the case of the Americans, the "first choice" delegation represents the best in instrumental music programs of the American high school system.

They just found out before they left that The Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) Cultural Division has determined that the Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra will perform in Tiananmen Square as part of the China/International Olympic Committee (IOC) Cultural Celebration at the Olympics along with their other venues.

They are the first and only foreign group to ever gain permission to perform in Tiananmen Square.

The invitation is much like that given to the "Three Tenors" five years ago when they were the only foreign group given permission to perform in the Forbidden City. This is a great honor for them.

They'll be staying at the Grand Epoch City otherwise known as the Orchestra Village. The Grand Epoch City will serve as their Official Olympic Orchestra Village. The village is based on the old cities of Beijing and uses traditional Chinese architecture and landscaping. The village includes several hotels, a shopping area, performance and rehearsal spaces and other activities.

Here are sketches of one of their uniforms they'll be required to wear while performing.

Here's a challenge create your own American Cheer for the Athletes, get creative and let our Olympic Athletes know your rooting for them by checking out America's Cheer by clicking HERE

Check out the Olympic count down and keep track of our
Olympic Medal winners at NBC Olympics.com!

Olympic Medal winners at NBC Olympics.com!

Read an Update #1 of Spencer's

Adventure HERE

Read an Update #2 of Spencer's
Adventure HERE