Days 1-6 (in Shijiazhuang)

I haven't been able to write in a while because I've been really busy. I'm so discombobulated I just had to look up what day of the week it is and how long we've been here. Every day seems pretty much the same. The weather doesn't vary - it's always cold and always smoggy. The smog is so visible that when I wake up in the morning, we can't see anything past about 40 feet outside our window! Also, we're so busy there isn't really much time to do anything. We haven't even had much free time to go explore the city. It doesn't really seem like there is much to explore, though. We are basically surrounded by the Chinese version of strip malls, with a few Chinese style department stores thrown in for good measure. Chinese department stores are much different than American ones. Basically, imagine you walk into a normal department store, but instead of the women's department, one vendor has all their stuff in that area. Then you go to where the shoe department would be in an American department store, and there's another vendor's stuff. Each vendor has similar stuff, and it's all the same price, so I don't really see how that can be to their advantage but whatever. The only thing I bought there was a face mask. The air here is sooooo bad. Like I said, the smog is visible at all times, and some of the cars are emitting clouds of black smoke that we then inhale. It feels so nasty after breathing that air, so I invested 3 yuan (about 45 US cents) in a giraffe-print mask. It's super stylish. (Not.)
Other than walking a few blocks to buy the mask, and another day when we just walked around the shops a bit to get our bearings, the only time I've gone outside is to go to a bar at night. A few nights after arriving, I went to this bar unlike anything I've ever seen or heard of in the US. The music was super loud, of course, but they were playing such classic hits as the West Virginia Mountain Mama song and I Will Survive. Meanwhile, there were these hired dancers who were up on these mini-stages all over the place wearing practically no clothes. The population of the club, other than orchestra members, was also a bit strange. It seemed like most of the people where close to my age or a few years older, but then there were also some people there who were at least in their mid-40s. Strange. Fortunately one of the employees spoke English. I'm pretty surprised here by the small number of Chinese who speak any English at all, even in the hotel!
The Chinese seem to have a much different sense of personal space than we do in the US. Not only do beggars actually grab on to you and follow you around, but regular people in the street are continually staring at us, without even pretending not to be. A friend told me that Chinese people were snapping pictures of her jogging on the treadmill. Also, the other day in the elevator, this Chinese girl was speaking in English to her American-looking boyfriend or husband whatever. She said, "See, that's the kind of hair I wish I had!" and started groping my hair, without asking me first or anything! It was a very surreal experience.

We had sectionals all day for the beginning of the week. Our coach was from the National Orchestra of Spain and he didn't speak any English. This was good because I got to practice my Spanish, but not good because not everyone in the section speaks Spanish. We also played through a lot, instead of doing the work we were supposed to be doing. Two days ago was our first full orchestra rehearsal, and today was the first day of us doing both morning and afternoon full orchestra rehearsals. Our full orchestra rehearsal location is the arena for the Hebei Circus. It's pretty interesting. Unfortunately there is no heat, and the air is just as bad as outside, if not worse. I hope our actual concert venues are better........ It's nice to work with Josep Vicent again. He has such good energy, which is great for our program, which is basically pops. Also, the camera crews have arrived! The same guy from South Africa is here to film us, but this time they're making a video blog on Josep's website, instead of a full documentary. The daily updates should be available at http://www.josepvicentmedia.com/. Check it out and let me know when it works!
PS. Does anyone know a video-hosting website other than YouTube (which is blocked here) or a photo-hosting website (other than Facebook, which is also blocked) where I can put stuff up for people to see? Please comment below to let me know - I get the comments but I can't reply because the blog website is blocked in China as well!