Helena and Emma

Saturday was a pretty intensive day - after a small, carb-filled breakfast (bread rolls galore!) we set off on the coach for the Grand Theatre. Our rehearsal consisted of numerous seating rearrangements, dangerously unstable and uncomfortable rostra and plastic stools, and of course, fantastic singing from us and the soloists ;-) Having survived this, we returned to the hotel and popped across the road to a lovely Korean restaurant where the cutest young woman named Kizzi served us. She was at the Hangzhou Normal University studying to become an English teacher and frequently practised with us (both at lunchtime and in the evening, as we decided to return to the same restaurant after the concert!). The concert was pretty amazing - a great response from the audience, especially when we started singing Mo Li hua. They ... read more

Sorry once again for the delay, the internet access has been on the scarce side so now that we have settled the problem (sort of!) let's carry on with tales from our Asian adventure. So today we moved on to the city of Hangzhou about a 3 hour coach drive away from Shanghai. We arrived at the hotel which happened to be located next to a series of elevated highways so not the most picturesque of views! Despite this we were upbeat and went off in search of lunch which turned out to be this really great Korean restaurant just down the road ( as you will find out in later blogs we went to this restaurant a few times and fell in love with a lovely young Korean woman, Kizzi, training to become an English ... read more

So, onto day 2 (written by guest choir tour members Sophie and James!). We woke up to an amazing selection of breakfast goodies, including the most delicious pancakes with maple syrup and fruity fillings. After having stuffed ourselves with savoury and sweet dishes, we got ready and hopped into a taxi to continue our sightseeing experiences in Shanghai. We decided to continue our bus tour, sitting on the open top deck with a similarly strong wind gust (but thankfully not as perilous as the bridge yesterday!). After seeing various parks and high end shopping boutiques (think, Cartier, Dior, etc.), we stopped off at the Jade Buddha Temple. There were some beautiful authentic Chinese buildings housing Buddhas with different faces and personalities, and an unofficial tour guide informed us about praying to particular Buddhas and the parts ... read more

Just starting to get into the DC way of life and already it's time to leave. We left the hotel just after 9am, bags FULLY packed and laden with complimentary chocolates and water. After a short uneventful cab ride to the Union Station, we sat down to a last USA breakfast of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup before boarding the train to Newark Intl' Airport. Now as we are sat in the train with not much to do, we have decided to write one last blog about what we have learned from our last two amazing weeks in the U S of A!! Don't leave any money or valuables in your case when travelling by plane in case those pesky transit workers decide to have a root through it. Don't board a plane with brazilian school ... read more

Security was no barrier to us (well to me) today, in fact a good laugh was had with the guard about my little fiasco yesterday!! Once IN the Library of Congress, we joined a tour led by a rather pro-USA, anti-EU feminist guide who denied Helena her moment of glory for answering a question correctly because of her "incorrect" pronunciation of aluminium..... might have had something to do with the British burning the ilbrary down in the past .... oops ;) Despite our differences, it was very a interesting visit and an amazing building!! Then once again trusting the information on the map, our lunchtime destination was "Tortilla Coast" where we enjoyed lime margheritas (our IDs were actually accepted this time) and delicious quesadillas. The yumminess made up for the fact that, as our social status ... read more