HCC in China: Day 0

Well, BEDA wasn't a complete failure. I did succeed in blogging nearly every day for the first half of April, just not the second half. But it's okay. I had more important fish to fry, like finals. Yeah.

But, I'll be making up for it to some extent by posting daily for the next two weeks. Yeah, in case you haven't seen the countdown that's been in this blog's sidebar for about the last two years, or if you haven't noticed the big banner that's been at the top of this blog for the last month, I'm going to China with the Heinz Chapel Choir. And that's a pretty big deal.

Although I was already planning on doing occasional blog posts here anyway, Pitt's Music Department have asked me to blog daily for their site, and so I jumped at the chance! Since the Internet in China can be finicky, the idea is that I'll be posting both here and there, so in case anything goes wrong with posting to one site, we'll have the other. So remember to check back daily for updates… and with that, we'll jump right into it!

Day 0 – Monday 27 April 2009
日0：2009年4月27日（星期一）

My personal journey began at about 05:30 this morning, doing some final packing before heading out to Pittsburgh International Airport, catching a late-morning flight to New York's John F. Kennedy airport. The tour departs from New York tomorrow morning, and everyone was finding their own way here, so it was a pleasant surprise to find some other choir members on my flight.

The rest of the day has been fairly leisurely here. Because China is 12 hours ahead of Pittsburgh, we'll be pretty jet-lagged when we land in Beijing on Wednesday evening. So, I used my fatigue from waking up early to take some strategic naps during the afternoon — the Chinese night. After heading back to the airport's food court for our last state-side dinner (a classic all-American McDonald's meal), we came back to the hotel to play a little bit of pool. I played one round, which I was surprised to have won.

Now, we're approaching the wee hours of the morning here in New York, but the six of us in my hotel room are staying up and active. We'll be on a plane by 10:00, and we can sleep then. It'll be sixteen hours to Hong Kong, then another three-and-a-half to Beijing, where we'll start our tour. So, it will be a long, but fun trip.

Obviously, since I'll be on planes or in airports for 24 hours straight, the next post won't be until sometime Wednesday (EDT)… from Beijing!

N.B.: Uncle Dave, our plane is scheduled to fly over Cornwall, Ontario at roughly 10:46 EDT on Tuesday. I'll be sure to wave.