Friday, September 26, 2008

Prestigious music to fireworks

Wow, so I had a fun experience this week. I went to the Candlelight Opening Ceremonies for the Freshman the other night and it was so neat to see how they do events here. So I am convinced that the Chinese have had parties done right for ages... they know how to throw a good one! The ceremony began with speeches from foreign partners and the leaders of the school and as each person was announced there was this "presidential - type" music played which made them look very important, which of course they are. There was everything from the red carpet to the blaring voice of the translator! After the ceremony was over there were several performances, including the opera department, the art school and low and behold, the infamous, foreign teachers. They did a song by Daft Punk called Harder, Faster, Stronger... (I think that's what it's called) It was really cool! All the students loved it! No wonder we are so popular here, because they always do performances. I on the other hand always try to avoid dancing or performing at all costs so I so graciously took the video! Some of the students, staff and teachers sang the song (in Chinese) that was written for the Olympics, "we welcome you" (something about Beijing) I really need to pay more attention to what goes on around here!
After it was all said and done (so we thought) there was a fireworks show! They were some of the coolest fireworks I had ever seen! I'm tellin' ya, the Chinese have it right! :)

So as I was debriefing my thoughts about this ceremony I said that this was cooler than any of our graduations, and this was just an opening ceremony! To welcome the freshman! They really make a huge deal out of things which is cool! I enjoyed it and if I were still having doubts if I were truly in China, then this would have certainly cleared them away. There were several authentic dances performed. One, which I had always dreamed of seeing was a dragon dance, (you know, the one where they are all making the dragon move around the stage?) Very cool! The music was beautiful! Some of the boys from the opera dept. did a Mongolian dance. There was a part where five of them became a horse, (four crouched down and one rider) which looked hard as it was but then they began to bounce as if they truly were a horse! There were several of them in the front doing toe touches (about 4 feet off the ground it seemed) about 5 or 6 in a row! Wow!

So needless to say I enjoyed this ceremony. My next adventure will take place in Xi'an, the home of the Terracotta Soldiers... so be waiting for a post sometime in the next two weeks!

Thanks for reading!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Amy: This sounds absolutely great. You are making experiences that we can only read about through you. Will be looking forward to your next post after the next entertainment. Luv ya much. Grandma