Hi everyone!
 
I'm having a great time so far in China! Despite the bad weather on Friday, my flight wasn't delayed....16 hours non-stop from JFK to Hong Kong. After going through customs twice (in Hong Kong and again upon entering mainland China), we arrived in Shenzhen after midnight on Sunday, quite exhausted. It didn't take me too long to adjust to the 12-hour time difference....I've already settled into a regular sleeping pattern.
 
Shenzhen is only about half an hour outside of Hong Kong, with a population of 5 million.....but this is a business city. There are no tourists at all! I've never felt like such a minority. We're the only non-Asians in this entire city, and it's sometimes disconcerting when people stare at us. In China, it's not considered rude to stare.....and the Chinese concept of personal space and privacy is also very different from what I'm accustomed to. Yesterday we had school at the rehearsal studio, and a Chinese woman walked into the room, walked right over to us, stood maybe six inches from me, and just stared for several minutes. I said "Ni hao" ("Hello") and continued teaching, but it was really weird!
 
No one here speaks any English, not even the hotel staff, and we're in a pretty nice hotel. At times it's a little frustrating (like when I had to ask the front desk for an ethernet cord), but for the most part, I'm happy for the chance to practice and improve my Chinese. There's a beautiful park right across the street from the hotel....within seconds of setting foot inside it, someone will walk up to me and start a conversation. It's great! I'm nowhere near a conversant level yet---beyond the basic phrases, I'll only understand a word or two of each sentence, at best---but that's no deterrent for anyone. Yesterday, a guy talked to me for fully half an hour, despite many awkward moments of incomprehension. He would've talked even longer if I didn't say I had to go....it was already 7:10 and dinner at the hotel was over at 7:30.....until my per diem kicks in, I'm not passing up free meals!
 
Speaking of which....I wish we had more of a variety in our food options. We have pretty much the same thing every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner: noodles, rice, scrambled eggs mixed with either tomatoes or peas, cauliflower, rice porridge (breakfast only), chicken nuggets, and french fries. On Friday we're moving to a different hotel that's closer to our rehearsal building (this one is right by the theater, but it's an hour bus ride to rehearsals).....hopefully the new hotel will have a better menu.
 
Today when I took a walk in the park, I discovered that there are different "sections" for different activities.....and there's a music section! People just bring their instruments and play. Everyone there was playing the erhu (the two-stringed instrument that you sometimes see on the subway in New York).....so I ran back to my hotel room to get my Chinese flute. I found my own little corner in the "music section", but I hadn't even unzipped the case before I was invited to play with an erhu group. Thankfully I had already memorized 3 or 4 Chinese songs, so I played those....and this one guy on the erhu was phenomenal. He picked up my songs immediately, even the ones he didn't know beforehand.  I'm so glad I took the time to learn this instrument....it felt really good to "connect" to the Chinese people this way.
 
I have a LOT more to tell you...but it's 7:15 and I need to get up to dinner by 7:30! I hope you're all doing well....I miss you all! Take care and let me know what's going on back home.
 
Christine :-)

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