Day 20: Wuxi
Today was another loooong day. We again traveled and had a show in the same day. Yuck. Phil left at 8am with the tech crew, and I left with everyone else at 10am. It was only a 1.5 hour bus ride though.
(these were taken from the bus window fyi)
We stayed at the Canal Grand Hotel. Sounds so fancy! It was ok. We got kinda spoiled in Wenzhou, so everything is kind of a disappointment now ;) But, much better than our last place.
And here’s our room. Sometimes we end up with a double instead of a single. Shrug.
It was a bit on the small side, especially the bathroom. But hey, it was clean and mold free! Here’s the view from our room.
We ate lunch, settled in, and then went for an exploratory walk. There wasn’t much on our street, except bars (great for later that night!). That name of the street was actually “Bar Street”. Lolz. So I just ended up taking a nap.
This city is on a river, and the theater is on the water front. We crossed over a bridge to get there, and the mammoth theater is very visible.
And here are pics from when I got there.
The show went on. I think I did my yoga and then read in the dressing room until showtime. Then I just helped out as usual. I kind of have a routine now. There are certain costume changes I help with. There are certain dances I try to do backstage, which makes the dancers laugh. I help hang up costumes after they are worn. I make faces at the dancers. I cheer for them. It’s fun. They’ve named me “Stage Mom”, which is cool except it makes me sound old. But they are the sweetest girls and guys, and really fun to be around.
After the show, we went outside to load the bus, and the theater is all lit up!
I heard this one is supposed to be a butterfly. The river is all lit up too!
One of the prettiest theaters at night, in my opinion.
Well, as I mentioned earlier, we were staying on Bar Street. So after dinner … duh. Rebecca, Kelli (the two singers), Phil and I headed out a little before the main group. We scoped out the choices, and finally settled on one that had the best vibe, and also was where the locals were hanging out (always a good sign!). Boy, did we choose right! They had a fantastic selection of beer, including …
!!!.
Also, Hoegaarden on tap. A HUGE glass of it. For 50 yuan.
We were happy campers.
About 45 minutes later the rest of the group showed up, plus some locals.
We had a great time! It had been a long day, but also a hard show for Phil sound-wise. There were a lot of things that happened that were out of his control. Like the cello just not coming through the house the whole first half (no fault of his). Like the stage literally bouncing from the dancers, causing the platforms that the band was set up on to bounce. And also the grand piano was bouncing. Everyone just needed a little carefree silliness after that show :)
