We're Back! SOMA lands in Harbin, China!

The Sound of Music is now back on the ground in China! After about 38 hours of travelling and a 10 hour delay in Shanghai, we got to the hotel in Harbin at 3:30 a.m. local time. Amazingly, the trip wasn't that bad. Zachary and I both slept for at least half of the 14.5 hour flight from Chicago to Shanghai and we spent a lot of time talking to the other families from the show, so the time seemed to pass very quickly. Our flight was supposed to leave Shanghai at 6:55 p.m., but got delayed until almost midnight. The good thing about this was that Zachary and I split a room at the airport hotel with Caitlin (Brigitta) and Jan so we were able to drop all of our carry-ons in the hotel and go see a bit of Shanghai (I also got a much-welcomed shower!). We took the fastest train in the world, the Maglev, into Shanghai. It runs on magnets and went 350 kilometers per hour! During the mid-day, it goes 450 kmh! It got us into Shanghai in 8 minutes. There we saw the famous TV tower which was all lit up. It was really beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera with me. Shanghai is like a Chinese New York. It's a really cool city and I really would like to go back and see it in depth. We took the Maglev back to the airport, I took a shower, and then we caught our flight to Harbin. We were flying on China Southern airlines and we had the worst turbulence and food I've ever had! The flight attendants literally evacuated their carts and ran to seat to buckle in.

We arrived in Harbin as the sun was rising at 3:30 a.m.! We're really far north and east, so it gets daylight very early. Luckly, our room has very good curtains, so it blocks out the sun. Zachary and the rest of the cast had a very long rehearsal yesterday, and the parents explored Harbin. China is a fascinating place. It's chaotic - there seem to be no rules for traffic, or walking down the sidewalk, which seems strange since there are so many people. It's kind of a free-for-all - just go where you can find a hole! I wouldn't call Harbin beautiful, but it is a fascinating mixture of Chinese and Russian influences. We saw the St. Sofia cathedral, which has been turned into a museum. When we arrived, a Britney Spears song was blasting from speakers from the top of the Eastern Orthodox church as fountains in front danced to the music - ahhh, China! What a weird place!

We had a delicious meal of Chinese dumplings and what the servers swore was asparagus, but we swore it was shredded celery (we didn't eat it). The total bill for Zachary and I for dinner total $4.40. Not bad. We got back to the hotel and decided to call it an early evening, although I stayed up and talked to Pam for a while on Skype. Then, I uploaded the pictures from yesterday (go to the photo site to see them). I'm also going to try to get some videos posted today.

That's all for now!

Carter