Wednesday, January 9, 2008

A warm welcome back....

Leaving the marathon and feeling pleased that we had done our contribution to motivate the runners, we headed out to finish out errands and finally resting for a drink by one of our favorite bars, You & Me 2.

We hadn't seen Olaf since his 6th month anniversary party and thought it was time to catch up with him. He told us of his plans for his dream bar. The plans are quite aggressive and should be interesting to see if we will be around to see his dream come to fruition. Olaf mentioned that a band would be playing this afternoon, and it would be a treat for us to see. He found this band practicing in the park and mentioned that if they want to practice they could do so at his bar. They took him up on his offer.
They were a group of older people who sing traditional Chinese folk songs and play traditional Chinese instruments along with violins and accordians. There were approximately 40 people that came to play, sing and dance. They entertained the barflies as well as the local Chinese walking along the boardwalk. At one point, one of the organizer/singer walked over to us, and had me recite from his music sheet so that I would be able to get up and sing with him. I gracefully declined. The issue that Olaf has, is that they will call a day and ask, so it's not something that he can advertise.

It was great to see that not only did they enjoy performing for us, the local Chinese cheered and clapped as well as us patrons. It was a nice welcome back to China.

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