What We Remember About Our China Trip

1. JUMP ZAZZ!!!
2. cafe con leche with Rafael and Estephania
3. Executive floor breakfast in the hotel
4. Sichuan dinner, sticky gummy desserts
5. blueberry fried muffin desserts
6. McDonald's rat
7. wine with gold flakes sprinkled in it
8. "muuuuuuy guaaapo"
9. little boy on bus with long braid (signifies health)
10. "plea for help" hands sticking out of top of truck
11. Miguelin, the big damn confusing baby
12. Miao-miao part of program
13. getting mauled by photographers in the expo while we were in costume
14. congee was awesome (boiled rice porridge) with croutons, green onions, boiled egg, some weird kind of gelatin, and black fungus
15. Barfers on the trip: Caitlyn (during trip), Erik (his own fault), Jeremiah (3 times!), Miren, and Bryan
16. horrible makila disaster
17. Nick A. peeing next to security guard on street
18. WORST LUNCH BREAK EVER!  Basque Gov't snafu, food was cold, I accidentally ordered chicken feet.... terrible
19. Indian food pavilion was awesome
20. "This had better come out of me within the next day"... Miren loking at her plate of paella, after not having gone kak in 4 days
21. little kid taking a kak on a newspaper, mom rubbing his head and telling him it's okay
22. Shanghai is like Christmas, with all its light shows!
23. the happy slap game
24. Walking from Africa to India - which is a longer trek at the World's Fair than in real life!
25. Walk to Saudi Arabia, and find out we can't eat at the restaurant
26. "Mendi-tiki-tiki-tiki-ko Jaialdia!"
27. Shangkari
28. Miao-Miao's obsession with "Little Nick"
29. "Damn you, Myron!"
30. Falling at the performances (Izar, others?) slipping on the wet pavement
31. breaking 2 glasses at Kuluska
32. taxi driver singing
33. John! our tour guide (Anna get back on that)
34. blind Chinese men rubbing our feet and singing to us
35. Angry Irishman at Irish pub in Expo
36. Belgian Waffles

FLIGHT: Boise -->SLC-->Tokyo-->Shanghai

• Jill was late
• Nick  was cranky
• Caitlyn got sick
• Andoni's first flight EVER
• Twinners' first sushi was in Tokyo
• beer on flight was free
• energy supplements didn't work for Lael and Izar
• Jackets helped unite us...."what team do you play for?"  (PJ was assumed to be the coach)
• Arrived Sunday night (Shanghai time) and 9pm ish
• Fairy, our guide, greeted us
• Crammed into tiny van (see pics)
• Checked into the Golden Tulip hotel
• Beds were shockingly small, and pretty hard
• Room 2322 - Andoni, Bergs, Nickolas A. watched Chinese TV until 3 in the morning.  Hilarious!

DAY 1 Monday:

• 7am, met at the bus
• bus took us to World's Fair - Expo park
• Met Iber at the Spanish Pavilion
• practiced on tiny stage - re-arranged dance list accordingly
• at 9:30 Nick B. did Agurra for lehendakari and friends
• we planned performance in the big windowed conference room upstairs
• danced 3 performances that afternoon
• reception with delish tapas - croquetas, paella, chocolates in Spanish pavilion
• Had authentic Chinese dinner - sticky rice dessert, fried sweet potato, carp soup

DAY 2 Tuesday:

• Basque delegation reception at a fancy hotel downtown Shanghai
• Arzai, Berozategui, Zubijana (sp?), tapas and golden wine
• food wasn't actually cooked by the Basque chefs, just "inspired" by them

DAY 3 Wednesday:

• stayed late at Expo - ate Indian food for dinner

DAY 4 Thursday:

• Bilbao pavilion "visit"/trick
• met Pei-pei, Miao-miao's boyfriend
• ate Yunan chinese cuisine with John, Anna Bender's friend that's living in Shanghai
• taxis to the Bund waterfront

DAY 5 Friday:

• Izar, Maite, Lael, Caitlyn, Jill, Anna and Miao-miao went to Yu Gardens and got blind massages
• "Gua Chi Qua Le" Happy National China Day!

DAY 6 Saturday"

• Dressed up Miao-miao, until the costumes were too hot for her and she changed back
• presented Iber with poster and shirt
• played with Txalaparte (Ttukuna) sisters
• talked with Jesus, director of protocol at Spanish Pavilion
• Miren's wound is swelling!
• Miao-Miao replied on email (?)

Events and are missing days to go with them:

• one day we got rained out and only performed once, at 4pm
• Lael left her badge at the changing room in the Spanish pavilion, group went to Italy and she couldn't get in
• Olaia was shoe-less, money-less; one of the Spanish Pavilion staff let her borrow a pair of Crocs for her to walk around in