Why I am having fun.

Why I am having fun.

Yesterday, I woke up at ten o'clock.  I studied Chinese for an hour
and a half - then for thirty minutes I walked around and told complete
strangers my three sentances that I made.  "Today at two o'clock, I am
meeting with a friend to go rock climbing.  I am a little worried
because I am a professional pianist, but last night I had a dream that
I was a fantastic rock climber. So, I decided to stop being scared and
go rock climbing."
Of course, I cannot understand any of the follow up questions to these
sentances, so after spurting off my sentance to a stranger, I promptly
say.  "I do not speak Chinese."  Then, typically after a laugh, I
wander off to find the next victim of "Mack-style confusion."
At two o'clock, I went and met a friend Stella and we actually went
rock climbing.  Neither of us know how to do it, it was a great work
out.
While rock climbing, me and Stella met a man from Austria and a man
from Belgium.  They instantly became friends in a way that only people
who have lived out of their home country can understand.  When Rene
from Austria speaks english, he sound absolutely like a incredibly
famous Austrian/American body-builder, action star, governator, and
this made me immediately like him.  Gaetan from Belgium was cool too,
and gave me some climbing tips!
We finished climbing and went and had some food.  Elements Fresh is a
hip restaurant.  I had a cobb salad, and a cup of organic black
coffee.
Then I went to work.  At work, I played keyboards for four hours.
Focusing on the organ playing, and getting my band to groove hard.  I
was working with them on our straight ahead jazz feel -- my specialty,
but the guys do not have much experience there.
I decided I wanted to wear sunglasses throughout the whole
performance, so I did.
People think I am way cooler than I actually am, and they want to take
photos with me.  I wore my new sunglasses in every photo.
Then, we improvised a funk jam called "Its not harmonious, to be acrimonious".
After work, I went with the drummer to his next gig.  When I walked
into the bar out in the middle of the Hutongs near HoHai lake I was
greeted by what seemed to be Arnold Schwarzenneger.  "MACK ITS SO GOOD
TO SEE YOU LET ME BUY YOU A BEER OR THREE HAHAHA".  What a small
world, Rene from the climing gym happened to be at this show, no pre
planning involved.  Strange!  He introduced me to two women from
Poland that were his close friends, then Stella came and we had a fun
crew of people!  We all hung out and watched the band, which was
composed of an American/Chinese Trombone player from North Carolina
who studied with Robin Eubanks, a trumpet player from Germany, a bass
player from France, and guitarist/singer from Brazil, and my drummer
JiaJia from China on the drums.  They kicked ass.
I specifically enjoyed a song they played - wo buzherdao buzherdao
uuuh.  neganegazhegazhega.  Hah - come to Beijing for a week and you
would get it too.
Many hours later, near five AM we all went to eat a giant hot-pot
feast!  It cost about forty dollars for all of us to eat some amazing
food!  (Great deal)  We all gave eachother a special easter cheers by
hot-potting some eggs, and using our chopsticks to smash them all
together and say Happy Easter.

M