Wrapping Up

After a refreshing day off on Tuesday, Wednesday was back to work. The morning was at the Norwegian International School in the New Territories of Hong Kong and another spontaneous autograph-seeking from 5^th graders after they felt the joy of their first jazz improvisations. Also fun “Roses are Red” game with 1^st graders and an arrangement with 4^th graders I haven’t done in a while “Yes, Sir, No Sir.” And then an unexpected three-hour break which began with a meal at a country restaurant. 

 

Hong Kong, especially the neighborhood where I am staying, is NewYork City-style urban. Dense, intense, the man-made canyons of steel and tall buildings and the constant hustle and bustle. So it was a supremely refreshing moment to relish some quiet and bird song and long out over the distant green mountains and water. Another too-many-dishes-meal and I will pay for it all when I step on the scale back home. But nice company and then a drive out into the countryside, including a stop by the water’s edge where we all saw a little snack shack and thought “Ice cream!” It was appropriate for the relatively hot summer day. 

 

Finally, off to the Education University of Hong Kong, with a view of a giant Buddha and 45 college students gathering to get my version of music education, Orff-style. As usual, the first 30 minutes without me speaking a word, but crafting an energetic and complex body percussion piece which they then performed to a recording of “Smoke on the Water” (a new little shtick I created last summer in China). They participated fully, but when it came time for the discussion, I would ask simple questions to be met with stunned silence and confused stares. “You’re asking ME what I think about it? That’s not how we do things here.” I’ve known about this over-reverence of the teacher in Chinese culture for a while, but actually have not felt it in my recent visits. But these University Students were so reluctant to share even a simple little response verbally (and it was not a language issue—English is at a high level here). I was playful, as I am, saying, “Come on, people! Give me something here!” and by the end they opened up a bit and also got more bold trying improvisation on the xylophones, both Orff style and jazz style. I rarely work with University students and loved the opportunity, yet another “new territory” in the New Territories, as it were.

 

Today, one of my generous hosts offered to take me up the tram to the Peak and do the hour walk around the top. And so we did and it was lovely. She had to go to work in the afternoon, so I took a ferry to Kowloon and walked along the water’s edge by the Avenue of the Stars, kind of a Hollywood and Vine scene with handprints in metal and the names of famous Hong Kong film stars, none of whom I had heard of. My issue, of course, and a reminder that there are millions of people in the world who never heard of Brad Pitt and Taylor Swift and would be singularly unimpressed if they saw their handprints and name. Took the ferry back and then the tram and now getting ready to go off to a jazz club, having walked a healthy 8.5 miles (not kilometers!) today.

 

Tomorrow, another mini-tour somewhere and then off to Vietnam. The life of this traveling man. And the title of my next Post, dictated into my phone on Kowloon. Stay tuned!