I love being American

...except when I try to get a visa the same day I want to go to China. So I didn't make it through to the mainland. When we got to the border gate, I went to the travel service where you can purchase a visa on the spot. That is if you are not American. Nearly all nationalities can purchase on the spot except for American, so I turned around and went back to Macao, it was a bummer but I shall be finding my way there one of these weekends.

On my way back I remembered being told that a group climbs on the wall Wednesday and Friday evenings at 8:30, so I grabbed some dinner and headed out there with hopes of climbing. I was pleased to find a group climbing and proceeded to climb for the next couple hours. It was a blast. I took pictures but they do not look good because my flash is not working. Hope to repair it soon. The wall was very nice, not many routes, so most of the climbs were just free climbs. I needed to get a feel for the wall anyways. Monkie, a small guy that couldn't weigh more than 100 lbs., was the man in charge and he could fly up the wall. There were six other guys climbing and three girls, they were all Asian and most spoke English pretty well. One of the guys climbing was from Texas, it was his first time on the wall too. He is in Macao for the summer visiting family and attending a wedding. He just graduated high school and will be going to Texas A&M in the fall, go Big XII! Anyways, it was a great time, plan to spend many evenings there.

After that I returned home and went to Alex's apartment to celebrate his birthday. Fun night on the town.

Today was the make up for the concert that was rained out last Sunday. It was on the Taipa island, which I have not explored much, so I headed out there a couple hours before to walk around. I went to check out the Tavern where I had been informed many of the expats hang out. (Note: for those of you unfamiliar with the term expatriate, it is a term used to describe someone who is living in a country or culture other than their upbringing or legal residence.) While walking by there I looked inside and say Raul and Heidi, the two performers I had spoken with last Sunday. They invited me to join them, so I had dinner with five of the performers. They were from all over, Raul was from Mexico , Heidi from Macao, Jerone from France, Ray from Houston/Guatemala (he said he was from Mixico, Ha!), Texas, and Victor was from Spain. They are all professional musicians living in Macao.

We then headed to the concert, I thought it would be cool but it far exceeded my expectations. There were two more musicians from Brazil whom had not been at dinner. The location was amazing, it was at the Taipa Village Amphitheater. Behind the group a beautiful lake with lily pads, bordering the lake was a lush full grove of trees sprinkled with white cranes, probably 500 of them. In the distance the hotels and casinos provided a beautiful backdrop. This was a legitimate performance, nearly all of the instrument were mic'd and they had spent two hours earlier in the day doing a sound check. The sound was phenomenal, I recorded video with the flipcam, but it does not do the performance justice at all. I will be posting the video soon. The concert itself was enjoyable they performed music from all over the world. It was very relaxing, a hammock and libation would have completed the evening. These are very talented musicians. There was singing, dancing (I was at one point pulled out to dance, lol, I stole the show with my moves) and pure instrumentals, a wonderfully done show. This was actually there first live performance. They will be heading to the Shanghai Expo next week to perform in the Macao pavilion.

Until next time!

Brent