So, when I ended the last Dispatch we were in the office of the DCG talking about my classical voice background. He mentioned to me that the consulate was in a bit of a bind finding singer for the upcoming 4th of July celebrations. While we had a contract with the 7th Fleet Band to come sing for us, they have a prohibition on singing the anthem when the anthem of the host nation is not also being sung. We had no singer for the Chinese anthem. So, as a result, they were uncomfortable singing the anthem and having a classically trained vocalist on staff was a sudden and elegant solution to the problem. As I previously mentioned, my plan for this summer is to say "yes" to everything I'm asked to do, so I suddenly found myself as the anthemist for both events.
More on that in a minute...
Later that week I had my meeting with the CG. He is a busy guy and I assumed that it'd just be a quick 10 minute "Hi/Bye" conversation but he gave me an hour of his time. It was tremendously generous of him. Fortunately I brought a notepad with me, because for that hour he hit me with 30 years of hard-won foreign service wisdom. He has offered to help advance my career in remarkable ways that I'm humbled and honored by. We're buds now.
One of the reasons I selected Hong Kong as my destination for the summer was all the activities they have for kids, namely Disney Land. And although it didn't work out that I could bring the family with me, I figured I might as well take in the sights while I was here. So, I made friends with the other interns in the office, Elizabeth and Sylar, and invited them on a Disney trip. Elizabeth has lived in Hong Kong her whole life and had never been, so we made a day of it. Anyone from Florida will note how small the park is compared with the park in Orlando. We walked the whole park in about a half-day. Being able to skip the long lines at the kiddie rides was obviously very helpful. There was an inverse relationship between the length of the line and the age group the ride was targeting. We waited 5 minutes to ride Space Mountain and the Winnie the Pooh ride had a 45 minute wait. No thanks!
As always, the best part of these type of days is getting to spend time with your friends. I enjoyed the day of getting to know Sylar and Elizabeth. They are very talented and smart people who grew up much differently than I did, its always exciting for me to learn about other cultures and ways of living. When its all said and done, I think getting to know them will be one of the highlights of my summer.
By the way, the snowman in some of these pics was a gift from my daughter. Since she couldn't come on this trip, Mr. Snowman is her representative. The goal is that when she sees pictures of him she knows I was thinking of her.
One unique feature of this park is that they have their own trains. The Disney Land park is tied into the metro system, so its really easy to get to. But when you change trains to get to the park, a special Mickey Mouse train comes to pick you up. It has Mickey Mouse shaped hand holders and plush, velvet seats that you might expect to find in a luxury hotel. Disney knows how to make an experience memorable; that is why their number 1.
The Disney Train.
It was like you were going on a ride before you even got to the park.
Elizabeth and I taking it all in.
Sylar, Elizabeth and I trying out the selfie stick. Disney had announced they would be banned starting in a few days. We had to use it while we could.
Naturally, I had a Baymax Burger for lunch.
Many of the rides and themed areas were familiar, but this Toy Story world was a new one to me.
Can you find Mr. Snowman?
I took this picture to show the Dim Sum place. We don't have those at Disney in the States.
They had a special Frozen exhibit that was only up for a few more days. There was a Frozen Wonderland Show and then afterwards you exited the show into the Arandelle Village they had created to look like the movie. We figured we'd go check it out... then we found out the line was 4 hours long! And you couldn't skip the show to go see the village, you had to do both. So, we opted not to wait that long. And as much as I wished my daughter could have been there to enjoy this day with me, at this moment I was grateful she was not. I would have been compelled to wait, which I would not have been happy about doing. So, this pic was as close as I got. Sorry, baby girl!
Before I knew it, the 4th of July parties were upon us. I spent everyday of the prior two weeks getting the anthem ready to go. The song isn't difficult for me to sing, much of singing is mental. You almost have to prove to your body that you can hit all these notes so that when you're performing it under stress, your muscles don't fight you and cause you to honk notes you'd otherwise hit.
The First party was in Macau. Like Hong Kong, Macau is Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. So, while in Hong Kong I'm technically in China, they run their own customs enforcement. And the same is true in Macau, so I had to use my passport in and out, even though I never left China. Strange.
Our ferry ride to Macau. It was gliding on the water, hardly felt like we were in a boat.
Mr. Snowman riding shotgun on the boat.
The party in Macau was at the MGM Grand. It is easily the most opulent building I've ever been in. The doors were 4 stories tall, everything seemed to be made out of gold, the fish tank was bigger than your first apartment. Just an amazing place. The food was off the hook, as you might imagine. We had a great night.
The MGM.
Mr. Golden Lion.
That is a giant cylindrical fish tank that is 3-4 stories tall.
This picture was taken indoors. Crazy.
This is where it was about to go down.
Flower cake.
The anthem in Macau went really well. I didn't feel stressed and all the notes came out effortlessly. Once I was done with my bit, I was ready to party.
The spread was unbelievable. So much great stuff. I tried to have one of everything, but I couldn't do it. It was just too much.
Me and my buddy, CG Hart.
The CG is a lot of fun. At the end of the night he was unhappy with the slow jams the DJ was spinning so he went and started telling him what to play. In this photo he had requested Cake's "Short Skirt, Long jacket" and we were jamming it together.
Now, Macau was fun. But that was only the dress rehearsal for the main event: the Hong Kong reception. There was about 100-200 people in the room for Macau. Hong Kong had an RSVP count of 750. I looked at the guest list. there were Consuls General from about 26 of the Consulates around town coming in addition to Hong Kong legislators and other titans of industry. This was to be the most distinguished crowd I'd ever sing in front of.
On the night, my nerves reflected the heightened stakes. I felt to took me longer to get my breath as I sang the song and the high note didn't come out as well as it had in Macau, there was even a millisecond of terror during the song where I wasn't sure what the next line was, but it came out by pure muscle memory. All in all, I thought it went well and I am now officially a minor celebrity in the Consulate.
I was quite relieved to have this behind me. I never took the time to think about how it would reflect on me or the consulate if I didn't sing well. But after it was over I allowed those thoughts to roll around a bit. It was a gamble that could have backfired spectacularly. We've all seen the YouTube videos of people forgetting the words and it is just a train wreck. I could have crashed and burned hard, but I didn't, and I'm grateful.
The biggest complement paid to me was by CG Hart who spoke immediately after I was done singing. "Thats a U.S. Diplomat right there!" he exclaimed. "I've never met another diplomat who can do that, Jack. Thank you." Our photographer actually got that moment on camera, it made for a fun shot.
"Thats a U.S. Diplomat right there!"
At this party we had the 7th Fleet Band playing and we had some Marines do the color guard. They were the perfect touch.
Chatting with CG and the band before the event. CG comes from a Navy family, so he loves these guys.
These guys rocked the house. They played a lot of popular tunes. Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, and the closer: All of Me by John Legend.
Makin' contacts.
"Good job, Jack."
Tau was the MC for the evening, so this was a shot of the Americans on stage for the night.
The popular opinion of those in attendance was that I was going to be singing the anthem at every FOJ for the rest of my career. This one experience has been so overwhelmingly positive that I don't think that would be such a bad thing...
