One of the yearly events the expatriate community living in Qingdao look forward to is the annual Pantomime or "Panto". It is a traditional British stage play with an emphasis on farce, song, dance, audience participation...and cross dressing???
In a city where one is hard pressed to find English language culture, a local play like this takes on far bigger appreciation. Being on the "other side" of the bay most of teachers at our school rode over on the school bus together and spent the night in a hotel in Qingdao.
The panto itself was a much larger production that I anticipated with elaborately designed sets and costumes. The acting was a little hit or miss but most of the performers were surprisingly good. My main complaint was that the show was performed in the auditorium of a large Chinese Middle School which lacked heat. At the end of three hours I was literally freezing. Thankfully the shows refreshments served hot "mulled" wine to keep the blood circulating.
After that we had a pizza night with some of the other families and then, when our wives were distracted with chit chat, the husbands snuck off to the DVD store around the corner. Seems I am not the only husband who gets in trouble for buying DVDs by the armful from the store. I scored on this visit walking out with the complete collection of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles .
Another reason we like to occasionally spend the night in Qingdao is to be able to arrive to church early on Sunday morning. (Which was kind of important since we had volunteered to be "greeters".) This week was our first week in our new location at the Intercontinental Hotel. The hotel is 5-star and really rolled out the red carpet for us. They even offered a highly discounted special lunch in their restaurant after the service. Even with the discount though it was pretty expensive, BUT, it sure tasted Gooooood!! :)
Anyhow, it was a fun weekend...too bad its Monday again!
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