Nick Pelletier, who next month begins his senior year at Glastonbury High School, was among about 60 members of the Hartford Chorale who traveled to China last month for performances associated with the 2008 Olympic Cultural Festival.

The chorale and the New York Choral Society were the only two U.S. choirs invited by the Cultural Ministry of China. The choirs performed at the opening ceremonies in Beijing, a city of 17 million residents and the primary site for the Olympic Games, which begin in two weeks. The chorale also performed in Qingdao, a city of 8 million that is the host city for Olympic sailing competitions.

Pelletier kept a diary during his trip, which included this description of his visit to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square:

We were all left awestruck after standing in the middle of the world’s largest public square — approximately 100 acres in size — and viewing an imperial city which was built in the early 1400s. There are few things more humbling than to be standing in vast, 600-year-old structures only to be told that the buildings were constructed so perfectly that no nails were necessary.

Link

• Nick Goes To China

• Dispatch 1: Greetings From China

• Dispatch 2: Singing And Sightseeing

• Dispatch 3: Great Music And The Great Wall

• Dispatch 4: Coastal Chorale

• Chorale Will Bring Its Music To Beijing

• Sarah & Paul
• Loren Finkelstein
• David Hughes
• Jessica Lichtenfeld
• Trey Sandusky
• Matthew Kaplan
• Mira Hellmann
• Grace Lee’s airports pics
• Grace Lee’s Beijing Pics
• Grace Lee’s Qingdao pics
• Grace Lee’s Great Wall @ Mutianyu pics
• Dwight TeJano
• John Primavera
• Mary Watson

• NYCS China 08 – Trey’s ride down from the TV Tower
• NYCS China 08 – Trey on the TV Tower
• NYCS China 08 – Garyoke
• NYCS China 08 – The Voyage Home
• NYCS China 08 – Last Day Banquet song
• Lazy Susan Cam 6
• NYCS China 08 Last Day Boat Ride
• NYCS China 08 Last Day Lunch
• NYCS China 08 Lazy Suzan Cam 5
• NYCS China 08 Last Day Dangerous bus ride
• NYCS China 08 Last Day 3 mile hike
• NYCS China 08 Last Day Morning Bus Ride
• NYCS China 08 Beethoven Statue
• NYCS China 08 Tsing Tao Brewery
• Lazy Susan Cam 4
• Travel day – Beijing to Qingdao
• Great Wall Part 3 (aftermath)
• Great Wall Part 2 (on the wall)
• Great Wall Part 1 (on the way)
• Lazy Susan Cam 3 – the banquet
• Lazy Susan Cam 2 – post concert
• Acrobat show part 2
• David Hughes’ videos

Here’s a few ways we are sharing photos from the China tour. There are a number of online photo sharing sites (i.e. Snapfish, Photobucket, Smugmug, etc.) Some of us are uploading photos to Flickr and Picasa. Both sites offer a software tool to upload lots of photos, the ability to retouch a photo, and a basic account of about 1 gigabyte of storage and you can upgrade for a yearly fee (about $20/yr), which gives you more storage and the ability to organize sets, etc. Once a photo is uploaded, you can also order prints, create slideshows of your work, etc.

Here are some instructions to get you started. Please feel free to ask me any questions.

FLICKR

Flickr has a software program that lets you upload a group of photos:

The New York Choral Society has a group on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/nychoral/

Loren Finkelstein and I are group administrators. You need to add either of us as a contact and then we’ll invite you to the Flickr group:

You need to upload your photos join this group, then use the Flickr Organizer to send your pictures to the group:

More about Flickr

PICASA

Picasa is a part of Google so if you have a Google account or login, login into Google and click on “Photos” at the top of your screen

More about Picasa

Software download

I am just trying out Picasa. The difference between Picasa and Flickr is that Picasa lets you display a larger sized photo.

While we are planning a trip reunion, this blog will be used to share links to photos and blogs about the China 2008 tour. Please send all links to Grace Lee at glee212@gmail.com, with the link a description and your name and they will be posted.

-Grace Lee