International Jetsetter, Kaitlyn Burnside, and Her Trip to China with the AU Symphonic Band!

 
This past March, The AU Symphonic Band was given the remarkable opportunity to perform in China! Band member, Kaitlyn Burnside, a sophomore Music Education major from Birmingham, Ala. tells HC about herself and her experiences in China.
 
HC Auburn: What instrument do you play and how long have you been playing it?
Kaitlyn: I play the clarinet. I started playing the clarinet when I was in the 4th grade so I have been playing it for 11 years.
 
HC Auburn: How did the AU Symphonic Band get the opportunity to perform in such a neat and exciting country like China?
Kaitlyn: Dr. Good heard about other college bands in the country going on trips like what we did. He sent in an audition cd to the company in charge of the cultural exchange program we went with. They liked our cd and selected us. The company only picks two groups a year to take trips like this.

 
HC Auburn: Of all the places you were able to visit there, which one was your favorite, and why?  
Kaitlyn: Well, it is really hard to say what my favorite place to visit was. We went two types of places, historical and normal everyday type places. Of the historical things we visited the Great Wall was absolutely my favorite. I have heard about it in history many times and was so excited to actually be there. It was really hard to believe that I was actually there when we got there. I climbed up part of it that was on a hill. It was so much steeper than it looked from the ground. It was challenge to get up it. The steps were so steep. Sometimes there were only a couple inches high and sometimes they were up to my knee. The view from the wall of the surrounding land was absolutely amazing. I just loved being there. On the other hand, I truly enjoyed traveling around the city of Xuzhou. It was not a tourist city like Beijing or Shanghai. I loved going around the city on my free time to see what it was like to be there on an ordinary day. We got to spend the day with some of the local college students doing what they like to do on their free time. I got visit an underground mall, a Chinese food court, a Chinese park, and a Chinese amusement park. Just being able to go around the city like a normal person and not a bus with a schedule was really cool and exciting. It is hard to describe why I enjoyed it so much. The feeling we got from traveling around is one I will never forget.
 
HC Auburn: I saw on your blog (see bottom of page for more details) that the band got to visit and perform at a few schools there. Would you say that the colleges there are much different than ours? If yes, how so?
Kaitlyn: There are so many universities in China. We were told there were at least one thousand if not more than that. They are usually pretty big. They are similar to ours in that they have colleges of education, and math, etc. They have the schools separated like we do. They are all very large. It was harder to tell if they were all the same age group as college students here because when we went in the cafeterias for lunch there were students eating that looked out age but that also looked much younger than us. We got to interact with the college of music education with a couple universities. They told us that their performing groups are made up of students playing a second instrument and here we usually play our primary instrument in performing groups. They still have to take core classes like we do.
 
HC Auburn: What is your most memorable experience from the whole trip?
Kaitlyn: The most memorable experience of the trip was more or less during the whole trip. Here in America the people all look different but in China that is not the case. We were treated like superstars over there. I really enjoyed it. We were constantly asked to take pictures with people. It was a shock at first to try and get used to it, but it didn’t take long to get used to it. The Chinese people loved my blonde hair. Those that could speak English would always tell me how much they loved my blonde hair. I thought it was weird at first, but then I realized that everyone over there has dark hair, never blonde. Sometimes they would come up and ask to take pictures with us, but sometimes they would stand a small distance away from us and take a picture with us in the background. It was cute and funny. They were amazed by the music that we played because some of it is very different than what they listen to over there. Since we were such a novelty there were concerts were there were several thousand people in the audience. I have never been treated like that and I loved it.
 
HC Auburn: Did you enjoy eating the food over there?
Kaitlyn: Eating over there proved to be quite difficult at times. We were served Chinese dishes at every meal. They only eat off of plates only a couple inches in diameter so we couldn’t put much food on a plate. It was cool how they serve food. You sit at a table with six to ten people and a lazy susan two to three feet in diameter in the middle of the table. They servers bring the dishes out and put it on the lazy susan so we can get what we want. We only had chopsticks to use so I had to learn real quick how to use them. It was a little rough for me because I had trouble making them work.  Many times there was food served to us that we had no clue what it was. Sometimes I found out and sometimes I didn’t. I told myself before I went that I would try just about anything for the experience. I did eat most things put in front of me but not it all. I was usually just didn’t ask what things were. In the food court I went to it was different than here at home. You went to the counter to pick you food from a plate sitting on the counter. You then went to a cashier at the end of the room and paid and got a card, kind of like a gift card, which you took back to the restaurant. They then charge the card and then cook your food right there in front of you. It was fun to see all the different things they had to eat. There was rice, and pork meat, and even octopus. I enjoyed the different food experience.
 
HC Auburn: What was the hardest thing to overcome while in China?
Kaitlyn: The language barrier was hard to cross because I know absolutely no Chinese. I had to use hand motions of some kind to ask questions or show things that I wanted in stores. It was fun. It was cool to play the music for them because music is a universal language and we could communicate through that. The emotions we shared with our music was more than I thought could happen.
 
If you would like to hear more about Kaitlyn, and other band member’s experiences in China, check out there blog here: http://ocm.auburn.edu/abroad/china2012/blog.html

First Picture Caption: My brother and I before the concert we played for the High School Honor band at Auburn University in February 2012. 

I am standing by the sign which was behind the stage we played on for our outdoor concert at Shandong University of Arts.  This concert had an attendance of approximately 5,000 people.

I am standing on the Great Wall of China. I climbed up the wall to the top of the mountain we were on and it was the hardest climb of my life because it was so steep. 

I am standing in front of the skyline in Shanghai. This is the most visited tourist destination in Shanghai because of all the different shaped buildings. These are the most western looking of the buildings we saw on the entire trip.

My room mate on the trip, Cassaundra, and I on the stairs in the lobby of the performing arts center in Xuzhou. The center is 6 months old and backs up to a lake. It is the nicest facility I have ever played in.