Let's just get this over with.

Ok--the real reason I was in China was for a conference.  Work.  (Blah.)  Actually, two conferences: a little one, and a big one.  

The little one was first.  I spent the week with my extremely supportive and wonderful advisor (speaking of a little one and a big one....), soaking in what's going on in the world regarding early childhood music education.

My own work was a part of the discussion.

I showed the gathered crowd of international music and early childhood educators videos like the following...

They ate it up.  They invited me back to China (and Hong Kong) to talk about it more.  They said genuinely nice things.  It gave me hope that the year ahead of exploring this topic for my dissertation might be interesting.  Even potentially valuable. (Hooray!)

The big conference the following week found me a part of a panel discussion on various ways to integrate music into all parts of life.  

It was really interesting (the 5 people in the audience said so anyway....).....

At the end of the day (or the weeks, I should say) it was a good time of meeting new people from all over the world, and of getting to better know people I had already met.  And it's always nice to have new information to ponder.

But, it's not nearly as much fun as playing hookie ;-)

Stay tuned for the sights and smells of Beijing!