Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival, 3rd-8th August
this project ended in august 8th, i almost worked every day in the Cultural Centre, i got home at 11:30 at night every day during this event. Then it was the release of the CE result on the 11th and now i finally have got some time, to sit down, and blog.
i worked for 5 days, i saw many different people and funky things every day. Multiple languages flying in the counter, this minute i had to talk in Mandarin with people from China, next minute i was talking in english with japanese. To be honest, the most impolite people i have dealed with turned out was HK people! no smiles, like zombies.
there was not much to do after the first 2 days as most people have taken the roll call and the competitions have all begun so volunteers in the counter were chatting alot. we played cards, a ABCD game and tell ghost stories..etc i cant even understand the ABCD game rules by now! haha.
There was a japanese guy came earlier in the morning, he didnt speak much english. He was just holding the redemption letter, and said:" Open? pass?" and pointing to the counter, and said:" Open? pass?" hahaha, it was so funny
then there was a korean came, he was a translator of the korean team i suppose, he was meant to be speaking in cantonese,but in strange accent so the volunter thought he was speaking in english so he spoke in english to him. Then the korean spoke in english, the volunteer realised he was speaking in cantonese, then he asked him back in cantonese, but the korean didnt understand. End up one was asking in english and one was answering in cantonese. lol
Someone came to me with a HK travelling guide book, asked me where the threatre was on the map. He was asking in english, so i told him in english then he was looking at me with frustration, i glanced at his pass and knew he was taiwanese so i talked in Mandarin, he was like:'ahhh' but still continued talking in english. Ha!
when i was on duty in the opening ceremony, i was to be standing next to the japanese section. There was a japanese old man came to me and spoke in japanese and bowed to me. i was smiling to him but i was like "???"then he went back to his seat. haha, what he said still remains a mystery to me.
The open stage was probably the biggest entertainment when i was on duty. It was right in front of the counter on the ground floor. Public could come and see for free. i saw many many professional harmonica players, just made me want to learn harmonica!
Open Stage performance
After 2-3 days of duty, some of the people looked familiar, we recognised them, like this competitor from taiwan, he came every day to find VIP to chat with and to see the open stage performance. i will never forget his long black straight pony tail. and his red t-shirt matched with the red jacket look.
And this guy from ShangHai, China, he was a member of the team. He came to the counter every day to chat with us, one day he took out the chinese coins and HK coins and told us he thought the $5 HKD were made like a sandwich. he was a year 3 uni student. He was a fun guy, he can talk in cantonese, always came to chit chat with us about food, buildings, people but not harmonica. lol he used the cellphone to take pics of me on the last day. haha
There was a Brazilian, who carried his blue case, wearing white socks and shorts every day. i knew him for the first time from the night when i was passing posters to audience in the break. He came and said we should do that at the end of the show, and rejected the poster and said he would take it on the last day. So i did "reserve" him 5 posters on the last day. He had to hold them with 2 hands, together with his case, in the show. :P
Fernando from Brazil, left me some words on the poster.
2 japanese reporters came one night, they are from the Harmonica Magazine in Japan and wanted to do an interview with us! Not only would the photo be on the magazine, they also promised they will send us each one back one magazine! 5 of us volunteers went aside the counter and did the interview. But at last, the cost of it was being severly scolded by the leader Thomas. (anyway, i heard a lot of negative gossip about Thomas these few days so im glad im not the only one has negative feedback towards him!)
the reception counter wasnt really just for reception, it had multiple functions, it was a reception counter, a translation counter, a lost-and-found counter, a temporarily stock room for photographer, a ticket counter and a deal-with-assholes counter all in one. There was a person who came and asked us how to go to the Teddy Bear Wonderland, 2 old women showing me the concert tickets in Hung Hom. some people came and asked us how to go to the backstage, people came for paper bag after shopping. And some competitors came to get back the music sheets after the competition.
oh yes, i chatted with a norwegian couple Pollestad. I never knew that the husband is so famous after i got home and search for his name on the internet. They came with 5-6 people in a group. My first impression on them was they were all wearing sandals with socks. haha
Pollestads couple
oh and we also saw Sigmund Groven, Jens Bunge (a german who can speak Mandaian very well), Brendan Power, Claude Garden, Franz Chmel..etc And NONPAREIL!the Malaysian chinese harmonica band consists of 3 people. I have been talking about them randomly in conversations with my friends. They are young, good-looking, polite, talkative and they play good music! I took a picture with 2 of them. They came with a group of 28 students ranging from primary to secondary school. Very cute team.
Nonpareil!
Oskar, the bass harmonica player
Patrick, the harmonica player
i was chatting with Rita outside the counter the other day. Then 2 japanese women came to us and took out something from her bag, she gave us each one a mini teddy bear and a sticker!OH MY!! :)
Sticker
The teddy bear present
And i bought this one in the sales counter,as a sovenior for this voluntary service. :)
Teddy bear with mini harmonica
