Snow wonder we're tired!

Yes, I know, bad pun. Pfft. :P But we did wake up to a beautiful snowfall.

First off, everyone was able to be up and about this morning. Yay!

There were two scheduled school shows, each an hour long, each estimated at 500 kids. When showtime came for the first show, we had...four kids in the audience. So we went back in the green room and ate bagels while working out options. We did get one busload of kids in, 15 minutes later, but it looked like most schools weren't sending their students out in the heavy snow + bad traffic.

Once again, proving how flexible we can be under pressure, we changed the set from 50 minutes to 30 minutes (plus a Q&A). The second show we started on time, even with light attendance. We wound up with about 60 kids first show, about 80 the second. Too bad, but the kids got a more personal touch I think. If we didn't get any buses in, we would have worked with those first four kids and done something with them to make their trip over here worthwhile!

The stage crew was nice enough to work through their scheduled lunch hour, so we got to pack up right away. We were tired - especially the two recovering members - but there's a lot of good food around Dartmouth, and good food is what keeps a taiko player going!

There was a wonderful chocolatier here who went to the show and was a big fan. I think almost all of us went to her shop and bought something. She offered free samples of everything and free hot chocolate - which makes it a shame that I don't really like chocolate all that much. But that's my problem. :)

Tomorrow we fly back to San Jose and end the first round of Winter tour '09. I'll probably not be able to blog right away when I get back, and I don't plan to blog anywhere near this consistent when I'm not on tour. However, I do have some ideas about taiko and creativity and art and what-not that I'll post from time to time. I'd love comments as people read posts, and I'll be adding more to the site once I'm on my desktop. Thanks for following along!