MSU Chamber Orchestra members have learned a lot from their trip over fall break. Food, culture and the chance to collaborate with foreign musicians has really left an impact on the students.

On Chinese food
Anna: “Chinese food initially was … interesting, only because we are changing cultures and we are exposed to a lot of seafood that we have not had before. The more we got accustomed to it,  and began to really enjoy it, a lot of us only want to have that type of dinner now.”

On collaboration with Qingdao University orchestra
Amanda: “Seeing how they rehearse was also interesting because their method was more to go through everything and then fix the mistakes and then go through the whole thing again. That was a little different for a lot of us for how we usually rehearse but it actually worked okay.”

Addie: “Even though we didn’t speak the same language, we REALLY did speak the same language. Because music is a universal language.”

Karolina: “Even though we didn’t speak the same way and had a hard time communicating sometimes, I feel like we still were able to develop good friendship. I feel like we have developed a lot of bond and exchanged a lot of email addresses and we will continue our journey together as friends.”

Impressions on China
Alejandro: “Well, it is a country with very warm people. It is a whole different culture, more different than you’d expect. I am happy we were able to get to know this country.”

Check out the orchestra’s trip through their pictures below.