Leehom concert

This is the "other side" of my review... mums the word on that.  O.o  lalalaaaa...

I flew to Beijing on Aug 20 (from shanghai) which was the plan dating back to Feburary, i.e. waaaaaaaay before the announcement of his concert in Beijing, which happened in June when i was already in China.

I got back super late that night and was pooped.  I had two giant checked-in luggages (is that a word?) that were overweight and i had to pay a 85 yuan fine.  :(  [note on flying in China: their 20kg limit is per PERSON, not per bag!!!!  baaah!]  anywho, i had that AND a carry-on bag... AND i was to take the bus home!!  it was a very very long ride cuz i was too cheap to cab it.  it would've cost like 150yuan cf. the 36yuan for bus then short taxi ride.  O.o

That night, i did NOT sleep well.  WHY?  several reasons:
1) stayed up even later to watch another episode of "Lie to Me" - i didn't want to bring the DVDs to Canada, so i wanted to finish watching them.
2) Received a text message at 3AM, verifying when and where i was to meet the girl i was meeting the next day to get my concert ticket
3) Received another text at what felt like 3:30AM, telling me Leehom was going to be at the Beijing airport at 10AM the next day (or 7hrs from now)....
No more sleep after that.  :'(

So at 5AM on Aug 21, I was debating whether or not to go to the airport.  On the one hand, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (cuz i'm not as psychotic back home)... but on the other hand, I'd hafta go back to the airport that i was JUST at 12hrs ago!!!  and the ride there/back was not gonna be fun!!!  ... In the end, i decided to stick to the original plan of doing "last minute" shopping for stuff i needed.  I went to my favourite shopping places in Beijing - 万通 and the electronics place.  i bused everywhere, and the electronics place brought back horrible memories of the day my cell phone was stolen.  but anyway, i ended up buying A LOT of stuff, including a WD 1T external harddrive for 700yuan.  I think that's a steal, but i could be wrong.

I found out later that a lot of people went to welcome leehom, and that it was quite fun.  But i'm still glad i didn't go.  If not just to deny that i am that dedicated of a fan.  :P

I met another girl that day who gave me the ticket (i was VERY VERy happy with my seat).  She also gave me a poster, which promptly got squashed... it got squashed before i even made it to the subway!!  no idea how that happened.  lalalaaa... I left in China with my aunt.  She can post it on her wall to ensure she never forgets what leehom looks like (she kept on forgetting.  hahaa!).  I think my aunt may use to as cat litter tho, which is cool too.

The day of the concert...
My aunt and I decided to hang out that day, until the concert.  We caught the first bus that came, and then just went to whereever.  We ended up near where the embassies are.  Embassy people are CRAAAZY paranoid.  You can't even walk within 2 feet of the stupid embassy gate!  Like really, why would i wanna invade the Congo embassy.  are they serious?!?!!?!?  I think they just have small penises and need to show that they're "superior" in some way by making me take one whole mini-step backwards.  Whatever!!!  ... I wanted to check out the Canadian embassy, which had moved since my aunt was there last (in 2000) and hence we were lost for awhile... when we finally found it, we realized that it's now GINORMOUS and sooooooo much nicer than the Congo (HA!) embassy, or even the French embassy!!!!  I wanted to take a picture in front of it, but the small-penis security guards wouldn't let me!!  WHAT THE FUCK?!?  They said I could take a picture if i could prove i was Canadian.  I wasn't gonna bring my passport with me to the Leehom concert, so c'mon!  and i guess my Canadian flags (for the concert) weren't enough to prove my citizenship.  PFFFFT!!!  I was pissed at the small-penis men and their superiority complexes.

Anywho, I had also decided that day that my aunt would accompany me to the concert... at least 'til i got in the gate cuz i was scared they were gonna make me "check" my camera... i don't trust anything/anyone in China so i wanted my aunt on hand in case i couldn't bring it in so she could take the camera home for me.  :D  I'm spoiled in china, yes.  So that was the plan, but i got in a-okay.

After a very very long walk, I finally found my seat in the giant giant stadium and the chika beside me was the security they hired.  she was cool, and we talked.  then her boss came to sit behind us, and the boss' son sat beside her.  He's a HUUUUGE Leehom fan.  he was soooooooooooo excited about the concert cuz apparently Leehom hadn't been to Beijing for a concert in five years.  Anyway, none of those three people were in "their" seats cuz none of them had tickets!!!!!!!  they were awesome-ass seats (they were 1500yuan seats!!!).  They left to sit in some other awesome seats when the actual seat-owners came.... THOSE people weren't even fans.  I'm sure that they got the tickets for free cuz they were like "it's so loud!", and then during ONE of the songs, they said "hey, i know this song!" ... *raised eyebrow* ... so ya, i lost my two 'friends'. 

I had the best seat in the house (other than free-seat people).  yeepee.

After the concert, i RAN to the subway.  I caught the second last subway!!!!  If i had to cab it, it would've been 100yuan - i'm cheap, remember??  Luckily, the line i actually live on (i had to transfer once) has subways that run for a little bit longer.  I couldn't afford to wait for an air-conditioned train at this time of night, so i was VERY happy that the first train was air conditioned.  :D  It was funny tho cuz almost everyone on the subways were from the concert!!  all young people, all talking about the concert!  it was awesome to see that. 

so, asian-concert is over.  it was my first and likely will be my last.  It was definitely an experience and very cool.  It would've been even cooler if my Leehom posse had been with me, but i made the best of it and that's all that counts.  :D