Fresh from a trip to the Beijing Summer Olympics that included giving color guard performances on the Great Wall of China and in Tiananmen Square, Daisy Torres recently talked about her experiences as a member of the American contingent.
Torres graduated from Riverbank High last May and is now attending Stanislaus State University and enrolled in liberal studies but thinking of transferring to Fresno State.
She attended the Olympic Games with a 42-member band and color guard team from Beyer High that joined teams from schools throughout the United States, Australia, Japan and China in performing at the Games.
"Out first performance was in Tiananmen Square. That was real cool. We were one of very few professional groups to perform. It was very structured. We had about 10,000 spectators to watch 2,000 of us," she explained.
The next show was staged at the Great Wall that is centuries old and winds for miles and miles across the north of China.
"That was exciting. Though it was very hot and hard work climbing up to the foot of the wall," she said. "Our uniforms provided by the Chinese were sort of American style but made us look like Girl Scouts."
The American color guard's third performance was in a soccer arena where they afterwards got to see the women's soccer semi-finals between China and Sweden.
Outside their performances and as part of the tour, Torres and her group visited the Forbidden City in Beijing (formerly Peking) where the Emperor and Empress of China used to live in a walled enclosure shut off from the outside world.
Torres graduated from Riverbank High last May and is now attending Stanislaus State University and enrolled in liberal studies but thinking of transferring to Fresno State.
She attended the Olympic Games with a 42-member band and color guard team from Beyer High that joined teams from schools throughout the United States, Australia, Japan and China in performing at the Games.
"Out first performance was in Tiananmen Square. That was real cool. We were one of very few professional groups to perform. It was very structured. We had about 10,000 spectators to watch 2,000 of us," she explained.
The next show was staged at the Great Wall that is centuries old and winds for miles and miles across the north of China.
"That was exciting. Though it was very hot and hard work climbing up to the foot of the wall," she said. "Our uniforms provided by the Chinese were sort of American style but made us look like Girl Scouts."
The American color guard's third performance was in a soccer arena where they afterwards got to see the women's soccer semi-finals between China and Sweden.
Outside their performances and as part of the tour, Torres and her group visited the Forbidden City in Beijing (formerly Peking) where the Emperor and Empress of China used to live in a walled enclosure shut off from the outside world.
