We left at 8:15 for a service at the 3 Self Church at the Seminary we sang at Friday night. The group sang 2 acapella pieces in the chinese service and sang 10 songs for the foreigners service. I sat next to a man from Nigeria who encouraged me to visit the continent of Africa.
Afterwards we went to the Fountains for a potluck style lunch of American food - potato salad, chicken salad, sandwich fixings, cole slaw, etc. Everyone was very happy. The Fountains was a meeting place where Christians could gather, but the government has shut it down (hopefully, just for the time being) since they don't have a permit for a gathering place and it's not a business. Up on the 3rd floor are ping-pong and foosball tables, a library, a movie room and a library with computers. We crashed there for an hour before heading back to the hotel for another rest. I took a short stroll in the garden area, it reminds me a little of Giverny (where Monet lived and painted his water lily paintings.)
Tonight was the final concert of the tour and for some, the last of their college career. The church was packed, people were standing in the aisles and along the back. It ended with my life is in your hands with the singers and audience holding hands, lifted up, swaying back and forth.
Dinner was at McDonalds. Back at the hotel I played my first game of Mafia - lots of fun and went down the hall and joined those that were watching Michael Jackson's "This Is It.'
There are lots of things I'm going to miss - and lots of things I'm not going to miss
I'm not going to miss
the seemingly ever present smell of raw sewage
mosquitos
the 15 pound backpack with everything I (and everyone else) might possibly need everywhere I go
not being able to find anything
toilets stalls with no doors
I will miss
Rock hard beds (I think it's time for a new one, I always slept very well in China)
Meeting new people everyday
constantly new experiences
Magnum bars
listening to good live music everyday (I'll even miss Disney Dazzle, but not the Beach Boys medley)
trying new exotic food
Asian babies and children
being the drug dealer (aspirin, tylenol, refresh tears, immodium, neosporin, tissues, cough drops, baby wipes and purell)
But mostly, I will miss my new friends. This is such a great group of people, very fun, very tender, very tuned into God. I don't recall laughing this much on a daily basis - ever - and yet when it comes to ministering to someone, they are right there to put an arm around or pray or encourage. Tyler carried a Chinese/English Bible with him everywhere he went and stayed up until the wee hours talking with Teri at Sam's Guesthouse about what he believed. I'm sure there are other stories of which I am not aware. The patience they displayed while being mobbed was impressive for anyone, but doubly so for those so young. I am encouraged by the thoughtfulness, initiative, work ethic, leadership and maturity (both spiritually and emotionally) that has been displayed. And my new friend Teresa, our deep talks punctuated with lots of laughter. I can't believe that 3 weeks ago I barely knew the names of most of the folks on this trip and now I have shared this lifetime experience with them. Here I am, from a completely different generation with no association with Vanguard, our only commonality is our love of Jesus and music. Yet , I could not have been anymore loved and accepted. I have been blessed at least once a day, usually more often.
This is my last post tomorrow is going to be last minute shopping before heading to Hong Kong for the flight home. I do look forward to seeing all of you and catching up with you on your life.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Day 20 - GIVES concert, Pearl Market, River Cruise
Hallelujah! Breakfast call time was 9am. There's a 7 Eleven next to the hotel, so some of us went there to get water and Oreos for Doc's birthday.
On the bus to the concert I learned that if a child has a birth defect - like a cleft palate or is handicapped in anyway they can't go to school. Also, they can't be adopted unless their handicap is fixed. Amazing, it makes their story even sadder.
The concert today is for a charity. There is an expression "TIC" (This is China) because things change all the time and flexibility is required. The concert was originally supposed to be in a special olympics stadium, then in another larger venue. It's now in a room at an American school. It benefits GIVES which works with handicapped and autistic children.. The group has 2 concerts 1/2 hour in length and a lot of downtime which is what they need to recover, especially since tomorrow there are 2 performances.
After the concert, we decided to try the Pearl Market again. But now, there are 13 of us. We split up into 3 groups and tried to get 5 into a taxi, but that didn't work. Not that it's easy to get a taxi in Guangzhou anyway. We had hailed down a taxi pretty quickly at one point, but he pulled past us and a white woman that had just come from the charity event started to get into it. She asked where we were going and I told her the Pearl Market and she asked if she could help us (I wanted to say, ya - gives us our taxi, we were here first), I said no and let her go. So anyway after 2 attempts to get 5 of us into a taxi, we split into two groups, me, Dain and Tyler and Teresa and Clinton in the other.
The ride is not 20 minutes from the school, it's more like 40, so by the time we got there, we were supposed to be heading home. I tried to get money from the ATM, but my card didn't work at that ATM. Meanwhile, Tyler watched for Teresa and Clinton. At this point, I just decided that we should walk through, which we did, the floor is mostly jade, but after cruising through I did find a pearl stall. I asked if they had pearl chokers, they pulled out a strand, I asked how much, they said 150 yuan, I said too much and walked away. They tried to talk me into it, I kept saying too much, Tyler reminded me to give them a price (I forgot this wasn't corporate America) I said 30, they said no way, I walked away, then they recanted, pulled out another strand - nope didnt want those, I told them 30 yuan for that strand or no deal. I got my deal. Tyler did too.
As if this trip hasn't been exciting already, the real fun begins. It starts to rain. Tyler, Dain and I unsuccessfully tried to hail a taxi for a couple of minutes, then saw Teresa so ran down to her. Now it's really pouring, none of us have jackets, only Teresa has an umbrella. I have my backpack with my computer and cameras in it - I'm not sure how waterproof it is, At one point, there were 4 of us huddled under a regular sized umbrella - although really, what's the point we were soaked already. My backpack was facing forward, all I really cared about was keeping that dry(er). I tried making several phone calls to different people in the group, no one answered. I called the hotel, couldn't get anyone in the lobby that spoke english to get Doc on the phone. In the meantime, while I'm on the phone with the hotel, Clinton has negotiated with a van to take us to the hotel. It's not a regular taxi, no meter, but we figure there's 5 of us and one of him. Here's the thing, the van has only 1 seat in the back and it's only built to hold 3 people max, we crammed in 4. Clinton was in the front seat and that's good, he's our schmoozer, he's learned the most chinese, he's chatting up the driver. In the back is Tyler, me, Teresa and Dain. I'm not sure Dain is really sitting on anything, Teresa has one of her legs over Dain, Tyler and I are way too close. Tyler handed Clinton his video camera and I handed him my still. We all decided this was the highlight of our day, maybe the trip. I also said I was glad I was having that experience with the 4 of them, there are some that would have whined about it, but we laughed. After 30 minutes, Dain said he couldn't take it anymore, he didn't care how gross the back of the van was, so that's where he sat.
40 minutes after we got in the taxi we made it back to the hotel - 30 minutes to find a taxi, 40 minute drive, we've missed the bus for dinner and the river cruise. There was a note left at the front desk saying they'd come back for us at 6:50 and that they'd tried to call my phone, sure enough, there's a missed call, but it never rang. I called Doc and handed the phone to Teresa who explained the day. We figured we had a little time, so the guys went up to change out of their wet clothes, I figured what's the difference and stayed in my dress and sandals, but then decided to go up and get my rain coat with a hood. While we're upstairs, Doc calls to say they aren't going to do the Las Vegas Buffet after all, that they are turning the bus around now to get us. Teresa washed Dain's pants and the water was almost black - and no, it wasn't the dye from the pants, it was dirt. About 10 minutes later they arrived, we got fruit, ice cream and drinks from 7 Eleven before heading to the river cruise.
The cruise was nice, the rain eased up and the lightening stopped so we could go on the upper deck, which a few of us did. I saw a group of young girls - ages 10 and 11 and started talking with them.. I got them to go downstairs and say Happy BIrthday to Doc. I talked with them for about 15 minutes and learned all of their names - one had the name of Coco and she was pretty fashionable.
After the cruise, we went to Pizza Hut for dinner. They weren't going to serve us since it was 10 and they close at 10:30, but we said we'd order fast. It tasted so good, it was the first cheese I'd had in almost 3 weeks. Mmmmm!
Teresa and I left before the main group and started to walk back to the hotel, since she'd been to Guangzhou and knew were the hotel was. But as we were walking, she realized we'd gone too far, so we stopped 2 young guys to ask for directions to IKEA (that's our landmark), they gave them to us and we walked back, essentially to where we started, but by now, it was really pouring and my rain jacket, well, it's only waterproof if you are in So Cal running from your car to a building, not in a Guangzhou downpour where you have to walk about 3/4 mile. Needless to say, by the time I got back to the hotel I might as well have been coatless, in fact, that might have been better.
Happy to be be dry and now really ready for sleep.
On the bus to the concert I learned that if a child has a birth defect - like a cleft palate or is handicapped in anyway they can't go to school. Also, they can't be adopted unless their handicap is fixed. Amazing, it makes their story even sadder.
The concert today is for a charity. There is an expression "TIC" (This is China) because things change all the time and flexibility is required. The concert was originally supposed to be in a special olympics stadium, then in another larger venue. It's now in a room at an American school. It benefits GIVES which works with handicapped and autistic children.. The group has 2 concerts 1/2 hour in length and a lot of downtime which is what they need to recover, especially since tomorrow there are 2 performances.
After the concert, we decided to try the Pearl Market again. But now, there are 13 of us. We split up into 3 groups and tried to get 5 into a taxi, but that didn't work. Not that it's easy to get a taxi in Guangzhou anyway. We had hailed down a taxi pretty quickly at one point, but he pulled past us and a white woman that had just come from the charity event started to get into it. She asked where we were going and I told her the Pearl Market and she asked if she could help us (I wanted to say, ya - gives us our taxi, we were here first), I said no and let her go. So anyway after 2 attempts to get 5 of us into a taxi, we split into two groups, me, Dain and Tyler and Teresa and Clinton in the other.
The ride is not 20 minutes from the school, it's more like 40, so by the time we got there, we were supposed to be heading home. I tried to get money from the ATM, but my card didn't work at that ATM. Meanwhile, Tyler watched for Teresa and Clinton. At this point, I just decided that we should walk through, which we did, the floor is mostly jade, but after cruising through I did find a pearl stall. I asked if they had pearl chokers, they pulled out a strand, I asked how much, they said 150 yuan, I said too much and walked away. They tried to talk me into it, I kept saying too much, Tyler reminded me to give them a price (I forgot this wasn't corporate America) I said 30, they said no way, I walked away, then they recanted, pulled out another strand - nope didnt want those, I told them 30 yuan for that strand or no deal. I got my deal. Tyler did too.
As if this trip hasn't been exciting already, the real fun begins. It starts to rain. Tyler, Dain and I unsuccessfully tried to hail a taxi for a couple of minutes, then saw Teresa so ran down to her. Now it's really pouring, none of us have jackets, only Teresa has an umbrella. I have my backpack with my computer and cameras in it - I'm not sure how waterproof it is, At one point, there were 4 of us huddled under a regular sized umbrella - although really, what's the point we were soaked already. My backpack was facing forward, all I really cared about was keeping that dry(er). I tried making several phone calls to different people in the group, no one answered. I called the hotel, couldn't get anyone in the lobby that spoke english to get Doc on the phone. In the meantime, while I'm on the phone with the hotel, Clinton has negotiated with a van to take us to the hotel. It's not a regular taxi, no meter, but we figure there's 5 of us and one of him. Here's the thing, the van has only 1 seat in the back and it's only built to hold 3 people max, we crammed in 4. Clinton was in the front seat and that's good, he's our schmoozer, he's learned the most chinese, he's chatting up the driver. In the back is Tyler, me, Teresa and Dain. I'm not sure Dain is really sitting on anything, Teresa has one of her legs over Dain, Tyler and I are way too close. Tyler handed Clinton his video camera and I handed him my still. We all decided this was the highlight of our day, maybe the trip. I also said I was glad I was having that experience with the 4 of them, there are some that would have whined about it, but we laughed. After 30 minutes, Dain said he couldn't take it anymore, he didn't care how gross the back of the van was, so that's where he sat.
40 minutes after we got in the taxi we made it back to the hotel - 30 minutes to find a taxi, 40 minute drive, we've missed the bus for dinner and the river cruise. There was a note left at the front desk saying they'd come back for us at 6:50 and that they'd tried to call my phone, sure enough, there's a missed call, but it never rang. I called Doc and handed the phone to Teresa who explained the day. We figured we had a little time, so the guys went up to change out of their wet clothes, I figured what's the difference and stayed in my dress and sandals, but then decided to go up and get my rain coat with a hood. While we're upstairs, Doc calls to say they aren't going to do the Las Vegas Buffet after all, that they are turning the bus around now to get us. Teresa washed Dain's pants and the water was almost black - and no, it wasn't the dye from the pants, it was dirt. About 10 minutes later they arrived, we got fruit, ice cream and drinks from 7 Eleven before heading to the river cruise.
The cruise was nice, the rain eased up and the lightening stopped so we could go on the upper deck, which a few of us did. I saw a group of young girls - ages 10 and 11 and started talking with them.. I got them to go downstairs and say Happy BIrthday to Doc. I talked with them for about 15 minutes and learned all of their names - one had the name of Coco and she was pretty fashionable.
After the cruise, we went to Pizza Hut for dinner. They weren't going to serve us since it was 10 and they close at 10:30, but we said we'd order fast. It tasted so good, it was the first cheese I'd had in almost 3 weeks. Mmmmm!
Teresa and I left before the main group and started to walk back to the hotel, since she'd been to Guangzhou and knew were the hotel was. But as we were walking, she realized we'd gone too far, so we stopped 2 young guys to ask for directions to IKEA (that's our landmark), they gave them to us and we walked back, essentially to where we started, but by now, it was really pouring and my rain jacket, well, it's only waterproof if you are in So Cal running from your car to a building, not in a Guangzhou downpour where you have to walk about 3/4 mile. Needless to say, by the time I got back to the hotel I might as well have been coatless, in fact, that might have been better.
Happy to be be dry and now really ready for sleep.
Day 19 - Travel to Guangzhou
We left the hotel at 5am and headed for the airport. Once again, we had issues checking in, this time they said our suitcases already exceeded weight limit, but Adele and Toni made phone calls and the situation got resolved - without having to delay the flight. Dale and I were a 3 seat row, with an empty seat between us. I was asleep before the plane took off and woke briefly during the 2 hour flight.
The most prominent feature of Guangzhou is the poor air quality, to say the sky is grey only begins to cover it. It's also warm and VERY humid. We have a big, fancy bus and all of our luggage fits underneath in the cargo hold - yea! The hotel is nice - although only half of the rooms were ready, so some of us put our luggage up in our rooms before we walked to McDonalds. Believe it or not, most of the group wants to go to Mickey D's.
My room is on the 16th floor, the elevator only goes up to 15, so I promised Dustin L a Starbucks if he carried my luggage up one flight of stairs, he said he'd do without the Starbucks. Dale carried Teresa's luggage upstairs. After checking out our room, Dale started complaining "Is this what you've had the entire time? couches? flat panel TVs? Refrigerators? while we've been suffering?!?!?!?!" I assured him this was the first we've had a room this nice.
After lunch, Teresa and I decided we were going to go to the Pearl Market by ourselves since we couldn't find Kevin B. I asked at the front desk of the hotel and they didn't really understand, but they thought I did, so they gave me an address and said it should take about 10 minutes and cost 10 yuan. The driver took us to a regular mall and told us the price in mandarin. I understood quai (slang for yuan), but not the number, so I handed him my phone with calculator app. He typed in 111 - yikes! we pulled out a 100 bill and he kept saying no, so we handed him 11, he was satisfied.
OK, so this is not the Pearl Market, but we thought we'd give it a try. We went up to someone and asked them (in English) where it was, they answered back In Mandarin and English, somewhere in there was 2, 3, 5 and 7. We went up to the 2nd floor, repeated the exercise and heard 3, 4, 5 & 7. We went to the 3rd floor and found a jewelry store, walked through then came back to the hotel. It was like trying to get a cab in NYC, they were mostly full and stopped wherever we weren't standing, after about 10 minutes we finally got a cab.
The concert was at a seminary about an hour from the hotel. We had a dinner prepared by the staff. The evening started with worship led by their team, it sounded like they sang the same song 3 times, but maybe not. The church was only 1/4 full at 7, but by 7:15 it was full on the floor and about 1/2 full in the balcony. You could tell the kids were tired, while they still sound lovely, you could here the fatigue in their voices.
It started raining, but was still very warm. About 9:30 we started back to the hotel.
Some of the group went out to Mickey D's, the rest of us stayed back to rest. Tereas and I are the only women on the 16th floor. Those of us that stayed back had a little party in the hallway, Dustin G put used the fan the gal gave him in Chengdu and did a fan dance. We were pretty loud, so we're glad we're the only ones on the floor. Or so we thought, after we all retired to our rooms, both Teresa and I heard chinese walking and talking in the hallway.
The real entertainment for the evening was watching people "tour" the room of 2 of the guys. They've only spent a couple of hours in their room but it's already a disaster. Dustin G thought they must have literally thrown their clothes around the room. No one can believe what a mess it is and remember, these are college-age guys that are appalled, The common comment was, "But they've only been in here a couple of hours."
The most prominent feature of Guangzhou is the poor air quality, to say the sky is grey only begins to cover it. It's also warm and VERY humid. We have a big, fancy bus and all of our luggage fits underneath in the cargo hold - yea! The hotel is nice - although only half of the rooms were ready, so some of us put our luggage up in our rooms before we walked to McDonalds. Believe it or not, most of the group wants to go to Mickey D's.
My room is on the 16th floor, the elevator only goes up to 15, so I promised Dustin L a Starbucks if he carried my luggage up one flight of stairs, he said he'd do without the Starbucks. Dale carried Teresa's luggage upstairs. After checking out our room, Dale started complaining "Is this what you've had the entire time? couches? flat panel TVs? Refrigerators? while we've been suffering?!?!?!?!" I assured him this was the first we've had a room this nice.
After lunch, Teresa and I decided we were going to go to the Pearl Market by ourselves since we couldn't find Kevin B. I asked at the front desk of the hotel and they didn't really understand, but they thought I did, so they gave me an address and said it should take about 10 minutes and cost 10 yuan. The driver took us to a regular mall and told us the price in mandarin. I understood quai (slang for yuan), but not the number, so I handed him my phone with calculator app. He typed in 111 - yikes! we pulled out a 100 bill and he kept saying no, so we handed him 11, he was satisfied.
OK, so this is not the Pearl Market, but we thought we'd give it a try. We went up to someone and asked them (in English) where it was, they answered back In Mandarin and English, somewhere in there was 2, 3, 5 and 7. We went up to the 2nd floor, repeated the exercise and heard 3, 4, 5 & 7. We went to the 3rd floor and found a jewelry store, walked through then came back to the hotel. It was like trying to get a cab in NYC, they were mostly full and stopped wherever we weren't standing, after about 10 minutes we finally got a cab.
The concert was at a seminary about an hour from the hotel. We had a dinner prepared by the staff. The evening started with worship led by their team, it sounded like they sang the same song 3 times, but maybe not. The church was only 1/4 full at 7, but by 7:15 it was full on the floor and about 1/2 full in the balcony. You could tell the kids were tired, while they still sound lovely, you could here the fatigue in their voices.
It started raining, but was still very warm. About 9:30 we started back to the hotel.
Some of the group went out to Mickey D's, the rest of us stayed back to rest. Tereas and I are the only women on the 16th floor. Those of us that stayed back had a little party in the hallway, Dustin G put used the fan the gal gave him in Chengdu and did a fan dance. We were pretty loud, so we're glad we're the only ones on the floor. Or so we thought, after we all retired to our rooms, both Teresa and I heard chinese walking and talking in the hallway.
The real entertainment for the evening was watching people "tour" the room of 2 of the guys. They've only spent a couple of hours in their room but it's already a disaster. Dustin G thought they must have literally thrown their clothes around the room. No one can believe what a mess it is and remember, these are college-age guys that are appalled, The common comment was, "But they've only been in here a couple of hours."
Day 18 - Giant Buddha of Leshan and 2 concerts
We drove 2 hours this morning to the city of Leshan. The road we traveled on originally connected Egypt to China. Our first stop was the Giant Buddha - the largest in the world (71 meters tall). It's about 1700 years old, there used to be a wooden roof above its head, but it burned in the 1930s. The area surrounding it is cool and green, but with all the climbing a sweater is unnecessary.
We drove to a beautiful restaurant close to the river and had many different and delicious dishes - lots of tofu - but tofu here is finer and actually worth eating. I did eat duck tongue - one of the few that did. It's not that bad, kind of chewy, and tastes like the sauce it's cooked in.
The first school was a high school, the bus was greeted by students that were our roadies I asked one girl her name (Sue) and she asked me mine. After that I had kids coming up and calling me Karen, I asked one how they knew my name and they said they overheard someone else. Even I had to pose for pictures. The auditorium was packed out, I sat with Cory and Dustin at the sound board and kids came up to me during the concert and wanted to have their picture taken (I told them they had to wait until the song was over). After we sang, the kids helped us pack up the equipment and one of them gave me a fan. The singers and band got mobbed (again) Lane said it was the worst they've experienced, he got backed up to a wall. We had to keep them away from the bus while we packed the equipment, but then it was a swarm. They were lined up along the road as we exited the school. I think everyone has decided they don't want to be famous.
One of the students spoke English with almost no accent, he said that he listens to Obama speak. I asked a group around me how late they stayed at the school, those that live there are expected to study until 10pm, those that live off campus leave at 9pm.
The next concert was about 15 minutes drive at the Leshan Teachers College. Once again we are greeted by a student volunteer that escorts us everywhere. After a buffet dinner we went to the gymnasium to set up. The gymnasium is packed with people and others are standing outside. Everywhere we go they take such good care of us, here they had chairs set up for us with a water bottle on each chair. Mid performance they ran up and gave the group water bottles. When Jeff, Teresa, Adele and I left mid concert to go to the bathroom, we had to have the security guard let us out, they had closed the gates into the gym.
I had decided to not write anymore about the bathrooms, but once again, the stalls have no doors so there are Teresa and I squatting and getting punchy over the toilet situation. BTW, the trash cans are not for feminine products, they are for the used TP. Apparently, the sewage system can't handle TP.
While the mob was going on post concert, one of the teachers said that the reason the students go wild is because it's the first time they've ever been to an event like this. We are now on the road back to Chengdu and will hopefully arrive before midnight. Of course you wont' get this until we get back and I get internet access.
Someone asked when do I write, most of the time it's during a concert, sometimes its at night at Sam's.
Tomorrow is an early call - we have to leave by 5 am for a flight to Guangzhou. Yikes!
We drove to a beautiful restaurant close to the river and had many different and delicious dishes - lots of tofu - but tofu here is finer and actually worth eating. I did eat duck tongue - one of the few that did. It's not that bad, kind of chewy, and tastes like the sauce it's cooked in.
The first school was a high school, the bus was greeted by students that were our roadies I asked one girl her name (Sue) and she asked me mine. After that I had kids coming up and calling me Karen, I asked one how they knew my name and they said they overheard someone else. Even I had to pose for pictures. The auditorium was packed out, I sat with Cory and Dustin at the sound board and kids came up to me during the concert and wanted to have their picture taken (I told them they had to wait until the song was over). After we sang, the kids helped us pack up the equipment and one of them gave me a fan. The singers and band got mobbed (again) Lane said it was the worst they've experienced, he got backed up to a wall. We had to keep them away from the bus while we packed the equipment, but then it was a swarm. They were lined up along the road as we exited the school. I think everyone has decided they don't want to be famous.
One of the students spoke English with almost no accent, he said that he listens to Obama speak. I asked a group around me how late they stayed at the school, those that live there are expected to study until 10pm, those that live off campus leave at 9pm.
The next concert was about 15 minutes drive at the Leshan Teachers College. Once again we are greeted by a student volunteer that escorts us everywhere. After a buffet dinner we went to the gymnasium to set up. The gymnasium is packed with people and others are standing outside. Everywhere we go they take such good care of us, here they had chairs set up for us with a water bottle on each chair. Mid performance they ran up and gave the group water bottles. When Jeff, Teresa, Adele and I left mid concert to go to the bathroom, we had to have the security guard let us out, they had closed the gates into the gym.
I had decided to not write anymore about the bathrooms, but once again, the stalls have no doors so there are Teresa and I squatting and getting punchy over the toilet situation. BTW, the trash cans are not for feminine products, they are for the used TP. Apparently, the sewage system can't handle TP.
While the mob was going on post concert, one of the teachers said that the reason the students go wild is because it's the first time they've ever been to an event like this. We are now on the road back to Chengdu and will hopefully arrive before midnight. Of course you wont' get this until we get back and I get internet access.
Someone asked when do I write, most of the time it's during a concert, sometimes its at night at Sam's.
Tomorrow is an early call - we have to leave by 5 am for a flight to Guangzhou. Yikes!
Day 17 -Southwestern Technology University and Pivot Point College
The day started at 8am with a 2 hour bus ride to Southwestern Technology University. It is a large, fairly new university in a relatively rural area. It is a draw for nuclear physicists and other technology, but also has a college of the arts. The campus is 4000 square moue (so=p?) (which is a chinese measurement - don't know hw it relates to km, miles or acres ). As you can see from the photograph below, the campus is unlike anything that we have in the states. The buildings in the center of the campus are the arts buildings and concert hall. We were given a tour of the campus from the bus.
Before the performance we were driven to room in the dining hall building for a delicious buffet. The concert hall is very nice, probably the most interesting feature to me are the risers that look like they are from 12 - 18 inches between levels. This was the most respectful crowd and very responsive. It might have helped that the "Vice President" for Chengdu was in attendance; her looks remind me of Sue-Jean (Allergan's CIO). After "Only You" they did "This I Promise You"; when they asked for volunteers, one girl in middle of the section jumped up screaming and ran to the middle of the stage. You would have thought her name was called for the Price is Right. Incredible. This group was definitely into the songs, not like some of the previous concerts where they were mortified to be on stage and sung to. After our performance, they had 5 different groups perform one song each - 2 choirs, one with traditional instruments and a singer - the piece was quarter tonal so she sounded like she was flat most of the time and also a flutist that played a traditional chinese flute. During the 2nd song of the Chinese students said that we should have left for the next concert 5 minutes ago.
The drive to Pivot Point College is about 1 1/2 hour drive. about 45 minutes away traffic slowed down to a crawl because they closed a lane. Our bus driver got off at the next exit, cut across the highway and "pushed" our way back on the highway, he depended upon tonage having the right-of-way. Doc had to look the other way, I'm glad I was back a row of seats. He would have totally gotten a ticket back home, but no one seemed to be fazed. I'm sure there was swearing behind us, but no ticket.
Pivot Point College originally started as beauty school - i believe by Americans. It has lovely brick buildings and gardens; it looks european or east coast. Students met us at the bus and helped carry equipment to the auditorium. The auditorium is smaller and packed, standing room only, with people pouring on to the patio. After dropping off equipment some of us went to the cafeteria for another buffet. There is not a lot of protein that is appealing to me except for these triangles that look like they are going to be cheese, but are actually egg. They do have really good fried rice and I'm not really a huge fried rice fan, but this is delicious. The big deal during dinner is the ginormous spider on the wall.
The concert is a huge success, I recorded the screams during our songs. The students at the college were so gracious, they escorted us back to the bus with umbrellas (it started raining during the concert) and helped carry equipment. Someone also gave us 4 boxes of some fruit that was peach like, only the fruit had 4 pits.
Pray for us, today we have 2 concerts and also go to see a giant buddha. We won't get back until about midnight, then have to leave the hotel at 5am tomorrow morning for the flight to Guanzhou
Before the performance we were driven to room in the dining hall building for a delicious buffet. The concert hall is very nice, probably the most interesting feature to me are the risers that look like they are from 12 - 18 inches between levels. This was the most respectful crowd and very responsive. It might have helped that the "Vice President" for Chengdu was in attendance; her looks remind me of Sue-Jean (Allergan's CIO). After "Only You" they did "This I Promise You"; when they asked for volunteers, one girl in middle of the section jumped up screaming and ran to the middle of the stage. You would have thought her name was called for the Price is Right. Incredible. This group was definitely into the songs, not like some of the previous concerts where they were mortified to be on stage and sung to. After our performance, they had 5 different groups perform one song each - 2 choirs, one with traditional instruments and a singer - the piece was quarter tonal so she sounded like she was flat most of the time and also a flutist that played a traditional chinese flute. During the 2nd song of the Chinese students said that we should have left for the next concert 5 minutes ago.
The drive to Pivot Point College is about 1 1/2 hour drive. about 45 minutes away traffic slowed down to a crawl because they closed a lane. Our bus driver got off at the next exit, cut across the highway and "pushed" our way back on the highway, he depended upon tonage having the right-of-way. Doc had to look the other way, I'm glad I was back a row of seats. He would have totally gotten a ticket back home, but no one seemed to be fazed. I'm sure there was swearing behind us, but no ticket.
Pivot Point College originally started as beauty school - i believe by Americans. It has lovely brick buildings and gardens; it looks european or east coast. Students met us at the bus and helped carry equipment to the auditorium. The auditorium is smaller and packed, standing room only, with people pouring on to the patio. After dropping off equipment some of us went to the cafeteria for another buffet. There is not a lot of protein that is appealing to me except for these triangles that look like they are going to be cheese, but are actually egg. They do have really good fried rice and I'm not really a huge fried rice fan, but this is delicious. The big deal during dinner is the ginormous spider on the wall.
The concert is a huge success, I recorded the screams during our songs. The students at the college were so gracious, they escorted us back to the bus with umbrellas (it started raining during the concert) and helped carry equipment. Someone also gave us 4 boxes of some fruit that was peach like, only the fruit had 4 pits.
Pray for us, today we have 2 concerts and also go to see a giant buddha. We won't get back until about midnight, then have to leave the hotel at 5am tomorrow morning for the flight to Guanzhou
Day 16 - 2 Concerts
Last night I had a Magnum bar while typing the e-mail. There must be coffee in the ice cream because I was up until at least 1 a.m., then kept waking up, so I probably got 3 hours of sleep.
For the last 2.5 days we've been smelling fire, like there's a brush fire in So Cal. There's a lot of smoke, but other than a couple of very small bonfires along the side of the road, haven't seen anything worthy of the smell. And it's everywhere, even in the heart of the city. We found out from Mr. Qing that the farmers typically burn the crops to improve the soil for next years crops. The government put a ban on it, but didn't tell the farmers in time. The first farmers that started the fires were thrown in jail, but there were too many that burned their crops and they can' throw them all in jail, so the rest are OK, but they haven't released the one's already in there. Also in jail is a student that's pro-democracy - anti-communism because he won't stop talking about democracy.
As we were getting on the bus, it started to rain. The first concert is at a middle school about 1.5 hours away. The concert was supposed to be on the sports field, but was moved inside to the cafeteria. While the performance was going on we kept hearing electrical interference from the sound equipment, I was waiting for the sound system to short out. The school provided lunch which was very tasty. The big debate was whether one of the dishes was potatoes or bamboo shoots, it turns out that it was potatoes (one of our translators settled it.)
Water and stone don't mix well so I fell on my left bum carrying a snare drum to the bus, I'm sure I'll have a large bruise, it hurts to sit on it. After my fall, Jeff banished me to the bus until it was time to go eat; he said he didn't want to take me to the emergency room.
The next school is also a middle school and another 1.5 hours drive. This one is in a gymnasium, so it's loud with bad reverb. We were supposed to do 2 concerts at this school, but at the last minute (like at the end of the first concert), they decided on only one. During both concerts I typed the lyrics to all the Christian songs in the repertoire since the church we are going to on Thursday wants Mandarin translations for all of the songs.
A lot of the students are complaining about having to eat Chinese food and dinners in our honor. Some were petitioning for McDonalds. Doc wouldn't say one way or the other where we were going for dinner. The drive to dinner was quite a while and we pulled up to another Peter's Tex Mex - wild cheers went throughout the group. I split a bacon burger with Jared, it was delicious, but I could only eat 3/4s of the 1/2 and I was still stuffed.
After we returned to the hotel (about 9:30) Josh, Dain, Teresa and I went for our nightly massage. I haven't had one for 2 days since we've been getting back after 11. I have been carrying a heavy pack on my back everyday so I deserve it. Sam's was full, so we went next door to John's - smoky, but the man that gave me my massage was good, I fell asleep. It's not quite as clean as Sam's so we're all going to wash well before we go to bed.
It's still sprinkling, but it's nice.
For the last 2.5 days we've been smelling fire, like there's a brush fire in So Cal. There's a lot of smoke, but other than a couple of very small bonfires along the side of the road, haven't seen anything worthy of the smell. And it's everywhere, even in the heart of the city. We found out from Mr. Qing that the farmers typically burn the crops to improve the soil for next years crops. The government put a ban on it, but didn't tell the farmers in time. The first farmers that started the fires were thrown in jail, but there were too many that burned their crops and they can' throw them all in jail, so the rest are OK, but they haven't released the one's already in there. Also in jail is a student that's pro-democracy - anti-communism because he won't stop talking about democracy.
As we were getting on the bus, it started to rain. The first concert is at a middle school about 1.5 hours away. The concert was supposed to be on the sports field, but was moved inside to the cafeteria. While the performance was going on we kept hearing electrical interference from the sound equipment, I was waiting for the sound system to short out. The school provided lunch which was very tasty. The big debate was whether one of the dishes was potatoes or bamboo shoots, it turns out that it was potatoes (one of our translators settled it.)
Water and stone don't mix well so I fell on my left bum carrying a snare drum to the bus, I'm sure I'll have a large bruise, it hurts to sit on it. After my fall, Jeff banished me to the bus until it was time to go eat; he said he didn't want to take me to the emergency room.
The next school is also a middle school and another 1.5 hours drive. This one is in a gymnasium, so it's loud with bad reverb. We were supposed to do 2 concerts at this school, but at the last minute (like at the end of the first concert), they decided on only one. During both concerts I typed the lyrics to all the Christian songs in the repertoire since the church we are going to on Thursday wants Mandarin translations for all of the songs.
A lot of the students are complaining about having to eat Chinese food and dinners in our honor. Some were petitioning for McDonalds. Doc wouldn't say one way or the other where we were going for dinner. The drive to dinner was quite a while and we pulled up to another Peter's Tex Mex - wild cheers went throughout the group. I split a bacon burger with Jared, it was delicious, but I could only eat 3/4s of the 1/2 and I was still stuffed.
After we returned to the hotel (about 9:30) Josh, Dain, Teresa and I went for our nightly massage. I haven't had one for 2 days since we've been getting back after 11. I have been carrying a heavy pack on my back everyday so I deserve it. Sam's was full, so we went next door to John's - smoky, but the man that gave me my massage was good, I fell asleep. It's not quite as clean as Sam's so we're all going to wash well before we go to bed.
It's still sprinkling, but it's nice.
Day 15 - Panda Preserve and 2 Universities
Walking to Starbucks was interesting again, I left about 15 minutes later than I wanted, so I power walked. I met up with Josh, Jamie, Tavani and Bree, but powered past them since I was trying to time how quickly I could walk there. I only arrived there a few seconds earlier than they did as I had to wait at a light. Walking back I noticed a crossing guard chewing out a woman walking in the bike lane, eventually the woman got up on the sidewalk.
We left the hotel at 8:30 for the Panda preserve, I was already "glowing", from the heat and humidity. The Panda preserve is about an hour drive. Once inside it is filled with Bamboo and other greenery, it's pretty large and there are several different locations, the nursery, sub-adult and adult Giant Pandas as well as Red Pandas. Red Pandas are a cross between a fox and a raccoon. One of them we saw had a sore paw. If you want to pay 500 Yuan you can pose with a Giant Panda, it's a nice thought, but not worth $70 to me. Teresa and I wandered back and forth between the exhibits, after visiting the nursery for the second time, we visited the gift shop, Teresa left to visit the powder room. When she didn't come back, I started walking to the exit and saw quite a few from our group, but not Teresa, so I went back looking for her - calling her name as I went. I never found her so I ran back to the exit, she and the rest of the group was waiting for me.
We went to a lunch in our honor at a very nice restaurant close to the Aba Teacher's College. Everyone liked the Romaine lettuce with peanut butter as salad dressing.
The reception at the college was amazing. Doc, Teresa and I had to enter first. As we got off the bus we were greeted by officials from the college and had a red and gold scarf placed around our neck. On both sides of the walk way were men and women in traditional Tibetan and Mongolian costumes, they had been waiting in the hot sun for us for 2 hours. They walked us into a cool building, up 5 flights of stairs to an auditorium packed with students. When we walked in the entire auditorium cheered. We did the rock star thing again, taking pictures and shaking hands before the concert started. Teresa, Jeff and I had to sit in the front row along with officials from the school. After the concert was more picture taking, then the students took us down to the lobby to look at art work that will be displayed at a museum (University?) in Michigan. We also looked at pictures of the area after the earthquake 2 years ago.
We are all amazed at how quickly the area has recovered from the quake, it's pretty hard to believe that there was one so recently.
We drove about 15 minutes to the Film & Television College of Sichuan Normal University. This university has 4200 students and trains many of the actors and television hosts and anchor people. We were greeted by students and given a tour of the school. Two of the girls I talked to had very good english, one was a student there, the other was going to law school and was good at debating. When we walked past a pond they said one side was "Valentine Lake" and the other side was "Break-up Lake" Dinner was buffet style and delicious.
The performance is in a theatre, they have television cameras and monitors and the crowd goes wild!!!!!! Back stage some of the girls were worried that I wasn't getting into my concert dress, I said I wasn't one of the singers, so then they thought I was in the orchestra, I said I wasn't and I said something about the kids, which they thought was amazing. I told them that no, I wasn't a student, I was a chaperone. I tried to sit backstage and journal, but two gals came over to talk to me. They wanted my career advice about teaching English in America and just wanted to talk. One of the gals said she wanted to talk to me because I was so nice and friendly. That's the second time I've heard it, so I wonder what their experience is with other Americans.
They were going to have 2 of their groups do traditional dance so I went out to the auditorium. The first was men and women in Tibetan garb, the next group of women got up to do a dance with fans, but the sound system wouldn't work for them. Our group went up on stage for a couple of numbers, then the fan dancers did their dance and our group finished up. At the gift exchange several in our group got flowers and then the mob began. As I was walking past Josh I heard him say "I'm sorry, I have a girlfriend" and I added "Ya, and she's here" (the girl had asked him for a kiss). Dustin Ginn had one of the dancers give him her fan. Dustin is popular since he's tall. blond and cute. 6 more days and they'll be back to reality.
The drive back to the hotel is short - only 15 minutes.
We left the hotel at 8:30 for the Panda preserve, I was already "glowing", from the heat and humidity. The Panda preserve is about an hour drive. Once inside it is filled with Bamboo and other greenery, it's pretty large and there are several different locations, the nursery, sub-adult and adult Giant Pandas as well as Red Pandas. Red Pandas are a cross between a fox and a raccoon. One of them we saw had a sore paw. If you want to pay 500 Yuan you can pose with a Giant Panda, it's a nice thought, but not worth $70 to me. Teresa and I wandered back and forth between the exhibits, after visiting the nursery for the second time, we visited the gift shop, Teresa left to visit the powder room. When she didn't come back, I started walking to the exit and saw quite a few from our group, but not Teresa, so I went back looking for her - calling her name as I went. I never found her so I ran back to the exit, she and the rest of the group was waiting for me.
We went to a lunch in our honor at a very nice restaurant close to the Aba Teacher's College. Everyone liked the Romaine lettuce with peanut butter as salad dressing.
The reception at the college was amazing. Doc, Teresa and I had to enter first. As we got off the bus we were greeted by officials from the college and had a red and gold scarf placed around our neck. On both sides of the walk way were men and women in traditional Tibetan and Mongolian costumes, they had been waiting in the hot sun for us for 2 hours. They walked us into a cool building, up 5 flights of stairs to an auditorium packed with students. When we walked in the entire auditorium cheered. We did the rock star thing again, taking pictures and shaking hands before the concert started. Teresa, Jeff and I had to sit in the front row along with officials from the school. After the concert was more picture taking, then the students took us down to the lobby to look at art work that will be displayed at a museum (University?) in Michigan. We also looked at pictures of the area after the earthquake 2 years ago.
We are all amazed at how quickly the area has recovered from the quake, it's pretty hard to believe that there was one so recently.
We drove about 15 minutes to the Film & Television College of Sichuan Normal University. This university has 4200 students and trains many of the actors and television hosts and anchor people. We were greeted by students and given a tour of the school. Two of the girls I talked to had very good english, one was a student there, the other was going to law school and was good at debating. When we walked past a pond they said one side was "Valentine Lake" and the other side was "Break-up Lake" Dinner was buffet style and delicious.
The performance is in a theatre, they have television cameras and monitors and the crowd goes wild!!!!!! Back stage some of the girls were worried that I wasn't getting into my concert dress, I said I wasn't one of the singers, so then they thought I was in the orchestra, I said I wasn't and I said something about the kids, which they thought was amazing. I told them that no, I wasn't a student, I was a chaperone. I tried to sit backstage and journal, but two gals came over to talk to me. They wanted my career advice about teaching English in America and just wanted to talk. One of the gals said she wanted to talk to me because I was so nice and friendly. That's the second time I've heard it, so I wonder what their experience is with other Americans.
They were going to have 2 of their groups do traditional dance so I went out to the auditorium. The first was men and women in Tibetan garb, the next group of women got up to do a dance with fans, but the sound system wouldn't work for them. Our group went up on stage for a couple of numbers, then the fan dancers did their dance and our group finished up. At the gift exchange several in our group got flowers and then the mob began. As I was walking past Josh I heard him say "I'm sorry, I have a girlfriend" and I added "Ya, and she's here" (the girl had asked him for a kiss). Dustin Ginn had one of the dancers give him her fan. Dustin is popular since he's tall. blond and cute. 6 more days and they'll be back to reality.
The drive back to the hotel is short - only 15 minutes.
Day 14 - Church and Peter's Tex Mex
This morning we went to the Chengdu ICF. Adele and Toni were able to enter the church with us because we got there before they were checking passports. The church is in the room on the third floor of a shopping center. The shopping center is rather dilapidated, I'm not sure it really is operating as a shopping center, since I didn't see any stores. It looks like they get the room all the time as there are bookshelves on the perimeter of the room filled with books. This is not nearly as rich as the Bejing ICF church or the Haidan church, they have a computer, but it's old and slow. Shooting was interesting as the screen changed several seconds after I clicked the mouse. There are probably a couple hundred people there, mostly white (I'd say American, but I don't know that for sure). The service was over 1 1/2 hours so by the end we were pretty hungry, Adele, Jarrod and I were sharing a protein bar in the back row.
After church we went to Pete's Tex Mex, it's filled with white people, the food is awesome and the portions are huge. Unlike American restaurants, they bring your food when it's ready, as opposed to bringing everyone's at once. I had Tacos Al Carbon because it came with guacamole (I think avocados are one of God's greatest creations), delicious. Dustin Laemmlen ordered a hamburger, there must be 1 1/2 pounds of meat in the burger. We were there for about 2 hours waiting for everyone to the their food. A couple from the church helped us get some Paige's and Jenny's chimichangas. The husband is an executive with Boeing. The wife was a kick, she said if it wasn't for Pete's and the ability to get iced tea, she'd leave her husband in China and go back to the states. We all ate so much and after having had so little sleep, most of us fell asleep on the ride back to hotel. When we got to the hotel, Doc announced that we had 5 minutes before the bus left again, I don't know how long we were actually there, I fell asleep again. Apparently it was 1 1/2 drive to the next church, we all slept the entire way. I was sitting/sleeping next to Tyler, and after I woke I said I really wanted a piece of gum since I slept so hard. He said he had some in his case, and while he could move his arm, it felt like it was not part of his body. We were all just that tired.
This church is even poorer, although they are building a church they are about a million Yuan short. We arrived at the church at 5pm, greeting us with hugs was this tiny Chinese woman - 83 years old. She was here during the cultural revolution and started the church. Doc's aunt - Miss Frankie is a missionary at the church. While we were setting up and the group was practicing we found 2 baby kittens; the ears are pointy so they are probably 8 weeks old. They were so frightened, they would cry when you picked them up. These are only the second cats I've seen In two weeks.
We met a young American from Tennessee named Jason that's visiting China for two weeks. He's only been here for 2 days but he already misses home.
The church was so crowded Kevin B, Jeff, Teresa and I went outside to allow people to sit inside. The group sang for about 90 minutes, when they sang "Praise the Lord", i started demonstrating how Dan Sharp made us dance up the aisle at St. Andrews when we sang the song. Because all the windows were open to let in air (it's warm today), people were watching me dance, so I stopped. Teresa noticed that when someone got a phone call, she just hung her head out the window and took the call (we saw that happen twice). One of the puppies came over to the church, it was a fluffy little black puppy, so cute.
About 20 minutes before the concert the power went out to the building, there were a bunch of guys poking around with screwdrivers, it made Teresa nervous, about 5 minutes later all the poking must have worked, the power came back on. During the concert, the power went out again, Jeff and Kevin went into the next room poked around and the power came back on. The building is held together by cables crisscrossed. Probably wouldn't meet our building code.
I've decided the real generational divider isn't music or even language, it's skinny jeans. Most of the college kids wear them, both guys and gals, even those that shouldn't.
We are finally back at the hotel, 15.5 hours later - tomorrow is the panda reserve - I'm so excited!
After church we went to Pete's Tex Mex, it's filled with white people, the food is awesome and the portions are huge. Unlike American restaurants, they bring your food when it's ready, as opposed to bringing everyone's at once. I had Tacos Al Carbon because it came with guacamole (I think avocados are one of God's greatest creations), delicious. Dustin Laemmlen ordered a hamburger, there must be 1 1/2 pounds of meat in the burger. We were there for about 2 hours waiting for everyone to the their food. A couple from the church helped us get some Paige's and Jenny's chimichangas. The husband is an executive with Boeing. The wife was a kick, she said if it wasn't for Pete's and the ability to get iced tea, she'd leave her husband in China and go back to the states. We all ate so much and after having had so little sleep, most of us fell asleep on the ride back to hotel. When we got to the hotel, Doc announced that we had 5 minutes before the bus left again, I don't know how long we were actually there, I fell asleep again. Apparently it was 1 1/2 drive to the next church, we all slept the entire way. I was sitting/sleeping next to Tyler, and after I woke I said I really wanted a piece of gum since I slept so hard. He said he had some in his case, and while he could move his arm, it felt like it was not part of his body. We were all just that tired.
This church is even poorer, although they are building a church they are about a million Yuan short. We arrived at the church at 5pm, greeting us with hugs was this tiny Chinese woman - 83 years old. She was here during the cultural revolution and started the church. Doc's aunt - Miss Frankie is a missionary at the church. While we were setting up and the group was practicing we found 2 baby kittens; the ears are pointy so they are probably 8 weeks old. They were so frightened, they would cry when you picked them up. These are only the second cats I've seen In two weeks.
We met a young American from Tennessee named Jason that's visiting China for two weeks. He's only been here for 2 days but he already misses home.
The church was so crowded Kevin B, Jeff, Teresa and I went outside to allow people to sit inside. The group sang for about 90 minutes, when they sang "Praise the Lord", i started demonstrating how Dan Sharp made us dance up the aisle at St. Andrews when we sang the song. Because all the windows were open to let in air (it's warm today), people were watching me dance, so I stopped. Teresa noticed that when someone got a phone call, she just hung her head out the window and took the call (we saw that happen twice). One of the puppies came over to the church, it was a fluffy little black puppy, so cute.
About 20 minutes before the concert the power went out to the building, there were a bunch of guys poking around with screwdrivers, it made Teresa nervous, about 5 minutes later all the poking must have worked, the power came back on. During the concert, the power went out again, Jeff and Kevin went into the next room poked around and the power came back on. The building is held together by cables crisscrossed. Probably wouldn't meet our building code.
I've decided the real generational divider isn't music or even language, it's skinny jeans. Most of the college kids wear them, both guys and gals, even those that shouldn't.
We are finally back at the hotel, 15.5 hours later - tomorrow is the panda reserve - I'm so excited!
Day 13 - Electronics Mall and 2 concerrts
Today we left the hotel at 8:30 and headed for the electronics mall. There are 7 floors of computers, photography and other electronics, but mostly we are interested in the bootleg DVDs. The way you find the DVD store is someone approaches you with a DVD cover, surreptitiously leads you up past the 7th floor to a back room with all kinds of DVDs. I got 16 DVDs for about $20 (one of them contains 19 Audrey Hepburn movies). 4 of them say that they are Blue-Ray, but they probably aren't.. Then Robert and I both bought iLife 09 for $5 (it's $79 at home). Lunch was at KFC and I felt kind of nauseous afterwards.
In the bus, I tried to play one of my "Blue Ray" DVDs in my mac and it wouldn't play, it also wouldn't eject. When I did finally get it ejected, there was a Dove candy wrapper stuck to the back of the DVD (probably from my backpack). Now, I can't get a DVD or CD to go and stay in the slot - bummer.
The first concert was at the graduation for Guayna school - the one we sang at yesterday. It's at an InterContinental Hotel, absolutely gorgeous. Parked in front of the lobby is a Maybach, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce and another ostentatiously expensive car. The walls and floors are marble (my favorite), high ceilings, beautiful floral arrangements. The name of the hotel we are staying in is the RongCheng hotel, so many were calling this the RightCheng hotel. So man;y people are sick, but they all performed anyway, even Bree, Donna and Mia.
From there we went back to Luxe Hills, everyone thinks this reminds them of Irvine and the Spectrum. It does. We had catered McDonalds and then the concert started at 8 pm. This is quite a production, the stage is surrounded by water, they have huge light panels that change all the time, plus they also employ a smoke and bubble machine. The kids and Doc have fun with that. Tyler said it was difficult to stay balanced watching Doc through the bubbles. I promised Tyler I'd tape the concert and also promised others I'd take pictures with my still camera, it was quite a feat, sometimes I'd hold 2 cameras, sometimes Teresa would help me.
One thing I've noticed is how many people wear white gloves here - especially at Luxe Hills. The man working the guard shack at Luxe Hills, the security guard for the concert, very interesting.
The concert was over after 10 pm, we got back to the hotel at 11:3i0 and we have a 7:30 call time tomorrow morning
In the bus, I tried to play one of my "Blue Ray" DVDs in my mac and it wouldn't play, it also wouldn't eject. When I did finally get it ejected, there was a Dove candy wrapper stuck to the back of the DVD (probably from my backpack). Now, I can't get a DVD or CD to go and stay in the slot - bummer.
The first concert was at the graduation for Guayna school - the one we sang at yesterday. It's at an InterContinental Hotel, absolutely gorgeous. Parked in front of the lobby is a Maybach, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce and another ostentatiously expensive car. The walls and floors are marble (my favorite), high ceilings, beautiful floral arrangements. The name of the hotel we are staying in is the RongCheng hotel, so many were calling this the RightCheng hotel. So man;y people are sick, but they all performed anyway, even Bree, Donna and Mia.
From there we went back to Luxe Hills, everyone thinks this reminds them of Irvine and the Spectrum. It does. We had catered McDonalds and then the concert started at 8 pm. This is quite a production, the stage is surrounded by water, they have huge light panels that change all the time, plus they also employ a smoke and bubble machine. The kids and Doc have fun with that. Tyler said it was difficult to stay balanced watching Doc through the bubbles. I promised Tyler I'd tape the concert and also promised others I'd take pictures with my still camera, it was quite a feat, sometimes I'd hold 2 cameras, sometimes Teresa would help me.
One thing I've noticed is how many people wear white gloves here - especially at Luxe Hills. The man working the guard shack at Luxe Hills, the security guard for the concert, very interesting.
The concert was over after 10 pm, we got back to the hotel at 11:3i0 and we have a 7:30 call time tomorrow morning
Day 12 - Chengdu Monastery and Guyanga Concert
This morning I left the hotel at 7:15 and walked to Starbucks. I knocked on Teresa's door to get her order, I already had Doc's. As I was walking there I thought, "How'm I going to carry all of these back with me?" It's probably 1/2 mile from the hotel to Starbucks. It was rush hour in the city, lots of cars and lots of bikes and scooters, so I really didn't feel unsafe walking. It was the first time I walked anywhere by myself in 1 1/2 weeks. I also wondered how I was going to cross the street, when we walked the last time we just jay walked, but it was at 10 o'clock at night, so not as much traffic. I didn't need to worry, they have crossing guards, not school related. The crossing guards were pretty strict too, they wanted to make sure I did not cross when I wasn't supposed to. The lights here are the type that everyone crosses at the same time. I figured that out half way across the street, noticed I had 15 seconds to cross and took off diagonal across the street. While I was walking, Dustin Laemmlen passed me running. As I"m ordering in Starbucks, he came in, soon Cory joined as well - he heard me take Teresa's order. Prior to their arrival I told the gal in Starbucks I needed a carrier for 3. They fixed up a handled carrier bag to make it double decker, that was far more effective that the 4 way trays we use. To put things in perspective, Teresa's latte is the same cost as a 1 hour massage.
I've resolved myself to the steamed buns for breakfast, I am craving a huge bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. I had bean sprouts for breakfast this morning and bit into something that was floral and made my mouth tingle for a while.
The weather for the last few days has been fairly cool, I've been wearing the sweaters that I packed quite a bit. At night, it rains in Chengdu.
This morning's activity was a monastery in the heart of Chengdu. It was nice and green and peaceful. Outside the monastery is a shopping street with lots of food and craft stalls. One of the stalls passed had whole birds that had been plucked, placed on sticks and cooked. SInce they still had the heads attached it was more than some could take. The crafts are cool, traditional instruments, art work, chopsticks, jewelry, etc. The chopsticks are beautiful, but I have chopsticks from Japan that I've hardly used.
There's a pharmacy across the street, so I went there with Adele to buy some decongestant since Bree and others are battling colds. Adele has a cool app on her phone that allows her to use her finger to write the english letters to a word, then it translates it mandarin. I was looking Fisherman's Friend since I saw them in Beijing, but they didn't have them, so I got another chinese decongestant. Adele works for Mr. Qing in the foreign affairs office, assisting colleges to visit China and Chinese students to study abroad. She is almost 30 and has a 3 yr old daughter.
Lunch was good, a lot of individual plates on the lazy susan. While a lot of dishes were spicy, there was also a dish with a liquid in it and little dumplings filled with what tasted like peanut butter. Those were soooo good, i saved them for dessert. We also had the filled steamed rolls. One of them tasted like it was filled with pulled pork, another with beef stew. Afterwards another trip to Starbucks for that delish green tea black sesame frappucino (to cool down my mouth from the spices.)
Then a 1/2 hour drive to the Guangya school for a concert. The concert is in the gym, so the sound is very live. the entire stadium is filled, the floor is empty, except for a long table with 8 distinguished guests, including Mr. Cheeng. This is a middle school, the students are 12 - 16 yrs old. Both Bree and Donna are sitting out the concert, so Jamie is taking Donna's part on the Beach Boys medley, Faith already knew Bree's solos. Before the concert when the students were getting seated, the Vanguard students worked the crowd, threw mini Vanguard beach balls in the crowd and Lane ran around the entire gym getting them to do a wave. One half get it right away, it took 2 times for the entire gym to get it right. When the crowd cheers it is like a rock concert, it is so loud, but fun. Jeff started dunking one of the beach balls and then had to sign a stack of autographs (it helps that is blond and good looking.) If you want to be a big hit in China, have either blond hair or dreds, everyone want to touch Tavani's dreds.
The concert went well. when they did NSync's "This I Promise You", the two girls and guys they picked from the audience seemed to enjoy it more than when they picked college age audience members; the crowd went wild several times.
Near the end of the concert, a couple of students started talking to me. One was a young girl that was interviewing me for the school TV show. She asked me if I thought the concert went well and did they perform perfectly, I told her I couldn't answer that question, she'd have to ask a member of the band. Then she asked me how I liked the school uniforms. I said I did and asked why there were 2 different ones, some of them were in PE class when they came to the concert. I also talked to 2 boys, one was 12 and shy, the other was 15 and very talkaktive. He told me that this was a foreign language school, most were learning english and also French and German. He told me that I was very friendly. He had traveled to Europe and no one was friendly there. I asked where he went and he answered "Germany". I told him not to be concerned, the German people can be reserved.
The funny thing is the banner that goes behind the stage says that the Vanguard Singers and Band have won the American Choir Competition 4 times - there is no such thing.
Dinner was at the clubhouse of the richest community in Chengdu (basically down the street from the school). It's beautiful. lots of Travertine on the floors and walls. Dinner is either Shrimp and Pork rice, Pork Stew or Beef Curry. I took the Pork Stew, it was very good. Everyone loved it and the atmosphere. The homes in the neighborhood are between 10M and 70M Yuan. One of the concerts is here tomorrow, so we went to the stage area, it's going to be a production.
After we got back to the hotel, Teresa and I went for our nightly massage. Wonderful. The girl told me that my back was very tight - yes I know, that's why I'm doing this.
We have several sick kids 2 that have colds, one is coming down with a cold, one has had digestive problems, so Doc set a curfew of 11pm. It's the first time he's done that.
I've resolved myself to the steamed buns for breakfast, I am craving a huge bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. I had bean sprouts for breakfast this morning and bit into something that was floral and made my mouth tingle for a while.
The weather for the last few days has been fairly cool, I've been wearing the sweaters that I packed quite a bit. At night, it rains in Chengdu.
This morning's activity was a monastery in the heart of Chengdu. It was nice and green and peaceful. Outside the monastery is a shopping street with lots of food and craft stalls. One of the stalls passed had whole birds that had been plucked, placed on sticks and cooked. SInce they still had the heads attached it was more than some could take. The crafts are cool, traditional instruments, art work, chopsticks, jewelry, etc. The chopsticks are beautiful, but I have chopsticks from Japan that I've hardly used.
There's a pharmacy across the street, so I went there with Adele to buy some decongestant since Bree and others are battling colds. Adele has a cool app on her phone that allows her to use her finger to write the english letters to a word, then it translates it mandarin. I was looking Fisherman's Friend since I saw them in Beijing, but they didn't have them, so I got another chinese decongestant. Adele works for Mr. Qing in the foreign affairs office, assisting colleges to visit China and Chinese students to study abroad. She is almost 30 and has a 3 yr old daughter.
Lunch was good, a lot of individual plates on the lazy susan. While a lot of dishes were spicy, there was also a dish with a liquid in it and little dumplings filled with what tasted like peanut butter. Those were soooo good, i saved them for dessert. We also had the filled steamed rolls. One of them tasted like it was filled with pulled pork, another with beef stew. Afterwards another trip to Starbucks for that delish green tea black sesame frappucino (to cool down my mouth from the spices.)
Then a 1/2 hour drive to the Guangya school for a concert. The concert is in the gym, so the sound is very live. the entire stadium is filled, the floor is empty, except for a long table with 8 distinguished guests, including Mr. Cheeng. This is a middle school, the students are 12 - 16 yrs old. Both Bree and Donna are sitting out the concert, so Jamie is taking Donna's part on the Beach Boys medley, Faith already knew Bree's solos. Before the concert when the students were getting seated, the Vanguard students worked the crowd, threw mini Vanguard beach balls in the crowd and Lane ran around the entire gym getting them to do a wave. One half get it right away, it took 2 times for the entire gym to get it right. When the crowd cheers it is like a rock concert, it is so loud, but fun. Jeff started dunking one of the beach balls and then had to sign a stack of autographs (it helps that is blond and good looking.) If you want to be a big hit in China, have either blond hair or dreds, everyone want to touch Tavani's dreds.
The concert went well. when they did NSync's "This I Promise You", the two girls and guys they picked from the audience seemed to enjoy it more than when they picked college age audience members; the crowd went wild several times.
Near the end of the concert, a couple of students started talking to me. One was a young girl that was interviewing me for the school TV show. She asked me if I thought the concert went well and did they perform perfectly, I told her I couldn't answer that question, she'd have to ask a member of the band. Then she asked me how I liked the school uniforms. I said I did and asked why there were 2 different ones, some of them were in PE class when they came to the concert. I also talked to 2 boys, one was 12 and shy, the other was 15 and very talkaktive. He told me that this was a foreign language school, most were learning english and also French and German. He told me that I was very friendly. He had traveled to Europe and no one was friendly there. I asked where he went and he answered "Germany". I told him not to be concerned, the German people can be reserved.
The funny thing is the banner that goes behind the stage says that the Vanguard Singers and Band have won the American Choir Competition 4 times - there is no such thing.
Dinner was at the clubhouse of the richest community in Chengdu (basically down the street from the school). It's beautiful. lots of Travertine on the floors and walls. Dinner is either Shrimp and Pork rice, Pork Stew or Beef Curry. I took the Pork Stew, it was very good. Everyone loved it and the atmosphere. The homes in the neighborhood are between 10M and 70M Yuan. One of the concerts is here tomorrow, so we went to the stage area, it's going to be a production.
After we got back to the hotel, Teresa and I went for our nightly massage. Wonderful. The girl told me that my back was very tight - yes I know, that's why I'm doing this.
We have several sick kids 2 that have colds, one is coming down with a cold, one has had digestive problems, so Doc set a curfew of 11pm. It's the first time he's done that.
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