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.
Day 11 - Dujian
We left the hotel at 7:45 and drove to the oldest irrigation in the world. I don't know so much about the irrigation part, but the gardens are absolutely gorgeous. I can't stop taking pictures. It's like Descanso Gardens and the Huntington Library and then some, absolutely incredible. We spent a couple of hours there, then went to a restaurant and had hot pot. Each person has their own pot with broth over a sterno flame. Next to it is a bowl with a sauce that you can season how you want - cilantro, pepper sauce, etc. Then they bring out plate after plate of food. Mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber and different cuts of beef thinly sliced and rolled. You place the ingredients in the pot to cook, then dip or soak them in the other dish before eating. It is so good and the plates just keep coming.
From there we went to a school that instructs students 2 yrs old to high school. The kids were a lot of fun and speak English quite well. The school is private and is able to charge a healthy tuition because they have "foreign" (american) instructors teaching english. What's interesting is that boys are boys regardless of the culture, full of energy and rambunctious - I love it.
After another dinner in our honor we came back to the hotel then down to Sam's Massage parlor for an awesome foot massage. Teresa and I had lavender stuff added to our foot bath that made the water gelatinous. They told us it would be 5 extra yuan, but when we went to pay, they tried to charge us 20 extra yuan. Hello . . . do you want us to come back tomorrow? They finally came to their senses and charge us the right amount. I also paid for Josh A's massage since he volunteered and carried my luggage up to the 4th floor yesterday.
Now there are 10 of us in Sam's hostel using the free internet.
Having a great time. I wonder what it'll be like to be back in the real world and having conversations with someone over the age of 22. I'm enjoying them, but it's new lingo, don't be surprised if I come back and use "legit" and "random" a lot.
From there we went to a school that instructs students 2 yrs old to high school. The kids were a lot of fun and speak English quite well. The school is private and is able to charge a healthy tuition because they have "foreign" (american) instructors teaching english. What's interesting is that boys are boys regardless of the culture, full of energy and rambunctious - I love it.
After another dinner in our honor we came back to the hotel then down to Sam's Massage parlor for an awesome foot massage. Teresa and I had lavender stuff added to our foot bath that made the water gelatinous. They told us it would be 5 extra yuan, but when we went to pay, they tried to charge us 20 extra yuan. Hello . . . do you want us to come back tomorrow? They finally came to their senses and charge us the right amount. I also paid for Josh A's massage since he volunteered and carried my luggage up to the 4th floor yesterday.
Now there are 10 of us in Sam's hostel using the free internet.
Having a great time. I wonder what it'll be like to be back in the real world and having conversations with someone over the age of 22. I'm enjoying them, but it's new lingo, don't be surprised if I come back and use "legit" and "random" a lot.
Day 10 - Traveling to Chengdu
A couple of items I left off of previous posts
Hanzhang has only 1.6 million, not 3. It's a fairly poor city, Tuesday morning when we were searching for coffee we passed by a woman brushing her teeth in front of a store, spitting into a basin on the sidewalk. Joanna said she probably lives on top of the store and they don't have running water. Dental health is horrible here, very obvious in the orphanage, even if they brush their teeth they still have terrible decay.
It was interesting talking to the Chinese students at the university. There was a group of 4 students that surrounded me and wanted to know about Vanguard and America. What was different about the cultures (where do you start?), what about the economic disaster, what did I think of Hanzhang, how did I like the food? I kind of felt like they were given an assignment to find out this information, they sounded like questions on a test.
Outside of the city it's beautiful and green, very agricultural. We do pass quite a few large construction projects of bridges and roads. The trip is only supposed to take about 4.5 hours, but at about 2 (4 hours into the trip) we stopped at a rest stop no where close to Chengdu. At 5:30 we stopped again to meet up with one of our sponsors in Chengdu and used the restrooms. I finally got to use a trough potty; in the ladies room are four porcelain tile stalls with no doors. The floor is also porcelain tile with an opening about 5 - 6 inches wide and about 2 feet below is a trough with a little bit of water running through it. If you are "downstream" everything that is upstream runs beneath you. My first thought is "I need hand sanitizer." As I'm getting on the bus, I hear Lane say "I need hand sanitizer." An interesting experience.
A few days ago Clinton asked about how I met my husband when I told him online, he joked about it. I made some comment about I knew about others that met people online, but didn't stay married. Later that evening he apologized profusely and commented about how he couldn't believe I wasn't married, etc. Today he came to me and asked if I would tell him my story, so I did. And in case you are wondering, Clinton is his mother's maiden name, it has nothing to do with Bill and Hillary. He then told me his story. He is quite a kid, although he's a vocal performance major I am quite certain he'll be a pastor.
About half way to Chengdu Dustin Ginn and Clinton got up in front of the bus and led us in worship and prayer. We got into small groups to pray. I am so impressed with this group, there are a number of natural leaders, I wish I could hire some of them - not that I have open positions or would they necessarily do well in IT, but in the right job, watch out world.
We finally arrived in Chnegdu about 6 pm (8 hours after we started). It's a large city and a lot wealthier than Hanzhang. Our hotel is close to a school and the school is getting out, so there are parent's picking up their children in cars, students leaving on bikes and people driving and biking wherever they want to . It's amazing. it took us 1/2 hour to go about 1/4 mile. I have to tell you though, I was having a great time just watching the movement.
After a banquet in our honor with the governor of foreign affairs for Chengdu, we went 2 or 3 store fronts down the street for a massage. A 1 hour full body massage is 30 Yuan (a little over $4) Teresa and I are in one room, Tyler and Cory in the next. We were talking back and forth, not your typical American massage experience, not your typical American massage price either. Afterwards we walked up to People's Square and got an ice cream at McDonalds and met some tourists from Israel.
Hanzhang has only 1.6 million, not 3. It's a fairly poor city, Tuesday morning when we were searching for coffee we passed by a woman brushing her teeth in front of a store, spitting into a basin on the sidewalk. Joanna said she probably lives on top of the store and they don't have running water. Dental health is horrible here, very obvious in the orphanage, even if they brush their teeth they still have terrible decay.
It was interesting talking to the Chinese students at the university. There was a group of 4 students that surrounded me and wanted to know about Vanguard and America. What was different about the cultures (where do you start?), what about the economic disaster, what did I think of Hanzhang, how did I like the food? I kind of felt like they were given an assignment to find out this information, they sounded like questions on a test.
Outside of the city it's beautiful and green, very agricultural. We do pass quite a few large construction projects of bridges and roads. The trip is only supposed to take about 4.5 hours, but at about 2 (4 hours into the trip) we stopped at a rest stop no where close to Chengdu. At 5:30 we stopped again to meet up with one of our sponsors in Chengdu and used the restrooms. I finally got to use a trough potty; in the ladies room are four porcelain tile stalls with no doors. The floor is also porcelain tile with an opening about 5 - 6 inches wide and about 2 feet below is a trough with a little bit of water running through it. If you are "downstream" everything that is upstream runs beneath you. My first thought is "I need hand sanitizer." As I'm getting on the bus, I hear Lane say "I need hand sanitizer." An interesting experience.
A few days ago Clinton asked about how I met my husband when I told him online, he joked about it. I made some comment about I knew about others that met people online, but didn't stay married. Later that evening he apologized profusely and commented about how he couldn't believe I wasn't married, etc. Today he came to me and asked if I would tell him my story, so I did. And in case you are wondering, Clinton is his mother's maiden name, it has nothing to do with Bill and Hillary. He then told me his story. He is quite a kid, although he's a vocal performance major I am quite certain he'll be a pastor.
About half way to Chengdu Dustin Ginn and Clinton got up in front of the bus and led us in worship and prayer. We got into small groups to pray. I am so impressed with this group, there are a number of natural leaders, I wish I could hire some of them - not that I have open positions or would they necessarily do well in IT, but in the right job, watch out world.
We finally arrived in Chnegdu about 6 pm (8 hours after we started). It's a large city and a lot wealthier than Hanzhang. Our hotel is close to a school and the school is getting out, so there are parent's picking up their children in cars, students leaving on bikes and people driving and biking wherever they want to . It's amazing. it took us 1/2 hour to go about 1/4 mile. I have to tell you though, I was having a great time just watching the movement.
After a banquet in our honor with the governor of foreign affairs for Chengdu, we went 2 or 3 store fronts down the street for a massage. A 1 hour full body massage is 30 Yuan (a little over $4) Teresa and I are in one room, Tyler and Cory in the next. We were talking back and forth, not your typical American massage experience, not your typical American massage price either. Afterwards we walked up to People's Square and got an ice cream at McDonalds and met some tourists from Israel.
Day 9 - Hanghong Orphanage
This morning we had breakfast at the hotel - no coffee, no tea, just hot tang or hot milk. Kevin P has starbucks instant coffee, but no hot water.
At 9 we drove to an orphanage, most of the children are not orphans, but abandoned as they have some sort of defect - a bad heart, cleft palate, downs syndrome, crippled, etc. The facility is 3 buildings, 1/2 of the facility is owned by the government and the other half by a Christian organization. They've lost a few workers lately because people were not getting paid enough to live on and had to leave to find other work. A worker might live with 6 children in a room. We were warned that the kids are mostly used to seeing adult women so they might shy away from the men. They also knew we were coming so they were excited. The welcome that we received was anything but reserved, they warmed up to everyone right away, even the guys. I am so proud of our group, everyone, even the guys are just great with the kids, when they have kids of their own they are going to be wonderful parents. Our most gregarious members - Robert and Clinton - seem to be having a hard time with it, they are so tender hearted. We were there for about 2 hours playing with the kids. We also got to go to the baby area and hold babies. It is so sweet to see these big guys like Dan Bertsch or Jonathon Massey gently holding these little babies. Josh R didn't want to let go of Avery. One of the babies had blond hair and blue eyes (called albino, but he doesn't look totally albino) - and that's why he was abandoned. I called him my little Viking baby.
I played a memory game with a couple of kids, one of them named Lee seems very smart. Through one of the workers I told him I thought he was smart, he said no, only so-so. Although they try to train them for a job, I doubt he'll get an adequate eduction. So sad.
Back to the hotel for a welcoming banquet with the President of Shaanxi University and other faculty members. Once again, another delicious meal.
After lunch, Teresa and I set off on a quest to find me scissors so I can cut my bangs. We asked where shopping was and the front desk gave us some direction. The guy finally writes down 1000m and points in a direction, once we get outside we're not sure where he was pointing but we start walking towards what we think might be a mall. Everyone on the street says "hello" to us and some school kids yell America. In spite of what you may hear on TV, they love America. The building we thought was a mall is a hospital. We just start walking and eventually come to a store that's clean and larger than most, we walk in and I make a cutting motion and they show me some scissors - only 6 Yuan, less than a buck. I really hope they can cut hair (they can). After getting back to the hotel, I upload pictures to Picasa, then back to the south campus for another concert.
Just like last night the place is packed and the group is treated like rock stars. I talked to Tyler, sometimes all the attention is overwhelming. He says that on the one hand it's nice, on the other, he's never felt so used. I don't think he'll be a good famous person, but he is a good and thoughtful person.
Dinner was at RKC, the best fast food we've had and the restaurant had internet access so everyone is checking e-mail.
I am so tired of squatty potties (porcelain holes in the ground). Not so much for the lack of a seat, but the smell and the back spray hitting my ankles (trust me, I wash my feet before I go to bed each night.) I have decided that you can't be older and travel in China. Yes, sometimes there are "handicapped" potties (normal toilets for us), but sometimes there isn't. And sometimes the squatty potties are just too gross to use. I don't know if I've mentioned before that the roll of toilet paper is on the outside, you grab it b4 you go to the stall. Hopefully you grab enough.
Back to the school for a cultural exchange. Their students perform for us and they are talented, but I am so tired and during a recital of a traditional stringed instrument my head kept bobbing. Plus Teresa makes comments and then I get the giggles. One girl got up to play the minute waltz by Chopin, but Teresa thought the name of the piece was Dog Swain in the lake, I thought it was "Dark Swan in the Lake", I guess neither of us was right. Then they had some of our group get up and play, Josh R played 1st movement of Sonata Pathetique, The Beauty Shop quartet sang., Dan and Tavani got up and learned how to play the 2 stringed instrument and then played a couple of pieces for us. I was tired earlier, now I'm really punchy and Teresa's comments aren't helping. Plus, it doesn't appear that they need to (or at least do) tune their instruments (they certainly didn't the piano), or maybe it's they are quarter tone instruments, either way, it's good for a laugh. Back to the hotel at 11 and I'm ready for bed.
A good day, but long and emotional.
At 9 we drove to an orphanage, most of the children are not orphans, but abandoned as they have some sort of defect - a bad heart, cleft palate, downs syndrome, crippled, etc. The facility is 3 buildings, 1/2 of the facility is owned by the government and the other half by a Christian organization. They've lost a few workers lately because people were not getting paid enough to live on and had to leave to find other work. A worker might live with 6 children in a room. We were warned that the kids are mostly used to seeing adult women so they might shy away from the men. They also knew we were coming so they were excited. The welcome that we received was anything but reserved, they warmed up to everyone right away, even the guys. I am so proud of our group, everyone, even the guys are just great with the kids, when they have kids of their own they are going to be wonderful parents. Our most gregarious members - Robert and Clinton - seem to be having a hard time with it, they are so tender hearted. We were there for about 2 hours playing with the kids. We also got to go to the baby area and hold babies. It is so sweet to see these big guys like Dan Bertsch or Jonathon Massey gently holding these little babies. Josh R didn't want to let go of Avery. One of the babies had blond hair and blue eyes (called albino, but he doesn't look totally albino) - and that's why he was abandoned. I called him my little Viking baby.
I played a memory game with a couple of kids, one of them named Lee seems very smart. Through one of the workers I told him I thought he was smart, he said no, only so-so. Although they try to train them for a job, I doubt he'll get an adequate eduction. So sad.
Back to the hotel for a welcoming banquet with the President of Shaanxi University and other faculty members. Once again, another delicious meal.
After lunch, Teresa and I set off on a quest to find me scissors so I can cut my bangs. We asked where shopping was and the front desk gave us some direction. The guy finally writes down 1000m and points in a direction, once we get outside we're not sure where he was pointing but we start walking towards what we think might be a mall. Everyone on the street says "hello" to us and some school kids yell America. In spite of what you may hear on TV, they love America. The building we thought was a mall is a hospital. We just start walking and eventually come to a store that's clean and larger than most, we walk in and I make a cutting motion and they show me some scissors - only 6 Yuan, less than a buck. I really hope they can cut hair (they can). After getting back to the hotel, I upload pictures to Picasa, then back to the south campus for another concert.
Just like last night the place is packed and the group is treated like rock stars. I talked to Tyler, sometimes all the attention is overwhelming. He says that on the one hand it's nice, on the other, he's never felt so used. I don't think he'll be a good famous person, but he is a good and thoughtful person.
Dinner was at RKC, the best fast food we've had and the restaurant had internet access so everyone is checking e-mail.
I am so tired of squatty potties (porcelain holes in the ground). Not so much for the lack of a seat, but the smell and the back spray hitting my ankles (trust me, I wash my feet before I go to bed each night.) I have decided that you can't be older and travel in China. Yes, sometimes there are "handicapped" potties (normal toilets for us), but sometimes there isn't. And sometimes the squatty potties are just too gross to use. I don't know if I've mentioned before that the roll of toilet paper is on the outside, you grab it b4 you go to the stall. Hopefully you grab enough.
Back to the school for a cultural exchange. Their students perform for us and they are talented, but I am so tired and during a recital of a traditional stringed instrument my head kept bobbing. Plus Teresa makes comments and then I get the giggles. One girl got up to play the minute waltz by Chopin, but Teresa thought the name of the piece was Dog Swain in the lake, I thought it was "Dark Swan in the Lake", I guess neither of us was right. Then they had some of our group get up and play, Josh R played 1st movement of Sonata Pathetique, The Beauty Shop quartet sang., Dan and Tavani got up and learned how to play the 2 stringed instrument and then played a couple of pieces for us. I was tired earlier, now I'm really punchy and Teresa's comments aren't helping. Plus, it doesn't appear that they need to (or at least do) tune their instruments (they certainly didn't the piano), or maybe it's they are quarter tone instruments, either way, it's good for a laugh. Back to the hotel at 11 and I'm ready for bed.
A good day, but long and emotional.
Day 8 - Traveling to Xi'an and Hangzhong
I woke before the 4 a.m. wake up call, got down to the lobby about 4:30 and helped Cory and Jeff get instruments and equipment ready to load on the bus. Amazingly we were packed and ready to go at 5 a.m.. The airport counter didn't open for about 1/2 hour after we arrived. We had quite the hassle with the sound equipment and we had to take cables out of cases and put them in separate boxes, we finally finished the checkin process about the time the flight was due to take off. My carry on was searched, they took out my Beijing Starbucks mug, a roll of Saran (for wrapping instrument cases) and travel size tissues and ran everything through again.
The flight to Xi'an was short (1.5 hours to fly, 3 hours in the airport). Right now, we are on a bus to Hangzhuan, driving through the mountains, it's lush and green and steep mountain sides, but we can't see much of it because it's overcast and misty. It did clear up some, but it is overcast.
Hanzhong has about 3 million residents, but is rather poor. We did see horse drawn carts and farmers with the old fashioned plow. The hotel is spacious and clean, but not well maintained. We arrived at the hotel a little after 3 pm, and had to check in and eat all by 4:15. The meal was several courses and DELICIOUS. We're on the border of 2 provinces, so the Sichuan spiciness is an influence.
The concert is at a school, when we arrive, the basketball court is filled and the sides of the court is lined along the streets, there are several thousand people here. They treat everyone like rock stars, they want our picture and to talk to us. When the group is singing, if they like a note or they start to harmonize the crowd cheers mid song. After Kevin Palmer sang a solo, one girl gave Joanna her phone number to give to Kevin. They made it clear before the concert that while they like Vanguard and all they do for the area, they don't want any mention of Jesus and sent communist officials to monitor the concert. After only a couple of songs, it started to rain so we were scrambling for umbrellas and plastic, the people brought out umbrellas and were holding them over instrumentalists and the sound equipment. After a little while someone brought out an easy up and put it over the instrumentalists. Afterwards it was a mob scene again, the kids are great, meeting everyone, I am so proud of them.
Back to the hotel for dinner - another delicious meal.
The flight to Xi'an was short (1.5 hours to fly, 3 hours in the airport). Right now, we are on a bus to Hangzhuan, driving through the mountains, it's lush and green and steep mountain sides, but we can't see much of it because it's overcast and misty. It did clear up some, but it is overcast.
Hanzhong has about 3 million residents, but is rather poor. We did see horse drawn carts and farmers with the old fashioned plow. The hotel is spacious and clean, but not well maintained. We arrived at the hotel a little after 3 pm, and had to check in and eat all by 4:15. The meal was several courses and DELICIOUS. We're on the border of 2 provinces, so the Sichuan spiciness is an influence.
The concert is at a school, when we arrive, the basketball court is filled and the sides of the court is lined along the streets, there are several thousand people here. They treat everyone like rock stars, they want our picture and to talk to us. When the group is singing, if they like a note or they start to harmonize the crowd cheers mid song. After Kevin Palmer sang a solo, one girl gave Joanna her phone number to give to Kevin. They made it clear before the concert that while they like Vanguard and all they do for the area, they don't want any mention of Jesus and sent communist officials to monitor the concert. After only a couple of songs, it started to rain so we were scrambling for umbrellas and plastic, the people brought out umbrellas and were holding them over instrumentalists and the sound equipment. After a little while someone brought out an easy up and put it over the instrumentalists. Afterwards it was a mob scene again, the kids are great, meeting everyone, I am so proud of them.
Back to the hotel for dinner - another delicious meal.
Day 7 - BICF and the Silk Market
We left the hotel for Beijing International Christian Fellowship at 7am. BICF is a church for foreigners - you have to show your passport to go to church there. They rent a large building with a huge auditorium and stage. There are two services on Sundays in this building, but many throughout the city in all languages. The congregation is primarily made up of diplomats, foreign assignees and students from all different nations and has about 4K members. Once again they have quite the set up, but the AV guy can't get the program with the slides going. He's rebooting repeatedly so we start the service without the use of lyrics displayed. James makes mention that we are supposed to be displaying words. Eventually they get it going and I shoot the words on the screen. About half way through the AV guy figures out that I'm with Vanguard, he thought I was with BICF. Once the sermon started I exited the backstage area and sat against the back wall in the auditorium to listen to Phillip Yancey speak. I was soo excited to hear him since I love the book "The Jesus I Never Knew", I was disappointed, much better writer than speaker - not that he was bad, but I've heard better.
Now the fun begins - We have a pretty narrow table for the CDs and have all 7 titles lined up, but it was a mob several layers deep - and the mob mentality took over. People were buying whatever and we were passing money back and forth, after the first service we sold at least 350 cds since we brought in ¥35,000 and were offering multiple cd discounts. Before the end of the second service, a woman from the table next to us asked us to not let people spill over on to her side (as if we have any control over that). We completely sold out of cds after the 2nd service and had people wanting to order cds. We are having CDs shipped to Cheng du from California.
I talked to Lynn about why do they need to have a house church since it seems like gospel can be preached, she said that if a church is registered they are controlled by the government. Also, the government controls who can go to the ICF churches (hence the passport requirement). There is a "house" church that started with 20 people a couple of years ago and now has 1000 members. They obviously don't meet in a house.
After church we went to a "Pizza" buffet for lunch' it's a combo of american and chinese food. The pizza has no tomato sauce, the dough is like flakey biscuit dough and the cheese is unlike any other, but it's still tasty. I had dragon fruit and yellow watermelon which looks good, but doesn't really taste like anything. As Dustin Ginn says, nothing tastes like I think it's going to.
We were driven to the Silk Market - more about that later. First, James, Teresa and I went to the bank and changed $5K each into Yuan - not my own money, obviously. The government only allows $5K per passport and all of the bills need to be perfect and I do mean perfect. we had a couple of bills rejected because there are yellow spots the size of an eraser on them and a couple more are rejected because there is a small tear (about an 1/8 of an inch on a bill. Yikes! James asked me if I want to carry any of it - I don't.
The Silk Market is an experience in every sense of the word. More than silk is sold there and everything is negotiable. Teresa and i toured it together. I bought a silk top, a jacket I can use for walking, a couple of christmas/birthday presents and a pair of sunglasses. We went downstairs to the luggage/handbag floor. Oh. My. Gosh. There are 2 - 3 girls from each side shoving Louis Vuitton wallets in your face - "Lady, lady, you need Louis Vuitton.' About 50 feet into the aisle I turned around to Teresa and said "I imagine this is what Hell is like." We had to leave. Even on the other floors we were constantly accosted "Lady, lady, you need underwear", "Lady, lady, you need . . . ." And heaven help you if you try something on but don't want to buy it "Lady, I nice to you, you try on, how come you no buy?" I actually had some grab my arm.
After a while, we caught up with Cory and others and headed over to Starbucks. I got a Green Tea/Black Sesame frappucino which is really good. It was nice to be out of the hustle and bustle and relax.
From the Silk Market we went to the Beijing acrobats. It was excellent, amazing how strong both the men and women are.
Only a few of us went out to dinner since we have to leave the hotel at 4:45 the next morning. Teresa, Brianna, Natasha. Faith, Michael, Amanda, Teresa and I went to RBT. It's a sit down restaurant, the seats are actually swings made out of planks of wood and rope. I ordered meat and noodles, but got something like meat and udon. it's good, not what I ordered, but I don't really care. While we are eating, Faith looks at me and says "will you hang out with us?" I assured her I would, she said "No, I mean when we get back. I hate it when we get get back from a tour and we don't hang out anymore." I told her I'd be happy to hang out with her.
Now the fun begins - We have a pretty narrow table for the CDs and have all 7 titles lined up, but it was a mob several layers deep - and the mob mentality took over. People were buying whatever and we were passing money back and forth, after the first service we sold at least 350 cds since we brought in ¥35,000 and were offering multiple cd discounts. Before the end of the second service, a woman from the table next to us asked us to not let people spill over on to her side (as if we have any control over that). We completely sold out of cds after the 2nd service and had people wanting to order cds. We are having CDs shipped to Cheng du from California.
I talked to Lynn about why do they need to have a house church since it seems like gospel can be preached, she said that if a church is registered they are controlled by the government. Also, the government controls who can go to the ICF churches (hence the passport requirement). There is a "house" church that started with 20 people a couple of years ago and now has 1000 members. They obviously don't meet in a house.
After church we went to a "Pizza" buffet for lunch' it's a combo of american and chinese food. The pizza has no tomato sauce, the dough is like flakey biscuit dough and the cheese is unlike any other, but it's still tasty. I had dragon fruit and yellow watermelon which looks good, but doesn't really taste like anything. As Dustin Ginn says, nothing tastes like I think it's going to.
We were driven to the Silk Market - more about that later. First, James, Teresa and I went to the bank and changed $5K each into Yuan - not my own money, obviously. The government only allows $5K per passport and all of the bills need to be perfect and I do mean perfect. we had a couple of bills rejected because there are yellow spots the size of an eraser on them and a couple more are rejected because there is a small tear (about an 1/8 of an inch on a bill. Yikes! James asked me if I want to carry any of it - I don't.
The Silk Market is an experience in every sense of the word. More than silk is sold there and everything is negotiable. Teresa and i toured it together. I bought a silk top, a jacket I can use for walking, a couple of christmas/birthday presents and a pair of sunglasses. We went downstairs to the luggage/handbag floor. Oh. My. Gosh. There are 2 - 3 girls from each side shoving Louis Vuitton wallets in your face - "Lady, lady, you need Louis Vuitton.' About 50 feet into the aisle I turned around to Teresa and said "I imagine this is what Hell is like." We had to leave. Even on the other floors we were constantly accosted "Lady, lady, you need underwear", "Lady, lady, you need . . . ." And heaven help you if you try something on but don't want to buy it "Lady, I nice to you, you try on, how come you no buy?" I actually had some grab my arm.
After a while, we caught up with Cory and others and headed over to Starbucks. I got a Green Tea/Black Sesame frappucino which is really good. It was nice to be out of the hustle and bustle and relax.
From the Silk Market we went to the Beijing acrobats. It was excellent, amazing how strong both the men and women are.
Only a few of us went out to dinner since we have to leave the hotel at 4:45 the next morning. Teresa, Brianna, Natasha. Faith, Michael, Amanda, Teresa and I went to RBT. It's a sit down restaurant, the seats are actually swings made out of planks of wood and rope. I ordered meat and noodles, but got something like meat and udon. it's good, not what I ordered, but I don't really care. While we are eating, Faith looks at me and says "will you hang out with us?" I assured her I would, she said "No, I mean when we get back. I hate it when we get get back from a tour and we don't hang out anymore." I told her I'd be happy to hang out with her.
Day 6 - The Summer Palace
Today was a slower pace - at 9am we left the hotel for the Summer Palace. We had to walk a couple of blocks to the bus since they had a parade to open a new shopping mall on the street next to our hotel. It was quite a long drive and once we got there it seemed like we just moved and waited. I did have my first Magnum bar - it's an ice cream bar - the quality of a Dove bar, the chocolate is so yummy.
I can't tell you too much about the inside of the Summer Palace, it was really hard to hear Ina. The little I know is that the last three emperors were childless, someone was exiled in a small compound within the summer palace for 10 years and women were only allowed to leave the house if their father or husband said they could. The gardens are the best feature of the Summer Palace. There are these large boulders that look like swiss cheese; I really like these. After standing around and waiting a few more times, we boarded a boat to the south island. They sang My Heart Will Go On again and I - the mistress of stoicism - started to cry. I never used to like that song - probably because I can't stand Celine Dion - but it just struck me how beautiful it was and how wonderful it was to be surrounded by such talent. I was glad I was wearing sunglasses - then Robert posed like Leonardo DiCaprio and I started laughing and then really started laughing when Jeff got behind him and they did the Kate Winslet/Leo DiCaprio pose.
We ate at a Subway/SPR Coffee house. The coffee house part was really cool, everyone decided they'd hang out there if it was in O.C. The espresso was very good, freshly ground and hand pressed. From there we went to the Birds Nest (Olympic Stadium) - very cool. I think one of the things you'll notice from the pictures of the stadium and summer palace is the smog. It's interesting that the Birds Nest, Swim Cube and Gymnastics buildings are so close together. I'm used to the U.S. where it's all so spread apart. I'm sure they had to "relocate" folks, I cant' imagine there was that much real estate available in the heart of the city.
There are sooo many ginromous malls in China and with high-end stores - really high end. One of them looks like a Las Vegas hotel at night - in fact Beijing at night reminds me a lot of Las Vegas. Capitalism is alive and well in China. I've also seen a couple of Century 21 Real Estate offices. I'm not sure I get that - since the government owns everything.
This evening we ate at restaurant owned by some Christians - the food was authentic and some of it interesting. We started with a cold noodle, bok choy and peanut salad - spicy. Then another cold noodle salad - this time it was brown glass noodles. Then they brought out 1000 yr old eggs - pickled eggs that are brown in color - not appetizing looking and it smells putrid, but actually doesn't taste like much - not that I ate all of it, but I am the only one at our table that even tried a piece. We had a spicy chicken and bok choy soup (the chicken had bones that reminded me of vertebrae), another noodle soup with egg and boiled sausage, an Egg, bean sprout and jasmine dish, a couple of kebabs and beef stew (with potatoes and carrots). I liked it, but I might be the only one.
The group sang at a Christian restaurant - It's a high-end restaurant and very open with it's faith statement. In the room we used for the green room, there are murals that cover the wall that quote scripture. We all can't believe that they have a restaurant like this in China where so many churches have to hide - yet in America where we (currently) have freedom of religion we aren't so open with our faith in businesses. I guess it's true that churches flourish where believers are persecuted. The group started of with secular songs and then got into the Christian tunes. At the beginning, the sound was so loud, it was distorted and painful. I tore up tissue and stuck it in my ears. After a couple of songs they turned it down. The restaurant has wireless, so I spent my time in the green room uploading pictures to Picasa.
Day 5 The Great Wall
Went to Maxim's for breakfast at 6:45 and quickly ate. Jarrod was there early too, and for the same reason, so we could walk down to Starbucks and get internet access for the cost of a coffee. The Starbucks has great jazz playing.
8:30 we left for the great wall. The drive is about 2 hours through Beijing and the country side. We saw every type neighborhood possible, including condos that someone named the Irvine Condos. In one area they were building with bricks; I was happy to see rebar, but it was pretty far apart. When we were getting closer to the wall, I got so excited, I couldn't believe I was going to get to see the Great Wall. There is a gondola that you can take both ways, there is also a toboggan that you can take down. Kevin Palmer and I decided that we are going to walk both ways. It is incredibly steep and there were only 2 (maybe three) level areas. I was so winded going up, I was passed by several students, and although Robert Carter passed me, he stayed with me to the top. Although it was fairly cool, I was sweating by the time I reached to the wall. Once up there, i was fine, it is so cool - hard to believe it is so old. Everyone took a lot of pictures. After taking many group pictures, the choir sang My Heart Will Go On (theme from Titanic). People stopped and listened and cheered when it was over. I thought i was videoing it through my phone, nope, only 2 seconds of cheering. Then the Beautyshop sang Swing Down Chariot and while videoing that my i phone decided to reboot. Ugh! I did finally get about 30 seconds of that recorded. then a group of Chinese girls sang a song for us, so we sang the ""Farewell Song" a traditional chinese song. Music really is a unifying force. The walk down was much easier and i had a nice talk with Kevin P.
I"ve decided the one thing I take for granted is clean hands. Not from the sanitary position as much as mine just always feel grimey.
Here are some tidbits we've learned from our guide Ina
Panda eyes means that you have dark circles under your eyes
In 1998 couples with no siblings can have 2 children
In 2011 all couples will be able to have 2 kids
There are 20 million people in Beijing and 4 million cars
We got back around 2:20 pm, but had to leave for the evening's concert no later than 3:45 and needed to change and eat. We went to McDonalds, it was easier than KFC, but still a mess. I have to wash my only pair of long pants that aren't jeans. I wore them on the plane, all day yesterday and then again tonight. I may also buy another pair of long pants, or maybe another skirt since I will soon be sick of the same clothes to wear to the concerts.
The church is on the other side of Beijing - about 1 1/2 hours from the hotel. It's a large church with quite a sound and video system. I got to be the shooter (work the powerpoint slides). One of the men that works the video screens kept switching to other cameras so I'd have to tell him to cut to screen 4 (the words). I did pretty well, except when they sang Be Thou My Vision, I got so into the music, I forgot I was supposed to be shooting. Right around the time I figured it out, James stopped the singing, he thought the computer froze. They only stopped a few seconds. After that boo boo, I did OK. I then went down to help with the CD sales - the church was packed, literally standing-room-only. A couple of women from the church were handling CD sales, but I did get to help people pick out the right CD. One of the women working the table spoke as much English as I Chinese and so we often just smiled apologetically at each other and I'd give her a hug.
Back to the hotel at 10pm for dinner - McDonalds again, nothing else is open. I had vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce.
The attached picture is of me with Brianna - my "adopted daughter". She is a math major - we talked about how we are neither right nor left brained. She has her act together, very confident, full of life and quite a good alto soloist.
8:30 we left for the great wall. The drive is about 2 hours through Beijing and the country side. We saw every type neighborhood possible, including condos that someone named the Irvine Condos. In one area they were building with bricks; I was happy to see rebar, but it was pretty far apart. When we were getting closer to the wall, I got so excited, I couldn't believe I was going to get to see the Great Wall. There is a gondola that you can take both ways, there is also a toboggan that you can take down. Kevin Palmer and I decided that we are going to walk both ways. It is incredibly steep and there were only 2 (maybe three) level areas. I was so winded going up, I was passed by several students, and although Robert Carter passed me, he stayed with me to the top. Although it was fairly cool, I was sweating by the time I reached to the wall. Once up there, i was fine, it is so cool - hard to believe it is so old. Everyone took a lot of pictures. After taking many group pictures, the choir sang My Heart Will Go On (theme from Titanic). People stopped and listened and cheered when it was over. I thought i was videoing it through my phone, nope, only 2 seconds of cheering. Then the Beautyshop sang Swing Down Chariot and while videoing that my i phone decided to reboot. Ugh! I did finally get about 30 seconds of that recorded. then a group of Chinese girls sang a song for us, so we sang the ""Farewell Song" a traditional chinese song. Music really is a unifying force. The walk down was much easier and i had a nice talk with Kevin P.
I"ve decided the one thing I take for granted is clean hands. Not from the sanitary position as much as mine just always feel grimey.
Here are some tidbits we've learned from our guide Ina
Panda eyes means that you have dark circles under your eyes
In 1998 couples with no siblings can have 2 children
In 2011 all couples will be able to have 2 kids
There are 20 million people in Beijing and 4 million cars
We got back around 2:20 pm, but had to leave for the evening's concert no later than 3:45 and needed to change and eat. We went to McDonalds, it was easier than KFC, but still a mess. I have to wash my only pair of long pants that aren't jeans. I wore them on the plane, all day yesterday and then again tonight. I may also buy another pair of long pants, or maybe another skirt since I will soon be sick of the same clothes to wear to the concerts.
The church is on the other side of Beijing - about 1 1/2 hours from the hotel. It's a large church with quite a sound and video system. I got to be the shooter (work the powerpoint slides). One of the men that works the video screens kept switching to other cameras so I'd have to tell him to cut to screen 4 (the words). I did pretty well, except when they sang Be Thou My Vision, I got so into the music, I forgot I was supposed to be shooting. Right around the time I figured it out, James stopped the singing, he thought the computer froze. They only stopped a few seconds. After that boo boo, I did OK. I then went down to help with the CD sales - the church was packed, literally standing-room-only. A couple of women from the church were handling CD sales, but I did get to help people pick out the right CD. One of the women working the table spoke as much English as I Chinese and so we often just smiled apologetically at each other and I'd give her a hug.
Back to the hotel at 10pm for dinner - McDonalds again, nothing else is open. I had vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce.
The attached picture is of me with Brianna - my "adopted daughter". She is a math major - we talked about how we are neither right nor left brained. She has her act together, very confident, full of life and quite a good alto soloist.
Day 4 Beijing
Thursday, May 13
I slept like a baby last night, waking only once and falling back asleep immediately before finally waking up without an alarm at 5:30 fully refreshed. I tried to get on the internet in my room, but they are telling me since there is no one from the I.T. department there that I'll need to use the business center. There's an ethernet cable in the room, but apparently the port on the switch needs to be activated before it can be used and it's sounding like that that needs to be done manually by someone who is not here.
Breakfast is in the cafe - Maxim's - just like the restaurant in Paris. The decor is Parisian and has a full length Tiffany style window. Breakfast is a combination of Asian and Western food. The coffee is super duper strong, good, but I think it's intended for cream. After breakfast I went to the business center and sent a quick e-mail, since each room gets 15 minutes free internet access per day.
At 9 am we boarded the bus for Tiananmen Square. It's got a lot of people, but not too crowded. Our guide for the day is Ina, she is very vivacious and talkative. The Forbidden City is massive, 9,999.5 rooms. In its hey day 20,000 people lived there - there was not a bathroom in the place. In the Ching dynasty, the emperor had 3000 concubines, then they figured he spent all of his time thinking about the concubines, so they limited him to 100 and eventually, only 72. Only 1 real man was allowed to live there - the emperor - the rest were eunuchs. The emperor had no privacy, not even during love making. In fact, the eunuchs would record who he made love to so if one of the concubines got pregnant they would know if it was the emperors. The building's are beautiful and ornate on the outside - some buildings you can view the inside from the outside, but it's not easy to see inside. About half way through we lost Dale Sakamoto and Clinton Munoz, they caught up with us about the time we got to the gardens. The gardens are massive and filled with peonies - the national flower of China.
About 1pm we exited the Forbidden City and took the bus to a restaurant where we had a buffet. Lots of interesting food, not all of it good. One of the dishes was called Western meat. Another was labeled Mexican something or another - didn't eat either of them. They did have a cappucino machine and although the drink was sweetened, it was very good, so I had a second cup.
We boarded the bus for Temple of Heaven - on the way there we passed a Dairy Queen. Walking through the passage ways for the Temple of Heaven there are many groups doing many activities, old men playing cards, older women with belts of coins belly dancing, there is also someone playing Frere Jacques poorly. The Temple of Heaven - like the forbidden city can go on forever, we spent 1/2 hour in a small part of it. When we left, the same man was still playing Frere Jacques - I said he would probably like It's a Small World.
We had 1/2 hour back at the hotel and then departed for a church for a concert. The church is older, but has been refurbished since the last time they were here. Teresa and I are responsible for selling the CDs and someone found a table for us to use, but we had to move it outside, a nice breeze was blowing so moving was a good thing. Once the service started, Jeff came out to join us, About 7:30, we noticed Clinton staggering toward us like he was drunk. We got him to sit on the bench, he told us he almost passed out. We took off his tux coat, tie and shirt so he could cool down. After asking him some questions we determined he was dehydrated. Jeff and Teresa sat him up and we fed he part of a protein bar and bottle of water. Jeff took Doc's hankerchief and poured water on it, we put it on his forehead to speed up the cool down. Some of the church members brought over some chinese herbs and Jeff said that we didn't want it, but later Lynn came by and said that he should take it. The stuff smells like Vick's Vapo-rub, so Teresa and I sat him up and poured it and water down him. Teresa and I were laughing so hard while we were doing it, we couldn't breathe. Yes, I'm sure it doesn't sound funny, but we were sure it looked ridiculous and the things we were saying to get him to drink it was pretty funny.
Dinner was at the KFC next to the hotel. We got there at 9:30, because they didn't know how to handle about 30 people at once, they sent us to the room downstairs and had someone take our order, we didn't get our food until 10:30 when Jeff went upstairs and found out that they had only 1 woman working on our order. Back to the hotel to finish this not and now to sleep at 12:15
I slept like a baby last night, waking only once and falling back asleep immediately before finally waking up without an alarm at 5:30 fully refreshed. I tried to get on the internet in my room, but they are telling me since there is no one from the I.T. department there that I'll need to use the business center. There's an ethernet cable in the room, but apparently the port on the switch needs to be activated before it can be used and it's sounding like that that needs to be done manually by someone who is not here.
Breakfast is in the cafe - Maxim's - just like the restaurant in Paris. The decor is Parisian and has a full length Tiffany style window. Breakfast is a combination of Asian and Western food. The coffee is super duper strong, good, but I think it's intended for cream. After breakfast I went to the business center and sent a quick e-mail, since each room gets 15 minutes free internet access per day.
At 9 am we boarded the bus for Tiananmen Square. It's got a lot of people, but not too crowded. Our guide for the day is Ina, she is very vivacious and talkative. The Forbidden City is massive, 9,999.5 rooms. In its hey day 20,000 people lived there - there was not a bathroom in the place. In the Ching dynasty, the emperor had 3000 concubines, then they figured he spent all of his time thinking about the concubines, so they limited him to 100 and eventually, only 72. Only 1 real man was allowed to live there - the emperor - the rest were eunuchs. The emperor had no privacy, not even during love making. In fact, the eunuchs would record who he made love to so if one of the concubines got pregnant they would know if it was the emperors. The building's are beautiful and ornate on the outside - some buildings you can view the inside from the outside, but it's not easy to see inside. About half way through we lost Dale Sakamoto and Clinton Munoz, they caught up with us about the time we got to the gardens. The gardens are massive and filled with peonies - the national flower of China.
About 1pm we exited the Forbidden City and took the bus to a restaurant where we had a buffet. Lots of interesting food, not all of it good. One of the dishes was called Western meat. Another was labeled Mexican something or another - didn't eat either of them. They did have a cappucino machine and although the drink was sweetened, it was very good, so I had a second cup.
We boarded the bus for Temple of Heaven - on the way there we passed a Dairy Queen. Walking through the passage ways for the Temple of Heaven there are many groups doing many activities, old men playing cards, older women with belts of coins belly dancing, there is also someone playing Frere Jacques poorly. The Temple of Heaven - like the forbidden city can go on forever, we spent 1/2 hour in a small part of it. When we left, the same man was still playing Frere Jacques - I said he would probably like It's a Small World.
We had 1/2 hour back at the hotel and then departed for a church for a concert. The church is older, but has been refurbished since the last time they were here. Teresa and I are responsible for selling the CDs and someone found a table for us to use, but we had to move it outside, a nice breeze was blowing so moving was a good thing. Once the service started, Jeff came out to join us, About 7:30, we noticed Clinton staggering toward us like he was drunk. We got him to sit on the bench, he told us he almost passed out. We took off his tux coat, tie and shirt so he could cool down. After asking him some questions we determined he was dehydrated. Jeff and Teresa sat him up and we fed he part of a protein bar and bottle of water. Jeff took Doc's hankerchief and poured water on it, we put it on his forehead to speed up the cool down. Some of the church members brought over some chinese herbs and Jeff said that we didn't want it, but later Lynn came by and said that he should take it. The stuff smells like Vick's Vapo-rub, so Teresa and I sat him up and poured it and water down him. Teresa and I were laughing so hard while we were doing it, we couldn't breathe. Yes, I'm sure it doesn't sound funny, but we were sure it looked ridiculous and the things we were saying to get him to drink it was pretty funny.
Dinner was at the KFC next to the hotel. We got there at 9:30, because they didn't know how to handle about 30 people at once, they sent us to the room downstairs and had someone take our order, we didn't get our food until 10:30 when Jeff went upstairs and found out that they had only 1 woman working on our order. Back to the hotel to finish this not and now to sleep at 12:15
Day 1, 2, 3 Travel to Beijing
Monday, May 10, 2010
My Dad picked me up at my house around 5:15, we stopped off at Nordstrom where I got a chicken wrap and non-fat Ice Storm. (my addiction.) There were a couple students on campus when I first arrived, everyone else started arriving around 6:30, we started loading the bus around 7:30. There are 40 of us on the tour, 37 students, myself, James Melton and his assistant Teresa Dovel. We are all assigned a number (I'm number 22) and responsible for an extra piece of luggage - I have a suitcase of PR materials, other students instruments or sound equipment. I learned most of the student's names on the trip up to the airport. I sat in a defective seat that had a floppsy arm rest and permanently reclined seat. Good thing Bobby Laumea is a good sport. Also around me were Dustin Ginn, Amy, Tyler and Joshua Avne. Tyler wasn't feeling well, so a bunch of kids laid hands on him and we all joined Clinton in praying for him.
At the airport, Teresa and I passed out the passports and we lined up to go through check-in by number. The travel agent had misspelled two of the student's names on their ticket, so we had to pay $100/misspelled name (The travel agent needs to reimburse that). As we checked in we sat on the floor in front of a store, I passed out oranges and cookies and we were enjoying our visiting when one of the students came over and informed us that they weren't going to let us on the plane because our luggage was too heavy. Those of us that were already checked in gathered in a circle and prayed that we would be able to get on the plane - about 5 of the students prayed aloud right there in the Bradley Terminal - this is going to be a great trip, I'm surrounded by prayer warriors. About 15 minutes later someone came over and said we were good to go - apparently the person we were dealing with had less than stellar math skills. Going through security was easy and we didn't have to wait long at the gate before boarding the plane.
Luckily, the plan is divided into sections of 3 seats, so my worst fear is unfounded (being in the center of a 5 seat section). I am in the middle seat on one of the sides next to Josh Avne and a woman named Fawnny. Both are very nice and quiet. The seats are interesting , they don't really recline, so the back of the seat in front of you doesn't get any closer to your face, but the inside of the seats slide down a little so you do get to recline a bit. I was asleep before the plane pulled away from the gate, woke up about an hour later and asked Josh if we'd taken off yet - he confirmed we had. I slept for about 6 hours an hour or so at a time. I started to watch Crazy Heart - paused it, turned it back on, dozed off and caught the last 10 minutes. I spent the last 3 hours of the flight reading the book "Same Kind of Different as Me", the book RIch preached on last Sunday. What a great book, EVERYONE should read it, it's easy to read, but be prepared with a box of Kleenex. It's the true story of a homeless black man and a white art dealer and his wife and how their lives intersect. While I read it I listened to Ella and Louis, Rollando Villazon and Anna Netrebko and a couple of Brandenburg Concertos (David sounds better) through the plane's music selection. I was only mildly claustrophobic near the beginning, but then after a while, it was hard to imagine not being in my tiny little space. twice in the 14.5 hours we were on the plane we were fed. Unfortunately, I wasn't hungry when they fed us dinner, so I only had the rice, olive and shrimp salad and part of the dinner roll. I wasn't hungry for breakfast either, so I only had half of the breakfast sandwich - which was tasty. A couple of hours later I was hungry, and Fawnny returned to her seat with an apple - she got it at the back of the plane, I went back there and got the last one - yum.
It's Wednesday morning, May 12. Hong Kong is misty, so I can't see a lot from the plane or while we are in the airport, but the steeply rising mountains (hills?) look cool. There are 5 of us that are on a different flight to Beijing, James (aka Doc), Jeff Melton, Jenny and Josh A (there are 2 Joshes, 2 Kevins, 2 Dustins), when we got off the flight the gate was 19, so Jenny Josh and I walked to gate 19 while James and Jeff stayed behind to help sort out the misspelled name issue for this leg of the flight. Gate 19 is the farthest gate in the concourse from the security exit and when we got there, we found out that the gate was changed to gate 64, so back to the center, on to a train to another concourse and another hike to Gate 64. Not that we were complaining, it was good to get the exercise.
The flight to Beijing is 3 hours, I'm on an aisle seat (yippee) and there is more leg room on this flight than the last. It's not as fancy as there are only a couple of screens and we don't get a choice of which movie to watch, so I'm watching some fantasy movie - the lightening bolt thief - or something like that. Breakfast was a choice of chicken with potato or Dim Sum. I chose the dim sum - it was quite good, but not quite what I'm used to eating at 9am. But this is all about new experiences. I can hardly wait to brush my teeth, my brush and paste are in my checked luggage, I'll definitely remedy that on the flight back.
Beijing is set up in 6 concentric rings (used to be 5 until recently) Pretty much, where we are in Beijing could be a U.S. or European city, the architecture is all very modern and not asian. The Hotel (Chong Wen Men) is in the middle of Beijing, in the first ring. Its' nice and comfortable, although the beds are the hardest I've ever slept on, I am so tired, I don't care. After checking in, taking a shower and resting for about 1/2 hour, Dustin G and Josh R stopped by to pick me up to go shop at H&R (there's an H&R across the street.) 9 of us went exploring - we had 2 hours before dinner. We found that clothes in Beijing for the same label are the same price or higher in Beijing as they are in the U.S. The clothes at H&M were the same or similar as what's in our stores in O.C. We wandered several blocks saw 3 or 4 malls that remind me of the malls in Chicago - from the outside they look like office buildings , but once inside it's a mall that's 5 - 8 stories. We found 2 great bakeries with free samples. They had cinnamon bread that looked so good for about $1/loaf. We all want to come back here. at about 5:30, we all came back to the hotel and rested until the 6:30 call time for dinner.
Dinner is literally next door to the hotel, we have a room all to ourselves with 3 large tables with the Lazy Susan in the middle - our lazy susan doesn't work, so we have to manually turn the glass as plates are placed on it. It is about an hour before the food arrives, I am so tired I almost go back to the room without dinner, but force myself to stay. The food is mostly good, we had a dish something like kung pau, beef, steamed bok choy, some eggplant dish that tasted a lot like oil, a sliced potato dish that's very good, bananas with caramelized sugar, rice, egg drop soup that tastes like custard, and sweet and sour chicken (the best plate of the evening). Afterwards, we are going to go to get an ice cream bar, but the place is not open, so at about 9 - 9:30 we go back to our hotels and go to sleep.
My Dad picked me up at my house around 5:15, we stopped off at Nordstrom where I got a chicken wrap and non-fat Ice Storm. (my addiction.) There were a couple students on campus when I first arrived, everyone else started arriving around 6:30, we started loading the bus around 7:30. There are 40 of us on the tour, 37 students, myself, James Melton and his assistant Teresa Dovel. We are all assigned a number (I'm number 22) and responsible for an extra piece of luggage - I have a suitcase of PR materials, other students instruments or sound equipment. I learned most of the student's names on the trip up to the airport. I sat in a defective seat that had a floppsy arm rest and permanently reclined seat. Good thing Bobby Laumea is a good sport. Also around me were Dustin Ginn, Amy, Tyler and Joshua Avne. Tyler wasn't feeling well, so a bunch of kids laid hands on him and we all joined Clinton in praying for him.
At the airport, Teresa and I passed out the passports and we lined up to go through check-in by number. The travel agent had misspelled two of the student's names on their ticket, so we had to pay $100/misspelled name (The travel agent needs to reimburse that). As we checked in we sat on the floor in front of a store, I passed out oranges and cookies and we were enjoying our visiting when one of the students came over and informed us that they weren't going to let us on the plane because our luggage was too heavy. Those of us that were already checked in gathered in a circle and prayed that we would be able to get on the plane - about 5 of the students prayed aloud right there in the Bradley Terminal - this is going to be a great trip, I'm surrounded by prayer warriors. About 15 minutes later someone came over and said we were good to go - apparently the person we were dealing with had less than stellar math skills. Going through security was easy and we didn't have to wait long at the gate before boarding the plane.
Luckily, the plan is divided into sections of 3 seats, so my worst fear is unfounded (being in the center of a 5 seat section). I am in the middle seat on one of the sides next to Josh Avne and a woman named Fawnny. Both are very nice and quiet. The seats are interesting , they don't really recline, so the back of the seat in front of you doesn't get any closer to your face, but the inside of the seats slide down a little so you do get to recline a bit. I was asleep before the plane pulled away from the gate, woke up about an hour later and asked Josh if we'd taken off yet - he confirmed we had. I slept for about 6 hours an hour or so at a time. I started to watch Crazy Heart - paused it, turned it back on, dozed off and caught the last 10 minutes. I spent the last 3 hours of the flight reading the book "Same Kind of Different as Me", the book RIch preached on last Sunday. What a great book, EVERYONE should read it, it's easy to read, but be prepared with a box of Kleenex. It's the true story of a homeless black man and a white art dealer and his wife and how their lives intersect. While I read it I listened to Ella and Louis, Rollando Villazon and Anna Netrebko and a couple of Brandenburg Concertos (David sounds better) through the plane's music selection. I was only mildly claustrophobic near the beginning, but then after a while, it was hard to imagine not being in my tiny little space. twice in the 14.5 hours we were on the plane we were fed. Unfortunately, I wasn't hungry when they fed us dinner, so I only had the rice, olive and shrimp salad and part of the dinner roll. I wasn't hungry for breakfast either, so I only had half of the breakfast sandwich - which was tasty. A couple of hours later I was hungry, and Fawnny returned to her seat with an apple - she got it at the back of the plane, I went back there and got the last one - yum.
It's Wednesday morning, May 12. Hong Kong is misty, so I can't see a lot from the plane or while we are in the airport, but the steeply rising mountains (hills?) look cool. There are 5 of us that are on a different flight to Beijing, James (aka Doc), Jeff Melton, Jenny and Josh A (there are 2 Joshes, 2 Kevins, 2 Dustins), when we got off the flight the gate was 19, so Jenny Josh and I walked to gate 19 while James and Jeff stayed behind to help sort out the misspelled name issue for this leg of the flight. Gate 19 is the farthest gate in the concourse from the security exit and when we got there, we found out that the gate was changed to gate 64, so back to the center, on to a train to another concourse and another hike to Gate 64. Not that we were complaining, it was good to get the exercise.
The flight to Beijing is 3 hours, I'm on an aisle seat (yippee) and there is more leg room on this flight than the last. It's not as fancy as there are only a couple of screens and we don't get a choice of which movie to watch, so I'm watching some fantasy movie - the lightening bolt thief - or something like that. Breakfast was a choice of chicken with potato or Dim Sum. I chose the dim sum - it was quite good, but not quite what I'm used to eating at 9am. But this is all about new experiences. I can hardly wait to brush my teeth, my brush and paste are in my checked luggage, I'll definitely remedy that on the flight back.
Beijing is set up in 6 concentric rings (used to be 5 until recently) Pretty much, where we are in Beijing could be a U.S. or European city, the architecture is all very modern and not asian. The Hotel (Chong Wen Men) is in the middle of Beijing, in the first ring. Its' nice and comfortable, although the beds are the hardest I've ever slept on, I am so tired, I don't care. After checking in, taking a shower and resting for about 1/2 hour, Dustin G and Josh R stopped by to pick me up to go shop at H&R (there's an H&R across the street.) 9 of us went exploring - we had 2 hours before dinner. We found that clothes in Beijing for the same label are the same price or higher in Beijing as they are in the U.S. The clothes at H&M were the same or similar as what's in our stores in O.C. We wandered several blocks saw 3 or 4 malls that remind me of the malls in Chicago - from the outside they look like office buildings , but once inside it's a mall that's 5 - 8 stories. We found 2 great bakeries with free samples. They had cinnamon bread that looked so good for about $1/loaf. We all want to come back here. at about 5:30, we all came back to the hotel and rested until the 6:30 call time for dinner.
Dinner is literally next door to the hotel, we have a room all to ourselves with 3 large tables with the Lazy Susan in the middle - our lazy susan doesn't work, so we have to manually turn the glass as plates are placed on it. It is about an hour before the food arrives, I am so tired I almost go back to the room without dinner, but force myself to stay. The food is mostly good, we had a dish something like kung pau, beef, steamed bok choy, some eggplant dish that tasted a lot like oil, a sliced potato dish that's very good, bananas with caramelized sugar, rice, egg drop soup that tastes like custard, and sweet and sour chicken (the best plate of the evening). Afterwards, we are going to go to get an ice cream bar, but the place is not open, so at about 9 - 9:30 we go back to our hotels and go to sleep.
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