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