So, Thursday evening 100+ of us American students, Chinese roommates, and our teachers boarded a sleeper train en route to Xi'an, China, the former capitol of China (I didnt previously know that).
As you may be able to tell (that is my friend, Natalie and her roommate Wen Ju- both are staying through the fall) there are small rooms that have 3 bunks on each side. Quarters were cramped, but overall not too bad. I slept on the top bunk, both ways. I heard such horror stories of the train toilets (i.e.- holes in the ground) that I deprived myself of liquids for most of the day. My tactic worked, and I was not subjected to such horrors. 10 hours later and a 6:30am wake-up call from the ticket-keeper, we found ourselves in Xi'an.
Our program divided us up into teams of 4 (2 students and their roommates). I was partnered with a guy named Kevin, who is, to say the least, a bit socially awkward (good thing my blog is blocked by the govt out here and none of us can see it). Nontheless, we were paired into teams to complete "missions" all day Friday that will help us get acquainted with Xi'an. Xi'an, however, didn't want us to get acquainted with it because it rained the entire day. It was miserable to say the least. Good thing I dont know how to say "miserable" in Chinese, b/c I would have said it every 3 minutes.
Our first mission was to find the hotel from the train station w/out taking a taxi. That was easy. They set us up in probably the nicest hotel in Xi'an right in the center of the walled city. This was our view from our hotel:
The center bell tower. If you were to pan a few hundred yards to the Right you would find a McDonalds and Starbucks, both of which I sampled while in Xi'an.
Oh look, the clothing store next to us got some reject mannequines:
So anyways, long story short, Friday it rained. We didnt participate in the "missions". We visited the "Great Islamic Temple" which was not Great, but was Islamic:
(The temple is right behind me)
Then we went to a "museum" of stone tablets or something. Which was not a museum, but merely a walled in area with a few trees. I found a bench protected from the rain and fell asleep. Then is when my roomie and I separated from our "group" and went back to the hotel for some R&R.
After dinner (hot pot), we went to a Duck temple. Wait, nevermind, its called the Big Goose Temple or something (for reasons unknown), for a "light show":
---------Overcoming obstacles in China moment number #13:-----------
The light show was actually a water fountain show. There was a few football fields worth of water fountain flush with the ground at the base of the temple. For instance, remember those days when you could run through those fountains in some random park or outdoor mall that would squirt up water at random moments and you would get sprayed in the crotch/face/body? Well, this was a huge one that was synchonized to music. (I had to explain b/c I dont have very good pics of it).
All of the onlookers form a barricade around the fountain. Only the brave stood in the fountain inbetween some extraneous water shooter things that shot water horizontally rather than vertically. Here is before the show started. My roommie and another roomie are starting to get in a single-filed formation in order not to get wet from the horizontal-shooting spouts:
Me and my friends followed suit. The show started and we were taking lots of pictures. I was inbetween one set of horizontal fountains, and my friends were inbetween another and we were taking pictures of one another. When it was my turn to take pictures, a Chinese on-looker put his foot over a horizontal-shooter and shot water straight at me. Everyone, must have been a hundred or so Chinese people laughed and laughed at me. I was absolutely mortified. I was wet, I was the only really white person there, and they were making fun of me. That's when my friend Stephen's Chinese roommate (whom we've all had problems with) thought it would be funny to do the same thing. So he sprayed me from the other side. I was holding both Natalie's and my cameras and immediately worried about that, after shouting a few explitives to Song Peng (Stephen's roommate). I was again completley mortified. Natalie attempted to cheer me up so she had the great idea of well, since I'm already wet, we might as well all be wet. Next thing you know, 3 meiguoren (Americans) and one tongwu (my roommate) are running through the center of the water show having a great time. Next thing you know, a bunch of people are running through. We really did turn things around and put the ball back in our court.
PS- My camera was acting up the night of the incident, but now seems to be in working order.
PPS- Sorry for interjecting some Chinese. I find myself talking in Chinglish, with half of my sentences in English, half in Chinese.
------------end Overcoming Obstacles in China #13--------------
After that debacle we went out for some snacks at the Muslim night market. I was so exhausted that I soon followed by going to bed, at 1am. blah!
Saturday we had a bright and early wake up call and made it to the hotel's complementary breakfast. Our first traditional western breakfast since coming to China! Oh man that was so good... Omlettes, toast, sausage links, fruit....
We then took an hour long boss to the site where the Terracotta Warriors were found. They guard the tomb of the first emperor of China, so they're about 2000 years old. Holy crap, that's old. I've been typing for 35 minutes now, so I'm just going to leave you with some pictures. If you have any questions, just ask.
After only about 2 hours at the Warrior site, we had to leave, but not before waiting on the bus for 45minutes b/c 3 girls got lost. Our next desination was Hongqing (or something like that) Hot Springs, which we only had an hour to explore.
After the hot springs we went back to Xi'an and had a few hours to shop around before having to hop onto the train. I couldnt spend money if I wanted to. I tried to bargain for a purse or two, but I honestly think having a Chinese friend with me was detrimental, b/c the shopkeeper knew that they werent going to get a good price out of us. So, I'd have to say that my biggest expense this weekend was my two trips to Starbucks. I did manage to buy some Jasmine tea and a jade disc necklace.
I deprived myself of water once again and slept another night on the top bunk of our "hard" sleeper.
We arrived an hour early in Beijing this morning (7:30am), made it back to the dorm, slept, did homework, then went out into the heart of the city to find one of 2 bookstores carrying Harry Potter. I found it!
I am staring at my book right now. When I read the inside cover and the dedications while waiting for my subway train, I started to tear up. Everytime I've opened this book I started to get the chills. I want to read it soooo bad, but I also don't want to because I simply don't want it to end. If I were to guess, I would have to say that I've been reading HP books for 8 or 9 years now. I know I read 3 of them before we moved to Texas.
I think this is the most excited I've been all weekend. Xi'an was okay. Maybe it was the rain, maybe it was the lack of sleep, but the trip overall was 2 or 2.5 out of 5. Regardless, I look forward to future travel and reading my HP...
Ziajian,
Bugs
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