Xian

Day 1

Overnight train ride Friday night. Mad dash for beds in cabins with friends, and then an organizational nightmare as the program directors attempted to collect everyones tickets and figure out what beds we were actually supposed to be in and who was actually in them. Then we broke out the baijiu (chinese clear liquor) and the pijiu (beer). We were woken up around 7am as we pulled into the train station. We walked 20 minutes to our hotel where we had breakfast and grabbed a couple quick showers. Then we got on buses to head to the Great Mosque.

The Great Mosque was neat, there really wasn't anyone else there at the time. Nothing spectacular, we didn't really listen to our tour guide. Then we got back on the buses a bit later, and had lunch. Meals are a great experience here. They usually consist of round tables with large lazy susans in the middle. The servers bring out dishes one by one and we dig in, with varying degrees of chopstick competence. Mine is low. Tea accompanies every meal, coke is usually present and water is a little less common. Ice is non existant. Fantasies of a glass of ice water have not yet been fulfilled. But the meals are still great. There is always rice, a couple dishes with chicken, a couple soups with and without noodles, something with pork, and lots of vegetables. I've never left a meal hungry, although I have left craving dessert.

After lunch we went to see the terracotta soldiers. Very cool, very much what we expected. I need to upload some pictures, I don't have anything spectacular, but you can get the gist of the place. Walked around for a couple hours, met back up, did the whole dinner thing (same as lunch) and headed back to the hotel. Most CIEE students hit the bars, me and my roommate weren't feeling it so we watched Moulin Rouge in Chinese in our room. A couple comments on he Xian bar scene: way less foreigners than the Wudaokou and SanLiTun districts of Beijing. But no surprise there, there are way less foreigners in Xian period.

Xian is a city I could get used to. There is a huge Muslim quarter, and an entire area called the Muslim Snack Street. As awesome as the name is, it doesn't even come close to conveying how incredible this street is. Everyone may not love food as much as I do, but wow. Wow. Snacks everywhere, from delicious quesadilla like fried things with spicy chicken or lettuce and veggies, to chopped meat sandwiches on these tough buns. All amazing. We were fooled once by a scoop of something that looked exactly like roasted potatoes, only to find out it was a strange gelatinous substance with spices. A little odd.

After the snacks and a little stall bargaining for trinkets we rode bikes on the Xian city wall. That was awesome. First time I've ridden a tandem bike, also the first time I've wiped out on one. The Chinese people walking by staring without offering to help bothered us more than our spill, but we were fine. Saw a lot of variety in the city, from the westernization evident in the McDonalds and KFCs on every developed corner, to dilapidated, garbage filled low end housing buildings.

The weather was fabulous, the food was incredible, and the company was good. We got back on the train Sunday night after one hectic weekend, and we were all pretty much worn out. We had a couple beers, cooked up some Fangbian Mian (convenient noodles, same as Cup Noodles/Ramen), watched a movie on someones laptop and called it a night. I was dead to the world until we pulled into Beijing 8am Monday morning. Just in time to make it back for our 10am classes. Lucky us =P

And now I'm ready for one long nap.