First post!

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First blog entry! I want to pre warn everyone that most of my posts are coming from my ipod! So typing is somewhat difficult!

I made it to china! I have been in xi'an for 3 days now (2 full days) and I am really liking the area. The school we are staying at is Shaanxi Normal University. There are 40,000 students here and just under 10 million in the city! I feel safe and welcome. The students here are welcoming and are eager to speak english with us. Sometimes I get weird looks as if I am an alien but it doesn't make me feel uncomfortable. I almost feel famous when they stop to take pictures of us. One of the kids in my class, Bill, is really tall and has blonde hair with sideburns and people literally make him take pictures WITH them. Its really amusing. I am finding ways to blend in and not draw unwanted attention.

So let me catch you up on my first days here. The first flight from Seattle to Beijing really wasn't bad! It was 12 hours with 2 servings of space food. We each had our own tvs and I watched 5 movies! I was lucky to snag two seats so I curled up and took a small 2 hour nap. Without having 2 seats my flight would have been worse. Now the layover in Beijing was no fun, 5 hours with no where to lie down. I couldn't hoop because they were all taped up.. that was a bummer. I was happy to have a special rice snack marya and chelsie had given me before I left, it kept me going until we got to xi'an. By this time I was so exhausted but had to stay up. The 2 hour flight was torture! When we finally arrived it was 1230 am xi'an time. It was about 45 minutes to our hotel and at that point i was up for 28 hours with a short nap. I slept 4 hours and was wide awake by 7 am. We ate breakfast at 8 am and it was a buffet style chinese breakfast. I was overjoyed at the amount of vegetarian options. I wasn't hungry but ate anyways. We went to the bank to exchange money after we ate and relaxed until lunch, which again, not hungry, but I knew my body needed energy. At this point the jet lag was really intense. It felt like the hotel was swaying and my mind was foggy. I kept drinking water and it seemed to calm my nerves. After supper I rested until I finally fell asleep around 10. The next day my symptoms were worse, I thought maybe I was getting sick, but I kept my mind positive and kept pumping liquids into my body. Everything you drink has to be boiled. The water quality is horrible here (so is the black mold in the bathroom!) but we have a kettle to boil water in our room. I still pushed through the day at the free history museum in town. It was rough but I didn't want to miss out on anything. Our tour guide was great and loved telling his own jokes, after each joke he would say "thats a joke for you!" So even if I didn't understand i would laugh. I learned a lot about China's history and the transitions between each dynasty. It was a long day and it was difficult to follow along with our tour guides english but I now have a better understanding of how China came to be what it is now. We had super again at the hotel and again i felt very blessed to have so many vegetarian options. I still was't hungry but ate as much as I could stomach.

I am very pleased to say that today I felt normal again (took long enough)! We start the day early and traveled right outside if xi'an to see the Terra Cotta Warriors! One of the seven wonders of the world! It was amazing to see and mind blowing! (By the way I have pictures from these days i will have to post once i find a way to transfer them to my ipod). We had lunch then headed to the cable cars. I didn't go up because it cost a lot of money, but 5 of us just walked around while the others went up to see the view. We found popsicles (it was hot out so we were stoked) and a girl from my class decided to be adventurous and try the corn shaped one.. It tasted like butter! It was the grossest popsicle I have ever tried! I played it safe and got mango.

So enough boring stuff, I am tired but there is so much I want to share. One last thing before I go. The chinese people have a lot of pride for their city, I have never seen such clean streets, I mean spotless. Everyone contributes and its a group effort. The babies here have slits in the pants and they are trained to take poo poo in the streets! The very same streets that are spotless! I saw a turd today and wondered if it was a doggie poo or a kiddie poo.. Goodnight!

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Comments

[beth]

poo poo
cant believe you've done so much already. glad you are drinking lots of fluids. look for a chinese herbel shop and maybe pick some things up you might need...just in case. gonna go work on skype texts love you