Xi'an - Day 1

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Actually, this entry should be "Shiyan - Day 1" because we didn't actually make it to Xi'an on Monday.. but the trip was meant for Xi'an, so that's what we'll call it.. "Xi'an - Day 1".

I got up around 8:30 and took HP out around 9:30 after talking to some folks on Skype. She went pretty quickly, and we came back home. I took a shower around 10 and started trying to pack.. yeah, I left packing til the last minute.. go figure. It was a distracted sort of packing because I had my computer on, and I was downloading songs, reading FB stuff.. you know, distracting stuff. Around noon, I sent Kyle a message asking if he could get HP at 1:00 when we left. He said he couldn't because he was meeting one of his former students in just a few minutes, so he came and got her then. He put her in her cage because it had been a while since I took her out, and he didn't know when he would be back.. she whined. It was pitiful.

I left my apartment at about 12:45 feeling good because I packed and everything right before it was time to go and still had time to go and get some bread because the only thing I had eaten was a Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Bar (P.S. if anyone wants to send me anything, I'm a big fan of those.. ha). I almost made it to the gate when I remembered I left the reservation confirmation for the hostel laying on my bed. Boo. I had to turn around and go get it. I also snagged a coke from my fridge, so that was actually a plus.. but I put us a few minutes behind. Whoops.. and I didn't get any bread. Sad, I know.

The trip passed by pretty quickly. Jamey & Priscilla (hereafter they will be known as J & P) and I actually talked the whole time. That never happens.. but maybe it's because we usually leave early, and I usually stick my headphones on real quick after we get in the car.. I, sadly, do not have that option anymore because I don't know where my iPod is.. but that's a story for another time. So anyway, it was pretty quick.

We got to Shiyan in an hour and a half. We went on campus, and we met Wendy. She was going on the trip with us. Melinda, Dillon, Cindy and Washington also came and saw us. It was so nice to actually see some students I knew. It made me want to be at that campus right then.

We needed to go to the bus station to buy our tickets. Dillon and Melinda went with the 4 of us (J & P, Wendy and me). Dillon and I walked together. J & P, Wendy and Melinda were going to take the bus, but they cheated and took a taxi. Dillon and I would have made it before them if they had have taken the bus. Anyway, on the walk we saw a girl who told her friend I was her foreign teacher. I don't know who she was.. I didn't even know she said anything til Dillon told me. We also saw the fruit guy who used to be outside of our gate. He always says hello to us when we walk by.. and he said it to me then. He's fun.

So after we got our tickets we headed to Billy and Debbie's, a couple who are teaching in Shiyan, to put our things down. We talked to them for a few minutes, and Billy told us that Pizza Hut wasn't any good. We should just stick to Starbucks while we were there. Ha. They're a really fun couple. I like them a lot.

J & P, Wendy and I went to McDonalds for dinner when we left B & D's. We all got big macs. I got some fries and a vanilla shake too. I ate it soo fast because I had only eaten that Nature Valley bar all day. It was good.

After dinner we walked around Shiyan.. J found DVD shops, we looked for cheap mp3 players but never found any I trusted to work with my Mac, we went to Wonderful Mart.. which is apparently affiliated with Wal Mart, and then went on home.

I took my sandals off. I have the worst luck with shoes. I wore those sandals around quite a bit in the summer, but when I took them off, I sure did have a couple of blisters on each foot.. and my feet were real nasty. I took a shower, listened to J watch Youtube videos and wrote this. I woke up around 3:30 and tossed and turned the rest of the night..

So that's Day 1.. not too exciting.. but just wait, it gets better. 😊 Trust me.

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