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Published: March 19th 2007
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Bell tower
I could have spent all day taking pictures on this drum tower with the right lenses! It must be a rule that the second week of the semester I have to get sick. Wednesday /Thursday I came down with food poisoning and could not teach I laid on the sofa feeling like I had been run over by a truck. Since the guy who I ate with also called to say that he was puking his guts out we are positive we ate something bad. But because I was leaving the next day for Xian I made myself feel better. Luckily I felt fine except that because I am prone to having colds it weakened me so that I got a cold and the whole time we were in Xian I was blowing my nose and had no voice. I tell you this as a preface so you will know how I looked and felt when I got on the train and to say that life is not fair.
We got on the train at the new train station in the west. It is so overwhelming. HUGE. Full of Chinese people. Its the weirdest sensation to look out and see just waves of black hair moving. Inside the tiny cabins are six beds Francesca and I
Muslim quarter
I think what is always so interesting is how the old and new merge to form our interesting world. had the very top bunks. Which by the end of the trip I think the Chinese wish they had traded with us because we kept going up and down. This was not an easy task because there was no ladder. Francesca had packed coffee mugs and coffee. We stood in the hallway by the bathrooms drinking our coffee because you could not sit up in the beds. We were trying to ignore the many people staring at us. And then we met him.
The most handsome Chinese man I have ever seen! Tall really well dressed good smile, good teeth, good haircut, well perfect. He started talking to us in very good English. Francesca and I were trying not to drool over him. It turns out that he goes to Tsinghua University, which was ranked the Top University in China. He is studying chemical engineering. He has to be very smart because he is from Xian, which means that he had to have higher scores then people applying in Beijing. He was asking us what we knew about Purdue, lucky me that I spent some time there, and the University of California because he was accepted to both for
Muslim quarter
I think what is always so interesting is how the old and new merge to form our interesting world. a PHD programs. Purdue for Biomedical Engineering and USC for Business. So attractive, smart, and going to America hmmmm. Well we talked to him for a long time and then it turned out he was in out cabin. So we got to share our train snacks with him. However, it’s incredibly hard to look attractive waking up from an overnight train ride where you slept in your clothes and you have a cold that prevented you from sleeping. So needless to say we did not make the impression we would have liked. He left us in Xian without even a number. Well we were off to an interesting start.
I have never arrived in Chinese city with good weather. Cold, rainy and foggy.
We got settled in the youth hostel took showers and got dressed and I put on make up. By ten we were out the door to see the Terra cotta warriors.
Francesca keeps me entertained because she is always talking about what the Chinese are doing and because she can understand what they are saying she can tell me what they are talking about which is usually us.
Me: "what are they saying"
Francesca: " They
Muslim quarter
I love the muslim quarter. You must stand there and its a photo a second. are trying to guess where we are from. They have identified as foreigners. "
I have the impression that people in Xian are smaller then people in Beijing.
Its really wilder place then Beijing its hard to explain. It just has a different feel about it. The people are nice but well just more Chinese.
Interesting things:
The Terracotta warriors. Well they are famous and very Chinese. AND because Francesca and I went all the way to the top and then got scared because we thought people had already bought tickets. So we went all the way back down to the parking lot in search of a ticket box. Only to return to the top to buy tickets. And because we got nervous when we went in every other building first before seeing the famous terracotta pit. We began wondering if we had come to the right place.
The Drum tower because Francesca and I could have stood there and watched the traffic and people all day.
My pants got a rip in them and for less then ten cents we walked into this little tiny shop, a bicycle shed, where this lady with and
Francesca
My camera is all the way zoomed out this is how close our two beds were. We were quite the cozy family by the time the train ride was over. old fashioned sewing machine was sitting. She fixed my pants in less than ten seconds.
The fact that we ate very small Chinese restaurants everyday or street food every meal.
Going to Starbucks.
Muslim quarter just because
Standing in line at the Xian train station to get tickets home. I have never seen so many people in one place it’s a very weird feeling being the only foreigner, the only blond head.
The train ride home was uneventful. I had the bottom bed this time. I actually like the top better because up there you can hide. People kept walking by and staring at us. Because it’s the only place to sit everyone sits there. But still its odd to have strangers sitting on my bed. But we met the other people in the room. Francesca spoke to them for a long time in Chinese and I just sat there and blew my nose. One of the guys was really nice he could read and write but not speak it. So he got my number and sent me a text messages saying he wants to hang out. But I am not sure how that will
Terracotta warriors
These warriors kind of freak me out. work. Will he just text message me the whole time? So I had a really good time. I am glad to have seen another city. But I am glad to be home in Beijing.
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Cheryl
non-member comment
Not a tourist anymore.
You are traveling like a local. You gotta be young or at least thinner than me to do the train. Especially the part about not having a ladder! Glad you finally made it to see the soldiers. The pictures are wonderful as usual. I hope you put an album together. So you and Francesca traveled by yourselves huh? She must speak good Mandarin. Enough to get your pants fixed! That was amazing to me. You may think it's an everyday thing to travel like this, but it's not. You are full of adventure and brave to boot. The terracotta soldiers are a little creepy. You think they might come alive and wonder WHY?.... would anyone make that many? Glad for the Starbucks. I am actually drinking a Frappuccino right now. Hope you are feeling better. So hard to travel sick. Take care, Cheryl