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Published: September 5th 2010
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Today occurred in two parts.
The first part was a free day, to do whatever we pleased in Xi'an. This appealed to all of us. We haven't had enough time to wander around on our own. I followed Professor Greg Youtz to Stationary Street, which is a road devoted to the tools used for writing and painting, but which also has jade and various other traditional Chinese crafts. I did some gift shopping for people back home. While I waited for a man to carve a Chinese chop for me, I watched the little kids on the street partake in their favorite activity: peeing everywhere. One little boy pulled down his pants and peed in the middle of the sidewalk. The man's wife returned with their baby son. He had a slit in his pants, like many of the kids here do. He started peeing in his mom's arms. She aimed the stream at the gutter like it was nothing, waited until he had finished, and then put him down so that she could wipe his bottom with a handy rag. Now I know not to splash in the puddles in China, because most likely they are not rain puddles.
A group of us went to Subway for lunch. It had the Subway smell, so we couldn't resist.
After lunch, I sat with Audrey, Ryan, and Ben at the end of Stationary Street. We watched a group of boys playing on the type of skateboards that twist in the middle. You swivel your feet to make the board move forward. I was impressed because the boys I babysat over the summer had those and I could not even stand on one. Then a little girl tried to play with a Skip It, but she could not figure it out. She kept tripping on it. Her entire family came over to try to teach her how to use it, but she became frustrated and started whacking it on the ground instead.
I was most proud of myself for managing to successfully bargain with a street vendor. I have heard many tricks, but most of the time I am a pushover and cannot bring myself to use them. Today I said "算了,“ meaning "nevermind," and started to walk away, and she immediately agreed to my bargain price.
Part 2 was the beginning of our train trip to
Chengdu.
We arrived at the train station after an epic, luggage dragging trek over several blocks of crowded street. We had to lug our suitcases up and down ramps and stairs and through security checks. We finally got to the "soft seat lounge," were there for about fifteen minutes, and had to get up again and go through another series of tunnels to the train.
Once we finally got onto the train, we had to stuff ourselves and our luggage into closely-packed, four person sleeper rooms. I shared a room with Clare, Audrey, and Kate. It was very cozy. We all slept with bags at our feet. Surprisingly, the beds were large enough to accommodate this.
But it was only four when the train started to move, so we didn't go to sleep right away. We ate dinner in the dining car. Each of us received a serving size plate, a bowl of rice and soup. Kate got a whole fish, head and everything. It was very unexpected, and surprisingly good. Women with pushcarts moved up and down the train selling snacks and drinks. I bought a sort of orange drink that came in a glass bottle
I could use for tea later on.
Afterward we watched Mulan on Clare's laptop. Various Chinese passengers passed by and looked through our door, and were very excited to see four white girls watching a Disney movie about China. An old lady stopped and actually watched with us for a while and had a bit of a conversation with us.
Next door the boys watched Shawshank Redemption.
Then, the 白酒came out. Some of our group got a little tipsy. More girls crowded into our room and we decided to read Cosmo. We chatted until late. A vendor tried to sell toys to us, told the girls who were drinking that they were very good at it, and then tried to take advantage of their state. It didn't work. They hadn't been drinking that much. He took his toys somewhere else. We wrote in our journals and fell asleep.
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Katherine
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mmmm, 白酒. What's that?