2 invitations in 2 days

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when looking back now on my time in xi'an i must still say that i didn't really like the city itself. i felt all the time some kind of pressure when i was walking through the streets and i was unable to find places where you could just stoll around while looking at nice buildings or interesting behaviour. nevertheless i will alway remember these to days because i had two exceptional experiences with the hostpitality of locals.
the first one happened to me when after i wrote my last entry. i was not really in a good mood. i was hungry and i didn't like what i had seen so far. so i just walked along the street into the direction of the muslim quarter and expected to find a tempting place where i could eat something with which i didn't really succeed. suddenly a boy, as i now know he's 17, came towards me to ask if i would talk some english with him because he would like to practice it. naturally i agreed instantly. we kept on walking while we were talking and then he asked me where i actually was going. i told him that i was looking for place to eat and asked him if he knew one. he brought me to one of these really small restaurants and ordered something for me and the same for him. i got a bowl (that was actually wrapped in plastic so that they won't have to wash it) filled with noodles, pieces of chicken and chilli. it was quite good and it got hotter the more you ate of it. therefor he also ordered a big bowl of "porridge", some kind of soup with a lot of cereals inside. my chinese friend said it tastes like nothing. unfortunately that was not true, it tasted like cereals and a little bit sweet. not really tempting. but it was true that it helped against the hottness, for this it was really good.
i sked him if i could get some beer and he ordered a bottle. when the bottle came he asked for two glasses. what we got were two more of this bowls wrapped in plastic. he told me that it has to be like this usually in china. so igave it a try. i've never drank beer in such a disgusting way, though the beer itself was quite good. after we finished, he ordered the bill and i wanted to pay but he wouldn't let me and payed the whole dinner himself. i mean i'm quite sure that it was not more than 10 RMB, but still it was a great gesture.
we started walking again and started talking about music. he told me he liked rock music, i told him that i also liked it. he asked me if i wanted to have some chinese cds with rock music. of course i wanted. thus we went to his place. his mother seemed to be very delighted that her son brought a foreigner and very politely offered me tea and wouldn't let me reject the apples. so now i've got some cds with chinese rock music but unfortunately i can't listen to it. i'll have to wait until i get home. i gave hime what i had on my mp3 player. think it's: the blood brothers, the paper chase, pink mountaintops, nick cave, casiotone for the painfully alone, queens of the stone age, the mars volta and some more. he didn't knew any of them before so he will have quite something to listen to these days. in the end i also gave him my email adress and in the meantime he even wrote me. nice boy. on the way back to the hostel unfortunately my neck started to hurt and still hurts today. in the meantime i think it's some kind of muscle inflamation. pretty annoying. in the room i was alone for about half an hour then a couple came, i think they're from czechia and some minutes later paul came, a guy from uk who is kind of a dvd fanatic as i know now. he wished to watch red corner this evening. pretty stupid movie with schwarzenegger. i watched it with him since i didn't feel like doing anything else.
the second nice experience, which is worth telling happened the next day. i started again toward the muslim quarter and this time i arrived there. it was quite nice there. there were a lot of places where you could eat this shashlik stuff. it was around 11 when i arrived there and i was hungry since i had no breakfast. but i decided to have a look at the great mosque before. i think i even entered the right little street for that, but somehow i must have missed it. turning my head these days isn't so funny since it sends a wave of pain down my back and up my head because my neck was still sour. however, i didn't really mind that but i also couldn't find any really nice places to from there on. after a while i took another way back to the start and finally went into one of the places. it was quite full and when a passed a table with a couple the guy started waving at me and gestured that i should take a seat. so i did. we agreed very fast that he couldn't talk english i that i knew no chinese. he ordered another empty bowl for me and gave me some meat and some bread. he also gave me something to drink and afterwards soup. all the time he seemed to be quite happy that i ate with them. for me it was also a nice situation, the food was good and i did not have to worry how to order.
after he paid i tried to give him some money for they things i had eaten. i really tried hardly and insisted again and again since jon my host from beijing had told me that he made the experience that chinese people like to reject a present like this and that you are supposed to insist as long until he takes it. it was a real struggle and finally i did not succeed. i think i would have had to knock him down and put the money in his wallet by myself but i really didn't feel like doing that. i hope i did not insult him by acting or rather not acting like this his.

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Comments

[Jon]

Good times
Hi there, Sounds like some lovely experiences but I know just what you mean about the tourist sites in Xi'an. I'm currently listening to the Nick Cave and really enjoying it. Many thanks for that. Hope you enjoy Chengdu and chat with you some time soon. All the best, Jon