Xi'an Part 2~!

I was supposed to go with a few classmates and our teacher on a hike through the mountains to the South of Xi'an, but since I hadn't slept well on the train and the night in the hotel, I woke up with a headache and decided to go back to sleep. It ended up working fine because I got to explore the city. I slept for a few more hours and then got breakfast with 4 of my classmates. Wtand on the e decided to form our own group for exploring the city since the other group was too big. I bought this delicious pastry from a stand on the street. It was some kind of fried doughnut with some kind of sweet glaze in the middle. It was so good! I wish I would have found another stand selling them, but it looks like it was a breakfast only item.

Our first stop was the city wall of Xi'an. It goes all the way around the city. We walked past the bell tower to the Southern Gate. Sadly, because of China's current situation, the bell tower was closed off as well. At the Southern gate, we paid a few kuai to buy tickets for access to the wall. It really is a big structure. From the top of the wall you can see so much of the city. You also have the option to rent bikes to ride around the wall, but none of us were in the mood for giving that a try. We walked around a bit and as we were looking over the city, we spotted a small alleyway that had a ton of Chinese paintings and calligraphy hanging up, so we headed off the wall and walked over to the alley.

It was a neat experience. The alleyway was full of art galleries and led to a street where every few feet, people had stands set up selling all sorts of different things, ranging from calligraphy brushes and supplies to jewelry, seals, statues, keychains and much more. We started at teh beginning of the street, which had a huge gate over it and slowly worked our way down the street, looking at all of the stall and stores. There was so much I wanted to buy, but I know my suitcase space is limited. I ended up buying a seal and getting my chinese name engraved on the bottom. I had so much fun haggling with people.

There was one thing I wanted to buy...the 1st shop to me it was 20 kuai. I figured that wasn't bad, but I didnt want to carry too mcuh stuff around all day, so I decided to wait until later to buy it. I found another shop later on and decided to buy. I asked the woman what the price was and she told me it was 65 kuai! I thought for a minute and told her I would give her 10. She started laughing at me and said she would never sell it for 10 and then offered me 55. Then one of my classmates came in and told me in Chinese that she bought one down the street for 10 kuai. So I told the woman I wasn't interested. She offered me 25 and I still said no. So I put the item down and left the store. She actually chased after me and told me she would sell to me for 10 kuai! Although she wasn't too happy about the price she got. I was happy though. I got the souvenir I wanted for the price I wanted to pay and I got to practice my Chinese skills.

We walked for several hours down the street and it never seemed to end! We probably walked for 2 miles and then sat down to take a break and decide what to do next with the time we had left. While we were sitting, we were approached by a group of students from Xi'an University who were working on a project. They wanted to interview a few foreigners to get our opinions on what we thought about the art and culture streets (which is apparently the name of the street we happened to stumble across). They were super enthusiastic to talk to us once they realized that we knew how to speak Chinese. We even went as far as doing the interview with them in Chinese, which they were super excited about. After the interview, 2 of the girls from the group approached me and said they wanted to make friends with me. They were super cute! So I ended up exchanging my email and QQ with them. It was a really great experience!

Next we wandered back to the shopping plaza and got some food from a small curry restaurant that we found. The food was delicious! We had curry chicken, curry taro and a black pepper beef dish. I really liked the curry taro. It had a really interesting taste to it. After lunch, we split up into smaller groups and walked around the shopping plaza before meeting back up to play in the arcade again. After the arcade we headed back to the hotel to catch the bus to the train station.

On the train, I bunked with Misha again, but instead of having 2 randoms, I had 2 CIEE teachers. It was so much fun! At the start of the trip we brought out a ton of snack foods and our room was packed with people sharing food and joking around until the train left. Then everyone had to be in their own rooms so the train workers could collect tickets. It was nice to be in the room with the teachers, but it was a little inconvenient because people kept coming in our room to ask them for homework help, but I didnt really mind. Later in the night Me, Trevor, Dr Lucas and Ke Laoshi sat down and Dr. Lucas taught us a Chinese card game called up the river that was really fun to play. We played for several hours and then everyone headed to sleep. The train ride back was much quieter because most students were busy doing homework or went to bed early. I slept a lot better this night.

When I woke up in the morning, I was back in Beijing. We grabbed the bus and headed back to campus. Most students ran off to class, but I had missed my only class for the day since the bus was late in picking us up. I met up with Kyle and we stopped at a Taiwan pancake place on campus so I could give one a try. It was sooooooo tasty! I wanted another one. It's a great option for lunch and its only 7 kuai! Though it is a little on the greasy side. Now I'm just relaxing in my room. I had a little homework to do tonight and I rescheduled my tutoring session today for 7pm since I didn't think I would be back in the city in time for my session. So I'll just be relaxing and doing homework from now until then and then it's back to school tomorrow.

National Holiday is next week, so I have off from school for a whole week. I"m planning to stay around Beijing and check out some stuff here. For the last few days of my break, I'll be going with Dr. Lucas and a few classmates to live in a rural village for our 2nd field trip of the semester. I'm super excited! That's all for now. I have a lot of stuff to get done today!