October Holiday

So tomorrow I begin teaching Oral English. The past week has been October Holiday and the foreign teachers took a trip to Xi'an, home of the Terra Cotta Warriors ("the eighth wonder of the world"). This trip was a very exciting trip even thought we were pretty much rushed through everything we had planned because so much was planned within a couple of days. Oh well, I loved it and would like to go back one day.

So lets start with Thursday morning. I only got a few hours of sleep this night because I had to do some laundry. The dryer I used did not dry my clothes so I had to move to another dryer. I finally finished laundry around 2:30 and fell asleep around 3. So I wake up at 6 in the morning to shower, pack and get everything ready to meet in the lobby at 7. We load the bus at 7:30 and leave at 8. The trip was about 8 hours maybe a little more but it did not seem like it. The ride up there went really quick. When we get to Xi'an we picked up our tour girl and head to the hotel. We get a few hours to hang out at our hotel so a few of us went into town to check out one of the ancient capitals of China. So we get a taxi, this was my first ever taxi ride, and head to the city. We go to McDonald's, Starbucks and go on a tour to find Dairy Queen. We did not find DQ so we just went back to the hotel to get ready for a banquet that we had planned. The banquet was absolutely beautiful with delicious food and great entertainment. The food we had was Jiaozi which is Chinese Dumplings). They had about 15 different types of Jiaozi for us to try, some were really good and some were not so great. So the lady comes around to ask us what we want to drink, either Coke, Sprite or Beer. This lady had beer and asked if I wanted some, so I said no thank you. Her reply, "Yes you do" and continues to pour it in my glass. I thought that was pretty funny. But anyways, while we ate, a girl was playing a Chinese Instrument, not sure what it is called but it sounds really cool. We were provided with good entertainment after we finished eating. There were dances and musical performances for us to enjoy and enjoy we did. The most entertaining performance to me was the performance with the yo-yos. There were about 7 girls who had sticks with strings with huge yo-yos on them. They would spin the yo-yos on the string, throw them in the air and sometimes when they threw them they would do cartwheels and flips and all sorts of stuff while they waited for the yo-yo to come down. It was really excited to watch and I cannot tell you how many times I dropped my jaw from what I saw. But when the show ended we load our bus and head back to the hotel and are free for the night. So we went back to the city to get some Dairy Queen. and searching for Dairy Queen we finally find it. The doors are wide open so we all walk in the workers tell us they are closed. Our hearts were broken. So we go to other places. We find this place called Spinetti which is basically Coldstone. I did not eat there but some of us did, I went to starbucks to get a Mocha Frappachino. We make one more stop by McDonalds and some people order there and 8 of us went back about 10 minutes for the rest the group. We get taxis and the taxi we get in smells like vomit. We (Me, Sam and Jason) were worried we sat down in it but thankfully we did not. Oh well, so that was that day.

Friday, the day I waited for and the main reason I went on this trip. Woke up around 7ish took a shower, go some breakfast and loaded the bus. We head to see the terra cotta soldiers. So we are on the way and the driver misses the exit so we go to a museum where they make replica of the soldiers and where they also make chinese furniture. The furniture truly is an art and I think you would think so after seeing the things I saw at this place. But anyways, we hang out there and start messing around with the replicas and take pictures with them and enjoying ourselves until it gets boring. Then we head off to see the real warriors. I am stoked, it is something we used to read about in world history classes back in the day and I finally get to see something I had only read about. We get there and we part then we have to walk to the gate and the actualy soldiers are about good 15 minutes from the gate, maybe longer. We get inside to where the soldiers are and the tour guide wants us to watch a film first, but a few of us skipped out on the film to have more time to see all the stuff (we were only given an hour to check out everything so it kinda stunk). So we walk in and the place is crowed with people. But in China, it kind of ok to push around. Me being a bigger guy makes it a lot easier to get through places cause people just tend to get out of the way for some reason. So I get our group to the front and we start taking pictures and stuff and looking at all the warriors. It is a really cool experience to see all the things. We go through the first pit and checking out all the stuff then we head to the second pit and a guy selling small replicas of the soldiers (Small as in fit in the palm of your hand) but he is asking for 10 U.S. dollars but I told him I would pay 5 yuan but he wouldn't go lower than 10 yuan. So he got mad and finally left me on, thanks to Matt cause he can speak some Chinese so he helped me out with getting the guy to leave. So in pic 2 there are soldiers in clear boxes so I am not sure if these are orignal. Apparently there was a fire back in the day and only of of the soldiers was not damaged, the kneeling archer. So they must be important or something. We have about 5 or 10 minutes until we have to leave so we had to rush through the last building the had to bronze chariot and other things, but I'm glad that was last cause there really was not that much there. After the terra cotta soldiers we go to this museum where we were fed lunch, it was pretty good and we got to see a guy hand stretch noodles that you could buy. It was pretty cool to watch but then afterwards we went to a silk market and looked around and took some funny pictures. It really wasn't anything special but it was a good time killer. After this they took us to a museum but it wasnt anything special. A couple of us just walked around a chilled and enjoyed ourselves. Then afterwards we went to dinner at The Hot Pot. I thought it was actually pretty good. For those of you who have no idea what hot pot is, you have thin pieces of meat and a pot of boiling water and you cook your own meat. It's a pretty cool place and they also have veggies, tofu and sauces for you to try. Apparently there is a ghetto hot pot here that is much better so I will have to eat there one day. After this we were done for the day. We got taxis from the hotel and went to get to DQ before it closed and we did. I got an Oreo Blizzard and it was soooooo good. After this we go to the Muslim Market to shop and bargain. I talked earlier about a guy trying to sell me small terracotta warriors. Well I got them for 6 yuan at this place so that is less than 1 U.S. dollar. But, we go through the market and everything is closed so some people get some McDonald's and we go back to the hotel. 4 of us get into a taxi and are going back and I was wondering why the trip was taking longer than usual. The driver took us to the wrong university is Xi'an but we did not find out until we walk around that campus for about 15-20 minutes looking for our hotel. So people call us and Andy finds a student from the university we were dropped off at and he kindly walks us back to our hotel. We offered to pay him for helping us but he would not accept.

Saturday was not as fun filled at Friday was, but we made the best of it. We started off by going to The Big Wild Goose Pagota. We had a tour planned and going through all the stuff and we get to the door of the Pagota and just walk by. A lady who is one of the board of the directors for Sias said she wanted to go to the top so I told her I wanted to go to the top. So we both paid 2o yuan to go to the top. There was not much to do in there but to climb seven flights of stairs that got narrower and steeper as you guys higher (maybe thats because I was getting tired). But it was pretty cool to go up there and see the city from the top of this old building. So afterwards this stop we go to the City Wall of Xi'an, not to be mixed with the Great Wall of China. This was not really that fun because all we did was sit around and snap a couple pictures. Afterwards we had lunch and went back to the Muslim Market to do a little shopping before we left. This was really fun but also short but I got a nice North Face Jacket. The lady was asking 480 yuan but that was way too much to I offered 150 and I kept saying 150. I walked away a few times but she pulled me back so we made a deal at 200 yuan. About 30 US dollars for a North Face jacket is really good to me. So after that we went back to Dairy Queen for one last time in Xi'an. We were late getting back to the bus but the Blizzard was definatly worth it. Then we loaded the bus and made our way back to Sias.

Like I said, I begin teaching at 8:00 am tomorrow so I need to begin preparing my lesson for tomorrow. The first day wont be too bad so it is not going to stress me out so much. Anyways, I am about to go try and get a haircut tonight cause my hair is getting long.