Xian

Oh what a night, it was late December back in 69, what a lady, what a night. Don't have any clue as to why that song is in my head but luckily it is. So hanging out at the internet cafe is cool right? The answer is yes and that is why I come. To write to you fine people. All 2 of you. My mom wrote me the other day and said that she was reading this to my grandma so i know that there are 2. Thanks mom.

So what happened in Xian. Hard to say seeing as how it was a few days ago and since i have been back in Beijing stuff has been going down. At any rate Xian is a cool city and we saw some stuff, stayed in a cheap room, and ate some cheap food.

Towers - the drum and bell towers are central city are are really not that cool but we did see a drum show and they played drums as you would imagine Chinese people to do. I did learn that they divide night up into 4 parts and hit the huge drums to signal when the new part starts. I found my Chinese name at the gift shop but it was like 40 kuai and Eve told me she could just write it so I left it and she has yet to fulfill her promise. Saw a sweet show that was promoting the war on drugs. It really sucked actually but there were some cool little kung fu kids doing flips amongst the 50 year old uncoreographed, uncoordinated dancing women. Funniest part other than us being the only white people there was when a gust of wind came and blew the stage backing all the way across and a bunch of police jump out to stop it and get knocked over. Ha. Prior to that we had a great time at the massage parlor getting our feet massaged. First time and an hour goes for 50 (or $6). They only had 2 people to do it so while Gary and Eve got theirs i just soaked and soaked in tea. Feet smelled ok for once. Meat on a stick was to follow on the street in the Muslim quarter which was good stuff. That is all.

Terra Cotta Soldiers et al - Day after we get there Bing Wang and Tsinghua sponsor a trip for us to see not only the 8th wonder of the world but some other crap too. Saw another summer palace where some cool history happened that i have already completely forgotten but i do remember Tom our tour guide who told us the emperor there had thousands of concubines but one favorite one who was rubenesque. She was hot. Later found out that there was one lady emperor, otherwise known as an empress i suppose, that had a mere 5 concubines. Interesting dont you think? Yeah had a good lunch with candied potato for desert and Bing told us to dip it in our beer before eating. When in Rome. Pretty good i guess but i think its just to cool it off. Bing also bought a sweet golden picture of a "old car" or horse drawn carriage for a mere 150. What a steal. Made it to terra cotta and after the circle movie we go into the warehouse. This place is huge and there are a predicted 8000 buried clay life size soldiers and horses and carts. The guy started building his tomb when he was 18 and ironically died while checking on it 30 years later. Hung out with Mary Wong and Alex and i dare say we got some good pics. Well, they did my cam was out of batteries. Quite amazing though just the sheer size of the place. In the next building you could get a bit closer to check out how the excavation works. They still have about 70% covered they think. Funny they build these buildings on top. Oh yeah, it was funny in the movie when some farmers discovered them by pulling up a head of one of them out of a well. How often does that happen. Was cool but hot as hell out there in the middle of the country in the middle of the day. After, everyone thought we were done but then we stopped at the actual tomb (Qin) and walked up to the top to an unimpressive view but plenty of pomegranate.

Night Out 2 - Not quite as wild but equally fun when chillin with Michael and Gary. Walked what seemed like 30-40 miles to find some alley food vendor that they promised they would come back and visit and eat their noodles. Just as predicted they were amazed/happy to see them and we had a killer meal of the bready dumplings and noodle soup for about 3 kuai each but the guy refused to take $. Got some Bai Jiou the local liquor made of sohrgum and it was horrid. Like really strong bad sake is my description. Its like 110 proof so yikes. Funniest part was when the owner guy sent some girls over to sit with us at our down low table. Funny enough to see 3 big Americans at this table that is a foot off the ground but when it is crowded w/ 2 more girls even better. We certainly attracted a lot of attention from the passersby but made it worth it bc i think we got some business for him too. So he was trying to hook us up with these girls but they were just there for a few weeks for fun with friend. Sounded good and i guessed them to be 15 so when they said they were 20 i was amazed. These Asian women, i tell you what. Michael had long conversations about family and girlfriends and America and prices of things and since i don't know Chinese i couldn't really take part or say what transpired. I did buy some cookies though. They were pretty good. The people all want you to have Chinese girlfriend, are amazed by American prices, and want to know what its like to have siblings. The other night i heard this song about "we make ya'll speak Chinese;" some rap song that i had to chuckle at since none of the Chinese people could understand it and i wonder if the DJ even did. Ha.

Other day trip - the Saturday that we left we had another sweet tour of the big wild goose pagoda (already seen it), a history museum (unimpressive replicated pots and the like, might have been better had i known any Chinese history or could read it), and a western food buffet. Buffet made some people sick and by western they meant one pot of crappy spaghetti and some cold french fries. Met some international ambassadors from GA and AL though so that was cool even though they were only like 14.

Train ride home was long and sleepy. Ate noodles, basked in the air conditioned goodness and had deep conversation.