Xi'an - WAY past due. Part 1.

This post is SO past due, it's actually funny. Well, not really. I apologize for being so absentminded and tardy in my duties of recording my travels. Alas - here it is. Hope it makes sense.

So there we stood, happy to be on vacation, train tickets in hand, ready to board the train to Beijing. Armed with a backpack a piece, a few phrase books, and the heads on our shoulders - we were ready to brave the land of China by ourselves. Hoo boy. Oh, and I'll have to note.. the trip was attended by only four out of our troupe of six. The other two ladies (Meg and Christina) unfortunately had to work during our vacation due to the fact that the South campus (where they work) has a slightly different schedule than ours on the North Campus. Alas.

We boarded the train in Tongliao at about 8:30 in the morning after stopping by a small market to grab a few munchies for the 12 hour ride to Beijing. We mostly hung out and read books on the train - it was comfortable. I also met a young girl on the train named Emma who was from Tongliao, but lives in Beijing as a Perfume saleswoman. She was practicing her English, and asked me to help her out! Good thing too - we made friends and she managed to help show us where to get off the train, and where to go to leave the station. So we got off in the big city of Beijing with its flashin' lights.. and were greeted by a taxi driver who TOTALLY tried to screw us out of way too much money. So, we decided to walk through Beijing by ourselves at around 10 at night. Suprisingly, it's an EXTREMELY safe city to walk through. However, when you don't know where you're going - it can seem really big. Ultimately, however, we found our first hostel there thanks to the help of a fellow named 'Nina' we met on the street who could speak a little English. However, the hostel we arrived at cost a bit too much for the one night we wanted to stay. So, we called up my very close, good friend Steve who happened to be visiting Beijing on Holiday as WELL and asked where he was staying.

Quick side note: The friends and coincidences on this trip are absurdly wonderful and quite plentiful. Keep an eye out for the connections and stories littered throughout this entry!

So, we took a quick taxi ride to Steve's hostel, which was fantastically receptive, and much cheaper (thank god). I was so happy to see Steven and meet the guys he met over his trip (an Israeli man named Asiz , a guy from the Netherlands named JJ, and a fellow teacher of Steve's named Cy). Oh, and I forgot to mention. Steve has been teaching English to high school students in a city named Zhengzhou, near Xi'an, where we were ultimately taking our trip! Small world, huh. Anyhow, we settled into the Hostel and decided to have a night out in Beijing! I can now happily say I went bar hopping in Beijing. Good story.

The next morning we took a taxi ride and a stroll through Tiananmen Square - finding ourselves standing in front of the Forbidden City, and a massive picture of Chairman Mao. We went into the city (for the second time, mind you - the first being when we had just arrived in China!) and went straight for the ticket office to get us into the Forbidden city proper. On our way in, an English speaking woman asked us for directions where to buy tickets for the palace and what she should say. Since we were still quite awestruck by any foreigners we could find, we immediately loved her and invited her to travel with us for a bit as we toured the city. Her name was Anna Maria, an Italian ESL teacher living in Australia who spoke fluent English and Italian. She spoke zero Chinese, so we actually helped her out a bit in this regard. It felt weird to be teaching someone Chinese rather than English!

The Forbidden City and the Palace were breathtakingly beautiful. It is so huge and so ancient.. but unfortunately due to the high amounts of tourists - it has become something more of a tourist trap full of salespeople and ticket offices, rather than a beautiful monument to China's past, as I wish it was. However, I still found it captivating to imagine it in it's heyday, full of soldiers, ambassadors, the Emperor, officials, and the whole shebang. It is actually quite hard to explain in pictures and words. It is the sort of place you need to visit yourself in order to understand it's measure and history. Sorry for not being able to do it proper justice! After seeing all of the main palaces, we branched out into the East section of the 'city', and explored a few of its catacombs which included beautiful gardens, jewelry and art history displays, a theatre, and a wonderful stile of 'the 9 dragons'. Quite impressive to say the least.

After our long tour, our short stop in Beijing needed to come to an abrupt end as we had to make it to the Train station for our next stop: Xi'an. We left Anna Maria and strode out looking for the Train station. We ultimately took a Taxi - thank God, otherwise we would have gone to the wrong Train station in Beijing! There are 3 main train stations that go North, South and West. Who knew? Anywho, we made it on time and got into our second sleeper train to Xi'an at around 6pm. It shot us straight to Xi'an as we slept!

We woke up around 6am or so and walked out into the misty city of Xi'an. We immediately spotted a McDonalds and practically ran towards it. After a solid McDonalds breakfast, we noticed a few foreign girls across the restaurant, and flocked to them. They were three girls from Spain traveling in China for holiday named Judy, Leta and Rosa. They turned into some of our best friends of our traveling! We exchanged some information and gave them the name and number of our hostel - and said goodbye for the moment. We then decided to walk through the city to find our hostel as it would give us a better idea of how to get around - plus, Xi'an is a beautiful old city and has plenty to look at. Oh, also - right when we walked out from the Train station, the city is dauntingly solemn and beautiful to look at. Xi'an is still surrounded by it's ancient city walls from the days of the Chinese Empire - massive stone blocks rising what seemed like 30 or 40 yards into the sky. Anywho, we strode through the city in the morning watching it come to life (and getting stalked by some creepy fella for a few blocks who we think was crazy and intrigued by the foreigners walking around his home.. luckily we were able to shake him) and made it to 'The Bell Tower' in the very center of town. It is a beautiful old building right in the middle of a hustling-bustling city blending modern and ancient china in a rather shockingly accurate way. We took the tour later - the Bell ceremony was awesome!

Our Hostel was in sight of the Bell tower - so we bee-lined for the place. We checked in, got our room, and plopped down for a minute. THEN WE ENJOYED HOT SHOWERS. YES SIR. HOT SHOWERS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN WEEKS. It was lovely, to say the least. After showering and eating something quickly, we noticed that the Spanish girls we had met checked into the room down the hall from us! They were on their way to see the Terracotta warriors during the day - and we were going to see those guys tomorrow, so we parted ways again, but promised to meet up for dinner, sightseeing and drinks.

Oh, I completely forgot to mention WHY we wanted to go to Xi'an. Xi'an, besides being a kick ass city for tourists and Foreigners to visit, is steeped with history and culture of ancient and modern China. It also houses nearby the dig-site for the Terracotta Warriors unearthed in the 1970's. They are really unbelieveable. More about them soon. Promise.

So after recharging the batteries with a good shower - we headed into Xi'an to give ourselves a little walking tour. We hit the Bell Tower, then the Drum tower (sister towers somewhat close to each other that show off some of the city's Muslim heritage), then found ourway into the Muslim market in Xi'an.

Markets in China are unreal. You can literally buy ANYTHING you can think of. For dirt cheap. You just need to know how to bargain, and speak a little Chinese. For example: Many market stall owners will yell out things like "pretty lady, handsome man, come buy this! Only 50! No? Only 25!", etc, etc. If something catches your eye or you want to buy it, seem somewhat interested in something. Ask one question about it. Then pretend like you don't care about it and walk away. The owner will usually grab your arm and ask you for a price. You ask them. They say a number. You say: "WAY TOO EXPENSIVE!" and walk away again. They grab you. You offer 25% of what they charged, and work from there. It's REALLY fun to bargain. Luckily, I budgeted myself so I couldn't buy too many souvenirs, otherwise I would have been there all day.

After the Muslim Market, we walked through the Southern gate of the city and found our way to the Xi'an Museum and 'Little Goose Pagoda'. The Museum was great, and the Pagoda was beautiful in it's historical significance. Plus, we climbed up the 12 floors of it and got a wonderful view of the city from the top!

After leaving the Pagoda on our way back towards our hostel (we were getting tired) we met someone by COMPLETE coincidence. Katie, a good friend of mine teaching with me, noticed another foreign girl walking along the street we were walking along.. stopped in her tracks, and yelled, "SHUT... UP." The other girl followed suit immediately. The 'other foreign girl' turned out to be Caitlin, a good friend of Katie's in High school who has been teaching English in China for the past year in a city named Shenyang, which sits a short 6 hours by train south of Tongliao! SMALL WORLD, HUH?! After much screaming, laughing and talking - information got sorted and we decided to meet up on the next day, after we got some sight seeing taken care of. That said - we parted and made our way back to our hostel.

On the way back, we decided to grab dinner at a Dumpling joint near where we were staying. Simply because of the name. It was, and I quote: "The Legendary DeFa Chang Restaurant is Renowned for its Superior Delicious Dumplings". That is it's NAME. Hilarious. The dumplings were okay. Not really superior. But I was hungry all the same.

We hung out in the hostel (which also operates as a restaurant and a bar to travelers) until the Spanish girls showed up after their adventures with the Terracotta warriors - and decided to make moves towards finding a 'water, music and light show' that we had heard about near the 'Big Goose Pagoda' in the city. Luckily, we had only seen the Little Goose. The big guy was still waiting for us. We took a bus to the pagoda and caught the show which was very entertaining and exciting to be a part of. It kind of reminded me of Fantasia - water and music and all. I'm sure we were more entertaining to watch for the locals, though. They were mesmerized by 3 Spanish women and 4 American kids hanging out and dancing all together to the water light show. From the Big Goose Pagoda, we made way back to the bus, back into the city, and walked our little legs right up to the first Disco Club we could find. We found one. It was called 'Club Loco'. It was... Awesome.

The place was full of swinging lights, bartenders flipping bottles, Chinese patrons, dice games, and LIVE music. The Chinese seem to have a grand fascination with live music, and it will be at literally any bar you go to. I think it's great. At any rate, the drinks were ridiculously expensive so I could only really afford one. HOWEVER, a Chinese gentleman sitting near to us was so tickled that a big group of foreigners were hanging out at his bar, that he bought us all a round or two of beer! What a guy! The live music was mostly perpetrated by this guy who looked like Rufio from 'Hook', and was wearing a shirt, I shit you not, with "I'M FUCKING AWESOME" plastered across it's breast. What a gentleman. He was actually a great entertainer. His voice was great, and he knew how to hold a crowd. He also sang "It's my life" by Bon Jovi to us for being English Speakers. All the words were wrong, but it was still awesome nevertheless. And he had a bodyguard. Oh, China.

Also, we met 3 kids at the bar who were also English teachers in China who were ALL FROM AMERICA! What are the odds! Sean, Jeff and Angelo. Good guys. Plus, they knew one of the owners of the bar, who graciously bought us our drinks for the rest of the evening. Much dancing, singing and good times ensued, including a Cha-cha or two from the Spanish gals! That will bring us to the conclusion of night two... and the conclusion of this post. I have a lot more to write, but it might get too boring to throw it all into one post. Thus, I shall begin another. HERE GOES!

(To Be Continued..)

HALLOWEEN and a ton of other things!

Okay, let me begin by saying Halloween virtually does not exist in China. Now, imagine you are one of six American's in a sea of Chinese people who want to know ANYTHING about this somewhat silly holiday everyone over in the U.S. of A. celebrates on October 31st. Ready, set, go. That's what our life was for the past two weeks.

But it went surprisingly well! I took this past week as an opportunity to flex my creative Halloween muscles, that I work out so happily every year. I managed to don a new costume every day this past week in an attempt to educate a few people on how ridiculous or typical it is for the American community to dress up as things that frighten or makes us laugh on Halloween. I also wore my costumes to class, to show the kids. They ate it up. Day 1, I was a Basketball Player (everyone in china is obsessed with the NBA.. notably the Houston Rockets due to Yao Ming being their star player), day 2 I was a pirate (that actually took some explaining, but I managed to stumble upon the phrase 'Captain Jack Sparrow!' to explain. Anything commercial helps explain the American experience around here, I've noticed) day 3 I made a skeleton mask, and day 4 I had off. At school, and in my classes, I celebrated Halloween in a few different ways. I managed to find copies of 'The Monster Mash', 'Toccata and Fugue in G' (that creepy organ blasting, vampire-y song), 'Thriller', and half of the soundtrack from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' that I played throughout class as background music. I explained 'Trick or Treat' quite carefully - grabbed a costume and a bag - and went from student to student asking for a Trick or Treat quite politely! I was responded to by laughter or a pen/book/piece of fruit getting tossed into my trick or treating bag. Hilarious. From there, I went on to draw pictures of Zombies, Vampires, Skeletons, Pumpkins (and explaining a pumpkin's journey from Pumpkin proper to Jack-o-Lantern, of course), Ghosts, Goblins, Witches and Mummies. I even managed to explain the idea of Frankenstein's monster. Don't ask how. From there, I had my eager students grab a piece of paper and frantically draw themselves a little Halloween Mask so everyone could have a shot at the holiday! If they could wear the mask correctly and manage to eek out 'Trick or Treat?' (which sounded much more like 'Tricko'tick!') I'd reward them with putting their hand into my magic Hurley Backpack full of chinese candy (treats!) and rocks/paper spiders/instructions to say difficult words (tricks!). They got a kick out of it, and so did I!! However, for the rest of the week whenever I saw any of my students in passing they would swarm me yelling 'TRICKO'TICK, TRICKO'TICK, RAI-KEE!". Oh, yes, they call me Rai-kee. It's easier to say than Ricky, I suppose. I find it rather endearing. Love that kids.

Anywho, come Friday the 31st - Halloween! - I had no classes until the afternoon. So I decided to go and help Neha run her 'English Salon' for her Kindergarten babies that day. It included teaching a few grades of little kids some spooky halloween English words, making adoreable little masks, and then parading the kids throughout the school from grade to grade as a unit - getting to each classroom and screaming TRICKORTREAT! at the top of their lungs, for a little piece of candy. It was unbelieveably cute. The funny thing is, the Kindergarteners (much like ours over in America) learn everything through repetition and sound. Therefore, when taught 'Trick or Treat' will inevitably get them candy - they simply repeat the phrase over and over until they get said candy. It was a riot. Oh, and I dressed up for that too.

After the Salon and an afternoon class, we began to plot and plan for Saturday night - our big Halloween party. As it seems, it is tradition for the Foreign teachers at Tongliao #1 to plan parties periodically throughout the year for holidays and events, while inviting the teachers we work with, and their families. Hearing that made me ecstatic. I love meeting people, and I love parties! What a killer combo! So anyway, my mother, God bless her, sent us a package FULL of halloween decorations for us to spread generously throughout our apartment, and we did! We managed to grab a bunch of party snacks (and beer, of course) for the party.. and even put together a little 'Haunted House' in a room we don't use, for the children of teachers to go into to scare 'em a bit on Halloween! We did the traditional 'bowls of guts, eyeballs and brains' made by noodles, grapes and other gross stuff, respectively. It was a big success. Oddly enough, flip cup and 7, 11, doubles was a hue hit with the little kids too. All played with water, of course. The party was VERY well attended, and turned out to be a huge hit with everyone who made it. I think we had a pretty good time, too. I dressed up as a Professional Ping-Pong player. I think it was appropriate.

So that was more or less our Halloween experience in China. It was just as good.. maybe even better than many Halloween's in the past. God I'm happy to be out here. Oh, and Sunday night Michael and I got invited to go to a 'Guys night' with David, Mr. Zheng (our boss), Steven (administrative assistant at school), and Sam (one of our drivers) at a traditional Mongolian restaurant. We went. We drank Bai-jiu. We had a blast. Then Mike and I woke up the next morning and thought we were dying. Mongolian food is great goin' down, but once it's inside you.. you're in trouble. I'll leave it at that. Either way - it was a night to sketch down into the records books, for sure.

OH! And one last thing. Sorry for making this such a ridiculously long post. I've been shirking my posting duties, and desperately need to make up for it. We made our way, this past weekend, to a park in the middle of Tongliao that was actually quite beautiful. It's nothing like parks in the states, though. In the middle of the park was a free zoo (which was extremely depressing. It was in a horrible state, and the animals seemed emaciated and cooped up. I will probably return to this thought and belabor it at some point.. but this post is getting long as it is), and also a small carnival complete with bumper cars, a haunted house, and a giant Ferris Wheel! We actually braved the rickety Ferris Wheel to get a wonderful view of the city from up high, then strolled into the haunted house thinking 'how scary could a Chinese haunted house be?? Pleeease.' Well let me tell ya. It was FRIGGIN horrifying. The pictures don't do it justice, trust me. Near the park is a quaint little pond that you can paddle around it (although it's getting pretty cold around here) as well as a Buddhist temple right outside of it. I want to visit it to see what it is like, never being in one, but perhaps I'll go another day.

Other Updates:
- New gym in town. We all signed up. Only 999 yuan for the whole year. Good deal. Can't wait to use it.
- David's Birthday is TOMORROW! (November 7). We all pitched in and bought him a killer gift, hope he likes it. Dinner at 'The Big Hot Pot Place' tomorrow night!
- Honey's Birthday is 7 days later! BIG THINGS HAPPENIN'.
- We just bought train tickets to Beijing for Saturday. We'll be travelin' down there and getting into the city around 7pm. From there we may stay in Beijing for a few days, or head down to Xi'an to see the sights. We have a short holiday (although Meg and Christina can't come.. they have different schedules. Bummer) and we want to take advantage of it! I'll let ya know how it goes, to be sure.
- I successfully explained the full plot of Romeo and Juliet to my high school class yesterday. It was nuts.
- We started Chinese classes with Judy (a Primary school teacher who ROCKS) last week! It's slow goin', but a hoot. Wo ai ni, baba, mama, meimei!!
- I MISS EVERYONE. SEND ME EMAILS OR MESSAGES!!!