October 7th

Today is a sad day. It's my last day in Xian. I'll miss this city very much. I'll miss my new family-everysingle one of them. My caring and cute family, and I'll miss my lao yi fu's little girl giggle laugh. I've spent the day watching a movie, packing, and spending time with my family, which means playing ping pong and eating grapes and pomegranates.
This will probabally be my last post in a while since tomorrow I go to beijing. I don't think I will have interenet reception there. But I do know that we will be in a good hotel! It look really pretty. It's called Jing Guo Qian Men Hotel. Look it up if you want it looks great.
Our intinerary for Beijing is as follows:
Oct 8- Arrive in Bejing at 12:55. Check in at hotel, visit the Bird's Nest, National Swimming Center, and the Summer Palace. Then have dinner.
Oct 9- Visit the Great Wall, have lunch in a local restaurant. Then visit Sacred Way, Ming Tombs. Peking Duck for dinner!
Oct 10- Visit Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Lunch, Beijing Hutong, Beihai Park, Maijing's Silk Street, then Dinner.
Oct 11- Visit to Temple of Heaven, Lunch. Then go home. Airplane leaves at 3:45 =(((((

October 6th

October 6th was our last day of school in China EVER. I was really sad, but we still managed to have fun. In music class, we learned a song from the beijing opera. Also, we were informed that there are 5 tones in the Chinese musical scale. I thought that was interesting since we have 7.

Afterwards we went to an English class. This class was very unique because they didn't have desks. I'm guessing maybe it was two classes combined because the students were all squishe together. And instead of answering questions about China, we played musical chairs! In chinese, they call it take a seat. We mixed American students and Chinese students, but the American students always won. I came in third for one game. It was great fun.

In Chinese class we watched a movie called Raise the Red Lantern. It's a chinese movie but it had English subtitiles. I thought it was very interesting. We only saw the first half, but then today I finished the movie on my own. I found the ending very depressing. The link to the movie if you have 124 spare minutes is http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_xMTMxNjQ4NzY=.html

It is set in a very famous ancient house that was used by rich people in ancient times. I thought that the music in the movie was very good. The movie is about a 19 year old woman who is a student at college in the tang dynasty maybe for 6 months until her father dies. Then she has to come home and her mother gets her to marry a rich man. Problem is, the man already has 3 wives, so she will be the 4th. The plot revolves around all the drama of the four women trying to get the master to spend the night with him and they end up doing some pretty vicious things to each other, It's not a fast paced movie but I found it very interesting. I just didn't like the ending.

At cooking class we learned how to make chicken wings in a good sauce that kind of tastes like spaghetti'os. It was delicious.

Then instead of going out to Peking duck our plans changed a little and we found out that there was a farewell dinner planned for us. So we went out to a hotpot restaurant and everyone that was involved with the exchange program came. It was really fun. The tables had hotpot but around the pot there was a griddle so we could fry food too. It was really cool. And instead of having our food ordered for us there was a buffet of all the stuff we could get. Bethnay had fish head. Also I saw what a fresh uncooked shrimp really looks like for the first time. And we had soybean icecream. It's actually pretty good. The president and Vice President were there, and they made speeches. So did Mr.Nelson, and he gave the school a gift of a picture of all the students involved in the program and he had that framed with all of our signatures. Dinner was great fun and it was probabally one of my favorite restaurants.

October 5th

Today I slept in and learned some chinese. Then at 4 My mom and I went out shopping with an uncle. It was an hour drive and we were still in downtown Xian. I got some legwarmers, a scarf, and a sweater. I had funlooking at all the street food too. They have all kinds of things for sale, and theres little one person stand selling one type of food like hotdogs, noodles, tofu, cantaloupe on a stick, and these mountain berry things that are like crabapples and grapes coated in sugar on a stick.

Also I got to see what a Chinese hospital looks like. I was told it was the best one in Shaanxi province. We went in to the front and it looked kind of bland, with many floors.

Right when we were about to go to the bus station, my mom saw a flower stand and all of a sudden had an urge to buy me flowers. I told her there was no need but she wouldn't listen to me. So, I was given a huge bouqet of flowers to haul around Xian and the bus. It was funny watching people's faces as I carried a big bouget of flowers. Later LIsa told me that my mom wanted to make up for not getting me flowers the first night. I thought that was really cute.

Today was a really fun day. Tomorrow ends my national day holiday and I go to school. After school some of the American students and our hosts are going out to get Peking duck. We're going to wear our new Chinese dresses. I'm pretty excited.

October 4th

On October 4th I got to stay home and work on homework. It was a fun day reading books, learning chinese, writing a us history essay, and attempting physics. Also a random lady came in to the apartment and was on the computer for 5 hours straight. I later learned that she's an aunt and that she's going to make a picture book of my stay in china. I'm super excited to see the finished result.
Also later at night I went to the grocery store with my mom. My shampoo had been thrown away so the shower that night was pretty unpleasant. So we went to the grocery store for shampoo. I got some panteen prov for 17 yuan although it was the small bottle. Thats about 3 dollars. I got candy to bring home too. The only problem will be trying not to eat it.

October 3rd

On October 3rd I slept in very lat because I was exhausted after the mountain. Lisa had to go to school so I went out to lunch with Lisa's mother, father, lao yi fu, lao yi, uncle and some neighbors. We went to a village about an hour out of the center of Xian. It wasn't a typical restaurant but more like a home with a bunch of people eating food there. The food was delicious. Also, just to make an observation, everyone smokes here. They jsut do. Even if a sign says no smoking they will anyway. I've probabally been exposed to more smoke here than i have in my whole lifetime.

After dinner we went to our nieighbors other home. I was told it was a "big house". It turned out to be a new townhouse. It was very clean and the view on the second floor was beautiful. But it wasn't exactly an American's idea of a big house. I guess it just goes to show how everyone here lives in apartments that aren't huge. We stayed at the townhouse for a while and just relaxed. I talked with Lisa's uncle and friend. I think it's his girlfriend though although they haven't told anyone for sure. I talked with the uncle's friend, and she had very good english. I later discovered that it was because she spent 2 years studying in England. I learned about a new type of candy that's kind of like a butterfinger. And we had many pomegranates. I love pomegranates now.

Then we came back home in a car designed for 5 people but with 4 people squeezed in the back. It was an interesting experience. We got grapes too at a vineyard. The grapes here are delcious. They're softer and less crunchy than your typical American grape, and you peel the skin off before eating them.

When we got home I had a little bit of time to relax until the phone rang. Then my mother and lao yi fu were trying to explain in chinese and broken english how i was going to a party. I was really confused until Lisa called and said we were going over to Harven's apartment for dinner. I got ready in 2 minutes and was whisked out the door. When we arrived at Harven's apartment I noticed how it was bigger than most apartments here in China. It had 2 floors, although the 2nd floor was smaller and had 2 rooms and a door to an amazing balcony that overlooks the city. They also had a maid that cooks food for them, It makes sense since Harven's parents both work until late. The people that were at this dinner were Harven, his Mother, Jack(who's living there with Harven for the month), Mr.Nelson and his host mom, Mrs.Letnauchyn and her host mom, Lisa, and I. The dinner was great we had fried dumplings, shrimp, eggplant, and other delicious food. Afterwards people played Mah Jong while Mrs.Letnauchyn took a nap in the couch and Lisa and Harven studied upstairs. We stayed there until 10 at night. It was a great night and a fantastic oppurtunity to see another Chinese apartment.

cui hua mountain

Today we went to a mountain. It was great. We took a car up to the top of the mountain- 7 km( around 4 miles) and then there was a lake at the very top. And caves too. It was beautiful! We first went to the cave which turned out to be three cave- the wind cave, the sky cave, and the ice cave. We never exactly found the ice cave but the other 2 caves were pretty spectacular. Then we went paddle boating in the lake. Lisa's father said that it was formed a long time ago from an earthquake. He didn't come to the top with us though because he was tired from the night before when he and Lisa's uncle stayed up to talk so he and Lisa's uncle slept in the car while waiting for us. They don't get to see each other very often so they chose last night to stay up all night and talk. This week is National Holiday week so most people don't have work. The national holiday was yesterday on october 1 so Lisa had to go back to school tomorrow. The paddle boating was pretty fun we had a boat shaped like a car and the lake was very beautiful. There were many people at the top and i think there was a fair like thing going on. There were aslso many people seeling fruit like kiwi and mountain berries which is like crabapples only edible. Also they sold these peach shaped fruits that taste like the sweet version of a tomato.

We hiked down the mountain which was shorter than the way up. It took about 30 minutes and it was fun. There were many waterfalls and scenic areas so I couldn't complain. When we got back down we met Lisa's Dad and Uncle and got in the car. I though we were going home but suprise we were going to go to dinner and meet LIsa's aunt and grandmother and great aunty. Let me just note here that Lisa has billions of relatives. You wouldn't expect it because of the one child policy but this I guess was before this because LIsa' was explaining how Lisa's grandmother had 8 children and each of those children had at least 4 children. And then there's LIsa's mom's side with a lot of relatives too. I probabally didn't meet half of Lisa's relatives. But the ones I did meet were nice. Lisa's dad and uncle went back to their hometown and Lisa's mom, Lisa, and I went to dinner with LIsa's grandmother, great aunt, aunt, and cousin. Before this we waited for them becausde they live in a military neighborhood because i think the dad works for the military. Well they wouldn't let me in because I was a foreigner and they didn't want me learning any secrets. Paranoid much? and then when we wanted to take a building in front of where the Dad works the guard wouldn't let us. That's not strict at all. But dinner was great. We had sweet and sour pork, fish, corn, rice, soup, and a bunch of other dishes that I don't know the name of. The 9 year old cousin practiced his English with me encouraged by his mother who wanted him to talk with me as much as possible. The cousin was really cute and he is really good at English. He's very smart too LIsa says, which I found pretty obvious. All of Lisa's relatives tonight were very nice and although the grandmother and great aunt couldn't speak English, we communicated through sign language, my broken chinese, and LIsa.

After dinner we said goodbye to the cousin, the aunt, the grandmother and the great aunt and took a taxi home.

So now here I am excited to almost get to sleep. Tomorrow I can sleep until 11 and then we're going somewhere "special" for a lunch and we're going to see a "big house". I guess I'll discover more tomorrow.

Daytrip to Lisa's hometown- Yan Liang

Today we went to LIsa's hometown. It took about 2 hours to get there when its usually 1 hour because we went the wrong way and the traffic was bad. When we got there we went to a pottery village whose name starts with an f i think its fuping. We were planning on making something but then there was no open pottery wheel so we couldn't. While asking for directions to the exhibits, we passed upon a wedding. Me and Lisa were excited to see the bride, and then Lisa's mom did the unthinkable- asked for a picture with me. It was kinda embaressing because the bride was in a rush to somewhere. Oh well I got a nice picture. Then we saw the pottery exhibits which was pretty cool because it's an international village so each building had a different country, so we saw spain, france, australia, america, and china. I'd say the china art had the most skill, while all the other art was more abstract. I liked one canadian artist who made a whole bunch of umbrellas and each one had a different design.
Then we went to Lisa's home. It's a little smaller than where I'm staying here in Xian with her Lao yi and Lao yi fu, but it was cozy. It had 2 bedrooms, one living room, a kitchen, toilet, and a small dining room. After I got the full tour, Lisa and I went out to see the town and we met up with her old friend and went to get ice cream at this cheeburger cheeburger-like diner. They had burgers and fries, but they had plenty of icecream and it was cheap too- around 1-2 dollars for a sundae or milkshake. It was great. Lisa'd aunt(her mom's sister) met with us too, and she gave me a really pretty necklace.
Then we went to get pictures taken. It's like that picture booth that you always see in the movie theatre that you get pictures taken with your friends. We each got 8 pictures and we chose different frames for each picture. It was a bunch of fun.
Then we went to do hot pot. It turns out that Lisa's aunt and uncle own a hot pot restaurant so we went there and had a fun meal. There was one big pot in the middle of the table on a stove that boiled the food we put in. So the waitress gave us raw meat and veggies and we cooked them ourselves. Well it was a meal full of new experiences. At first I was nervous that the mini sausages would be different than in America or that the meat would have too much fat on it, but that was nothing compared to the stuff I tried. I dont even know what half the stuff was. One thing looked like thin coral from the ocean. It had little circle spud things on one side. Then I had hard to chew squid, and then squid legs, and finally this green rubbery thing that they said came from the sea. Oh and then this white vegetable that I dont know what it was. And of course mushrooms. Oh yeah and these little bird eggs that I was scared were from a robin instead of a chicken because the shell was brown. But they tasted good. The aunt and uncle had a cute daughter with curly hair which is unusual in china.
After dinner LIsa and I went for a walk and ended up in a huge hotel. It looked very nice, Apparently her uncle got married there. The presidential suite cost 8000 yuan which is around 1000 dollars.
Then we went to see Lisa's uncle's office. Finally we went home. The uncle really liked to speed at one point I didn't know if we were going to survive but we did thankfully. It took half an hour to get to Xian but then we got lost and it took 40 minutes to find the way thanks to another uncle who came and founf us and guided us home. It was quite a miserable experience and now everyone's exhausted.
Today was such a fun day I got to finally meet Lisa's friends, 3 aunts and 4 uncles, and I got to see her home! The ice cream was delicious too =)
Tomorrow depending on if we can get ourselves out of bed we're going to a mountain. I think we're gonna climb it and then go boating in a lake.

2 Day Trip

I won't write much because I'm exhausted but I'll let you know what I did for the past days and then I'll write about it later in more detail. Yesterday we rode on a bus for 6 hours to northern Shaanxi province. We saw the sacred tomb of the first emperor in China, and the Communist center of the revolution in the 1940s.
The area was so beautiful although the city was like Xian. But all around were mountains and the way people lived was interesting. They were all so poor and in the mountains their houses were caves carved into the mountains, like little hobbits.
We stayed at a hotel that's pretty much like American hotels. There were 2 single beds that were harder than American hotels, and the shower had the worst case of mildew that I've ever seen. But the room was very comfy to sleep in and it was a good experience.
Today we drove through many mountains and then we saw the yellow river!!! And a waterfall on the yellow river. It was sooo cool cause I've always heard of the yellow river in history class but actually getting to see it was awesome. I'll put up pictures later when I'm not about to fall asleep. Then we drove for i think 8 hours to end up back in xian at 8 30. Overall the trip was fun but the driving time was miserable.
And I forgot to mention how we stopped in the middle of nowhere near as village cause our bus drivewr was carsick and it was so cool to see a real village filled with poverty where the people depended on selling apples and pears to survive. And the pears were really good too, they're crunchy over here where in America they're soft.
Alright I'm gonna go fall asleep now. Tomorrow I'm going to Lisa's hometown which I think is an hour away.

Our Sunday fieldtrip.

I used to LOVE rainy days. But ever since its been raining for the past 4 days here I'm not so sure anymore. There's puddles everywhere, and we're usually out in the cold rain.
Today we went to Moslem street again to do some more shopping. We had an hour to find whatever we wanted (Kurt I found some knockoff Ipods just for you)
After that we went to McDonalds for lunch, which is pretty similar to the McDonalds we have in America. The french fries tasted really good since i havent had any in a month.
After lunch we were all tires and cold but some wanted to do more shopping. Some stayed in a nearby starbucks while some of us went to another street which mainly had jade, art, and paintbrushes. It was pretty cool because there were som many winding streets and allies that it was so easy to get lost. I met a tea shopkeeper telling me how she and her family were just talking about foreigners, and then Cass and I walked in. She said that Xian is a magical city and she found it ironic.
After we spent time shopping there we went back to starbucks to find everyone else. I've never loved a starbucks so much as i did today. It was warm, dry, and it smelled delicious. I got a cinnamon roll which cost 12 yuan, or 2 bucks. I guess today was western restaurant day or something. We should have wrapped it all up by going to the haagen daaz store.
After that some of us went back to the school while others went to a bookstore. I chose to go back to the school since I can't read chinese anyway, although I guess having one book in Chinese would be fun to have to look at while learning Chinese.
We spent 2 hours doing hw/playing solitaire on the computer and then our host students came to take us home.
So now here I am all dry and warm and happy. Tomorrow we're embarking on a 2 day trip to Northern Shanxii province. Apparently the ride is 6 hours so I'm not looking forward to it.

School on Friday and Today's Fieldtrip

Yesterday we had another normal day at school. We went to Art class where we learned about paper cutting which is a traditional chinese folk art. When you see a finished paper cutting it looks so perfect and easy but in reality when I tried to do it mine looked horrible. I attempted a rooster with many designs cut out in the middle but it didn't go very well. But it was a fun experience. Other people tried other things like hearts, birds, and the teachers did roosters also.

After that we went to Cicily's English class. Cecily was one of the teachers who came to America this year with the Chinese students. It was fun we learned about Chinese holidays and answered questions about America. An interesting comment I heard Toni get was "You should tell the American Government that Tibet belongs to China". I learned that the CHinese National Holiday is October 1, like our 4th of July. It's a big deal here though, students get 5 days vacation although Lisa only gets 3 days off because her school doesn't like giving vacation.

Then we had lunch and went to a DVD store where they had movies for 6 yuan. I got to give some of my gifts away to some friends. Also we cheered on Mr. Nelson while he had 7 ice cream cones. It was quite a feat. We got them from the school cafeteria and somebody else would get them for him but by the 4th purchase of an Ice Cream cone the cafeteria people had caught on and word spread so we would look up at them and they would be staring back at Mr.Nelson cheering him on. It was really amusing and he'd probabally kill me if he knew I put this on here.

After Chinese class, I got to go to Chemistry class with a girl. She didn't seem to concerned about learning, instead she spent the entire class talking to me. On one piece of paper we had fun translating a paragraph into 4 different languages- french, english, chinese, and spanish. She ended up learning how to introduce herself in french and spanish!

After school we all went to the 7th floor to watch some students practice their music. We saw the orchestra which consisted of girls playing a harplike instrument. It's a traditional Chinese instrument and it was beautiful it made me want to learn. Then we saw the band which was similar to an American band only it was smaller- maybe 20 people.

Today we went on a field trip to do some shopping and see an Art Museum. I had already been to the place where we went shopping before with Lisa but it was still fun. The stores are tiny and cheap and there's lots of them. I ended up buying some new shoes for the winter.

An observation I have to make is that people smoke everywhere- in the taxi, in a restaurant, on the streets, in homes, and in stores sometimes. Don't think you can escape, cause you can't.

We ate lunch at a chinese restaurant and had the chinese version of a pizza it was pretty much the same and delicious since I was so hungry. And we had these egg quiche things too that were good too.

After lunch we went to the Art Museum. It was pretty much a cylinder and you went around a circle to see the art, and there were exhibition halls too. The art was pretty, and different from Western art in that it's more ink and prints and less bulky paint. Also, not all the paintings are framed, and the style is different. Overall the art was pretty.

Then we came home. It was raining all day so the traffic was pretty bad. But then Lisa and I went to Starbucks and the Grocery Store. I got a chinese CD that I'm listening to. It's a mix of popular Chinese artists. It's pretty good I like it.

Tomorrow we're going to Moslem street again and the city wall.

FieldTrip to A VIllage

Today we went to a village about an hour away from Xian. It was a new experience. First we saw the old village, which is what you see in pictures of rural China. The houses were made out of mud and corn shucks, and everyhouse had corn bundled up to dry so they could make cornmeal. Everyone was poor. We met the poorest family which was a grandfather and his daughter. They told us how the daughter just lost her husband leaving her with their child who loves to study but since they are so poor it's hard to get her a good education. We gave them some money hoping it would help. Their house had two rooms, one was the bedroom and one was the kitchen. The inside was very dark and the walls were mud and corn shucks. The bed raised on cement and wood.

Afterward we went to the new village which is right across the street and is basically townhouses. It was a very sharp contrast to the old village. We visited a paper cutting shop where the shop keeper did a quick demonstration for us and then she helped us make a very basic design which we found difficult to follow. Then we went to her house which was a restaurant/home. It had two restaurant style tables and then there was a living room and an upstairs with beds and a mahzong table which they were happy to let us use. We had a delicious lunch there and then sat on a couch for an hour and a half. Some played Mahzong or talked.

Afterwards we went to a famous artists home/gallery where we saw all her work. I must say it was beautiful I've found a new favorite style of art. It's called bright colors depicting Chinese life. This woman had some serious painting skill, she did a painting demonstration for us where she painted a rooster and she made it look so easy. That was my favorite part of the day, getting to view all the beautiful paintings.

After that we went back to school. Lisa picked me up, and it was raining today, so it took an hour to find a taxi since all of them were taken, and then another 45 minutes to get home. Let's just say the ride home took longer than the ride to the village. But now here I am in the warmth munching on a pomegranate, which if I haven't noted already they're so cheap here - 50 cents for one!

Tuesday's Field Trip to the Shaanxi Museum and The Wild Goose Pagoda

Yesterday was a fun fieldtrip. First we went to a museum where we learned about the history of the province of Shaanxi. It was really interesting I learned many things and got to learn about the differences between all the different dynasties. For example, in the earlier civilizations used bronze the most. But then in the golden age of China(Tang dynasty) gold and silver were the popular metal.
After the museum we went to lunch at a restaurant. It was a very westernized restaurant- it was a buffet and all the food seemed to be americanized chinese food but it was still amazing food. I heard some people speaking french!
When we finished eating at the restaurant we went to the wild goose pagoda which is pretty much a monastary for Buddhist monks. The main building is the wild goose pagoda which was pretty much a tower that the monks prayed in. I'm not sure where they lived but it might be in the pagoda. I learned that many of the monks who lived there were very rich because of the payments they earned from the government and then they get all the money from the tickets that tourists pay for to visit the pagoda. Also we saw a lovers tree that had two trees intertwined. It was there that we learned the Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet.
According to the story, there was a woman who went to a mens school pretending to be a man because it was in the olden days when women weren't considered as smart as men. But this woman was awfully smart so she wanted to learn. Anyway, I don't know why that part is in the story but then she graduated from the school and one day she is at a lake thinking and she sees a man from her old school and they instantly fall in love. They try to get married but the girl's father won't let her because he wants a richer man to marry his daughter. So then he kills this man and the woman is very sad. She visits his grave and says if you can here me please open your grave up so I can die with you. And then all of a sudden his grave opens up and she jumps in and then the ground closes back up. About ten minutes after, two butterflies were seen flying around the grave together, and the people thought it was the boy and girl flying around together, since they couldn't be together as humans. So nowadays when two butterflies are seen flying together it's the girl and boy flying around together.
Oh and another thing I learned at the monastary is that the Nazis took their symbol from the Buddhist symbol.
After the fieldtrip we came back to the school and Lisa and I slept over at Little Kelly and Kiernan's apartment. It was great fun we went out to eat and had chinese tacos and then we watched a movie.
Today has been so far a normal schoolday. We did P.E where we did Tai Chi and a drum dance. Then we went to another English class. Oh and today there's a American song contest and Bethany, Jack, Ben, and Anna are gonna sing songs.

South Shanxi Province

Today we went to the south of Shanxi province. It was very beautiful, there were mountains everywhere. We were told we were going to a cave, so when we first got out of the bus we saw a bunch of steps and so we thought that this would lead to the cave. Well we climbed the steps, and by steps i don't jsut mean a few easy steps, I mean a wall of steps-200 at the least. So we finished climbing the steps and were like where's the cave? Then we saw a path leading up a hill so we followed that whcih was hard cause it was very tiring. So we reach the end of the trail and look up, and there's like a huge line of steps all along the mountain ridges. And everybody was starting to walk and I'm like oh is this the way to the cave? Ok but I thought cave's were underground or on floor level but definetely not on the top of a mountain. But I decided not to question anything and jsut followed everyone else. And I don't want to just complain so I will admit that it was an excellent workout- at least 20 minutes of full out stair climbing. And all this while looking at the beautiful mountain ridges what more could you ask for? Well I can't even explain these steps with words so I hope a picture will suffice, although this picture doesn't even capture all the steps. Let's just say by the time I got to the top I was proud of it. And the view was amazing! We were at the peak of a mountain and we could look down and see the town and this military training camp in the valley. And so I look around the top of the mountain and start to wonder where the cave is- until the news reaches me that we had only climbed the mountain for the view. I was pretty upset. Although I really did enjoy the workout. Well we came down a different way than we went up somehow and we went past a river and mini lake that we waded in which felt really refreshing. And the trail that we came out on winded around a river until we came into the town. At the town we hopped back into the bus and went to a Chinese medicine factory, but we only saw the museum. I can't say I understod alot but I did catch that there were many influential Chinese scientist who found new herbs that served as medicine. And then along the wall there were many real herbs plastered against the wall with their name next to it. It was pretty nifty.
After this we went to lunch. Lunch was interesting. I guess South Shanxi province likes spicy food, and the majority of the dishes were spicy. I guess I should have known since there was a hot pepper garden growing right in front of the restaurant. But I'm getting used to spicy food and I thought some of the dishes were very tasty. Yet again they gave us lots of coke, and we were in a seperate private eating room than everyone else so it was just the American students in one room. Well this one guy kept coming in with a teapot that he said had wine in it. There were tiny teaspoon size glasses on our tables that he poured the wine in and he encouraged us to drink it. Well the smell alone persuaded me to decide against it, but I can't even explain how hilarious this guy's exspression was when he was trying to get us to try it. They don't have a drinking age CHina so it seems like drinking is a more casual thing that they don't make a big deal about.
After lunch we went to the cave finally! We had to climb a whole bunch of steps that I thought would never end again but it was worth it. The cave was pretty much naturally air conditioned so it felt really nice. The view was stunning this cave was really awesome. It took about 30 minutes to go through and it was really fun. There was this one part called the labyrinth which had a bunch of steps and I'm guessing this meant it was a maze. Well it was interesting finding our way through it because we never knew if we were going the right way. But then we finally found the way out. I was sad to leave because I really liked the cave but then there were these Buddhist monks giving us incence and thenI turn around and see a huge golden Buddha against the wall. Well they told us to make a wish and then put our incence in this sand pit. It was interesting. Then we waited another 30 minutes for the CHinese students who had stayed with the tour guide and were still somehow in the cave listening to the guide tell them interesting things in Chinese. I really need to learn Chinese I'm missing out on alot.
Then we made the 2 hour ride back to Xian where we all went out to dinner. They call it hotpots what we did. We all got our own little pot full of boiling water and there were heat pads on the table for every seat. So the water poiled on the heat pad and then they came out with a bunch of stuff to put in our pots like raw meat, noodles, and different chinese vegetables. It was really fun and a new experience. I forgot to take a picture though I'm pretty upset.
Tomorrow I have school and then on tuesday night i found out that me and Lisa are sleeping over at little Kelly and Kiernan's home which I'm excited about since they never seem to have sleepovers