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.