life in china: xi'an

My parents came back to Zhongshan to pick me up for one more short trip before they headed back to the good ole US of A.

They came on Friday to watch me teach some of my classes and then we rushed to the airport to barely make our flight. Seems like a pattern haha.

We made it to Xi'an in the late afternoon so we checked into the hotel. The hotel had this amazing assortment of food for happy hour so we ate there and then headed to the Muslim Markets. The market was in this back alley with a ton of shops. It was interesting because it was a mix of Chinese culture and Muslim culture. The people in Xi'an look different than anywhere else I've been in China. Obviously they still look Asian but they look less Asian if that makes sense. Anyway at the market my mom found the frogs that were carved out of wood that have some stick you stroke across the back and they sound like bullfrogs. She thought they were the coolest and bought five. In one of the stores they had antique foot binding shoes. That was unnerving to see just how tiny they must have bound the women's feet to fit in those shoes. Some of the shoes were glass too. How incredibly uncomfortable.

The next morning we went to see the Terracotta Warriors. It was so cool to see something I'd 'studied' in fourth grade. I thought it was going to be bigger but nonetheless still cool. Its just this huge pit full of warriors. I knew that all their faces were different but I didn't realize there were different kinds of soldiers in the pit such as generals, archers, etc. We also saw this factory where they make replica warriors.

We went to the Goose Pagoda after. Our tour guide kept trying to say kindness but she kept saying Cantonese so we were rather confused with her description of why the Pagoda was built.

On Sunday we biked 10 miles around the ancient city wall. That was my favorite thing in Xi'an. Needless to say the next day my booty was really sore. We saw the drum tower and bell tower after and popped into the Great Mosque before we had to run to the hotel, pack up, and speed to the airport. Once again we almost missed our flight. As if we weren't already in a hurry, the taxi driver drove in the opposite direction to switch drivers??? We literally ran through the airport with all of our checked bags which shockingly made it through security. We made our flight because it got delayed thank goodness.

Overall an awesome time with my parents in China!! They will be missed. So will the hotels I can't afford and the food that was so could I could dream about it. Thanks for coming to visit!! See you in a quick 6 weeks! I have my list of foods to eat all ready!!