Xi'an

Alright so I've arrived in Xi'an, I am very tired and make it to a bed some how. the next morning we wake up and get on the bus, it's about this time that my friend informs me that my lips are not burnt because it looks wrong. I don't have my notes on what happened in Xi'an with me so i'll tell you the high points. we visited the Wild goose pagoda - it was fabulous we saw some amazing statues and paintings later that night we return to the hotel, i'm given a Benedryl of some kind and by night my lips are almost the right size! yay! The next day is a blur of activities, I'll have to come back and fill in the details, but that night is extremely memorable. we went to the bazaar near the Muslim sector. it was little narrow passages lined with stalls, you could find anything there, cloths, food, nick-nacks, electronics, anything!!! at the end of the passages we found the entrance to the Mosque, after obtaining a ticket we entered, it was near dust, we saw the men praying and there were birds all around, and they seemed to serenade the area, it was almost impossible to imagin you were in the middle of a busy city surrounded by people selling, buying, and generally living their hectic lives. we met a young boy who had missed evening prayer because he was late arriving. we spoke with him about the statues and he explained a lot to us, all in Chinese, we were lucky to be with Dr. Renolds, or Renda as the Chinese call him, because he is a very fluent speaker. in the end we gave him a crisp American dollar because he was interested in it, I'm not certain how we got onto that topic, i couldn't follow the conversation exactly. from here we went out to the Muslim sector and found somewhere to eat. we found this little shop where you gathered as many skewers of whatever that you wanted and they brought out boiling water that was on a burner so it remained hot. after you cooked it and were finished eating the waiter came and counted the skweres. to feed five of us it cost about 12 US dollars, including drinks! As we left the store we wondered around a little more and decided to go home, I was being a bit of a girl and wanted to go to bed. Unfortunately we spent the next 2 hour wondering the streets of Xi'an lost, we were glad to have a native speaker or it may have taken even longer to eventually find our way back. one more half day left in Xi'an we went to the city wall (this may have been the day before, again I need my notes) on the wall we got to ride bikes all the way around, or the sissy's rode in the electric car. Me and Charlotte rode a tandem bike, that was amazing!!! although Patrick overtook us and beat us back to the starting point. i can't remember how far around we went just that we did the entire circuit and it was really hot! Alright back to the hotel pick up our bags back on the bus and to the train station we're off to Zhengzhou University!