Xian

     The first weekend in November we went on a field trip to Xian.  We left on Halloween and took an overnight train to Xian.  It was about a 16 or 17 hour train ride but we had sleepers so it wasn't bad at all.  We arrived in Xian Thursday around noon and we checked into the hotel and then went to go ride bikes along the city wall.  It was really fun but the wall was extremely bumpy so it was kind of difficult.  We had orientation that night because some people decided to get credit for the field study.  UGA won't give me credit for it so I audited the trip.  USAC has 2 programs in China, one in Chengdu and the other is in Shanghai.  For the Xian trip the Chengdu and Shanghai students were together so it was kind of cool to meet people from the Shanghai study abroad group.

     On Friday, we got up early and did a lot of sightseeing.  The most exciting thing of course was seeing the terracotta warriors.  There were 3 rooms full of the terracotta warriors.  Next we did a lot more sightseeing.  We saw some temples and other things that I honestly can't remember.  Nothing else was all that exciting.  That night we had a jiaozi (dumpling) banquet and saw a show.  We were supposed to eat before the show and we were all starving but apparently they decided to feed us after the show.  The show was ok but nothing special.  I just really wanted it to be over so we could eat.  After we got back from our tour, a bunch of us went to the Muslim market to go shopping.  They had a bunch of cool food to try and there was a big market where you can bargain and buy souvenirs.  I was really excited about this because sadly there is nowhere to bargain and buy a bunch of souvenirs in Chengdu.  

    The next day we drove out of Xian and visited a village and cave dwellings.  We ate lunch there and walked around and I honestly thought it was kind of a waste of time.  I would rather have had the day to explore Xian on my own but that's ok.  I'm just not a big fan of tours usually.  Anyway, that night we were finished early and we were free to get dinner on our own so a bunch of us went back to the Muslim street because it was awesome.  We ate dinner there and shopped a lot more.  We had to leave the next day at noon to catch our train back to Chengdu.  We got into Chengdu Monday morning at 5 am and they expected us to be in class at 9 am.  Fortunately, my class is awesome and everyone decided together not to go so there couldn't be class.  I felt pretty sick when we got back so I was glad everyone decided to skip class.  I had to teach Monday afternoon but at least I was able to get some sleep before I had to teach.  I really liked Xian though.  It's definitely somewhere I would like to go back to and spend more time.