We left the hotel at Beijing today at 6am. It was very early so good thing I had a lot of rest the night before. We took the bus to the train station. At any crowded place where you have to wait in line, the older people here are impatient and don’t want to wait in line. They just cut everyone and that’s something that is not seen as okay in the states. Since we do not know the culture well there’s nothing we can really do about it.

We took the high speed train to Xi’an and it was pretty cool because it went up to 185 miles per hour, maybe even faster but I was asleep for the most part. It was as if we were in an airplane because my ears were popping. I slept through the 4 and 1/2 hour ride. I did wake up to eat and then went right back to sleep.

Right after we arrived in Xi’an, We discovered that it’s a lot hotter and more humid than Beijing. No one really expected it so we were suffering. We got to the hotel, checked in but had to meet again 1 hour later. We went to the drum tower took cool pictures and a family pulled my hair. I was just walking and one of the guys on this trip was behind me so when I felt the pull I turned around thinking it was him and was about to throw hands. It was a family and they were saying something in Chinese and I obviously did not understand a word so I just walked away. Other than that, the drum tower was cool. It, and the bell tower, was previously used as a way to tell time.

We then had dinner, which was amazing. We had like 16 different types of dumplings. It was so fascinating because there were black dumplings, green dumplings, duck dumplings, cheese dumplings, and so much more. This was the best dinner I had so far.

Finally, we walked down the Muslim Street. The owners of all the stores are Muslim and they sold street food. There were lots of lights and it was very busy. Bicycles and motorbikes filled the streets and they didn’t care about running people over. It was crazy.

After the organized activities, 10 of us chilled in the hotel and then went out to explore. The whole city was pretty much lit (the drum tower especially). Figuratively and literally. We ended up walking for 2 and a half hours and I ended up going to bed late but it’s okay. I’ll just nap on the bus next time.

Also, the Wi-Fi in Xi’an is pretty bad and slow so uploading these blogs will take a while. I hope my many fans can be patient…jk.