Today we went to the children’s village as a service learning experience. The childrens village houses kids from age 3-20 whose parents are in jail and there is no one to look after them. It’s funded by the government and donations from the public. The asia insititute, the organization that is hosting our study abroad group, donated some goods too.
We watched a film that they made and then live performances by the kids. Of course I could not understand any of it but they were really cute. After, the girls were supposed to do arts and crafts with the little girls and the guys do basketball. Unfortunately, the girls of the children’s village couldn’t do the activity so we either played basketball with the guys or just hung out. There were university students who also came to visit the children’s village. They practiced their English with us and also asked to take pictures. They were also cute. For lunch, we are with the children in their dining hall/cafeteria and it was a simple but delicious meal.

Next, we visited the Greater Wide Goose Pagoda. By this time I was very tired so I did not take many pictures. We walked around while our tour guide, Cindy, gave us information on the history of the pagoda. We also saw some Buddhist temples and had the opportunity to rub the happy Buddha’s belly for good fortune. We also went to an art gallery, kind of, were we saw calligraphy and paintings of monks. We were taught about ancient Chinese characters and modern Chinese characters. For 50 yuan he gave us Calligraphys of our choice. I got one that says Happiness for my mom for mothers day. After, I bought ice cream and ramen, so so good.

Finally, we went back to the hotel and I took a short nap. After, I went out with friends for dinner and we got pizza hut. They had so much more of a selection than ones in the US and they were so much fancier and cuter. I got paella. Like they had seafood paella at pizza hut, wow.

Today was a long day but I had a lot of fun. Xi’an is cool.