July 15, 2007, sometime in the evening, somewhere over a Northern latitude, on the plane back to Chicago

Terra Cotta Soldiers 2, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Oh, on the plane, we’re returning to 美国! We spent the last one and a half days in Xi’an, which was awesome – maybe it was just because it was a chance of scenery from Dalian? We all really liked it – there was a cool, chillaxed vibe to it, despite how touristy it is. It also – and I realize what a dumb/ignorant thing this is to say – but the city seemed more “Chinese” than Dalian did – probably because Xi’an is such a historical city, and Dalian has only been something more than a fishing village for one hundred years. Anyway, I really dug Xi’an, and I’m slightly (slightly!) bummed that we didn’t get to actually study there, as it was our original plan to study there.

Our first day in Xi’an, we went to the city wall. Our tour guide was this awesome dude named Richard – and he told us that he was the person who stood with the host of “the Amazing Race” at the end of the Xi’an leg of the show a few years back. I had an “Ohmygod, are you serious?!” moment, because I remember watching that episode (at the height of my Amazing Race obsession) though I only remembered that the contestants had to go to the Terracotta soldiers. Anyway, so on our first day, we went to the Xi’an city wall – very cool. The group wanted to go this Feng Shui museum on the wall. It seemed pretty boring though, almost as soon as we got in. Chris and I dipped, and we rented bikes to ride along the wall. It was well worth the 20 yuan. The wall, though it has been repaved and rebuilt in many sections, still has some extreme potholes in its paving stones. Not to mention that the rental bikes were fairly rickety – let’s just say my bum and my bits were slightly achy afterward. It was so much fun though to ride among the tourists and crazy holes. I’m sort of surprised I didn’t sustain any major injuries, I am definitely now on “Team Ride a Bike at a Famous Sight” – riding the bikes at Versailles last year was definitely one of my favorite things I did in Paris.

So the second day we went to the Terracotta soldiers. I wasn’t disappointed – I was sort of afraid I might be underwhelmed, because the warriors have been on my “top ten sights I want to see in my life” for years. I’ve actually never compiled such a list, maybe I should do it now?

1. the Three Gorges Dam
2. the California redwoods
3. Brazil. During Carnivale.
4. Uluru (? Ayer’s Rock in Australia)
5. a sloth in some tropical rainforest
6. a German brewery
7. at a World Cup game, when either Brazil, Italy, or England is playing
8. Norway. Not sure what, exactly.
9. a real iceberg, before they all melt
10. the Vatican. Don’t care much for religion, but I do find most religious architecture in Europe to be pretty awe-inspiring

That was actually harder to write than I thought.

Anywho, the terracotta soldiers were super awesome – I had been under the impression that when it was discovered, most of the soldiers were intact. As it turns out, all were pretty smashed up (because of the farmer’s rebellion after the emperor died, and no one was around to take care of the tombs), so to see all the soldiers – which were painstakingly glued back together – in the pits was pretty breath taking. The three pits are still being excavated (thirty years after their discovery) and soldiers are still being put back together. I really enjoyed seeing them – definitely up there with the Great Wall (though I didn’t drink a beer at the terracotta soldiers!).

After that we went to see the summer palace in Xi’an, which was at the bottom of a pretty hill, and it had some cool looking hot springs. We also finished some shopping at the Muslim market (hello cute cell phone charms!).

Jade, Jon, Kellie, Chris and I ended up going to the KTV (karaoke) place down the street from our hotel a few hours after our dinner (“it’s our last night in China! We haven’t tried karaoke yet!”). It was a lot more fun than I expected. We sang some pretty ridiculous songs – like “Imagine”, “Living on a Prayer”, and “Lucky Be a Lady”. Or was it “The Lady is a Tramp”…? After that we went to the 24 hour McDonalds.

I think it’s like 10 pm or so – haven’t looked at a watch for a while. I’m not very sleepy, and anyway I’m shit at sleeping on planes.

United Airlines has some XM radio playlists you can listen to. I’ve been rocking out to the stations – I didn’t realize how much I missed listening to music. It’s been nice to have a respite from my laptop, cellphone, and iPod, but to be honest, I’m looking forward to getting back to a lot of my spoiled American creature comforts.