Xi'an/西安

Matthew Archer, I'm dedicating this post to you since you've been harassing me about it all week. :)

My parents arrived in China on Monday and spent a few days in Beijing catching up with Pong and her family and then I met them in Xi'an on Thursday for my May Day/International Labor Day holiday.

I've been to Xi'an once before, last summer with the Flagship crew and we all absolutely loved it, so it's no surprise that I still love it. I don't know if my parents really understand how much I love this city, especially because they seem to think it's pretty run of the mill. I don't get how they think that, especially when you walk out of your hotel, you see this:

















Friday was our first full day in the city and we went to see Xi'an's biggest claim to fame, the Terracotta Warriors!



















The really cool part about seeing these again was that the farmer who discovered them was at the gift shop, signing books they were selling! He wouldn't take any pictures, but I bought a book and had him sign it. He was pretty baller, not gonna lie.

The Terracotta Warriors took almost all day, so we didn't do much else on Friday. Mom and I went to Subway to grab dinner--one awesome thing about Subway is that no matter where in the world you are, it still smells like Subway...aka America.

Oh and how to know your ancestors were Irish? You sunburn when you walk outside for an hour. Yep. 

On Saturday, we decided to venture over to the Muslim market, which is behind the hotel where we stayed last summer.  The Muslim market is definitely a unique experience; people are everywhere, the air smells like spices and cooking meat, and cars and motorbikes are zipping through streets that are really too narrow for them and honking like mad.

















There's tons of food for sale:





















And some things that made me want to vomit.

















Bargaining in China is an incredibly fun experience (for me, anyway) and the seller attracts your attention like this: "Herro! Buy t-shirt? Watch? Bag? Give good price for you! Good discount!" And so on and so forth. When I bargain, I feel so good about my Chinese, because the shopkeepers always tell me my Chinese is so so good, they must give me a better price (total lie, but whatever, I'll take it). So Mom and I loaded up on gifts for people and some really pretty decorations for my room in my apartment.

On Sunday, Mom and I left Dad to his own devices (scouring the Internet for news--using my Mac...and now one of my Top Sites is The Lonely Conservative. Thanks Dad.) and went to see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, or 大雁塔.  It's a very very old temple built by Buddhist monks in the year 652 and it's gorgeous, but unfortunately, my camera's memory card was pitching a temper tantrum and so while I do have pictures, they're stuck on my camera until I get the connector to my computer.

Anyway, now we're back in Nanjing and back to the normal routine. Except while I was in Xi'an, Nanjing apparently skipped spring and went straight to summer because it's HOT.

Good luck to all the Ole Miss crew taking finals this week! And if you're already out on summer break, I envy you.