Xi'an

Yesterday was our travel day; we took a 13 hour overnight train from Beijing to Xi'an. Our train had 6 bunks per cabin, and was open so everyone just congregated between the bunks and played card games and talked. I practiced Spanish with the Colombians and David talked about movies with the English guys. They turned off the lights at 10 and people used headlamps and flashlights until we finished playing games around 11. We woke up around 7am and David got a very exciting phone call. He got hired as a sales coordinator for ESPN! His dream job! We are both so excited and thankful for all the support and congratulations from our friends and family. :)

This morning we arrived at our hostel around 10am in Xi'an. Long ago it was the fabled beginning and end of the Silk Road; where camel caravans unloaded goods from across the Eurasian continent and packed up aspects of China that went on to influence the world (but mostly just Asia). We decided to rent bikes and ride them around the top of the city wall. The wall was built in 1370 during the Ming Dynasty, the walls are 12 meters high and form a rectangle perimeter of 14 km (about 8 miles). We ended renting a really rickety tandem bicycle and rode around the top of the cobblestone wall with friends, which was quite bumpy and fun. That night we had a group dinner at a famous dumpling restaurant. We tried 16 different types of dumplings, from vegetable to pork to beef. We all went out to local clubs to celebrate David's job (everyone elses idea :) Everyone loved it because I would barter with the waiter for drinks. He told us 15 yuan each and I said," shi" (ten). He just stared at us then shrugged his shoulders and said, "okay." It was a really fun night. Tomorrow we get to see the Terra-cotta warriors!

Zai-jian!

D and K