back in the states: chattanooga

I got a pet today. Actually, I got three, but they are the coolest pets ever. It's an Eco-sphere and I don't have to feed them or clean the tank or anything. It's perfect. Their names are Jason, Chuck, and Jackie. For Jason Bourne, Chuck Norris, and Jackie Chan. They are badass shrimp.

days 70-78: new york city

This is the first blog entry since day 38 that Flo hasn't updated my blog! Hurray for freedom of the internet! My time in NYC has had sketchy internet I "stole" from unprotected wireless networks around other apartments. I'm not sure if it qualifies as stealing because since they didn't think to put a password for their network, it's kind of like asking for people to use it. Anyway, it wasn't that reliable.
I arrived at JFK around midnight on the 2nd/3rd and took the shuttle to the apartment in midtown. It was a pretty nice place, and good thing there was no need to take the subway because of the monsoon they were closed and people were getting crushed. The real reason of the trip was to see the Broadway shows.
Friday: Altar Boyz
Saturday: Wicked and Rent
Monday: Spring Awakening
Wednesday: Legally Blonde, the Musical

Jill won lottery tickets to Wicked, so we were front row for cheap. the reason the tickets are so cheap is because the actors are so close you can get showered in spit. I really wanted to see Rent because the 2 main original characters, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, were reappearing in the show after 11 years. I could only get standing room, but I love Rent, so it was worth it. Spring Awakening is this play written by a German guy over 100 years ago, but because of censorship laws it was forbidden and forgotten until a few years ago when they made it into a Broadway show. Jill and I were in line waiting for student tickets at 4:30 am and we weren't even the first ones there. The play was really depressing it seemed like they tried to smoosh every kind of teen angst from suicide, coming out, pregnancy, losing the v-card, incest rape, and some other things I'm probably forgetting. It was kind of a downer, but good and not quite wake up at 4 am good. Legally Blonde was really good. Jill and I were at the theatre by 5 for that one. The only thing was it was one of the biggest storms NY has seen and there were tornadoes in Brooklyn, so it was raining like a monsoon or something there. That's the only time I thought it was crazy we were out there waiting for musical tickets. I'm not kidding. The rain was falling at a 45 degree angle and the thunder was clapping shaking the windows. crazy.

days 67-70: xi'an

The train to Xi'an was a long one on the way up there. Alex and I pimped out our Chinese-speaking companion to flirt with the conductor to get us some sleepers. And it worked! So the 12 hour ride wasn't so bad going up there. I was glad to get out of sitting on benches. We arrived in Xi'an around 7 in the morning and went straight to the Xiangzimen International Hostel. It looked really nice and the people spoke very good English, but they made us buy an extra bed and wouldn't let us just rent the 3 beds we needed, which was a little weird.

That morning, I brushed my teeth and went out to the tour group going to the Terracotta Warriors. Before the Terracotta Army, we stopped by the Danpo village, a village of ancient Chinese that dates back to 6,000 years ago. Then finally we got to see the Terracotta Army! There were rows and rows of life sized terracotta soldiers, archers, generals and horses lined up in perfect formations. When they built the underground caverns of terracotta people, the emperor killed every artist, construction worker, and anyone else that had anything to do with building the tomb, as well as their friends and families. The total number of people killed making it was over 700,000. I had no idea that happened.

That night, I got a traditional Chinese massage. Not knowing what a Chinese massage was exactly, the guy ended standing on my back and popping every bone he could. At one point he was pulling my hair, and that bit really hurt. At the end it was all good and (kind of) relaxing. The next morning, we slept in and shopped around the Muslim Quarter. The market was fun and filled with all this weird food. My favorite Xi'an food was this pancake filled with hot veggies and other stuff I have no idea what it was, but it tasted good.

The train ride back to Beijing was probably the worst train ride I will ever have. We couldn't get sleepers this time so I was already expecting a 12 hour train ride on a bench where they don't turn off the music or lights all night. The people also spit on the floor and kids just squat and take a shit there on the floor. That's really gross even not in an enclosed space. That night it was raining and the tracks were flooded so we spent a few hours waiting for the rain to be siphoned off the tracks, which in total took 9 hours. I couldn't wait to get off that train.

But overall, Xi'an was good. :)