- Thank goodness I don't hit kids (being an English teacher and all)
- So there was this 10-year old bald kid who was just bored out of his mind on the train from Hohhot to Xi’An and he really took an interest in the only white guy on the train
- He said hi a couple times and he would just not stop staring at me
- Finally he came over and asked me the standard questions in English
- “Hello, what country are you from?”
- “How old are you?”
- “How much money do you make?”
- I was actually surprised that the kid asked me that question because out of all the people who could use that information, he seemed the least likely
- Then he showed me his cars (the kind you roll back and let fly) and we played maybe for an hour in the little area that connected train cars together
- The entire time I’m thinking, “Oh my goodness, all these people probably think I’m a pedophile because they know I’m not the father” but I was having too much fun and I was pretty bored too
- I tried to be nice to him by buying him a 20 yuan breakfast when he said he was hungry, but he ate two bites and said, “Nah, I don’t like it”
- Right then and there I realized it might be good that I never have kids because if that was my kid I would have been arrested for beating that child (but I really wouldn’t though)
- Then after he got tired of that I popped out my iPad and to him it was the coolest thing ever
- If you ever want to be the most popular person on a Chinese train, get an iPad with the “Chinese Writer” app and everyone will want to play
- Then the cutest little Chinese girl came over in a little tutu and asked me if she could play
- I had to pull the boy off of “Slam Dunk King” and let her play the English games on my iPad and the “Chinese Writer” game
- She was in love with that iPad and her father actually had to tell her about 5 times in Chinese, “Alright, it’s time to go now” before she got off of it and even then it was right when we were pulling into Xi’An
- Another odyssey of getting train tickets
- I spent my first hour and a half in Xi’An trying to get a train ticket from Xi’An to Beijing tomorrow
- I don’t know how the phrases, “I want the ticket” and “I want to buy that ticket” said in Chinese just doesn’t seem to trigger the response in the mind of Chinese train ticket ladies that, “Oh, he wants to buy that ticket”
- I spent 15 minutes after finding the right ticket for a later train ride from Beijing to Shanghai trying to actually give her the money to buy the ticket
- She told me the price and I was trying to give her the money but she just wouldn’t take it
- The kicker is that the lady at the bank who was buying the ticket said there were no seats from Xi’An to Beijing on any train tomorrow (and I spent an hour with that lady trying to find other options), but when I went to the train station it took that lady 5 minutes to find me a seat
- She said, “Ok, here you go” in English and that was it
- Thank you ICBC, now I’m ever so grateful I bank with Bank for China
- Xi’An Sightseeing
- Bell Tower was pretty cool
- It was 35 yuan to go inside it and I guess it had a nice plate museum but the only reason I went was because it had an awesome view of the entire city
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- I thought about going to the Drum Tower but I was fine just looking at it from the outside instead of paying another 25 yuan to see more Chinese plates
- Muslim Quarter was awesome
- It was the super-busy alley way of China that I know and love
- And the food was delicious
- I had the 羊肉泡馍 at this restaurant and it’s mutton, bits of bread, noodles, broth, and garlic and it is amazing
- Then I had this 花生镐which is a peanut cake and it was kind of like eating a peanut-butter flavored hot dog bun because it was quite dry
- The dried fruit that they had throughout was awesome so get that instead so you don’t have to spend extra money to find a water bottle
- The Great Mosque was really cool too
- Make sure you don’t have a cat allergy because stray cats are everywhere
- Xi’An City Wall Bike Tour
- I took it at night so after I got to see all the smog in the city, I got to see the beautiful way that the wall is lighted up
- Plus I got to see this really cool umbrella dance that I think even I could do
- Be prepared to break an ankle or hurt a knee in Xi’An
- Whoever designed these sidewalks is an absolute idiot
- All over the place, there are little 1 in. drop-offs in the middle of the sidewalk that if you’re not paying attention (like me) you’ll look like an idiot foreigner (like me)
- I’ve already rolled an ankle and fallen twice tonight after not tripping full-out on a sidewalk in years (those DDR playing skills do pay off)
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