Arrival in Xi'an

Greetings from China! I arrived here this afternoon after a very long trio of flights. Now it is about 7:45 pm local time, and I'm pretty proud of myself for still being awake. (Though I have already had to correct about a dozen mistakes in this entry.) Fortunately I was able to sleep some on the Chicago to Seoul flight, so it was just like a really long night.

I flew out here on a Korean airline. Their service involved a lot of bowing, to which I had no idea how to respond. But the food was really good. Sandi, I think you've mentioned it before--Bi Bim Bam. There was some assembly required, so it actually came with an instruction manual.

Xi'an is a bit different than I expected. It is a lot more industrial, especially outside of the downtown area.

The volunteer house is a really big apartment, basically like a hostel. It is nice, but the only downside is that there is a 16 to 2 ratio of volunteers and bathrooms. :( But on Monday many of the volunteers will travel to the Panda reserve about an hour away, so that should improve. (I hope to visit the Pandas next weekend.)

Tonight we are all just hanging out here and getting to know one another. Most of the volunteers are European and are on their "gap year". This is a year-ish of travel that they take between high school and college, which I think is a great idea. I am the only one here in my age group, and the only American.

I did actually use some of my very limited Mandarin over the course of the past 36 hours. I managed to tell a taxi driver that we had luggage in the trunk, and I used a combination of mime and chinglish to track down my luggage in Beijing. (By the way, the Beijing airport must be the most confusing airport that was ever designed. And it is not due to the language difference.)

I should have some actual experiences in Xi'an to report soon, but that is it for tonight.

Hope you are all well,
Jen