Day 9: Donuts, Finally.

There's not a lot to say about today, but I did want to say that I finally got my donut 😊

It was really delicious, and definitely worth the eight day wait.

Now I'm back in Gahanna, safe and sound and ready to sleep for about a week. Thanks to all who followed my travels. Stay tuned for a few follow-up posts!

PS- wish Lil Mao some luck with my sister's dog 😂

Day 8: And Back Again

We set an alarm for super early this morning so we could get up and pack since we didn't do it last night. When that alarm went off, we all woke up and just kind of looked at each other and went back to bed. I got up about an hour later. It had gotten significantly warmer in our room, and I felt pretty gross when I woke up after sleeping under a thick blanket. I hopped in the shower, and then had to speed pack. Matt wanted to go to breakfast at 8, which is way earlier than I find necessary, but I tried my best. I ended up being ready at ~8:20, but that's okay because I had to get my stuff packed up.

Alexia and I tried to exchange some of our yuan back to USD, but the hotel only exchanges one way. I decided I'd have to spend it all at the airport then because the fee to convert it back was just about as much as I had in the first place.

Breakfast this morning was delicious. It was the same buffet, but this time I tried some walnut bread, which was so good. It's just bread with walnuts in it, so maybe I can find some at home. Lil Mao got his hands on a streamed grain bun, but decided it was a better hat than breakfast item.

Cathy met us at 9 am to take us to the airport. Dr. Orkwis and his sons had left earlier this morning, so we didn't see them at all.

I looked outside and was kind of frightened by how much smog was outside. Cathy told us that the schools shut down today due to the smog, which had never happened before. I'm skeptical that this is the first time they've closed schools due to smog, but it's definitely awful and I understand why things would shut down. Even inside of the van, the air was making my throat sore and eyes/nose sting a little. The outside looks so post apocalyptic with all of the high rise apartments and the smog.

The smog outside was so bad that I even got Lil Mao a facemask to wear.

Cathy says she hopes that all of this smog will be a real wake-up call that the air pollution needs fixed ASAP. She was asking us if we had ever had a smog problem. I wasn't sure about the smog, but I did tell her about the Ohio River and how it caught fire once because it was so polluted. She was so shocked that that could happen at all.

To help combat the air pollution, on certain days in Xi'an, only certain cars are allowed to drive. That means that you'll have to use the bus or carpool to get the work since you won't be able to drive every day. Usually there are only one or two groups (I think out of 10) that can't drive, but now only half of the cars are allowed to drive at a time. This limit is supposed to help with the air pollution, and I think it also helps reduce traffic jams.

I also asked her about what she thinks about North Korea, and she said that the media makes it sound like China and North Korea are super close governments, but the reality is that North Korea sometimes causes big trouble for China and so many Chinese people don't like North Korea. It's very mysterious, she says. They're much more familiar with South Korea. Since her opinion was the only one on North Korea that I was able to find out, I cannot really say if her view is reflective of the entire population or even it's majority. I would be super interested to find out.

She also asked us about Donald Trump. She thought that becsuse he won the election, everyone liked him. We were trying to explain the electoral college to her, and how Trump got less votes but still won overall, so there is still a super big divide in voters for this election.

We got to the airport and Cathy helped us check in. It took a while because we weren't sure where to check in. First we tried the domestic flights since we were flying to Beijing, but we had to go find the international check-in since the first flight was only a transfer. Luckily Cathy was able to help us get to the right spot and get checked in.

Going through security always seems to be an adventure for me. This time I remembered to take my battery pack out of my bag. I realized later that I forgot the voltage converter but I got lucky and that didn't set off the scanners. I did, however, set off the security wand a significant amount of times, which resulted in an extra thorough pat down from the security guard. I was feeling a little jumpy this morning, so it took a lot of focus to stay calm and not be super twitchy during the security screening.

I think one thing I'll miss the most in China is all of the milk tea. Liz and I decided to get as much milk tea as we could before we left, so we stopped by a convenience store to get some before the flight.

As we sat at the terminal, we kept hearing announcements for flights being delayed due to the weather, presumably the smog. Every time another flight was delayed, I got more and more nervous. Our flight wasn't delayed at all, and we left for Beijing no problem.

I guess Liz and I ruined Matt's plans for some nice discussion on the flight because we fell asleep before the plane even reached cruising altitude, and I only woke up because Matt woke me up to tell me there was food. Then after we ate, I was going to stay awake, but then the plane was pulling up to the gate before I knew it. I was told I slept through a lot of turbulence and also the landing, which I thought was fine but I guess it's not expected. Maybe I should add "expert at sleeping" to my resume...

We made it to Beijing and had to go through customs to get on our flight to Detroit. The first set was super weird. It looked unsupervised but we had to run our bags through two different scanners anyway. Then we walked through baggage claim and checked in with Delta for our next two flights. They reprinted our boarding passes, then we made our way to the terminal for our connecting flight.

We had more customs to go through, but these were more legit. Someone supervised the line as we scanned our bags. Then we had the passport control people. This line moved super quickly even though it was really long.

After that we had regular airport security again and we're done. Surprise surprise, they pulled my suitcase aside for a manual search. This time, the voltage converter is what got me. It's strange that this time it set off the alarm but didn't before. I shouldn't really be too surprised, though, because I think if I had to pick a word for Chinese security, it would be 'inconsistent'.

Once we were in the terminal, we went to spend the rest of our money. We also got some Starbucks to try. I got a mango soy frappe, which ended up tasting like a mango milkshake. It was very refreshing before a long flight.

Liz and I also got a few bottled drinks because they're better than the ones on the plane and it cost just the same amount as the rest of my money. I got some canned coffee and a bottle of milk tea.

I think they wanted to hand search my bag one last time in China, because by the time we got back from the vending machine, the security team had set up another screening station just before the plane. This was just like the other security check point, including the rule with the liquids. So much for a nice stockpile of drinks for the long flight....

Liz and I chugged the coffee, which was delicious. Looking back, it was a risky move because we notoriously used the bathroom the most often on the trip. We decided not to also chug the tea, but I at least had some of it before I threw it out.

They even gave us another pat down search and manually searched suitcases and bags. When I asked the flight attendant on the plane why there was so much new security, she had no idea and thought it was just as strange as I did. At least I was able to have my phone on during this flight.

Thankfully we didn't have to sit on the plane for two hours before we took off like the last time. We still ended up 10 minutes late, which makes me nervous for our connecting flight that takes off 90 minutes after this one lands. I think we'll be fine, but it would be nice to not miss the connecting flight.

I tried not to sleep too much on the plane because it was daytime in Ohio, but they kept all of the lights off and windows down. I wish everyone had their windows up so that we could get some natural sunlight to help combat the jetlag.

I did end up falling asleep for probably four or five hours, which was probably an excellent idea since we still had another connecting flight after this one.

Lil Mao had some fun watching movies and eating all of the good airplane snacks.

We also got an incredible view of the sunrise from the sky.

Matt freaked us all out just before we landed because he didn't change his watch back to the right time, so it looked like it was an hour later. We all thought we would miss our connecting flight until the flight attendant straightened us out.

When we landed in Detroit, we had to go through US border control. The very first thing is passport check. It was so confusing because I thought we just went straight to the line for US citizens, but they made everyone go wait in one line, then sent us to either the US or Visitor lines depending on our passport. Seemed very inefficient to me. We got sent to another line for some kiosks. I had to scan my passport and take a photo and answer those reentry questions. Then there was yet another line to wait to talk to an actual border control agent. It took about eight or ten people to coordinate all of these lines and kiosks, and I think it was maybe just more confusing to us than anything else.

After passport control, we had to go through customs. I thought we'd have to wait in a line and talk to someone or scan our bags, but we just walked right on through since we had nothing to declare. We did pass one guy with some weird looking boxes, and he was being pulled over by security.

Then we had yet another security check point. This was a US checkpoint, so I actually had to take off my shoes and coat and necklace. I also remembered to remove all of my electronics and liquid bag. I made it through the scanner just fine, and since it's the US I didn't automatically get a pat down.

I don't know what I've done to deserve all of this hassle, but they had to pull my bag aside yet again for another manual search. I could tell the TSA lady felt bad for messing up all of my packing, but it's her job to check the bag so I can't really be mad at her. One of my souvineers set off the scanners, so she had to look through everything. I was afraid she would take my jasmine tea, but she didn't even give it a second look. Then she tells me I'm all clear, and something along the lines of "Good luck getting your stuff packed back up. Take as much time as you need." Why I even bother to pack my suitcase nicely at this point is beyond me; it looks nothing like it did when I packed it up this morning, and this is the third time in 24 hours it's been searched, each time for a different reason.

Our flight to Cincinnati got delayed for a little over an hour, which was probably a good thing because I took so long at security.. although we might have made it just in time. We just sat at the terminal for the extra time. It would have been nice to get home sooner, but I guess if any flight had to be delayed, this is the best option. Better to be stuck in Detroit than China.

The plane to Cincinnati was super tiny, but it was only a short flight so it was okay. Liz and I were determined to stay awake, but again it was dark so it was a struggle. This time, we were successful. I asked the flight attendant for some of those cookies I got on the very first flight, and this time the flight attendant gave them to me without any sass. The view from the plane was absolutely spectacular, so we spent a lot of time admiring the cities below us, trying to guess which ones they might be.

We landed in Cincinnati, and it was such a relief to be back. It was such a good trip; even though I'm sad it's over, it's also good to be back home.

Alexia said goodbye, since her parents came to pick her up. Liz's boyfriend came to pick her up, but she still had to come back to my apartment to get a few things. My parents came to get me. We also gave Matt a ride to my apartment so that he could pick up the few things he left there. Then Liz and Matt left, and our travels together were officially over.

I still have to make it back to Gahanna, but Cincinnati is my second home so I feel like it's safe to say that I'm glad to be home.

Day 7: Xi'an

I woke up very tired this morning, even thought I thought I got plenty of sleep last night. It was definitely a slow morning, and I think I was a few minutes late to breakfast.

The breakfast was really good. Once again, it was a huge buffet, and the rice especially was so delicious.

Today is our last full day in China, so it's a little bit sad, but we are going to see the Terracotta Warriors, so I am also very excited.

The Terracotta Warriors was not our first destination today; first we went to a national culture/history museum for China (I forget what it's called at the moment). Since it was Sunday, the museum opened 30 minutes later than we thought. Cathy took those 30 minutes to give us a spontaneous lecture on the history of China. It was really impressive that she could just give us such a well organized, thorough history lesson with no notice. She went over so much information, and I can't remember all of it.

I think the most interesting takeaway that I had never heard before was about how Buddhism changed as it came from India to China. In India, the Buddhists believe that life is suffering, so people believe in Buddhism to escape that suffering. The Indian Buddha is skinny with a solemn, serious face. As Buddha came to China, people wanted a more happy, friendly figure. That is why the Chinese Buddha is more fat with a smiling, happy face. I never really thought about why there were so many Buddha images, so it's interesting to hear how the image of Buddha changed as Buddhism spread to China.

While Cathy was giving us our mini lecture, it was hard not to notice all of the people walking by, either just watching for a bit or watching and taking pictures. People crack me up when they're taking selfies with us in the background.

When we finally got into the museum, I will admit I was pretty underwhelmed. I'm so glad that we only went to this one museum the whole trip. I like museums, but I can only be so interested in them when they're all in a language I don't understand. It was cool to see the different stages of history, even if I couldn't read all about it. My favorite exhibit was from the Tang Dynasty. I think the art style was fairly ridiculous, and it definitely gave me a good laugh to look at.

After the museum, we went to the Big Goose Pagoda. It is an impressive structure that has withstood several earthquakes and other natural disasters without falling over. It is also still an active Buddhist temple site. Our guide through the Big Goose Pagoda wasn't a monk, but he was Buddhist and kinda reminded me of a monk. He told us all about the history of the Pagoda and more about becoming a Buddhist monk. To become a monk, you have to dedicate your life to Buddhism. It is completely voluntary, but if you do choose the life of a monk, you have to give up everything, including land, belongings, and family. It is a lonely life, but one that some people feel called to. They also cannot leave the temple unless they are communicating with another temple.

Our guide also showed us the best places at the Pagoda to take photos. There are some huge tomb-stone looking things at one corner. The have names on them and Buddhist people believe that rubbing these stone slabs will bring them good luck and fortune.

He also showed us the famous image angle that is shown on all of the post cards so that we could get a photo of our own.

Then we went to see the calligraphy and artwork that the monks make. The guide told us about the evolution of the Chinese characters. He showed us the traditional way to write Xi'an and explained its meaning. The first character is for west, and looks like a bird sitting on its nest. The second is a woman inside of a shelter, which helps identify it as a safe city. With the traditional characters, it is easy to see that story. Then with the simplified characters, the story is not so clear, but I can see their semblance with the traditional characters. After the lesson on Chinese characters, he wrote all of our names in calligraphy for us. Lil Mao even got one!

After we finished up at the Pagoda, we said goodbye to that guide and got back in the van. The next stop is the Terracotta Warriors museum. Cathy said it will take about 1 hour to arrive. She talked about the history of the soldiers the entire way, but I fell asleep about a minute in so I missed pretty much the whole thing.

Before we went to the actual exhibits, we got some lunch. The food wasn't the best, but it wasn't too bad. The most unfortunate part was that I dropped my phone into my soup bowl and spilled soup everywhere. Don't worry--the phone is okay, no damage there. It was just a bit embarrassing.

In my opinion, the whole thing with the discoverer of the soldiers is a little bit milked. The Terracotta Warriors were discovered by a simple Chinese farmer one day as he was digging to find water for irrigation. Once the soldiers were discovered, the government built a city for the farmers to live/work in so that they could take the land and excavate the soldiers. The guy who discovered them is very famous here. He sells a book and hangs out in a shop so that he can autograph the books and take photos with people. While we were in the store, he walked up to me and shook my hand and sat down at a table. Liz tried to take his picture, but the shopkeeper got upset and said we had to buy a book first. They were so expensive that it wasn't worth it.

We waded through the town filled with aggressive street vendors to make it to the Terracotta Warriors museum. We were supposed to watch a 10 minute introductory video, but you couldn't really see the screens at all so we just kind of walked in and then walked out.

Liz, Alexia, and I walked around with Cathy, and she told us about the different exhibits. There are three different pits of soldiers that have been excavated. They are all a part of the tomb for an emporer from the Qing dynasty. Apparently Chinese emperors used to start building their tombs as soon as they became emperor so that it will be finished before they die. This tomb is so elaborate, and it has all of these soldiers to defend the emperor in the afterlife. Each soldier has a unique face and was modeled after a real soldier from the Qing dynasty.

I feel like I got the wrong first impression of Cathy because she is always talking, and we've been used to getting break time on the vans to and from locations. Talking to her at the Terracotta Warriors museum was a much better experience. She told us about the soldiers, and we also just talked to her. Cathy has been a tour guide for 17 years, but before that she was an EE for 3 years. She says that she changed careers because there was too much smoking in the office and she didn't like the fact that she didn't have control over which city she worked in.

It's so interesting to see the pits because they're still active dig sites. There is a sign that says "No  Pictures" in English which I thought was so strange, so I asked Cathy what the sign said in Chinese. Apparently it said that we couldn't take pictures of the archeologists while they were working. The English was just missing a few words 😅

The first and second pits were significantly more excavated than the third pit because the soldiers in the third pit still have colored paint on them, so they are waiting until there are better techniques to preserve the color. Right now, to excavate the pits, the archeologists coat the ground with water and let it soak in for an hour or two. Then they brush away the dirt without damaging the terracotta clay. It is a slow process, but it's currently the best they have.

At the third pit, we saw the different layers of the land. The bottom layer was the terracotta soldiers, but those were barried in the ground and the people after the Qing dynasty didn't know they were there. As a result, they put some of their own graves on top of the site. This top layer has the bones of the people buried in these graves.

Some of the better preserved terracotta soldiers were pulled out of the pits for us to get a more up close look at. The soldiers really are life sized, and it's incredible to think about how much time it took to create the whole tomb. There is also a fourth pit that was discovered, but Cathy said that the people did not actually have time to fill the pit with terracotta soldiers so it isn't uncovered for display.

The final attraction was the bronze chariots in the tomb. They were originally located about a mile away, but they were relocated for convenience of tourism. Since bronze was so expensive and a little bit rare at the time, the chariots are only half size. There is a little museum exhibit that tells the story of the chariots, but there is no English so Cathy just took us on a shortcut to directly see the bronze statues.

Overall, I was very impressed with the Terracotta Warriors. I don't think they had the same wow factor as the Great Wall, but I think that's mostly because the Great Wall has this beautiful, scenic mountain landscape, but the terracotta soldiers are just chilling in a hole in the ground in what looks like an airplane bunker.

On the way out, we couldn't resist the temptation of all of the fresh fruit. That reminds me, in Xi'an, they grow a special kind of fruit by grafting a persimmon tree onto the base of a date tree to get a really beautiful unique fruit.

Anyway, we couldn't resist all of the fresh pomegranate around, so Liz and I got some fresh pomegranate juice and Alexia got a whole pomegranate. The lady was so nice and gave Alexia another half pomegranate for free. Alexia shared part of her pomegranate on the way back.  The pomegranates here are so sweet and fresh. I really wish we could get such an abundance of good pomegranate back in Ohio.

The last item on our list to tour today is the City Wall. The closer we got back to the city, the heavier the smog became. It wasn't so bad this morning but by the early evening time we were getting back, it was seriously awful.

We went to the City Wall, and the view was pretty sad because of all of the smog.

It's possible to rent bikes and bike around the City Wall, and at first we wanted to do that but the smog made me hesitant to do anything more intensive than walking. When I wear my face mask, it fogs up my glasses. But tonight at the wall, the smog was so bad that I just didn't wear my glasses because they couldn't help me see much better.

After we finished up at the Wall, we went back to our hotel (a 5 minute walk) to get ready for dinner. I was really cold and wanted another coat before we went out. Xi'an is known for its dumplings, making them in all different shapes with all different fillings. I kind of rallied everyone to want to go get this dumpling banquet, so we asked Cathy where to go. This time we got much better directions and also confirmed them with the hotel desk.

It took us a while to find the dumpling place because it took us a while to break the guys down and ask for directions. We made it to the place with much more success than last night. And we even got the dumpling banquet.

These dumplings did not disappoint. They just kept coming and coming. We got to try all kinds of different dumplings: pork, lotus root and pork, fish, duck, shrimp, lotus root, bamboo, mushroom, and beef. There was also some delicious chicken (a whole chicken) and some other great side dishes. Then at the end, we got this huge boiling pot with tiny dumplings inside. According to an old legend, you close your eyes and scoop some of the soup. Then the number of dumplings you scoop meant something different. All of the meanings were positive, so it was mostly just fun. I got two dumplings, which means I will have double happiness 😄

After dinner, we had some last minute shopping to do. Alexia and I are still looking for a mahjong set, and other people still had money to spend. We went to a famous street in Xi'an called Huimin Jie, aka Muslim Street.

It was basically a crowded open market filled with food and other vendors. We looked everywhere for mahjong, but had no luck. One nice lady said that if we came back at 3 pm the next day, she would have it for us. Unfortunately we'll be long gone by then, but it was so sweet of her to offer.

The shopping was interesting because it's so funny to watch people bargain when both parties don't speak a common language fluently. I was able to help clear up a few situations. The funniest one was when Liz was buying some tea. She wanted green tea and jasmine tea, but the shop keeper also had scooped her black tea. She was trying to say that she didn't want the black tea. He didn't understand the English, so they were telling him "没有 black tea" to try to say "no black tea" but they were just saying "don't have black tea" and I could see how confused the shop keeper was. I was able to clear that one up, with "不要 black tea" which means "don't want black tea" and that seemed to make a lot more sense to him. It cracks me up that they picked 没有" and the shop keeper was so confused, which made it even more humorous to me.

Oh yes, we can't forget about Alexia's brass knuckles 😂

The last thing I really wanted to try is called 千层饼 or Thousand Layer Pancake. It was really tricky to find, and I almost missed the stand that sold it. We were expecting/hoping for some sort of dessert-type pancake. Instead, the pancake was savory, more like a sandwich. I was so full from the dumplings still that I couldn't finish it all. Lil Mao helped out some, but he was also pretty stuffed.

Muslim Street seems to shut down around 11 pm. Before then, everything was super well lit and not exactly clean but not super dirty. Then around 11 as the shops were starting to close, people were putting trash out at the side of the road and throwing waste water into the street. It smelled not so great and was not pleasant to watch, so we hurried out of there.

It's our last night together in China, so it was difficult to walk back because this was it; after we go back, it's like admitting our trip was done. Jonathan and Jacob leave super early tomorrow morning, and we'll be gone before lunch. We got one last picture together before we split ways.

Back at the hotel, we all still had to pack. I pushed my packing off to the last minute, like right before we left in the morning. The smog made me feel so tired, and I just didn't have any energy left. Hopefully it's better in the morning so that we have nice weather before we go.

Liz, Alexia, and I stayed up and talked for a while, but eventually we all ended up passed out, just like Lil Mao.