I'm almost thinking that Xi'an is hotter than Cambodia!!! Today was extremely hot and we rode the bus during our trip out today. The bus was crowded with sweaty and smelly people! Taxis might be the way to go for the future. It's only 1 yuan to ride the bus (about 17 cents)...but taxis aren't too expensive...with 3-4 people yesterday, we spent about $1 each time we got on the taxi. Water is also extremely cheap here. A bottle of cold water is 1 yuan...so I can get 6 bottles of water for $1 (nice, cold refreshing water!). It tastes so good when the sun has been beating down on you all day long. Ahhhh......
We went back to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda today to walk around. We split into two groups and one group went to the electronics store (boring!!!). The rest of us went to walk around the pagoda area to check out the scene during the day. There's a really nice park nearby...that would be a great place to hang out if it wasn't so hot! People were still playing around in the fountains...it looked like it would've been alot of fun to run through it, but I had my purse with me and didn't want to get anything inside wet. We encountered more Chinese people that wanted to take pictures of us since we were foreigners. I look just like them, so I don't think they were really all that interested in me, but they took my picture anyways (probably so I wouldn't feel bad!). :)
As we were walking through the market, I decided to have some pictures taken of me in a chinese costume. It was only 10 yuan (about $1.70) per picture...so I got 4 of them. I only have hard copies of the pics...but the picture in this blog is from a picture that one of my new friends took (I was looking at the photographer). Everyone was snapping pictures of me in my costume...it was pretty funny. I might do it again in a different costume if I get the chance again. :)
We also went by a tea shop to get the true chinese tea house experience. We had some communication problems with the waitress...the menu was not in English and the waitress did not speak English either. We tried drawing pictures of what we wanted...but in the end, we just picked something random and ended up with jasmine tea. The waitress came by and did this whole tea ritual for us. We couldn't understand what she was saying, but she was pouring hot water on the teapot and the teacups (probably to warm them up) and dumped out the first batch of tea. The teacups are so small...it's just a little bit bigger than my thumb. Seriously, how much can you drink with such a small teacup?!?! One sip and I'm done...and the waitress had to refill often. As we were leaving, we tried giving the waitress a tip, but she refused. In China, they don't tip and if you insist on tipping, you can offend them...so we didn't push it and just took our tip money and bought some frozen treats from Diary Queen. It was soooooooo good and the place was air conditioned.....
I'm just bumming around the volunteer house tonight. We're going to watch Little Ms. Sunshine after I get cleaned up and shower. I don't think I've mentioned how difficult the shower is here. The water temperature is ridiculous!!! I've been showering first in the evenings and the water is scathing hot...there is no way to adjust the temp. The girls who went in after me ended up with cold showers...so tonight, I let one of them go in before me. I'm ready for a nice cold shower!!! I've heard the house at the panda place has a better shower temperature that you can adjust...so definitely looking forward to that! But there is no refrigerator...so no more cold waters unless I can find a store that sells them!!!
