Room 622

Alright, Tobie has been telling me that I need to blog so here ya go. Since Tobie has been keeping you up to date on our sweet girl I wanted to tell you about a few other aspects about our journey. Room 622 in the Grand Metro Park Hotel in Xi'an is what we have called home for the past five nights. Xi'an is "much smaller" than Beijing..."only" a population of 15 million! The people here for the most part are quite pleasant...only a few stray dirty looks because we don't have Lynleigh wrapped up in 18 layers of clothes.


One of our favorite ways to pass the time is just looking out of the hotel window and watching traffic. We will have times where me, Tobie, and Lynleigh just watch and wait for someone to get run over! Driver's here are both defensive and offensive at the same time, scooters and bicycles are everywhere, and buses seem to speed up when they see people crossing the street. Speaking of crossing the street, it was very intimidating the first day or two but I think I have the hang of it now. You see, they have traffic signals here but evidentally they are treated as mere suggestions. So when crossing the street, you either walk in a dense group of people or just play real life Frogger!


Our favorite dining establishment has become a place called Dico's. The way I see it is that we have Panda Express as our version of Chinese fast food and Dico's is China's version of American fried chicken. Nontheless, it's not bad and REAL cheap. How about two combo meals of a fried chicken sandwich, fries, and a drink for less than 8 bucks!?! Even McD's is cheaper here.


Tobie thinks it's funny that I am obsessed with the car's, bikes, and scooters here. But I get a kick out of seeing what we call a Jetta being called something completely different here. And scooters?...I've noticed that a lot of them are electric. They look like something you would see at home but when they drive by they don't make a sound. As for the bikes, I have seen some common names...just not common bikes.



And with all of the people on bike's and scooters, I have only seen one person wearing a helmut! In fact, at night the people riding the scooters don't even turn their lights on...our guide said they do that so their battery lasts longer...my thought is "yeah, but their lives won't last much longer". But as many people as there are in the streets, you never see traffic jams. As crazy as everyone's driving habits seem, they are forced to pay attention to what they are doing and don't get angry when they get cut off...it's just the way it is.

So today we will say goodbye to another Chinese city and begin our journey to the next. Xi'an is quite different than Beijing and I'm sure Guangzhou will be different still. So, until we get to our next stop, see ya!