Wonderful

Wonderful. That is about all I can say right now regarding Xi'an and just the Chinese in general. This is my third day here, and I feel like this is more perfect than I ever thought. I slept from 9 PM till about 2 AM last night, and I went out walking at about 8 AM this morning. My first trip was to Starbucks :) where I bought a grande coffee for 18 yuan, which comes out to 2.63 cents. So yeah, Starbucks is more expensive here! Here's is the most shocking thing that I've noticed so far. I have spent all day today alone, just trying to get around, eat at restaurants, and buy things on my own. The first thing I found was an ATM and withdrew cash from my account at Bank of America. With that, here's what I did:

1. Ate at a little place that I heard had an English menu. I ordered noodles with Chicken Cubes, which comes in a giant bowl, and is basically soup. It's very filling and it costs me 6 yuan (87 cents!).

2. I then went to Wal-Mart, and yes, they have a Wal-Mart here. I didn't bring with me toothpaste, shampoo, a towel, or a razor, so I wanted to go buy these things so that I could take my first shower here in China. So I went to Wal-Mart and here's all I got.

1. Slippers (for bathroom)
2. Towel
3. Toothpaste/toothbrush combo
4. razor and shaving cream combo
5. finger nail clippers
6. shampoo
7. mouthwash

And all of that cost me a grand total of 96 yuan (14 dollars)!

So, yes, Starbucks is rather expensive, especially if you compare it to everything else in China.

I do love this place though. If it weren't for my family and friends, I would honestly really look into living here for many years. Their is just something about this place. I've had numerous Chinese come up to me and say, "Hello, Nice to meet you" and then laugh and run away. Haha, it's just the learning experience of a lifetime for me. So far in the few days that I've been here, I have yet to find a drawback. I know this whole experience here will help me grow and become a better person, and I'm just loving knowing that I'm doing soemthing that is making me both happy and important. I just can't wait to start my Chinese classes so I can start talking to more people!

Alright, so last but not least, here is my To Do List for the remainder of the day:

1. Register with local police station
2. Exchange my USD for RMB
3. Get cell phone
4. Open Bank Account
5. NOT sleep until it's dark...I have to defeat this dreaded jet lag!
6. Create an account on Flickr and post some pics up today (time permitting)

That's it for now, I hope you enjoyed it, thank you and good night. (Rod Serling)

I'm Here!

Alright everyone, I'm officially here in Xi'an. I started my stopwatch when the plane took of in Atlanta, and stopped it when I landed in Xi'an, showing that the total amount of time I spent traveling was.....23 hours and 32 minutes with 18 seconds. Overall the flight was great as I had an empty seat next to me on all flights, with the one from ATL to NY being a window seat, and the rest being the aisle seat. My apartment is nice, although I won't be living in it long as I'll be moving to my town closer to the end of the week, but for the time being, it's really nice and I slept like a log last night.

Today Nick is going to show me around a bit. Banks are opened on Sundays and even so, that's something I'll have to handle in Yanliang. So mostly, today will be about getting to know Xi'an better. Tomorrow I'm having a physical and registering with the local police department, as well as exchaning some of my USD or RMB.

But yeah, that's about it right now, I love it so far and I will definitly be hoping I get time to post more and let everyone know that I'm here and safe....not to mention extremely happy.