Impact in 3,2,1...

(Brandon)

Today we woke up early to go on a bike ride along the city walls. Patty and Ms. Moy were feeling under the weather with some pretty nasty fevers so the Bad Luck Bears were down to three members. We met up with Cooio (pronounced as "Coolio" but we called him "Coo"), our local tour guide, in the hotel lobby after breakfast and walked a ways to the city's southern gate. We walked over and underground. The group had a minor scare when we had to cross one of the many busy roaderies (sp?). Mike braved the traffic and ran across. Coo, Deanna, and I played Frogger (and that's an understatement!) as we navigated our way across the endless flow of busses, taxis, vans, cars, mopeds, bicycles, and even pedicabs. Coo soon got us our bikes and off we went. Deanna, being an experienced biker, sped off on her own. Mike and I took our time and cruised.The morning was foggy so visibility was low, ultimately lending itself to a surreal experience. Besides the occasional bike rental store or jogger, Mike and I had the walls to ourselves. We stopped occasionally to look at the city below us. In contrast with the area our hotel was situated in, which was very flashy and lined with expensive stores, the outskirts hugging the walls were more residential and clearly less wealthy. To end this experience on a comical note, Mike and I forgot which store we got our bikes from, so we had to stop and ask numerous vendors if they remembered us. 

After lunch, we returned to the hotel for a break. Deanna and Mike were a bit tired so they took quite welcomed naps. Patty, who had missed the group's exploits yesterday, wanted to go out after making a speedy recovery. I led her to the local bazaar that we had visited a day prior. While we didn't buy anything, we greatly enjoyed seeing the uncountable varieties of foods and goods, from mountains of walnuts to familiar wooden frogs that had notches carved into their back that produced croaking-like noises when rubbed. Patty was especially fascinated with the "cow slabs" (to quote her) that we saw. On the way back to the hotel, we searched for Gatorade for Ms. Moy. We soon found that Gatorade is the most elusive drink in all of China. We stopped at every store that sold drinks but it was nowhere to be found. We were close to turning back when we decided to check out one last place. The train station. And we found some!

Richard, who is not only the owner of the travel agency we are using for this trip but also a close friend of Mrs. Vizulis', met up with us for dinner. Mr. Wu (one of our favorite drivers) and Coo joined us too. Richard emphasized that while Xian may be in northern China, as a city it hosts many people's from all over. Richard wanted us to taste a more traditional Sichuan cuisine, which is spicy and savory. I stupidly mistook pine nuts for corn kernels and ate away. Much to my dismay, I started to swell (or as Mike likes to say, "Get swole"). Mike once again came to my rescue. On the bright side, Richard informed us that tonight was the Lantern Festival. There were fireworks everywhere, being purchased, set up, and launched right over the streets as we ate and drove home. But what really struck us were the lanterns being lit and launched all over Xian. Many could be seen slowly climbing over the massive buildings, drifting gracefully through the chilly, clear night sky as thousands of onlookers watched from the lit city streets below. It was simply beautiful.

Meteor avoided,
(a very swollen) Brandon