Jan 18

Today is a beautiful blue, sunny day! You can really tell how it improves everyone's mood. We went to the Muslim quarter and saw a Chinese mosque that also had TONS of outdoor shopping! It was amazing. I never want to go back inside again.
A bunch of the guys were playing the Chinese form of hacky sack. It's played with this little toy that has these weighted discs at the bottom and feathers at the top. Eventually though, the guys got bored and simply used the toy as a mock-football, which made the fellow Chinese observers even more amused. Immediately after leaving the Muslim quarters, our tour guide informed us that we would be going to lunch (a resounding cheer of "yayyy" resulted). It was an okay buffet lunch. That seems to be the general routine of food we've eaten in Xi'an.

Then, we went to a Stone Tablet museum. It was cool because we got to see people making wall scrolls. They would take the stone tablets that were engraved with backwards characters, then they would use a circular sponge to paint a thick film of black paint on the wall (they applied it the same way a woman would if she were heavily powdering her face). Then, they took really thin rice paper and lightly pressed its corners onto the paint to stick, and then they used a flat brush to brush out the rice paper so the paint imprinted itself onto the stone. Then, it was given time to dry before being carefully lifted off.
Also, there was a beautiful, adorable baby with the cutest, reddest cheeks running around. The baby had so many layers on, that at one time it fell flat on the stone floor while running, but rather than cry, it just laid there, defeater, flat on it puffy little back waiting for someone to pick it up. Like a really plushy turtle. I say "it" because I don't know whether the baby was a boy or a girl.
After the Stone Tablet museum, we went to the Shaanxi Museum, which we didn't really want to go to, but I guess we had to because it was on the tour. Something cool about it, actually had more to do with the outside of the museum where a guy was selling kites. This one kite was really just a series of miniature plain diamond shaped kites, located at intervals along a long string. The string was sooooo long though, it reached into the sky so far that my eyes could barely see where the kite ended. Chen taught me how to say "wow" in Chinese (haojiahuo).
Then, we were taken to the oldest pagoda in Xi'an and maybe in China and maybe in the world...I forget. It was created in like, 701 AD.
At first, I really didn't want to go because we only had about 15 minutes to spare, and it seemed like it would be boring. However, once we got inside the gates I was absolutely amazed. It was like a little zen park where Monks lived, and it was so incredibly peaceful and tranquil, filled with the smell of incense burning. At the top of a set of stairs was a Buddhist Temple that had red candle incense.
Some of us went up inside to this open, wood-lined room with a huge Buddha statue cut out and painted in gold, and we knelt down and prayed. It felt so, intense. Rarely do I believe in something like faith, which I can't sense a pragmatic proof in. I felt faith there. It was really special to me that Andy felt something significant there too, in that Buddhist temple. We kind of shared an understanding that this was something really unique. It was like my stress and worries were placed outside of the gates.
I wish we could have stayed longer, but we were actually kind of late for a traditional Chinese folk dance performance that we were all scheduled to see.
The Chinese folk dancing was impressive, but everyone in the crowd seemed like foreigners, so it felt like another tourist trap. The women dancers were so elegant in their movements, I was really amazed. There was this one dance where the woman was carried in on a cusion, and she was moving like a snake being charmed. It was sensual, which I guess was the point since she was playing the role of a concubine I believe.
There were also some weird parts, like actors who came out with giant children's heads covering their heads and upper bodies, with short, stubby legs and limp arms to complete the outfit.
Afterwards, we had a dumpling feast. Yum. Goodnight.