Back from the X-Men Planet (2)

The next day was Friday. We went to the Muslim mosque, which was interesting - I'm fond of these Chinese religious places - and a history museum, which was boring. After the museum we went to a western-style cafe for refreshments and then split up. The Y.R.s went back to the hotel for a nap, and Lili, Miaolan and I went for a walk along the busy city-like streets, looking in stores and trying to find a movie theater that had anything non-American (to no avail). We had dinner at a buffet recommended by the hotel's front desk staff. There, I had a rather pleasant experience - a western tourist approached me and asked if I spoke Chinese. I told him I did, and he asked me to help him and his friends talk to the waitress.
"Hello," I said to the waitress.
"Oh, can you help? My English is terrible, I can't understand them," she said, plainly relieved. It turned out that the Westerners had taken a bunch of food, not realizing how hot it was, and then taken more without finishing. The waitress wanted them to buy another ticket. I wasn't really able to resolve their conflict, but I was pleased to be of some use. After dinner we walked back to the area near the hotel, where we found a very nice, European-style cafe with outdoor tables. We drank cold Tsingtao and ate roasted pumpkin seeds and enjoyed the mild spring weather. That was one of my favorite moments in Xi'an.

On Saturday, our last day in Xi'an, we went to the city wall, where we rented bicycles and rode all the way around the city limits up on the bumpy wall, designed to protect the city from invaders, I suppose. Despite the bumpiness, it felt marvelous to be on a bike again, and I thought about my family and our summertime "big bike" trips. Afterwards Lili, Miaolan and I went to an incredibly busy park where the air was full of the smell of flowers - there were millions of tulips of every color. There, we had a long conversation with a five year old girl, who insisted on sharing her snack with us and sang a song about playing in the sunshine.

Three more weeks of classes, a week of testing, and this semester will be over. The one-semester students (which is almost everybody) will return to America, and I will have a six-week vacation, followed by another, shorter semester. We are in the home stretch, but I have a whole other race waiting for me when it's over.