New Years Resolution

Sooo....remember that time I made a New Years resolution to blog more often? Well I've never been good at keeping up with those, but I suppose forgetting to post until March is a little extreme. Sooooo, I'll do my best to give you the rundown on what happened.

Spring Festival:

OK, so as you may or may not know, China's big Christmas-like holiday is Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year. Now, when I say that it is Christmas-like, keep in mind that it is nothing like Christmas....except for the long holiday that everyone recieves.

After getting back to China in mid-January, I set out on a 3-week vacation with my friends Trent and Jesse. I'll give you the super-short rundown of the trip, and post a link to my photos on facebook. I would put some up here but it would be frustrating seeing as I have like 300 photos...150 of them on facebook.

1st Stop, Xian:
Although our initial travel wish was to travel to Harbin for the famous Ice festival, tickets there were impossible to find. We eventually wanted to travel to xinjiang province, in the west, so we decided it made sense to go west first anyways. Although Trent had been to Xian before, he patiently visited there so that Jesse and I could get a glimpse of China's ancient capital. We had a nice hostel downtown close to a beautiful bell tower. We stayed long enough for Jesse and I to venture out to the home of the Terra Cotta warriors (a magnificent display of an excavated ancient army of clay soldiers built to protect the tomb of the first emporer of China). Before we left the city, we also caught the fountain show at the Big Goose Pagoda, which was cold but beautiful (and also the future site of Trent and Jessica's engagement!).

2nd Stop, Urumqi:
After a 38 hour train ride from Xian, we arrived in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang province. Although we had been warned, nothing quite prepares you for the temperature in Xinjiang in winter. If the actual temperature wasn't enough to freeze you, the piercing winds would usually do the job. We saw some beautiful sights in the city such as Hongshan park, but it was tempting to simply remain in the lobby of our hostel, which had a wonderful heated floor! Now the ethnic makeup of the Xinjiang region is mostly Turkish-muslim, and not Han Chinese. We saw a nice mixture of the two cultures in Urumqi, but our next 2 stops were like visiting a different country. Before we left for the next city (Kashgar), we ventured out to Tian Chi or "Heavenly Lake". Beautiful does not even begin to describe this place. It took us all day to get there, but it was well worth it. We arrived to see a frozen lake, blanketed in snow, and surrounded by beautiful snow-topped mountains. We walked around for about an hour, taking way too many pictures. Trent and I couldn't resist heading on to the surface of the lake itself...and Trent couldn't resist making a snow angel in the surface of this glorious lake. We had to return because our cab driver was not too happy with us, but we could have stayed up there all day. It was simply breathtaking....easily the most beautiful scenery I have seen in China...or maybe anywhere.

3rd Stop, Kashgar
Kashgar, which I'm convinced translates to "thousands of men standing around in furry hats", is in the far western portion of the province. We took a 24 hour train to get there, and spent about 3 days in the city. Since the tourism industry isn't very busy during the winter, the hotel we stayed at was completely deserted save for 1 cleaning lady. While there, we experienced a great deal of Turkish-muslim culture, food, and architechture. We visited the city mosque and a beautiful tomb as well. The food mainly consisted of lamb kebabs placed inside of traditional muslim bread and folded in half for a "Lamb Taco" which we enjoyed almost daily.

4th Stop, Hotan:
Well the bus ride to Hotan was epic. Trent shared his love for music with an old arabic man, Jesse shared his hatred for arabic music with the whole bus, and Trent and I performed both an arabic song parody and a new song "Bus to Hotan" to the tune of "A Whole New World" much to the chagrin of our fellow passengers. I will say that I have never laughed so hard during a bus ride. Once we got to Hotan, we dropped our things at the "Happy Hotel" which had mattresses that made us not-so-happy, but we weren't complaining. Soon after we met up with a Japanese friend named Kuro who we had met earlier in Kashgar....small world. With his Chinese fluency we were able to score some cross-desert bus tickets for the next afternoon and we had dinner together to celebrate. We left just after visiting the ancient city walls...they were about 200 years old. Not very impressive once you've been to the Great Wall. Sorry Hotan.

5th ...err...ride?
We then took the Sleeper bus express across the Taklamakan desert. The trip was interesting. Maybe it was watching poor Jesse attempt to fit his 6'6 frame into a compartment built for a 5'8 Chinese person...or maybe it was the viewing of "Prey" (a movie where lions come out of tall grass to devour people) and the subsequent rest stop in the middle of nowhere with tall grass all around. Fun times.

6th stop: Back in Urumqi.
Out of money, somewhat under the weather, and travel-weary, our crew rested at the wonderful Matian youth hostel for around 3 days while waiting for the train to Chengdu. The only noteworthy event was a glorious trip to the Texas Cafe...mmmm....nachos.

7th stop: Chengdu
After some guy-time out west, it was time to reunite with my fellow Brelands in Chengdu. Luke and Kat awaited our arrival from a dismal 50 hour train ride in which an old lady and her terribly behaved grandson hijacked my bottom bunk. In Chengdu, Lukat happily showed Trent, Jesse, and I the sights and sounds of their former home. We ate more tex-mex, we saw beautiful Dufu's cottage, and we even somehow managed to get return tickets to Shiyan in time for Trent's classes! We did not, however, make it to see the pandas :-(

After Chengdu, we came back to Shiyan on a 16 hour train. Although it was the 2nd shortest train ride I had been on for that vacation, it felt like the longest by far. We were so ready to be home that we stayed up and chatted excitedly as we approached the city at 1:00 AM.

OK, here's the link to my facebook pictures. The Spring Festival albums are in chronological order there so start with one and work toward 3. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2039582&id=147800604

You might have to have facebook to look at the pictures, I'm not sure. If it says you have to be my friend to look at them, feel free to add me if we're not already friends.

OK well I'm off to bed. I have classes early in the morning tomorrow, so I need my sleep.

OH! We are now the proud owner of 2 puppies! Our friends at the automotive college couldn't keep the dogs that they were given as a gift, so they gave them to us because our school allows pets. My dog's name is Sim Sim, and Lukat's dog's name is Trixie. I will post again soon about our lovely puppies and I promise actual pictures will go up of them.

I hope you are all doing well! I miss you guys back home, but life is getting more interesting here by the day, so we are keeping busy. I will post again soon.

Peace,
Finn