Night Biking

Xi'An is Booked!

Today we picked up our tickets to Xi'An!  We're very excited to go over the week of National Day, when we have Oct 1 - 6 off.  It's about a 3 1/2 hour flight, and the Terra Cotta Soldiers are there; something we really wanted to see.  We were going to take the train, but it was 24 hours ONE WAY, which seemed a bit over the top!  The travel agent sent the tickets to me via a guy on an electric moped, and I told him I'd meet him at the corner of Hua Xing Lu and XueYuan Lu near our apt to make it easier for him to find me.  He handed me 5 round-trip tickets, and I handed over 8200 yuan (about $1100 US) in cash.  I felt like I was doing a drug deal!  I laid out the money on the pavement for him to count, and he laid out the tickets so I could inspect them.  We both nodded at each other and parted ways; the deal was done!

3 Dollar Massage

Sue taught today and I was on my own.  I went to a local shopping district and FORGOT MY CAMERA.  Arrgh!  To make up for it I found a great massage place that gives a good 1 hour massage for about $3.00 US!  This was the first massage I had where the girl got on the table and walked on my back and legs, hanging on to bars on the ceiling so she could do more or less pressure.  It was a sight!

Night Biking

For dinner, we rode to West Lake to a favorite spot called La Varza. 

I made all of my little ducks stay in a row behind me as we had a 1/2 hour ride each way to get there, and it was at night, to boot!  At first I didn't want to take the kids on their bicycles at night, but after enough whining, I turned from Conservative Dad to Adventure Dad.

A couple of things about biking in China:  First, don't ride with your hands over the brakes.  It makes you look like a weak sissy and everyone will pull out in front of you.  You have to ride like you're a suicidal maniac that wouldn't mind running over the pedestrian in front of you.  Or, if it's a car you're dealing with, you have to ride like you'd be happy throwing your life away just so you could get some of your blood on their car!  Second, there is safety in numbers.  If all of the Chinese pull their bikes out in front of the BIG TRUCK then you should pull your bike out in front of the BIG TRUCK, too.  Otherwise you will get left behind... forever.

Tonight we hesitated while the BIG TRUCK was coming, and we all thought we were dead, but he slowed down just enough to let us pass the intersection, yelling "Hello Hello Hello" out the window and laughing at our wide-eyed fear!

Other Stuff

Here are all of the new apartments and storefronts that have gone up on our road.  They look wonderful!  When can we move in, Sue wants to know.

Sue is putting a call out for single page brochures for those of you that are reading from the U.S.  She wants 15 copies of each brochure to use in classroom activities.  The cheapest way to mail them is to send them to our home address in Prescott and the US Mail will forward them for free to our address in China.  Tee hee.   

Mail to:

Sue Lewis

2795 W. Glen Haven Drive

Prescott, AZ 86305