Location: Xi'An, China

Today we arrived in Xi’an. Most of us slept better on the overnight train because the mattresses were much more comfortable than the wood we sleep on in Beijing. When we finally got off the train, Ben was VERY excited to see a blue sky. We finally met up with Daniel, our tour guide, who took the twelve of us on a bus meant for forty people. Our first stop was the hotel. Our rooms weren’t ready when we arrived, so while we waited, we had our first traditional Chinese breakfast. The watermelon was good. Uttam wanted to shower, but unfortunately for him, Mary and I got the first available room. When we got there, we discovered that our toilet did not work. Luckily, however, both of us are quite competent plumbers. After showering, we all met downstairs to start our trip to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. We stopped at a factory where they make mock warriors. I’m not sure what else we learned there because I couldn’t understand our guide. After Emily spent the rest of her money at the factory’s gift shop, we headed to the actual Terra Cotta Warrior pits. We had a really good lunch with some delicious watermelon. Daniel kept mentioning 1974, the year that the first pit was discovered. I’m not quite sure what else happened then, but I do know that Daniel loves that year. After the pits, we headed to Muslim street where we bought fans, watermelon juice, and super fancy cotton candy. For dinner, we went to a Chinese Pizza Hut. We got vegetable pizza, Hawaiian pizza and a pizza that was on sale. We also got a salad and Uttam stole a tomato. Ben cried a little because of that. Finally, we headed back to the hotel. We had an interesting discussion and then went to our rooms to hang out before going to bed. We went to sleep later than usual that night. We couldn’t sleep because we knew that we were going to our favorite place the next day, outside of our comfort zone.