去夜店，去教堂

Epitome of China: On Friday we travelled north of our campus to the old city wall (城墙), which you are not only able to climb atop and walk around but also able to rent bikes and ride around the wall; naturally we all rented bikes, which were a lot of fun to ride around the “cobblestone” bricks in various stages of disrepair (and especially fun to go up and down the slight ramps to the corner sentry towers). But just inside the main south gate was an annual reception for a luxury products company (the set up looked like it was for an upscale wedding, complete with a large tent, small cocktail tables and a live band).

Riding atop the city wall
(left to right) Andras, Cora, and Karen
[The four of us spend a lot of time together]

View atop the city wall, looking into the inner city from the main south gate

Unfortunately, this epitome of China, the juxtaposition of ancient and hyper-modern is quickly becoming pure modernization. Too many ancient cultural relics and time capsules of history are simply being replaced. Xian is one of the few cities (perhaps the only one of its size) that still has a completely intact city wall.  

A few of us from the program and a few other international students living in our dorm decided to go out Friday night as well. Xian looks completely different with the night life; there are neon lights and signs everywhere, and the trees planted in the median are all lit up with bright green lights! We ended up going to a dance club called Fantasy. There was a rather small dance floor, but it was able to hold a lot of us by the end of the night. They even had a stage where performers came out to sing (sometimes lip sync) and dance to songs. The single male performer really resembled the Korean pop star Taeyang.

It’s funny how dancing is almost a language of its own, as it was more or less the only way I could “converse” with people in the club. First of all, clubs are so noisy with the music blasting, it’s near impossible to actually hear anything people say, and secondly, very few people understand or spoke English (I think). The only non-English song that I recognized, “Gara Gara Go!!” by Big Bang, luckily played while I was dancing with a group of girls who were either Chinese or Korean (It was hard to tell with the flashing lights and I’m still not especially skilled at distinguishing). I also ended up in a circle of Chinese guys dancing, so it was a lot of fun playing off each other and imitating each other until we danced in sync.  

………………………….

On Sunday, I was faced with the potentially difficult task of finding a Catholic church to attend Mass at. We had been provided a list of places of worship in our orientation packet, for which two churches were listed under Roman Catholicism; however, we were only provided addresses. Without working internet in my room and about twenty minutes wasted trying to find a street on a map of Xian, I headed off to an internet café with some friends to do some homework and look up the location of the church. I figured I would have to take a taxi anyway, but I wanted to know roughly where I was going and how far away it was so I could gauge prices better. Well, Google maps apparently thinks there is only one Catholic church in Xian, and it just so happens to be inside the city walls. Mass in English started at 3:30pm, so I figured if I leave to catch a taxi at 3:00pm, I should be fine. 

Google Maps of route from our dorm to the Catholic Church

A few things I forget to consider: taxis are not nearly as plentiful on Sunday afternoons as they are on Friday nights; you don’t necessarily get a taxi as soon as you stand to wait for one; taxi etiquette (like many things in China) is more about who is most assertive than who got there first (myself being a tad timid does not help in these situations); and finally, hailing a taxi is no good if you can’t remember how to pronounce the destination you want correctly. Luckily, a “taxi moped” stopped as I was waiting for a cab and the man “asked” me where I was going. After some failed attempts at saying “Catholic church” (tiānzhǔ jiàotáng), we finally both understand the street I wanted (and to some degree a church, I think…) So I hopped on the back of the scooter and we were off.

Riding on one of these— no seat belt, no helmet (for me or the driver), no sides or doors, weaving through traffic, sometimes into bike and bus lanes or even crosswalks— was not nearly as scary as I thought. It was rather comfortable and I never felt like I was going to fall off, though I was scared we were going to be squished by a bus once. But we made it to the church in one piece, and just as Mass was starting.

[Random geeky side note: the priest’s voice reminded me a lot of Uncle Iroh from Avatar: the Last Airbender TV series]

After Mass, although it seemed like it would rain any second, I decided to start walking back home. I figured I needed to get closer to a main street before I could find a taxi anyway, and I was running fairly low on cash, so I wanted to stop at an ATM, too. Well, I found the bank but couldn’t find any outdoor ATMS (the inside was dark and no people inside, so I assumed it was locked; I probably should’ve tried the doors). I got it in my head that I should try walking all the way back to the dorm, partially to see more of Xian and partially to see just how long it would take. And once I decided to do it, I did it…. Unfortunately, it started raining about the time I made this decision, and I didn’t have an umbrella with me, so I get fairly wet. [Speaking of the rain, it’s been raining constantly since Sunday late afternoon— that’s nearly three days of straight rain!] The walk took me about 70 minutes, which isn’t too bad; I didn’t have much else to do anyway even if I had gotten back to the dorm earlier.