Another sweet morning of sleeping in! Eight a.m. seems about right for both Montana and LuRue.
Montana decided to skip breakfast. Though not sick, it just didn't sound good to her, so LuRue went down for her usual egg, bread, orange juice, and milk tea. Don happened along, though he had eaten hours earlier. He shared his activities from yesterday & LuRue told him about the movie, and about the trip to the Bell & Drum Towers with the students. When it got to the part about returning to the hotel at 11:30pm, he was very glad he hadn't gone.
The two did talk about visiting the Shaanxi History Museum, highly recommended by Baoli, so tentative plans were made for meeting in an hour to take the city bus. Montana wanted to go, too, so the three set off on Bus #24...Don with a city map, charting the turns and the traffic circles, and LuRue counting the stops with curled-under fingers. We found the museum right where we expected it to be, which is always a good sign.
We had been told by Baoli that we could avoid the long line for free tickets by paying 20 yuan each (about $3.50). The first step was to find the place to get those tickets. That resulted in a lively conversation involving a guard, Don trying to speak Mandarin, a street hustler, and a young man who told us that he had an "interpreter license". The answer was almost too easy...go to Window 4, which couldn't be seen because of all the people at Window 1. The conversation also revealed that Don and LuRue could get in free because of their ages--they just had to show copies of their passports.
Once at the entrance, we went our separate ways. Montana and LuRue were guessing that Don might want to linger longer at displays, and once we were in, we knew we had been right. The large lobby was milling with all kinds of tourist groups, small and large, as well as local people and lots of free-roaming tourists. Most of the glass-enclosed displays against the walls were already three people deep, so Montana and LuRue buzzed by those and headed for the free-standing ones in the middle of the room. The building is huge and very nicely laid-out with relics dating back about 4000 years. Some of the older ones were more sophisticated in design than those only 2000 years old. There is no denying that China had a very advanced society, with amazing works of art along with scraps of silk and linen fabrics. Anthropologists must be thrilled to view such treasures, knowing so much more than we do about these things.
There were two floors, and during our speeded-up tour, we learned the Chinese art of merging into space being vacated by other onlookers. The trick is thrusting a shoulder forward while moving a foot in the same direction. The body follows and you find yourself in front (right in front) of a display so that you can read the information. Otherwise you find yourself staring at someone's back.
After we left, Montana was finally feeling hungry, so we walked back along the route of Bus #24, but didn't find any places to eat. We just missed a bus by about 20 seconds, but another was along in about 5 minutes. We kept track of stops again, and got off just after spotting our "butterfly-decorated" traffic circle and passing our hotel. We were back into familiar territory.
We were both yearning for some good old American food so began looking for one of the ever-present KFCs or McDonalds. The golden arches won out. But the overhead menus were all in Chinese. LuRue ordered what she thought was a fish sandwich while Montana got the Chick McNuggets. What LuRue got was a Spicy Chicken sandwich. Two days in a row!! The dictionary is going to have to come out! Not spicy!! A blizzard at a nearby Dairy Queen topped off lunch and helped put out the fire-in-the-mouth.
Back to the hotel, Montana heading for the treadmill...LuRue to write this blog and also the weekend version of the team journal.
Montana decided to skip breakfast. Though not sick, it just didn't sound good to her, so LuRue went down for her usual egg, bread, orange juice, and milk tea. Don happened along, though he had eaten hours earlier. He shared his activities from yesterday & LuRue told him about the movie, and about the trip to the Bell & Drum Towers with the students. When it got to the part about returning to the hotel at 11:30pm, he was very glad he hadn't gone.
The two did talk about visiting the Shaanxi History Museum, highly recommended by Baoli, so tentative plans were made for meeting in an hour to take the city bus. Montana wanted to go, too, so the three set off on Bus #24...Don with a city map, charting the turns and the traffic circles, and LuRue counting the stops with curled-under fingers. We found the museum right where we expected it to be, which is always a good sign.
We had been told by Baoli that we could avoid the long line for free tickets by paying 20 yuan each (about $3.50). The first step was to find the place to get those tickets. That resulted in a lively conversation involving a guard, Don trying to speak Mandarin, a street hustler, and a young man who told us that he had an "interpreter license". The answer was almost too easy...go to Window 4, which couldn't be seen because of all the people at Window 1. The conversation also revealed that Don and LuRue could get in free because of their ages--they just had to show copies of their passports.
Once at the entrance, we went our separate ways. Montana and LuRue were guessing that Don might want to linger longer at displays, and once we were in, we knew we had been right. The large lobby was milling with all kinds of tourist groups, small and large, as well as local people and lots of free-roaming tourists. Most of the glass-enclosed displays against the walls were already three people deep, so Montana and LuRue buzzed by those and headed for the free-standing ones in the middle of the room. The building is huge and very nicely laid-out with relics dating back about 4000 years. Some of the older ones were more sophisticated in design than those only 2000 years old. There is no denying that China had a very advanced society, with amazing works of art along with scraps of silk and linen fabrics. Anthropologists must be thrilled to view such treasures, knowing so much more than we do about these things.
There were two floors, and during our speeded-up tour, we learned the Chinese art of merging into space being vacated by other onlookers. The trick is thrusting a shoulder forward while moving a foot in the same direction. The body follows and you find yourself in front (right in front) of a display so that you can read the information. Otherwise you find yourself staring at someone's back.
After we left, Montana was finally feeling hungry, so we walked back along the route of Bus #24, but didn't find any places to eat. We just missed a bus by about 20 seconds, but another was along in about 5 minutes. We kept track of stops again, and got off just after spotting our "butterfly-decorated" traffic circle and passing our hotel. We were back into familiar territory.
We were both yearning for some good old American food so began looking for one of the ever-present KFCs or McDonalds. The golden arches won out. But the overhead menus were all in Chinese. LuRue ordered what she thought was a fish sandwich while Montana got the Chick McNuggets. What LuRue got was a Spicy Chicken sandwich. Two days in a row!! The dictionary is going to have to come out! Not spicy!! A blizzard at a nearby Dairy Queen topped off lunch and helped put out the fire-in-the-mouth.
Back to the hotel, Montana heading for the treadmill...LuRue to write this blog and also the weekend version of the team journal.
Another really interesting day
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