Day 45, 46, and 47: Real Mexican Food and Traveling to Xi'an

My apologies for the delay on this post, the wi fi lately has been less than ideal to nonexistent, so I'm a few days behind on my blog for this reason.

So the next day, Dom, Nick and I went on the subway to meet Pablo at Casa Maya, the authentic Mexican restaurant that Pablo had tried to take Dom and I to before we went to Beijing. Dom had double checked through WeChat that they were indeed open this time. Getting to the same building, the one that looked like an apartment building but had lots of shops inside, we made our way up the only working elevator to the 17th floor where the restaurant was.

Pablo had told us a story of him trying to get back to the restaurant another day, and one of the ladies in the neighboring restaurant had told him that the restaurant had been closed for a bit, and gave him pizza instead while she told him the story of the owner, who was named Julio. But getting in there, there was a Chinese waitress who started speaking to us about the menu in fluent English, and when Pablo ordered, she sensed that he was a native Spanish speaker from his accent (he's from Ecuador), and to our surprise, she started speaking to him in Spanish as well.

I ordered chicken enchiladas, and I was delighted by their presentation, including a rose made out of a tomato. Both Nick and Dom ordered two dishes, and Pablo got some fresh tortillas and a meat dish. Nick had to take home some of his tacos, but Dom's burrito was smaller than expected, so he didn't have leftovers. We also got a pitcher of horchata water to split, and it was absolutely delicious! It was my first time having this traditional Mexican cinnamon rice milk, and we all agreed that it was so good, we would come back to the restaurant just for this. Julio came out and started talking to us as well. He was from Mexico, and he and Pablo spoke back and forth in Spanish, as the other three of us looked on. Julio apologized, but I said that we were all fine because we can understand enough to get what they were talking about.

My chicken enchiladas

Interesting instructions on how to eat a taco

Horchata, traditional Mexican cinnamon rice milk

We talked with the owner about our own jobs and why we were in China, and he was really glad to have a conversation in both English and Spanish with people who weren't Chinese. We continued eating, and sat at the table for a while, talking amongst ourselves. Then a different waiter brought out shots of tequila, saying that they were complimentary for us. I went a bit back and forth, but decided to just go for it..... It burned, obviously, much like the rice liquor I had had the previous week, and I wasn't a fan....but now I can say I've tried it (and it turned out to be Jose Cuervo).

Complimentary shot of tequila

We settled our separate bills, and Nick and Dom wanted to get coffees from the Starbucks reserve. Pablo tagged along to see how the special reserve coffee was made. I decided to get a McFlurry from the McDonalds next door instead, because it was a lot cheaper. We watched Dom's special coffee get made, and then Pablo went home for grading, rather than coming with us to the market. So we also decided to head home.

Me being the stereotypical American

The next day, I mostly just hung around the apartment, working on various things, and skyping one of my best friends for a while, until I decided to go out to Sunny Block to get vitamins, snacks for the train ride (and for after we got back to Chong Qing) and look at the Totoro water bottles that had caught my eye a while back. I biked down to the supermarket, seeing that it was much more busy than before.

I stopped by the pharmacy, getting multivitamins because I had been feeling out of sorts with the different diet over here. They were a bit pricy, but I reasoned my health was worth it. I also went into the supermarket, grabbing chips and chocolate for the train ride, so I wouldn't have to pay outrageous amounts on the train. I also went back to the store called "Don't Give a Shit" for the Totoro water bottles, and when I found out they were only 18.8 quai (less than $3), I got two, one for myself, and one for a friend. Since the lady at the pharmacy told me "Happy New Year" in Chinese, I told the clerk at that store the same, and she was delighted.

Unlocking my bike, a beautiful copper colored poodle came up to me, and I pet it, very happy, as the owner looked at me a bit suspiciously, even after I told him "Happy New Year". I started to bike off, but heard people calling out to me. Looking around, I saw Nick and Dom walking near me, and I started biking circles around them, finding out that they had come for dumplings. I decided to sit with them while they ate. They ordered their dumplings, and I sat and talked for a while with them. I also invited them to our bible study that Jessica and I were going to have at 6, and Dom seemed interested. When they went to leave, I decided to bike home rather than walk with them so I could get some grading done.

I got yelled at by the one police officer who told me to go around the other way with my bike, which threw me off a bit, but I did it and continued. Getting home, I worked on some stuff and graded for a while before the bible study. At 6, Jessica and I started (although neither of the boys ever showed up). She used questions from her friend who led a small group again, and we talked about them, and then lapsed into conversations about our respective struggles with God and our campus ministries and church groups that we attend. Soon after that, we both went to sleep in order to get up early for the train the next morning.

Transformer looking sculpture, and one of the Totoro water bottles

Inside view of the Sunny Block indoor mall heading outside

Our train the next day left early in the morning, so we had to get up and get out early. Nick wasn't coming with us on this leg of the trip, because his mother had come to visit him here in China, so he was traveling with her. Pablo had decided to join us in Xi'an in his stead. Unfortunately, both Jessica and I had overslept, but I woke up in a panic at exactly 6:30, which was the time that we were supposed to leave. I ran to tell Dom...finding out he was already awake. So me and Jessica rushed to get everything together, and as we walked out, I realized that I had forgotten my adapter, so I ran back to get it. Going back in, I ran into Nick and his mom heading out of the apartment, which surprised me, because I had thought that his mom had gotten a hotel in Chong Qing for the night.

We headed out to get the taxi to the subway station (the relatively unstable three wheeled ones) so we could get a taxi (one of the regular cars) down to the train station. We were meeting Pablo (who lived on Campus B) at the train station, so that was one less thing that we had to worry about at the time.

Chong Qing train station

We made good time to the train station, and we sat there, and I got an extra bottle of water. We all got some things from Dicos. I got some coffee, chicken fries (that were spicy) and some breadsticks, and I gave Jessica one of the ham sandwiches I had made when we were getting out the door, as well as one of the mini oranges. Soon after, we got in line for the train, which was delayed several times.

Eventually, we managed to get on, and it was a bit of a debacle trying to get our seats, but we managed it. Jessica and I were sitting together in a 4 person "table" group (2 people on each side of a table) and Dom and Pablo were sitting in a 6 person group. Jessica and I were chatting back and forth, and the other girl in our group was chatting with a guy standing by our booth (who we realized was probably her boyfriend, and who didn't get a seat by us). After a bit, the other guy in our group started speaking to us in English, and we found out that he also lived in Chong Qing, but studied engineering in Xi'an.

train at the platform

This was an 11 hour train ride (since this was not a bullet train), so we had lots of time to kill. Legend and the two of us exchanged different topics from education, to interests, to the train ride, and even different cultural perspectives. I was sporadically working on my philosophy homework, and he complimented my handwriting, which was a cursive that I've been writing in since 2nd grade (so for 12 years). Legend pointed out that the speed at which I wrote would help me learn Chinese, and I was surprised by that, because I had never gotten the chance to learn Chinese. He also admired my different academic pursuits (including the astrophysics minor) and joked that "the Chinese were supposed to be the studious ones". But he was also interested in many other things, from the state of American high schools, to Jessica's interest of cryptography, and as we were about to get off, some poetry, music and movies.

View of the countryside

But as the train went on, I eventually finished the philosophy homework (although I couldn't type it up), and read the entire "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" play since I was a bit (to underestimate things) bored. To be honest, the play was much shorter than the regular books, and it wasn't as good as the other books, but it was still a good read. As the train had to taxi to the runway, I started writing some poetry, talking to Legend about some of my favorite poets (all Western, and he knew none of them). I had also given him my fuzzy logic book to read. Fuzzy logic actually stemmed from eastern philosophy, as it sees the shades of grey in the world, rather than just defining something as black or white, and it challenges the binary way of computer thinking to allow machines to think more like people, and throughout the ride, we had been discussing our views on this blend of science, technology, and philosophy. As the train pulled up, I tried to give him his bookmark back, but he let me keep it, saying it was a souvenir from a failed college exam.

Typical set up of the train during the trip

Sticker that was on the train table during the whole 11 hour trip

But we exchanged Wechats with Legend, although we were having trouble because the data was going in and out, and his cell phone wasn't working, but we hoped the friend request was going to go through. We got out of the train gladly, and walked to our hotel a couple blocks away, thankful we had finally gotten there. We checked in using our reservation on C trip, and set our stuff in our room.

Hotel lobby

Cool sculpture in the lobby

Xi'an train station at night

We then headed out to McDonalds, and we all got our fill of grease that we had earned on the train ride. Legend's friend request also went through (albeit the next day) and he had given us websites for learning Chinese as well. Everything said and done, I made a Skype call for an hour or two and headed to bed soon after.

-Zoe