We spent the first day and night in a chinese lowclass hotel (a basement) in a room with one kingsize bed for the three of us. The toilet didn't work and the tingly smell of sheisse and mold invaded the room. The first day went by resting and chilling out with Shao and his sister Vivian. Shao took us to his university to play basketball and then to a market where we tasted different kind of chinese foods. I just have to mention that Vivian bought me a gift as a memory of China. It's a mirror and a comb so I don't know if she actually was suggesting that i should comb my hair and look at myself in the mirror :D
In the evening, after struggling with getting hot water from the shower Shao and Vivian took us to a beautiful park to see the musical fountains. Water came up from the ground to the rhythm of various symphonies, it was breathtaking to watch. The next morning we changed to Belltower Youth Hostel, where we stayed one night. We met Shaos friend Sarah, and went to Shaos school so the boys could work out and play basketball. Sarah took me to her home, which was quite an experience. She and her whole family lives in the muslim quarters on the same yard. Each of them have their own rooms and the family is very tightknit. All of them were really confused to see a foreigner there and people kept coming out of their rooms to look at me. One women was babbling chinese very loud and kept touching my hair and picking on my clothes. I just stood there smiling as Sarah convinced me that "My family likes you, beautiful girl".
On the evening we met Vicky who we had contacted trough couchsurfing. After dinner all of us went out for a beer and then tried to find a nice and cheap club. I came back to the hostel early because I was feeling sick but the boys went out to enjoy the nightlife of Xi'an.
 
Ass Pig and Coloured Pig take over the keyboard:
Yeah, so the night started out really chill. We went to eat some lovely chinese food then headed to the bar street. A street full of bars. It looks really nice but its tough on the wallet! Beers cost ten times more that if you buy then in the shops, but what the hell, we dont really go out all that often. Ida got sick and went home leaving Vicky and us wondering what to do next. Hopped a couple of clubs and ended up at this massive place called "1+1", I mean seriously huge! Highlights of the night; Vicky taught us some fun drinking games, finally got to dance to Sean Kingston - Fire Burning and got invited to the VIP room. Actuaaly it was really funny because we were just cooling down by bridge over the HUGE indoor pond when the manager (by weird coincidence) of our next hostel came up to us and said his girlfriend wanted to meet us.. haha. So the rest of the evening rest of the evening we had free drinks and food!! Accept without shame is the best translation we could come up with for the finnish phrase: "Lokita pokkana!" :D Our conscience didnt even suffer.. small rat of a man he was that treated his girlfriend with no respect. Didnt even get any discounts out of him later on at the hostel despite his drunken promises.
Come to think of it we've been drinking quite a lot of free beer here. We were sitting with Vicky at this other place and the manager came up to her and gave her a card with 2000RMB (200e) on it to be used! Lucky!
Anyways, cutie pig pushes us over and continues writing.. :)
 
Next day we changed our hostel once again, to a cheaper one. Now we've been staying here at Xiangzhimen Youth Hostel since last saturday, hanging out with our new found friends...
During our stay in Xi'an we've mostly been chilling and charging our battieries for future travelling. All of us got a bit ill by turn so the rest was really needed. Between chilling and lying on the sofa watching movies we also got to know the city of Xian. One day Mat and I took a bicycle tour on the city wall, with a doublebicycle, which was a new and fun experience. We also volunteered at the church giving away food to homeless people, where I met Carmen who told me about Starfish fosterhome. Next day I took a local bus outside the city to visit the fosterhome, which was a great and eye-opening experience. I met the founder and got some advice about volunteering at fosterhomes around China. I really enjoyed helping the nannys and sharing some love with the babies, it saved my day. :)
Most of all we've had a lot of time thinking about our plans for travelling and what each of us wants to do. Even though our plans changed several times we came to a final descision. It was time for The three little pigs to go their separate ways from now on. Today Mat left to ? and tomorrow I'll leave to Nanjing. Miki will leave on Sunday to Chengdu where the boys will rendezvous. We don't know when the three of us will travel together again, hopefully in China still.