Well, its been almost two weeks, since I've last posted. That was because we just completed our 9 day academic field trip to Inner Mongolia and Xian. This post is going to be pretty long, because I am going to try and recall all the stuff I did this past week...so feel free to read this blog in chunks when you have the time. Thank You to everyone who is reading this, both back in Philly and Hawaii! I'll break up my adventure into some categories.

Inner Mongolia: Grassland Adventure, Yurts, and Deserts
Xian: Terra Cotta, City Wall Biking, School Visits
Misc: Food, Massages, Host Family

Grassland Adventure:
Arriving in Hohot (capital of Inner Mongolia), I was surprised how developed the city was. Hotel was great, probably served the best breakfast throughout my weeklong trip. It was also interesting because, since we were in North China, the city, like most North Chinese cities, are affected by sand that is blown in from the surrounding deserts. As such, every morning, it looked kind of foggy or hazzy. Turns out it was just sand. I also went to my first McDonalds in China while in Hohot. Instead of apple pie, in China they have red bean pie (hong dou pai). It was actually pretty good :)

Yurts:
This place was literally in the middle of nowhere. We drove roughly 2 hours from Hohot into the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. Before, the grasslands were so thick and tall that supposedly it was like corn or forest-like. But due to overgrazing by animals, the grassland pretty much looks like a desert save for a few inches of grass on the ground. Most parts however of the grassland were fairly dusty.

Some first-time experiences happened while in the middle of nowhere. I got my first opportunity to ride a horse. The ride lasted for two hours and we basically explored the grasslands, going up and down hills and small ravines. Pretty cool. At first I was a little scared, but it was well worth the 100 kuai we each had to pay for the horse ride.

Later that night, we watched the sunset and saw the stars (for the first time!) in China. Also, the place we slept (the yurt) had no heat save for a coal-burning stove. The night was pretty uneventful since there wasnt anything in the yurt (only one light bulb, and a stove, thats it). We tried to go sleep at like 10pm, but I couldn't cuz the dogs owned by the local Mongolians in the area kept me up all night cuz they kept barking. Damn Dogs

Also, the yurt place had no toilet whatsoever. If we needed to relieve ourselves, we basically found a spot and did our biz. Thank god I took some imodium before going to the yurt place. I can't imagine taking a shit in the open. I also forgot to mention how cold it was there. Just around freezing point (I think the tour operator said around 3 Celsius).

Desert:
This was pretty cool. I had no idea that they had deserts in North China. Apparently the majority of north China is just grassland or desert. We drove about 5 hrs from the yurt place to a desert area. We took some pretty cool pictures of sand dunes as far as the eye can see, before we headed back to the city.

I think thats alot for one post, so I'll write about the rest of my academic trip in the coming posts.

TML