ALASTAIR + LALEINIA

Sometimes you just need to get away from your surroundings. Like in Modesto, you just need to take a trip to San Francisco every so often. We just had to get a change of scenery, so we went for a quick weekend trip to Xi'an. We already went to the Terracotta Warriors, so we didn't do that again. We just spent the weekend shopping at Muslim Quarter, eating delicious barbecue, and making a few trips to Dunkin' Doughnuts. There's just some things you miss when you don't get it too often, like doughnuts and hot chocolate, especially when it's getting cooler. It was nice to just sit and relax while sipping on hot chocolate.  While in Xi'an, we decided to check out a museum. We really enjoyed looking at all the statues. The lighting on the subjects made it exceptionally magnificent.   Our favorite part of this trip was admiring all the colorful leaves falling from the trees. There were all hues of red, green, yellow, and brown. It finally felt like fall. ...

Terracotta Warriors. Yes, you have heard of them before, or at least seen a picture of them somewhere sometime. You may not have paid much attention to it at the time, but somewhere in the back of your mind, these are somewhat familiar. Being in almost the middle of China, which happens to be a HUGE country by the way (and would have to be, what with one and a half billion people living here), visiting the Terracotta Warriors would need to be a massive voyage for most. Well, not us, since we are living in Luoyang, which happens to be just five hours away by train (90 minutes by the more expensive fast train). So, on the slow train we headed for our first weekend away from Luoyang! This whole trip to the Shaanxi province was thrown together last minute, so the first thing we did upon our arrival was go in search of a place to lay our heads for the evening. Armed with nothing but a copy of the Lonely Planet and a Mandarin Phrase Book, we ventured out into the rain. Quite...