First Week Recap

So I'm aware I've been out of commission for about a week now, give or take and international date line, and a lot has happened in that time. So, let's just get down to it.
The plane ride was uneventful. Long. You can imagine. One exciting thing is that I am now about fourteen hours into the future from Austin, TX, so when you read this, it's like I've gone back in time to talk to you! Or something. Time travel is a very complicated sport. Anyway, I got to the Beijing airport and found my group without a hitch. My first beverage was a "special" iced coffee from a stand outside the terminal, which was basically just water and flavoring. Coffee is very hit or miss here, but I did invest in some instant coffee this morning, so I should be okay.
I stayed in Bejing for about three days, and stayed in a dorm room in the BCLU (Beijing Culture & Language University) campus, where most of the Alliance kids are going. In fact, only 7 out of I believe 30 of us are in the Xi'an program, which is fine by me. The less the merrier. The Larryer. Anyway, Beijing was way too big, I was overwhelmed by its mass and acutely underwhelmed by my utter inability to say even the simplest of sentences. It seems that all of my Chinese skills have gone into hibernation for the winter, so I'm relearning a lot of the language. It's frustrating, but I think with time I'll be back in shape.
We took the overnight train to Xi'an on Saturday, after visiting a secluded, extremely awesome part of the Great Wall, which was completely unexpected and amazing. I'll post some pictures soon, but let's just say for now that we ate a homecooked meal made by farmers in a mountain town and it had just snowed. Beautiful.
So we got into Xi'an Sunday morning, and got to our hotel, where we're staying on the tenth (top) floor, which is the only floor with a balcony in each room. So I get to wake up and drink my NesCafe with a whole portion of the city in front of me. It's pretty great. And very cold. But worth it. I can watch some Chinese melodramas if I want to, which are great because almost all of them are set in the Tang dynasty or something ridiculous and I have no idea what's going on. But it's fun.
Xi'an is much bigger than I expected. I mean, I expected pretty big, but I don't think I've ever been to a city this big, and it's considered small! "Xi'an?" The Chinese say, "Pah! It only has 8 million people! What a small city!" It really makes Austin look like baby stuff.
Oh, look at the time (me, not you). I've got to get to class. Recap #2 when I get back!