Buster Poindexter Said It Best…

Hot, hot, hot! It has been ungodly hot here in Xi’an the past couple days. While the official temperature here yesterday was 97, I can tell you from experience that it felt much hotter. We were all sweating buckets yesterday. I remember at one point turning a street corner and feeling like I suddenly hit a wall of heat. My breath was taken away and I was sweating so much I couldn’t see from it stinging my eyes. Luckily, there was a drink stand right there. I think partly due to the hot climate here, you can’t throw a stone without hitting a drink stand in this city. So we were constantly drinking.

A few days ago, three friends and I decided to ask one of the Chinese students if he would help us go to a tailor in town to have clothing made. He said no problem. We set the time to meet for yesterday at 10 am. Well, we had approximately fifteen teachers show up and about eight Chinese students. The group was far too big! We took the bus downtown instead of a taxi, just so that we’d all arrive at the same place at the same time. For 1 Yuan, the 20 minute bus ride was a deal. We then proceeded to walk to the tailor’s shop in the Muslim quarter. We all started packing into this tiny shop and the temperature quickly rose, even with a/c and a fan in the shop. So we had to basically rotate in and out of the shop. We took turns getting measured and picking out fabrics. It’s unbelievable how cheap it is here to get hand-made clothing. For our clothing, I don’t think anyone paid more than $60 for a piece. I am getting a traditional Chinese jacket made (not a Mao jacket) for about $53. I will be able to wear it on special occasion, when I’m talking about this trip or to school when I’m teaching about China. Anyway, we spent nearly two hours in the shop getting everyone taken care of. By the time we were all done, we had basically broken up into smaller groups for getting around, which was fine by me.

Lunch was yummy, as usual. We stopped at our favourite dumpling place next to the Bell Tower in the central square. Then we went to the central post office to mail out postcards and buy stamps. Well, there was like a group of 60 students from France who had been here for a while who were all trying to ship stuff home. The place was a mad house! To top it off, they had run out of stamps! The horror! Finally around three a couple of us took the bus back, and no, there were no chickens or goats on the bus. We stopped at our local post office. Again, they were out of stamps. Let’s see, YOU’RE THE POST OFFICE!! STOCK STAMPS! Yes, I was a little perturbed. Back on campus, I bought ice cream, a cold beer, and cold juice. (See the theme??) After a cold shower, I sat back and enjoyed the air conditioning while reading for class. All things considered, it was a great day.