This weekend was a bit different, the Hutong School in Beijing did a class trip to Xi'An to see the sights, so I met up with them a couple of times and hung out. It was nice to see some of my old friends from Beijing! Although I was too late getting in my request for an emergency shipment of pineapple beer :-(.
It's been very hot here in Xi'An, so I've been slowly working my way through every single kind of popsicle I can find:
This one is flavour "purple", with chocolate.
In the afternoon I visited the "Grand Mosque" in the Muslim district. It's not that easy to find (although to be honest this is the first time I ever tried, and I found it, although some people might claim I just got lucky). It was one of the most peaceful places I've visited so far in all of China! And also had one of the cleanest washrooms.
There were a whole bunch of students sitting and standing around sketching. I peeked at their work (of course) and it was all pretty darn good! Reminds me that I should be doing something creative while I'm just bumming around China. (Although I did find one creative outlet today. More in a bit ...)
The main prayer room ...
I wasn't the only one lazily bumming around.
Afterwards I met up with a couple of Hutongers and we went out for biang biang mian. I'm sorry to say this was nowhere near as good as the other place I've been going to. Note however the huge dollop of garlic!
My creative outlet. I did a quick budget review and found that right now this holiday is coming in at about $45 under budget. At my hostel that equates to 11 Gin and Tonics. Normally I drink beer, but not tonight! I don't know if it was because my expectations were low (a Chinese G&T? do they have Victoria Gin?) or the fact that I haven't had one for almost 2 months, or the 40-degree heat (at least that's how it feels to me) but G&T #1 was pretty darn good!
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