Little Adventures

This past week has been a series of much smaller adventures than the one before.

On Monday, we went to see the Terracotta Warriors. I forgot my good camera, but my American smartphone takes good pictures.

There are so many of them. And there are three main pits.

The warriors were actually found in pieces because there was a huge fire about a year after Emperor Qin died, and the roof collapsed.

Excavation is ongoing, but it has slowed. The Warriors were originally brightly painted, but the paint sticks to the dirt instead of the Terracotta. Archaeologists are not digging up more until they have a better way of preserving the paint.

I can't capture the scale. There are so many statues.

I would honestly love to be one of the people in charge of reassembling a statue. I love detail work like that, as well as the idea of recreating history.

This week I also had my second big Chinese-language test. I'm improving. I don't know that I will have earned as high a grade on this test as I did on the last one, but I think I did well. Now that I've built a foundation in the language (with few bad habits - an enormous benefit of learning from native speakers), I think I'm falling into a rhythm.

Last night, a few of us went out to dinner with my wonderful roommate, Sophie. She took us by bus to a Korean barbecue place. It was extremely nice and the price of entry included everything, even drinks. So many fresh vegetables. Dumpling bar. Soups. Fruit.

That silver "plate" in the middle is over a brick fire. That's how you cook the food. The mushrooms are my favorite part.

Having a roommate has helped me feel a little more connected to the culture here. We talk about music and holidays and learning languages and friends. We ended up being a nearly-perfect match, down to how we spend our little free time (watching TV on our computers), and our sleep schedules.

I cannot wait to go to KTV together.

The Silk Road trip is coming up quickly. I'm really excited about it. Active, outdoorsy adventures are my favorite. I won't be posting while I'm gone, but I'm sure I will have plenty to talk about when I return!