The China Diary (7 of 10)

Very little of this diary entry makes sense to me.  I have no idea what 'forms' I was filling out nor what Irish play I was referring to towards the end.   Or why I apologised about it to my mother.

A pagoda is multi-storied structure, erected as a memorial or a shrine.  Given the rather petulant nature of pretty much all of my diary entries to date, I'm surprised that I didn't complain about them more.  There is nothing in my memory quite as ubiquitous as the pagodas on my China trip.  "Oh look, another pagoda!" was a common condescension uttered on the many tour bus rides we took.

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Friday, 24 March 1989
Xian Hotel
Xian

We had to get up really early again today because we had to catch a plane here to Xi'an.  As soon as we landed, we went straight to the hotel, filled out the forms, and had to wait because the rooms weren't ready, so we went to a 7-storey pagoda and took pictures from the top.  (I forgot, we had lunch before the pagoda.)  After the pagoda we went to this little complex of stores (fun?) and looked and didn't buy a thing.  We then went back to the hotel and our rooms were ready this time.  So we went in and Mike and I got the smallest room in the whole place.  Everybody else's was a lot bigger than ours, so we settled in and goofed off for a couple hours, and then got changed into our good clothes for dinner down in the lounge.  About the only good thing there was the orange pop and the french fries.  After dinner, we went across the street to a theatre and saw the most boring "play" I've ever seen.  Even worse (sorry Mom) than the Irish play.  Half of the people at our table slept through most of it.  After the play, it was ten o'clock so we came back to our oh so big hotel room and changed, wrote this, and will shortly go to bed.  Goodnight!

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This picture is of me and the chaperone, Mr. M.  His daughter was on the trip also, Christine.  (Seems that it would have been a little awkward doing a trip like this with one's dad, but I suppose she was used to it since he was also her teacher back home.)

And continuing with the habit of posting pictures a day ahead of a potentially relevant diary entry, this was snapped just outside the Forbidden City in Beijing.  Being open to tourists, it ain't so verboten no more.

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[Paula]

Now there's a smile I know.