in Xian now

Sorry haven't been able to put on more pictures and I've left all our pictures so far with Charlie (he's going to burn a DVD for us of all of our pictures). It's a lot more difficult to put on pictures than I'd hoped. Really time consuming and doesn't always work and my internet access has been limited. But if I can I will try to put some on in Xian.
Some interesting things in China:
* can't access blogs! I tried here in Xian and it's still blocked. I can post but can't see the actual blog or comments.
* bathrooms with no doors! (squatty potties are just a given)
* even women "hork" and spit!
* bikes & mopeds don't stop at red lights and mostly everyone doesn't follow rules when it comes to traffic. Bill got really indignant cause it was green for pedestrians to cross, but the taxis didn't stop and almost ran into him. They'll go the wrong direction, bikes will go the wrong way in the fast lane and cut right in front of cars, etc. I really don't know how people drive here!
* lack of sense of personal space. People will just bump into you (sometimes pretty hard too) and keep going. With Canadians, we apologize to a "pole" if we bump into it (and when it's not our fault we still apologize) so that's really different
* no waiting in lines. People just "budge" in all the time.
* lots of people smoke indoors (yuk!)
* often people talk really loud (it's sounds like they're angry but usually they're not)
* everyone eats from that same dishes. We all just plunk in our chopsticks together. I'm kind of used to this one already but it's still kind of weird when you don't really know the people.
* the pollution is pretty intense - smog like I haven't seen before
* when you shower, your smell is still not so good (due to the poor water quality) - and they have "black" rivers
But even with all these things, we've really liked it here! and we've met a lot of wonderful people too. People that have been really helpful and hospitable. Just yesterday we were at this shish-ka-bob place and this guy gave us some of his shish-ka-bobs to try, just to be nice (I don't think he dropped them on the floor first - haha). So we've been treated really well too and have been enjoying ourselves.