Enforced sit down.

I left out all sorts of detail about Xi'an and Lanzhou because I spent so much time telling the story of Xia He. Now I have plenty of time to bring my three loyal readers up to date because I have a 10 hour layover in the Shanghai airport. No, not the fancy Pudong International with its sexy maglev train into the city, but the LaGuardia- and Midway- like city airport with its legendary hour-long taxi queue.

I told myself I would go into the city on two conditions: if the subway line here was complete and I could pre-check my bag (bags don't get automatically transfered between domestic flights here. At least not on the flight I was on.) Well, I was able to check the bag (as well as get a seat--no one ever taught me 'aisle or window' in Chinese), but the 地铁 is nowhere to be seen. Lonely Planet was a little vague on when the extension to the line would be completed.

I would gladly take the bus into town except (a) I only have the Lonely Planet map and (b) it's pouring rain. 下大雨。

On the plus side, even moreso than the aforementioned American airports, you can walk right out of the airport onto a city street. So, wi-fi enabled coffeeshop and iced latte in hand, I'm settled in for the long haul.

So, last week in Xi'an I had a great visit at the provincial library. The staff person, Deng Yuanyuan, who translated for me was great, and even invited me down to the employee's canteen for lunch. Then, to top it off, I got invited to dinner at Gu Xiujie's house. A homecooked meal! They insisted it was just simple everyday food, but I find it hard to believe that they make 8 course meals everyday. Fried chicken wings, fried fish fillets, sauteed green beans with pork, tofu, soup, boiled peanuts. There were a couple other things too--dang, I should have written it down sooner. Gu and family's hospitality really was over the top. I got presents!



So after dinner it was off to Lanzhou, which I've already talked about. What I only hinted at was that my appointment was up in the air when I arrived. I was pretty happy that it came through, but on the downside, they told me I'd better bring my own interpreter. I scrambled around on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, and, to make a long story short, really lucked out. The Foreign Languages department at Lanzhou University connected me with an excellent student who went with me to the library, then introduced me to her boyfriend and we all spent the whole afternoon together. It was awesome! Hotpot for lunch (they attempted to pay) then the provincial museum.

Lunch was excellent. We were at a Mongolian chain called 小肥羊 (The little fat sheep or maybe just the fat lamb). We started with a mutton spine. 王 (the boyfriend) would pick the spinal cord out of his vertebra and give them to 刘, because she especially likes them. How romantic! And the provincial museum was really good: dinosaurs and Silk Road. A great combination.

It was a lot of fun, and I couldn't imagine a better random connection. They even gave me a present!