IT'S SUNDAY (Father's Day and why have several Chinese kids given Kevin gifts?) and we're finally in Xi'an after a 20 hour overnight train ride from Shanghai.  The trip was about twelve hundred miles and we shared a four person compartment with two Chinese (we're in China, remember?) guys that weren't beer drinkers but definitely liked "nose candy!"  We couldn't understand a word that they said (nor they us), but before we all fell asleep in our respective "micro-bunks" (2ft x 5ft - NOT KIDDING!) we did all agree that Obama is a black man, Super Nintendo is better than Playstation and the best strip clubs comp every third lap dance.

When we left Shanghai yesterday (from the 2nd largest train station in China - over 1 million passengers a day!) it was absolute chaos!  It's a good thing that we were drunk, otherwise we would have had to chew up all of our remaining Prozac just to survive.  There were people yelling, babies urinating on the floor, thousands of people pushing to get on trains and us in the middle of it all (cool, huh?).  It was like being on the movie set of "Towering Inferno," only without the tower or the inferno.  (Okay, scratch that analogy - it made no sense!).

Anyway, we made it to Xi'an, arriving here about 2pm local time (we left Shanghai yesterday about 6pm local time), and got a room right across the street from the train station at a five-star hotel (NOT KIDDING!) for $30 bucks a night!  This is a city of about six million in population located dead center in the middle of China (Google it and learn something!) and famous for it's proximity to the Terra Cotta Warriors.  Seeing that buried ceramic army of thousands is on our "to-do" list for tomorrow, but tonight our "to-do" list includes a warm shower (the first we've had in days), lot's of beer (Budweiser we hope!) and seeing ChenChenLa do her snake dance (like a Tijuana donkey show) at the strip club our friends from the train told us about...

                                          FOUR PICTURES TODAY AND (BY POPULAR REQUEST) ANOTHER VIDEO!

      
Shanghai Train Station - over 1 million served per day!              Our 4-person compartment - note bunks overhead!

      
Stacy enjoys a "local" beer in the train barcar for 50 cents!     Kevin eats "Jumbo" Top Ramen tub for just 25 cents!

                                                  JUST CLICK ON THE AROW AND ENJOY A CHINESE LESSON!