Monday, May 17, 2010

I Can’t Read This. I Hope You Can.

Posted by She Said

Some of you may realize that the computer we brought on this trip is failing us. Well, we can change that to past tense.  It HAS failed us. I can not see what I am typing as I type this. Forgive any misspellings, ok?

The train ride to Xi’an was pretty interesting. We had our own little room with two bunk beds. The kids thought this was really cool, and it gave them an adrenaline rush that put their bedtime WAY too late. It took forever for them to finally crash so Greg and I could watch a show on my lovely PC. It must have been the bouncy cab ride to the train station that broke my computer’s proverbial back. In order to watch our show, we had to pinch and twist the monitor in just a way to make the screen not freeze up. This, I assure you, is not the exercise my husband prefers for his hand. Ahem.

So, to compensate, I used my amazing engineering skills to hang a pair of pants from two carefully mounted hangers attached to the monitor. Shutup! It TOTALLY worked!

Here is proof:

_IGP8117

Sadly though, this technique has not worked in our hotel in Xi’an. Instead I am typing blindly and missing my TV shows because there is no way to hold, pinch, and twist for that long without cramping. So, instead I thought I would blog blindly.

This city is pretty spectacular. We have come here with Lilian and Chang, and they had a full schedule, so we hit the ground running. First, we saw an amazing fountain. The kids were little stars again but had a great time running through the water (which was choreographed to music).

_IGP8132

This was seriously the largest fountain any of us had ever seen.

_IGP8126

The above picture only shows about half of the fountain. Then we hit the Large Goose Pagoda (the large tower in the above building). Filled with a sense of tranquility and peacefulness, we roamed the luscious and meticulously maintained grounds. It was stunning.

_IGP8177 _IGP8160

To hell with it. This is simply too hard, so I am going to cut this blog short. But, I will leave you with two things. First, a video of me trying to blog blindly:

Second, I will leave you with a list of blog posts we intend to write after we get home and do this to my computer:

  1. Spachinglish on the bus to the Hot Springs.
  2. Almost getting in trouble with the law in McDonald’s.
  3. The woman who offered Greg a smoke and why.
  4. The man who offered Greg a smoke and why Greg took it.
  5. Muslim street.
  6. Terracotta soldiers.
  7. A Song of Everlasting Sorrow
  8. The train ride.
  9. Food. Food. Food.
  10. Partaking in public urination.
  11. English translation fail pics.

Thank you all for following us on our adventure!

4 comments:

  1. Maybe you can get a new computer for your birthday... Hint, hint.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like you guys are having fun on this last leg of the trip. I'm impressed with your ability to push through with the screen gone. That hurt my eyes. And I'm looking forward to the posts when you get back. How do you get in trouble with the law at McDonald's? I am so curious!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for including all of us in your adventure...it has been wonderful and I tell you we envy you and Greg and the fun all of you have had....great stories and fabulous pictures. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone...travel safe and we will see you soon...Happy Birthday too...and Greg..hint hint new computer:-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm so impressed that you were able to post links, pictures, and video without seeing what you were doing. HOORAY FOR GEEK POWER!!

    ReplyDelete