Life in Xi’an: KTV, Birthday Brunch and more! (1/7)

Doing a bit of catching up with this entry.  I have a backlog of photos to share so here we go with that …

On December 28, while Chana and Teresa were still in town, a friend invited us all out to KTV inside the city wall.  So we headed over to Li Jia Cun (李家村) to get our song on.  It was pretty fun and after a few hours we all headed back home.  Here are a few photos:

That was lots of fun.

A few days later was my birthday.  After a morning wushu class I went home and washed up for a nice brunch with Ruhi at the Shangrila Hotel.  It was delicious and I got a wonderful card and gift — tickets to the visiting Fame 2010 Live broadway show that is coming to Xi’an!  The show is on 1/9, which is also the 4 month-iversary of our wedding.  Pretty neat.

Here are some pictures from the brunch:

When we got back home we took a couple of pictures too.  Here is one in celebration of the upcoming and poorly named “Karate Kid”.

In the evening we met up with Charisse and Theresa at the Da Yang Tan (Big Wild Goose Pagoda).  It was my first time there and boy is it hmm .. well, “big”, I guess.  And a little commercial looking, I suppose.  Quite the tourist attraction.

Then we walked to Chang An Lu and caught a taxi to Gaoxin where we partook of Ro Jia Mo and some B&R Ice Cream:

Then a few days later we found ourselves at the Xi’an Sports University checking out information about classes with our friend, Yue Xiao Yu.  She was kind enough to provide us with some introductions with one of the teachers there.  We commemorated the occasion with a few photos at the front gate:

Then it was off to meet up with Ruhi’s friend Stephen, a doctor in Xi’an who I got to meet for the first time.  Very nice guy and was very helpful answering some medical questions for us.  Here he is:

And finally we went to Ruhi’s friend’s home where she and her son treated us to some Shaanxi home cooking. It was quite delicious and I learned how to make Suan La Bai Cai!  Pretty neat.  Her name is Martha and here are some photos:

It was quite delicious.  Actually, that was yesterday (Wednesday, January 6) after wushu class.  Today (Thursday) we had an early morning appointment at the medical center so we grabbed some breakfast in the village on our way back home.  Some Chinese donuts!  Delicious!

And, with the exception of my birthday party video footage, that pretty much brings us up to date.

I did go to the Xi’an International University today, a private university located a mile or so from my home.  I was asking about Chinese language programs for the spring term but I’ll fill you guys in on all of that once I figure out exactly what I will be doing.

Tomorrow morning is wushu. My knee has been really acting up the last 2 days so I’m going to see what happens in the morning.  If I don’t feel up to it, I might just go and work on the side on some choreography stuff.  Hopefully I’ll be okay.  Although, it also means I have to wake up in 6 hours so I better go now.

Until later …

Related posts:*Xi’an Week 1: From the Train to Training