breaking down the wall!

Hey! this is ben!
we made it to Xi'an! Our hostel helped us find a website that allows us to (finally) login to our blog and update you all(anyone?) on what's going on here.... this is it....


XXXXX.org (removed to protect the innocent)is your one stop source for accessing websites that are banned. School or workplace banned your favourite website? You need not worry, XXXXX.org is here to solve precisely that! We encode the website URLs you are accessing so you are getting to them through our server, meaning that you can access sites that would otherwise be banned! To use XXXXX, simply:

Enter the URL of the website you wish to access in the URL box below
Click Browse!
Enjoy a website that you'd otherwise be banned from!


Back to the post! how about that! i'm so excited to finally break through and reach out to the throngs of followers out there! plus i must admit a slight thrill at being mischevious!

We have left Beijing, and are now in Xi'an. We spent last night(weds night)on the train on a "hard bed." it was actually quite comfortable and way, way better than a normal seat. Me and Jin got beds in seperate cabins, but with Jin's kindness, and her ability to shmooze the locals(in chinese of course) we switched with a friendly guy and had middle beds(of 3 stacked bunks) opposite one another. I was a little slow, as usual, so we had to run from the subway, to the city bus, to the station and made it to the train just in the nick of time. I was even able to stop at the train station and get some rice, with a side of tomato and eggs, and another side of pork and seaweed..... all for 8 yuan($1.15 US....actually not that cheap for here.)
the train was nice, and i even got to read a couple chapters of my book before passing out. Jin woke me up this morning as we approached Xi'an and I was able to watch a little bit of the Chinese countryside pass us by outside before arriving in the city this morning. The countryside of China is much different from the city of Beijing. While Beijing appears to be rather similar to a US city, the countryside definitely seems closer to that of South America. It is beautiful and lots of farmland, but not nearly as developed as the US.... kinda cool! and a great change of pace from the cosmpolitan vibe of Beijing!
Ok, I'm off to the room for a minute..... more updates to come!