Welcome to Xi'an: The Apartment on Ke Ji Road

Well, I finally made it to Xi'an, China after taking my Korean Air flight from Seoul. The airplane touched down at Xianyang Airport on a runway surrounded by fields of crops and occasional clusters of brick houses. A uniformed officer on bike met us as we taxied to the gate and as we got off the plane, more military personnel met us at the door of the plane. I made my way to customs and got through easily enough. Then I went out to the area for arrivals to try to find my contact from IVHQ but no one was holding a sign that I could see. I wandered for a while, before a shorter man came up to me and gestured to a sign he was holding that said: "Landon Webber- Volunteer." This was it.

I nodded and he didn't say a word, beginning to dial a number on his phone. He put me on the phone with David Zou, the project director here who works with Volunteer China International/IVHQ. I talked to David who told me that the driver was hired by IVHQ and would be taking me to the volunteer house, an hour from the airport. I got in and rode through much of Xi'an, which reminded me so much of my trip to China with my family in August 2009. A filmy, white haze seems to hang in the air here, making distant objects, like posts holding electric wires, seem distant. The driver and the driving was also characteristic of China. There was one point (pictured below through the bars of the taxi window) where there was a literal traffic jam, all cars inching forward and wheeling right and left shoving each other out of lanes in order to get forward. It was like a crowd of people pressing forward, but with cars.

At another point, there was a four-way intersection. Simple enough. However, the actual place where the crossing lanes intersected was much wider than typical intersections in the U.S. There really should have only been four directions for cars to be going. However, what happened in the middle was definitely not going only four directions. It was some kind of cross between a roundabout and a game of musical chairs. Cars and bikes and mini cars drawn by bikes were all spinning around and swerving to avoid each other in order to get the direction they were going. As I learned last time, lanes are only a suggestion here. A suggestion that often goes ignored.

I arrived at the apartment on Ke Ji Road and met David for the first time. He was happy to see me and took me six flights of stairs up in an apartment building where the volunteer house is located. A sign on the door read: Please take your shoes off before entering the house. Inside, I met the other volunteers who I am still being introduced to as I write this. From my open window (pictured below too), I can hear the sounds of the street below. Loud talking, Chinese music, honking of car horns. The room has several bunk beds. I spent most of the day getting settled and napping and letting people know I arrived safely over email. Still trying to figure out the whole Skype thing. The word here is that this apartment will only be my home until Monday when all the volunteers are being moved to hotel rooms at the request of the government.

More on that later. For now, I will be getting adjusted to the time zone, sleeping. It is evening and the sun has already set here and all the nightlife is just beginning. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be adjusted to the difference in time and not feel as tired. I will keep you updated as I continue to get settled but thank you for all the prayers and support again. It means so much.