T-Minus Six Hours

So, school is done.

The children have left.

I'll be leaving for my next adventure in a few hours.

Gah.

This is all incredibly bittersweet.

I'll be heading out to catch an 18 hour sleeper train that will take us to Xi'an, where the infamous Terra Cotta warriors are. After that we're catching another billion hour train ride to Lanzhou, the home place of pulled noodles where there is the most incredibly precise and specific technique to making them. It's insane. And delicious.

After a day or two there, we'll be hitting up the province of Xinjiang. The most western province of China, it borders 8 other countries, most of which are middle eastern, there is a major influence of said countries and in many places one can expect to forget they're even in China: the language is different, the food is different, the writing style is different, the religion is predominantly Muslim, it should be awesome! We'll be touring the Silk Road and the Gobi desert before eventually flying back to Shanghai.

At that point I will be leaving the rest of my fellow travellers and making my way up to Beijing for about a week before I fly home to CANADA on July 22nd.

I plan on taking approximately 38, 000, 002 pictures and then posting them along with my adventures (of which I'm sure there will be many) when I get back to Canada and to the land of non-dial-up and crappy connections.

Until then...