Are you coming to Xian on business, to study or see the sites? Are you looking for more information about this lovely city? Then check out this site http://talkxian.com/, which has lots of information and is a place to connect with local Chinese people as well as expats.
Hope that helps!
Enjoy this day,
Matt
Well. If you don’t know it already, I love all the Toy Story movies. You can read my top ten kids movies list, here and the worst kids movies, here. But I wrote my top ten list before going to see Toy Story 3 in 3D with my daughter. To be honest, I loved this movie and thought it was a great fit with the previous two movies.
But when considering a kids movie -it doesn’t really matter if I liked- what matters is if my kids enjoyed it. And I can say that, yes, my daughter did love this movie. It was especially fun getting to go see it in a movie theater, a first for her. The movie wasn’t very scary which is important to consider when you have young kids and I felt that it was appropriate for her age (She’s four years old).
The only downside to our experience was that it was in 3D. Here’s what I don’t like about 3D. First, it seems super trendy right now, which means that movies that don’t need to be in 3D end up in it, because they have to be. I didn’t see a need for this movie to be in 3D, and would have preferred seeing it without 3D. Second, it’s more expensive. And I know that I’m a cheap person, but it adds up if you have a few people in your family seeing the movie. Lastly, my daughter wasn’t really digging wearing the glasses. She would take them off and we would try to get her to put them back on. Although that didn’t happen the whole movie, it is something to think about when taking your kid to a movie in 3D.
Overall, I didn’t like the 3D, but I loved the movie, more importantly my daughter did and we will have good memories of our time together.
Enjoy this day,
Matt
I haven't done all of these, but if you're heading to Xian here's a list of some things you can do. In the future I would like to expand on each of these, but for now, it's just a list.
1. Go to the Terracotta Warriors
2. See the Big Goose Pagoda
3. Ride a bike on the old city wall
4. Hit a drum in the drum tower at the center of the city
5. Hit the bell in the bell tower found in the center of the city
6. Eat Pao Mo
7. Walk through the Great Mosque
8. Eat Xian roast duck
9. Shop in the Muslim quarter
10. See the Banpo village remains
11. Come visit me and my family
Enjoy this day,
Matt
I’ve needed this information twice in the past two weeks, which means, that maybe there are others who also need this info also. So here are the Chinese New Year dates and animal signs for the next 10 years. The Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in Chinese culture. It signifies the start of the lunar calendar year.
Chinese New Year 2010-2019
YEAR STARTING DATE ANIMAL SIGN
2010 February 14th Tiger
2011 February 3rd Rabbit
2012 January 23rd Dragon
2013 February 10th Snake
2014 January 31st Horse
2015 February 19th Sheep
2016 February 8th Monkey
2017 January 28th Rooster
2018 February 16th Dog
2019 February 5th Pig
I’m looking to write a guest blog post for anyone who’s interested. I can write about; travel, China, Xian, Teaching English, Studying Chinese, blogging, or parenting. If you’re interested, leave a comment or email me.
Enjoy this day,
Matt
So I was recently given a weight lose tip that I now fully support (I was a skeptic at first). The tip is that when you’re hungry at night, chug a glass of Citrucel.
Citrucel is a fiber substitute (they call it Smartfiber) that you add to water. The thing is, it turns into a thick jello (If you don’t drink it fast enough you will see if happen in your glass). It’s supposed to help you stay regular, but it also leaves you feeling full.
So at night, when that late night snack craving monster comes around, just drink a glass of Citrucel and you’ll feel full and be able to resist the urge to eat a big snack before bed. Or at least it’s helped me in a big way to do this.
Hope that this tip helps you succeed in losing some weight.
Enjoy this day,
Matt
I recently came by the best deal of my life; a bottle of the vitamin B6 for only $3. Where can you get an amazing deal like this? Wal-Mart. Here’s the problem. I also have a friend, a Miss Jae Van Winkle, tell me, “Not all vitamins are made equal”, or something like that. She told me that the vitamins at Wal-Mart just flush through your system. So does anyone out there have an opinion on this, because I don’t want to take these vitamins if they really don’t do anything for me.
Enjoy this day,
Matt
Personally I think my friend is crazy.
