Shanxi People

Well, technically the girl on the left is from Henan.

Good-Bye Linfen

One of my last pictures in Linfen as I waved goodbye out the train window. I must admit I got a little choked up; I had grown attached to the dirty little city and the friends I had made there. The people are warm and the life is more relaxed, not to mention the food I've grown fond of and the Chinese I speak has been forever influence by this place. My friends would often joke how I'm a Shanxi native, and I'm ok with that.

Driving Xi'an

Hua Shan (华山) from the Highway. The apartments above the police station I waited at while one of my friends tried to track down his towed car. Until then I didn't know there was such things as parking violations in China. A bridge over the Yellow River (黄河), connecting Shaanxi (陕西) to Shanxi (山西). Same bridge. Went to Xi'an (西安) for a few days at the end of my stay in China. We drove there from Linfen (临汾), stopping off in Yuncheng (运城) on the way. The three day trip turned into four was mostly full of driving, visiting and eating, and we sure did eat good. I say turned into four days, because when our car got towed for parking illegally, we kinda had to wait to get it back.

Drunk XiaoYu

XiaoYu is a 22-year-old kid that works full time over at the bike shop. Previously he had spent time working for the local Mafia, and has plenty of scars to prove it. I found out he likes to drink, but I also found out he has trouble turning it off. He has some pretty frightening drinking stories, such as waking up on the street with his arm busted and all possessions stolen, or jumping into a lake unable to swim, backpack cell phone and all, but around me mostly he just pined over a particular girl.

Linfen Street #3

Chinese Drive Through

While in Xi'an (西安) for a few days I came across the first drive through I had seen in China. This also happened to be the first drive through my two friends had ever seen, so in response they immediately swung a U-turn, pulled up to the window and ordered three ice creams.

Graduate Students (研究生)

This was my last class with my graduate students, only four showed up plus this random undergrad boy who stated sitting in on our class. This class was always pretty low on attendance because it was a last minute elective that was added to their last semester of classes, but this week 10 or so of my students had to be in Taiyuan to grade tests. For those that did show up we just got to hang out and mess around, and after class took a few pictures.

Lao He（涝河) and Dayang Village (大阳村)

Biked back to LaoHe (涝河) and ate in the nearby Dayang village (大阳村) for lunch.