Leaving on a jet plane...

Actually, that is a lie. Today I am leaving on a train ride. I am going to Xi'An (which is where the terracotta soldiers are) and to HuaShan (which is a mountain). To save money we tried to get train tickets b/c they are like 25-40 bucks each way instead of $150 each way (huge savings). To get train tickets it is absolutely nutty. The day they go on sale, which is ten days before departure, you have to go to where they sell them and hope to get tickets. Well, a friend went at 8:30 am the day tickets went on sale and they were already sold out. Anyways, some other friends needed to get tickets so I went down with them to try to get them for another day. After waiting in line for an hour and a half one of my friends learned there were no tickets to Beijing left and for Xi'An they only had one train and one type of seat, but I took it (sort of out of stubbornness and pride since I had been waiting in line so freaking long). Well, I found out that the train I am on is the slow train, meaning it takes about 20 hours to get to where we are going AND our seats are the "hard seats". Apparently it basically is a bench you can sit on and those without tickets sit all over the floor b/c there are standing room only tickets. Needless to say it will be an adventure for sure. I don't think I will get to sleep much, but hopefully I will. Part of me is excited b/c I know I will see some interesting things over the next 24 hours, but part of me is thinking, "What the heck did I get myself into?" It shall be an experience to say the least.