So, did you know that Brian and his roommates used to call themselves the "Freakin' Soldiers", and wherever they dwelt was affectionately dubbed the "Soldier Dome"? (Lest after following this blog you mistakenly think that Brian is the only one who got the dorky end of this marriage stick... :)) Yep. Soldiers. Gave that Destiny Child's song "Soldier" a whole new, magical meaning for me when it came out. Sigh. The memories. :)
ANYWAY. As usual, I digress. To the point of this post. Brian and I went with some of our best chums, the Jacksons, to see some REAL soldiers a couple of days ago (sorry Bri, but with the exception of maybe Wade, you guys aren't quite real soldiers). Terra Cotta Warriors to be exact. So cool. Here's the story:
The first emperor of China (we're talking around 200 B.C.) was a little nutty and paranoid. He built hundreds and hundreds of castles throughout his kingdom, and slept at a different one each night because he was scared of being assassinated. He set harsh laws, and harsh punishments. From most accounts...nut case. But he also did some cool things...like unite the empire, set up a common money and measurement system, build roads, and HAVE HIMSELF BURIED WITH THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF LIFE-SIZED WARRIORS! He wanted to be protected and pampered in the afterlife, so he had soldiers, and archers, and entertainers, and...a whole empire's worth of terra-cotta people buried in his underground tomb. 15 of these life-sized soldiers were on exhibit at the National Geographic Museum, and it was really mind-boggling to see. Archaeologists have been excavating the site since it was discovered in the 1970s, and the exhibit had some cool artifacts too.
They wouldn't let us take pictures in the exhibit, but here's one I googled (the ones at the beginning of the post are with a replicate soldier...but I still think he's kinda cute :)). Yay for getting to experience living in a place where we can get our occasional dose of culture-ization! :)
And for those of you who are in the mood to learn and see even more, click HERE.
3 comments:
So I guess you and I are not the only ones with the weirdo nicknames;) Thank you dear, for yet another history lesson! I have learned so much history from you! And this story is so weirdly cool! Wish I could have seen it! You look sooooo cute BTW...love the skinnies:)
Wade is an Airman, which is better than a soldier. And that is a scientific fact. Morgan is a soldier like Beyonce is in the music video. That's not a fact... yet.
You do such a good job of giving fascinating background!
Fun night.
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