grey skies are going to clear up...

My sister Molly had a doll named Nancy who came everywhere. To the mall, on a quick car ride, to daycare, literally everywhere. When Molly was two Nancy went missing. An entire day was spent in search of Nancy but no luck. My mom bought a new Nancy, even put her through the washer and dryer like the old one, but Molly never took to the new one. Amazingly, one day, months after her initial disappearance, Nancy was found. That day was probably the single greatest day in my sister's life. Today I have found my Nancy...BLUE SKY!!!

Much like Nancy, the sun has been M.I.A. since Sunday. I have seen glimpses of blue sky, even a few glorious moments when it seemed like the sun would peek its head out from behind the smog-ridden sky, but nothing ever really felt like the brilliance of sunny day. Then this morning happened. Having slept in until 5:20 (whoa!) I opened my eyes and suddenly panicked. Are we late? I set an alarm. How is this possible? Frantically I grab the phone and realize I am a moron, that is when I flew out of bed. I ran to the window and saw it...blue. All I wanted was for my roommate to wake up to share in this excitement. The best part of this WHOLE story...we are going to the Great Wall today! Excellent! If you want to know what this feels like buy a fog machine and for five days straight have it running in your backyard; then on the 6th day turn it off!

Ahhh. Ok, moving on. Yesterday we started our three day tour. Doesn't that just make you want to sing "A three hour tour?" Anyway, the tour kicked off with a long bus ride. I know I have mentioned the traffic before but let me take this moment to elaborate. Traffic is horrible. It isn't like in Chicago where after 9 or 10 everything clears up until 4 or 5. If you are going into the city anytime in the morning there is traffic. If you are leaving the city anytime in the evening, even at 9pm, there is traffic.

So we hit traffic. Henry, who pronounces his name Harry, but spells it Henry is our guide. Henry (Harry) likes his microphone and takes this opportunity to talk. A lot. He told us the history of his name. I thought this to be very interesting. It was very deliberately chosen. And not because his parents didn't like some one who had that name, but because of the meaning. I don't feel like that often happens in the US. Well after hearing that he told us about the Olympic dream in China. In the 1900s some one asked three questions, When will China compete in the Olympics? When will a Chinese person win a gold medal? And when Will China host the Olympics. (1936 L.A., 1984 L.A., and 2008 respectively) So we finally arrive at our destination...ready for it? A water sewage plant. The Olympic Committee wanted to show us how water was turned clean. The tour was complete with flasks displaying the different stages of water and a nicely placed clear pond at the end of the line. Let's just say the rivers flowing through there did NOT look as good as the chocolate one Augustus Gloop fell into. Sadly there were no souvenirs. I tried!

After our official sewage plant tour, it was off to lunch. I know perfect right? BEST LUNCH EVER! First of all, lunch in China means a lazy susan, chop sticks, and a free for all. We arrived at the table and there were 6 or 8 dishes already out, one being SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN! YEAHAH! And all you do is rotate the lazy susan. Everyone eats from the same dish and sometimes you touch something that you aren't going to eat. For those with OCD, China is not the place for you. Plates upon plates upon plates of food arrive. There is no humanly way we can finish these things, and for the first time since we arrived\ we felt stuffed. (Side note: So I am sitting at the table all stuffed and ready for a nap when I look up to see Tom Bates. Tom and I were camp counselors together three years ago. I haven't seen him in two but the Olympics half way around the world reunited us. Whoa.)

A police escort, yes we are a big deal here, takes all eight buses of American, British, and Australian students and the Chinese media, out to "rural" China. As one of my classmates nicely put it, we think the term rural was confused for suburb. Regardless, we arrive at a very well kept Buddhist Temple. Pristine and empty, we walked through the courtyard area as official Buddhist Temple employees looked on. We picked up the brochure to use as a fan.

Just down the road was a retirement home. The lady in charge was very thankful for the beautiful place the government has provided these people. Her and the other nurses sang a song about "being old and happy" and recited a poem about the beautiful clean air where they were located. Sadly the beautiful mountains were covered by a thick layer of clouds.Sadly the beautiful mountains were covered by a thick layer of clouds.

After a Tai Chi performance, a quick trip around the golf course, and a view of a house (which has each section of the house separated and centered around a courtyard) we were off to dinner. Put 50 college students on a bus for a LONG 2.5 hour drive and you will see how we revert to our childlike tendencies. Leroy found it amusing to attempt to make our professor laugh hysterically. The girls and boys fought over who was better and if the girls could even score a point against the boys in basketball. Very amusing.

Dinner = duck. I wasn't too thrilled about this. I am not the most adventurous when it come to food. So the man comes out with the baby ducks and starts to cut. I, thankfully, have my back to baby Donald, and we are told that the duck is cut into 90 pieces and each piece should have meat and skin. Then a man comes over to explain how we make our duck tacos (not really tacos but much easier to explain) or duck sandwich. I ate it, and it was WONDERFUL. What you do is dip the duck in some sauce that looks like BBQ sauce, but clearly it's not. Then you put on some white thingies, and then a celery-esk thing. Everything on the table seemed to have some duck in it. I also at fish, but that is because it looked like orange chicken and I figured what the heck. When in Rome right? Dessert was interesting. It was a fried, gooey, mashed up thing. It was awkward because at one point it seemed liked I was eating food then it turned into gum, then back to food. Ahhh it was confusing me.

So that brings us to this morning...and the sun. Patrick just came in and said he thinks it is fake. My roommate says they put blue posters up everywhere. Whatever it is, it is glorious. We leave for the Great Wall in about an hour and today I actually get to pack my sunscreen. It's gonna be a scorcher and for once in my life I actually think I'll like it!


- - Megan - -