it was only a kiss...

As I said in my last blog, we had blue sky on Saturday, just in time for our Great Wall adventure. Oh what an adventure. We arrived there to find out the Mexican President decided to take his turn climbing the Great Wall so half of the wall was closed off. This meant lots of people and a very little bit of wall. I used my newly found pushing skills to work our way to the head of the pack. You have to stand your ground here. Once we got past the initial entrance to the Wall it actually wasn't that bad. Lauren and I chilled there while everyone else pushed through. Then we started the hike. If you are looking for a good work out, that works all parts of your body the Great Wall is definitely the place to go. You know, if you're ever in the area. We only had two hours so we set our goal on the highest point we could see. There were portions of the wall that felt like I climbing a ladder...straight up. When we got to the top we fought for a view, people had decided this little station was a place to setup shop for a picnic, nice idea, but not with all of China trying to see the Great Wall. We took a breather and started back down.

As I was walking up there I couldn't help notice all the children. First of all, they are so dang cute. Second it made me think of the times my parents brought me to places like the Great Wall, for example the Epcot debacle. There were kids like my brother who were running forty feet ahead and reenacting an intense battle. There were those like my sister who were quietly excited, not wanting to show that they actually wanted to be there. The final group was like me, whining the entire way, "Why do we have to do this?" This isn't limited to the Great Wall either. We saw children in the Forbidden City utterly bored, at the Summer Palace whining in what I can only guess was, "this is boring." I have come to the realization that children everywhere act the same way when brought to educational places. It definitely makes the world seem a little bit smaller.

We waited at the bottom of the Wall for our bus to come. Apparently it didn't get the memo to come back at 1:30. Oh and Starbucks is MUCH better in this country! I had a taste of someone's and I never wanted it more. But of course the bus showed. It's better that way. Then it happened, just as I knew it would eventually happen. We had our first accident. It was inevitable with the way people drive here. And of course it should happen on a road that can barely fit two cars through. Let me quote our driver, "The cars just kissed. There are so many pretty girls on this bus that the car wanted to get closer." Now you would THINK that leads to police and a guilty party. Nope. A bunch of people picked up the front of the car and moved it out of the way then both drove off. That was it. No cops. No tickets. No exchanging of insurance, which I am not entirely certain exists over here. Just pick up the car, the side window that fell off and go on your merry way. Excellent.

Since our little accident delayed us for lunch we had to eat quickly. No problem. We were starving after our rock climb. Another thing I have noticed. They sell junk everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. When we walked into the restaurant we were handed a sheet of paper just in case we wanted to purchase something. Every tourist places and restaurant has had some store. The only market not tapped yet is the bathroom, but there they want you to pay them for handing you a piece of toilet paper or for moping the floor. Anyway, lunch was lunch same as I wrote about the other day EXCEPT we got FRIES! I have never been so excited to see an oily, greasy potato in my life.

Our final stop Saturday was the Ming Tomb. It was kind of a crash course on the Ming Chinese Empire. Henry tried to tell us as much as possible about the place. Information overload! It was however, very pretty. Only 3 of the 12 tombs are open and we went into the main tomb. Most of the stuff in there was a replica because a lot of stuff was decayed but it was still cool. We only spent like an hour at the tomb...quick stop. Then we could either go to the silk market or go home. We chose home.

We had delicious pizza delivered for dinner and at the spur of the moment a few of us decided to go out. It was some weird banana something place. There were lots of men dancers and seemed to be the place to be Saturday night. It was the first time in my life I got kicked out of certain areas and it wasn't because people were acting up. It was because we were Australian and American. It was weird. We went upstairs and everything was fine until one of the boys came up, then we got kicked out. Then we were standing on the balcony overlooking the dance floor and the people didn't want us there so they went and got a guard to move us to a different location. After watching dancing banana man we had enough.

Well that is all for now. 30 seconds until the next update! Haha. It's official blog day!