Day 4: July 30, 2011

Today I went to the Great Wall with other students. When we got to the Wall this morning around 10, there were tons of people there already. Native Chinese people had stalls set up on both sides of the road full of chopstick sets, t-shirts, furry communist hats, Mao paraphernalia, jade bracelets and figurines, and much more. A few stalls sold cold water and other drinks, in addition to ice cream and snacks. Then there were also stalls with tons of fresh fruit--apples, bananas, peaches, mangoes, and a lot of things I didn't recognize or didn't have enough time to look at.

After we passed all of these things, we reached the set of stairs leading to the Great Wall. It seemed to take forever to get up the steps, and it was really hard work. If you want to get in shape, just climb the Great Wall everyday and you'll be fit in no time. Even when we finally reached the top of the stairs and started along the Wall, there were even more steps! The Wall went up and down, with some flat spots in between, but mostly it felt like we were trekking up and down steps the whole time. It was a great experience though, and I hope to go back someday. I took lots of pictures, so I'll put some at the end of this post.

When we finished at the Great Wall, we came back to BLCU and I went to lunch with my group from Lotus. There were lamb kabobs, a chicken dish, vegetables, lamb soup, beef, and noodles with meat and vegetables. There was also some tofu and thousand year old egg. I had some noodles with vegetables, and white rice. The noodles were kind of spicy, but still very good.

After lunch I went to the Lotus office and called my parents. Then I headed back to my host family's house. Since then I've showered, checked the computer, and taken a little rest in my room. I sometimes don't even realize how tired I am until I sit down or lay down in my bed. Then all of a sudden my eyes are closed. I guess I'm still getting used to the time change and all the stuff I'm doing.

Until tomorrow!

p.s. I forgot to mention yesterday the most interesting thing about dinner. The meat they had was donkey!
I think mom is cooking something now. I wonder what the most exotic thing will be tonight!

View from Great Wall

Great Wall

Blueberry Monkey on the Great Wall!!