So there's this wall in China...

called the Great Wall. You may have heard of it.

China time: 10:27 p.m.

Today we climbed the Great Wall of China. I am incredibly out of shape. I wheezed and sweated my way up, but when I reached the "top" I felt I had earned the view. Some of our friends took up the cable car-cheaters. Again, it amazes me that the wall was built before modern technology. I climbed up with Anne and we were accosted by hawkers on the way up. The start of the path, and again on the top, is filled with people trying to sell all sorts of product, prompting me to nickname the area "The Great Mall of China." I am constantly aware of the globalization and westernization occurring over here, and was again reminded of it when I saw that Oreos and Chips Ahoy were for sale on top of the wall. Good job Nabisco.
Living in the city for the past eight months has made me forget how much I like being in the country. It was great to look out and see mountains, and GREEN. I imagine if I was religious or spiritual I would find the view a work of God, but I'll just attest it to Mother Nature. I could have hung up there for a while and wouldn't have gotten sick or just staring out. I can cross another wonder of the world off my list, and hopefully one day I'll make it to all of them.
I feel like one of the most frequent questions I'll get is, "How was the Great Wall?" Unreal. It's one of those things you have to see in real life to grasp the size, and even then you can't really understand how large it truly is because it disappears behind mountains.

More people wanted to take pictures with me today. One family even handed me their baby to hold. Of course I was thrilled. The baby even kissed/slobbered on my cheek. Shut up Becki-I gave it back.

Even cooler than walking up the Wall is how we got down. I don't know who, but some genius had the idea that a great way to get down would be to luge. Is this a good idea? Obviously. We basically sledded down on individual little luges at full speed and were yelled at to "SLOW DOWN" by men along the way. Despite the no camera rule, I was able to both steer and take pictures and videos. It's strange to notice how quiet Asians are compared to Americans. I was shouting "WOOOO!" the entire way down while the Asians I saw made no noise. We are shushed a lot. The luge was so fun I later took the chairlift back up and did it again.

Lunch was a picnic of sandwiches and American snacks. It was incredibly hot and the bus ride to our next destination, The Ming Tombs left me sitting in a puddle of my own sweat. It was interesting to drive through the country and see how rural people lived. I would enjoy (and will enjoy when we do it later on) spending time in a small village.
We didn't actually see the Ming Tombs, instead we just walked through the Spiritual Way which was essentially just a trail filled with Weeping Willows and animal statues.

Professor Gilmartin went to dinner with Ma (If I haven't talked about her yet, Ma is an ADORABLE woman in her 70s who is a friend of Gilmartin's and who is a large help with our group. She is basically the group grandma and everyone wants to take her home.) The University students were left to take us out to dinner. I am amazed by their patience in dealing with our group which is rather rambunctious.
We ate at a place called "Grandma's Kitchen" which was fantastic.
I ate a lot of tofu in spicy sauces, chicken in a green tea sauce, these awesome chicken wings with yolk, and a bunch of dishes that I didn't know. The problem with writing about food here is that i often have NO idea what I'm eating and therefore can't explain it. Hopefully as I pick up some Chinese it will help. The funniest part of the meal is that Northeastern actually paid for everything-including beer (I tried another one called tsing tsao today). Well I guess we actually paid for tuition.
Also I used my first squat toilet today. For those of you who are lucky enough to be ignorant to squat toilets, they are essentially just a hole in the ground that forces you to squat. Also, another note about toilets in China: they are not meant to have toilet paper put in them. You are supposed to put the paper in the trash. I already clogged our toilet doing this in my room. I will post picture of the toilets as well as the tiny shower that I am still crouching in. I have not had a hot shower since I've been here.

We had big plans again to go for kareoke, but we have our first class tomorrow at 8 a.m. so we are postponing it. Tomorrow is Joe's birthday, so maybe we will go out.

Last word: The grammar on Chinese signs annoys me. The "Engrish" is entertaining but I just want to red pen the entire country's misspelled signs. I know I probably have many gramatical errors in this entry, but I am incredibly exhausted.

I have more, but can't remember.

Hana