Holy cow I have a lot to share...

I would like to apologize right off for a few reasons. One because I haven't written in over a week, another because I will most likely repeat stories more than once, and also because this entry will probably be obnoxiously long. But hey, a lot has happened in the last week and a half, you should be happy! So.....

Laura and I took a bus up to Xuzhou to see our friend Teresa. She met us at the station and we went back to her place for the night. We got to wander a little bit and see another bigger city. She has a Carrefour and everything so it was cool to see that. It really shows us how small our town is. We really don't have anything western like so many of the big cities do. After a day in Xuzhou, we got to the train station to take our overnight to Beijing. They really just pack you in. Our compartment (which didn't even have a door) was 3 bunks high on both sides. We were the only western people in our car, and probably on the whole train. Not too many people come from the smaller cities when traveling to Beijing, most just fly in directly. Anyways, the trip there was a bit rough and we arrived around 5:30am. We navigated our way on the bus to the hostel and checked in around 6:30am. Needless to say, we took a bit of a nap before heading out to be tourists. On the first day we wandered around the shopping district and then headed over to Tiananmen Square. The floats from the National Day parade were all on display, so that was pretty sweet to check out. We also saw the Forbidden City, and had our pictures taken by a bunch of Chinese tourists in Beijing as well. I guess we should be used to it by now, but it was a little unexpected in such a busy city because there were tons of westerners everywhere! It was really nice to be able to use some English too though, especially with someone other than Laura. We need a little outside stimulation every once in a while, or we will go crazy!

That night we were going to go to an Acrobatics Show, but it was sold out so we rescheduled for the following evening, and we just went out and took it easy around the hostel. We decided to head to bed early because our second day would be very full. We were up and heading out to the Great Wall by 7:30am Monday morning. Our hostel offered a private tour to a different section of the wall than most people see. We had to hike up the mountain to get to it and then walked along the crumbling pieces for about 3 hours before heading back down. It was incredible. I had a slight asthma attack going up, which really sucked, but I just slowed my pace a little and it wasn't a big deal. It was totally worth it. Absolutely one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life. I know the pictures don't really do it justice, but seriously, there are things in life that you just don't ever think you'll really do, and this is one that I'm proud to say I can cross off my list, and it was more than worth it. Our guide was this little 75 year old man that kicked everyone's butts going up the mountain. He was unstoppable, and didn't speak English, but it didn't matter. I totally bought an "I Climbed the Great Wall" t-shirt too. It had to happen, haha. After the hike we had a decent meal, then headed back to the hostel. We tried to get a bit of a nap in before heading off to the Acrobatic Show that we were unable to go to the previous night. We got ourselves ready and headed off to the show, which was also incredible. The strength and flexibility and everything that all the performers has was mind blowing. I felt like I was holding my breath for the entire show. Afterward, we went out for a late dinner of western food and just enjoyed our night with a few beers and chatting up some people at the hostel. We planned to go to the Pearl Market the next day for a ton of shopping before our overnight train back to Xuzhou.

Due to the length of this and the fact that I have to get to a track meet I'm going to make this a "To be continued..."