Scaling Greatness

This morning I woke up at 6:20 and really needed to go to the bathroom, but I decided to wait until 7:30 when I knew my parents would be up. I worked on my computer  preparing emails for a classmate to update my blog from Japan...where freedom of speech is still a right. 

Baba was watching a singing competition on TV when I got out of the room. It was kind of like American Idol but there is much more interaction between the competitors and judges. As we were eating a breakfast of noodles, cabbage, tofu, and this weird sweet pepperoni sausage, Baba asked me what I’d be doing on Tuesday night. Then he asked me if I wanted to go to the Jingju then! Jingju is Beijing Opera, one of the things we’ve learned the most about in Chinese class. I obviously said I’d love to go!

When I got to biennia I put my stuff in one of the student lounges then walked with a classmate to their breakfast. He ended up eating baozi, which by know you could probably guess is a staple. We walked back to school and I ended up going out again with some other friends. Eventually we sat in a tiny 10-seater restaurant and had about 5 trays of steamed dumplings, collectively. 

We were supposed to leave for the Great Wall around 12 but I had to change at the school and use the bathroom before the long bus ride. I ended up being the last one on the bus with Dillon, the other cross country runner on the trip. 

The ride took around two hours. It was odd to see the smog get thinner and thiner, as it did mountains began to appear in the distance and the sky turned blue. You’d never know it (because of the lack of visibility) but there are mountains all around the capitol. It’s as if the city is the center of an amphitheater. We kept ourselves busy on the bus by playing word games and telling stories.

We got to the Great Wall trail head then split into fast and slow hiking groups. I walked with the guide for most of the way and chatted it up with him. He said he’s constantly on the wall and is always tired. I told him his health is no doubt very good and he laughed. 

Once we stood on the Wall, we split off and got 2 hours to hike around and take pictures. I started out slow then realized Dillon started hiking pretty fast so by the time he was about 800 meters away, I decided to catch up to him. This involved jogging up the steep stairs and running everywhere else. Eventually I took off my jacket and put my backpack down and started running at a good pace. 

I caught up with him and we hiked a little further, but still eons farther than anyone else from the group. We took a few pictures for the cross country team then ran back all the way to where we got on the wall. 

Once we got on the bus for about 10 minutes then got off where we’d start to hike to our host village for the night. It ended up being a 1.5 hour hike and it got dark before we arrived there. The place was simple, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so hungry or thankful for a heated room in my life. After supper we sat in their courtyard area around a fire and watched fireworks being set off. 

I was super tired from today and the conversation around the fire rapidly declined so I decided to get some sleep. We’re getting up super early tomorrow so I’ll need the rest. The beds don’t look comfy but someone was already sound asleep on it so I figured it wouldn’t be so bad.