Goodbye USA.... Ni Hao CHINA

Feb. 19th
Title: "The not so GREAT WALL"

At this point of the trip, we started titling every entry. Woke up this morning to go on the GREAT WALL hike. Tony was going to lead us and told us to meet him at 7 for breakfast. We did but he wasn't there. Apparently, China had gotten a little snow over night. (To the person that told me it doesn't snow- your wrong!) Tony said we might not be able to go onto the great wall because of all the snow. Like true blood Americans, we did exactly what we shouldn't have done. We went up the mountain anyways. After a 15 minute hike up hill, we were finally on the GREAT WALL and out of breathe... ha quoting our convo.... ike- "Hey Tony, are we at a higher elevation, cuz I feel I'm short on breathe"... Me- "me too, but I'm pretty sure it's because I'm hiking up this beast of a mountain!" Tony told us that we had to make a decision on whether we wanted to go on or not. We thought... it can't be that bad, right?! VERY WRONG! After the 7th watch tower, Brooke was telling me on how she couldn't move anymore. I told her we need to just push on, but around the 13th tower I was ready to give in and die right there! Just imagine this... Mountains, covered with rocks and then snow covering that... that's pretty much what we were walking on. Every step we took, we had to take with care. Not only could we not see what we were stepping on but we didn't know if what we were stepping on was secure. Do you know that saying that usually gets thrown around by parents, "we had to walk up hill both ways... blah blah" WELL, that saying has a whole new meaning to me. For the more than 6 miles that we were on the wall, we literally did have to walk up both ways. And that was the best part. Going down a hill was even harder than going up. The rocks would move from underneath you and you would just start sliding down the hill. My shoes did not get the best traction so i fell so many times. Let's just say I lost count after 10. At the 15th tower, I was thinking Oh My Goodness we are almost done!! Nope, good ole Tony in his not at all out of breathe voice said "good job half way there!"... WHAT?! Half way? I know what your thinking right now, wow Nikita are you really that out of shape? haha i swear I'm not but next to tony anyone sounds out of shape. Tony said that he goes on the wall maybe 30 times a year and hikes up and down every time. The trip that we were on was suppose to take us 4 hours regularly (with out snow)... well somehow we did it in 3:45.... when we finished i was so happy with myself and I know my legs and arms were happy with me too. I know that during most of this I sound like I hated it and i had such an awful time. Honestly, I would be lying if I told you I didn't feel that way at the time too. Now however, it's pretty funny. How many people can say they have ever been to the GREAT WALL, let alone the GREAT WALL in a snow storm to hike for six miles haha. I'm gonna go ahead an say not to many people especially because we didn't even see one other person on the wall when we were there ha. SO, all and all looking back, it was an unforgettable experience that i will never forget. I hope that some of these pictures will give you a little glimpse of how much snow was coming down and what it looked like.

OKAY, so if that was enough for the day... we got in the car and headed back to the city for lunch. Tony took us to a mall to get pizza. YES, he knew exactly what I needed to refuel, the mall and pizza! After we had amazing pizza, we went back to the hotel. Brooke and I decided to try the hot tube. WELL, it was more like a warm small pool. hah no worries though, we just scaled the GREAT WALL ha. anything was good. After the pool we went to this dinner for a bunch of people graduating out of the teaching English program. We met Monika, Jungyoug, and Jon there. After the dinner we were all ready to pass out.

THANKS FOR READING : )

- nikita