What does the trout eat?

The more I think about the time I spent in China, the more I appreciate
the time I spent there.  I was there for six action packed days and
crammed in a ridiculous amount of sightseeing and fun.
The ship docked in Hong Kong, and I instantly loved the city.  It was the
first really international city I had been in for awhile.  Skyscrapers and
bright lights surrounded the port, and we were right next to a HUGE mall. 
As I walked down the streets, neon lights jutted out from the buildings
over the street, and people were just everywhere.  Some of my friends and
I decided we wanted to go to Ocean Park, supposedly a really popular
amusement park in Hong Kong (supposedly being the key word there).  For
being so popular, I’m not sure where all the other people were, but I
still had a fun time.  I went on two roller coasters and a few rides
before seeing a dolphin show and PANDAS!  That night, I had the most
delicious Chinese food EVER and went out along with about two hundred
other SASers downtown.  It was a crazy night but so much fun.  I wish we
could have had more time in the city.

Now for China, a group of ten of us decided we wanted to travel together
and do all sorts of crazy things.  We planned the whole trip by ourselves,
and it ended up being awesome.  But I had a little bit of a rocky start
haha.  We were supposed to meet on the gangway at 8 am.  After a solid
four hours of sleep, I get up at 7:45 am … and I still haven’t packed.  Of
course I start throwing everything I can find into my backpack.  And then
I can’t find my wallet.  Because obviously that is the best thing that
could possibly happen when I only have fifteen minutes.  Now I knew I had
my wallet (which had my money, credit card, and ATM card) when I got on
the ship because I paid for the cab and then got into my room with my ID
that would have been in my wallet.  I search and search and could not find
it anywhere.  Of course I start doubting that I brought it in my room.  At
this point it was 8:15.  My ferry was at 8:45, and the ticket read that
boarding stopped fifteen minutes before departure.  I get to the gangway,
and my friends have left because I am so late.  Are. You. Kidding. Me.
There I stood with no money and no way to get to the ferry station.  I
start LITERALLY running through the streets of Hong Kong.  I ran into a
fellow SASer and was like, I’m SO sorry but I have no money and I need to
get a cab.  She pretty much saved my life and gave me twenty HK dollars. 
I made it to the station at 8:40, RAN through, and managed to MAKE THE
FERRY!  Proudest moment of my life, and 10 out of 10 of us began our trek
through China!

We took the ferry from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, a part of mainland China. 
From there we flew to Beijing.  Our taxi drivers took us to the Templeside
Hostel where we stayed for two nights.  They dropped us off on the street
and just pointed to this alleyway.  We were completely sketched out and
were like what in the WORLD did we get ourselves into here??  It ended up
being super cute, and everyone was really nice.  On the roof there was a
table and some chairs, and it was a pretty cool hang out spot.  We asked
where we could find some good food and were directed down the street. 
Now, I was a little nervous about Chinese food because, although I love my
garlic chicken and broccoli from Evergreen Express, I wasn’t sure how the
real thing would be.  Everywhere we ate, we sat at a round table with a
lazy susan in the middle, and we ate a TON of food.  Every meal we had
rice, water crescent (which I now love), pork, chicken, beef, and fish of
some sort, lots of veggies, and watermelon.  It was all really good,
pretty spicy, but I can now use chopsticks! Finally!  After dinner, three
of my friends and I decided to take a walk.  The Forbidden City was about
a thirty-fifty minute walk away so off we went.  It was beautiful to see. 
We couldn’t go in, but we walked around the perimeter which was quite a
ways.  The walls and pagodas were lit up beautifully especially with the
reflection off the water.  As we walked by the back entrance, we heard
music and noticed all these old Chinese couples dancing.  We walked in a
little bit to watch, and this old man grabs my hand and starts teaching me
a traditional Chinese dance.  It was so random and SO much fun.  :)

The next day, our tour guide, HILDA!, came to the hostel at 9 am to pick
us up and start our explorations of Beijing.  We had a twenty person bus
for the ten of us which was really cool.  That morning we drove to the
Summer Palace which had this beautiful lake and just the most picturesque
scenery… and the longest corridor in the world (thanks Guinness book of
world records!)  We drove by some of the Olympic village and arenas, which
by the way is SO publicized there and a lot of places were being renovated
in preparation for the games this summer.  We went to Tiananmen Square
(largest square in the world, thanks again Guinness) and the Forbidden
City.  It was a weird feeling to BE there… like you see all the pictures
of Mao’s face at the entrance and stuff like that, but it’s an odd feeling
to be like I’m standing RIGHT there.  It was neat.  After exploring for
awhile, we went to a silk market and a pearl market and did way too much
shopping and money spending (thanks to my friends who paid for all my crap
during the trip since I had no wallet).  Then we went to a hot pot
restaurant where you sat down and had a pot of boiling water in front of
you and raw meat and veggies.  And you just go for it.  Now… I don’t cook
anything at all so I am surprised I didn’t get Avian flu from some raw
chicken (knock on wood).  After dinner, we went to a Kung Fu show!! It was
SO cool.  They did acrobatics, dance, and martial arts.  Some of the moves
were RIDICULOUS, it was so awesome to watch.  I don’t know how they did
some of that stuff…

The next morning we packed up our bags and left the hostel with Hilda and
headed to the Ming Tombs.  Some thirteen emperors or something are buried
there, but it really wasn’t that interesting.  Then we walked through the
Sacred Way which was lined with weeping willows and stone animals, so it
was really pretty.  Went to another awesome lunch and did some more
shopping.  Then we started the three hour drive to the Great Wall.  I kept
expecting to see it on the horizon, but it wasn’t really visible from the
road in the area we were at.  When we got there, we were in this little
village… most definitely not the touristy section of the Wall.  Yet again
… I now FULLY APPRECIATE the Western toilet.  I don’t know why people in
these countries are so into squatters… but anyway, the bathrooms in the
village were probably built at the same time as the Great Wall and not
cleaned since then.  Ick.  We went to this man’s shop/home, and he gave us
tea before we started our walk.  We took about a twenty minute walk up the
wall to watch sunset.  It was beautiful and that surreal feeling kicked in
again.  After sunset, we had a huge, delicious meal at the man’s house and
then bundled up for our night sleeping on the Great Wall!!

I wore about twenty thousand layers and, armed with my flashlight, hiked
about fifteen minutes to the watch tower where we slept.  It was so cool. 
It was just a stone tower, and I’m sure that there would have been an
amazing view during the day time.  Our guides provided us with mats,
pillows, and sleeping bags for the night… and a pee bucket in the corner,
but I’m not even going to get into that.  Haha.  Surprisingly, I wasn’t
that cold, I just cocooned myself (like a silk worm?) in my sleeping bad
and was good to go.

At 6:30 the next morning, I woke up to our guide (Max) yelling “We must
get up! Hurry!”  Refusing to get out of my warm bed, we had breakfast and
coffee, and were then forced to take off a couple layers and start our
climb.  Now… this section of the wall has not been restored or renovated
so it was falling down in parts, stones were missing, the side walls were
nonexistent… it was very decayed.  We saw NO one on our hike… it was
AMAZING.  As we began, Max kept saying “Choose every step as if it’s your
last… I’m not trying to scare you, but take a bad step and you will never
see your mommy and poppy again.”  Ohhh good.  He wasn’t a very comforting
guy, but it was funny.  “Don’t fall or you’ll smash your face!”  It was an
actual climb, not just a walk on the Great Wall, and it was perfect.  I
have a horrible fear of falling… so tiptoeing down the mountainside on a
rock wall was a little scary for me, but it was such an amazing feeling at
the end looking back and knowing that as far as we could see we had
walked.  At the end of the three and a half hour climb, we ZIPLINED down
the rest of the hill.  That was just the cherry on top… so now I can say I
have SLEPT on the Great Wall, CLIMBED the Great Wall, and ZIPLINED down
the Great Wall.  It was AWESOME.

After ziplining, we had our last traditional Chinese meal (awww) and drove
back to Beijing.  Once we got back, we had a 90 minute foot massage set
up.  We were all in this big room, laid back in recliners getting
massages.  It was so funny, and it felt amazing after our walk although we
all felt bad because showers were scarce during our trip in China haha. 
My guy was a little feisty.  And we watched Star Trek.  Then we ate Subway
for dinner.  I don’t even like Subway, but it was the closest to a
Wegman’s sub I’ve had in way too long so it was perfection.  As always, I
had a pound of extra mayo to wipe off.  (haha if you have eaten subs with
me, you understand).  Hilda took us to the rail station, and we boarded
our overnight train.  Our train from Beijing to Shanghai was twelve hours,
and I slept like a baby.  I thought it was fun, but a few of my friends
couldn’t sleep at all.

We arrived in Shanghai at 7:30 am and got a taxi to the ship.  It was so
nice to see the ship and be “home.”  After eating and showering (thank
god), a couple people and I went out for the day shopping and exploring. 
One of my friends was thinking about getting a tattoo so we spent a lot of
time looking a tattoo parlor, but it ended up being way too expensive so
she didn’t end up getting it.  It rained pretty much all day which was a
bummer… kind of reminded me of the weather I’m SO glad I’m missing at home
haha.  It was the first rainy day we’ve had in port this semester!  Before
getting back on the ship, we hung out at a cute little coffee bar and
enjoyed our last hours on land!
The hardest thing about China was the language barrier.  It was really
hard communicating because very few people spoke English.  Some might be
able to say hello and stuff like that, but they couldn’t actually
understand us.  This was especially hard with taxi drivers.  Thankfully,
one of my friends took Chinese for a semester so she was at least familiar
and could make pronunciation attempts and she always had her Mandarin book
handy so THANKS! Haha :)

The more I think about everything I did in China, the more I realize what
an amazing time I’m having.  I loved the trip I took in China… it was so
much fun being with all of my friends and not having to deal with drama or
traveling with people who have different priorities than you.  I can’t
think of a group of people I would rather have climbed the Great Wall with
or eaten so much family style Chinese with.  Or taken jumping pictures
with, played trout tag with, and taken fifty peace sign fam pics with.  I
mean… helloooooooo this is RICE!

<3