So That's Why They Call It the Great Wall... It Is Kinda BIG

When you think of China, what is the first thing that pops into your head?
Maybe it's the infamous Forbidden City, or a jam packed street filled with drifting bicycles and honking cars, but for the longest time, whenever I thought of China I thought of the Great Wall.
We probably first hear about the Great Wall from our history text books. I can remember reading pages and pages about its construction, and who tried to get over it and why. It has always fascinated me and I have always had a strong desire to see it for myself. Well, this Saturday, I did. I not only saw the Great Wall, but I walked, climbed, stumbled, fell, and scrambled over the seemingly endless hills of its crumbling stairs. I spent four hours on Saturday struggling up and down the remains of the less visited and consequently less refurbished section of the Great Wall. It was immensely difficult, especially for a person like myself who is not particularly inclined to going down dozens of dangerously steep steps at a time. Despite the down pours of sweat dripping off of every inch of my body, and the reasonably frequent crab walks down stairs, I had one of the most amazing days of my life. The sun was out and the sky was about as clear as you can hope for in China, and I could see the giant stone structure snaking its way through the jagged hills. It is huge. I could see it stretch for miles and miles into the distance, and was in disbelief that after so much time it could still be standing. There is no way for me to adequately describe the sheer length and distance that the Wall spreads, but if this gives you a better idea, after 4 long hard hours of hiking, we only covered a very small section of the Wall. By the end we were all questioning why the mongouls didn't just give up when they saw the thing. After reaching the end of the hike I thought I would drop dead of exhaustion, but instead my friends and I decided to stay up a little later and explore a little bit more of the city.
We ended up in a little park near our school, however, we soon found out that it was no ordinary park. This park has a section in it called "Fun Land" which includes bumper cars, arcade games, trampolines, and a small roller coaster. Unfortunately, these were all closed for the night, but we have very intent plans to go back and visit soon. Instead we spent 2 hours just playing on the small playground near "Fun Land" and releasing out inner kindergartner. Afterwards, we all admitted we missed recess a lot :).

Sunday was another interesting day in the city. There is one moment that i want to put into special focus. In the morning we went to my baba's friend from middle school's house for a party. We arrived at the apartment and within 3 minutes of sitting down left for a seemingly very nice restaurant. Again, all the Chinese people discussed me like I was an object in the room rather than a functional human being who had a grasp on what they were saying. "Oh, she is here for how long? How many siblings does she have? Does she like China? How does she like Chinese food? Vegetarian, how odd! I thought Americans were supposed to be taller? Do you think she is hungry?" All of the questions were answered by my host family because no one could tell that I understood or could respond to what they were saying. Whenever I would try to interject my own answers I was unheard because of the sheer volume in the room. Instead I sat, listened, and observed the chaos, and as the attention slowly shifted off of me and on to less distinguishable topics I paid very careful attention to what was going on around me. One thing jumped out at me more than anything. Every time food was brought out the entire table (15 people or so) would examine it and prejudge it before eating. If they found it suitable it was quickly gulped up and gone. However, when the waitress brought out a batter fried fish, by which I mean a whole fish with head, eyes and tail still intact, the table went into an uproar. At first I thought it was because of the mutual disgust for the two shiny black eyes looking back at me, but then I realized that wasn't the problem at all. The entire table, with the exception perhaps of my host mom and sister, was shouting at the waitress because the fish had to much batter on it. They were not politely complaining or even asking for a new one, but shouting and pointing with vehement disgust at the thick bits of batter stuck to the fish's sides. I was at a loss as to why it was such a big deal. Every day these people not only deal with, but silently accept the lack of traffic laws, overcrowded buses and general chaos that occurs in Beijing, but when a fish comes out with too much batter all hell breaks loose. But as I watched I perhaps started to understand. The Chinese have no control over bikes, buses or traffic. They can't change some of the inefficient policies in place so they accept them as they are and do not challenge them in the way an American might. But when it comes to a meal, something that they can fix or actually change, they complain because they can.

That was my weekend. A really big wall and an over-battered piece of fish. I'd say it was pretty cool.
Until next time,
Julia

Song of the Day:
Situations By: Jack Johnson