April 20th- Today, I Became A Hero Posted by Happy Blogger , 28.4.11 at Thursday, April 28, 2011, in

April 20th
8:18 am So great sleep last night. Showered this morning, cut my ankle pretty bad shaving, oh well. Rachel & I sat with this asian couple for breakfast and we were trying to tell them we are going to the Great Wall today. So we pulled out our sheet and wewere working all our chinese magic (poor talking) and tried to explain ourselves. Turns out they were Korean, but hey, we tried. They were lovely and we thanked them for breakfast.
10:09 pm. Dude, Great Wall!!! we pulled up, and I almost teared. First we performed. Mr. Herard was conducting very fast, so that was an interesting adjustment. We sounded amazing, and while we played, you could look up and see the wall. Then we began to walk. It was extremely difficult and very hard, by the end we were very sweaty. The stairs were very uneven, old and always changing. It was an intense climb, but so worth all the work. We got to the very top, and for Koryn, screamed "I'm the King of the World". We took tons of pictures and sang the Lion Kinh. Going up hurt the thighs, but doing down hurt the calves. By the bottom all our legs were spasming (Majorly!). Lunch was sketchy, we had weird KFC, Lime lays chips, banana and EXTREMELY SKETCHY packaged sausage / hardboiled egg. Jade factory was so cool and unbelievable, some of the things/it is crazy and you almost can't believe it is hand carbed. I tought nice stuff 3 jade necklace, 1 jade pendant and a key chain for Haley. Supper was better than thought. it was the least sketchy, however I didn't try any of the meat. We saw hundreds of pigs in a caged truck, and it made me think of the holocaust and I felt sick to my stomach and I think I want to be a vegetarian. Hung out with Madison & Rachel and we vegged/ranted about life, but couple& testosterone buddies. Life is swell, and I smell of hard work & hero-ness. That's right, I conquered (a mear section) Great Wall, but still I feel exhilirated.
ps. Rachel spilled tea on my pants, and I have to learn to barter and can I say I love my sister and her fantastic selection of undergarments for China. Seriously, never more comfortable in my life.
love love love

My ankle actually bled alot. Curses! That "Korea" story is my favorite story to tell since I've gotten home. We were trying so hard to communicate, so I give us an A+ for effort! Each ensemble except the Jazz ensembles performed at the base of the Great Wall. It was pretty rad! It was about an hour and a half to climb up. For what ever reason, I thought it would be a good plan to be prepared at anytime, so I lugged a bag loaded with water, medicine, food, hat, sunscreen, toilet paper, camera and money weighing about 20 pounds up the great wall. It was hard, because you had to focus on each and every step you took because each one was different. You could have a step about 1inch tall, followed by one almost a foot tall. There were 5 or 6 strecthes to get to the top, and it was hard to tell when you were actually getting to the top, so I have several videos of me thinking I'm reaching the top. By the top, everyone was super red and sweaty, but oh well. Yes, I actually did scream "I am the king of the world" .We sand "I just can't wait to be king" on the top. Coming down was faster, however every muscle in your calves were spazzing, so you couldn't take any breaks, cause all you wanted to do was get down to sit on the bus. The food was pretty redundant, and most the restaurants were serving us the same type of food. The food we ate was pretty greasy, so it was getting harder and harder to stomach. Whilst on this trip, I noticed that there were two guys that tended to spend a lot of time hanging around me. I eventually labelled them my testosterone buddies... Confucious said that if you can climb the great wall, you will become a hero. So me and 150 other students became heros that day! How exhilarating.

-Happy Blogger