Who Needs a Gym When You Have the Great Wall?

Because I needed to be at school at 8:15 this morning, my alarm went off at 7:00. I stocked up with my massive amounts of snack foods (that was going to be my lunch for the day), and my dad and I walked out the door at 7:30 AM. (Is it pathetic that I was actually happy that I was going out the door so early?) I took the (public) bus (公共汽车) to school (public transportation is actually not bad) and arrived at school just in time to see an interesting sight.

Implemented shortly after the Tian An Men Square demonstrations, every 10th grade student, of both genders, gets shipped off basically to boot camp for 9 days. This is supposedly to teach kids order and discipline, and to make sure they don't become too soft. (My sister is only in 7th grade, and so she still has a couple years before she is subjected to the yelling and screaming of the so called order and discipline. Seriously, I don't understand the military. I just know I wouldn't do well in it.) Anyways, all of the 10th graders were leaving my school this morning to go off to military school, and the parents were standing at the gates waving the 5 buses full of kids off. It was pretty cute, actually. All the kids were dressed in camo, and they had their little green hats on.

My bus ride was not quite as serious as theirs. All 54 students (including the one who has been sick for a week with something related to Yellow Fever) and teachers leisurely piled into 2 buses, and got cozy. It was only about a 1.5-2 hour bus ride, which really isn't that bad when you are piled in with lots of friends going to the Great Wall. However, something happened at the very beginning that would never ever ever happen at home. Shen lao shi (申老师, or Mr. Shen, as he would be called in the US) got up and asked any one if they would like Dramamine, because it was a long bus ride. Being the moronic person that I am (the fact that I get carsick and was sitting at the back of the bus also didn't help my judgement) I took a Dramamine and gulped it down as fast as possible. (It was actually really funny because there were 5 of us sitting the back , and everyone except one took Dramamine. About an hour in, we all got a little loopy.)

The bus ride actually passed pretty quickly, (with lots of picture taking and food stealing) even though I was fighting the urge to sleep most of the time. I was still fighting that urge when we got to the Great Wall. Now, the moment you have all been waiting for, the Great Wall.

My legs hurt before I even got there. We had to walk up one side of the mountain to even get to the Great Wall, and it was hard. When we got there, things didn't get better. I have always heard that the Wall's floor is not flat, and that there are rocks everywhere, and that it is extremely hard to walk up and down. Half of the steps aren't even there, and the ones that are there are spaced in the most inconvenient ways, just to make it harder. However, none of that makes any sense until you have been there and walked it with your own two feet. Even my retelling of it will not convince you, nor bring the point home. That is just the way the universe works.

We had a 4 hour walk ahead of us, so we started walking. The view was amazing, for the first hour at least. The ground dropped away on either side of the of the Wall, and you could see the Great Wall stretching on and on and on into the distance. It was actually a bit intimidating, and a lot annoying, because there were definitely some times were I was convinced I was going to die. It was about 87 F today, and there was some major sweating going on. (I am fairly sure that I am just going to have to burn my shirt, because it is so insanely gross. I was so insanely gross.)

I would always see a bunch of my classmates around, and every time, they were red faced and panting. That seemed to be the general feeling. We also all realized very quickly why none of the teachers didn't tell us much about the Great Wall hike, and what it entailed. They were probably afraid that we wouldn't want to go if they told us how hard it was. (As it was, I did cheat once. There was one part that basically went straight up and then straight down for 200 steps. I saw a path that went off the Great Wall and around that whole part. The path was also basically flat. The temptation was just too great, so I took off and went around. Sorry.)

About half way through the hike (or rather, 1 hour into it) everyone was sweating so much that all the guys starting stripping. And by stripping, I mean the shirts were coming off, quickly. Most of the time, the guys who I did want to see without shirts kept their shirts on, and vice versa.

My friend and I walked rather fast through the whole thing (although I was so tired that I was basically just focusing on getting to end) but once I got to the end I made a startling discovery. There were already 3 people waiting at the end, and they had been there for about 1 1/2 hours. Meaning that they ran the Great Wall. What took most people 4 hours, they did in maybe 2. It was disgusting.

After that we went to the small restaurant at the bottom of the Great Wall to have "dinner" at 3 in the afternoon. The food was not very good, and some of it looked a little sketch, but I was so hungry that I didn't care. I even found a bathroom with a toilet (although it looked kinda funky, so I didn't really want to sit on it. And really, why is it that there is no toilet paper in any of the public bathrooms?)

That ride back home after the Great Wall was not nearly as fun as the ride there. I was so tired, and so gross with sweat and dirt that all I wanted to do was fall asleep. Which I think I did, but I'm not sure (don't you hate it when that happens?) We got back to school pretty early, at about 7, and no one wanted to go home. So a big group of us (me, Robbin, Hannah, Julia, Jamie, Erick, and later on Chang and Kyle) all went to a local park to just mess around. It is actually the coolest park ever. There is this thing called fun land, and it has a roller coaster thing, bumper cars, and trampolines. We all went to the playground, and messed around on the monkey bars until we were again sweaty and gross. It was also decided that we would go back when everything was open so we could be the kids you know we are. I also received dance lessons. I now know how to do some salsa steps and two step (both Texan and ballroom.) Oh yes, be proud.

For some reason, there was a lot of relationship talk going on tonight. Who liked (and disliked) who, who was dating who, and what relationships might change. Everyone I went to the park with also seemed to decide to talk to me about them (them being their own relationships with other people, which I dutifully listened to, like the good friend I am.) Which is both good and bad. It seemed to me like emotions were running high tonight, and along with the exhaustion that set in from walking the Great Wall, everyone was just falling apart and acting like the hormonal teenagers they are. But that is old news.

Now, I am absolutely, 100% exhausted, and I am fairly sure that this post was crap, and that I will continue to write gobbly gook if I keep writing. So, thank you for bearing with me. Peace out, homies.