It is currently 8pm in Beijing and both Paul and I are running on fumes. We both woke up at about 3:30am, wide awake and ready to start the day. I think that we both managed to get about another hour of sleep, but today has been long. We needed to be out in the lobby by 8:30am to leave to the tour of the Great Wall. We spent a couple of hours there hiking up the wall. Our guide recommended that we climb the “steep” side because there are less people and the steps are not quite as worn. I made it to the highest level, but Paul continued to the end of the part that is open to the public. I was starting to get vertigo and decided that I should probably start heading back down. The steps are so steep and uneven that I think it was scarier coming back down than going up. We stopped at a place called the “Friendship Store” for lunch and a little shopping. Lots of neat things, but the prices are set and no haggling. I chose to not test my skills at the “squatty” potty today. They had a couple of western toilets at the store. I figured with the wobbly legs that I had with climbing the wall and spending 21 hours on a plane yesterday, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea. I’d probably squat and not be able to get up. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about……in China their toilets are a hole in the floor with a couple of foot pads that you squat over and do your business. They even had portable toilets at the Great Wall that had a hole in the floor. It is so weird to see woman rolling up their pant legs before stepping into the stall. I do intend on trying one before we leave here. I figure I better at least try it.
Tomorrow we leave Beijing for Nanchang ……the city that we will meet our little Alicia. We need to be ready to leave the hotel at 8am tomorrow……and I’m exhausted, so I’m going to hit the hay. By the way, the beds here are so hard!! Not comfortable! Oh, and Paul is snoring already!! I’ll write more tomorrow when I’m feeling like a human being again. I am so glad that they didn’t give us our babies the minute that we got here. A couple of people in our group said that we should feel better tomorrow, that it took them a full day to get back to normal.
Love you Marcus!!
Have a great day!
Paula
2008 Olympic Stadium "The Bird's Nest"
Beautiful Scenery
Train Packed With People Near The Great Wall
Olympic Sign At The Great Wall
The Great Wall
March 25 --
I am feeling a little more human today….hopefully that feeling holds up for the rest of the day. We arrived in Beijing on Friday night and the weather was extremely foggy. You could actually see the fog/smog floating in the gangway from the plane and in the airport. Yesterday was a really beautiful day. It was a little foggy in the morning but then the sun came out and it was really warm. The people in our group that arrived before us said that we missed a couple of really nasty days!! When we were at the Great Wall yesterday the wind was so strong and cold. There were a lot of local people selling hats and mittens and they went over really big with the tourists! The wind was so strong that at times it felt like it was going to blow you right off the Wall. The pollution in the city of Beijing is really bad. My nose and throat have been really raw and sore since we got here. We were warned about the locals habit of spitting……..apparently helps with the symptoms caused by the pollution. In preparation for the summer Olympics next year, the government is trying to get people to stop spitting. When we went for our walk yesterday I didn’t notice a lot of spit on the ground.
We arrived in Nanchang early this afternoon. The airport is quite a distance out of town from the city and during our hour drive to the hotel we got to travel through the farm country. It was really overwhelming for me to actually see how the working farmers live in this country. Nanchang is an industrial city and the likelihood that Alicia’s birth parents are either industrial workers or farmers is pretty high. In great contrast, our hotel that we are calling home until Saturday is exquisite!! I have never seen a hotel this nice. Our guide for this leg of our journey booked suites for all the couples in our group. We got to our room and instantly was greeted by a crib and stroller. My first reaction was “We are in the wrong room”…then I realize that we will have Alicia here with us tomorrow. We have a 5 head shower in our bathroom…………I can’t wait to use that tomorrow. We are off to the bank tomorrow morning to change our American money into Chinese money and then we head across the street to get our babies at 11am. Our guide has a trip planned for Wal-mart on Tuesday to get baby stuff, but this afternoon we stopped at a little grocery store down the street from our hotel. We picked up some Chinese baby formula and cereal, a couple bottles of water and a couple bottles of Chinese beer. So far the beer is tasting pretty good!!!
We got to talk to Marcus on the phone today and realized how much we miss him!! We love you buddy!! We get to meet your little sister tomorrow morning!
