Oh The Places You Will Go

Today's adventure takes us to many places...some of which were built almost a thousand years ago, some which were built and used for the first time in 2008. I begin my journey with the Ming Tombs, of which I can give you very little historical information because our tour guide spoke very, very fast. Some day I plan on googling it and finding out more, but until then I will leave you these pictures. I do know that what is behind Anne and I in this picture are the mountains where 13 of the emperors of China are buried. We are standing on top of one of the palaces of said emperors.

Let me also point out this....

The summer between my junior and senior year of high school my very generous parents sent me to France with a group of my friends and a teacher from our high school. When I came home however, my mother was not pleased to find one picture of me sitting, drinking coffee in a cafe, along with 300 other pictures of random French landmarks without Courtney in front of them. Needless to say, I got a lecture before I took off for China on how I need to make sure I get plenty of pictures with me in them. So, I tried in earnest today and I feel as though I did a much more decent job that I typically would have if left unreminded.

Here's a statue of one of the guys that's buried in the mountain. This was actually built in 1999. The Chinese throw money at the feet of this guy in hopes that he will give them good fortune.

The empresses dress of 100 children playing. I liked this one a lot. The name of the dress is very literal; there are exactly 100 children embroidered on the dress and they are all playing.

These are my feet. Do you know where they are standing? That's right...they are standing happily on the Great Wall of China.

The pictures you are about to see can absolutely in no way do justice to anything I saw today. I literally was choking back tears when I caught my first glimpse of the Wall from the tour bus. It is amazing; and I can't thank God enough for the opportunity I had today to go see one of the 7 Wonders of the Medieval World and one of the only two man made constructions that can be seen from outerspace (at least from the mouth of Neil Armstrong this is true...ahem BOILER UP!).There's me! I only made it to tower #2 of 5 towers considered to make you a real warrior if you can climb them. It was very cold today and people were smoking the entire way up, so I opted out of the asthma attack and headed back down. But Pinakin took my camera and was able to get some cool shots from the top that I can show you later when I'm back home if you really want to see them. The crazy thing about it, the whole way up people really were smoking, there was one guy climbing in a business suit, and a woman carrying a baby while walking in high heels. I just don't know how these people got there. I mean, were they on their way to a wedding and decided to drop a surprise visit on the Wall today? Ok, I feel like that joke may be a little too Jerry Seinfeld.
Like I said, I have dozens of other pictures if you want to see them when I get back. Just let me know, but lets move on for now.

We decided we needed red meat for dinner tonight so we ventured off to the Hard Rock Cafe we noticed while on our tour this morning. Here's a picture of a guitare played by Huey Lewis and the News' Chris Hayes.

After dinner John and I had wanted to go see the Olympic Village, but the Chinese people with us I guess were tired or something and didn't feel like going. So, we headed back to the hotel and right when we were getting back to the room I whispered to John, "I'm going to go see the Olympic Village...I may never get a chance to come to China again. Wanna go?" So, we stopped a the reception desk and asked the lady to write "Olympic Village" in Chinese so we could give it to a taxi driver. She didn't know what I was saying, so I busted out my mad pictionary skills and drew the infamous 5 rings...."Oh, oh, ok, the Olympic Garden." And off we went into the cold night with a taxi driver that didn't even know how to say "hello" in English.

Somehow we got there without getting lost. Everywhere I go I see Chinese people taking pictures in Richard Nixon pose. So I decided that "when in Rome..."

Here's the stadium. Again, pictures don't do it justice. It's typically lit up too, a bright red color. It's pretty neat. John and I couldn't decide if all the steal beams you see are actually part of the structure of the building, or if they're just there for funsies.


Here's the aquatic center. You can't tell here, but those things that look like water droplets are actually 3-D and really do look like real water when you see them in person.

I couldn't really get a good picture of the tower to share because of all the lighting around it and on it. But it was pretty cool too.

That's all I have for tonight. I'm sorry if there are a dozen typos but I am falling asleep at the keyboard currently, so this is about as well as I can do. Tomorrow will be the Forbidden City and Tienamin (sp??) Square. I'll get my spelling on that one right by tomorrow night for you :)

I miss you guys! Although I am LOVING this trip, I also can't wait to get back home to all of you.