The day of the Great Wall visit

So its hard to remember how long we have already been here after a crazy 13 hour plane ride and the major time difference. The time difference is probably the strangest thing so far, the day of the plane trip most of us were awake for eh say 30 hours-ish. A few of us got some nap time in on the plane ride (mostly those of us in Economy-PLUS!) who had extra leg room.

This morning we were supposed to wake up around 6:30 but Barrett and I ended up waking up at 5:30 Chinese time without realizing we set our clocks to the wrong time. We just wandered around the hotel at like 6 in the morning and ate our early breakfast.

The Chinese food here is AMAZING! I was a little worried it wouldn't be as good as the Americanized Chinese food we all love at Panda Express back at home. At all the restaurants we basically sit down at giant circular tables, about 10 people to a table, and we are served by about 3 of 4 waiters at a time. They bring dish after dish of delicious Chinese food that is served family style on a round center tray that spins around. The first food I tried the first day we got here was duck. It was actually very very good. We have all tried so many new things already, its been great! Using chop sticks has been a challenge for some people... including myself.

Our first performance was on the Great Wall today. It was very exciting for all of us. There was a small crowd but I really think they enjoyed our music. After playing, most of us began our hour journey up the wall. There were so many steps! For those of you back in America who never really had the chance to learn or appretieate the Great Wall (like myself, until today), it is so beautiful and can stretch from New York to LA. Just looking at it is jaw-dropping! It was another very smogy day so it was hard to get some good pictures, but it was still really great.

Well you already heard the mention of our massages tonight from Dave above. He made the huge mistake of not getting one. Barrett and I did and it was amazing. It was a one hour body massage for 200 chinese moneys (Yuan) which is about 25 US dollars. Talk about a great deal. It included lots of pounding, stretching, chopping, foot soaking in tea, and other stuff. I have never had a massage before so I dont know if what they were doing was some cool Chinese thing or just a normal massage.

Well that's all for now,
Written by Kevin Mueller, (edited by Barrett Abraham)