No Wonder you're a Wonder

We went to the Great Wall yesterday.  Now.  I didn't really have too many expectations going into this trip because I had heard mixed reviews about it.  People had complained about walking/climbing it, said it wasn't that impressive, there were always too many people there, it was too touristy; You know, the works.   So when we pulled up to the entrance of the Mutianyu section of the Wall and were swarmed by merchants and peddlars, all trying to shove great wall paraphernalia, it didn't help quell the tourist trap fear.  BUT. Have no fear because as soon as we got on the ski lift and saw the outline of the wall along the top of the mountains, all that trepidation dissipated (showing off my verbal SAT scores right there, ehh? haha).  The views at the top were breathtaking.  Mountains surrounded us on all sides and we could catch glimpses of little villages nestled in the valleys.  To make it even better, it was a gorgeous day.  Absolutely freezing, but not a cloud in the sky and blue as blue can be.  We turned right to hike along what appeared to be the easier route.  Along the way we made friends, or maybe more accurately, Jake made friends with two Chinese sisters who were selling snacks and beer.  He used his blonde hair, boyish charm, and stunning good looks (vomit) to get us some beer and snickers bars for pretty cheap.  Once we hit the end of the walking part of the wall, separated by a "do not trespass" sign, which we immediately ignored and hiked a good while past, we hit a deteriorated pagoda and stopped to sing what else? but a couple verses of "Bring on Tomorrow". Just to leave our Fame mark in the universe (:  Later, we found out that another group of our people heard us when they were about a mile away.  Once we turned around, we still had about 4 more hours to kill so we decided to climb up the opposite side of the wall to try to hit the highest point.  I'm pretty sure I have never sweated more in my life.  It literally felt like Field Hockey pre-season training times 45.  There were points of this climb that had about 400 steps straight up (and when i say straight up, I mean COMPLETELY vertical, climbing with hands and feet) without rest.  It was such an adrenaline rush and SO worth it once we hit the top.  I can't even try to describe the beauty that was what we saw.  I'll of course post pictures, but even that won't do it justice. The word "Awesome" in the dictionary, should actually only be defined as "The Great Wall of China".  I hope that you all can see it at some point in your lifetime.  It just makes you feel like the world is so so so big and perfect and beautiful. Go go go! While we were up at the top, these two women from Cambodia reached the summit and as they both climbed up the final staircase, beaming, sweaty and exhausted, the younger of the two said "Way to go MOM!" The woman turns out to be 68 years old.  Honestly?  I'm 24 and I don't know how I did it.  We all cheered and congratulated her, and she was just so happy and proud. They were the sweetest women. It was just wonderful.  HSFJKHDKFJHDUIGUFNG! Literally the best day ever!  When we finally pulled ourselves away from the beauty, and made it back down to the ski lift (the downward descent was actually rougher for me because of my stupid knee), we took a toboggan ride back down to the base of the mountain, which was the PERFECT ending.  A high speed torpedo ride down the mountain of the great wall, with no safety walls on either side and greeted by two ferocious looking Huns at the bottom. Haha perfect. Just perfect.  The bus ride home was spent playing games, teasing each other, reminiscing about the past two months, and of course me crying about how we are leaving china and each other in 5 days.  We ended the day at a Belgium pub with REAL, non-chinese, thin crust, wood-fired amazing pizza and Tsing-tao, my new favorite cheap ass beer.  Could not have been a better day spend with better people.  

Someone really needs to find a way to condense this blog post into a hallmark card.  Pretty sure it is the biggest piece of emotional cheese ever.  I'm just getting to that mushy, life-loving place right now (: I love you all and will see you soooooon!