Time to fill in all the details!

Okay, sorry for having to take two entries to cover the Great Wall excursion! Anyhow, on that day we all piled into two or three buses and traveled to a section of the wall called Mutianyu. It's definitely a tourist destination, but according to TBC officials, it's not as widely visited as other sections of the wall, which is why they prefer to visit it. 

It's still nevertheless definitely a location widely visited by tourists, which would explain all the small shops lining the small street which leads up to the pathways that visitors than can take up to the wall.

.....Or they can take a chair lift, if they're not up to the challenge. However, I preferred to live that particular day by a phrase I learned from my Mandarin professor at FU: You're not a hero until you've climbed the Great Wall.

The way up wasn't really that bad at all, to be frank. Compared to all the treks I undertook at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, the stone pathways and staircases (as seen in some of the photos in the previous entry) were an absolute cakewalk, as was agreed by Tom, the student who not only ended up taking the exact same flight as me out of JFK to Chicago, and not only is also an Eagle Scout, but has also visited Philmont as well. 

The only major obstacle was the fact that it was extremely hot that day, which I think has something to do with the amount of pollution in the air, but to honest I prefer to avoid dwelling on that particular subject. 

After the short trek to the top, we then set about hiking along the length of the wall for as far as we possibly could, though not before stopping for a photo opportunity with "Hobbes", who my cousin Patrick sent me right before I left for Beijing so I wouldn't get lonely in China, as he explained. 

On this particular stretch of restored wall, there's only so far one can hike. No matter which way one goes, there's a point where the path is flat-out blocked by walled-off tower entrances (and a flimsy barrier erected on top of one of those towers too.)

Does anyone else find it ironic how that's all they did, considering the Great Wall itself is the largest man-made barrier ever made? 

Anyhow, the other end was more or less the same....

... Unless I want to exclude the pleasant surprise that I had there. While I was scaling some particularly troublesome stairs (they ranged in size from a few inches high to well over a foot) I noticed that a obviously foreign tourist, a girl my age with her family, kept giving me looks. Finally, she asked,

"What's your last name?"

(Pause) "....Staysniak."

"....Are you from Ridgefield?"

As it turns out, it is a small world after all.

Niven Mazza (there's more than a sizable chance I'm butchering her name atrociously here), who had my own mother as her seventh-grade history teacher, was visiting with her family due to the fact that her father works for NBC, and apparently specializes in coverage of the Olympic games (amongst the places they've visited were Atlanta and Sydney, as explained to me by her mother.) It really was quite the wonderful occasion ... but I really wish I wasn't such a sweaty, stinky mess when I was talking to them.

Shortly afterwards, I finally gave in to my mounting thirst and sough out a bottle of water, which only took several seconds as it felt like that there was a vendor at practically every tower yelling out "Water! Cold beer!" every time I passed them by. I then rejoined everyone else down below, and we then got back aboard the buses for the trip home. 

Here's an interesting note; as opposed to the cities back home, Beijing doesn't exactly taper off into suburbs of any sort. More or less, Beijing just ceases, and the surrounding countryside more or less gives away to a myriad of small towns and farmland. 

Anyhow, a few hours after returning to UIBE, we all gathered together for a group dinner at the on-campus restaurant.

Later on, Tom, Sarah Homewood (the one girl from Fairfield University at TBC this semester) set out to explore some stores in the neighborhood. For those of you who don't know Sarah, here's a quick photo of us taken shortly after our arrival at Beijing airport on Aug. 26. 

By some miracle, Tom and I knew enough Mandarin to help Sarah purchase a cheap cell phone at a nearby electronics store, which wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done (I personally think I just gestured more than anything.) We then briefly checked out the five-story Japanese department store, and a place called Wu Mart, a "hyperstore" according to its massive neon sign. "Hyperstore" would actually be the best way to describe it, for there was definitely way too much activity going on in there for us to handle for very long. 

That more or less does it, for like the past several nights, I fell asleep fairly soon after returning to building #6, wiped out by a big day.

 I hope everyone back home is doing well!

....And if you're reading this, Mom....Niven says hi.