DAMN YOU MONGORIANS!!!

For those of you who aren't South Park fans and don't understand that reference, that is not me being culturally insensitive. That's me quoting the cultural insensitivity of others, which I'm not entirely sure is all that much better :) I stood on the Great Wall today! And I did it under the condition that we in the US call "Montezuma's Revenge", but in China I'll call it "Genghis Khan's Revenge". Hopefully you'll understand that well enough without me having to go into great descriptive detail of my bodily functions these days. I'm all well, though. It's just part of traveling under varying conditions (weather, food, activity level...) The wall was amazing. It really is like the spine of a dragon winding it's way through the hills. The thick and still muggy air made it difficult to see much in the distance, but it was fantastic enough as it was. We hiked about 1.5 km of the wall, up and down ramps and short little steps that make you wonder how Chinese soldiers in heavy armor would be able to maneuver very quickly. The best part was the last stretch up to the end of the section where tourists are allowed - past that point is the rest of the wall that hasn't been restored and opened for tourism. I scrambled just a bit up that rocky stretch (out of the immediate area that has been turned into a natural toilet of sorts for hikers that need a respite from their bladder). The reason for getting past the pee
targets was that I wanted a bit of the old wall to take home for my dear Daddy, and I figure he'd appreciate a non-pee soaked piece.

My response to foreigners the last few days has been funny. We got back to Beijing on Saturday night, and I realized I hadn't seen another Westerner for more than 3 weeks. I didn't even see myself for 2 of those weeks since we were in the absence of mirrors for so much of the time. So I found myself feeling like a Chinese person staring at all of the foreigners yesterday. I was wandering with Shaoyuan and didn't really stop to talk to anyone else that day, but today on the wall I had my first chances to have brief conversations with native English speakers!! It's been a month tomorrow since we left for the field station, and I've spoken directly to 2 people in those long 4 weeks - Shaoyuan and Ms. Xia. While I've appreciated and enjoyed their company very much, I've realized I would go batty if stranded on a deserted island for ever after. Well, I guess I'd be okay while on the island, but if returned to contact with other people I might drive everyone else batty with my incessant chatter.

Four more days, and I'm back in Boston. Aside from the smog and the fact that I can't understand the overheard conversations around me, Beijing feels a fair bit like Boston. Hot. Though I hope it's not that hot there yet. Today reached about 100 degrees, and it's supposed to be about the same for the rest of the week. But I'm not letting it deter me from my sightseeing. I'm going to hit some of the shopping districts tomorrow with Ms Xia, then a good friend from Wuhan is coming up on Wednesday for a visit. He and I are probably going to head for the Summer Palace. I may just wander some of the smaller historic neighborhoods on Thursday, have dinner with my colleagues in the evening, then I board a very long flight on Friday morning. I'll probably write at least once more before I leave here, so stay tuned
for another episode...