I live!

Nia Ho, cuties!

So right now, I am sitting in a friend's hostel - on a friend's computer - because our hostel saaays it has Internet, but this is 100 percent a lie. I am on her computer because mine is dead, and the adapter mama bought me - thank you, mama, and don't feel bad about it, I would've done the same - is for the UK, Australia, and the U.S. As in it would help me adapt visiting any of those places, but not Asia. So I am a bit without means of communication. Marissa keeps a firm grip on the cell phone we've been given. It's pretty surreal to have no constant checking of time, etc. Also, I forget what day it is. Like I am just finishing my Friday night. Weeeeird. But heeey. Let me fill you right in on all the things. ALLL of the things.

Updates: Our hostel. Not so sketchy as you would think. It is real nice and things. And by real nice I mean it is marble, but someone thought it would be cool to put bumper stickers on the walls. So that's pretty delightful. It has a massage parlor and a gift shop, neither of which I necessarily trust, but I mean. It's cool that they are there. I'll include some pictures of our room/shower. It's not a palace, but it's not a hut either. The people. Ah, I love the people in our group. And the Chinese are so gracious, and so, so funny. And the babies... I want all of them. They are SO cute.

Yesterday was the Tianeman Square and the Forbidden City. Tianeman Square is the largest town square in the world. So that's cool in name. But mostly... it was just a lot of cement and a lot of people. SORRY. But it was a good introduction to China. In China, there is always a crowd. Tianeman Square was a trip in the sense that I have celeb status here, simply by being blonde-haired and blue-eyed, and also a veritable giantess. I have NEVER turned that many heads in my life. Families, old mens (the plural was necessary and gramatically correct. Deal with it.), college students, girls on weekend trips, they LOVED me. It was kind of surreal. I got approached for upwards of twenty photos, and the boys next to me would get all blushy and shaky. Never had that effect on men in the states. I didn't shower since before the flight, and the humidy amplifies my grease factor by about 500%, but they didn't care. My self-esteem's at an ALL-time high. Mama got GAME in China. (Mama is me, mom. Hi.) Then we hit up the National Museum of China. Iiiiiii, loved it. I got so absorbed in all the artifacts. Why can't someone just pay me to travel and write overly-passionate articles about artifacts and ancient cultures, and then work in a museum part-time? Can't that happen? I love museums. It was so similar to any museum I've been in, but something felt so different, and I couldn't quite identify it until I was sitting on the steps outside after. There was NO Christ or Christianity. And I respect their culture, government, and situations. I love learning about it and it is so unique. I just never realized fully until then just how much of our history, our art, is inspired by Christ. I don't know. The absence of His inspiration and influence in the museum made me appreciate the presence of it in my life. I loved it. That was a cool moment, for sure.

Forbidden City.... I mean. I don't know exactly what to say. It is SO incredible, in theory. But it's SO JAM-PACKED. And while beautiful, it's just a series of little courtyards that look exactly the same. I kept picturing Mulan taking place on the different roofs. But I got really hot and wanted out. I wasn't ungrateful to be in China, but. You know how it is. Random thing I love about China? Crocs. Everywhere. If China had a national shoe, it would be Crocs. I went Croc-hunting while we waited for the group by the gate at the end of Forbidden City. I got to 37 in four minutes, so I had to stop. But I've  never been happier Croc-wise. "Hey, that's a good-looking pair of Crocs," said no one, ever. WHY do I love them? They are so funny to me. Like colorful, strapped hooves. Foam magic. Are they made of foam? I don't know. I'm buying everyone I've ever met Crocs here. ACT SURPRISED.

We walked back to the hostel at this point. We were all DEAD. Me and my posse ducked into a little restaurant on the alley to our hostel because we saw that they had an English menu. It was DELICIOUS. I had pork and leek dumplings. We were going to nap, but Marissa and I just ended up laying on our beds doing impressions of people that creeped us out in high school. It was a good time and and it was nice to just not be on our feet. That evening we had a group dinner - food was AMAZEBALLS (I don't know, I've just always wanted to say that.) and I was thrilled when they threw out some french fries in the authentic food randomly. Hi. I'm all about that. Then we went to the kungfu show. It's like a play, but mostly with narration, a couple musical numbers, interpretive dancing, and a lot of crazy kungfu. Like, children did back hand-springs onto their heads. They were not using their hands. THEY WERE FLIPPING ON THEIR HEADS. And they laid on knives and like levitated in the air... I don't even know. Guys. It was amazing, and so beautiful. And COOL. But I got hit with jet-lag like a ton of bricks. I have never been that tired in my entire life. I must have looked like a drugged person. It was LOUD in that theater - gongs, loud music, special effects, yelling, and I was in and out like a baby in a rocking chair. It was crazy. Needless to say, I slept pretty soundly from like ten after coming home, to six this morning.

Today was the Great Wall. We got on the bus really early, and here is really when I fell in love with China, even though I was so happy yesterday. We got out of Beijing into the country - into this green kind of chaos, and I was in love. The people, the foliage, the buildings, everything... My heart just kind of exhaled. I was at peace. The wall was a flipping 20 minute walk up the steepest stairs I've ever encountered in allllll my days. Like. Please. PLEASE. Let's just climb 18,000 feet vertically via some shoddy stairs. Halllllright. Cool. Except that it really was. And once we were up there, it was INCREDIBLE. I wish I had words for it. But I really don't. There are so many different textures, and the views! Misty mountains and the wall stretching out into the distance, across the green expanse. It was so fun. And even though the hike was miserable, I'm glad I didn't opt for the cable car. My body was so happy to be pushed like that. Also, I ate a fetching Snickers at the Great Wall. Also, there were these antique brooms in one tower, so I was pretending to play quidditch with McCall and some tourists started laughing SO hard with me. I loved it. Humor is the speaks all languages. They got on some and we just goofed around, even though we couldn't talk to each other. People take pictures and videos of me all the time. We got so many cool pictures and I tobaggoned down the Great Wall after! It took like 15 minutes. Picture the Alpine Slide on steroids and you have got it. It was soooo fun. We had a group lunch after, and then we hit up the jade factory. It's crazy how intricate it is. Then we walked some sacred walkway and after another dinner at that hole-in-the-wall place we found yesterday, it's been journal-writing all night.

Thoughts in general: I am happy. I am so happy. I am not so naive as to think it's going to be this fun and action-packed when I get to my province and my school. That will be hard, and that will be what takes me from being a tourist, to a traveller. But I am. And also, I think I enjoy this group so much because it's got an Advanced Theatre-ish type of feel. We're all so different, but we have common purpose and we know we have each other's backs. Also, we can all already be creepy with each other and we tell the stupidest stories and laugh SO hard. Also, I think it is amazing how invested and personal you can get with people when no one has a cell-phone and no one is checking the time. I just love this. Thank you guys so much. I know it's going to get hard. But I am just happy.

Loving you from halfway around the globe,
Shelby