the pitter patter of little feet...
I'm looking at erin right now, and she looks drained.
we met up with our friends Jeff and Carrianne on wednesday, and have been trying to keep up ever since. they are in beijing right now because Carrianne is due to have her third child in early february, and their choice of hospitals is here. they have two younger sons, caleb and jacob, and these boys are amazing! we're kind of trying to 'baby-sit' and make their lives a bit smoother, because pregnancies are tough, especially in a city that isn't your home. hanging out with their family is a really nice change after a few weeks of traveling, mostly because we've been getting into a homey routine for a change, and because families just feel nice.
*hey mom*
erin and i have gotten good at a few things, mainly building forts, going to bed before eleven, wiping noses, and pouring juice. tonight we made crepes (thank you for teaching me allie) and watched a movie called cars. i've seen it twice now, and i still love it. so, consider it recommended.
before we started living with the fam though, we were in our sweet hostel in a hutong (or, old part of the city... mostly smaller houses and lower class living situations, all government owned, which makes them very temporary) close to the forbidden city. it was super lovely, and very rustic. we met a ton of really nice people at this hostel. most of them were australians, but we also had two very fantastic roommates from the UK: fiona and natalie. we liked them a ton.
so, the author of beijing's most recent lonely planet guide is named damien... and he has little 'damien tips' posted throughout the book....
for instance: 'damien says "if you go to beijing and don't eat peking duck, you must be mad!"'. so we ate duck. and it was really quite delicious. it was really fun because a group of about nine from the hostel went to the most famous peking duck restaraunt in beijing... all of them were Australian except for erin and me.
we befriended a few Australian guys with whom we formed a cool kid club. together it was marty erin dan and amy... meda...or dame...or mead...or made... anyway, we were cool, and together we explored the hutong's, found the perfect street sweet, ate multiple dinners of street meat and parata, sang, laughed, and also...
CLIMBED THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!
and well, it's just a wall.
that is a complete lie. it was amazing. call me a sucker for dynastic power, but the Chinese accomplished a lot with the wall. it's even better than how it's depicted on mulan (i know it's hard to believe), and my imagination totally geeked out while we were there.
i could just imagine all of the guards hanging out in their different towers, shouting to each other, abhorring going to certain areas because of the steep steps... it was so enthralling to have so much history under my feet. and we saw donkeys! three of them!
maybe the best part of the great wall was that the four of us noticed a ruined guard tower (because they've rebuilt sections of the wall) and somehow found a wooden ladder to climb down from the current wall. from there we forged a trail to the old tower, climbed it, and had our lunch looking across mongolia. we got some really cool pictures, which i hope to be able to post soon.
the past week or so has been exhaustingly busy. both erin and i are now getting over sinus/throat colds that reached their peak on tuesday and wednesday. we're kinda phlegmy, but we're making it. talking about things, we're feeling like our trip has been going really fast, and it feels like it should be over, and we realized that we still have something close to five weeks left. i think it's mostly because we aren't used to taking more than two or three week trips.
we also went to the forbidden city, which was really neat. this was erin's place to geek out. especially in the throne rooms, she (and i ) were really impressed. seeing the place where the emperor’s wives lived was slightly eerie, and i'm not quite sure why, i think it's because this place was being memorialized, and well- they were just people. but wow, did they live in splendor.
our favorite though, was the park/garden across the street. after hiking up a number of steps, there is this gorgeous view from the pavilion of a temple. we didn't really pay attention to the temple, but from the ledge we could see for miles. it was a really clear day in beijing, and we were both struck by the enormity of the place. we could see down into the forbidden city, and the intricacies of it were apparent even from our bird's eye view.
we've been having a great time in beijing, and will do our best to post again before we leave next week. we love you all, and hope the weather in your part of the world (snowy snowy washington...) is safe.
we met up with our friends Jeff and Carrianne on wednesday, and have been trying to keep up ever since. they are in beijing right now because Carrianne is due to have her third child in early february, and their choice of hospitals is here. they have two younger sons, caleb and jacob, and these boys are amazing! we're kind of trying to 'baby-sit' and make their lives a bit smoother, because pregnancies are tough, especially in a city that isn't your home. hanging out with their family is a really nice change after a few weeks of traveling, mostly because we've been getting into a homey routine for a change, and because families just feel nice.
*hey mom*
erin and i have gotten good at a few things, mainly building forts, going to bed before eleven, wiping noses, and pouring juice. tonight we made crepes (thank you for teaching me allie) and watched a movie called cars. i've seen it twice now, and i still love it. so, consider it recommended.
before we started living with the fam though, we were in our sweet hostel in a hutong (or, old part of the city... mostly smaller houses and lower class living situations, all government owned, which makes them very temporary) close to the forbidden city. it was super lovely, and very rustic. we met a ton of really nice people at this hostel. most of them were australians, but we also had two very fantastic roommates from the UK: fiona and natalie. we liked them a ton.
so, the author of beijing's most recent lonely planet guide is named damien... and he has little 'damien tips' posted throughout the book....
for instance: 'damien says "if you go to beijing and don't eat peking duck, you must be mad!"'. so we ate duck. and it was really quite delicious. it was really fun because a group of about nine from the hostel went to the most famous peking duck restaraunt in beijing... all of them were Australian except for erin and me.
we befriended a few Australian guys with whom we formed a cool kid club. together it was marty erin dan and amy... meda...or dame...or mead...or made... anyway, we were cool, and together we explored the hutong's, found the perfect street sweet, ate multiple dinners of street meat and parata, sang, laughed, and also...
CLIMBED THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!
and well, it's just a wall.
that is a complete lie. it was amazing. call me a sucker for dynastic power, but the Chinese accomplished a lot with the wall. it's even better than how it's depicted on mulan (i know it's hard to believe), and my imagination totally geeked out while we were there.
i could just imagine all of the guards hanging out in their different towers, shouting to each other, abhorring going to certain areas because of the steep steps... it was so enthralling to have so much history under my feet. and we saw donkeys! three of them!
maybe the best part of the great wall was that the four of us noticed a ruined guard tower (because they've rebuilt sections of the wall) and somehow found a wooden ladder to climb down from the current wall. from there we forged a trail to the old tower, climbed it, and had our lunch looking across mongolia. we got some really cool pictures, which i hope to be able to post soon.
the past week or so has been exhaustingly busy. both erin and i are now getting over sinus/throat colds that reached their peak on tuesday and wednesday. we're kinda phlegmy, but we're making it. talking about things, we're feeling like our trip has been going really fast, and it feels like it should be over, and we realized that we still have something close to five weeks left. i think it's mostly because we aren't used to taking more than two or three week trips.
we also went to the forbidden city, which was really neat. this was erin's place to geek out. especially in the throne rooms, she (and i ) were really impressed. seeing the place where the emperor’s wives lived was slightly eerie, and i'm not quite sure why, i think it's because this place was being memorialized, and well- they were just people. but wow, did they live in splendor.
our favorite though, was the park/garden across the street. after hiking up a number of steps, there is this gorgeous view from the pavilion of a temple. we didn't really pay attention to the temple, but from the ledge we could see for miles. it was a really clear day in beijing, and we were both struck by the enormity of the place. we could see down into the forbidden city, and the intricacies of it were apparent even from our bird's eye view.
we've been having a great time in beijing, and will do our best to post again before we leave next week. we love you all, and hope the weather in your part of the world (snowy snowy washington...) is safe.
posted by Amy Gibson at 7:16 AM
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