The Great Wall

Today was quite a long day. We went to the Great Wall. It was pretty much as I imagined it would be, only MUCH harder to walk up. At least, I think so. David had no trouble at all. In fact, there were several landings along the way. On one of them, I met up with another mom from our group, and we decided to wait there while our husbands trekked farther on up the mountain.


So, after we got back down to the bottom, anyone who knows me knows that I had to go potty. :) Well, this was my first experience (this trip) with the “squatty potty.” I was telling my teacher friends about them last week, and they had hard time envisioning such a thing, so I thought I would take a picture so they could see for themselves. So, what’s worse than having to actually use a squatty potty?? Getting walked in on WHILE using the squatty potty!! Good grief.

This is actually one of the nicer squatty potties of China!

After the Great Wall, we went to the Jade Factory and then our guides took us to see the “real” Beijing. We took a tour through one of the villages here in the city. This is considered one of the nicer villages. We noticed that there were a lot of restrooms in the area. We later found out it’s because they do not have any in their houses. Not only that, but the restrooms that are there for them to use, don’t even have doors to the stalls. Wow. I guess that would be worse than getting walked in on, huh? Seriously, this is how these people live their lives every single day. Can you imagine?

Well, tomorrow we will have Orientation with our agency in the morning, and then go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We’re hoping to get updated pictures of Sophie tomorrow. Stay tuned!!