Views from on high

Hello all, here is a long overdue update!

We have been very busy while in Beijing.There is so much to see and do! I am now on an airplane headed south to Nanning. It is about a three and a half hour flight and we have about two and a half hours left. I am sitting between Tamsin and Mei mei. Mei mei is on my left eating cabbage salad and spilling orange juice on herself. Tamsin is on my right next to the window doing needlepoint work. She is sewing a picture of a horse, it is pretty cute! She's doing pretty well, only occasionally asking for help. Mei mei is so funny cause every time I Tamsin asks me something she wants to ask a question too. To get my attention she pounds on my shoulder until I acknowledge her.

We went to the Great Wall yesterday, it was so cool! Our guide (who doesn't speak English) drove us two hours outside of Biejing. We went through a lot of farm land and fruit orchards before finally reaching the mountains. The mountains were so pretty and oddly shaped, many of them tall, narrow and pointy, and all of them very jagged and rocky. It was so exciting when we were first able to see the foggy outline of the wall on top of the mountains in the distance!

Once there we walked through an outdoor market at the base of a mountain. I was funny because there were many booths, but they had the same merchandise, with very little variation of product between them!

After we made it past all the vendors shoving goods in our face and saying "Look, lady, one dollar! One dollar! You buy for one dollar!" we took a cable car to the top of the mountain. It was fun, and the kids had a great time squealing and pretending to be scared!

It was so cool to climb the stairs up to the great wall! (We were literally climbing, as the stairs were very tall, about the height of my knee) Once at the top we were able to look out and see the wall rambling over the mountains literally as far as we could see before both the wall and the mountains disappeared into the fog. I would love to go back someday and spend some time backpacking a section of the Great Wall.

I am looking out the window now, we are above the clouds. It is so fun to look out and see the horizon where the clouds meet the blue sky! The clouds are so fluffy, and I've even seeing some that stick straight up out of the rest like busy pillars!

I need to go now, I'll write more later! - jubilee


March 20, 2008, 10:25 pm

Hello again!

I am now sitting at the window of my hotel room in Nanning. It has a beautiful view of a river and the city around it. I am not used to being in the city 24/7, so I find it a bit odd that I can sit and write by the light of the city while all the bedroom lights are off.

Speaking of the hotel, I was surprised upon arriving to find out that the place we are staying is five stars. I feel a little outclassed!

Tomorrow is a day to relax, we have no agenda. Yay! I plan on exploring the hotel a bit once the girls are awake in the morning so they can come with. It's kind of funny because our room is down the hall a ways from Ron, Bridget and Isaacs.

I hope you are doing will, I think often of you and my family. Goodnight! -j