Czech Chick Recovers from Heat Stroke

If you have not read Todd's blog about the Czech Chick Dropping @ the Wall...read that first.

The Great Wall is an experience in itself, without having someone ill on location. It 

was serious! Todd kept telling Rene to gut it up and carry on. Once he tried to pump her up and went to the top of the steps and did jumping jacks and yelled out some pep talk.  I kept telling her to stop and take multiple breaks. We do think Todd saved the day by running ahead and finding a place to buy water. This was back at the base. I don't know how he even found it. We did have water but obviously it was not enough. I think it was a combination of lack of a "good" breakfast and more diet coke than regular water for her. (ha,ha! You'd think I was a doctor!) It was a little scary for awhile because there are not red cross stations, no official help, no phones, no cell phones to call for help, no place to buy water, no place to get out of the sun, no one that speaks English.... Todd said later he thought he would have to throw her over his shoulder and carry her out. If any of you have been to the Great Wall, you would know that it would be damn near IMPOSSIBLE as it is hard enough to get yourself up and down! Anyway, we've had some good laughs about it. 

Other observations:

*We are movie stars! There are SO few Americans and foreigners that we are a sight to behold. I think when we were in Shenzhen we saw a handful of Americans at the hotel restaurant....5-6. Here in Beijing we've seen a few more. .... 10-15? This means we are like movie stars! In fact we have posed for several pictures. Parents especially like to take pics of us with their children. Everyone does the thumbs up! I think they like Todd best as they are not sure where I might have come from! :) We will be in a few photo books after the Great Wall trip!

*Featured Food that Todd has eaten (happily)

-duck tongue in gel mold

-duck kidney in peanut/vinegar sauce

-duck head

-pig blood soup

-flying fish

-sea bugs

-sea urchins

-french fried shrimp 

Lorene and I are just not so adventuresome. We loved our meal tonight. Chicken with walnuts and sesame seeds,  a plate of snow peas and broccoli. We continue to like the same things and leave whole bowls of soup and other dishes we just don't have the taste for.

Mr. Her drove us to the Olympic sites today. We really couldn't get into them as they are not finished. Many, many people were like us and would like to take a peek. We drove by and quickly jumped out of the car and tried to take a few snap shops. Would love to stroll through there but it is not in the cards on this trip!

Good news is that we found the Marriott! Poor Mr. Her, our driver and friend, he drove us everywhere today and found our hotel! It was such a hard hotel to find. We were driving in circles for awhile. We were all reading signs and looking up and down tall buildings. The hotel is on  Chongwenmenwai Street. It was difficult and Todd was getting super crabby as he had not eaten anything since breakfast and then our hotel was going to cost more.........." No Problem We Happy now! Lorene and I are thrilled to be in this hotel and we get breakfast and the best for Todd is HAPPY HOUR! We convinced him he'd make up the difference in price after one session on the 16th floor! We even made some new friends during happy hour who are from Fresno State(CWS) and Mongolia.

History: I can't wait to get home and read more about China. Each of our drivers know so much about the history of China. They told us about emperors, when they were leaders and what province they came from and what they did. I am clueless! They are happy about China's progress forward. Tonight it was also interesting to hear about Mongolian's history......the reason China built the Great Wall.

I better call it a night.......I'm sore........not from climbing the Great Wall.....yet....I discovered

bruises on my calves from my massage a few days ago. During the massage I felt tickled,

then tense and sometimes it was painful. Kathy kept telling me to tell them what I liked and didn't like.......... it was pretty hard to communicate so I just let them do their massage. Maybe I need another one!

Goodnight,

Lynn