Week 3: The Great Wall!
I climbed the Great Wall! And it was an experience. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so the pictures below are pretty gray; but fortunately, it was cloudy, so it wasn’t as hot as it could have been, and I didn’t get heat stroke climbing those many, many stairs. It’s very hard for me to describe the feeling I had standing on a piece of history that ancient, especially a landmark I’ve known about my whole life that always seemed so far away. It was a great feeling, a humbling one. I hope I get to feel that way again as I continue to experience the wonders of the rest of the world. That day, we took the S2 train to the Badaling section of the Wall. We got in line early and waited for nearly an hour, but to my surprise, as soon as the guards opened the gates, every Chinese native standing in line with us bolted for the gate – yelling and shouting, running as fast as they could to make sure they each got a seat. Luckily, Shandice, Delia, and I did get a seat on the way there. The seats were very comfortable and spacious, which I wouldn’t have expected for a ticket that cost about 1USD. On the way back, however, the price made more sense. The return train was crowded, and no seats were available. Delia and Shandice were able to find a spot on the floor, but I ended up standing for the one hour train ride back, which wouldn’t have been so bad if my feet weren’t killing me from hiking all day. Now, I think that was part of the experience that is going to make the day even more memorable to me. It cost me two dollars to get to the Great Wall of China and back and less than seven dollars to climb it, so if the only drawback was an uncomfortable hour spent on a train, I’ll take it. Plus, I could still see out the window!
We hiked the Wall on Sunday. The day before, we met Shandice and some members of her law firm for a game of flag football. Initially, I was just going to watch, but I ended up playing, and it was a blast! Shandice was the only one who actually knew the rules of football, so the first hour was spent with her teaching me and the lawyers how to play. We learned pretty quickly, and ended up playing four or five games. All of the lawyers were welcoming and fun, and I was very happy to meet them. 认识你们我很高兴！
This week at work Anna has been out of the country at an international conference in South America. So, I have mostly been working on drafting the contract I mentioned last week and reading up on more international children’s rights issues. Currently, I’m reading a UNICEF report on the effects of bullying on children in different countries and the methods some of these countries have been using to help solve this pervasive problem. For example, the Finnish government implemented a program called the “KiVa” anti-bullying program which focuses on affecting the role that bystanders take in influencing bullying behavior, and it seems to be having a positive effect on reducing instances of bullying. I have also been studying Mandarin in my spare time and have spoken with several of my coworkers who have all offered to help me learn!
On Monday, we had our introductory meeting with the Chinese students, and they told us about their hometowns and offered to cook us some of their local specialties. I am definitely looking forward to that! All of them are very kind, funny, and interesting, and I can’t wait to get to know them better. On Fridays, they normally have an English class in the afternoon that they invited us to attend and help out with. This Friday, however, Zhicheng hosted a gathering of lawyers from many different provinces to discuss migrant issues. The whole firm and the visiting lawyers went to a wonderful buffet-style lunch at the hotel next door (scroll to the bottom if you want to see a picture of food from a real Chinese buffet). Later in the afternoon they had a presentation at the office, but unfortunately, my Mandarin is not good enough (yet!) to understand the bulk of the language from the mouth of a native speaker, so I did not attend. I have been getting more and more comfortable speaking and asking questions in Chinese, and my hope is that by the end of the summer, I’ll be able to have an entire conversation with someone totally in Chinese without the need for Google Translate. It’s going to happen!
After two eventful and exciting weekends exploring Beijing, we are resting up and taking it easy this weekend. We might check out a Pizza Hut today (we’ve heard they have some interesting toppings here in China), but other than that, I just plan on studying and catching up on sleep.
I forgot to mention one thing that I was very excited about! While we were at the Great Wall, I wanted to practice haggling, which my new friend Andrew, who is a Chinese native, just calls “bargaining.” I was successful, and I did it all in Chinese! Below, I’ve included a picture of my accomplishment (a small, stuffed panda). I got 10元 off this time. Next time, I’m going even lower! Very fun!
