To start off the week we had a good Church meeting at the Beijing International Branch, It was really weird because it was in an office building with Dairy Queen attached to it and people were still working haha. It was really cool to see lots of people that werent of Chinese descent coming together for this one day. After church we were invited to the Relief Society Presidents home for dinner! Told there was going to be home made American food! We had been fasting all day so we were famished. When we arrived we found out that we werent the only ones going to be attending the dinner party and had time to get to know one another. We had a 2nd counsler and his wife, a couple and two funny british guys going to college in China. The dinner bell rang and we grabbed our plates for a dinner set up like a buffet. She had prepared bbq pork, home made rolls, fruit jello, chips, salad and so on, haha we had never eaten so much! Then they brought our dessert which we couldnt eat for like an hour while we digested, we were planning on staying there all day, she had carpet.. We had a little devontional from the 2nd counsler and were scooted on our way. We had to get a good nights rest anyway for tomorrow which was a big day. The Great Wall of China!! We woke up around six so we could walk to where our tour was going to take off of. Other then our group we were also with about seven others, some from Jeruselum, some from England and one really small Chinese guy. We were dropped off in the middle of no where and were waiting for our tour guide, our tour was the secret Great Wall so it wasnt the fancy version and we had no idea where to go. Then from behind the crowd of us we heard the little Chinese man beckon us to follow him... Lexxy started to call him Hank and it caught on pretty quickly, turns out that Hank was 72 years old... im sorry let me retype that.. Hank was 72 years old about to take us on a two hour hike up hill. Holy Calolo!! He was a champ. When we got up to the wall it was incredible! You could see all around you and the wall was growing plants and crumbling and went on forever!! We walked the wall for a while and found a guard tower, I think you could imagine what popped into our heads at this point. Since we couldn't sleep on the wall we were going to leave our mark another way. So we waited until everyone had moved on the the next scene and ever so slyly Natty exclaimed, "Ladies, this is our duty. It much be fulfilled and if not by us then who?" Thats all the pep talk we needed, Brittany handed out the white squares and had to snap a quick pose of victory. WC!!! WC aka: ladies summer room. After each taking a guard look out we couldn't help but throw high fives and race to where our group was. Hank had them resting in a larger guard tower for some drinks and pictures. Omri, the jewish guy, had us all flustered with his accent but thought us a crazy group because we had a dance party on the Wall of greatness. The wall took up most of our day and didn't have much time for anything else so we just explored and found a park with karaoke and ribbon dancing and occupied ourselves for the night. Our last day in Beijing was pretty busy with sight seeing, first thing in the morning we went to the Temple of Heaven, its where they did sacrafices and stuff. We walked the grounds and saw huge gates and the most amazing art work you have ever seen! The last thing we were suppose to see in Beijing was the Bird nest from the Olympics. We took a million buses a few bridges and lots of walking to get there and guess what.. it was closed!!! It was the saddest thing! But you could get a little closer then the very outside gate so some went and some didn't. Nat and Brit wanted to go back to the silk market and Lexxy was determined to sneak in it thats what it took. Nat and Brit finally got everything they need from the silk shop done, dancing and the whole shabang really sped things up. Two girls and Lex walked the closest to the Nest to savor the moment, but there were like five other gates closing it off, Lex says she wanted nothing more then to run that glorious track. So disapointing! Sarah, Abby and Lex started walking home and the fastest way was to cross the freeway.. Don't worry they didnt do it but did climb the bridge above the freeway and Jason Bourned it across holding for dear life and shuffling on their tip toes, I guess a twenty foot drop to speeding cars really does put your life into perspective. Once all home safe and sound we had our last night of packing to get ready to leave in the morning on our flight back. When we got back home we had all day to unpack and relax before getting back to teaching. Good to be home! We missed our Kids!!
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