Overnight on the Great Wall

If you missed out on my first day in Beijing and the Forbidden City, you can check it out {HERE}!

Monday, July 11

So, I apologize, I fibbed, just a bit. In my last post I told you I visited the Forbidden City and then went to bed that night...not exactly...I was determined, and until I thought I had exhausted the last of my resources I didn't go to bed until WAY too late. 

Going to Beijing I knew for certain that I just HAD to go to the Great Wall, I mean, did you REALLY go to Beijing if you didn't see the wall?! Getting to Beijing I figured I'd hop on a tour bus, spend a long day checking out the wall and then head back to the city; as time progressed though I grew more and more determined to spend more than just ONE day on the wall though {a little foresight would have gone a l.o.n.g way here}. I collapsed in my bed after my first night exploring the Forbidden City pulled out my laptop and started investigating...who had last minute openings to spend a night on the wall?? I sent out several desperate email attempts and assuming that no one would answer me past midnight, quickly fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up e.a.r.l.y and excitedly checked my emails "Dear Tracy, I am happy to receive your email, I have one overnight trip leaving this morning at 9:30am, please reply if you are able to make it"....BINGO! I hit reply, threw a couple things in my backpack, ran to the bank to exchange some more money and headed to our meeting location just in the nick of time (ok maybe a few minutes late...but hey, I made it!) We loaded the 6 of us plus our guide Sonya into a van and we were off with adrenaline pumping through my veins!

Close to 2.5 hours later we climbed out of the van and were greeted in Chinese by an elderly lady that ran a small guest house of sorts out of her home located at the base of the wall. We stretched ourselves out and sat down for a traditional Chinese lunch before filling our backpacks with water and starting our adventure! There was a trail leading up to a portion of the wall within less than 10 minutes walking from this woman's home {can you even imagine saying that you live RIGHT next to the Great Wall of China?!} We hiked for just over 3 hours (our Chinese-only speaking guide, Cameron & John from Connecticut, Raphael from California, Lauren from the UK, Amy an Englisher herself living in New Zealand, && myself) and covered roughly 5 miles along the wall. Now before you begin judging us for our slow walking capabilities; our hike was full of  large hills small mountains, quite uneven rocks, and the heat index was well over 105! But we had a BLAST!

When you generally see pictures of the Great Wall you see {this} large beautifully redone portions of the wall, with safely rebuilt steps, handrails, side guards, and thousands of people...I didn't want any of that! There were several portions we walked on that hard large chucks of the wall missing where it was only safe for 1 person to cross at a time, we were constantly slipping on the uneven rocks we were walking on, and falling off the side of the wall was a real  easy possibility for a good 80% of our hike...and it was all AMAZING! Yet to boot, in the 3 hours we hiked, we saw 4 people...we had the wall to ourselves, and let me tell you, to say that the views were breathtaking doesn't even begin to do it justice, it just completely takes your breath away and reminded me so much of another similar awe inspiring experience HERE.

From the highest points on the wall you could see out for miles upon miles; the lush rolling mountains, teensy tiny little towns scattered about, and the wall spreading out like spider arms in every direction you looked. It was truly indescribable!

Just when we thought we couldn't walk any further we started our decent down and were met by our van from early in the day that took us back to the small guest house. Here we were armed with large hiking backpacks full of our gear for the night along with our dinner and we quickly headed up a small dirt path leading to a watch tower that would serve as our home for the night!

To summarize our evening: 

- Eat dinner on the Great Wall of China...check
- Play card games on the Great Wall of China...check
- Walk barefooted on the Great Wall of China...check
- Share beers with new friends on the Great Wall of China...check
- Watch the sunset on the Great Wall of China...check {though thanks to smog it wasn't too pretty lol}
- Pitch a tent & sleep on the Great Wall of China...check!
- Experiance total and complete darkness, wake up at 4:30 in the morning to the sound of the birds and bugs coming alive, watch the sunrise, and go for a morning walk all on the Great Wall of China...check, check, & double check!

Guys, I've said it before and I hope I can say it again, but this truly was a once in a life time experience that I will never forget! Some people say that I'm crazy, or super adventurous, or that I can't sit still. While all these things may be slightly true ;) why not embrace them?! There is so much of this amazing world to go out and see, you just have to be open enough to grab life by the horns and let it take you where it wills!


Like my favorite Magic School Bus teacher always said:

Beautiful Beijing & The Forbidden City

Saturday, June 9 - Sunday, June 10

Remember several months ago when Tina and I boarded a plane headed for Thailand and I was all but peeing my pants with excitement?!?! Yeah, I wasn't quite as excited {most likely just because I'm not sure that's physically possible to be more excited} but I was pretty darn close...I was heading to China!

The Great Wall has always been such an intriguing landmark to me, but so out of reach from Northwest Ohio that I never wanted to dream too big {{lesson learned!}}

My last day in Taiwan was Saturday, July 9 and I was so full of mixed emotions as Clement and Director Chen drove me to the airport; heartbroken to be leaving a country I had fallen in love with, excited to be seeing my friends and family so soon, nervous about traveling through China alone, tired from lack of sleep...truly...everything was hitting me at once. We said our goodbyes and as they drove away it finally hit me and the tears began to fall...my wonderful, amazing, and life-changing year of teaching in Taiwan was over. Lucky for me though, a quick 3 hour nap landed me in the heart of Beijing at Beijing Capital Airport...China here we go!

I hopped on the Airport Express line connecting to the subway and headed downtown towards my hostel, Saga Youth Hostel {PS-if you're heading to Beijing anytime soon I HIGHLY recommend this hostel!}. I arrived around 7pm and after situating myself in my bunk, I met several of the guys in my dorm room and after talking for a bit we decided to head out together for dinner. Marcus, from Germany, suggested a large night market about 20 walking minutes away, so we headed out. One of the many things I love about traveling alone and staying in hostels is meeting so many people along the way and the discussions that come along with these new-found friendships. We enjoyed our evening at the market sampling some dumplings, meet skewers, sugar coated cherry tomatoes, and ending our scorching hot evening with delicious mango ice cream!

Waking up Sunday morning I hit the ground running early on, I only had 6 days in Beijing and I had to make the most of it! After grabbing some street-food breakfast meal I hopped on the subway headed for Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden City {only 2 subway stops from my hostel!} to begin my day.

Walking out of the subway station I found myself standing right in the middle of Tiananmen Square and was in awe both at the size of the square as well as the sheer amount of people {and umbrellas for the sun!} that were covering the square. I walked around the square for a while before I found the underpass leading to the entrance gates of the Forbidden City. Now I paid attention in history class {more or less..} and I knew the Forbidden City was big and all, but oh my gosh...it was HUGE! The 950+ building cover around 180 acres of land and while you are walking from one building to the next, you look out and the layout gives the impression that the Forbidden City (the palace from 1412 - 1920) goes on for forever.

When entering the city I decided to purchase the GPS audio guide they were offering and was so glad I did! Other than being an amazing map (no place in China that I went to had maps for people!) it kept track of where you were with a blinking red light, and upon approaching an important area or building would begin telling you about the location until you moved on. By using the guide I was not only able to keep track of where in the palace museum I was, but also what else there was to see ahead of me (aka, tons!) The architecture of the palace buildings reminded me a lot of many of the temples in Taiwan, both in structure as well as color choices. Although we were not permitted to enter many of the buildings, many of them were set up with furniture and artifacts from the emperors and it was neat to see the period pieces from a culture so different from my own! After 4+ hours of walking {99% of which was outside} in temperatures reaching the high 90's, I decided that I could only see so much of the palace in one day and headed back to my hostel to cool down for a bit.

After a quick cool down and power nap {never underestimate the power of an afternoon power-nap!} I headed back out for the evening towards the Temple of Heaven. Though not entirely far from my hostel, by the time I got there they had stopped selling tickets to enter inside the temple, so I opted to buy a ticket to simply walk the gardens around this iconic 200-year-old temple. Although I was bummed I couldn't go inside the temple {haha you know how I love my temples!} the gardens around it were beautiful and I loved getting a glimpse at the evey day life of many Chinese people. There were small groups of people covering virtually every flat space of the gardens playing cards and mahjong, men and women alike; it was quite fun to see!

Once I left the gardens, and after grabbing a snack at a local bakery since I was STARVING!, I headed off in the direction of the local silk market. The hostel had posters of recommended sights in Beijing and little bits of info about each one and after noticing the market was open late (many things closed between 4 & 6) I figured it might be a fun way to spend my first evening in China! Getting to the silk market was a breeze and I quickly located a small restaurant with an ever  instant waiter and figured I'd give it a try...I mean where else can you get a "fast food", duck sandwich for dinner!!! I enjoyed my sandwich along with the free fries and nuggets they brought me out later as well! :)

Walking just a couple feet from the duck restaurant I found myself in the midst of the silk market. This 8 story building is filling with vendors trying their hardest to sell you anything and everything under the sun. Every two feet had someone shouting "hey pretty lady" or "do you need a..." and "I give you good price". I just had to laugh....things we never see in America! I browsed the isles for a while before buying my brother a Beijing soccer jersey and told myself I'd be back again when I had a little more sleep on my hands! Back to the hostel I went and after a little online research for the rest of my Beijing stay...I quickly crashed...midnight comes all too soon when you're traveling!

Taiwan Summer Camp

I can’t lie, I wasn’t looking forward to summer camp. It’s written into our contracts that we have to provide our school with either a summer or winter camp and my school and I together decided a summer camp was best for everyone, but that didn’t mean I was looking forward to it! I had 8 days to relax before I left Taiwan after school was over and camp was taking 3 days of that…and I just wasn’t the happiest of campers. But, as time got closer I quickly began to realize that I had as much freedom over camp as I wanted and my directors only request was that we “have fun time”…fun? I can do that!

They were hoping to have 25-30 kids sign up for camp from 8am-12 for 3 days right after school was out. I’d be the main teacher but would also have a co-teacher each day along with Clement our English military guy to help out…easy peasy….until it wasn’t. They blamed it on the fact that my name was on the signup sheet and I was [I quote] “popular with the kids”, but the next thing I knew, we had 68 kids signed up and only a small classroom to hold us all in…oh buddy, things are going to get interesting!

After a little revamping my original camp curriculum we came up with a plan that would work with more than double the original amount of kids and still hopefully be a blast for the kiddos. Next began Clement and I's mad dash around Hsinchu to locate some of the odd ball materials I was hoping to find {{can anyone say piñata hunting in Asia?!}} I'm still not exactly sure how we did it, but we found everything we needed (or suitable substitutes lol), got all the kids situated in a single room, and had a blast doing it!

Here's a quick rundown of our week:

Monday - What do you look like?

On Monday we kicked camp off with learning how to describe a person, their figure, and hair types. The only obvious way to follow up this lesson was to play the largest version of Guess Who that I have ever witnessed! After a couple practice rounds against yours-truly I supplied small groups with mini, printed versions of the game and let them have at it. They had never seen the game before and had a blast! I was asked to play one movie during summer camp and it fit perfectly into Monday's schedule, so while the students were watching "How to Train Your Dragon" {hey might as well pick something I'll like as well!} I set up my popcorn maker for a little American style popcorn...holy moly, the kids went nuts CRAZY! They had never seen a popcorn maker before! They plowed through 2 pounds of kernels before the movie was half over and left not a single crumb behind! Needless to say...day one was a hit!

Tuesday - Kickball fun!

In Taiwan children LOVE to play baseball and badminton. During any given break throughout of the school day you can ALWAYS find children playing both games around the playground. Unlike many of the students in the US though, none of them knew how to play kickball! I thought summer camp would be the perfect time to introduce them as well as working in a little baseball vocabulary into the mix for them as well. We went over the rules and logistics of kickball {pretty quick and easy after playing baseball everyday!} and then practiced some terms and phrases that we could yell {{kindly!}} while playing. Then we let loose. 6 teams were created allowing us to have 3 games going at once [remember...68 kids!] so one game inside the air-conditioned-ish gym and the other 2 outside...it was a ripe 92 degrees and 80% humidity...needless to say we didn't last long before we moved inside too! We created a last minute tournament of sorts and allowed the teams to compete inside. The last 45 minutes of camp we offered a teacher vs. student game and the kids went wild (in Taiwan I rarely saw teachers or parents interacting with the kids at their level...as kids). We happened to have 6 adults handy and about 40 of the kids wanted to play...I'm still not sure how the team of 6 managed to win, but the kids had an absolute blast! Day 2 of camp...complete!

Wednesday - Let's go to Mexico!

Holy moly was Wednesday a blast! I had been looking forward to this day and I am happy to say that fun was had by ALL! We started our day off by learning a little about the country of Mexico, where it was, what we eat, and what some places in the country might look like. The kids also tried their hand at counting to 5 and saying hi & bye in Spanish {they decided this was much more difficult than English!} Afterwards we learned a simple Mexican partner dance {I may have never laughed so hard as I did watching the kids trying this dance!} and then broke open the "Mexican food" [first I have to give my disclosure here...Mexican food doesn't exist in Taiwan...anywhere! I had my mom sending my hot sauce because I couldn't find ANYTHING! So, we went with the twisted Taiwanese forms of Mexican food!] First up the kids tried a popular Mexican candy called Pulparindo, some like it while others ran for the trash! Next up was cucumber pieces dipped in Tajin (a powdered lime & chili seasoning) and most of the kids came back for more! Lastly was our Dorito party {I warned you of a twisted form of Mexican food!} Clement had bought 12 bags of Doritos and the kids devoured them! We had mild and medium salsas along with Valentina sauce from Mexico. Though the kids were reluctant to try to spicy we began with a few brave ones and pretty soon they were all trying and mixing all the sauces...they were hooked!

To end our fun filled we headed to the gym armed with 2 piñatas, waayy too much candy, a baseball bat, and 68 over-the-top excited kids....it was piñata time! ;)

Last Week of School

I say it every year, but this year was especially terrible. I feel like it was just August and I was meeting my students for the first time, and here I am now planning last week of school activities for the little guys I have come to love so dear! Our school year here is a tad bit longer and the dates are a little skewed from the typical western school calendar, so our last day of school wasn’t until Thursday, June 30.

When I taught first grade back in Ohio I always tried to make the last day full of fun memories for the kids. I know many teachers like to multitask and put in a movie while they finish up end of the year work, or have the students help prepare the classroom for summer, but for me it’s a time to celebrate! We’ve all made it through another school year and we all need time to relax and have fun!

Enter Miss St. John’s “Minute-to-Win-it” games!

I have over the last couple of years compiled a group of fun minute-to-win-it games that require few supplies and are easy for the kids to understand, and I most certainly didn’t want to deprive my Taiwan students of the fun! If you have never heard of minute-to-win-it games before they are essentially small games that you try to complete in under 60 seconds. They are fast, fun, and easy, and always a hit with the kids!

This year, since we only have 40 minute periods, I narrowed our games down to 4 including eating a cookie placed on their forehead without using their hands, keeping 2 balloons afloat for 60 seconds, stacking 36 cups into a pyramid, and getting a tissue paper fish to cross a finish line by fanning it with a plastic folder. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but I promise you…we all had fun! J

Tokyo Take 3 – Fish Market & Harajuku

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Oooh buddy! The last month of my life has been a whirlwind of emotions, travels, and turning my life upside down, but hopefully I can get everything up to date on here {fortunately for me, my adventures rarely stop…unfortunately for my blog, my adventures rarely stop!}

Day 3 in Tokyo I told myself I’d take it a little easier, I had been go, go, go for far too long and my body was finally screaming at me to take a break! After going to bed at a somewhat decent time the night before I woke up somewhat early in hopes of making it to Tokyo’s morning fish market. From what I have read this is the largest fish market in the world! The daily market begins around 4-5 am with the most popular tuna auctions, but they only let a limited amount of visitors in to see the auctions each morning and it is recommended to line up for tickets by 3am. I thought it would be cool to see, but at 3am, my pillow is also really awesome! So needless to say I didn’t see the tuna auction, but I was at the market by 9:30am and was able to stroll through the outdoor fish markets and other vendor stalls, which was really fun to see in its own respect as well!

If there was a type of fresh fish or seafood that you were craving, the Tsukiji fish market had it…guaranteed! Also if sushi at 9am is your thing…the various stands squeezed between the fish stalls had you taken care of in that regard as well! The options were terrific, the people watching was amazing, and the smells were quite questionable, but overall, I loved this unique market. As I was starting to head out my stomach took over and decided it needed food like 2 hours ago, I wasn’t so keen on fish at 10am, but wasn’t sure what else to try. I spotted a lady stirring a large pot and figured I’d try what was inside…that’s when she pointed behind me and I saw a line at least 15 people deep waiting to eat at her stand {she literally had 5 chairs at her stand and people were eating elbow to elbow!} I figured it had to be good and hoped in line, still having NO idea what she was selling. I watched what people ahead of me were buying and when it was my turn did my signature “1 please” and sure enough, I always get 1 of the “house specialties”! It was a braised pork over rice and tasted pretty close to what I’m assuming Heaven tastes like if God decided to give it a flavor!

After the market I walked in the direction of a famous park in Tokyo, but instantly decided to not pay to go inside when the rain sprinkles turned into a light drizzle, so onwards and upwards! One of the last place I really wanted to check out was in an area called Shibuya. Many of the sites that I read about Tokyo on recommend this area and I figured it was worth a visit! Getting out of the subway station there is a 5 way intersection immediately in front of you, and this intersection is unreal. I have NEVER seen such a busy intersection in my life! As soon as the cars get a red light there are people coming and going from literally every direction filling the entire area in the blink of an eye. I just stood through several red lights watching everyone around me before I actually crossed the street!

I walked around this area for a bit picking up a couple of souvenirs along the way and stopping at a local curry joint for a late lunch before running into a pair of traveling girls {one from Australia & the other Germany} who had only met the day before as well. We stopped for some desert & drinks and enjoyed each other’s company for the afternoon until we parted ways.

The last place on my personal Tokyo list, and about the last my poor body could handle!, was to check out the geek/anime culture in the Harajuku District. Holy moly, was this area weird! Lol I loved it! There were people dressed up quite eccentrically, shops selling clothing that I never knew existed, and just overall “creatures” that you might have to look long and hard to find in the mid-west of the USA! But, here they were, all together, and all for my personal people watching enjoyment!

After Harakuju I went back to my hostel for a short nap (7pm naps are a thing…right?!) And then per the suggestion of the girls I had met earlier in the day, found an Okonomi restaurant near where I was staying. I was told it’s a traditional Japanese food and some people call it a Japanese pancake…I had nothing else, and boy was I in for a surprise! I ordered a pork Okonomi as it looked like that was a popular option and was then quickly worried when they turned a burner on on my table and presented me with a bowl of white mush, cabbage, a raw egg, and raw meat….ummm, is this my meal?! After a minute or two I caught a waitress’s eye, pointed at the slimy, raw bowl of food in front of me and shrugged my shoulders, she quickly caught on and came over to make my food for me! She mixed everything together into a questionable looking paste and tossed it on the griddle in a thick pancake like form. Later I went to check if I should flip it and another waitress quickly slapped my hand away! Haha…they have this covered now. Eventually my food was ready and as I am eating it yet another waitress comes over and takes it from it and starts covering it with a number of sauces from the table (I had been trying a new one with each bite!) and then hands me my food back. It may not have been the most flavorful food in my life, but the experience still makes me chuckle!

I went back to the red-light district for a bit to take in some more of its craziness, and then called my last night in Tokyo a wrap.

Wednesday, before flying home I packed my bags, grabbed some pork & rice for breakfast and headed back to Harakuju only to find that the shops weren’t open yet. I took that as my clue and headed to the train station, airport bound, and ready for one last week of teaching in Taiwan.