This day did not start out
well for me. I woke with a temp of over 103 degrees. I didn't feel
terrible but I knew something was going on to cause my temp to rise
like that. At this point I was panicking. I know that I am a mom
myself and a grown woman, but I quickly sent a message to my mom to
Skype to help me determine what to do. I needed an antibiotic
quickly. Luckily she received my message and did Skype call me
within a matter of minutes. She suggested that I call Holt to see
what they could do to help me out. Then she played the mom card and
also suggested that I stay in the hotel for the day. I did not like
this advice but immediately knew she was right. As soon as we hung
up I gathered the information to call call Holt in Beijing. There
was a contact person number and the Holt office number. One went
through but no one answered. The other number didn't seem to work.
At that point I emailed all the Holt people we had worked with to see
what they could do to help. In the meantime my mother in law came to
the rescue! She had brought an antibiotic for just in case and
allowed me to take it. Seriously, I think she saved me! At that
point I still didn't know what to do about the day. I knew I needed
rest but I hated missing any thing on the trip. I may have seen
these things before but I had never seen them with Ava. I was really
struggling. I also knew that I had to beat whatever was happening to
my body because soon I would have 2 little girls to run after and
that would take all my energy. I decided to go eat breakfast with my
family and then would decide based on how I was feeling. At
breakfast I took my antibiotic and Tylenol. As the Tylenol kicked
in, I quickly began to feel better. At that time I decided to go
with everyone for the morning and then would come back to the hotel
for the afternoon to rest. And if it was ever too much I knew the
van would be close by and I could go in and rest.
Breakfast buffets in China
are quite the assortment of food from eggs and bacon to rice and
congee to pastries and it seems everything in between.
Our guide for the day,
Lydia, was the same guide we had in Beijing that last time we were
here. We had requested her but weren't sure if we were going to get
to see her. It was so good to see her!! We learned that since we
last saw her, the strict one child policy was raised and she had her
second baby girl by the end of 2013. We were so excited for her! So
now she has a 12 year old and an 18 month old daughter. Lydia's 12
year was in school for the day still as their summer break didn't
start until the beginning of July. Lydia's mom was at home caring
for her youngest daughter. I wish we would have asked if her mom
lived with them, but we assumed she did.
Our morning tour started
with an hour plus drive to The Great Wall. The long drive was nice
though so that we had time to visit with Lydia. She explained things
to us about the Chinese culture and in particular some rules in
Beijing. One of the policies she told us about was how they reduced
the number of people driving during the week to get to work. Every
day of the week there are 2 digits which are not allowed to drive.
So for instance if your tag number was L55566 and the digits for the
day were 6 and 8, you would not be allowed to drive because your tag
number ended in one of those numbers. We asked how this affected
people who had to get to work but Lydia explained that no one really
complained because the public transportation systems were really
developed in Beijing which still allowed you to get to anywhere you
needed to go. The other policy that we thought was really
interesting was “ownership of property”. There are mostly
apartment buildings in the city so we asked if there were any single
family homes which people owned. Lydia first said yes but as she
explained the ownership of this property it was not what we think of
ownership in the United States. The government owns everything. So
you can pay for a long term lease, 60-70 years, and if you can't pay
for it all at once then you take out a loan from a bank and for it
like a mortgage. But for our understanding that is not ownership
because the government still owns the land and the apartment. Once
the length of the lease is up it goes right back to the Government to
re-lease the apartment again.
Our first stop of the day
was at The Great Wall. It was raining when we got there so we were
glad that our kind van driver let us borrow umbrellas while we were
out exploring. Using the restrooms at The Great Wall was our first
experience with squatty potties as well as no provided toilet paper
and soap to wash your hands. We had prepared for this and luckily
had toilet paper from the hotel and hand sanitizer. I don't know how
many times while we were in the restroom I told Ava, “don't touch
anything!!” She did great actually but when we went to use the
restroom again before we left she began crying and eventually said
that she did not like those bathrooms because they were dirty and
stinky! I couldn't argue with that! LOL!
The Great Wall is just
amazing. It spans 4000 miles and took 2000 years to make. I can't
even understand those numbers! Ava was intent on climbing the stairs
as far as she could. Since it was raining, this made the already
difficult to climb stairs, slippery. So we all took it nice and
slow. The stairs are so steep and uneven. Some of the steps are
short and some of them seemed to be as big as Ava. No matter, they
didn't seem to slow Ava down too much! We climbed to the second
tower before turning back around. We didn't want to take Ava farther
and I knew I was pushing my luck as it was. Ava seemed to love The
Great Wall and I was so glad to be able to experience it with her.
After The Great Wall it
was time for lunch. We stopped at the Jade Factory (the same one was
had stopped at during our last trip) for lunch and a tour. I still
didn't have much appetite by this time but everyone else really
enjoyed the family style food. Lydia took care of ordering
everything and when she realized that Ava wasn't eating much she also
ordered her french fries with ketchup. Ava and the adults enjoyed
them!! We took a short tour of the Jade Factory after we ate lunch.
The artists working that day were demonstrating how they carved the
Happy Family Ball. This is a ball in which they carve details onto
the outside but the coolest part is all the different layers which
create more balls inside of each other. After the tour, we shopped.
My mom had requested that if possible I picked up a Jade pendant for
Ella. She had bought one for Ava when she came with us last time and
she really wanted to have one to give to Ella as well. Ava's zodiac
symbol is a rabbit and Ella's is a snake. This is very cultural
thing for China, and we love that! We also bought a Happy Family
Ball as well as a horse carved from Jade which Ava picked out. These
will be some great souvenirs from China.
At this time, I knew my
body was done and I didn't want to push my luck so the van dropped me
off at the hotel so that I could take a nap while the rest of the
crew went to the Forbidden City. I was glad that I did head back to
the hotel because I slept for about 3 hours while they were out. It
sounded like the rest of the group enjoyed the Forbidden City. It's
hard to imagine the history there since the United States is
basically a baby compared to the length of history in China. It was
also reported that Ava did great again this day and was a trooper
throughout all the tours and walked most of the day except for the
last little bit.
Once they got back to the
hotel, they were hungry so we headed out to get some supper. We went
to a restaurant called the Macau Kitchen. My appetite was finally
coming back so I ate a decent amount and it tasted so good!! They
had spaghetti and meat sauce on the menu so we ordered that for Ava.
Ava was so tired by this time that I had to fight with her to keep
her awake until she ate some dinner. Once she did start ending she
got a little bit of a second wind that helped her make it til
bedtime.
We went to the Night
Market after dinner. What an experience!! This is just a place to
observe, not to eat for us Westerners. They serve things like fried
snake, spiders, squid, and pretty much every other gross thing
possible. Who would eat that?!! Everything was raw on trays until
you purchased it and then they would fry it up for you. Yuck!! Even
the locals seemed to think this market was some sort of challenge.
Our last adventure of the
day was to head to the market to purchase some snacks for our train
ride the next day. We bought large bottles of water as well as some
nuts and crackers. Along with the food we brought with us we figured
that would get us through the day.
Then it was bed time. We
were exhausted!!
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