Great Wall

I climbed the Great Wall today! When they told us we had to climb it, I was thinking a few flights of stairs up to the wall...but the wall IS stairs...all the way this huge mountain. At least it felt huge. We climbed stairs for an hour and a half - some of the stairs are tiny and some of them were as high as my knees. It puts the Eiffel Tower to shame, and you can't ever quite see where the end is until you get there. Halfway to the top, about the point when I was sure I was going to die, this old German guy coming down told me I was almost there. But he lied. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it to the top, especially considering it was -8 degrees Celcius, but I did! (Side note: I don't think I've ever been colder in my life.) Of course, I retwisted my ankle part of the way down on one of those gigantic stairs. It's all swollen up again, but I think it will be better tomorrow. It's not as painful as it was before, but it looks worse. Even my toes are bruised. Oh, and there was this French tour group there. I tried to be friendly and use my French, so I asked them where they were from, and one guy said, "France" and walked away. So much for conversation.

We also visited a hospital outside of Beijing. It was very basic, but they were very welcoming. The best part was the English translation of the signs. Instead of nurses station, it said "the nurse stands." Sure enough, the nurse was standing! There was also a "bone pushing room", and a "lose the fluid room." I'm not actually sure what that one was.

The last few days have been great, too. We visited a preschool, where the cutest kids I have ever seen danced for us. I also saw the largest drum in the world...625 kilograms!! And a Traditional Chinese Medicine pharmacy, where they gave us free consultations. Apparently my liver is too hot or something like that, which they could tell by feeling my pulse and looking at my tongue. And a Chinese opera, which I don't think I'd care to see (or hear) again. Tomorrow, we have guest lecturers from the Chinese Ministry of Health and the Chinese Nurses Association. So less ice-cold wind, more note taking. It's a trade off, really.