Saturday, October 30, 2010
NO MORE STAIRS AND STARES!

Just kidding! I just thought that would be a cute title for today. Today, we had a full day of touring. We started at the Tian An Men Square. Then we went to the Forbidden City (which was awesome). We had lunch at the Jade Restaurant. Then we toured the Great Wall. The pictures do not do it justice. You have to see it for yourself. It was a very long day, but we are so glad to experience it. The Tian An Square and Forbidden City were very crowded today. I don't think I have ever seen that many people at a touring site. Gwendolyn enjoyed today. She was a real trooper.

Our guide told us at the beginning of the tour that Chinese people are usually very friendly to foreigners and we will stand out especially when we are all together in our group. We had many Chinese that wanted our picture taken with them, but they really wanted Gwendolyn's picture. Many Chinese would also walk by me and point to her and then give me a thumbs up as if to say, "she is very pretty." Our time at the Great Wall had to be the most interesting though. Many, many people from all countries were there at the same time. There was one older dark-skinned gentlemen that came right up to Gwendolyn and pinched both of her cheeks and said "beautiful" and then kissed her and wanted to take her picture. I was standing right there and they did not want my picture, just Gwendolyn's. LOL. Then after the picture, he did it again. He walked up to her and pinched her cheeks and said "Beautiful". That was the only English word that he said. I did not recognize his language. LOL. Then, there was a group of colleg-aged Chinese that wanted her picture and then all of our picture with the whole group. Then, when Gwendolyn told them "thank you" in Chinese, they all loved it and said "wooooo" as if to say "Oh, she is beautiful AND speaks excellent Chinese." We have only been here for a day and a half and she has already impressed many Chinese people with her pronunciation of their language. Every time she speaks, they say "wooooo." And if they know English, they will tell us how good she can speak. LOL.

The Great Wall was very steep. We only made it a little bit past the first tower. LOL. Mike does not like heights and it was just too much for him. Gwendolyn wanted to go all the way to the top, but we had to stop about 1/4 of the way up. But she did get to take some pictures with her camera. LOL. All of the people coming down as we were going up were complaining about their legs and feet in every language! Apparently, pain and body language are universal! LOL!

Riding in the bus has been very interesting! My Uncle Howard would fit right in with the traffic in Beijing! I had my life flash before my eyes many times today! I finally had to just shut my eyes. It was much better that way. LOL. They do not yield for anyone or anything. If you are in their way, they just blow the horn at you until you move...LOL.

We did get to see Anthony this morning on Skype. He looked like he was doing very well. I don't think he misses us at all. But I think he is missing his sister. The most that he said to us was "Hey Tutch" "Bye Tutch" (his word for sister). He did say a few other things, but that was more frequent. He gave us a kiss on the screen and said "Wuv ou" (I love you). Awww. It did my heart good to see that he was not missing us. LOL. Thank you for praying for him.

I must sign off now. We have to leave the hotel at 5:15am in the morning to catch our flight to Wuhan at 7:40am. We are exhausted but having a WONDERFUL time! Thank you for your prayers! Keep 'em comin'. Our next post will be from Wuhan! We will see Annalyn for the first time on Monday at 2:30pm (China Time), 1:30am (Alabama time) and 2:30am (Georgia Time).