ch-ch-ch-china!

my china excursion has proven to be FANTASTIC and i wish i could go back. i think beijing is probably one of the coolest cities i've been to. and my hostel was so great, i met so many cool people from all around the world, i loved the great wall, i loved wandering around the city with new friends, i loved having a rockin chinese new years eve, complete with fireworks that were set off way too close to me, and i loved getting totally sick and spending half my trip feeling like i could fall over and never get back up at any moment. WHAT!?!? just kidding. i did get totally sick, but love is not the word i would use to describe how i felt about it. ya, so i got some sort of food poisening (or actually i think it was the flu cuz some of the people i was hanging out with at the hostel got it too), and spent a good share of my trip trying to shake it, and i still haven't. do you know what's worse than being drapped over a dirty, community hostel toilet that smelled like a sewer throwing up for 3 1/2 hours straight, thinking the whole time that i would die here, in a random hostel in the middle of china all alone? nothing. that's what i discovered on this trip. absolutely nothing is worse than that. i just wanted my mom and a room that wasn't shared with 7 other people. but it was all part of the china experience, and it will most definetely be a memory! the great wall was just so cool. it's quite hard to explain actually how impressive it is to be up there, walking on top. it was a little tough b/c i hadn't really eaten in a couple of days at that point b/c i had been sick, so my legs were a bit shaky, but i pulled through! and really, what was probably the best part were all the cool people i met at my hostel. i made good friends with two girls from denmark the first night, and we spent the majority of our trips together, as well as a few guys from sweden, some very fun aussie girls, a guy from france and a couple from germany who were all staying in my room, and a really cool guy from england that i met the last couple days i was there. it's so fun meeting such easy going and good natured people from all over. i had a moment where i was taking a long shower after my day at the great wall, and i was right next to a window and the sun was going down over all these classic looking chinese roof tops, and i was in a dirty community shower, and i still felt sick and sort of weak from not being able to eat much, but i just felt so content and so at peace with things and so happy to be where i was. seeing new places and meeting new people makes me feel so alive!

so i will give you my photo albums that you can check out, and that will give you a good idea of what i did while i was there. as usual, i took way too many pictures, so you can skim if you want. just click on the albums.
album 1
album 2
album 3
album 4