Aaaaaah

Well, I've made it to the end of this adventure. 15 days since I've left Kunming, and thousands of kilometers travelled. We've taken trains, buses (of every class), boats, horse carts, taxis, private cars, cable cars, planes, and even a taboggen, not to mention all the walking we've done, since we began. It's been fun, we've seen the extremes of China, and I've carried a lot of it with me :o). It's just so hard to pass up souvenir shopping here, I mean what's US$2 in the grand scheme of things?

Our time in Beijing has been mostly good. We had some problems finding a place to stay, which was mainly a problem because we had so much stuff, but we did succeed in the end. Yesterday we saw the Forbidden City, and today, continuing on our tour of overly touristy things to see in and around Beijing we went to the Great Wall. It's my second time. In case you were worried, it's still there, and there are still lots of vendors selling over-priced water. Some things never change. Tonight we're going to try to find some Peking duck, cause what else are you supposed to eat in Beijing?

Then we head to the airport tomorrow, which is supposed to take somewhere between 2-3 hours. Bleh. Luckily, we found the most recent edition of Harry Potter at the book store yesterday, and I've been holding myself from finishing it before tomorrow, so at least I'll have something to do. Let's just hope that the bus has AC--it's been deathly hot here (but maybe you're tired of hearing me complain about that?). Now I'm just aprhensive about returning to the US. I've been gone for almost 14 months now, and have always had more trouble with reverse culture shock than culture shock--believe it or not, America's just that weird :o). At this point, I think just seeing so many white people, or rather a real mix of people is going to be an experience. I'll keep you posted on my reactions.

Meanwhile, if you're in CO or the Pacific NW during the next month or so, I'd probably love to see you (assuming I know you ;o)), so drop me a line, and we'll try to hook up!