China: She only spoke in Chinese but I understood every word she said

December 10th - up qt 6am and left tokyo....saw Mount fuji from the plane which was quite cool as well as the rest of the mountainous country! Japan was in fall type weather where as Beijing was a full on snowstorm! My body was not ready for this! I was warmly greated at the airport by Linda Pang, my faithful guide and friend for the next few days. We stopped in at the hotel and then rushed off to see the forbidden palace....a 1000 year step back into history. There were really cool little walking guides with a gps so they knew where you were and spoke accordingly. It was pretty cold and foggy but a great promenade and beautiful! Soon after we were in a local restuaraunt having `hotpot` which is a big pot of bouillon into which you put the meat, fish and veggies you want! quite tasty!

December 11 was a clear day with blue sky. Up early and started the day with interviews and speech translations at 9am. Noon took us to a local restaurant for very spicey veggies and fish and then off we went to the japan-china friendship hospital to meet doctors, nurses, patients and their families. The event was very successful and it was moving hearing various stories on the misconceptions of epilepsy. my message got across though and with more education things will change soon enough That evening the entire crew of doctors and staff met for a peking duck dinner. The local alcohol came out and after raising glasses to toast everyone....shortly thereafter everyone was toasted!

December 12 - Up at 5 for a 1h30 drive north to the Great Wall of China! we stopped in a local truck stop type restaurant for tofu and wonton soup and up the mountain we went! we rode chair lifts to the top and the view was the most spectacular ive seen in a while! Ive been on 4 continents this year but this really is the first time i felt like i was on the other side of the world, I want to come back! on the way down we stopped in a village and linda asked a local woman if we could visit her house. After asking the director of the town hall and getting his accord she took us home. There was a poster of Mao on the wall next to a poster of a goddess called `Poussa`. The woman disappeared and returned with a long strand of wooden beads which she gave to me to signify our friendship. She only spoke in Chinese but I understood every word she said. This really was a wonderful trip and I wanna go back soon!

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