"Breaking" in the kitchen, & hiking the Wild Wall

We've been here for 3 weeks and today was the first time we really went grocery shopping. Up until now, grocery shopping seemed a little daunting, just because of how different the little shops are here as opposed to the big chains I am used to in the U.S. But, I went today & bought some ingredients to cook our first homemade meal! It may not seem like a big deal, but its a huge milestone and really helpful towards making me feel at home here.

As I was cooking... I washed the biggest glass bowl we had... went to set it down when it suddenly slipped out of my hands! I watched this bowl bounce on the marble floor... bounced once.... bounced twice... I thought to myself, maybe it won't break! when the third time it hit, ::the sound of shattering glass:: .... glass went everywhere! We didn't even have a broom so we had to call the front desk for help.

This was after my hubby had already picked up the many large pieces of glass... lol. Tiny shards everywhere!

Sheepishly grinning! oops. (Yes its time to dye the hair.. I kept putting it off because of where I am... but, oh well, I am taking my chances and have an appointment with a French guy on Friday!)

Luckily the food still came out delicious!


We had a really low key day at home, after yesterday, our legs are super sore!

We took a bus about 1 and 1/2 hours outside of Beijing so we could hike the Great Wall. The part of the Great Wall that we hiked is known as 野长城 －ye changcheng - or The Wild Wall. Its called this because its not the picture-perfect part of the wall most tourists come to see when they visit China. This part of the wall dates back to the Ming Dynasty and is somewhere between 400-500 years old, and has not been restored since. We are still going to see the more picturesque portions (actually going to camp out on the wall during a hike from Jinshanling to Simatai... the things I do for my hubby!). The group we went with is a Beijing hiking group, and it was definitely more geared towards hiking as opposed to sightseeing. It was actually really strenuous, I had to climb like 1000 stairs it seemed, and it was over 93 degrees yesterday!


Hiking ON the wall... had to be very careful, the stones are extremely old and some are majorly loose!




Being goofy - but I like to call this what Amber (of Amber's Notebook) correctly termed this type of outfit as "OIC" (Only in China) or as I'll say "OWH" (Only While Hiking)

The view from almost-the-top


After the hike, we all went to a restaurant in the local village for some well-deserved lunch. I didn't get any pictures of the place, but I wish I had. It was very much like I'd imagine a village restaurant to be. Really good food, but washing the veggies in little copper bowls outside on the floor... I put the hygiene concerns out of my head and just ate, as I was starving! (I know, all my classmates are sooooo proud of me!) Oh, and let me tell you, using one of those squat toilets after drinking 5 bottles of water during the hike, squatting while your legs are shaking from pure exhaustion... if I had fallen in it - it was not very clean at all... I would have died. haha.

These next pictures are from a short hike we took to the local reservoir. Its the Miyun Reservoir, its one of two main reservoirs that supply Beijing with water - however, the other one is too polluted to use, so this is the main one that supplies Beijing with drinking water. There is a controversy right now over who controls it, because much of it is actually in Hebei province... so, Hebei thinks because most of the water is in their province, Beijing should pay them for the water, BUT Beijing thinks Hebei should pay them because they say the water is polluted from industry in Hebei. The water levels are also decreasing a lot, which is another big problem.



Cornfields


Tomorrow I'll post about our little experience with a well-known scam ;) I also have a big Chinese-fashion post in store for you at the end of this week - you will definitely like that one..

Steph