Great Wall and Ming Tombs

Hello from Beijing!
Today was the first full day in Beijing. Yesterday I left on the bus with my Ministry of Commerce students from Tai'an. We arrived in Jinan around 4. At 6pm we got and the train and started the 3 hr ride on the wonderful D-Train. The ride was wonderful we played uno and killer. Which they found quiet challenging in English :) What a wonderful fun memory.
We (Juanita and I) are staying with a wonderful student Mary. She has already been so gracious to us. Today we got up at the crack-o-dawn. We left the house at 7am. We went and meet our class moniter Leonard and Bill. He drove us to the Great Wall this morning. When we arrived i first and foremost must tell you sat and a CAMEL -- these crazy things spit.. yes i knew this but only remembered when he proceeded to spit on the class moniter for taking a picture of him!
I am happy to say I SURVIVED AND CLIMBED THE GREAT WALL!!! The trip down was not so easy but i made it. :) As a reward we went to Starbucks.. yes friends there is a Starbucks at the bottom of the Great Wall.. what a wonderful reward. :) From there we went and had lunch mmmm McDonalds. After a short rest we went to the Ming Tombs. It was interesting to see the artifacts and the tomb with the history. From there we went to meet another student Eddy for dinner. WE ate at a wonderful resturant and had the famous Peking Duck. so good :) :) Also we had the duck soup, duck toes, and the wonderful.. sea cucumber.. (that seems to follow me!) It was good. We drove tonight by the square didn't see it because of cerfuew but we went by.


IT was a WONDERFUL day.Tomorrow more to follow. I will post pictures when I return to Tai'an.
~Raychel