Lets catch up !

Wednesday was the first day that I had to do anything I wanted and not worry about my training schedule. It was time to spend with my parents and husband ! My parents and Jason arrived at the Olympic Village around 10:30 and stayed til almost 2:00. We spent time in the Olympic Village Learning Center learning how to speak Chinese and write our Chinese name with special ink and brushes. My mom was hilarious trying to speak Chinese. She would say everything exactly how it was spelled. However though they look one way they are pronounced another way and have different sounds. She was so funny, everyone was laughing at her but she gets an A for effort ! We had lunch and walked around the Village. I showed them the amazing gardens, the game room, dining hall and "International Zone." The International Zone has several gift shops, a tea house, florist, post office, as well as a bank. From the village we hired a taxi to drive us to the Great Wall. It was easier and cheaper to do it this way than to go no a day bus tour. It cost us $45 (American) to drive there and another $45 back. Then cost of admission of around $14 (American). We drove about an hour all through the country side of China to reach the section of the Great Wall that was open to the public. We arrived and were swarmed by vendors trying to see us anything of everything. They would start off at 400 yuan ($57.00) and you could haggle with them down to 70 yuan ($10.00) Mom and I did this a few times. We both bought silk robes and silk table runners for our dining room tables. The people were a bit over whelming trying to see us stuff, they would not leave you alone and would just follow you saying "Friend friend, I give you good deal !" My husband was even able to get a vendor down on 2 beers ! We rode to the top of the mountain by an enclosed tram to reach the Great Wall. It was amazing...no worlds can express how incredible this man name structure is. Its so big you can't even fathom....we saw just a small section yet it is 4,000 miles long ! It was very hot, we drank a ton of water to stay as hydrated as we could. I don't know why but I wore flip flops that day....not such a great idea to wear when walking on the Great Wall ! We spent about 2 hours there and headed back to the city of Beijing to have dinner at the Bank of America House and then were in bed by 9:30 !