Beijing and Xi'An

On top of the World

The Forbidden City

My Owey from falling in the Fobidden City

Em and I

We just got back from one of the coolest vacations of all times! I'll go briefly through the days:

Day 1: Arrived in Beijing. Went and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. If you've never been you totally should its the bomb. It made us a little homesick since it reminded us what America does best... Rock n' Roll
Day 2: Went to see lots of cool dead people's houses. First we went to Tiannemin Square. No, riots or anything just a really busy big place to walk around. There was a place where you could see the remains of Mao's body but it was closed so we'll just have to imagine what what it looked like. Next we went on to the Temple of Heaven where Emperor's use to give sacrifices. It had some of the neatest looking Temples. We were running a little late through that one so we ended up doing "running photography". Those pictures turned out great :). The next place we went to was the Forbidden City (all that studying last Semester on it really paid off Katie :)). It was HUGE!!! We walked through it for what seemed like forever. They have an amazing imperial graden where we got to make a wish on a coin and throw it into a pond. The only sad thing about this was that I took a fall of the Forbidden City stairs and banged up my elbow pretty good. I landed on my camera so it was a miracle that my elbow was the only thing that felt broken :). How can say they've fallen on the steps of the forbidden city? At night we went to an acrobat show and if you've never seen these Asian people bend then you're really missing out.
Day 3: Climbed the Biggest Wall in the World!!!! The day before Amy found a guy named Ben and he was offering to take us up to a part of the Great Wall that is not filled with tourist (not to worry it was safe). When he said that it was going to be a hike I really didn't think it was going to be... a hike. I thought we would walk up to the Wall, take a bunch of pictures, and then head back down. I for sure what wrong. First it took a straight up climb to the wall and then we had a 4 hour climb on the wall after that. Probably the coolest thing I have ever done in my life. I did my cartwheel (although it wasn't that pretty) and got lots of pictures. The pictures don't do that place justice. The Wall was probably one of the most incredible things I have ever seen in my life. We spent the whole day hiking out in one of the Wonders of the World.
Day 4: Becoming dirt poor. We spent most of the day before our train to Xi'An shopping in what is called The Silk Market. It is like the biggest shopping area with floors devoted to certain objects (ex. Pearls, jeans, silk, jewelry... pretty much a girl's Heaven). A good finale to Beijing.
Day 5: Saw an Army. We went to to see the Terracotta Warriors (labeled the 8th Wonder of the World). It was SO cool. They are over 2000 years old and they were just recently found around 40 years ago. They're still uncovering new stuff everday. There are over THOUSANDS of soldiers and horses in the pit and none of are replicas of each other. All of them are unique and completely amazing. A whole army just hidden underground. That night we went to a water show in the park. The water would shot out with the music playing and for some reason we got the brilliant idea to run THROUGH the show. So there is us five Americans running through the show with no shoes on screaming like little girls. We give America a good name :)
Day 6: Went to see a Drum tower and performance in Xi'An and went home. It was fantastic!!!!

I loved being there but I'm excited to be home. I miss the kids. They're my life here. I hope that all went well with you this week! Much love!