It started at breakfast with foods of an unknown origin and the students were adventurous in trying the options.
The travel began with a two hour bus ride to the Great Wall. Even on the weekends the traffic is terrible. Mileage-wise, it was not far but the traffic is the problem.
Students got their first taste of bartering with the local sales people. To our standards, they are very pushy and persistent, but the kids did great in talking down the prices and came away with some good souviners. It was very cold and windy to start the climb but it turned out to be a beautiful day. We spent the morning and early afternoon hiking the wall before heading back into Beijing.
Once back in the city, we took them to the 2008 Olympic Park and saw the Birds Nest (Olympic Stadium) and the Water Cube (swimming pool and diving). We meet another school group from L.A. and traded travel stories. They are on a similiar tour and we may see them again in Shanghai.
Our evening ended with a dinner at a local eatery. It is family style with a huge 'lazy susan' in the middle of the table that sends the entrees around to everyone. There was octopus, fish-head casserole, tofu, Peking duck, shrimp, pork, rice, frog-leg stew, and some type of noodles that looked like worms. Most of the kids tried many of the entrees. It was fun to see the look on their faces and getting the courage up to try these new things. They all did really well and you should be proud. They stepped out of their comfort zone and "it wasn't so bad!"
The only disappointing news of the day is that we still cannot upload the pictures (I have lots). For some reason, it just load, and we have our IT dept back at Lake Shore trying to help. Everything worked at home, so they believe it is the internet here. The laptop will connect to the Internet but will not load the pages. I'm am going to try to get into a computer lab at the school tomorrow, but being a Sunday it may not work out. Remember everything is in Chinese, keyboard and writing on the screen. I'll need help accessing the correct stuff.
Goodnight from Beijing.