Great Wall

It is sad to admit that there are few things that just take my breath away or get me squirming in excitement. It is a mix of being spoiled beyond belief and from not being too crazy in my automatic reaction to things personality wise. Don’t get me wrong, its not like lots of things don’t get me excited but the whole excited beyond belief that many people get in certain situations just isn’t my style.

Last year my father took Tiffany and I to a hockey game. There was man in the row ahead of us probably in his forties and he was so excited to be there. He was taking pictures of all the players, the crowd, the jumbotron, I mean he really was trying to capture every single moment of that game. I remember sitting there wondering when the novelty of things like that wore off for me. And its not just hockey games, I mean there were times when I was wondering around some amazing countries just kinda thinking ”meh”. Im a camera fanatic and there are certain whole freakin countries that I only have maybe fifty pictures of and for me that is nothing.

The other day however I had a moment that just took my breath away. When I planned my trip to China I figured I would have to make time to see the Great Wall, I thought it would be interesting but to be honest for some reason it wasn’t anything I was super crazy about seeing. My friends that I was staying with, Tim and Rebecca decided to treat me to a day out and since they have their own car here they wanted to take me to their favorite part of the wall. They failed miserably at the description of where they were taking me and I was actually kinda disappointed they weren’t taking me to the main part. We drove for about an hour and all the sudden I saw the wall. My heart started racing and instantly I was crying. It was easily one of the most impressive things I have seen. Never in my life (or my dreams) had I envisioned being in the presences of something so old and magnificent.

Where they took me was a completely original part of the wall which was on a farmers piece of land. We paid the farmer two Kuai (rather than the standard hundred) and walked up a huge mountain on his land, climbed a raggedy old ladder to get onto the wall and had the entire place to ourselves. Can you imagine, the Great freakin Wall with no one in sight? It was insane!

For not being restored the wall was in really great shape still. I could not believe the twists and turns, the drastic uphill climbs and the steep downhill drops. Some of the wall had steps and some of it was flat rocks so I was climbing at a huge angle with my nose practically touching the hill I was climbing. The wall went on for as long as I could see, it winded up and down in a magical way. It was intense to think about the endless labor that went into building the wall, the bodies buried deep below us, the profound meaning, the age, I mean all of it was simply unbelievable.

I have seen many incredible things in my life. Some the natural beauty of the world, some the magnificent wonders that man has made, but the Great Wall absolutely topped one of the most incredible things that I have witnessed. The day I went to the Great Wall was the day of Kiyas birthday. It was really neat to me that I was blessed with such intense beautiful feelings on the exact same day two years in a row. It was symbolic to me I guess, and I was so thankful to see something so brilliant on such a special day.